It's My Nature » Autumn

Twofer Today

Ed — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:15:23 +0000

I got out for a short time this morning and continued to experiment with motion blurs and multiple exposures. I have to admit that the more I experiment with these techniques the more I am liking the results.

Anyway, here are two examples. First the straight, single image vertical pan/motion blur image made with my Canon 50D and 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens handheld.

And the second image is another 10-image multiple exposure also shot with the 50D/70-200 combo but on a tripod.

I know we all draw a line somewhere and everything to the left is a photographic image and everything to right is… well, something else. I am just finding myself sliding that magical line a little farther and a little farther to the right. There is still light years of space out there to the right of my shifting line where, right now, I feel that maybe I’m pushing the envelope too far but I will continue to explore those uncharted (for me) universes. So I hope you hang on and enjoy the trip as much as I am.

Ground Control to Major Tom, can you here me Major Tom?

Seasons Change

Ed — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:20:00 +0000

Sunday was a strange day to say the least. I was up well before dawn and drove 40 minutes to greet sunrise at Peace Valley Park. The good news was that the sun came up. The bad news was it was very boring… even in that 30 minute period between civil twilight and actual sunrise. The net effect was that I came back home without a single image in the camera. When I got home, I left the gear in the car as I planned to head out again somewhere nearby and see if I could scare up a few images. I went out for a couple of hours and again, nothing.

Ah, but in between… As I pulled up to the driveway on the return from Peace Valley, I noticed that the frost was just glistening on the north side of a pile of leaves we had raked the day before. So before heading back out, I grabbed a camera, put on the Lensbaby which I wanted to work with some more, and starting looking for compositions in amongst the frosted leaves. Below is a sample of what I came away with. All three were made with Lensbaby Composer with the double glass optic. The second and third had a +4 macro filter added.

NOTE: For those of you who are very perceptive, yes I did change this first image. I went back and pulled more detail out of the overall image and more importantly out of the warm spot toward the lower right ROT area.

Four Images/Four Techniques

Ed — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:48:11 +0000

It was just that kind of day yesterday. When I got up yesterday the forecast was for overcast with fog. I was really interested in shooting in the fog so I got charged up… until I looked outside and saw clear skies and no fog. Yep it was a cloudless morning with bright sun. I wish I could be wrong as much as meteorologists and still keep my job!

Anyway, we went out to a local community park/rail-trail where my wife looked for birds and I looked for interesting compositions. It wasn’t a particularly interesting morning so I found myself trying some different things. When we returned home, I realized that I really only had four images to speak of (multiple versions of each) and each, as it turned out, highlighted a different technique.

#1 – So here goes. Not 60 seconds from the parking lot, I came across a tree with multiple trunks rising from a single base. So I stopped and decided to make some motion blur images. Here is one example.

#2 – Next we moved on to the old quarry hole now filled with water. As I said the sky was cloudless, the sun bright and the reflections on the water were mirror sharp… actually way too sharp for my tastes. So first I broke out the Lensbaby and tried some selective focus images of which this is one.

#3 – But while there I also shot several images with my 50D and 70-200mm f/2.8L IS, tripod-mounted and at f/32. As I said the reflection was so sharp, so crisp, so detailed that it almost hurt my eyes so I decided to tone it down by creating a digital sandwich in post-processing.

#4 – As we were returning to the parking lot, I stopped by one of the abandoned buildings left over from the heyday of the cement industry in the area. This building was empty but I was taken by the stonework in the walls that still remained in remarkably good condition. It was dark and dirty with bright light shining through the windows. Perfect for HDR. So here is a 7-image composite HDR image of the inside of that abandoned building.

So maybe not the most exciting subjects I’ve ever encountered but an interesting morning nonetheless.

A New Toy for My Bag of Tricks (Lensbaby Composer)

Ed — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:22:23 +0000

I’ve been carrying the Lensbaby on my want list for way too long so I finally decided to do something about. I ordered the Lensbaby Composer early in the week and it arrived on my doorstep late yesterday. So of the course, the first order of business for today was going to be to put the new toy (and it is hardly a toy) through its paces. For starters, I decided to stick with the f/4.0 aperture (you need to change apertures rings manually) even though I did locate the secret hiding place of the other aperture rings (2.8; 5.6; 8.0; 11; 16 and 22). Pretty sneaky hiding place on Lensbaby’s part.

This morning was cloudy, overcast (is that the same as cloudy?) and a bit misty/drizzly. My wife and I decide to take a ride around the area and in the process we hit two city parks (Cedar Parkway in Allentown, PA and Monocacy Park in Bethlehem) and, in between, a covered bridge (Guth’s Bridge in Orefield, PA). At each stop, I did bit of experimenting with the Lensbaby.

Here are some of my images from today.

The first is an image of the Cedar Creek running through, you guessed it, Cedar Parkway. This is an absolutely wonderful wild brown trout fishery as well. Matter of fact, I was seeing one rise regularly right in the middle of this image.

(1/100 sec @ f/4.0; ISO 200; -1/3 EV; FL 50mm; just a touch of Topaz Adjust)

The next image is from Guth’s Bridge, a covered bridge in Orefield, PA. For a number of reasons, this turned out to be a very difficult subject for me. I just couldn’t seem to find the composition I was looking for. Until, that is, I got real up-close and personal with the outside of the bridge and all the peeling paint. I call this one “Abstract A-Peel”.

(1/100 sec @ f/4.0; ISO 200; -1/3 EV; FL 50mm; Topaz Adjust and Simplify)

Next was a visit to Monocacy Park. I found this area along Monocacy Creek where there were still some trees bearing bright yellow foliage and I started working on them. As I did, I was leaning up against this tree. Then I got the idea – why not incorporate the tree into the image even though it was right next to me while the foliage was on the far bank of the stream. I ended up with an abstract that I like. The sharp point is right on the edge of the tree trunk and the color on the far bank goes totally out-of-focus. A nice touch, I thought. Your opinion may differ.

(1/50 sec @ f/4.0; ISO 200; 0 EV; FL 50mm; just a touch of Topaz Adjust)

And finally, as we were leaving the Monocacy Park area, I saw some tiny-leafed ivy growing up the side of a tree trunk and decided to give it a whirl.

(1/60 sec @ f/4.0; ISO 200; -1/3 EV; FL 50mm; Topaz Adjust)

So that’s it for today. Since this is my first venture with the Lensbaby, any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Just a Wee Bit of (Ethereal or Maybe Ghostly) Blur

Ed — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:39:46 +0000

(1/3 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; 0 EV; FL 60mm)

If you have been following my blog for the past couple of weeks, I don’t have to tell that I have been spending a bit of time in almost every field session working on in-camera motion blur images. The prevailing wisdom is that motion blurs work best with exposures of 1 to 1 1/2 second and most of the time, I have been working within those parameters. Sometimes I might find myself around 0.8 sec and other times closer to 2.0 sec but most of the time I am right there around 1 to 1 1/2 sec.

Getting exposures that long in daylight is often not easy. I will stop down to f/22 or even f/32. I will drop the ISO to 100. I will add a polarizer which can give an extra stop of two. And often I end up with the Singh-Ray Vari-ND filter which I can adjust to give me the exposure time that I am looking for.

Anyway, yesterday I went out into my local park at lunch and found a scene that I thought just begged for a blur. I stopped down to f/22 and dialed back the ISO to 100. I added a polarizer and still only got the shutter speed down to 1/3 sec. I was about to switch to the Vari-ND when I thought no, let’s work on some faster shutter speed blurs. So I did and got what I would call a more ethereal image blur. I kinda like it… I wouldn’t post it if I didn’t! But waddaya think?

Canon 50D; 24-70mm f/2.8L IS lens; handheld.

And Now for Something a Little Different – The Old Covered Bridge (IR and Topaz)

Ed — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:00:35 +0000

Objective: Experiment with IR images for the purpose of taking them beyond the typical IR landscape image; To utilized some of the more creative techniques that I have been using with color images on IR images.

Location: Bogert’s Bridge, Lehigh Parkway, Allentown, Pa.

Time: Today at High Noon

Conditions: Sunny; Shooting position shaded by a large tree

Camera: Canon Rebel XT converted to Infrared by LifePixel

Lens: Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L; Focal Length 24mm

Settings: 1/50 sec @ f/11; ISO 100; -1/3 EV; Custom WB for IR

Post-Processing: Basic adjustments in Lightroom and Photoshop CS4; Topaz Adjust (Spicify Preset as starting point); Topaz Simplify (BuzSim Preset as starting point)

Fall Foliage – Two Ways

Ed — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:46:02 +0000

These images were made back in mid-October before my trip to Cuyahoga Valley National Park for the Tony Sweet Workshop. I wanted to test out my 70-200mm f/2.8L IS with a Kenko 1.4x teleconverter so I took the lens and TC along with my 30D to the office and went out into a local park (Lehigh Parkway in Allentown, PA) at lunchtime. I remembered this particular pair of trees from years past and knew they would make a perfect subject.

After shooting some very straightforward images of the trees and seeing that the 70-200/1.4x combo would work just fine (giving me 98-280mm at f/4.0), I decided to work on some motion blurs and came away with several images like this.

(1/25 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; 0 EV; FL 98mm)

I know I am kinda partial to motion blur images like this but I really liked what I had here. And I left it at that basically forgetting about the straightforward images that I made before and after the blurs… until now.

Using the digital sandwiching technique that I learned from Tony Sweet and described two entries below, I reworked one of the straightforward images by sandwiching it with a copy which I blurred pretty significantly (Gaussian Blur of around 24). I also like how the sandwich turned out.

(1/100 sec @ f/11; ISO 100; 0 EV; FL 98mm)

So there you have it. Fall Foliage – Two Ways. You have your choice of in-camera motion blur or post-processed digital image sandwiching. The choice is yours!

Tony Sweet Workshop Day 3

Ed — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:27:59 +0000

Well, I am now back home after a great 3 1/2 day Tony Sweet Workshop in Cuyahoga Valley National Park and surrounding environs just outside of Cleveland, Ohio. As I said before this was my first photography workshop of any kind and I really, really enjoyed it. Day 3 began with a morning shoot in Tinker Creek State Nature Preserve not far from the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We arrived before sunrise and hustled out to the ponds and surrounding wetlands to await sunrise and that golden early morning light. We shot for about three hours before returning to the Conference Center for our final classroom session in which Tony fielded any and all questions about anything regarding photography. I had some questions regarding printing and selling images and, between Tony and his partner and significant other Susan, I had all my questions answered. I was pleased to say the least! Day 3 ended with a two-hour presentation (open to the public) in which Tony took us through images from his workshops all around the country. Quite entertaining and enlightening.

Here are some of my images from the third and final day of the workshop.

The early morning light danced beautifully along the reeds on the far side of one of the small ponds. I decided to try to capture to colors and textures in an abstract way by once again doing some in-camera motion blurs/pans. Here is one of the images that I liked. I’ve entitled this one “Fire on the Water”.

I know that some of you prefer the “real thing” to the abstracts. In this case I think the “real thing”, despite looking very busy, holds together very well. I’ve entitled this image “Reflections”.

I also did some HDR composite images. This is a 5-image HDR composite. The colors of the two trees as well as their reflections in the ponds just seemed to good to pass up. This one is entitled “Left Hemisphere; Right Hemisphere” (like a brain, get it!).

And finally, a little puzzler for you. I call this image “Totemic Illusions”. How many faces can you pick out in this totem of sorts?

Hope you enjoy the images as much as I enjoyed the workshop.

Tony Sweet Workshop Day 2

Ed — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:54:32 +0000

I don’t know if I mentioned it in my previous post but this is the first photography workshop that I have attended. So the whole experience is new to me. I must say that while I am thoroughly enjoying the experience, it is a bit on the grueling side. Yesterday (Day 2) began with a 7 am shoot that ran until 11 am. We had a “break” from 11:00 am until 1:00 pm but the break was filled by stopping to pick up some lunch, a quick stop by the room to pick up the laptop and then returning to conference center to eat lunch while processing a few images for the afternoon critique session which began at 1:00pm and ran almost until 4:30pm. We then had a short late afternoon shoot from 5:00 until 6:30 after which we got together for a group dinner. I was back in the hotel by 9:00 pm and asleep by 9:30. Of course now it is 4:00 am and here I am starting to prepare for day three.

Tony is an excellent workshop leader. His critiques are extremely helpful. He will take each image and, where appropriate, show how it could be made better with the use of certain filters. It is truly amazing what a little tweak here and there can do. In the field, Tony spends most of time wandering from participant to participant offering suggestions and demonstrating “new” techniques whether it be HDR, image overlay, multiple exposures and so on. It has been a really great experience and one that I would gladly do again.

Here are two images that I shared at yesterday’s critique session. I should point out that I don’t have all of my post-processing tools here on my PC laptop. So I do what I can knowing that I will do more work on these images when I get back home to my iMac and my full toolbox.

The first image is another motion blur image. I really don’t do a bunch of these but every once in a while the composition seems to call for it. I was alone shooting this scene when Tony came over to check up on me. I mentioned how taken I was by the evergreen branches interspersed over the sea of yellow. He liked it and demo’ed a new technique for me. By the time we were done, we had a line of photographers shooting the same basic comp.

A little later in the morning, we moved on to another waterfall area and again after making some obligatory waterfall images which may eventually find their way into my “Waterfall” gallery, I started to focus on smaller pieces of the streamscape using my 70-200mm lens. Here is a sample of the type of images I was working on.

I decided to go macro in yesterday’s late afternoon session but have processed any of those images yet. But I was focusing on things like textures (tree bark images) and such.

That’s about it for now. Hope you enjoy the images.

Tony Sweet Workshop Day 1

Ed — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 09:19:20 +0000

I’m here in Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio attending a Tony Sweet Photography Workshop. If you are not familiar with Tony, you should check out his website and blog. He is one of the most creative photographers I have ever encountered and an master at using software filter plug-in packages like Lucis, Nik and Topaz to bring out the best in photographs.

The workshop began on Thursday evening with a session of introductions of each other and to the various filter plug-ins that Tony uses in his work.

Yesterday (Friday) began with a visit to one of the several waterfalls in the area where the group spent several hours photographing whatever interested them as Tony wandered from person to person providing tips and feedback. The only drawback to the morning and, in fact the whole day, was the rain which was never heavy but was persistent.

Here are a few images from the morning session. The waterfalls (Blue Hen Falls, I believe was the name) was very nice and I will probably post images of it at a later time but these are images that I particularly liked from the morning shoot.

This first image was from a small plunge pool just downstream from the waterfall.

The tree colors were really beautiful so I decided to do some motion blur abstracts.

The afternoon classroom sessions involved critiques of the participants’ work which was very, very helpful. Tony would comment on the work and then show how use of a certain filter here or there could enhance the image and make it better. Very cool.

The late afternoon field session took us to a covered bridge in the park. Looking for a different, if not unique, perspective from which to shoot the covered bridge, I came up with this. I ended up doing a 5-image HDR tone-mapped with Photomatix and then used a watercolor filter in Photoshop to produce this image.

I’m looking forward to Day 2 today. I just hope the weather cooperates a little more.

Hope you all have a great weekend. Happy Shooting!