A New Year...

The new year is here. After a round of major snow and work piled up, I find myself looking for ways to clear the clutter and focus on arranging opportunities for the next few months. I had a great opportunity this past fall to shoot the squad pictures for the local high school marching band. I am looking forward to working with them again.

So in the short term, I am working on setting up shoots for this winter and spring. In addition to scheduling sessions and events, I am building out my fine art portfolio. I will have several new images available in black & white and color.

I started to review the Nik Software Silver Efex Pro plug-in. I will embed a set of variations. I believe the result will get better, but at this time I reserve judgement. One of the features I did like is the tone temperature control provided by this plug-in. I shot this on New Years Day during a temperature inversion as often occurs during winter here in South Carolina. The tone temperature could be cold as shot. But the plug-in allowed me to process the Black&White in the characteristic of one of the warm tone film processes that originated in the traditional wet darkroom.

 Mountain Lake Covered by Fog

 Mountain Lake Covered by Fog (Variation 1)

 Mountain Lake Covered by Fog (Variation 2)

The variations are a neutral tone process and an Ilford process that always tended to high key the blue light.   The drawback I found was the control of the grain was not like that available in Lightroom 3 or the Nik Define plug-in. I need to have a set printed before making any decision. Let me know your opinion.

The Joy of Digital Photography

Once not long ago, we photographers used our square contraptions to capture the vision we see on film. Whether a snapshot or “Art”, we would open our shutters to expose an emulsion of chemicals capturing the light we see in our vision. The instruments of our past kept our images locked in this chemical emulsion until our lab produced the negative and prints. With much anticipation we would wait for the appointed hour the images were available. Only quieting our excitement once we had shared our vision with family and friends.

Digital photography has changed that anticipation to instant gratification. Now, we press the shutter release and wait for our image to appear instantly. Not instant as the 45 to 60 seconds we used to wait for a Polaroid to process. No shaking, no peeling for our image. Today it is there on the back of our camera. Instant!  Delivered before our eyes in the same second our shutter clicks open then closed. Instant! We can share our new image with everyone in seconds. Some will argue this instantaneous process is not a joy. I submit, whether the image is “Art” or a snapshot, our image is the vehicle that transports a memory for all involved. It is this that is the real joy of digital photography. It is the excitement in each of us to see and relive the moments of time together and places we go without having to wait for the image to be released from it chemical carrier.

The joy of digital photography is the excitement in the eyes and heart of the next generation. Come with me as I share a story that I witnessed. My wife and I had stopped in at the local Costco to plan for the coming school year. We are pricing items we will need throughout the coming year. As a lot of photographers, I am a people watcher.  I notice a young family shopping. Their conversation goes like this: “you are taking lots of pictures” Mom said to her young son. You see, the young boy had his mother’s digital camera. While his mother pushed him in the shopping cart, he would bring the camera up and snap a picture of the subject of his interest. I watched his eyes each time and that excitement showed. Excitement! Seeing the image, that inspired him to release the shutter, appear on the back of the camera.  And later that evening, there will be the excitement of sharing the memories with his mother and father.

Memories are the lasting joy of photography.  With digital photography, we can relive those memories sooner (like on the way home from a trip. No waiting to get home and drop the film to be processed. The background image that accompanies this post is an image of a young girl that is fascinated with the baskets created by a street artist. The picture is of my daughter I captured many years ago on film. It was on one of our family trips that we love to take. It is the memories that continue to bring excitement to her face.  It is the memories that my wife and I share from our time wandering around the old city. It is an image that illustrates memories we love and discussed on our trip home. We waited a week for the image to be processed. This image is often the catalyst to relive those memories.

Sharing is the joy of digital photography. As photographers, we have the gene for sharing. Why else would we invest the time?  We are teachers. We are called to inspire the next generation and teach them our craft. What better tool to teach the craft to a new generation. I do not believe we ignore the techniques of the past but the digit camera allows us to teach composition far easier.  Remember without those willing to share their passion for the craft, where will the next generation develop the passion of an Ansel Adams, Edward Weston or George Hurrell.

Remembering Independence

"These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated" - Thomas Paine, The Crisis

Thank you to those who went before us and won our Independence. Our freedom is given to us through shed blood. We must always remember to pray and give thanks for those so brave that they fight to keep us free.

  

















For more fireworks  http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightadventures/sets/72157624417080182/

A Tale of The Right Place...

The decision made, a quick break was needed. The trip begins uneventful in contrast to the rest of the day. Traffic was light making the 30 minute drive into the mountains pleasant. This adventure serves the purpose of clearing the stress of another day in a long line of days, a short trip to a tucked away little pocket of rich greens and rushes of water.

A low hum, the song of the traveler, intertwines with the evening calls of insect unseen. Fewer houses give way to the rolling slopes of our little corner of the mountains. A place where the fenced yard yields to the fences of horse farms and tree lined grass fields replace a long week of heat, days baked under a June sun fade under the gentle touch of a cooling breeze. Light, soft already, softening with the passing miles, warm late afternoon light, the golden light photographers love. Good light warming all things on its way to the cool blues of evening.

Finally the gear is unpacked. Each piece checked and checked again for the adventure before me. The route chosen is along the river with it photogenic cascades. These cascades have produced in times of high water and in times when the leaves cover its gentle pools. The water nicely plays a calming lullaby for evening. A couple of butterflies playfully float above the river. Each pool is as nice as the one before. Each with signs of young life, fingerling trout slurp at my fly. The calm of the forest and the soft song of each cascade have eased the thoughts of many long days.

I decide to climb to the next pool to practice more casting. This is when I understand I am in the right place… with the wrong equipment. Before me on the sandy bank of this next pool is an array of beautiful yellow Swallowtail butterflies. The couple of this specimen seen floating above the river paled in the sight of a couple dozen swallowtails lining the ground before me. All I could do is stand leaning on a large rock with my fly rod and enjoy the scene.

… I plan to go back this weekend with the right equipment (camera, tripod, etc) and capture the images.

Choosing an Imaging Tool

There are two tiers of tools to working with digital files. Tier one is the import and organization tier and Tier two tools is the editing and printing tier. Although some Tier one tools include printing and limited editing

Tier one tools cover how do the images get off the card and how do we as photographers sort, store, tag, etc. and decide on the images to be printed or viewed in some manner. The tools that fit in this tier are Adobe Lightroom, Apple's Aperture (new release just announced), Nikon ViewNX, ACDSee Photo Manager Pro, Bibble 5, and others.

These tools may also include varying editing and printing abilities that for a lot of photos are more that adequate. Also, on the MAC and Windows platforms, there are built in organizing tools. Mac has the IPhoto and Windows Explorer and Media Center that serve the organizing and printing function.

The other tier (second tier) of tools include Photoshop CS, Photoshop Elements, CaptureNX, and others. These are full image editors and serve as the heavy lifters if an image requires more handling that the tier one application can handle. These are typically poor at organizing and searching for photos. They are usually used as an external editor to a management application.

Although some like the two Photoshop tools and CaptureNX have a scaled down organizer or browser tool. Photoshop Elements version is a scaled down set of tools found in the CS version. It is often adequate for most needs.

What should be the choice?

Try a tier two tool first (they all offer a trail period). Pay attention to how you would download/organize, tag/rate, search, sort and edit/print/display a card of 100(+) images. Then try one of the tier one tools for the same process.

In the end you will discover what works for the images you take. I have been able to use the Windows Media Center and Photoshop Elements (on the Mac: iPhoto) for my earlier work. This included mostly the scans from film slides and the JPG files I created before I went totally digital. If I shoot images only as JPG files , I can continue to use this combination.

But, since switching to a RAW based image workflow, I am finding that a tier one tools is becoming a necessity to replace Media Center in my workflow. I have been testing Lightroom and plan to test Bibble and one offered by wildlife photographer Moose Peterson.

I hope this helps.

Look for a tools comparison coming soon...

USA Cycling Pro Championships

It is the end of summer and time for the US professional cyclists to crown a new champion. Saturday's race was the Individual Time Trail event. For those not as into cycling, this is a race for the fastest time over a set distance. A course challenging enough to test a riders endurance at maximum effort. This would be Akin to Track and Field’s 400 meter distance; except for the cyclist this year’s course totaled 20.7 miles/33.12 kilometers.

Congratulations to Dave Zabriskie on winning the 2009 Individual Time Trial. Zabriskie covered to distance under 40 minutes (39:37).

What an effort! Let me say, if you have never experienced, you need to do so. Standing beside the course (one of the great pleasure for a cycling fan) lets one witness the power these top level professionals generate and the grace in which they rein it under their control.

Congratulations to George Hincapie on winning the 2009 Road Race.

The Road Race championship was not without drama. There were breakaways, crashes (look at the Garmin rider's shoulder) and the rain closed in for the finish but held off just enough. Hincapie and the peloton chased the breakaways down on the last miles and powered to the win. A familiar tactic for this veteran of Europe’s one day Classics.

Score two for the European Pros.


More images available in the
Light Adventures gallery.

Take a Low-Light Photo Adventure...

Low-Light is a great adventure. Take a photo adventure as the sun goes down. Use this soft low light to accent colors or to extend shutter speeds for interesting effects. Shoot the silky moving water as the light goes low. If you do not own a neutral density filter set, this is the time of day to dial down the aperture and dial in the longer shutter speeds.

This water fall was captured around 30 minutes before sunset. I setup my tripod for the light available was minimal. The image was captured with a long exposure around 20 seconds. I used a small aperture set to f/22.

You may ask why the aperture is said to be small but is written with a relative large number. For anyone new to the concept, The aperture or f-stop of the lens is the size of the opening for light to enter through. Think of the number as a fraction. The larger the number in the divisor, the smaller the value of the equation. Just remember f/22 is a smaller opening than f/4.

Why use a small aperture or is a small aperture required for low- light shooting? The small aperture is not required. I will explain why I choose the aperture f/22. The small aperture served to help create the effect I was after. I wanted the water to be silky. So I needed a shutter speed in a range greater than one fifth of a second. Yes. I could have used a shutter speed around 2 seconds. But, the other effect in the image I wanted was sharp focus from the rock in the foreground to the top ledge of the waterfall. Here in lies another effect that is link to the aperture. As the aperture gets smaller, the area in the image that is in focus grows deeper. This is known as depth of field. I will not explore the technical definition of depth of field at this time.

Why did I want a deep depth of field and what is it doing for me? This waterfall has two ledges and vines growing on its face wall. I definitely wanted the rock in the foreground and the vines in focus. That is easy enough with a medium size aperture, but I also wanted the upper ledge to by partially if not mostly in focus. Using aperture f/8 or f/11 (one of the aperture numbers that falls toward the middle between the largest aperture f/4 for my lens and my maximum aperture f/22) would have been fine for focusing on the front edge of the vines. That would have put the rock, the vines and some of the water in sharp focus. This would have been a depth of field range was from ten feet in front of the camera to near twenty feet. By choosing f/22 and focusing on the front edge of the waterfall, I extended my area of focus (depth of field) to the upper ledge of the waterfall. This depth of field range was from ten feet in front of the camera to near forty feet.

As the light of the sun fades away, the pulse of your city will quicken before you. You will see amazing color open like blossoms around you. You will be witness to people, buildings, traffic, and events; each telling its own story.

The image of the umbrellas shows the exiting play of colors and reflections you find shooting at night. Again, I setup my tripod and the image was captured with a long exposure around 35 seconds. I again used a small aperture set to f/22. By choosing f/22 and focusing on the green umbrella, I was able to get the umbrellas and the building banners in my area of focus (depth of field).


Experiment with the smaller apertures. The results can be surprising. Take time to try both small and large aperture, because sometimes it is the larger apertures that give the scene the right look. Look for a large aperture discussion in future posts.

Equipment recommended for low-light/night photography:

• tripod
• remote trigger for your camera or know how to use your camera's self timer
• small flash light
• Camera that can use shutter speeds up to or beyond 30 second
• Watch with second hand or a Stopwatch - Used to time shutter speeds in "bulb" mode

More things that add to the adventure:

• Strobe and remote trigger (built into camera or add-on type) - More information on using strobes over at the Strobist Blog.
• friends to share in the adventure