photography

Type of photography

Boston Spring Blooming

Kevin

Boston is buzzing with the bright colors of flowers and flowering trees.  Hands down my favorite time of year in Beantown.

Boston Spring Blooming
Boston Spring Blooming

The crown jewel is probably Boston Public Gardens, but there is much more.  The Esplanade along the Charles River is bursting with flowering trees … and B.U. students out enjoying the sunshine. 

In the narrow streets of Beacon Hill, you can find some surprising small displays.  For photography, be aware that the light changes dramatically in these tight spaces  sheltered by tall brownstones.

A long winding stretch of busy roadway known as The Riverway skirts along the edge of the Emerald Necklace.   At the northern end, close to Kenmore Square, are the Kelleher Rose Garding and Fenway Victory Gardens.  (Though, there’s not much to see right now at the Rose Garden; too early for roses.)  Heading south into Jamaica Plain, an hour or two at the Arnold Arboretum is always nice.

My friend Charlie drives a taxi in the city of Boston; he doesn’t much care for the busy heart of the city.  But as I occaisionally make time to walk the streets, I am frequently surprised by gems of natures splendor, whether planted by the city or by residents tending what small patch of ground is available to them.

Photographing Freestyle Ski Jumping

Kevin

Very excited to photograph freestyle ski jumping this week!
For photography, winter can be dull, particularly if there is no snow … the grey season, the season of sticks without leaves. But NOT this week. This is an international event sponsored by FIS, the international skiing authority. The ORDA has authorized official Press credentials, which allows me a bit more freedom of movement than regular spectators, to achieve shooting angles I need to create good images.

Because the freestyle ski jump competition is preceded by a mogul competition, I will arrive a day early in order to catch the mogul competition.  Although I don’t “need” this shoot, I’m going to be right there and it could be fun (I simply haven’t thought about it much).  One extra night’s lodging is all it takes … and maybe rent a pair of skis so I can reach the top & middle of the slope.

Logistical arrangements have required a significant investment of time.

  • Lens selection & rent
  • A  couple of (smaller) equipment purchases
  • Contact ORDA for official Press credentials
  • Find a place to stay (difficult because I made a reservation only 1wk prior to the event)
  • Couple minor things regarding my car (before driving 500 miles)

(The weather forecast for Friday is *COLD*.)

I have selected a 70-200mm f4 zoom lens and the Canon EF 400mm f4 DO lens.  Having never used the DO lens before, this is a bit of a gamble.  However, at 4.27 lbs, the DO is significantly less weight than the 400mm f2.8 or even the 300mm f2.8.

While the weight of the 400mm DO is hand-holdable, I want a monopod so that I do not have to hand-hold it. But my cheap old monopod (really cheap) is not enough for this task.  So I purchased a new monopod (Feisol).  With this particular item in mind, I went to my local photography shop (Hunt’s Photo & Video) and looked at the other options (Benro, Induro, etc).  Lucky for me they did stock the Feisol and that is ultimately the item I had in-hand when I left the store.

When used on snow, a monopod (or even a tripod) will punch a narrow hole in the snow and sink, because of the very narrow footprint. A few monopods do have an expanded “foot”, but the model I selected does not have this feature. So I cut up the plastic lid to a peanut butter jar and attached that to the bottom of the monopod.

Motion Blur Sports Photography

Kevin

Most sports photography employs fast shutter speeds, to freeze the action.  But where there is motion, I want to show that.  A slow shutter speed allows movement to blur.  Here are a couple examples from a bicycle race last weekend in Boston.

(click on either image for a larger view)

While it is tempting to quote specific shutter speeds that I use, it really doesn’t work that way.  The shutter speed depends upon (1) the speed of the moving subject, (2) the angle at which the subject is approaching, and (3) how much blur I want.  So I might start out somewhere between 1/30 to 1/100 second and then chimp the back of the camera to see what it looks like.

(Chimping means frequently reviewing captured images on the camera display panel. If it looks really good, you scream like a chimp.)

To get basic motion blur, you lock down the camera such that the background is sharp and the moving subject shows blur.  Alternativley, you can pan the camera to follow the the subject, such that the subject does not blur but the background does. Another technique is to actively zoom the lens during the exposure, which you see in the first image here, using a shutter speed of 1/4 second.  A shutter speed of 1/4 is quite long, but the subject here is moving head-on towards me.  Compare that to the second image, the subject is moving side-to-side perpendicular to the camera and the shutter speed is 1/30 second.

The blur effects shown here is achieved entirely in the camera.  As the subject does not stay in one spot, the light reflecting off the subject is diminished.  In post-processing (e.g. Photoshop or Lightroom), it is typically necessary to selectively restore brightness, contrast, and color saturation.  In the second image here, I have intentionally over-stated the contrast and color saturation.

With a bit of experimenting, you can get some interesting abstract results.  Motion blur photography is not new, but it is a bit unusual.  It has been said, if you want to excel, if you want to stand out in a crowd of talented people, don’t simply mimic what everyone else is doing.

 

 

Ultimate Lens for Sports & Wildlife

Kevin

There are telephoto lenses and there are telephoto zoom lenses.
Then there are tele-extenders which increase the magification of a lens.
And … then there is this; three telephoto zooms in one lens.

However, it is still not available today, though originally planned for release in mid-2011.
Price tag (yet to be announced) may cause shock or heart arythmia.

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EF-200-400mm-f-4-L-IS-USM-Extender-1.4x-Lens-Review.aspx

http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/news/telephoto_zoom_lens.do

latest update:  http://www.canonrumors.com/tag/200-400/

 

(I would like to include the photo from Canon, but their website states: protected by copyright, kindly do not copy.)

Book: Wildflowers of RiverPark

Kevin

Although I have mentioned my book project regarding local wildflowers, apparently I neglected to annouce that it was done. 
It is available from Blurb, here: Wildflowers of RiverPark. 

For more information, go to the navigation panel for this blog and click on “Book”.  That will show you all my blog posts about books.

There are a couple of minor errors in the book.  Specifically, my notes regarding the Eastern Redbud tree state that this tree does not produce legume seed pods.  Actually, it does.

Interest in RiverPark is extremely local, people who work at this buisiness park.  However, during one of my evening photo sessions at the park, I did encounter a couple people who walk around the park, but do not work there.

For all the people who are employed at RiverPark
who get out and walk around the park.
(You know who you are.)

Flowers are listed first according to color. Each section of the book has the color marked at the top right corner. (White isn’t clearly marked because the page background is typically white.) If you want to look up a particular flower, you can quickly locate the appropriate color-coded section.

Within any section, pertaining to a color, plants are listed more or less alphabetically by the common name (rather than the scientific name). However, the alphabetic rule is not strictly applied. Two different species having a similar appearance may be shown on the same page.

Total disclosure:  If anybody buys a copy of this book, $20 goes to Blurb (the printer) and $5 goes to me.  The printing fee charged by Blurb is not negotiable (though they do sometimes offer discount coupons).  I tacked on just $5 for myself because I could not imagine anyone paying more than $25 for a small book that is just 7 inches square and 80 pages.   . . .  Checking Blurb just now, it seems their prices have increased by $3, meaning the book is now $27.95.  

Wildflowers in the White Mountains

Kevin

Purple Trillium, Painted Trillium, and Trout Lilly are just a few of the wildflowers in bloom in the White Mountains of NH this weekend. 

Purple Trillium is tricky to photograph because it has a nodding presentation (the flower faces downward).  In the first photo here, I propped up the one flower with a stick (just a couple inches) so that it was not nodding.   I love the soft background in this image; there is a strong sense of location yet without sharp details. (f\10 @ 1/50 sec)

In the second image (with the sun shining through it), the flower was on a slight rise and I shot up at it as I lay flat out on forest floor.  Sometimes you have to get dirty.
(f\7 @ 1/250 sec)

In both cases here I used a reflector to kick a bit of light up into the face of the flower.  This helps the first image simply because the flower is much darker than the background. In general, this is not true in the second image, but it does help specific areas that are dark (for example the center of the flower).

Click on either image to see a larger view.

 

 

Wildflower Book Project

Kevin

Last year, I shared the beginnings of a project with you,  a book documenting the wilflowers that grow at a local buisiness park.  Since I there is not much opportunity to create new wildflower images between November and March, I had planned to begin the book layout in December.  Now February, I am finally piecing together the book layout.

In the past, I have used book layout software provided by the book printer (Mpix, Blurb, PhotoBook America).  This time, I am using Adobe InDesign.  This being the first project of any significant size for which I have used InDesign, I have found that the learning curve was not particularly difficult.  I quite like InDesign.

Pokeweed

Here are a couple images that I am including in the book.

The first is a relatively common weed, but I find it very interesting because it looks like small green peppers.  I really like this image because it shows two slightly different stages and because the background is very soft, not distracting from the foregound subject.

Common Verbena
 
Click on either image for a larger view.
 
 
 
 
The second image is Common Verbena (which is not particularly common in my experience).  The flowers begin at the bottom of the flower spike and progressively bloom toward the top of the flower spike.  I really like this image because of the somewhat unusual background, which I think is not readily obvious.  There is a pool of water, with trees reflecting in it, and a grassy embankment.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Backyard Bird Photography

Kevin

In 2011,  wildlife photographer Jeff Wendoff told me that I must add wildlife to my photography portfolio.  Got some tips on basic backyard bird photography from Jeff and photographer David Middleton.  The wheels of my progress may move slowly, but they do move.

( Click on any image to see a larger view )

By end of 2011, I had prepared a place to hang bird feeders within clear view of my home windows and I hung my first bird feeder. Within two weeks, the birds began to find the new feeders.  However, having created natural perches for the birds in precise locations where I wanted them to land,  they were not perching here.


A few days ago, I saw the birds begin to perch in the places I had prepared.  When I awoke this morning, there were many birds and they were perching in the right locations.  So I photographed backyard birds for the first time.  It just so happened that snow was falling, which added an extra special touch of beauty.

Sitting next to a window and photographing from the comfort of my home, these birds are perhaps 35-ft away. I found that my telephoto lens did not have quite enough reach.  The birds appear quite small in the original images; so the photos attached here are cropped about 50% from original size.

I used a class of camera known as Micro Four-Thirds (MFT) with a 45-200mm lens at maximum telephoto (200mm).  If I had used my Full-Frame DSLR, I would have needed a 400mm lens to capture the same field of view.  That’s because the image sensor on any MFT camera is 1/2 the size of Full-Frame  (for you Nikonians out there, that means “FX” format).  To get a tighter shot, I will need big glass.

 

Colorado Wildflowers book

Kevin

Here is the new wildflower book (the images are from 2007, but I just created the book this month).   The link below provides a preview of the book.   It is a thin little book with 36 wildflower images.  (Yes, you can purchase copies here via this link.)

This book is PoD (publish on demand) via Blurb.  Specifically, Blurb refers to this 6×9 format as a “trade” book.    The paper thickness is “text” weight rather than the heavier paper typically used for photo books.   Until this year, Blurb offered the trade format only for black&white books, but they now offer color. 

This particular book is 40 pages, meaning 20 double-sided papers.  Why?  Because Blurb pricing is based on 20-page increments.  A book with 22 pages cost the same as 40 pages, but a book with 42 pages would cost a bit more.

 

Different Light

Kevin

In some parts of the world, the weather is known to change quickly and people often say: If you don’t like the weather … wait a few minutes.  With regard to outdoor photography, the same thing can often be said about the quality of the light:  if you don’t like the light … wait a few minutes.

 

Case in point, the attached photos of Purple Fringe.  The first shot was captured in open sun near mid day.  Bright light like this causes not just shadows, but hard-edged shadows (transition from light to shadow is crisp rather than soft).  This is sometimes refered to as hard light.

For the second image, I simply waited for clouds to obscure the sun, resulting in soft light.  This eliminates the harsh shadows, but the image looses overal contrast. 

Keep in mind that light can change quickly and can greatly impact the mood of an image.  The second image here was captured 3 minutes after the first image.

Typically, I prefer soft light or side light.  I prefer the second image.  (Many outdoor photographers will tell you that mid-day hard light is “bad light”.)

However, both images suffer from cluttered background of grasses.  Perhaps I was so enamored with this amazing flower that I did not pay attention to the background.  I don’t recall.  A lower camera angle might have helped eliminate the grasses from the photo, but likely not enough. Perhaps the only recourse here is to walk away from this plant and find a different Purble Fringe with less grass nearby.