It's My Nature » vertical pan

Riverblur

Ed — Wed, 05 May 2010 09:10:35 +0000

This series, well it’s only two images, is from an evening walk along the Delaware Canal towpath (Delaware Canal State Park, PA) which, for much of its length, runs along a narrow spit of land between the canal and the Delaware River. I have often joked that it is a state park that is nearly 60 miles long and about 10 feet wide. It is also a state park that was absolutely devastated by two 100-year floods several years back when two hurricanes (Ivan and another) flooded the river and destroyed much of the towpath. Slowly, it is being rebuilt.

The images are obviously both blurs. The first is the result of a horizontal blur with a 0.6 sec exposure. The second is the result of a vertical blur also with a 0.6 sec exposure. Both were made with my Canon 50D and 24-70 2.8L lens.

“Riverblur 1.0″

“Riverblur 2.0″

Hope you enjoy! While I enjoy creating all types of nature images (see the sunrises, sunsets, flowers, water images and others below and in my website galleries); these blurs and other images like them say more about me as an artist that almost any other type of image I create.

Birches

Ed — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 23:01:39 +0000

(Vertical Pan; 1.0 sec @ f/14; ISO 100; 0 EV; FL 70mm w/ Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L and my 5D Mark II)

There was a short break in the rains this morning so we headed out in search of something to photograph. I followed the fog to the top of South Mountain and Lehigh University’s Mountaintop Campus. I made a few fog images which I may post a little later but then I came across a pair of birches just off the side of the road. I pulled off the road and on to the shoulder, got out and started to work the pair of birches. I made images from several different perspectives but ended up liking the one above the best. It is a very busy image and it is that busy-ness that really appeals to me here.

With birches on my mind, I decided to return to Trexler Park in Allentown, PA where I had spotted a couple of real nice birches a couple of weeks back. The light wasn’t what I wanted that day so I filed these trees away in the back of my brain with a promise to return at a later date when the light would be more diffuse. That was today. Again my objective was to work the trees with both motion blur and multiple exposures. The first example below is a 10-image multiple exposure made with my Canon 5D Mark II and the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens, tripod-mounted.

(10-image Multiple Exposure; 1/125 sec @ f/4.0; ISO 400; 0EV; FL 140mm)

As I was working the multiple exposures, the rains started up again. So I finished up by taking the 5DMk2 and 70-200mm f/2.8 off the tripod, stopping down to f/22 and dropping the ISO to 100 in order to lengthen the shutter speed to 1.0 sec allowing me to make some images with the vertical pan technique. Same trees, same perspective, different technique and different look.

Just about when you are ready to give up…

Ed — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:39:37 +0000

Cold (17F), blustery (20-30 mph winds) but we decided to go out this morning anyway. Admittedly most of the morning was spent in the car driving from site to site looking for birds for my wife (we found the albino hawk she wanted to see) and anything for me to shoot. After two hours, I hadn’t even taken my camera out of the bag when I mentioned to my wife that I hadn’t seen a single thing that I had wanted to shoot. Not a minute later, we rounded a curve in a local county park and there it was… a most interesting (at least to me) stand of trees, cypress maybe, I don’t know for sure.

I pulled over, got out the camera and made several images. This is one that I like.

Image made with Canon 50D and 24-70 2.8L lens, handheld

0.8 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; 0 EV; FL 55mm

Image processed in Nik Dfine, Viveza 2, and Color Efex (Polarization and Lighten Center filters).

Of Moss and Lichens

Ed — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:55:37 +0000

These are two more images from last Sunday morning’s walk in Jacobsburg State Park (PA). Very early in our walk along the Henry’s Woods Trail, we hit an area where every tree trunk was covered by either lush, bright green moss or scaly, lighter green lichens. I couldn’t resist the photo opportunity so I took a series of shots using a vertical pan technique (shutter speeds of 1.0 to 1.6 seconds) to create in-camera motion blur in my images.

Here are a couple of examples processed with Nik plug-ins (Dfine, Viveza, Sharpener Pro). Hope you enjoy them and are able to share in the vision.

As always, thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a happy and prosperous New Year. And keep on shooting.

Picks Among the Pans

Ed — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:57:12 +0000

My wife and I went out a bit just before sunset yesterday. She went in search of Piliated Woodpeckers and Great Horned Owls and I went in search of some interesting photo opportunities.

She found the Piliateds and we heard the Owls.

And I found some interesting compositional opportunities for vertical pans/in-camera motion blurs. The first image is one that I’ve entitled “Blue Light Special”. No, not the K-Mart Blue Light Specials. Remember those? I was just really struck by the blue tonality to the light as it reflected between the tall pines. The color, the contrast, the verticality all seems to really speak to me here.

The second image is one that I really would like to hear your opinions on. The image I have posted here is exactly the image I envisioned out in the field. As I looked at the very thick stand of pines, I noticed the setting sun peeking out among a couple of the tree trunks. I immediately thought that a vertical pan would cause the sun to create streaks descending through the image – like fire balls hurled earthward. And sure enough I got what I was looking for. I like the resultant image but I’m not sure how much appeal it has to others. That’s where I’d like to hear your thoughts. I entitled this one “The Fire Gods Have Spoken”. It was nearly sunset and I really like those beams of light/fire reaching down toward the earth in what is an otherwise subdued scene.

Images were made with my Canon 50D and 70-200 2.8L IS lens, handheld.

ADDENDUM: I posted these images in the “Out-of-the-Box” forum on BPN where comments to “The Fire Gods Have Spoken”, similar to those made here, led me to make the following response. Trust me, this should not be viewed as defensiveness. Rather I would like it to be viewed as opening a discussion of “abstract photography” and the creative process underlying it.

Here is the brief critique from a photographer whom I greatly respect and my response:

…the hot streaks really overpower the rest of the image. Your other blurs have seemed more precise and controlled – this one seems more “out there.”

And my response:

There are really two issues here, artistically speaking. But they are related. Let’s take the second first – the “out there” aspect of this image. It is indeed a pretty radical departure from the “order”, if you will, that is exhibited in my other blurs. One only needs to look as far as “Blue Light Special” to see that tidiness or neatness or orderliness in an image. This image is meant to bring a sense of chaos in that orderliness – to capture hellfire and brimstone, if you will. I wanted the juxtaposition of chaos created by the light superimposed over the quietness and neatness of the twilight seen in the background which Denise pointed out as what she really liked. Creating that feeling of bringing chaos into order was my purpose in panning the sun that was peeking through the trees.

Which brings me to the second (first) point. If the “hot streaks really overpower the rest of the image” as you say then the juxtaposition is lost because the background get lost and all we have is the chaos without the orderliness. In that regard, the image has then failed to create the “tension” in the viewer that I had wished to create.

I think what we are discussing here is the very nature of abstract art. In many respects a bird on a stick is a bird on a stick and a sunset reflecting on a lake is a sunset reflecting on a lake. I’m not saying capturing either is easy. But when I look at it, it is what it is. Abstractions are, I believe, different.

Your thoughts?

Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Morning…

Ed — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:40:19 +0000

right around sunrise.

So we had a change of plans. We were going into NYC today. Nothing special. Walk around a bit. Visit B&H. Pick up a couple of small things. Window shop. Visit Rockefeller Center. Have lunch. Stuff like that. Barb wasn’t overly excited about going. Weather tanked. And I could get the Fisheye optic for the Lensbaby which I was planning to pick up at B&H and the Soft Focus optic (which I was going to wait on) direct from Lensbaby and still end up spending over $100 less than I would have spent on the NYC trip. More than you wanted to know but it explains why I am here and not pounding the pavements of the Big Apple.

Since I was here, I went out just before sunrise and was looking for “snow on trees in early light” opportunities. I came up with a few right along my local creek. I burred some, sandwiched or Ortoned some, Topazed some, and some I left be just as out of the camera. But this just may be my favorite from this morning. And of course, it just happens to be a blur.

Image made with my Canon 50D and 24-70mm f/2.8L lens, handheld.

0.6 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; 0 EV; Sunny WB; FL 65mm.

Paper Birch

Ed — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:17:54 +0000

I hope you didn’t think I was walking away from abstracts be they motion blurs, Lensbabies or whatever! I just took a short break. This morning I went out before sunrise and made a variety of images from the real to the possibly surreal. This falls toward the abstract side but probably in the middle somewhere. The tree trunks are paper birch and the second image below shows what the trunk looks like up close and personal. But before you get too close, note the little critter in the LL corner of the close-up!

The first image is a vertical pan/motion blur. I particularly like that you can still make out the “paper” bark on the tree trunk and I really like the layered background. Moving from bottom to top, you have gravel, grass, water and the yellow from a hanging willow. I think all the wispy branches from the birch just add to the abstract feel.

Both images made with my 50D; 24-70 2.8L. The blur was handheld and the close-up on tripod.

(1.0 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; 0 EV)

And the close-up of the peeling paper bark. Note the little critter. I didn’t see it until I got home and opened the image on the iMac.

(0.6 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; 0 EV)

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.

Infrared Motion Blur (Evergreen Tree)

Ed — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:24:39 +0000

Objective: To expand the scope of my infrared photography beyond the typical, expected IR landscapes.

Technique: Used an IR-converted camera for the image. I knew I wanted to experiment with vertical pans/motion blurs which I did here. Given the strong light (great for IR but lousy for long exposures), I could only only get the shutter speed down to 1/8 sec so I was dealing with quick, short blurs.

Location: Lehigh Parkway, Allentown, Pa.

Time: Around 12:45pm.

Conditions: Sunny. Ideal IR photography conditions. Lousy for long exposures but I already said that!

Camera: Canon Rebel XT converted for IR by LifePixel.

Lens: Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L; Focal Length 40mm

Settings: 1/8 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; 0 EV; Custom WB

Post-Processing: Basic adjustments in Lightroom (upped exposure and blacks, clarity and vibrance). In Photoshop CS4, I desaturated to black and white and made some minor adjustments.

Light in the Darkness

Ed — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:48:14 +0000

Objective: Capture the patterns of bright light and deep shade in a stand of tall pines.

Technique: Vertical pan/motion blur.

Location: Peace Valley Park, Bucks County, Pa.

Time: Yesterday around 9:00am.

Conditions: Sunny but I was in a dense stand of tall pines. Sun was leaking in through the trees behind me creating a interesting blend of bright light and deep shade.

Camera: Canon 50D

Lens: Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS; Focal Length 80mm

Settings: 0.6 sec @ f/16; ISO 160; -1/3 EV; AWB

Post-Processing: Basic adjustments in Lightroom (upped exposure and blacks, clarity and vibrance, saturation) and Photoshop CS4 (Very minor exposure correction in Topaz, Levels and Curves to boost contrast)

Addendum

The image above was cropped not only from the top and bottom to create the pano view but also from the right eliminate some very bright light creating a waterfall-type of look due to the vertical pan. That light didn’t really bother me but it bothered everyone else who I showed the image to. So I cropped it out. Below is another image with the bright waterfall-type light left in.