(1/320 sec @ f/5.6; ISO 400; 0 EV)

None of us REALLY do? Oh we plan… and we think we know what’s next but do we really? There is a sense of anticipation just around every corner.

That was the feeling that overtook me as Barb and I were walking down this trail in Jacobsburg State Park [...]]]>

(1/320 sec @ f/5.6; ISO 400; 0 EV)

None of us REALLY do? Oh we plan… and we think we know what’s next but do we really? There is a sense of anticipation just around every corner.

That was the feeling that overtook me as Barb and I were walking down this trail in Jacobsburg State Park this morning. The trail went on with tall, stick-like trees on both sides and then suddenly we are dealt a left turn. What lies around it? We don’t really know until we get there.

The processing of the photo above came to me even before I lifted the camera to my eye. I knew exactly what I wanted to do in post-processing and what I wanted the finished product to look like. Fortunately for me, everything worked out.

The image was made with my Canon 5D Mark II and 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens, handheld.

Processed with Nik Viveza 2 and Silver Efex Pro starting with one of the old photo presets and making adjustments from there.

It has been a very slow weekend from a photography perspective. I have been sick since Thursday and with the snowstorm on Saturday, I haven’t gotten out to shoot at all. So I may have to pull from the archives for something to post to the blog this week. But before I do that, let [...]]]>

It has been a very slow weekend from a photography perspective. I have been sick since Thursday and with the snowstorm on Saturday, I haven’t gotten out to shoot at all. So I may have to pull from the archives for something to post to the blog this week. But before I do that, let me indulge in a little bit of creative silliness. I did spend a few minutes out in the backyard yesterday and I happened to have my iPhone tucked away in my pocket. So in the few minutes that I was out there, I did end up making a few images.

When I got back into the house just a few minutes later, I dumped them on to the iMac and started to play around with processing using the Nik Complete suite of plug-ins for Photoshop. Here’s what I came up with.

This image is of three Maine Harbor Bell wind chimes that we have hanging from the corner of the garage. Processing was with Nik Dfine for noise reduction; Nik Viveza for brightness, contrast, structure; Nik Silver Efex Pro for the conversion to black and white and the antique sepia look; and finally just a touch of Sharpener Pro.

It’s not the Mona Lisa but it was fun to create.

Creativity and the creative process itself are things that many have sought to explain. During the course of my undergraduate and graduate education which was in psychology, I crossed paths many times with those much more learned and much more famous that me who wrote volumes on the creative process. But sometimes it is the [...]]]>

Creativity and the creative process itself are things that many have sought to explain. During the course of my undergraduate and graduate education which was in psychology, I crossed paths many times with those much more learned and much more famous that me who wrote volumes on the creative process. But sometimes it is the pithy little saying that really stick out in one’s mind.

I just completed reading a short e-book by photographer extraordinaire David duChemin entitled “The Inspired Eye: Notes on Creativity for Photographers”. It strives to be a practical guide and really is. And it is full of pithy little quotes that I pulled out and jotted down. One that I really liked read:

“Creation is risky stuff. It’s at the whim of lunatics with a bad habit of asking, What if…?”

Well that sentence really hit home because, as anyone who has been following my blog for even a short time will know, that’s where I really find myself. I don’t travel to the far ends of the world to make images that could appear in National Geographic. Rather I putter around my own backyard for the most part, look around me and ask What if…? What if I do this or that? Can I turn the everyday, the ordinary into something extra-ordinary.

This image is just another example of trying to do just that. It was early afternoon on New Year’s Day and we decided to go for a walk along the Cinder Banks, an area close-by along our local creek that is left over from the heyday of the local iron industry. I decided to travel light and just took along a single camera and lens – the 30D and the Lensbaby Composer. As we turned down one of the wide trails that lead to the banks and to the creek, I first saw the potential for a wonderful composition. There before me was the tree and brush lined path covered in snow and taking me and my eye right off into the distance. Then I quickly saw all the footprints of those who had walked this path before us and almost decided to just pass on making the image. In the final analysis, I decided to make just one image before moving on.

The highlight of this day turned out to be the the graffiti-laced rusty shed that I posted a few days back. I still really love that image.

This image, the first made that day, wasn’t even processed. I just left it to wither on the vine so to speak. Then last night I was sitting through another in a series of Nik Software webinars – this one on Silver Efex Pro – and afterwards, as I thought about pulling up an image and trying out a bit of what I had just learned, this image came back to mind. I kinda knew what was in my mind that afternoon as I looked at the scene and I knew that the image, in its original form, wasn’t cutting it. So I went to work. I became that lunatic asking What if? Fifteen to twenty minutes later, I had created an image that was much more in tune with I was experiencing while standing out there on the path. And this is it.

Let me know what you think, if you would.

(1/400 sec @ f/8.0; ISO 400; +2/3 EV; Sunny WB)

My wife and I have visited this lighthouse located in Highlands, NJ many times. During those visits, I came to the conclusion that it is almost impossible to photograph the entire structure from the grounds and come away with a good image. My last attempt involved [...]]]>

(1/400 sec @ f/8.0; ISO 400; +2/3 EV; Sunny WB)

My wife and I have visited this lighthouse located in Highlands, NJ many times. During those visits, I came to the conclusion that it is almost impossible to photograph the entire structure from the grounds and come away with a good image. My last attempt involved using my ultra-wide Sigma 10-20mm lens and resulted in images with serious distortion resulting in both towers leaning in. About the only viable possibility from the grounds would be multiple images stitched together which I may still try.

The other approach is to shoot from some distance away – in this case from down on the long spit of land known as Sandy Hook. I’ve tried that several times and never came away satisfied with the result. So this past Saturday morning it was time to try something very different. As I said in my previous post, Sandy Hook was a total bust as far as birds were concerned. And all I had with me were two bodies and two lenses (a 24-70 on a 30D and a 300/2x combo on a 50D). While standing on the boardwalk across from the Sandy Hook visitors center, I looked up at the lighthouse and thought I’d give it a shot with the 50D and 300 2.8 w/2x. That’s an effective focal length of 960mm which was fine because I was one heck of a long way from the lighthouse. How far? I don’t know for sure but well over a mile, maybe closer to two.

Anyway in PP, I ended up making some typical adjustments and cropping the image to eliminate the homes that cover the hill up to the lighthouse grounds before taking it into Topaz Adjust where I used the “Spicify” preset and made some adjustments from there. Feeling that the fortress-like appearance of this lighthouse leant itself to a monochrome look, I then desatured the image. After looking at the black and white version, decided I needed to go to sepia. I then added some selective sharpening and levels adjustment to the structure itself. And as a final touch, I added a bit of vignetting in the corners.

The result, I think, looks like an old postcard of the lighthouse. Your thoughts?

I have had this idea floating around in my head for the past week or so that I have wanted to work on but haven’t really had the time. What you see here is what I would call a concept image taken even a little farther than I had originally planned. 

My idea started with a [...]]]>

I have had this idea floating around in my head for the past week or so that I have wanted to work on but haven’t really had the time. What you see here is what I would call a concept image taken even a little farther than I had originally planned. 

My idea started with a curiosity to see how flower close-ups would work (or not work) in IR. Regular readers of this blog will remember that I just got my Infrared-converted Rebel XT back about a week ago and have only had very limited time to work with it. One thing that I have noticed from the start though is that exposures aren’t as straightforward in IR as I might have thought. So I started wondered about bracketing and using “high dynamic range” software (Photomatix HDR) to “fine tune” the exposure. 

So that was the concept that I began with. I had hoped to try different flowers, different backgrounds, etc. but time hasn’t allow up to this point. So here is an example of where my thinking has lead me so far.

The flower is a Mock Orange. I liked the shape of the flower and the fact that it was already white and would work nicely with the white leaves from the IR exposure. I also like the arrangement of leaves about the flowers. 

Using the IR-converted Rebel XT and a 50mm f/1.8 lens with a 12mm extension tube mounted on a tripod, I made a series of three images exposed at -2 EV, -1 EV and 0 EV. Using Photomatix, I created a HDR composite IR image. Then I imported the HDR IR image into Lightroom where I made some basic adjustments before passing it on to PS4 where I did a bit sharpening and noise reduction and, almost as a lark, I added the Sepia tone. When I did, I really felt that I liked what I had created – a look that is sharp but soft in a Sepia tone that looks almost pastel-like.

I did make images at a variety of aperture values from f/3.5 to f/22 but settled in on this series made at f/18. 

Original exposures were:
1/13 sec @ f/18; -1 EV; ISO 200
1/25 sec @ f/18; -2 EV; ISO 200
1/6 sec @ f/18; 0 EV, ISO 200.

As I said, I like it and that is important. But I’d also really like to hear your thoughts on where I have taken this idea thus far. Thanks.