Looking for Photographs

Sometimes, I just see no photographs in front of my eyes.  Such was the case one day at Brazos Bend Park.  I had walked up and down this one path three times.  I saw nothing that I wanted to photograph.  Then I sat down and just starting staring at the lake.  I immediately noticed how the light reflected off the water and onto the underside of the water plants.

Wow, how did I miss that? 

In today’s photograph, I wanted it to be about shapes and colors.  

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D800 (DX format), 80-400mm f/4.5~5.6 at 600mm (effectively), ISO 1600, f/13 at 1/4000^th of a second on a tripod. 

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 5—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points, added clarity, sharpness and vibrance and increased saturation of blue, green and yellow.

Playing Around

Saw this reflection of two ladies and their bikes in window.  Tried all sorts of things—multiple exposures, long shutter speeds, out-of-focus, and so on.  Really did not like any of the photos that I took, but learned something valuable—I need to play around more with my camera.  

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 at 110mm, ISO 200, f/8 and 1/60^th of a second.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—Set black and white points, adjusted exposure, added clarity and mid-tone contrast.

Graphic Forms

Whereas yesterday’s photo was about the color, today’s image is about the graphic form I saw as I looked at the dock and water. When I looked at the scene I saw three things—the graphic lines of the dock and water, the smoothness of the water and the roughness of the dock and the shapes.

I wanted the photo to show only the things that I “saw” before taking the image.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at 200mm, shot at ISO 200, f/13 and 1/90^th

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, added clarity and increased saturation of blue.

Photoshop—used Topaz Adjust to bring out details in the dock and the reflection.

Abstract Forms #5

Today’s image is a three shot multiple exposure image of a man walking along a fountain. I wanted this photo to be all about the forms of the building and the man walking.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8, shot at ISO 200, 70mm, f/5.6 and 1/30^th of a seconds.

Post Processing in Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast.

Abstract Forms #4

Today’s image is a three shot multiple exposure image of the reflection of a lady behind a chained-link fence. I moved the camera position slightly between each exposure.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8, shot at ISO 200, 200mm, f/4.8 and 1/60^th of a second.

Post Processing in Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, increased saturation of red, orange and yellow.

Abstracted Forms #3

Today’s image is three multiple exposures shot of a couple at various zoom levels while the lady turned her away from me. 

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8, shot at ISO 200, three shots at varying zoom levels, f/22 and 1.5 seconds.

Post Processing in Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, increased saturation of red, orange and yellow.

Abstracted Forms #2

Today’s image is three multiple exposures:  a couple setting on the bench, a bush of yellow flowers and two yellow flowers with their stem. 

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8, shot at ISO 200, three shots at varying zoom levels, f/22 and 1.5 seconds.

Post Processing in Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, increased saturation of yellow, red, and green.

Abstracted Forms #1

Over the next four or five days I am sure I will get a few comments like: “Have you lost your mind”, “I just don’t get what you are doing”, and “I think it is time that you take-up kite flying”.   I know a lot of people will not like the shots that I will be posting.  That’s OK with me.  These shots are all about trying new things. I have been trying various techniques over the past few months, but really have not had too much success with them until the past few times our.  These photos are about colors and movement.

All the effects have been achieved totally in camera.  I have not used Photoshop to combine photographs.  All post processing of the images have been done only in Lightroom (or essentially, Camera RAW).

I have used slow shutter speeds, zooming while shutter is open and multiple exposures on same image to make these abstracts.  Again, I wanted this to be all about trying new things to achieve movement and show colors in different ways.

Today’s shot is of a couple setting on a bench in Herman Park, which was taken while zooming my lens at a very slow shutter speed.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8, shot at ISO 200, zoomed during shutter opening from 70mm to 145mm, f/22 and 1.5 seconds.

Post Processing in Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, increased saturation of orange, green, blue and aqua.

Water, Light, Action

While in Fort Smith last week, I went down to the Arkansas River to see if I could get a few night photos.  I tried lots of different things but nothing seemed to be working.  So, I sat down on a bench and started watching the water flow.  After watching a while, I decided to move towards the bridge where the lights were casting all sorts of patterns on the river below.

Again, I tried different things, but again, not much was happening.  Finally, I settled on isolating totally on the lights reflecting off the moving water.  I switched lens to my 70-200mm f/2.8 so that I could isolate and compress the scene.  I also put a neutral density filter on the lens so that I could slow my shutter speed.

I wanted the photo to be about the colors and the patterns.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 170mm, shot at ISO 200, f/16 and 8 second with a exposure combination of -1.0 EV and 4-stop neutral density filter on a tripod with white balance set to 7,800K to add more warmth to the lights.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity and vibrance.

An Abstracted Family

Last night, I attended our club's annual awards banquet.  At the banquet, we present our Photographer of the Year award.  For 2008, Steve Schuenke was our Photographer of the Year.  Steve is a really good photographer, a good guy and has done a lot of great work for Bay Area Photo Club.  However, I was disappointed a little in his acceptance speech.  I can overlook the fact that he did not say thanks to mom, his wife or his dog (which he does not have one, but I am sure that Cindi would let him borrow one of her dogs for the evening).  No, I was disappointed because he did not recognize what really set him apart this year--being my VAL at Renaissance and Dickens festivals.  I just do not understand how he could have overlooked his most important photographic learning experience of his life.  Oh, well, I guess this is just another one of the many things that I have learned to live with.

All kidding aside, Steve deserved the award.  He produced some outstanding photographs this year, as he does every year.  I enjoy looking at his work, shooting with him or drinking a cold one after an event. Congratulations Steve, well done!

Now the race is "on" for 2009 Photographer of the Year.  Good luck, everyone!  I do have application forms available to be my VAL at various shoots, if any of you might be interested.

Now to today's photograph.  Not much of a back story here.  

I was over at my grandson's school shooting the Children's Mass over the holidays.  While waiting for the rest of the family after the mass, I spotted this family.  The light was wonderful.  I took a few "normal" shots, but then wanted to do something that captured the essence of the moment--the father and the little girl being very calm and the little boy moving every-which-way.  I decided on a nine multiple exposure shot that I hoped would do the trick.    Here is the attempt that I liked best.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 120, ISO 200, f/8 and 1/30 of a second.

Post processing in Lightroom:  set black and white points, added mid tone contrast, selectively brightened area around family, and cropped to 11x14 format.

Houston Marathon #2

Today’s post is another from my trip to the Houston Marathon, but it will not include any technical data. Why?  Because of what I wrote yesterday on Brian Bastinelli’s blog.   As photographers, we too often think about this setting or that setting rather than our real purpose:  to make an image (it does not matter how we get there).

Today, we will have a little humor, a lesson from a outstanding image-maker and finally another attempt to get my abstract runners.

When you attend an event like the Houston Marathon, you must realize that there are some things that you will not have control over.  An example:  BIG HAIR.  Now, I am a Texas; I love Texas ladies; and, I like their BIG HAIR.  But, even big hair has it’s place.  Here I am having a little trouble with getting my shot around another viewer of the race.  Realize that you will be faced with situations like this and just deal with it.

Amy is 3½ years old.  She is a true artist.  She is the photographer that I aspire to be.  Here, she is photographing her mother and aunt.   She is constantly directing them—“a little closer”, “bigger smiles”, "keep your eyes open”, etc.   After each shot, she looks at the back of her camera to see what she has.  No fretting over camera setting, just total concentration on the results, and then the barking of new instructions to her models.  I did not see any of her images, but I bet her images captured the moment better than most of mine.

Finally, here is another attempt I made at capturing my abstract runners.  Enjoy.

Houston Marathon

Sunday, I went to the Houston Marathon.  I do not consider myself to be a very good sports photographer.  Why?  Because I do not take very many good sports photographs.   I must admit, it is not something that I really enjoy, so I do not do it very often.

So, why did I go to the Houston Marathon with my cameras in hand?  Well, I had an idea--I know this is risky for me!   I was over at a friend’s house a few weeks ago and I started looking at a couple of his Leroy Neiman paintings.  I really like the way the painter had abstracted the athlete and since I have decided to try more abstracts in 2009, I thought that would try abstracting some runners at the Houston Marathon.

My idea was to place my camera at street level, use a wide lens and a slow shutter speed.  I thought that I would get blurred runners and a sharp background (the buildings of the Houston skyline).  I did not get exactly what I thought, but I though a couple of them were interesting.  Here is one of my abstract runners.  Hope you enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D700, 28-70 f/2.8 at 28mm, shot at ISO 1,600, f/8 and 1.5 a second with the camera resting on the street.

Post Processing:  Lightroom—set white and black point, and added mid-tone contrast, added clarity and vibrance, increased saturation of reds, yellows and blues, cropped the photo to be a more panoramic crop

Abstract Wednesday

Why is today “Abstract Wednesday”?  Because today is Wednesday and I am presenting an abstract photograph today. 

Reason enough for me.

This photograph is a nine multiple-exposure shot.  With many of the Nikon, you can select multiple exposures in the menu, dial the number of exposures you want and select exposure compensation and start firing.   All your exposures are then recorded on a single image.  I usually set my shutter release to high-speed release because I want the exposures to be in a rapid burst.  I also change my focus to manual mode (I do not want the camera to be searching between exposures).  The multiple exposure mode allows you to create some unusual effects in camera without a lot of technical knowledge.

In this photograph, I set one of focus points over a particular flower and rotated the camera around that point.  I wanted to capture the colors and also create a feel of movement.   Even though you get a feeling of color and movement, if you look closely at some of the flowers you can see a lot of their details.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, 70-200 f/2.8 at 120mm, shot at ISO 200, f/8 and 1/30 of a second

Post Processing:   Lightroom—set white and black point, and added mid-tone contrast, added clarity and vibrance, increased saturation of greens, blues and magentas.

Abstract Leaves

While waiting for JD on Christmas Eve before heading to our son’s house, I spotted these leaves with lots of color.  I made a few “normal” shots but what I wanted was colors and shapes.  I then started playing with trying different abstracting techniques.   This is the one that I thought showed-off the colors and forms the best.  Hope you enjoy.

Camera settings:   Nikon D3, 70-300 f/4.5-5.6 at 200mm, shot at ISO 200, f/38 and 1.5 seconds while slowly zooming the lens

Post Processing: 

Lightroom—set white and black point, and added mid-tone contrast, increased saturation of red, orange and yellow.

Photoshop—added a frame and paper texture using onOne Photoframe.

Color and Light

While in Fort Smith, Arkansas last week, I wondered over to a small lake not far from the farm.  I knew that the lake generally had lots of color around it this time of year and that’s what I wanted to get (I was tired of recording another unsuccessful light-paining).   I was not disappointed. 

I came across this scene as soon as I arrived.  The scene had great colors and the ambient light that was illuminating part of the lake and the far shoreline.  I clicked-off a few shots and determined that I needed some light on the leaves.  I attached my Nikon SU800 to my camera and placed a Nikon SB800 about ten (10) feet on both sides of my camera.  I dialed in the fill flash that I wanted.  It took me about six to eight clicks to get what I wanted.

It was not until I had all my gear packed away in my car that I thought about making the scene more abstract.   I hurried back and tried to duplicate my shot, but the ambient light was not the same, so alas no abstract.  I was forced to turn to Photoshop!

As I said in an earlier post, I like abstracts.  I am not very good at them, but I want to get better.  So, for 2009, I make a resolution to shoot and post at least one abstract every two weeks.  I want the abstracts to be “in-camera” abstracts.  Hopefully, I will do more, but that at least is my goal.

Today, I post two shots.  The first is how it basically came out of the camera (and adjusted in Lightroom 2.0), and the second is my attempt to make it into an abstract through the magic of Photoshop filters.  I wanted the abstract to be more a splash of colors rather than a sharp photo of leaves and a lake.

Camera settings:   Nikon D3 with Nikon SU800 attached and on tripod, 105mm f/2.8 Macro, shot at ISO 200, f/11 and 1/180 of a second, two Nikon SB800 (1/32^th power) on each side of the camera

Post Processing: 

Lightroom— (for both photos) set white and black point, and added mid-tone contrast, increased color saturation of red, yellow, orange and green, changed hue of green (slightly).

Photoshop—(abstract image only) used Filter>Brush>Splatter at a radius of 10 and a smoothness of 5.

Abstracting Simple Scenes

My friend Steve has been doing a great job showing some simple subjects in an abstracted form (check him out here).   I like this type of image.   I am generally not very good at creating abstract.  I think my left-brain (accountant/engineer type) takes over every time I pick-up my camera; and, since there is no “abstract” shooting mode on Nikons, I generally end up with photos that look like what was in front of my lens.  I really have to work hard to get my abstract mode engaged.

With that said, a few weeks ago I was at Surf Side beach near Freeport, Texas.  I was there to take a portrait of a surfer at sunrise.   Before he got there, I started playing with blurring the waves and skyline by moving the camera from left to right as I held the shutter open.  This is my favorite shot from my playtime.   I had enough fun doing this that future playtime abstract sessions are on my schedule.

Camera settings:   Nikon D3 (set to vivid color), 70-200mm f/2.8 at 200mm, shot at ISO 200, f/2.8 and 1/4 of a second on a tripod.

Post Processing:  Lightroom—set white and black point, added mid-tone contrast and increased the saturation and luminosity to red, orange, blue and cyan.