Road Trip

A couple of weeks ago I took a solo road trip from northern Minnesota to Oregon.  I had been really looking forward to the trip, until the weather turned nasty.  I left in the rain, which continued much of day one to Dickinsen, ND.   It was quite frustrating, as I drove through some gorgeous country – such as Painted Canyon in Theodore Roosevelt National Park – but could see very little of it due to the pouring rain.  Not only did I not want to get out of the car to take photos, but the ones I did turned out to be mainly gray.

The next day I drove through not only rain, but snow flurries from Billings to Butte.  Later in the day, however, the sky began to clear up.  Unfortunately, by that time I was driving through flatlands again.  However, as the sun began to set, the countryside lit up.  Suddenly this deserted farm came into sight just off the freeway, and I just had to pull over.   I shot these three photos from the shoulder of the freeway, through the passenger side window:

Not being one who can leave well-enough alone, I decided to try out an Orton layering technique on this shot of the barn.  The Orton technique – in very general terms – is where an out of focus copy of an image is layered over the original layer to achieve a painted effect.

I really like it, but most people seem to prefer the original.

The third day of my trip I had nice weather, but not many opportunities to stop and take photos.  Freeways are not typically conducive to photography, however you can’t beat them for speed.  I did stop and take the obligatory photo of Multnomah Falls, and also grabbed this shot of a tunnel leading from the parking lot to the Falls:

I think the reflective nature of the tunnel makes a cool optical illusion.

So, while not my ideal photo excursion, the road trip was not a complete waste. And, of course, I did get home…

Continued adventures in portrait photography

This spring I had the opportunity to take my 2nd son’s senior photos.  It was not something he looked forward to, but considering the number of problems I had (fortunately the other senior photos I took went much more smoothly), he tolerated the process fairly well.

All in all, I believe it took 4 sessions to get an acceptable shot, although from each sitting I came away with shots that I really liked – they just weren’t deemed appropriate for his senior photo.

The first set I took just a block away from our house- it was kind of an experimental outing, where I played with a hand-held off-camera flash.  In this shot, the sun was high camera-right, and my flash was held to the left (if I recall, I was using the Gary Fong “tupperware” diffuser):

For the other sessions, we headed downtown to play in the alleys, which provided some great diffused/bounced lighting.  In most of the shots I had my daughter hold my 430EX flash / diffuser close to the wall to diminish those shadows, and also light Isaiah’s eyes. I discovered early on that he has very deep-set eyes, and with just overhead lighting, they are always in shadows.

This next shot was done with the flash low at camera left (again, if I recall correctly).  We found a doorway with the “no tresspassing” sign, and couldn’t resist.  It actually is my favorite of all the shots (and I think his, as well):

However, I was having problems with the auto focus (I never did figure out why… I thought perhaps it needed adjustment, but since that day it has functioned fine), so the “serious” shots were not acceptable (to me, anyway).

I also came away with the “goose” shot, another of my favorites.  However, it wasn’t chosen as the official grad pick, for obvious reasons.

Finally, we come to “the one.”  Personally, I look at it and can find lost of things I don’t like – including the lighting, which looks a bit odd, I think, due to the low-camera-left position of the flash.  However, his eyes are visible and in focus, and he’s smiling (trust me).  You can see the effects of the off-camera lighting, but there are still some overhead shadows from above (again, this is in another alley).

I still have way too much to learn… I’m in the “consciously incompetent” stage of learning.  It keeps me frustrated, but I can rejoice in my small successes.

Cheap Portrait Lighting

Having no extra cash and playing with photography just for fun, I don’t have a lot to spend on studio lighting.  Fortunately,  you can get some daylight-balanced flourescent bulbs that put out some okay light, and you can make your own reflectors out of shop lights and aluminum foil.   Then, there’s the Gary Fong Lightsphere flash diffuser.

The Lightsphere looks like a tupperware bowl with a concave lid that fits on top of your flash unit. I first learned about it at a local photo shop, and was a bit skeptical. But, after I watched several of the demos that are available on Gary’s site (also on YouTube), I decided to give it a shot. Of all the photo equipment that I’ve purchased, this is nearly the only thing that actually lives up to the hype.  This next photo was merely a test shot- I wanted to test it out so I grabbed my nephew Jesse and said, “stand here for a minute,” taking the photo on Program mode:

I used the diffuser with the lid off, so that I could bounce light off the ceiling.  You can see how the bounced flash lit up the background.  After I played around with it for a while, I decided I wanted to make the black background disappear, so I put the translucent white lid on.  Some light still bounces off the ceiling, however the concave diffuser does its thing:

The diffuser doesn’t replace all lighting setups, of course, and I still plan to experiment with other low cost options.  I also plan to experiment with using the diffuser with an off-camera flash; I have a suspicion that it will do as well or better than a softbox or umbrella.  I’ll let you know.

Winter in Oregon

As I complained in my last post, winter in Oregon tends to be very gray and rainy, and I dislike that very, very much.  But, occasionally our winters are disrupted by real weather: snow.  Usually it comes and goes the same day (I’m in the valley; higher elevations, of course, have snow regularly).  This year, we’ve already had many days of snow – the longest stretch of snow and below freezing weather anyone I talked to can remember.  No one here is prepared for it.  No one knows how to drive in it.  School was called off for an entire week. It was a mess, but it sure was pretty:

This was taken on December 23.  By the way, the coloring was not changed; this is how the shot came out, with the white balance on “auto.”  The next shot was taken 2 days earlier, a short walk from my house and just off the street in the photo above:

This turned out to be one of my favorites of the season, reminding me of an old Currier and Ives Christmas card I had when I was a kid.  Below is one more shot taken the same day. Sometimes I can’t resist playing with the image, and this one has a bit of an “Orton” effect. Michael Orton developed a technique of layering 2 negatives, one in focus and one out of focus, to create a unique result. It’s quite easy to recreate the effect in Photoshop (if it wasn’t easy, I wouldn’t be doing it).

One thing that has been pointed out to me is my tendency to feature roads and paths in my shots, which happens to be the case in these.  It may have some psychological implications, or it may just be that road provide a great focus for the shot.  Either way, I guess I like roads.

Thinking Creatively

I am finding that sometimes creativity in photography starts with finding a subject that interests you; after all, if you don’t really care about your subject, why bother taking the photo at all (assuming you’re doing it for fun, not profit)?  Since I’m not really into still life, product or food photography, that limits my options. And, when the weather simply sucks outside, as it often does in Oregon in the late fall and winter, that kind of takes care of landscape and nature shots. Or, does it?   As I said, sometimes the challenge is in taking what you’ve got and making it interesting.

A few weeks ago I was out in the country, but found that the cloud cover essentially washed out all of the colors and tonal contrasts. I tried some landscape shots anyway, using Photoshop to increase the contrasts. This was one of the results; it’s not my favorite shot of the year, but it turned out kind of okay:

But, one way to deal with the lack of contrast and color is simply to take advantage of it. This works especially well in fog (one of my favorite times to go on a photo excursion).  Here is one such shot, taken at a local lake:

Here is one more shot taken the same morning, of a Great Blue Heron flying off into the void.  The reflection and the mallard in the background provide clues that he is flying over water:

While I love bright colors, sometimes gray can be quite attractive, and the lack of color and contrast can provide some fresh opportunities for some creative photos.

My current favorite photograph

Every once in a while I take a photo that I really, really like, and that I think is one of my outstanding shots. Some I love right away, and others kind of grow on me after I play with it a bit. The photo below is one of these. A week ago I took went for a long hike through one of our local parks. One of the things that I look for are paths and people walking; I am intrigued by photos of people whose faces are not seen. However, these shots are sometimes challenging.

The couple in the photo were walking at a pretty decent pace, so I had to try to compose and adjust settings and focus as I tried to keep up, and get the shot before I lost the cool backlighting. I think it worked, but the shot was just average in color. However, I suspected that it might come out nicely in black and white, so I played with the various color channels to get the best contrast. I usually mean to stick to basic black and white, but for some reason I don’t understand, I am usually compelled to convert it to sepia. I think perhaps I’m addicted…

Happily, the subject matter worked well with sepia. One thing I don’t do is oversaturate sepia shots, as many people do (in my opinion). I often will turn the saturation down to 18% or even lower, so often it’s not obvious that it really is sepia; the color is just enough to warm up the photo.

Still, the shot didn’t stand out to me at first; but, after I looked at it for a couple of days it really grew on me. I am pleased with the lighting/exposure, and the overall composition. What I really like, however, is more a matter of luck than anything else, as it’s the position in which I happened to catch the couple; there’s just something about their posture and the way they are holding hands that reminds me of the Jerry Jeff Walker song, The Dutchman:

The Dutchman still wears wooden shoes
His cap and coat are patched with love
That Margaret sewed in
Sometimes he thinks he’s still in Rotterdam
He watches tugboats down canals
And calls out to them when he thinks he knows the Captain
‘Til Margaret comes to take him home again
Through unforgiving streets that trip him
Though she holds his arm
Sometimes he thinks that he’s alone and calls her name

Let us go to the banks of the ocean
Where the walls rise above the Zuiderzee
Long ago, I used to be a young man
And dear Margaret remembers that for me

I really hope that you like the shot as much as I do, but I think it’s sufficient that I like it…

Shootout at Fishing Rock

A couple of years ago I shot a few photos at Fishing Rock, on the Oregon Coast. It’s a very dramatic location, surrounded by great rock formations, crashing waves and wondeful views of the ocean and coastline.  Sometime later, as I was thinking of locations for some senior portraits I was taking, I started to develop a concept for some photos in a “gothic romance” sort of theme.  What I envisioned was a girl in a long gown, standing on the rocks on a windy day; like something you might see in a Hitchcock film.  Then, last year my neice showed up for our annual Christmas Party in a wine-colored gown, and I knew that was the perfect dress. Oddly enough, I later on came across some shots by Howard Nolan with the same concept, red dress and all, so I knew I was on to something. (Unfortunately, these shots are no longer available on his site.)

A couple of months ago I had a chance to try out my idea, and I’m quite pleased with the results.  My concept was that for the most part these were combination land/seascapes and portraits, where my neice would not necessarily be the focal point of the shot, but simply a part of the scene.

In keeping with this theme of deemphasizing the model, Hannah’s eyes are diverted away from the camera in many of the shots, as in the one above, or in some shots, you can’t see her face at all:

I had a bit of fun with the processing as well:

It was a very fun shoot, but not without its difficulties. I shot most of the shots with camera in one hand and flash in the other, and climbing around rocks with my hands full was challenging (as was trying to keep my balance).  While the wind was a great prop, I didn’t realize that I had left my camera bag open, and wound up with a bag full of red sand. Fortunately, it vacuumed out nicely, and none of my other equipment was damaged.  Next time I’ll remember to close the bag.

I took about 95 shots, and many of them turned out quite nicely.  You can see a slideshow of a few of the other shots here.  If I get a chance to shoot here again, I will try to get a few more traditional portrait and head shots, still trying to keep the same “model as part of the scene” concept. I am encouraged by this bit of success, and hope to try out some more concepts shots in the future; I have some ideas, but I just need models and time.

Of course, I have to give a large part of the credit for these shots to my niece, Hannah, who is a natural model.

Is it just me? (reflections on Flickr)

I got reinterested in photography as a hobby about three years ago, slowly working my way back up from a point & shoot digital to an SLR. One of the things that really helped was getting involved in Flickr, which I believe is the largest photography sharing/community site on the web. Besides being a place to post photos for others to view, there are also online groups you can get involved in where you can get your photos critiqued or simply be inspired by the work of others, which I often was.

Lately, however, I find that I’m not really impressed with much of what I’m seeing on Flickr, and I’m wondering if this is really the case – is the quality of the photos there dropping, or is it just me? I will see photos that have dozens of comments from people raving about how beautiful it is, but in reality its just a snapshot.  The horizon will be off, the sky will be blown out, the composition can be terrible… and no one seems to notice.  It’s a bit depressing.  Maybe it’s just the popularity of Flickr, that’s resulted in the system being deluged with people’s camera-phone and birthday party shots. Or, maybe – just maybe – I’ve developed a more discerning eye. That would be nice (I know that I’m way more critical of my own shots now, which can also be somewhat depressing).

Maybe I just need to find a better source of feedback.

Every step along a path is a decision

Walking with my camera is sometimes an existential adventure; as there are an infinite number of points along any line, there are also an infinite number of photographs you can take. And, from each location therea rea an infinite number of options: do I shoot in front of me, behind me, to the right or the left? Where do I want the horizon? Do I shoot from eye level or drop down for a dog’s eye view? And, once you have a target in mind, you realize that even a step to the right or the left changes the perspective, opening up another vast array of options. Somtimes it’s a wonder I take any photographs at all.

Every photograph is a choice, sometimes deliberate, sometimes (or more often than I care to admit) quite random. There are times – like in life – the choices are overwhelming, and to be deliberate is asking too much.

Whatever the process, when the shutter clicks, the decision has been made. Like a game of Schroedinger’s Cat, the shutter chooses which image will live on, and which will cease to exist – for the camera’s purposes, anyway. Of course, with larger and larger digital cards, taking several hundred shots in the hope of getting one good one is far too easy. But, that, too, is a choice, a “leap of photography.”