Well it’s 0643 on Saturday morning and we are still waiting on the much anticipated pre-holiday snowstorm. Yesterday, I decided to take a half day of PTO (Personal Time Off) and go out in search of some images to make. As I was driving home from the office, I reviewed the options in my head and quickly settled in on a return trip to the local reservoir area. There is a fairly large (about half the size of a football field) grassy area that is surrounded by tall pines and I love to shoot there… especially when in the mood for blurs, multiple exposures and such.
And that is the mood that I was in yesterday. I have been working on an “Artist’s Statement” and writing it has led me clarify and better define what is “my art”. I think it is clear to those of you who have been following this blog for the past year that “my art” has been moving steadily in the direction of abstract photography, however that abstract quality is obtained. I love flower portraits. I love bird portraits. And will continue to do them. But my heart, my art is in the area of abstracts, digital art, blurs, multiple exposures, etc.
Anyway, this long story is just getting longer. So I went to the reservoir, set up in the grassy area, and started making images. They come quickly when you are planning on 10-image multiple exposures and I clicked off images for a series of those. Then I settled in on a series of in-camera single image motion blurs before ending with some textural tree bark blurs. Happy with what I had done, I headed for home.
Once home, I took the memory card out of the camera, inserted it into the card reader and started importing images. Suddenly TILT! Error messages abounded. And I couldn’t get the import to continue. Something in Lightroom seemed to be affected and it couldn’t self-correct. So it was on the phone to Adobe. About 90 minutes later, we concluded the problem was corrupted files on the memory card. I was going to have to set up a whole new folder and transfer all my old images to it and dump the images made yesterday. BUMMER!!
Long story short, I did what the tech told me to do. I create a new folder and moved all old images into it. I got Lightroom going the way I wanted once again. Everything seem fine except for the lost images on the corrupt card (I have since re-formatted the card and hopefully it will work fine in the future. It is also an argument for using multiple say 2 GB cards instead of a single 32 GB, for example.). Then last evening, I went to my external hard drive to clean the corrupt files from it and what did I find? All the images from yesterday were stored there with no sign of any corrupt files. Sooo, lesson number two is have back-up.
I was able to pull the images from the external hard drive and work with them. Here are two 10-image multiple exposures from yesterday and the happy ending to the tale of corruption, tall pines and multiple exposures.
The images combined for both were made with my Canon 30D and 24-70 2.8L lens, tripod-mounted to help minimize any horizontal movement in the multiple exposures.
Ed… phew! Glad to hear all worked out well in the end. Love these images… both are very pleasing, but what appears like light raking across the second really sets it apart for me. Nice work!
Wow, Ed, you went through a process! These are beautiful! I wonder how you got the wonderful textures in the blur? I like abstract very much myself and I am still defining what my area of abstract is. The first image is my favorite.
Wonderful job. I’m going to try that process one day. Too much on the plate right now.
I always enjoy happy endings. Glad yours turned out to be such.
These two images are just lovely! I especially like the second one–I love the rich colors, the textures and the patterns. The balance of dark and light works really well. I find it a beautiful, abstract image!
The top image works well also, but I don’t think it is a strong. Since I just noticed that you posted it to BPN, I’ll put my comments there.
Hi Ed… wow… I’m so glad it all worked out in the end!
I really like both of these images. I can’t seem to decide which I like better. I love how that dark tree stands out from the rest… yet the wavy type bright colors and texture in the 2nd one… hmmm…
Glad you posted both of them! Merry Christmas to you!!
Very beautiful images, Ed.
Both of these are great Ed. Glad they didn’t fall into digital never-never land.
Ed,
I’m glad to hear that you seemed to have settled on a direction.
Beautiful images as I like them both. If I had to choose, it would be the first one as I am drawn to the overall lightness in color and more defined vertical lines. Both images appear to have been designs on glass lit from behind.
They are both lovely, but the cool colors in the bottom are my favorites, so I choose that one,
Glad your story and a good ending.
I add myself to those who are glad that your images didn’t ended in a black hole. To have a back up solution is great advice. Even though I never had a corrupted hard disk I am a bit paranoic about loosing my photos so I had them at least at 2 different disks. If I were a pro I would have probably at least one more storage place because loosing your work which cost you time and skills and could yet make some money is a nightmare of every photographer, I believe.
Re. photos, to be honest, they are not exactly my cup of tea but I like contrasts of light and darker areas in them. I like second one a bit more than the first one, mostly because of the green zig-zag line.
I love these graphical shots Ed. I’m leaving in holidays now and wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy new year…
See you in 2010.. And thanks to visit my blog regularly!
Cheers, Chris.
Great shots Ed, love the bottom one especially the color really stands out me on that one !!
Hope you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year !!
Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to you and yours from Preston and I.
Phew! I had a near disaster like that on our trip to Colorado. I had a 32GB (Extreme III – naturally)card that would not load. There was smoke and a house fire nearly ensued when the card reader had a bent pin which short circuited and melted the card………not funny at all. I will #1 only shoot with 4GB, no higher cards in the future, #2 never use a cheap card reader again (flimsy pins), and #3 never leave a card loading that is unattended. I was able, with fervent prayers said, to retrieve the images, thank you Great God Digital. Then, I tossed the card and the card reader.
I’m so happy it worked out for you in the end. The images are divine.
I had a photographer who is very knowledgeable about all things digital tell me recently that he NEVER deletes images in the camera and has, in fact, removed the delete button from his cameras. He says it potentially causes corruptions in the data collection in the card. He only re-formats, never deletes. He’s a no nonsense kind of guy, has several wide format cameras and so on, not a hysterical person. I’ve never been able find anything about this problem on line, but it makes me wonder……….
Love both images. I like how they move toward real abstracts, from say “in camera effects.” Very pleasing. Oh the cards / readers, I go along with the idea of just buying the best gear, it’s not very expensive. I have only had one card that ever gave me trouble (a Transcend 8gb SD card). I pitched it.
I can see why you would have been upset if you lost them… they are exquisite.
Too much adventure! Glad all worked to your advantage. I think the first photo is one of mt all time favorites. The purples are perfect contrast to the greens. Hope your holidays were happy! And more happy shooting in the new year!
These are both tremendous! Love the colors, lines, and just the right amount of detail in the trees for me!
I’m thinking these two images would look really great enlarged really big on canvas (the deep set canvas that doesn’t require a frame). Very contemporary look! Love ‘em!