photography

Type of photography

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.

 

Park Wildflower Project

Kevin
multiflora rose

Working at an office park, anyone with an inclination towards the outdoors world … simply has to get out of the office and walk.  In this course, I discovered that numerous wildflowers grow around the periphery of the park.  Being both photographer and sometimes amateur naturalist,  I began photographing and cataloging the various flowers. 

That was the humble beginning of what I will refer to as the Park Wildflower Project.  My catalog is more than 60 species …  but I’m not done yet.  I find it necessary to return frequently.  From year to year, the species can vary.  (This year, Common Tansy has invasively taken over the northwest meadow.)  I find flowers that I have not seen before;  and I no longer find some of those that I have seen.

 For identification, I rely primarily upon two books.  For a quick visual reference, I like “Wildflowers in the Field and Forest” by Clemants and Gracie.   But that’s not always enough.   Newcomb’s “Wildflower Guide” is absolutely essential !

 

Equine photography

Kevin

A fun and eye-opening day today photographing horses with Lisa Cueman and David Middleton. 

With a forecast for rain, we headed out to visit the horses early in the day.  (David’s wife, Claire, responded that sometimes in rare momemnts,  David does something smart.)

First, we had the opportunity to photograph the younger horse, Reva, running.  Being cooped up in the barn all morning, Reva welcomed the oppotunity to run around.  Then, after a expending some energy, was more accepting of standing around for some portraiture.

The technique of photographing a moving horse is theoretically similar to photographing a person running or riding a bicyle.  A perfectly sharp image requires a high shutter speed, but this is perhaps not the best idea because the photo fails to communicate motion.  Instead, we were shooting around 1/100 second and then following the horse’s movement by panning the camera.  With a bit of practice and a bit of luck, you can get a sharp image of the horse, but the feet show motion blur.

Simple right?  Well, maybe not.  In reality, an animal’s movements are unpredictable, making unexpected turns, stops, & starts.  So there is a bit of “spray and pray”.   Set the camera to take multiple photos in quick succession, press the shutter button for a few seconds, capturing numerous images, … and pray a few of them look good.   This is necessary particularly because the feet are constantly changing position and the most aesthetic position cannot be predicted.  Don’t think that it is simply dumb luck; it’s not.  As a photographer, you have to pay close attention to everything … but the position of the feet … that is mostly luck.

Then we practiced some of Lisa Cueman’s equine portrait techniques.  My image included here below is clearly inspired by one of Lisa’s images.  This angle of view is a bit counterintuitive, but the aesthetic forms of the horse from different angles like this is really eye-opening.

For a larger view, click on an image.

Lisa’s website is currently undergoing an update, so you may want to check it anew in July.
http://lisacuemanphotography.com/

Special thanks to David Middleton (and Claire Middleton) for providin this opportunity.
http://www.davidmiddletonphoto.com/

Water Lilly

admin

Paddling the river this evening, I had planned on a quick trip; however, I stopped a half dozen times to photograph flowers (aquatic or nearly so). The day was waning and yet another stop may mean I would finish my trip in the dark. But each time I stowed the compact camera safely in my dry bag, I soon found another reason to dig it out of the bag yet again. This continued until the battery expired.

Trillium

admin

Here is a very different type of image from Katahdin / Baxter State Park.
 
 
Both painted trillium and purple trillium are common in the northeast forests and both have a very small window of time during which they bloom, maybe three weeks. Purple trillium are more difficult to photograph because the flowers have a nodding presentation (the flowers droop over and face the ground).
 
 
What always catches my eye is groups of these flowers. Typically they are solitary plants, so a cluster of them is a nice find. For this shot, I used a wide-angle zoom lens with an extension tube. Without the extension tube, focusing distance is perhaps 14 inches. With the extension tube, I can get much closer to the flower, reducing the distance about 50%.
Canon 5D mk II, ISO 400, f/14, 1/6 sec (on a tripod of course)
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Wedding shoot

admin

Having been making photographs for many years, most of my work has relied upon available light. However, in photographing a wedding yesterday, I employed some artificial lighting techniques.

I rented a PocketWizard remote flash setup and also a better flash than what I own, both from LensProToGo. Unfortunately, testing the equipment the evening before the wedding, the PocketWizard transmitter failed. While this is certainly not as bad as discovering a failure an hour before a shoot, it was stressful none the less. Fortunately, I was able to make a long detour on my way to the wedding and pickup a replacement from LensProToGo. The moral of that story is: make sure to get rental equipment in your hands (and test it) a few days in advance of your shoot; if there is any problem, your supplier has time to ship you a replacement

During the actual wedding ceremony, I relied upon available light. After the ceremony, with more time and freedom of place, we staged some photographs with the bride, groom, wedding party and parents. For these staged shots, I primarily chose electronic flash bounced off a reflective panel. A small light source (e.g. flash pointed directly at your subject) can be harsh with specular highlights and hard-edged shadows; the reflective panel creates a larger light source, which creates for a more gentle light, reducing specular highlights and softening shadow edges. Having the flash on a remote stand allowed me to change my camera position without needing to move the reflector.

It was a very lonnng and tiring day. Late at night, reviewing the images on the camera LCD, there were definitey some issues, but I was most concerned with apparent bluriness. However, the images looked much better once I got them onto a desktop computer display.

For information on wedding photography, I recommend the training videos by David Ziser at KelbyTraining.com. KelbyTraining allows anyone to sample the first few video chapters for free; subscribe as a member to see all chapters.