|
Blog
Leica
III
I received my
first Leica today.
I found it at KEH Atlanta, the place
I first sold all my Minolta gear, back in 1990, or 1991, I can't remember.
It was a few years ago.
I bought my first Nikon
back then.
Now, I bought my first Leica.
THE camera.
THE
brand.
The word Leica, is actually a combination
of the first three letters of the founder's last name, LEItz, and the first two letters in the word, CAmera.
LEI-CA.
Leica.
I never knew that. And now, after reading that on-line, I'm a little confused … Camera, in German, is spelled with a
"k", not a "c" … "kamera".
Just wondering ...
Leica it is … Works for me.
The classic 35mm film camera. Made in Germany and first designed by Oskar Barnack.
Mine is a Leica III, which was first introduced in 1933, which just so happens to be the same year my mother was
born, and that Hitler took power in Germany (but I don't mention that to her).
Pre-WWII.
It is the classic, small, rangefinder camera that I have wanted for years.
Known for their small size, QUIET shutter, and EXCELLENT lens quality, Leica is world-famous for their line of 35mm
film (and now, digital) cameras that were first introduced in 1914 in Wetzlar, Germany.
Ernst Leitz took standard, 35mm sized movie film, and built a rugged,
metal body around it, and then added the finest quality glass in their lenses, and changed the camera industry
forever.
QUALITY.
Period.
And a dream of mine for years.
I have mentioned them before … I found two "rip-offs" in Saint Petersburg,
back on my first trip to Russia, in 2002.
And then,
recently, I came across a Canon VT rangefinder camera; also at KEH.
I thought that was the end of my "rangefinder obsession", but then I made my final payment on my Honda Element (my
other obsession), and that got me thinking …
With
that "extra" money just lying around … What are the odds I could find a classic, Leica rangefinder camera, with a lens,
in the same price range as an old car payment?
No
way.
Yes way!
OK, true, the camera was labeled "Inoperative", and the lens was listed as "Ugly", but hey, works
for me.
I haven't shot film for over thirteen years …
And like they say about ugly, it is all in the eyes of the beholder.
As far as I'm concerned, both the camera body, and the lens, should be re-labeled as "PRETTY" Ugly, and is also the
only reason I could afford them.
And, I actually saved
money (well, you know, that is how my brain works, when it comes to my obsessions)!
A Leica III, 35mm film camera, that is as "classic " (a polite way of saying old) as my mother. I think she
will get a kick out of that!
Summer
That's it.
That,
and buy a camera that you can take into the pool.
Pretty
simple, really.
This was taken with the newest version
of the Nikon Coolpix do-it-all camera, the W300.
I have
lost track of how many I've had over the years … This is four, or maybe five.
In fact, it goes back farther than that, if you count all my little, under-water, point-and-shoot cameras.
In fact, I still have the white/red Canon under-water film camera I bought back
when I first started working for the white-water rafting companies out West …
But my first one was back in … 1986 or 1987 …
Again, a Canon … The old yellowish, orange, classic one that I used for years!
And, I can't forget the little, square one I bought after my first rafting trip … Yes, AFTER.
The Pentax W40, I think it was called … I remember thinking it was WD40,
but it wasn't … A little SQUARE digital camera that was … Well, cute.
Early digital … Something like, maybe four megapixels, yes … FOUR (4).
Then, the Nikon Coolpix came out.
The macro
is KILLER.
You know this … I have mentioned this
camera before …
Get one.
Yes, right now. You have the power in your hands as you read this … I
would recommend www.adorama.com
But that is just me ...
I'm done here.
"Made in Occupied Japan"
That is stamped on the bottom of the camera …
It caught my attention: Made in Occupied Japan.
Post-World War Two.
The Konica 1.
I served in Japan
Post-Vietnam, thirty years later.
My first single lens reflex (SLR) camera
was bought in Japan, at the Base Exchange, on Atsugi Air Station.
You guessed it: A Konica. A Konica TC, to be exact. It got me started.
Maybe not one of Japan's "Big Name" camera companies, but still, pretty cool.
I know, I know, today they are known for their copier machines, but, back in the day … Konica 35mm cameras
were the real deal.
I just knew I had to buy this one
…
And, if you let a crazy, camera collector like me, buy
one camera, you …
Well, you know what will happen.
Too easy.
Yes,
I bought one more, an early, American made, Kodak 35 camera, with a built-in 50mm f3.5 lens (it "pops out").
But this is all about Konica.
Occupied Japan.
35mm film cameras.
Old school film cameras.
I mean, even the fact that it uses 35mm film was a big deal back in the day …
Toy Cameras.
Japanese Junk.
Tiny negatives. Well, tiny for the time period …
After all, REAL photographers used larger cameras … The 4x5 inch Speed-Graphics
were all the rage.
THE most famous image coming out of
World War Two was …
What?
Yes, "Raising the Flag", shot on 23 Feb 45, on top of Mount Suribachi, on the
Japanese volcanic island of Iwo Jima.
It was not shot
on 35mm film.
The photographer, Joe Rosenthal, worked
for The Associated Press and was old-school cool … He used a 4x5 inch speed-graphic camera.
No motor-drive. No auto-focus. No meter … Well, you know, no nothing!
Sheet film. One shot at a time.
That is why
there is only ONE image of this, the second flag raising, that took place that day.
Earlier (about 90 minutes), a much smaller flag was raised by some Marines and photographed by Staff Sergeant Louis
Lowery, USMC.
Too small.
"The Brass" wanted a bigger flag.
It took awhile,
but a larger flag was found and brought up …
Now,
remember, this was taking place during one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific Theater.
After the first flag was up and flying, everyone stopped, and looked up at The
American Flag.
Shouts and cheers went up …
The Japanese were not amused …
They fired on the group of men playing King of the Mountain: War stops for no flag.
Staff Sergeant Lowery dove for cover … His camera was smashed! He was done shooting until he makes
his way down the mountain …
Meanwhile, up walked the men
with the larger flag … Six men. One flag.
The first flag was taken down
…
The second flag raising went up fast …
Five Marines, and one Navy Corpsman, raised it up in one quick motion.
One, non-stop, motion.
BAM!
One image.
True,
the image of the "first flag raising" was later published in LEATHERNECK magazine (the official Marine Corps publication,
that is still around today) but the "famous" image went on to become, well, you know, rather famous.
Newspapers. Magazines. A stamp. Monuments. Movies.
I even have a photo of me, and my late-sister, Jane, taken at the base of one the statues, the one on Parris
Island, SC, after I graduated from Marine Corps Boot Camp, in July 1976.
I have been to the "real" statue many times over the years … The Marine Corps Memorial, in Washington, DC.
All of them are modeled after the picture, "Raising the Flag" by Joe Rosenthal.
Three of the Marines that raised that second, "famous", flag would not survive
Iwo Jima.
The battle went on for another month …
It was brutal.
The war itself, continued for another
seven months, on The Road to Tokyo. For all practical purposes, the war was over, but the Japanese fought on …
Unreal.
After the War, The United States "occupied" Japan
for seven years under the command of General Douglas MacArthur (The Last Shogun), until Japan was able to resume control of
their country, their military, and their economy, that was all reduced to rumble by the summer of 1945 ...
They made a lot of 35mm cameras.
Konica was one of them.
The Konica 1.
Pretty cool.
Funny,
it looks a wee bit like another famous camera from that time period …
The 35mm German Leica.
Funny how that works
out. Germany was an ally of Japan. Just saying …
I
know The Soviet Union "acquired" the German factories and machines during the war, and went on to make "rip-off" Leica
cameras called FED (I own two of them), but was not as clear as to where the Japanese came about making their versions of
the smaller, lighter, rangefinder cameras …
I'll
have to "Google It".
For now, I'm just happy to have
another 35mm rangefinder camera of my own.
The Konica
1.
#31406
Sweet.
From my first Konica 35mm SLR, to my
newest Konica 35mm rangefinder.
Full circle.
And Now, The Rest of the Story
OK, I could not control myself …
This is my "new" Kodak 35, which was first introduced to the world in 1938.
Yes, I used my fancy i-phone thingy that allows you to just ask a question … Like … Magic.
See, Kodak had a factory in Germany (Kodak AG), and they were worried
that imports could be "disrupted by the war", so they began to manufacture them in Rochester, NY, their company headquarters.
It was the first Kodak 35mm camera built in America.
My camera is the true rangefinder version, that came out some two years later … Right before the USA entered
the war.
Pretty cool.
Now I know why I collect cameras.
All Greek to Me
First and foremost, this is an image of light. Period.
No … No, I'm sorry … It is an image of COLOR!
The color of LIGHT.
Or better yet, the colors
of light.
So, yes, I guess it is an image of light.
Perfect.
That was easy.
See, non-photographers (first
semester college students for example) would say, no … This is a lighthouse.
But … No, the Bodie Island lighthouse is still on Bodie Island, out there on the OBX. Plus, it is way to big
for me to download onto my website …
Photography
is LIGHT. Period.
The word, photography, is a Greek word
that actually translates to, something along the lines of (my Greek is a little rusty) … Drawing with Light, or Sketching
with Light.
See, it has been over FIFTY years since I
actually lived in Greece, so you must forgive me … Come on! I was just a goofy kid … I didn't even own a camera.
But, however you translate it, it comes down to ... LIGHT.
Period.
And
light has colors.
BAM!
The Colors of Light.
Look at this light! Scroll
back up and check it out … Go ahead.
FORGET the
actual lighthouse, I mean, come on, it just happens to be planted right in the middle of all this GREAT light!
Light.
Color.
I mean … COLORS!
One color blending into another, which forms yet another color - A blend of colors.
Oh, I like that …
A Blend of Colors.
OMG!
If
my clever, ALL GREEK to ME title wasn't so, well, you know, clever, I would go back and change it right now!
But you get the point, right?
One color blends into another, into another … On and on.
The magic of light. Of being "In the Moment" of when light transitions from one shade, or hue, to another …
Cool light to warm light.
Or, warm light to cool light.
That early morning, or late evening, transitioning of light from being on the
cool side (blacks, purples, violets, blues) to the warmer side (the yellows, oranges, reds).
That is what photography is all about.
Color(s).
And lets not overlook, being there to experience it all, in the first place.
What I used to refer to, in my college classes, as "Getting Out There"!
That, is actually what photography means to me. I just don't know what the Greek translation would actually be for
that ...
Oh, wait … Yes I do!
It would be …
Wait for it …
"PHOTOGRAPHY".
Plain and simple.
Maybe my Greek is just as good as it was all those years ago.
No, really … It is "just as good".
As good as it will EVER be.
Rule #3
Shoot Lots of Images
Produce Plenty of Pixels
Take Lots of Pictures
You get the point … Shoot, shoot, shoot, and shoot some more!
It is an official rule. I know, I made it up.
Well,
that said, I didn't really make it up ...
I stole it.
From who? I have no earthly idea.
When I first started teaching photography, I just knew I needed some rules.
Sounded like a good one to me.
Maybe I stole
it from NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC …
I hope so.
That would be cool.
I know they shoot LOTS, and LOTS, and LOTS of images for the magazine.
Then again, maybe I stole it from newspaper photographers …
No …
They probably stole it from LIFE magazine photographers …
I don't know. I stole it from someone, and let's just leave it at that.
But I know it was NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC …
But, once again, I digress.
So, anywho …
I practice what I preach.
Really.
In fact, I just went through the
images I took yesterday at my nephew's Pool Party … Which, by the way, was the most activity I've encountered, like
… All year!
Whew!
When
I got home, I downloaded the images …
Guess how many?
No, really … I'll wait ...
Oh, OK … 436.
Sorry, I knew you would NEVER guess.
Now, to be fair, I did
let my nephew's son take some pictures, but come on, he doesn't know my college rules, and I for one, was not going to mention
them!
But I did have my little, yellow, Nikon W300 set
up on Continuous Mode … It takes five or six shots in a row every time you push the button ...
And really, even if he shot 100 (he didn't), which would actually have be pretty
cool if he did, that still means I shot over 300 myself!
We
both did GREAT! Lots, and lots, of images ...
Which, somehow, brings us
back to these four images ...
The Manteo Lighthouse.
The "Forgotten Lighthouse of the OBX".
Yes, I made that one up myself … Like, right now.
See, with my college classes, back in the day, we wanted to "get out to the Outer Banks as fast as possible" …
And once they made that "new loop" thing, and cut out driving through Manteo, yeah, we sort of just drove right around
it every time …
Yes, we tried to go "in-land" once in a while, but … You know, that whole, "The best laid plans of mice
and men" thing …
But, now that I am retired, I
just so happen to have family that live on the Outer Banks, and, this is unreal ...
They just bought a house in ...
Wait for it …
Manteo, NC
OK, not the outer, Outer Banks, but, The Outer Banks, just the same.
What? The Inner/Outer Banks? I don't know ...
Close enough for me!
That said, I stopped
in to see their new place -- Hold everything!
You know, now that FIXER UPPER is all wrapped up, I should get in touch with HGTV, and see about getting them
to come out to the OBX …
See, that is what my sister-in-law
and her husband (well, more HIM than her), do … They fix-up houses and sell 'em!
Oh, wow … But, once again, I digress (you should have taken my college class! That was all I did in class …
Year after year, class after class. One story lead to another, etc … Crazy!).
Anyway …
I must admit, I wasn't really
much help this trip … Five months on a couch with a "Fixer Upper" neck can do that to you. That was the bad news
…
The good news? They live right in Maneto …
Which - FINALLY - brings up to the images -- Always the images!
Four new images of the "Forgotten Lighthouse".
Sunset.
Twilight.
"The Blue Hour" (Yeah, I probably stole that one too).
Whatever you want to call it, it is the time to be in front of a lighthouse, trust me …
Pre-Sunrise, or, Post-Sunset.
And yes, just like the Color-Wheel thing you learned about in Elementary School (or was it Middle School?),
the mixing of the "cool" and "warm" colored light is, ahh ...
Well, for a lack of a better word:
SWEET.
The blue light of twilight, with the warm light from the lighthouse, well, it is all just ...
Perfect.
So,
to follow my rules, you better work fast …
No,
faster!
It is unreal how fast the ambient light drops
…
That fast.
Faster.
Shoot, shoot, shoot …
Which brings us to the most important aspect of Rule #3:
It DOES NOT
mean to just shoot, shoot, shoot … Oh no.
It actually means, shoot, adjust.
Shoot, adjust. Shoot, adjust …
But that would have made for a L-O-N-G
rule, so, you know, I just shortened it a wee bit ...
Which, is a segway
to my time as a Special Education teacher …
That is what I did. I took concepts, rules, information, anything … And made one-liners out of it. Math. Social
Studies. Science. Language Arts. You name it.
Shorten
it. Get to the facts. Break it down. Make it easier to understand.
That is what I did … I still do.
And yes,
it moved into my college classes … My whole mind-set on education. It is who I am.
Middle school. College. Photography. Whatever.
Keep
it Simple.
Well, except for this whole twilight thing
we were talking about …
Quick, lets get back to
The Blue Hour (or less) ...
OK, quick,
shoot, then adjust the compensation (+/-).
Adjust the
White Balance.
Adjust your POV (Point of View).
In other words … Shoot, change something, and shoot again. Then move,
and start all over again. "Be quick, but don't
hurry".
Another of my famous quote steals: UCLA basketball
coach (legend), John Wooden.
Basketball, photography
… It works for me. And it will work for you too!
Shoot,
shoot, shoot … With a purpose!
Just like in the
big game, time is running out … Fast!
Oh, and there
is no calling "time out" in this game!
Nope.
Shoot, shoot, shoot … And adjust.
Something! Anything!
Here are four different
views of the same lighthouse. All shot on the same "night", within a half-hour of each other. Or, was it twenty
minutes …
Time flies!
Get it. Move. Shoot. Adjust.
FAST!
Gotta love the name: THE BLUE HOUR! Yeah, it isn't an hour … That is for
sure. But, like I said, you gotta love it!
The Blue Hour,
and the Manteo Lighthouse.
It will no longer be "The
Forgotten Lighthouse of the OBX".
I promise.
My World
I found this map over in Valdese! You know, Exit 113 …
VALDESE!!!
Found
it in the Thrift Shop. I believe I paid $5, maybe $10. A steal for any price.
I started throwing pins in maps while I was at GFMS … So the kids could see the places I have lived
and travelled to.
Well, no … Let me back up.
I FIRST got a hold of an old map of the United States my very first
year of teaching at South Caldwell High School.
I got
a job as a Special Education teacher … My degree was in Social Studies.
I was clueless as to what a Special Education teacher actually taught.
I taught what I knew.
Worked for me.
Worked for the kids.
Maps.
Social Studies.
The World.
Think
about it … It covers EVERYTHING.
Right?
In fact, with this first map, we turned it over, and drew our own map of the
world …
It helped them get a better understanding
of what was where in this world …
Very important,
I think.
So maps are a big deal for me …
And for my students over the next twenty-five years.
Didn't matter what class I taught, maps came into play somewhere, and sometime.
I love maps.
Anyway
…
I had the map of The United States with stars
on it (I never took it down!), a map of The World, with pins in it, and another globe with pins in it with a piece of string
connecting the dots …
That was for my "Trip Around
the World in 64 Days" the summer I turned fifty!
I love
globes.
I have the one with all the pins in it upstairs,
and the one with the string, along with two other ones, on top of my refrigerator in the kitchen.
No, really.
I love globes and maps … I
could never throw one out. The school would throw them out, I would rescue them …
Come on, its THE WORLD!
So, when I retired,
I found this map of the world, and knew I would do something with it …
It is in the living room, sitting on top of my speakers …
Again, really … The focal point of my living room stereo, camera collection little table thing …
Remember, I don't hang pictures, or maps, or anything, on the walls.
True, the bathroom has a painting of Prague hanging on the wall, but the nail
was already there, so, why not?
I've only lived here
for over fourteen years … What do you want?
Maps.
I like 'em.
The
other day, my brother-in-law mentioned the fact that he would like an image of my map so he could talk about it with
his church group …
Cool.
Except I didn't have a picture of it.
I have the real McCoy, sitting right here in my living room.
But I thought it was a cool idea, so this morning, I got up, set up my tripod, selected my 40mm macro lens, mounted
it on a Nikon D7000, set the aperture to f16, and set the self-timer to two seconds, and thought the ISO was set at 200,
but, after the fact, I found out it was actually set at 400 (no worries) … It turned out good, so I'll take full
credit on that brilliant move!
I then took the map out the front
door, where the light gets bounced around pretty good under the small poarch, set it on top of a little fold-out table
thingy, and lined things up in the viewfinder, and …
One-one-thousand,
two-one-thousand …
Took a few images.
Played around with the White Balance. My "normal" Cloudy was a touch warm … I tried Daylight, and even set
in on Auto, you know, just because I could.
Daylight was good. So was Auto.
No worries. I shot both … A few of each.
Lining up the shot was actually
the hardest part …
I wanted the map flat, and parallel to the sensor.
I also wanted as much of the map as possible, but not too much. I didn't
want to see the borders, the door frame, bricks, etc …
The 40mm worked
good. I "Filled the Frame".
f16 made sure everything was in focus.
The tripod kept it steady with the long exposure (thanks to my genius 400 ISO setting). To tell you the truth, I didn't
even notice what the speed was … But I remember hearing a L-O-N-G click, click ...
The tripod was a good thing. But of course I knew that … Just like you know that.
I had fun, it didn't take long, and now I have an image of "My World".
A work in-progress.
And, if you can see them,
or not, the yellow pin is where I was born, the blue one in where I live now, and the white pins are all the other places
I have lived in my life …
And …
All the red pins are places I have visited over the years.
I
missed putting in red pins for Machu Picchu, Cusco, and Lake Titicaca in Peru this Spring, and I missed adding a few
more for Kenya and Tanzania this Summer, but …
No
worries …
The time will come.
First my knee, then the pins …
And no, no pins in my knee. That is what the map is for.
I have lots more of those little red pins …
And
lots of places I can stick 'em. Just look at all the room on that map!
Lots and lots of places …
It is There, I Just Didn't "See" It
As a kid I can remember a magazine that showed two of "the same" images, and you had to find out what was different
from one image to the other …
What magazine was
that? Darn, can't think of it … Boy's Life?
Some
kid's magazine …
Anyway, that is what I thought
of when I saw this image up on my computer screen as a Screen Saver.
I HAD to go in and fix it.
You know ... PHOTOSHOP.
That thing I love to hate.
Again, for you new people out there, I don't like Photoshop. In fact, I don't even use Photoshop, now that I don't
teach at the college any more. That is the only place I ever used it.
Really. Just ask any of my former students … I was clueless. I had to ask them how to do this, or that ...
See, I used Photoshop Elements. Like, from day one. Even before I owned
a Honda Element …
Really.
See, it was FREE. It came with my first digital camera … A small, point-n-shoot,
Canon, something, camera (Like, A60, or something??).
Can't
remember (No, I believe I am right this time!), but that is not the point …
I never liked the "BIG", real, official, Photoshop, that the Big Boys used.
Too much! I never bought it.
Never have, never
will.
Well, no … That was all the college had,
once they went digital full-time (what? 2005?).
I hated
it. Photoshop and photoshop Elements were close … But that is what drove me nuts … I kinda, sorta, knew what I
was doing, but … No.
I HATED it.
See, here I go again …
True, I HATE it, but I use it on EVERY image you see on my website …
THOUSANDS.
I use the "baby version": Photoshop
Elements.
Website and/or e-mails. I use it on every image
I post, or "Send".
It is all part of the "package" of
digital photography.
I like to take pictures. Period.
Even with film (The Good 'Ol Days), I was never the "Darkroom Enthusiast". I
never owned a darkroom, never wanted to own a darkroom, never will own a darkroom.
That said, I worked for several military newspapers over the years. I had a Spec-4 in the Army teach me how
to print.
Years later, I even did my Master's Thesis
using black and white Tri-X film … And did all the printing myself.
At Columbia College in Chicago.
HOURS in the
darkroom … Hours and hours.
And at Corry Station,
FL. Great Lakes Naval Station, IL. And Fort Gordon, GA. Fort Benning, GA.
Heck, my first job as a photographer was for The Department of the Army, in Bremerhaven, Germany, printing
black and white images, everyday, for two years … Well, you know, not EVERY day … But it seemed like it.
I didn't NEED a Black and White darkroom, I used the government's. I learned
to mix chemicals. I learned how to print lots of images … FAST!
Later, I taught a B/W printing class at Caldwell Community College (and TI) for, well, you know, something like
tens years, before no one shot film any more.
I used
their darkroo … No, let me re-phase that.
We used
the Girl's Bathroom, out in the hall, to load our film on the reels, and then we used the college's darkroom.
Really … Talk about the Good 'ol Days!
But I'm not going
to tell …
But, then again, I digress …
Where was I?
Oh,
yeah … I'm not a big "post production" type of guy.
That's
why I changed the Saturday College Class to shooting color slides …
No darkroom! No printing on the weekends!
Two
classes, two very different concepts in shooting. I loved it.
But if truth is to be told …
I like to
shoot 'em, and show 'em. That fast, that easy. OK, lets forget the whole "week to ten days" thing for slides ...
OK, not THAT easy, but I hope you get my point …
In Photoshop Elements, I re-size them for use on the computer (Change the height
to 15 inches, and the resolution from 300dpi to 72 dpi to save space, and down-load faster) and …
SHARPEN. CROP (if needed)
And, "Clean 'em Up" when needed (you know, CLONE out this or that).
That's about it.
Quick.
In and out. Simple.
Sometimes too quick.
I'll admit
it.
Like with this Osprey/Fish image.
I LIKED it, so … BAM! Got it. Posted it.
That quick, that easy.
Then I saw it BIGGER
… Oops!
I fixed it.
That quick (I mean REAL quick), that easy.
I
mean, really … How did I miss that?
Sometimes I
wonder …
Take a look at the image below …
You see it, right?
You see what I missed, right?
Glad I fixed it.
I can sleep better tonight.
Whew …
Gone Fishin'
This is why I go to Pulaski, New York, and sit next to a hay field, and stare at telephone lines all day long …
THE Osprey nest.
It is located just outside Pulaski (where I grew up), along Route 13, just outside town. The power company took the
nest off the actual power-lines years ago, and put in another pole along side the original power lines. The
new nest is much higher than it was before, out of the way of any lines.
The osprey have now been in their new location for years … Perfect.
I sit there and watch …
This year was
different.
THREE CHICKS.
Let me say that again … THREE CHICKS.
That
is a BIG DEAL. Over the past ten years, or so, they have always had just one.
Always.
Like clock-work.
One chick. Always.
I freaked. I couldn't believe it.
I went every
day … Well, you know, every day I was in Richland visiting my sister and her husband. I also went up to my uncle's camp
for a week … And then stopped in to visit my high school football coach (and math teacher) in Livonia, NY on my
way home … I lived with him, and his wife (my English teacher), my Senior Year when my mother moved to Arizona.
Yeah, really. But that was then ...
Now,
Pulaski/Richland, New York, is all about The Osprey nest.
And the
Osprey.
And the clouds … And the light. The time of day. Direction of
the wind. And how five Osprey manage to live in a big nest, high above the power-lines.
I did notice how it is harder for them to land in the nest with so many chicks flapping
around …
Crazy.
It has to be a HUGE nest. Period.
The platform
looks like about a four foot square … The nest looks to be about five feet in diameter.
Maybe.
I have no freakin' idea, really, but
that is my guess, if I were to make a guess.
The birds
would come in, line up for a landing, and then have to rotate around to make their landing in a different location.
Crazy!
For
years, they have ALWAYS (mostly) landed from my left, or my right … This year I missed many of them because they were
coming from THE BACK of the nest.
Straight at me.
Poop!
I
couldn't see them land, due to the height of the nest … Like I said, it is huge!
But, when the clouds were swept away … And the blue sky, and evening light was just right, and the birds
would come in from the right or left (sometimes)… All is right with the world.
Clouds and Osprey are tough … White heads and white clouds make it difficult to get a great image.
The whites get lost within all the other whites. I wait for the clouds to move on ...
The Salmon River is to the East of the nest. That is their food supply. They fly in from the East. The sun sets in
the West … In the evening, it is perfect.
Like they
had it all planned out:
Osprey Lighting 101.
The evening sun to my back … They fly right into it.
Perfect.
Unless
it isn't.
Like I said … Clouds. Rain. More clouds.
Clouds in the East (background), or clouds in the West (light diffusers).
Either way, I lose.
Except that I really don't.
I mean, come on … Osprey. Birds. Wildlife. How
can I lose?
And the best part?
I shot hundreds (thousands) of images hand-held.
Yeah, really.
No
tripod.
This was my first real shooting since my neck
surgery in April. Yeah, my birthday. It was all part of my un-official Physical Therapy regiment that tested how well my neck/arm
really worked.
You know, in a real photography situation
… The REAL thing.
My surgeon done good.
No worries. No problems.
I hand-held that large, heavy, Nikkor 200-500mm
"wang-zoomer" like it was nothing.
Thank Goodness for VR (Vibration-Reduction).
Period.
And good surgeons.
And
Osprey.
And Richland/Pulaski, New York.
And the Salmon River.
And, did I mention the
trout? The fish?
Osprey are fish-eaters. Period.
Better than perfect.
I missed fly-fishing in
the Spring, I made up for that with this trip up North.
I
did my "fishing" …
Now, I have knee surgery to look forward to next
week.
No problem.
I bet I can
still hold that camera/lens set-up, crutches and all ...
No
worries!
I look forward to it.
African Lines
Yes, I should be in Africa right now.
I'm not.
My plane left yesterday without me. First it was Peru, now Kenya and Tanzania.
Retirement! Not quite going as planned.
But hey, the good news is, I go to the neck doctor Friday, and I just know I
WILL be released, so that I can drive to New York, and get out of this (lovely) apartment, which I've been in for the past
five months … And counting.
The bad news?
Yes, there is ALWAYS bad news …
I am in the process of setting up an appointment with the knee doctor (I think I could of made the appointment
that very second), to have surgery when I get back from my "summer vacation".
Yeah … Had an MRI done a week ago …
Torn
this, messed-up that, clean-up this … On and on.
He
will "clean me up" when I get back.
I told him I NEEDED
two weeks … Not so much for knee, but for my own sanity.
I'm going nuts.
Heck, I've had problems with
the knee for years … It first swelled up when I was running with the kids during track and cross-country, back
when I was fifty.
The Ian Dudley Trail.
A GREAT trail near GFMS, out in the woods, down near The Tater Hole. Yeah,
that trail, those woods …
That hill(s).
I ran every year with the kids …
Until I couldn't.
Then I retired.
In fact, I was able to retire a year early, because I (almost) NEVER took any
sick days at school, you know, to fix my neck, my knees, etc ...
And, to be totally honest, if I didn't have cats (we had four) my first ten years of teaching, I would
have NEVER missed any days (I am allergic to cats!!!!!).
My last fourteen years without cats, I didn't miss a day!
But I digress …
So, I'm taking off in
a few days, driving to the OBX for a day or two, then up to New York, where I will first visit my high school football coach
(and Math teacher) and his wife (my English teacher), who I lived with my Senior Year.
Yeah, my mother moved away, I didn't.
And yes,
you are right … They are the reason I became a teacher years later.
Then off to Richland, NY to visit "My Osprey" (Oh, and my sister, of course), and finally up to the woods above
Mannsville, NY, where my Uncle has his "Camp" (he bought out five other camps, to make is own little, sixteen acres of Camp
Heaven, in the middle of a huge State Forest).
Peaceful.
I just hope he doesn't work me to death … He's 87. But trust me, put a
weed-eater in his hands, and you can forget about it!
No
worries, I've been doing my neck stretches, I'm ready …
For sitting around in his "workshop cabin" and telling stories all day … Maybe picking up a few branches that
fell down over the winter once in a while …
That,
I can handle!
So, no giraffes at the moment … But
I'll have my 200-500mm lens ready for NEXT YEAR.
And
by then, I should be able to walk good enough to check on adding Mountain Gorillas to the venue, you know, while I'm in the
area.
This year it was out of the question … As was hiking The Inca Trail
on my birthday (I was going to have to take the train) … That was always the plan.
Time will tell.
And my knee.
And my neck.
And whatever comes up next … And there will be something.
And, if worse comes to worst , I bet I could still make my way back to
The Asheboro Zoo, and see "my" giraffes, one more time!
Perfect.
I like their shapes, patterns, and lines …
Speaking of which …
Zen Lines
"The role of the artist is to simplify".
Yeah,
I have no clue where I picked up this little tidbit of knowledge … Some Zen Master, much smarter than I am,
that is for sure.
I read it somewhere, and it has stuck
with me over the years, and no, I don't even pretend to take credit for it. Anyone who has listened to me talk,
or reads this BLOG, knows better.
I love it.
I taught photography at the college for over twenty years using this simple
idea as my guideline, my inspiration … My course outline (if I ever really had one).
Keep it Simple.
This is the one image I think
of that best illustrates that concept …
Simple.
I was sitting here doing my PT on my neck, and this image is sitting over near
the couch. I just stared at it while I counted off my twenty second stretch per arm …
Zen exercises … Twenty seconds of Zen at a time. Over and over ...
Very nice. Glad I faced away from the desk this one time … That one image sitting up against the wall
got me thinking.
Now, remember, I only have one image
hanging on a wall in my apartment, and that is upstairs in the bathroom (the nail was there when I moved in)… It
is a painting of Prague, that I picked up there years ago, on my first visit … It is my favorite European
city … Well, you know, after Berlin … Oh, and Budapest … No, Florence …
Alright … For the sake of argument, I'll stick with Prague. Yes, Prague (the painting proves it, I guess).
An image of the city that I bought in the city square, so that I could
find the same viewpoint, and get an image for myself. I asked around, looked around, and figured out just where
I had to be, in the late afternoon light, to get "my image".
That
simple.
But not THIS image … No.
No, this is in my "other favorite, special place" much closer to home.
The OBX.
The Outer Banks of North Carolina.
I first drove
down here in 1974. I lived in Pulaski, NY, and drove my motorcycle down to visit my mother, sister, and brother who had
moved to Clewiston, FL.
My first trip to North
Carolina. Little did I know it would later become my home … First, for my last six months in the Marine Corps at
Camp Lejeune(1978/1979), and finally in 1993, when I moved down here for good to be near The Blue Ridge Parkway, and away
from all the snow ...
Oh, and to teach. Yeah, to
teach, that's right … Not just motorcycles!
I love
the Foothills, but have always been drawn to the OBX. It started with shooting for OUR STATE magazine … They published
an article every year on the area, and I was happy to make the drive over there for many years.
Then it was the photography workshops that I held for my college classes. I loved it. We would rent a house, and
spend a week running up and down the sand dunes, looking for images. Year after year.
Nothing like spending a week in a house with twenty other photographers,
doing what photographers do … Night and day.
Perfect.
Then, as if it couldn't get any better, my sister-in-law moved out there just
when The Weekend College fizzled out, and ended the week long college getaways …
No worries. Perfect timing.
I still make my
way out there at least once a year … And Bodie Island Lighthouse is ALWAYS top on my list. By default, it is the closest
lighthouse from my doorstep, so I ALWAYS end up there first.
Needless
to say, I have photographed it many, many times over the years.
Period.
Inside, outside, morning, noon, and
night. In the rain, the fog, even back when the pine trees were still out front. And my favorite times … When the field
out front was flooded, and the reflections were amazing (only twice).
How could I make a "new" image of something I have photographed for over twenty years?
Simple.
No, that is how I actually did it.
I made it simple.
I zoomed in, and broke it down to the very basic elements ... A curved line formed by the black
and white bricks.
Then, just because I could, I
tilted the camera a wee bit to line up the image in my viewfinder from corner to corner.
BAM.
And
that whole ying/yang thing going on with the curve and the above mentioned corners …
Simple.
That, and the fact I found a square
mat to frame it with … It was like a stroke of genius that I never planned, or even thought of.
It came that way straight from the shelves of Wal-Mart. Say what?
Yeah, like, ALL my mats and frames have ALWAYS been rectangular
…
Always.
Again, Keep it Simple.
And yes, most of my
images that I actually do mat and frame (not many) are almost ALWAYS in BLACK frames, with WHITE mats.
Almost always.
Some
shade of white anyways … I couldn't believe how many shades of white there are … Fifty, perhaps?
Simple.
This
one is different only because of its shape … SQUARE.
I
like it.
Now true … The original image is
NOT square. My Nikons use a rectangular format like most other DX or FX digital cameras … Like the old 35mm film cameras,
back in the day, only different (DX are smaller).
No,
the original image, was of course, a rectangle. The frame, and mat, were square, thus, making the final image, a
square.
Different.
Works for me.
Clean. Simple. Black and white
image in a black and white square frame.
Perfect.
Glad I just happened to be staring at it while working on my neck …
Zen for the neck. Zen for the mind. Got me thinking ...
That is how I work.
I just had to finish up the whole Zen for the Neck thing first ...
Square Zen.
I like it.
Simple.
Just
how I saw it that day out on the OBX. That one time, like out of a couple hundred different times before it.
It hit me like a pile of bricks …
Sorry, that just came to me (It is getting late).
But again, works for me.
If at first you don't
succeed … Go back, and see it in a different way.
A
new way. Over and over again ...
Not always so simple.
And now what?
I
am headed that way in a couple of weeks … How do I make it more simple than this?
That is what I love about photography, about art. The simple answer is that I have no freakin' idea …
And I'm happy with that.
This way, even I'll be surprised when I go, and come back, with a completely new image.
A "better" image …
Until the next time after
that, of course …
Like the lighthouse itself …
One image builds on top of the next one, just like all those bricks you see in the photograph.
I look forward to my next "just another brick in the wall".
Foreboding Skies
Nothing says Summer, like big, dark, rain clouds forming up every evening (or so it seems).
Heat. Moisture.
Storm clouds. It just feels like it is going to rain. Period.
And it usually does.
Somewhere.
Yesterday was one of those days …
Hot. Muggy.
I was bored out of my mind once
again, after going for my walk, taking my mother out for lunch (that was yesterday, right?), and having dinner … And
yes, watching enough NCIS and Fixer Upper shows to drive a person batty …
I
went for a drive … I had to pick up a few things, and I just, well, you know … I went somewhere!
Ended up at the new Wal-Mart mini store in Hudson. OK, I didn't go for a ride to actually go anywhere …
Came out of Wal-Mart and … Wow.
There were some clouds smashing
together forming into one very large storm cloud … Yes, the contrast caught my eye … Light and dark. Some color
…
Building … Taller and taller … Darker and darker …
Yes, I had a camera with me.
Yes, I got it out of the glove compartment,
set it up … Minus One, before even getting out the door, and walking around the parking lot looking for the right spot.
I found it.
In the parking lot.
Easy.
Shot six, eight, ten something shots … Adjust. Shoot.
Adjust. Minus. Minus. Not so much, Plus, plus …
Work
it.
Got it.
Hudson, NC storm clouds.
Then, off to Hudson
Middle School. Yes, the Home of the Hudson Hornets. My big rival at GFMS for all those years, now my favorite place when shooting
the sky …
Open space!
I have photographed the moon there several times. And storm clouds.
Perfect.
And, who did I run into once I got
in a shot or two? Another former GFMS teacher (and HMS teacher as well), Rozzy Smith. A local artist, he was there for the
same reason I was … The clouds.
OK, he had his
dog with him as well, but you know … After going for a walk, he noticed the same thing I did … The dark, foreboding
skies …
Did I ever tell you the story about dark
foreboding skies? No? Well, since we are talking about (sort of) middle school, I have to tell you how one of my former students
could recite this poem about … You guessed it ...
Foreboding Skies.
Every Halloween, I had her
come up on The Morning News (you know, when we actually had a Morning TV show … Back in the Good 'Ol Days, when middle
school was fun!).
Anyway … She was something.
On and on she would go … Word for word. No notes, nothing … A LONG poem, I loved it.
So … Foreboding Skies.
This one is for her … Wow, that must of been fourteen, fifteen years ago. She must be around thirty by now
… Oh Lord, help me!
Glad I went out for "a ride"
to nowhere really … What? Three miles?
But, it
was the RIGHT place to go on a summer evening …
Perfect.
Canon VT
No, it's not from Vermont.
No, I did not drive
to Vermont to buy it, although I do remember buying an old camera in Stowe, VT, a few years back, when I took my mother
back to the town she grew up in during the war … Ahh, THE WAR (WWII). She was eleven at the end of the war. Her oldest
brother served in the Navy … Iwo Jima.
But I digress
…
I bought a Canon VT with a 135mm lens. It
is old, but not as old as me ... It came out in 1956, one year after I arrived.
A classic. A classic rangefinder camera modeled after the, much more famous (and expensive), Leica rangefinders, from
Germany.
Think Post-Korean War.
The whole, "I Like Ike" thing ... Elvis. Fast Food. Drive-In Theaters.
Davy Crockett.
That 1956.
The Canon VT.
I never heard of it.
But, it is a rare rangefinder 35mm film camera in, well, pretty GREAT shape.
And the lens … Crazy classic. 135mm f4. Sweet.
And
another cool thing … No rewind lever on top. No, there is this lever thing on the bottom of the camera, that you pull
down, and slide forward a couple of times ...
Love
it!
And yes, you are half right … I found the camera
at Adorama, in the CLEARANCE SECTION, in the USED department, you know, the place I look for all the good stuff.
The lens, I found at KEH Camera in Atlanta … The USED SECTION as well.
Duh?
Over sixty years old …
It sure does look great though … I cleaned it right up … Cleaning
wipes and Armor-All. Perfect.
It fits right in with my
whole Camera Chic Décor, that is taking over my apartment … Crazy Chic.
Hey! But I did find out what I'm going to do with all these cameras one of these days … There is a Camera Museum
in Stauton, VA, that takes collections … Sounds good.
I stopped there once, on the way home from up-north, but it was closed.
I was just checking yesterday to make sure I remember which town it is in, as I plan on stopping there on the way
up north next month (like, two weeks!) …
I just
hope they don't sell any cameras … That would be strange, buy one this year, give it back, in say, twenty something
years … Or so. Whenever ...
No worries.
They would forget me by then.
A Pain in The Neck
I finally did it.
I had this image in my head
for months … Since my birthday, really.
That was
the day I got the brace.
I had neck surgery on my birthday.
I got there at 5am in the morning, but you know all that …
Old News.
I got rid of the neck brace a couple
of weeks ago.
Did I mention I hated it? Yes, I'm sure
I did.
I still hate it. Always will.
But, at the same time, I knew I had an image in there somewhere.
The shape. The holes. The pain. The hate.
It just took me awhile ...
I set it off to the
side at first. See, at the time, I thought I would have to wear it again … You know, my Security Blanket.
Never happened. Not for a second. Not even for old-time's sake. No.
I'm stubborn. Period.
I did my exercises. Twice a day. Every day. Well, you know, almost every day … I took Sunday off.
I played sports for the past FIFTY years, I went to Parris Island, I coached
for years, I know the importance for resting muscles.
I
am also sixty-three years old. Enough said.
It sat there
… Just bugging me.
I threw it out.
Yeah, then I went back and got it out of the trash (that image in my head).
A week, or so, later, I took it upstairs, built a little studio, and got
my image …
The one in my head.
Simple, really.
If you know me, and my work, you know it was going to be a BLACK background.
A white neck brace, a no-brainer. Contrast.
And
you probably picked up on the fact that the word HATE has been tossed around quite freely …
RED!
Hate, pain … Red works for me.
Again, simple.
So,
there it is …
Three images … Yes, I did take
three or four more, you know, tweaking the flash output here and there, first the MAIN (Group One)light (soft, white, side lighting)
in a large soft box, 45 degrees off-camera to the right, then the second, ACCENT (harsh, backlit, red) light is
set-up on the couch (yes, my "studio" is really a couch, but don't tell anyone) on a little stand, camera left. I used
a Velcro strap around the flash head, and a gel-holder attached to that, holding the red gel. Simple.
I controlled both speed-lights (Nikon SB600) right from the camera - A
Nikon D7000. It is the Nikon CLS (Creative Lighting System) set-up that has been around for awhile now.
I love it.
I
used my new Nikkor 18-300mm f3.5-6.3 lens … I just zoomed in, framed it up the way I wanted, and fired away. Aperture
Priority, settling in on f11, or f16, you know, more depth-of-field.
Here are three of the images …
The
first one was, well, from my first couple of shots I took, getting things set up … A "test shot".
Too light. Too pink. I darkened it. Minus something …
Oh, wait, wrong colored gel. It is not pink because I over exposed it (I thought
I used a red gel), it is pink because I used a pinkish/purple colored gel …
I switched to a RED gel. Duh?
Better. More PAIN!
More HATRED!
Got it. The second image. OK, a wee-bit
dark, even for me. I can fix that. Increase the amount of light coming from the first flash, Group A, by a stop
or so …
Simple.
Finally, the FINAL, FINISHED, masterpiece … The third, or bottom, image.
OK, a little less HATE. I lighted up the overall exposure a STOP or so(from -2.5 to -1.0) … Remember,
I thought the pink came from an over-exposed red gel.
Simple.
I like it.
Still
has a bit of pain thrown in there for good measure, but light enough to bring out the contrast against the black background.
Black/White. And RED.
It is all about mood … Color as mood. Thin, little gels like the one used in any given theater.
Rosco Gels.
Not
the BIG sheets like the big theater lights need, no, just the smaller, sample size gels they make. A whole set costs
around seven bucks. Check out Adorama!
Oh,
I had the red/backlit flash (another Nikon SB-600, set on Channel B) stuffed in behind the brace, shinning through a
hole in the back. I adjusted the power up or down depending on the "mood" I wanted, independent of the main flash - Pretty
cool, really.
It is a game of Light!
You can't see it hidden behind the brace, which is just the way I wanted (and
planned) it.
Magic!
The magic of light … The magic of color.
The
magic of going in, removing three disks from a neck, holding them together with a metal plate, and screws, and having them
actually work again, like new …
Now that is
the real magic!
Love it. Well, not the brace, I
hate that, I just love that it all worked out for the best in the end.
My neck.
My image.
Now I can chuck that sucker, no problem … Yes!
Get Close(r)!
Yes, that is one of my rules, Number Two, to be exact. You know that.
Well, now you do anyways …
Get Close.
Yes, I love rules. I am a Marine (well, like, you know, a LONG time ago). I
am a teacher (well, not that long ago) …
I like,
and I have, rules.
Still do.
Hessell Rules.
And Number Two is: Get Closer.
Period.
This
image of a Musk-Ox, taken up in Canada ten years ago, is an example of this very simple rule.
I got CLOSE.
No, I am not that good. And no,
I am not that dumb.
But yes, I am that lucky.
Pure luck.
I
had driven up to Alaska the week (or two) before, and just kept going, past The Arctic Circle, and all
the way up to Prudhoe Bay.
There, I stopped, took
a dip in The Arctic Ocean, turned around, and headed South once again.
Kind of like Forrest Gump, but, you know, in my Element. My Honda Element.
It was great. Loved it.
In fact, I loved it so much, I decided to do it again. Only this time, I would drive into another country, the second
largest country in the world: Canada.
Duh?
It was right next door …
I drove up another gravel road, crossed The Arctic Circle once again, and kept going to the end: Inuvik,
Canada, in the Northwest Territories.
Alaska was wild,
Inuvik was, well, Wilder. Yes, with a capital "W".
Unreal.
And who, or what, greeted me at the Visitor's Center, when I crossed into The
Northwest territories?
This musk-ox. This close!
Well, no, I did have to get out of my Element (#2, the red one), walk into the
Visitor Center, and then up to the musk-ox, which was standing by patiently waiting for me …
Talk about an adventure!
There I was, face-to-face with this huge animal … Eye-to-eye. Well, no, I was a bit taller … But close.
Get Closer.
I
heard that little voice in my head once again …
I
got close.
As close as I could, and still be able to
focus, that is.
That close.
No, my heart was not racing as fast as when I had a full-framed grizzly within my viewfinder, like earlier on
the trip, but I must admit, it was something …
I
kept calm.
I set up my tripod, staying on my knees, just
like at Katmai with the grizzlies, I then focused, set the 2-second timer, held my breath (you know, out of habit), and fired
away …
Again, and again, and again … Lighter? Darker?
Yes, darker … Minus, minus, minus …
As fast as I could, keeping my heart in check … "Quick but don't hurry". I heard Coach Wooden's (UCLA
basketball) little voice in my head, once again … Relax.
Perfect.
Got it.
A Musk-Ox. My very first Musk-Ox. In Canada, like, very Northern Canada.
Perfect.
Then, I put my tripod and camera away,
walked around the Visitor's Center, looked at other displays, asked some questions, bought a sticker, or two (I really can't
remember, but that is what I normally do), maybe even a drink or something. I'm sure I bought something, and then went
out, and headed North once again.
Camped that night in
the small village of Inuvik, walked around, took pictures of the cool, dome-shaped, church, and enjoyed talking to a few kids
that I ran into around town. Not too many.
The next morning,
I got up, packed up the Element, and once again headed South … The nice gravel road I drove up on was now not so nice
… Rain.
Mud.
Miles and miles of mud … Crazy deep mud. Mud, mud, mud ...
To Yellowknife, where I had a Domino's Pizza - Now that, I can remember, then over to Fort Smith, and Wood Buffalo
National Park … Ahh, like in the middle of nowhere!
It
was a trip to remember …
And this is the image
I remember it by …
My Musk-Ox eye. And horn.
Get Close. As close as you can. Either my feet, or by zoom. In this case,
it was by feet.
One little tip I picked up on this adventure:
If you ever get this view in your lens, and the animal is this clean … You know you are safe. It is dead,
stuffed, and sitting inside The Visitor's Center. Period.
But
just in case, make sure the animal is not breathing before getting THIS close!
Promise?
**
Footnote:
When I got home, I cleaned the Element, and
drove straight to the Honda dealer. That mud I talked about? It got up into the electrical system, into the brakes, the
engine, EVERYWHERE … My windshield had eight cracks in it. The two year old Element was a mess. Period.
I picked up a new, silver, one that very day - Within an hour,
or so. That fast. That quick.
BAM.
And yes, I didn't even notice it didn't have a "moon-roof" until I was back
home, and looked down on it from the upstairs window … Hey, it was four wheel-drive, just like the two I
owed before it … And all four-wheel drive Honda Elements had a moon-roof.
Everyone knows that!
Until 2010.
Then they didn't.
And after the next year (2011), BAM … No more Honda Elements. Period.
That is why I still have mine eight years later … And yes, with my same old NC Tag I've had
since the first one: BAM
Just Playin' ...
I drove down to the Walking Park yesterday to get out of the apartment, do some walking on a nice flat surface, and
yes … Take some pictures.
And I didn't even take
a camera with me.
No, it was already in the glove compartment,
as usual.
Now true, it has been there for about five
months (at least) without being used, but I was hoping the battery would get me around the place at least once.
It almost did.
I
did manage to get a LOT of pictures and had a great time just playing with vision.
What camera did I use? My tiny Nikon S01. And I mean TINY!
Really, like, one-third the size of my cell phone, that I rarely carry with
me.
No, really. I checked. Same width, one-third the
height. Crazy.
It is a true, point-n-create, very basic,
tiny little camera. I was able to adjust some compensation up or down, use a self-timer if needed, and … Well,
that is about it.
I love it.
I also noticed that it made a lot of changes on its own … Go to Macro mode, when it needed to, Auto-ISO changed
depending on the lighting conditions, and … Well, like I said, it is a pretty cool little camera.
Nice.
So,
I just walked around and looked for flowers … Ahh, I mean colors. Shapes. Patterns. Lines. Contrast. Repetition.
All the design elements that make a good photograph.
I made it all the way around, and was up by the gazebo, with its little pond, when, yeah, the battery pooped-out
on me. So I turned it off, and kept on going.
Then I
saw something else … And turned it back on again … It worked.
For a shot or two …
I did this a few times
… OK, twice. Pretty cool. Over and over … Got a few more images.
Here are three of my favorites … Pretty much right out of the camera.
I had fun, got some exercise, and a few more images of flowers to add to the never-ending
collection.
My favorite? The top one … The
orange lines, the orange curves, and all the other very simple orange (and a wee-bit of yellow and red) thingies ...
"The Role of the Artist is to Simplify".
I like to simplify.
I like a simple camera that
simplifies.
Simply perfect.
Bighorn Light
I was sitting at the computer, around midnight, looking for images to down-load to National Geographic's YOUR SHOT
website, when I came across this one.
My favorite
wild animal image, in the wildest lighting, I have ever come across.
Ever.
Studio lighting in the great outdoors
… I couldn't have asked for a better situation if I planned for it myself.
I didn't.
I was in Alberta, Canada, driving
along the highway, headed for Banff and Jasper National Parks, which, by the way, are one of the greatest places on earth.
Period.
I was in the middle of nowhere really …
In fact, I can't even remember if I was heading to, or leaving the Parks … Eight years!
But it was Alberta ...
I was driving along,
and came across an overpass with some construction going on … We had to actually stop just in front of the overpass.
Under the bridge was a group of Big Horn Sheep just hanging out, like
it was a natural thing to do on a sunny day. Maybe they liked the shade … Works for me.
Then, it was like, Holy Crap! Look at that one standing in the light!
I pulled over, got out ... Ahh, my camera was slung over the passenger seat, you know, in case I ran across
a herd of Bighorn Sheep, or something, in the middle of nowhere …
I grabbed it, along with my trusty 18-200mm lens, and just walked up along the road until I got, like, you know,
really close …
It just stood there looking at
me.
In perfect light.
And shade. Don't overlook the shade caused by the overpass.
Classic.
The shade of the overpass makes this
image. Period. But I don't think you need me to tell you that.
I couldn't believe it.
Perfect.
True, just having a large ram standing in front of you is pretty cool, but …
That LIGHT.
I giggled, as I tried to control myself,
and get the shot!
Now, if you know me, or have read my
Blog, you know this is my favorite type of lighting situation ever. No question.
Light with a shadow in the background - Somewhere!
If
I expose for the highlights, the shadows go BLACK. Period. The meter can only give you one exposure. Exposure for the
highlights. Period.
MINUS COMPENSATION.
I knew that before I even got out of my Element. Before I parked. The moment I saw him in that light, under the overpass,
staring at me with those golden eyes ...
A no-brainer.
I walked up, filled my frame with nothing but horns and shade … Set
my Compensation to minus one, and fired away.
And yes,
I took more than one shot. Minus this, minus that, adjust, minus ...
Shoot, shoot, shoot.
I can remember it like
it was yesterday.
It wasn't.
Eight years ago.
Yeah, 2010. It was eight years
ago.
It was on my trip to Alaska.
And this is the shot I remember the most. Thousands of images …
This is the one.
Like, what the heck were these animals standing under an overpass along the highway for anyways?
Out in the middle of nowhere … Well, I guess for rams, it wasn't actually
nowhere, but you know what I mean. I can't remember a town or city being around … I just remember open plains and mountains
...
Canada, gotta love it.
My favorite wildlife image of all time, this very instant.
Love it.
I've got to get back up that way …
Of course I have no idea where I actually was, but I'll just head for Banff,
and go from there.
Close enough.
You know, out in the middle of nowhere in Alberta … Somewhere in Canada.
The second largest country in the world. No problem.
What
are the odds I will ever come across this situation again?
I
just have to get off the couch, away from the computer, and out of this apartment.
I've got to find that overpass …
Colored Petal Patterns
For a photographer who started out working for the military, then travel photography, and motorcycles, and river
cruising, and walking tours, and then white water rafting, I shoot a lot of flowers.
Period.
ALWAYS. Any place, any time, if I see
'em, I photograph them.
Always.
At first I didn't really understand why, but then …
I mean, who wouldn't?
Think about it …
It has gotten to a point
where I don't even think of myself photographing flowers …
Color.
Shapes.
Patterns.
Repetition.
Design Elements.
Lines.
Curves.
And more color! Lines, shapes, patterns, curves, and … Really, it is never ending.
Every Spring. Summer. Fall. And here in North Carolina, even in the Winter.
Always.
Everywhere. At home, and every other
place I have been in the last thirty years or so …
I
blame this obsession on OUR STATE magazine, but I was hooked going way back … To when I worked for base newspapers for
the Army, back in the 1980s …
Everyone loves Spring
flowers … Even in Black and White!
But yes, OUR
STATE really got me going … Every year, they wanted Spring Flowers. Always. Every year.
I was always looking …
And at one time,
I had seven of my college photography students that were shooting for OUR STATE as well. I was hooked, and they were hooked.
We were ALWAYS looking for flowers every time we got out of the classroom.
Which, for our Saturday class, was every other weekend.
So yes, I photograph flowers.
And I always will.
But to tell you the truth, over the past few years, I have really gotten
into wildlife … My "new" passion.
Elk. Sandhill
Cranes. Grizzly Bears. Geese. Penguins. Whales. Osprey. Seals. Butterflies. Hawks. Dolphins. Killer Whales. Petrels. Owls.
Prairie Dogs …
And I have always enjoyed zoos …
You get the point.
But there has ALWAYS been flowers ...
I
have LOTS of lenses, but give me a macro lens, and Lord forbid, my extension tubes, and get the heck out of the way!
Extension Tubes are hollow tubes that take your lens farther away from the sensor
which makes the subject BIGGER on the sensor.
And
we all know, BIGGER is Better.
I can spend HOURS in a
field of flowers … Like EXIT 113, Valdese!
If you
know me, you know I go there every year, like clock-work. No question.
And again, it is not the flowers … I get lost in the design of the flowers. The colors. One design element
after another … And the inter-play between them all.
These
three images were shot this Spring, just a week or so ago.
And
not with one of my special Nikkor macro lens (40mm or 105mm), no … These were shot with my "Special" super-duper macro
lens … Or camera.
My new under-water, do-everything
camera, the bright yellow, Nikon 300W.
Ahh, my newest
favorite "macro camera" of all-time (I have owned four or five versions of them, over the years!).
One millimeter macro.
BAM!
One millimeter.
Like, that close. Like, inside the flower close! Super close.
And sharp.
Now
yes, I LOVE my 40mm macro lens. Light. Small. Sharp.
It
is sweet.
And ... The 105mm gives me that extra
distance from the subject when needed … Think rattlesnake! I can be twice as far away, but still obtain that magical
1:1 ratio people are looking for.
That means, the size
of the subject will be the same size as what is on your camera's sensor. Period.
Or, as we used to say in Japan, "Same Same".
That
is true "macro", or what some camera companies refer to as micro.
Micro, Macro … Same Same. Depends on what camera brand you are using at any given time …
However you pronounce it, all I know is that, you want it. Period.
1:1
It
is perfect for flowers.
And everything else you can think
of …
Like, color, lines, shapes, patterns, repetition,
texture, and, well, you know, everything else!
Get one
and get closer.
And if you don't have one, no worries
… Just get as CLOSE as you can and fill the frame with nothing but lines, shapes, patterns, textures, repetition …
I mean, flowers! Those things in nature with all the lines, shapes, patterns
… You know what I'm talking about.
Those wonderful
little bits of nature that many non-photographers refer to as F-L-O-W-E-R-S. Flowers.
I love 'em!
Like the three images above. Try
not to think of them as flowers … Look at all the little details in each image.
Color. They all have color, period. That is what caught my attention, my eye.
That's nice, but look deeper … Get right in there. LOOK. Go beyond the flower itself …
My favorite? Check out the really tiny flowers within the tiny, third flower
… Oh, oh … And the colors!
Like a magical, little Dr. Seuss mini-landscape
wrapped up in color.
Look for the "art" within …
Each flower is different.
I don't know the names (I just
call them yellow flowers, pink flowers, etc …), and can care less …
I am looking at the design elements that make each flower special, unique, and becomes my favorite-flower-of-all-time-that
very-moment.
Period.
Petal Pattern Power.
Photographic Vision
I went to Granite Falls Middle School to … Well, you know, get out of the apartment.
Duh.
I
knew testing was around the corner, so I thought I would check in with the boss. Let me remind you that I've taken a lot of
pain pills the past few months, and I wanted to make sure I had the right week.
I didn't, but that turned out to be even better …
Once I got into the office to sign-in, the principal asked if I could step into her office …
Oh no, flashback … You know, to when I was in 6th grade! And 7th, and
8th, and, well, you get the picture …
She wanted
to know if I was willing to help a student out by getting him outside with his camera …
What?
Like I said, I'd taken a lot of pills
and might not of understood her …
No, I heard her
right. A student had gone through some hard times and needed a little help ...
Perfect.
Was she talking about me, or was there
really a student that needed my help?
The lines are blurred
…
I needed to get outside with a camera, and if
that helped a student, so much the better.
I'm in. She
didn't have to ask twice.
And all this was the week before
testing started, so, PERFECT.
I can take pictures.
Five minutes after talking to her, and the student, I found myself outside with
a camera. I ALWAYS have a camera!
Ahh, it was in my glove
compartment, of course!
I started out going in
to check on testing, and came back outside, testing the student on what he knew about photography. Well, you know, not
a real test, but close enough.
He has a small Nikon Point-n-Shoot
(just like one of mine), and knew a few things … We went over my Three Rules, and My Three Buttons, and ...
Bam.
Let
the games begin!
The whole week we were outside
playing with everything from a 10mm fish-eye lens, to the 300 f2.8 mounted on the large tripod (the kid is TALL), to hand-holding
the large 200-500mm zoom lens, as we walked around the campus.
Looking.
And shooting like crazy.
His camera does not fire off shots at 10 frames per second. I kind of got the
idea he likes the sound of tenframespersecond! Yeah.
We
even doubled the time, you know, to make sure he understood all the new the information! He enjoyed it. I enjoyed it.
And a few of this fellow classmates even had fun running around in front of
the camera … Keeping that 300mm on a moving subject is a trip! We had to work at it!
He fired away. Like, a lot!
These three images are just a few of what we saw as we made our rounds around the grounds … And yes, I
did mentioned poetry, although it was more along the lines of visual poetry, than the written word, but poetry
is poetry.
I got him looking, thinking … Everywhere
he didn't think there were pictures to be made …
I
mentioned Composition. Like my college class, I just mentioned DON'T CENTER IT. Period.
Most people always center the main subject … It's easy. There is a little rectangle smack-dab in the middle
of the frame and people use that as there Bulls-eye, and fire away.
Take another look at these three images …
Notice
the Composition. The Thirds. You might not believe this, but these are just the way I saw them, shot them ... No cropping,
nothing.
I mean, look at the wheelbarrow … Yes,
the rust tones caught my eye, but when I "filled the frame", notice what shows up at the left 1/3 of the frame …
And the fence with the plant thingy … I mean, come on, the cracks lined
right up with the grid-lines I have set-up in my viewfinder. Easy.
That is why I turn on the grid-lines in all my cameras … I mean, following the rules of composition can't get
any easier.
Bam.
Three images, all of them shot following the rules of thirds …
With the Grid-Lines in my viewfinder, I just walk around and look …
Just like walking around the college campus!
My
favorite shot of the week is the rusty wheelbarrow. The top image.
Simple.
I saw the lines, circles, textures,
and the muted colors of rusty metal. Perfect.
OK, the
student didn't quite see that one ...
Then there was
the contrast between the dirty, plastic, white fence, and the green and yellow plant thing poking through the cracks.
Classic contrast of colors and texture.
The Rule of Thirds
all lined up for me.
He didn't see that one either ...
But, you know, I couldn't, NOT, make an image with that in front of me. It just
popped out at me!
Then there was the Golden Eye …
Yes, I watched a few James Bond movies last night, and
couldn't help myself.
The "eye" is in the top-third of
the frame.
Now he did see that! He pointed out all the
"little eyeballs" in the wood. Now we just need to work on that whole Thirds thing ...
Perfect.
I have walked past these railings in
our school's "Trailer Park" hundreds of times, over the past 25 years, and … Well, this is my first image of them,
lets put it that way.
Contrast. Colors. Texture. Patterns.
Repetition. Lines.
It is all there.
Hundreds of them … All over the place.
That was what it was all about.
Helping a student
that needed a little help the last week,or so, of school, and a retired teacher that needed a little help the last few weeks
(months) of his rehabilitation.
Oh, and then I went
and saw my real boss, the Head of our Special Ed. Department, and the person that got me through all those years of paperwork
(we both arrived at GFMS in 1994), and figured out that I wasn't needed for proctoring until the following week …
Perfect.
More
time to play!
And see.
My Life in X-Rays
I think these images sum up my life right now.
I
did get rid of the neck brace …
I hated that with
a passion.
Whew … That was NOT fun.
Now I just have to begin the next chapter …
And hope a screw doesn't come loose.
Simple
I work hard at keeping my images simple.
That
is what artists do. It is what artists should do. It is that simple.
Artists take something, and place them in a space that separates them from where they came from.
Thing about it …
Photographers have a "frame" they must fill with only what they want.
Painters have a "frame" they must add to in order to get what they want.
Sculptors take something and remove parts of it until they get what they want.
That is the key … "Get what they want".
That
is what being an artist is all about. YOU are the artist, so … Get what YOU want.
That simple.
I have been taking photographs
for over thirty years. I know what I want. Again, I try very hard to get what I want in my viewfinder.
That said … I try very hard to get what I want OUT of my frame!
That little rectangle is mine!
The funny thing about this image is that there was once a time where this type of image was … Well, not very
popular. Not the norm.
The GRAND LANDSCAPE was the norm.
Foreground. Middle ground. Background.
You know, like
in real life. The whole picture, the whole landscape … You know, what the artist sees, what is in front of them.
Then photographers came around with their long lenses … Photographers
can ZOOM in, and just see a small part of the scene.
That
was a big deal back in the day. No big deal to me. That was before my time …
To me, it was, and is, NORMAL.
I zoom in any,
and every, way I can. First, I GET CLOSER. Heck, I even made it one of my rules. I walk in, step in, jump in, whatever it
takes … GET CLOSER.
Physically. In your face.
Now, true, sometimes I CAN"T move in closer … You know, a fence,
a wall, a rule, a warning, a person, whatever …
I
can't do it.
In fact, it seems like there is ALWAYS something
that prohibits me from getting as close as I want … Even my macro lenses have a limit sooner or later.
That is what makes it fun … What makes it a challenge. Why I keep trying,
why I try to get out there as often as possible.
In this
case, it was pretty simple.
I was in my element, camping
up in the woods, my favorite place to be. No, really, I was actually sitting inside "My Element". I drove up into the woods.
It was foggy and it was raining. Perfect.
I just stayed
inside looking … Seeing.
I took pictures.
The fog was nice … Cleaned up the background for me. Simplified things
for me.
Done.
My job was just to "frame it up" so that the edges were clean and simple.
Simple.
That's it.
That is how you take a simple image.
Frame it
up, check the edges, clean up the junk, and fire away.
That
simple.
The fog takes care of everything else.
Well, it did help that I was in My Element, in the woods, in the rain, and in
the fog. That was simple.
And I had a camera.
I actually had five with me, but I only needed one.
One camera. One lens. One card. One battery (Well, you know, I actually had
two, but I'm on a roll, so, roll with it).
From there,
I just sat there, checked my edges, and took several images of "My Woods".
Simple.
Double Take
Yes, I am spending a lot of time on the couch.
My
doctor calls it healing. I call it getting fat, but that is just me.
I'm being the good Marine, and following orders.
I do get out for
a walk every day, but that is about it. This neck brace is getting old, but then again, so am I. Truth is, that is why I'm
wearing the neck brace in the first place. Eight days and counting before I go back to see the doctor.
But, anyway, I digress …
This is about looking at my website, and noticing something I didn't notice before about these two birds, these
two images …
Two images taken at the same place, and at the
same time … Well, you know, within minutes of each other anyways …
The Everglades.
Both were taken at Royal
Palm. It is one of the better viewing areas in the Park during the winter months for alligators and birds … It is the
deepest pond in the Park and the animals congregate there during the dry, winter months.
I ALWAYS make a point of stopping there any time I am in the Park … Which is always in the winter months.
I might add, right here and now, that the summer months can be rewarding too
… Summer storms roll through just about every day, and your chances of capturing beautiful lighting strikes is very,
very good …
But, the heat can be a concern.
But anyways …
Two birds, two background colors, and two GREAT eyes!
But … Remember, two different birds, but they are both cormorants, the SAME type of bird. Same type of
bird, same type of eyes ...
Both of these images were
taken with a LONG lens … My new Nikkor 200-500mm zoom lens.
By getting close … I mean real close … And shooting "wide-open" at f5.6, both backgrounds are rendered
out-of-focus, and give the images a nice smooth background, you know, like a painting.
One BLUE, one GREEN.
One was taken facing up,
the other, at eye level … Two different backgrounds.
Sky vs Trees.
Blue vs Green.
Your background is important. Period.
Never overlook that.
In fact, it is paramount.
Same concept, different words. They mean the same thing
… Always work on getting the "best" background for any given image.
Think of your background as being your canvas … Then work on adding only what you want to your image.
Work backwards …
Now, true, you can go about it two ways …
Find
your subject, then work on finding the right background.
This
happens most of the time … I mean, really, I didn't go to The Everglades for two weeks dreaming about the wonderful
backgrounds I might encounter …
No.
I went for the wildlife. Period.
But, once I got there, found my subject, that is when I began looking for the "right" background. That is what becoming
a photographer is all about. Finding that right, little rectangle (for most of us), for our subject.
And by "right", I mean the background that best suits our subject. There is
no one right background, lets make that clear right now.
Not
in nature, and not in the studio. Nor in anything in between.
Period.
Number two … Find a nice background
and then wait …
Wait for the "right" subject to
enter your frame and complete the image.
Now, just going
to The Everglades is a step in the right direction. That can not be overlooked …
That gave me thousands and thousands of chances to "finding my background" every day, every hour … Whatever.
Simple.
One time that comes to mind for me, is the time I was in Tunisia,
way back in 1987/8. Yes, I was there over New Year's …
I
was in Tunis, the capital, and one of the few major cites I visited on the trip … There were subjects everywhere …
A city full of color, people, and movement …
I
can remember thinking I wanted an image of some young, modern couple within this modern and hectic city …
I came across one of their round, concrete billboard things, covered with posters
and ads, and what-have-you … They are located all around the city … Bus-stops, etc …
A "background" for my subjects … My "stage" … My " canvas".
I stopped a young couple, told them who I was, and what I wanted, and, Ta-da!
They accepted my offer to pose (something that still amazes me to this day), and I got my image.
I found my background first … Then added my subjects.
Two different
ways to obtain the same results … YOUR image, the way YOU want it.
Think
about that the next time you are out and about with your camera.
Magic.
Again, in the case of these two images, the long lens comes into play here.
True, more so with the green background, but also with the blue ...
What is that green background? Yes, that is a question.
What about the blue?
The blue is no big deal
… I mean, out-of-focus sky is, well, out-of-focus blue … Sky. Period.
No clouds, no nothing. Pretty clean and simple. Out-of-focus blue sky.
Nice.
Now, what about that green?
Yeah, still pretty "clean" … Pretty simple. But what is it?
Hint: It is NOT the sky.
Trees and bushes … Leaves, green leaves of some type.
A little more complex, yet very simple. I love it when that happens.
The long lens, combined with a small aperture (f5.6), and being very close - Like, as close as I could get, and still
be able to focus! That is the key … All three aspects working together to give me the clean backgrounds I'm "always"
looking for.
SHALLOW DEPTH of FIELD.
Again, the word "always" is tricky.
Not always blue. Not always green. But, for the most part, I am always looking for a "CLEAN" background. One
that does not distract, or take-away, from my subject. You know what I mean.
Keep that in mind.
Now … For the "Rest
of the Story", and what caught my eye this second time around …
The eye is what caught my eye. Or, I should say, the eyes …
One blue, one green.
Take a second look …
I'll wait.
Yeah, in each case, the color of the background,
matches the color of the eye.
Blue and blue. Green and
green.
Sweet.
Did I notice this when I took them? No.
Did
I notice this when I up-loaded them onto my website? No.
Now,
yes, I have been taking a LOT of pain pills over the past two months or so, but, no … I never noticed it. At least not
that I can remember …
See, I always saw them separately.
Just like I took both of them separately. Took one, faced the other way, and took the other. Period. End of story.
I do it all the time.
Yes, I liked each image …
I wouldn't have included them on my website if I didn't.
But
it wasn't until my third, fifth, tenth, whatever time I saw them, that it dawned on me …
Now I know why I like them …
Blue background,
blue eye. Green background, green eye.
That simple.
I knew there was a reason I liked them!
Duh?
Glad I finally took notice.
But, are the eyes really different? Did one bird have green eyes and the other
bird have blue eyes?
Or did the background color effect
the way we perceive the color of the eye?
The more
I think about it, the more I believe that the eyes are both the same color, and the background color tricks us into thinking
the eyes are different colors.
I'm no expert on the color
of bird's eyes, but … To me, the color of the eye tends to take on the color of the background.
Interesting.
I'll
keep that in mind next time I have an eye in my viewfinder.
No, wait …
That will drive me nuts!
What about brown eyes? Hazel?
Does it work with humans as well as animals? Birds?
Oh
no … This will drive me insane.
I look forward
to it.
Little Camera Big Image
The sun was out, the flowers are in bloom, the camera was mounted on my new
little tripod, and ...
Well, I was ready to go ...
Oops ... Right Church, Wrong Pew.
Oh, what my college professor meant by that clever little line, I stole, is that I had the right subject, the right
camera, but ...
The wrong lens.
Right Church, Wrong Pew ...
Caught my attention.
Like, what? Thirty-five
years ago!
Anyway ...
So, up the stairs I went, and I actually found the right lens in the first bag I chose ...
I have a LOT of bags. And lenses. And cameras ...
First bag, right where I put it.
Wild.
I love it when it actually works out that way ...
Anyways ...
Nikkor 40mm macro lens.
Perfect.
Right
"pew" to go along with the right "church" ... More perfect than perfect.
Perfect-er.
I had the older, smaller, model
Nikon D60, mounted on the newer, smaller, PrimaPhoto, red, compact, tripod that actually extends right up there to eye level
...
Perfect.
Wait! Did I say D60? What?
Yeah ... An OLD camera.
A toy by today's standards ...
I don't know ... Ten years old? Something like that.
Crazy.
Why
a D60? You ask ...
Because I can ...
I own it. It is upstairs, it still works ...
Plus, I like to play ... I like cameras.
I like
to play with cameras.
That simple.
Plus, I like the concept of art being about the archer, not the bow ...
Oh wow ...
That
takes me back about twenty years ...
I had a student
once that came up with that one in class one day and I was like, what?
Archery? Archer? Bow?
Say what?
Yeah, that is where I got it ...
I love it!
Not the camera, but the photographer,
the artist ... Get it?
Classic.
Like I said, perfect.
So ...
Walked five feet (or less) out the
door, set the camera and lens up REAL close, and filled the frame ...
With
pink.
Little flowers, big image.
Nice
light. Perfect backlighting.
I set the self-timer for 2-seconds, and fired
away ...
Push one button, push another, over and over again ... Self-timer,
shutter release. Self-timer, shutter release.
Repeat.
Move a wee-bit to the right ... Move to the left ... Move closer ...
Even closer ... CLOSER.
I like macro lenses.
And pink flowers.
And those pinkish little dot things ...
And those long curvy line things ...
STOP.
Long ... Oh Oh, I need some more Depth of Field.
So ... From f16,
I just start turning the dial ...
f22 f29 fwhatever ...
If the camera had it, I wanted it ... More Depth
of Field.
Turn that dial!!!
And to be honest, it would be hard to tell the difference, trust me ...
At this distance to the flower, you ain't gettin' much, trust me.
From
nothing to next to nothing ...
But hey, its fun, shoot it!
Doesn't hurt anything, really ... And its FUN!
Try it!
OK, OK ... True, there is a "Point of No Return" as far as really getting any more Depth of Field, but what the heck
...
I like spinning dials ... What can I say?
Now, where was I?
Flower parts ... You
know, all that stuff I forgot I learned in middle school ...
Well
no, I never actually went to Middle School, per say ...
We
didn't call it that up in New York. No ... Not that I can recall anyways ...
In fact, It was a K-12 school. One big building ... Well, you know, a big building for a small town, that is.
Pulaski, New York.
Pulaski Academy and Central School.
I was there
from fourth grade to eighth ...
Then, they built "the
new school", the High School.
Well, 7-12 anyways, but
I digress ... Again.
Anyway ...
Perfect tripod, perfect camera, perfect lens ...
Perfect subject, perfect light, perfect moment.
I
took pictures.
Small camera, small lens, small tripod
... BIG images.
Pretty pink little flower things ...
And the darker lower section of the image that really makes the lit parts stick
out real nice ...
Love it when that works out.
Perfect.
Ahh,
and even more perfect?
Five feet from the front door!
Again ...
More
perfect-er than perfect!
And the Winner Is ...
As you might know, I upload 15 images to National Geographic's YOUR SHOT website every,(well, you know, maybe not
every week).
But, since I'm home, sitting on the couch
"healing", it does seem like EVERY week!
This image of
the cormorant, with that beautiful aqua eye, has caught the eye of many of the people that visit the site, and trust me, a
lot of people do.
Now true, if one image gets 100 people
to stop, look, and "Like" out of MILLIONS of people, it doesn't sound like a big deal ... I mean, come on, MILLIONS and MILLIONS
of people ...
One hundred people ... Really?
Yeah.
Think
about it ...
Out of all those MILLIONS of images, if
you can get just one person to stop and look, to me, that's pretty cool.
To get one hundred? That's even cooler.
And
to do it within four days?
Cooler than cool.
The image follows all my rules:
LOOK AT THE LIGHT GET CLOSER SHOOT LOTS OF IMAGES
Now, true, you can tell from this ONE image that I shot several, but come on,
if you know me ...
You know!
But yes ... LOOK AT THE LIGHT! That is early morning Florida winter light ... Get there early.
I did.
I
spent a week in the campground five miles (or less) away from this spot ...
Get up early and be there when the light is nice.
I
did. Day after day ... (I'm retired!).
GET CLOSER.
I did.
Yes,
I walked around the site with a LONG lens, but I also got as close as the lens would let me ...
Double whammy!
That is the key ... Get closer
than close.
SHOOT LOTS OF IMAGES
I mean, really, who wouldn't?
Look at that eye! A no-brainer. I can't help myself.
And here is THE REST OF THE STORY!
As some of
you know, I am home "healing" from the very trip I was on when I took this image ...
I used this image on my website, and when I do that, I "Down-Size" each image ... From 300 dpi to 72 dpi.
Why? Good question.
It saves space on my website, and they download faster ... Both being a good thing.
So, I end up with two images ... Kind of like the negative, and the print, you know, back in the day.
So, you probably guessed it ...
I downloaded one image one week to YOUR SHOT, and the other image another week ...
I blame it all on the pills I've been taking for months now, but, like I say, if you know me, you know ...
Pills or not (I'm down from four/five a day, to just two), I goof -up quite
a bit.
So really ... Between the two identical shots
(you can't tell which is 300 dpi and which is 72 dpi), there have been over 200 people that stopped, looked, and liked this
little cutie ...
That's cool.
And as far as I can tell, it is not the bird ...
It is THE EYE.
As a retired college photography
instructor, that is one aspect of photography I want to talk about ...
When I got myself, and this big lens, this close, and saw that eye, that is what I wanted to focus the viewer's attention
on ... And yes, that is a pun!
It is all about the eye.
Period.
Not the bird.
The eye.
The color of that eye ...
The color of the eye against the color of the sky ...
And yes, that counts as a poem, in my book.
In every single image I take, I try to find that one thing ... That one aspect of the subject that catches my eye
...
And take that, and try to make sure it catches the
viewer's eye as well ...
Back in the day, in the classroom,
I called this concept:
EMOTIONAL NUANCE.
That one little aspect, of any given image, that evokes an emotional response
from the viewer.
And here's the kicker that is even harder
to explain ... Depending on the viewer, it can be a different response!
That is the beauty of it all ...
Now yes, sometimes
it is clear-cut, other times it is not.
Yeah.
We all have different "baggage" that we carry around ... And any given image
can strike a chord with any given viewer ...
Magic.
And that magic is the beauty of photography.
The beauty of ART.
It is the WHY, behind what
I do. What any artist strides to do ... It is what makes my image different from anyone else's image.
It might not be that WHAM, in your face, aspect, but it is there ...
That is where the word, NUANCE, comes into play.
Something that is, although it might be small, to the viewer, it becomes a
powerful connection.
In this case ... COLOR.
And to be honest, because I got so close, and eliminated everything but the basics,
it becomes easier for the viewer to see, to connect.
KEEP IT SIMPLE
All these different concepts that come together to make an image work together, to make it special.
That is the goal.
That is what helps it stick out among the MILLIONS
of images that are out there on the YOUR SHOT website.
LOOK
AT THE LIGHT GET CLOSER TAKES LOTS OF IMAGES
And ... Get down to The Everglades, that helps ...
Duh.
Double Diagonal
I would be done by now if I could spell diagonal ... I was way off! It took me awhile but I finally got close enough
for the spell-check to figure out what the heck I was trying to spell ...
Now yes, I could blame it on the pain killers I've been taking for over two months ...
But, that is not the point I'm trying to make here ... If you know me, you already know, pain-killers or not, I
can't spell worth a crap.
No, this is about an Old School
film technique making its way into the digital age.
This
is a double-exposure. Plain and simple. One in focus, one not so much ... Two different images sandwiched into one.
In fact, that was the only way I could do this back in the day ... Before I
had a "double exposure button" ... Or, more correctly, a multi-exposure button on my camera.
I took one shot, in focus, then took another shot out of focus ... Two different slides, and then took one out and
slipped in into the same slide mount as the other ...
A
"real" sandwich. A slide sandwich.
Magic.
It actually worked.
Now ...
I just push a few buttons, and Wah-Lah
... It appears on my screen. Done. Finished. Complete.
Even
more magical than magic.
That simple.
Well, to be honest, it wasn't that simple with my new Nikon D500.
It is set up a little differently ... More options, and really, I was lost the
first couple (or more) times I tried it ...
Nikon has
offered this option for years (before any other camera maker, I must add) ... I knew how it worked, you know, which buttons
to push ...
But the D500 is set-up a little different.
Took me a few times before the lightbulb went off ...
Yes.
You are right ... I did not use the manual, are you kidding me?
Me? Psst , no way ...
I do what I always do
... I played around until I figured it out. Come on, its just a button here or there ...
Simple.
One image shot just like I always shoot
... Auto-focus, auto-exposure. I just make sure it looks good as far as exposure goes ... You know, The Compensation Button
... Usually -.7, or what-ever (it varies).
That is how
I start off ... "Regular".
Then I push the multi-exposure
button ...
Then I set the number of exposures I want
... TWO.
And, here is where the D500 is different ...
Then I pick the SINGLE IMAGE option. Easy enough.
Then, I am set ...
One image in focus.
Turn off auto-focus.
Turn the focus ring so everything is WAY OUT OF FOCUS, and shoot the second image.
The camera does all the math ... Exposure-wise ... You know, the whole, "two half exposures equal one" thing ...
Ta-da. The finished product.
One image ... Two looks blended into one.
A
sharp image with little blurred rings around everything ...
Dreamy.
Ahhh ... Dare I say, Playful.
It is important to note,
that in photography, it is not always what you see, but what you feel, that is important.
The mood ...
Make the image YOURS. Period.
PLAY.
No
two images are ever the same ...
And yes ... With the
D500 (and others) you can take up to ten different exposures for "one" shot, so, you guessed it, PLAY. Play some more, and
shoot, shoot, shoot ...
And don't forget, try it this
way, try it another way ... Lighter? Darker? More out of focus? Zoom in, zoom out?
Try it, you might like it ...
Just PLAY.
Don't worry, unlike the Old Days, it doesn't cost you anything when you find
out 93.78% if the mages you take are crap ...
No.
Shoot, shoot, shoot ...
Even if only one turns out great,
that is all you need!
PLAY.
750mm Equivalent - Right Out of the Camera
Full Frame - "Cleaned Up the Junk"
Cropped Image - Detail Sharpness
This is a Test
No, not a lens test ... An arm test.
I have
been home sitting on the couch, watching ESPN, NCIS and FIXER UPPER for awhile now and ...
Well, I have my Nikon D500mm with the Nikkor 200-500mm lens attached to it, you know, the biggest, heaviest, camera
with the longest, heaviest lens I know I can handle (Even with a good arm, the 300mm f2.8 is too heavy!) sitting on the
couch with me ...
Ahh, yeah, for the commercials, of
course!
Today, the sun was shining, so during a commercial,
I went out and photographed one of the dogwood trees in my little court-yard thingy ...
It is all about using my arm.
And getting close
(top image), and getting a sharp image (bottom image).
Got
it.
Yes, the closest petals are a wee-bit soft, but that
is due to the long lens (750mm equivalent), me being close (minimum focusing distance), and shooting wide open (f5.6) ...
Minimum Depth of Field. Period.
Like none.
I can live with that.
Remember, HAND-HELD.
I needed the fastest shutter-speed possible.
Ahh,
good point ... I almost forgot.
Yes, I set the ISO to
400.
Good thinking.
Yes, that gave me one more stop of speed ... Always a good thing.
So, there it is ...
A lens test for my arm.
Works for me.
But
yes, I still have a way to go ...
I think I'll go take
some more photos ...
Physical Photo Therapy, or is it
Photo Physical Therapy?
I don't know ...
Doctors are good, but ...
"Walk Outside, and Carry a Big Lens"
Again, works for me.
** Arm/Lens Up-date: You knew I couldn't
resist. Yes, I went up-stairs and got out the 300mm f2.8 to see if I could handle that big puppy …
I could.
I
was happy as a Pig-Eatin'- Poop.
Period.
I kept that combination on the couch for a couple of weeks … I took a
lot of images of the trees out front!
Again, just to
work on my arm strength. Shoulder strength. Neck strength … You know, the whole "this bone is connected to that bone"
thing …
Good News Bad News
OK, the bad news first.
Today is the day that I should be returning from my "Birthday Wish Trip" down in Peru.
I never made it.
The trip was a fifteen day
trip to Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca, two places high up on my list, that was planned so that I was at Machu Picchu on my
birthday ...
Yeah, that would have been nice.
Maybe next year.
The good news?
The image you see above this,
has made it to 100 "likes" in one day, on my National Geographic Your Shot page.
That's pretty cool.
As most of you know, especially
if you were a college student of mine over the past eight years, or so, I upload 15 images to my page every week, you know,
just because I can.
That simple.
I have over 3000 images on my page, but the site has MILLIONS of images ...
Yes, MILLIONS!
People from all over the world visit the
site and it is a great way to see what is going on out there in the world of photography.
It is fun looking at all the images ...
This
image was shot at Fort Jefferson, which is part of Dry Tortugas National Park, off the West coast of Florida.
I went there before heading up and over to Everglades National Park, and before
the cruise to Mexico and Cuba this winter.
And before
I lost the use of my right arm.
It is a cool Fort ...
Made up totally of bricks. Lots and lots of bricks.
There
is a moat that circles the fort and a walk-way that circles the moat ... Although at the time I was there it was under construction
due to hurricane damage.
I could walk almost all the
way around ... Just had to go back and walk around the other way until I made it back to the "gap".
Loved the lines ... The curved lines of the bricks.
It caught my eyes ...
It (they) are the reason
I stopped and made this image in the first place.
I know,
I know ... The colors don't hurt either, but, you know, the lines (curves) were what really caught my eye first as I rounded
the curve ... I already knew the colors were unreal from my approach to the island.
Colors and lines, or lines and colors ... Either way, works for me.
And framing ...
Let's talk about that for a
second here ...
Most of you are familiar with my Rule
#2, right?
GET CLOSER
The whole jest of that wonderful rule, that I totally made up, is to get me and my students to think about what they
are "painting on their canvas" ... What elements we, as artists, want in our frame.
Painters add, photographers subtract.
Ha! I
knew my photography had something to do with how I became a middle school Special Education! I knew it, I knew it!
I subtract. Period.
And, yeah, I add too ... But only what I want! Not what the teacher, or book, or the other students want ... No,
ONLY what I want.
I'm the artist.
And so are you.
Yes, in this case, I subtracted the whole fort.
The
curve caught my eye, so I showed you, the viewer, only what I wanted you to see. I only wanted to show you what caught my
eye, what made me take the image in the first place.
My
art, my vision.
My vision becomes your vision.
Those of you that know my website, know that I even use this concept as part
of the philosophy behind my website ...
OUR WORLD, MY
VISION.
And yes, I hope you also realize that the same
thing can be said about all of you ... Every photographer in the world (and yes, there are a few).
I'm just glad that 100 (and counting, I hope) other people like my vision.
My simple, no-frills, vision of our complex world.
Which is also mentioned over and over again in this new book I'm reading ... Yeah, I have a lot of free time at the
moment ... While at my sister's house, my brother-in-law offered up a few books - He is the reader!
DETACHMENT BRAVO, part of The Rogue Warrior series, by Richard Marcinko, a former
Navy SEAL.
I learned it at Boot Camp myself, just around
this time 42 years ago, while at the Rifle Range ...
You
know it (OK, some of you) ... I wove it into my college curriculum for over twenty years:
The concept of K.I.S.S.
To improve your photography,
you simply must, Keep It Simple, Stupid.
OK, OK, that
was the Marine Corps translation ...
As a college instructor,
I modified it to mean Keep It Simple, Students.
You
know, civilians and all ... The 21st Century, you understand ...
Keep your images SIMPLE.
The size of your sensor
is only so big, fill it ONLY with what YOU want in it.
Blue,
green, and bricks ... Oh, yeah, and that curve.
Perfect.
Bam!
I'm
done.
** One week later ... TWO HUNDRED. The first hundred in one day, the second in one week ...
Cool.
The Eye
Yeah, I know ...
I think I have used that title
before …
But, as I was uploading images to my
Flicker account, I looked at this image and ...
Well,
that eye caught my eye.
And the format ...
That took me back to when I took it ... Sometime in January, what? Four months
ago ... Something like that, you know, give or take a few days here or there.
The pelican flew low ... Just above the water ... Skimmin' the water ...
I wanted to highlight that fact in my final image.
I cropped this way. And I cropped some more that way ...
I cropped to bring out the eye, and I cropped to bring out how low it was flying.
That is what I saw in my head ...
What I envisioned
the image would/should look like.
That is photography.
That is being an artist.
Seeing things in your head.
It's better than
it sounds.
Now, remember, I took this image months ago
... You know, back when I could still hold a camera and a long lens ...
Once I saw it ... I remembered.
I wanted to
take the original image, and crop it the way I wanted it in the first place.
See, they don't make a camera with that LONG, SKINNY format, and I don't have a lens that LONG, so I had
to do it myself.
I cropped.
I used my computer to make an image. That simple.
Chop, chop.
Or, in this case ...
Crop, crop.
Gifted
Five days.
I got home from surgery, and my sister's
house, in five days.
New right arm (un-blocked the pinched
nerve).
New Nikon Coolpix W300.
New metal in my neck.
New beginning, all over again.
I had neck surgery
on my birthday. The surgeon fixed me up ... Three "gifted" (his word, not mine) discs, held together with metal plates and
screws ...
And one cool (my word, not his), scar on the front of my neck (like,
three or four inches long)!
Five days later, with the
help of my sister and brother-in-law, and I am now back in my apartment, ready to go!
Went out for a short walk ... Came back, grabbed my newest gift (my word, not the doctor's) ...
A bright, yellow, Nikon Coolpix W300, and went out into my front yard.
The Coolpix W300, is a small, point-and-create, water-proof, do-everything camera,
that has a great MACRO setting.
I have talked about
them for years ...
I saw these images while on my walk,
and just knew I needed to get out there and see if I could hold the camera still enough to get an image, or two, or three ...
My right arm was shaky prior to the surgery ... Not too bad now.
Love it.
True,
the Coolpix is small and light, but it is a great start.
This
is my, Oh, I don't know, fourth, or fifth, version of the underwater Nikon Coolpix, and I love it ...
Got it for my birthday, you know, before the surgery.
I arrived at the hospital, on my birthday, at 5am ... And didn't leave
until the next day, at 3pm. I didn't take any images those two days ...
I had wires and tubes coming out of everything ... Yeah, that too. It was crazy. A drain from my neck. An arm-band
thingy for taking my blood pressure, on my right arm. An IV tube in my left arm. That other tube stuck up my you-know-what
(whew). And both legs wrapped up with these pressure thingys that helps prevent leg cramps ... They tightens up on one leg
... Five seconds ... Then tightens up on the other ... All night long. Over and over ... Like clock-work.
I didn't sleep ... I counted the seconds, all night long ... Over and over ...
And over.
Then my blood-pressure ... Over and over ...
Crazy birthday.
Then, five days later ... I got back to my apartment. Which means, I got back to my cameras ... Or, my one new camera.
My gift.
Took my new camera outside, pressed the little MACRO button, made sure the WHITE BALANCE
was set to CLOUDY (it was), and also made sure the ISO was set to AUTO/400 (which picks the lowest ISO for any given light,
between ISO 50 and ISO 400). It was.
I went to work.
No worries ...
The
camera is great. The MACRO is just crazy (1mm), and I just fired off sets of five or six shots on CONTINOUS FAST ...
Yes, that fast, that easy.
The camera works, my arm works, now I just have to wait for my neck to heal. I have to wear a neck brace, which
drives me crazy, but yes, like VR, it helps stabilize my neck!
I'll wear it.
I can take it off to shower
... And, don't tell anyone else, I also take it off to eat ... Shhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Just for a few minutes!
I'm off to a great start.
Great to be home.
Great to get outside.
Great to be able to hold a camera steady again.
Great to get some nice macro shots ...
And yes, it is great to be "gifted" three new discs ... Well, you know, not NEW, but new to me.
Gifted.
Perfect.
Photo Zen
It has been awhile.
I got out of the apartment
yesterday, and went to visit a friend ...
Not my mother.
I mean, I really got away from the couch and drove over
to ... Well, I really don't know where it was I ended up exactly ...
Except that I ended up at a house with a great view of a lake -- The "Other End" of Lake Hickory.
Jack Daulton is a friend I met during my second college class, back in
1996.
We think ... No, we're sure.
And, when you meet up with another photographer, you know what will happen eventually ...
Yes.
I
actually took my D500 with the 200-500mm lens and handheld a shot ...
No big deal.
Usually.
That said, I go into surgery on my neck in a few days (my birthday) and will
have three discs removed from my neck.
One of them has
been pinching a nerve in my right arm, that for two months now, has turned my arm into mush ...
I can't even type this without my fingers trembling ...
Unreal really.
But ... Yes, I took my 300mm
f2.8 with the 2X converter, and the 200-500mm f5.6 over to Jack's to see what we could come up with.
I even took my little Nikon W300 point-n-create camera with the small tripod
mounted on it because I just knew I couldn't hold "the big guns" ...
No worries ... I didn't even take it out of its case.
The above image is a blow-up of one of the shots I took ... Just the center section of the original image.
This is a test! Looking for sharpness, period.
True, I only took about six or eight shots total, but I was pleased with the results ...
Yes, I like the image, but that is not the point.
No, I REALLY like it because I am surprised at how sharp it is ...
Razor Sharp!!
That is a testament to Nikon's
VR capabilities ... Period.
Handheld.
Shot at 500mm, which, due to the DX cropped sensor, is equivalent to me hand-holding
(with one bum arm) a 750mm lens and getting a sharp image.
For
this old, 100 ASA film shooter ... That is just crazy. Unheard of. No way.
I like this lens.
Now, I can't wait until I
try this again, in ... Say a month or two, once I recuperate from my surgery ...
That
will be the Real Test.
For the lens ...
And, more importantly ...
For me.
Me, and my right arm.
My neck.
I just wish the doctors' could come up with this whole VR (Vibration Reduction) technology for us Old Photographers!
Maybe they can ...
I'm looking forward to finding out.
It was nice
to get off the couch ...
It was nice getting over to
Jack's ...
And it was really, really nice to hold a camera again.
Well, you know, a real camera. A camera bigger (and heavier) than my little
point-n-create Nikon W300, that is.
I look forward to
trying this whole lens test thing again in a month or so ...
And
getting off the couch.
And I think Jack was impressed
with the lens himself ...
I bet the next time I get over
there, he will have one himself!
It is THAT GOOD.
Jack tested, Jack approved.
What more is there?
Long Teeth Long Lens
As some of you know, I have had a "pain in the neck" for the past few months
... From the last week of January to today - Mid-March.
A LONG time ...
Doctors, x-rays, an MRI, more doctors, and a lot of pain killers.
Two
months ...
I will have surgery on my birthday!
Yeah, that is my life ...
I have three discs that are, well, messed-up.
Nothing new.
I didn't get mugged again. I didn't trip on a wire loop a second
time ...
Nope.
I just got, well,
you know ... Older.
I can remember nine years ago when I had my rotator-cuff
operated on ... My doctor off-handedly mentioned something about a bulging disc ... What?
That was nine years ago.
Well, anyways ...
I sit on the couch a lot now.
And yes, it is a given, I eat a lot
now too. But we won't get into that right now ...
No, we are going
to talk about teeth.
A long row of teeth photographed
with a long lens.
Why, you ask?
Because I have it set as my screen saver, and during all the commercial breaks,
this is the image I see ... I look at.
Every day. Every
hour. Every commercial.
That is why.
No, I didn't shoot it in this format.
I cropped it.
A long, skinny format for a long,
skinny set of crocodile teeth that I took down in The Everglades National Park earlier this winter.
One of my key concepts that I have stressed over the years is to keep you images
simple.
I hope you can see here that I follow my own
rules.
Another aspect of this image I want to mention
is the whole "negative space" thing going on ...
During
a commercial of Fixer-Upper, there I was, sitting in the living room looking at my croc image on my computer monitor ...
The lights were low, the image was glowing on the monitor ...
And it all just popped in my head ...
Black and white.
Teeth.
Shadow. White
triangles of teeth, echoed with black triangles of shadows. And another thing ... I was
intrigued by how the greenish mouth of the crocodile also mirrors the ups and downs of the triangles formed by all the teeth
and shadows ... Graphic shapes and colors found in nature ...
The croc was laying in the sun down by the boat dock. It wasn't going anywhere ...
Either was I.
I
got down to croc level (very important) and hand-held my big, heavy, Nikkor 200-500mm lens as steady as I could -- I used
my elbows as a "bi-pod", and fired away ... Ten frames per-second.
Let 'er rip!
I zoomed in as close as I could
(750mm equivalent). I got as close as I dared ... You know, so I wouldn't bother it. Made sure my aperture was wide-freakin'
open (it was, but I just wanted to let you know ...), made sure the background was "clean" (it was), and fired away.
With that long lens, I ALWAYS have it set at wide open when hand-holding it,
which, back when I had two good arms, I could.
To be
honest, I didn't think I could. Remember, I'm "Old School" and am used to shooting 100 ASA slide film ... You know, back in
the day.
Now, 400 ISO, even 800 ISO, doesn't scare me.
I have even shot at 1600 ISO, but not with this lens.
And let's not
forget VR ... Vibration Reduction. Very important.
It steadies your shot. You know, like magic.
Very Important (see, I
even capitalized it for you).
New technology lets me
play with new ways of shooting.
It took me awhile to
trust it, but here is proof.
A big, long, skinny image
of big, long, skinny teeth, shot with a big, long, and not-so-skinny, lens.
Commercials, gotta love 'em.
Red, White, and Blue
This winter, I found myself looking for a good Cuban flag image for twenty-four
hours ...
Never really found one I liked ...
Downtown Havana, out near Hemingway's house, nowhere ...
I looked. And looked ...
You know, Red, White, and Blue ...
Perfect colors
for a flag.
Anything ... A real flag, a sticker, a picture,
anything ...
I get zoned in on one thing and it drives
me nuts ...
Looking.
Time was up.
I boarded the ship after my second
People to People Tour.
We were leaving the harbor.
Havana, and Cuba, was slowly slipping away ...
I failed.
No flag image, you know, like
the one I had in my mind's eye ...
Nothing.
And, just like that, there it was ...
Right where I didn't expect it.
An old dock
with a faded Cuban flag painted on it ... I'll take it.
I
got my shot.
I got my image of Cuba, in red, white, and
blue, just as it was slipping away ...
Never give up.
My image of Cuba.
On the way out of the harbor.
Perfect.
I couldn't have asked for a better farewell.
Cuba.
Period.
Seeing Art
We all see differently. Which, if you think about it, is really quite strange.
And then again, it isn't.
I have been around
photographers for over thirty years now ...
I taught
college photography for over twenty years.
Seeing photographically
is the hardest thing to teach as an instructor.
It
is also the hardest aspect of photography to learn.
Pretty
tricky, really.
If you break things down, there are really just
two types of photographers:
1). The technician.
2). The artist.
That's it. Pretty simple.
Some people are real
good at knowing how a camera works. You know, shutter-speeds, aperture, and ISO. They know The Three Buttons, and they understand
how the three relate to each other.
They have a tripod.
They know what to do with it.
They have all the gear
-- You know, the cable release, all the filters you can ask for, and a huge backpack that weights way too much ...
You know, you see them all the time.
They are the "Gear
Heads" ... All the bells and whistles, and no clue as to what to do with them all. They just see other photographers with
them, and are lucky enough to be able to buy it.
Sounds good.
Then, there is the second type. The ones that show up to class with a little
point-n-shoot camera, no tripod, and have no idea as to what I'm talking about when I tell everyone to set their aperture
at f16 ...
Say what?
Yeah, but when it comes time to look at each other's images in class, you guessed it ...
Wow!
At the beginning of class anyway, it is
usually the "artist" that comes up the winner. Period.
Maybe
not as sharp (and, Lord forbid, maybe not even in focus!), not as well lit ... Not this, not that, but ...
Sweet.
Now,
yes, each type of photographer can, every once in awhile, turn out a winner ...
As they should, because each type has what it takes to become a good photographer, ahh, I mean, artist.
Truth is, in fact, that is what makes a good photographer; the blending of art
and technique.
That is what makes a photographer an artist.
You take your tools and your gear, and use them in an artistic way ... Magic.
Turn it around, and you have the same situation in any form of art there is ...
I can go out and buy a paint brush, an easel, a tube or two of paint, but that does not make me a painter, by any
means ...
And yes, I might know the words to a song,
but that does not make me a singer ...
Think about it
...
Art is a combination of "tools" and expression.
It is getting how we feel, or what we see, into a form that we can share
with others ...
Photographs, paintings, songs, books,
buildings, cars, quilts, websites, whatever ...
Yes,
even Blogs ...
That is art. That is the goal for any
artist. Period.
The above image
is one I took while walking the streets of Havana, Cuba.
Cuba
is an island.
Boats are all over the place. Makes sense.
Boats, like most things in life, need to be taken care of ... This is an image
of a boat, up on land, being taken care of.
As you can
see, it has been taken care of for a long, long time. Many years ... Many layers ... Many colors.
Many layers of color ...
This was just one, of maybe six or eight, small boats along the street near the port of Havana. I
was following our guide as we weaved our way among them while on a walking tour of the city.
I saw this. I stopped for this. I was drawn to this ... Not the whole "boat", no, just this section of the boat.
This "Part of the Whole".
The colors, THESE colors ...
Yeah, red, white, and blue. I'm an American. In Cuba.
Go figure.
Cuba
is hard to get into, as an American.
It took me 62 years
to get there.
For over fifty of those years, an American
could not get into Cuba.
Period.
Then we could.
Then,
just like that, things got a little trickier ... I'm not sure (no one is) what it will be like in a year, or two ...
Or even next week.
But I digress ...
This is what I "saw" when walking through this small group boats
...
America.
Cuba.
Oh, and yellow ... That small dab
of yellow, slapped down there among all the reds, whites, and blues ...
Lines. Shapes. Patterns. Colors. Repetition.
Art.
Not a boat. Not wood. Not a "thing". Not an object ...
Art.
We
all (well, you know, most of us) can see boats along the street. We made our way through them, no problem. But to actually
see "Abstract America" among the boats, well, that is different.
I read somewhere, or heard it, or something ... But one thing that sticks in my mind, as a photographer, is that
we must "learn to see like a lens, and think like a camera".
In
other words ... We must be able to see art in the first place, and then be able to capture it so that others are able to see
what we saw.
Simple, right?
No.
It was getting dark, I had to make sure
I had the ISO set to where I needed it. I had to have the right focal length set on my zoom lens, so that I could "Fill
the Frame".
Could I hold my camera steady with my bad
right arm?
All this became part of the image ... Combining my
passion for being out there in the first place, with all the technical aspects that go into capturing this
one, single, image of Cuba.
That is why I am
still out there. Why I do what I do, and go where I go.
And
why I buy another camera, another lens, another tripod, another ticket, another tour ...
I buy them, to turn my passion into art. Period.
Seeing art. Recording art. Capturing art.
And the most important "tool" you'll ever need as a photographer?
Passion.
I go on, and joke, saying it is about
the only thing you can't buy at Adorama ...
That is what
this image represents to me.
Passion.
Passion in paint.
Walking the streets of Havana.
Wow.
Cuba
OK, this is the second time
I've written this ... As you know, I made it to Cuba, pinched a nerve in my right arm, and have had a crazy time since getting
back.
My computer is giving me problems, I "lost" my
Cuba images from a bad SDHC card, found them, and now I just want to get this done before I go crazy.
I blame some of it to the pain killers I've been taking for a couple of weeks
now ...
Oh, I had an injection in my neck yesterday ...
And, yeah, going under the knife is in the near future ...
But
anyway ... CUBA!
This image was taken on my last PEOPLE
to PEOPLE tour I took in Havana.
See, you have to be
on a "official" tour if you want to experience Cuba on the special 24-hour Visa that the ship (Holland America) offers.
Works for me ...
The first day I took a trip to Ernest Hemingway's House, which was nice because it took us outside the city a bit,
and was a change of scenery and pace ...
The second morning,
I took the Havana Walking Tour. Very nice. Photographed kids having their gym class out in a city plaza ... Very nice for
a retired middle school teacher!
Then, they took us
to see a musical performed by a local acting group, something that, at first, was not high on my list ... But hey, turned
out it gave me one of my favorite images from Cuba! Perfect.
Now,
remember, my right arm was useless, I had taken off the battery grip, took one lens ... My "do-everything" 18-200mm 3.5-5.6
zoom lens ... And that was it.
Period.
Light. Simple. And slow ...
Yeah, that was a problem inside the little theater thingy we ended up in.
No problem. ISO. I just wound that puppy up to 1600, and went for it.
Dark stage, bright lights.
Another problem ...
To the unknowing, that is.
No problem. I had that covered
with one of my other buttons ... Yeah, you guessed it, Compensation.
Perfect.
MINUS.
I believe I ended up going with -1.7. No magic. Just set whatever you want, and see how it looks ... Usually, negative
something works, if that is a help. Yeah, it's that easy.
I
enjoyed the performance, shot like crazy. Relied on my VR magic, as I could barley hold the camera steady ...
Or so it seemed ...
It worked. With high ISO (1600), minus 1.7 compensation, and pure luck, I came away with this image, that I feel
gives a little insight into Cuban music and culture ... And history.
Got to love it when something actually works out.
24-Hours
in Cuba with one hand, and one image that takes me back to the place I have always wanted to experience.
Perfect.
Picture
perfect.
Be Prepared
I went on a little Winter Escape here a month or so ago ...
Down to Florida to visit my brother, place new sunflowers on my sister's grave, photograph in The Everglades, and
visit Cuba.
Yeah, Cuba. That one place I could never
go ...
That said, what do you pack? You know, camera
wise? Wildlife, landscapes, and EVERYTHING in between.
Nothing
new.
As a travel photographer for the past thirty something
years, I have a pretty good idea on what I want, and how I "see" ...
I have a "style".
What that really means is
that I shoot the same thing over and over in the same style.
Really.
That's how it works.
My vision.
I packed a lot.
From 10mm to 900mm (with the use of the 2X converter).
That covers a lot of territory.
And space in my Honda Element.
Plus my two Pelican
cases for my extra gear, you know, like my GOAL ZERO solar-powered panels and battery ... Good stuff for camping in The Swamp
for two weeks.
And one item that I don't really use that much, but when, and
where, you need it, it is a must.
Flash.
Or strobe, if you really want to sound like you know what you're talking about ...
I have the old, trusty, Nikon SB-600 in my bag at all times.
Think
of it as Magic.
I needed its magic to capture this image ...
OK, there I was, at Fort Jefferson, in Dry Tortugas National Park , getting
my National Park Passport stamped ... My goal is to visit them all ... There are still five or six I need to get
to ...
Anyway ... I was in the little bookstore/Ranger
Office thing, and there it was ...
A fish tank.
With these cool Lion Fish in there floating around like little angels ... Or,
what looked like very graceful lions.
Movement.
Black and White graphic movement ... Right in front of me.
And yes, I walked back out into the other room, and asked if it was alright
to take pictures inside ...
No worries.
Good.
See,
I would have loved to have gone snorkeling while I was there, but, you know ... January in Florida, is still January in Florida.
I wimped out and grabbed the SB-600.
BAM.
Underwater
photography above the water. I like it.
Slapped on the
40mm macro lens, held the strobe in my left hand up and to the side of the fish tank and ...
Waited for the magic to happen.
Oh, yeah ...
I set the camera to COMMAND MODE, made sure the flash
was set up on the same Channel, and fired away to make sure the camera and strobe were both "speaking Nikon".
They were: Same Group (A), same Channel (1).
Then ... Shoot, look, adjust, repeat.
SEVERAL shots.
One Fish, Two Fish ... White
Fish, Black Fish.
Sorry ... Couldn't help myself there
...
I had a riot.
Angle the flash up high, down low, 45 degrees, 90 degrees, whatever degrees ... Shoot, shoot, shoot.
Adjust my shutter-speeds ... Slower to bring up the "background" lights, or
faster, to darken the background light ...
As you can
see here, I liked the black background better ... The room was full of books, posters, etc ... A bit busy.
Get rid of it!
Or,
if you go back and look at my WINTER ESCAPE page, you will see I used a slower shutter-speed to highlight the colorful rocks
on the bottom of the tank.
Again, MAGIC.
Fast shutter-speeds kill the ambient light, and gives you that nice, clean, studio looking background.
And, hey, a black and white fish with a black background ...
Perfect.
Contrast.
That is what the fish, itself is, so why fight it? Black and white on black.
Works for me.
Contrast.
Fast shutter speed ... But, slow enough to give me that slight "Notion of Motion"
as it moves its whatever it is you call those "wing" things ...
He came right up to me and gave me this "intimidation look" ... Showing me who was boss. Kind of like puffing up
its chest to show its not afraid of some strange little Nikon thing ...
BAM! Got it.
The shot of the day ... Because
I was ready. I carried my backpack, I had the flash/strobe, and I had the right lens ... My macro, or what Nikon refers to
as Micro, lens.
Small. Light. Powerful.
Sweet.
And
there you have it.
Walk Quietly and Carry a Macro
Lens.
Be ready for wildlife images wherever you
happen to be, out in the wilds, or inside a Park bookstore.
And
yes, once you get the hang of it (I read about the Nikon CLS system on YouTube), it really does make your life easier.
"It does all the math for you". And trust me, as a retired EC Math Teacher,
I'll take, and need, all the help I can get.
Black
and White on black and white.
Just like this BLOG.
BAM.
Two Birds with One Lens
You all know I test every lens I get with a walk around Hudson, NC, my Home
Town, right?
Why, you ask?
In case I see a Rosette Spoonbill flying overhead when I actually make it out of Hudson, NC.
Of course.
Hand-held,
500mm (ahh, that is equivalent to 750mm back in the old days ...), and following the flight of the bird.
Did I mention hand-held? Yes I did.
Usually, I use a tripod. In fact, I did have the lens mounted on a tripod while photographing an osprey nest ...
But, once I see a pink dot in the sky headed my way, I take the camera off the tripod, turn on the VR (Vibration-Reduction),
and pan like a mad-man ... Following the bird as it flies across the sky.
Ten frames per second ... Fire at will.
I have my focus locked onto
the middle of the frame and just aim and shoot ... Wing flap by wing flap.
The
lens is large, but well balanced with the battery grip ... I am pleased with the results.
The bird was well off in the distance, but by zooming out while shooting, and zooming in while re-sizing for the
computer, I came up with this image.
Now true, all this technical stuff is
fine, if you are a tech-geek, but what I REALLY like about this image is the ...
What
do you think?
I mean, it is a pretty simple image, right?
Subject/Background. BAM, you're done.
Can't get much simpler
than that, right?
Bird/Sky.
Well, that is pretty simple, but it is not what I really, really like about this image.
COLOR.
Or more specific, the color combination.
Pink. Blue.
Classic.
Warm and cool colors.
Baby Blue, or Baby Pink.
They work together ...
Simple concept for a simple image.
Now, for
the second image ...
BAM.
I turned around, saw the osprey off in the distance, slapped the camera/lens back onto the tripod, and yes, I remembered
to turn off the VR ... Whew.
Zoomed back out ...
Wait for it.
Wait.
Got it.
This
is what I was there for ...
A "new" nest that I haven't
photographed before ... I counted seven osprey nests within a one-mile radius (or, you know, something like that) of the campground.
Osprey heaven.
Photographer
heaven.
BamBamBam, just like that.
I love this tree.
THAT is the image. That MAKES the image.
The
tree is my canvas, the osprey is my subject, and the branch, well, that is just what makes me do what I do. It is why I return
to The Everglades every chance I get.
Magic.
Serendipity.
Luck.
Call it what you may, it is why I enjoy
looking through a viewfinder.
One camera. One lens. One
spot. Two birds. One happy photographer.
Two different
types of wildlife images.
Two portraits.
"Regular" and "Environmental" portraits.
It works for animals, just as it does for humans ... And why not?
A portrait is a portrait ... That simple.
Just
like both of these "simple" portraits ...
Keep it simple,
even if the graphics allow for a wider view. It is something that I am always looking to do while out shooting.
Come on, I mean, I sit out there for hours watching these birds ... I shoot
LOTS of images ... I have a LOT of in-your-face close-ups, and I am always looking for a "different" view ...
Zoom-out.
Use
those "graphic elements" to give the viewer a different perspective.
One lens, two perspectives, two subjects.
It
is why I bought the lens in the first place ... Range and flexibility.
Glad I took the time to "practice" with the lens before I actually used it for real.
I knew I could hand-hold it, I put in the time ...
Perfect.
Serendipity
I don't think I've ever used this word in a real, you know, official sentence before ...
I like the word.
Even better, I like the meaning of the word.
There I was, sitting in my little camping chair, near an osprey nest at Eco Pond, down in the Everglades.
One of my favorite places to sit, and one of my favorite things to do.
I
first photographed birds down there in 1988. Been back several times since.
But, boy has it changed! This last hurricane really hit Flamingo hard. The store is closed, no gas, half of the campground
was flooded out, THE OSPREY TREE is gone ... Nothing there but a circle of dirt.
MY Osprey Tree. Are you kidding me?
Nothing.
Gone.
Crap.
That is the bad news ...
The good news is that
osprey are pretty good at building new nests ...
Yeah,
no problem there.
I counted them, well, you know, the
ones I could find, anyways ...
In a one mile radius of
Flamingo Campgrounds, I came across seven osprey nests.
Yeah.
Same osprey (I think), different nests. Different trees. They are something
else.
Anyway ...
There I was,
just enjoying my time with the birds ...
And this couple stopped,
and we started talking about, what else? Osprey. Birds.
And
cameras ... Yeah, of course.
He asked me if I've ever
photographed the Burrowing Owls up in Coral ...?
What?
Owls? In Florida?
Ahhh, no, I didn't even know there
were Burrowing Owls in Florida.
Owls?
Really?
Where?
Coral Gables? Cape Coral?
Something Coral ...
Crap. I should pay more
attention, I just heard "owls" and off I went ... My mind tends to wonder ...
I love owls.
I don't have any images of owls
...
My sister loved owls ...
Something Coral, no worries ...
Remember, I
now own a Smart phone ...
Burrowing Owls, Florida.
BAM, there it is ...
Cape Coral.
Near Fort Myers.
Which just so happens to be, close to, or, kind of close to, on the way to,
Clewiston, Florida. My "Headquarters in Florida". My Base Camp.
Where my younger sister is buried. The place I always stay when in Florida. They have a nice Wal-Mart ...
Guess where I headed once my two weeks in the Everglades was
up?
Correct.
Off I went ... With a short stop in Big Cypress National Preserve.
What? It's on the way ...
OK, I drove all the way there and ...
What?
Where are the owls? Is there a right way to do this? A place
to begin? A park? I drove around ...
OK, a CVS, perfect.
Yes, I asked the girl at the register ... Reminded me of asking an 8th grader to explain slope ...
What?
Yeah, I heard there were some owls around here somewhere ...
Oh yeah, you just drive around and look for them ...
She knew about
them ... They are famous.
Ahh, there are more Burrowing Owls in the town than
anywhere else in the United States.
Fact.
Really ...
And ... Yes, you just drive around and look for them in
the empty lots.
Are you for real?
She
was.
I drove around ...
I did
see some little, white, wooden stakes out in empty fields ...
But
no birds. None that I could see anyways ...
And the light
was getting good ...
But, I didn't see any owls.
Typed in Clewiston on my fancy, dancy, little GPS thingy on my phone, and off
I went.
I'm done.
STOP.
There, in an empty lot, a couple
of white stakes in the ground, and, sitting on top of some man-made little perch thing, an owl.
A cute little Burrowing Owl.
Ta-da.
In a field next to a doctor's office. Thirty yards from my Element.
Grabbed my camera with the 70-200mm f2.8 lens, and off I went ...
Shoot. Move closer. Shoot.
Careful ... Don't spook him.
No place to hide.
For either of us.
An empty lot.
Got my shots.
Backed off, went back to the Element.
Whew.
Cool.
Oh wait ... My 200-500mm wang-zoomer!!
Why not?
The owl is still there, starring at me, the sun is getting lower, better, sweeter ...
Perfect.
I grabbed the 200-500mm lens and off
I went ...
Perfect.
Oops! One shot and it hopped down, and then hopped over, to its burrow ...
Ahh, really?
What's more perfect, than perfect?
No "Human Touch" fake perch in my image.
A Burrowing Owl at its burrow.
Yes!
I couldn't believe my wish came true.
Yes, I really did wish it would hop down and go over to its burrow, but, you know, that never really works out that often
in real life ...
But, there it was. Just standing there,
staring at me. In nice light, with its big yellow eyes ... Just starring back at me.
Then looking around.
Then back at me ...
Shoot, shoot, shoot ...
Are you kidding me?
What? A ten, maybe twelve
inch, cute, little owl, with huge yellow eyes, just starring back at me ...
Next to its burrow.
Got it. Zoom in, and shoot
... And yes, at ten-frames per second.
Done.
Off I went. Well, after thanking the cute little bugger, that is ...
Back to Clewiston. Back to "my" Wal-Mart Parking Lot.
Perfect.
That
is why I do what I do.
Just sitting there, like, for
hours, watching osprey come and go ...
Talk about serendipity
... The fact that I would meet a man that knew about owls in Florida, while watching osprey, in The Everglades, and then,
showing up at the right "Coral" place, and, actually finding a Burrowing Owl sitting out in an empty field, marked off with
white stakes, just sitting on a post ...
No way.
Yes, way.
One
image.
One, CUTE, image, that is ...
My owl.
Yes.
Glad I actually talk to people every once in awhile.
You know, if I have to.
Rockin' Design
I like rocks.
Have for a LONG time. I have no
idea how I got into this ...
I have them in my apartment.
I had them in my classroom.
I like 'em.
I collect them.
I photograph them.
I like their design, their shapes, their colors.
While on a three
week expedition in one of the wildest places on earth, these are the shots I tend to overlook.
I mean, come on ... South Georgia. Thousands of penguins, thousands of seals ...
Like EVERYWHERE.
Easy images.
The obvious.
Antarctica? The Falkland Islands?
Ice. Birds. Penguins. Seals.
Wild.
This image is just the opposite. I must
have walked over thousands of these images every time we landed; usually twice a day, except when crossing The Drake
Passage.
Animals. Wildlife. Birds. Icebergs. Mountains.
Glaciers.
That is The Southern Ocean. That is what I
went there for.
Not rocks.
I mean, really, I have rocks in Hudson, NC.
That
said, this is one of my favorite images from the trip ... My "quiet" image.
And yes, I stole that phrase, that concept ... I will give NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC photographer, Sam Abel, credit
for that one. He is the master of it.
I just do
my best to tag-along in his wake ...
Art Wolfe.
Jim Brandenberg.
Galen Rowell.
I steal from them all ... I steal
their vision. Their style.
That is what we (I) do.
I have watched their DVDs, read their books, watched their TV shows, surfed
the internet, you name it ...
Actually walked into their
Galleries (well, most of them anyways) ...
I go to museums
...
Like, all over the world. London. Paris. Berlin.
Athens. Moscow. Cairo. Copenhagen. Hickory. Lenoir.
I
look at art.
Granite Falls Middle School art classes.
No, really.
Looking
at art is the key to growing as an artist.
I'm watching
a NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TV show as I'm typing this ... Polar Bears up in Franz Joseph Land.
Set your camera up. Leave it. Hop in a raft, and trigger the camera from a safe distance as the bear comes up and
tries to eat it ...
Simple.
Or,
not so simple.
Try something new.
Look
up.
Look down.
Capture the obvious,
then begin to really look ...
See.
Slow down.
Look.
See.
See the graphic design in whatever it is that is
around you ...
The big things are easy.
It is the little things that are hard to find, hard to see ... Hard to photograph.
Again, the key is to S-L-O-W-D-O-W-N ...
Yeah, I know ... Time.
On some of these trips
I take, it is, an hour here, two hours there ... Move, move, move ...
A new place every day ...
But ...
Even on a trip like that, I try to shoot like a mad-man, check everything out,
then ...
Stop.
Slow down.
Take a closer look.
If I have an hour ... I go, go, go for forty-five minutes ... Then, slow down.
I know what is around me, what is what, and go from there.
Go back.
Go
off on my own ...
Look.
See.
This is how this image came about.
We landed, we had an hour, or whatever, I can't remember ... They gave us some
time frame, I used every minute of it ...
Go, go, go.
Shoot, shoot, shoot.
Then head back, get close to where
I needed to be, then S-L-O-W-D-O-W-N ...
And then look
down ...
The image I had in my head, was actually
at my feet.
Funny how that works out sometimes ...
Now, remember, there are MILLIONS of stones on the beach ... Millions.
Where to begin?
Simple.
Design.
Design elements: Lines, shapes, colors, patterns, repetition, and texture, to name a few ...
Start there.
Look.
What caught my eye in this image?
Take a wild guess ...
Yeah, scroll back up and
look at it. Or, better yet, can you remember?
Yeah.
The lines. The contrast. The shapes.
But yeah ... The Lines.
I had it. That simple.
Then, I just framed it up, tried to keep the lens parallel to the rocks (for
better focus AND better depth-of-field coverage), and fired away.
And yes, I checked my exposure ... Lot of dark rocks, want to make sure my Blacks were black, and my Grays were gray,
and my Whites were, well, you know, white.
Check, check,
check ...
And with time not on my side, what do you think
I did?
Yeah ... Shoot, adjust, shoot, adjust. Bam. Bam.
Bam.
Done.
Remember ... Shoot first, "chimp" later ... The zodiacs are waiting!
"Be quick, but don't hurry".
Yeah, I actually
thing of these things while I'm shooting ... They pop into my head.
I kid you not.
You know, after watching those
darn Art Wolfe DVDs all those years, I would be walking along, and BAM, there it was ...
An image in my head. A scene I had seen before ... Deja-Vu all over again ...
Now, true, it was NOT the same place, the SAME subject, the SAME anything, but it was, sort of, kinda ...
The same.
Only
different.
I stopped, slowed down, and tried to put the
puzzle together in my head, and then in my viewfinder ...
That
is how I "see" images.
They start in my head.
They end up in my viewfinder.
BAM. Got it.
Then I try a different angle, a
different perspective. An inch here, an inch there ... A DIFFERENT image.
A different image of the same thing.
Think about
it.
That is what we do.
The same subject, different views.
Art.
Look for it. Hunt for it. Take your time with it. And then move, and start all
over again.
But don't miss your ride out of there!
Shoot, shoot, shoot.
Make the most of what you have.
And giggle all
the way back to where ever it is you came from.
With
your image.
Your art.
Perfect.
Any Questions?
This animal is a seal.
It is a large animal.
It has a LOOOONG nose.
Someone, way smarter than I am,
named it The Elephant Seal.
Genius.
It doesn't actually look like an elephant, but I can see where this person came
up with the name ...
I saw several of them on my trip
to The Southern Ocean. South Georgia and Antarctica ... Can't remember if I saw one on The Falkland Islands, or not.
Thinking ...
Nope, can't remember. I don't think I did. I remember
the sand ... Penguins nesting in the sand, the wind, standing among the albatross, holding my camera to within a foot
or so of one albatross sitting on its nest ...
But no Elephant Seals
...
I believe I photographed this one on South Georgia.
And yes, this image is cropped. I did not get this close. You don't want
to get this close.
Period.
To me, this image shows you all you need to know about an Elephant Seal.
The "trunk", or nose ...
It LOOKS like an elephant's
trunk. Period.
The way it is curled up ... That was what
I was missing on my first thirty, fifty, whatever the number, of images of an Elephant Seal.
It is a BIG nose, yes, but it never actually looked like a "trunk", until he lifted his head and curled that trunk
up like this ...
I think it is a male anyways ...
And the teeth ...
Never really saw them before either. I just knew we were told not to mess with them. Period.
Did I mention that they are quite large?
Although, this one, was actually one of the smaller ones ... A young one, trying to show off, telling
me to keep my distance.
I did.
They don't like photographers. Or maybe it is just people in general, I don't
know.
As you can tell, I'm no expert.
True, I did sit in on a lecture given by one of the ship's Naturalists that
studies them all over the world, but, that was after I took this image ...
But what I do know about them, is all right there in this one image.
Big.
Fat.
Long nose.
Sharp teeth.
And they fight a lot ...
Yes, you can see proof of this in the image ... Those cute little "dots" all over its neck are not spots, or freckles
...
No, they fight. Their teeth are sharp. They bite
each other. Those marks are scars ...
They "stand up" (the adults can get their heads up to about eight feet), smash into each other, and bite away
at their adversary's neck ...
Sumo style ... Well, except
for the whole biting thing ...
And yes, they start their
training at a very young age, always trying to 'one up" their siblings, friends, neighbors, etc ...
Strange animals. Strange looking animals ... And their nose does look like an
elephant's trunk, if you can get them to lift their heads off the ground and yell at you ...
They are pretty cool, in a special (different) kind of way.
In fact, I hope to drive out to California this winter, and see the North American version of them wintering along
the Pacific Coast.
That is, if it ever stops burning
out there ... I'll have to wait and see.
But I am now
a "big fan" of the Elephant Seal, which, to tell you the truth, even to me, is a bit weird.
I mean ... Of all the animals I photographed on the trip ... The Elephant Seal?
Really?
I guess so.
March of the Penguins
I learned to march at Parris Island in March of 1976.
It is hard to explain how it felt when a "herd" of "slimy civilians" learned how to move as a unit ... One platoon,
one mind, one command, one move, together, as one ...
I
can hear it now ... Forty something years later: "FOR-WARD (pause), HUGUH!!" ... And no, I can't really spell it the way it
sounded ... It was NOT "March"!
It's a Marine thing
... I love it.
We knew what it meant ... And no, we didn't
ask the Drill Instructor to translate it for us ... We moved as one (after a while) ... Perfect.
You had to be there ...
On the first day of training, Marines always line up by height ... Tallest to shortest. I started out towards
the back end. By the second week, I was moved to the front.
I
became a Squad Leader. For good, or bad, I was given just enough power to get myself in trouble (I managed to make it all
the way to the end -- Three months ... Whew!).
You
should see the pictures ... There I am, up front, with three other guys, six-foot something, on each side ... And behind me
... Surrounded by giants ... Marching away (I'm 5'7.5 at best - In my boots!).
It was a trip!
One day, a month later,
when we were out at the rifle range, and I had just turned 21, I was ordered to march the platoon (PLT 225) from the range,
back to the barracks ...
"Sir, yes sir".
Are you kidding me? I was stoked ...
Oh yeah ... We felt like we were pretty good, at that point in our training, and I had a blast ... I will never forget
it ...
We marched in four columns ... But we had
just learned this new move ... To go from four columns to two ... It was pretty cool ...
"Column of Dittles, From the Middle" ...
I
swear, I didn't come up with the name, but it was cool ...
On
command, the two outer columns of recruits (1 and 4) would peel off and circle back behind the two middle
columns (2 and 3) and continue on like nothing happened.
Sweet.
We had just learned it, and it was something we didn't practice every day ...
But there I was ... Marching the platoon back to the barracks ...
And I came up with this wild command, just as we were headed towards the stairs ...
"Column of Dittles, From the Middle, AARCH! And in we marched ...
Unreal. They curled around and marched right up the stairs ... In perfect step!
Never missed a beat!
I believe the Drill Instructors
were even in awe. I knew I was! It was something.
I loved
it.
"Oohh-Rahhh". "Get Some".
Anywho ... Forty-one years later ...
Here I was, on South Georgia, getting ready to get back in the zodiac, and head back to the ship ... And right along
the beach, here they came ...
The March of the Penguins
...
"LLLEEFT ... LLEFFTT ... LEFFTT RIGHT ... LEFFTT"
... Or whatever penguins say ...
I swear I could hear
'em shouting as they approached us ... They were good.
Marched
right up to us ... "EYEES RIGHT" ... They looked at us, paused just a bit, and on they went ...
I felt I was on back on Parris Island, instead of South Georgia Island ...
As I took this photo, I swear, that was what I was thinking about ... In fact, I believe I even counted cadence
as they walke-- I mean, MARCHED, right through my lens ...
Funny
how that happens ... You see something in your lens, and it takes you back to somewhere, or something, else ...
That is why I do what I do, and go where I go ...
One thing I wanted to bring up here is the fact that I took this image with one of my favorite cameras - EVER.
You know which one ...
The weather-proof, water-proof, do everything camera ... The one I ALWAYS carry with me.
Yeah ... Antarctica, South Georgia, The Falklands.
Perfect.
See, you don't just get up, open the door, and walk out to these places ...
No. No. No.
You
have to get into a moving zodiac while carrying your camera gear ...
Did you pick-up on the whole "moving" thing?
Yeah.
Up and down ... Like, three, four, feet at times ... Water. Ocean. Waves. Saltwater. COLD
saltwater ... Up and down, up and down ...
While you
are trying to step into a moving rubber raft thingy ... Up and down. UP and DOWN. Big time.
I don't think you can come up with a worst-case scenario than that, when dealing with camera gear ...
I packed in all into my Lowe-Pro, with the All-Weather cover wrapped around
it, and handed that to the "helpers" that are there to help us ...
Yeah, we needed help, trust me.
One woman
found out that it is not always a given ... She slipped. Yes, they "caught" her, but , meanwhile, the raft was rammin'
up against her, as the waves came and went ...
Not pretty.
Dangerous.
I put my cameras away.
Every time.
That
said ... YES! The Nikon AW100 was always within reach ...
For
this image, I had just packed up my camera gear ...
And
here they come. Crap.
Set the backpack down ... Brought
out The Secret Weapon.
Got my image ... Like ... Lefft,
Rightt, Lefttt ... That fast.
Bam. Bam. Bam.
OK, not "perfect" ... This camera is not a DSLR; what you see is not what you
get ... There is a little "wiggle room" in there, and you sometimes have little odds-n-ins in the final image that you don't
want ...
I did.
There was a
person way off on the left ... He had just placed his Go-Pro camera on the beach, to record the same little "Marching Penguins" parade that I saw coming ...
Must
have been a Marine as well.
But, even if he was ... CROP!
CROP! CROP!
Just "cleaned it up" a bit ...
Yes, if you look closely, you can still see the Go-Pro. I left it in ...
Ahh, you know ... "Reality". Photo reality. Real life.
Plus ... I just might look into a Go-Pro for myself. No. Stop. Stop it ...
Maybe.
But
anyways ... I got my image in about two minutes. I grabbed my bag, and was ready to go ... You don't want to hold up the production
of getting into the zodiacs ... It is not as bad as it is on the ship ... You actually just walk up, rinse off the boots
in the water, and "feet towards the ocean", you swivel on your butt, and get in, and slide down (NO WALKING!) ...
Little camera around my neck!
Easy.
Now
where was I?
Oh yeah, Parris Island.
Forty-one years later ... From one island to another ...
"Column of Dittles, From the Middle" ...
The Power of Photography.
The power of memories
...
Semper Fi
1,000 and Counting ...
Took a few years, but I finally reached over 1,000 "Likes" on National Geographic's YOUR SHOT, with this image of
two Northern Gannets taken in Quebec, Canada, way back in the Summer of 2014.
It is my one and only (out of 2,970) image to make it to THE DAILY DOZEN.
Every day, Monday through Friday, a National Geographic photo editor goes through the thousands of images and picks
a dozen to post on one page.
If you do not post any of
your images on National Geographic's YOUR SHOT, you should.
It
is free, and you can upload 15 every week, Sunday to Sunday. Besides being free, it is easy -- Even I manage to do it every
week.
People from around the world take part in it, and
it is great to see other people's vision.
There is some
great work being shown that is worth looking at. That said, no matter what your skill level is, you will get something out
of it.
That is the main reason I taught photography all
those years ... Being around other photographers, seeing their work, their take on life, made me a better photographer.
I called it SHARED VISION.
Check out YOUR SHOT ... Add some images, you never know what you will come across among the MILLIONS of
images on the site.
While I'm at it, I will also mention
FLICKR, another site on which I download images. Once I finish downloading my 15 for the week on YOUR SHOT, I turn around
and download them to FLICKR.
I like it. It makes me feel
good that I'm not the only bad speller in the world ...
That
easy, and almost, that quick.
You shoot 'em, you might
as well show 'em ...
And yes, I'm sure you can tell me
ten other sites that you can download your images to ... I'm sure there are hundreds.
And that is a good thing.
I like YOUR SHOT,
and I hope to see your shots on there soon. My last few years at the college, I made it part of curriculum ... 15 images
by the end of the 16 week class ...
I know, I know ...
Too easy.
But hey, I did see some nice images added
to the site, and it showed the college that I actually did give them some work to accomplish during the semester ...
You know, like a real college class.
I was having so much fun, sometimes I forgot about the whole "college thing".
Go to the site and download some images today!
Get your
shot, on YOUR SHOT.
When is the Best Time to Shoot a Vertical Image?
As you know, I never really come up with any real good photographic tid-bits
on my own ...
No, I steal 'em.
All that I am about to write, I have stolen. Plain and simple (yeah, even the
whole "plain and simple" thing).
I can't help myself.
In this case, I actually do know who I stole it from, and want to give him a
big Shout-Out!
Bryan Peterson (Oh crap. I don't think
that is how he spells Bryan, I'll have to check. And while I'm at it, I'll check the whole Peterson thing too).
He is the "You Keep Shooting" guy from Adorama TV, that writes books,
leads workshops, and posts You-Tube videos from around the world with great tips for becoming a better photographer. Period.
A great teacher.
I came across him years ago, and have been checking up on his videos ever since.
Crazy guy.
Known for his great knowledge, his
many photo books, his sense of humor, and his wild hair ... Not necessarily in that order.
Check him out ... "Google Him".
He is the one
that taught me this great line, about when is the best time to take a vertical image?
That's right.
Think about it.
How many horizontal images do you have, compared to vertical ones?
See, I know ...
I have shot for years ...
And more importantly,
I taught college photography for years ...
I have seen
all my images (of course), and I see a lot of my students' images ... From slides and prints, all the way to digital images,
both projected on the screen, and made into prints (plus, on computer and phone screens).
Lots of images.
And MOST OF THEM are what? Go
ahead, take a guess ...
Horizontal.
"Landscape".
You're
human, it makes sense.
When we look out over a landscape,
we see the "horizon" ...
Left to right. Or, for
some, right to left.
That is how most of us hold
the camera, again, MOST OF THE TIME.
So, yes, we shoot
most of our images in the horizontal format.
It's easy.
That's what we do.
So, to answer the question about vertical,
again, take a guess ...
When is the best time to take
a vertical picture?
Wait for it ...
Wait ...
"Right
after the horizontal one".
Ta-da!
Brilliant.
I
love it.
And yes ... I follow my own advise, which I
stole, and actually think of that line, and say it, when I am out there shooting ...
Really.
Not out loud (most of the time), but,
you know, in my head ...
I think it.
"When is the best time to take a vertical shot"?
"Right after the horizontal shot".
I mean, how
cool is that? How easy is that?
So, there I was ... Out
behind City Hall in Hudson, talking to myself as usual ...
Now,
to be honest, I "see" this shot as a horizontal image ... I shot it that way. The way I "saw it in my head". The "right way".
The "correct way".
The set of trees, the windmill ...
Shoot, shoot, shoot (you know I never just take just one ...).
Then, after asking myself the question, about when is it the best time to take a vertical image? I flipped my
camera and took a few vertical images ... You know, just for fun.
Because I could.
Shoot. Shoot. Shoot.
Now, yes, I did this a LONG time before I ever even heard of Bryan Peterson
... Let's be honest here.
I worked for newspapers and
magazines back in the day ...
To an editor, it was like,
the "best image" is the image that best fits the space on the page ... Be it a newspaper, or a magazine.
I was reminded to give the editor several choices so that they could work the
image in any where they could.
And of course, the best
reason was, yes, you guessed it ...
Money.
If you wanted any chance at all to make the cover of OUR STATE magazine, for
example, you better slip a few vertical images in there somewhere ...
The cover needed to be a vertical image.
A "double
truck" image on the inside (double page), needed to be horizontal ... It was that simple.
Shoot both, let the editor pick and choose.
Both
paid well, but the cover paid more.
Not that I would
ever fall into that greedy way of thinking ... No way!
But,
I learned fast, that the best time to take a vertical, is right after the horizontal ... More options for the editor.
And to some ... More chances to make more money.
Whatever works on the page.
The Art of the
Publication.
Makes sense.
Shoot it both ways, let the editor decide.
So,
even though I don't shoot for OUR STATE magazine any more, I still ask myself "THE QUESTION" every time I'm out there shooting
...
"When is the best time to shoot a vertical"?
And now, you too, can talk to yourself every time you are out shooting ...
And thank me later.
You know, after I thank Bryan Peterson, and all the newspaper and magazine editors I stole it from in the first place.
That is photography. That is how to become a better photographer.
Steal advise and shoot like crazy.
Just don't forget to flip that camera up every once in a while. You know, just to give you more options later on
... For whatever reasons.
And if you ever get caught
talking out loud with a camera in your hand ... Don't blame me, I stole it from Bryan Peterson.
Blame him!
White Windmill
When it snows in Hudson, North Carolina before Christmas, you know you are in for a treat.
Very rare.
So,
when it started snowing on a Friday afternoon, I knew I had to get out there fast, before it all disappeared ... Which it
does very quickly.
So, Saturday morning I was out there
early ...
Windmill Park.
I have photographed there a lot over the past twenty something years ... Every semester with my college class, and
... Just about every time I obtained a new piece of photographic equipment ...
Which, if you know me, happens way too often.
Like,
a lot.
So yes, I have made images in Windmill Park many,
many, times ...
After all, it is in the neighborhood
...
Dressed in white ... Now, I must say, I can't remember
seeing it like this ... White on white on white.
With
the new 200-500mm f5.6 VR lens, I couldn't wait.
And
did I mention it snowed?
I walked around out back of
the City Hall and knew I had something ... I mean, it doesn't look like this very often. In fact, I can't remember seeing
it like this before.
Especially in December.
Yeah. December 8th I think ... EARLY. I mean, I always joke and say winter
doesn't come to Hudson until mid-February ... Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday.
As a former school teacher, it always seemed to come right around our three-day weekend in order to give us a few
more days.
Perfect.
But this year ... Early.
I got my image. White
on white.
And yes, all I had to think about was ...
Compensation.
Plus.
Plus. Plus.
Gray on Gray is not the same as White
on White.
Plus One (+1).
Easy. Plus one, and start from there.
I mean,
you can't get more white than this ... Well, no ... There is a bit of brown ...
So, what? +0.7? +0.3? 0.0?
Don't worry about
it ... Shoot 'em all, ask questions later! Shoot, shoot, shoot ... It's easy.
Compensation and ... Composition.
It is
not all rocket-science ... There is that whole aspect of ART we can't forget about.
Two-thirds trees, one-third windmill.
Two-thirds
white, one-third sort-of-white.
Where do you place that
windmill to make a pleasing composition?
Again, shoot
like crazy, mix it up, and answer silly questions later ...
It doesn't happen often ... Shoot, shoot, shoot ... You never know when your next chance will be.
Well, not until the next "snow storm" in Hudson, NC. Three or four inches overnight
...
And gone the next day.
Perfect.
Can't wait until the next time ...
Little Points of Color
I'm not an expert on art history, but I did live near Chicago, went to an "Art School", and walked through The Art
Institute many, many, times (It was free on Tuesdays).
Heck,
I even taught "ART 261" at the college for over twenty years ...
Art.
I'm an artist. My art is photography ...
I take pictures.
And I had fun today walking around Hudson,
North Carolina in the snow ... More snow than I actually saw falling at any one time in Antarctica.
Wonderful.
And
you know, at times like this, I sometimes, get into this whole, frame filling, abstract, edge to edge, snow and color
thing ...
I knew I had seen this "look" before (Lord
knows I have never came up with anything artsy on my own), but I was really clueless as to who I stole it from ...
Then I figured it out ...
A couple of years ago, I bought another (one of many) Art Wolfe book: The Art of the Photograph, and ...
BAM!
I
remembered ...
I ran upstairs and found the book.
George Seurat.
"Little
Points of Color" ...
That's what I saw when I was walking
down the street in the snow.
A tree covered in snow ...
With most of the leaves gone.
But ...
A few just hanging on for dear life ... That's when I knew I was on to something:
"Little points of color"
I knew I had an image in there somewhere ... Once I knew that, I started looking closer, trying to isolate my "canvas"
and fill it in with, yeah, you guessed it:
Little Points
of Color.
Got it.
And thanks to Art Wolfe, I now know who to give the credit to ...
And, it was just driving me nuts.
That's what
it really boiled down to ... I had to find out who I was thinking of.
My new, all-time favorite, abstract image of ...
Little Points of
Color
Snow Day!
Bam.
As simple as that ...
You know you have an early winter in the Foothills of North Carolina, if
snow interrupts The Fall Colors.
Period.
These Bradford Pear trees are just outside my front door ... I have lived here
since 2004. This is the ONLY time I could have ever captured this image (Yeah, the bottom one) ... 8 Dec 2017.
Crazy.
True,
many Bradford Pear trees have lost their leaves, or most of them anyways ... There is one up the hill that is just about empty.
I believe (and I'm really going out on a limb here ... Tee-hee) that the trees
in my front yard still have 93.748% of their leaves because I live at the bottom of a small hill ...
Elevation.
Maybe.
Works for me.
But, just as the Fall Colors are in
full swing ... BAM!
All that color covered in white
...
Perfect.
I knew I had an image before I even parked the Element ... I saw the image in my head.
Again ...
And yes, I just happen to have a camera,
mounted on a tripod, ten feet from my door as I walk in ...
What?
You don't?
And another one on top of my desk where I'm
sitting right now ... Like three feet from the first one.
I
like to take pictures ... Be prepared. Be ready ...
For
when it snows, for example.
You never know ...
True, I had heard it was going to get cold this weekend ... But snow? The first
week in December? No way. Not a chance, well, no, maybe up on the mountain ... Maybe.
Yeah, but even that is still early.
And it is
still snowing ...
And it is supposed to snow tomorrow
as well.
Crazy.
I just got done telling my sister that ...
That's
it.
My sister! And my brother-in-law!
For the first time ever, they moved down to North Carolina, from Up-State New
York (Richland), for the winter ... "Snow Birds".
The
Snow-Belt. Like I told my middle school students for years ... They get REAL SNOW.
It is because of them ... I know it!
Great!
I love this new image ...
Perfect.
Lake-Effect Snow (Lake Ontario) in Hudson, NC.
Works for me ... Let it snow.
Makes for some
great images, and it will be gone before I can get enough images ...
That's why I live where I live. See, as a kid, I shoveled snow ... Every year. Every year, for five months out of
the year ... And no, no snow-blower for me ... We're talking Old School, dinky little, snow shovel. For like what?
Ten years ... 1966 (6th grade) to 1976 (Joined the Marines). Ten years of shoveling snow ... Sometimes three or four feet
per shot ... Big time New York Lake Effect snow ...
And
I haven't shoveled it since. Oh, wait, yes I have ... GFMS in 1994 ... No, that was more like chopping up the layer of
ice on the sidewalks and stairs ... You can still see the marks I made in the cement. Really, I kid you not ...
Where was I?
Oh,
yeah ... My newest Bradford Pear Tree image ...
Fall
Colors with a touch of snow ...
Perfect.
And more coming tomorrow ...
Even better.
And no, I haven't owned a snow
shovel since ... Yeah, 1976.
Snow day tomorrow. And yes,
I know it will be a Saturday ...
But I just enjoy saying
"Snow Day" ... Brings back those fond memories of teaching ... Being a teacher ... I love it.
Snow Day!
**
Snow Day Update
24-Hours later ... The Snow is gone.
The trees are, once again, bare ... That is why I live where I live. Period.
Snow Abstract
The first snow of the year ... Not counting Antarctica.
And for Hudson, North Carolina ... Wow! Are you kidding me?
8 Dec 17
No way ...
Snow in December? Crazy. Very weird if you ask me ...
But, yeah ... And of course I had no idea it was coming. I mean, I was even at the middle school today, and the kids
were acting ... Well, you know, normal.
For middle school
kids.
On a Friday.
I was clueless (nothing new there).
I didn't
watch the news.
I don't listen to the radio.
I don't check the weather on my computer.
I don't have a "smart phone" ...
But I did have
my cell phone with me (I don't wear a watch, so I never know what time it is when I'm helping the students).
And, so there I was, reading about some wizard, and the phone rings ...
I jumped ... What? Oh, that's my phone.
My phone ringing?
Now that is weird.
My sister called and was the one that told me about the snow in the mountains
... What? Already?
No way.
Yes way. We cancelled our family dinner planned for the night ...
It wasn't snowing ...
Then, later on, I got
home, looked out the window ...
Grabbed my camera.
Then grabbed the other one ...
First, the one with the 200-500mm lens (fun), then other with the 18-200mm lens.
This image was taken five feet from my door, with the 18-200mm lens set at 200mm. f5.6. 1/320th of a second.
ISO 200. +0.7 compensation (helps keep the whites white).
A
dogwood tree wrapped in white ...
White lines.
Gray lines. Black spaces. And more lines, lines, lines ...
Shapes.
Contrast.
The
art of twisted, white, gray, and black lines, edge to edge ...
The Abstract Art of Snow Lines.
An abstract
winter line drawing held within a rectangular frame.
That
is the trouble with photography ...
Even if I wanted
to, and I do, I can not draw outside the lines ... Outside of that rectangle. Darn.
But, I do what I can ...
And it is all right
outside my door, which just so happens to be a rectangle, which is also the shape of a box, so ...
I did all this by drawing with light, outside my box, but within my lines ...
What?
Something
like that ...
Really? Snow?
The 8th of December.
In North Carolina.
Let it snow, let it snow,
let it snow ... We'll figure it all out later.
It is
still snowing ...
More lines, more shapes, more cold,
more snow, more ...
Images.
Ice cold images.
Art.
Kids and Pets ...
There is a saying in photography, and I used to say it to my students in class, that if you want to start a studio
business, start with photographing kids and pets ...
"Kids
and pets, you can't go wrong". I mean, really, what parent doesn't want images of their kids ... And their pets?
Yeah, I know, a sure bet.
Well, I don't have a studio to worry about (and I don't want one), but I did think of this when I was on South
Georgia, and this group of penguin chicks were all lined up in front of me just looking ...
Ahh, looking cute!
That was what I thought of
... My own advise.
"Kids and pets, you can't go wrong".
I started shooting ... Ahh, I mean, taking pictures.
Little brown fur balls that look nothing like what they are going to look like
when they grow up. Kind of like me in the second, or third, grade. Or for that matter, sixth or seventh grade ... Or,
ninth, ten ... Well, you know, you get the picture (Well, no, I got rid of all of them - I hope).
I taught middle school for over twenty years, and then had a few of them take my college photography class ...
Yeah, some, I had no clue who they were ...
But anyways ...
This image.
Once I got down at their level - which is a good thing to do - And got that
first, "regular" shot, I started really looking around ...
True,
I could SEE them, ah, they were right in front of me, maybe four, five feet ... But that is only the first step ...
I started looking for shapes, details, something graphic, that would catch my
attention, so that I could "hone in" on it, whatever that "it" may be ...
I don't know what it is, until I see it ...
Yes,
I know they are penguin chicks, and yes, I know they are photographic, all on their own, and once I get "that shot" (the obvious),
that is when I really start looking ... Visual Diggin'.
Not
so much what "the subject" is, but what is taking form in my viewfinder ... What shapes, lines, patterns, contrast ... Anything
that enhances the main subject of the image.
BAM!
I saw the shapes ...
The triangles, when the two chicks lined up, sort of back to back ... One looking right, the other facing left ...
That's it ... Triangles. I fired away ...
Shapes. Texture. Light. That was what I photographed ... What I saw in my viewfinder.
Look at the upper right corner ... Remember, it is not always the shape of just the "subject" ... But
what shapes are formed within the rectangle of the viewfinder?
Your "canvas" on which you "paint with light"?
Yes,
the subject (penguin) can have shapes as well, such as the triangle formed by its beak, and that is nice, but look at your
over-all "canvas" you have to work with ... The rectangular viewfinder.
Look for shapes there as well. They are, after all, part of "The Image" ... The whole photograph. How do they work
with the subject, or subjects?
The "Inter-Play" of space
within the viewfinder ... That is the key. How do they "play off one another"? That is the question you, the artist,
should be asking yourself before pushing that button ...
The
Art of the (Penguin) Chicks.
Seeing these shapes,
textures, lines, forms, light, whatever, and how well they work together, is the key ...
Then, capturing "your vision" is the next thing, the technical stuff:
The focal length of the lens.
The aperture.
The distance to the subject.
The SHAPES.
The shapes within the viewfinder
while you are in there, "diggin' around visually" ...
That
is what I do, or in this case, did ...
Find my subject
("Kids and pets, you can't go wrong"), find my light (what kind of light? How will it effect my subject?), find my angle of
view (What lens? Where do you put that lens?), and find my shapes ... My textures ... My lines, my art ...
That is what I'm really photographing ... Not "just" the cute little fuzz balls
that are in the viewfinder ... To become a better photographer, and artist (same thing), you have to take it one
step farther ...
How are they placed in that viewfinder?
Work on the composition of "your masterpiece" ...
Look for the design elements within the frame.
I knew I "couldn't go wrong", just because ... Duh? I was there, with my subjects, and my camera in my hands
... And the "right lens", the "right aperture", the "right ISO", the right light (backlighting), at the "right distance",
and at the "right height", to get the "right image".
Too
easy.
The camera: Nikon D7000.
The lens: Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VR, set at 200mm.
The aperture: f2.8.
ISO: 400 (Yeah, I know ...
But remember, I was hand-holding this, movin' around ...).
The
distance: Close, real close (they walk up to you).
The
height: As short, or as tall, as the subject ... In this case, short. Get down there!
The light: PERFECT. Backlighting, to bring out that "rim lighting", or "halo effect", on the fuzzy brown fur.
And speaking of the light ... Notice how important that
"rim light" is in giving the two baby chicks "separation" between them. Very important to the overall image.
Simple, right?
Yeah
...
"Penguin chicks and triangles, can't go wrong".
Every Picture Tells a Story ... Don't
it?
Gentoo penguin with a stone in its mouth.
Weird.
And
why only half of him? Or her?
Again, weird.
Kind of a neat picture; snow, bird, stone. Period.
A color image of a black and white (and orange) bird in white snow, with a black stone in its beak ...
I mean, come on, just the fact that it's a penguin is kind of cool ...
Half buried in snow? Again, kind of cool ...
And no, I'm not trying to come up with this cool pun thing ... Although, that too, would be kind of cool ...
This image tells a story ... One I learned about watching Art Wolfe
DVDs in my college photography class at the college (See? Even the instructor learns something at college).
Over and over again ...
Penguins live in Antarctica, among other places, in The Southern Hemisphere. Yes, they are found in at the southern
tip of South Africa and South America, even on the South Island of New Zealand, and, believe it or not, as far north
as The Galapagos Islands, which, being on the equator, still pretty much places them in the Southern Hemisphere ...
But, if you want to get picky, I'll give you the Northern Hemisphere as well
...
But you know what I mean ... They DO NOT live at
the North Pole, Alaska, Canada, Finland, Siberia, etc ... Anywhere north of The Galapagos Islands.
It's a Southern thang ...
But, they do like snow (a Northern thing).
And,
if you check out my images, you will see they manage somehow in blowing sand on The Falkland Islands.
Blowing sand? Say what?
Now that is just crazy ...
But I digress ...
This image ... Walking in snow up to its waist ... With a stone in its mouth.
The Rest of the Story:
See, they walk in paths
cut into the snow. Same path every day. Up to the chicks, back to the water, up to the chicks, back down to the water ...
Over and over again ...
They cut a path. That is why you only see half a penguin.
Simple.
And now, what about that stone
in it's mouth?
This penguin is a stone thief. Plain and
simple. Guilty. No question.
In fact, every penguin on
Antarctica is pretty much a stone thief ... They steal stones from other stone thieves ... To build their nests.
Over and over again.
There are no trees.
There are no branches.
There is no grass.
There are stones.
Penguin build their nests
out of stones. Period.
And, as you can probably tell
from this image, most of those stones, rocks, or pebbles, are under a foot of snow - Or more.
What stones are not covered in snow, are free game ... First come, first serve.
Until it is stolen by the next penguin that walks by ...
It is a game they play ... And not quietly, I must add. No, it can get quite loud actually ... Like crazy loud.
Every penguin stealing from other penguins ... Like, right next door. Next nest,
whatever ... One foot away.
Maybe eighteen inches, something
like that.
Every day, every hour ... Back and forth ...
Back and forth.
I learned about it in college watching
TRAVELS TO THE EDGE. I saw it first-hand six years ago on my first trip to Antarctica. And, this time around, when I saw this
cute little bird waddling past, half buried in the snow, I knew ...
Stone Thief ... Stone thief ...
And, due to
the fact that this time around, I was there in the Spring, before the official nest building season even started ... Every
other Gentoo was just hanging around a big brown circle of poop, looking for a mate, I thought this one must be pretty
sharp ...
It must of picked its mate already, and have a jump on the others,
or it was busy stealing stones at the get-go to impress the opposite sex.
Either
way, this bird had it going on ...
Or, it just likes to steal stones ...
Whatever.
I just kind of smiled when I saw it walking past ...
Thought it would make for a cool image. And yes, this time, the pun was intended ...
Now, here is a question for you ...
If you were
in this cool place (sorry), and this scene was in your viewfinder, what would be your first thought on getting the right exposure?
You know, after thinking about how cool it was being
there, seeing this unfold in front of you ...
Your first
thought about exposure ... And, by the way, that SHOULD be your first thought when you see all that snow (hint, hint) ...
Yes, this is a test.
No, you can not "Google It" ...
OK, I know,
but not for the first three (two) minutes anyways ...
Come
on!
Think of my THREE BUTTONS ...
You'll get it, if you haven't already.
Enjoy ... I know I enjoyed taking it.
And yes,
I passed the test! I didn't need no stinkin' Photoshop!
You Never Know
You never know where your next image will pop up.
I
had just spend four hours walking around the North Carolina Zoo looking for close-ups of animals with a new lens.
I had several hundred (plus, I deleted over two hundred more) images of the
few animals that were out and about.
It was a good day
at the zoo.
But, that said, one of my favorite animals
to photograph did not make its way in front of my lens ...
You
guessed it.
Zebra.
True, I did see a few of them ... Far, far away ... Even for my 750mm (equivalent) lens I had with me that day.
So, I didn't photograph them.
Not even one image.
Then, as I was walking out
the zoo towards the parking lot, there it was.
A zebra.
Well, a big BLUE sticker type thing in the window of the store ... A ZEBRA sticker
thing.
Good enough.
See, when I said I liked to photograph zebras, I was sort of, kind of, skirting around the truth ...
Well, no, I do like to photograph zebras, but it is really their stripes that
I enjoy photographing ...
The lines. The shapes. The
CONTRAST.
They are a graphic element, alive and well,
in the wild, or at the zoo.
Or not alive and well, but still at the zoo. Or
just as you enter or leave the zoo, in this case, I missed this shot on the way in.
Yeah, but it is not really a zebra, so I can't really say I missed it ...
But I did. I mean, yes, I missed the shot on the way in.
And I missed photographing them once I was in the zoo, you know, the real zebras ...
In fact, that is why I took the image of the poster/sticker thing on the way out of the zoo ...
I wanted the graphic shot of a zebra! I missed the real thing, so I took this
one just to satisfy my need for a graphic zebra shot that I had in my head the whole way over to the zoo, in the zoo, and
on my way out of the zoo ...
Those darn images in my
head.
In one regard, they are a bad thing. A pre-determined
image that you have before you ever step out of your house, car ... Or airplane. Ship. Whatever ...
But on the other-hand, they are a good thing. A goal. A plan ...
As a retired middle school teacher, I would call it a "rough draft", or an "outline".
And yes, as a student, I never really felt I had to
write it down first ... Come on! I have it in my head ...
And
to be completely honest, and as you well know, I never write down anything, make an outline, or, really, plan anything when
I pick an image to write about here on my Blog thingy ... But we won't go into that.
And as a photographer, I still do the same thing ...
I didn't write down that I needed an elephant's ear, or ostrich feathers, or the lines of a giraffe ... No, but I
did have them in the back of my mind.
And flamingo feathers
... Nope. None. Never saw 'em ...
Tiger stripes. Nope.
Oh, I had many images in my head ...
As soon as I knew I was driving to the zoo with a LONG lens ... The images just kept a poppin' in my mind ... Not
the animals per say, no ... Just the images of the lines, shapes, patterns, colors, texture, contrast, and design ...
Art first, animals second.
Oh, my middle school, and high school, art teachers would flip if they ever read that ... Or even the head of the
art department in Graduate School.
In fact, I almost
choked writing it, myself ...
But, that is what I have
turned into.
I blame Art Wolfe.
Too many TRAVEL TO THE EDGE videos at the college, the middle school (you would
not believe how I could sneak them into the middle school curriculum, you know, here and there), and at home.
His parents were both artists. Ahh, they named him, Art. He went to college
to become a painter, an artist.
He did. Well, except
for the whole painter thing ...
No, actually, he is a
pretty good painter as well ... But you know what I mean.
Photographer.
Artist.
And,
so that is why, when leaving the zoo, I looked, stopped, and took one, just one, mind you, image of a blue zebra sticker in
the window.
Hey, it was big and colorful, what can I
say?
And then I forgot about it. I mean, it was kind
of weird ... I hope nobody actually saw me photographing a store window with this large lens on the way to the parking lot
...
Then I got home ...
Going through the images ...
A blue zebra? Say
what?
Then it hit me ... Lines, shapes ... You know,
black and white ...
Photoshop.
A click of a button ... Another button, I already clicked the shutter button
back at the store.
Black and white zebra. Magic.
Yeah, OK, a black and white zebra looking thing, but come on, it's close
...
I got my image I was looking for.
Kinda' sorta' ...
No. Actually, I came away with a BETTER image than what was in my head.
The image in my head was a zebra. A real zebra. A live animal.
I got an unexpected, graphic image of lines ... Contrast. Black and White.
An image I thought I didn't get.
Even better!
Compression
This is an image that surprised me. Taken in Antarctica, it is one of many thousand.
As you can see, it is an image of gentoo penguins standing around flirting with other gentoo penguins.
Well, maybe you can't see THAT, but you can see that it is a group of penguins
standing around ...
Mingling. And if you look real close,
screaming their lungs out.
One group in the foreground,
one group in the background.
Layered penguins, if you
will.
I used the power of a Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VR lens
to achieve this look.
First, I was not close.
This is an early Spring, a pre-nesting site, where the birds hook-up with
a mate in order to get busy doing what penguins do in The Spring ...
There are no nests ... Yet. Guests are not invited. We were back a safe distance ...
There is a lot of noise, a lot of fighting, running around, and, well, a lot of what penguins do when trying to find
(impress) a mate.
Crazy.
And that is discounting the smell. The image leaves that minor (major) detail
out for you ...
And the noise ...
No, what this image does is gives you layering ...
Shot at 200mm, it draws the background right up to the foreground. Yeah, the optics did all the work ...
Then, the f2.8 throws the background out of focus, especially, when used at
the longer, 200mm, focal length.
Sort of like magic,
but not.
Remember, shallow depth of field is dictated
by:
* Lens choice - Long (200mm) * Aperture - Small number (f2.8) Distance to subject - Get Close
Two out of three worked for me here ... Of course, I
would have liked to have been closer ...
But really,
the lens does all the heavy work. I just take credit for being the genius to have the lens mounted to the camera in the first
place.
"A simple shot" ...
f2.8 "and be there" ... And, "Carry a big" lens ... To borrow, and butcher, from a couple
of famous quotes.
That's my limits of pure genius
...
Oh, and up-loading the image to National Geographic's
YOUR SHOT website (as an after-thought) ...
I failed
to notice the genius of it all when picking images for my website though...
Yeah, real genius, alright.
Then, within
a few days of being on YOUR SHOT, as the numbers ("Likes") kept climbing ...
I
took another look.
A wee-bit dark for my taste ... So, with another stroke
of genius ...
Ahh, a stroke of a button.
Ta-da!
Magic.
Lightened it up ... Perfect!
True, too late
for YOUR SHOT, but just in time to add it to my website.
Better
late than never.
But, if you are looking at my website for the first
time, and are reading this with no prior knowledge of this image ... Forget this last part, stick
with the whole genius thing ... Thanks.
Cool Warm Tones
The longer I looked at this image, the more I liked it. I didn't really know why ...
Then it hit me ... The color combination.
Duh?
Yeah, the cool, blue tones of the foreboding sky, and the warm, brown/orange, tones
of the ...
Well, how do I put this?
The poop.
There,
that was easy.
Art Class 101. Complementary colors. The
whole color wheel thing, that I paid no attention to, in middle school (I think) art class.
Of course, when I took this image, in Antarctica a month ago, I did not "see" it ... Ah, it's poop.
I did see the dark clouds, in fact, that was what caught my attention in the
first place.
But remember, there were dark, cloudy skies
every day of this three week cruise. After awhile, they become just another aspect of the journey (adventure).
I remember seeing the penguins, the snow, and the clouds ... And that, well,
that, LIGHT.
That CONTRAST.
I shot away ...
Then, when I got home, I went
through all the images, picked out, like, A LOT of them, and got my website all set up.
This image did not crack the Top 40 ... Lost among the masses.
Then, I took a second look ...
A little dark
... You know, the dark clouds and all ...
Pressed a button
(Instant Fix) ... Oh yeah, that looks good. Much better.
Wish
I would have seen "it" sooner.
Funny how that works ...
Funny how poop makes an image pop!
So now, it is my all-time favorite image from the trip ... Yes, beating out the Red Blood, White Eye Bird, and the
Blue Ice images.
True, I didn't see it at first ... Well,
yes I did, I am the one that pushed the shutter button ... But you know what I mean ...
Thousands of images, three weeks, three islands ...
And an
image of penguin poop and dark storm clouds comes out the winner ...
Crazy.
See, I took this in early Spring, in
Antarctica, before the penguins pair up and begin building their nests by stealing pebbles from other nests ...
This is the pre-nesting get together, where the birds begin to pair-up ... The
noise and the smell is what I remember from all this.
We
had to keep our distance, you know, it is like with your kids at the middle school dance ... "Yes, please come and pick me
up, but please don't come inside looking for me before it is all over" type of deal ...
I used my 70-200mm f2.8 VR lens and zoomed up to compress the scene and bring those clouds right up into the scene
... Yes, the lens did all the work.
Zoom out, draw the
background in ... That is how it works.
Just a slice
of the total scene, but it tells the story of Antarctica, penguins, and "The Dance".
Well, a silent version of it, anyway.
And
I cleaned up the smell for you as well ...
But, I did
leave the poop ...
I do what I can.
Ice Blue
Antarctica.
Ice.
You really can't talk about Antarctica without mentioning ice. I mean, it is ice, period.
Yes, I know ...
There is land there. It is not like the North Pole. Antarctica is land surrounded by the Southern Ocean.
Land.
A
continent.
And no, it is not a country. Sorry.
The North Pole, on the other hand, is a frozen ocean, surrounded by land.
The same, only different.
This was my second trip to Antarctica. I hope it is not my last.
But really, if I was going to honest, this trip was about South Georgia.
Yes, The Falkland Islands were very nice. Excellent, really ... I wanted to walk among the Albatross. And yes, I
mean among them ... VERY close. Like, unreal close.
That
was a highlight of the trip.
Then there was South Georgia.
And yes, I have mentioned the word "wild" before when talking about this
place ...
That is South Georgia. A speck of land
in the middle of the wildest, roughest ocean in the world ...
So many animals and birds. Thousands. No, really, like, THOUSANDS ...
At your feet.
Nature at its best.
I loved it.
But
... Antarctica.
Antarctica is different.
Not as many animals ...
But the ice makes it an unreal environment. Surreal. Different.
Antarctica is black and
white and blue. Black mountains ... White snow ... And blue ice.
The blue ice is the old ice, compressed by the weight of the snow over hundreds of years ...
The Northern Peninsula, where I've been, and where most tourists visit,
is very different than the mainland of Antarctica.
The interior
of the island continent, is a desert.
In fact, it is
the earth's largest desert. A cold desert, but never the less, a desert.
The peninsula might get twenty feet of snow a year ... But it melts.
The interior of Antarctica gets very little snow, maybe two inches a year.
Yeah, Hudson, NC got more than that last year ...
The
difference is that it NEVER melts. Well, until it finally makes its way out to the coast, in the form of a glacier, and moves
north to warmer water.
Hundreds of years ... Yes, even
in this time of global warming, it takes a LONG time.
Ice
and snow from the interior that is.
This trip, I
was there in Spring (Late October, early November). There was a lot of ice still floating around ... And we were just playing
around the Northern edge ... We did not get as far south as I did last time during their summer (December).
No, the ice was still there ...
And yes, we saw some HUGE icebergs floating around. Much larger than our ship ... Lots of them.
This image is one of my favorite from the trip. Not the largest ...
But perhaps, it was the bluest.
I was drawn to the U-shape section in the middle of the iceberg ... The blue caught my eye.
Bluer than blue.
Like any subject, I found the one aspect that drew me to it, and fired away ... Working my exposure compensation
in order to give me several options later on.
Work it.
Shoot fast, and ask questions later ...
Find what you are looking for and shoot it like a mad man (or woman) ... Ahh, the ship is moving and vibrating.
The iceberg is moving.
"Be quick, but don't hurry".
Sound photographic
logic, stolen from the late, great, UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden.
Works for me.
Once you find what you are looking
for ... Trust me, I saw plenty of icebergs over the three weeks on the ship ... This is the one that captures the essence
of the continent, for me.
Shoot fast.
Know what you want, and know how to get it.
If you don't know what you are looking for, and you don't know how to get it, don't worry about it.
You won't know you missed it (Not-so-sound advice from the former track coach
at GFMS, David H. Hessell).
For this image, I used my Nikkor 70-200mm
f2.8 lens, with the VR on, and set to "Active", due to the fact that, yes, I was on a moving ship,
and needed all the help I could get in order to get a sharp image.
My ISO was set at 400, again, to help with keeping my shutter speeds up there, while hand-holding the camera and
lens on the deck of a ship.
I worked fast.
The ice did its thing, I did mine.
True, the ice took hundreds of years to be where it was, and be in the shape that it was, but I didn't have that
luxury.
Basically, I shot like a madman. A controlled
madman.
I knew what I wanted, and went to work.
Simple really.
The
hardest part was just being there in the first place. I mean, really ...
It took me sixty-two (and a half) years to be at that spot, and hundreds of years for the iceberg
to be there ...
What is an extra 1/500th of a second?
Or two? ... Or three? ... Dare I say four?
Or the odds
that I ever get back down there again (I said that the first time too)?
Yeah, I shot like a madman.
Works for me.
Two @ the Zoo
Yes, I can take regular pictures too. You know, where you can actually see the animal's face ...
That's the easy part.
I ALWAYS take a "regular" picture and then, once I am happy with that, I begin to look deeper ...
Or not.
Some
times I am locked into a TELEPHOTO mode, or a WIDE-ANGLE mode, or an ABSTRACT mode ... or a SINGLE LENS mode ...
You know ... I have a plan on what I am going to photograph before I even get
there and take a photograph.
That is a good thing.
Or not.
Sometimes
it is just ... Oh, just go and see what is in front of you and react to that.
That works.
Planning works (or so I've heard),
and not planning works.
Works for me.
When you turn up to The NC Zoo with one lens, most of my "planning" was done
once I put the camera and lens in the car.
BAM.
Long telephoto lens. Not much wiggle room there.
That was planning the day's shots before I pulled out of the driveway.
Your camera gear dictates how you are going to "see" that day.
True, it is easier if you have lots of lenses ... Even better if you have lots of zoom lenses. One zoom lens can
give you many, many different angles of view ... You can try ten shots without moving.
That's a good thing.
Or not.
Try not zooming.
Use a zoom lens but don't zoom. Yeah, it is possible.
Remember, you can zoom with your feet, you know, like back in the old days ...
Have another lens? Good.
Use it.
Have a "prime lens"? Really good.
Use it.
Macro lens? Ha! Even more funner!
Use it.
Shift-lens?
OMG!
Use it.
Fish-eye? Ha!
You better use it!
Whatever lens you have ... Yes, use it.
But use it in different ways.
Macro lens? Don't
shoot close-up shots.
Zoom lens? Don't zoom.
Telephoto lens? Get closer ... Or just shoot landscapes ...
Wide-angle lens? Photograph wildlife. Use it as a portrait lens.
Have the "regular" 18-55mm lens?
Just zoom it out half way and don't touch it again. Shoot EVERYTHING at whatever focal length you ended up at ...
Say ... 31mm.
Why not?
Use whatever lens you have and don't worry about getting a new one until you know what, and what you can not do with
whatever lens it is you happen to have.
At the college,
students always asked me, "What lens should I get next"?
I
don't know.
I always asked them, "what do you want to
shoot"?
I can't tell you what you want to shoot.
Yes, there are some "special" lenses that you need if you are going to photograph
certain subjects ...
But, that said ... Use whatever
lens you have and shoot everything you can think of and see what you can and can not do with that certain lens.
In fact ... And as a teacher (with RULES), I hate to admit it, but the best
way to learn is to break every rule any teacher has ever told you ... Ahhh, I talking about photography here ... Slow down.
If I say, GET CLOSER, don't.
If I say the best light is at sunrise and sunset, sleep in ... Shoot at noon.
If I say you need a macro lens to get great close-up shots ... Grab your wide-angle lens and get out there and fire
away.
You can't really "prove me wrong", you can only
show me another way of doing something that I have always done ...
Know the rules ... Then break 'em.
No worries.
It is your art, do it any way you want.
Come on, it is not like this is math class or anything.
Photography.
Art.
Play-Time.
Who says higher ISO noise is a bad
thing? It isn't, if that is "THE LOOK" you are going for ...
That
is the beauty of photography ... 2+4 does not ALWAYS have to add up to 6.
You don't have to worry about not staying within the lines when "painting with light" ...
Whew ...
I
like it.
Yes, know the rules, understand the rules, and
actually follow the rules, so that one day you can break all the rules and come up with your own set of "Art Rules".
Your own "style" ...
This helped me achieve this "studio" shot of the elephant.
I knew that the trees behind the elephant would go black in the shadows ... I exposed for the elephant in the bright
light. Well, I say that as if I actually did something special ... No, that is what our camera sensors do ...
They "read the light" and try to balance it all out to give you a "medium" tone ... You know, a little of this and
a little of that.
I know that.
So,
I broke the rule, and set my camera compensation button to MINUS ONE, MINUS ONE AND ONE THIRD, so that the shadows would
stay black and the highlights would not be blown out.
I know the rules ... And broke them to make my image look the way I want it to look, not the way the camera manufacturer
wanted it to look.
They build the camera, you run the show ... You "make the
art".
And come on ... Really? How can they be "My Rules" if the buttons
I use are actually part of the camera to begin with?
I
am not the only genius in this world ... It is NOT Rocket Science here people.
There is a button for it.
Use it.
Know the rules (and your camera) and then break those rules (and not your camera)
...
I've been doing it for over thirty years ... True,
I actually did break all the rules when in school (and got kicked out of art class many, many times, but shhhh ... Don't tell
my middle school students - or my mother - for that matter).
No, I did not "get into art" until YEARS later ... I graduated from high school in 1973, graduated from college with
my B.S. Degree (ahh, yeah, I was good at that) in 1983, and got my M.A. Degree in Photography in 1993.
And you thought I wasn't very good at math ... I think I did not plan that out,
pretty darn good.
So ... Grab a camera, and a lens, get
out there (or stay inside) and shoot something with a plan ... A challenge ... A hope.
And then, once you have that down pat (whatever it is you are doing) ... Forget about it!
At the zoo, I wanted the TIGHT shot, the abstract texture shot of the animal,
but, as you see here, I also photographed the animal as an animal ... A portrait of an elephant. The face of a baboon.
Yes, I got close ... Well, my lens got me close, there was a fence ... And I
got rid of everything but what I wanted in the image.
The
face of the baboon ... Yeah, you can't get the "face of a baboon" if you also have the neck of a baboon, the arms of a baboon,
and I'm not even going to mention parts of a baboon that he was showing me ...
Get
rid of 'em ... Or it.
Zoom. Crop. Move. Do whatever it takes.
Again ... Do something.
Your art. Your choice. Your move.
Same for me.
Heck,
I've taught the rules since 1984 ... I know THE RULES.
And
every time I break them, yes, I giggle.
That's what I
do.
Think Tank
Today was a good day ...
First off, I am now
"working again". Yeah, I was asked if I could help this 6th grader at GFMS with his reading ... And math. So, three days of
the week I pretend to work ...
I can't say no to Nicole,
who started working at GFMS the same year I did. We worked together for twenty-four years. She actually knew what she
was doing, and I just handed out "Jolly Rogers" and ran around in the woods with the kids ...
She did the paperwork - ALL THE PAPERWORK, that was needed over those twenty-four years.
Let me say that again ...
And trust me, if you know anything about being a Special Education teacher in America today, you know there is a
ridiculous amount of paperwork that MUST be completed on every student, every year in the Exceptional Children's program.
Every school, every child in the program, every year.
She did it all.
Well no, the last few years I pretended to do one part of it, can't even remember which part it was ...
Present Level of Achievement, or some such thing. I just wrote how goofy middle school kids are and that was that.
One page out of twenty ... Or so it seemed.
She did all the real stuff.
So, without going on
(and on)about what I really think about all this, let me just say, if Nicole asks me to do something, I say yes.
Period.
And
yes, even after I retired!
I feel bad about me being
able to retire, when she still has five more years before she can ... Even though we both started teaching the same year.
See, I'm old, she's not. That simple. Trust me, I would trade in those years
any day, any time ...
This getting old thing is a trip!
Lucky her ...
After
helping the student today, my next stop was the chiropractor.
Yeah, that tells you where I'm at.
So,
anyway ...
I went in and "worked" for an hour ... A
Magic Tree House book and a deck of cards ... Can't get any better than that.
Until I got home, and went through my images from the zoo and Old Salem that I shot yesterday ...
And worked on my BLOG, and some of the new images I shot ...
That was good.
Then
I went out and got the mail.
USAA sent me a check for
my broken lens. True, it was only for the amount that it would of taken to repair it, but, it is better than nothing.
I bought a new one anyways, got it last week. I'm good. I was thinking of getting
a new one anyways ... It was time.
I spent the $200 already
anyways ...
In fact, the very same day, the UPS man stopped
by and dropped off a new camera bag. My "new" photo backpack. Well, you know me ... My "new" used camera backpack. It
was an Adorama "DEMO" bag. Good deal.
And get this
... Another first for me: It is a THINK TANK bag.
I like
Lowe Pro bags. I have a BUNCH of them, all different types and sizes ...
And yes, I have a couple other brand name bags as well ... But I've never owned a THINK TANK bag.
Pretty nice bag. Bigger than my other "main" bag, but still made to fit inside
the airplane over-head bins. Always a good thing. A must really. I don't check my camera bag at the airport ... No way. It
goes where I go.
And it is new. Like really NEW. Little
tags on it and everything. Yeah, that new.
So, the check
I used to buy the bag with arrived ten minutes after I got the bag.
Funny how that works ...
But that is not the
end of the story ... Oh no.
Once I cash the check, there
will actually be money left over, to buy something else ...
That is how it
really works.
See, I needed a new bag to carry that new,
monster of a lens that I now have. Again, that is how it works.
Round and round it goes ... Save money on one deal, spend it on another.
Works for me.
Sounds good anyways ...
I love deals.
Zoom Zoo
I have told you about my new lens ... The Nikkor 200-500mm f5.6 VR lens.
It is a beast.
Basically, I am walking around
with a 300-750mm f5.6 lens on any DX "cropped sensor" camera I own.
I won't go into how many DX sensor cameras I actually own, but trust me, I have a few.
So, with just about any DSLR camera I have, with this lens I have some REACH.
And yes, you know I like to test out my new stuff ...
I already have. You know, when I took it out in the parking lot and photographed my neighbor's shiny chrome wheels
...
Hand-held.
But, you know ... Wheels are nice, but ...
The North
Carolina Zoo.
Yeah, I checked the weather report,
and it was on ...
Up before 6am (I didn't need to wait
for any stinkin' alarm).
Breakfast.
Gone.
I
haven't been in years ... Since the old Weekend College days ... I don't know, eight, ten years? Something like that.
Zero dark-thirty. Easy ride ...
Got to the zoo early ...
I believe the lady,
who sold me my ticket, mentioned something like I was the fourth, or fifth, person there that morning ... "Had the place
to myself" she told me ...
I told her that is why I was
there ...
The whole zoo to myself (sort of).
One lens. One camera.
No tripod.
See, that's the game I play ...
750mm f5.6 VR lens, and no tripod.
How good is this lens anyways?
How good am I?
Can I hand-hold a 750mm lens and get sharp images? How good is that VR anyways?
Yes. And good, real good. In that order.
It is a GREAT lens.
I sort of, kind of, knew
it was, but I had to put myself through the test. The "Walk Around an Empty Zoo" test, and see what kind of images I
could come up with.
True, it is a zoom lens, but yeah,
I don't think I bothered zooming anything, or anytime ...
If
you have 750mm, use 750mm.
That simple. That easy.
Walk ... And walk ... And learn.
First thing I wanted to know, you know, besides that whole "sharpness" thing, was, how close can I get to my subject?
Again, too easy.
NOT VERY. Not very close at all.
Wow ... It
is wild, I had to back up more than I have ever had to back up before ...
Makes sense, I'm just so used to my other lenses, that I found myself WAY TOO CLOSE, most of the time.
It takes me awhile to adapt to all this new, fancy equipment. I have shot with
the same gear (Nikon D90 with the 18-200mm lens, or even the old 80-400mm antique lens) for so long, I just know where I should
be to get the shot I want.
Not with this little (big)
puppy ...
BACK UP!
But hey, I was at the zoo ... The animals that were out there, were, well, for the most part, out there!
But everything else ... Cactus. Trees. Leaves ... Anything not behind a fence
... I had to back up.
I had a blast.
And no, I won't mention the whole TEN FRAMES PER SECOND thing ...
I mean, come on, the animals weren't going anywhere, and, anyway, the ones I
did photograph, are not the fastest things in the world ... But, man, it is fun ...
What did I shoot (photograph)?
One word: Patterns,
textures, lines, shapes, repetition ...
Oh, yeah, I forgot,
one word:
Tight.
How is that?
I shot everything tight. Like I
have always wanted to shoot ... Like I always try to shoot.
As
tight as I can ... As close as I could ... With the longest focal length lens I could.
All day ... Every animal I saw. Always. 750mm.
Yes,
some of the animals were inside, hidden from view ... They think it is winter.
It isn't.
But I'm not a flamingo, so go figure.
And all that those lions, tigers, and bears (oh my!) were doing was ...
You guessed it ...
Sleeping.
But there were a few animals out and about ...
I
bet you have no idea what animals I photographed, do you?
Well,
I can't remember them all, but take a wild guess ...
I
had a great time, filled my 4GB card up about half way through, deleted over 200 images, and walked around for four hours
trying to fill it up again ...
Perfect.
Well, at least I thought it was perfect ...
Then I got home and saw the images ...
Perfect-er.
Sharp.
Clear.
But yes, I'll admit it ...
I did crop in even tighter on these images, you know, to "clean 'em up a bit", but man, I was CLOSE. Closer than
I ever have been before.
And, like I have said a thousand
times before ...
"You can never be too close".
You just buy a longer lens. And continue to crop as much as you can ...
Perfect.
Old School Phun
You know, I used to do some pretty cool abstract stuff before PhotoShop came around ...
You know, double-exposures with slide film ... You would actually take one slide and slip it into a slide mount with
another slide already in it.
Cool.
And reflections ...
Multiple-exposures ...
Fun stuff.
And then there was the whole car reflection thing, with all the curves,
and lines ...
Sweet.
And get this ... It was all done in-camera.
Too
easy.
You take reality, and twist it, curve it, reflect
it, whatever ...
It is all about light.
P-H-O-T-O-G-R-A-P-H-Y
Drawing, or sketching, with light. You have to love those Greeks ...
And you have to love shiny cars, out in the sun, in Old Salem. Right there in front of the church ...
Perfect.
Bending
light ... Sketching with light.
Photoshop before Photoshop.
Oh, and after Photoshop, too.
What worked ten, twenty, dare I say, thirty years ago, seems to work just as well today ... Funny how that works.
It is all about "Seeing".
It is there.
The cars, trucks, whatever, do
all the work. All the bending, all the sketching. All you have to do is stop, look, compose, and shoot.
Of course, seeing it in the first place, is the hardest thing.
It is so common, that we walk right past it. We look at it, but we don't "see"
it, as art, or as an image.
The church was behind
me ... Yes, I had stopped to photograph the clock earlier, to zoom in, on time.
No, wait ... Yes, the church was behind me, but I'm sure these are reflections of the college, which is right next
to the church.
Old Salem College. Big brick building
with the large white columns across the front porch ...
See,
I was in Old Salem with my new Nikkor 200-500mm f5.6 lens to, well, to see Old Salem in a new light.
Well, no ... Same great afternoon light, just with a different view. A new angle
of view.
Like, up close! Tight.
Remember, just to remind you, that 500mm "Wang-Zoomer" lens I was luggin' around,
has the equivalent focal length of 750mm, when attached to the Nikon D500, which it was, at the time.
The DX sensor.
Seeing
Old Salem with a new lens was fun ... Old and New.
Seeing
reflections among the curves of the shiny, new car, was way too much fun.
Zoom-in, and see something old, in a new way. Tight. Close. Abstract.
Perfect.
I don't know what the Greek word for
perfect is, but I do know what it looks like ...
All
I know is, that whatever it is, photographing it was phun.
2.7X
I forgot about this little gem ...
The Nikon
super-duper adaptor thing that lets you connect a LONG (or any lens really) lens to the crazy Nikon 1 V-1 camera.
A small Nikon CX format camera that has a small sensor ...
But ... Slap on the special FT-1 adaptor, and then mount it to my new Nikkor
200-500mm wang-zoomer lens, and HOLD ON! That set-up is crazy ...
And even crazier looking ... I'll have to go out and take a photo of this set-up, it is almost (well, no, it is)
comical.
But ... It works.
I took the big tripod, with the big lens, with the dinky little camera outside in the parking lot, pointed it towards
the moon, pressed the shutter button down half-way, you know, to get focus ...
And it worked.
I must admit I was a wee-bit
surprised, no ... pleased, would be a better word ...
Even
a hint of a giggle, if I were to be completely honest ...
Are you kidding me?
OK, and now the good news.
Remember that 2.7X thing?
Do the math ...
500mm.
Multiplied by, you guessed it, 2.7 ...
And you get ...
Say what?
Yeah.
1350mm.
I kid you not.
So,
the image you see at the top of this article, is what I saw on the back of the camera ...
Full-frame, as it comes out of the camera.
Oh,
and yes ... Shooting the Moon.
Manual exposure.
Self-timer. At first I was using my standard 2-second timer ... But then, in
a flash of pure genius, I went with a safer 5-second timer just so everything settles down more ... That lens is REALLY, REALLY
long, with everything magnified big time. Every little vibration ... Magnified, yeah, 2.7X.
I took maybe eight shots, you know, just playing ... Got the exposure where I wanted it ... I changed the aperture
once I got the shutter speed up there where I wanted it (250th of a second, or was it 200th?).
If I remember correctly, it was 200th of a second. I can remember thinking, 200th, what is that all about?
Dinky camera ... Go figure.
Auto-focus (I'm still amazed).
BIG tripod. BIG
lens.
Big results.
I love it.
Now, with the second image, you
will see my cropped version of the original moon shot.
Like, REAL BIG.
Still sharp.
Now, as I'm typing this, I'm thinkin' ...
I have a 2X converter up-stairs ...
Forget about
the 1.4X, too wimpy.
The 1.7X?
Why?
Go
for it, baby!
2X it is ... I'll try it tonight.
Will it work?
A
fixed 5.6 lens. With the 2X, that would jump up to f11.
Ahhhh
... I will HAVE to focus it myself, no biggy.
Infinity.
Easy. Two easy ... Get it? TWO easy? 2X converter ...
Oh, man, that is clever.
I'll see how clever I really am later on tonight ...
And yes, I'll use my calculator to figure out all this 500x2.7x2 = F stuff.
Man, when I retired, I thought I was done with all this math stuff ...
Yuck.
The things I do for photography ...
I told you ... Big lens, small camera.
2700mm
Yes! It worked. I can't believe it.
Yes, I HAD
to manual focus, but hey, no worries ...
I have NEVER
had a moon full-frame in any lens, EVER!
Focus was a
trip - Just like I thought.
Actually, I had the most
trouble keeping the moon in the frame ... It moves FAST! And it jiggles around so much ... It is CRAZY!
So, there I was, out in the driveway, with this BIG tripod, LONG lens, manually
focusing, shootin' away - STOP.
I forgot to set the
self-timer. Crap. No way will an image be sharp without the self-timer.
Come on, the way my heart was beating ... No way!
5-second
timer.
CRAZY.
But, I got it.
2700mm.
"Fill the frame".
I had trouble keeping it in the frame, but yeah, it was FULL.
I mean, I don't even crop it that close on the computer ...
It was FULL. Period.
Did I mention 2700mm?
No way.
Yeah.
2700mm.
Crazy. Right out of the camera.
No croppin' this one.
No need.
BAM.
Done.
Caribou
Yes, I photographed this on South Georgia. No, caribou are not supposed to be on South Georgia.
South Georgia is an island in The Southern Ocean, and is as remote of a place
as there is on this planet.
They were brought to this
part of the world by sailors that worked their way down south to hunt whales and fur seals.
Meat.
I guess they got tired of penguins, seals,
and whale blubber, or whatever else whalers ate in the early 20th century ...
I have no clue.
So yes, caribou are on South
Georgia, although I didn't see any myself.
But ... I
would think that they must be pretty thinned out by now. The whalers are gone, the fur seal hunters are gone, no one lives
on the islands ...
But, as you can see, they were here,
and I did see them on my Art Wolfe DVDs, TRAVELS TO THE EDGE, which were shot about ten years ago.
In fact, that was one thing that struck me while watching them in my college
classes over the years ...
Caribou. They were in a couple
of the scenes ... Weird.
I mean, come on, Caribou, or
reindeer, live at the North Pole, you know, Santa Claus and all that ... Rudolf, Comet, Donner, Vixen, etc ... We all know
that.
This is all I found, or saw, of them ...
Green antlers on green grass.
The only proof I saw at any of the landings we made on the island. But hey, that's just me ...
It is a big island (sort of), it was still Spring, maybe I just missed them.
I just liked the way the green played off the green ...
Art.
That's
all.
I didn't want to eat them.
Just photograph them.
Or what remains of them ...
Caribou Art.
That simple.
Green
on green.
And penguin feathers ...
Serendipity.
Perfect.
Caribou on South Georgia.
Just what I wasn't looking for, or expecting.
King Penguin Chick(s)
In all its glory ...
How can you not love that face? That hair-do? Those eyes?
I was on South Georgia in Spring, our Fall.
Early
for that area ... We were the first GAdventure trip down their this season ...
The chicks were born a few months ago ... And they all group together and wait for their parents to come back and
feed them.
It is wild ...
Thousands of brown fur-balls all lined up just standing there waiting ... They all look the same.
Their parents all look the same ...
About the same height, after awhile, but VERY different looking.
The adults are beautiful ... A black tuxedo, white shirt, highlighted with a touch of gold bling.
The chicks? Not so much ...
Brown fuzz balls.
Cute, yes, but only as cute
as a brown fuzz-ball can be ...
And fearless ...
They will walk right up to you ... And stare.
Just stand there ...
THOUSANDS of them ...
Just standing there.
How each one can locate their parent's voice, out of the THOUSANDS of parents returning from the sea, is beyond me.
But they do ...
And how "The Ugly Ducklings" turn into the beautiful adult penguins is beyond me too ...
But they do.
That said, I must say the brown
little fuzz-balls do have a charm all their own.
Kind
of like middle-school kids ...
Now that I think about
it.
Antarctic Tern
Cool white bird ... With the black head and red beak.
It sort of floats over the water, up and down, almost in slow motion.
OK, here we were, in Antarctica, in a zodiac, "The Photo Boat" to be exact, with "The Bird Man" as our driver ...
Which, could be a good thing ...
He knows his birds, and he is funny ... In a very British sort of way.
Think Monty Python ... In a rubber raft.
Anyway
...
Paul, the ship's photographer, was in the raft as
well, along with ten other photographers ... Remember, we were NOT the "regular" landing groups ... They went straight to
land ...
We were not the "Wildlife Boat" ... They went
out looking for, you know, wildlife, before heading towards land ... Kind of like the "Photo Boat", but you know, we go back
and forth, over and around, this way and that way, to get "THE SHOT" ... We "work it".
The Photo. Period!
So, back to the tern ... The Photo. This photo.
There just so happened to be another family of birds in the area ... Up on the
cliff. I can't even remember what they were called ...
Oh
boy ... Off we went, you know, Kevin was driving ...
WAY
UP on the cliff ... A brown cliff face ...
LITTLE brown
birds ...
What? Where?
Ahh, Kevin ... There is this white bird floating right past the zodiac, hunting for food ...
Like, RIGHT BEHIND YOU!
Now, true, I didn't say anything at first ... Either did Paul, or anyone else.
But then I did mention it to him ...
"No, no",
he says ... "Look at this rare ... Something or other over here" ...
No.
I turned around and photographed this tern
dippin' down into the water catching lunch ...
Naturalists
are great, don't get me wrong ... But, come on, an Antarctic Tern, right in front of us, or a brown bird thing nesting on
a brown cliff, WAY UP THERE (he had binoculars) ...
"Right
church, wrong pew" ...
We were there, in the PHOTO BOAT,
and Kevin was off in his own little world, chasing something he was interested in ...
I believe I did take one ... No, I don't think I ever did take a photo of the brown bird thing ...
I was chasing a white bird thing dippin' for food ... MUCH CLOSER to us!
Oh, those crazy bird people ...
Well, you know, crazier that those crazy photographers shooting those crazy little white bird things dippin' down
catchin' little fish things ...
What a trip.
Got my shot ... I had my Nikon D7000 with the Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 lens zoomed
out ...
That is equal to 300mm f2.8 when mounted on a
camera with the smaller DX (cropped) sensor ...
Nice
lens to have in this situation ... Equal to 300mm f2.8. Long, and fast ... Perfect.
See ... Nikon has two types of camera sensors ... FX (full-frame), which is equal to the old 35mm film cameras ...
If I was using my Nikon D700, and had the same lens, it would have a field-of-view of 70mm to 200mm, just like in the old
days.
And, just like what is printed on the lens ...
70-200mm. Perfect. Nice and easy.
But ...
Because the digital sensor in a DX,"cropped" camera, is smaller, it is like
taking a photo and then "cropping in" by 1.5 times.
"Blow-up"
the image by 1.5 times ... Just take the center part of the image.
Works great for wildlife, sports, whatever ... Far-away stuff.
Now, for wide angle stuff ...
Forget about it!
That is why they had to make 18mm stuff ... For example, my favorite 18-200mm
DX lens.
That 18mm is REALLY equal to 27mm
- Or as close to what we used to have with a 28mm lens (my favorite).
It is crazy ... You know, math stuff.
Just take
half of what is on the lens ... say, 200mm, and add that to the first number.
Half of 200 is 100. Easy.
200 plus 100 equals
300. Done.
1.5 times longer (200x1.5 equals 300).
Really. Use your cell phone if you don't believe me ...
Half of 18 is 9. Add 9 to 18 and you get 27. The 18mm lens comes as close to the old 28mm wide-angle lens as you
can get ... 27mm.
So, my trusty 18-200mm DX lens gives
me about the same angle-of-view as a 28-300mm lens used to give me (that is, if they actually made one back then)
... Wide-angle to telephoto. Perfect.
And yes, just to
confuse you even more ... There is a new Nikkor 28-300mm lens for the FX, full-frame, cameras ...
So, after all that being said ...
I had the
right lens for the situation.
Kevin going one way,
me, and the tern, going the other ...
Like I said ...
Perfect ride in the Photo Boat.
With Kevin ...
Paul and I laughed about it later
...
And I thought I was the only one that noticed it
...
Crazy me.
People
Now, as you might have guessed, I did not go to The Southern Ocean to photograph people.
Sorry, that is just how it works.
Penguins (of
all types). Whales. Albatross. Seals (of all types). Petrels. Orcas. White bird things ... You know, animals. Wild things.
And landscapes. Icescapes. Seascapes. Cloudscapes (yes, that is a word - I just
wrote it). Weather (of all types). Even architecture, ships, reflections, etc ...
You get the point.
I did not go to the far end
of the earth to photograph ... People.
But I did.
Not as often as animals and other wild things, but yes, people did make their
way into my viewfinder.
This image is a portrait of one
of the people that make trips like this possible ... At this particular moment, a zodiac driver.
Bismarck, or Bismark, I'm not sure how he spells his name.
I believe he mentioned that he is from Argentina ... I think.
He was great.
He
drove us around several times while we were out on our "Photo Boat".
G Adventures had a photographer on ship - Paul, from Canada, that would get a group together to explore the area
in the zodiac first before landing with the rest of the groups ...
Usually, we looked for wildlife and icebergs ... Not necessarily in that order.
Nothing special ... He would go over a few basic concepts, then we drove around looking ... And yes, I signed up
for every one they offered.
Who wouldn't?
Duh.
Getting
images of, say, Elephant Seals, from the water (the direction they usually face) is very different than photographing
the back end of an Elephant Seal on shore.
That simple.
Worth waiting to be the last ones called to "The Mud Room" (where we got our
boots, jackets, gloves, etc ...) to board our zodiacs ...
Hey,
speaking of which ...
Getting into a moving, big, black
rubber raft can be tricky while boppin' around in the "roughest ocean in the world" ...
The raft would move up and down, often five or six feet per dip, while we were trying to take our seats ... Trust
me, I am glad I never had to make a "Beach Landing" , under fire, while in the Marine Corps ...
They had to climb down rope ladders ...
We had
metal stairs ...
Crazy.
Plus, we had three people helping us ...
Anyways
...
People.
People photography.
Yes, even in Antarctica,
and the "Antarctic Iles", in The Southern Ocean.
Perfect.
Just what I went for ...
That "lucky" pink
hat of his (he swore it brought the wild things out of the woodwork ... Or ocean, whatever).
And since I mentioned Paul earlier ... Here he is:
The photographer ...
Another person ...
And yes, like
Paul, GAdventures is Canadian ...
That is why all the
zodiacs are named after Canadian Providences, you know, in case you were wondering ...
Rule #2
Get Closer.
That's it. You all know that ...
I have rules for a reason.
They work. Period.
That simple. That easy.
Get closer.
And
this image is just to remind you.
The Falkland Islands,
a British Territory, in The Southern Ocean. I first heard about it back in 1982 (or something like that) when they had a battle
over it with Argentina. Now I know why ...
The Black
Brow Albatross.
They nest there ... Like, big time. Thousands
of them. And get this, you can get close to them.
Without
getting yelled at.
Or, better yet, not bothering the
birds ... They are not bothered by humans in bright red jackets and long white (or black) lenses stuck in their faces.
Yes, to be sure, there are some sticks set up, forming an "X", that are there
to remind people in bright red jackets, that yes, these are wild animals, and they do need their space, but, that said, you
can get close.
Real close.
Somebody,
somewhere on The Falkland Islands, knows my rules.
I
love it.
Now, I was a bit surprised ...
See, I have been on a GAdventure (actually, I think they were still known as GAP Adventures back then,
can't remember ...) before to Antarctica, and I can remember quite clearly that THEIR rules are a wee bit different than
mine ...
Or, to be fair, that their definition of "close" is very different
than mine.
In fact, I can remember being there, respecting the little wooden
sticks in the tall grass, even staying on the "trail" while shooting, and thinking, "Cool, they are allowing
us to get close, REAL close".
Closer than even I
thought we should be ... I mean, really, we were right on top of them.
Among them ...
Then, when back on the ship
and going over the day's activities, they mentioned that we were on a Private Reserve when photographing the birds ...
Ha! I knew something seemed different. Different definitions (and
means of measurements) of Rule #2.
Maybe it is
that whole metric thing ... No worries.
Works for me.
I got close.
Oh, and so did some other people in
red jackets.
By the way, we got to keep those jackets
... Sweet.
Now, I can't wait for the four, or five, hours
of "winter" that we get here in Hudson, NC every winter (mid-February) to arrive ...
I'm ready. Let it snow!
Plus, I've been on "Snow
Days" since June ... So, again, no worries!
Expedition
This image sums up what it was like to be on The Southern Ocean for three weeks ...
The name of the ship is Expedition. It lived up to it's name.
And the crew made it very clear that this was NOT a cruise ...
Each day, they had a plan, but the plan was based on the weather. And the weather at the End of the World can be
very tricky, to say the least.
It was like ... Plan A, no. Plan B, no. Plan
C, OK, looks good, lets check it out ... No. Plan D?
Yes.
That was how it works ... Sometimes Plan A worked, sometimes it didn't.
This
was the first trip if the year ... Remember, Fall here (Northern Hemisphere) is Spring there ... The sun had just returned
after about six months of darkness ... Ice was everywhere, things could get tricky real fast.
It was warming up, you know, like 35 degrees or so ... Spring!
The
Captains (there were three of them) kind of, sort of, knew where they were going but ...
The weather.
It was all dictated by the weather.
And that is tricky.
It was cloudy - ALOT.
It was sunny.
It snowed.
And
the wind would kick up (there is a fancy name that I heard about every other day, but, yeah, I can't remember ... Cat-something
winds ...) at any time, and yeah, it was unreal.
But, that said, we only missed
one landing ... Three weeks, one missed landing. On the first trip of the season.
Those Captains were good.
Sure, there were some
places we couldn't get into, but, like I said, they just changed plans and went somewhere else ...
I mean, great is great ... We had no idea what the "real" place was like anyway,
so, no big deal. Amazing is still amazing, no matter what letter of the alphabet they gave it ...
Bam. They got us in there ...
Now, as far as this image goes ...
Come on.
This is Antarctica. This is "Getting Out There". This is adventure ...
Wild.
Black
sand beach, snow, snowing, waves, and a beach landing ... Stern (Navy term, means "the back") first.
Crazy.
These
zodiac drivers are good ...
Plus (in their spare time)
they are Naturalists, Zoologists, with a PhD in this or that, you know, specialists in their field.
Experts.
And
zodiac drivers.
Many of them were on the ship six years
ago on my first trip down to this part of the world ...
They know the area, and they know their animals ...
Kevin
was "The Bird Man", John was "The Whale Guy", and Brent was "The Elephant Seal Man" ...
Published authors.
Experts.
And they can get people into places that are simply amazing, in unbelievable
conditions ...
Speaking of which, his image was taken
with my little Nikon AW100 while sitting in a zodiac waiting our turn of getting on the beach ... The perfect little camera
for conditions like this.
Love it.
Adorama
I know, I know, you have heard me go on, and on, and on, and on, about ...
Adorama.
I have dealt with them for over 25
years ... I've been to the actual store - Twice.
One
more quick story for you, on why I go on, and on, and on about Adorama.
I was in South Georgia, getting ready to make the big landing at one of the whaling stations there, you know, the
BIG one ...
Grytviken.
Yeah, that's how you spell it.
Norwegian whaling
station dating back to 1904, or something ... It is all gone now, well no, the WHALES were pretty much wiped out, and
the whalers are all gone, but all their junk is still there ... Rusting away.
The whaling industry died out about fifty years ago ...
Oh crap, here I go again ... Sorry.
Just "Goggle
It" and you can read all about what is so special about the station, and the one famous man that is buried there ... If you
happen to be British, you studied him in school. We Americans, on the other hand, are clueless ...
Well, most of us anyways ... My brother-in-law is the only person I
know who has heard of him. Unless, of course, you have taken my college class in the past ten years or so, and have seen the
Art Wolfe video, TRAVELS TO THE EDGE, when he photographed there ... And you weren't on your cell phone, checking out
Twitter, or some such thing ...
Yeah,
I know ...
Anyway ... South Georgia.
Unreal place. Wild. Dare I say ... "Out there, like, out there on the edge".
OK ... Back to Adorama.
As I was going up the stairs on the ship, the afternoon before we landed, I stepped through the sliding door, as
someone else was coming down the stairs ... We ran into each other.
My camera hit the floor.
I
really thought it had survived ... I have the Kirk L-Bracket on it and it acts as a bumper ...
For the camera.
That was fine.
Turned out
... As I tried to zoom out minutes later ... The lens wouldn't move. Wouldn't zoom.
Not good.
My 18-200mm VR lens
was dead.
Period.
I soon heard little tingling sounds coming from it, as I tried to turn
the zoom ring.
My one, do-everything,
lens was toast. Done. Finished. Kaput.
This
was like, my third or fourth one ... Many, many years ... My favorite lens.
Glad I just happened to have my super-duper, fancy-spancy, Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VR lens with me aboard ship.
I would have been sunk without it (get it?). Three weeks on a ship
... What can I say?
So.
Dead lens.
I made it through the rest of the trip with my 12-24mm and my 70-200mm. Oh, and my trusty Nikon Cool-Pix AW 100.
Can't forget that one. I love that camera ...
OK.
Great trip.
But what is even
greater, is that I arrived home on Wednesday afternoon ...
Ordered a new, and I mean a brand spankin' new one. A new Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens, that very day ...
Wednesday afternoon.
And I was just shooting with it today, Friday afternoon.
I kid you not. Two days.
Maybe
it is because, like my good friend is always telling me ... "You're special".
But no ...
Adorama is special!
48 hours.
New York City to Hudson, North Carolina.
UPS. They are special.
And
did I mention FREE shipping?
Yeah,
talk about special.
Maybe it is because
I have bought stuff from them for over, what? Thirty years?
No, probably not.
Maybe it
is because I shoot Nikon?
No.
48 hours? Are you kidding me?
Maybe, just maybe, I am special.
Hey, works for me ...
And
speaking of special ... I just got off the phone with my USAA insurance guy ...
Yes, I have insurance on some of my camera gear ($10,000 limit). And yes, you guessed it ... The Nikkor 18-200mm
VR lens is on the list.
Of course,
because it happened out of the country, and we have to do this, talk to this person, e-mail back and forth, etc ...
It will be awhile.
No worries ...
I won't be
leaving for Florida until after Christmas and my mother's birthday (the 27th).
The clock is running ...
But
hey, I have my new lens ... Plus I got the Kirk replacement foot for the Nikkor 200-500mm lens ... I'm good. Everglades. Key West. Dry Tortugas National Park. Clewiston. Big Cypress National Preserve. Sanibel Island. St. Petersburg.
Cedar Keys NWR. Pensacola. New Orleans. Dallas. Albuquerque. Bosque Del Apache NWR. That
was the plan ... Then I went to a talk on Elephant Seals while on the ship ... California. Got to go ... Haven't figured
out where I'll go just yet, but I know I have to end up near San Simeon, California. That is where the seals are ... That is the plan ... As of now. Works for me. I
just might get used to this whole retirement thing after all. I'm working on it. Well, you know, not really WORKING, but trying real hard. Now that is special.
Red and 18% Gray
I'm back ...
Three weeks on the Southern Ocean,
in and around, three islands:
The Falkland Islands South Georgia Island Antarctica
Three islands, three images ...
These are
wild islands. Period.
They are not petting zoos.
It is all about life and death. Raw. In your face.
These are petrels, the "Hyena of the Southern Ocean" (my, non-scientific nick-name) ... They
strip everything down to the bones.
Life and death.
Period.
These
images were shot on South Georgia, THE place I wanted to go to on my "Retirement Trip".
Freakin' unreal.
Yes, Antarctica was, well,
you know ... Antarctica, and The Falkland Island had the Black Brow Albatross, but come on ...
South Georgia.
The Place.
It did live up to what I thought it would be like ... Wild. The amount of wildlife on the islands was impressive.
I can't say it enough ...
Wild.
In this case, a fur seal was still-born,
and the petrels came in and "took care of the body" ... Fighting for every bite, every piece. It was a free-for-all with several
birds trying to get in and get their fill before "The Boss" would come in and demand his (well, sorry, I THINK it was a "he")
respect (It was BIG, and mean).
It was quite a scene.
One death provided
life for many. That is how it works.
Life and death.
Nature at it's rawest, wildest, bloodiest.
Something
new for me, pretty much ...
These are the images
that sums up the whole trip for me ... Quite an experience.
The eye.
Framed in red ...
Nature, in your face, in one of the most remote places on the planet.
Three flights, three days of rolling around in the ocean, with three,
or four, landings on each of the islands, THOUSANDS (and thousands) of seals and birds (both flying and non-flyers) ...
THOUSANDS.
The
noise. The smell.
Raw, in your face ...
Unreal.
Great
trip. I just need to get some rest ...
Twenty-six hours
from my last hotel to Charlotte. I have now been up for ... Ahh, what? Thirty-nine ... Going on forty hours ...
But I had to get that eye out there ...
Red and Gray (18% gray, in fact).
Night.
Oh wait ...
More
to come:
Speaking of THOUSANDS of penguins and birds
... I am now going through THOUSANDS of images ...
Twenty-one
days at sea.
The Southern Ocean.
Whew ...
Blue and Gray
Ice and sky.
If you want blue ice and gray skies,
The Southern Ocean is your place.
Kind of like being
from the North and living in the South.
The
Southern Ocean is the roughest ocean in the world ... Look at a map, or better yet, a globe, and look at Antarctica.
OK, you don't have a map handy ... I understand.
Close your eyes ...
Picture the South Pole in your mind ...
No, really, go ahead ...
Antarctica.
That big chunk of ice at "The
Bottom" of our planet.
Now, think about it ...
It is a continent surrounded by water ...
And no other continent blocking the winds that rip around the world unimpeded in any way ...
No land to break the wind ... The storms that turn the ocean into a roller coaster.
They supply you with foam wedges to keep you in your
bed at night ...
No, really.
It is a wild ride.
That said, The "Dreaded Drake",
or what is really The Drake Passage, is considered the roughest crossing of any ocean on the planet.
That said, this trip was a piece of cake.
Going South this time around,
I flew into Montevideo, Uruguay, spent an extra night, then boarded the same ship I took to Antarctica
six years ago, and then sailed down the east coast of South America.
Three days.
And yes, the continent of South
America blocked the winds and it was great ... But yes, I still took my little Bonine Tablets ... You know, I know what me
being on a ship does to me ...
Get this ... Yes, I had
to check the spelling, I knew it was spelled weird. Hey, but they work ... And here is why:
Meclizine Hydrochloride. Antiemetic.
Say what?
Anyway ... Did I ever tell you the time, back in 1977, that I spent 45 days
on a Navy battleship bopping around The Southern Pacific?
Yeah
... Marine of the Year.
My "reward"?
Sitting in the bow (ah, that's the front of a ship), which just so happens to
also be where the brig (ah, that's the jail) is located.
Navy
terms ... Don't get me started ...
Yeah, anyways, Marines
are on Navy ships to sit in little rooms next to the "jail" and watch over some poor Navy "squid" (Marine vernacular) who
got caught with drugs he picked up in Thailand, or some other crazy country in WEST-PAC (that's Western Pacific).
Remember, I mentioned 1977.
Yeah, people got caught with drugs in every port we stopped in.
The bad thing was that their punishment, was the same as my punishment (I was probably the only person on that ship
that didn't do drugs) ...
My "reward" was getting caught
in a typhoon off the coast of The Philippines for three days and rockin" and a rollin' around in the worst location to be
aboard a large ship ... Or any ship, for that matter ... At one end or the other.
The middle of the ship is bad, don't get me wrong, but think about it ...
A See-Saw.
Up and down ... Up and down ...
The ends of the ship move the farthest ... Way up, then way down. Plain and
simple. Science at it's worst.
Some reward.
Anywho ... I digress ... It is just so ... You know, the memories ...
Forty years ago ...
And six years ago ... The Drake.
I know sea-sickness.
I chewed those tablets down, Baby ... I was ready.
Nothing.
I rocked in my hammock, back when I
actually did have a hammock that is, more than I did on this trip.
Spring time.
Remember, it was Spring in the Southern Hemisphere, maybe that helped, I don't know. All I do know is that crossing The Drake
on this trip was way too easy.
Even spooky ... I just
knew we would get slammed one of those nights ...
Not
really. I mean, if I don't get sick on a ship, it ain't happening ...
"Too easy, Drill Instructor, too easy" (I picked up that one at Fort Jackson, while photographing Army Boot Camp,
years and years ago. Enough said.).
Which brings us (finally) to this
image ... Blue and Gray.
Ice and clouds.
Nature's tones. Nature's colors.
This was also a very large piece of tones and colors, I might add.
No, not one of the REALLY big chunks you read about, but ... Pretty darn big.
Impressive.
But that was not what drew me to it ... No, it was
the blue ice against that gray sky ... Color.
The colors.
Old ice is blue ice.
The pressure of all the snow and ice above it
compress it and, ta-da, magic! White snow becomes blue ice.
Yeah, that's all
I got.
Science really isn't my thing ...
I just like the results.
Blue.
Gray.
Oh yeah, the gray are the clouds ... Lots of clouds.
Every day. Every night.
Yes, I did see some blue skies
every once in awhile, but ... In three weeks, I never saw the Southern Cross at night, let's put it that way.
Clouds. Every day. Every night. Twenty-one days. And twenty nights ... Something
like that.
Blue ice, gray skies ...
Nice color combination.
Did I mention my first Honda Element was Blue and Gray?
No?
OK, I won't ...
But it is a nice color combination. And in The Southern Ocean, it is in-your-face, every day ... Blue ice, gray skies.
The Falkland Islands? Check.
South Georgia? Check.
Antarctica? Oh yeah, check.
And floating around in-between all these islands?
Blue and Gray. Check.
I photographed a LOT of
blue and gray.
And white ... But, you know, that's just
another shade of gray.
But I won't go there ...
SHARP. Period.
Got it today!
UPS and Adorama teamed up to get
my new lens here right on time.
Nikkor 200-500mm f5.6
VR lens.
OK, lets get it out of the box and take it for
a test spin ...
I opened up the Kirk replacement foot
that I also ordered and tried to actually replace the original.
Nope.
I goofed ... Again.
Wrong thingy ...
No worries ... I have a generic lens mount upstairs, a piece of cake ...
But, for a good 'ol hand-held image quality test, I don't even need one.
In fact, I am going to hand-hold the lens anyway ... You know, to see if this 5.5 stops of alleged "Vibration Reduction"
super-power stuff, actually works ...
You know how these
companies are ... Ahh, the lens was actually made in ...
Shh,
don't tell anyone ...
China.
A Nikkor lens, for a Nikon camera body, a NIKON camera body, and it is made where?
China.
So, out I walk into my parking lot.
My neighbor's truck is sitting out there ... He is a neat freak, and is ALWAYS
polishing his wheels ... Something I want to do, but you know ...
Ahh, pictures to be made and all that ...
So,
I walk out there, kneel down, you know, get on the same level as my subject ... And fire away.
Remember, hand-held. And yes, I was breathing ... But I did try to use good
lens technique ...
500mm. f5.6. ISO set at 200. 1/800
of a second shutter speed.
B.R.A.S.S. (You know, Marine
Corps rifle training skills, from 40, make that 41, years ago, and all that ...)
Nothing fancy. These are the settings, and skills, I would use to shoot wildlife, flowers, or, say, my neighbor's
shiny wheels in the parking lot.
Like I would ever
think of that ...
This is the first shot.
This is the very first shot with my new lens ... I shot 191 while on my "test
run" in my yard. And yes, I did nothing to it in Photoshop except re-size it for my website.
No SHARPEN (Although I usually do, because I can).
No NOTHING. ZERO compensation. Right out of the camera.
Bare-naked.
Look at the image. Look at it close.
Is it sharp? OK, OK, yes, it is upside down, but come on? Is that baby sharp, or what?
Tires, leaves, trees, clouds ... I shot anything and everything. Tripod, no tripod. Shoot, shoot, shoot. 191 images.
I could have shopped at one.
This first shot tells me all I need to know.
Nice
lens. It works. Game on ...
Really, that's it.
I don't need to do anything else. I don't need to calibrate it, or use some
fancy lens chart, or, Lord forbid, return it ...
Nope,
I'm good. Finished.
Test over. Complete.
Done.
Like
steak (Hey! I actually ate a steak last night down in Columbia, SC, but, you know, sorry, I digress) ...
Well done.
I'm
good to go. No returning this lens. I think I'll keep it.
That
simple. That quick.
One shot.
Yes, I could have stopped down the lens to f8, even f16, and shot a few more
images ...
Checked them out on the computer screen ...
But no. I got all the information I needed.
The lens is sharp.
And who hand-holds a five
pound, 200-500mm lens anyway?
The lens is heavy. I really
won't be hand-holding it all that much ... I did mount it to my Kirk side-kick and big Gitzo tripod and took a few more shots
...
I was right.
The lens is a keeper. It is SHARP.
I "wrapped
her up" in a nice neoprene LensCoat digital military wrap, attached my 2X converter, and have her mounted on my big tripod
sitting here in the living room ...
Time to photograph
the moon ...
Again.
But before that, math time ... Yes, again ...
Get
this: The 500mm f5.6 becomes 750mm f5.6 as soon as I mount it on my camera (1.5 crop factor of the DX sensor). Yes, the aperture
isn't affected - It remains f5.6.
That's nice ...
Take that, multiply it by two because of the converter ...
It gets nicer ...
That's right ... 1500mm f11 (there is a two-stop loss of light with the 2X converter).
No problem. I shoot the moon (photographically, that is) at f16 anyways.
Perfect.
1500mm.
Like, my longest focal length ever!
Period.
I don't know what phase the moon is in, I don't care what phase the moon is
in, I just know I'm ready.
I
gotta photograph the moon ...
Period.
I want to see if this set-up actually works ...
It should.
It pasted my test.
What else is there?
**
Moon Up-Date. Just my luck ... New Moon. For those of you like me, that means ... Blah, blah, blah, "can't be seen from earth" ... Start of a new cycle. I tried ...
My Mind's Eye
Yeah, I see these flowers every time I walk up the hill ...
Or down.
What is this? October? And they are
like, in full bloom ... What's up with that?
That just
shows you how much I know about flowers ...
Well,
except I knew there was an image there ... And that I would get it one of these days ...
It has been about a week now, since I first saw them like this.
Where were they all summer?
I have no clue ...
They just "appeared".
Anyway ...
I saw the image, as it would look on my computer screen, before I even had a camera in my hand.
Bam.
Done.
Got it.
My Mind's Eye.
I saw it in my head. My mind. I knew what the image looked like before I was even made it down the hill ...
So, I went upstairs, got out the tripod, grabbed a camera, and that new 70-300mm
lens I just bought, what? Two weeks ago? A month?
I lose
track, to tell you the truth.
OK, back up the hill ...
Nikon D7000. Nikkor 70-300mm. Gitzo tripod. Kirk BH-2 ball head.
Perfect.
I
saw the image as a "wall of flowers" ...
They are out
front of a house, like I said, half way up this hill in my neighborhood ... A couple hundred yards ... Maybe.
Placed the tripod on the edge of the road ... I didn't want to go onto the yard,
you know ... Private property and all that. That's why I wanted the 300mm reach ...
I knew I could "stack 'em up" with that longer focal length ... I had it all figured out in my head.
Simple.
I
keep my trusty Nikkor 18-200mm VR on the camera all the time. Well, you know, unless I change lenses.
I did.
Set 'er
up, set my self-timer for two-seconds, lined up my "wall of flowers", and fired away ...
Nothing.
Say
what?
Tried again (like, what? I thought I didn't do
it right the first time, and now it will magically work? No problem).
Nothing.
What?
Now the camera has my attention ...
Auto-focus?
Check.
Self-timer? Check.
I even tried manual focus ... Remember that? Yeah ... It took a second to dawn on me ...
Nothing.
Bam.
The new 70-300mm lens ...
Yeah, got it. I remember
...
The lens has no built-in motor in it ... So ...
It needs a newer model camera body ...
D500. Oh brother ...
Back down the hill ...
Back into the living room ...
The D500 is set-up on my big Gitzo, with the "moon lens set-up", in the living room, ready for, you know ... What
else?
The moon.
I am ready.
I switched out cameras, back up
the hill ...
Got my shot.
That was the easy part.
D500. Tripod. 300mm
@f16. Self-timer.
One-thousand one.
One-thousand two ...
Bam. That easy.
Got it.
But you know me ...
Try this, try that, look at that wall, no, look at this wall ...
When is the best time to shoot a vertical?
You
got it. Right after the horizontal ... My Mind's Eye's view, in this case, was horizontal ... You know, "normal" ... A line
of flowers, a wall of flowers ... Left to right.
But
wait a minute ...
Walls can go up and down too ...
Vertical it is ... Simple enough.
Oh poop.
I don't have an L-Bracket on the D500
... That is my "long lens expert" and I only use it with the big 300mm f2.8. You know, the "moon lens". The elk lens. The
... 300mm f2.8 lens (with, or without the converters).
No
L-bracket. No camera strap.
Nothing. A bare-naked camera
body.
I just can't "flip it, and click it" into my Acura-Swiss
tripod head.
No worries ... I just had to go back to
the last century, and flop the camera over on its side ... Old School.
Are you kidding me?
For one image that I have
bouncin' around in my head? All this?
Whew, this is almost
like a curse, or something ...
Nope.
Got it.
Back
up the hill ...
Shoot, shoot, shoot ...
Wall of flowers. Wall of flowers. Wall of flowers.
Perfect.
I'm a genius.
Bam.
Just
one more ... Wait a minute ...
Not a wall of flowers
image.
Ah, there are more images in front of me ...
I just get so focused on that one shot. That "killer shot". That whole "Mind's
Eye" thing ...
Saw it. Got it. Done.
Hello?
Slow
down ...
The lens works at f5.6 too ...
Break down that wall ...
Shallow depth of field.
A "different look" ...
Another image all together.
Now true, I am old, and my eyes aren't as good
as they used to be, but I don't see like my lens sees. Never have, never will (I hope).
Shallow depth-of-field is a trip.
It takes that "wall", and places
it anywhere you want it.
That "wall of focus" ...
At f16 I had a "great wall of focus".
At f5.6, not so much ...
So, I looked for an image that would work to my advantage ...
Now
look, if I shot the same image at f5.6, that flat wall would not have changed very much ...
What? The depth of the flowers was only, what? Four inches? Six inches max?
Something like that.
Even at f5.6 (my "smallest number"), that flat
wall would have looked in focus ... You know, not that much depth within the image, to really show any big change ...
It would still look like a "wall of flowers".
So, I changed
my view, looking for a "gap" between the "front" flowers, and the "back" flowers.
Foreground and background.
Depth.
Well, really, it is distance ... In the "real world" that is. The real, 3D world
in which we are a part of.
Except when we use a camera.
Or draw. Or paint.
Which I don't.
So, as a photographer, I looked
for distance between the foreground and the background subjects.
And went with my "smallest number" (f5.6 in this case), my longest lens, and got as close as I could ... Without
getting in their yard, that is.
300mm. f5.6. And what?
Six feet? Seven feet? from the flowers? Something like that.
It all equals up to shallow depth-of-field.
Lens Aperture. Distance.
Photographic
vision.
Magic.
The look I was going for on this second image ... The one I didn't see in my head (at first).
Until I knew I had that one image I was looking for ... "The Shot".
Then, all of a sudden, another image popped into my head ...
Funny how that works. Again, magic.
I just let one image lead to another ...
Remember,
I read "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie", many, many times over the past twenty-four years ...
Which led to the next image in my head, of course ... The "double-exposure special", one sharp, one out
of focus ... That dreamy look I have used for years ...
Perfect.
I can see it in my other Mind's Eye ...
Poop.
The D500 works a little different ...
Or, at least, I haven't figured it out yet ...
It
takes one image right after the other ... Like, what is that all about?
I remember trying it once before ... I have to sit down and go over that one ... Or check out a video on YouTube
... Or "Goggle It" ...
Or, as an after thought, read
the manual (Duh?).
But until then, I will just have to
go back upstairs, and get my trusty D90 ... Or D80. Or D200. Or the D300. Or the D300S. Or the D700 ...
Oh wait ... Or the D7000.
Yeah,
the very camera I had in the first place.
OK, gotta run
...
Back upstairs.
Back up the hill.
And yes, I'm way ahead of
you ...
Back to the trusty, reliable, best-lens-ever,
the 18-200mm VR.
No, wait ... The 70-200mm f2.8.
Perfect.
Just
what I need for that shallow depth-of- field (smaller number), dreamy effect I have in my head.
My Mind's Eye. You know, my third Mind's Eye.
And once I get that, speakin' of dreamy, I could breathe on the lens to fog it up ...
Oh yeah, and that would lead me back upstairs to see if I still have those little panty-hose pieces I used back in
the day ... You know, when there was someone in the house that actually wore such things ...
Nude. White. Blue. Red ...
No, I don't think I still have them ... That was another lifetime ago ... Like, a LONG time ago.
So, that has me ending up at Wal-Mart again ... Looking. Hunting.
Oh brother ... This will never end, will it?
It's All in the Details ...
I set this image as my Screen Saver last week ...
I see it when I am sitting there watching TV ... Nice and large.
I remember taking it ...
I was at the zoo a few years ago. Actually, I can't remember when I was there, but I was at the zoo ...
That I know.
A lady was holding
this hawk on her gloved hand and was telling us all about it, as she feed it chunks of meat ...
I remember I had my old Nikkor 80-400mm VR lens back then, the one I used for years.
It was a sharp lens. Slow, but, as you can see ... SHARP.
And heavy.
It
was an "old school" lens, dating back to the good 'ol film days. Like I said, I had it for years. I liked it.
Sold it to buy a used Nikkor 70-200mm VR f2.8. Ahh, an excellent lens. Very
sharp.
And fast.
I like it.
And just to come around full circle,
just last week, I ordered the NEW Nikkor 200-500mm VR lens for my trip to South Georgia next week.
Yes, like the old 80-400mm, it is SLOW. Like f5.6 slow ... That is the bad news.
The good news is with the new lens, it is a constant f5.6. At 200mm and ...
All the way to 500mm. A constant aperture.
That is a
good thing.
And with my new D500 camera, with good, high,
ISO noise control, it is a win-win.
I will just raise
the ISO to control my shutter speed, and forget about it.
That
easy.
That nice.
And for those of you new to the game, think about it ...
DX sensor.
1.5 crop factor.
200-500mm ...
I'll
do the math for you ... I taught Special Ed. for 24 years ... I know my multiplication tables.
That 200mm becomes 300mm.
Sweet.
That 500mm becomes 750mm.
Bam.
300-750mm.
And remember ... f5.6.
Period.
Constant aperture.
That all sounds good, but the real bad news (for me anyways), is that Adorama is closed for a Jewish Holiday at the
moment, and the lens won't ship until Monday.
I leave next
Saturday.
I'll get it just in time. I hope.
Oh wait, it is Adorama ...
No worries.
Add the 1.7X converter (you know,
because I can), and ... Oh, I don't even want to go there. Not yet.
I won't be able to sleep ...
But here, you do
it for me ... Take 750 and multiply it by 1.7. Go ahead, use that cell phone calculator you have in your other hand ...
Oh crap!
I
couldn't help myself ... Oh my.
That is CRAZY!
Yes, it is a LARGE lens. A heavy lens. But ...
Think VR.
Remember excellent high ISO results.
If this new 200-500mm 5.6 VR lens is as good as the old 80-400mm f4.5-5.6 VR
lens, I know I have a great lens.
I mean, that old lens
was SHARP.
This image is all the proof I need. Look at
the hairs below the eye. The blood on its beak ... Sharp.
I
can see it from the couch. You know, while I sit here and look at this image on my computer screen ...
During the commercials that is.
One, Two, Three
Three is a charm.
I was, you know, checkin'
out ADORAMA the other day, and came across ... Oh wait!
It
was not Adorama ...
Really.
I was actually checkin' out KEH Camera (after Adorama), which is located down in Atlanta ...
The place I sold all my Minolta gear back in 1991, or 1992,
when I switched over to Nikon.
Yeah, 1991.
I got on their website and looked for, well, you know, old, used cameras.
Cheap.
The
"X" classification. They don't work.
Remember, I haven't
shot film in YEARS ... 2005.
These are for my collection.
Three more ...
The
Nikon F is a CLASSIC. It was what caught my eye. Old-School at its best. Metal. Like, heavy metal. A big, clunky, beast that
started it all ...
Think Korean War ...
No, the camera did not start the Korean War.
No, it started the whole Nikon thing ...
I did
my Master's Thesis on combat photography, and David Douglas Duncan. He shot with a Leica rangefinder, like most photojournalists
of the time ... Well, you know, those that shot 35mm, that is.
35mm was new.
Many old-school photographers
thought of it as a "toy", a fad. It wouldn't stand up to the quality of medium-format film, or the king of them all, the large-format
sheets of film.
Come on, size matters.
Or so they thought.
Turns out, quality matters.
They took movie
film, cut it in strips, and there you go ... 35mm film.
They
had their rangefinders cameras ... Leica, Contax, and ... Well, like I said, they had their 35mm rangefinder cameras.
German.
Actually,
it was World War II that opened the idea of using a smaller, lighter, camera in photojournalism. Pretty simple really.
Dare I say, life or death?
David Douglas Duncan was in Japan at the start of the Korean War (he was a Marine photographer during WWII),
and came across this little, un-known company, that had some SHARP glass ... It was the lens that caught his attention.
He bought one for his Leica camera, and the rest, well, you know ... The rest
is history.
Nikkor.
Nikkor glass.
Nikon cameras.
That was the power of LIFE magazine in the 1950s. The power of LIFE photographers.
That is the short story ...
The Nikon F.
And yes, next came the F2, F3,
F4, F5, and I believe that the last one was the F6.
F
for film.
D for digital.
This is the camera that started it all ...
And speaking of "F" (no, it's not a bad word), I have to mention the "F-mount".
This is classic Nikon ...
I could go upstairs
right now, grab one of my new digital cameras ... Like the D500, for example (the newest), and mount this lens on it, and
go out and shoot ...
No problem.
Sure, I would have to remember how to focus manually, and all the communication between the body and the lens are
gone, but ...
I "could" shoot away, and actually get an image.
Easy enough.
Try
that with a Canon. Minolta (Sony). Pentax. Any other camera ...
Not that I would WANT to, but ... You know, if I HAD to, I could.
I have gone over this before with my (one and only) Canon camera.
It doesn't work.
Different mounts.
Nikon baby!
OK,
that is the Nikon F.
Next ...
The Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 521/16.
Germany quality in a "point-n-shoot" camera, before they actually made point-n-shoot cameras.
Older than I am. They stopped making them in 1953 (yeah, I "Goggled it"). It
is the most expensive camera of the three ...
Oh, I have
to mention, that this is the only camera that came with a lens. It is an old, "one piece" camera, that folds
back into itself.
Again, a classic.
Now, for the MOST IMPORTANT new addition.
The KONICA Autoreflex TC.
This was my first
"real" camera back in the day.
I bought mine in Japan,
in 1978, right before I came back to "The World" ... My first SLR. Period.
The 50mm f1.7 lens was the "kit lens" before they were called a "kit lens". It was just the "normal" lens
that was sold with the camera.
Unlike today.
And, if I remember correctly, this was one of the first "automatic" cameras of the day ...
Shutter-priority.
I picked the shutter speed, the camera matched it
with the correct aperture. Just the opposite of the way I shoot today!
Which was pretty hi-tech for its time. Which was good, because I was clueless. I knew nothing about cameras, or,
for that matter, photography in general. Well, except to point, and shoot, like I had done ever since I picked up a camera
(1968).
1968 - 1978. Ten years ... Wow, I never
thought of it like that before.
Anyways ... A "new" camera
from 1978, not bad.
And, after I brought out my "magic
cleaning" gear ... I had it looking like new. Sweet.
I
had one years ago ... Now, I have another one. Even better.
Oh,
I sold mine when I worked in a camera store (N&W Camera) in Augusta, GA back in ... Ahh, like, 1984.
That is when I switched to Minolta. I wanted a Nikon, but the store did not
sell Nikon (and I couldn't afford it anyways). With my employee's discount, I went with the Minolta X-570 first, and then
the X-700.
Really.
I actually worked for camera gear. I would get paid, and turn around and buy more camera gear. They couldn't afford
to fire me!
Fun times.
But, it all started with the Konica.
Cameras
for the collection.
Nikon.
Zeiss Ikon.
Konica.
Three cameras.
One ... My collection.
Two ... My passion.
Three ... My obsession.
Elk
"The
best laid plans of mice and men often go astray" ...
Yeah.
Plan, go, adjust.
This was a trip over to Cataloochie to photograph the elk.
You know, The Rut.
Fall. A little cooler air
...
I was pumped.
And get this, I even tried to check the web to see if the elk were out playing ...
I got nothing.
I went for it.
I got nothing.
Well,
no ... I did get some images, just none of elk.
Never
saw an elk. I did hear one elk call, but I think he was just teasing me ...
I got nothing.
But ...
I was there, drove all that way, so ... After sitting around, setting up the
"big lens" with my, you know, 10 frames per second, Nikon D500 camera, reading my photography magazine (for like, the tenth
time)...
Oh, I did photograph a turkey, way out there,
you know, making sure the camera still worked ...
But
after all that excitement, I packed everything up and drove back down to ... I guess you could say, the old farmstead.
Yes, I ALWAYS stop and take shots of the shadows up in the barn ... The slats
in the sides of the barn make great patterns ...
And
since I was there, I walked across the little bridge and went into the house ...
Because it was there.
And there it was ...
Just as you walk in, there is a set of stairs going upstairs ... And with the
front door open ...
Perfect.
Light hitting the staircase ...
I had to get
a few shots ...
Which, of course, leads to more, and
more shots ...
Kind of like when you give a mouse a cookie
... But that is from another time and place.
Monochrome
chocolate.
That is what I'm going with on this one.
Chocolate.
Chocolate
wood.
Just add light.
The color was ... You know, unique. The lines ... And then there was light.
And guess what? I took more than one shot. Line 'em up. Line up the lines ... Shoot, shoot, shoot ...
And yes, you are right ...
I "tried a little tenderness" as far as the exposure goes ... How dark, or light, do you want your chocolate?
Milk chocolate is nice, yes, but, why try only one when you can have dark chocolate
as well?
And every variation in between?
True, it is all chocolate, but what a difference a little, or less, light makes.
You really can't go wrong ...
Milk Chocolate or Dark Chocolate?
It is all
good.
I am just glad I packed a couple more cameras and
lenses ... This image was taken with my Canon 6D with the 18-135mm lens.
Yes, you read that right ...
Canon.
I couldn't have gotten this one with "The Big Gun", that is for sure.
Make your plans, take the gear you need to get the image you are planning to
get, and then remember to take the gear for the images you aren't planning to get.
Funny how that works.
Elk? What elk?
Illuminated Color
Yes, this is another flower I met along the interstate ...
And yes, it is another Blog about LIGHT.
And
color.
But what this is really about is BACKLIGHT.
Flowers and backlight ...
Color and light ...
Pretty simple really.
LOOK AT THE LIGHT
GET CLOSER
SHOOT LOTS OF IMAGES
OK, I was parked on an Off-Ramp, but come on, I see truckers doing it all the
time ...
And, for the most part anyways, I doubt most
of them are out there chasing the light ...
Maybe.
Joey Bowman is a former college student of mine, and he's a truck driver
...
You never know.
So, when you see the light, and stop on the off-ramp, you better get close, and shoot a lot of images ... Quick!
Or not ...
Shoot the whole field.
Shoot a close-up of a
bug on one of them, shoot, shoot, shoot ...
But then,
before you walk away ...
One more. There is always one
more ...
Look at the back of the flower ...
"The other side".
That is one of the key aspects of SHOOT LOTS OF IMAGES.
Different angles ...
See how the subject looks
from this, or that, angle ...
Look.
Study the light ...
The shadows ...
The glow of light passing through
the petals ...
BACK LIGHTING.
The patterns, lines, shapes, texture ... They are all there.
Front, and/or back ...
Take the time to study the art, before shooting it like crazy.
And trust me ... There is more than one image for any one subject.
Get "your killer shot" first, than look for another one.
A better one.
THE shot.
Get the best image possible, and then keep looking ... Hunting. Or should I
say ...
Fishing.
Photography and fishing ... Catch one, and then cast for a bigger one.
A better one.
It is always the "next" cast
... The "next" image ...
Always.
SHOOT LOTS OF IMAGES
Oh, and just to make sure I am perfectly clear, I don't just stand in one place and cast for trout over and
over again ...
I move.
I cast
from here, I cast from there ... I try different angles.
It carries over into
my photography ...
Or, did it carry over into my fly-fishing? I don't know
...
Doesn't matter ...
The point
is, don't just shoot the same image over and over ... Yes, a few times, no problem.
But then move, look, adjust ...
The best shot will always be
your next shot ...
ALWAYS.
Craters of the Moon
No, I did not go out and buy a new lens.
I
promise.
In fact, I don't think there is a lens that
could get me this close.
Not that I could afford, anyways.
But ever since I got a "big" lens, and got as close as I could, I always wanted
to get closer.
It becomes an obsession.
I do follow my own rules.
Well, no, that is why I have rules to begin with ...
GET CLOSER
Just for the record (whatever that
means), this image was shot with my Nikkor 300mm f2.8 lens, mounted on my Nikon D500 (with the 1.5 crop factor), along
with the Nikon 2X converter.
All that boils down to me,
looking through a 900mm f5.6 lens (35mm equivalent), and seeing little craters of the moon.
Then, due to the fact that my Nikon D500 has around 20MP, I could go one step
further, and crop like I've never cropped before.
Wow.
I cropped like a madman.
What you see here, is just a wee little bit of the original file ...
Not bad.
Yes, I did "Sharpen" the image (I can
click a button with the best of them).
That's it.
Crop. Sharpen.
Then,
for my website, I re-sized the image, and finally changed the resolution, from 300 dpi down to 72 dpi.
Computer screens only show 72 "dots-per-inch", so I make sure my images only have 72 dots-per-inch.
Makes sense.
True, some newer TVs and monitors, do have 96 dpi, but ... You know me.
Low-tech.
72
works for me ... Keeps the files small, so that I can use lots and lots of images on my website, plus, they load fast
... I do it for you!
All good stuff.
So, I used every tool I have and came away with an image I have seen in my head
for years, but, you know, could never quite get there ...
Now
I can.
It's fun.
I have the lens, mounted on the tripod, set-up in the living-room, about four feet from me, as I write
this ... I am ready.
In fact, I am sitting here now,
listening to 60 Minutes talking about space and the Hubble Telescope ...
Man,
what a bummer ...
900mm. Ha. NOTHING.
But ... I am going out right now and shoot (photograph) the moon, one more time ...
Later.
Poppy
My sister's garden.
Well, her and my brother-in-law's.
Like everything
else I photograph, I ALWAYS walk around their yard and end up in front of a poppy.
Or two ... Always.
Color, I guess.
Illumination, I guess.
Contrast, I guess.
Habit, I
know.
You know the drill ...
Find a subject, move in, and get rid of everything except the subject, have the light work for you ... Know your
camera and how it "reads light", and work it ...
Use
the photography process to "make an image" ...
When I
took this image, there was no BLACK background.
The leaves
are green.
Yes, there was some shade, but, to my eyes,
they were greenish, you know, dark green.
Darker
green that the light green leaves in the light ...
Green,
dark green, and red ...
That was what I saw. What I had
to work with ... My palate, if you will.
A garden. Flowers
...
Nature.
Sunlight.
Shadow.
But I "saw" black ...
I knew I would have black
...
I used that knowledge to make this image.
I used the basic camera operations, and limitations, to "make an image".
Minus compensation.
Work it ...
Enjoy it.
Turn the meter's limitation into your artistic advantage.
Line the red flower up against the "black" background.
Make a background for the main subject ... The "pop" of red.
Contrast.
Simple
as that.
Well, after driving from Hudson, NC to Richland,
NY that is ...
Simple.
The name of the game ... KEEP IT SIMPLE.
Nature
is not simple, for the most part.
Make it so.
Your Reality
My Reality
The Rest of the Story ...
I was going through my card looking for my "Color as Subject" image, and came across some I shot earlier this summer
while up in New York.
But before we get into that (this
is how my mind works), I just thought of something while typing up that last paragraph ...
You know I never really know what I am going to write when I sit down and up-load an image, right?
"Color as Subject".
Like I planned that one ...
I liked the image
... That I did know.
That is what starts it all ... That
is what I want to share.
But I swear, I had no idea what
I was going to write, or how I would begin ...
This is
how it came about ... And trust me, it is not just this one time ... Oh no.
But this time it is fresh on my mind ... Like, I just wrote it about five minutes ago ...
OK.
I was
clueless until I had the image on my computer and put the white frame around it before writing up whatever it was I was going
to write.
That simple. That quick.
That color, framed in white, with that black background ...
The Presentation.
When I saw it, the color "popped", and I had my hook ...
I didn't see it like this, I didn't take the picture against a black background, and, as best as I can remember,
there was no white border out there along I-40 in Valdese, NC ... You know, Exit 113, VALDESE!
Sorry ... There used to be a commercial on TV for a local Ford dealer ... You have to be a local to have any idea
what the crap I'm talking about ...
But I digress (as usual) ...
Anywho ...
BAM.
There it was ... COLOR. Framed in white, against a black background.
I took it from there ...
Which brings me to
this image.
Oh crap! I can't remember what image I am
writing about ...
No, really.
Oh yeah ...
Two
images, actually.
There I was in Pulaski, NY, in June.
Well, just outside the village limits. Route 13, right along the Salmon River.
"My Nest".
You know, I have written about it
before ...
Many times.
I have hundreds of images ...
The Nest.
But, it was cloudy, dull ... No light.
I sat there. You know the drill, no light, no images ...
Then it dawned on my to shoot a couple of "behind-the-scenes" images to give you, as Paul Harvey used to say, "The
Rest of the Story" ...
I hope at least one of you are
old enough to have listened to Paul Harvey on the radio ...
Do
people still listen to the radio?
Wow.
Anyway ...
The
local power company built this platform just for the osprey pair that has been building a nest here for years ...
Yes, their first nest was on the power lines ...
Yeah.
So, the power company, Niagara Mohawk
(back in the day), they changed their name YEARS ago, but us old people still call them Niagara Mohawk ...
Something Grid, but I can't remember ... Northern Grid? National Grid? I don't know ...
I moved away in 1983, in case you were wondering ...
So, not
wanting to mess with Mother Nature (with talons), they set up one more pole ...
Like, MUCH taller ... But as close to the original location as possible.
Osprey, like me, are creatures of habit.
Year
after year ... The same couple. The same pole. The same nest. Year after year.
Perfect.
I, for one, am very glad "The Power
Company" cared enough for these birds to build them a new "home" ... A new platform.
Somehow, the osprey got the message. I don't know if the workers just placed the "old" nest on the new platform,
and hoped for the best, or what ... You know what they say ...
"Build it, and they will come".
And they did.
I wasn't around for the big move ...
But, best of all, the new platform is high enough, so I don't have to contend with those stupid (well,
you know what I mean) power lines in my images.
Perfect.
I just had to wait for the clouds to leave ...
Wait for the light ...
And then for the birds to, you know, do something ...
They are pretty good at just sitting there.
So
am I.
Hope this gives you some idea as to ... Wait for
it ...
Wait ...
"The Rest of the Story" ...
What it really
looks like, sitting on my tail-gate, next to a hay field, just off Route 13, in Up-State New York, in the summer ...
Remember, photography is all about what you don't see in your images ... Thank goodness.
Color as Subject
Yes, there is some kind of bug here, but don't kid yourself, it is not the subject of this image.
And no, it's not the flower either.
Both are nice, but come on, THE subject has to be the color. It shouts out as what is really going on here.
Color.
Orange.
Yellow.
Bam.
I stopped for the color. I got close because of the color. And I photographed color.
The rest is just, well, you know, fluff.
Nice
fluff, but fluff never-the-less.
COLOR.
Yes, color can be the subject. The main idea. The reason for the image in the
first place. The Big Kahuna. The Star of the Show.
Why
not?
First off, it is my image, so I can make-up anything
I want. Period.
Just like you.
The artist.
I
like to believe that I came up with the notion of "Don't let reality, get in the way of your photography".
Same with rules, concepts, "the norm", or whatever else you have heard, read,
dreamed up, or whatever ...
That is the beauty of art.
At it's basic core, art is self-expression. Words, music,
painting, drawing, singing, you-name-it ...
Self-expression.
The "subject" of an image doesn't have to be an actual subject at all; an actual thing,
an object, in the traditional sense of the word, anyways.
No,
it can be fear. Beauty. Terror. Joy. Love. And yes, even color.
Like in this image.
Color.
Take your pick ... Yellow or orange.
Or orange or yellow.
Color, or color.
Flower? Flowers? Field? Green? Bug?
Color.
I'm going with color as the main subject.
It's not a rule or anything ... But it could be.
Color as subject.
You know, the subject of the
image.
The MAIN subject.
What? Oh, I know, squint your eyes while looking
at the image ...
No, really, go ahead. Try it ...
Scroll up.
See?
Color.
Perfect.
I love it when I actually begin to believe what I am saying myself. I love it.
Color as subject.
Why not?
Another Look: Twice.
I was going through some images and came across this one ... Or, I mean, two.
I thought they were worth another look.
I
taught "Three Rules" since 1984.
I lived "Three Rules"
since 1984. That was when I taught my first photography class.
A LONG time ago; another lifetime ago.
Three
rules:
LOOK AT THE LIGHT
GET CLOSER
TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES
Two of those rules you can see in both of these images. I saw the
light, and I got close. Period.
Pretty clear. Pretty
simple.
And, due to the fact that you see two images
here, proves that I actually do follow my own advise.
Horizontal.
Then vertical.
To quote Bryan Peterson, "The best time to take
a vertical, is right after the horizontal".
Shoot. Shoot. Shoot.
Can't remember, it's been a few years (2009), but I do remember, clearly, taking
SEVERAL images as he worked away ...
To me, the light, was
the photograph.
He was sitting inside a little wooden
building where he sold his finished products, or I should say, his wife, or some women, sold his rugs, etc ... He had his
hands full.
I was walking through, saw the light on the
man's face, and knew I had an image.
I knew I had to
"make" an image.
The light was excellent, the metering
was tricky. In fact, the more I think about it, the two usually go together.
True, even without the sidelight, I could have "made an image".
Ahh, you just have to push a button ...
But
I didn't "see" the image in my head, until I walked around, and saw the light on his face.
Bam.
I knew I had something there ... I just
needed to work at it.
I "talked" to him, ah, the best
I could, and "asked" if I could take his picture ... You know, a smile, and hold up the camera, and say, "Photo"?
It's not brain surgery.
He gave a nod.
That was that.
Then, of course, he probably freaked out when I started clicking away ... I'll
say I took fifteen, twenty, images as he worked, clicking away ... Never said another word.
He worked. I worked like a madman. Quick.
Know
what you want, and know how to get it. Very important.
Checked my exposure.
Checked my "highlights". Shot some more. Up close. Backed off a bit. Checked my edges. Shot again.
Vertical.
Horizontal.
Quick, quick, quick ...
I had to control the
"hot spots", or the highlights.
Keep the highlights
under control and let the shadows go black. You know, like shadows.
The meter wants everything to be "medium". No highlights, no shadows.
As an artist, you don't.
You want, in this case
anyways, contrast. You want whites, you want blacks. You don't want everything gray, or mid-toned.
That is the secret.
The secret of photography. Or painting. The secret to art.
The secret to giving a 2-D image, that 3-D look.
Texture.
I got it, I got out of there ... As I remember, I wasn't in there long.
I gave a nod, and said thank you. Yes, in Spanish. I
was in Peru. In fact, I was at the Equator, to be exact.
His
shop, and a few others, were in this little park that was on the Equator.
I do remember that.
He was used to having tourists
walk in, and I'm sure, take his picture.
At least I hope
they did. I mean, look at that light ... He was working in a perfect studio.
Perfect light.
Side lighting.
Texture.
The
side lighting brings out the texture. Period.
His face.
His work.
Texture.
Find side lighting, and you have an image.
It changes the image, makes the image. Simple as that.
Painters painted with it, photographers just took over, and continued the process ... Think Rembrandt.
I believe even he would have stopped, and asked if he could "take a picture."
That is, if he would have been at the Equator, and seen this before him.
Well, he would of, at least, asked him to stop by his studio one day maybe. Oh, and bring his whole loom, or whatever
it is you call this "thing" ... I don't know how good he was painting on location ...
But anyways, you get the idea ...
LIGHT.
TEXTURE.
Period.
With light and texture, you have an image. Now, all
you have to do is go out and find it. Make it.
And no,
you don't have to go to the Equator. That was just an extra bonus ...
Two On, Two Off
This is what it comes down to ...
Two days with
my mother, two different doctor appointments ...
I had
to get away ...
Two days up in the woods.
Two different worlds.
What made it all work, was that I received my new Goal Zero Solar Panel via UPS early Thursday morning.
Not that I needed an excuse ...
I will say it out load.
Doctors drive me nuts. Period.
And I'll also admit I don't like going
to the doctor. Period.
And it really drove me nuts when I was called back to
the room where my mother was.
She is getting a shot. Why would they come and
get me?
They had a question for me ...
What medicine does my mother take?
Say what?
Like I know ... I said, "A lot". They weren't pleased.
I just put
them in the little pill box thing and make sure they are gone the next time I fill it up.
I can pronounce one of them ... I told the doctor, and his two nurses ... I was pleased I could get one right
...
Anyway ...
When I got the
solar panel, I knew what I would do.
Two days on, two days off ...
I packed up my Element and headed to the hills. True, I had to stop at FairValue and pick up my two cans of meat
-- Ahh, I bought Turkey! Well, one can anyways ...
A
first.
And two cans of fruit. Plus a bag of dried apricots,
and some peanuts.
I had water ... I was set.
Two nights.
I
took one camera ... My Nikon D500. And of course I had my little Nikon something ... SO1, or some such strange thing.
The tiny, white, camera I keep in my glove compartment for, well, for trips
to the woods, for one thing. Perfect.
The big tripod
with it's "sidekick".
My Goal Zero battery ...
And my I-Pod shuffle ...
My phone ...
And my fan ...
Got there much later than normal, but I'm anything but normal ...
Holy crap.
"My
Camp" was littered with beer bottles. Broken beer bottles.
And more crap.
I have extra trash bags in my
"cooler," that I don't use as a cooler. I have all "my stuff" in it ready to go ... Trash bags are just one of the many items
stored inside.
I needed them.
I filled up two of them.
Then I got my camera and tripod out ...
Attached
my Nikkor 300mm f2.8 lens.
Got out the solar panel and
hooked it up to the Goal Zero Sherpa 50. Very simple. Plug the cable from the panel into the battery, and ... Well, sit there
and watch the sun do it's thing.
Magic.
I have no-clue. It works, that's all I know.
I just have to "chase the sun" ... You know, kind of like being a photographer.
LOOK AT THE LIGHT. Chase it.
In the woods
it is a trip ...
I have one clearing, I just have to
play "Ring Around the Circle" ...
That's the bad news.
The good news is, with a panel this large, I don't have to run very long.
I like it.
It
charges my Goal Zero Sherpa 50 rather quickly, which in turn, charges my camera batteries, i-pod, and cell phone.
Works for me.
Yes,
I have smaller, more portable panels, that I've used for years, but come on ...
Bigger is better. Right?
In this case, yes.
It comes with a stand that keeps it at 45 degrees to the sun ... Something about
that being a good thing.
Easy. Too easy ...
OK, that was one part of the trip ...
Playing with new toys.
The second thing was
that I got my tripod a new camo combination. The legs, and the "sidekick" that works as a gimbal head ...
I've written about it before. It works great.
Thing was, the lens is all wrapped up in a LensCoat, military digital cover, as are the legs.
But there was the whole black tripod head (Kirk BH-1), and the
"sidekick", sticking out like a sore thumb.
No longer ...
Wal-Mart to the rescue.
Official military digital camo duct
tape.
Yeah, really. I kid you not.
Duct tape. Digital camo duct tape. Perfect. Military approved. Works for me.
I wrapped everything up, and was set.
Great way to spend the weekend.
And yes, I actually
took some images ... You know, to test everything out. Nature photography, with a 450mm lens.
Perfect.
Overkill.
Yes, to some, it might be the "wrong" lens to be shooting landscapes, but, to a retired college photography instructor,
and a Marine, it was priceless.
Isolate.
I carried it all down to the road ... One of these days I'm going to weight
it, you know, just for fun ...
You know the drill: LOOK
AT THE LIGHT.
What is the light hitting? That's
it. Set up the tripod, look ...
Pan back and forth ...
Looking. wait for it ...
Got it.
One leaf.
One
big, green, leaf thing, lit up by the sun.
That's it
...
Did I mention 450mm?
Yeah, it gets you close.
That close. That big.
That green. That shape ... Shapes.
Green Zen. Green and
Black Ying-Yang.
Yeah, last week it was the dog's
face, this week , a green leaf.
Zen baby!
Shapes. Green and black.
Or is it black and green?
You choose.
I chose the image, and to tell you the truth, it makes no difference to me,
which way you see it.
Works both ways.
But, I know. Our human brain wants to make sense of such things, and tells you
that, yes, it is a leaf, so, that means green and black.
The
"subject" is green, the background is black. Green and black.
Funny how that works.
Funny how cameras work.
How exposure works.
In reality (if there is such a thing),
the background is NOT black.
The background is more green
leaves, some kind of vine, that runs amuck among the trees ...
Whatever it is called - Not Kudzu, but something like it ... It is, indeed, not black. It is green.
Just like the leaf in the image. Green to black ...
Magic.
Magic, I tell you.
Light and shade.
You know ... The camera can only give you one.
Or
the other.
Light?
Shadow?
What do you (the
artist) want?
You are in control.
Well, you should be, anyways, although we all know, that isn't always the case.
I wanted green shapes, which in turn, gave me black shapes.
Shapes to play with. Shapes to play off each other.
That whole Zen thing ... Art.
One exposure.
The "wrong" exposure, as far as
the camera is concerned, but the "right" exposure, as far as I'm concerned.
Minus. You know the drill ...
The one shot,
from that little adventure, that makes up the game I play when up in the woods, on a beautiful day, with a camera and lens,
any camera, any lens, in my hands.
Photography.
Art.
Which
leads me to my third image ...
Now, remember, I mentioned
one image ...
Yeah, we both know that's not going to
happen ...
I take many, many, many, many images.
Period.
Which
is tough on my batteries ...
Which brings me full-circle
to the need for solar power.
Funny how that works.
At least for this Blog, it seems to work.
But to tell you the truth (reality?), I really didn't need to charge my camera batteries ... I have two running things.
They last a LONG time.
About 300 per battery. I checked,
and I still had 16% on the one, plus the spare.
No worries.
No, but I did need to charge my cell phone, you know, so I can be connected
to the "real world". You know how much I am on that thing ... Ha!
And my Goal Zero battery pack, which I had used the night before to charge up my camera batteries in the first place
...
I wanted a low Goal Zero battery so I could charge
it.
I love it when my last minute plan actually works
out.
I used the panel to charge my Goal Zero battery, my
phone, and my I-pod shuffle thing, and not in that order.
Music.
Gotta have my tunes ... Hey, it gets dark around 8pm ...
So,
it all worked out great.
New solar panel. A new, BIG,
solar panel. Check.
Camo-tripod thingys. Check.
Two nights up in the woods. Two, COOL, nights, up in the woods.
Check.
I
didn't need my fan (battery powered).
Perfect.
Two bags of old beer bottles - GONE. Perfect-er. And yes ... I now have a list of all my mother's little pills in my wallet. And yes,
I still can't pronounce all but one of them ... Now, they just better not ask which pill is for
what ... Good luck with that one. Now, that would be perfect.
Plaster Sunrise
I kid you not ...
Today I did two things: Wrote
about taking images of nothing, and went through my cameras, camera bags, and gear ...
One about nothing, the other about everything ...
And
while I was checking out my Nikon D40x with the 18-55mm lens, I took one picture.
Just checkin' ...
I took one image. I pointed
the camera up at the light, saw the color fade away to nothing, and ...
Took an image of nothing.
An image of the light
without the actual light. You know, the whole glass thing with the lightbulb behind it.
The light.
No, I didn't want the subject (the
light), I just wanted the light ...
You know, the light
from the light. That was my subject.
Not the ceiling.
Not the plaster with the little dot thingys ...
Light.
Light makes the image; is the image.
Light makes the plaster, the dots, the shadows ... Light MAKES the image.
Period.
Can you take an image of nothing?
Yes.
And
no.
Yes, you can click the button, and come up with a
black rectangle.
An image of nothing. It is possible.
But you know what I mean ...
The above image is an image of something. Yeah, no kidding. Every image is an image of something. Even that black
rectangle is an image of, well, a black rectangle.
That
is the game. That is how it works.
You press the button,
and if your battery is juiced up, you will get something. You will get an image.
This is an image of a plaster ceiling. Period.
Add
light ... It becomes art.
Light, color, texture, shadows.
Not plaster. Not a ceiling.
Look at it. Go ahead, look at this image again.
Light
to dark, with every tone in between. From white to black, with orange and yellow thrown in for good measure.
Art.
Photography.
Sheer joy.
Vision
The hardest part of teaching college photography, or photography in general, is vision.
You can go over all the aspects of the camera, The Three Buttons, my Three Rules, even the on/off switch, lenses,
tripods, cable releases, you-name-it, but getting anyone to "see images" is something that is not covered in the camera manual.
Seeing images goes beyond seeing subjects, seeing "things". That is the easy
part. Over the years my students took images of dogs, cats, kids, cars, trucks, trees, flowers, and even forks (when push
came to shove).
Too easy.
Well, no, I take that back ...
Back in the day,
I was up on Grandfather Mountain during their big ... Well, I can't think ... Oh wait, got it.
The Highland Games.
People, action, costumes,
food, drinks, animals, more people, people throwing things, people singing, people having fun ... You get the idea.
I was going crazy walking around, talking to people, photographing people, having
a great time ...
A gentleman walked up to me, and I swear,
while I was clicking away like crazy with all this stuff in front of me, he asked me what I was doing, and mentioned that
he was a photographer too, but he couldn't find anything to photograph.
I was like ... Well, I was kind, and said something nice, and walked away. Are you kidding me?
That next semester, guess who shows up for the class? I kid you not. I knew
I had my work cut out for me ...
Turns out, most of my
students were in the same boat ... Seeing images is hard for many people.
Period.
Now, remember, I'm not talking about
taking pictures. No, EVERYONE can take pictures. Ahh, you push a button ... Come on!
Seeing images is different. I always talk about taking (ahh, making) an image of NOTHING. Nothing but light, shape,
form, contrast, lines, color, and texture, just to name a few.
Not so much about what the subject is, but what it is made up of ...
Graphic design. Graphic elements.
What makes
up the subject ... That is harder to see.
It all starts
with light.
Without light, there is no image. Period.
Start with light, and see what it does to the subject. And yes, light can be
the subject. That easy.
With this image, I was up early
and at The Wright Brother's Memorial. That is key ...
Early.
Nice subject, been there many times ...
Nice light, pre-sunrise.
Put them together,
you have something. That is a given.
Too easy.
The Greek word, photography, means painting with light. Period.
Light.
I
was at the memorial making images as the sun rose ...
Beautiful.
Light. Color. Heaven.
I shot like crazy ...
Then I noticed the light on the blocks. As the sun comes up ...
Look down.
The
light hitting these blocks of rocks, which form lines, lines that curve. Again, lines, and graphic elements that make up the
walkway to the monument, that make this image.
Something
we walk on.
Something we overlook.
Most people, me included, come to the monument to see the monument. Period.
Makes sense.
We overlook the walkway to the monument.
The sidewalk. The path. The, I don't even know what else you could call it. It is not the monument.
It is NOT the subject.
That is, until the sun comes up and "paints" the path, "paints" the rocks ...
Paints them with light.
And where you have light,
and a subject, you also have shadows ... The absent of light.
Light/dark. The Ying/Yang of photography.
Ying/Yang,
which forms lines ... Lines that curve. Lines which forms shapes ... Which make photographs.
Magic.
Light
it, and you have an image.
Guaranteed.
Anything. Light anything interestingly (key), and you have an image.
Now, in this case, I did nothing.
Well, except get up and out before the sun ...
And
that's all you have to do.
There is an old newspaper
photography quote about "f8 and be there".
Newspaper
photographers had to be there when something happened, and they just wanted the "event" to be sharp and in focus. As long
as you were there, any "middle of the road" aperture would be fine.
f8 and be there.
Now, to tell you the truth,
I don't remember if I was at f8 ... Wait. You know me, and I know I wasn't at f8. Without looking, but knowing me, I know
I was at f16, the camera mounted on a tripod, and most importantly, I was there!
f16 and be there.
Hey, I'm not a newspaper
photographer.
I was shooting with a tripod. I wasn't
worried about camera shake, shutter-speeds, or anything else, except getting all those stones in focus:
Great Depth of Field.
I wanted EVERYTHING in focus.
I got everything
in focus. Wide-angle lens, f16.
"Big Number, Big
Depth of Field".
Simple.
Sharp.
Stones lit by the sun. Sharp stones lit
up by the sun.
What is my subject? Rocks? Squares? Lines?
Light? What?
What is this an image of?
You tell me.
YingYang
I hope I really don't have to explain this one to you ...
Ahhh, look at this face!
I was like, what? Really?
I couldn't believe that I was lucky enough to have this dog enter my viewfinder as I was photographing my little Labor day
Weekend Picnic out on the Outer Banks.
I had to take
a second look ...
Unreal.
Black and White.
Ying and Yang.
Dog Zen.
I
was like, zoom in, and get that face ...
Make that connection
of Ying Yang.
Graphic design doggy style. I zeroed in
on the graphic design of the face.
He loved to play fetch
... With his owner, and with my nephew's daughters after awhile ...
All right in front of me ...
Perfect.
In and out of the water ... On the shore, tennis ball, stick, whatever ...
Fetch.
Back
and forth ... One of the girls, the younger one, would grab ahold of him and hitch a ride back to shore as he brought back
whatever it was he was fetching ...
We all had a great
time.
Great dog. Great kids. Great day.
I shot and I shot ...
Like the good 'ol days. Black and White. Half black, half white ...
And the curved line ... Like, are you freakin' kiddin' me?
GREAT!
I love it.
I have no idea what his (or her) name was, but for me, easy:
Girl? Ying.
Boy? Yang.
Easy. Simple.
Ying/Yang.
Black/White.
Or
is it White/Black?
Either way, perfect.
Great model.
Great
face.
Great Zen.
Black and white, and it is in color.
Perfect.
Sisters
I
like taking pictures.
I like taking pictures of people.
I like light.
I
like graphic elements within my images, such as a nice S-curve ...
I like smiles.
I also enjoy smirks ...
Or the hint of a smirk. Or is that a hint of a smile? I'll leave that up to
you.
Knowing her, I know what I think it is, but I won't
say it out loud, or in writing.
No way.
All I know is that I like these two images ... These faces. Portraits. Pictures.
Images. Whatever you want to call them.
Labor Day Weekend
at the OBX.
In fact, I think this was Labor Day. A picnic
on the Sound Side "out back" behind Jockey's Ridge. S-Curves, sun, sand, smirks, and smiles ...
Perfect.
The
hair ... No, the S-curve of the hair, that is what caught my eye, made me zoom in.
Get Closer.
When I see a shape ... Any shape,
I tend to emphasize it within the image ... It caught my eye, I want it to catch your eye. Zoom in. Move in. Do something
that shows off what it is that made you take the image in the first place.
True, in this case, with this face, it could have been a couple of things, such as the smile, the glasses, that face,
and even my reflection in her glasses, but to me ... The S-Curve.
Not so much the hair ... I didn't notice the hair. No, I noticed the S-curve, which of course is the hair, but that
is not the point.
S-Curve first.
Hair second.
Graphic
Shape.
OK, and the smile ... Another form of a graphic
shape.
Even better. I'll take it.
And did I mention color?
I should have.
I did.
Both images are images of color.
Pink/Blue.
Yellow/Blue.
Two girls, four colors.
Two smiles. Or two semi-smirks, or two semi-smiles ... I can't figure out which.
Two girls. Four colors. Two great faces.
Perfect.
Too perfect.
Perfect portrait pictures.
Even better.
Deva-Vu All Over Again
I spent the Labor Day Weekend on the Outer Banks with family and dogs.
Very nice.
For the first time, like ever, I
think I spent the first three or four days out there without lifting a camera.
Yeah,
really.
But once I did get into the camera bag, things began to come into focus.
The first thing was a Labor Day Beach Picnic. Perfect. I just sat around, took pictures,
and got some sun.
My nephew has three children, one boy,
two girls. Models. They had a good time in front of the camera and I had a good time behind it. They played with mom,
dad, and grandma, and I took photos.
Then, I actually
did get up before the sun and got out to Avalon Pier for sunrise, like I have many times before ...
No sunrise.
Well,
yes, of course, there was a sunrise, but I never saw the sun. Too many clouds. Nice blue/gray morning at the pier. Not bad.
Gave me a chance to get used to my new, used, Nikon D7000 cameras. Both of them.
The same, only different, than my old Nikon D90.
Everything was right were it always has been.
Sort
of.
I got them set-up pretty good and it was like second
nature ... The buttons, the controls, the feel ...
Perfect.
No problem.
Then
I began to get up and out before dawn ... Bodie Island Lighthouse was next.
The closest lighthouse to me. Quick and easy. I ALWAYS make it out to this one lighthouse.
I have photographed it for years. Twenty years now, I think. 1997. OUR STATE
magazine runs an island issue every year - Or at least they did, and I made one trip every year during my Thanksgiving,
Christmas, or Easter Break from school.
Then I started
to take my college classes out there at Easter Break for a week. We rented a house and did nothing but photography for
a week. Twenty of us running around with cameras ...
That
is the first time I remember seeing Bodie Island Lighthouse's reflection in a little pond that forms in the
field when it rains ... You know, about three inches deep.
Back
when pine trees were also across the street from the lighthouse ... Again, back in the old days.
It is a rare sight ...
And a great chance to
get a unique image of the lighthouse.
Something different.
I also miss having the pine trees there, they were a nice "framing tool"
that I used for many years. I really don't know why they removed them, but they did.
I am glad to see that the little pond still forms, although I must say the mosquitoes are something else ... Bad
near the lighthouse, worst near, or in this case, in the "pond".
I got a few shots and got out of there. Fast.
Unreal.
Worth it though, always worth it.
Pre-sunrise color, top and bottom.
Like I said,
worth every little bite.
I knew the second I saw the
image on the LCD that I would crop it. Both the top and the bottom.
One long,
skinny, image of the lighthouses ... That is how I envisioned it. A long pan-o-rama of the lighthouse(s).
Perfect.
That is how I cropped
it, once I got back and got it into Photoshop.
Simple.
I photographed it, I envisioned it, and I cropped it. That easy.
Not what I saw, but what I felt. What I wanted. What I envisioned.
First, I was just happy as a pig eatin' poop, to get the image in the first
place. I have only see this little "pond" once before. Can't remember when, but it had to be about ten years ago. Yeah,
something like that. I had the college classes out there and it rained ...
And second, when I first saw the image, for some reason, I "saw it" as a cropped image. I don't really know why,
I just did.
Funny how that works.
Ansel Adams referred to it as "pre-visualization" ... Seeing the final image
in your mind before you ever "print it".
Now, true,
I did teach B/W printing back in the day, but I haven't printed an images in many years. No, I don't print anything any more.
We switched to Digital Photography at the college around
2006, something like that. No more B/W enlargers, chemicals, and hangin' out in the girls bathroom loading up film canisters.
Oh, yeah, that was interesting.
Now, I just crop them the way I want them, and put them on my website.
If I want something printed, I take it to Wal-Mart. Period.
Yes, if I do want something printed, I "work on them" in Photoshop first, and then take the file with me to Wal-Mart and
let the machine do the rest.
Like I said, I don't print
very many.
But I love to crop. Too easy. Very easy.
Crop it the way you want it. The way you "saw it" ... Envisioned it.
Anyway you want. Whenever you want.
It is art.
Your vision, your way.
That simple.
Well,
except for those darn mosquitoes ...
Whew ...
Moving Shapes Still Images
I got a new camera and lens today. Had to check them out, so I went for
a walk.
Another Nikon D7000 with the battery pack. It
is in excellent shape, just like the first one I bought.
See,
I retired, and wanted to up-date from my old, trusty, but somewhat outdated, classic, Nikon D90 (still love them though).
So now, I have two Nikon D7000, both with the battery packs (extra batteries).
Nice.
Pretty
much like the D90, but, you know, better.
Newer.
Faster.
The
lens I bought was a 70-300mm in great shape. One of the new "G" lenses, but ... Slow ... (f4.5-6.3) but hey, these new
cameras are so much better with the higher ISO settings, no problem ...
Nice sunny day, ISO 200, open up the aperture, fire away.
Oooopppps ....
Won't fire ... What? Auto focus
turned on ... Oh, the lens doesn't have a button on it ... No VR button either ...
Oh wait. I don't think the lens has a motor built into it in order to focus ... The camera has to do it
...
OK ... Change to the D90. Nope.
D500. Yes. New lens, new camera, makes sense.
"Same generation" (my term, not Nikon).
Yes! Perfect.
Even better ... Instead of five,
or six, or whatever, frames per second with the D7000 (faster than the D90), I now have ten frames per second.
Time to play.
Downtown
Hudson. City Hall.
The flag ...
I have this thing about photographing flags ...
Have for over thirty years. I believe it has something to do with being an American ... Being in charge of the Flag
Detail while in the Marines over in Japan, and being a photographer for the U.S. Army while in Germany ... You know,
something like that ...
And the colors ...
And when the wind blows, the ...
Shapes.
Ten shapes per second.
Blowing in the Wind.
Yeah, I like the song too ... You know (if you are old enough), Bob Dylan.
Now, with a camera that rips off ten frames per second, I had a riot.
Well, once the wind picked up that is ...
But,
you know me ... I waited.
Wait for it. Wait. Wait ...
Then fire away ...
Two-hundred forty-five images of red,
white, and blue ...
And more blue.
Sky blue. The color of the sky and the shape of the sky within the image ... Magic. In fact, VERY important to the
overall image.
I refer to something like this as:
Emotional Nuance.
That "little" something that "makes" the image. You know, that ... That little accent. That little "something"
...
Color. Curves. Triangles. Waves. Lines. Shapes.
Repetition.
The red, white, and blue(s) ...
Now, besides that, and what made it all special to me, is what you can't see
here.
It is what I saw while shooting it ... What
I experienced in the viewfinder ...
Frame after frame,
ten frames per second, flashing in front of my eye ... It was like one of those little "flip books" you made as a kid ...
Or, in my case, tried to make.
Flip, flip, flip,
flip, flip, flip, flip, flip, flip, flip ...
Ten
flips per second.
I can actually remember thinking that
it looked cool while taking the pictures ... A moving picture show within the viewfinder ...
Now, I have been doing this awhile, but I can't remember ever seeing this before; not quite like this ...
I guess there is a difference between, what? 4.5 frames per-second (D90), 5
or 6 frames per- second (D7000), and 10 frames per-seconds (D500) ... I won't even go into my other cameras ...
You get the picture (get it?).
A BIG difference.
Moving pictures ...
These are only two ... Two still images of a moving subject.
Funny how that works ...
That is why I take pictures. There is always much more than the end results - The image, or images.
In this case, two hundred and forty-two images ...
Much more.
It is all about seeing the images,
taking the images, the moments clicking by ...
Two hundred
forty-two moments to be exact; two hundred forty-two images.
Moving shapes, still images.
The Space Between
Yes, The Dave Matthews Band. I stole it. No, really, I just borrowed the title
from one of their songs for this image.
The Space
Between ...
I also stole (borrowed) it from one of the
articles from Outdoor Photographer ... You know, Columnist William Neill. He wrote about it, I am listening to the song as
I type, and, well ...
The image.
I shot this about a month ago at South Mountain State Park while waiting
for some former students to show up for a little get-together.
I have fished this stream for the past twenty something years ... This is "my" stream. My place.
This is also my image. My vision. My style. My art.
One of the first things I can remember learning about photography, art, whatever, was ... OK, let me think ...
I was working at N&W Camera in Augusta, Georgia ... So, it was 1984.
I learned this way back then ...
K.I.S.S.
My photography students can tell you
... "Keep It Simple Stupid".
That's it.
Art 101.
Keep
it simple ...
In doing what I do best, I kept it really
simple, and short, and dropped the "stupid" thing ...
You
know, to keep it even simpler.
And shorter.
Keep it Simple.
If I taught anything since 1984, that would be it. Not my THREE RULES. Not MY THREE BUTTONS. Just this ...
Keep it Simple.
That is art. That is photography.
That is this
image.
A stream (with trout in it), and a tree (with
trout below it).
That simple.
Yet look at how complex it is ...
Complex Simplicity.
Another one of my concepts
that I have talked about, like forever!
In fact, I THINK
I actually came up with this one all by myself. But I know, in actuality, I didn't.
I couldn't.
True, I can't remember reading about
this term, hearing this term, this phrase, whatever ... No, I don't think I stole it from any European Neanderthal cave
painter, Renaissance artist, photography icon, or modern day artist of any sort ...
No, I think I came up with the term myself. The concept, on the other hand, I KNOW I stole from someone, everyone.
That is how you become a photographer, an artist.
Everything you have ever seen, done, experienced, or even thought about, is what makes you, YOU.
The person. The artist.
I am a photographer because I drove a motorcycle. Period.
I am a artist because I took pictures while on motorcycle trips. Period.
I received my first camera while on my first cross-country motorcycle trip.
It is that simple.
I knew nothing about cameras.
I knew nothing about art. Well, except about getting kicked out of art class,
and that you can't color outside the lines ... You know, all the art I learned in school (before getting kicked out, that
is).
And about that whole Space Between thing ...
Look at the space between the green leaves in the image above ...
No really, go ahead, I'll wait ... Scroll back up ...
That space makes this image ...
The contrast.
The contrast in color. The contrast
in light and dark. The contrast in texture.
The contrast
in the space between.
The difference in the space between.
Zen.
The
Zen in the Space Between ...
Oh Boy.
Now that is art. That is a whole class, no, make that a whole semester, during
my graduate school days ...
My gosh, I am an artist!
If I can come up with the above paragraph, that nails it. Finished. Done.
The cycle is complete.
From my first day in
Grad school (1991, I think) when ... Oh, what was his name? The head of the department? Dr. Somebody ...
When he placed an African art piece thingy on the big table we were all
sitting at, and started in about something to do with art, and I was like, "Say what"? "What is he talking about"? ...
Blah, blah, blah ...
From then until now ...
That is art.
Seeing The Space Between ... The shapes, lines, colors, textures, contrast ...
That simple. That complex.
And the thing is, I knew that, but never really thought about it, once I actually learned it, that is.
That is art. That is becoming an artist. When you see, but don't think.
When you walk up by a stream that you have seen for years, and make an image,
without really thinking about all the space between, the contrasts, the art ...
You
just take a picture. Like you have thousands of times, hundreds of thousands of times, and never, ever, actually think about
all that you are seeing and doing.
It is what you do. Who you are. Why
you are there (NOT fishing).
Why you do what you do. Why you make (not just
take) the images that you do.
And it is NOT about
the tree.
And it is NOT about the stream.
It is ALL ABOUT ...
The Space
Between.
*** Got
it! Dr. Mulvaney. The Head of the Art Department.
BAM.
Lord Help Me
I collect cameras. Have for years. About thirty years, something like that.
One or two here and there ...
$5.00 here ...
A gift there ...
Pretty low key.
At first.
Now?
Not so much ... I have written about it before. 8"x10" wooden view camera (not too low key), 4"x5" Speed Graphic, several
from my friend's grandfather, dating back to WWII, and my uncle's donations, etc
...
The Polaroid SX-70 (a classic), from a yard sale while living in Germany
(or was it Korea?), the Lego Camera from, yeah ... Adorama, several cameras from my college students over the years, and
on and on ...
And me just hunting them down, all over the country, while driving
back and forth across the United States over the years.
Thrift
stores, and yard sales, from across this great county of ours.
Oh, and Russia.
Can't forget St. Petersburg,
where I found the best rangefinder cameras I own ... German rip-offs like only the, then Soviets, could have come up
with.
They are fake Leicas, called FED, in
The Mother Country. Those are the initials of the head of the Secret Police, back in the day.
Stolen from the Germans during WWII. Yeah, really ...
Sitting here typing, I can count eighty-three (not counting my cell phone; its
a phone), and that is just in the living room. And I might of missed one or two on the TV stand thing; they go way back
...
Then, there is up-stairs ... Ahh, maybe -- Wait,
I'll go up and actually count them.
It might take
awhile ...
OK. Fifty nine.
And remember, that does NOT include my "working cameras", the digital cameras I actually shoot with, day-to-day ...
No, those are not part of "The Collection". No, they are all in bags, and
put up on a wooden shelf, in a way that only makes sense to me.
Yeah,
I just cram them in there any way I can. Three shelves, stuffed full of LowePro (and a few other brands) bags of
various size and shapes.
Over twenty-five DSLR cameras, all but one ... Nikon.
One lone, Canon DSLR, you know, from when I taught college
classes, and some poor, lost, child showed up with "That Other Brand". I wanted to pretend I knew something about them ...
Then there are the non-DSLR type cameras ... The Point-n-Shoots, a couple of ... Well, I don't know what you call
them ... Mid-range, non-DSLR, types of cameras, and ...
My "favorite"
-- The Nikon AW110, all-purpose, waterproof, camera that I don't leave home without.
Then, lets see ... Three or four other small, point-n-shoot cameras I kept at the middle school for years ...
All set, and ready to go.
Cameras. I have a bunch of them.
So, what does all this have to do with the above image?
Oh Lord, not
another one?
Yes, I was in one of the antique stores in downtown Lenoir, with
my mother, looking for a "new" reclining chair for her apartment, and ...
Yeah.
There it was, in the "Back Room" (used to be the "Discount Room", but not anymore) with no price tag on it ...
That drives me nuts. Because, of course, once you pick it up, and take it out front, they KNOW you want it, and so
...
No. They wouldn't do that.
I
asked. The lady at the desk then had to call the owner. Yeah ... She wasn't home.
She
asked me for my phone number, but I just said I would check back with her ... No worries.
I'm not a big "Phone Person", as most of you know.
It
took a week or so, but, once again, I found myself downtown Lenoir, with my mother, looking for that darn chair again (We
finally just went to BIG LOTS, and bought her one. And yes, it fit in my Element) ...
And so I stopped in to see what ridiculous price they put on this old, beat-up camera, that I had never heard of
... LORD.
No, that's the name of the camera ...
LORD.
It is right on the front of the camera ... I have
no idea where it is made, or how old it is ...
Duh,
I should of Googled it. Hold on ...
OK. "A lesser know
Japanese camera company dating back to the mid-fifties".
Post-WWII.
Mid-1950s. Like me.
Well, except for the whole Japan thing. Although, I did live there for two years, you know, back in the day ... Mid-1970s.
Twenty years after the fact.
$5.00.
SOLD.
Are you kidding me? Five bucks? I thought for sure they were going to lay it
on me, they had me just where they wanted me ... They knew I must be crazy to want a camera nobody had ever heard of before
...
Lord help me!
I got away with a ... Well, you know, an old camera from a company I had never heard of before.
Just what I wanted to pay for it ... Oh, yeah, I had to pay the taxes, but mom
was there, with her little coin purse thingy, you know, another artifact from the mid-1950s, that nobody has ever heard
of ... Gotta love it.
One more for the collection.
Headed over to Asheville tomorrow to pick-up another one ...
I was there last week picking up a few lenses for some other old cameras I have, and noticed they had an old
film camera that I used to have years ago ... The Minolta 202.
Now I just knew
I had one upstairs, or somewhere ... I had both the 101 and the 202 at one time. I mean, that I actually shot with back
in the 1990s ... While I lived in Fort Sheridan, near Chicago.
Nope. I checked when I got home, and found out I have two Minolta 101 cameras, no 202.
Two Minolta 101 cameras?
Weird.
So now, back I go to make things right with the world.
See, I am buying all the camera models I have owned over the years, but sold
to buy newer models ...
Something I no longer do.
You know ... For the sake of My Collection.
Just one more ... I just gotta have it.
What
good is the Minolta 101 without the Minolta 202?
Yeah,
you understand, you get it ...
I knew I wasn't
the only one ... Lord help me.
Slow it Down
I "always" keep my shutter speed up there when shooting wildlife.
Stop the Blur. Keep it Sharp. Stop the Motion. Freeze the Action. Open-Up the Lens. Use the Fastest Shutter Speed
Possible.
Just do whatever it takes to keep the
main subject sharp.
Period.
OK. I can do that.
I have done it for years.
I follow orders. I'm
a Marine.
Until I wasn't.
In case you are not sure, I got out of the Marines in 1979.
2 Mar 79 (that's how we do things) to be exact.
Ahh,
like, last century ...
But I still follow orders. Most
of the time. You know what they say ...
Once a Marine,
Always a Marine.
Just older. And slower. And fatter.
And ...
Well, anyways ...
I was up in Pulaski, NY sitting in front of an osprey nest for a total
of about three days ... Give or take.
I shot hundreds
of images ... And no, I won't bring up the fact that my new camera shoots at ten frames per second again ...
But it does.
I
shot a lot.
And speaking of speed, with my new Nikon
D500, I also went with Lexar cards ... Yeah, something new for me.
I have used SanDisk since I first got into digital over twelve years ago. CF cards, then SD cards, then the newer
(at that time) SDHC cards.
ALWAYS SanDisk.
Unless I bought something else.
Which I did.
But, you know, I like SanDisk.
But with the new camera, I bit the bullet, and went with the new 16 GB
... wait! No, the new 32 GB Lexar XQD card.
Yeah
... 32 GB! Are you kidding me? I even surprise myself sometimes.
First off, what the heck is a XQD card? Never heard of it. Sounds weird to me. But this is 2017, what can I say?
I joined the 21st Century.
And get this ... The camera
also supports a SDHC card. Two different slots. One for the XQD card, and one for the SDHC card.
Cool.
And yes, just to keep everything simple,
I went with the Lexar 32 GB SDHC card as well. You know, I didn't want to jinx anything.
Bad karma.
Me? The 4 GB King, going big time.
32 GB? Crazy. Totally wild.
Do the math. Eight times
more data. I like this new math stuff ...
Now that I'm
retired.
How do they do that? The 32 GB SDHC card is
the exact same size as my old 4GB cards ... Magic, I guess.
True,
this new XQD (I have to look at the card, which is right in front of me, every time I write down those three letters)
is a bit different ... Larger (and fatter, I mean, thicker) than the SDHC cards, but smaller, and thinner than the CF
cards. Again, weird.
Something about speed ... Sounds
good to me.
Write-Speed. All I know is that it is fast.
Faster than my D300, or the newer D300S, which this camera replaced (It took a LONG time!).
Glad I wasn't in any hurry.
Fast. Faster.
Plus, a little faster than that, if that is possible.
It
is.
OK, it is fast, we got that.
Faster, as in focus. Faster, as in write-speed, which to me, means getting all
that darn digital stuff, whatever it is, onto the card, and moving on to the next image ...
That fast.
Period.
Move on. Keep shooting. Hold that sucker down ...
Fast.
And I see the results in these new images ...
Combine that speed with continuous focus-tracking, and it is ... You know, FASTER.
Faster focus, faster write-speed, and sharper images. Magic.
I have used the older model cameras for so long, I am, and I'm not making this up ... As I'm writing this, Neil Young
is on my TV Music Choice singing "Like a Hurricane" ... Singing about "Being blown away"!
Unreal.
I'm blown away, alright, by how
well this new camera works ...
"Like a hurricane".
Look at this image.
After a few hundred images shot at wide-freakin'-open, I said to myself, "Self, close that puppy down, let's go for
the Notion of Motion effect."
Blur the subject. Well,
no ... Blur some aspect of the subject, like, the moving parts of the subject, but keep the rest of it sharp, you know, so
you can tell what it is.
Have SOMETHING sharp ...
Stop action/Blurred action.
Magic.
There is a fine line between The Notion
of Motion, and being blurred. Or blurrrrrrred. Or, just plain, out of focus.
Or being a bad shot. Crap. Period.
Walk that
fine line ...
Shoot. Close down your lens. Shoot again.
Go from f5.6 to f8. Or even f11 (bigger number, smaller opening). Yes, you can try f16, f22, whatever you got.
You got it, try it. That simple.
But, like most things in life (except owning cameras), use moderation.
Or not.
Try it, you just might like it. If
not, delete it, and keep your mouth shut, no one will ever know how wild you really are.
I was just going to go, check the numbers, and give you all the data ... Shutter speed, aperture, ISO, lens length,
etc ... The Data for this image.
But, you know me, heck
with that crap, it means nothing, unless you were right there with me, in that light, with that lens, with that ISO, that
aperture, my tripod, etc ...
Data.
That's another reason I retired, but don't get me started ... Just let me teach.
Oh wait, we're talking about osprey ... And photography.
And cameras.
Just go out, use the gear you have (that
is ALWAYS the best gear), and shoot away.
Try different setting. Its cheap.
See what works for you, at that time, in that light, with that lens, that aperture, that tripod (or not), etc ...
That's how it works.
That's how you play. That's how you learn.
That's how I got
this shot, this image ...
Played.
Play with your aperture to get the shutter speed you want. The shutter speed
you think will give you the effect you want. Change it. Shoot. Check the results. Shoot again.
And yes, wait until the action is over until you "chimp", or review, your images!
Shoot now, look at results later.
That said,
just shoot. Be in the moment.
Photo Zen.
I didn't even know I had this shot, until I got home, and went through the images
on the computer.
Hey, I never saw my slides (that
is film, in case you were wondering) for a week or so, it won't kill you.
That said, yes, shoot, look, adjust, shoot some more ... No worries.
It's not like I'm there looking over your shoulder ... Shoot, shoot, shoot, worry about me later.
After awhile, you'll forget I'm even there ...
Motion in a still image ... After all these years, it is still magical to me.
Crazy really ... The osprey's eye is sharp, the body is sharp, the wing tips are not sharp, they're, like, MOVING
(but they're really not, it's a STILL image)!
Sweet.
Glad I thought about breaking all those weird rules ...
Magic happens.
Try
some magic the next time you are out shooting, just be sure to obey all the rules ... For a little while anyways.
Or not.
Green and Black
Woods tend to be green.
The trees are green.
The ferns are green. The grass is green.
The woods surrounding
my Uncle's Camp are green.
Period.
Well, no. Really they are green and black.
Light and shadow.
Light hitting green plants,
and black shadows where the light does not hit the green plants.
Black and Green.
Green and Black.
My Uncle's Woods.
Up-State New York, just South East of Mannsville, NY, just inside Northern Oswego County. Up on Tug Hill, surrounded
by State Forests ... An island of manicured woods, within, you know, regular woods.
Nice place. Nice woods.
But you know that, well,
if you have read my BLOG before, you know that. I have been staying up there for a week, or so, during the summer, for years
now.
I drive up Hessel (yes, one "L") Road, past my great-grandfather's,
then grandfather's, house, through the woods, go straight through an intersection (like in the middle of nowhere!), and
then turn right onto a no-name path, through some tall pine trees ...
Not a road really, but by now, a path ... A single lane path ... Two tire tracks through the woods, the tall pines
...
Drive past his original camp, The Red Camp (1970),
through a little gate, past a large clock, through a small little stream (when it rains every day), past his real camp (The
Blue Camp), past the large yellow, A-Frame, with the little metal fence and arched gate out front (Yes, you guessed it, The
Yellow Camp).
Just past that, the next right, is where
I "camp". Park really. I just stop, and park. Then take a few minutes to transform my Honda Element (The Element Camp,
if it ever really did have a cool camp nick-name, which it doesn't) into my living quarters, and then I walk over to the next
building, across a nice mowed yard ...
"The Work Camp".
The one with the mailbox out front.
The place where everything
revolves around. The Work Bench. The Wood Stove (trash can for everything that burns), the small Gas-Refrigerator, and cupboards
after cupboards of tools, and more tools ...
And in one corner, the gas-generator.
Plus, a small, no, make that a not so small, gas-heater (Whoa, that works fast!). A weed-eater.
A chainsaw. A bow-saw. A pair of "nippers" ...
A case
of beer. Bottles of water.
And several spare-parts, to
all the above mentioned tools ... And, most importantly, a table, with four chairs, smack-dab in the middle of the whole thing
...
Camp. The Work Camp.
Picture yourself there in July.
If you look
out the windows, you would see ... Green.
And black.
Light. Shadow.
Light
hitting green stuff, black shadows where the light is not hitting green stuff.
That simple.
Oh, and quiet.
But you can't see quiet. Sorry, got carried away there.
And quiet. But again, you know what I mean ...
All you hear is quiet. Except for when my uncle and I are talking.
And if we aren't sitting there talking?
OK,
maybe a few birds ...
But all you would really hear
is the new, old looking, well used, weed-eater, just wailin' away, hour after hour ...
And an old, no, I mean, really, really, old lawn mower, transformed into just an old "tractor" (by
removing the whole mowing thing from underneath) just running around, hauling loads of brush to the burning piles, up near the old burning cart thingy, which is set up, just off the "road", at
The Work Camp.
Those are the sounds of the woods, my Uncle's Woods, when he
is up there, and it is not raining.
Noise.
Gas-powered power tools, for grown men, and his nephew (For a week anyways).
If I show up, and he is not in, or at, the Work Camp by some chance ... I just stop, and listen.
Oh, he's got to over there, by the old Phone Booth (Yeah, a real phone booth).
Or, he must be really out back, by the Road Sign, or no, he must be out by the bench on Bullshit Hill, weed-eatin' the
Lower Forty.
That is how it goes ...
"Past the South Jefferson Road Sign, turn left, past the Chinese Statues, over by the
Brass Kettle, next to the Gnome, and his little bridge" ...
So
on and so forth ...
Directions: From Point A to
wherever my uncle happens to be working at any given moment.
That is how you find my uncle.
Follow the sound
of the weed-eater.
Simple.
When he leaves for the night, and I am not following him around the woods (I drive the "tractor", he walks), I follow
the light ...
I was going to write, "The sound of light",
but no, that's not right.
No, I just follow the light.
I look for light and shadows. Green and black.
I make images.
I look for images.
Green, and black, images.
Speaking of which:
First image (Top Image):
Green Lines.
I saw these when I was looking out
the door, while listening to my uncle's stories ... They are lined right up with the door, and "my" chair.
Light and shadow. Green and black.
The teacher in me wants to write:
Green is to
Black, as Light is to _________?
But I'm retired
now, so I'll just go ahead and tell you.
Green is
to Black, as Light is to Shadow.
Which takes us to the
second image: The green, hostas plant thingy (Did I spell that right?) ...
This is just off the side of the back porch of The Work Camp.
The light was getting low in the sky, shining right onto the green plants ...
Green lines.
Green shapes.
And their shadows ... The black.
"The Negative Space".
Never overlook what is
NOT in your image. Very important. In fact, it is often just as important as what actually is in the image.
A green plant (something) and the black shadow (nothing).
Green (and black) Zen.
Which brings us to the third image ...
I was
showing my uncle my new Nikon D500 (and explaining that it is the first, real, new, brand new, camera that I have
bought in thirteen years), and he asked me, "What makes it different from the other, older, cameras you own"?
He knows I have LOTS of "old cameras".
Good question (He has LOTS of good questions).
I
told him.
"Speed" (I have lots of clever, one-word, answers).
And as I said this, I let 'er rip ...
The camera, that is ...
Ten frames per-second.
Just like that ...
And this is just one of the resulting
images (Ahh, there were more than ten, trust me).
I
just pointed the 900mm lens out the door (towards the light), and fired away ... You know, for the sound effects
... Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam ... For a few seconds ... Bam. Bam. Bam ...
Never looked to see what I was actually pointing at (the poach railing, with
the yard, and ferns, in the background) or cared.
The
sound, baby, the sound ..................................
Then I looked down, and saw the resulting images ...
Green, abstract, swirls of light thingys ... A bunch of 'em ... Green, green, green ... Swirls.
Abstract, Green, Light Swirls, Art.
I loved it. My uncle thought I was crazy ...
But
he knew that already. He knows me.
He knows my passion.
He understands my passion.
He gets me.
He is the one that helped me build my Camera Obscura a few years ago, and has
given me a few cameras for my collection over the years ... He was an antique dealer, and silver-plater for most of his
life, he knows passion ...
He's an artist.
Like me.
Except he smokes cigars.
I don't.
Although
... After a week up in the woods with him, I must admit, I did begin to smell like one ...
But, it keeps the mosquitoes away.
Really. True
fact.
But only if I stay inside the building ...
Outside?
All bets are off. It is a War Zone up there
... All that rain. Standing water. Heat.
Look at the
Light. Get Closer. Shoot lots of Images.
And ...
Run like Hell.
Back
to the "Work Camp" and its smell, its odor.
Its protection.
Ahhhhhhhhh ... The Work Camp. Cigars. Perfect.
The Eye
I made it to New York!
My sister had to come
down to watch after her adorable grandchildren, so I had the chance to drive up to Richland, NY to photograph my osprey nest
just outside of town.
Did I say my? My nest?
Sorry ... Their osprey nest. I have been photographing this nest for the past,
what? Five years? Seven?
The past few years.
You know ... Time flies while you're having fun.
Oh, and I also spent a week in my Uncle's camp up in the State Forest just outside
of Mannsville, NY.
You know about that too ...
Same thing. I have been staying up there for a few years as well ... But, that
is another story ...
I believe I told you about my new
(like, BRAND SPANKIN' NEW) Nikon D500.
Yeah.
Unreal.
For
someone that mainly shoots with the Nikon D90, it is literally like night and day.
Fast.
Ten-frames a second, fast.
Fast focus. Oh, and actuate. Fast, actuate, focus ... BAM!
I like it.
That is why I took it up there. The nest. The osprey. The
osprey landing in it's nest.
Action!
Did I mention ten-frames per second?
Fast.
Fast. Fast. Fast. Fast. Fast. Fast. Fast. Fast. Fast.
Faster than you can read
that ...
That fast.
OK, you
get the point.
I was in New York ten days (yes, that fast!) ... It rained,
like, eight. Clouds. Rain. More rain. Clouds. Rain.
"Partly cloudy. Chance of rain."
EVERY day I
was up to camp.
Really.
But, before that ... First two days at my sister's house in Richland, no images.
I went to the nest ...
I, well ... I didn't
do much.
I found out that there was one chick. It was
BIG by the time I got up North this summer, but it wasn't flying yet.
Yes, another photographer stopped by ... Like, the first time ever! He brought me up to speed. He shot with a Canon
(white lens) with a camo lens cover from inside his truck ... The "regular" camo, I was in the Marine Corps, so I went
with the military digital camo that is all the rage (well, to me anyways) ...
I didn't even haul out the big gun ... The Nikkor 300mm f2.8 with the 2X converter, mounted on a big Gitzo
tripod.
Naw ... Clouds. Like, covering the whole sky
type of clouds ... Gray skies.
I took a few shots with
my Canon D60, with its little bitty 18-135mm lens.
A small
gun. Pistol really.
Pop-gun.
But it did give me a nice gray exposure ... Something like 18% gray, to be,
sort-of, kind-of correct.
Gray. No, I won't even go into
the details about the other 49 shades of gray that were in the sky that day ... That week.
Gray.
So, after two nights on the couch at Nancy
and Dan's house, off to the woods I went.
And, like I
said ...
"Partly cloudy, chance of rain".
I spent six nights, seven days, up in "MY ELEMENT" and ... Well, worked
with the chain saw one day. One time.
Really. Too wet
when it rained, and too wet after it rained, to do any work in the wet woods.
I did take him to Watertown and Adams one day ... You know, to pick up his medicine. Just like with his sister, my
mom, down here in Hudson/Lenoir.
Now, I did burn a nice pile
of branches that my uncle had piled up for me, you know, to have a hot meal a couple of those nights, but that was about the
extent of work we got accomplished that week.
Period.
Oh, that, and, well ... Talk.
And ask questions that we couldn't answer ... (which Jennifer was so kind to reply to ...). Our
"Google It Girl".
Yes, my "dumb phone" works up in the
woods ... I even talked to mom one time, if I stood in just the right spot and ... Well, moved here, moved there. But, it
worked, that's all I can say.
My brother? Not so lucky.
Not so much. I tried everything, but just had to text. That's all that worked.
Anyway ...
Drove back down to Richland after
a great week with my uncle. Did I mention it was quiet up there at night?
No? It is. Like crazy quiet ...
Well, I'll talk
about that next time ...
Back to our little feathered
friends along the Salmon River ...
Yes!
Blue sky.
Crazy.
Finally.
Up
goes the tripod and lens ...
Wait for it ...
OK, they were all out and about.
The chick, was, like, as big as the parents, and out flying around like he had been doing it for all of, what? A
week?
Love it.
I can never tell who is who ... But you already know that.
Flying, landing, flying some more ... Calling out. Waiting.
Ten frames per second.
To give you some idea
of what I was going through, my old, trusty, D90 shoots at, what? Four? Four frames per-second.
My D300, and D300S, shoots at eight. I almost forgot. I have peed my pants over that, for what? The past
few years ... Seven? Eight?
I don't know. A long time.
So, there I was ...
One of the osprey comes in, fire away! I just held the shutter release down ... One-one thousand, two-one thousand,
three ...
Get real!
Four. Five ...
Do the math ...
Ten. Twenty. Thirty. Forty. Fifty.
Fifty shots in five-seconds. Five times one, bring down the zero ...
What comes after peeing your pants?
That fun.
That fast. That quick.
Let 'er rip ...
Blue sky. Osprey. Ten frames per-second.
TENFRAMESPERSECOND.
I have images ... Oh, and
did I mention I had the camera set to continuous focus? Yeah. The camera/lens tracks the bird while it is in motion ... Go
figure.
Welcome to the 21st century.
Ten, FOCUSED, images of an osprey landing at it's nest, or in this case, taking
off, from it's nest ...
Wait! I mean, fifty. Fifty, well
focused, images ...
BAM. BAM. BAM. And on, and on,
and on ...
Here are a couple of images ... Well, two
anyways.
Two images that say all there is to say about
why I bought a new camera.
True, the lens is nice, and
I have covered that before ...
But, it does deserve some
attention.
The first shot is as it came out of the camera
... "The Digital Negative".
No crop. No nothing.
Of all the images, and there were a lot. BAM! I liked this one.
The moment. The wings. The framing. The eye ...
Just taking off for another flight ...
Not
the chick. That I know. The male or the female parent ... Which? I have no clue.
I got a bunch of images of this particular take-off ... And this one shot caught my eye.
Well, the osprey's eye, but you know what I mean ...
I even zoomed in on the back of the camera, right there along the road, to
see what my mind's eye wanted me to see, if I had a 900mm, f5.6, lens for an eye.
I don't.
My left-eye, that is. I shoot with
my left eye.
And, I just thought of this, it is the bird's
left eye as well ...
I have no idea what that is all
about, but, well, anyways ...
I zoomed in on the display
screen and saw what I wanted to see, but couldn't.
The
eye.
Under the wings. Framed by the wings.
And it is SHARP. In-focus.
That is the lens.
The whole "framed by the wings"
thing? That is the camera. The focus. The speed.
The
moment. A moment frozen in time. Forever.
The lens. The
camera.
It takes two to ... No, I'll just stop there
... My mind works in strange ways. Always going for the pun, the clever catch-phrase of the day, the one-liner ...
It always has.
You
should of heard me in sixth grade. Eighth. A senior? Oh, please ...
Even worse, years later (there was a twenty year gap) ... In MY classroom. It got worse as the years flew by
...
In the middle school, AND, at the college.
"It takes two to Tango" ... There, I said it. Sorry, I couldn't resist.
But I digress.
Once
again ...
The lens and the camera.
The glass and the motordrive.
That is what this shot, this image, is all about.
Big glass (900mm) and big burst speed (again, TEN frames per second).
Now, true ...
Ten frames per second is not the
top-of-the-line, earth shattering speed ...
I know.
I had a student in my class once, with a Nikon D3. Ahh, something like, twelve
frames per second ...
A machine gun.
Or, was it fourteen? Whatever, it was FAST!
Remember, this is me. School teacher. RETIRED school teacher.
Four frames per-second for the past, what? Thirteen years? Eight frames per-second for the past two? Three?
The speed, and the sharpness, of this new camera just blows my mind.
Now, the second image ... Oh, wait ... I have to mention ... Did you notice
the claws, I mean, talons?
Yeah.
But, back to the second image ...
The EYE.
That is just a very small portion of
the original (top image), 20 mega-pixel file.
Like,
cropped big time. I just dug in there and cropped ...
Tiny.
Sharp.
That
is technology. That is a new camera. And yes, a great lens.
And
the speed. Not top-notch, cutting edge speed, but, pretty darn close. Pretty darn good.
I'll say it one more time ...
Ten frames per-second.
With super-fast focus. Tack sharp.
Together, they made for a really great time up in Pulaski, sitting
on the tailgate of my Element (with a pillow, of course) ... Just waiting. Watching. Waiting some more. Hoping. Wishing. Coaxing.
"Fly osprey fly" ... Please? One more time.
So I can pee my pants ... One more time.
Wait
for it ...
Tee-Hee ...
That good. That fast.
Glad I could finally retire.
But no, I will have to wait a few more months for that ... Heck, I have
"retired" every year for the past twenty-four years ...
For a couple of months anyways.
No, it won't
be until October, when I am down on South Georgia Island, looking through my viewfinder at, what? Half a million Emperor
Penguins, that I will really, truly, comprehend the fact I'm retired.
Really retired.
And no, I won't need 900mm of glass,
or that ten frames per-second speed ... They are close, and they are slow (on land, anyways).
No, I won't be worried about that. I will be worried about that whole peein'
my pants thing ...
The Falkland Islands, South Georgia
Island (NOT Georgia, as in The United States. No, no, much, much farther south), and Antarctica. Three weeks.
Then, and only then, will I know that I'm really retired.
October? November? During the school year? Not during Easter, or Christmas,
or Summer Break?
No way.
BAM.
W. Eugene Smith
I wrote my Master's Thesis on Combat Photography back in 1993.
Back in the day.
I was in Graduate School, while
living north of Chicago. The wrong place, at the right time.
See, Columbia College is an Art School. I was not your typical college art school student.
Period.
I
got kicked out of art class in high school, took one art class in Community College -- Something to do with watching movies
-- And never even thought of myself as an art person, or, heaven forbid, an artist.
I can't sing, draw, paint, build, or, no ... Wait, I was once in a play, in high school, what was it? I was
a delivery man ... Neil Simon ... Can't think of the name of the play at this second. One line. No, really, I had one
line.
And no, I can't remember it now. This was, what?
Late 1972, or early 1973, one or the other; it was my Senior Year.
Art. I was an artist. Perfect.
So, there I was,
in a Graduate Program, in photography, at an Art School, with little or no background in art.
Not so perfect.
Prior to being accepted into
the Graduate program, I had worked for The Department of the Army, as a photographer, while living in Germany. Three years
-- 1985 to 1988.
I thought of myself as a photojournalist,
although, truth be told, most of my work was in a studio, shooting B/W official photographs for soldiers in the
Army, once they got to a certain rank: E-6 (staff sergeant) and above.
Not art, per say ...
But ... What I really enjoyed,
and worked very hard at, was getting out of the studio, and out photographing the various field operations for the Second
Armor Division ... Men and their toys.
Tanks. Hard-core
training. General Patton's famed tank corps of WWII. Out of the studio, into, and through the mud. Bergen-Belsen. The
former property of the work-camp where Anne Frank, and her sister, were sent to their deaths just before the end of the
war.
That Bergen-Belsen.
At the same time, I also picked-up work as a travel photographer, working for a stock agency called Strawberry Media,
that specialized in American military publications in Europe.
Run by a retired Army officer, I had most of my work published in airline in-flight magazines, as well as travel
magazines, Berlitz language guides, and calendars.
Travel stuff. Military stuff.
Art?
No.
Or so I thought. Or dared to admit.
So, for my thesis, I went with
what I enjoyed most: Combat Photography. As if shooting "War Games" had anything to do with war photography.
It didn't.
But, ten years before, in my under-graduate work, I
majored in history: Social Studies. That is what I enjoy the most. I studied combat photography and the people that covered
combat.
W. Eugene Smith was a LIFE photographer that covered the action in
the Pacific during World War Two. He photographed Marines.
I was in the Marines, a sergeant, an E-5. I was trained in mortars, but spent two years over in Japan raising hell,
I mean, guarding a Naval Air Station from ... Well, you know, somebody. This was thirty something years after the war.
I did go on to spend my last six months with an infantry unit at Camp Lejeune,
North Carolina. I was a Platoon Sergeant in charge of 60mm mortars.
I had never seen a 60mm mortar. I had trained on the 81mm mortars ... Right Church, Wrong Pew. Close, but no cigar.
I knew nothing, yet I
was in charge.
Perfect.
What a trip. The good thing was that I knew I knew nothing, so I let the men that did know something, run the show,
and I made sure all the crap was taken care of ... You know, work details for this and that, all the men had hair-cuts,
organized foot lockers, and that their rooms were squared away.
No worries. That, I could handle.
I was infantry.
I was a Marine. I could march. I could make my bed.
Six
months. We trained with the Army Special Forces, on and off Fort Bragg, NC and got to "go home" for Cold Weather Training
up at Fort Drum, in Up-State New York.
Where I grew
up. I knew snow.
So there I was, years later, in
art school, in Chicago.
Like I said, no worries.
Combat Photography. W. Eugene Smith. David Douglas Duncan. Robert Capa. The
greats. That is what, and who, I studied; who I researched. At an Art School.
My advisor thought I was nuts.
But I was a stubborn
nut, and I finished "my" paper ... You know, after a couple (like four, or five, or six) revisions, of course, so that
the paper sounded like it was written by anyone but me, but that is formal education. Higher learning.
Art? Combat photography? W. Eugene Smith? LIFE magazine?
War?
That
is what I was thinking about when I took this image ... What? Twenty-four years later.
Yeah. The Family of Man. One of the greatest photography exhibits ever put together. It was held the year I was born;
1955. New York City. The Museum of Modern Art.
The Family
of Man. Google it. Or ask me, I have a copy of the book, from the show, upstairs. A classic.
Look for an image in the book that looks like the above image ... Just envision two young kids, walking hand-in-hand,
down that gravel road ... A Walk to Paradise Garden.
W.
Eugene's kids. His back yard. One of his most famous images. One of THE most famous images.
EVER.
Smith was covering the battle of Tarawa,
an island in the Pacific, when an explosion nearly killed him. He spent over a year recovering from operation after operation.
And then at home.
This image of his children, walking down a path through the woods, was the first image Smith made after his many
operations, and recovery.
A combat photojournalist's
first image after the horrors of war, was of his children walking through his garden ...
I saw the arch, the woods, the road (OK, they were walking down a path), and I saw W. Eugene Smith's image in my
head.
I took this picture, made this image.
I saw the two children holding hands. The boy's foot lifting off the ground,
ever so slightly, that shadow under his heel, the path ...
Funny
how that works.
No kids. No holding hands.
But the arch ... The "path" ... The woods. I saw it ...
That is the power of art. The power of photography. The power of memory.
The love of art. The love of making an image. Seeing an image. The love of photography.
"My Camp". Up in the woods. The gravel road. The arch. The memory of an image ...
I'm glad I went to the wrong school to study art. Study history. Live in the Foothills. And have a place where
I can see, and make, art.
Or simply take a picture. Make
a photograph. See lines, see shapes, notice contrasts, and most importantly, find peace in the woods; with my camera
in hand.
Like W. Eugene Smith saw in his backyard, with
his kids, with his camera.
Google it. See if you
don't see what I saw, what I envisioned ...
In my
head.
3D Sunflower Seeds
On my way back from photographing my friend's Official 4th of July Family Portraits, I just had to stop and photograph
some sunflowers along side the road.
Yes, the same section
I stopped at a few days before that, and even before that ...
Hey, they're on the way, what can I say?
I had
just been using my Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 lens and it was just sitting on the passenger's seat anyways ... Perfect.
True, I would tell my students that any image taken with a tripod will be sharper
than one without ... If, and only if, you take the VR off while it is mounted on the tripod.
No worries.
I didn't have a tripod with me.
And please, lets just keep that to ourselves, OK?
So,
too easy ... I just had to re-think the way I wanted to shoot this beautiful sunflower.
What story could I tell? What "look" could I give it?
How was I going to come away smelling like a sunflower on this one?
The sun was just right, low in the sky and ...
Well,
actually, no, it was in the wrong position, with the front of the flowers pointing one way, and the sun shining the other
...
Oh, but look at that! One flower. In full glory,
turned around and facing the sun. You would of thought I planned it that way.
Perfect.
I got out, walked down, got close,
well, you know, as close as I could with the lens I was using, and "Filled the Frame".
Seeds.
I love sunflower seeds. I mean, to a
point where I just might be eating too many of them, I don't know ... Un-shelled kernels. A lot of them.
Hey, they're small ... I get carried away.
Anyway.
I had my image.
I checked the edges ... Oh wait.
The flower had such a deep center, that my depth of field, remember, f2.8 ("Little Number, Little Depth of Field"),
was not enough to keep the whole image in focus.
Seeds
on different focal planes ...
The trick is to keep the
sunflower, and my sensor, parallel to each other.
Well?
Which plane of the sunflower? The front? The middle? Or the back? It is DEEP!
I picked the back ... And kept my lens/sunflower as parallel as possible, and fired away.
Well? OK, not everything in focus, but, will it work?
I needed more Depth of Field.
Period.
Darn. No tripod. And I didn't want to
risk hand-holding the lens closed down to, say, f16, my MAGIC SWEET SPOT, for maximum depth of field ...
Less Light, More time. Not a good thing without a tripod.
Unless, of course, your heart stops beating ...
Ahh, no.
What the heck ...
Fire away!
Five
or six quick shots ...
I got it.
Not what I had planned, but what I needed, what I could get, at that time, that
moment, in that situation.
Period. That simple.
It is the never-ending game of shutter-speed and aperture that every photographer
must deal with while making images.
Every shot. Every
time. Every click.
What ISO (effects shutter speeds)?
What aperture (effects depth of field)?
What shutter-speed (effects the whole motion/sharpness/blur thing -- THE most important factor to me)?
Three BIG questions you have to deal with every time you press the shutter.
Click.
Basic Exposure 101.
The Exposure Triangle.
The Nuts and Bolts of
Photography. Whatever you want to call it, you have to have an idea on how these three components work together, if you ever
want to go beyond just taking snapshots.
And the good
news?
The combinations are endless.
And, once you get the basic exposure down pat, you can change the settings to
capture the LOOK (Depth of Field) of the image that you want.
Again, ENDLESS (Well, a lot anyways, let's just go with that).
I could have used f22, f16, f11, f8, or, as in this case, f5.6, and because I shoot in Aperture Priority, my
shutter-speed would have tagged along (the camera does the work for you) in order to keep the basic exposure settings correct.
And that is not even counting the changes in ISO I could
have changed ... Oh yeah, it can get crazy.
It would
have been properly exposed, AND, I am quite sure, every seed would have been as sharp as the others at f16, with the help
of a tripod.
Or, now get this ...
I could have kept it at f16 (no tripod), wiggled the camera during the exposure,
and created something along the lines of an abstract painting.
That works too (Well, maybe, it is a gamble after all).
After looking at this image as my screen-saver (nice and big), I like the 3D effect it has by drawing your eyes into
the sharpness ... From left to right.
A sunflower seed
roll-a-coaster ... Whoa!
Thet say, that the human eye
is drawn to the sharpest area of any given image ... I don't know, someone must have gotten paid to stare at images someplace,
sometime, you know, in the name of science, I mean, art.
That
is how things are done, I guess ...
That said, I agree.
That is a good thing.
For photography. For art.
It draws you in ...
It is what allows photographers (and painters) - OK, artists, to show depth
in a flat image, or canvas, or computer screen, or ... Well, you know ... A 2D image.
3D effects on a 2D medium.
If you have an questions
on all of this artsy stuff ... "Google" The Mona Lisa ... and take a look at the background.
Yeah. If it worked for Leonardo, it works for me. He was painting at f2.8 before there even was such a thing as f2.8.
Go figure.
And
... It gets me out of a rut, you know, ALWAYS shooting at f16. ALWAYS having everything sharp from edge to edge
... Hey, I'm retired now, I can do whatever I want.
Now
that's a game changer ...
Plus, you can't go wrong.
And, if you do (and you will), just tell them that you are trying something
new, something artsy, and want to go rouge, and change the world!
Works for me.
The Games I Play
Three-fold game here:
Light Vision Color vs. Black and White
OK, first, lets start by saying I like to drive up into the woods above Collottesville.
Simple enough.
You know that.
Second, I like to play. You know
that too.
I also hope you know that, to me, playing is
teaching. It is what I did for, say, well, I'm still doing it, in the classroom, or not.
It is what I do. Did.
You also know I have a
number of cameras. Yeah.
I take a few of them with me
when I go up into the woods. Or anywhere else, really.
So,
there I was ... In the woods. At "MY CAMP", if I ever really owned a camp. To be honest, first off, it is not a camp. It is
a dead-end, pull-off, from the gravel road I take up a small mountain ... A true foothill, if ever there was one.
A gravel road pull-out.
Camp.
I have spent many a night there over the
past, what? 10 - 12 years?
Call it 13. Yeah.
I like it up there.
I pull in, turn around, and park up by a section where it is flat, well no, a wee-bit of a slope, so I can sleep
with my head a little higher ...
I have just the
perfect spot.
And I pull out my chair ... Set it off
to the side, and, well ...
Read. Dream. Eat. Relax. Get
out my camera. Play. Take walks. Make images. Dream some more. Take a few more images on the way back. Over and over.
Oh, and clean up all the crap people leave around ...
But, don't get me started on that ...
Anyway, on this fine day, I had the Nikon D7000 I just picked-up, at you know where ... And yes, you also
know I bought it "not new", with the MB-D11 grip, for under $500.
I don't know how I find these things ... Well, yes, I do, but that is another story, for another time ...
There I was. Happy as could be. A Nikon D7000, with a 40mm Nikkor macro lens
in my hands, while in the woods. Perfect.
OK, time
to play.
I then told myself, "Self, you can not move
out of the little area you are sitting in, and you have to find two images. Quick"!
"Go".
I
don't know ... Say, ten feet by twelve feet. Something like that. Not tiny, but not LARGE
either. My Honda Element parked on one side, woods on the other three sides.
Game on.
#1: LIGHT
I looked around. I looked at the light (or was it the other way around?). Soft diffused light, at the moment, better
hurry. It changes fast.
Quick. Find something, anything.
#2 VISION:
Well
no, you know, find something nice. Something graphic, with lines, shapes, patterns, texture, color, contrast, or,
all of the above.
Very important.
I told my college classes every semester, every year ... "You find something
graphic, you found an image".
Period.
"Find it in great light, and you have just found art". Again, period, with a capital
"P".
So, I took my own advise ...
Ferns!
Ahh,
that was easy. Simple. Look at them? Green art, just sitting there ... Lines every which way ...
Pointing.
The right light. Soft light, to bring
out every little detail. Every line ... Every point.
BAM.
Too easy.
Next?
Well ... OK, not as easy ... Look.
Oh wait ... On "the backside", away from the wooded area ...
My Element.
Let
me say that again, "My Element". Just sitting there, in the perfect spot.
BAM.
No, really, BAM (my license plate, for
those of you that have no idea what I am talking about). My Element, in the perfect spot, in the perfect light.
The red tail light. Color!
Lit by the sun ... Sparkles!
So, lets see
... Color. Shapes. Lines. Contrast. Patterns. And Sparkles? Are you kidding me?
Anything else?
Yeah, I didn't even have to leave
"my restricted space", my area ... I really was in my element (You knew it was coming sooner or later ... I love it).
BAM.
My
second image.
For both of them, I used one of my smaller
tripods, and ... Let's see:
Macro lens
Two-second self-timer
Aperture priority
f16
ISO 200
BAM.
That easy. That fast.
I had 'em.
Two images in, like, five minutes,
tops.
Less probably. More maybe. I don't know ... Time fades
away in these kind of games. I get into a Zone ... Photo Zen, if you will ...
Yeah, really.
True, it was a few days ago, but
I really have no idea how long I actually played my little game.
Seemed like a short period of time, maybe not.
You
know me, I took several images ... From each "scene", from this close, that close, closer, closer yet ... Looking. Always
looking, as I moved the camera ever so slightly, one way or the other, as I moved in. Closer.
Hunting actually.
Visual hunting. With
a camera. My eye. My mind.
My mind's eye.
Slow down ... That is key to the success of the game ...
Check the corners of the frame. Any lines? Where do you want them?
Coming out the corners? Up here? Over there? Pointing lines? Leading lines?
Check again.
Be quick, but don't hurry.
OK, yes ... Once again, I stole that quote from the late, great, UCLA basketball
coach, John Wooden. I love it. Drove my middle school kids crazy as they were running up and down the hall ... Say what?
"Be quick, but don't hurry".
Anyway ...
True, it is fun to limit yourself
sometimes, but it is all just for practice. You know, for when you are actually out there, say, in Paris, or Lenoir,
walking around, looking for images.
Hunting.
Not just playing a game in the woods ...
Art.
Anywhere. Anytime. Anyplace.
That was easy.
Now
... "The Rest of the Story".
OK, that was fun.
Nothing new. I do it all the time.
Next, I was going through the images back at my place, and BAM, there I go again
...
I saw the lines, the contrast, the shapes, you know,
all that stuff, and said to myself, "Self, time to play".
Again.
#3: Color vs. Black and White
So, on the computer this time, using my fancy, dancy, Photoshop Elements 10 (or whatever, an OLD version, lets put
it that way) I pushed one more button ...
Convert
to Black and White (I don't know, I always want capitalize them).
Simple.
"Too easy, drill sergeant, too easy"
(Yes, I stole that from when I photographed Army recruits at Fort Jackson, SC) years ago.
A life time ago ...
We never sang that
in the Marines ... First, we had real Drill Instructors, not Drill Sergeants, and second, we would never admit (out loud) anything
was too easy. Are you kidding me? In Boot Camp? Parris Island?
But I digress.
So, what could I do to make it
more than just pushing one little button?
Slide one little
button, or two, or three ...
So I did ...
Convert to Black and White, takes each primary color and lets you "play with
them" to get the results you want.
OK, that is just my
non-tech way of putting it ... I have no idea how it really works, it just does ...
I just play ... Slide ... Oh, no ... Too much, back ... There. Perfect.
Next?
Slide red. Slide blue. And yes, slide
green. One, two three ...
Back and forth. A little, or
a lot.
Who cares? You can always slide them back
the other way. Can't get lost.
Play.
Contrast? Another slider thingy ...
Slide ... Oh no ... Whoa!
Slide it back. Play.
Got it.
BAM.
Done. Finished.
Got 'em.
Three concepts.
Four images.
Game
over.
Now, I get to play again while writing this all
down on my blog, I mean, BLOG.
BAM.
No, I mean, I'm really done now.
Until the next time ...
Oh crap, wait ...
I forgot to mention the whole LIGHT thing.
Remember, I have mentioned that there is no such thing as BAD light, just the wrong kind of light for any given subject,
at any given time, and place.
Did you notice the difference
in the light in these two images?
Fern. What kind of
light?
Taillight. Same light? Different?
What kind of light?
Does it, or really, did it, make a difference?
Diffused,
soft light for the fern, and harder, brighter light for the tail light.
Both within ten feet of each other. Maybe twelve. Whatever.
Close.
Within minutes.
In the woods. Shade, no shade.
Different light for different subjects.
I like
the ferns in soft, diffused light ... There is enough "space between" to show the contrast. No light required.
I also liked, or really needed, the hard, brighter, contrasty light hitting
the tail light. Back to that one word again ... Contrast.
The
red "popped", and when it came to the Black and White version, "popped" is right! I needed that spark, that pop!
No Pop vs. Pop!
The game is all about matching the right light, with the right subject.
Love it when things work out.
BAM.
I mean, POP.
No,
it doesn't quite have the same ring to it, does it?
BAM.
Period. Now I am finished. Done.
Available Light
Your camera, well, most cameras (my new, I mean real new, not used, Nikon D500 does not have one) usually have a
small pop-up flash built into it.
It is free.
OK, technically it is not free, but it came with the camera, so you know what
I mean ... You don't have to pay for it every time you use it.
It is also considered to be "available light", because ...
Wait for it ...
If you are using a camera with
a pop-up flash, well ... It is available, any time you are actually using the camera.
Right?
Push a button. Magic.
Available light.
That easy.
That simple.
It is what the little flash is for ... What it is designed to do.
Fill-in the shadows.
Period.
Perfect.
In this case, I was driving back from a day up at "My Camp" in the woods above Collettsville ...
Right along the side of the road is a long, skinny row, or two, or three, of
sunflowers ... I don't know ... 100 yards? 200? Something like that ...
I like sunflowers.
I shoot them whenever, and
wherever I find, them, see them, pass by them ... You get the picture (Get it? Picture? Get the picture? Oh boy ...)
I stopped, pulled off to the side of the road, got out, got my camera, and ...
Well ... Rule Number One.
The flowers were pointing one way, the light was coming from another way ... The opposite way ...
Nice, but ...
Backlit
sunflowers are nice ...
But the front is in shadow ...
I didn't have an assistant with me with a large reflector (I looked around,
couldn't find one), so ...
I did the next best thing
... Or actually, I did the FIRST "bestest" thing ...
I
went to my fill-flash button ...
I pushed a button and
magic happened.
The sun lights the flower from the back,
the little, tiny, itsy-bitsy, flash on top of the camera "fills-in" the shadows in the front of the flower.
It balances the light from the sun with the light from the flash. A little bit
of this and a litle bit of that ...
Perfect.
Two exposures for the price of one: Natural light, and fake, artificial, electronic,
strobe light.
One, two ...
All in one shot.
Priceless.
Just what I needed.
Just what my image needed.
And, better yet,
it was just what I had available to me, at that time, and at that place.
You have one, use it.
Now, you know I have my
Three Rules, and my Three Buttons that I have talked about for over twenty years at the college ... You know, the ones I preach/write/Blog
about all the time ...
The number four button, if I could
count that high, would be ... The Fill-Flash Button.
But,
I have that covered with Rule Number One: Look at the Light.
I
looked, it didn't look right ...
Oh wait, yes it did.
See, our eyes can see "into the shadows", where a camera sensor can not.
It looked right.
It fact, there where no shadows when I looked at this flower, or, when I took the first picture.
No.
The
shadows only came when the camera (the sensor) read the backlighting situation, and exposed for the bright light ... The backlight
- On the BACK of the flower.
It does its job
as it is designed to do. In fact, it does it quite well. Those Japanese Wizards I am always taking about know their stuff
...
But ... It the case of backlighting, and I learned
this a LONG time ago ...
The Meter is a Moron.
True story ...
When
I took my first photography course, through the mail I might add, with The New York Institute of Photography, I learned that
The Meter is a Moron.
Period.
Basic Exposure 101.
The meter reads light ... Again, period. That is all it does. And yes, it is a moron.
It does not see the image ... It does not know that I am taking a shot of a sunflower. It can not read my mind and
figure out that I want my light, my way.
I want it all,
baby!
No, it exposed the sunflower the way it thought
it should be exposed. And it was. Perfect.
The BACK of
the sunflower.
The part I wasn't photographing. The one
part of the flower I couldn't actually see, wasn't in my viewfinder ... NOT in my image.
Perfect, but incorrect for the vision I had in my head ... MY vision.
Not the geek back in Japan that made my camera years ago ...
Oh, by the way ... I was using my "new" used Nikon D7000, with the 40mm macro lens in case you were wondering ...
The camera did it's job, now I had to do mine.
I'm the artist. I'm in charge of my images, my art.
I
pushed the button, Nikon did the rest (Yes, I sort of, kind of, stole that line from Kodak. Please forgive me).
That's it.
That's
my lesson for the day ...
Get out there, carry a camera,
look at the light, and make the camera do what you want it to do.
Learn to see like a lens, and think like a camera (I'm sure I stole that from somewhere/someone).
Know what your camera can, and can not do, and learn what to do to get it to
work the way you want it to work.
Simple.
Push the button.
Button Number Four.
Unofficially, that is ...
Macro Magic
I drive over I-40 every time I go fishing.
Exit
113 Valdese!
The state has wild flowers spread out among
the on and off ramps ... It is very nice. I have photographed them for years ...
Poppies. Purple things. White things. All kinds of things ... Even some sunflowers.
I stop for poppies and sunflowers. I am a creature of habit.
So, on the way back from dropping off the music images over near Icard, I pulled over, walked over to the fields
of flowers ... And took pictures, I mean, made images.
Not
the best field of flowers I've ever seen over there, but, flowers are flowers, and I did see a red poppy, or two ... And even
a yellow sunflower, or two, or three. The little ones ...
And
yes, I just so happened to have had my 40mm macro lens on my new (used) Nikon D7000.
Perfect.
I knew what I wanted before I ever
got out of the car. Funny how that works.
This was around
noon ... Give or take, and the sun was out among the clouds. Not bad. Not ideal for some subjects, but for macro work, perfect.
That is the key.
The wrong time of day, but the right type of light. Which, just so happens, makes it the right time of day to be
in a field, with a macro lens, photographing poppies and sunflowers.
The key being ... Macro.
I'm up close. Within
an inch of the flower most of the time, two or three inches at the most. I don't need a lot of light. And what little
light that I do need can be changed very easily if needed ...
To hard a light? ... You only need to diffuse a very small amount. A trash bag, a diffuser (a small one), a small
softbox, anything that diffuses light. And it can be small ...
Need more light? Use that trash bag, that you have handy, to bounce the light back into the frame ... Again, you
won't need much.
You only need to light a
six to eight inch square ...
A sheet of paper, a newspaper,
a napkin,. I saved the wrapper that came with my hot dog when the school took the kids to see the Crawdad's ... White on one
side, wrinkled aluminum foil on the other. Perfect.
True
story.
Back in the day, I used two small pieces
of cardboard, some aluminum foil, crumpled it up, then flatten it back out, and taped it to the cardboard ... Reflector boards
that fit in my camera bag.
Whatever works ... In The
Grand Caymans, the house I stayed at had some real thin, white cutting board things in the kitchen ... Fits in my bag.
Yes, I asked ... They had several. The owner was amused when I told her what
I used it for.
You will be surprised what will work,
when the main subject is usually, what? Six inches, or less, in diameter.
On this day, in this light, I didn't need anything. All I had to do was bend the plant around to place the light
where I needed it.
Perfect.
Except for certain little bugs that we will talk about later ... Yes, I was wearing shorts and sandals ...
Duh? I'm retired.
So, off into the fields I went ...
No tripod.
Sun. A fast f2.8 lens ... Fearless.
Just playin' ... Lookin'. Huntin'.
You know me ...
Shoot this, shoot that ... Turning
the flowers up into the sun ... Away from the sun ... Firing away ... Shoot, shoot, shoot ...
Backlit. Frontlit. Sidelit. Whateverlit (Yes, these are words ... Photographic technical terms used by me. Don't
worry, I taught college photography, I know).
Just tried
to follow my own rules of photography: Look at the Light (check). Get Closer (check). And Shoot Lots of Pictures (check).
Camera in one hand, turning the flower every which way but loose in the
other hand, and firing away ... Shoot. Shoot. Shoot.
No,
I didn't keep track of the number of shots, but if you are still reading this, you know ...
I shoot a lot.
Doesn't cost anything. Well,
you know, it doesn't cost anything once you actually bought the card ... And you wouldn't be out there shooting without a
card (I hope), so, you know what I mean ...
Fire-in-the-Hole!
Let 'er rip (I might have stolen these, non-technical terms from
my days as a Marine)!
I think the D7000 shoots at 6 frames per
second ... So I did.
Then, I looked for another
flower, or flowers ... Oh look, little green bugs. One giving the other a little ride ... How cute.
Get Closer.
Fire
away.
I think I had both hands on the camera then ...
Down on one knee. Out in a field along I-40. Exit 113, Valdese!
Love it. Move on ...
Sunflowers.
One tiny, little bitty one ... All wrapped up. Look
at it! Wild. Tiny little hairs all over the place ... Lit up by the sun.
Got it.
Did I mention I like Poppies? See, I
even capitalized it ... Poppies. Quite proper.
I got
closer. Even better.
I saw things ... I saw wings ...
Red wings. I got closer. Like, on top of the petal close ... That close.
Macro close.
Red butterfly wings ... BIG, red,
butterfly wings, or wing ...
That is what I saw, that
is what I wanted to capture. I also want you, the viewer, to see big, red, butterfly wings, or wing, where there are
no big, red, butterfly wings, or wing.
That is what photographers
do.
What artists do.
They see things through the viewfinder, and then want others to see it too. Even if what they are looking at isn't
what you want them to see ... Did you follow that?
Flowers become wings ...
Like magic, only better.
Until I got home, went through the images, did this, did that, had
dinner, worked/played on the computer, and then got ready for bed ...
And noticed little red dots all over my lower body ...
Now that, as you can only imagine, was a real work of art.
Chiggers!
I might have to re-think that whole
"Get Closer" thing ...
No. I just bought a little bottle
of clear nail polish ...
Which, again, I learned from
my first extended stay in North Carolina back in late 1978 and early 1979.
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
Home of the Chiggers
...
You do what you have to do to get the images you
want.
Re-think Rule Number Two?
Nope, not going to happen ...
Seeing Sound Feeling Music
The great thing about photography is that it is a visual art.
Purely visual.
The
bad thing about photography, well, still photography anyways, is that it is purely a visual art.
No sound. Just visual.
Period.
Funny how that works.
I was asked to come over to a friend's house to photograph a band that he is putting together.
Now, I've worked with Cam, and his wife, Fran, for about twenty years now, when
I was at the middle school.
True, they are math teachers,
but we got along pretty good. I even team taught with Cam for a year.
Yeah, me, in a "regular math class", whatever the heck that means ...
I don't know about the students, but I was blown away ...
8th grade math is tough. Period.
I was like
... Say what? Slope?
I'm not a math person. Period.
Cam, and Fran are. Whew.
True, I taught math for over twenty years, but I made it perfectly clear, that I was a Special Education math teacher.
BIG difference.
I worked on the skills that the middle school kids missed while in the elementary school.
That, I could handle. Addition. Subtraction (I mean ... "take away"), counting
money, telling time, you know, stuff like that. Stuff I knew pretty well.
I told my students that I had to go to summer school after the fourth grade, because I didn't know my multiplication
tables ...
True story.
I know them now.
I taught them for 24 years.
Same thing over, and over, and over ...
And over and over again ...
STOP!
I get carried away ...
Photography.
I went to photograph music.
How can anyone photography music? A sound?
Think about it.
Capture sound with a camera?
A lens?
Something you can not see.
Easy.
You
can't.
But I have done it for a LONG time now ... Photographing
music.
Sound.
In 1984 I was hired by the Public Affairs Office at Fort Gordon, GA to photograph Lou Rawls ...
You know, Old School, R&B singer from back in the day.
Cool. I'll loved it.
I photographed his outdoor concert from down in front of the stage, and up in a bucket thing above the stage ...
Cool.
I
even knew one or two of his songs ...
Lou Rawls.
Yes, he was in the Army back in the 1950s. He enjoyed playing for the troops thirty
something years later.
I enjoyed him playing for the
troops.
I got to meet him before the show, followed him
around while he ate dinner with the soldiers (and he told me something I never forgot ... NEVER photograph people while they
are shoving food into their mouth - True story!), got to go into his bus before the show, I had a great time.
The lift-bucket, or whatever you call it ... Cherry-picker, can't think
of it at the moment ... Was the best. Up above the stage and the crowd. During the concert.
Rocking away ... Literally.
I was in photography heaven ... Get it? Up above the stage ...
Anywho ... It was cool.
I learned real quick,
that you don't photograph music, you photograph the illusion of music, the spirit of music. You photograph the music expressed
by the person preforming the music ...
Something like
that.
What it feels like to play music.
Personally, I have no clue. I do not do music.
I listen to music. Period.
Well, no ... I just
explained that I photograph music. That is my music.
That,
and playing my stereo ... Which is playing in the background as I am typing this ...
i-tunes. Feel the music ... Writing about music ...
I
have also photographed other bands, such as Alabama, The Commodores, Martha Vandel, and The Four Tops, while I worked
for the Army back in the 1980s ...
A long time ago.
Another life time ago.
But, there I was in the basement of Cam's house looking for the sound of music ...
Three people, in a room with posts, music stands, tables, wires, lights, computers, more wires, and a couch ... And
more mike stands, etc ...
A small room, no, a large
room, which seemed small due to being filled with ... Stuff. Music stuff.
The drummer was back in the corner ... Blocked by Cam up front with his mike stand, music stand, and everything else
you can imagine a musician might need ...
Crazy ...
I literally could NOT get all three of them playing in one shot.
Yes, I had my 12mm lens ...
It was tough ...
Luckily, we took the "group"
shots prior to coming inside to play ...
Well, no, I
actually could get all three of them in one image, but the drummer was kind-of-sort-of framed by Cam and his guitar and a
post in the middle of the room ...
So ...
I went with some one-on-one images ... The Drummer. Period.
The Bass Player. Period.
Lead guitar player. Period.
Then, when Cam switched
to The Piano Player, I went in, got close, and just got The Piano Player. Period.
Without the posts, stands, etc ... Well, you know, the best I could ...
Rule Number #2.
Get Closer.
It is one of my rules for a reason: Simplify.
It was driving me nuts ... One player on one side of the room (and post), another on the other side, and the drummer
stuffed back there in the corner ...
That is photography.
That is being a photographer.
Try to photograph something
you can't possibly do -- Music -- and do it in a room where you can't possibility get all the members in one frame, without
an issue, of some kind, every single time.
So, don't.
Do what you can, enjoy the music, and experiment with what you know best; your
camera.
Your art.
Play with the "Notion of Motion" ... Slow that shutter speed down. Then go slower ... "Drag your shutter" as Joe
McNally so eloquently says ...
Slower and slower
as the night goes along.
Feel the music ... You have
heard me talk/write about "The Notion of Motion", well, take it one step further ...
The Notion of Music. The feeling of music ...
A
slow shutter speed, along with a burst of flash, produces a freeze/blur that both stops the action, and, shows the
movement ... The whole Notion of Motion in a still photograph.
Try it.
Photograph something that is moving
and ... Besides using a slow shutter speed (say, 1/15 of a second), pop-up your flash and see what happens.
Switch to Shutter Priority (one of the few times I use it), set your camera
to a slow shutter-speed, and fire away ...
Slow. Slower.
Slowest, whatever you think looks good. Just shoot ...
Play.
True, I was using off-camera flash, but the concept is the same, no matter what
kind, or where your flash happens to be ... The freeze/blur effect is never the same every time.
Shoot first, look at the results later ...
I
had one placed on a self, over by the drummer, bouncing off the ceiling, another one in my left hand, pointed up, and
off to the side. My small pop-up flash triggered both of them, but did not add light to the scene (unless you want it
to - I didn't).
"Drag that shutter" ... 1/30th, 1/15th,
1/8th, whatever ... 1/4th ... Try it, you just might like it.
You are the artist -- Create!
There is also
the whole "Rear-Curtain" flash thing you could try, but because musicians are not stock-cars, or The Roadrunner, regular-curtain
flash seems to work fine ... But try it!
Two exposures
in one ... Blurr and freeze. Pretty cool actually ...
Ahh,
the joy of the sound of music.
And photographing it.
I enjoyed it. I didn't trip over anything, or knock anything over, and came
away with a few images (over 250) ...
Images of music. Who says you can't photograph
music? Sound?
No worries ...
Classic Camera
One more camera for my collection ...
I drove
over to Asheville over the weekend, to visit one of my favorite camera stores, not named Adorama.
True, I have been to Adorama a couple of times, and it is my favorite all time,
but, it is in New York.
I'm not.
Asheville is closer. Period.
I first stopped in YEARS ago with my Saturday college class ... Full of old cameras, gear, and more stuff ...
Old School camera store.
I just went to look ... They have a table (or two or three) just piled up with old gear ... Cameras, lenses, bags,
straps, you-name-it, they have it ...
Just piled up
... Crazy as ever.
Then they have their "real" used camera
section ... Old film cameras, and some digital models as well.
Then they have their newer old section ... Digital. Even some new cameras, I'm not sure ... I'm always looking
at the used stuff.
And then there is the off-limits,
real cool old stuff, up on a shelf, all the way around the store ... Or most of it anyways.
The real classic, good stuff ... Rangefinders, medium format, large format ... The Owner's Private Collection.
Or, if I remember correctly, the owner's dad's collection.
Twenty
years ago, he showed me around the place - The Good 'Ol Days.
Now, laying around each of these different sections, they have, well, more cameras ...
I noticed an old Speed Graphic. No price tag. Just sitting on top of some paperwork, magazines, or something ...
It caught my eye.
A Speed Graphic.
An old WWII era, 4x5 inch,
large format, manual camera. Like the one used on Iwo Jima to capture the famous flag raising on Day Four of the battle back
in February, 1945.
Yeah, the same island my uncle served on
during the war ... He drove the landing crafts that took the Marines ashore. He was in the Navy.
That type of camera ...
I wanted one for a LONG
time.
I got it.
True, it was in rough shape (why I could afford it), but I knew a little super glue, for the loose cover on the back,
and some of my fancy leather cleaner for the bellows, and some Armor-All, and it would clean up just fine.
It did.
And, with the
use of a small, wooden tripod from my 8x10 inch view camera, I was in business.
I took the image in my dinning room, I mean studio. I just picked-up a new C-Stand from Adorama last week, and put
it to good use.
Using my 3x5 foot softbox, up high and
to the right, I shot away, knowing that the white background would go gray, due to the fall-off of the light.
You know, the whole "Inverse Square Law" thingy ... Move the light closer to
the subject, the light falls off twice as much. By having the camera away from the wall, the light did its thing.
Notice how the "white" wall turns gray, and grayer ... Fades away.
I heard somewhere that there are more than 50 shades of gray.
Interesting.
The
camera is exposed correctly, the white wall, because the light "falls off" real quick, becomes gray ... Compared to the camera
(main subject), the wall received half as much light.
It
is all part of the process ...
Math.
Simple (like magic).
Looks like a real studio shot.
Well, in a way,
it is.
My dining room, my studio. Perfect. White becomes
gray.
Jennifer, the friend that gave me the money for
my retirement, and the one that gave me several other WWII era cameras years ago, says I have enough cameras ...
Ahh ... Maybe. My apartment, I mean, studio, is pretty small.
But come on ... A Classic. I couldn't pass it up.
And the cash just happened to be in my wallet ...
And, I got a good deal (less than what they first asked for) ... That loose flap on the back helped ... And it was
dirty ... And old ...
But now, it looks great next to
the other old, classic cameras ...
Perfect.
Glad I finally got old enough to retire.
Oh, wait a minute ... Let me re-phrase that ...
Glad
I'm still not old enough to have used the camera when it first came out ... I'll go with that.
Lucky me.
GFMS Sunrise
I taught at Granite Falls Middle School for 23 years.
Loved it.
I got there early ... A middle school
at 7am is quiet. Much later than that, forget it ...
My
last year, I took on a new class ... My first students arrived at 7:10 every morning. Why? I have no idea.
The only good thing about this, is that during the winter, it was still
dark.
Good? What could be good about getting to work
before the sun comes up?
This.
This image. This light.
I kept a small point-and-create camera (or two, or three) at the school, and in my Element, for just this reason.
Light.
The
power of light.
And getting to work early.
And always having a camera near by.
I am really glad I worked at GFMS for all those years.
And that this tree was right out back ...
And
that I got there early.
And that I had a camera ready,
you know, just in case ...
Nymph
I have been fly-fishing for over twenty five years now ... Twenty-four, something like that.
South Mountain State Park. Once I found out about it, it is where I go to fish.
Period.
Same park. Same parking spot. Same stream. Same pools. Same rocks. Same fly.
Well, no, not the same fly, just the same type of fly ...
I lost one up in a tree yesterday ...
A nymph.
A beaded, Gold-Ribbed Hare's Ear nymph. I have used them for the past twenty years ... Like, all the time.
The one fly I don't leave home without.
I know, I know ... Fly-fishing ... A dry-fly, up on the top of the water, the trout rising up, suckin' it in, perfect
...
Nah.
They eat 80% underwater. When I read that, done.
That
was it ...
Yes, I tried dry-flies early on, but, come
on ... 80%.
I like those odds.
Nothing else.
I
tie on a nymph, add my strike indicator, and I am done.
Period.
I get into the stream, right in front of my parking spot, and cast up-stream ...
Always.
I watch my yellow strike indictor, and wait ...
It twitches, I lift the rod.
That simple.
Cast. Watch. Lift. Repeat.
Over and over again. For twenty something
years.
Same stream.
Oh, wait
...
I have gone rouge (once or twice) and fished another stream that feeds
into the main stream ...
WILD trout.
Smaller. Smarter. Funner.
But, I still cast
up-stream, and watch my strike indicator. Just watch.
Wait
for it ...
Got one.
Well, not that easy ...
More like ... Cast,
watch, cast, watch, cast, watch, cast, watch, cast, watch, cast, watch ... Over and over and over and over again ...
Just one more ... OK, just one more ... This is it, one more cast ...
Hour after hour, weekend after weekend, year after year ...
Spring and Fall, every year.
I take the summers off.
Catch and Release is
put on hold then.
If I'm ever hungry for fish, I go
to Captain D's to eat.
Easier.
I just catch 'em ... Photograph 'em ... Release 'em.
Repeat.
And,
every once in awhile, tie on another nymph to replace the wore-out one I have used over and over again ...
I wear 'em out ...
And fix 'em up for another run ... Bring out my fly-tying gear, wrap 'em up with some tan stuff, and re-fill my little
plastic container for next time.
And every once in awhile,
I actually order new ones on-line. Same thing, over and over:
Size #14 and #16.
Beaded Gold-Ribbed Hare's
Ear.
Same fly every time.
And wait until Spring.
Or, in this case ...
Fall.
FOOTBALL
One of my track girls stopped by my room the other day at school to say hello ...
We talked, and then it dawned on me that I had taken photos of her and the football team this Fall, but never showed
her the images ...
First, yes, she played football at
GFMS for two years. Yes, she is that tough. No, I won't go into my thoughts on girls playing football at the middle school
...
And yes, she wrestled for two years as well
... Yeah. On the wrestling team. Ahh, yeah, she sometimes wrestled against the boys ... She took care of herself (again, don't
ask ...).
And finally, yes, she ran track for me for
two years as well ... She is a great athlete, and a pretty cool kid.
Period.
As I was going through some of the images
I was going to give her ...
Yes, I actually found the
files among my mass collection of DVDs stored behind my computer screen.
I came across this one ...
Not of her actually,
but hey, I like football. I like this image.
I could
go on and bore you with how I played football back in the day, that I was an All-County linebacker, co-captain of the team
my Senior year, even made the All-Upstate (NY) team ...
And,
that I'm 5'7", and weighed in under 170 pounds my Senior year (Yeah, that isn't true any more).
Well no, I still am 5'7" tall ...
Yeah, I like football.
I like photography.
I haven't photographed football that much in the past 40 years or so ...
But this year, I had a new toy to play with, and wanted to see how my 300mm
f2.8 worked out on the football field.
Oh, and with a
2x converter just for fun ...
It worked pretty well.
I used a monopod, I upped my ISO to 400, you know, because I could, and lucked
out with a nice sunny day.
I coached cross-country during
the Fall for many years, and had a hard time making it to the football games, but I planned ahead, and got everything out
on the field in time for some action ... A little sweat never hurt anybody ...
I
just told 'em we were going to run a little faster through the woods that day ...
It
worked.
Now, about this image ...
First thing I noticed, once I saw the image, was ball security ...
It is middle school football.
The second thing, for me anyways, is the triangle formed by the bodies ... You know, as a photographer, and a Marine
(you know, Iwo Jima, the flag raising) ...
The ball,
the body language, the colors, the hands, the action ... Or, should I say, "stopped action".
No, he did not fumble. Yeah, they kind of piled us up all afternoon, shut us down, but darn ...
I had some nice light! Some nice action.
And he didn't fumble ...
And it kind of sums
up football.
One team trying to take a ball one way,
the other team trying to stop them. Pretty simple really.
Kind
of like this image ...
A very complex image of a simple
game. Or, is it a simple image of a complex game?
I just
hope she enjoys the image ... And the ones of her. And her time at the middle school.
Knowing her, she will be talking about it for years to come ...
Yes, that is her, running down the ball carrier ...
Go Blue Demons!
Right Church, Wrong Pew
I knew the odds were against me ... Yeah, by a lot.
One flower, in the woods, inside a State Park. No way.
I knew this, but, you know me ... I went looking anyway.
There has got to be more than just this one Lady Slipper in the Park, I knew I could find it, or one just like it.
Something.
I
didn't.
The image was shot by Amy, a former college student
of mine ... Well, let's just say, a few years ago ... I don't know ... Ten years? Eight? Twelve?
It was in the age of digital, I think, lets just go with that ...
She is the one that got the whole "Retirement Get-Together" thingy started for last weekend ... The one that was
late because she forgot her tripod ... The one we waited for as I led a few around looking for another Lady Slipper that I
shot with my class years before, as well -- And, yes, had no idea where it was ...
We walked around, and then circled back to see if she was there.
She wasn't.
We took off ...
And never found any flowers ... The Trillium had come and gone, as had the Dwarf
Irises, or so it seemed to me. I couldn't find any that day.
Or
today.
I asked Amy where she found it, had some idea
where it is ... But, come on? South Mountain State Park is HUGE. Miles and miles of trails.
I took off ...
I hiked around the woods for
four hours ... Searched and searched for flowers the size of ... Well, you know, small flowers.
I went the LONG way around ...
It was nice. Quiet. Remote. Uphill a lot. Some down hill ...
Nothing.
I did see a few Boy Scouts out on the
trails ... I mean, these trails are out there ...
I was
headed for the Waterfalls ...
Amy said the flowers -
I think she mentioned that there were three of them close together - were "not far from the waterfall, off the trail, and
on the right".
As I was walking up ... I kept thinking,
"on the right side" ... Is that coming down, or going up?
"Not too far" ... Yeah? But how far is, "Not too far"?
Kind of, sort of, reminded me of my early college days back at SUNY Brockport ... Social Studies, ten years
before my photography days in Chicago ...
One of
my favorite quotes, from any of my college instructors, was ...
"Right Church, Wrong Pew" ...
Perfect.
I was in the "Right Church" all right, but I had no idea where the "Right Pew"
was ...
There are A LOT of PEWS in South Mountain State
Park. I believe I hiked a total of 10.8 miles of trails looking for just one of them ...
Up one trail, down another ... Towards the top of the waterfall, and then back down "the easy side", you know, the
one without the stairs ...
I went off the trail
looking, both on the right and the left ... Not too far ...
Well, I did have a nice walk.
Didn't see any
Lady Slippers.
But I did have a good time.
It was a nice day for a long walk in the woods. With a camera. And a flash.
And my little soft-box thingy ... Just in case.
Looking.
And to see how much of the Park was effected by the fire ...
I haven't hiked some of those trails in twenty years ...
Some never.
I
just followed the signs ...
But, what about this image?
The Lady Slipper?
Beautiful.
Natural light. Shallow depth of field ... You know, I failed to ask Amy if she actually used the tripod
she went back for ... Or, for that matter, who actually carried the tripod up the mountain, if she did indeed use it ... She
was with a friend, Tim, who she admits is the one that actually found the flowers in the first place ... Did I mention they
are small?
I love it.
That was what I went there looking for ... Twice now, but never got to photograph.
Or even see ...
But that is photography. That
is life.
That is why I continue to walk around all day
... Looking.
Hunting.
That is why I take pictures. Make images.
It
is also why I taught photography for over twenty years ...
My
first photo classes were held at the Fort Gordon, Georgia, Arts and Crafts Center, in 1984. I had a group of eight,
or ten soldiers, and I taught them how to use their 35mm film cameras ...
All
this, while I was still learning how to use my own camera ... I was taking a photography course, through the mail, from THE
NEW YORK INSITITUTE of PHOTOGRAPHY, which, just so happens, to be in New York City.
A real school, in New York City. Yes, that New York City.
I actually went there to talk to the instructors before showing my portfolio
to several organizations/magazines, back in 1989.
Really.
But I digress ...
Back to 1984 ...
I remember thinking, I was
just one page ahead of my students ...
It
was a humble beginning.
Then, in 1986 and 1987, while
working as a photographer for The Department of the Army in Bremerhaven, Germany, I taught my first college photography classes
for Boston College Overseas.
I taught the class in the
very studio I worked in, how cool was that?
And then,
for the past 23 years, right here in Hudson, NC. CCC&TI.
Which brings us around full-circle.
Amy's
shot reminds me of why I teach ...
Or, should I say,
taught ...
The PASSION FOR LIGHT.
Getting out there and looking for images, hunting for images ...
Looking at light ... That is what it is all about.
And to have a student send me this image ...
Wow.
Years after taking my class ... And, years of sitting in at The Camera Club
in Lenoir ... Soaking up all that Doug Terry, Jack Daulton, and the rest of the group have to offer ... The tricks and tips
of photo editing (which is light-years beyond what I know), the outings, joining my college class for a week out on the Outer
Banks ...
It all came together for her right there on
that mountain (like, you know ... Somewhere) with that flower ...
That perfect flower ...
And that perfect light
...
Perfect.
Even if I never did find it, or one like it ...
Next
time ...
Next time, I will be sure to wait for Amy ... Oh, and Tim. Yeah, Tim for sure.
South Mountain
Join me at South Mountain State Park on
Saturday, May 13th at 8am for a day of photography and memories.
Over the past twenty-plus years, SMSP has been my place to get away. To fish. To photograph. To camp. To teach. To
hike. To run. To fish some more. To hunt wild flowers. And yes, sometimes just relax.
I will be at "The End of the Road" at the large parking lot, camera and/or fly-rod in hand, at 8am in the morning.
Hope to see you there. And I actually signed up for a campsite - in advance,
no less - for the night, if anyone is interested. You know I sleep in "My Element", so there will be room for a tent
or two.
And yes ... There are other sites still available.
I drove over today to fish, but got rained out ... No worries, I remembered
to sign-up for a campsite on my way out.
Join me for
a day of photography at one of my favorite sites for "The Old Saturday Class" (And yes, I even have a few "Saturday
Alumni" lined up to be there) over the years ... The camping trips with CVCC, draggin' Brett up and down the mountain,
the hikes to the waterfalls, lighting up wildflowers in the field, slide shows in the campgrounds, great images of a "master
fly-fisherman" at work (I don't charge a modeling fee), and all the other images, always the images ...
Again, Saturday (like The Old Days), May 13th, 2017 at 8am ... Yeah, I know,
but we are photographers, 8am is actually a wee bit late, but I didn't want to push my luck.
The gate opens at 7am ...
I'll be there waiting.
See you there.
Bring a friend.
Or two.
I look forward to getting out there and shooting with you all once again.
Walk Two Moons
It just occurred to me one night, that
I only photograph the moon when it is full, like anything else was just, you know, not worth it.
Silly me.
In my photography classes, I only
talked about photographing THE FULL MOON. Nobody ever asked me how to photograph a half-moon. Or a quarter-moon.
No, it was ALWAYS a full-moon.
I told them to wait until the NEXT one ...
So,
I just set the camera/lens/tripod up in my living room and just waited ...
Duh?
Why wait?
Get out and shoot ...
Every phase of the moon.
Shoot 'em all, ask questions later.
So, out I went ...
Shoot. Adjust. Shoot some more ...
For over four months ... Not EVERY night, of course, but, every once in awhile ... Follow the Moon.
In fact, maybe, just maybe, now that I have retired from teaching photography
at the local Community College, I just might make that a new rule ...
No way! It was ALWAYS, "My THREE RULES".
Period.
I refuse to change it all now ... What would my students do? What would I do?
Yes. Another Rule.
RULE #4 : Look at the Moon.
Follow the moon ...
Yes, it moves. Try to figure out where the moon will rise, and where it will set.
Then go back and figure out when it rises, and when it sets ... Each different season, each and every month ...
That will keep you busy.
What time of the year? What time in the evening? The morning?
It is a game I have played the last few months ... Well, really, my whole last semester at the college.
In one of the very first classes, I told them to photograph the moon. It
is one example of when your camera meter does not work well ...
That, and snow. And black cats on coal piles ...
Yeah.
That one is a wee bit harder to find now-a-days ...
But anyway, go out and photograph the moon.
No,
really.
Go out tonight and photograph the moon.
Period.
Here
is the thing ... The meter wants to make every image mid-tone, or 18% gray.
That is what meters do. What cameras do.
Works
pretty darn good, I must admit. Most things in life are mid-tone ... A little bit of this, a little bit of that.
But ... A BLACK sky, and a LITTLE white dot, when turned gray, go really wacky.
The jet black sky goes muddy gray, and that white round moon goes ... Well, bright becomes brighter. You can't make black
gray without turning white whiter!
Impossible.
The camera can only make one exposure. Period.
So ... You, the artist, must choose. Do you want a black sky and gray moon, or a gray sky and blown out, elongated,
oval blob of unrecognizable moon?
Yeah ... Underexpose.
The moon is lit by ... Ahh, like, The Sun.
Remember that. Think of that. The sun ... Bright. Like f16 bright.
And fast ...
As in, a fast shutter speed.
Set your camera to MANUAL EXPOSURE.
Set the aperture and shutter speed to "Sunny 16" ... f16 @ 200th of a second
(at 200 ISO), or f16 @ 400th of a second at 400 ISO.
f16
@ the shutter speed of the ISO, get it. f16 at 100th of a second at 100 ISO, etc ... You get the idea.
The CLOSEST shutter speed that you can find to your ISO.
That is what the meter is designed to do if you are out in "full sun" ...
Well, true, it might be dark at night, but the MOON is lit by the sun. Sunlight.
A full moon is well lit, trust me.
Like, FULL, as in
all sun, all over. Bright sun.
So ...
Set your camera to shoot THE SUN. Heck with that meter ... Heck with that BLACK,
DARK night sky ...
Fake the meter out. Plain and simple.
Oh, and just go from there ... Faster shutter speed, open your aperture, no,
close down that aperture, shoot, shoot, shoot ... f11, f8, 250th of a second, 500th of a second, what the heck ...
Have fun, I have.
Over the past thirty something years ...
In
fact, let me tell you a little story ...
Back in the
day (1983), I was down in Pensacola, Florida walking across an old naval air field on Corry Station, when The Harvest
Moon began to rise ...
Unreal. I have NEVER experienced
another one like it ... It was ...
Wow.
The BIG, full, moon of the Fall ... I ran home, got my camera (an
old Konica TC3 I bought in Japan) and tripod, and went outside to photograph THE MOON. Yes!
Oh.
Yeah ... Clueless.
My meter was, indeed, a moron. It was dark, I had a dinky 200mm lens, and the
BIG FULL MOON was tiny.
I captured a
long, oval looking blob, that looked nothing like The Moon.
Terrible.
A disaster.
And, even better, I was shooting print film,
if I remember correctly. Yeah, back when I was just getting into photography ...
Bad. Badder. And real bad.
But ... It taught
me something. And I learned an important lesson that night.
First
and most important, is that I knew nothing.
Second, print
film was ... Well, not what I needed. I have shot slides, or digital, ever since (except for a few weddings I shot, out of
the kindness of my heart, for fellow teachers at GFMS. Which, I might add, I gave up on a LONG time ago).
And third, I needed a much longer lens.
From 200mm to 900mm, and it is still not enough.
Not
even close.
Longer is better ... I'll just leave it at
that.
And a bigger tripod.
And shoot it over and over for, what? Like, the next 30 years!
I like this image. Side lighting the moon, who would have thought?
Look at the craters ... The one with the "dot" in the middle ...
How cool.
I know very little about the moon
... But I am seeing things I didn't know were on the moon ... Side lit craters ... Wow. Amazing ...
The texture of the moon. Perfect.
Get
out there ...
I'm actually taking my BIG tripod
down, and putting the lens and 2X converter away for now.
I
did buy a NEW camera, a real new, new camera, that I hope to slap back on that lens this summer while up in New York visiting
my osprey nest, but for now, it will all go back upstairs.
Until
the next full-moon ...
Or Crescent-Moon. Half-moon.
Whatever-Moon ...
It never ends
...
Thank goodness.
FYI ...
Yes, I stole the title from a book I
read years ago ... Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech. I don't know, it just came to me, when I added
the "second moon" today ...
Funny how that works.
Late Birthday Early Retirement
Doesn't really matter how you look at it, I finally picked up a camera I have
been watching for over two years ...
As most of you know,
my mother moved down here two years ago ... Since then, I have been to every thrift shop, Bargain Barn, Flea Market, Lawn
Sales, you name it, looking for that one extra piece that will fill my mother's tiny little apartment ...
One place we stopped in is right in Granite Falls, where I teach. Just on the "other side" of 321 coming
out from the middle school ...
I drove down there once 23 years ago ... One
of my track runners lived down there -- That was back in the day when a coach could drive a student home if they had to.
Anyway ... The Antique Store (that might even be the actual name) was one place my mother wanted to check out ...
Oh boy.
Holy crap.
They
had an old Kodak 8x10 view camera ... With a little wooden tripod to go with it (ahh, way too small, but hey, it
looked good).
Big wooden camera, small wooden tripod.
That was it ... $900.
Yeah.
Nice BIG price tag. I checked it out and
...
That was about it.
I did buy a couple other old film cameras there ... Why? Because I like cameras. I don't use them ... I collect them.
A bit of a hobby of mine ... It has been for years. Over twenty five years ...
I have a bunch. I have also written about it for years ...
My
Polaroid SX-70 I picked up in Korea. The Russian rip-offs I bought in St. Petersburg (not Florida). The Japanese
twin-lens medium format camera. The old WWII era, large format, camera I got from Jennifer. The Polaroid Swinger, that I took
my first pictures with, back in 1968. My first Kodak 110 Instamatic. My first 35mm, my first Minolta, my first Nikon, my first
this, my first that ...
Insane really.
But come on ... Look at this beast.
A Kodak EMPIRE STATE Number 2, large format 8 inch x 10 inch view camera. You know, like back in the Old Times.
Glass negatives. The works.
Upside down and backwards
view on a glass plate. The old black cloth you put over your head while you focus ...
Think Civil War. Ansel Adams.
I have never used
one.
I have no desire to ever even try.
In Graduate School I had to use a 4 x 5 (the baby brother) in one class ...
No way. Don't tell anyone, but I cheated, and used the medium format camera I mentioned earlier ... The $75 Chinese camera
I bought while working as a photographer in Germany ... Like, 1987?
Medium
format? Large format? I faked it.
I mean, really? Upside down and backwards?
No way ... Too slow for me.
It is now just a piece of art.
Two years I waited on this 8x10 beast of a camera ... I kept watching the price
drop ... $850. $800. $750.
I stopped in today and made
an offer ... Nowhere near $750. Gave the person my card and told them to get back with me ...
The guy called. I got my camera. Way too easy. And a few months early, or a little late, again, depending on how
you look at it.
No worries.
I got it home, cleaned it up, and ... Ta-da!
It looks NICE. Real nice.
From the book I have on cameras, I believe
it is a EMPIRE STATE (as in my home state) Number 2 D. The "D" is for Dark. As in, Dark Wood. It
wasn't that dark looking when I picked it up ... I used this Leather Care stuff from ArmorAll for the bellows ... And just
kept going, wood and everything.
Magic.
It cleaned up good. Real good.
The rubber ball shutter release is, well, like, you know, really cool. That extra special piece that finishes it
off so well ... And yes, I used regular ArmorAll on that ... It is in great shape.
Now ... The image.
Shot in my dining room.
Three strobes (Nikon SB-600) ... One "main light" off to the
left, 45 degrees, diffused thru a large, round, panel, that I clamped onto my dinning room chair ...
Channel 1 Group A (for all you Nikon shooters).
The other two lights are Channel 1 Group B. These are set at -1 compensation to begin with (one-stop less light than
the "main light"). These are used to help give "shape" the camera ... Light up the edges, the bellows ... They also help "separate
it" from the background.
Black bellows, black background.
The light gives it an edge, an edge of light. This light gives the camera lines that help separate
it from the background.
The second flash is up high
on a boom, aimed down on the bellows. The third one, on this shot anyways, was off to the right, aimed at the bellows, to
bring out their shapes ... With light.
Which brings out
the texture.
Shot with my trusty Nikon D90 and the 40mm
macro lens.
Aperture Priority, f11, with a -1 overall
compensation, you know, to bring out that DARK, rich, wood color.
All against a dark, black background.
I
tried several shots with a red gel on the background (why not?) ... Moved the lights here, and there, you know
me. I shot a bunch. From this angle, and that angle, from over there, looking down, from another angle, you know
... Work the subject.
Come on, it took almost an hour
to drag all this crap down from upstairs ... Set it up, etc ... You know I just had to get my shots in ...
I tried this, I tried that ...
Better than TV, or any other "devise," as far as I'm concerned ...
Play, play, play ...
I
like it.
I like the camera. Always wanted a large format,
wooden, 8x10 view camera.
Nice way to finish off my
Easter Vacation ... My LAST Easter Vacation.
And my whole "Birthday
Month" celebration ... And, best of all ...
It was cheaper
than my new washer and dryer combo I bought today as well ... Which I refuse to think of as a birthday, or retirement, present,
or gift.
No, those are just, you know, necessities. Household
items. Boring.
Thirteen years ... Time for a new set.
Now, lets see, I could light 'em up ...
White is tough to light though ... And metal? Whew, reflections ... I'll need a HUGE softbox, or a sheet, something.
Maybe a blue gel bounced off the wall for separation ...
Nah
...
I'm good.
Stingray City
Can't remember where I heard of it ... But I knew I wanted to go.
Grand Cayman. A small island, near Cuba, where the stingrays don't sting, and are a tame as pets.
But they're not.
They are wild stingrays, that are used to having people come out and feed them.
So no, they are not wild, wild, but they are wild (or so they say).
I mean, people hold them, feed, them. pet them, swim with them, take pictures of them, get run into by them ...
And all the time this is happening, I'm just looking at those tails ...
The LONG ones with that barb sticking out ...
Yeah. Like the one that killed Steve Erwin.
That
was always in the back of my mind ...
Way back, once
I spend a little time with them weaving about the group of people out on the sandbar.
There were a LOT of people. Several boats ... They limit the number of boats out there, but still ... Lots of people,
all day long.
They come and go ... There is also a nice
reef close by that is part of the tour ...
I went twice.
Tuesday and Thursday. Kind of like my college class ... Sort of, kinda ...
WHITE SAND. BLUE WATER.
I mean, really, really white sand, and crystal, crystal clear water ... Unreal.
And shallow.
It's a sand bar five miles out
from shore. Waist deep. Maybe.
Shallow.
As the captain jockeys for a spot on the sandbar, you can see 'em
from the boat ...
Black shadows, inches above the white
sand ... Some BIG ones, some little shadows.
Then you
jump in ...
I wore my snorkel and mask, most people
don't.
I had my Nikon D90 in my Ewa- Marine UB-10 that
I held in one hand and just started shooting away ... Point and shoot. Fire away.
Get close, press the button.
That simple, that
easy.
They come right up to you, around you, even crash
into you ... It is like a maze for them.
I did venture
into the crowd once in awhile, but I also went hunting for the "quiet" moments with the rays ...
They just float through water, so calm, so ...
And
then one hits you from behind ... What?
Yeah, they just
go crazy near people with squid in their hands ... Or a camera.
I was always looking 360 degrees around me ...
Hunting.
It is great.
Quiet.
For the most part ...
That tunnel vision thing ... That
quiet ...
I remember the first time I swam with a stingray
...
The Bahamas. 1979. I had just gotten out of the Marines
and was staying down in Florida with my mother, until it was warm enough to drive my Honda 750 (which I had shipped over from
Japan) back up to New York.
I got out 2 MAR 79.
A long time ago.
I flew over to Freeport and, well, just slept on the beach ... No hotel, no nothing. I was a Marine.
It rains in the Bahamas ...
I slept under some cardboard boxes I found ...
Then
I went snorkeling the next morning ... They also have sunshine in the Bahamas.
There I was ... I hadn't really snorkeled that much ... I first tried it out while in Japan.
Ten feet of water ... Something like that. Pretty clear ...
Then up rose this ... Thing. HUGE, black shadowy thing ... Scared the crap out
of me. I remember taking my mask off, kicking like crazy to keep my head above water, and looking around for someone to tell
about what had just happened.
No one was around -- Thank
God.
I put my mask back on and ...
Never saw it again.
But I have always wanted to swim with the stingrays just one more time ...
I shot over 500 images each time I went out. Shoot first, ask questions later.
No, I didn't learn that in the Marines ...
I
never even looked through my viewfinder ... No, just point, and hold down the shutter.
I thought I was pretty good at this technique, but I found out otherwise.
Yeah.
Like really bad.
That whole science thing again ... Underwater ...
Something about light bending ... Blah, blah, blah ...
But it was fun!
I dove down and tried to get eye level shots ... I even dove down to have the rays swim over me ...
That worked once or twice.
I
swam over them ... Beside them ... In front of them ... In back of them ...
Fire away.
Over a thousand images over two, one-half hour visits ...
T/Th.
Glad I went. Glad I finally got to swim, touch,
bump into, chase, and look a stingray in the eye, at eye level, and see them for more than just a dark ghost from (almost)
forty years ago.
Very interesting animals. Strange. Different
looking. And real quiet ...
Like ghosts ...
Finding Ninja Waldo
Yeah, I know ... It's a flounder, not a Waldo, but you get my drift ... I hope.
I was just floating along looking for something ... And I found it.
Not while out on the sandbar with the stingrays, no, this was a nice beach/snorkel area just down from the Inn I
was staying at.
I knew what I saw, before I actually
knew I knew it, if you can follow that one ...
I had
seen it before, years ago. 2009, I think.
I was in Panama,
or Costa Rica, can't remember ... One of them. Someplace in Central America, how's that ...
I was shooting with my first (I've owned three of them), small , Coolpix Nikon AW100, and came across a flat fish
looking thing that was working the whole camo look, you know, like a Marine, or Ninja, or ... Something.
I thought it was cool.
I got some GREAT images ... I was jacked. Loved it.
Then,
I did make it to Panama City and, well, I think I told you the tale of having my fanny pack stolen, and doing the whole Judo
thing on some touch-holes (to borrow an adjective from my uncle) ...
1 Jan 2009. Yeah, I think that is right ... Early in the morning.
I held on to my "big camera". Even stopped to pick-up my lens hood after flipping one of them over my shoulder (one-handed
shoulder throw), before making my way back to the hotel ...
Anyway ... I lost my favorite fish images ... The camera was attached to my fanny-pack.
I never forgot about them ... They were good (I remember!).
I have wanted to find another flat, little, fish thingy, ever since ... I think
they are a type of flounder ... They swim side-ways ... Weird little things.
Ninja fish ...
Anyway ... There he was, hiding
on top of some cement block in this perfect little spot for, well, looking for fish.
Hiding in plain sight.
Yes!
I shot him from the surface, and then dove down - What? Four of five feet
(maybe), and shot him up close. You know me, "Get Closer" ...
Great camouflage, but he couldn't fool me.
I
then followed him around for a few more shots ... Finding Ninja Waldo in the Grand Caymans ...
And the whole time all I could think of was Panama ... I finally got my flounder shot, my flounder images.
Took awhile, but I am now happier than a flounder eating fettuccini.
True, I went there for Sting-Rays, and loved every minute I was out there chasing
them around -- More on that later -- But this little flat flounder fish did make the trip that much better ...
I now have my flat-fish flounder images.
Life
is Good.
I was even using the same type of camera, the camera that replaced
the one those two guys stole all those years ago ...
A
GREAT little camera, the one I don't leave home without.
The
Nikon Coolpix AW100.
I think they are up to the AW120
now, I will have to get one once I retire ... You know, buy a camera that is actually NEW! Not new USED, but a real,
new, modern digital camera ...
Perfect.
Fill-Flash Macro
Yeah, I've done this before.
Sort of.
I went fishing over the weekend and
although I didn't catch any trout -- I saw a couple -- I did capture this nice purple trillium.
Like fishing, I had to work at it.
First off, I had a nice hike up the mountain ...
And
second, I got to play with my new used Sony mini-DSLR camera, with an 18-55mm zoom lens.
Sony.
Years ago, I started using Minolta 35mm
film cameras ... Loved them. Had a bunch of them ... In fact, I have a X-570 and a X-700 right on the shelf off to my right
... And another X-700 upstairs.
I like cameras.
I also enjoy shooting with different cameras. I am always learning.
Something.
There
is always something new to learn about old cameras.
This
shot had great light ...
And a great subject.
Perfect.
Except
it wasn't.
The light from the sun was coming in from
the upper right slanting across the flower which was not lit directly by the sun ... "Sil-o-wet Sity" (Silhouette City)!!
Look at the shadow ...
This lack of the light - where I wanted it - made the image, well, lacking something, missing something ...
Color.
The
Color Purple.
So ... Pop-up the little flash, and fire
away. Fire away to "fill-in" the shadows and bring out the purple.
Make the purple pop. I like the sounds of that.
I
did not have as much control over the flash as I would have liked, or have had in the past ... I couldn't "Move it", or even
adjust the power ...
Or so I thought ...
I checked the flash options ... It did offer a "Fill Flash" setting.
Perfect.
And
although it doesn't sound like it has much to do with flash, I did find the Macro Setting I was also looking for ...
I have shot Nikon for so long ... What? 30 years, now? I kept looking for the little "Tulip Icon looking thingy" and thought I didn't have a macro setting ...
Then I remember these newer type cameras sometimes have all the icon thingies on a dial, up on the top
of the camera ...
BAM.
There it was ... A Macro Setting, or icon, or whatever ... I had macro!
Duh.
I got closer to the little dinky flower,
which got my pop-up flash closer, which helped darken the background (the whole Inverse Square Law thing) ... Which helped
simplify the image with a black background.
Which, in
this case, is perfect.
Funny how that works ...
No trout, but photography saved the day.
And the purple trillium.
And having "fill-flash"
as an option.
And finding the macro icon ...
And using a SONY camera -- which, to finish my story -- is what happened
to all my Minolta cameras ...
SONY bought out Minolta
(years ago) -- Minolta cameras became Sony cameras.
Kind
of, only different.
Going full-circle in my old age ...
Happy Birthday to me.
Another year ... A BIG year. My last year in the classroom ... College, and the middle school.
Retirement. Period.
Now I will have more time to play ... And another excuse to buy another camera ... Or two, or three ...
And find that darn macro icon ...
And the fill-flash option ...
And ... Which
brings us back to the future ... And my first go-around with these tiny purple/pink flower things ...
South Mountain State Park.
See below ...
Re-Think
This is a vertical shot, trust me. They are long and skinny, and VERTICAL.
Period.
I saw them that way, I photographed
them that way. That is how I shot them, pre-visualized them, saw them.
Vertical.
The church is in Reykjavik, Iceland.
It is a VERTICAL church, vertical building ... Rising up to the heavens. Up and up and up ...
Vertical.
Except when I used it on my NATIONAL
GEOGRAPHIC YOURSHOT Page. It is used as my "Home Page Image" along the top of the page ... A long, skinny horizontal image
above all my others.
I like it. It "fits the format"
for the page.
That got me looking at it in a different
way ... Horizontal. Cool.
I then went in and cropped
the heck out of the "original" vertical shot and came up with my new Screen Saver for my computer.
It works.
Who
would of thunk it? A vertical shot, working as a horizontal shot. A different look, a different image from the original.
Duh?
I
just can't believe it took me this long to "see it". I shot it three months ago.
It is funny, I tell my students all the time, that, "The best time to take a vertical image, is right after the horizontal
one".
Yes, I stole that quote from Bryan Peterson, I
admit it. It is good advice.
See, MOST people shoot a
LOT more horizontal images than vertical ones ... Pretty natural, really, the way the camera "fits in your hand" ... "Landscape
mode" ... The horizon off in the distance, etc ...
Horizontal.
What this image has taught me is that now I have to change my teaching ...
My thinking.
For years I have used a stolen quote about
"The best time to shoot a vertical shot, is right after the horizontal shot" ...
I have to change my favorite stolen quote to ... "The best time to shoot a horizontal
image, is right after the vertical one".
Seems only fair
...
And that way, I won't be copying/stealing/plagiarizing
Bryan Peterson any more ... And will be able to sleep much better knowing I am not a quote thief any longer.
Maybe.
We
shall see, but until then, "You keep shooting" ...
Ah,
there I go again ... That is HIS line also!
OK, OK ...
How about this? "Until then, you keep shooting ... A vertical shot every once in awhile, just to make everyone happy,
and have more options for your website, blog, whatever".
Works
for me ...
Oh, and did I mention THE LIGHT? That warm
colored light, all over the pipes?
Well, I should have.
It makes the image. The contrast ... The color. The warm tones on the silver pipes ...
The VERTICAL pipes.
Perfect.
Light. Brown.
Shifting sands?
Chocolate Slot Canyons?
No.
Light.
I tell you, I didn't make, LOOK AT THE LIGHT, my first rule of photography for
nothing.
Drawing with light. Painting with light. Having
fun with light. Exploring with light ...
Whatever.
I really can't remember which, or what, the true, correct, official
Greek translation of the word PHOTOGRAPHY boils down to, but I do know it has SOMETHING to do with light ...
It is important, let's just put it that way.
If it were up to me (and it isn't), I would make the official translation "Playing with Light".
That is what it really boils down to, let's face it.
You have a tool - a camera - and you look for light. Any light. Anywhere. You
find it, and you try to capture it. Anyway you want.
You
can (and should) manipulate the crap out of it. Bend it, diffuse it, color it, reflect it, shape it, darken it, lighten it,
twirl it, even block it ...
Anything you want.
It is called ART. With a capital "A". And in this rare case, a R and a
T.
Or better yet, sometimes you can just find it ...
Just stumble across it in the strangest places and at the weirdest times ...
As in this case.
Well no, or yes ... Depending
on what you think about making some of those adjustments I was talking about.
I usually "don't just find" anything ... LIGHT, or SUBJECT. You know, just see something and take an image ... Done.
No.
I
work it. I "make it". I play.
I make it look the way
I want it, not just how I found it.
I make adjustments.
With this image, I did nothing more than play with the compensation button
...
Well, let me re-phrase that ...
As far as exposure goes, I just changed the compensation ...
The other thing I did, and always try to do, is move ... Change my angle, my
perspective. Tilt the camera. Play with the "lines", the angles ... The composition.
Now, you know that I can't remember every shot I take, every fact, etc ...
Yeah.
But, you do know that I took A LOT (43)
of shots dealing with this one scene, right? Shoot, shoot, shoot. Play, play, play ...
First, I saw the light making this pattern - BAM. I knew the fun would begin ...
Then, I took shot after shot ... And made adjustments as I went ... You know, nailed down the exposure.
The exposure I WANTED, not what the camera, and all those Japanese Wizards I
am always talking about, think I want.
MINUS.
And just to be clear, my cameras are set at MINUS as the norm to begin with.
-0.7 would be my preferred starting point. Period.
"My Norm".
And, like I have said a thousand
times, it usually gets darker and darker the more I shoot.
See?
I can change.
I do change.
Like every other shot ...
True, I still
own, and use, the same cameras since 2004, still have my high school football jersey from 1970, and have every GFMS track
t-shirt and "Hoodies" since 1995 upstairs, but, yes, I do, and can, change.
Make changes ...
That's what I do.
And yes, usually on The Darker Side ...
Play with light.
Get closer.
And look for with different angles. I tilt the camera this way, and that ... Shoot, shoot, shoot ... LOTS
of images.
I started out at -0.7 and ended up, well,
for this image anyway, at -2.0.
FYI ... I used my
Nikon 1 V1 with the 10mm (28mm equivalent) lens, at f2.8, and the ISO set at 220. What?
220? I didn't even know I had an ISO setting of 220.
Oh, I know ... I told you I can change.
These newer, fancy
cameras have an AUTO ISO setting or something ...
You can set an ISO
RANGE ... I guess I set mine at the 100-400 ISO limit, or range, or whatever it is called ... I
don't like the higher ISO ranges, so I limit them to the "safer", everyday, regular settings that I know are "pretty good"
...
Or, use a tripod, or flash ... I just know I don't like the high
ISO quality of my cameras ... ANY of them. But I did change ... Tried "a new setting". New technology
... I just forgot I did.
Perfect.
Now, let's see if I can get you to change ...
Well,
to make some changes in your photography anyways ...
Oh,
and yes ...
See if you can tell me what this is an image
of ...
You know, like what it really is ... What
the subject is? Can you guess?
Well, besides "light",
that is ...
What the actual subject is? Like, the LEAST
important aspect of any image dealing with LIGHT.
Oh
wait ...
ALL IMAGES DEAL WITH LIGHT.
Duh?
Well,
you know what I mean ...
Little Drip(s) of Gold
I didn't see them at first ...
No, I just saw
this big crack down the base of a tree that blew down just up the street from my place ...
Heavy winds.
Nice stump.
I was walking up the hill today while out on a walk around the block ... What?
It got up into the 70s or something. Perfect "first nice day" for a walk.
You know ... Spring Cleaning.
That, and
getting ready for track season ... My LAST track season. Been running with kids since 1994.
I hope I can make it ... It starts on the First Monday in March ... A GFMS tradition. One more time ...
But, back to the tree stump ...
The crack. Period. I knew I had a design element there, just waiting for me to photograph.
The LINE.
The
contrast between light and dark. The black zig-zag down the middle ...
That was my image.
Until I got over there and
got a lookin' ...
Up close. Fill the frame.
My eyes followed the crack and ... There they were ...
The Drips.
The
tiny drips of sap that were at the very end, holding on for dear life.
The sun hit them ...
They became my image.
Smallest part of the image, but they MADE the image.
The End.
Period.
Follow the line ... See the end.
The punctuation.
Period.
The Golden Punctuation.
And the shadow went black ... Like I knew it would.
Contrast.
The sun hit the Golden Drops, the shadow went black.
Basic camera exposure Rule 101.
Our eyes can see "into the shadows", our cameras can't.
I knew the golden drops would stick out from the black background (shadow).
Just having some fun with graphic elements and exposure ...
And "Seeing Photographically". Seeing like a lens. Learning to think like a camera. Very important.
It is what walking around Hudson is all about ...
Playing with vision, photographic vision. And skills ...
Now, all I have to do is wait for the time to "Spring Forward", so I can get my college class out walking around
Hudson in day light ...
Waiting ... Waiting
... Waiting for it ...
Light Line
Reality
vs. Photography
Yes, this is an image of a light line.
No, this is not what I saw when I took this photograph.
It
is NOT reality. It is not what I saw, or what was in front of me.
It is an image created in my camera. It is an image I saw in my mind and then pushed a few buttons (well, only one
really), and I made my camera give me the image I wanted, what I "pre-visualized" in my mind.
And yes, I stole that line/concept from Ansel Adams ...
This is an image I made up, right in the camera, right as I took the image.
I lied to the camera. Ansel can call it anything he wants, I just flat out admit I lied to the camera meter and made
the image look how I wanted it to look.
PERIOD.
Photography doesn't lie ... Just the photographers!
Now, if I remember correctly, this is an image of The St. Lawrence River up in New York, that I took while driving
up to The Gaspe Peninsula to photograph The Northern Gannet a couple years ago.
Yes, it looks like a lake, no I think it is a river ... A river of light, as
it were.
OK, I lied.
Yeah, I just finished writing this and then looked at the date of the image ...
Wrong. I just took it last July. So, that means it is the ocean ... The Pacific Ocean. To be fair, I do think I did
the same thing up in New York a year or so before that ...
But
... Now I remember! It was the same day I took the image of the elk out along the Pacific coast with that BEAUTIFUL light/cloud
... Black and Gold.
Of course.
Then, the other day, I gave my college photography class an assignment
dealing with WATER.
As usual, I didn't plan this, or
even give it any thought, before assigning it. That is what I do, how I teach.
And this is the image I thought of before going to class that night.
Of all the images dealing with water ... Rain, snow, fog, creeks, rivers, lakes, ponds, oceans, water parks, car
washes, squirt guns, rafting, sweat, you-name-it, that I have taken over the past, what? Thirty something years, and
I thought of this one.
I saw it in my mind. I remembered.
True, I couldn't find it in time for the class, but I did THINK of it. That
has to count for something ...
And then I stumbled across
it a couple of days ago ... How? I have no clue.
There
it was.
I grabbed it, and just had to write about it.
Or "blog" about it, whatever it is that I am doing ...
I
like the image.
Again, PERIOD.
I liked it the day I took it -- and yes, it was during the day, or on "the edge
of day" -- And I like it now.
Something I created. Something
I made.
And something no one else saw.
Not at that moment, that instant. No, it is only something I created.
I took what I saw and changed it to fit what I "felt", or envisioned.
That is art.
That
is photography.
I made it darker, I under-exposed the
image. Minus "something" with my compensation button (-2.7 to be exact).
Darker, darker, dark.
And that is why I like
photography.
Why I am a photographer.
An artist.
A
teacher.
Oh, and a "Blogger" ...
Seeing Red
I took a walk around town ...
The sun was out,
I grabbed two of my "point-n-create" cameras and went out to check on what I could come up with this time ...
A game I play.
Hudson,
NC. One town, two cameras.
Nikon 1 J3
Nikon Coolpix P500
I have used the cameras before but have never really put them through "The Walk" ... You know, a "Test Run" to see
what I can get out of each camera.
Vision has nothing
to do with the camera ... But getting the vision you have in your head with the camera you have in your hand has everything
to do with the camera ...
I try to get to know my cameras.
All of them.
Big or small.
I really wanted to know what each
camera's zoom lens could do, you know, "In the real world".
The
walk.
Did I mention I have photographed Hudson, NC a
few times? I take a walk around the block and photograph every man-hole cover, telephone pole, tree, flowers, The Caboose,
The Windmill, cracks in the pavement, you name it ...
And the fire truck. I usually stop for a shot or two, or three ...
Yeah, lots of shiny do-dads and chrome ...
And
today, with the light just right, nice turn signals. Big red turn signals. At least I think that is what they are. I don't
know.
I just saw the light shining through them ...
That was it.
How
close could I get? How macro is the macro? Zoom in? Or zoom out?
How much compensation can I get out of this little red camera with the BIG ZOOM?
I didn't know ...
I do now.
The macro works just fine. The image stabilization works better than I thought it would, so I could get REALLY
close.
All good.
I tried to
get this image with the other, smaller, Nikon 1 J3 ... The little white camera with a nice little zoom lens.
I also wanted to see what shooting at 60 frames a second was like ...
I filled the card up before I made it to the truck ...
Holy crap.
I'll need a much larger card ...
Or cut back a bit. You know, like
maybe just 30 frames per second. 10 frames? 5?
That's what you learn walking
around with a camera that can shoot 60 frames per second.
I blame it on the
wind.
And that darn windmill.
And
the light ....
Anywho ...
I
deleted a bunch of images to make room, but I got what I was looking for with the P500, so I was good.
Better macro.
But I didn't know that before the walk ...
That is why I take a walk whenever I get a new camera or lens ...
Learn
something.
That simple.
Oh,
and to have some fun.
Learn to have fun.
Nice concept.
Get
out and take a walk. Think of it as a reason to go out and buy a new camera ... Or two.
Flower
I am a teacher. I teach middle school Special Education and I teach a photography class at the local community college.
It is sort of like playing ...
I try to get "kids" of all ages to try something new, try to learn something they don't quite understand at
that moment. Try, try. Try.
Over and over.
Teaching.
Playing.
With pencils, paper, books, cards, Jolly-"Rogers", The Bubble Gum Jamboree,
Orange Sherbet and Oreos, running around the woods at The Tater Hole ...
And
with all my cameras and different lenses, flashes, reflectors, what-have-you, at the college ... Art stuff.
With photography, besides all the camera gear stuff, I mostly play
with vision.
Seeing.
I try to photograph more of what I "feel", than what I see.
These images are all about "playing" ...
I have
a student at the middle school I call "The Flower Boy". He brings flowers from home just about every day ... You know, from his
greenhouse ...
Did I ever tell you I went to high school
for Landscaping and Greenhouse Management.
Yeah, really.
I photograph flowers ...
The boy brought in a flower bulb the other day ... Put it in water, and it bloomed on Friday.
Like magic.
Then
he stuck in on the windowsill. In the light.
That was it
...
The light.
I grabbed one of my cameras I always have with me at school, and ...
Well ... Played.
Light. Color. Shapes. Lines.
Textures ...
A flower. Light.
And so much more ...
Later that day, as he was getting ready to get on his bus while waiting in the Media Center, there it was again ...
Near the window, in the light ...
Light.
Flower.
Color.
I went back to my room and grabbed the
camera one more time ...
And played.
And, for once, hoped his bus was late ... No, no ... I won't go that far, his
bus is late enough on its own ...
But I kept shooting
... Playing. Looking.
And then I will take these images
(this BLOG) and share it with my college class ...
And
get them to look at a single flower, like this one, with new eyes. With the eyes of a young boy ... Or an old photography
instructor.
Play. Play. Play ...
Snow Storm
We got it. Just what the weather people were talking about ...
And all the students (and teachers!) at GFMS ... SNOW.
Six inches of snow in my front yard. And on top of my Honda Element. Six inches of snow in one night.
It started around 3 pm Friday, I know, because I am a school teacher with windows
in my room this year ... Yeah, the past twenty-three years, I was in a room with no windows ... I was the last to know.
This year (my last), I actually saw it snowing outside.
Or what kids around here call snowing ...
I call it "dandruff".
A few flakes in the sky
... OK, it technically is snow, so, it was snowing when school let out.
Barely, but perfect ...
Then it stopped.
Later that night, I drove down to Lenoir, took my mother to FATZ for her bowl
of Potato Soup, then Walmart - You know, the usual ...
Drove
home, no snow.
Later on that night ...
Snow.
I
went to bed around 11 pm.
Snowing.
Woke up around 3 am.
Snowing.
Got up at 7 am.
SNOW. Like I said, six inches ...
THE MOST SNOW I HAVE EVER SEEN IN HUDSON, NORTH CAROLINA, SINCE I MOVED HERE IN 1993.
Snow.
More
snow than I saw in Iceland at Christmas.
Really.
Hudson, NC with more snow than Reykjavik, Iceland.
Yeah.
I got out there and photographed it, just
like I do every time it snows around here.
I take a
walk in the woods ...
But, I ALWAYS start in my driveway.
The Bamboo Grove ... Always.
I like the arches that are formed across the driveway.
Art.
Arches.
That simple ... Well, and the shapes, lines, repetition, contrast, and colors ...
White on green. Green on white.
Six inches of
snow in my driveway.
Perfect.
Well, I guess PERFECT will have to wait until Monday ...
Snow Day(s), that is what it will all come down to ...
College starts Tuesday - I hope ...
So, one Snow Day would be nice.
Please, please,
please ...
*** Snow
Day Up-Date: No kids Monday - Teacher Workday (I'll take it). Yes!
Reykjavik
I had been there before ... 2002, I believe.
I landed in Iceland on the way back from Norway after a week long motorcycle tour.
Another life-time ago.
I knew then that a romp
through the airport didn't really count ... I knew I would return.
It took awhile, but I did make it back.
I spent
ten days in, and around, Reykjavik, the capital.
Great
place.
Small, like the country, just right for walking.
Even if it was in the dead of winter over Christmas Break.
And that is another thing ... I needed a break. I needed a hotel in the very center of town, and I mean right
down town ...
Perfect.
Yes, it was cold. Yes, there was snow. And yes, it snowed just about every day. Clouds every day, every minute, every
...
Well, it did clear for a few minutes one night while
we were out searching for the Northern Lights ... A few minutes anyways.
I was lucky.
I was there nine nights, the Northern
Lights tour buses went out two ... The second time I was on another day trip; another location I had on My List.
The Blue Lagoon.
I had three items on my Christmas Wish List:
The
Northern Lights
The Blue Lagoon
Down Time
And
not so much in that order ...
Did I mention it was dark
twenty out of every twenty-four hours each day?
Oh yeah,
remember, Iceland is hovering around The Artic Circle. Way up there ...
Four hours of daylight.
Sunrise sort of appeared
around 11 am and sunset faded away around 3 pm.
Kind
of.
With the clouds, you really couldn't tell ... It
was dark, then it was just kinda dark, then it was dark again.
Over and over.
I saw part of the sun maybe twice
while I was there. Ten days. Twice. And that was, like I said, just a hint of light, for part of a few minutes,
peeking out from behind the clouds, and always on the horizon.
Twenty hours of darkness.
Really.
That is winter in Iceland.
And that is why I went.
You have zero chance
of seeing the Northern Lights in the twenty hours of sunlight during the summer months ...
You go in the winter.
And cross your fingers.
The tours, when they do run, leave at 9pm. They took us outside the city to
get away from the light pollution, and just looked for a spot the buses could get in and out of ...
Yes, buses. Plural. more than one ...
It is a big time operation ... Every company in the city checks the weather reports every day ... Looking for that
one break in the clouds. So, even when it looks 50/50, everyone jumps on the band-wagon ... Buses everywhere, people waiting
for the clouds to part and the color to start jumping ...
In-land,
or near the coast, it is all up to the weather. And "mobile devises" ...
And LUCK.
So we stopped ... I don't know, 10:30,
11 pm. In a construction site.
Really.
I set my tripod up next to a big metal scoop thing used on backhoes ... It was
just sitting there, detached, in the middle of this lot ...
In
the middle of nowhere.
I was looking for water ... You
know, reflections. Green in the skies, green reflected off the water - You know, a GREAT location, at the right time,
under the right conditions.
Forget about it.
No worries ...
I was ready.
I had no clue what I was doing
...
I have never photographed, or even seen, The Northern
Lights before.
I have The Milky Way thing down pretty
good, so I started with that ...
Aperture-Priority, wide
open (f4), focus at infinity (and set to manual focus), wide-angle lens (12mm), high ISO (1600), a tripod, self-timer (2 second
delay).
And go from there ...
Well, actually, you wait from there ...
Crazy ... Two buses in an empty construction site, pitch black, people running around asking what to do, and where
to look ...
Did I mention a tripod?
And cell-phones?
Yeah, it was a trip ...
Anyway ...
There I stood, ready for ACTION.
And for the clouds to get the crap out of the way ...
So much for Goggle and all those fancy apps ...
I
looked up, to the right, to the left, behind me ... Every which way but loose.
Oh, there is something ... Faint green light thingies, coming and going ...
Holy Crap!
That's it.
Where I wasn't looking ...
Swing that tripod around ...
Got it! Oh ...
Adjust ...
I
forgot about the whole +5 compensation thing ...
Got
it.
Better.
Gone.
That fast.
Now you see them, now you don't ... Got my
settings set ... Sort of.
Clouds.
No, wait ... Over there!
Shoot. Shoot. Shoot.
Got it.
Sort of.
Nice,
but ...
Kinda, sort-of ...
But it is AWSOME baby!
I saw 'em ...
Even got an image or two ...
Greenish blue waves sweeping across the skies ...
Sweet.
Everyone - The guides the most - were
running around laughing, high-fives everywhere ...
But
it was over ...
Head back and hope the clouds break again
...
Oh, the hot-cholate and donut was a nice touch ...
Back on the bus ...
An hour or so -- I don't know, I NEVER could tell what time it was, or how much time passed.
Dark is dark.
Another
stop off the road in the middle of nowhere ...
Yes!
There they go ... Skipping across the sky ...
We were in the right place (except for no foreground interest, not counting the bus!), at the right time,
with the right conditions ...
OK, a few clouds, but come
on, it's The Freakin' Northern Lights baby, who cares?
Shoot,
shoot, shoot ...
They move fast!
In front of you ...
No, off the right ...
Holy crap, no, no, look
over there ...
They were dancing ...
Sweeping across the sky.
Fast.
The guides were going crazy ... Even they
were amazed.
Remember, most trips are ... Well, not as
exciting ... It is a Crap Shoot at best, even with all this technology everyone is ga-ga about ...
A half-hour, an hour ... I don't know ...
Shoot, shoot, shoot ...
Make adjustments ...
1000 ISO. F8. 1600 ISO. f11. +4. +3. No, +5.
Shoot, shoot,
shoot ...
Giggle.
Gone.
Just like that ...
Back on the bus ...
Happy.
Holy crap. 3am.
I got back to hotel at 3am.
What?
Well, like I said, dark is dark.
DO NOT DISTURB.
I can't remember when I got up, it wasn't dark, let's put it that way. True, it was cloudy, and kinda dark, but that
was normal ...
Perfect.
Even if it wasn't PERFECT, and I didn't capture any award-winning images (yes, I even tried using the bus, and the
people standing around looking up), it was PERFECT.
Iceland.
Oh, and then there was the whole Blue Lagoon thing ...
Yeah. The other reason I was there ...
Off at Dark Thirty-Hours (again), another bus ride out of the big (small) city ...
Got there when it was sorta, kinda light ... Perfect. Oh, did I mention I was slated to get there at 1800 hours ...
Ah, for all you civilians out there, that is 6 pm. Again ... DARK.
I had them switch my bus ride out there ... Oh, it is PACKED, every time slot booked days in advance ...
So, I had my ride changed to 11 AM ... But my little slip of paper still
had me set for a soak at 1800 hours.
Oh well ...
I could use what little light I had before going in ...
Did
I mention The Blue Laggon is a cool place?
A man-made
wading pool (with bar, and face-mask booth) next to a hydro-power heating station ...
Yeah, Iceland runs on Geo-thermal energy ... You know, hot water heated up by lava just below the surface
...
Dig a hole, heat your house, and run your electric lights ... Energy from
the earth. Pretty sweet deal they have going for them ...
That is Iceland.
The island is sitting on the edge of two of the planet's tectonic plates ... The North American Plate and the Eurasian
Plate.
The earth's plates are in constant movement,
friction creates the heat, which heats the water, which runs the country ... Cheap, re-usable energy in your (well, their) backyard.
Pretty sweet deal.
True, the plates are moving apart, but ... That is what keeps everything running so smoothly ... Or, actually, not
so smoothly.
They are pulling apart ...
Give or take a few million years ...
Whatever ...
It is a place of extremes ... A
wild country with fewer people than most of our states ... I mean, cities. A small country with a small population, with an
even smaller power bill.
And, to make it even sweeter,
there is The Blue Lagoon ...
Got there with some
light left in the cloudy skies. I went and walked around the place ...
They have several smaller "pools" that are just as magical ... Black lava rocks, covered with white snow, surrounding
these light blue hot water pools ... Beautiful.
The BIG
POOL is tucked in there, behind a building with a maze of locker rooms ... They give you a locker, an arm band, and, after
a shower, off you go to The Pool.
Sweet.
You know, I have taken a Polar Plunge in both the Arctic Ocean, and in The
Southern Ocean, off Antarctica (not counting The Tater Hole), but you can't beat this ...
Cold outside ... I don't know, 5 or 7 Celsius, or something like that (low 30's Fahrenheit); it even snowed while
I was there ... But the water is HOT. My kind of Polar Plunge!
Wonderful.
And, as you can see ...
"While in Rome" ... The Silica Face Mask treatment. Oh yeah ...
Hey, it was included in the price ... Does wonders for something, but I just
liked the Photo-Op it provided. People standing neck-deep in blue water with white faces, their eyes peeking out from
behind the masks ...
The Blue Lagoon.
Perfect.
Yes,
let it snow. Let the clouds roll on and on ... Let it get below freezing, whatever ...
It's The Blue Lagoon, and you're in Iceland ...
I
relaxed.
Remember, that was third on my To-Do List -
Or first, depending on the light ...
What a trip.
Like I said the first time I touched down on the Land of Fire and Ice, I will
return.
In the summer next time ...
Twenty hours of sunlight. And I've seen pictures ... The sun actually does shine
every once in awhile.
Perfect. "I Shall Return". Again.
Rocks
I collect rocks.
I really can't say why, except
that I like them. They remind me of where I've been ... Even if I can't remember which came from where after a few years (days?).
Rocks.
Well,
plus, they save me money. I don't pay for them, just collect them.
I have them all over the apartment ... From my Zen Garden (I made it a project for my college class one semester),
to the displays downstairs, little rocks pop up everywhere ...
My trip to Iceland was no different. In fact, I have mentioned that Iceland is made-up mostly of basalt, so I knew
I would bring back something in the line of basalt rocks in one shape or another.
I did.
First I saw this carved basalt piece
of art in a store the first night I was walking around ... ICELAND.
They even had the Icelandic version, ISLAND (their way of spelling Iceland; go figure) and it caught my eye.
Again, just because I watched that darn Art Wolfe TRAVELS TO THE EDGE
show about Iceland ...
Basalt.
So, the seed was planted the first night without me even knowing about it.
Then, over the course of the next ten days, three bus tours, and countless miles
walking around the city, I had three rocks I liked.
It
still hadn't hit me that the two would go nicely together ... Until I bought the carved piece the day before I left (Yes,
I paid for a rock!).
Duh? I'm a math teacher (sort of),
and I thought, three regular rocks, plus one carved piece of rock, just might equal one art piece from Iceland.
Brilliant!
All four of them came from the island; they ARE the
island, the country, the nation ...
The Soul of Island.
A Piece of Art.
Just what I was looking for. Fits right in with my décor ...
If I actually had a décor, that is ...
I won't
even mention the rocks I have at school ...
Yeah ...
Décor, I love it.
Flintstone Neo-Classic.
Perfect.
Pop-Up
No
secret here ... No Photoshop, no tricks. One button. That easy.
Well, OK, there might be a tad bit of magic, but don't worry, the camera does all the work - And all the math!
Yes, as a Middle School teacher, I must admit that math is part of the equation
in this situation, but luckily, like I said ... The camera does all the figurin' ...
I'd still be there trying to decipher all the crap out if it was up to me ...
That might not be a bad thing ...
Anywho ...
Blue Lagoon, small Nikon AW100, my "Don't leave home/hotel without it" camera ...
Perfect.
I'm in neck deep looking for people to get an image of the
facemask junk you put on your face, you know, good for your skin and all ...
This
one woman asked me about the camera being water-poof and BAM, that was my green light ...
I asked her and her husband, boy-friend, whatever, if they wouldn't mind letting me take their photo ...
First off, it is a dinky camera, they were not intimidated by it, or me ... No worries.
I had been taking images of the pool and the clouds/sky/light earlier, and simply fired away ...
Duh.
The first image is my first image . Shot without thinking ... Quickly - and that is key when taking photos of others that you just stopped on the street, or in this case,
a pool - I pushed one button, and got the image I was looking for ... The second image.
Just like that ... Quicker than I could type the sentence (my 7th grade students make fun of my typing skills as
they are learning how to type themselves). That simple, that easy.
That said (or typed), I did go into the situation knowing I would use this technique (Ahh, my "Selfies"), so
if there is any secret, or magic, to this situation, it is that I had set the flash to whatever setting Nikon has programed
into the camera for backlit situations just like this one ... Yes, they have a fancy name for it, and yes, I can't think of
it at the moment (I'm so focused on typing) ... Whatever it is called, I knew enough to have it set there just in case ...
So yes, one push of the flash ON button, and I was set to go ...
On
my bigger Nikons, it would be called something fancy like, "Slow shutter, rear curtain, Super-Duper Fill-Flash" mode ... Or
something like that. Like I said, the camera does all the math.
Just PUSH THE
BUTTON and let the camera do the rest.
Really, little has changed over the
past 150, 160 years (whatever it is now-a-days) of photography ... Like George Eastman said years ago, "You push the
button, we do the rest" ... It is all math. It is all magic.
Figure out the
magic of your flash, you know, just in case you are ever in the Blue Lagoon and you need that little burst of light to fill-in
your white faced subjects in a back-lit situation ...
Pop-Up perfection. Done
quickly, without all the fuss.
Perfect.
Fifty Shades of Black
I watch Art Wolfe videos.
But I bet you knew that ... I have written about them before. If you have taken my photography class, or have been
at the middle school with me, you know I rant about them all the time.
Yes, he went to Iceland.
Yes, I have watched
that program many, many times ...
Basalt. Black, and
fifty shades of gray, it is the rock that makes up Iceland. It is Iceland.
"The Soul of Iceland"
The
mountains, the beaches, it is all basalt (Well, you know, pretty much).
At least that is what I came away with from watching that video over and over again ...
Magma. Lava. Cooled magma.
It is what is left
over from all the volcanoes that spit the stuff up every few years, or for millions of years, whatever ...
Cooled magma. Lava. Whatever you call it, it is everywhere on the island. Like
I said, it IS the island.
I knew I was going to photograph
black rocks ... I just knew it. Before I even planned the trip months ago, I knew I would come away with an image of basalt
... Black basalt.
Black on black.
I talk about it when I teach exposure compensation at the college ... Every
semester, every year.
Minus, minus, minus ...
I have photographed it for years ...
Way before Art Wolfe and Iceland.
Japan.
Remember, I have climbed Mt. Fuji twice. I lived in Japan. I knew basalt before
I even knew what it was called ...
Magma. Lava. Black
rocks, the one with little holes in it from being blown up into the heavens ... Air pockets when the magma cools up in the
air.
I have two pieces from Mt. Fuji at school that I
show the kids every year ... And tell them about running straight down the volcano and wiping out along the way, and cutting
my hands on the sharp, black and red, rocks ...
Yes,
I know basalt.
My little Zen Garden up-stairs is
made up from small, black, pieces of the rock, which I picked up at a certain location out West, which
I can't mention ... I use it to re-arrange my three white rocks (which I have no idea what kind of rocks they are) every
once in awhile to maintain the piece of mind to keep going back to the middle school every day for the past 24 years.
I also use it to improve my composition: The pleasing arrangement of the subjects
within my frame ...
Black and White.
Composition. Photography.
Photographic Zen.
Ahh, basalt ...
Here is my newest image of basalt taken in Iceland.
More than just black rocks ... It is shape, patterns, and repetition ... The key make-up of any good photograph.
And it is also a good(great) exercise
on photographing black on black: Compensation.
Get it right in-camera. Period.
Darker? Lighter? How dark is dark? How black is black?
I like the challenge ...
Black on black ... Gotta love it.
Rembrandt Lighting
OK, I've seen this image in my head for years now ...
THE BARN at Old Salem. An empty barn, except for this one hay-stack up in the loft.
I have wanted this close-up of THE LIGHT. Period.
The
hay is lit by the large open barn doors ... Key word being LARGE.
Soft, side light ... Rembrandt Lighting.
Yes,
I know, it's a hay stack ... But, come on, that is nice lighting. Portrait lighting.
That is what I do ... Look at the Light.
True,
it might take me awhile, but since I go back to the same place year after year - I was just there a month ago for Veteran's
Day, I KNEW I could get something with the right lens.
And
Photoshop.
Yeah ...
Crop, crop, crop.
When I say, "the right lens",
I am not limiting myself to the lenses I own (Ahh, I own a LOT of lenses!).
No, I mean "My Mine's Eye". The one in my brain.
I
"see images" that are just a fraction of what I see, what is in front of me.
I zoom in, eliminate all the "junk" around my subject, and see only what I want.
That is what a photographer does, what an artist does ...
"The role
of the artist is to simplify".
Some Asian philosopher came up with that
one a LONG time ago, way before my time. I just use it, and think about it, as much as possible.
People, haystacks, whatever ...
Big light from the side seems to work for just about anything.
I think I'll refer to this light as "Moravian Barn Lighting" from now on, see if it catches on ...
Works for me.
The Sound of Music
Christmas at Old Salem. I love it.
True, the line at the bakery was
really long, but the light was good, the streets were filled with people, and music was in the air ...
I tend to follow the music as much as I chase the light; both usually result
in good images.
The band was playing in the middle
of the street just like they were years ago when I covered them for OUR STATE magazine ... What? 1999?
Back when I shot 100 ASA film ...
I walked around, looking for images.
I was shooting
with my "new" 17-55mm lens I picked up from Santa.
Great
lens. Big lens.
It is a great match with the D300 with
the MB-10 battery pack ... Big lens for a big camera.
With
the wide-angle lens, I got in close ... Like, less than a foot away from the players. Shooting over their shoulders ...
I got a few nice shots and then they walked up the street ...
As they were walking away, I noticed one man slung his instrument over his shoulder
...
The light.
The glint of light off the metal ...
I just
flowed the guy and remember shooting several while looking through the camera, tilting the camera to match the tilt of the
horn on the guy's back.
Just shooting ... Looking ...
Getting closer ... Closer.
I wanted a close shot
of the lines, light, shapes, metal, and texture.
A new
light on an Old Salem instrument.
Get Closer Look at the Light Shoot Lots of Images
Perfect.
A perfect image, in the perfect light,
at the perfect moment.
That's what usually happens when
you follow the sound of music and notice the light.
The
perfect light ...
Ahh, like, just past noon.
The wrong light at the right angle.
Perfect.
I had fun, got my Christmas shopping
done, and enjoyed shooting in an old place and coming away with a new image.
Complex Simplicity
Keep it simple.
Let nature make it complex.
This image was shot using my Nikon 50mm f1.8 lens at f11, tripod mounted, two-second timer ...
Yes, you read that right ... f11.
True, I know, you know that I ALWAYS shoot at f16 if I want to maximize my depth-of-field, which I wanted to do here.
I know, I know, it even caught me by surprise ...
I am so used to shooting at f16, I forgot that my 50mm lens only goes to f16 when "closed down".
I stopped. I thought about that for a nano-second, and then changed to f11.
Why? You ask ...
Because I am so "trained" not to shoot at my smallest aperture ... I am a creature of habit.
Like, big time.
In EVERYTHING I do ... During my two years in Germany, I went to the same little restaurant, sat at the same little table,
and ordered the same thing (one pepperoni pizza, one coke), every time I went out for pizza - Which was a lot.
I do the same thing now at Fuji #1 in Hudson. Same table (once I had to find another table -- Someone was sitting at MY
table, same meal. When I worked with Viking River Cruises, I always sat at the same table, every meal, every time ...
I even find that to be weird ...
But ... That is what I end up doing.
Recently, I do try to mix things up ... At Fuji #1, sometimes, I order the steak, instead of the chicken, with my PLAIN
rice, no vegetables, and Dr. Pepper (Mr. Pip).
Sometimes.
Don't even get me started on how I line my yogurt up in the refrigerator every Sunday ...
Shooting at f11 is a big deal for me.
Really.
The reason? I read somewhere, long, long, ago, that your lens is sharper when it is NOT "closed-down" all the way.
Or, get this, when it is "opened-up" all the way.
Go figure.
Of course, I really can't see the difference, and even question how true this little tit-bit really is, but, I still "follow
orders" like a good Marine. That is who I am.
Don't "open up" or "close down" all the way.
That said, unless I blow this image up to poster size (or larger), f11 looks as sharp as f16 to the naked eye. On my website,
on ANY computer, nobody but me would really ever know what aperture I used. Or even think about.
Or even care.
But, I switched it up. f11 baby!
A "slice of reality". Abstract reality, complex reality, complex simplicity. An image of lines, color, and shapes; all
within nature. All part of nature.
And all in focus.
Well, not all of it. Not everything ...
Which leads me to "the other aspect" of this image I wanted to talk (write, blog, whatever ...) about.
No horizon. Not "the whole picture". Not what my eyes saw. Not reality.
No image ever is.
No, when I stay up in the woods, sitting in my Honda Element, this is what I see out of my windows ... Slices of nature,
framed by the windows.
Slices of reality.
Framed abstracts of reality just outside my windows ...
Everything in focus ... Every line, every shape, every color, everything ... All of it framed within my windows, and then,
later, in my viewfinder.
First, I noticed the light ... In this case, soft, diffused light, and then combined that with the vertical lines of the
trees, and then picked out the diagonal lines, shapes, patterns, and mayhem of nature, and just framed them altogether within
the frame, my rectangle. My camera's rectangular viewfinder.
Simple.
Composed nature. Composed mayhem.
Composed lines, patterns, colors, shapes, and textures.
Composed nature.
A simple image of a complex scene.
I love it.
How simple is that?
Just a very small, very simple, very complex, slice of "My Woods" up above Collettsville, NC.
Although I was not actually in my Honda Element when I made this image, I certainly was within my element.
Nature. Light. Color.
Photography.
Simple.
Yet, so very complex.
Fall Abstracts
Up in the woods once again.
I got up early,
packed up the Element, and headed up to catch the sunrise.
Perfect.
Got there just as the sun came up. And better yet ... No one was in "My Spot".
I had two cameras; one with the 50mm f1.8, and the other with the 10.5mm f2.8
fisheye.
Keep it simple.
Keep it easy.
Keep it fun.
Fall Colors in both color, and Black and White Infrared. How cool is that?
I had fun.
I
shot a LOT of images ... With both cameras. One day, over 350 images. Or was it 450 images?
A lot of images.
It was great.
Overcast day. I couldn't tell if it was clouds, fog, or smoke ... Probably a
mixture of all three.
With the color images, I kept the
sky out of the frame. I'm not a fan of white skies ...
Unless,
of course, you happen to be shooting black and white infrared.
I was.
Then, I like the white skies ...
Yes, I can set my modified, infrared, Nikon D80 camera to B/W, and go from
there.
Red is nice ... But, for me, I like the black
and white mode. I shot them all in black and white.
And
the Fisheye? Yeah, I like that too.
Fun.
Fun day. Fun images.
I had planned on going up there for four nights ... You know, four cans of meat, four cans of fruit. Four nights. The
regular.
I was all set ... Just didn't feel that good.
I was home by 7pm.
Made it up there before 7am, made it home by 7pm.
Perfect.
I wanted a quiet Thanksgiving, and I got it.
I slept in ... Stayed home all day ... Watched Art Wolfe videos ... Watched football ... And yes, ate my can of turkey
on Thanksgiving.
And went through all my images ...
Picked four of them ... Two color. Two Black and White Infrared.
Great day. Quiet Thanksgiving.
Felt weird sleeping in ... But it works for me. I needed the rest. My LAST school year is turning out to be a WILD
school year ...
A QUIET Thanksgiving is just what the
doctor ordered.
Old Salem New Images
I drive over to Old Salem every Veteran's Day. I like their cemetery and I
enjoy the bakery, and they have my favorite tree ...
"My" Gingko Tree.
Every year.
I
don't know ... For the past twelve years or so ... I enjoy the day. The weather, the village, THE tree, THE bakery, the images
...
Veteran's Day.
Perfect.
Well, except for the leaves ...
The Gingko Tree was not quite perfect. Or, it was too perfect, depending how
you look at it.
Still a lot of green ...
Which, for a Marine, is a good thing. For a photographer, not so much ... I
like the leaves on the ground, some of the leaves anyways.
And
I like 'em yellow ... Ripe!
But, it is still Old Salem.
It is still God's Acre. It is still Veteran's Day. It is still the right time at the right place, in the right light.
Old Salem.
I
spent the morning there ...
I got up early, took a couple
of cameras, and off I went.
The light was good, the weather
excellent, and the village was slowly coming to life.
The
first image, the fence ...
I park just down the road,
and have walked past this fence for years ... I was just about to walk past without shooting when I saw that one little "creeper"
sticking out into the light ...
I knew I had something
...
The subject in full light, the background in shadow
...
Perfect.
I knew I could light up the lines of that vine ...
Minus compensation.
Line up the subject and
the background, and fire away ...
Place the subject in
the right spot ... The right light.
My image. Done.
I saw it before I took it.
Photography.
Art.
Fun.
The second image ...
The Gingko Leaves and the Bricks.
God's Acre.
Everything was in place ...
The tree. The headstones.
The light.
The ... Well ... No leaves.
No yellow gingko leaves on the ground.
Oh wait ...
There were a couple.
On the sidewalk, right under the tree ...
The
bricks. The patterns. The textures. The leaves. The colors.
The
image.
A new image from Old Salem.
The Gingko Tree without seeing the tree ...
Interesting.
Like I said, I have been there
before. I have photographed Gingko leaves before. On the tree, on the ground, on the headstones, on the streets, on the
cars, even on the sidewalks ... But not like this.
Simple.
The colors. The textures. The, well, the simplicity.
Simply perfect.
You know, for a day where there were not that many leaves on the ground ...
And even fewer yellow leaves on the ground.
The
Gingko Brick.
Perfect day on Veteran's Day.
And yes, the bakery was open. And yes, I did enjoy some cookies.
And yes, I actually saved some for the holidays coming up.
I hope they make it that long ...
Perfect.
Here Comes the Sun
I like to play.
You know that.
I was camping (if you can call it that) up at "My Spot", above Colletsville,
this weekend, and had a great time playing with the sun, the leaves, the color ... And the camera.
It was cold.
It
was perfect ... Crisp!
I took a LOT of images ... I like
these three.
One "regular", two, not so much ...
And the most important thing, they did not look like this ... In reality.
Photography is not reality, don't forget that.
My famous quote ... Yes, I think I actually made this one up, although I'm sure I didn't. Something like that ...
"Don't let reality, get in the way of your photography".
In the first one, the starburst is made in-camera with the use of a small aperture
(f16 or f22, I can't remember).
Yes, that simple.
That's all I did. I saw the sun burst through the branches, so I just thought ... Starburst, sweet. Use f16. Or f22.
So I picked one (can't remember which one!). It does not matter.
That simple.
Nice effect, simple solution.
Spin the thumb dial ... Period.
Seeing the situation and knowing what
to do with it is the key. Just get out there and shoot ... And play.
And keep
doing it for thirty plus years ...
Play. Get out
there. Shoot, shoot, shoot.
Speaking of which ...
The second image.
Play, play, play ...
Oh, and get up early. Like,
pre-sunrise early. And no, I have no idea what time it was ... I just knew it was image time.
Period.
Get
out there, look at the light, and get up early ... Or, actually, get up early, THEN look at the light, that would help.
I took this shot six feet from my bed ... My Element.
Talk about being in your element! Or, you know, just outside your Element ...
Get up early.
Yes, it was chilly ...
But that light ...
Which brings us to the third image ... Wild Swirl.
Same
moment, different camera movement. I have no idea why I did this certain twist, swirl, twirl, whatever ...
I just could. That is the key. The only rule is that there are no rules.
I knew I was going to blur these images even before I went to bed that
night ...
Really.
Before getting into the Element the night before, I was out blurring the Fall Colors (trees) along the road ... Yes,
I have done this before.
Like ... A LOT. For years.
And I am always surprised by the results ... ALWAYS.
Something different. Every time.
Same technique, different results.
Well, let
me re-phrase that ...
Same concept, different results.
The concept is to show motion ... To give the images an abstract feel.
The technique always changes ... Left to right pan. Or right to left. Up. Down.
Zig-zag. Zag-zig. Wiggle this way, wiggle the other way. Swril, twril, swish, swash, splash ...
Yes, you can make up names ...
Do SOMETHING different.
Every time.
Or not.
I
call these image "The Up-Lifting Sunrise".
It was.
I loved it.
Photograph
your feelings ... Your emotions ... Your dreams ...
Photograph
your own vision.
Play.
Play with a purpose. I knew what I wanted, I got "out there", I played. Tried this, tried that.
And was thrilled when chilled ...
It is why I do what I do, when I do it, and where I do it.
Get out there.
Play.
Multiple Leaves Multiple Times
Yes, I have done this before.
Multiple times.
Like, EVERY year for the past twenty something years ... Two exposures: One sharp, one out of focus.
The camera does all the math, thank goodness ...
I was driving home from South Mountain State Park and saw this tree a block from my apartment. I knew what I was
going to do at that moment.
When I got the gear all put
up, I got my Nikon D90, switched the 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 VR lens for the 70-200 f2.8 VR lens, and walked back up the street.
No tripod.
Got the images I wanted.
That easy.
Practice, practice, practice ...
3 4 3
Three for three. Get it?
I went 4 a walk
with my little Nikon D50 with an old 28 - 80mm zoom lens. Old school camera with an older school lens (a film lens).
Why?
Because
I could. And I own them. And I like Old School Photography.
No,
it was not my first choice ...
I first went out with
my smaller, red, Coolpix something ... My "BIG RED" camera.
The
battery was low, no problem. I was just going around the block.
I didn't make it past my first Bradford Pear Tree.
The
first color of the Fall. From green to yellow ...
I had
to use some "fill flash" and ate up what little battery power I had. No worries. I was 20 feet from 20 plus cameras/batteries.
I went back in, plugged in the battery, and grabbed a new camera.
The D50.
What?
Five years old? Eight? Something like that ... Ten? Ha. I can't remember.
Old School digital. Old School Nikon Digital. Fun little camera.
OK ...
Walked out toward the driveway and shot
the whole backlit tree(s) thing ... Yes, I've shot this before.
Like every year.
Shot, what? 8 shots? 6?
Next ...
Walking
up towards town ...
One block.
Flowers.
You
know me ...
And flowers.
Shape. Lines. Contrast. Repetition. Form.
And
more lines, shapes, contrast, and repetition.
Oh, and
color.
Shot another 5 or 6 images ...
Whatever ...
Then,
when uptown, I turned down into Windmill Park. But before I got there I ran across this flower next to the Town Hall.
Wow.
Fall
Color.
Perfect. Perfect flower ... Perfect color.
Took another few shots ...
And ...
The battery died.
Yeah, I know. No worries. I knew it was low as well.
I was done. Well ... Finished.
Three "shoots", three images.
I like it.
3 4 3
Perfect.
Say What?
Yeah, I was at Cataloochee shooting (photographing) elk when I came across this image ...
Yeah.
A
little girl backlit by the late evening light. Perfect.
Well,
except that she was in a field that is off-limits to people due to large elk running around with a larger sex drive.
The Rut.
Male
elk are HUGE. And fast. And us humans have no idea just how crazed, big, and wild these animals are.
This is crazy.
Really,
I was down the road from this little girl with my long lens taking pictures of the elk ...
Now, yes, they were no where near this young girl. Sort of ...
They were in the same field ... They are fast. And they are, well ...
Unpredictable.
Wild.
Territorial.
Crazed
animals.
But that light ...
I loved it.
Backlighting.
The perfect light for this young model.
Even if she shouldn't be where she was.
I was.
I was in the right place, at the right time, with the right lens, the right
light, and the right model.
True, not an elk, but I couldn't
believe my eyes when I saw this play out in front of me.
Well,
no, not in front of me, but fifty yards to my right ...
A
happy surprise.
I love being out there for moments like
this.
My littlest "elk" ...
Perfect.
New Moon
No, not a real New Moon (I don't really know what that really means), but a new image of the moon.
A new moon ...
Finally,
I got my 900mm f5.6 lens out there with a kinda full moon ...
Wanted to see what I could come up with. The LONGEST lens/converter combination I have.
My 300mm f2.8 lens with the 2X converter ... And the 1.5X crop factor of the smaller sensor.
900mm f5.6.
Out
in the parking lot of my apartment ... Not quite dark.
I
changed from Aperture Priority to Manual exposure.
Set
my shutter speed to 1/250 of a second, my aperture to f11. Tried that ...
Adjusted as needed ... Tried f16 (Sunny 16 Rule). Remember, the moon is lit by the sun.
Shoot, shoot, shoot. Adjust, adjust, adjust ...
Even at 900mm, I wanted more. At this magnification, I noticed the "shake" in the lens
... No worries. I changed from my normal 2 second self-timer to 5 seconds, you know, to give me
more time for the vibration to calm down once I push the shutter. Easy. Don't
really know how much it helps, but it makes sense to me. A no-brainer. I'll take it. I can put
up with an extra 3 seconds every once in a while ... The moon stays put long enough. Got my shot. The computer takes over ... I cropped it in Photoshop Elements. Sharpened
it. Done. Got it. The Moon. Craters and all. Again.
Two Deer Too
Yes, there are deer in Cataloochee Valley as well.
I saw a few ...
Three young ones running around
in the "first field" as I was driving in.
Playing. Running
around with no adult supervision. It was fun just watching them. Like there was nobody around ... No adult deer, no adult
people, nothing ...
They looked happy, if deer can look
happy.
I was.
I stopped. I watched. I actually forgot about the elk I came to see for about ... Oh, five minutes.
I got out of my Element (no, that was not meant to be a pun), grabbed my 70-200mm
f2.8 VR lens with a Nikon D90 attached to it and just stood by the side of the road and took a few shots.
No one else bothered ...
Ahh, there were elk behind me. Big elk. These were wimpy little fawns, just playing off on the side of the road.
Runnin' and jumpin' ...
Playing.
I guess they must have known that that is an important part of my teaching
style.
PLAY.
I stopped and played with them.
The elk could
wait.
Well, like I said, for five minutes anyway.
I never did see their parents, you know, the REAL deer. I guess they don't like
to play as much any more.
I got my shots, forgot about
them, and went on to photograph the real subject I was after ... Elk.
But, play is play, and I just had to stop and smell the ... Running fawns ...
Something Different
I am always looking
for something different. Always.
That is what photographers
do. That is what artists do. Find a new way of looking at "the same thing" everyone else looks at.
Elk. Cataloochee Valley. The Great Smoky Mountain National Park.
Last Saturday and Sunday. And the Sunday before that. Hours in the fields looking,
looking for and at elk.
That simple.
Spending time looking for elk. Looking for images of elk.
Anything.
And
yes, what really drives me nuts is ... Where do I go? Where do I stop. The first open field? Or the second?
No matter where I go, I am always second guessing myself. What is going on in
one field when I am in the other? Drives me nuts.
OK,
there is one bull elk with six cows in front of me. Right in front of me. True, off in the distance, but, come on, right in
front of me. I have my long lens. I can get something.
They
lay down.
Do I stay or do I go? How long do I wait? What
am I missing in the other field? Are two bulls fighting while I am standing here waiting for something to happen?
I keep looking.
I go from one field to the other, looking.
This
time, the light was there. There was even an elk or two ... One male, a couple of females. The I noticed some else.
Back lit, in the tall grass, was a pair of ears.
Elk ears.
Small elk ears. A fawn. A young elk.
Whatever you call a small elk.
All I saw was the ears.
I knew I had an image. My image.
You know, the image I never thought of, planned, envisioned, whatever ...
Something new.
Something different.
Well, to me anyways. That is the key. Another image to add to my collection.
"Another brick in the wall" ...
A visual foundation from which I will build on day after day, year after year.
Elk images.
This is my "new one". My "different one". "My elk shot". One I have not seen before.
Not that it hasn't been taken before, by someone, somewhere. No, that is not the point. The point is that I haven't
taken it before.
I have taken images of elk before. In
fact, just this summer I took my favorite image of an elk out in California. Great light, golden light. Dark storm clouds.
Back lighting. A silhouette.
I can remember photographing
one out in ... Where was I? Yellowstone? Yeah, I believe it was Yellowstone. Somewhere out West, in some National Park.
Walked right past me. Well, me and my Honda Element. I make it a habit to have
something close by I can step behind ... You know, just in case.
I can remember it like it was yesterday ... And elk. A big bull. Walking right by me coming out of the woods into
a field.
And now my newest image. My small elk with the
large ears. Ears not that close to me. Out in the field, hiding in the grass.
Just the ears. And the grass. And the light.
And
the image.
My image.
My new favorite elk image.
Until the next time
I photograph elk. The next time I look for something new.
Something
different.
Always looking for something different. Something
new.
That is why I do what I do. Over and over again.
Year after year. Image after image.
Elk. Sunflowers.
Ferns. Trout. Fall Colors. Spring Flowers. Arches National Park. Osprey.
The same thing over and over again ... Year after year. Day after day.
Looking for something new out of the old.
Photography.
Art.
Passion.
Elk Calls
Went back to Cataloochee for some more elk images. I just had to.
Last week I took one shot with my 900mm f5.6 lens set-up. One shot.
OK, you know I don't take one shot ... But you know what I mean.
One situation.
One elk walked out into the light
...
I believe I took two quick shots, more to get a check
on the exposure, to tell you the truth.
A doe.
A doe with a collar, no less.
Not what I was looking for.
Way too far away,
no antlers, one too many radio collar ...
Two, maybe
three shots. Period.
This time I had a riot.
Right around 450 images ... Many, many "situations".
I like it.
Big
lens, big tripod, big subject.
Bigger than an osprey
anyways ...
The 300mm f2.8 was made for elk.
Bull elk. Big bull elk.
Bugle Boy.
No collar.
Full frame. Up close. In your face.
Again ...
300mm f2.8 VRII lens. That works out
to be 450mm f2.8 when used, as in my case, with a "crop-factor", smaller sensor. I use my old D300s with the 8 frames per
second speed I am looking for.
Add the Nikon 2X converter
because you just happen to have one, and you have a 900mm f5.6 super telephoto lens.
I have waited a LONG time in order to get this set-up. Throw-in the large Gitzo tripod with the Kirk BH-1 ball-head
with the Induro Side-Kick gimbal arm, and you have a set-up to photograph big, nasty bull elk during rutting season.
That is one part of the story: The Gear.
The rest of the story is all about getting there. Getting out there. Being there in the first place.
That is key.
I
got up early Saturday morning and drove straight to the Park.
I-40 all the way.
Got to the "second" big field just
as the elk were headed into the woods for the afternoon ... About 9:30am.
No worries ... I turned around, and headed for another field, the "first" field as you come into the Park.
Remember, this is a section of The Great Smoky Mountain National Park.
Just as I parked, I noticed a number of people down
the road a bit, and walked down to see a male and one of his girlfriends come out of the woods.
Perfect.
Spent the day working this "first field". They came and went,
came and went.
Not bad.
Great
day.
Time to find that Rest Stop on I-40 West I saw on the map ...
Back down the long and winding and gravel, dirty, dusty road (15 mph) to get back on I-40.
Yes, I went West, away from the Park. About ten miles ... Something like that.
Got there before it got dark. Parked at the end of the parking lot, brushed
my teeth, put up my "curtains" ... Set my alarm for 6am.
Nice
night.
Cool. Perfect.
Got up, checked my alarm, I was up before it went off ... 5:47am.
Drove West another, what? Five miles to the next exit, turned around, and headed East, back to the Park. It worked
out great.
Back up the gravel road ... In the dark. Glad
no one else is as crazy as I am ... It is tight and twisty.
Drove
through the Park to the very end, just like the day before. Pre-sunrise.
There were a few elk out in the field ... The foggy field. They left before I really got anything ... And the sun
came up.
I drove back to the "first field".
One bull (the same one from the night before) with a couple cows just laying
there.
I'll take it. They were "sort of close" ... For
a 900mm lens set-up.
I shot. I waited. I moved.
He didn't.
Oh
wait ... As the sun was trying to show-up (it did for about five minutes), he stood up. Perfect.
Wait for it ...
Yes! My favorite sound of the
weekend... The bugle call.
He was in the middle of the
field, the light was nice, I got it.
The moment, or two.
That was it.
I
was gone when he left to follow his harem. The light was gone, they went to the other side of the field, and ...
I had my shots.
Full-frame, in your face, elk call ...
Perfect
end for a perfect week-end (except for that whole "hole in the bumper" thing ...).
Next weekend ... Closer to home.
Trading in
the long lens for the fly-rod ... Trout.
Delayed-Harvest.
My time of the year. Back to South Mountain State Park.
From one park to another.
One animal to another.
From elk to trout.
I believe I can get closer to a trout ...
Running Bull
Went over to the Smokey
Mountains for some elk images ...
Oh, stopped in Asheville
for a look at some old camera gear ... Found an old Pentax camera body (I had a lens for it), an old Nikon camera strap,
and a beat-up Canon auto-focus lens for another camera body I have laying around upstairs ...
Ah, I found out that a Canon lens does not fit a Canon camera body.
Say what? YES! A Canon autofocus lens that will NOT fit on a Canon autofocus camera body ...
Go figure.
And
I paid $10 for it! Come-on!! I don't get it.
I knew Nikon
is one of the few (if not the only one) companies that have kept the lens mount the same, for like, EVER!
I have an old Nikon D50 autofocus camera body upstairs with an really OLD
Nikkor 50mm manual focus lens on it which I use to play around with ...
Yes, it can not auto focus ... Yes, I have to use manual exposure ...
But ... I CAN USE IT!!!
Canon? Go figure.
Anyway ...
That
was before getting to Cataloochee -- THE place for elk in North Carolina. Best place east of the Mississippi? I'm
not sure ... But, yeah ...
A nice place. A special place.
I got there about noon ... Crazy dirt road up to the valley. Didn't see anything
but a few turkeys ...
Drove up to the end ...
Stopped.
Read
a few magazines ... Checked out all the places I want to go to next ... Pretended to rest ... Relax.
Then ... Got out my long lens and tripod, got everything ready.
I could hear 'em ... The elk bugle. One of my favorite sounds in nature ...
He was way up in the woods.
I waited.
And waited.
Then, an elk entered the open field ... A female.
With a collar. I took a couple of shots, you know, checking for exposure, composition, etc ...
I waited ...
And waited ...
I could still hear him ...
He was getting closer ... Waited.
Finally ...
Out he comes. A BIG one.
And he lays down ...
I could see his antlers over a small hill ...
And there he sat ... He even had one of his girl friends come join him.
I
couldn't see her ...
I waited. It was getting late ...
The light was going ... I was in the right place - One BIG male and five (yes, five) females.
I lost the light. I left.
Drove back down through the valley ...
And
the fun began.
One bull was chasing another bull out
of his space ...
The cars/people were everywhere ...
Crazy.
I
got out with my smaller lens -- The new one I got last week, the 55-200mm VR lens. The 300mm f2.8 with the 2X converter (900mm
equivalent) was in the back of the Element ... I had no time, they were running!
Got a few quick shots, drove the car down the road ... Keeping ahead of the two bulls running amuck the traffic ...
The cars, the people, the photographers ...
I kept moving
ahead, waiting ...
Shooting.
Tried some panning shots ...
Waited until the
smaller one ran off into the woods ...
And ... Kept my
eye on the victor, waiting for the ...
You know, wait
for it ... The Victory Yell.
Late afternoon ...
The light fading ... Soft diffused light ...
I remember
adjusting my ISO ... First to 400 (from 200). Then, I just went for it at the end and went up to 1000.
It is all about the light ...
First, there was bright, contrasty light ... Then diffused light ...
Then, just plain 'ol low light ...
Adjust.
Shoot what ya' got ...
It's an elk. A BIG elk.
It is all about the
elk ...
The subject.
Well, come on? It is an elk.
It is all about
the moment ...
Or, to steal a quote from Doug Gardner,
a South Carolina wildlife photographer ...
It is all
about "The Outdoor Experience".
And the panning
...
County Fair
That time of year again ...
The County Fair.
Lenoir, North Carolina.
The place I have lived longer than any other place in my life ...
It is also an event I have taken my college class to for many, many years ... Can't remember how many, but I also
can't remember when I didn't end up there on a Thursday night in the Fall.
I like it.
My class likes it.
Works for me.
We
meet at the gate at 6pm and ... Well, walk around and take pictures. Pretty simple really.
We have been in class about a month at this point of the semester ... Have somewhat of an idea of what is going
on, at this point, and just go out to see what we can come up with.
We all know that talking about taking photos is a lot different that actually going out and "making" images ...
And the Fair is perfect.
It is close ...
It is cheap ...
And it is colorful, has plenty of patterns, textures, lines, shapes, and people
...
And everything else.
Movement.
Moments.
Memories.
We
start out together ... Me looking for ... Well, you know me ... Just looking.
Looking for images.
And animals.
And people that love animals.
With people that love to photograph people that love animals.
And
rides.
Rides with lights that blend into the late afternoon light that is fading
into the late evening light ...
Beautiful light.
No, I did not get all the way around the Fair Grounds this year ... We tend to get
lost in the moment, the movement, the light, the rides, and ...
Well ... The County Fair.
Photographic moments
that last more than a moment. Looking for this, looking for that.
Giving instructions here, asking questions there ...
Two and a half hours ... The GOLDEN HOURS that don't always turn out actually being Golden.
No, this year we had the dark brooding skies that worked perfect with the warm
colorful lights of the rides, once the lights blended into that perfect light of the Fair, the rides ...
The night was perfect for me ...
I just received a new lens in the mail that afternoon ... Yes, a REAL new lens. Not a used lens. A new Nikkor
55-200mm VRII lens ...
The first new anything I have
bought at Adorama, or B&H, or KEH Camera, in a LONG time ...
New.
A new model, telephoto lens - With a set
of three filters (UV, Polarizer, and ND) - for $147. Well, with shipping (FREE) and everything, it was actually $146.96, but
who is counting?
Krazy.
I got it that afternoon, used it that night.
My one lens.
Yes, that little game I play ...
One camera, one lens, six tripods
...
Well, you know, tripods for students that don't have one yet ...
Low light. Tripods.
That simple.
Once again, the County Fair turned into the perfect place to practice everything we have talked about in class the
past month or so.
And then some ...
Photographing people ...
And cows. Or calves. Or whatever you call those cute little models that were getting cleaned just for us ...
Clean baby cows ...
Crazy.
Icon
The Icon as art.
I always thought the word "icon" had something to do with Bill Russell, Jim
Brown, or Mickey Mantle, when I was growing up playing sports.
Or The Beatles.
And it does ...
But once I got to a real "art school" in college, I learned there is another
meaning for the word ...
Religious art.
Who knew?
This
summer I drove out to West to pick up my brother ...
I
spent four nights in a monastery up in the hills of Northern California.
And this image was in my room ...
Now, I know
Icons. I took a river cruise through Russia ... We stopped in every church in every city, every little town, every single
day. Church after church. Icon after icon.
They love
their churches. They love their icons. Well, really, they actually love the fact that they have their churches back
... Their icons.
They were the first thing they
fixed up after seventy years of Communism and having no religion that they could admit to.
A few years before that, I spent a week with Russian families, both Moscow and St. Petersburg. I was in their
homes. I saw their art. Their most prized possessions.
Their Icons.
Handed down from generation to
generation.
They have been around for THOUSANDS of years
... Greece. Italy. Russia. Eastern Europe as a whole ... Icons everywhere.
A very unique art form.
I like it.
This one I woke up to ...
As I was taking this shot, I remembered something one of my art professors at Graduate School said about taking pictures
of art ...
True, this is my image, but it is not my art.
No, I do not know who "made this art".
I do know that
Father Patrick and Father Moses are keeping this art form alive with their continued work out in Santa Rosa, California. They
are working in a church there, much like monks have worked in other churches for centuries ...
Using the same techniques as the original "Teenage Ninja Turtles" -- They paint on wet plaster, in sections,
day after day, year after year.
Yes, years ...
It really is amazing what these two men are doing ... In a small church in Santa Rosa, California.
If I didn't know any better, I would have thought I was in Greece. Or Russia. Or Bulgaria.
Not California.
An Icon is an
Icon is an Icon ...
Art is art.
No,
I did not "make this shot my own" by doing anything fancy with my camera, or in Photoshop like I usually do.
No, I left it as I saw it ... True, it does has a few imperfections on it, but they seemed just perfect to me.
The Icon.
The Icon as Art.
True, it also doesn't hurt that it just so happens to be painted in my Marine Corps colors ...
Well, maybe I did "make it my own" after all.
Perfect.
Flappin' Away
Osprey grow very quickly.
Period.
About a month, and they are just a flappin' away.
As big as their parents, they can't wait to get out of the nest.
So they flap.
It is my favorite time to be watching
the nest. They eat, poop, flap, and ...
Airborne.
For a few seconds anyway.
Yeah, they practice a lot before they are brave enough to give it a try for real ... You know, take the plunge.
This young chick is getting ready.
I love it when they sit on the very edge of the nest and flap away ... Then, up they go ... Two feet in the air,
wait for it ...
Then return to the nest.
And up they go ... And down again. Flap. Flap. Flap.
They get into a rhythm ...
As
a photographer, I follow along. I join the dance.
My favorite time.
I talk about repetition in class ... A simple design tool that improves the final image of any given situation where
repetition is found ... And it is found in many places.
Well, this is a different
type of repetition ... The repeated movement of your subject. Over and over. Same place, same movements.
A motion you can predict and be ready for. Time after time, year after year.
I know when they are ready, I know when they are about to begin, and I know
I am going to enjoy it. Over and over again.
Up and down,
up and down ... Same plane of focus, same light, same speed, same movements.
The same.
Yet different.
That is why I drive to the same nest, to the same parking spot, the same birds,
year after year, night after night ...
I am a creature
of habit.
So are osprey.
Oh, but I did crop this image into a LONGER format ... Something new.
See?
I can change. I can try something new.
A new look to something I have shot over, and over,
and over, and over again ...
The art of flight ... Can't
wait until next year.
Circle(s) of Light
Yes, it is my living room.
And yes, it is art.
And no, it is not hanging on the wall like a traditional piece of art. It is on my floor. The living room floor.
Window light. Bicycle tire. Floor. Shadow.
Art.
The perfect place. The perfect time. The
perfect light. The perfect moment.
Light. Shadow. Bicycle.
In the living room ... Yeah.
It makes me think of a quote I read somewhere over the past thirty years of
capturing light ...
"The role of
the artist is to simplify" ... Simple enough. Speaking of simple
... Scroll down.
Zen Bricks
Less is
more.
My last stop before returning home this
summer was the Outer Banks.
The Atlantic Ocean.
Bodie Island Lighthouse.
A lighthouse I have photographed many, many times over the years. From my first visit there in 1974 on my Honda 550,
to this summer (2016) in my Honda Element.
You
do the math.
Weekends for OUR STATE Magazine. Workshops
with my college photography class. Visiting family on Colington Island ... I have made many visits to the area over
the years.
And, yes, I ALWAYS stop and photograph Bodie
Island Lighthouse.
Well, usually I say never say never,
or always, but in this case, it is a pretty sure bet ... If I drive out to the OBX, Bodie Island Lighthouse ends up in front
of my lens.
It is the closest one ...
Once I am in the area, I can get there before the sun comes up. Period.
This summer, I stopped there twice.
Once, the second day I got there, at mid-day, and early in the morning before the sun came up on my last day out
there ...
This second time, I wanted something a
little different ...
I zoomed in on just "the essence
of the place", the lines, the shapes ... Black and white.
And
yes, the bricks.
Then, just because I could, I tilted
my camera, and just played with the graphic simplicity, the "zen-like" shapes ... The Ying and the Yang.
Simple.
Lines.
Black.
White.
Zen.
Simplicity.
OK ...
Bricks.
But it is more than bricks. More than black and white. More than lines. More
than Bodie Island Lighthouse.
Or ...
Is it less?
Or
more?
Well, to me, it is more. It is mounted and framed
in this cool square white mat/black frame set-up that really plays off its simplicity ...
Simple simplicity.
Black and white image
within a black and white mat and frame.
A square
frame with a rectangular image. Something new for me.
Black
frame/white mat.
Black and white lines. Black and white
bricks. Black and white shapes.
Black and White Zen.
More than a crooked image of bricks ... More than an image of Bodie Island Lighthouse.
Yet so much less.
Which makes it ... More.
Light Line
I have taught photography
at CCC&TI for over twenty years. I've walked around the campus many, many, times, looking for images.
Looking for art.
That is what I do, what I teach.
On a small,
local, community college, less than ten minutes from where I live.
Looking for art. Teaching art. Learning art.
Year
after year. Semester after semester.
Looking for art
where few believe it can be found.
Buildings, stairs,
walkways, more buildings, and more stairs. Lines, shapes, and forms.
This semester I was out with the class looking for art. I tell them, an artist can find art anywhere, anytime, anyplace.
With this photo, I was walking up the breezeway towards the library, when I
saw the light ...
LIGHT
I have made this trip hundreds of time, every semester, every year.
From F-Building, to E-Building.
Simple.
But this time, at this certain time, the light was just right ...
Well, at this time of year, at this time of the day, I'm sure the light has
been right THOUSANDS of times before, but this time, I just happened to notice the light ...
Rule Number One
Now, that is important ...
Notice the light. Look at the light, but the key is to know what to do with
the light. What it will look like in the final image?
The
image in your head.
Trust me, it did not look like this.
Not exactly.
As
a photographer, I know that cameras record light differently than our eyes -- and brain -- do.
We see light differently than cameras do. We can see "into the shadows", our
camera sensors can not.
It was this way with film. It
is that way with digital sensors.
Period.
Digital sensors have a hard time dealing with the difference between the very
dark (black) and the very light (white).
Contrast.
Our eyes (and brains) don't have this problem.
I saw the difference in the light and shadows, and wanted to "play around with this contrast," and make my own image
...
The image I wanted, not the image I saw.
I have talked about this before ...
Knowing how to "make an image, not just take an image".
Compensation Button
Minus.
Minus something, and go from there ...
Get the bright spots under control, and let the shadows, well, let the shadows, look like shadows!
Dark. Black.
Exploit
the contrast.
Play with light and shadow.
Another thing I always tell my students ...
If you can walk around a college, your neighborhood, your front yard, and see art ... Make art, my role as an art
instructor, a photography instructor, is over.
I believe
if you can make art in Hudson, North Carolina, you will have no trouble making art in, let's say, Paris. Or Rome. Or London.
Lenoir, or Hickory.
The Greek Islands. Asheville. The Grand Canyon. The Outer Banks. Pulaski, New York ...
You get the point.
Find art in your house. Your closet. The back yard. The local park. On a walk to the store ...
Anywhere.
Anytime.
Anyplace.
And
go from there ...
Light
You all know my first rule
of photography is ...
LOOK AT THE LIGHT
Right?
Here
is just another reason why it is number one in my book.
Energy.
That's right, I use the energy of the sun to charge the batteries to my cameras,
phone, and my I-tunes shuffle thingy, while on the road, or in the woods.
Solar power.
I use GOAL ZERO equipment.
I have two solar panels that collect the energy from the sun to
power up my battery pack ... Which powers up all my stuff.
GOAL
ZERO Sherpa 50.
It has an electric outlet and a USB
port ... It handles everything I need.
And yes, I can
plug it into any wall socket to charge it up as well, if there is one handy ...
I shot this image up in the woods over the Labor Day Weekend ... As you can see, I have one of my panels set-up on
my small tripod at an angle to the sun, and then just follow the sun as it moves around in the sky ...
Woods have trees, and trees cause shadows ... The earth moves ... The light
moves! So I have to move.
It is a game I play with the
sun.
And the shadows.
But, all the running around works. It keeps me, and my gear, working, even when I'm miles from the nearest
outlet.
So ... LOOK AT THE LIGHT. COLLECT THE LIGHT.
USE THE LIGHT.
Photography is ALL ABOUT light.
Get out there and collect, and use, that light!
However you can make it work for you!
LIGHT.
Camo
I "played army" when I was a kid.
My father
was in the Army and I had a real Army helmet (liner), an ammo-belt, a plastic M-14, you know, all the cool stuff ... I had
my platoon of kids ... I played in the woods.
Years later,
I was in the United States Marine Corps. Infantry. Mortars. I played in the woods of North Carolina before I actually moved
to North Carolina.
They came out with camo uniforms about
a year before I got out ... We loved it. No starch. We didn't have to tuck in our blouses (shirts), and best of all ... We
could TRY to get away without shining our brass belt buckle ...
Heaven.
I still have my camo top ... I wear
it when I fly fish. Still have my metal Sergeant (E-5) insignias and everything ...
Forty years ago.
Yeah, I joined in 1976. A LONG
time ago.
I still like camo.
They have this new "digital camo" that is all the rave ...
I like it.
True, I'm "old school", but this
"new school" stuff is pretty, well, you know, cool ...
I have my 300mm f2.8 covered with it ...
I bought
some "official" military digital camo duct tape the other day that I found at Wal-Mart.
Perfect.
I got a gift-card from the PTO (new
school PTA) at Granite Falls Middle School and just had to spend it this past Labor Day before heading up into the woods above
Colletsville.
Heaven.
Digital camo duct tape.
Tripod legs.
Perfect.
Then
... Camo netting to use as a blind.
Oh, perfect.
I seem to be getting more and more into this whole wildlife photography thing
and, well, why not?
Like I said, I like camo. Old school
1978 Marine camo jackets and raincoat, the newer digital camo Army jackets , and my Lens Coat lens cover and tripod leg
covers, plus, my digital camo duct tape.
Perfect.
Just to practice, I took it all up in the woods with me over Labor Day Weekend
and ... Well, set it up and saw how it worked/looked.
Cool.
Taped up the tripod legs, hung up the netting to make a blind, and added a few
"real leaves" to give it that 3-D look and ...
Well,
I "played army" once again ...
Although now, it is referred
to as "playing photographer" ...
Play, play, play ...
Things really haven't changed that much in the past, what? Fifty years ...
Original
Traditional Crop
Extreme Non-Traditional Crop (CRAZY!)
The Shot(s)
OK, it's one shot, but ...
Yes, I talked about
this shot before ... My favorite shot of all time. This year. This summer. Of osprey. Of birds.
Well, I like the shot, let's just say that.
The
original shot, as framed, is the first/top shot. I had my Nikon D90 with my new (used) Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VR lens (@200mm)
on it, hand-held, as the osprey flew around me up in Pulaski, New York this summer.
Nice lens.
The f2.8 is constant, meaning you
can set it to f2.8 at 70mm and when you zoom out to 200mm, your aperture does not change, it remains f2.8.
That is a big deal, trust me.
Most zoom lenses (that I have ever owned anyways) have what is called a "variable aperture" ... As you zoom out to
200mm the lens itself gets longer, and in doing so, the light has to travel farther, and your shutter speeds get slower to
make up for this loss of light.
The farther light travels,
the less powerful it becomes. It "fades away" ... Darker, darker, dark.
Period.
That is how light works.
But this lens does not "get longer" when zoomed out. It stays the same length,
and so, because of this (and the magic of the Japanese technicians), there is no loss of light. Your aperture doesn't have
to "make-up" for anything, and can remain the same ... f2.8.
Wide open. Lots of light. Faster shutter speeds.
Wow.
At 70mm. At 157mm. 93.5mm. 198.36mm. And yes, everything in between. If
you have it set for f2.8, it will stay at f2.8.
And
yes, f4 stays f4 ... f6.3 stays f6.3 ... Whatever.
Wonderful.
I mean, really nice.
Sweet.
A great lens.
Makes it perfect for birds in
flight in late afternoon light. Very sharp. Not that large, or heavy ... Just right.
Well, except that it is "only" a 200mm lens ...
Which,
with my old D90, with its "crop factor", it is like having a mini 300mm f2.8 in your hands.
Perfect.
Well, again ... As perfect as I could
get at the moment.
Well, if it is so perfect,
why didn't I always have one, you ask?
Price.
Plain and simple.
I have shot with the 18-200mm VR lens for as long as Nikon has made it. THE lens I have used for years. My FAVORITE
lens of all-time.
No, really.
If I could only have one lens ... This would be it. 18-200mm VR II f3.5-5.6
(f3.5 @18mm and f5.6 @200mm. Not a constant aperture!!).
I
have owned a couple of them ...
OK, they are
not PERFECT. They have a LOT of glass (they cover everything from wide-angle to telephoto), and, well ... They can be a wee
bit fragile.
Like, fall apart on a bicycle trip, out
in the Wine Country of California, while I had it in the little handlebar bag when I was driving around the back roads
looking for images, kind of fragile) ...
My bad.
I learned my lesson ... I always use a chest-pouch after that little set-back.
That said, it is a great lens.
The difference is, as you zoom out, the lens gets longer, which means less
light reaches the sensor, which means the camera has to adjust the amount of time the shutter remains open, and ...
Well, long story short (Get it? The lens get longer ...), my shutter speeds
get slower and slower ...
Not a good thing.
Having a constant aperture really helps as the light gets constantly lower and
lower ...
What's the big deal? Why didn't I always have
one?
Money.
Any variable aperture lens costs less than one with a constant aperture, everything else being about the same (brand
name, focal lengths, etc ...).
Like, a LOT less.
Check it out ... Go to Adorama (or any other camera Super Store) and look at the prices of zoom lenses ... Same brand
name, same focal lengths ... BIG difference in prices (like, from under $1000 to over $2000).
That's why I never owned one ...
Until now.
I bought it used, once I sold my older model 80-400mm VR lens.
Now I have the perfect lens.
Well, unless the
osprey doesn't really fly, like, you know, REALLY close ...
Then,
you just "lock on" and fire away, where ever it is, and how ever close it is ... Just shoot! Get an image.
Fire away!
Then
crop it later.
Perfect.
And, crop it any way you want ... You know, you have enough room to play with ...
I followed the traditional "Rule of Thirds" at first, but then, you know me ... I had to "play".
Try this crop, try that crop ... Crop, crop, crop.
Follow the rules? Well, you could ask some of my former teachers, but I'll just
go ahead and tell you ...
I've been know to break a rule
or two in my day. Just don't tell any of my middle school students ...
Oh, wait. They know.
In fact, the image I really
like ... The one posted on my website, and the one I had matted and framed, and is sitting in my apartment ... Yeah, I went
with a vertical crop.
Vertical? Say what? I vertical
shot of a bird flying across the viewfinder from right to left?
What???
Yeah, I can't tell you why I tried it,
and ended up liking it, except ...
Well, I could.
All wrong, I know ... Vertical? Really?
And that framing? Really?
Not enough "room, or space, to fly into" (ahh, it isn't really flying ... moving ... It's a STILL image), too
close to the edge of the frame ... too tight ... too whatever ...
I know, I know ...
I like it.
It is no longer JUST an osprey ... It is a "shape", or really, two shapes ...
Triangles ... I see triangles. The letter "M", or is it a "W"? I don't know ...
I see shapes ...
I see that yellow eye ...
I see LIGHT! COLOR! Cool and warm ...
Cool.
I can crop it anyway I want.
That is art. That is being an artist.
That is photography.
That is ... Fun.
Break the rules ... Just know the rules to begin with.
Makes breaking them, that much more FUNNERS! Yes,
that is a word. And yes, I can say it, and/or spell it, anyway I want. Call it ... Word art! Perfect-er.
Tunnel Vision
I like taking pictures.
I really like driving
across the country "In My Element" and taking pictures.
This
image was taken while driving through a tunnel under The Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. I has headed for The Outer Banks while
driving south from Pulaski, New York.
Headed home.
Kind of ...
My goal was Tangier Island, Virginia.
I had read about it somewhere, sometime ... I forgot when and where.
Why not?
I've
never been there before.
And ... It's in the MIDDLE of
the Chesapeake Bay, are you kidding me?
You can't drive
there.
Even better.
So, on the way to my destination, here I was, underwater. With a camera ... Driving along and I just knew I had to
get an image.
Did I mention I like to take photos?
Did I mention I had six or seven camera with me at the time?
Well, I do and I did.
So, while being safe (of course), I grabbed a camera and just held it up there and fired away ... You know me, I
took several.
Click, click, click ... Repeat.
Put the camera down, forgot about it ...
Yeah, I do that a lot.
Made it to the island
... Takes about an hour and a half by ferry. And yes, I took pictures then, too.
I believe the island - Tangier Island, Virginia - is something like one mile by five miles long. A small island.
A fishing community ... Period.
Well, and tourist stop.
Small.
A few cars ... Two or three "roads". I did see a couple Fire Trucks at the station,
and a police car ... A tiny compact, something, that just fits the "paths" used as roads.
No, this island is like a community golf course, without the golf course ...
Golf cart city.
They take the guests around
the island, drop them off at their B&Bs, and jam up the "downtown" area pretty good.
Golf carts, mopeds, and four wheelers ... My type of town. Village. Community.
Oh, and boats ...
Lots of boats ... All
types of boats ...
And the ferry ...
It makes one trip per day. Leaves at 10am and returns at 4pm.
Period.
One
trip per day.
Interesting little place.
Glad I made my way out there ...
But ... The Image.
Like I said, I forgot I took
it ...
I was going through my cameras/gear, and noticed
one of my cameras was missing a card. I then remembered that I took one of the CF cards out of one of my D200s, and took it
with me on my trip this summer for the D300.
I don't
have that many CF cards ...
Yeah, I forgot about
that too.
I have a lot of cameras, and a lot of cards
... Mostly SDHC cards, but yes, I also have old, just plain SD cards, for my older cameras, and the larger CF cards for the
"bigger cameras" ...
Did I mention I have over twenty
DSLR cameras?
I do.
So, I went through my gear, and ... Sure enough, I came across this card, up-side down, in one of my card holder,
wallet thingy ...
Upside down?
So, I knew I had filled up the card.
That is how I do things.
Now, I have been back
a while ... I have gone through my cards, down loaded them onto DVDs ... Set up my website ... Got everything up and running.
I'm that good. That quick.
I'm also good at forgetting things.
I thought
I better check and make sure what was on this card ...
Tangier
Island. Duh.
Yeah, how did I miss this one? The one place
I went out of my way to get to, to explore ...
Funny
how that works ...
4 GB worth of images ... And I just
overlooked them. Forgot about them.
Crazy.
And then I remembered ... The tunnel.
The LINES.
The design.
The fun.
Art
class. Leading lines. Vanishing point. Color. Movement. All that cool stuff ...
Zoom-zoom.
My New Favorite One
My new favorite osprey image.
For the moment.
Yeah, as you know, I like
to photograph osprey. Period. Like a lot. Always. Whenever, and wherever I can find them ...
Let me see ... Pulaski, New York. The Everglades. The OBX. Lake Okeechobee. Virginia. Idaho. Crystal River, Florida
...
But, Pulaski has been my favorite place to shoot.
I grew up there. My sister lives less than 5 miles from the nest. The nest is
on an elevated pole above the power lines so there is an unrestricted view of the nest and the birds.
Perfect.
I
have shot there for the past five, six (I can't remember) years and I just sit and sit ...
Sometimes even when the light sucks and the clouds are rolling in ... I just watch. Observe. Study.
But, in the late afternoon, when the light is "right" and there are no clouds
... Trust me, I am there.
I watch the clouds. The sky.
I know when it is going to make for good images.
The osprey are a given. The "subject" is there. Period.
It is really all about RULE NUMBER ONE.
That
simple.
LOOK AT THE LIGHT.
That is what makes or breaks an image, any image.
Now,
that said, trust me, Osprey don't really give a crap about the light. The clouds, or the weather.
Well, no, I believe they like nice weather ... And even the clouds, when
the chicks are small ... Like I said, that nest is out there, no shade, out in the heat. It can get hot out there in the sun
all day.
Yes, up-state New York can get hot in June,
when the chicks are born, and in July, when they learn to fly. Up until then, they are at the mercy of the sun.
So, yes, they just might like clouds.
But, you know what I mean.
Hungry? Go catch
a fish. Cloudy? Raining? Hungry? Go catch a fish.
That
simple. Hot? Sunny? Go catch a fish.
They need to eat.
At the nest, I really only have a few options when it comes to getting images
...
Well, that sounds good, but no ...
If it moves, I shoot. Period.
But, the MAIN shots are when they return to the nest ... They almost come to a complete stop ... Flutter, then land
-- That split (less an a) second. That flutter (for lack of a better term).
BAM. That's it. The movement, the wings, the talons, the fish (sometimes), the "action". The landing.
Leaving the nest is ... Well, OK, but usually not as good. There is no "moment"
like when they land ... They just, well, fly away. Gone, off to the river, away from where I park.
Unless they fly around ... As in this case (The image above).
And this is also a case of me playing ...
Yes, I have a big tripod, a gimbal head, a Nikkor 300mm f2.8 beast of a lens, the works ... And it is nice. I can
follow focus pretty good, capture the action, again, pretty good. I love it.
But no, in this case, I was playing with my smaller, lighter, new (to me), fancy 70-200mm VR lens, and ... And just
firing away.
So, what that means is, first, I'm having
fun, and secondly (for all my math students out there), it means, I'm hand-holding a light-weight, 300mm equivalent lens,
just trying to follow the little (well, not that little) birdie and keep my center focusing little rectangle thingy smack
dab on the body of the bird ...
And, like I said, just
fire away.
8 frames per second.
Usually five or six shots per burst ... Sometimes, maybe eight. Ten.
Depends on the flight of the bird, how close the bird is to me, and how long
I can "keep up with 'em".
Fun,
and ... In this light ... The perfect time to play ...
I
like the light. Warm, golden light. And the subject, duh ...
And in this image, I like the wings, and, I really like the legs. Tucked up in there, perfectly aerodynamic.
But ... What really makes it - for me anyways - Is the background. The
clean, simple, background. The color.
Blue.
No clouds. Just a warm-toned bird (golden) against a clear blue sky.
Blue and gold. Plain and simple.
The whole complementary color thing
you learned in middle school art class ... Colors that "work" together.
Blue
and Gold.
Blue and Yellow.
The
school colors for, let's see ... Just a few I can think of right off the top of my head ...
And only a few of the MILLIONS out there ...
Granite
Falls Elementary and Middle Schools, Gamewell Middle School (and probably elementary as well, I sure), West Caldwell
High School ...
And ... Outside of Caldwell County, North
Carolina ... Clewiston Middle, and High School, down in Florida, where my younger sister and brother graduated -- I bought
a t-shirt the last time I was down there!
Go Tigers!
Yeah. The colors are drilled into us from an early age ... They work!
Period.
Just add ... The osprey - The real
subject. The image takes care of itself.
Easy.
And LOTS of hours sitting there, reading, eating, looking, hoping, dreaming,
wishing ... Trying not to eat some more ... Photographing flowers within view, other little birds, watching (and taking a
few shots) of the people that hay the field I'm parked next to, talking to the people that stop by and ask what kind of birds
they are?
You know ... Putting in the time.
And, always ... Keeping my eye on the weather, the light ...
Always the light ... I mean, I'm ready at all times, but I'm REALLY ready when
the light is right.
Then, all I have to do is will the
osprey to fly away, land, or better yet ...
When the
chicks are getting ready to fly, getting their wing muscles in shape, they jump up in the air, flap like crazy, and land ...
Jump, flap like crazy, land ... Over and over and over.
Practice,
practice, practice ...
I giggle.
And fire away ... Over and over again ...
Keep Looking
Yeah, I don't think I really have to say much about this one ...
Rule Number One: Look at the Light
Pretty much
a given in this case ...
Rule Number Three: Produce Plenty
of Pixels ... You know, Take a Lot of Images
Here I am,
out in California, north of San Francisco, at Point Reyes National Seashore, with my brother, driving back to our campground.
We were out at the lighthouse just before sunset ...
That was nice, but ... Cloudy. Not much ... We headed back.
I'm driving ... The clouds break, and ... Well THIS!
This light. Perfect.
Now, all I had to do is hope to find a subject to go with it. I stopped and just shot the ... Well, LIGHT. And clouds
... Ah, they are a subject, right? Just like LIGHT is a subject ...
Stop. Get something.
Then LOOK. Hunt ...
Wish ... Dream ... Think ...
Do something!
I drove ...
I just KNEW I would find something ...
Use my magical powers if nothing else ...
I
needed something!
Ha! Cows in the field - Perfect.
Or so I thought.
They were REALLY hungry - NEVER lifted their heads ... NONE of them ... Forever ...
I waited ...
But, come on, THE LIGHT ...
Kept driving ... I just KNEW something was going to be around the next curve,
the next hill, something. Somewhere.
Holy Crap!
An elk.
Say
what? California? On the coast? Wow. Cool.
In this light?
Are you kidding me?
I pulled over quite quickly, my camera was ready, and I ran to get into the "right position" ... Elk, sun behind
him ... Perfect.
You know what I was thinking as I was
moving into position, right?
Negative.
Well, no, I wasn't thinking negatively, just the opposite ...
I just knew I had to set my camera to negative something ...
COMPENSATION.
No,
I was POSITIVE I had the image I was looking for ...
In
fact, I had just finished stamping my little National Park Passport thingy that Jennifer gave me for Christmas last year,
and now I knew why they had a stamp of an elk for people to use ...
The scene in front of me looked just like the stamp ... Except for the whole black and gold thing going on ...
Minus one ...
Shoot,
shoot, shoot ... Adjust. Shoot some more.
At first he
looked right at me and ... Well, this is a silhouette, and I lost the shape of its face ... The antlers kicked butt, but ...
Oh wait, there it is ... Fire away!
He got bored of my clickin' and looked off to the side ... Got it.
The shape, the profile, I was looking for ... Just like on the stamp I had seen earlier.
BAM.
Look
for it. Find it. Wish for it. Wait for it. Capture it.
Oh
man, I just came up with the secret to photography! BAM, there it is.
Or should the "Wish for it" come first? Then "Look for it"?
Well, no matter ... That, I'm sure, will work itself out ...
Just get out there, look for the light, and hold on, you never know what might show up at the right place, at the
right time ... In the "right" light.
The main thing is
to shoot first, look for something better later ... Get THE SHOT, then look (wish/dream) for the next ,THE SHOT ... The perfect
shot.
Then, find the next one ... A better shot.
More perfect-er.
Funny how that works.
Elk? On the coast of California?
I'll be darn.
I thanked him as I walked back to the Element.
I
definitely was ...
Wait for it ...
"In My Element".
Whew ... Why I do what I do, and go where I go. Period.
I love it. My new "Favorite Shot".
Until the next one ...
There is ALWAYS a next one. Always.
Good, But Not That Good
Sure, I get carried away and shoot like crazy sometimes when I see something
I like.
Like skimmers ... Or whatever their real name
is. I just like photographing birds. In fact, looking over my work of the past few years ... Yeah, I like birds.
This summer I shot a lots of birds ... Well, you know, photographed, a lot of
birds ... Osprey, some red-eyed under-water swimming bird out in California (yeah, I forgot the name ...), and yes ... I didn't
even get a photograph of the hawk ...
But one bird I
was surprised to see this summer was this skimmer thing out on the Outer Banks ...
Flying around and then swooping down to skim across the top of the ocean ...
I locked on and just kept firing away ...
On
the water, and when he circled around for another run ... I believe he knew I wanted another chance at it.
I have been to the OBX a lot. I mean, you know, for someone that lives in the
Foothills. I have been there many times over the years.
It
started when I was shooting for OUR STATE magazine ... They run a "special" on the coast every year. Then, I started taking
my college class out there every Spring.
Our first year,
we stayed at a motel for two nights, but figured out that renting a house for a week, was a much smarter deal, and the
way to go.
We went ...
I don't know, five, six years in a row.
That
was when I had two classes at the college ... T/Th and the Saturday class. That was nice. More students.
When we lost the Weekend College, it was hard to get enough students to rent
a house.
At that very same time, my sister-in-law just happened to move out
there! Perfect.
So, although I no longer take my class out there, I still have
a chance to get out there myself every once in awhile. Dave and Carol live close to The Wright Brothers Memorial.
Perfect.
I ended my summer trip this year there,
driving down from New York where I stayed with both my sister, and my uncle.
I have not been out on the islands in the summer in a long time. It was always the Spring, or the Fall.
HOT.
Oh,
it was crazy hot.
It caught me - and everyone else, I'm
sure, off guard.
Heat Index hot. Hotter than what the
temperature says it is.
That's not a good thing.
But, it is the OBX.
That is a good thing.
Hey, I'm a photographer.
Get up early, stay out late.
And watch movies in between.
Lots of movies.
In fact, it was so hot I skipped the whole "stay out late" thing ...
I left at 5:30, 6:00 in the morning and was back by, I don't know, say 9:00.
Really.
That hot. That muggy.
Granted, I was only out there five days ... But still, it was hot.
Funny thing ...
The very first day, the first thing I did was drive to the ocean ... Remember, I had driven out to the Pacific Ocean
first ... California, to pick up my brother.
So, before
stopping in to see family, I drove to the ocean. Get it? Coast to Coast?
Anyway ... There I was shooting ... Sand dunes, sea grass, the waves ... I had to walk into the water, you know,
to get my feet wet, to make it official ... The East Coast.
But
let me back-up ...
When I first walked out onto the beach,
I noticed this lady looking at me ...
Well, of course
I thought it must be my good looks, or maybe my Nikon, I wasn't sure which, but she was checking me out (or the camera).
I went on shooting, thinking I was dreaming ...
But no, when I finished shooting the waves washing up on the beach - you know, lines, shapes, repetition, etc ...
There she was ...
"Are you the OBX Beach Bum"?
Say what?
I wasn't sure what she was talking about ... I mumbled something clever, like,
"Well, I've been called worse, but no, I don't think I am who you think I am" ... Something like that.
She said something about this guy on Facebook ...
Yeah, not me.
But that cleared up the whole
mystery of the lady staring at me thing ...
OK. The OBX
Beach Bum. Or maybe just the OBX Bum ... Something like that.
Whew, I thought she was stalking me ... Or worse, wanted to talk to me ... Or ...
Oh Lord help me.
No, wrong guy with gray hair
and a camera ... Who shoots sand dunes, sea grass, and waves, etc ...
I found out later that, yes, there is a guy that is on Facebook, and in fact, lives about three houses down from
where I was staying! Dave and Carol have heard of him, have seen his photos on Facebook, etc ... Small world.
But, back to the skimmer ...
I panned with its movement and followed him up in the air firing away ...
Never noticing the crane behind him ... I just hold down the shutter and track 'em ...
Once I got home and went through my images, I couldn't believe I was dumb enough to get that first image ... True,
I had four or five other shots, but I thought to myself ...
I
like the shape of the wings in that first image, not the crane ...
So, since I don't shoot for NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, I did what every other photographer does in the world, I took
it into Photoshop.
Digital Voodoo ...
Simple crop ...
Three seconds max. Done.
I like it.
I like the shot of it "skimmin' the ocean" better, but I do like the color better
in this one ... Red, white, and blue (and black).
And
the light.
As usual, it is all about the light ...
Front lighting vs Back lighting.
Blue sky vs gray sky.
I am happy. The bird looks
happy. And I have two images of a bird I have not photographed that much of before.
Maybe they are not around this area that much except for in the summer ... I don't know. I'm just glad he was around
that day.
And just to finish up the story about the OBX
Bum ...
The day before I was planning on leaving, Dave
got on Facebook and found out the guy was going to be out shooting the next day from 5:30 to 7:00 in the morning just across
the Bodie Island Lighthouse. A mini-workshop for anyone crazy enough to join him.
Perfect.
I was planning on stopping there before
heading off to the Mainland ...
I got on-line and
told him I would meet him there in the morning ... Two old guys out shooting at sunrise, sounds good to me.
I left at 5:30 (didn't want to be too early to the party) and got to the lighthouse
just before sunrise (it is all about the light) ...
Perfect.
Except it wasn't a perfect sunrise ... Cloudy. Gray. Flat.
I shot for a few minutes and headed across the road ...
He said he would have a sign posted ... A few other people were planning on
being there as well ...
No sign, but I knew it was the
right place. Right across from the lighthouse. Simple.
I
drove over, parked, got out, walked up to the beach, and looked around for a guy that looks like me ...
Nothing.
There
were maybe three people on the beach, not counting me.
One
women had a camera ... And a tripod in the sand near her ... She's got to be one there for the workshop ...
So, after chasing some dolphins swimming off-shore for awhile, but never
getting a shot, I walked back and asked the lady if she knew about this OBX Beach Bum guy that was supposed to be here ...
She did. She wanted to meet him too. And yes, she said this was the right place,
and that she has been there for awhile.
Nobody.
Except a guy from Hudson, NC (who was clueless) and her ... From Cleveland,
Ohio! She was hoping to meet the guy too!
Crazy.
Oh, and did I tell you it was HOT out on the ocean? Yeah ...
We talked for a few minutes, she showed me some shots of lighting that she had
taken the night before (not bad!), and then we parted ways.
Maybe
7am. A little after ...
I went to my Element, put my
gear up, and ...
Had to change shirts, mine was drenched!
Seven o'clock in the morning!
OK, I did run up the beach, maybe 20 yards trying to get a shot of flipper, but come on ...
Drenched.
Whew
... Glad I got up early, and had my air-conditioned Element there in the parking lot ready to head
home in.
Crazy.
What an OBX Bummer not to meet the OBXBeachBum, but maybe next time ...
The Best Image I Never Took
"Have a camera
with you at all times".
I say it all the time.
Every class, every semester.
I have one in the Element. All the time.
I have three or four in my classroom at the middle school. All the time, every day.
This summer I had ... Let's see ... Six cameras, not counting my cellphone with me in the Element. It's not a camera,
it is a phone. With a camera.
OK, seven cameras.
I took thousands of images ... From the Blue Ridge Parkway to the coast of California,
then back across the country to Florida, then north to up-state New York. And yes, back to the coast of North Carolina,
then my return to the foothills.
I used a camera every
day for two months.
Got some good images ...
But not the BEST image.
No, I always miss the BEST image. Those once-in-a-lifetime images that we see every once in awhile, as if that
is possible.
Oh, it's possible.
There I was, in up-state New York, in the middle of a state forest at my uncle's
camp reading. Very quiet. Very peaceful.
Can't remember
which book -- It was about Navy SEALS, that I am sure about. I read two ... Killing Bin Laden in Pakistan, and being
killed in Afghanistan - Well, except for one - Lone Survivor.
Navy SEALS ...
Except for another
uncle, my mom's older brother, who served in WWII, I am not a big fan of the Navy.
Come on, as a Marine in the 1970s, who was stationed on a Naval Air Station in Japan, and spent 45 days on a
Navy ship, the USS Oklahoma City, in the Western Pacific, I was not a fan of the Navy, ships of the Navy, or people
in the Navy.
It's a Marine Corps thing ...
They wore bell-bottom blue jeans, for God's sake. They could grow beards,
and ... Well, they tended to be fat. Period. It drove me nuts. I saluted one too many fat Naval officers in my day.
And I won't even go into my last five years at GFMS. Whew, like I said, the
Navy, and especially Naval officers, drive me nuts.
But,
then there is my uncle, who was in the Navy, and spent time on Iwo Jima.
Yes, THAT Iwo Jima.
I never knew that growing
up, or even as a Marine researching the famous flag raising (yes, I know, BOTH of them) at NCO School in Hiroshima, Japan.
My uncle ... He drove the boats that took Marines ashore ...
Whew ...
But, again, I digress ...
Back to my other uncle's camp ...
And the rest
of the story ...
And then there are the Navy SEALS.
I can't even figure out how they are part of the Navy. They are a special breed. SEALS, I can deal with.
I was just sitting there, reading, all alone, while cooking my can of chicken
breasts over the fire.
A fire from all the limbs
and branches my uncle and I picked up all week long. Like ... MILLIONS of them. I burned them all day long in a metal
bin. Day after day ...
My uncle had left for the day,
I was just reading ... Nice and quiet.
Then I heard something,
or sensed something, behind me, can't remember which ... I looked around.
Nothing.
Then, for some reason, I looked
down, like right next to me. A hawk. A beautiful hawk ...
No
more than six feet away.
It just stood there looking
at me. I just sat there looking at it.
Then I reached
behind me for my camera, you know, like I always do ...
Nothing.
They were all in the Element. I was on "off-duty" ...
Crap.
I
just sat there. Looking. Staring. Right there. Six feet away. The closest I've ever been to a hawk. I noticed it's feathers
... It's beak. It's powerful legs. Those claws.
Whew
...
And those eyes ... Just staring at me.
We just sat there looking at each other. Not a sound. Nobody moved ... I just
stared.
Beautiful bird.
Finally, I said, "You've got to be shitting me"?
And
yes, I said it out loud. I was talking to the hawk.
That broke
the spell, the hawk flew off, as did I. Had to get a camera, any camera. I got to the Element and reached for a
D90 with the 70-200mm f2.8 VR lens.
Perfect. The right
lens for the job.
I walked back ... Yes, I walked. While
walking back, I changed the ISO to 800 and opened the aperture to f2.8 to have the fastest shutter speed possible
depending on the amount of light once I returned and got some shots of that darn hawk.
Walked back to the tree ...
Nothing.
It was gone.
But not the memory.
The moment.
That I have.
And
that image in my head ...
Perfect.
Ta-Da! (2.0)
Magic.
Yes, I know, I have talked (blogged) about
this before ...
But now I actually want to show
you my secret and share with everyone how I do what I do ...
OK ... I was out in California, at the end of June, picking up my brother and taking him to Florida. I spent four
nights with him at a monastery in the mountains of Northern California. Very nice, very quiet.
They had a garden ... For a photographer, heaven.
Get it? Monastery ... Heaven?
Anywho ...
Flowers. They had flowers. And sunshine.
Perfect.
You know I love poppies ... And sunshine.
So ... You see the results. A pink poppy with a tan background, and that same
poppy with a new black background. A "fake" black background. A man-made, fake background, in this case.
I made it.
My
shadow.
You know ... Magic.
The first image (top), is what it "looked" like in real life.
Reality. Pink and tan.
But I wanted something
different. I wanted a black background. So I made a black background.
Pink and black (the second image).
But, just
like all those "reality" shows on TV, it is not real. There was no black background. It was shot in the yard ... California
dead grass. Tan. Dead, tan, straw (or grass), whatever ...
It
is California. A very DRY California. The very same California that is now (still) burning ...
In fact, on the drive up past Crystal Lake to get to he monastery, I drove through those very same dry hills
and forests, and saw signs of fires that were fought in the weeks prior to me getting there.
That is what my brother did for three months ... Cut and cleared away brush on the 300 something acres the church
owns ... Up on those very dry, very hot, hills.
But,
back to the image(s) ...
I photographed the poppy.
Nice. Pink and tan. Not bad.
But you know me ... I wanted
that black background I have grown to love ...
I needed
shade. And I needed it where I wanted it. Not over there ... Or there.
No, I need it right THERE. Period.
Jet black.
My studio. My background.
The poppy's background to be
more exact.
There. And only there.
So ...
I
had my tripod.
I had my self timer.
I knew I could make a shadow.
BAM.
It hit me ...
I could put my shadow right over there and take the picture ... All at the same time.
Oh my.
Genius.
Pure genius.
I set the camera up and got an
image. A nice image.
Well, yeah, you see the first image.
Reality. What was in front of me. Pink and tan. The "regular" picture ...
So ...
I thought for a second ... Well, you
know, less than a second really ... Not to brag or anything, but I have been doing this whole photography thing for a long
time now ...
I had my exposure set for the poppy ...
My tripod locked down ... The exposure locked in.
Oh
wait ...
That exposure is based on there being light
on the subject (poppy) AND background (dead, tan grass/straw).
VERY different than sun on the flower AND a black background (no sun/shade).
So ... Maybe it was longer than a second ...
I
did what I always do.
I guessed.
I knew the camera would see all that BLACK and want to lighten it -- make it
mid-tone.
Neutral.
And when it did that, it would take my pretty pink poppy and make it a REALLY light pink little poppy.
Washed out. Blahh ...
Not pretty.
It can only do one thing at a time.
Pretty pink (sun). Or pretty black (shadow).
Not both.
So ...
I took the first picture and got it all set for full sun ... Yes, I set my COMPENSATION button to, I don't know,
something like minus two.
Whatever.
Until it looked good. You know, to me.
The beauty of digital.
That said, it was bright
... Hard to see that little screen on the back of the camera ...
MINUS some more. NEGATIVE baby, minus something ...
OK.
Got it. Whatever.
Then, I looked at my settings, the
numbers -- Aperture and shutter speed. Whatever they were ... It doesn't matter.
And then I took my camera off APERTURE PRIORITY, and set it to MANUAL exposure, and then just set my aperture and
shutter speed to what they were for the first image ... Set for the sun.
Like I said ... Whatever, I can't remember.
You
EXPOSE FOR THE LIGHT. THE SUN. Not the shadows ... The background.
Then, I set my timer, pushed the button, and jumped over behind the little poppy and placed my shadow right where
I wanted it. Right where I knew it would become the background for my shot.
My image.
The one I saw in my head. My "mind's
eye". The one I "pre-visualized".
Thought about.
The one I wanted. NOT the one I was given in front of me.
Not reality.
The
way it looked. The way it was.
No, I got MY image. The
way I wanted it. The way I knew it would look.
Pink ...
And black.
Magic.
I MADE an image. I didn't just TAKE an image.
Well,
yes, I actually did just take an image, but, you know, I worked to get that image. I MADE it.
Art.
An artist.
Oh, and yes ...
I took several (Rule Number
Three).
Took a few seconds, but I made sure I got it.
I moved around ... Made my shadow the biggest I could,
held out my hands, ran around ...
Hope nobody actually
saw me doing all this ...
But, I got my image.
And an image of me making my image.
My poppy.
My shadow.
That is the magic.
That is why I do what I do, when I can do it.
California.
New York. Florida. North Carolina.
Or anywhere in between
...
Magic is magic. It works anywhere.
And not just with poppies ...
Need a shadow? A black background?
Make it.
Oh, and it is fun ...
Trust me.
This is it. This shows how I actually made my background. My BLACK background.
My magic.
Me
and my shadow.
In the second (the "real" image),
I was zoomed in on just the poppy. My shadow became the "new" background. I covered up that tan grass with my black
shadow.
The magic.
With this bottom image, the "behind the scene" image, I zoomed out to show you what it really looked like, the
"reality" of the scene.
Notice how dark the image is
... NOT reality, just my photo reality. Big difference.
UNDER
EXPOSED.
That is the key.
It is not the CORRECT exposure for the scene, the REALITY ...
No, it is only the correct exposure for what I wanted. The poppy.
THE final image. My image. My reality, at that moment, I might add.
I hope this bottom image helps explain the magic that it takes to make images ... To MAKE art.
Like I tell my students ... "Don't let reality stand in the way of your photography".
Take control. Take charge. Take the camera off AUTO ...
Have fun.
Make
a shadow! Or two or three ...
Art Wolfe
It is that time of year again ...
Summer Vacation.
My last summer vacation.
That's right, next year at this time it will just be "Vacation" period.
Retire.
But
that is twelve months away ...
As of now I am spending
a few days getting ready for this summer. School is out but I have a few things to do before heading out on a Road Trip with
"Brother" Mark.
Yes, he is my brother, and his name is
Mark, but since he has been in a Russian Orthodox Monastery out in California the past few months, I like the sound of ...
Brother Mark.
I leave in a few days ...
First things first ...
I am moving out of my classroom of twenty-two years and headed for the other end of Granite Falls
Middle School.
Yeah, I don't do change very
well ... I mean, I'll have to park in another parking spot. Twenty-two years in the same room, same parking spot, same
desk, same chair, same wall map, same EVERYTHING. I mean SAME. I don't change ANYTHING.
What will get me the most are the names on the door frame and around my map. 22 years of kid's name and heights
... 6th grade. 7th grade. 8th grade. Moving up every year ... Some a little bit, most of them by quite a lot. Middle school
...
Kids. "My" kids ...
I took down the pictures ... Twenty-two years of faces on my filing cabinet. That was tough ...
I'm getting there.
Tougher yet ... My maps. One whole filing cabinet drawer FULL of maps ... States, countries, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
maps on everything and anything ... Maps.
I kept all
my National Parks maps and found a good home for the hundreds of others -- The art teacher.
Perfect.
Maps. Art.
I feel better.
Got
a couple of days ... I'm just waiting for the retiring teacher to get finished, and then I'll haul all my crap up there to
replace all her crap ...
Until next year.
Don't get me started ...
Anyway ...
Art Wolfe.
This is about Art Wolfe.
I have been home watching his videos ... Again.
TRAVELS
TO THE EDGE.
If you haven't heard about them, goggle
it. A television show on photography and travel. Go figure.
Check
your PBS stations, they are still running I believe ... I have the DVDs. Two seasons.
Yes, a few years old now ...
And yes, I've watched
them many times ... Oh wow, it has been a few years. What? Five years? Six? Seven?
Wow.
Art Wolfe.
I was watching him today and realized just how much I have picked up from him over the years ... His vision. His
style.
Lines. Shapes. Patterns. Colors. Textures. Repetitions.
Simplicity.
Not
that this is anything new ... I have been shooting for over 30 years now, and it has always been like this ...
"The role of the artist is to simplify".
"K.I.S.S." (Keep it simple, stupid)
Or, as I
find myself saying in my college classes more and more ...
"Get
rid of all the crap".
Not quite as eloquent, but it
gets my point across.
Art Wolf is an artist. As am I.
But no, he really was an artist before becoming a photographer. Went to art school and everything.
His parents were artists ...
Hello? They named him Art, what more
can I say?
He painted. He drew.
I
didn't.
My story - and I'm sticking to it - is that I got kicked out of art
class more than anything else.
True story.
But I did get a Master's Degree in Art.
Go
figure.
Photography.
I teach art. Have for over twenty years now. Art, not photography.
Art 261. And Art 262.
Color photography I and
II (one and two).
Used to be Black and White, but that
was, like, a long time ago ...
Over 12 years ...
And, as I was watching my DVDs today, I kept looking
over at my computer, and what did I see?
The above image.
Very Art Wolfe.
Color. Lines. Shapes.
Symmetry.
Art.
Shot
it in Egypt eight years ago. Just went back and picked it out a few days ago while going through some images for FLICKR and National
Geographic's YOUR SHOT site.
Simple.
"It's a gift to be simple" .
While I am out and about this summer, that is what I'll remember ...
From Carl Purcell and his articles in POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY back in the 1980s when I first got into photography, and
all the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC photographers I have admired for years, to Joe McNally's Blog, books, and videos ... To Bob
Kirst , to Art Wolfe ...
And don't forget my college
students ... Jack Daulton, Denise Clay, and on and on and on ...
Look at art. Yes, photographs, but more, much more ...
Paintings, drawings, movies, sculptures, nature ... And more nature. Architecture. YouTube. Flickr. And every other
website out there ...
Ahhh, this Blog/Website.
Art.
Your
child's (parent's) art work from middle school ...
Yellow
balloons.
Everything. Anything.
Look at it. Study it. Think about it.
Find what you like about it and then ... What you don't. Think about it. Study it.
Get out there.
Do YOUR thing.
Over and over again ...
Tater Hole Infrared
Here is another one I forgot.
A month or so ago I was a birthday present ...
Yeah,
really.
A young student is the niece of one of my former
college students. Her mother gave her two weekend workshops with me ... She is hoping to take my college class next semester.
The first meeting was a late afternoon
shoot at The Tater Hole in Granite Falls ... A place I know well.
In fact, I was just there today riding my mountain bike and a run through Lakeside Park, or what we at GFMS, call
The Ian Dudley Trail.
Yes, Ian Dudley was a runner for
me at GFMS six or seven (or more) years ago, and introduced me to the woods -and trails - out behind his house.
His dad was our school librarian, and we would run past his house on the way to the woods.
This night I was just throwing everything I could at this young lady just for
fun.
From a 10.5mm fish-eye to the big 300mm f2.8 with
the 2x converter, to the infrared camera body.
It was
all good.
For this image, I turned the Nikon D-80 infrared
camera to Black and White (because I could) and showed her how strange all this can be, and look ...
Not just Black and White, but glowing Black and White. Plus the curve
of the extreme wide-angle perspective ... Leads to a nice panorama format.
I like it ...
Another tool for visual effects.
Perfect.
Infra-perfect
if you will.
Get close, fill the frame, and fire away.
I remember shooting this, but like I said, I forgot I kept them ... I usually delete just about everything, if I'm
not shooting on assignment, or on one of my road trips.
Oh, this one looks
cool ...
I then took it into Photoshop Elements 10 or 11 ... Can't remember
which one I have, and cropped it into a long panorama.
I just wanted to ...
It is what I saw when I saw it.
Fair enough.
Again, it is fun to come across these images way after you shoot them ...
Takes you back ...
The Tater Hole, Granite Falls, NC.
My place.
My spot.
My image.
Second Look
I was adding some images to my National Geographic YOUR SHOT page, one last
week before I head out for the summer ... Headed to California (again).
So, I pulled out my Egypt DVDs and started looking through them for something I know I missed all those years ago
... What? I was in Egypt in ... 2006? I will have to check and see ...
2008.
A few years ago ... Eight years. I knew
there had to be an image I missed in there somewhere ...
I
am bad at that. I get back, I go through several hundred (thousand?) images one time and ... That's it. I'm done.
Finished.
Ready
for the next trip ...
I move on.
I stack the DVDs up behind my computer screen so I can't see them ... And ...
The images I do use on my website are saved on CDs and stacked off to the right
of my screen ... Out where I can see them.
Yeah, I have
a few CDs piled up in little colorful paper sleeves ... And some up higher in plastic holders ...
Yeah. It's a mess.
Colorful, but ... Finding images is a trip ... A joke really.
See, I like taking photos. Period.
I'm not a
Photoshop kind of guy. And Lord knows I'm not organized. The same with slides back in the day ... Thousands of images
upstairs in a filing cabinet in no particular order what so ever ... Thousands.
But anywho ... Back to me looking for a "new" old image ...
I went through them, and came across one I didn't use the first time around.
I like it.
Egypt. The Nile River. The boats.
The crew out playing soccer after diner ... The ships were our "hotels" as we cruised the Nile from one place to another ...
Wonderful.
Even in summer ...
As only teachers do.
The Sahara.
In summer.
Yeah ... They wait until just before sunset before they get out and do anything
... Smart people. Unlike tourists.
Football.
Sort of. Well, no, it really is football. They use their foot to kick a ball
...
Makes sense.
I had my camera ... I ran around the edges, looking, shooting ...
Playing.
My own game.
Playing with images ... Makes sense.
They knew I took pictures, they knew I wouldn't get in their way, and yes, they forgot about me soon enough.
I had fun.
So
did they.
I like this image for what it is. An image
of people enjoying themselves after a day on the Nile.
People
here ... People there ... A ball. Great light. Action.
Stopped
action. An image of a game ... A timeless image of a timeless game.
Perfect.
A moment in time. Along the Nile. Eight
years ago. The Nile. The boats. The light. The people. The action. The joy.
Egypt. Soccer.
And me ...
Playing.
In
Egypt. Along the Nile. Shooting. Being out there, among them ...
Playing.
Shooting.
True, as I am writing this I am remembering how hot it was ... How sick we all got ... The heat during the day ...
The pills ... The water. Lots of water ...
But the image
also reminds me of just how lucky I was to be there, shooting a pick-up game of soccer in Egypt, along the Nile River, in
the evening light ... Perfect.
Eight years later ...
Better yet.
One image.
One new, "old", image that I had forgotten about ...
Until tonight.
The Nile River.
And the people who took me there ... Playing soccer.
Eight years ago.
Memorial Day Indeed
I spent Memorial Day Weekend up in the woods. In my element.
No, really, in my Element ...
My Honda Element. My 2010 silver Honda Element. The one I did not trade in for a newer one because ... Yeah, there
was no newer one to buy!
Gone.
Just like that ... No more Honda Elements. Period.
I should have seen it coming ...
This is my
third one: Blue and Gray 2004 (Yeah, I know ... Blue and Gray - I'm from New York living in North Carolina, how cool).
Maroon-ish Red 2008. Drove it to Alaska and The Artic Circle - in two countries
- and traded it in early two days after my return! Whew, what a trip. The mud ... And the chipped windshield ...
Silver 2010. From the Northwest tip of Washington State, to Key West, and from
The Gaspe' Peninsula up in Quebec , Canada, to San Diego, California and more ... This one I have kept.
100,000 miles.
And
where did I turn over that one extra mile?
Up in the
woods overlooking Collettsville, NC.
"My Camp" if I
ever really did have a camp, which I don't, except for this little turn-off up the Maple Sally Road. You know, In The Woods.
I "camp" there ... Spent the last few nights up there doing absolutely nothing
... Well, except camping. In my Element.
Literally ...
In my Element.
Inside.
On my futons ... Pillows, sleeping bag, my cooler (for everything except food), my little cooler-like bag thingy my mother
bought me up in Pulaski, NY (where I actually do keep my cans of chicken, fruit, and breakfast bars - You know, my meals).
And Sunny D.
And
a gallon of water ...
And, yes, my camera gear. Lots
of camera gear. Some of my "new" (used) camera gear that I am "field testing" for my trip out West this summer.
My Nikon D300s with the Kirk L-bracket (sweet), and the 70-200mm f2.8
VR zoom lens(sweeter).
Along with the 300mm f2.8 with
the 2X converter, mounted on the big Gitzo tripod with the Gimbal head ...
Just getting ready ... Checking the maps ... Seeing what I can come up with.
Kelseyville, California.
Northwest of Sacramento
on Clear Lake. In the mountains.
In two weeks ...
More miles ...
Looking
forward to the next 100,000.
In My Element.
On the road. Again.
Testing 1,2,3,4 ...
This is what happens when you (me) sit around all day in your (mine) Element with camera gear all around you.
Multi-Exposures.
Multiple times.
Over and over.
Ten
images on one frame.
Why?
Because I can.
I call it art.
No really ... I was sitting in my Element going over my atlas, or reading
about cameras, or going through my travel magazines (Outdoor Photographer, National Geographic TRAVELER, and Outside),
as well as my trusty Rand McNally Road Atlas (go figure, I finally figured out it is NOT named after one of my favorite
photographers of all time - Joe McNally - Maybe his brother?).
It was raining ...
Well, no, it never really
rained ...
It was drizzlin' somewhat, and I had the windows
rolled most of the way up (Testin' out my new window rain protector thingys I had installed after being hot last
summer, and the summer before that ... etc ).
I
had my "new" Nikon D300s with my "new" Nikkor (I love sounding so Nikonish ...) 70-200mm f2.8 VR lens and just had
to try ...
Something.
Ten images, one exposure.
I did nothing but
push the buttons and move the camera ... Well, in this case, that is just about everything.
The camera did the rest.
The Magic.
What impressed me was how straight I kept my camera (hand-held) as I worked
my way up (or was it down?) ...
Sweet.
That was weird.
I actually tried to keep it straight the next few times -- Once I saw how good I was at it ...
Nope. Not happening. No-way.
Remember, I can't "see" what I am getting ... I can't see every image.
Until the end.
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 ...
Wait for it ...
Ta-Da.
Multiple exposures. It just appears ...
Gotta love sitting around, in your (my) element, just playing (learning), in
the sort-of rainish weather, just thinkin' ... planninin', shootin' ...
Ten shots ... Up and down. Then from left to right ... Then, right to left -- Oh wait, that would be too weird. No
... Right to left (whew...) trying to keep track of the number of shots ...
Yeah, this is the tough stuff ...
1,2,3,45 ...
6789 ... Was that 9, or 10?
Oops.
Turn off motor-drive.
Single-Shot.
Easier.
Just play.
See
what art you (I) can come up with today.
Memorial Day
2016.
Up in the woods ...
Looking at trees. Seeing something in my mind's eye ...
Multi-Green.
Nature at its finest. Green art.
Go sit in a car, look out the window, grab your camera ... See what you
can come up with.
Yes, I was parked.
Tiny Dancer
I was driving through the campus of CCC&TI on my way to class.
Rule Number One: LOOK AT THE LIGHT
Perfect. At 5:45pm, the late evening light was shining on the flowers along the road. I knew I would get out there as
soon as possible. I walked into class and told everyone to grab their gear, we are shooting.
Rule Number Two: GET CLOSER
I grabbed my trusty 18-200mm zoom lens and walked outside. I got right up in the gardens and got close ... Maybe eight
inches? Ten?
Close.
Rule Number Three: TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES
In the fifteen minutes we were out front shooting, I took 137 shots.
Really.
I was hand holding the camera, I had it set on continuous high (4.5 frames per second), and just fired off five or six
per "shot". Shoot, shoot, shoot.
And, with this perfect light, I was also looking for the perfect shadows. Very important for this type of "look".
The trick is to find a flower in the bright light (the sun) with a shadow in the background (in this case, the college).
Perfect.
Low angle evening light, shadows, and a zoom lens. Perfect.
One other important detail that I can't downplay:
Compensation.
Remember, cameras want everything "middle tone". Medium toned. 18% gray, for all you die-hard black and white
shooters still out there.
I set my compensation -- Remember, I shoot in Aperture Priority 99% of the time -- to minus 1.0 to 1.7 before I even look
through the lens.
I expose for the highlights, and let the shadows go black, where they belong. Where I like them.
Black. Like real black. Blacker black.
Black shadows, white flowers. Perfect.
Powerful.
Like Tiny Dancers up on the stage (I'm singin' the song as I type this). Spot lights. Flowing dresses ... Movement ...
Flow ... Energy ...
Art.
Flowers.
Not bad for just outside the door to the classroom. Think about it, they plant these flowers there just for my photography
class to have an excuse to get there.
I love it.
And the light ...
At the time I arrive for class.
Perfect-er.
Scatter Plot
I teach math. Well, kind of.
No, I do teach math, but I am not a math teacher. After more than twenty years, I still find it hard to say I'm a math
teacher.
I was not good at math.
I did not go to college to study math.
Yes, I was FORCED to take a couple of math classes (maybe just one, now that I think about it), but that was only because
I had to.
I teach Special Education math.
I am actually getting pretty good at it because I know what my students are going through. I was not good with numbers.
I got by in high school, even college, but I had to work at it. Get help. Like, actually work at it to pass.
I even remember having to go to summer school in the 4th grade because I wasn't very good with my multiplication facts
...
I know them now!
I also don't remember ever talking about Scatter Plots back in the day ... No, it must be this new Math they are/were
talking about. New math has been around for years ... This must be newer math.
Scatter Plots.
How crazy.
Well, anyways ...
About this image ...
Scatter Plot.
This is a dogwood tree along side/inside some bamboo that lines my driveway.
I photograph it EVERY Spring. All the time. Every time.
I like the contrast.
White islands in a sea of green.
But I never saw it as a scatter plot until, I don't know, two days ago? I took the images a few weeks ago, but just set
it as my Screen Saver the other night.
I didn't see it when I photographed it (Hello? It's a dogwood tree). I didn't see it for the past twelve years in my driveway.
I didn't see it when I worked on it in Photoshop.
No, it's a dogwood tree and bamboo.
But then I was helping one of my 8th graders the other day in class and she was a wee bit confused on all these little
dots all over the page. I tried to explain all those little dots all over the page, and came away with the idea that if she
could just understand that one was a POSITIVE slope and the other a NEGATIVE slope, that would be a good start.
Yeah, for those of you that understand what I just said, great. The others? Just bear with me ...
Then, the other night, after I had this image as my screen saver, I was sitting on the couch watching TV, and during the
commercials, I noticed the SCATTER PLOT image on my computer.
From a distance, I guess (it is hard to tell just how my brain really works), the white flowers stuck out as dots against
the green background.
It hit me.
A negative slope.
From upper left to lower right.
Negative slope.
Just like in the text book.
True, the math book had black dots on white paper, but white dots on green bamboo is just about the same, only different.
Ta-da.
I'm a math teacher.
I saw a negative slope on my computer screen.
I saw something from the eyes of a math teacher. A math person. Me.
I mean, me?
I majored in Social Studies in college.
I went to an art school for my M.A. in Photography.
It is the end of the world as we know it.
Scatter -Plot. Who would of thunk it?
Me?
Math?
Actually seeing an image through the eyes of a math person.
Over thirty years as a photographer. Twenty something years as a (Special Ed.) math teacher ...
A scatter-plot.
That I took. On MY computer.
And I nailed the whole negative thing ...
Upper-left/lower-right.
BAM.
I love photography.
I love teaching math to kids that don't "see" numbers.
I love the fact that I now know what a scatter-plot actually is.
And, better yet, what one looks like.
On my computer screen.
Go figure ... Photography and math. Art and math. Me and math.
And scatter-plots.
Blowing In The Wind
Have I mentioned I like Bob Dylan? No, I don't think so.
I do.
I like what he has to say, and how he says it.
What this has to do with photography? I have no clue. It is just something I thought of as I stated to write about this
image ...
Leaves.
Blowing in the wind.
Except they weren't.
No, I lied.
It was just what I felt when I was photographing them. I wanted to show movement in a still photograph when there wasn't
any movement. Nice concept.
Think about it. Movement in a still photograph.
Sounds impossible.
It's not.
At the college, I refer to it as "The Notion of Motion". True, I probably stole that from someone, but I have
been saying it for so long now I think I came up with it all by myself.
Probably didn't, but that won't stop me from actually taking credit for it. That's what I do as a photography instructor.
Come up with these great one-liners and clever sayings and actually believe I actually came up with them.
Pretty cool actually.
The Notion of Motion.
Thing is, the subject can actually be moving, or not. It makes no difference. Remember, it is just the notion of motion.
An illusion.
Magic.
Photography.
Art.
Try it.
Go out and show motion in an image. Of anything. Moving or not moving. Keeping the camera still (tripod helps), or not.
Moving the camera, or not.
Slow shutter speed, or ...
Well, yes, slow shutter speeds help, but ...
If the subject is moving REAL fast (think NASCAR), you can still show a hint of motion with a fast shutter speed. It is
all relative.
Try different shutter speeds with different moving subjects. Try moving the camera with the subject (panning). Try different
shutter speeds. Different ISOs. Different ... Well, different everything you can think of, and even some you can't (say what?).
Yes, try it. You might like it.
Play.
Then call it art.
Just give me all the credit. You know, like I do for all the stuff I steal from others ...
Cheap Filter
That is a good thing.
I used to own a filter that you could buy to give your image that foggy look ... Diffused Filter I think it was called.
Been awhile.
Now I use the free one ... kind of like a free App that you can use at any time.
Breathe.
No, I'm not trying to get you to relax, although that is a good thing as well.
No, breathe on your lens.
That's it. That's the filter.
Pretty simple really. And it is free.
Focus, breathe. Wait for it ...
Now.
Shoot.
And yes, you know the game ... Repeat.
Several times. The best thing is that no two images are the same.
Heavy fog effect? Shoot fast.
Light fog? Like I said ... Wait for it ... Look through the viewfinder.
If you like what you see, shoot. If not, wait until you do.
No big secret, no rules, no worries.
Play, play, play.
Any subject. Any lens. Anytime. Anywhere.
One tip ... I didn't need to for this shot, but sometimes (there is always a sometimes ...) your auto-focus might freak
out and search ...
Find your focus. Turn-off the auto focus. Breathe. Shoot.
That's it.
Filter Tip of the day.
Free at your Non-App Store.
Just Breathe.
Heavy Metal
I have photographed at the Broyhill Walking Park in Lenoir for over twenty years. I have photographed flowers, trees,
gazebos, birds, turtles, a wedding, more flowers, and even more flowers, but I have never photographed a moving, stainless
steel sculpture in the park before.
There it was, plain as day, just off the main trail on the way to the gazebo. Say what?
Shiny metal and moves with the wind. Very nice.
Glad I had my college photography class down there for the evening light ...
Something new to play with ...
Like a kid in a candy store, I got carried away in the moment.
It moves.
It reflects light.
It changes.
Like every second ...
The clouds, the color, the color of my shirt, the sky, the trees, light, light, light.
And movement.
I ended up taking 72 images (I just counted ...) in, well, it didn't seem like a LONG time.
I like movement. I like color. I like reflections. I like taking photographs.
I like The Broyhill Walking Park.
Even when they add something new.
Especially when they add something new.
Play. Play. Play.
Find something new to photograph at a place you have photographed over and over again.
Get out there.
And did I mention it moves?
Always changing?
Never the same.
If I didn't, I should have.
Enjoy.
Feeling Blue?
If so, pick up a camera and go for a walk.
Pretty simple really.
In fact, I do it all the time, and I'm never Feeling Blue.
I go to take images. To make art. To see. To explore. To look. To relax. To get out there. To take pictures. To see old
things in a new light.
Or color.
The Loop around Hudson, NC. Yeah, I've been around it a few times ... A lot.
I have never "seen" this image before ...
Funny how that works.
In fact, unless you were out walking during a full moon, late at night, you would never see this shot either.
Or, if you don't like walking around at night during a full moon, you are in luck.
I didn't walk around at night during a full moon to capture this image, no, that would be crazy.
I'm not THAT crazy.
No, more, like 3:30pm on a sunny Sunday ...
Although it is Spring, this one tree near the Elementary School is still bare. That caught my eye. The lines ...
Then, I noticed the late afternoon sun was just about right ...
I walked up, knew what I wanted before I ever brought the camera up to my eye ... I saw the image in my mind's eye.
Silhouette.
Backlit tree ... Perfect.
Moonlit night? White balance. Incandescent. Compensation. Minus 2. Perfect.
All this was going through my mind as I walked up to the tree.
Yeah, I've done this before.
Many times.
But not so much with my Nikon 1 V1.
No worries.
It does things like the big cameras.
Perfect.
Then, I took the image.
Well, no ... You know me ...
Images.
Nine.
If I would have know, I would have taken one more, you know, just because I could.
Next time.
Perfect.
Smooth Flight
No, I drove to Florida.
By "smooth flight", I am referring to the "flight" of my lens while using my new gimbal head on my tripod.
SMOOTH, period.
I drove down to Clewiston, Florida with my mother over Easter Break. Yes, things went fairly "smooth" going down, the
roads were good and the weather just about right. Overcast and cool. Perfect.
Spent a few days in Clewiston ... The main reason being to get a vase that locks into the headstone so we could leave
some flowers.
Crazy me.
I have been there a couple of times and did not realize that there was a vase installed ... It was just upside down. I
never knew. I called and asked to buy a vase and was told that he would go out and check on the size, etc ... To make sure
he had the right one in stock.
The next day I drove out, and there he was, at the cemetery, with the vase, everything was good to go. What I saw was
the bottom of the vase -- It was up-side down.
That's it.
Finished. All set.
That was easy.
Went to Wal-Mart, bought some cleaning stuff, and some big, fake sunflowers that I saw when I was there at Christmas.
I like sunflowers.
Nope.
None to be found. Not the BIG ones anyways. So I bought some small ones. Mixed them up with some other flowers, added
a bit of color (red), and just for the fun of it ... A butterfly.
My mom likes butterflies ("If nothing ever changed, there would be no butterflies"). Perfect.
Ta-Da. Mission accomplished ...
I took mom to her old place of business ... Lyons Printing. Oh ... That was good. They talked, and talked, and talked
... It has been over twenty years.
And then we looked up another women that my mom worked with ... A 91 year old former book-keeper. She still lives at the
same place. They talked and talked and talked ...
The next day, mom was going out for lunch with her friend ...
I left Clewiston at 5:20am.
The Everglades.
About 90 miles away, something like that. I was just down there at Christmas and knew where the osprey nests were ...
I'm out of there.
I was at the empty nest, set up my tripod, and was just waiting ... For about three minutes, when all of a sudden I heard
them coming ... Four osprey came swooping in and all tried to land at the nest at the same time ...
Say what? Four? All flying in at the same time? Four?
Really? Crazy.
I just "locked on" one of the birds and fired away ... Wings were flappin', birds were squawkin', and I was firin' away
... BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM. BAM. BAM. BAM (8 frames per second).
That fast, that quick.
It was over. The birds, all four of them (the two adults and their off-spring, I presume), were gone. Wow.
I was happier than a pig eattin' poop, and it was, like, not even 9am. I was done. Mission accomplished. The drive was
worth it.
Life is Good.
Now what do I do? How can I top that?
I just sat there going over everything that just happened. I had the images. I just stood there and dared them to return
for Round Two.
They didn't.
I drove off to the next image ...
There are several osprey nests down at Flamingo (the "Southern End" of the Everglades). I knew where they were.
Empty.
Empty.
One on top (way up there) of the "communication tower" at the Visitor's Center ... There was a head poking out but ...
Naw.
Oh, a "new one", one I missed somehow at Christmas -- Or else I forgot (possible). Right next to the marina. Like, twelve
feet, then twenty feet up. Right there.
I saw one, and heard another, like, close by. What?
Got a few images of the one on the branch ... Then, he flew off and another one, that was in the nest, flew off seconds
later ... The one I couldn't see but knew was close.
Their nests are HUGE. And DEEP.
So, got my osprey.
Oh, and my Park Stamp!
Drove back up to Royal Palm. The Anhinga Trail. The one mandatory stop while in The Everglades. The trail around the deepest
holes in the Park.
Gators. And birds. And flowers. And dragonflies. And turtles. And ... This is where the gators are. Like, three feet away.
Next to the walkway. Right there.
Perfect.
Well, except for me being me, and only using one lens ... A game I play.
My 300mm f2.8 (450mm equivalent) WITH my new 2X converter (900mm f4.5 equivalent). Mounted to my gimbal head which is
attached to my Kirk BH-1 ballhead, which is attached to my Gitzo, four section tripod, which is attached (well, might as well
be) to my shoulder.
They were TOO close.
So I shot REAL CLOSE images of alligators. Period. The patterns, the shapes, the texture.
Learn to see with whatever lens you have.
A good exercise for any photographer with any lens.
I shot away.
Now, yes, I cheated, and brought along my little Nikon 1 V1, with the 10mm fixed lens (28mm equivalent)for some "regular"
shots, but for the most part, yeah, I lugged that sucker around that boardwalk, I was going to use it! 900mm lens/tripod
for gators that were just a few feet away. Perfect.
And yes, I did actually get to photograph one that was ... Well, you know, "far away". Got some nice close-up shots. Perfect.
And off I went.
Back to the start. Got my Park Stamp, bought a couple of stickers, and I was off to ...
Another National Park. Another Park Stamp.
The place I failed to make it to over Christmas -- Big Cypress National Preserve, part of The National Park System.
Not THAT far out of the way ...
I had been there years ago, but now that Jennifer gave me that National Park Passport thingy for my birthday LAST year,
I just had to get that stamp!
Off I went.
I knew there would be gators ...
There were.
Got some more images ... Always good.
Then, back to Clewiston. The back roads ... Up and over. Through a few small towns, sugar cane fields, farms ... I knew
them from the years visiting my mom since 1974. The Back Roads. Drove my GPS nuts ... It might not have been the "most direct"
route, but it was the way I chose. I looked at the map, and went "my way". No worries.
Long day. Great day.
And, like I mentioned before ... I was happy within five minutes of setting up my tripod. Photography is like that.
Being in the moment. Being there. Being out there, at the right place at the right time.
Perfect.
Why I do what I do when I do it.
Oh, and I had a nice trip with my mother. Lets forget the traffic on our return trip. Not a good thing. EVERYONE returning
from their Easter/Spring Break ... And, everyone from Canada, and the entire northern sector of the United States (THE SNOW
BELT)pulling their winter homes with them, all going north with me, and my mom, and my little Element.
Crazy.
And don't even think of the word TRUCKERS ... Please. Just let me remember the osprey ... And the pelicans ... And the
anhinga ... And the ... Dragonflies ...
And every fast-food restaurant chain on the East Coast ...
I even had mom thinking about walking into Wal-Mart, buying a couple cans of chicken, a few cans of peaches, some V-8
Juice, and just sitting in the Element, and having dinner, you know, like I ALWAYS do ...
But ... No.
I solved the case of the missing flower vase, mom was happy, and I got to use my new lens/tripod set-up on some moving
targets ... That was enough for me.
That, and my mom made it back home without losing her teeth.
Perfect -er!
Gimbal Smooth
That time of year ... Well, close anyways.
My birthday.
So, a new toy.
I have wanted one of these for, well, for awhile.
A Gimbal head.
Once I got the big Gitzo tripod, and the large Kirk BH-1 ball head for my 300mm f2.8lens (last year), I just knew I wanted
this little piece of set-up.
I bought the Induro GHBA ... Metal. Well made right here in the USA. Heavy metal for my heavy lens. I like it.
Once attached to the Kirk BH-1 ball head, it pivots, rotates, swivels, whatever ... It takes all the weight off the lens
... Smooth.
Period.
Makes shooting effortless.
What I am really looking forward is shooting wildlife. Following birds in flight... Smooth.
Oh, and did you notice the Digital Camo covering? The Lens Coat?
That is new as well.
As a Marine, what do you expect?
True, I never wore camo like that, but ... The Times They are a'Changing".
With the 2X converter, the lens becomes a 900mm f4.5 beast that needs the bigger, heftier tripod mount. Like I said, it
is weightless ... And smooth.
I'm headed south to Clewiston, Florida for a few days with my mom. Jane, my younger sister, is buried there, and we are
going down to clean up her tombstone, and leave some big, fake sunflowers! And see if mom remembers what Clewiston looks like
- She has not been down in over twenty years.
It is at the southern tip of Lake Okeechobee and, well ... There is an osprey nest. 'Nuff said.
I will try out the new set-up.
Smooth.
Eye
Get Closer.
Rule #2.
I know, you have read about this before. If you know me, you know I talk about it all the time.
It is a big deal. An important concept. A RULE.
Get Closer. Fill the Frame.
Don't make the viewer guess what you are trying to say with an image, slap them up side the head with it ... Make it very
clear what you want them to see by showing only what you want them to see.
Simple.
So simple in fact, that I talk about it all the time. Get Closer.
Most beginning photographers don't. That too is pretty simple. And true.
Oh, we can all "get closer" if we have a big zoom lens, or telephoto lens, but most beginning photographers
don't have either.
But most of them do have legs.
Get closer. Move in. See how close you can get to your subject and still get an image.
Every lens has a limit. Every lens.
Find out what it is. How close can you get? Where do you have to be to get the close-up you want?
If you have one lens, this should be very easy to find out. Move in, then move in some more.
If you have more than one lens, find out where you need to be (well, where the lens needs to be) to get the image you
are looking for. Each lens, every lens.
This will save you some time. BAM. I know, that with my small point-n-shoot camera I can actually get inside a flower
and still get focus. With my big 300mm f2.8 with the 2X converter (900mm), well, not so close. What? Two feet?
I know, I just don't really know the exact distance. In fact, I was just outside this morning taking shots of the first
Dogwood blooms in my front yard. I walked up to about, you know, this far, and set up the tripod. Got it. Oops, too close.
Backed up about an inch, maybe two inches.
There.
Perfect.
It is a game of inches.
Take off the 2x converter ... Move again.
Add the 25mm extension tube? Oh, move in closer. A lot closer.
It changes all the time. My 40mm macro? Closer. With the extension tubes? Ha. Like on top of the subject. No, closer than
that.
THISCLOSE.
Know your distance.
People? Forget that whole "Space" thing. Their "personal bubble". Get Closer.
This is how this image came about.
College student. Female college student.
I brought in my 105mm macro so they could see what I was always talking about. Get Closer.
In fact, this was her second semester in my class. That is very important.
Before I handed her my camera/lens macro set-up, I explained that she had to get close. But not that close.
Or in this case, that I had to get close. But not THAT close.
I warned her ... Explained that with the longer 105mm macro lens I didn't need to invade her personal space THAT much.
Maybe a foot? So, I got close. But not too close.
Next week or so (we have Easter Break), I will have to bring in my 40mm macro ... That foot would be closer to six inches.
With my Nikon AW110? Ahh, 1cm. Like, REAL close. Too close.
Rattlesnake? The 105mm. Better yet, the 300mm with the 2X converter ... Give him his space. No worries.
Flowers? I love to get right inside the petals and look around with my little "point-n-create".
Know your equipment.
Know where you have to be to get the shot you want.
True with every lens. Every subject. Any subject.
The right tool for the right job.
Very important.
Oh, and don't forget (and more important)... Know how to use every tool, for every occasion.
Practice, practice, practice.
Or, as I like to say ..."Play, play, play".
All the time. Even when you are "working".
Get Closer.
Leaving His Mark
My brother Mark visited for a week before heading out to California. He has never stayed with me for a week before.
Well, no, He did visit me in Germany when he was 15. He graduated from high school down in Florida and spent, well, it
might have been two weeks ...
Hard to remember. We drove around Europe. I was married back then.
Hard to remember.
I do remember him joining the street artists in Italy, drawing on the streets. One hotel to the next. He was young. Come
to think of it, so was I.
It was fun.
He has lived in Nashville for the past fifteen years or so ...
Not so fun. Kids grow up. His son has grown up. Mark moved to Nashville from Florida, where he grew up. His son has gone
off to college.
Mark has gone to California to get sober.
It is not easy. For anyone.
He stayed with me for one week. We had dinner with my mom on the nights I wasn't at the college.
He walked around Hudson.
He got rid of everything ... His apartment in Nashville. Packed away everything he could at his friend's house (the mother
of his son), and just ... Well, started over.
He is a cook. A chief. He is into food.
I'm not.
He actually used the burners on my stove ... I never have. Not in 12 years.
We are very different.
He left my mom this pepper thing ... He grinds his own pepper. Mom doesn't. I kept it.
I have NEVER poured pepper on anything in my life. True, I have eaten things with pepper, but I have never, ever taken
a pepper shaker and actually poured in on anything I have ever eaten. Period.
Maybe as a kid (no way) ... I can't remember.
I do remember this ... In the past 12 plus years, I have never bought salt or pepper, period. There is none in my apartment.
Oh, wait. That is not true now.
There is Mark's pepper thing ... Pepper grinder. Pepper Mill. Whatever it is called.
It sits on my stove. Next to my ceramic camera thinghy that I found somewhere some time ago.
One Me. One my brother.
Like I said, we are different.
I like it.
And now I have pepper on my black sweater-vest thing I wear at school. Well, I wiped it away the best I could ... I will
have to clean that up real good ...
Yeah. The black background you see in the image. I shot this upstairs in my bedroom, on my dresser. My sweater-vest is
the background.
Two flashes, one on each side. My sweater-vest as a backdrop. An envelope box, and a DVD box, to block the light from
actually hitting the black backdrop, and turning it gray.
A mini-studio, if you will.
For a mini-pepper grinder thing.
From my brother. For my brother.
He might actually find a use for it once he gets his life back on track.
Not sure if pepper is the answer, but it might.
Simple tool. Simple light. Simple Art.
The Pepper Grinder ...
Maybe I'll even try some once he gets back to my little apartment ...
Maybe.
Probably not. Let's be honest.
But ... I'll always have this image.
It might look good in his kitchen one day ...
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY
One of the students decided to throw a Valentine's Day Party for the class on Thursday night ...
Sounded good to me. Much better idea than what I had planned. Or not planned.
Pizza and cupcakes. Perfect.
First we ate the pizza ...
And no, not in classroom. That is frowned upon. So we went down to the Student Lounge.
What a plan!
The pizza was good. Then we got to work ... On the cupcakes.
But wait! This is a photography class ...
So, before we finished them off, we lined up the cupcakes in order to work on this whole notion of DEPTH OF FIELD that
we talked about on Tuesday night. Line 'em up, focus on one, and play with the depth of field.
Play with your food before you eat it. Sweet.
I love my job.
Really, it did fit right into my plans of showing how this all works ... But cupcakes taste better than the old stand-in
-- Pool balls.
No, we used them to show motion once all the cupcake prompts were finally gone ... That didn't last long.
It also played right into my lesson on ELEMENTS OF DESIGN that we were also working on ... First come the "mechanics"
of photography, than the art. We used the cupcakes to "build our image".
Cupcakes as art ...
Make an image, not just take an image.
Start with an empty canvas ... Then add the subjects, line up and place the subjects just where you want them ...
Then ...
Eat the subject.
Again,works for me.
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY.
FIND YOUR SPOT
I live in Caldwell County, North Carolina. Hudson, to be exact, but that is not how it goes around here. No, county first,
then village.
I am not used to that. I didn't grow up here. I'm a Yankee. Pulaski, NY to be exact.
I have NEVER said "I'm from Oswego County". Never.
And to be honest, I believe this is the first time I've ever said/written that I live in Caldwell County.
I'm trying.
Going on twenty-three years, but I'm not quite used to it yet.
I moved here because of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Period.
Oh, well ...
And the winters.
Lack of snow.
I came from The Snow Belt of Up-State New York. Feet, not inches. Six months of the year.
Yeah.
I made money as a kid shoveling snow ...
I like the winters here better.
Simple.
But I also like the Foothills. Caldwell County.
I teach at Granite Falls Middle School. I also teach photography at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute.
I am a teacher.
I am also a photographer. I have been for over thirty years ...
And it all comes down to this image.
The Tater Hole.
I am also the track and cross-country coach at the middle school. We run down and around the Tater Hole ... Or, what is
now officially called ... What? Lakeside Park?
Yeah, The Tater Hole.
I bring the teams down here every year to eat, what has become, over the past twenty something years, the end-of-the-season
party treat ...
Orange Sherbet and Oreos. A classic.
And yes, you have to crunch them up and mix-'em up real good ...
But I digress ...
This image of "My Foothills" was taken right from the spot where we run to every year ... The Boat Dock.
The sun was setting ... The color was getting nice ...
POWER LINES.
Crap.
Walked over to the Element, brought out my trusty old Nikkor 80-400mm VR lens, mounted it to my trusty tripod (and camera,
duh) and ...
Ta-da ... No power-lines.
Magic.
Sunset. Foothills. Color. Reflections. Light. Dark.
My Foothills.
My spot.
More than just a place to run through the woods, up one hill, down another, a place to run with hundreds of kids over
the years, eat Orange Sherbet and Oreos, take a Polar Plunge or two ... Run into and do jumping jack and push-ups (swimming
is not allowed) with the whole track team ...
My place.
My place to take photographs.
And witness sunsets ...
COMPENSATION 0.0
COMPENSATION -2.0
COMPENSATION 101
One of my THREE BUTTONS that I write about, talk about, and wear out.
The one I use the most.
It is important.
Our cameras are not perfect.
Lets get that little fact out and in the open real quick. True, they are good - Super Good - Right out of the box, but
...
Not perfect.
Not perfect for you.
YOU are the artist. YOU should be in charge of what your images look like.
This button makes that possible.
WITHOUT Photoshop.
Let me repeat that, WITHOUT Photoshop.
Yes, you can fine-tune your images right then and there ... Easy.
Here is a good example: I was out shooting with a photographer in Granite Falls, North Carolina, where I teach at the
middle school. We were walking around shooting and seeing what we could come up with. Sort of playing with our cameras, looking
for something to shoot.
I came across this black plastic tire on one of the many big trash containers we have at the school, you know, the plastic
ones with the wheels so you can move them around. Not what most people would think of as a piece of art.
But ... The wheels are black and make for the perfect example of why the camera's exposure needs to be adjusted when shooting
anything that is not a perfect mid-tone.
See, the camera is designed to give a "perfect" exposure if the subject is mid-toned (18% Gray to be exact).
The good news is that a lot of subjects just happen to be mid-tone ... Not too bright, not too dull. Green grass, the bark
of many trees, the blue mid-day sky, many flowers, plants, clothes, etc ... Again, not too bright, not too dull.
Mid-Tone.
Not white. Not black. Red. Blue. Whatever.
Mid-Tone.
The meter works great. Aim at a mid-tone subject, take a photograph. Get a nice exposure. All very simple and pleasant.
Yeah, but that is not how real-life works ...Or how photography works ALL the time.
Nothing is THAT simple.
We have bright colors. We have fifty shades of gray. We have fifty shades of black. Fifty shades of white. Red. Purple.
Yellow. Violet. Green. You name it ... Color. Black. White. We have it all ...
The meter only gives you 18% gray. No matter what the color is. Mid-tone. Not too black, not too white. Or red. Green.
Orange. Whatever.
You must adjust. Let in more light, or let in less light then what the meter suggests, or gives you.
EXAMPLE: Black subjects. White subjects.
Black plastic tires ... Or a yard covered in snow. Or a bride in a white gown. Or a groom in a black tux. All white, or
all black.
Or little men running around in dark green suits ...
Or dark red roses ... It is NOT just all BLACK and WHITE.
I can remember finding this out the hard way ... With film, at the zoo with my photography class YEARS ago, maybe 20.
All my images of the buffalo came out LIGHT brown. 18% brown. NOT the color that they really were. Every shot was too light,
washed out. Crap.
I learned. I thought I was safe with BROWN. I wasn't.
That is when the photographer - the artist - needs to compensate for the amount of light reflected off the subject. Dark
subjects absorb light, lite subjects reflect light. Not the "perfect" 18% mid-tone the "Japanese Wizards"
set our cameras to record.
Oh no.
So, what do we do?
THE COMPENSATION BUTTON.
Try it.
Set your camera to APERTURE PRIORITY (or AV for all you Canon shooters). Check to see if your compensation button is still
at +/- 0.0 ... It will be there if you have had no clue about it in the past ...
Then, fill the frame with, say, a black plastic tire. Take a shot. Check the results.
Say what?
What the heck happened to the BLACK tire?
Gray (Or in this case, light silver).
Now, set your COMPENSATION BUTTON to (minus) -2.0, and re-take the same image.
Ta-da. Magic. A BLACK tire. Like it looks in real life.
The camera meter makes everything gray (mid-tone), so you have to let in less light to make it look like it does in real
life. MINUS the compensation.
Minus two(-2) too dark? Try -1.7. Or -1.3. Whatever looks good to you.
Perfect. You got it.
**Just don't forget to re-set your COMPENSATION button**
I keep mine set at -0.3 as my "norm". My starting place.
On every digital camera I own, or have used ... I find they shoot to light for my taste. The same was true for film cameras
back in the day. I set my ASA (pre-ISO) to 125 when shooting 100 ASA film. I "lied" to the camera to cut the amount
of light hitting the film. Old school.
Now, I just set my cameras to 200 ISO, and then set my COMPENSATION BUTTON to -0.3. New school.
Cool.
Then I go out and shoot ...
I run up and down the scales to give me a little more light here, a little less there, depending on the color, or tone,
of the subject. Shoot. Adjust. Shoot some more.
Wear that button out!
And get this, the WRONG exposure just might turn out to be the BEST exposure.
Even better.
It is all about mood. Light. The "story" you want to tell ... ART.
Shoot now, ask questions later. You never know.
And no, I didn't learn that in the Marine Corps.
FLORIDA GATORS: Get it?
Spent a week in Everglades National Park photographing birds and gators ...
Florida Gators.
The Everglades: "The Rest of the Story" ...
Yes, I spent a week in The Everglades National Park photographing birds and gators ... And anything else I could find
...
Except people.
In fact, of the thousands of images, I can only think of two images with people in them ... The two you see here.
That's it. Period.
Funny how that works ...
Oh, there were plenty of people ... I think I even talked to a few of them. Maybe four ... But who's counting?
Not many.
I teach middle school.
I get away from the middle school for a reason ...
But, I thought I would share these images with you ...
People.
The Masked Man was a no-brainer. Bam.
I was at the marina in Flamingo hunting down an alligator I had seen over by the docks ... And a manatee ...
I had the big lens on the tripod ... Hunting.
And came across these people getting into their boat getting ready to go out fishing ... I think.
I have no idea. I just saw one of the men (?) with this mask ... You know, to protect himself from the Florida sun. Smart
man.
I just fired off a few quick shots.
Smart man.
The second image is the type of "Behind the Scenes" shot that I took once I walked back to the Element and picked
up "my other set-up" ... My trusty Nikon D90 with the 18-200mm lens. My "regular" camera/lens combo that
I use "all the time" ...
See, Florida had a wet summer (like it always does). Winter is "The Dry Season". People go to the Everglades
in winter because the whole area is dried up ... And the gators gather around the deepest pools in the area.
Yes. Which just so happens to be ... Ready? The Anhinga Trail, located at Royal Palm, home to the Anhinga Trail. A boardwalk
smack dap in the middle of the deepest holes ... Where the fish hang out for the winter.
Where there are fish, there are gators. In the driest parts of the winter, there are a lot of gators in the area.
And where there are gators, there are people - Many, but not all, of which, have cameras. And a few have LONG lenses mounted
on BIG tripods. You know, photographers.
This Christmas was wet.
Too much water all over the park. Which means, not that many gators hanging out where they are supposed to be this time
of year. I have been there when there have been over twenty floating and laying out in the sun. Lots of them. Everywhere.
Not this time.
Three or four. Maybe six ... Sometimes none. Or one.
Still good.
More than I've ever seen in Hudson, North Carolina.
So, when one was spotted ... Watch out! Like bees to honey. I usually could tell where the gators were by the number of
people standing around. Kids love alligators.
Kids of all ages. And from all over the world ...
I was like a magnet.
I set my tripod up. People come. I even had mothers hold their kids up to my camera so they could see the "little
logs" up close to prove they were really gators. See, some were off in the distance ... And small.
And some were not.
"The Tanning Booth" usually had one, sometimes three gators, sunning right along the trail. Their tail one foot
from the trail.
Elevated trail I might add.
Like pets. But not ...
But us kids could get a nice close-up with a, say, ten foot alligator. Close. I could of grabbed its tail if I was so
inclined.
I'm not.
Oh, the "Selfie-Sticks" were out in force, let me tell you ...
All part of The Everglades Experience ... Even the mosquitoes were behaving along the trial, which, trust me, is VERY
different the further you venture down the road ...
So. Two "people" images ...
From The Everglades.
One extreme telephoto up close, and the other up close with a wide angle lens. Very different.
That is why I carry more than one lens ...
And camera.
The right tool for the job.
Period.
Wildlife - Of all types, got to love it.
The Everglades
Spent Christmas down in Florida. Christmas in the Everglades. I have been there a couple of times dating back to 1988.
It is a great place to photograph wildlife ... Birds and gators. Perfect for my new lens.
I have written about getting a 300mm f2.8 lens for my 60th birthday, and matching it up with a 1.7X converter. This is
the one place I knew I could put them to the test, you know, have some fun.
Well, I could have had fun with any lens, but having the long lens made for some new images ... At 750mm (35mm equivalent),
it is by far the longest lens I have ever shot with. It was great.
And the great thing about the Everglades is, that I didn't really have to lug the beast around all that much. I could
park, get out, and be shooting within, what? Fifty feet. Less really.
True, I did lug it around the Anhinga Trail quite a bit (1/4 mile trail - ALL day), but, it wasn't bad. At the Flamingo
Campground, there was an osprey nest right at the entrance... Two-minute walk. Perfect.
This upside down reflection shot of an anhinga, is one of my favorite from my week in the park. The bird itself, was blocked
from my view by branches, but his reflection is what really caught my eye.
The fact that you see these birds drying their wings all the time, and that I have photographed them every time I am in
the park, made it the perfect time to expand my vision, and go for the "abstract" shot of the bird that gives this certain
walkway its name ... The Anhinga.
I know for a fact, that my first time here I did not "see" this image. Well, to be honest I can't remember that that far
back ... I was just thrilled to see these beautiful birds just sitting there posing for me, that I just photographed them
"straight", or, just the way I saw them. The way most people photograph them. Perfectly good plan.
Rule Number Three: Shoot Lots of Images. In fact, what that really means is shoot a lot of images, for a lot of years.
And repeat.
Once you get "The Shot", the record, then you can begin to think of new ways to photograph the same subject. Same story,
different chapter.
It is the same thing I did (do) with the Bradford Pear trees outside my front door. And sunflowers. And osprey. And alligators.
And ferns. And ...
I knew where the gators were along the trail, because I have photographed them at the same places year after year. In
fact, I swear they are the same animal.
They look the same.
Which reminds me ...
I have photographed osprey for years now ... The Outer Banks, Florida, New York, Idaho, and New York, and New York (you
get the idea). I, sort of, kinda, know what they are all about ... I can tell when they will take off, and I have a better
understanding of them. But, that said, the one thing I never could tell was, which one was the male, and which one was the
female?
I thought I knew because the female stays at the nest and raises the chicks, while the male goes out and "hunts" the fish
... You know, like Ozzie and Harriet, from back in the day.
Personification.
Giving human traits to non-human subjects (learned that teaching at the middle school). Say what? What was I thinking?
I don't know, but that was really was how I thought of them ... Hey, I teach middle school kids, what can I say? I am not
a ... Well, you know, whatever it is you call people who study birds...
I never really knew which was which.
In Richland, NY, where I have photographed the same pair for years, I always get there after the chick, or chicks, are
born. You know, the whole school teacher thing. I get there mid-June. Too late. They don't "fool around" in front of the chick(s),
I guess ...
But ... In Florida, at Christmas, the osprey are mating fools and ... Well, I figured it out. I'm that good. An osprey
expert.
The females are also bigger ... But someone told me that, or, I read it someplace, I can't remember. I just saw which
bird landed on top of the other, and took it from there ...
The female had brown feathers on her chest ... The male didn't. Ta-Da. I could tell.
Oh, and yes, my whole, one stays in the nest/brings back the food theory, was shot all to pieces ... But hey, it kept
me amused for all these years ...
Although, it is funny, but the male osprey brought back a big branch for their nest (it is a HUGE nest, by the way). He
landed, tried to put it in just the right place, but no ... The female was all over him, grabbing the branch, twisting it
all around, almost knocking him out of the nest , and placed it right where she wanted it ... Maybe my theory wasn't that
bad after all ...
Just sayin' ...
The Everglades. Great place to photograph birds, alligators, and ... Well, as it turns out, it is also a great place to
donate blood ... I tend to forget that ...
But that is a different story for another time ... Holy crap, I can almost hear them buzzin' around me as I sit here and
typin' away ...
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Say What?
You know you take a lot of photographs when you are looking back over some of your DVDs and ...
Say what?
When did I take that? Where was I? What the heck?
Then you look closer.
True, I still have no idea where I took these two images but I believe at least one of them was when I was in the car
wash ... The "White One" with the little streaks.
Yes, I have taken a lot of images of my windshield while sitting in the car as it is getting washed.
What? Don't you?
Yeah.
Now, the other one, the "Green One".
No idea. Don't think it is a car wash. I came across it while going through my New Zealand images from 2005.
Ten years.
Yeah, no way. It must have been a wall, the side of a building, something. Who knows? New Zealand was pretty wild ...
Could have been anything.
What it is, is art.
Simple enough.
That is why I took it. True, I don't remember taking it but I know why I took it, and that is good enough for me. Works
for me.
Art.
Pretty simple really. That is why I take ALL my images. Every one. All of 'em ...
I like to tell my college students (and my middle school camera club kids) that if you can SEE this type of art, your
photography - your art - will improve.
A lot.
Seeing lines, patterns, shapes, texture, and ... Soap suds and paint, is the first step in seeing art. Art is lines, shapes,
patterns, texture, and yes, even soap suds and green paint.
If you can see this, seeing the art in a flower, a building, a forest, the human face, the trees out front in your yard,
whatever ... Will become easier. Period.
Look for art where others don't. See what others don't. Make art out of anything. Anywhere. Any time.
Don't worry, you might not be able to remember the when and/or where, but you will remember the why.
Get out there and look. See.
Playing With Leaves
I have been working very hard the last month or so - from the first of November, to be exact - photographing the Bradford
Pear trees out in front of my apartment. Every day. Real hard.
I started out like I usually do ... One day, one lens, one shot. Well, no ... That is how this whole "game"
started years ago, but this year I was going with, shoot a couple, delete all but one each day.
Nice little game.
It was easy at first. The first few weeks not much was happening color wise. Green. Green. More green.
Then the magic starts ...
Yellow.
Orange.
Red.
Rules changed ...
Hey, I make up the rules, so ... I couldn't help myself. I see one image. I see another, which leads to another ... Oh
boy.
Kind of like the books I used to read to students when I took my kids down to the Elementary school ... IF YOU GIVE A
MOUSE A COOKIE ... Hey, you can't help it.
The Magic Happens.
So, for the past week or so ... Yeah, I take LOTS of images. And get this, don't delete them.
Well, until I ran out of space on my card that is ...
Then I go inside and ... Well, clear space.
I have also taken the 300mm f2.8 lens up in the mountains with me and, well, played another game. It is called Shoot Now,
Ask Questions Later.
That is fun too ...
Anything and Everything. Period.
I like the act of making images ...
Seeing.
Learning.
Trying this, trying that ...
This is what these two images represent.
Playing.
That simple.
Like I said, I have done this before ... What? Ten years? Same yard, same trees (there are three in a row), same concept
- With a twist or two depending on the year, my mood, my playfulness ...
The change of color every year. Fall. Autumn.
Green to Yellow to Red to Brown to ... Mulch.
Thousands of images.
No two the same. You know, kind of like snowflakes ...
I have never come across images like these three before.
No, sorry, I stand corrected here ... The third one, the BLURRRRed image.
I saw that one at the zoo. A couple of years ago ... I can't remember everything ...
Pink. The image was pink, and it wasn't a tree ...
Oh yeah, it was a Flamingo.
That's right. I "remembered" this image when I first saw it this morning on my LCD screen ... The "sweep"
of color.
The yellow blur reminded me of the sweep of the Flamingo's wing as it stood there with it's head tucked under its wing.
Really.
That is what I saw ... Or remembered. Thought of, whatever.
That is how my "Photographic Mind" works ... For good or bad.
Thousands of images over the what? Past thirty years? And this is what happens.
Yellow Bradford Pear Leaves become Pink Flamingo Wings.
Magic.
True, I had to rotate the image ... But, like I said, I can't help myself.
That is why I am still doing this crazy thing, all these years later ... For images like these.
The first image ... The Panorama. No, I didn't shoot it like this, I SAW it like this. The branch was low ... I saw the
line-up and, in my mind's eye, I SAW this shot.
I believe Ansel Adams referred to it as "pre-visualization", I just say that is how I SAW it before I took
it.
Same difference.
It is also why I get out there day after day shooting "The Same Thing". Because they are never the same. I don't
see them the same ...
Same yard. Same tree(s). Same game. Same concept. Different images.
Year after year.
Deja-Vu all over again ...
Only different.
Wal-Mart Camo Wrap
I ordered a LensCoat camo wrap for my 300mm f2.8 lens the day I bought it ... Back in April. It was cool ... Digital Camo.
Protects the lens from dings, and looks cool, a no-brainer.
It was put on back order.
I waited a few weeks ... Then found out I could buy a Kirk replacement foot to match my Kirk ball head. So, I cancelled
the LensCoat, and spent the extra money on getting the replacement foot that works with my Kirk Ball Head (the BH-1).
Sweet.
One-piece, screws right in place of the Nikon foot - Perfect.
Except I didn't get my super cool military digital camo LensCoat thing that I wanted ...
I could wait.
Then I was exploring Wal-Mart like only I can, you know, looking for photo DIY items ... Like camo wrap for your lens.
Say what?
BAM.
I was looking for some camo-mesh stuff to build a blind with and came across this camo tape like stuff that hunters use
to wrap their rifles with ... REMOVEABLE tape that secures well but can be removed when needed. Leaves no marks, etc ...
Perfect.
I bought a roll for $9.95. If it doesn't work, no biggy. If nothing else, my boys at the middle school could find something
to do with it ... They are good like that. Camo bicycles, camo skateboards, camo little sisters, etc ...
It won't go to waste.
$10.
The LensCoat set-up was $90.
It works well.
True, it is not the fancy digital camo that is all the rage in the military at the moment, but ...
I saved $80. I like it, and it does serve to protect my lens against those little bumps and scratches that could mess
up my lens.
In fact, truth be told, I bought a used lens, that does have scratches on it ... But you will never know now, because
you can't see them. I have them under wraps!
I even bought a second roll (for back-up), plus a roll of black wrap that I used on my tripod legs. Again, it serves two
purposes, one, to protect the legs from "bumps", and second, to insulate the legs from the cold weather. Which,
of course serves a third purpose, which is to keep my hands from freezing when I shoot in the cold.
I used some to cover my "leading leg", or "pointing leg", on my tripod. The other two legs I used
the black wrap. Pretty cool stuff. It sticks to itself. Like magic. Once it is wrapped around, it sticks. No worries. I can't
even tells where it ends.
Rifle Camo-Wrap.
Not bad,for someone who doesn't hunt. Or own a rifle.
Well, no, I take that back. I do hunt, just not with a rifle. Trout. Deer. Bear. Ducks. Northern Gannets. Sandhill Cranes.
Alligators. Flamingos. Red-Tail Hawks. Zoo animals. What-have-you.
Chipmunks ...
Wildlife. With a camera. And a big lens ...
So. Glad I went to Wal-Mart.
Now I am planning my Christmas Break get-a-way.
The Everglades or Bosque del Apache? Florida or New Mexico?
I've been to both. And both are good. Real good.
I don't know ... I have a few weeks. I was all set for Florida, but then I counted the number of days I have off at Christmas,
and ...
I-40 West. I could be in New Mexico in a couple of days ...
I could be in Florida in one day.
Like I said, I have a couple of weeks.
Wal-Mart. Gotta love it.
And camo wrap.
Who would've thunk it?
Two For One
I was up in the woods spending the day, well, up in the woods. With a camera. And a 10.5mm fisheye lens.
Looking.
Trying to match the lens with the landscape. Very important. Any lens. Any landscape. Any shot. Any time.
Learn what you can, and can not do, with any one lens. Learn that lens. Learn how to use it. Learn what works. Why it
works.
Then remember ...
Even more important.
That is what it is all about. Every image you have ever taken comes into play for every other image you will ever make.
That simple.
Good or bad. Or great. Every time you press that shutter release, the past comes into view. What works, what doesn't.
I knew a fish-eye would curve the curves even more by getting close - getting in among the vines. And rocks. And leaves.
And ... Well, you know, the woods. Get in there. Poke around. Get that camera where you want it.
I try to get out there as much as possible. With different camera/lens combinations and ... I call it playing. Play. Try
this, try that. Get it here, get it in there, get that lens where you want it. Over and over.
Then ...
Do it again in color.
See, I was out shooting in color - as usual. Then I got onto this vines, limbs, curves thing, and I switched to Black
and White. In camera. So I can SEE in black and white. See the lines, shapes, patterns, forms ... Tones. See how they work
together.
I was into the black and white thing ...
Then, I knew I found something. I shot this rock/vines thing to death. Little here, little there, watch the corners, fill-the-frame.
Shoot, move, shoot, move again. Slight move to the left. To the right. Tilt the camera, always watching the edges.
Bam. Bam. Bam.
Then ... Slow down. Stop.
Menu.
Back to VIVID.
Back to color.
Take another shot. Or two or three ...
Then back to black and white. Just because I can.
I will tell you right now, I will remember this rock. This location.
What are the odds I will re-visit this shot?
Yeah.
A given. Four seasons. Year after year.
I camp up there. I ride my bike up there. I take cameras up there.
All the time.
Year after year.
MOM
I took my mother up to the Blue Ridge Parkway a week or so ago to see Fall Colors.
We found some, and enjoyed the ride up to Cone Manor and beyond ...
I just had my little Nikon S01 with me ... I keep it in my glove compartment, you know, for times like these.
My mother moved to Lenoir this past April, and this is her first Fall in the South. I grew up in Pulaski, New York. No
mountains. No foothills. No mild winters ...
No Blue Ridge Parkway.
All reasons I have lived here for the past twenty two (and a half) years.
We stopped at a ... Whatever it is you call them, a pull-out, along the Parkway, and I went across the Parkway to photograph
some fall color ...
When I returned, I came across this image.
My mom is small, or short, and the door of my Element seemed to frame her just right, with the mountains filling the frame.
And the light ...
I like it.
I don't photograph my mother that much, she re-married and moved away when I was 17 years old. I haven't lived near her
in over 40 years.
But it was her that gave me my first camera -- A Kodak 110 Instamatic, as a graduation present in 1973. I drove my Honda
350cc motorcycle from up-state New York to Douglas, Arizona to visit, and got to take my first travel pictures on my way back.
She got me started on this whole camera thing.
When I do, she reminds me of my uncle - her brother. I have been spending time up with him the past few summers at his
camp, just outside Mannsville, New York.
He is short as well.
They look like brother and sister.
They talk like brother and sister.
They both have these little sayings that are, well ... I never hear anyone else say them, ever.
Photographs are funny ... They take on whole different meanings after they are taken, by the person taking them.
I guess that is why I take them.
Mom on the Parkway ... Not the first time, but the first time since moving down here. The first time in the Fall since
moving down here from New York.
Looking at the mountains ... Her mountains.
Glad I had a camera with me.
And live near the Blue Ridge Parkway.
And that my mother got to see them ... For the first time, all over again.
Body Art
I was on a boat in the Pacific Ocean, on my way to The Channel Islands, off the coast of California.
There was a humpback whale, seabirds, and then, a few dolphins came dashing (or splashing) along, playing
in the waves created by our boat.
One dolphin caught my attention.
There were several, I zoomed in on just one ...
I hope I don't have to explain why.
That is photography. That is art.
Very simple.
It makes me who I am as an artist.
A photographer. A person.
I teach photography. In doing so, I teach art. The college calls it art: Art 261.
I call it photography.
I have to remind myself that I teach art. Yes, it has been over twenty years, but I still say I teach photography
...
What makes photography art?
The photographer.
The person.
The subject.
What we choose to photograph makes us an artist. An artist different from any other artist.
Just as this dolphin is different from any other dolphin.
The scars.
They caught my attention. They are what made me photograph this dolphin among the, what? Six or eight
others that morning out in the Pacific. That dolphin, at that minute (fraction of a second?).
Period.
My vision.
My art.
My passion.
First off, just being at that place, at that time, with that subject, is what really makes me the artist/
photographer/person, that I am.
Think about that.
I live in North Carolina. I am a middle school Special Education teacher. A part-time college instructor.
A photographer.
That dolphin was photographed in the Pacific Ocean.
I drove to Ventura, California from Hudson, North Carolina.
With camera gear.
A lot of camera gear.
There I was, on a boat, following a humpback whale, 3000 miles from home, and I see dolphins chasing our
boat.
And this is the image I take.
The image that caught my attention.
The image I first used on my webpage ... Although this is a cropped version of the original.
Ahh ...
I zoomed in on what caught my attention in the original image.
That is twice the scars caught my attention.
Made me look closer.
Made me crop out everything but what caught my eye. Made me stop and look. To make this image in the first
place.
That is art.
That is my art. My vision. My take on the world around me. What I want to show the people that were not
there to witness this event.
This moment.
You.
The viewer.
Art is funny like that. Photography is even funnier.
First, you have to photograph something that catches your eye, then you have to present it so that it catches
the eye of the viewer.
Of the thousands of images I took this summer ... And there were a lot, even of this one morning on the
boat, this is the one I picked to put on my website, to "publish", to share.
And then, after seeing it a few times (I have it as my screen saver), I chose to go further, crop in more,
really look closer at those scars.
The body art of this one dolphin.
And yes, I know, you can't even see it's face ...
Don't even get me started on that whole aspect of photography, of art.
I have preached ... OK, stressed, that for years ...
And it is key to the whole "art/artist" concept I am talking (writing) about ...
Your art, your vision, is really all about what you don't actually photograph, or include, in your photographs
(or paintings, sculptures, what-have-you).
Of the million subjects around us every second of our lives, what makes us direct our attention to this
one subject?
In this case, this one dolphin? After all, I was actually photographing this
lone humpback whale in the first place ...
The scars.
If I had captured just this dolphin's face above the water, as he played below me, I would have missed the
very aspect of this creature that I wanted to show.
The Body Art.
The one aspect that sets this one dolphin apart from the others.
That which makes it special.
Now, yes, millions of dolphins, I'm sure, have scars ... Either from propeller blades, or orcas, or whatever
else could produce such marks (I am really clueless as to how these scars came into being).
They just caught my eye.
Made me zoom-in.
Pulled me into the moment. Made me track them through the water ...
Made me wonder.
That is why I drive across the country. Sleep in my Element. Go to National Parks. Put a camera to my eye.
Look. See. Push the shutter button.
Zoom-in.
Crop.
Write.
And go on and on ...
The one aspect of any subject that catches my attention. Captures my eye. Makes me single it out from everything
else.
My art.
Body Art.
The image.
That is what art is all about. It is what photography is all about.
It is what I am all about.
Well, except for that whole Body Art thing ...
Although, I still do have that scar on my left leg from photographing the Milky Way in Sequoia National
Park ...
But, like I said, don't get me started ...
The original, un-cropped image shot @ 600mm equivalent.
Postcards from the Edge: 2015
Great Basin NP. Horseshoe Bend, AZ. Grand Canyon NP (South Rim). Colorado NM. Rocky Mountain NP. Bryce Canyon NP.
Sequoia NP. Yosemite NP. USS Midway (San Diego). Channel Islands NP. Blue Ridge Parkway. Cedar Breaks NM. Grand Canyon
NP (North Rim). Bodie State Park, CA. Bishop, CA. Nevada Northern Railroad. Grand Staircase Escalante NM. Las Vegas,
NV. Pacific Beach, CA.
I kept my mother busy this summer
checking her mailbox.
Good exercise.
Sequoia National Park, California
Mono
Lake, California (with flashlight)
Western
USA (I Can't Remember)
NW Arizona, where the road dead-ends at the Colorado River
The Milky Way
Great Summer. Great trip.
I started out
at the OBX on the Atlantic Ocean, then turned around and headed to Chicago for my uncle's 90th birthday bash, then west to
Nevada, for a National Park I seemed to have missed over the years, and a Lunar Crater out in the middle of nowhere ...
And then California. And a bunch of National Parks, with a couple return visits,
and several new ones, with the Channel Islands being my main goal. Coast to Coast. One summer, two oceans.
And the Milky Way in between.
Always there.
I have shot it before ... Rafting
trips out West. In the canyons. Dark skies, out away from the cities. In the middle of nowhere.
Dark and clear skies ...
Mono Lake in California.
I parked right there. Sunset. Middle of the night. Sunrise. Crazy good.
Yosemite. Half-dome under the stars.
Kings Canyon
National Park.
Sequoia National Park. "The Best". Ask
me about my scar ...
Joshua Tree National Park. Boulders
lit by camp fires ... Magical.
The
Grand Canyon. Both the South Rim and the North Rim. Out there shooting at 2am, 3am. Or was it 4am?
Arches National Park. Clouds. No Milky Way, but I was up checking anyways.
Richland, New York.
Say what? Richland, New York? The Milky Way?
No
way.
Yes way.
I kid you not. 10:30pm. I walk outside to go to sleep in my trusty Honda Element ... And, Holy Crap! The Milky Way.
Clear as day. Only it wasn't.
I got out the tripod,
and shot away, for a half hour or so. Crazy.
The Milky
Way.
On the East Coast.
In Up-State New York. Richland, New York.
I
was like ... The Milky Way?
Really?
Really.
I
told myself ... And anyone that would listen to me ... That you had to go out West to see the Milky Way.
Really see it. Away from the big cities and bright lights.
The East Coast? No way. I grew up in Pulaski, New York, you know, a suburb of
Richland, New York.
Or something like that ...
I don't remember seeing the Milky Way. Like ever.
Was I wrong.
In fact, it is 12:56am right now as I type this ... I'm going outside to check if I can see the Milky Way.
Really.
** (Three or four minutes later)**
Nope.
Besides the stupid street
light just outside my door, killing my sharply trained Marine Corps night vision (yes, really, 1976), all I saw were clouds
...
I will try again.
And again.
I want to see the Milky Way from my driveway.
If it is possible.
I can't recall seeing it ... Ever.
Maybe I wasn't looking ...
Anyway.
I know how to photograph the Milky Way now. I worked on it.
Like, all summer. And for the past, oh, I don't know ... Six or seven years. Or eight or nine. I don't know.
On rafting trips out West.
But
I REALLY worked on it this summer.
Here it is ... Try it.
ISO at, like HIGH. The highest you have. 3200 ISO. 6400 ISO.
Wide
angle lens, set to infinity.
And beyond.
And wide-open. Like f1.8. f2.8. f3.5.
Whatever
you got ... Wide-Open.
Crank that baby!
That's it. That is what it comes down to ... That is what I read.
And now the kicker ... What I learned. By doing it.
At zero-dark thirty.
Plus five (+5) compensation.
Again, yes.
Really.
Yeah. Crank that baby too ...
Try it.
TRIPOD. I almost forgot ... (Duh)
Aperture Priority.
High ISO.
Wide-angle lens.
Aperture wide open.
Plus five compensation.
Focused at infinity
(auto-focus turned off).
Two-second self-timer.
Click.
Magic.
That easy.
The
trick is to keep your exposure below thirty seconds.
Longer
than 30-seconds? The stars tend to blur. Show movement.
It
depends on the moon.
Really.
Full moon? Lower your ISO.
No moon? Raise your
ISO.
Shoot it with a full moon, then wait for the moon
to set, then get back out there and shoot it again. Without the moon.
Really.
If there is a bright moon, I let the
moon light the mountains, cliffs, trees, foreground, whatever ... And let the stars do their thing. Play with your ISO
to keep those shutter speeds below thirty seconds.
The
faster the better.
Pin-point lights (stars). No blurs.
Or little blur. Or movement.
Very different from the film days and the star trails going round and round from the very long exposures. Like HOUR(s)
long exposures.
That was all the rage. Hours and hours
...
Yeah. That would fry your sensor with digital.
I think. Or so I've read.
I'm not going to find out for you.
Sorry.
Locking the shutter open for hours at a time is not a good thing with a digital
camera.
Or so I've read.
The new thing is pin-point stars and the whole Milky Way Thing...
The Digital Age. The New Thing. What all the Cool Kids are shooting ...
I love it.
I enjoy shooting it.
I play.
I
use flashlights to light up trees, rocks, whatever is in the foreground ...
I try multiple exposures to see what happens ... Two shorter exposures mashed together.
I don't know, why not? Try it, you might like it.
I'll
try anything ... I've tried everything.
With some success,
and plenty of failures.
It is all good.
I giggle a lot, to tell you the truth.
Yes, at 10pm. 11pm, or 3am, or 4:27am, whatever ...
It
is all good.
Except the clouds.
And Las Vegas.
Or,
say ... Los Angles, Seattle, Chicago, Detroit, The whole East Coast thing from Miami to New York City to Boston
(except Richland, NY that is) ... You know, big cities (or street lights in your driveway or parking lot).
Full-Frame camera? Even better.
Get out there and shoot it. See what those big sensors, and higher than crap ISOs, can do for you.
Play.
Enjoy
the night. The perfect light of night.
Oh, I like the
sound of that. Like, it just came to me ...
Must be the
time of night.
Or morning, whatever ...
The Destination
Road Trip 2015.
As I was packing, I came across
this t-shirt I picked up on one of my rafting trips over the years.
Like being on a river, being on the road, is the exact same thing.
Only different.
But, it is the destination.
The road. The journey.
True, California, and Channel
Islands National Park, is as far West as I will be going this summer ... But, the journey, is really all
about the miles from here to there, and in-between.
And
back.
That is the true destination.
It was true in 1973 on my first cross-country adventure, aboard my trusty
Honda CB350cc motorcycle ...
And it is true in 2015,
on my next cross-country adventure, in my, I don't know how many cc's, Honda Element.
Things don't really change all that much.
My
waist-line ... The color of my hair ... The number of tires ... That whole cc thing ... And the amount of camera gear I'll
have with me ...
Yes ...
But, that is about it.
The Journey, is indeed,
the Destination.
Green
I am not very good at this.
My last Work Day at GFMS was Tuesday. Today is Saturday.
I am still here.
Crazy.
I am usually gone for the summer. On the road. Photographing something.
On the move. Living in my Element.
Somewhere.
Not this year. Not yet.
And, like I said, I'm not very good at this.
My
mother moved to North Carolina in April. April 20th . She stayed with me until May 20th.
She is now all set up in lovely downtown Lenoir, ready to start the next chapter of her life.
I am ready to start mine as well. I have a dentist appointment in a couple of
days, mom is all set up, my sister is driving down to visit for a month (and will be staying in my apartment), and I am making
plans for the summer.
Well, no, I have plans ... I am
just tweakin' the plans over and over in my head, so I don't need to use maps once I get on the road.
OBX for a few days. Shenandoah National Park. Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Chicago.
Route 80 to The Great Salt Lake (because I can). Great Basin National Park. Bishop, California (Galen Rowell's Gallery). Yosemite
National Park. Kings Canyon National Park. Sequoia National Park. Channel Islands National Park. Riverside, California (where
I was born 60 years ago). San Diego. Joshua Tree National Park. Las Vegas. Grand Canyon National Park. Petrified
Forest National Park. I-40 East. Nashville. Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Yeah, the theme is National Parks.
I like National
Parks. They are National Parks for a reason. That's the only reason I need.
My goal is to visit all of them.
This summer
will knock a few off my list.
The Channel Islands are
what got this whole thing started ... They are kinda out there. Literally. I figured this would be a good year to drive across
the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific and knock out a few National Parks I have failed to visit in the past 60 years.
Like I mentioned, I was born pretty close to them, just never made it out into
the Pacific Ocean to visit them. I moved when I was, what? Six, eight months old? I don't remember.
In fact, I really have only been back there once ... In 1975, forty years ago.
I stopped and had breakfast, and got the heck out of there ... Way too much traffic.
But, for the sake of my National Park Theme, I shall return.
Great Basin. Channel Islands. Sequoia. And Kings Canyon. Those are the National Parks I have not visited before.
The rest?
Just
because they are there, along the route.
Perfect.
I have a few more days before I take off.
It is killing me.
I have watched movies. I
have cleaned cameras, checked my gear. Cleaned more cameras. Bought new batteries. Gone through camera bags. Watched Art Wolfe
videos. Gone for runs around Hudson. Cleaned more camera gear. Ate.
Ate some more.
So, today, I grabbed my
new point-n-shoot camera and went for a walk. A Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1.
Yeah, really.
Ahh, with a LEICA lens. Enough
said.
Sweet.
Got it used. An older model in pretty good shape. Well, in really good shape. Like new ... I don't know how old it
is, but it came with a 1GB SD card, so ... Yeah, it's been around for a few years.
1GB SD, pre-SDHC, card.
Old School digital.
I took a walk around town to pick-up a few items (did I mention I eat a
lot of crap when I'm bored?).
The first image is in my
driveway. First thing. BAM. Light. Lines. Shadows.
The
second one was shot uptown on Main Street. Again ... Light. Lines. Shadows.
The third shot was taken in Windmill Park. Lines. Period.
Well, lines and green. Green lines.
Like the
other two.
Yes, I did take other shots along the way
... Tried out the macro on this little bugger ... Seems to work pretty good.
And yes, some of the other stuff were actually ... Not green.
But, when going over the images on the computer ... Green was the theme. I went with green.
In fact, what I really liked, and was just going to write about, was the third
image.
Lines. Shapes. Layers. Monochrome.
I enjoy shooting these type of images, and I wanted to talk about why.
Why do I ALWAYS stop and shoot the "same" images over and over?
Anywhere and everywhere.
What are they? Elephant Ears? I don't know ... But I always shoot them. Always.
And Sunflowers.
And Ferns.
The purple flower things at GFMS.
Shadows.
Always.
Oh, and Bamboo.
And Ivy.
Like, what the crap?
Why?
Why do I always stop and photograph the
same things over and over? Do I need more images of ... Well, any of them?
No. I delete most of them. Period.
Lines.
I like lines in nature. The graphic shapes. The patterns. The repetition. The
color. The lines.
And, more importantly, I actually believe
I will see something new every time I photograph them.
Always.
Whoa ...
That's
it. I know why ...
Fly-fishing.
Yeah, really. Think about it. When I fish, I always just know that the next
cast is going to be "the one".
That is why I fish for
hours ... Like, all day.
I just know, that no matter
what, my next cast will be the one that catches the trout.
Period.
And, when that is proven wrong, I really, really know that it will be the NEXT
one ...
I even think about that while I am casting over
and over again ... The NEXT one. No, the NEXT one ...
On
and on. Over and over.
I am not making this stuff up.
That is how I fish.
And did I mention I let the trout go? Catch and Release. All those casts, and then ... I "delete" 'em.
Period.
That
is how I fish.
That is how I photograph.
I know I will see, find, capture, experience, something new.
Every time. Every photograph.
Period.
I just know it.
Take the last image for example ...
I wanted to see how the three layers (leafs) played off one another ... Playing with the lines ... The angles ...
The colors ... Lining them up ...
I looked.
I noticed something new ... I played at lining up the lines ... The layers.
I just enjoy looking. Seeing.
Getting lost in the moment.
Playing. Photographing.
And ...
Getting out of the apartment.
And playing with a "new" camera.
Did I mention the Leica lens?
And ... I like
the color green.
I am a Marine.
What can I say?
An Old Marine.
Waiting to get on the road again
.... Another Summer Road Trip.
Road Trip 2015.
National Parks.
I'm not very good at just sitting here ...
But,
my mother is all set up (bank, doctor, pharmacy, TV), my sister is on the way, and my cameras are clean.
Four more days ...
And please ...
No more junk food.
Spider
I was closing my door to go out for a run when I saw this spider just hanging there ...
I ran upstairs, picked up a D90, put on the 40mm macro lens, grabbed a SB-600 flash and got back to the door ready
to shoot ...
Again, I knew what I wanted. The moment
I saw the spider, a flash went off in my head (pretty clever, eh?).
I knew I needed to light this puppy up!
From
the side, top, bottom, someplace ... I just knew it.
So
I did it.
Played around.
From the side. From the top. From the left. From the left-side-top. From the bottom. The flash
real close, the flash not-so-close.
Just Do It.
I liked the first image ... You know, the "regular" shot. Hand-held flash off
high to the left ... Nikon's Creative Lighting System doing its thing ... BAM.
Then I shot a couple more ... Move the flash here, there, everywhere.
Yeah, I like the second one. The light just hitting the spider ... Yes! I just skimmed the light off the side of
the building ...
When I looked at my LCD screen on the
back of the camera, I just knew it. I liked it.
Then,
later on inside, when I saw it on my computer screen ... Yeah.
The curl ... That was it. Now I really liked it. That simple.
I know my middle school kids will like the second one as well. Simple. Graphic. Looks like one of their video game's
logos or something ... Well, it could be.
Sort of. Kinda
of.
Spiderman. BAM. In your face ...
Spider-legs.
All
this before 7am ...
On a Saturday.
Before my run ...
Oh, you have to love this stuff.
Great way to
start the morning. The weekend. Like, four-and-a-half days before SUMMER VACATION.
Are you kidding me?
Perfect Match
Real quick ...
I found the perfect match for
my modified Nikon D80 Infa-Red camera ...
The 10.5mm
Fish-eye lens.
Hello?
I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier, or if I did, I forgot about it, I guess ... Whatever.
I was going through my cameras, lenses, and bags, and figured, why not switch
out the Nikkor 18-70mm lens with the 10.5mm ?
Genius.
So, now I'm happy.
Crazy lens for a crazy camera.
That's it.
A crazy BLOG about a crazy man and his crazy ideas and his crazy cameras.
And lenses.
And
bags.
And his images ...
It is all about the images.
And the lens.
And the camera.
And the ideas.
And my driveway ...
And that whole crazy thing.
The Lens
I got it.
Yes, it took 30 years, but I finally
bought the lens I have ALWAYS wanted.
Thirty years ago
I got my first job as a photographer in Bremerhaven, Germany. I loved it. I took photos for the Department of the Army. I
was a photographer.
One day, I really don't remember
all the details, but some young German guy was in our office talking photography and showed me his Nikkor 300mm f2.8 lens.
Wow.
I
was shooting Minolta at the time and had NOTHING even close to one of those.
It was big.
It was heavy.
It was ... FREAKIN' AWESOME!
Thirty years.
I got one.
A "new" one ... Auto-focus, VRII, carbon-fiber lens hood, the works ...
Yes, I bought it used, but it is the newest model.
A beast.
Comes with a nice Nikon case. The total
package.
No, not from Adorama. Yes, I checked there,
but they didn't have what I was looking for.
B&H
Photo, also in New York City. I've been there, bought things over the years. They are good. They had a nice one in stock,
I bought it.
That easy.
It is a BEAST.
Heavy. Feels like a real lens
in the hands.
In fact, hand-holding this thing is a trip.
True, I've only walked around the front yard shooting anything and everything, but it is a trip.
The first two shots of the fan were taken inside my apartment. Yes, my trusty ceiling fan/light. The subject
I always shoot when I get a new toy.
As close as I could
focus ... About seven feet away. Standing up, hand-held ... Fire away.
The first image of the pull-cord is as I shot it. Full-frame.
The second pull-cord image is a very tight crop from the original. Like really tight.
Then blown up to the 15 inch height, just like the first one. Just the
pull-cord thingy.
Still pretty sharp.
Hand-held, with the VR (Vibration Reduction) on, a 300mm lens, which,
due to the fact my D300 camera has a DX sensor (smaller), the focal length is now equivalent to a 450mm lens.
450mm lens. 400 ISO. Hand-held, at f5 and 1/400th of a second.
And cropped big time ...
I'm happy.
The lens is known for being sharp.
And fast. The focus is ... Well, you know, fast. Locks on fast and responses even faster.
Nice.
And the really, really tight shot?
Yeah, that was taken with the lens mounted on a tripod, 450mm at f16, at 1/200th of a second. VR turned off.
And cropped REAL tight ... Tighter than tight. A TINY snippet out of the original.
Sharper than sharp.
I am REALLY happy.
That is why I wanted this
lens. This used lens, I might add.
The glass is clean.
Yes, the lens had a few "wear and tear" signs on the body, but really,
once I cleaned it up and touched up the "nicks" with my trusty black Sharpie pen, I had it looking good.
And, after using some cleaning wipes ...
And Armor-All ... And rags ...
Ta-Da.
Magic.
And
once I apply my LensCoat protective wrap (Military Digital), my new fancy lens cap, and the Kirk lens plate, it will look,
well, newer than new.
Yes, I ordered all the extras from
Adorama. The LensCoat protective wrap is on back-order, the rest came in, and make it all that much better.
Plus a Nikkor 1.7X converter. That is a real nice addition to this "set-up".
And yes, I had my 6th grade homeroom class do the math for me as a "Warm-Up"
... 300 x 1.5 (the "crop-factor" of my camera), then, take that, 450, and multiply it by 1.7 (the converter). Oh yeah,
they LOVE decimals ... They came up with, let's see ... Move the decimal point over ... Bring down ...
765mm.
Wait,
let me make sure ... It was a couple of days ago, let me double-check ...
Yes.
With the 1.7 converter, my 450mm f2.8 lens
becomes a 765mm f4.8 lens (it loses 1.5 stops of light with the converter).
Nikon rounds it off and lists it as 750mm. OK with me.
Again, it is all magic anyways.
I am headed
up into the woods Friday afternoon. I will put it through the tests then ...
For now, the light/fan test answered all my questions (both hand-held and with the big Gitzo tripod).
Is it sharp? Can I hand-hold it? Do I need to return it? Is it all I had hoped
it would be? Am I happier than a "Pig Eating Poop"?
Yes.
Yes. No. Yes. Yes.
THE LENS.
Thirty years.
Worth the wait.
Used, from B&H. About $1500 cheaper than a new one (same model). Clean glass.
Nice case. In good (great?) shape.
1985 - 2015.
Took a few years.
The lens.
The AF-S NIKKOR 300mm 1:2.8G II ED lens.
Can't
wait to actually use it ... You know, outside my apartment/yard.
Wildlife. Sports. Landscapes. Portraits. California. National Parks. Travel.
Road Trips.
Thirty years of being a photographer.
Thirty years of waiting for this lens.
And tripod.
This "Big Lens System".
Yeah ...
The Color Purple.
Again.
But hey, it is a different flower!
Smaller.
Still
purple, but a different shade of purple ...
Drove up
to Collettsville for Memorial Day. You know, MY special spot. The one that I have to clean up all the crap people leave
behind every time ...
Yeah, that spot.
Great spot.
I
was surprised it was empty on Memorial Day ...
A beautiful
day in fact. Perfect.
I rode my bicycle up there
yesterday, saw that it was empty, and got there at 7:30am this morning.
Memorial Day indeed.
And what song did
I have playing on my CD you ask?
American Soldier.
What else?
Great
song for a great day at a great spot.
I took my new tripod
up there to give it a work out. The big Gitzo. Four section, carbon fiber, no center-post ... THE BEAST.
Well, true, it is a beast, but it is not new. New to me, yes, but not new.
Used.
Adorama.
$400.
Yeah. I could not afford a new one. It is up around
$1000 or so ... Very big, very expensive.
Used works.
Makes me look like a real photographer ... Looks like my other Gitzo. Only bigger,
thicker.
And no center-column, or post.
It is like the one Art Wolfe carries around in his TRAVELS to the EDGE PBS series
I have been watching for years now on DVD.
A real tripod.
With the larger Kirk BH-1 ball head. Again, a BEAST.
Unreal.
The
whole system (if you can call a tripod and head, a "system") makes for a sturdy base on which to place your camera.
Pretty simple really.
Solid.
Like, real solid. Real sturdy.
And, I paid about as much as I did for my much smaller, lighter travel tripod
that I just love.
Bought that new.
Bought the newer, larger one used.
In fact, I tried to buy a used Kirk ball head ... Hard to find. They last forever. People don't give them up.
For a reason.
I
bought one from KEH Photography in Atlanta, but it was the smaller BH-3. They had it labeled wrong. I have two of them, I
knew right away they sent the wrong one.
And, speaking
of the wrong one ...
I bought another tripod from B&H,
another Gitzo. They had that one listed wrong. It said, no center-post.
It had a center-post.
Yes, it was a Gitzo. A
big Gitzo. But, it had a center-post. Like, they make a bunch of them ... Hard to keep things straight.
Three section. Four section. Center-post, no center-post. Series 5, Series 6,
this and that, etc ...
But I got the one I wanted.
The good thing is, both B&H and KEH have a very good return policy. They
send you return labels via e-mail, you tape it on the box, they come and get it ... Done.
Yeah, they come and get it.
Easy.
So ... Yes, it took awhile, but I have it. Gitzo/Kirk Beast Mode.
All that to get this image on Memorial Day.
And, all that with the money I got paid to coach track. Yeah. I run around with 40/50 kids for a couple of months,
and I get a new tripod.
Sweet.
And now, for what I really bought the tripod for ... Tomorrow, UPS is dropping
off my new (used) Nikon ...
Well, better wait ...
Don't want to jinx anything. I've only waited 30 years to get one ...
Can't wait.
Playful Artist
I can't paint. Period.
I did buy a set of Japanese
ink and brushes one time back in the day ... I really can't remember when. Actually, I think I bought them while living
in Korea of all places ... Not while I lived in Japan years earlier. Funny how that played out ...
I painted. I remember one very abstract red "Setting Sun" with black lines as
"mountains" ...
Like I said, I can't paint.
But I liked playing like I was an artist ... A painter.
I am a photographer. I take pictures. I make images. I am an artist.
Like I said, I play.
Flowers. I like flowers. I can "paint" flowers ...
Purple
Flowers.
Yeah, I shoot them at the middle school (as
you know) and the college (you know that too). I photograph flowers wherever they are. Well, you know, as long as I'm there
too.
That's how it works.
Being there. Being in the moment.
In camera.
Then and there.
Photography. Period.
I paint 'em where they
are. Where I am.
I play. I paint ... With light.
In fact, I wait for low light.
I set my ISO to the lowest setting. Usually 200.
I
"close down" my aperture to slow things down ... You know, f16.
Then I play with the shutter speeds ...
By moving
my aperture.
Funny how that works.
f11. f16. f22.
Whatever.
"Close it down, slow it down".
"Open it up, speed it up".
Yeah, I just came
up with that.
Really.
I've been teaching for 30 years, and it just came to me. Right now.
Funny how that works.
I love it.
Another "one-liner" that helps me understand the relationship between the aperture
and the shutter.
Photography.
Oh, that will become a test question next semester I'm sure!
Can't wait.
But
... That said, where was I?
Oh yeah ... Playing while
painting.
With a camera ... Make your brush strokes
by moving your camera.
Up. Down. Left. Right.
Smooth it out ... Nice and easy ...
Or not.
Up to you. Herky Jerky. Whatever.
You are playing, not coloring within the lines ... In fact, you are making your
own lines. How cool is that?
Just play. Move.
Enjoy.
I
can paint.
I was always just using the wrong tools.
Funny how that worked out too ...
I like painting with purple.
Or whatever ...
The Digital Darkroom
Have I told you how much I love Photoshop?
No, probably not.
I do.
I use it on every image you see here on
my website.
Here you see "what I saw" ... And "what I
wanted".
Granite Falls Middle School.
I have photographed these flowers for 21 years ... Every year. Year after year.
I walk past them every morning ...
I walk past them every afternoon ...
These were
taken on a Friday afternoon in April. In fact, it was THE last Friday in April.
I was leaving at 3:30pm and noticed the light ...
Yeah,
3:30pm. That's weird. In April. During track season ...
I
usually leave around two hours later ... Track until 5pm, waiting for parents to pick-up their kids, 5:30pm.
But this day was different ...
No track.
A beautiful day, but my mother left
the cold, snowy, North Country of Up-State New York this week and is staying with me in my apartment. We had things to
do ... Things to get settled.
Plus, the other coach,
and most of the 8th graders were still on their trip to Charleston, so half the team wasn't even there. A perfect day to go
look for an apartment for my mother and get her settled in.
But
...
That could wait.
The light. I noticed the light.
The flowers.
Back-lit purple flowers and shadows. Yeah, had to stop and take a few images.
Yes, I have a camera in my Element. You know, the little Nikon SO1 ... The tiny
white little thing.
Perfect.
Well, almost ...
No viewfinder.
As a DSLR shooter, I am used to my viewfinder. Not the little LCD on the back.
Reflections. Glare.
I had no idea what I was getting. I just knew the shadows would go black, and, that I wanted to get closer.
Get Closer.
I
like the back-lit effect ... The light. The "rim lighting". The Halo effect. And those little tongue thingys with the backlit
"whiskers". That was what I saw.
I took several ... In
focus. Out of focus. Minus one compensation. Minus seven tenths ... Three tenths ... Minus, minus, minus something.
I got what I wanted ... I got what I "saw". Envisioned. Dreamed. Wished for.
The vision I had in my head ...
The top image is
what was in front of me. Reality.
Light. Shadow. Flowers.
Bushes behind them. Mulch. Grass. You know, a garden. I hate to say this, but ..."Photographic Junk".
Stuff you don't want.
I wanted the bottom view. I was given the top view.
I got closer. I adjusted my compensation. I took several images ... Like, twenty something.
BAM. BAM. BAM.
Then,
I got in my Element, and headed home to pick up my mother ... To go check out apartments, buy a "real" phone, and ...
It goes on and on ...
Food Lion.
Dollar General.
Looking for a dresser ...
Screw-in the legs to the new couch I bought ...
I
have a new couch.
Then, and only then, I got on the computer.
Photoshop Elements 9.
Crop. Clone out some "crap". The
Clone Stamp. Contrast. Darken. "Play around".
Magic.
And ... I have a new image.
A new image of the same purple flowers I pass every school day. Day after day. Year after year.
I love that little camera ...
And, backlighting.
And Friday afternoons. It
really did messed me up. I'm not used to being in the Food Lion parking lot on a Friday at 5pm. It is a lot different than
being in the Food Lion parking lot at 9am on a Sunday morning.
People were out and about. There were cars backed up from 321 ... It was weird.
Getting out of school at 3:30pm on a Friday in April ... Whew.
The flowers. The light. The shadows.
Backlighting.
Backlighting saved the day. Made the day. Made the image ...
And Photoshop Elements 9.
Perfect.
Neon Rain
I like rain.
I like photographing in the rain.
Some people don't.
How else can you get pictures of rain?
Yeah.
Last week my college class and I shot in the rain. In Hudson. You know, where
the college is. We met in the parking lot of Fairvalue and photographed rain.
Or the effects of rain.
Why?
Well, because it rains.
It rains on vacation, it rains on assignments, and yes, it rains during photography class.
Count on it.
Since
Day-One of the semester, I have said, if we plan to go out and shoot, we go out and shoot. Period.
I mentioned shower caps. Zip-lock freezer bags. Trash bags -- I even handed
out trash bags to all my students, you know, so they can't say they don't have one.
I even explained that over the Easter Break, in Hot Springs National Park, I used one of the free (and clean) Doggy
Bags to protect my lens while out shooting ... I even brought one to class to hand out.
I do what I can.
I shot with my SUPER waterproof
Pentax AW 120 that I have written about before ... Point-n-Shoot, waterproof, small, and ... Well, my favorite point-n-shoot
of the four or five that I own.
Hands down. No question.
WATERPROOF.
I
had my little $39 tripod, I used the 2-Second timer, put on my raincoat, and went to work.
Playing.
First I had them get back in their
cars and shoot ...
Then the outside of their car ...
Then off to the laundry mat ... Like, yeah ... The place to shoot in Hudson.
The tile floor is to die for ...
Then the gazebo. Windmill
Park. Plants. Flowers. Bricks. The train car. The gazebo ...
Serves
two purposes: It keeps you dry, and ... Look up. It serves as a great pattern to shoot.
In the rain, yet out of the rain. Perfect.
And
that was it.
Shootin' in the Rain ...
And then I told them ... The REAL joy of shooting in the rain ...
Lights.
Traffic
lights. Neon lights. Lights from Coke and Pepsi Machines ...
Light.
And pavement.
Wet
pavement.
Perfect.
I love it.
I came home, sat around for it to
get really dark, and headed back out into the rain ...
Back
to FAIRVALUE. Neon.
And, as I was leaving ... The COKE
and PEPSI machines by the entrance ...
Stop.
Turn around. Drive back to the images on the pavement just waiting to be taken
...
Point and shoot.
Check my compensation. MINUS. MINUS. MINUS.
SWEET.
SWEET. SWEET.
Then up to Fuji #1 where the neon is ...
In the parking lot. Right out front.
Images!
That was the assignment: NEON RAIN.
It is raining right now as I sit here and type ...
And
it's getting dark.
I like the rain.
And the lights.
Neon Rain.
Spring Flowers
I had a great plan.
Meet at the college, drive to South Mountain State Park, and take images of Spring Flowers.
Like I do every Spring.
A Monday/Wednesday night college photography class is tough. It gets dark real quick. And we have, at most, two hours
of class time. Period.
So ...
A
Saturday Shoot to get everyone outside, in daylight, and go somewhere fun ... A State Park. A stream. Trees. Hiking
trails. Waterfalls. People. Rocks. And ... Wild flowers. And ... Trout.
Perfect.
I was ready ...
I got to the college early ... Well, five minutes early.
Noticed the flowers in front of the college as I drove in ... Nice.
Got out my new Canon Point-n-Shoot camera I bought for $10 over the Easter Break
at an antique store/junkyard I came across somewhere in Tennessee.
Nice little camera.
Turned it on. Pushed the
MACRO button. Got, like REAL close to the flowers and shot away.
I mean CLOSE.
"In the flower" close.
Touching the flower close.
Real close.
I liked the results.
Macro. Purple macro. And white.
I was happy before ever leaving the college.
Spent
15 minutes taking macro shoots.
Oh, class?
I forgot.
Walked
back to the car.
No one.
Glad I brought my fishing gear.
Off to South
Mountain State Park.
No one.
Crazy.
Well, it was Saturday. It was not mandatory.
It was just an idea. An excuse to get out and shoot.
I
was at the Park by 9am. The stream was high from all the rain, I was ready!
Got my waders on, ready to go. Made sure my Pentax fishing camera was ready to go ...
And up drove two students ...
Two FORMER students.
Harry and Karen.
Two former students showed up! How funny.
They haven't taken a class in what? Four or five years ...
But
they took the class several times back in the day ... Like, FILM days!
Good friends.
That show up for class! Even when
there isn't one. They just like to shoot. They go out all the time, all over the area.
It was fun to see them again. I think the last time I saw them was last year, up at Wilson's Creek. I was judging
the annual photography contest and was meeting with the photographers that day ...
I got there early and was walking around shooting ...
And who did I meet? Harry.
Karen was out roaming
around shooting ... She joined us a few minutes later.
Great
people.
Great photographers. Great artists.
This year they joined me as I fished ...
I caught one as they were parking and getting their gear ...
They got some close-ups of a nice brown trout, and then I fished and they took pictures from the bank.
Then, I put down the rod and picked up my tripod. Off we went looking for wild
flowers ...
And we found them ... Several of them. You
know, little purple ones (like, mini-iris looking thingys), yellow slipper things, pitcher plants (or PICTURE plants), Jack-in-the-Pulpits,
some kind of apple thing that isn't really an apple ...
Flowers
...
Oh, almost forgot. My favorite: Trillium.
That was what I went for ... Big green leaves, little dorky purple flower ...
You know, I've written about them before.
My favorite.
Oh, and we found them.
I photographed them.
And all the others.
And the waterfalls ... The bottom waterfalls.
I turned around and changed my tripod back for my fly-rod.
It was Saturday after-all, and I was ready to catch some more trout.
I did.
Didn't see Harry or Karen come back to
get their truck, but I did enjoy the trout. Oh, and one Bluegill or Crappy ... You know, NOT a trout!
I stayed until 6pm.
Had a great day. Shot with some great friends. Caught some great trout. OK ... Five or six nice trout, one great
trout!
But it all started with this Iris at the college.
At 8am on a Saturday.
Spring. Gotta love it.
Yes? Or No?
I know, we have talked about this before ...
People.
People as prop.
The Human Touch.
Should I shoot? Or should I
wait?
People in? People out?
Hot debate.
In Hot Springs, Arkansas.
I was in THE HOTEL ... The main hotel, in Hot Springs, where everyone who is
anyone, goes to soak in the waters, and be seen by those who don't.
Like
me.
I camped in the National Park about 2 miles away via s hiking trail
through the woods.
The Grand Hotel of the city's heyday as a resort town ...
The early 20th Century. Big names. Big times.
The Grand Staircase.
I liked the lines ...
I walked in, asked if I could photograph the
interior (and was told yes), and started looking. Shooting.
I
went right to the stairs ... The lines. The shapes. The color.
And while shooting the stairs, this lady walked down, right into my image.
I waited ...
Got it.
Told her, no, it was alright, she didn't get in my way, or ruin my image. No
problem.
No, she made my image.
Well, to me anyways.
I like the stairs.
They are art.
I like the stairs, with the lady walking down them. Just in the "right
place" ...
It tells a story.
The story of The Hotel, and the thousands of people that have descended that staircase.
Two images. Two stories.
Which story would you
prefer to read?
Shiloh
"Shiloh, when I was young ..."
Neil
Diamond
I turned 60 years old
on Easter.
In Nashville. Sleeping in my Honda Element.
Perfect.
Fitting.
I was on Easter Break from the middle school and gave myself and my college
class the week off as well ... Hey, it was my birthday.
I
had planned on going up to Richland, NY and spend the day with my mother and sister ... It has been awhile since we were
together for my birthday.
Like, 1972.
Anyways ...
It
didn't pan out. My sister was sick. Like, you know, real sick. The flu.
Maybe next year ...
So, I packed up the Element
with a couple of boxes my sister brought down for my brother at Christmas and headed over to Nashville.
Closer.
Warmer.
No flu.
No
snow.
Dropped off the boxes, spent the night. Headed
out the next morning ...
Older.
Headed for Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Yeah, really.
Another National Park I haven't
been to. Yeah, it's a National Park. Hot Springs National Park.
Yeah, the boyhood home of Billy Clinton. But, like I said, a National Park.
Driving west on I-40 I saw the sign for Shiloh ...
I like trips like
this.
I took the next exit.
Wing it.
And yes, I started singing that darn
song as I slowed down ...
It was a big hit ... Well,
it was popular, when I was young.
I remember.
I sang ...
Of
course I only know, like, one verse at most ...
Over
and over ...
It didn't help. I'm not young.
Yeah, but I can camp out in my Element, and hit the road, just like I've done
since ...
Well, since I was young.
And I went to Shiloh.
And met General Grant ...
And took his photo.
But this is the one image I take away from the visit ...
Sepia toned in honor of the time period.
I walked through the cemetery and just looked ...
I saw the tree first
... The background.
Then I just thought about what would work with the background
... The sweep of the tree?
Then I found this tombstone.
It was out away from the others ... Just perfect.
I got
down and placed the elements within the frame ... Left? Right? Center?
I went with ... Tree to the left, tombstone to the right. Off-centered.
Got close. Gave the tombstone a larger presence within the frame. It is, after all, a cemetery. A battlefield.
History.
Military
history.
I like history.
I like the military.
I liked what I saw in my
camera.
Then it hit me that I should pop up my flash
and give a little punch to the tombstone.
Perfect.
Then I knew from doing this before, that if I under-expose the ambient light
(the sky), it would add to the drama.
I like drama.
So, I noticed my shutter speed, went from Aperture Priority (my usual), to Manual,
and stopped down a stop to darken the ambient light.
Went
from 125th of a second to 250th. BAM. That easy. That quick.
And
I shot away.
Less ambient, add a little flash.
Oh, you can't tell?
Good.
I did good.
That is another thing about flash ...
You want
it to look like you didn't use flash.
Well, at least
I do.
Oh, and trust me, I heard it, read it, even watched
videos about it. It is not something I came up with ...
No.
That is why it is called "Fill-Flash". You fill-in the shadows with a hint of
light.
Our eyes can see into the shadows, our cameras
can not.
It was true with film.
It is true with digital.
That is what I find that little pop-up thing on the top of your camera perfect for.
Up close. Fill-flash.
Pop!
I did it here with the tombstone, then met General Grant and did the same thing
... Except I went for the big guns and actually pulled out my Nikon SB-600 and put it up on top and fired away ...
I had the three generals from the battle pose for me for their Facebook pages
...
Really.
I photographed Grant while he was talking to some other visitors earlier and when I went into the book store, there
they were ...
Grant and two rebel generals ... Johnson
and ... Well, you know, the other general... Can't think of his name at the moment ...
General Grant asked me if I would take some more images ... You know, I have a "real camera" and all ...
No problem ...
I
got the big flash.
I was ready. I had practiced earlier.
Generals. Covers (hats). Flash.
That simple.
Shiloh, Tennessee.
The Civil War. An early battle of the Civil War. A bloody battle. A major battle.
Glad I took the exit ...
Didn't plan it. I just love that aspect of traveling ... Road trips.
You turn where you want to turn.
And sing what
you want to sing.
Well, even if you don't really plan
on singing, you can't help it ...
"Shiloh, when I was
young ..."
Just a hint of fill-light to fill in the shadows under his cover. And add a catch-light to his eyes.
Anywhere
One thing I stress in my college class is that, yes, you can find (make) images anywhere.
Period.
Take
this image for example.
I was in Nashville visiting my
brother when he says he has to do his laundry.
OK.
We went down to the laundry mat.
I didn't take my cameras with me.
The laundry
mat? Come on.
Oh, wait ...
I have my new little camera with me ... The tiny one.
It was the perfect time in the ... Well, perfect place.
For an image.
Look at the light. Rule Number
One.
The sun was setting. I sat down.
Are you kidding me?
Perfect.
You know me and shadows ...
If you are reading this, you know my website. You know I do this all the time.
Whenever I see my shadow.
A self-portrait.
At the laundry mat.
At sun set. Facing east.
Washing machines.
Make that white washing machines. Contrast.
That means
one thing.
An image.
Me and my shadow. And washing machines.
I love
it.
Yes, I sat there and shot image after image ...
And get this ... Duke was playing for the National Championship on the TV.
Really.
I
was watching Duke win number five, while looking at the light during the breaks ...
That is my life.
My brother doesn't have a TV
in his house. No, I take that back, he does, but it is not hooked up to cable. Or whatever else there is ...
He uses it for DVDs. Movies. Games.
Really.
Hey, don't ask me ...
I was enjoying the game ... Duke won.
So did I.
My image from Nashville.
That is why I carry a camera with me.
Most of the time.
In fact, on my return to Nashville
on the way back from Hot Springs National Park, I actually spent the day with my brother once again ...
Without a camera.
Yeah, just spending time with my brother. Male bonding.
It was good.
So was the trip.
Oh, and did I mention Duke won it's 5th National Championship?
I did?
My New Devise
That is what we call them at the middle school these days. Well, all the schools,
I guess. I remember reading about how the School Board, and the Superintendent, approved BRING YOUR OWN DEVISE DAY at the
beginning of the year.
Holy Crap ...
But that is for another time and place.
This is about my newest camera, my newest "devise", that I bought for my birthday -- Which, again, isn't
until next week. But, I had to get it ordered in time for me to actually get it before I take off for the holiday.
Yeah, my birthday, ahh, this year anyway, is a holiday. Easter.
I'm driving up to New York. Richland, New York, not NEW YORK CITY.
No, that is where I buy all my camera equipment, I grew up about 300 miles north
of the Big Apple. North of Adorama.
In the country.
Northern New York. Close to Canada. Lake Ontario. You know, where the snow piles
up for about six months, screaming down from Canada. The Arctic Blast. Over and over again.
The reason I live in North Carolina.
That, and
I don't have to pay sales tax on all my camera gear I buy in New York City. Sweet.
Anyway.
A Nikon SO1. Tiny little thing with
a weird name. I mean TINY!
Bought it used ... A+ condition.
Yeah, like, brand new used. It blows my mind.
In the
box, everything. Brand new-ish, for the price of $69.00. Plus I got a few dollars knocked off for ... Well, I really don't
know why. I just click on Steve Chill's name when asked if someone helped me with my order, he doesn't (all done on-line),
and BAM. Magic. It is cheaper than what I thought I bought it for.
Really. At my door in less that five days, for less than $69.00. Too easy.
That said, what can one expect for less than $69.00?
A tiny camera with 10MP, a wide-angle/telephoto zoom, a self-timer, a compensation button (I like it!), flash
control (off, fill, and auto) and ... Something new for this Old Fart ... A Touch-Screen.
Sweet.
I took it into school and showed all
my 6th graders how hip I really am. Touch screen, Baby! Just like one of the Cool Kids.
But ...
It doesn't end there.
No battery (well, removable anyways), and no memory card.
Say what?
Nope.
None.
No, see? You plug it into your computer's USB port,
via an included cord, and charge it up, and/or, download the images onto your computer.
Hi-Tech.
Or ... Just for me, I bet, they
also supply you with a little box thing that you can plug the USB into and actually charge it via an old-fashioned, normal, wall
socket, circa 1973.
Or 1955. 60 years ago.
Like on the day of my birth!
Old-School. New School.
And did I mention it
was tiny?
Good. It is.
Real small. Hide it in your hand small.
Have
it in the glove-compartment at all times, tiny.
Smaller
than even my old-school (kinda) cell phone ... i.e. NOT a Smart Phone.
Tiny.
But big on fun. Point-n-Create
with the best of them. Close-ups (pretty good), wide-angle (pretty good), tele-photo (pretty good), fill-flash (pretty good) ...
Lighten or darken the exposure (very good) ...
Just
a fun little camera.
With a fun, little price.
And a TOUCH SCREEN.
I can zip those images left or right, I can even tap the screen to take a semi-delayed picture (why?), and touch
the screen, hold it ... and a little trash can pops up, so I can just slide that image off into trash-can land
(delete).
Oh, I'm in heaven.
Zip. Zip. Zip.
And
did I mention it was tiny?
10.5mm
Yeah, that is the focal length of the Nikkor (fancy name for
Nikon lenses) lens used to make this image. A "fisheye" lens.
Cool.
It is equivalent to the old 16mm lens
back in the days of film, or, today, if you happen to have a "full frame" digital DSLR.
I don't.
So, with the smaller sensor, or what
some people refer to as the "crop sensor", 10.5mm is equal to 16mm on the larger sensor (the same size as 35mm film). The
Nikon sensor has a 1.5 times crop factor, which means it is 1.5 times smaller.
Take 10.5 and multiply it by 1.5 and ... Yes, you can use a calculator ... and BAM! you get, oops! 15.75. Well,
when rounded up, it comes as close to 16mm as they could come up with.
Math. Go figure.
I don't know, I didn't
come up with this stuff.
Simple. 10.5mm.
Anyways .... Always wanted one.
A toy.
I never really "needed" one ...
Until my 60th birthday rolled around.
Well, almost.
It is in a few weeks, next month
actually, but, you know, I was just checking out Adorama's used department and ... BAM.
Plus, I sold one of my Canon digital cameras I bought last year so I could help my college students (I do what I
can) ... And yes, he actually was a photography student.
I
took the money and spent it.
Again.
At Adorama.
Where
I buy 99.78348% of all my camera gear.
Click. Click.
Click. It is at my door 3-5 days later. Like magic.
Only
better.
A fisheye lens ... What the crap is that?
A lens with a 180 degree view.
I guess this is how all those trout I try to catch can see me ...
That reminds me, if it stops raining, I'll go see if I can't sneak up on those little buggers tomorrow ... You know,
test their field of view!
Anyway.
Sweet little lens. Small. Simple design.
Little is right.
Cute lens hood thingy built
right into it as well.
It even has a plastic cap,
or cover thing, due to the fact that the lens is curved, so you can't put a "regular" lens cap on it. Crazy.
No auto/manual focus button on the side ... You just have to use the one on
the camera. No focus motor in the lens either ... Like I said, simple design.
It came out in 2002. Been around. Dare I say Old School? Digital Old School for sure.
It was designed to get you closer.
And closer.
Speaking of which ...
You can actually get within 3mm of your subject, and the depth of field is crazy big ... Like, EVERYTHING big.
From here to eternity (it just came to me).
Really. Unreal.
Yes, it has distortion. Curved
edges.
That is what makes it different ...
Unique.
And
gives it the "fisheye" moniker.
The trick is to use it
to your advantage. Play.
And, like I said ... Follow
Rule #2.
Get closer.
And keep the lens level ... That is, if you don't want to exaggerate the CURVE, or fisheye effect any more than it
already has. If you do, go for it, tilt it up, or down ...
Wow!
Play.
Just keep the subject in the center of the frame.
And ...
Well, you can see why I have waited
thirty something years before buying one!
Tricky.
And fun.
Like
making it to your 60th birthday.
Play. Play. Play.
Spring. Period.
It is a sign ...
Today was the start of Spring. Roses. Flowers. Color. I have the proof.
OK, they're fake. Inside a florist shop window, on display, but that should still count for something.
It was warm ... I'm not going to say how warm, in case my mother, or sister,
who happen to live in Up-State New York, happen to read this ...
I talked to my mom this morning. It was snowing.
They
have four feet of snow in their yard. The banks along the road are ... Well, more than double that. Easy.
They know snow.
I kno ... Well, no, I KNEW snow. I shoveled snow as a kid. What? A dollar an hour? Something like that. Big bucks
back then. Late 1960s, early 70s.
Anyway ... SPRING.
Took a walk up Main Street, saw the flowers in the window, set my little camera
(Coolpix 7100) to macro, got close, cut out the reflections, set the zoom to "W", and fired away.
It doesn't make any noise, so I can't really tell you how many I took, but I just let her rip ...
That's it.
A
walk. A window. A rip ...
Short sleeve shirt. Yes, I
wore jeans, but could have worn shor ...
No, that's it.
I'm not going to rub it in.
Spring is here. I have proof.
Yellow proof.
Fake
proof.
But I'll take it.
Like I did this image.
Sew Help Me
I was taking a walk up to buy some sunflower seeds ... Oh, and just to take
a walk, and get out of the house, during the weekend/Snow Days mini-vacation, that I have enjoyed the past few days.
Took the long way to the store.
Main Street, Hudson, NC.
That is where I came
across this clump of yarn, thread, whatever, or whichever ... Just off the sidewalk, in the road, sitting there. Wet.
Like a wet little puppy, I just knew I had to help it, save it, give it a new
life.
Sew Help Me.
Really. I took a photo, picked it up, and put it inside my jacket pocket, and kept on going.
I knew what I would do. In fact, you probably know too.
I can't help myself.
Sew Help Me.
OK, so ... I bought my sunflower
seeds.
It is March first.
That means one thing ...
Track Season.
Yes, middle school track starts
tomorrow ... First Monday in March.
I start my 21st season
of coaching kids at GFMS. Tomorrow.
Which, of course,
means I start my diet.
Today. Now.
That means salads. Which, yes, I'm getting there ... Which means sunflower
seeds. You know, to go on my salad.
That is why I was
out for a walk. With my camera, of course.
I saw the
image in my head as soon as I saw it in the road.
Macro.
Flash. Color. Texture. Contrast.
Done deal.
I "took" the photo while the soggy stuff was still in my pocket. I had it all
planned out. I visualized the image, then went home and actually shot it.
Like magic.
Poof. There it is.
See, I couldn't take it when I saw it, not with my Nikon D50 with the 40mm macro
lens on it.
Right lens, wrong camera. Wrong flash.
See? I needed off-camera flash. Side lighting. The little pop-up would not work.
Not for what I had in mind. I had to get it into my "studio" ... My kitchen table.
I'll ask you another question. Do you think I only took one shot?
Yeah, I know.
Silly.
That is where the fun begins.
Actually playing with my flash and camera and off-camera flash cord and lens and exposure and compensation and design
and texture and lines and depth of field and another flash and grids and ... Whew, have to catch my breath ... my Omni-bounce
thingies and composition and different camera and flash angle and direction and the Nikon Creative Lighting System and
Group A and Group B and power ratios and aperture and using my jacket as a backdrop and the position of the threads and keeping
my jacket flat and ... you know, all that creative stuff.
The
magic.
Yeah, I took a few pictures.
Side lighting. Back lighting. Any lighting I could think of, and some I didn't
even think of ...
Say what?
Anyways ...
Later, I picked out one image,
the image that talked to me ... That seemed the closest to what I envisioned, while up on the street, when I first
picked it up.
Light and color.
Yeah, and the texture thing, which is actually caused by the light. Side lighting.
90% side lighting.
BAM.
That's how I saw it in my mind's eye. Side lighting. Texture.
Contrast.
Remember, whenever you add hard, direct light,
you add contrast. Shadows. In fact, I always think of my favorite quote whenever I pick up my flash ...
Oh, you remember ...
Oh, you forgot ...
No worries, I got you covered.
Sort of.
I can't remember it word for word, but it goes something like this ...
"If you want to light something interestingly, don't light all of it."
Actually, I think I got it that time!
John Le
.... Oh crap. It is going to drive me nuts ... I got it off a Joe McNally video, have watched it MANY times, can picture the
man in my head, even looked his name up the last time I wrote about it, right here on my Blog ...
Time out. I have to look it up.
Again.
He was a LIFE photographer, and later
an editor at the magazine, was a mentor to Joe McNally, his first name is John, his last name begins with an "L" ... And,
no, not John Lennon. Or John Legend ...
Crap. Wait
one ...
Yes! Got it! On Joe's video, THE LANGUAGE
of LIGHT, John Loengard. Yes. That's it.
Anyway, great
quote.
Don't light all of it.
Shadows. Contrast. Mystery. Call it what you want, it just helps.
No, helps, is not the word.
It MAKES the image.
Period.
Add light, any light, and you can change how something looks. Add hard, direct
light, especially from the side, and you can really change things up.
Sew Help Me, it works.
Even thread, or yarn,
that you find in the street ...
Oh, and yes, I found
the clump of stuff near the store, Sew Help Me, which is located, right downtown, on main street, in the bright yellow building.
Love it.
Sewing.
Thread. Yarn. Photography. Art.
Now, of course, I just
assume it came from there, being the sharp fellow that I am. But even if it didn't, I still had a great time writing about
it. Photographing it.
Once again, if you look hard
enough, you can find art anywhere, any place. Really.
Ready?
Sew Help Me.
This is what I saw. This is what I envisioned.
Macro. Off-camera flash. Color and contrast. And texture.
Take a walk.
Find
something in the street. On the sidewalk. Look ... See if you can find something to photograph.
Take it home. Set up a little studio. Photograph the crap out of it.
No fancy flash, or strobe?
Get out your flashlight
(yes, I know, the one on your cell phone), and see what you can come up with.
Play.
Trust me, it is fun.
One more time ...
Sew Help Me.
BAM.
I am a stubborn old fart.
I was asked to give a talk for TEDx Hickory. I didn't even know what TEDx Hickory was.
Talk? Me? Yeah, no problem.
The theme was SPARK!
I wrote about it a few weeks ago. I was looking forward to it.
Sort of.
I went and sat two hours for my audition, or whatever it was I did, to be chosen. That was strike
number one.
Stupid.
How could I give my talk on how photography
moved me ... Gave me that SPARK!, when I couldn't even show my images?
I was pissed.
Two hours waiting ... For five minutes in front of some committee, that picks who will talk at the big event ...
Talk about the images that move me, without the images.
Whew, I was done right then and there.
I walked out of there ... Well, like I said, pissed.
I even e-mailed the guy in charge and said, thanks for the opportunity, but ...
That was crazy.
I was chosen.
Say what? I left there, sure as crap, that they would never pick me ...
OK. Cool.
18 minutes in front of 100 people, and it being taped for YouTube.
I can do that.
Of course, for me, talking about my passion, 18 minutes is like, what? Three images ... Come on!
First off, you can't talk about your passion
in 18 minutes. Period.
That
wouldn't be passion. That would be a ... A hobby. A past-time.
No problem. I can tone down my SPARK!
Or so I thought.
Had to have the images in a folder ... A Powerpoint.
I don't do Powerpoint. I do videos. Or, I just put them in a folder, and click when I want to
change the image.
Easy.
I have worked with Powerpoint, with my middle
school kids, but I don't like it. Or use it.
No problem. My sixth graders helped me. Piece of cake.
I got my images onto a Powerpoint. Even added a title slide (that they would "fix" later, you
know, to match all the others ...).
That's cool.
Then,
I actually looked at a few TEDx videos on YouTube. Ahh, not too impressed. Everything and anything.
But wait ... National Geographic photographers ... OK, more
like it.
One used a short video
in the middle of his talk ...
Cool.
I can do that.
I talked
to my advisor about adding that to my program ...
The lady that invited me, was at my annual photography talk for the Catawba Valley Outing Club, that
I give every November, and just so happens to be a member of the committee, was my adviser ...
She came to my talk. She invited me.
I had no idea who she was, or what she was talking
about.
She was my advisor.
She was there to help me through the process
...
That, by the way, was strike number two.
"The Process".
It is all about TEDx Hickory.
Not the artist.
Not the person actually standing up there giving the talk. Not the one they invited. The one they asked
to give the talk. The artist.
And that is another
thing ...
It is not really
about artists, or photographers. It is about any person with something to talk about. Anything. Thousands and thousands
of them ... Ideas.
Great concept.
But like I said, what I talk about is photography, my art. My passion. The simple notion of just getting
"out there". Travel. Photography.
Life.
Period.
That's it. I don't have this cute little speech all prepared, written
down on index cards, whatever ... Like I said, I have been giving this "speech" for over thirty years.
My idea, my talk, is me. My life. My passion. My images. My SPARK!
I knew I was in trouble, when the man in charge
of the "process" (well, one of them anyways), asked me before my audition, "Have you ever given this speech before"?
Say what? Speech? Oh ...
Like, yeah ... For the past thirty something years. I first taught
photography in 1984. I am a middle school Special Education teacher. I teach college photography.
I teach passion.
Still do.
I told him, "no".
I answered it the best I could. It is true, none of my talks is ever like another. I just wing it. Make
it up. No notes. No cards. No practice.
I talk. Period. Well, no, I talk ... And show images!
But this interview, whatever, was all part of "The Process".
Yeah.
You don't process art. You don't process passion.
I was told to have it in a Powerpoint. Period.
You can not go over 18 minutes. Period. What is up with that? 18 minutes?
I wasn't feeling it ... Period.
I asked about adding a video, and, well ... Would I have enough
time for the rest of my speech (it is NOT a speech!)? Was it in this, or that, format? Did it fit the presentation?
What?
Where was the passion? The support? The help? I wasn't feeling it.
Not good. But I said, no problem, forget the video. I'll just talk.
I can talk. I can fit any format ...
But the SPARK! was dimming ...
A week or two later, I sent in my personal photo and Bio information for the promotional stuff ... Right
on time.
All is good. Only
two strikes. I'm still good.
Then,
a week or two later, I got an e-mail from the guy running the production, about how my BIO information
was not in the right format, whatever ... Oh crap, not what I wanted to hear.
Well, I do not think that a person, who is invited to give a talk, should write up their own little
introduction ... Maybe that is just me. Old School.
I was asked to submit it in paragraph form, not the "Bullet" type format that I copied off my website.
Calmly, I wrote
back and said, "no, that is all I have. Sorry".
BAM.
Strike three.
I'm outta there ...
He
writes back and mentions that I have to meet their exact standards or ... Blah, blah, blah ...
I didn't.
I lost the SPARK!
I will not be giving my talk on March 21st for TEDx Hickory.
Next day, I get an e-mail from my adviser ... She wrote up the BIO information. Yes, in the correct
format. Everything was set.
Except
for poor timing ... And a glitch in "The Process". Their process.
She was a day late.
I still have the SPARK! I still have the passion. Just not for TEDx Hickory.
In fact, I deleted the SPARK! video I made (yeah, I know, wrong
format) for my YouTube Channel, and made a new one ... Changed the name -- BAM.
And deleted my earlier BLOG entry about looking forward to giving my talk ...
BAM.
You know, like my license plate. The one I have had on all three of my Honda Elements for the
past ten years or so ...
I
know SPARK!
I know BAM.
I live SPARK!
Just not at the "exact standards" of TEDx Hickory.
Bummer.
Like I said, I am a stubborn cuss. Not the first time it has gotten
me into trouble.
Nor the last.
18 minutes?
I have given this talk hundreds of times, every semester,
every class, every time I talk, to anyone, about photography.
BAM.
I
love it.
I'm not worried. Yes,
I admit, I missed out on a great opportunity, but I will just give my talk like I always do ... To someone, somewhere, at
some other time.
I have the
(new) video. I have my own YouTube thingy ... I have the images (in a nice little folder, oh wait, I deleted that whole PowerPoint
thing). Well, I have the images. The stories. The memories.
And yes, I still have the passion.
Never lost it.
Period.
Snow Day
We knew it was coming.
Trust
me. Stop by any middle school the day a storm is coming and you will know.
They knew.
No question.
They
also knew we would not be in school the next day. A given.
Well, you teach at a middle school, with middle school kids, and, yes, you become one too (again).
I knew.
I knew that night ,while at the college too. I got there early
to set up the studio ... The weather report, that I found on the college website, mentioned the snow would arrive around 7pm.
Yeah, really. Class was at 6pm.
And, later on ...
Yes, one of the students mentioned it was snowing, and the first
thing I did was look at the clock ...
7:03pm.
Really.
Snow.
It doesn't matter what age the students are
...
Snow is snow.
And for photography students, I mean, art students,
it is a great opportunity to see just how a camera meter works.
18% Gray.
I talk about it all the
time. I explain it in class. I have "Blogged" about it before, I show them images, I do this, I do that, but ...
You have to experience it yourself.
Get out there. Point at the snow and shoot ...
And play.
Adjust.
How much white, I mean, gray? How much compensation?
Does one setting work once you find the right amount?
Why? Why not?
I know.
I play.
Get out and play.
For these two images, I didn't even leave my yard.
True, I did go for a nice little walk in "my
backyard" and shot over 250 images (263, but who's counting)... But these two had that spark, that ... Something.
I remember when I was shooting these, I thought,
I like this!
The curve of the
bamboo over the driveway ... I have shot this view before. I like it. Makes it look like I live in the woods or something.
The white tree in the yard. My dogwood tree.
I shoot it, like, a lot all year long. Spring is nice, but, come on, a white tree in a white yard? I knew it. I felt it.
Cool.
Yeah, I really wrote that.
Cool? Snow?
Whew, I'm clever.
Well,
clever enough to get out there, that is.
Play in the snow.
I
just set my compensation at +1.0 and fire away ...
And go from there.
Plus.
Plus. Plus some more.
You know,
give or take a stop or two.
How
much of the frame is white?
Trees?
Leaves? Bark? Sky? Mud?
Plus
a little, plus a lot ... Shoot, shoot, shoot.
Try it.
Play.
Play like it is a Snow Day, you know, like back
in middle school.
Or college.
FYI ... It is now 2:29pm. The tree is no longer
white. The bamboo has lost its arch ... Gone. Back to normal. Done.
Except in my mind's eye. Or on my website.
BAM.
Photography,
gotta love it.
Six Pixs
I like cameras.
I like photography.
I like to take pictures.
I like to walk around, and make images.
Even
if it is cold.
I walk.
I look. I see.
These are six images I took with
my Nikon Coolpix P7100 on a Sunday walk around town.
Hudson,
NC.
You know, Home of Three Time World Series Champion
(and 2014 World Series MVP, and SPORTS ILLUSTRATED's Sportsman of the Year, and ... The 2014 Associated Press Male
Athlete of the Year winner), Madison Bumgarner.
Sort
of.
We have a sign and everything ...
But, so does Sawmills and Lenoir, so it's a tough call. I'll take it.
So ... Hudson on a cold winter day ... With my Coolpix camera.
Cold and quiet. Empty and quiet.
But the sun was out, and I went for a walk around town, just looking for images ...
I shot 119. If I would have known, I would have taken one more ...
I didn't. I don't keep count ... I just shoot.
Light.
Shadows.
I look at the light.
The P7100 is pretty cool
... Small, lightweight, and ... Well, a really nice camera. I shoot it like all my other cameras ... In Aperture Priority,
and use the compensation dial to make my images darker or lighter (and yes, with shadows, I tend to go darker).
Cloudy White Balance. As usual.
Wide angle, and telephoto zoom (and yes, I turn off the digital zoom) ... I
only use the optical zoom.
And macro (get closer).
I look for something and then shoot the crap out of it ... Closer. And closer.
Different angles. I explore. I play.
And then I go and
look for something else ...
Even stopped into Fairvalue,
our local grocery store, and picked up a few things ...
And
then, just outside the building I saw it ... Rust. Drainpipes. Shadows. Texture. I dropped my bag, and got down real close
and started shooting ...
One of the managers saw me,
on his way to work, and stopped, and asked what I was doing ... Maybe, from the back, he just saw this crazy man,
on his knees, hugging a drainpipe, I don't know ...
I
explained I taught photography at the college, and was just "looking at the light and shadows" and he was cool. He mentioned
that you can find something to take a photo of just about anywhere ...
Yes! He understands! Made my day.
I headed back
to the apartment ... About 50 yards later, and saw the manhole cover ... And stopped again. Dropped the bag, again, and,
well, you know ... In the middle of the road. Working it ...
This
was the same place I got stopped by the police a couple of years ago and asked what I was up to.
Really. I can't make this stuff up.
Today,
they saw me at the Windmill Park right behind the Town Hall, so they knew I was out and about ...
That's Hudson.
That's me on a Sunday afternoon.
Yeah, and, like I said, it's not like I haven't shot that manhole
cover before. Or the gazebo. Or the drainpipes. The windmill, oh, come on ...
I have taught at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute for twenty years (Jan 1995), which just so happens
to be located in Hudson, NC.
I know every manhole cover,
fire-hydrant, chipped paint wall, park bench, telephone pole, you-name-it, all around town.
I know when the light is good to shoot inside the washing machines at our local Laundromat (great late afternoon
light pouring through the windows ...).
Don't laugh.
I know when the neon lights of Fuji #1 match the ambient light, and where to
stand to silhouette the windmill against the setting sun (during the school year anyway).
I also know that the old fire truck, parked out behind the old hardware store, gets some nice backlighting just about
the same time my college class makes its way there from the college, around 6:30pm or so.
In the Fall Semester, that is.
Winter is different
... We have to wait for Daylight Savings to end, and "Spring Ahead" an hour ... That is why we are going with the "Human Touch"
theme this semester - We can shoot people inside, anytime.
It
is dark when we begin class, and darker when we finish. It is not easy.
I know.
So do my students. That is why I tell
them to get out and shoot on the weekends, and when they're not at the college. Class time is tough.
No excuses.
Get
out and shoot your hometown.
Look. See.
Just walk around with the camera you own, and ... Explore. Shoot.
The Little Camera that Could. The Nikon Coolpix 7100.
Hearts
What can I say? It's Valentine's Day ...
I have run with the "Human" theme this semester in my college photography class
... Self-Portrait/Shadow, Hands, Person as Prop, and now ...
Heart.
OK ... Yes, I allow for "out of the (candy) box" thinking in my class ...
This was my favorite of the 50 or so I took on my table this afternoon with
some candy hearts I bought at Wal-Mart while picking up some treats for my middle school classes tomorrow ...
Fun Friday.
I
just laid out the hearts and fired away with a remote flash ... With my XL Rogue Flashbender attached to my Nikon SB-600 (with
an Omni-Bounce diffuser) and held about two inches from the hearts, camera left.
** The Rogue Flashbender **
Comes in a couple
of different sizes; I have two of them ...
The original:
Small, 8x9 inches. Fits in my shoulder bag. I like it.
The
XL: Large, 12x13 inches. Fits in my backpack (sort of, kinda) but I don't carry it in there ... I just "carry it". It even
comes with an extra silver "liner" that you can Velcro in place for that little extra "punch" when you need it.
And -- "If you order right now" (Just kidding) -- It "bends"
into a small strip light, and comes with another diffusion panel that measures just 5.5x13 inches. Pretty cool. Two for
the price of one.
Three, if
you count the "silver lining". I love it (In fact, the back of the silver liner is black ... And was used as the backdrop
for this image!).
Anyways ... Great "Light Modifiers".
Just the newest of the tools I have bought, and used, over the years to "move and diffuse" my flash. A far cry from
the 3x5 inch index cards and rubber bands from back in the day ...
Always remember, with any light source, bigger, and closer, is better ... If you are going for that softer,
shadow-less look.
Smaller and farther away is better,
if you going for that "harder", textured look.
You decide.
Valentine candy hearts? Soft, shadow-less light, works for me.
BIG (relative to the little candy hearts, that is). And CLOSE.
Playful. Fun. Dare I say, sweet?
This is a double exposure; one sharp @f8 and the second one not sharp. Period. As in, like, way out of focus.
No movement in this case, just out of focus hearts flying all over the place!
Of all the images, this one caught my eye.
Just playing, as I always do ...
HAPPY VALENTINE'S
DAY !!!!
Second Look
I shot this in 2009.
Yeah, on my wild adventure driving around Europe with my friend's 16 year old son, for a month.
It was crazy ...
I had always wanted to photograph this aqueduct, and since I was in the neighborhood, we pulled in and spent the
late afternoon/early evening waiting for, what turned out to be, a great experience ... A Sound and Light Show.
I could not believe my luck.
Had a chance to shoot in the nice afternoon light and scope out where I wanted my camera to be when the lights
came on ... Very important.
I walked up, over, around,
and below the thing to figure out where I wanted to plant my tripod. I knew I only had one chance ...
I was ready ...
It was great. Lights a changing, music playing, camera clicking, me a grinnin' ... The colors were fantastic.
Then it was over. BAM.
I shot a bunch ... I was pleased. Blue. Purple. Red. Orange. Yellow.
Color. Contrast.
It is all about the experience.
And then, years later, I came across this image while looking through my
files getting ready for a TEDx Talk in Hickory next month.
I
like the contrast between the black background and the colors ... I usually like the bluer skies and lit buildings, but in
this case, I like the Black and Blue aspect of the image ...
The
black sets off the colors, which sets off the shapes ... Which is really what the aqueduct is all about.
Light. Shape. Repetition.
Art.
I'm glad I had the chance to re-live that
evening ... What? Five and a half, six years later?
That
is what I love about photography, especially travel photography. The moment. The place. The experience.
Re-live the experience. Remember the sights and the sounds ...
In a car, in Europe, for a month, no plans, no reservations ... No control over
the music selection what so ever ... And no real idea as to what was going on from town to town ... Just doing what I do best,
wingin' it. For a month.
Just drive, see where it takes
you. Traffic tickets in Spain. The Eagle's Nest in the German Alps. The mountain road through Andorra, the beaches of Portugal
...
Great summer. Great trip. Great experience.
France. Pretty cool place. We hit it on the way to and from North Africa ...
Morocco (that's another story for another time).
Black
and Blue.
And purple.
And memories.
And images.
The second time around.
Art d' Lego
Yes, I bought it at Adorama. And to tell
the truth, it has sat in my living room for the past few years.
But, yes, I took the above "art" image with this camera ... A REAL camera.
A Lego Camera.
Yes, it is made out of Legos.
I even added a couple pieces that I got from my friends at Granite Falls Middle School, you know, to make it a one-of-a-kind
"Special Edition".
Yes, they are real Lego blocks ...
The blue and white ones on the right are the two I added ...
Really.
Lego.
Toy camera.
In fact, after my little walk up
to FairValue to get supplies for the Duke/Norte Dame game today (in 20 minutes), and taking an image out back by the trash
dumpster (among others), the camera is plugged up to my computer charging up as I type.
Again, really.
I can turn the camera on, control
the flash (on/off), I can ... Well, take photographs, store images on an internal storage "thingy", hook it up to my computer
to charge and get access to the files, and ...
Well,
and move those two Lego things (blocks?) around ... That's it, oh ...
And have fun.
Yeah, fun.
When checking out at the cash register, a former track "Granite Girl" who ran
with me, and is now a Senior at SCHS, asked me if it was real ...
Oh yeah ... It's real.
And no, I really don't
have any clue as to how many mega-pixels (OK, I checked ... 8MP), or what type of lens (plastic?), or ... Well, anything about
the camera what so ever, really.
Who cares?
Except that it is fun, and a nice addition to my budding camera collection.
I think I have about 60 or 70 cameras around the apartment ... Yes, real cameras.
Oh ... Well, most of them real anyways.
I do
have a ceramic camera tea-pot on the stove, a couple of camera Christmas decorations stowed away until next year, and
... I think that is it for the fake camera collection.
I
like cameras.
As far as real digital "working cameras",
I have a dozen DSLRs, and two "point-n-create" cameras upstairs, and two small cameras at the middle school.
So yeah, I'm covered as far as cameras go ...
And fun.
IR
Infra-red.
Infrared.
Cool, weird, red stuff.
Photography.
You know me, I get looking at used
cameras at Adorama, and it hits me ...
Nikon D80 with
a modified IR sensor.
Say what?
I shot with the D80 before the D90. Had four of them. Loved them. But they were
slow ... Compared with the F100 35mm film camera I was also shooting at the time ... So I up-dated to the faster D90 when
they came out.
And I'm still shooting with four
of them today ...
But ... Here it is ten
years later ...
Nikon D80.
But not just another old, boring Nikon D80. Modified. Infrared.
I first shot infrared back in 1985 when working for the Department of the Army in Bremerhaven, Germany.
Yeah ... 1985. Really.
Color slide film. Kodak.
Old-school.
It is all about heat ... Or something like that. I have no clue.
Google it.
I
just know it is cool. Get it? Heat? Cool?
Oh yeah ...
A digital infrared sensor.
New-school.
Same look.
Color, or Kolor ... Or Black and White or, B/W. How cool is that?
I am just learning about it ... I just got it yesterday ... How to set the camera
up. All the different settings, etc ...
I set up all
my DSLRs the same way ...
Except this one.
A few tweaks here or there to figure out just what works best when shooting
in "Kolor" or in B/W.
Overexpose? Underexpose? Set on
Vivid? Or Standard? What ISO? Can you even see noise in infrared?
I don't know.
I'm learning ... Well, playing.
Playing to learn more about this really cool toy ...
Adorama.
A+ rating for $189.
You know ... Looks brand new. Works like brand new. Well, it was missing the LCD cover, but you know me ... And Adorama.
Yes, I ordered it this morning and it is already in the mail ...
Really.
And
the best thing ... And a big surprise?
A Nikon camera
strap that, get this, is red and black.
Really. I know
...
Oh, you don't know?
Yeah, Nikon is yellow and black. Period. Or maybe black and yellow, but I have never seen a red and black strap with
Nikon written on it.
Black and red.
Yeah, that cool.
And guess what color the backpack is that I'm going to carry it in?
No, really ...
Yes.
A red and black Lowe-Pro. Crazy.
I love it when
my plan, that I never planned, comes together (I think I bought the bag two or three years ago -- Guess where?).
And yes, the images are of my driveway. The place I always start and end my
travels. Each and every trip ... For the past ten years.
And
... You know when I heard the motorcycle fire up ... I just knew I had it made. There I was, just standing there
taking pictures, and just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
I couldn't have planned it better even if I tried.
Playing
with the shadows ...
I just stood there giggling ...
He fired up, I got fired up.
I just knew. I just waited for the shadows to line up ...
Waiting. Waiting ...
Bam.
Nice Hat
I was down in Hickory this weekend walking around ... Looking.
Looking for images.
I was photographing some
trees and their shadows, when I saw a man sitting on a wall enjoying the sun. He saw me shooting ...
As I walked up towards him, we said hello, and I joked that he was in the right spot -- The light. The warmth.
He knew I was a photographer, I mentioned his hat, and the game was on ... He knew what was coming.
Notice I said, I mentioned the hat ...
Very important. Over the years, I learned that it sets people at ease more, if you ask to photograph something about
them, instead of just asking if you can photograph them.
Their jacket, their hair, the bike they are riding, their sunglasses, their hat, anything at all ...
Well, except them.
Human nature. They feel more at ease, not pressured to "preform for the camera" ... Plus, it gives you a connection
to that person to begin a conversation, "nice hat".
Which
is what you want. You want to connect, make that connection.
Because, if you do ... It lasts forever. In an image. A memory.
I know ...
I have lots (and lots) of them ...
The Tunisia Girl, The young boy in Egypt, the Hmong Girl at the fairgrounds in Lenoir, the young girl in China with the flag,
the couple on their motorcycle up on the Parkway, and on and on ...
Liam on his little scooter ...
My nephew in
the trash can ...
Images. Memories ...
Anyway ...
I got a few shots
of "The Hat"... We talked, I guessed his age, I was close. He showed me his ID ... He has me by a few years, but I
did mention that my beard seems much lighter than his ...
That is what it is all about. The moment. Not so much in the photograph, but in the process of making the photograph.
People. The connection.
I shot over 100 images that morning, all over downtown Hickory, and out of those, this one is the one I will
remember, I'll keep.
Nice hat.
Nice guy ...
Then we parted ways, I thanked
him for his time ... and let him get back to enjoying the sun.
Nice light, nice face, nice hat ...
Nicer person.
All in about five minutes ... Well, maybe six.
But it will last forever. Both as a memory, and as a photograph.
Vision
It all became pretty clear once I saw his sweatshirt.
Vision.
How
good is that?
It also became clear as to what the next
semester will be about; people.
People have been one
of my favorite subjects over the what? Past thirty years or so ... I can remember my first assignment while working with the
base newspaper at Corry Station in Pensacola, Florida, way back in 1984.
The Special Olympics.
Really.
That's right, my first photo-essay was on a topic I have worked with for the
past twenty-two years ... Special Education.
People.
People of all ages. Kids. Teens. Adults.
Little did I know at the time, of course, but looking back on it, it all makes sense.
So yes, I enjoy photographing people ... It is also what I shoot when working with the several travel companies I
have worked for the past ten years or so ... White-water rafting, bicycle trips, motorcycle tours, hiking tours, you name
it ... What I was really photographing were the people doing what they do when hiking, rafting, riding, what-have -you.
People.
That
said, for the past few years, while not working for a travel company, I got away from photographing people and leaned more
towards the four-legged, or winged, or swimming subjects.
From
grizzly bears in Alaska, ospreys in New York, Florida, and Idaho, as well as cranes and ducks in New Mexico, wild horses out
on the Outer Banks, as well as the swans and geese on Lake Mattamuskeet just a few weeks ago.
Wildlife.
Pretty
cool stuff, but ...
Just this past Christmas Break, I
came across this guy fishing out on the coast while out on the OBX. I was a ways away, but I saw him reeling in this pretty
good size fish ... Although I couldn't tell what it was, I knew I wanted to check it out.
A shark.
Sweet. I have never photographed a
shark that wasn't behind glass ...
Oh wait, I said this
was all about people photography. Yeah, about that ...
This
image was really about the shark ... Let's not kid ourselves. A shark.
OK, a small shark, but is a shark. In some guys hands ...
And that is key.
Yes, I like the portrait of
this gentlemen, but is all about the shark.
In fact,
and I tell my students this all the time, I never asked this person if I could take a photo of him ... Oh no, I asked if I
could get a picture of the shark.
Yes, I know, small
detail, but very important.
I do it all the time ...
"Nice hat".
"Love
your bike, mind if I take a few pictures?"
"How long
does it take you to finish making that?"
If people are
doing something, I ask about what they are doing, not if I can take their picture.
Not them, but what they are doing, or riding, making, what-ever.
This semester, it will be all about people. Hands, shadows, portraits, self-portraits, studio shots, out-door
shots, whatever we can come up with.
Maybe even a guy with a shark in downtown
Granite Falls, who knows?
People.
People
photography.
Perfect for a winter semester ...
Blue Christmas
No snow geese. No swans.
No ducks.
No worries.
The lake was still there. And yes, to be honest, a few birds. I took a few images of the lake -- Ahh, like a lot.
Both on the way over ...
And on the way back.
Drove right through. No
birds. Rain. Clouds.
Both times.
But ...
This
is my favorite image of the lake.
A multiple exposure.
In-camera.
Done.
That simple. That quick.
Change the WHITE BALANCE. What? Push a button.
Underexpose. Yeah, another button (and spin dial). No problem.
Two images. Or was it three? No, I believe this one was two ... Either way, just another button.
Learn a few buttons ...
If your camera can do multi-exposure, that is.
I
just play ...
I got there ready for thousands of birds
...
Nothing.
Clouds and rain.
Sweet.
I went right to the "ART MODE" in my thinking. That quick, that easy. I knew
I wanted to play ...
"When given lemons, make lemonade"
...
Or, Lake Mattamuskeet.
Or, Blue Lake Mattamuskeet.
Wild Blue Lake
Mattamuskeet.
Once I got started I couldn't stop.
I was shooting, hand-held, with my trusty 18-200mm VR lens. I knew when I stopped
that it was iffy at most. No birds. Lots of clouds. Gray.
I
went with blue.
But ... Yes, I did try some "regular"
shots. I took one shot, and had to check to see if I didn't switch to Black and White (I don't know why I capitalize this,
but I do).
I didn't. It was just ... Wow. Gray. Sky.
Water. All gray. Wild.
That is when I went crazy all
over again ...
On the way over, I shot about 150
images in less than fifteen minutes. And that is not counting each "click" ... Remember, I shot a lot of multiple
exposures ... Both two and three exposures -- For one final image.
Shoot. Shoot. Shoot.
Play. Play. Play.
Same thing on the way back ... And the same as on the way over and back
at Thanksgiving. Every time. Every trip. That is how it works.
One image leads to another ... One trip leads to another.
And another.
And another ...
This is my favorite from this trip, at the moment. The night I returned. First
time "going through" them ...
You know me ... Get home.
Go through all the images (hundreds), once, and move on.
Bam.
Just like that.
This is my favorite.
In fact, yes, it is now my "Wallpaper", or whatever it is you call the image
on your screen when you turn on your computer.
Bam.
Done.
Well,
for now, at least.
I have e-mailed some images to my
family, added a few others to my OBX page here on my website, and added this one to my BLOG.
Art. Photography.
Play.
Of all the images (I was leaning towards a shark image) ... Or, my grand-nieces
playing with their castle ... Crap, it was tough (Stayed tuned ...).
Went with the artsy Blue Lake Mattamuskeet.
Not that I am feeling blue ...
Quite the
opposite.
The birds? Ahh ... Well, I do have the Martin
Luther King, Jr Holiday coming up in a few weeks ...
Just
enough time to go through those images again and get them out there ... Here on my website and with National Geographic's
YOUR SHOT.
Had a great Christmas ... Even have a few
more days to play and see what I can come up with.
And
see if it stops raining ...
Looking Back
As you know, I spent Thanksgiving Break over on the Outer Banks. If you know that, you also know I used
my return trip to explore Lake Mattamuskeet in preparation for the winter migration of thousands of birds; ducks, swans, and
geese. Lots of them.
I hope.
Once I got back I got looking, and came up with this image. An egret.
I took this a couple of years ago on my way back from the Outer Banks when the bridge was out on Route 64, and you
had to use the detour to get out to the ocean.
Taken
with my "standard" 18-200mm VR zoom, hand-held, I can remember saying to myself, I have to get back out here when all the
birds are here.
This is the image that sold me on birds
on Lake Mattamuskeet. That simple. I liked the light on the back of the neck. The lighted S-curve of the neck.
And the feet ... The gracefulness of the lines, the light on those lines, the
curves, the wispy tail feathers ...
I have
shot egrets before ... The Everglades, and I love the gracefulness of their long bodies and necks as they take off - as this
one is doing when my stealth tactics left me hanging ...
No,
I didn't get this close. I admit.
Yes, I had to crop
in ... Quite a bit if I remember correctly, but I know I had to crop.
Something I do quite a bit when shooting birds. I do not own the newest, baddest, longest, or fastest lens Nikon
makes. Never have, never will. I am a teacher.
So, I
crop.
I also use the center focus point to track
the animal/bird/subject, whatever is moving ... To keep things in focus. I shoot now, and crop for composition later.
Remember, I had to handhold this while walking up to the lake ... I'm moving,
the bird is moving, the bird takes off, I lock on, track him, and shoot, all at the same moment.
Bull's eye. Dead center. Not ideal composition.
So,
I crop. Period.
Which brings me to another truth in photography;
you, well, at least me anyways, can never have enough focal length when shooting animals or sports.
Or anything.
My
longest lens is the old 80-400mm VR zoom I have owned for years, dating back to my film days.
Old. Like me.
Still works, like me, but is old
and slow. Yes, again, like me.
Nikon came out with a
new version last year or so and, maybe, just maybe, I will break down and order it one day.
But even then, I would want a bigger and faster lens. I would spend up to $3000 for the new one, and still want more.
The 300mm f2.8 lens I REALLY want, is what? Over $6500.
Yeah.
I love my (paid for) 80-400mm f4.5-5.6 lens. Which,
since we are talking focal length, is equivalent to a 120-600mm focal length since my cameras have the smaller sensor.
Math. Camera stuff. Trust me. I have the focal length, but I'm talking what?
Fifteen year old technology here ... The newer lenses focus faster, and are lighter.
They even have a new 18-300mm VR lens out, two in fact, that would give me another 100mm in focal length over
my 18-200mm VR lens ... Haven't come around to buying that one either.
Bigger. Heavier. More expensive.
Like with my
older camera bodies, I own them, I like them, I make them work. That is the key.
If I can get the images I want ... That I like, why worry about what I don't have? Don't own?
I use what I have and keep charging ... That's all any of us can do.
I also practice, practice, practice. Or, as I like to refer to it as ... Play,
Play, Play.
I head back to the lake in a few weeks ...
I won't have the newest lens, or camera, but, I will be there, and I will have
all the gear I need. That is more important. In fact, that is ALL that matters.
I have a tripod, or two. Or three ...
I have
camera bodies ... Too many, in fact.
I have a long lens.
And I have wider lenses. I have all I need.
I have batteries.
I have plenty of SDHC cards, and even CF cards.
I have
a cable release. Heck, I have more crap crammed into so many camera bags, I could use a different camera/lens combination
every day I am out there and still have enough, even if I was forced to spend more time out in nature. More time with
the birds ...
I'm ready. My gear is ready.
Now, all I need are the birds. A friend texted me yesterday ... From the lake,
and mentioned the birds haven't really showed up yet. Well, you know, in the thousands anyways ...
I can wait.
One
egret is nice. A few swans and ducks, even a few geese, are better, but ...
But, I'm waiting (hoping) for snow geese. Lots of them.
But heck, I'll be happy if I get another chance with this egret. I know I can get closer ...
Human Touch
"Just give me a little bit of that human
touch" ... Bruce Springsteen.
Hey, works for me.
As a photographer, I take a lot of pictures. As a travel photographer, I travel a lot.
And take a lot of photographs.
I have also been
to the Outer Banks (OBX) many times and have taken many, many photographs there as well. Like a lot.
And ... I have even taken a lot of images at The Wright Brothers Memorial.
Love the place. Love the history. Love the imagery.
I
found myself there again over Thanksgiving weekend. Same place, different image.
Or images.
The model of the "first flight".
It is located at the bottom of the hill "around back", with the memorial located behind it up on the hill.
Pretty cool location.
And one I have visited many, many times before ... And taken many of the same pictures.
Only different.
This time I got down real low. Real low. Laying on the grass low. No tripod, unless you count my belly and two elbows
as one. I was trying to make things as simple as possible. Airplane. Sand. Sky. Like, you
know, Kitty Hawk, NC, circa December, 1903. Nothing but sky, sand, an airplane, and some wind.
I was not there alone. It is a busy place. True, I was there
in the "off-season" but Thanksgiving is, and always has been, a great time to visit the OBX. Less people. Less crowds.
That said, people will be out and about.
I have dealt with people being in my images for years. Which is a good thing. I travel, people travel, I take pictures,
people are in my pictures. Perfect.
Take another look
at these two images. See what effect that "human touch" adds to the image.
Helps with the layering of the image. Helps with the composition of the image. Helps with the scale of the image.
Helps the image. Period.
That simple. That complex.
As I mentioned, I
got down low to build the shot. What I didn't mention - until now - is that I also got down low to get rid of the cars, and
people, in the parking lot.
Yeah, that works.
Got rid of the cars and well, "Cleaned up the shot". Not bad. But ...
No people. No human. No scale. No balance. No story.
Then, without notice ... In walks a "model". A person. A human.
With the person, BAM, you have scale, balance, and another layer to the image.
Sweet.
I didn't plan it. I didn't ask her to join my
image, I didn't pay her to show up and improve my image, heck, I didn't even know she would happen to be in the right place
at the right time, but when she was, I was ready.
Bam.
That quick. That easy.
Thank you very much for walking into my image.
Whoever
you are.
Like I always say, whenever I can, I am always
looking for that little bit of a human touch ...
And
yes, once I clicked this second image, I giggled, and yes, really, began singing that song.
To myself of course ... After all, I can't go running around singing and giggling when I'm out and about shooting.
Oh, wait. Yes I can.
New Paint New Look
I
have photographed the lighthouses on the Outer Banks for years. Every time. All the time.
I used to shoot for OUR STATE Magazine and that is really what got me out there. People like lighthouses. The Cape
Hatteras Lighthouse, I would say, is "the" lighthouse of the state. I don't know, but it is pretty cool.
It was the first one I got published, and the only one that has had two different
locations since I first started shooting them.
I like
it.
That said, the one I have photographed the most,
must be Bodie Island.
Closer.
Over the years, I tended to stay up in the Kill Devil Hills/Kitty Hawk area
when renting a beach house with my college class. And from there, Bodie is the closest. Early morning trips to the lighthouse
were a must.
But Hatteras ... The biggest. The most "famous".
While out visiting family this Thanksgiving, I stayed with them up by the Wright
Brothers Memorial. Location, location, location. We visited three lighthouses and it was nice to see that they are all in
great shape. New paint, new ... Well, you know, whatever it is they do to these things over the years. Metal work. Fix this,
fix that. New paint.
Fixed up. Period.
Here are two images of the Hatteras Lighthouse that I took while looking at
this fresh paint in a new, fresh way. Lines. Color. Shapes.
Using
my trusty 18-200mm zoom, I just walked around and, well, looked. Zoomed in and just played with "parts of" the lighthouse.
This semester I have really pushed the idea of the "intimate landscape" when
out shooting anything, not just landscapes. I believe one of my students said it best when she talked about taking a "chunk
out of something".
Well put. A chunk.
Take a chunk out of the scene to make it your own.
Landscapes. Cars. People. Flowers. Lighthouses. Everything. Anything.
I have talked about it for years, even made it one of my (famous)Three Rules.
Get Closer.
Rule #2.
Pretty important.
Move in. Zoom in. Crop in. Take a chunk out of it (I love the idea, or concept, of chunk) ...
Do whatever it takes to give us your vision, your take on whatever is in front
of your camera.
Pretty simple really.
It is what art is all about.
Your vision. Your dream. You.
No, you are not
a lighthouse, but you know what I mean.
I have a lot
of images of The Hatteras Lighthouse. I even have images, sort of, kind of, like these ... It is nothing new.
Well, yes it is.
New paint.
That's what it is. That is what got
me looking.
Playing.
Ten minutes. Just walking around with one camera, one lens. No tripod. In the middle of the day ... Not really a
photography trip. More like a family outing, dog included, to see how far things are on the OBX.
Getting to know the Outer Banks.
I loved it.
Go, shoot, get the heck out of there. Find something new in something old. No
foolin' around. Tripod? Who needs a tripod? Early morning/late afternoon light? What? Make due with what you got.
Simple.
In
fact, that is the key. Keep it simple. Keep your images simple. Really look. See what is new, and go for it. New red paint?
Shoot it. Lines, curves, contrast? Shoot that too.
Simple.
Keep it simple.
Keep shooting, take a chunk out of this crazy world we live in.
Make it your own.
Recon
Thanksgiving on the OBX.
Very nice ... Well, except for the ride over. That was crap. Period.
Rain.
Heavy rain.
Cars sliding off the highway rain.
I took my
time.
But, once I got there, it was great. Spent three
days with family, even had turkey on Thanksgiving. And cranberry sauce too. And pie.
Even took some pictures while I was out there. Funny how that works.
I've been going out there for about twenty years now ... Something like that.
Sunrise and sunset are magical ...
But no, this
is about the NEXT time I head out that way.
Recon.
I will be headed out there again next month ... Like, three weeks.
Christmas Break.
Yes, I will spend a few days on the Outer Banks (ahh, showers!), but what I'm really going out there first for, are
the birds. First the birds, then the showers!
Geese.
Ducks. Swans. Birds. Any and all types. But, the main reason is Snow geese. Period.
Like ... Thousands.
Lake Mattamuskeet. As in
Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge. Birds.
For thousands
of years snow geese have wintered on the lake, along with Canada geese (yeah, I know, I call them Canadian Geese, but
I checked to be sure ...), tundra swans, and other ducks. Lots and lots of birds.
I have stopped at the lake a few times ... When the bridge was out on Route 64, there a couple of years ago, you
had to go across it. I photographed a few birds there a couple of times ... Egrets, if I remember right. You know, big white
birds.
This year I am planning on spending a few days
at the lake with lots of other white birds. So, I stopped in early and got the lay of the land, ah ... I mean water.
Well, you know what I mean. The lake is huge, the largest natural lake in North Carolina. Period. Big.
And there is a road right down the middle of it.
Oh, did I mention it was shallow? Yeah, not too deep. It averages 18 inches deep. Yeah, that's 18
inches. A foot and a half deep. Four feet is about max. Really. Pretty wimpy for people, but for
birds?
Perfect.
Shallow. Makes it easy for them to eat off the bottom.
Something must be working ... Like I said, THOUSANDS of birds make this a major stop on the Atlantic Flyway
every winter.
Their Winter Paradise.
Which should make it my winter paradise next month.
I was there early, but I did see, and hear, hundreds of birds. But, like I said, it is a big lake, and most of the
birds (and noise) were coming from way out there. I could see them, and hear many more, but I was about a month early.
Really, from what I got from the pamphlets, volunteers, and other photographers,
Christmas Break is even pushing it as far as being early. Of course, it will be after my week out there that the party really
begins ... January and February is when the numbers become really crazy .
But I can only hope ...
I have been to Basque de Apache N.W.R. in
New Mexico around Christmas, and if it is anything like that, I will be happy. It was wild.
Take-off. Oh, they are something. That is when, on cue, they all take off at
once, and fly off to the next feeding ground. Insane.
But,
for that, I have to wait ...
I did find a group of swans, and Canada geese,
right next to one of the roads, and they keep me busy early in the morning, and later on in the day. The rest of the time
(mid-day light) I drove around to see what was what, and where things are.
I
drove back towards the OBX when someone at the Visitor's Center mentioned they saw "hundreds" of snow geese at some location
(I can't remember the name of the road/spot at the moment, some "landing" something), but didn't really see anything.
But that is part of the game ... Recon.
Check things out.
I did get a few shots of tundra swans flying overhead, and spent a few minutes
talking/shooting with another photographer out in the field.
Cool.
Lean what is what, and where all these places are at -- Distance wise, and time wise. Recon baby!
Next month I'll be ready.
Not much else out there. Two places to eat, I was told. A few places to camp, and a few hotels (I got their
info). It will be interesting.
Gotta love the Honda Element.
And Wal-Mart food.
And what I really learned is that
there will be certain days set aside for hunting ... Yeah, you know, Duck Hunters. Like on the TV show. Duck blinds, duck
calls, and lots of camo stuff. Cool.
They run the place
until noon ... Then us poor peons get to go in there and photograph all the smart ones that made it out alive. Birds that
is.
Sounds crazy to me ...
But, that is how the game is played.
No worries.
They can't shoot 'em all.
There will be plenty to photograph at sunset, trust me.
I'll be ready.
And I learned about another place,
another lake out there I can't pronounce ... Just might have to check that out as well. Pocosin Lakes N.W.R., not that far
away ...
Yes, the OBX was great - Cold, but great. I
had a good time. Ate way too much food. Now I just can't wait to get back there ...
Can't be any colder sleeping in the Element than New Mexico in winter.
Like I said, perfect.
Rainbow Light
I could lie, and say it is all about the
light ...
Old Salem New Camera
Veteran's Day.
Out the door before 6:30am (zero dark thirty) and off to Old
Salem.
Because I can.
And the tree. The Gingko Tree.
Arrived about
the same time as the sun. Perfect.
This was the first
shot of the day. A block away from where I parked.
Bam.
That quick. That easy. A little minus compensation, I was done.
Shot with my "new" Canon Rebel XT with the kit 18-55mm lens. Yes, a Canon.
Why, you ask?
To
better understand just how a Canon works. Plain and simple. To better help my college students, to tell you the truth.
Last week I was trying to help one of my students figure out her camera ....
And, well, it drove me nuts. Nikon and Canon speak different languages ... They are "backwards" from each other, and drive
a Nikon shooter crazy.
Not rear curtain. Second curtain.
Not Aperture Priority. AV. Aperture
Value.
Not Shutter Priority.
TV. Time Value.
On and on ...
Twist to the left, not the right.
Or is it the other way around? I can't remember ... I just know everything is backwards.
Anything for my students.
Pretty fun actually.
Little camera. No battery pack. Just the tiny camera with a small zoom lens. LIGHT. Nothing.
I was having fun. And the light was nice ...
Off
to God's Acre, and the "real tree". The Old Salem Ginko Tree.
You know, I just wish the village lawn people were not so ... you know, good. They clean up my leaves too soon, and
too often.
I was about a week early anyways, but come
on, give us photographers a chance ... Leave the yellow Gingko leaves on the ground for a few days (week) ... It
is like a carpet of gold. The image of Fall. A classic.
But
anyways ...
God's Acre. My favorite place to be on Veteran's
Day. I have been going for years, well, except for last year when my mom showed up at the airport, but that is another story
... For another time.
Anywho ...
The Moravian Cemetery at Old Salem. Neat little rows of white markers, all in columns,
laid out under the most wonderful tree in North Carolina. The Gingko Tree.
I
got my shots ...
And spent over four hours walking around town ... Back and
forth, shooting the morning light and leaves ... Leaves on the trees, leaves on the ground. On the hoods of cars. The sidewalks.
In the shadows. On the sides of barns ...
Anywhere and everywhere.
Fall in North Carolina.
At Old Salem.
And yes, a stop in the bakery. No, not for leaves.
It's on the way
back to the parking lot, right on the way ...
Moravian Cookies.
Always.
Some for me ... Ahhh, new ones. Chocolate Dipped Mint.
Really.
Like they say at the Middle School, OMG.
The others (sugar and ginger), I will share with friends and family.
I promise.
Perfect morning.
Well, except for those leaf blower guys ...
Photo Op
Sometimes you just have to put the rod down.
This is one case where I saw the light, the other fisherman moved into the light ... I saw the image unfold.
True, I was multi-tasking, but I saw the elements line up.
I stopped fishing.
This was not a time to multi-task.
I became
a photographer.
Fly-fisherman.
Photographer.
I
was having a pretty good day with the rod ... At this point I was up to around four or five trout. Beautiful day. Cold water.
Feisty little buggers ... Fighting. Jumping. Long runs.
The
fishing was going great.
And then the photography was
going great.
That quick. That good.
The light. The man. The two other men in the background. Layers. Layers of fisherman.
Layers of light.
Perfect.
And better yet, after this shot I went
back to where I started and caught five or six more ...
Trout,
not images.
Yeah, my battery went dead.
Yes, of course I had a spare ... In the Element, but I was catching them left
and right ...
I didn't want to multi-task ...
You know, fish, or go get another battery.
I fished.
Trust me. They were nice.
One was this big ...
Zoom-Zoom
The other night in class, while explaining multiple exposures, a student asked
the question, "when would you ever use this?"
Good question.
I had to stop and think for a moment ...
The best I could come up with is ...
"Ahh ...
Fun!"
"Art. Expression".
"Because I can".
I'm the instructor, so I can
get away with these great, quick, quotes ...
But,
really, I had to think ...
I even thought about technical
reasons ... In-camera HDR. Different exposures on one frame to help control exposure latitude. You would think that would
be a nice idea, but no, I have never seen it work out that well.
There are computer programs that can blend several different images into one ... But that is too much work for
me.
Nah. I don't get into HDR. I'm Old School.
Well, to tell you the truth, I do think about it, and even shoot a few different
exposures every once in awhile, but then, I get home, and ... Well, I just don't get around to doing anything with them.
I don't like to "make images" sitting at a computer.
And that is different anyways ... That would be different frames blended in
the computer program. In camera multiple-exposures don't really add up to anything I have ever liked. Period.
So, no ... I don't use in-camera multiple-exposure for that.
I did mention, and then showed an image I shot on a rafting trip once
... A double exposure of a young boy - showing his "split personality". Cute little smile, and cute little smirk! One frame,
two different personalities. My "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" look that I have shot before in the middle school. You know,
for fun. Oh, and for educational purposes , of course.
And that was about it
...
Fun.
Fun and art.
I mentioned Monet, Dali, Van Gogh,
and the whole Expressionist Movement ... And my famous, "Don't let reality, get in the way of your photography" quote I came
up with years ago (and yes, I probably stole it from someone else).
Multiple Exposures.
The good thing was that
there were a few -- OK, a couple, that could actually shoot multiple exposures with their cameras in this year's class. A
rare thing in my college photography classes. In fact, I don't usually bring it up, or go into it at any length, because
most students don't have the ability to shoot them.
This
semester was different. Small class, several DSLRs. Cool. We went out and photographed the maple tree right outside our classroom.
Those that could, played with multiple exposures.
Then,
the next afternoon ...
I was out shooting my front
yard, working on my "Shot of the Day" series ... And came up with this one. The 'ol Zoom-Zoom technique.
I took 10 images on one frame. Shoot. Zoom out. Shoot. Zoom out, just a wee bit. Shoot. Over and over again.
Ten times.
Ten "clicks", one image.
Magic.
Camera magic.
Art.
Fun.
Multiple exposures.
That is when, and why, I use multiple exposures.
My favorite way to shoot multiple exposures, is the one sharp, one out-of-focus technique, I have written about before
(scroll down, and down ...).
There are, like, well ... Countless of ways
to use it. The only limitation is your imagination.
And
yes, to answer your next question, ... Yes, you can achieve this look (sort of) in Photoshop.
Well, you might be able to. I can't. I have no idea how to do that. Why
would I?
That is why I like having young students in my
class ...
They can do it. Well, some of them anyways ...
I even had one put together an image of his face and leaves layered together,
you know, just to prove someone can do it. It can be done. Computer magic.
I just do it in the camera.
Because I can.
And yes, there are even some Canon cameras that have this option as well. And
... Other brands too, I'm sure.
It is NOT a Nikon thing.
Check, you might even be able to do it.
If not ...
Yeah, there is always that whole computer/PhotoShop thing, if you have some
high school kid around to show you how. Something about layers. You know, simple.
Try it.
Oh, below is the "original" scene. I
saw the light, the nice back lighting, and thought it would make a nice shot. So I shot it.
Which led to ... Hey, if it looks nice "regular", what if I try this? Or this?
Zoom-Zoom.
Not bad, but ...
Ghoul Lighting
That time of year once again ...
Halloween Lighting 101. Place your flash, light, flashlight, whatever ... down
low.
Done.
Happy Halloween.
The More Things Change ...
You know the saying ...
"The more things change, the more they stay the same".
Of course I have no idea who first came up with this little tid-bit, but they
were pretty darn smart.
I've done it for years ... Like,
twenty. Yes, before digital.
Before Photoshop.
Before I could even do double exposures in-camera.
Yeah, that long ago.
Shoot one image at f16,
in focus. You know, "regular".
Then a second shot
at "f-wide-open" (whatever it happens to be), in most cases, depending on the lens, say f3.5 or f4 with a zoom, or f1.8
with my prime lenses ...
But that is not all, oh no.
On the second shot, take the focus off "auto" and crank that baby out-of-focus,
big time!
Blurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Or like in this shot, just a wee bit.
Blur.
And ... With digital anyways, let the
camera do it's thing. Bam. Magic.
Double exposure. One
in focus. One out-of-focus. Together.
One image.
Back in the day, we would take two slides and "sandwich" them together in one
slide. Bam. Magic.
Sort of.
Same idea. Same results. Kind of. Just different.
Like
I said, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Or look the same.
Kind of. Sort of.
Anyway ...
Crazy day. Up at 5am. Drove up to the Linville Viaduct. Got there at Zero Dark-Thirty.
Sat around for awhile until I could, you know, sort of see. Then I hiked up to "The Rock", to get my shot of the Viaduct
...
Wow. The wind was crazy.
My rock, you know, where I took "The Viaduct" image years ago, was ... Well, different. Or maybe I just got mixed
up with which rock was "my rock". It has been a few years ... What? Over fifteen? Not twenty? No ...
And it was dark ... And windy.
I had my flashlight.
So much for "the more things
change, the more they stay the same" idea ... I swear I had the right rock ... But the look was different, I couldn't
see the viaduct; The Parkway.
Oh ... Tree grow.
Bushes grow. Things change. Even if they are the same ...
Or
what I thought was the same (I know it was).
So ...
I moved. New rock. New, same, different rock. The rock I used last summer ... Or the summer before, can't remember ...
But I know that rock! The "other" rock. The other spot.
Perfect.
Got
some shots. Not the greatest of all sunrises, but ... It was a sunrise, and it was The Blue Ridge Mountains. And The Parkway.
And the Viaduct. So yeah ... Pretty nice.
It is the reason
I live where I live.
Got some nice shots. And that wind
... Wild. Great morning.
Then it was over.
Then I drove down the mountain. Down 321. In the light this time.
And I pulled over into that part of the old road that is no longer 321.
You know, where they took out the curve around the big rock ... The Old Section of 321. Before they blew up half the mountain
and made four lanes ...
Pulled off and shot the side
of the mountain that still has leaves.
Above Blowing
Rock, nothing. Bare trees. Below Blowing Rock, yeah, still leaves. Very nice. Peak color.
Yeah, really.
Elevation. The key to color.
The whole mountain side is nothing but color. Leaves still on the trees. I shot
like crazy. Vertical. Horizontal. And then ...
Yes. Double
Exposures.
Because I can.
Because I like "making the image".
You know,
art.
Playing.
Play. Play. Play.
Art. Art. Art.
Sort of like Happy. Happy. Happy.
Only different.
But not.
One Fish, Two Fish ...
Up by 6am.
Breakfast.
Pack
up the Element.
Drive to South Mountain State Park. Like
I have for the past twenty years. Like clock work. Only better.
Fishing by 8am.
Wait? I think the sign at the
entrance mentioned it being open at 7am. What? It has ALWAYS been 8am. OK ... I read it wrong.
Like I said, fishing by 8am. Like ALWAYS.
Oh
yeah ... They "stole" my parking spot. No problem. I remember that from the Spring, the last time I fished here.
I only fish during the DELAYED HARVEST season ... Catch and release only. I
don't eat 'em, for that I go to McDonald's. Or a real restaurant that serves fish. But I only do that in the summer, up in
Pulaski, NY. I'm weird like that.
The water was low,
but that was alright. A couple was also there fishing, so I went down to the stream a different way ... Wow, that felt weird.
I always start down where my parking spot was ... But that's OK. I'll manage.
Had my new chest waders ... Remember, the new pair I bought in the Spring
... Yeah, no felt on the bottoms -- I almost killed myself the ONLY time I wore them ... I got new ones.
With felt.
Whew ... Unreal how different that little fact proves to
be ... I felt normal.
Yes, that's a pun. Felt. Get it?
Sorry.
Where
was I?
Fishing. Missed my "first" hole, but I know where
they are ...
Got one.
Nice. And yes, I take photos. Had my Nikon Coolpix AW100. You know, like ALWAYS. Nice Brook Trout, maybe 10 inches
...
Then I found 'em ...
In one deeper pool, you know, where they always are. 8-10 trout all bunched up ... You know they just stocked the
stream once the"regular trout season" ended the first of October.
Caught a couple ...
Then the big one.
How can I show just how big the trout is while taking the photograph myself?
Good question.
I used my hand ... And my rod and reel.
I hope it gives you some sense of scale ... And no, I have to admit that pun was unplanned. It just hit me. Scale? Fish. Get
it?
Again, I digress ...
The whole idea of this Blog was two-fold: First, show off my prized catch, and second, discuss scale as a tool to
improve your photography.
Then I thought ... Show 'em
one fish, then the other. Scale.
Perfect.
But yes, the MAIN reason was to get my Rainbow Trout on the web ... Proof that
I did have a great morning fishing at South Mountain.
And
that I caught a real nice ... BIG one.
Fished for four
hours ... Caught/photographed about ten ... I lost track after the big one. I just keep casting.
Then I went for a run.
Up to the Falls and around
the loop and back. Funny thing ... I can remember running the whole trip. Not so much any more. Maybe they have more steps
... Or it is steeper, I don't know.
But it was a nice
run ... I can still call it a run. Most of it anyways. Those stairs are a bitc... oops. Those stairs are something!
Back to the Element around 1:30. Pretty good. Changed shirts, toweled off ...
Water ... Ready to drive back to Hudson. 45 minutes.
Always.
And yes ... The Park is open from 7am until 9pm. Weird. They changed that one
...
And, I made it back in time for the second half of
the football game. I just hope the Broncos are playing at four ...
I fish on Sunday.
Then I saw the package from
Adorama at my door. Weird? They deliver the mail on Sunday? What?
Oh wait ...
I don't have a Saturday Class at
the college. It is not Sunday. It must be Saturday.
Duh.
I am so used to fishing on Sunday ... Like I said, twenty years. Class on Saturday.
Fish on Sunday. Come home, clean the apartment, go shopping, and do my laundry.
Sunday.
ALWAYS.
Except today.
It's Saturday.
Wow.
Weird.
What the crap do I do tomorrow?
I know, go fishing. And catch the big one.
And
photograph it.
Again.
Black and White
Cloudy White Balance.
If you know me, have read this BLOG before, or have taken my class at the college,
or heck, even talked to me about photography, you know I shoot in CLOUDY White Balance 99.89765% (I'm a math teacher, I can
do that) of the time.
Period.
It is the digital equivalence of the Old School Warming Filter I have talked
about for years.
Gives your images that "sun-kissed" look even if the sun forgets
to kiss ...
I like it. I liked it then, and I like it now.
Which reminds me ...
It got me in trouble when I first switched over
from film. Yeah.
My first DSLR was a Fuji F2. It used Nikon lenses, one
of my college students/friend had one, I tried hers, I bought one. That simple.
Yeah ... I shot in CLOUDY.
I did a photo shoot
for VBT over in Germany. In fact, I covered SEVEN tours that summer, for three different companies, and everything went great.
Until VBT mentioned the orange tint to the images. Yeah ... OK, I goofed up somewhere. I must have pushed something
... I don't know. It was more Pumpkin than Cloudy. I must confess ... It wasn't pretty.
Just that one bicycle tour ... One of two I did for them that summer (2007). I went through them all ... Like,
a lot, and clicked the INSTANT FIX, or AUTO FIX, or whatever it was called on the old PhotoDeluxe that I used forever back
in the day.
One click.
Times 400 something. Every shot I took that week (six days).
I fixed them. They were happy. They used many of them ...
And I never shot for them again.
That simple.
That quick.
I sold it.
BAM. That quick (It HAD to be the camera!).
I
bought the Nikon D90. Two of them.
Then a third.
Then a fourth ... You know, because ... I like them.
Still use them.
And ...
I still shoot in CLOUDY.
Have never had any trouble with the "Pumpkin Tint" since.
But it still bugs me ...
Anyway.
Washington, DC. The summer of 2014.
There I was ... I drove over around sunset to photograph the newly opened Washington Monument. I had it all planned out, you
know me.
I saw that there is an Interstate Rest
Stop near Manassas and planned my trip to DC accordingly. Sleep there, get up early, real early, and drive into DC for the
early morning light.
That was the plan. Yeah, I actually
look for Rest Stops. Crazy.
Anyway ... Then Real Life
happened and I was there around four in the afternoon. Well ...
OK, change
of plans. Drive into DC for the late afternoon light, stay for night shots, and drive back to the Rest Stop. Piece of cake.
Then there was that whole DC traffic thing. The thing I wanted to avoid.
OK.
It took me longer that I wanted, but still, it was better than the year before ...
And softball games.
Are you kidding me? Everywhere. Where I planned
to park was full. I mean full. The Lincoln Memorial. I mean full. I drove around DC, oh, one of my favorite things ...
I found a place to park. Like far, far away. But, it was DC and the light was
nice ...
I never made it to the Washington Monument.
Maybe next time.
The Lincoln Memorial.
Not bad. In fact, I had just watched my new National Geographic DVD on Travel
Photography with Joel Sartore photographing, guess where?
Yeah, The Lincoln Memorial at sunset.
And there
I was ... The Lincoln Memorial at sunset. Funny how that plays out.
Twilight.
Night shots at twilight. Perfect.
Twenty minutes (or so) after sunset. The ambient light matches the building
lights. Perfect. Shoot like crazy. Move on.
Back to the
Element ... Like two miles away. Really.
Dark now. Washington,
DC. Walking faster ...
Then ... The MLK Memorial.
Something new to me. I was there, I stopped. I ran around looking for my shot.
I got it.
Whoa ...
Cloudy worked at twilight with 'ol Abe, but ...
Not
so much for Martin Luther King, Jr.
Black sky. White
marble. Not Pumpkin Marble.
One button. One of my "Three
Buttons" I talk/write about. I just took 4.3 seconds and pushed the DAYLIGHT White Balance button and I was in business.
Black and White.
Perfect.
Same exposure -- Whatever.
Tripod. f16. 2-second timer. Perfect.
I don't even remember the shutter speed. Well, no, I do ... Long.
True, I was breathing hard -- I was booking -- But ... Tripod. Self-timer. Who cares?
It was the White Balance that made all the difference.
I got my shots. Several in fact. I was happy.
In
fact, I like the non-twilight aspect of this shot. Like I said, I usually like the deep, cool blue sky, mixed with the
warm color of the artificial lights.
But in
this case ... Black and White.
Works for me.
Worked for me. Off I went. Back to the Element. 10:30pm. Way past my bed time.
Back on 64 West to my Rest Stop.
Perfect.
Just like I didn't plan it.
Gravel Art
I don't know, it just came to me.
I was walking down a gravel road looking for images, while spending the night up above Edgemont.
Now, I have done this many, many times ... In the Fall, the leaves are falling
... The weather is, oh so cool. Perfect for sleeping.
I
drive up to the mountains and find a place to park.
And
photograph the leaves. On the trees. On the ground. In the woods. In the fields. On the road.
But wait ...
I've seen these ... I don't know?
What are they? Skeletons? Leaf skeletons ... These left over, rotted, run over, half ground into the dirt/gravel things, just
left-over leaf parts, in the road before, but never as art. As anything worth photographing ...
Like I said, it just hit me.
A leaf.
The final phase of a leaf.
Going, going ... Almost, but not quite, gone.
Wow.
I started running around looking at crushed
leaves with a new eye.
Sweet.
Then my battery died.
Yeah, like on my very first shot.
Bam.
Over.
Just
like that ... My new idea. My new look at old leaves. Done.
No
worries ...
I just happen to have my solar-powered
battery pack handy. Yes. GOAL ZERO to the rescue ...
Love
it.
Out in the middle of nowhere ... Well, up in the
mountains/foothills of Eastern North Carolina anyways, far removed from an electric outlet ...
Well, a conventional outlet anyways.
My GOAL
ZERO, Sherpa 50, has an outlet. And it just happens to be in my Element. Packed away for just this very reason.
A dead battery.
I charged my battery.
While in the woods.
I ate dinner ... Well, let me re-phrase that, I ate my can of chicken, and waited for the magic to happen.
It did. It took awhile, but it did.
I shot some more later on that night ...
But
it wasn't until the next morning that I got back to the whole, Dead Leaf Project thing ...
No, my main reason for shooting this weekend was my Element, my mode of transportation. But that is another story
... (See below).
Dead Leaves. Back to the whole decaying,
run-over, going, going, gone thing ...
I went looking
for the best, ahh, I mean, worst, looking, leaves I could find. It became a journey of discovery. Of seeing. Looking. A journey
of ...
Vanishing leaves.
Seeing something new in something old.
Their
last "foot print" on this earth. Their final imprint. The end of their being ...
OK.
So they are leaves ... I understand that.
But ... This was something new for me. I was pumped.
I
can now say I have photographed the whole life cycle of a leaf.
From Spring's bud, to Summer's greens, to Fall's colors, fallen leaves, piles of leaves, and now ...
Now, the final image.
Decay.
Back to earth.
Gravel.
Gravel
Art.
Elemental Art
I gave my college students the assignment
to photograph their car. Simple enough.
Well, I thought.
Anyway ... By the time things cleared, the assignment was "Transportation".
OK, I can live with that.
So, this weekend I went up to the woods and spent the night ... No, NOT the same place I always do, there was someone
there by the time I rolled along ... It must be close to bear hunting season ... The pick-up trucks were out in full force.
I kept going ...
From Collettsville to Edgemont by way of Maple Sally Road.
Once there (it takes awhile!), I took images of my mode of transportation: The Element.
My third Element.
Third Element in ten years ... 2004 Blue and Gray one, the 2008 Burgundy one, and the 2010 Silver one.
BAM.
I like 'em. Simple.
I
live in it during the summer, and have been all over the United States in them. Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, Prudoe
Bay, Alaska, to the tip of Baja, Mexico, and from the Northwest tip of Washington state to the Southeast tip of Florida at
Key West.
All over.
And yes, I have taken images of all of them ... Thousands of them. Like, all the time. Everywhere.
But ...
I
like a challenge.
So, once again ... Photograph my Element.
Like never before ...
The Art of the Element.
As usual, I followed
my own advice that I have stolen from others over the years:
LOOK
at the LIGHT GET CLOSER TAKE LOTS of IMAGES
I had fun.
I
filled one of my 4GB cards and started in on another one ...
One camera.
One lens.
The Nikon 1 V1 with the 10mm f2.8 lens.
Period.
A little camera with big results. You
see it as I shot it ... All I did was re-size it to work better on my website. 15 inch height (to fit better
on the screen) and from 300 dpi to 72 dpi, to save space on my website (computer screens don't use 300 dpi anyways). 72
works fine ...
That's it.
Light and Shadow.
Silver and Black.
I had fun ... Like I said, over 4GBs of Element Art. And yes, I even shot the
whole thing, but you know me ...
Rule Number Two.
I'll keep a bunch of them ... You know, to go along with the thousands of others
I've collected over the years, but this one was my favorite of the day.
24 hours.
Two days really ... Sort of.
From lunch on Saturday, to lunch on Sunday. The weekend.
Camping up in the woods ... Well, you know, not "Camping" really, just ... I
don't know ... Hangin' out in the Element?
Whatever it
is that I do ... For over ten years now.
Drive somewhere.
Park. Take photos. Sleep. Wake up ... Go for a nice run in the woods, and ... Drive back.
Pretty simple.
Like this image.
Well, except for the whole light/shadow thing. The lines. Shapes. Texture. Exposure.
Getting closer. Seeing. Eliminating everything but what I wanted ... What I saw in my mind's eye.
Other than that, yes ...
Simple.
Simple assignment that should prove to be interesting.
Transportation.
Simple.
Light
OK, so they are clouds, but it is all about the light!
And color.
And
contrast.
And patterns.
And lines.
And shapes.
Art.
All
this in images of clouds. In Lenoir, NC on a Tuesday night with my camer ... ahh, I mean, my ART class from the college.
Downtown. 7:30ish. Looking at the light in the sky, and yes, I'll admit, on
the buildings. First, the light on the buildings caught my eye, made me get out the tripod and take a shot.
That is when, while looking through the lens, that the clouds took over. The
sky. The clouds. The light. This is the result of looking, seeing ... And what I came away with.
Light and dark clouds. And a little color.
I
"shifted focus" ... From buildings to clouds.
The contrast
between light and dark. The rows of "puffiness" (yes, that's a word). Layers. Lines. Light.
That is what I saw. That is what I photographed. I "zoomed" in on what caught my attention.
Simple.
Clean.
My favorites from the 112 images I shot that night.
Look at the Light (check).
Get Closer (check).
Shoot Lots of Images (check).
Have fun (check).
Walk away happy (check).
Happy Happy Happy
Check Check Check
Love Birds
The Daily Dozen
My first image "published" on the National Geographic Website YOUR SHOT.
It was chosen by an editor from NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC and "published", together
with eleven others, on Wednesday, 10 Sep 14.
Pretty cool.
More people see it that way ...
Like, A lot more!
It is now my most viewed image.
By far ...
Up
to 553 and counting ...
It was taken this summer
up in Quebec, Canada. I read about this island off the Gaspe' Peninsula that is home to over 100,000 Northern Gannets - A
large white bird with golden heads; a beautiful bird.
Bonaventure
Island is a National Park, in the Atlantic Ocean, near the town of Perce', Quebec. The whole backside of the island is
nothing but bare ground with birds everywhere ... all about eight inches from each other. Mud nest with a little bit of seaweed
mixed in for comfort.
Thousands ... And thousands ...
You land on the island, pay your National Park Fee ($7.50 CD), hike 45 minutes
to the other side of the island, and ...
First you hear
them, then you smell them. BAM.
Loud. Smelly. Wonderful.
Right there. Five feet away.
I just sat there and ... Well, had a riot. I shot this with my Nikon D300 which shoots at 8 frames per second, perfect
for the crash landings! I had my 80-400mm (120-600mm 35 equivalent) lens mounted on my Manfrotto tripod which was set-up low
to the ground about five feet from the edge of the birds.
This
pair of birds were probably ten yards away and among the masses ...
Here, there, everywhere. Flying. Crashing. Screaming. Fighting. Dancing. Crashing some more.
Graceful in flight ... Comical returning to earth. Almost painful looking.
And sounding.
One image ...
People from all over the world checking it out. Iran. Japan. USA. France. You name it ... 397 the first day.
The image is nice, but it was the outdoor experience
that I will remember (to steal a line from wildlife photographer Doug Gardner).
Wild.
Adventure.
Off the coast of Quebec ...
Northern Gannets.
Unreal.
Never Leave Home Without It
I checked the air pressure.
I had loaded up
the bike.
The water.
A towel. An extra shirt.
I was ready. It is
September, that means I go bike riding up a mountain (OK ... A "foothill") out around Collettsville.
Yeah, the same gravel road I always head to this time of year.
Oh, wait, forgot the camera, and yes, I even brought my phone, you know, just
in case ...
Crap ... Forgot the helmet and sunglasses.
Man ...
Alright. I have everything.
Yeah, I almost thought about NOT taking my new Nikon P7100 camera I got Friday.
Yeah, another camera.
Used. Adorama. A+. A no-brainer.
The P7100 is a hi-end, point-n-shoot that I have had my eyes on since seeing it for sale in the used department on-line months
ago.
A+ rating.
That means, "Buy It", it's like brand new. No question.
Can't remember, but it was around $250 (I checked. $247.25 with shipping), or something. 10 MP. Wide-angle to medium
telephoto (I NEVER use "digital zoom", just the optical zoom). Sweet little camera. Perfect for ... Ahh, bike rides!
Came with everything. Original box. Battery. Battery charger. Neck strap. Manual.
CDs. Cables, etc ... Everything a new camera comes with.
GREAT
shape. Looks new. No marks. Heck, the strap was never taken out of the little plastic bag. New. Period.
Very nice.
Anyway
... I played around with it Saturday in Hudson, seeing what it can do.
It does a lot. Very nice quality. Quick. Sharp. Works with my old off-camera flash cord, the SC-29. Sweet. I knew
there was a reason I still have it ...
So, off for
a ride.
And sure enough, right at the beginning, before I even got to the gravel
road turn-off ... Just past The Bluffs, there he was. In the middle of the road.
The turtle.
Yeah, I stopped. I had my camera. Who wouldn't?
I knew it. I always say carry a camera with you ... Wherever you go. And here it was, cute little thing. Halfway
across the road ... Just sitting there ...
I got my shots. I got down on the
road. I looked at the light. I got close. He turned around. I followed him ...
Got a few different looks ...
And yes, after
I got my shots, I picked him up and helped him find his way. Well, I don't know where he was going, coming from, whatever,
but I got him out of harm's way.
Glad I stopped.
In my driveway I mean.
I am glad I stopped, backed up, and went in and grabbed the camera, before I even really got going.
That is why I carry a camera with me. While going for a bike ride.
A turtle.
Crazy.
Oh, and then there was a snake, once I did make it to the gravel road ... Small,
but cool.
And this was all before I actually started
up the mountain.
Love it. And yes, I took more images
along the route ... But it was the turtle that made my day.
I
will remember this ...
Never leave home without your
camera.
Fearless
Yeah, the kid is in pre-school.
Really.
This is what pure joy must be like ...
I don't know. It has been a very LONG time since I was his age. And that fearless ...
Pre-school. How old are you in pre-school? Like what? Four? This is an image of a child that has no fear of crashing
... No fear of what happens if a car pulls out in front of him, no fear of what his aunt, and mother, would do to me, if he
was to get hurt (or put this image on the internet without permission!!).
On my watch ...
See, this is the nephew of a
friend of mine that invited me to go camping with the "Framily" ... At Stone Mountain State Park over the long Labor Day weekend.
I had a blast ...
Turns out her family - extended family
- has kids that go to GFMS, where I teach. I haven't had them in class, but I recognized them. I did however, teach
their mothers, uncles, and/or aunts at the college over the years ... Cool.
Older boys ... Like middle school and high school aged boys, that like to ride those "Flex-Board" things that look
like the 'ol skateboards of yesteryear ...
Only much
cooler.
They were riding them around the campground roads
... Moving right along at about two inches off the ground. Big boys on little toys.
Well, their cousin, this four year old, wanted to ride with his friends ... And he did. Standing up and scootin'
along pretty darn good. Like all afternoon ...
Then it
was getting later on in the day ... And the older boys came up with the wild idea that they would group together and ride
down the hill onto the grassy area down at the bottom, and then "wipe out" ... Their "landing pad".
Cool. I walked down with my camera ... By the way, I used my little Nikon 1
V1 with the 10mm f2.8 lens (sort of like the 'ol 28mm f2.8 lenses I used for years, both manual focus and auto-focus). Love
it ... Loved the originals, and I love this new little thing.
Stood right in the road (fearless baby!), camera in one hand, held out in front and above him ... 200 ISO. f2.8.
1/200th of a second. Oh yeah.
Anyway ...
Now you know what happens when boys of any age see a photographer
line up for a shot ...
I have been doing this for awhile
...
I shot for motorcycle magazines before switching
over to river cruises, hiking tours, white water rafting companies, etc ... I have seen what happens. I know.
They go just a wee bit faster, take that one little risk ... You know,
for the camera.
Never fails.
Motorcycles, mountain bikes, road bikes, rafts, kayaks, flex-boards, and yes ...
Scooters.
Faster. Faster. And faster.
Hey, it does make for great photos ...
And smiles.
So here they come ... The big boys
in a group, hanging on to each other ... Wild.
And
then, right behind them ... That crazed little scooter guy, flying on by ... Grinnin'.
Over and over.
The smile. The joy. The speed.
Like I said, fearless.
Sitting down like the big boys, going just as fast as the big boys, having a ball, just like the big boys.
The kid is four.
Fearless.
I loved it. What a photo.
Then I remembered that is mom is not here, she left him in care of his aunt
for the weekend ... And now his aunt left him in my trusted care for the moment (she was at the top of the hill, you know, doing
what adults do) ... Wow.
Oh crap, she is going to
kill me ... Both of them. They are going to tear me up. Me? I was into the images, the moment(s) ... The speed,
the joy, the ... You know, photography! Look at the light. Get closer. Shoot lots of images. Man, it was all good.
Then I remembered he is only four years old.
I hated to do it ... But, just before the last run of the evening ... I walked back up the hill with the group,
and gave his aunt the "slashing throat" signal ... You know, "let's stop this before something happens to the little guy"
signal.
Whew.
It was fun. I got some great images, and nobody got hurt. And the aunt took the heat (ahh, he wanted to go just one
more time ... Please!).
Like I said, he was fearless.
Not me ...
Love the image. The smile. The memories ...
That's what it is. I was four once. And fifteen. Eighteen.
Twenty five. Even forty. Drove a motorcycle the last time at fifty. My fiftieth state (Hawaii) at age fifty, pretty
cool.
See, I drove a motorcycle for, ahh, like for years.
I know speed. I raced motocross. I rode in the Alps. Norway. The Dragon over in the Smokies. I know curves. I know that look
... That smile, that joy.
And now I remember what it
is like to be four again.
And fearless.
Old School
The Camera Obscura.
Now that is old school. In fact, it is as old school as you can get, as far
as photography is concerned.
It even pre-dates photography.
Yeah, it was photography before we even knew about photography.
Now that is cool.
And I just bought one this
summer. Yeah, I have been teaching photography, in one form or another, since 1984, and I just bought my first Camera Obscura
in 2014.
How cool is that?
And you think 1984 is Old School.
My second
stop on my Summer Vacation was at Monticello, Home of Thomas Jefferson. Been awhile. I believe the last time I was there was
1983. I thought it was time to see what was new at Tom's house.
Something new alright. Yeah, in the book store, there it was; a kit for a Camera Obscura. Are you kidding me? I was
blown away. Now, I knew Jefferson was into many things, but I never would have believed that I would find a kit to make your
very own "camera" in the bookstore at Monticello. No way.
Of
course I cringed at the fact that I had to ensemble the thing ... I had flashbacks to my days of model airplanes, or worst
yet, 7th grade shop class. Whew.
It wasn't pretty.
No worries, I was headed to my uncle's, and he could lead the charge.
About
$20 and I was set.
Weeks later, on a rainy day up to my uncle's camp, where
I was staying in my Honda Element for two weeks, by the way, I had my chance.
Perfect
day to stay inside his workshop and put it together. Yeah, he has is own workshop, you can only imagine how good he is with
his hands, and tools.
It even came with it's own little bottle of Elmer's glue.
Which is a good thing, because I didn't have any.
And yes, I read the directions
... I've come a long way since the 7th grade. Just don't ask my uncle about nailing a board to one of his camps ... I'm serious,
I'm BAD.
It came out fine.
Little
plastic lens, pieces of, well, I don't really know ... Hard cardboard, or light wood, something that looks like wood anyways.
Hard something. Like I said, I'm clueless to all this crafty stuff, I just glued this to that, glued a piece of tracing
paper to one end, a plastic lens to another piece, and BAM. I had a Camera Obscura.
Like REALLY SIMPLE.
I like it.
It works!
You have two box-like-things that slide back and forth
inside each other to focus your subject on the tracing paper, and, there is the image.
Just like I have taught my students for years ... Upside down.
It
is now part of my collection of cameras. And it isn't even a camera.
I took
it out in my sister's yard, once I left my uncle's, and walked around viewing her garden. That is what you do ... You
view things. A wheelbarrow full of flowers, a white gazebo in the background, grass, trees ... You know, a garden.
Of course, being a photographer, I wanted to capture this image, so I took my
trusty little Nikon Coolpix AW100 along with me, and took pictures of my images that were inside the Camera Obscura on the
tracing paper.
I'm just glad I have two hands.
There it is ...
The "device" that started it all. The Camera Obscura. Hundreds of years before the first camera. Used as an aid to
early painters and artists. A new version of one of the earliest hi-tech devices known to man.
OK, pretty low-tech today, but, if you use a camera, a cell phone, an I-pad, what-have-you, and you capture images,
this is where it all began. Hi-tech in its day.
You can
have your FACEBOOK, your TWITTER, etc ... Me?
Camera
Obscura, baby.
Perfect.
In My Element
27 June 2014 2:53am
My "campsite" in Perce, Quebec.
Now you know
why I do what I do.
A Tale of Two Images
Upper Canada Village.
After driving up to Ottawa, Canada, this summer, on my second trip to the country,
to see the Sound and Light Show they put on every evening on the Parliament Building, I drove back down to the St. Lawrence
River on my way back to New York, and stopped for breakfast. Then I asked one of the ladies that worked there, "How far away am
I from Upper Canada Village?"
My uncle had mentioned
it earlier in the summer ... I spent a total of three weeks sleeping in the Element up in my uncle's woods, just off
Hessel Road (yes, only one "l", long story) near the house where my grandfather and father were both born.
16 acres surrounded by hundreds of acres of National Forest in up-state New
York. North of Sandy Creek, south of Mannsville.
In
the woods. In the middle of nowhere.
Anyway ... It is
always a good thing to spend time with an 83 year old uncle. And talk. And talk.
All this, of course, after you have been out cutting up trees, picking up branches, loading limbs, burning brush,
and watching your uncle weed-eat more than half of his secluded little piece of paradise for eight hours a day,
every day ...
Upper Canada Village. 5 km from where I
was eating breakfast ... That close. What? 3.2 miles, or something like that. Sweet.
Off I went.
Canada, circa the mid-1800s. Think
of it as the Old Salem of the North. Only bigger. Lumber mill, shops, houses, farms, textile mill, a church, gardens, and
...
People.
I was there early, and I stayed late ...
Photography.
I didn't really photograph a lot of people this summer ... Birds. Buildings.
Bridges. Woods. My uncle. Oh, and more birds.
But, here?
Upper Canada Village?
People.
And light.
Always
the light.
Let's talk about the first image.
Black and White.
Yes, I shot it in Black and White. I do that sometimes.
Once in awhile. It is a game I play.
Yes, I
know ... You could shoot it in color, and then convert it later. That way you could have the best of both worlds ... Yeah,
heard that line before.
Good point.
But ...
When
I "feel" Black and White will work, I go all out. I "see" in Black and White. I "feel" Black and White. I ... Well, you know,
change it to Black and White in my camera, so when I look through the viewfinder, I SEE in Black and White. Literally. Black
and White. And OK, yes ... Gray.
BAM. Magic.
I was in the Tin Shop ... A door to my rear, windows to my left, and another
door to my right. Nice window (door) light ... Or permanent, built-in "soft boxes" on location, if you will ...
LOOK at the LIGHT.
OK. Good. The lights were "on" ... And a model just happened to be there, working on whatever it is that "Tinsmiths"
did back in the 1800s, with whatever tools they used in the 1800s. A real "still life" with a moving person in it. Right in
front of me.
Sweet.
A studio just where I happened to be shooting ... And a model. Perfect.
You would have thought I had it all planned out ...
We
talked, I checked out the light. Well, true, he did most of the talking, I did most of the looking ... But yes, we talked.
I can talk with a camera crammed up to my left eye, no problem. I have about 30 years experience doing so ... I talk, I think,
I look at the light. I view my image within the scene before me.
I see the image unfold.
Where do I want to be?
Where is the light coming from? How is the subject being lit by the light? Foreground? Middle-ground? Background? What is
going on? What do I want in focus? What do I want in the image that helps tell the story?
What do I need to get rid of that distracts from the image? Just as important, if not more important.
Yes, it is a portrait. Yes, it is "my" studio. No, they are not my
windows (lights), and not my space, and I am not directing the "model" in any way, and I am not in control, but it is
"my" studio, for the moment.
In fact, there is another
group of people (family?) that just walked in, off to my right, that are talking to him, asking him questions, taking his
mind off of me.
And my motordrive. My click, click, click
...
Perfect.
Like I planned it. No, if I planned it, it wouldn't have come out so nice, I am sure.
Let it go.
He was working, I was working, everything
was working.
Light. Position. Clothing. Camera. Lens.
Black and White. Aperture. Shutter Speed. ISO.
The LIGHT.
The model. The artist.
The image.
Now ... The second image.
Color.
The
wood-worker. Different building. Different model. Same lighting. Daylight. Windows. Doors. Different look. Different "feel".
I went with color. The warm color of wood. Very different from the color of tin. Of metal. Cold metal.
It "felt" different. It looked different. Warm. Warmer light bouncing all over
the place. Wood walls, wood floor, wooden tools, wood chips and shavings, all over the place, wood smell ...
OK, you can't photograph smell, but you get the idea ...
Wood. Warmth. Color.
I went with the color. Nikon Vivid. Cloudy White Balance. Push a button here, push another there ...
Well, no. Actually, I shoot that way most of the time. Those are my "normal"
settings ... I just had to change them back from Black and White. Or ... I can't remember now which came first, but anyways
...
I had it set up the way I wanted it before I ever
even started shooting. VERY important.
I am not Joe McNally.
I don't shoot for NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. I was not on assignment. I didn't hire these men to model for me. I was a tourist who
is walking around town (or village) taking pictures.
Just
like everyone else.
Well, OK, not like everyone else,
but you know what I mean. I did not have control of these people, or the situation. Very important.
People were coming in and out, the "models" were actually working,
making things that they sell, or use in the village. These are working people that I didn't want to slow down, bother,
or ask to pose for me.
Sometimes, I like it like that.
They work, I work. That simple.
I started out thinking two cameras, two lenses ... My two D90 bodies, one with the 18-200mm, the second with the
12-24mm. Wide angle to telephoto. Got everything covered. Perfect.
Went inside bought my ticket (ahh, $25), looked around ... Lots of people ... Small shops ...
And returned to the Parking Lot, dropped off the second camera/lens ,and just
went with the trusty 18-200mm do-it-all lens.
Perfect.
Simplify.
Keep
it Simple.
Work fast.
No flash. No hassle.
Be one with the camera.
Get in, shoot, get out. Quick, quick, quick.
But get
the shot.
Work at getting the shot. The "second" shot
...
The Woodworker.
First thing I saw was Alexander Graham Bell. I remember the images from National Geographic. He was one of the "Founding
Fathers" of the magazine ... And, yes, he was from Canada! He lived in New Brunswick. And ... Yes, he lived around the time
frame that Upper Canada Village is based on ...
Time
travel. Very cool ...
I even mentioned this to the gentleman.
He knew what I was talking about ...
We talked, I looked.
I saw the way the "main light", the light from the door I entered off to my right, was hitting him. Nice.
And the "backlight" (window light) coming in on the rear, left ... Oh, nice.
Then ... A family came in and, BAM, he turned his head, took his mind off me, asked a young girl if she could figure
out what he was working on, and I had my image. My portrait.
That
fast, that quick. That easy.
Oh, I took LOTS of images
... I have several pretty good shots of him working, his glasses sitting on the table in the foreground, tools in his hands,
but ...
For me, this is the shot.
The light.
The
shadows.
The eyes.
The "moment".
And it all came about by talking
to my uncle about my trip to Ottawa. I never even heard of Upper Canada Village. Well, maybe I have, but it was like 30, 40
years ago.
Yeah.
Talk to your uncle, ask questions at McDonalds, know your camera, talk to your "models", and then fade away (Yes,
into the "woodwork") and let the magic do its thing.
Great
village. Great people. Great light. Great color. Great memories.
Great summer.
A Tale of Two
Landings
I spent a lot of time with birds this summer.
Watching birds, photographing birds, listening to birds, photographing birds, smelling birds, and photographing more birds.
In two countries!
Yes, the summer was for the birds.
After a detour to the New River Gorge Bridge, in West
Virginia, for a late afternoon, evening, early morning shoot/camping trip, and a side visit to Monticello, the home of Thomas
Jefferson (where I picked up a kit to make my very own Camera Obscura), I made it up to Pulaski,
New York, where "my" Osprey nest is located.
Yes,
I actually stopped there first before making it to my sister's house (less than 5 miles away). Just don't tell her that.
This was my third summer in a row photographing this pair of Osprey.
Same nest, same parents, different chick.
One chick.
Big difference.
For the past two years they always had two.
This year was different. When I got there in mid-June, there was ... Well, to tell you the truth, for the first couple of
days, I didn't see any chicks, or chick.
Two Osprey, one big nest.
And
let me tell you this ... This is all right on Route 13 coming out of Pulaski, right next to the power lines. In fact, the
nest was on the power line poles. Not a good thing. A few years ago ... About three or four I was told ... The men from the
power company (at that time, Niagara Mohawk) set-up another, taller pole, next to the power line poles and built a place for
the nest, which they took and placed on a special platform.
All for the birds. Perfect. They are now, say, twenty feet higher, and away from the actual power
lines, but still at "their spot".
Safer
for every one and every thing. As close as possible to the original, yet much better.
Perfect.
Anyway, no chicks.
Well, there was a chick, come to find out, I just never saw it. It was small. That nest is deep!
Finally, a few days into it, up pops a head.
No, actually, I first knew there was a chick because I could see the parent tear up the fish they catch (the Salmon
River runs close to Route 13) and give it to something ... I couldn't see how many chicks there were at first.
Then, I saw the one little head.
One parent was always there ... Again, I can't
tell which is which. In fact, it is funny, I really have no clue, but I give the birds human roles (sexist as that is), such as
"mother" stays with the chick, "father" goes off to fish.
Like I said, clueless.
But, that is my thinking, and I'm sticking with it.
I'm sure, well, in fact, I know, that they both stay, and they both hunt. They both care for the
chick ... I just never know who is who at any given time.
Funny how that works.
Now, at first, I could tell who the parents were, and which one was the chick. Two big ones, one tiny fluffy looking
thing. Small. Tiny. A wimp.
The
chick.
Then I took off for
Quebec ... My "real" reason for driving North this summer. Again, don't mention that to my sister ... Now wait, I did wait
until after the County Fair, where I sat in for my sister in the Crafts Building for four or five evenings.
Yeah, The County Fair. Quilts. Pictures. Flower
Arrangements. Sewing. Other needle stuff. Local Writers. Plants. All that cool stuff ...
4-9pm.
Hey, I took photos. I even read one of my THREE books I read this summer ... Oh yeah, The County
Fair. I love it.
Back to Canada.
Less than two hours away. And that is with a
stop in Watertown, NY to "fill-up" on food (ahh, Wal-Mart baby!) and gas before heading north.
Quebec. France, without the flight. That simple. Yes, I even had
to have my passport checked ...
Canada.
The second largest country in the world. Unreal. Now I wish I hadn't failed French all those years ago in high school.
They speak French in Canada.
Well,
no. They speak French in Quebec. English everywhere else. Really. Road signs. Books. Maps. You name it.
Liters. Kilometers. You know, the stuff we study in middle school
math. And yes, the students always ask ... And I tell them, "so you can drive to Quebec and know how fast you are going,
or how far away St. Johns is. Period. It's math. Trust me. You will thank me later".
I fail to mention that cars now-a-days, have it all taken care of for them on the speedometer,
but yeah, they're in the 6th grade, they don't even own a car! No problem.
Hey, yes, I failed French in the 9th grade, and the teacher kicked me out in the 10th grade, but
I did learn in the Marines, while living in Japan, that 50 kph was ... Get this, take the 5 from the 50, multiply it by 6,
and then add one. Bingo.
6x5=30
... Plus one ...
50 kph is
the same as 31 mph.
Ta-da!!!
I remembered!!!!!
And ... It
is on my speedometer. But I knew ... Just don't tell my 6th graders!
Different language. Different signs. Different country.
Different birds.
I followed the St. Lawrence River northeast up to the Gaspe' Peninsula. Camped along the river, and at a National
Park, then made my way to the town of Perce'.
Small town with a big rock (Perce' Rock). And another island, or as they say, "Ile' de Bonaventure".
That was where I wanted to be. That was
my destination. Why? Simple.
Birds.
Northern Gannets. Big, white, sea birds that
come ashore on this one island and raise their chicks.
Like, lots of them. Thousands. And thousands. Over 100 thousand Northern Gannets on the "back-side"
of this one island. A National Park (remember, this is in Canada).
You hop on a ferry, circle around the Perce' Rock, and then they drop off the Park Rangers (if
you make the first, 9am boat) and anyone else that wants to get off (most stay on for a tour around the island), and
you then pay the National Park fee, and then ...
And then you walk.
They
say about a 45 minute stroll through the fields and forest ...
Well, maybe.
You know me. Camera backpack (and yes, water) and tripod, and ... Off I went. I did not stroll. I marched ...
Focused. Motivated. Ready to rumble ...
Holy crap. It was warming up.
Anyways ... First one to the birds. Well, after the Rangers on their four-wheelers, anyways. I was ready, excited ...
I heard them first, then, a second later ...
Smelled them. Did I mention THOUSANDS of birds?
There they were.
Came
through the woods, BAM. The shoreline was dirt. The grass was gone. The birds were ... Well, doing what birds do. Flying.
Crying. Calling. Nesting. Screaming. Fighting. Pooping. Crashing.
Crashing?
What? Birds don't crash. Osprey don't crash. Hawks don't crash. Eagles don't crash. And for God's sake, Robins don't
crash. Birds that I have photographed, don't crash.
Ahh, these birds CRASH.
Really.
Graceful
in the air, not so much when landing. Or trying to land. Or falling out of the sky. Whatever it is that they do, it is not
landing.
It is funny. Clumsy. Non-bird like. Crashing.
Thousands of them ... All the same. White with
some yellowish/tan heads, and some black thrown in, all around these wonderful blue lined eyes. Beautiful. Elegant. You know,
nice looking, graceful, streamlined flying machines. Big. Four or five foot wing spans. Born flyers ...
All trying to locate their mate, their soul-mate, for life. Flying
around bringing in seaweed and "stuff" to build there nests in the mud. Dirt. Mud, whatever it is. Little mounds of dirt
and seaweed. Like, eight inches from each other. All in order. A wonderful pattern.
Brown dirt, white birds, blue skies, white clouds, dark blue water. Very graphic. Very beautiful.
Very loud. Very smelly.
Nice
patterns.
You can get close.
There is a rope fence, or in places, walkways, out to the birds, but they are close. Say, one foot away in places. They even
nest on top of the covered "look-outs" at the end of the walkways.
Yeah. Close.
Early July. The chicks were being born. I saw one or two close enough to photograph. Small, gray fluffs of feathers with
a big beak. Tiny, really. Funny looking "ugly ducklings" Gannet chicks.
Shoot. Shoot. Shoot.
Five hours.
Then,
back to the dock. The "other side" of the island. There are a few buildings, a museum, small store, etc ... You know, a National
Park. Bathrooms. Food. Drinks. But the whole island closes up, and everyone leaves the island every afternoon.
First boat on, last boat off.
Back to the mainland. Quebec. Back to sleep.
Oh, did I mention the sunrise?
Yeah.
Sleeping in my car, at a campsite in town, and ...
Orange sky. Or was it pink? No, I remember orange.
Holy crap!
I popped up, put on my sandals, started the Element, took off, 42 seconds flat ...
Say what?
2:56
The
time was 2:56. What? Morning? Afternoon? Whoa. Wait ...
2:56am. Morning.
Wow.
But ... There
I was. Sunrise. Perce' Rock. The Atlantic Ocean. The image.
Down on the shore I ran, running around looking for anything, in that beautiful light, to photograph ...
Anything.
LOOK at the LIGHT
That simple.
Well, unless it is 3am every morning ... And sunset at 9pm every
evening. Long days.
Vacation,
oh how I love vacations.
But
anywho ...
Back to New York.
Back to the Osprey. But first, I had to stop in Maine to visit my cousin I haven't seen in years. Nice.
But ... Hey, Osprey.
Back I came. There they were. Where was the chick? Only two birds. Oh crap ... What happened to
the little guy?
Simple.
He (or she), got bigger.
It was there all along. Two birds. One parent. One "chick". Same
size. It threw me off a bit ...
I
never saw all three of them in the nest for the rest of the summer. Another month.
I guess once the "chick" gets older, and bigger, and starts flappin'
those wings around, that nest isn't as big as I thought ...
The chick was no longer a chick. I learned to tell the difference ... The adult had darker brown feathers, the "chick"
still had some white feathers thrown in there on the wings.
Just as tall. Just as big.
Hello? I was only gone a few weeks. Canada, and then two weeks up to my uncle's camp ...
Less than a month, and BAM. No more "chick".
Flappin' it's wings, hopping up and down ... Ready to fly ...
And the next thing I knew, it did.
BAM, there it went ... Took off, circled around, and back to the nest!
Yes!
Now, was it the first time it flew? Again, I'm clueless. But ...
I'll take it.
Oh yeah. I was waiting for it. I wanted to see it. I wanted to see its first flight ... Every
day I was in Richland, there I was. Morning. Noon. Night. I was waiting ... wishing ... and hoping ... and dreaming
(hey, isn't that a song?).
So?
Was it the first flight? I was gone for two weeks straight (that is another story by the way).
I don't know.
But, it was cool.
So, two kinds of birds, two countries, and two very different ways of landing, but one great way to spend the summer.
Hours and hours ...
Sometimes lots of shots ... Sometimes none.
That is photography. That is "wildlife" photography.
That is summer. That is cool.
School's Out
I kid you not, I found him at the Car Wash. Well, no ... He was next to the vacuum cleaner thing, next to the Car
Wash. Close enough.
Dead as a door nail.
Yes! Photo Op.
I
took him home, got out of the clean Element, and got into my element: photography!
Just happened to have my D200, with the 40mm macro attached, sitting in the living room ...
Set The Beetle down in the yard, laid down myself, and shot away.
I like the horns ... Japanese Beetle (I Googled It). Set my aperture to
f10 for some depth of field, got in close and fired away.
Pretty
simple really. He wasn't going anywhere.
Even had a little
catch-light on the eyes thing going on to make it look somewhat alive.
It's crazy looking ...
Glad I found him. Great
way to kick off the summer. Clean car. Photograph The Beetle.
Perfect.
Packing up the Element, headed out
tomorrow morning. West Virginia - I've wanted to see that New River Gorge Bridge for years ... Then Monticello ... A morning
in Washington, DC to see "the new" Washington Monument ... Then, I don't know, The Skyline Drive, Gettysburg, then Richland,
NY and "my" local osprey ... Then some more osprey up near the border of NY and Vermont (I saw them there
a couple of years ago), and then some more birds (100,000 Northern Gannets) out in the Atlantic, up in Quebec, Canada at the
mouth of the St. Lawrence River. You can walk right up to them on a boardwalk ...
That's the plan ... As of now.
Get out there,
clean those cars, and photograph any beetles you happen to find laying around. Enjoy your summer.
FairValue
Yes, I needed orange juice. Really.
So, I grabbed my camera, with the 40mm macro lens attached. Really.
Oh, and my wallet. Duh?
And off I went. I walk.
So I can take pictures. It is a little game I play.
To FairValue, my local, friendly, little grocery store. Just up the hill.
I don't know, a five minute walk. Longer if I take pictures.
It takes awhile.
The yellow leaf? In my driveway. I saw it, walked past it ... For a step or two, and walked back. Image.
Not on the ground, I didn't see this image, I made it.
Sun up above. Leaf on the pavement. Perfect.
I just had to pick it up, hold it up to the sun, and ... Well, shoot.
Period. And adjust.
First, I had the camera
"wide open" at f2.8. You know, to keep my shutter speeds up ...
That's good, but ... Depth of Field.
True, the
leaf isn't that "deep", but at this distance (macro), I knew I wouldn't have much anyway. So, I took a few, and then switched
to f8. Took at few more.
I know what you are thinking
... F8, slower shutter speed. Good. So did I. But ... Bright sun, no worries. My shutter speed was still fast enough (1/1000th) even
though I was hand holding the camera with one hand, and the leaf with the other. I was careful. Call me daring. Call me crazy.
In my driveway. With my camera.
Next, the "Green Light, Spot Light". The sun lit green things in the shadows of more green things ...
What I remember about this one is the fact that a car was driving down the little
hill on this side street, and all I heard was, "What the hell"? Yeah ... Like they never saw a grown person on the side of
the road taking pictures of bushes before. Go figure.
Well,
spot-lit, green light bushes, to be exact. I knew I wanted the shadows to go black, so I just set my compensation to
-1.3, and fired away. I wanted this spot-light affect, one that I have shot for years. I just knew ...
The first time I can remember doing this, and having it work out the way
I wanted, was in Germany, in the Alps, in the 1980's. I remember things like that. I knew before I took the image that I would
have to compensate. So I did.
The whole shooting the leaves
within the forest thing, or however that goes. Or in this case, the whole green things, within more of the green things,
thing. Again, something like that.
Spot-light, green
light. And black. Can't downplay the importance of the black. Completes the image. The effect. The mood. The style of the
image. It makes the image.
Think light, by working the
shadows. Pretty cool.
And the Tiger Lilies ... At the
top of the hill, on an "empty" lot. Yes, there is a house, but it is empty. No one lives there, haven't for years. Very
important.
I see images all the time on my way to the
store, or around the loop here in Hudson, but I don't shoot them. Private property. People's houses.
People tend to freak out when they see someone walking around taking pictures
(ahh, with a "real" camera). Case in point, this group of lilies.
A few years ago, I don't know, six or seven ... I was at the same spot, taking pictures of these very flowers (or
was it the fire hydrant right next to them? Or the lightpole?). The Hudson police drove up, stopped, and ask me what I'm doing.
Well, you know what I wanted to say, but ... I explained I was walking around MY neighborhood, trying out a new lens. I told
them that I teach photography at the Community College (in Hudson!), and was seeing how this new lens works ... I can't remember
which one, or if it was a lens, or a camera body. It was something new ... I do it all the time. I went on and on about shutter
speeds, camera shake, ISO, getting to know your gear, etc ...
Well, he says something about kids down the street (which I passed, but did not even look at), a divorce, a custody
battle, and ... Blah, blah, blah.
I bit my lip.
I didn't say a thing.
I let it go.
I didn't mention that I have every
right to walk around a town and take pictures. I did mention that I didn't take any images of the kid, or kids, I can't remember
which.
Which, even if I did, I was on the street, I was
not on their property, and I was in plain sight, passing their house, not standing around "hunting" their children.
I didn't go into the whole legal rights of an American citizen ... No,
I just told him what I was doing and went on my way. Taking pictures.
I behaved myself. I got over it.
So, today,
years later, I walked up to the store to buy my orange juice and took some pictures.
And yes, I giggled when the "what the hell" car drove by. And I remembered the whole police thing up at the Tiger
Lillies ...
But, I also got some nice shots. Working
with my macro lens, the light, and the colors.
Another
thing ...
After ten years of walking around town with
a camera, I think the locals know what I'm up to. Or, at the least, they know who I am.
The local nut, that walks around and takes pictures of ... Like, anything and everything.
Except their yards, houses, kids, pets, anything on their property. Period.
Light poles, man-hole covers, light, shadows, fire hydrants, trees, flowers,
leaves, cracks in the pavement, paint ...
You know
... Art.
Stuff.
Practice. Practice. Practice.
You know ... College
photography instructor stuff.
Glass Image(s)
Yes, it is really just one image, but there are images within the image. So yes, I'm sticking with image(s). Plural.
See, this is what happens when you invite your photography instructor out to
see your new home. Out in the woods. Big house. A nice "log cabin" type house, on top of a mountain, out in the country.
I like it.
And
of course I had my camera with me. Duh? New house, they just moved in. Great location. Steep, crazy driveway. Nobody around.
Screened in porch. Location, location, location. Wow.
This
is my image. THE shot of the house. This is what I took.
The
window in the bathroom.
That's right, the window in the
main bathroom. I loved it. I saw it, and BAM, I knew it. The image. The new house image. I was happy.
In the bathroom.
The crazy, abstract, wonderful world of the bathroom window. Look at it! You know what I'm talking about. The frames
within the frame. The distortions. The light. The shapes. The colors. The frames themselves. The patterns.
Each frame a new image, a different image. Over and over again. Different, but
the same.
Frame it up. Shoot. Bam, bam, bam, just like
that. I knew I had the image of the new house. The image.
My
image. Her window. Her bathroom. Her new home.
My favorite
room of the house.
Oh, yeah, of course, the rest of the
house is fine. Big. Open. Warm. Rustic. Killer surround porch. Garage. Full basement, big enough for another house. Even a
couple of more bathrooms here and there. Upstairs and down. Big house.
But only one really cool window. The window. The window with the trees, like right there. In your face. In your window
face. Perfect.
Nothing fancy on my part. I didn't do
anything, well, except push the button. Frame it up, shoot. Guess I checked my exposure maybe ... I don't even remember if
I nailed it the first time, or if I made an adjustment or two ... I saw it, I shot it. I do believe I took more than one shot,
you know me, but I also remember thinking that all the framing, composition, etc ... Is like, all done. Finished. Complete.
As is. The end.
Level things up, shoot. Framed, ready
to go.
Done.
That quick. That easy.
I love it when you stumble
onto something like this, see it, shoot it, and know you have it. Something unique. Something interesting. Something you can
hang on your wall, like say, in your bathroom.
Oh wait, it is in her bathroom. It is on the wall. Oh, I get it. It is her art. Already hung up for her. In place.
Art. How nice.
Now I have it in my apartment too. Not
as big, of course, but nice. On my computer screen. I can see it every day.
How nice.
Play Ball
I played baseball. I was a young kid once. My nickname in Little League was
"Hustle Hessell"
I remember.
My friend called and got me out of the apartment one more time ... Her cousin's son had a game, did I want to tag
along?
When? Where?
I'm there.
Hey, that rhymes. Sweet.
Anyways ...
I
went to a baseball game. Like the first time in a LONG time. Walker Stadium, in Lenoir. Turns out it is what we
called "Babe Ruth" back in the day, up in New York. Maybe a little older, but, kinda, sorta the same. The next step up from
Little League.
Number 4. Yeah, that is what they called
him ... I took pictures of Jenn's cousin's son (whew, Number 4 is easier). He was the pitcher. Big guy, for an 8th grader.
He did a good job. I shot lots of images.
Pretty cool.
Small crowd, I could go anywhere ... Pretty free to roam around. Which is good because the screen was tough to shoot through.
But I did.
Then
I walked to the side and took some without the little black lines in the frame ... Look for different views. Looks.
Images. Shoot lots of frames ... That sort of thing.
Yes,
I got some "real shots" of Number Four. The one's his mom (and aunt) will enjoy. From the side, no lines.
But ... You know me. I like to play.
Play Ball.
I shot everything. Through the screen
at f5.6 to blurr out the little black lines a little. Focused on the pitcher, Number 4. Sort of worked. I wished I had that
300mm f2.8 that would of REALLY blurred out the background. But I can't afford one, so I was out of luck. I went with the
next best thing: The lens I had with me.
Hello? The perfect
lens. I own it, I had it on the camera, perfect.
Can't
get rid of the little black lines? Simple. Don't.
I used
them to make the shot.
I framed it up. Kept the f5.6
("wide open") for the shallow depth-of-field, focused on the screen (the little black lines) and fired away. But at the right
time ... When the pitcher was "just right" so the viewer would still know what was going on. You know, baseball.
Timing was still key. I had "the image" framed up, now I just had to wait for
the pieces to fall into place. Yeah, I just waited for the pitch, and blasted away ... 8 frames per second.
Got it.
I
thought. Well no, I knew I got it. But I just shot it again. And again. Several times. You know, just because I can.
Once you get an image in your head ... Play Ball. Shoot it over and over.
Hey, they play seven innings, he pitched seven innings, why not? Shoot. Shoot. Shoot.
Then try something else.
Like I said, I played
baseball. I know baseball. I have even photographed baseball before. In the 1990s. When I lived near Chicago. When I was going
to Grad School for photography.
Minor League Baseball.
Class Triple A or Double A or something A. Baseball. Big kids playing a little kid's game. The Kenosha Twins. And another
team in Beloit, Wisconsin. Can't think of their name right this second ... I just remember Beloit. It was close. I drove up,
talked to someone in the office. Bam. I was a baseball photographer. Cool.
And one shot I remember making, all those years ago, that stuck with me, was an image something like the second shot
here ... The younger kid watching the older kids.
Baseball.
Dreaming.
And after living here in Caldwell County for
over twenty years, and teaching at Granite Falls Middle School, this image really rings true. Baseball. America's past time. Caldwell
County's past time. A boy's dream.
One image (my dream).
Of course, I coach track, so yeah ... It drives me nuts, but hey, that's baseball
in Caldwell County. Madison Bumgarner. The two-time World Series winning pitcher. And, a former champion at Granite Falls
Middle School, and later, South Caldwell High School, I might add.
Pretty cool.
The dream of every young boy in
Caldwell County.
And in Pulaski, NY back in the 1960's.
Baseball in Lenoir. I had
a good time. Glad I just happened to have my Nikon D300, with those eight frames/second handy.
Jenn called, well no, she texted me ... And said she was going to "a game" ...
I didn't even know what kind of game she was talking about. I just grabbed a camera. Made sure I had the 18-200mm VR lens
on it. Switched to the AA battery pack, so I could get those eight frames per second I was talking about (with the regular
battery, I only get 4 or 5 frames per second). I boosted my ISO up to 400 from my normal 200. I was ready. All before I even
walked out the door. I just knew ...
Play Ball.
A Few of My
Favorite Things
Went to Asheville today.
Well, no, I went to my favorite camera store, which just so happens to be in
Asheville. Sort of.
Not downtown ...
Out on one of the "loops" that takes you around the big city. Ball Photo. Been
going there for years, started going there back in the 'ol Saturday Class at the College days. The early years ... What? Probably
15, 16 years ago? At least (I've been there since 1995). I think it took me a few years to roam that far from the campus
in the college's old van!
Speaking of old ...
Old cameras. Like, lots of 'em. The official collection that rims the store,
and then the tables of junk ... ahh, I mean, stuff.
$5
cameras. My kind of cameras. Camera Collection Cameras. And old bags, straps, flashes, and more stuff. Old stuff.
Oh, then they have the real USED CAMERA area ... Old film cameras that
just might actually work. You know, the good stuff.
Well,
no ... The good stuff is Mr. Ball's official collection. Not For Sale. The Good Stuff. Classic cameras. A "real"
collection.
But the "regular" old stuff is pretty good
too. Konica. Minolta. Nikon. Olympus. Canon. Pentax. The 1980s all over again.
Back when I "got into" photography ...
I didn't
find anything I couldn't live without. There is a lot I would like, but I can't really see paying that much for a "paperweight"
that sits on a self. $5, no problem.
I found a nice one
there the last time I stopped in (a few months ago). Thought I just might find another one I overlooked ...
No worries.
I
still got out and about. Took the "back roads" for the most part. Had a good time. Even cruised on The Parkway for awhile
... Stopped at Craggy Gardens and took a little hike.
The
"craggy" tree images are from there. Nice overcast light in the fern covered woods. Perfect.
The other two images are from Marion. Took a little walk down Main Street, USA. And yes, I stop and photograph sunflowers,
no matter where I come across them, even if on the side of a building.
Sunflowers
... Nature's design elements at work. I have photographed them for years. Kind of like ferns ... Always. One of my favorite
things.
Like reflections.
Always.
Without fail. If I'm walking in any
town, village, community, whatever, if I see reflections in the windows, and who doesn't? I photograph them. Store windows,
car windows, any window, anywhere. Reflections.
Surreal.
Abstract. Dreamy. Weird. Wild. Complex. Complex Simplicity. Another of my favorite things.
Always.
Old cameras. The Parkway. Asheville.
Ball Photo. Ferns. Sunflowers. My Honda Element. Back Roads. Reflections.
These are just a few of my favorite things ... And yes, even the movie, The Sound of Music.
There are a few more days of school left, I'm sure I'll see it/hear
it as I'm walking down the halls. I always sing along ...
I
hope anyways. It's one of my favorite things ...
Program Mode ISO 100 f3.2 1/640th 0.0 Comp
Aperture Priority ISO 100 f11 1/125th -1.3 Comp.
Take Control
Real quick. Just got back from another walk around the Loop here in Hudson. Took the "right camera" with me this
time ...
The Nikon 1 V1. Cool name for a cool camera.
Tiny. With a fixed focal length 10mm lens, which is wide-angle for that small format (27mm equivalent). Old school,
new school.
OK ... For just walking around, I leave it pretty much in fool-proof
mode. Program mode. Auto this, auto that. Bam. Get in, get out, keep moving.
To
tell you the truth, I just enjoy shooting. I come home, format the card, and am ready for the next time. That simple. FORMAT.
Gone.
Remember, I just enjoy shooting. Looking.
Seeing. Doing. Period.
But, every once in awhile ...
I'm walking around, the light is getting good, about 7pm something. I shoot that, I shoot this. Auto this, auto that.
Then, at the Hudson Elementary School ... I see a light post ... Wait for it ... With the light on.
Yeah. On.
Blue sky. Yellow light.
Bingo. Image.
I KNOW it. Cool/warm color. That easy.
So ... What do I do?
Take control of that whole auto this, auto that
thing I was talking about.
I am smarter than a Japanese, or in this case (I
checked) Chinese, wizard. Yeah ... Really. Nikon. Built in China.
Anyway ...
Took it off PROGRAM.
Went with Aperture Priority.
Went from 0.0 Compensation to -1.3
stops compensation. That quick, that easy. Why -1.3? Because I could. That's why. And, after so many years ... I just "felt
it".
Really. Sounded good at the time ...
Next, real quick like, I set the aperture to f11. Why? Because that was all I had ... I just ran it all the
way up with my little thumb dial thingy, far as it would go. Not many, but ...
Big
Number, Big Depth of Field.
That's my biggest number. That simple.
Bam. There it is.
Right out of the camera ... Both of them. Well,
I rotated them, and re-sized them for the computer, but that's all folks ... What you see is what I got.
One auto. One not.
Know your camera. Know your basic camera operations.
Know how to control you exposure. Aperture. Shutter. ISO. And ... Know your "buttons". In this case, Exposure Compensation.
Oh, and get out there.
When the light is right.
And look ...
And see what you're actually looking at. Know what you're looking at. Take
control of the light; the image.
Don't see it for what
it is, or looks like, see it for what you know it can be, or look like.
Photographic Vision.
And then, after 30 something
years or so, you too can push a few buttons and come away smelling like a rose.
Or looking like a light pole ... whatever.
Trust
me, that second image is not what I saw; it is what I saw in my mind's eye. Or better yet, it is what I wanted YOU to see.
Big difference. Important difference.
Get out there and change the way you shoot things. See things. Express things.
With your $250 tax-return camera no less. The perfect walk-around, have fun
camera. The "right" camera. The camera you just happen to have with you at the right time and place.
Bam.
F5 1/1250th ISO 800 225mm (35mm Equivalent)
f5.6 1/250th ISO 800 600mm (35mm equivalent)
Wrong Lens Right Results
Did I ever tell you that I walk around
and take pictures for practice? To improve as a photographer? For fun? For exercise?
I do.
And to prove that there is no such thing
as a "wrong lens" as a walk-around-lens. Period.
I was
thinking of this the other day ... I do things like that. I (almost) always take a camera with me when I go for a walk.
And I (almost) always reach for my small Nikon Aw100, or the new Nikon 1 V1. Key word being "small".
And I thought why?
Well, I know why. And now I know why I know. Weight. Period. Call me a genius.
That said, I went out to prove a point. I grabbed my big, heavy-metal, Nikkor 80-400mm zoom lens and
went for a walk around town - The Loop.
I've talked about
it before. My oldest lens. Big, heavy, "slow", sharp zoom lens for when I need to reach out and grab something. I just
swung the tripod mount up on top, and off I went.
Carried
it like my 'ol M16 back in the day ... By the handle on top. Felt weird going out on patrol with shorts and sandals,
but hey, different times, different uniforms.
I boosted
the ISO up to 800. Set the aperture (I shoot in Aperture Priority Mode) to "wide open" (f4.5), and the drive to Continuous
High. And made sure the VR (Vibration Reduction) was turned on.
Easy enough.
I shot 771 images.
I was looking for images that would show me if the VR really works. Yes, I know
it does. I have proven it many times before, but you know ... It is the teacher in me. And the coach.
Do it again. Practice. Practice. Practice. I can still hear my high school football
coach ... "If you do in practice, you will do it in a game" (Coach West, 1969-72).
Really.
Yes, it is the wrong lens ...
Something about heavy. No wide angle, just telephoto. So? Adjust. I tried everything
I could think of. Signs, so I could see if the words are sharp ... An image of a basketball on a sign ...
Trees ... Cracks on the Walking Trail ... Robins boppin' around ... Ferns ... Leaves on the trail ... The windmill in Windmill
Park (the train too) ... Plants ... The Rec Center's swimming pool ... Another robin collecting grass for its
nest in my front yard ... On and on.
Are they all sharp?
No. I breathe. My heart is a pumpin' ... I'm human.
On
an overcast day, I even jacked the ISO up to 1600 for some of them in the woods. It is all about shutter speeds. And the fact
that my heart beats. And the lens/camera is heavy.
And
that whole long, heavy lens thing I've talked about ... But I nailed a few of them. Sharp. Shoot a lot, hope for a few.
With the crop factor of the smaller DX sensor in the Nikon D200, I was hand-holding
a 120-600mm f4.5 lens (35mm equivalent). And yes, usually zoomed out to 600mm because ... Well, because I could.
I like looking through a long lens. You have adjust your thinking to match your lens, your vision. Every image we
make, we select. This is just taking it a step further. Like, really looking for details. Looking for the very basic design
elements of the subject, and diggin' in just a wee bit more. Zoom. Zoom.
Look.
The problem is that any shake in the camera,
even a little, is magnified big time. That small blur becomes a BIG blur.
The image of the "DH Line" (train) was shot from a distance to just fill the frame with the circle. The DH Line.
Yeah, like I have photographed this many, many, times and due to the fact I was zooming in ... Hello? DH? David Hessell. Duh.
Never noticed it before. Hudson, NC to New England. Canada. Hello? I grew up in "New England" (NY) near the Canadian border.
Perfect.
In fact, that is where I plan on going this
summer ... My uncle's camps up in the boondocks in New York, and Ile De Bonaventure, off the coast of Quebec in Canada. You
can walk among the second largest colony of nesting Gannets in the world. Perfect. Yes ... Walk among them. Thousands
of birds ... Squawkin' and a poopin'. Just like Antarctica, only different.
That is why I am walking around Hudson, NC with a 120-600mm zoom lens. Practice. Practice. Practice.
The basketball is from a poster of the Rec Center here in Hudson. It is on a
tree down by their new amphitheater they just built out back in the woods. A poster.
Here, I zoomed all the way in isolate just the basketball. 600mm equivalent. Notice the shutter speed. 1/250th of
a second. That is the clue that VR is worth the money. That is too slow a shutter speed to be that sharp. VR works! This is
all the proof I need.
See, the shutter speed should match
- or be higher - than the focal length of the lens. At 600mm, the shutter speed should be 1/600th of a second - or faster.
Faster is better.
Not slower.
Handheld.
600mm @250th of a second. No way. Not that sharp. Not without VR. Use it if you got it. Period.
I have it. I use it. Unless I use a tripod. Then I turn it off. No heartbeat.
Makes sense.
Today, no tripod. I needed it. 600mm. 250th
of a second. Bam.
771 images. 4 GB card. Full. Like I
said, look, select, and fire away. Do it again. I rip off three or four images at a time. Maybe five or six. Shoot between
the heart beats. Maybe.
Breathe. Relax. Aim. Stop. Squeeze
(USMC Rifle Range "Coach", 1976).
I remember that one
too.
And my Judo stance (Japan 1976-79). Balance. Photography.
Push-ups. Sports. Boot Camp. Martial Arts.
Coaching Track and Cross-Country as an Old Fart. Push-ups. Push-ups then, push-ups now. In the classroom. In the hall.
Weights. My Total Gym 1000.
It all comes into play while
playing.
And walking. And shooting.
And working. Working on getting better. If I do it now, I will do it in
the field. On the road. In a raft. In front of a grizzly. In Quebec, in front of those thousands of nesting birds this summer.
Or in Hudson, NC. My front yard. At school. The college. In Paris. The Grand
Canyon. It's all the same.
I'm ready.
Now, I just have to finish all this testing at the middle school. And Awards
Ceremonies. And riding the bus after school. Won't be long.
I'm ready for those
squawkin' Gannets, I have practice every single day ...
Red. Red. Red. Drop.
One, two, three. Drop.
This is fun stuff, shot in my kitchen. Yeah, really. That is my tye-dye t-shirt, under a mixing bowl, which is under
the faucet, in the sink, in the kitchen.
Drip.
Drip. Drip. Shoot. Drip. Drip. Drip. Shoot.
Over and
over again ...
Like, really. Over and over again.
Two flashes taped to the sink, set at 45 degree angles, pointing at the little
drip, drip, drip. Or drops.
Yes, I taped them down, you
know, just in case. Skinny sink. Clumsy photographer. A bit of packing tape ... Just in case.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
I used a pencil to focus on
the drips. Drops. Whatever. I held it in the splash, focused, and than set the camera to manual focus, to keep it
from searching for those stupid little drips, drips, drops ...
Drop. Drip. Drop.
Holy crap.
Talk about crazy ...
Getting the flashes to fire at the "right" time was a trip. Practice, practice, practice. The good news is that there
are several "right" times ... Right time, different looks. Perfect. Perfect.
Oh, not so perfect ... Try again. Count. One, two, three, BAM!
Two flashes. Two mini-tripods to elevate the flashes (also taped down), my one big tripod, a pencil, two bowls (one
upside down as the base), my t-shirt, and yes, even the kitchen sink. Crazy.
I was watching Adorama TV and remembered seeing this done before ... I think on one of my ULTIMATE PHOTO GUIDE
DVDs. Yes, with Layne Kennedy. Bryan Peterson is the one that I watched on Adorama TV the other day ... He's the one
that got me to go and dig out the flashes ... And t-shirt. And get to work in the kitchen.
Fun.
Hard, but fun. Focus was they key. Fast shutter speed, manual
focus, zoom the flash heads out to narrow the light, and ...
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Shoot!
You never really "see" your shot ... You just count, and shoot,
count and shoot. I counted to three to give my flashes time to re-cycle.
Drip. Drip. Shoot. 1, 2, 3.
I shot -- A lot.
1,2,3 alright ... Like 123. As in, one hundred twenty three ... Over and over and over.
I got three, maybe four images that I feel work. But I am far from an expert at it (do the math!).
I think it is one of those things I have to work on. Set it up and try it again.
Over and over.
I have to go over my off-camera flash
techniques. I shoot TTL (through the lens) and have to remember how to shoot with the Nikon Creative Lighting System using
my little pop-up flash, on the camera, to fire the two SB-600 Nikon flashes, while they are set in manual mode.
I also think I will go with the high-synch FP mode and manual settings
on the both the flashes and the camera. The flashes are pretty close, so that should not be a problem. I want to kill the
ambient light in the kitchen and just use the light from the flashes to light the drops. Drips, whatever.
Sounds easy enough.
f16 or f22 for the focus. At least 250th of a second to kill the ambient light ... The flash duration is what freezes
the drops, not so much the shutter speed ...
Cool. Sounds
easy enough.
A work in progress. Actually, it is the
most work I have ever done in the kitchen. My brother, the Nashville chef, will be proud of me. Kitchen time, gotta love it.
Drip. Drip. Shoot.
Or is it drip, drop, drip, shoot?
I'll
work on that one ... Sounds easy enough.
Super Size It
Yes, this is a much larger trout. Caught a week later -- the last day of May.
One trout. Five hours.
But well worth the time ... A
14 inch Brown trout. Big. Heavy. Fun.
Like I said, I
didn't see that many trout in the stream, but this one was nice. Nice, like in "the 'ol days" nice.
THE last day of Delayed Harvest.
I thought last weekend was ... But I was off a day. Cloudy day, not many people out and about like Memorial Day Weekend.
Funny how that works. No rain, that was good.
I think
I saw five trout all morning ... But it only takes one.
One
Super Sized Brown.
Happy. Happy. Happy.
And I got done in time to get my Element inspected ...
Even better.
All
set until the Fall. Nice way to end the season.
Memorial Day
I just got back from walking uptown and photographing Memorial Day.
Late evening sun. Backlit. Just what I wanted.
It also dawned on me that, after living in North Carolina for over 21 years, I referred to Hudson as my hometown
when writing about taking Prom images last week ...
Hometown.
Hudson, North Carolina. Feels weird to say that, but ... I have lived here longer than anywhere else. Well, Lenoir and Hudson.
North Carolina. Longer than Pulaski, New York, my "real" hometown. Where I went to high school. College.
Anyway ... Memorial Day 2014. Even got an e-mail from my friend Mike Harris.
Met him in Japan in 1976. Fellow Marine. He was just checking up on me, see what I was doing on Memorial Day.
Great day. Great light. Great town, with great veterans. And American flags.
Semper Fi
American Solider
Yeah, I know ... It has nothing to do with fishing, but it is Memorial Day,
I went fishing, and yes, I kid you not ... As I sit here typing this, American Solider is playing in the background.
I love it.
Happy Memorial Day.
Great day. Great weekend. I got home Friday, loaded up the Element, went to
FairValue for some food ... You know, a can of beans, a can of chicken, a can of fruit cocktail, and a can
of peaches ... And sunflower seeds.
Diner.
For two nights up in the woods. You got it ... Collettsville. My "home away
from home". Perfect. Same as Christmas, except greener. Warmer.
Quiet. Peaceful.
Friday night and Saturday
night. Took my little Nikon 1 V1 and just ... Well, enjoyed myself. Pretty simple really. I took image after image.
And deleted every one of them. Each time. Just playing ...
A Memorial Day. Or, three days really. That was just a warm-up. I drove home
Sunday afternoon, cleaned the Element, and downloaded 15 new images to NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, Your Shot. Checked my mail. More
of that "take it easy" stuff. Watched a couple of Art Wolfe videos ... And then, I watched THE BOURNE IDENITY for the umpteen
time ...
Ten years. The movie came out ten years ago.
That's wild. I moved into my apartment ten years ago. I spent three weeks in Europe ten years ago shooting my first two trips
for VIKING RIVER CRUISES.
How are they connected
you ask? Well, Berlin of course. Anyway, where was I?
Memorial
Day Weekend. Memorial Day itself.
Left the apartment
today at 7am, was fishing before 8am. Yes, same place I always go fishing. But yeah, I parked in a different parking space,
I kid you not. Yeah, really.
South Mountain opened up
their "new" campgrounds ... More campsites (a few with electric hook-ups!), and ... Get this, I hear they have showers and
new, fancy bathrooms! I'll have to see those for myself. Call me crazy. Unreal.
And that leads to my new parking space.
There
is a campsite in my old spot. Can you believe it? Crap. I have to park fifty feet away in a brand new spot. Twenty years.
I have been parking there for 20 years.
Progress, I think
they call it.
But ... Not as many fish, that is for sure.
Yeah, maybe over thew past 20 years we have a paved road, new bridges, a new Park HQ, you name it ... Electric hook-ups, showers,
but ... Less trout.
It is unreal how different this stream
is. Budget cuts. That's the only thing I can think of. Where there used to be fifteen nice, 12 -14 inch trout, there are now
three. Maybe 10 inches.
I know that stream by heart ...
I know where the trout are. Or, I should say, I knew, where the trout were.
But ... That said, I caught ten. Fourteen, if you count those stupid looking, non-trout, little pieces
of crap things in the water. I don't.
Nothing too big
... But fun just the same. Browns, Brooke, and Rainbows. The largest maybe 10 inches. Maybe (I am a fisherman after all).
Six hours. Ten trout.
Loved every minute of it. Quiet. Peaceful. Sunny. Warm.
And crowded as crap ... I don't wear a watch, but I knew it was lunch time by all the people along the bank eating
lunch, playing in the water, pointing out where all the trout are. Crazy.
Still (sort of) peaceful. Quiet. I get in a zone ...
You would think it was a beautiful day in a State Park or something ... As I was walking back to the parking lot
at the campgrounds, man, it REALLY was packed! Cars along the side of the road ... People standing in the empty parking spots,
saving them for friends, family, or something ... PACKED.
Time
for me to leave.
In fact, I knew it was time to go when,
at the end, my line got snagged on something, and the line broke ... That was it. I cut my leader off, reeled in my line,
waded across the stream, reached down and grabbed my strike indicator which was still bobbin' away in the water, retrieved
my fly (a beaded nymph, for those into such things), and packed it up for the summer. Done.
The first Saturday in June is the end of Delayed Harvest fishing, which means it is the end of my fishing until October.
I don't eat trout, I catch them. And release them. But not before taking pictures of them.
The first image is a fisherman's "selfie" ... My hand (self), and my trout (model).
The second is ... Well, I have no clue what this is all about. Yes, I remember taking it ... I was on my knees, taking pictures
of one of the trout I caught, as it was thrashin' around a rock ... Kind of like a bull in a rodeo. Jumping all over the place
... I just snapped a bunch of them ... Must be a slow shutter speed. Blurred action.
I use my little Nikon Coolpix AW100. Waterproof. Pretty cool little camera -- I have owned two or three of them.
Pretty much auto this and auto that, but I can control my "Three Buttons", and it does have a great macro button, which I
used in both of these.
Fish Art.
I
thought it was cool. I was thinking of just using one image, you know, the "memorial" one with trout in hand ... But, then
I saw this one on the computer screen ...
Two images. Ten trout. Three days.
Simply memorial.
Prom 4.0
OK, maybe not four proms, but three proms,
and a Navy Ball.
So, another year, another prom.
Or dance, or, you know, a time where young kids dress up and have a party ... And maybe even dance.
Anyway ... SCHS had their big prom. I was asked to take some more images ...
Very interesting ... My friend's son had it all planned.
I photographed him for his JROTC Ball a month or so ago. Very nice.
His girlfriend's prom was two weeks ago in Hickory, I didn't take images of that one ... Maybe I should have -- After
dropping her off after the big night out on the town, he was driving home and fell asleep at the wheel ... Mom's BMW, and
a mail box, were the only causalities. At least he fell asleep going slow ...
Tonight was his big night ... His Senior Prom. His last prom (his words). SCHS, Class of 2014.
Mom was ready ... The Tux, the flowers, the ... Limo. No BMW this time.
JT was ready ... Well, except for the whole shoes thing. Yes, he lost
them somewhere. No problem. His red running shoes looked great.
Oh, and no girlfriend.
Yeah. No girlfriend.
No, he didn't lose her too. The problem is that her soccer team didn't lose either, and they are still in the playoffs.
She had a big game the night of the Big Night.
Go
figure.
Really. I'm not making this up.
Kids, gotta love 'em.
Anyways ... I called this morning and checked to see what time I was needed. I find out JT is going to the Prom,
but will not have his date with him. Say what?
OK, no
problem. He's going, I'm there.
Good for him. Tux, running
shoes, little flower thing, he was set.
South Caldwell
High School.
I taught there my first year in North Carolina. 1993/4. One
year. That is where I got into this whole Special Education thing. That is where most of the students from Granite Falls Middle
School end up going to high school.
It is where we have
all our track meets. Big school.
So ... I met my friend
there, her uncle was there, JT and his friends were there. His sister. Got some nice shots with the whole SOUTH CALDWELL HIGH
SCHOOL thing going on. Then we went downtown Hudson.
Downtown
Hudson.
Pretty cool.
Got some shots of them smack dab in the middle of the street. Hudson, NC. My hometown. Their hometown. Main Street
at its finest. No traffic. No cars. Main Street, U.S.A.
Small
town, U.S.A. Any small town, U.S.A.
Perfect.
Even did the whole "Abbey Road" thing ... Crossing in the cross-walk. I loved
the fact that one of the girls actually knew about The Beatles. Knew the image. Knew what I was going for.
Kids, gotta love 'em.
Had fun. Got some shots in Windmill Park. The kids, family ... Yes, even "The Framily" photos. Parents, grandparents.
All sorts of shots ...
Then back to Jennifer's house
for the limo, and the limo images. Same guy as last year, same car too. Well, we think it was the same car ... Long black
thing. Looked the same ... Except longer.
Friends, family,
flowers, and ...
The red bowtie.
Perfect. It matched his running shoes ...
OK, so no date, but that won't stop JT. His last prom.
Now I just have to wait a few years until his younger sister gets in on the whole prom thing. Dresses, flowers, running
shoes ...
The Prom.
Something I never experienced.
Well, until JT
(or was it his mother?) dragged me into it last year, or the year before that ...
Prom Night. Gotta love it.
Red bowtie.
Even better.
Light
I know, I have written about this before ...
Sorry.
I just had to stop and take the images
and then get them on my website.
I was leaving the college
after class tonight (like an hour ago)with one of my favorite students of all time ... I have know him since the 6th grade.
I taught him at the middle school.
I walked with him
on Saturdays while he was in high school, and now, I have had him in my college class twice.
He is crazy. Just like me.
Anywho ...
We were walking out to my car ready to take him home (we got out of class
early - Final Test Night - and I was saving his grandmother a trip to come get him) ... And I looked out in front of
the college and ...
Light.
I just had to go ... With my little "point-n-create" $69 Nikon camera. Really.
And yes, I dragged the student with me ...
Yes,
I set the camera to macro.
That was it. No
compensation. No white balance. Didn't even check the ISO.
See,
I just like shooting ... I don't care with what. I did have my other little waterproof Nikon that I carry with me all the
time ... But I just got this camera back from the student that was with me, he borrowed it during the class, and just went
with that one.
I had it. I used it.
Play.
Play
with light.
The late evening light was blasting through
the school's garden out front ... Beautiful backlighting. The perfect time, the perfect light, the perfect camera. Hey, if
you have it when you need it, it is perfect.
Perfect.
Shoot, shoot, shoot ...
Then and there. The ride home could wait. And it did.
Perfect.
Except for saving a trip for his grandmother
... The whole "get out early" aspect was shot as I dragged him in and out of the flower beds ... Time flies when you are having
fun.
Even if it is after a college photography
class ...
Closer to Home
I had Jack Daulton come talk to my college
photography class this week. Great photographer who happens to live in Lenoir, North Carolina.
We met at the college my first or second year teaching ... Like seventeen or eighteen years ago. I don't even want
to think about how many years ago.
He came in and talked
to my students about his newer travel/fine art work he has been working on.
He's good.
He did a good job. The class was
into it and I just sat there and listened to him do a good job and the students do a good job with great comments, and questions.
Jack has become quite the traveler. He showed work from
his many trips overseas but ended the talk about being able to make great shots anywhere. Like, you know, Lenoir, North Carolina.
I loved it.
Made
me think of this image I took just last week with my new little Nikon 1 V1.
This is a shot of my driveway.
Yes, my driveway.
In Hudson, North Carolina.
Can't get any closer than that.
Art is everywhere.
Get out there photograph art in your own back yard. Or, like in this case, your
front yard. Or driveway. In your hometown.
And maybe,
just maybe, when you actually do find yourself in some far off dream location, you will know just what to look for. Art is
art. Anywhere and everywhere.
Yes, even Hudson, North
Carolina.
Yes, even my driveway.
Perfect.
Fav Image
Yeah, I'm hip to the vernacular of our times ... Pretty cool, eh?
It means "favorite".
Oh, you knew that.
But see? I can learn new tricks. The kids at the middle school teach me all
kinds of things. I just never actually use them ... Or say them ... Or try them.
Until now.
Yes, this is my new favorite image of
the the Outer Banks, and it wasn't even shot on the Outer Banks.
No, this was shot on the way home from the Outer Banks. Route 64 West, somewhere, well, you know, in Eastern
North Carolina. Four lanes ... Little traffic. I saw it as I zipped past, slowed down, turned around, and got the shot.
Parked on the side of the road, turned on my warning lights, grabbed my little
Nikon 1 V1 camera with the 10mm lens, and ran around on both sides of the road shooting from the little bridges.
The east bound lane had some power lines in the reflection ... So, off I ran
to the west bound side.
Perfect.
Loved the reflection. Loved the light.
Loved the fact that I didn't get a ticket.
But
this is Route 64W, not the Interstate.
It was Sunday
morning, no traffic.
It made for a nice image.
Everything worked out fine.
No, I didn't have my Graduated Neutral Density filter with me. No problem. I just cut out the sky. Could I have used
one in this case? Yes. Reflections usually tend to be a stop or two darker than the sky.
No worries.
Crop out the sky, let 'er rip. I
tend to shoot off three or four frames each time I shoot. At ten frames per second, it is easy.
Too easy. In fact, it is harder to shoot just one.
So
I don't.
Got my shots, giggled all the way back to the
Element, turned around at the next intersection, and returned on my merry way back home.
The trip was over, I was headed home, the camera was in it's case, I was just zipping through the countryside, enjoying
the peace and quiet. Well, OK, with some music playing, probably drummin' away on the steering wheel, but, what I meant was
... Peace and quiet on the highway. No traffic to speak of; making good time.
Then ... The light. The swamp. The trees. The reflection. The colors, patterns, repetitions ...
The art.
The
art of driving across the state. The art of Easter Vacation. The art of being on the road. Our state. Our country. Our
swamp.
My new favorite swamp image.
And my new favori ... Oops, I mean, my new fav OBX image, not shot on the OBX.
Can't get any better than that.
The OBX. Half the fun is just getting there.
And
back.
Same Place New Image
I have photographed the Outer banks
before. Many times.
I have shot at The Wright Brother's
Memorial before. Many times.
I have walked down the hill
many times.
I have seen those trees many times. I have
even photographed them a few times. Not many.
I even
photographed them this year, this trip. In black and white. You know, just playing. And yes, I took some in color as well.
I took two cameras, and lenses, with me this year. My D300 with the old
80-400mm zoom and the smaller Nikon 1 V1 with the 10mm lens. Yeah. Two extremes.
That was it. Well, and my tripod of course. And yes, I even used it with the tiny V1 and the 10mm lens.
It was at sunrise, nobody saw me.
This shot was taken with the 80-400mm half way down the hill on the side of the airfield. The west side for those
of you in the know.
I saw the trees ... again, for the
first time. In a new way ...
No, I didn't actually see
them like this ... This is what my mind's eye saw as I was walking away from the monument. On my way back to my friend's house.
Done. Finished a nice sunrise shoot at a place I have photographed in the morning many times over the years. I am drawn back
again and again ...
Like many things I shoot. Over and
over again.
I always go. I am always looking for that
new shot. A new view. A new way of seeing the same old thing.
New camera ... New reason to shoot.
Heck, even
if I took the same old lens, same old camera, I would still go back again.
The key?
New light. New moment. New time.
Maybe, just maybe ... A new image.
Well, aren't they all "new" images? Every click is a new image. Very simple. Same subject, new image.
That is why I go over and over again. In fact, I don't believe I have ever shot
the Memorial with the 80-400mm lens before. It really is "the wrong lens".
Sort of.
Most people would think so.
Just like the 10mm Nikon 1 lens was the wrong lens.
Sort of.
That
is why I loved it. Two extremes. Two very different looks. Two different "feels" for the same subject. Wide-angle (27mm equivalent).
No zoom. Old school new lens. Tiny. Light. A mere toy.
And
the 80-400mm (120-600mm equivalent). Big. Heavy. Old. On a tripod. Did I mention heavy?
Yes, I know I did.
Heavy.
Worked great on the trees ...
Glad I thought of it.
I saw this pattern before
I actually saw the trees, if you know what I mean. The lines. The contrast between the light and shadows. From up on the hill.
The way they inter-locked with each other ...
Like a
painting.
Which made me think of the old double-exposure
trick from back in the day of slides ... Before Photoshop.
Worked
then, works now.
One in focus at f16 for great depth
of field, the second shot at f4 for shallow depth of field. And ... The Key ... Way out of focus. Blurred as crap. Nothing.
Blurrrrrrr.
The camera does it's magic, and BAM, there
it is. One image. Two shots, same frame (or whatever it is called now-a-days). One image.
Ta-da.
I pushed the button (twice), the camera
did the rest.
Well, kind of.
I thought of it. I "saw" it. I planned it. I made the adjustments. I turned the focus ring. So, yes, I actually did
do something.
So did the camera.
And the trees did their part. And the light. And the shadows. Can't forget the
shadows.
It helps that I have done this before.
Many times.
Same
technique, different images.
Funny how that works.
Over and over again.
Can't wait until next year.
A week on the Outer
Banks.
Over and over again.
Same place, new image.
#1 Fuji
I leave for the OBX tomorrow ... Easter Break.
I went up to my favorite restaurant to have
dinner ... Yes, with my new Nikon 1 V1. Little thing. Fun thing.
Took a few images on the way up there ... Dogwood in the front yard, letters on the telephone
pole up the street, the #1 Fuji neon sign at the door ... You know, regular stuff. Photo stuff.
I love new cameras, even when they are not new. Did I tell you
about the V1? Yeah ... Tax refund. Got $260 back, the camera cost $257, with shipping. Yeah ... Perfect.
Anyway ... I walk inside, sit down, set the
camera on the table ... And I kid you not, this is what I saw on the large LCD. I just stared at it and wondered who took
that picture? What was that? That is cool. The colors jumped out at me.
I did nothing.
I'm that good. NOTHING.
Well,
except set the camera on the table to make room for my food. Oh, and yes, I did just happen to take my camera to dinner ...
That's doing something. Strange, but key.
So, I did nothing except everything right. I brought the camera, I set it down, and I looked at the light. The colors.
On the back of the LCD.
Not that I "saw" the image or anything. I go there all the time.
I have "seen" it many times ... I mean, you know me, I sit at the same table, I order the same thing, I "see" the same scene
over and over ...
This time
I actually saw it. The neon. The colors. The scene as it always is. Just differently.
Like, you know, for the first time.
BAM.
I just reached over and "pushed the button".
Many times. I couldn't believe it was that easy. The table was my tripod. I just "squeezed" the
shutter button.
And yes, then
the fun began. You know me ... Self-timer. Compensation. Minus. Shoot. Adjust. Shoot again. Click, click, click. No noise.
Very quiet. You know, like a cheap Leica, only cheaper. Shhhh ... No one had a clue I was actually taking a photo.
The camera was sitting on the table, I was checking
out the screen like every other person in the world does now-a-days ... We sit around and stare at little devices ... I fit
right in. Perfect.
I
felt like part of today's digital society. Cool.
Little did they know ...
Little
did I know that going to dinner would be so fun.
And easy.
And when
the waitress walked into the frame ...
Well, yeah. Sweet.
I
love it when my plan works out perfectly, even if I had no plan.
Even better.
I'm off to a good start on my Easter Vacation.
I received my NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DVD on Travel Photography ... The reason I stayed home for one
day while on vacation ...
And
I had a nice dinner ...
And
have a nice image ...
Going
to pack. The fun begins tomorrow at 5am.
Taking two cameras ... Yes, my new V1 with the 10mm f2.8 lens (28mm equivalent, well, really 27mm but who's counting)
and my new D300 with the old 80-400mm lens (120 - 600mm equivalent). Oh, and the battery pack with AA batteries, so I can
get 8 frames/second. Oh, fun ... Fast.
Fun.
Two very different
cameras and lenses. Two extremes.
Should
be fun.
As usual.
Fuji #1 and the Nikon 1 V1.
Who would of thunk?
Auto Macro
No, not automatic macro.
Auto macro.
You know, auto, like car.
Macro, as in close-up photography.
Car close-ups. Auto
macro.
Easter Break is right around the corner ... Time
for Spring Cleaning for the Element. 60,000 mile check-up for the up-coming trip to the OBX ... And Summer Vacation. Not that
I'm planning ahead ...
Anyways ...
Got there early ... 7:15am. It is all about the light. No, not for car maintenance
... Photography! Sunrise.
You don't think I go to the
Honda dealer at sunrise and sit around for three hours, do you? Ahh, no ... I take my trusty 40mm macro lens and go out and
play.
And yes, I asked if it was OK. You know, private
property and all ... No worries. Many of the people that work there know I am a photography instructor, and a complete
nut, so it is no big deal.
I bought my first Honda from
them in 2002 ... I taught one of the manager's sons, have given them images from my travels for their News Letter, and have
told them about how I have taken it all over North America, from the tip of Baja to Prudhoe Bay, from Yellowstone to Niagara
Falls, The Pacific on one side and the Atlantic on the other ... Yes, they know I love my Honda Element -- All three of them.
So ... They work on the Element, I work on my macro images of autos
... Well, less cars, more light. More about vision. And shapes. Color.
And I just played for a few hours ... Over 600 images.
Honda. Jeep. BMW. Corvette. A few others, I'm sure ... I just walked around the lots and fired away. Balloons. Trees.
Hubcaps. Grills. A line here, a line there ... Light. Shadows. Patterns. Reflections. Water drops. Pollen on the windshield,
you name it.
Time flies while your having fun ...
The Element is ready ...
I'm ready ...
Like I tell my class, you can
find images anywhere. Just start with the light and work your way down from there. Simple.
And have a camera with you ...
And
arrive at sunrise.
Sweet.
You Never Know
I walked into the classroom across the
hall from me to get the answer sheet ... Like I do just about every day.
BAM.
There it was ...
I get to school early, I like the quiet. I also have quite a bunch of kids that
come in early and do their "homework" ... Yeah, I even put a Sticky Note (HOME) on my door so they wouldn't be lying
when they said they have their "homework" done ...
I
work with a 6th grade math teacher and have a riot. We work on what we call "WEEK by WEEK", a two sided worksheet with some
pretty wild questions on them ... You know, like word problems, probability, geometry, questions I never saw until high school,
or even college! Crazy 6th grade stuff ... And yes, they have a week to work on it. Tough, "thinking" problems.
Hence, my reason for getting the answer sheet! We have done them all year ...
I have a "love/hate" relationship with them ... They keep me on my toes.
But, anyways ...
Light.
So, there I was, walking into a math/social studies 6th grade class and, "I
saw the light". Literally.
Really.
Just like that. It was there ...
The cool thing about all this is that the teacher I am working with, the one right next door, yeah, I actually
met in my college photography class about fifteen, sixteen years ago. Something like that.
Again, really.
We were looking for a math teacher
at the time, she mentioned she had just graduated from ASU with a teaching degree in math, the rest is GFMS history ... She
got a job right across the hall.
And now we team teach
... As natural as can be. We both have a great time, with a great group of kids.
And the morning light coming in the window is killer ...
I grabbed my little "point-n-create" camera I keep in my room (for moments just like this), walked back into the
room and took two shots. That fast, that easy.
I love
it.
The key is that I had the camera in the first place
-- I actually have two, you know, just in case ...
Then,
secondly, I had the camera all set up ready to go. Fast. Get the shot, get back to work. Smile for the rest of the day. I
was ready, the camera was ready, the light was ready ...
CLOUDY
white balance.
MINUS compensation.
BAM. BAM. That fast. I did nothing, the camera was already set ... Like I had
it planned for years ...
Simple camera, simple adjustments.
Complex lighting.
No really, a very basic Nikon waterproof,
$69 camera. I bought it because I couldn't believe I could find a WATERPROOF camera for under $70 ... $75 with ship.... Oh,
wait, FREE SHIPPING, I forgot.
Under $70. A real camera.
A real basic camera, but a camera.
Nikon.
Pretty cool.
It
is a perfect fit for the middle school. A kid's camera ... Perfect for the Camera Club, for kids that forget their cameras,
and/or, their cell phone's battery is dead.
Perfect
for me too.
It is all about light. Three minutes
(or less), and that image is gone.
I got it.
RULE NUMBER ONE. Look at the Light.
The unwritten rule that comes before number one? Have a camera when you need one.
Oh yeah ... That is important. But even cooler than that is the fact that I saw it ... Enjoyed the moment. In a classroom.
A dark, quiet classroom. With a golden spot-light pouring through the window. The shadows, the magic.
A teacher's dream ... A photographer's dream.
And a nice way to start the morning ... No matter what you do for a living.
You never know ...
Happy Birthday!
Yes, another birthday. A time to celebrate. A time to rejoice. And buy another
camera. And, wait ... A nice, little macro lens to go with it.
Both used ... Although you would be hard pressed to notice. I really can't tell anyone had even touched either ...
But that is me.
The D300, with the battery pack, from
Adorama ... And get this, the Nikkor 40mm macro lens from ... NOT Adorama.
Call me crazy.
First time in a VERY LONG time
I found something somewhere else.
KEH
Camera in Atlanta. And no, not just because it is easier to spell ...
I could say I did it for the sake of research for my college students, but I would be lying. So ... I'll just
say, ahh, I wanted to get back to my roots ...
Say what?
Yes. My roots. I sold all my Minolta gear to KEH back in 1991. I remember things
like this. Can't remember kids names on the track team, but I can remember this ... That was a big switch. Real BIG. Life
changing, perhaps. Wow.
KEH. Found a lens rated A+ for
$205.
Happy Birthday.
And, as it turns out ... It was a big hit with a certain senior and her Senior Project.
Oh, and I shot some too ...
But wait ... Slow down. Let's back up some ... You know me. Jumpin' ahead of myself here ...
April 5th ... A Saturday.
I slept in until 7am. Wow.
Went for a run around
Hudson ... "The Loop". Had breakfast (yogurt and my special brand of Food Lion pineapple/orange juice). Uploaded 15 images
to YOUR SHOT ... Then, out the door to enjoy the park.
I
met up with a young high school senior who I ran with in the middle school. Great kid. It is fun to "meet her
again" as a high school student. Same kid (well, no, NOT the same kid, but you know what I mean), just taller. She plays
soccer and ran Cross-Country (The county female runner of the year, I might add), in fact she had a race that morning
... Like I said, great kid. And she likes photography ... Are you kidding? She is making a book for her big project ... Rough
draft due next week. No worries ...
OK, so macro is cool,
but ... I fixed her up big-time. An extension tube. Yeah, marco with a boost, "Super Macro". Even I got lost in Whoville,
which is what I saw when photographing the dandelion. Dr. Seuss must of had something to do with the design elements,
that's all I can say. Whoville? Who Knew?
Wild.
We walked around the park (spent three hours) and shot. A lot. Her camera,
my camera. She actually did most of the shooting ... She got into it. Got on the ground ... GET CLOSER.
She did ... Over 400 images. Pretty good, you know, for a high school kid. Hey,
you have to love this "old school" tech stuff ... Like, BAM, a real camera that you can't text with ...
Sweet.
And
then I had to take off for Collettsville for dinner and a photography talk. How cool is that? On my birthday. Raise money
for the Arts Council, and eat at the same time ... Not bad.
Great mountain-top, gated community. What a view. As you know, I go up there quite a bit to ride my mountain bike
up ... Well, you know - a mountain. I could sort of, kind of, tell where I camped out over the Christmas Break ... Either
that mountain there, or the other one over there ... They all look the same. There was even a forest fire, just like at Christmas.
But I never knew this "resort community" place
ever existed. Had a time getting the location just right ... But I made it. Got there early, just in case. Google had
me all mixed up ... So many "The Cove" resorts in NC. Go figure.
When in doubt on an address, UPS drivers are the way to go. I have worked with a wife of a UPS driver for close to
21 years, I know where to go for directions.
I
got it. No problem.
The Lodge was
at the end of the twisty drive ... The TOP of the mountain. Round Mountain, to be exact. Ah, nice. Big log cabin structure
thing, with bigger windows.
Not the perfect building
for a "slide show" (too much light), but hey, we made due. We shifted gears and went with it ... I can talk about photography
anywhere and anyway.
I was in the Marines. I adapt.
And ... I work with middle school kids. Like I said, no problem.
My favorite shot from the SUNSET theme, was of the rocking chairs out on the
porch ... SHADOWS. Shadows caused by, you guessed it, the setting sun. As in, sunset.
That was what I wanted the people to come away with ... Sunset (or sunrise) photography is much more than the sun.
Oh yeah, much, much, more.
We also talked about
my THREE RULES, and my THREE BUTTONS -- And yes, my former students (like from about ten to twelve years ago!) remembered
them ... YES!
HAPPYHAPPYHAPPY ... BIRTHDAY
Great time. Fun time.
And I got to help some "new students" with their cameras ...
And eat a real meal ... Not from a microwave. And yes, they even sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me.
Perfect day. Photography and phun.
Yeah ... Phun.
An adjective
I just came up with. Right here, right now. Photography and fun. A verb and/or adjective. All in one. Perfect.
I like it.
Great
word. Great day.
Getting older?
Who?
Me?
No way ... Having too much phun.
ZOOPATTERNS
Yes, it is one word. Why? Because I am writing this, and I said so. Just like I tell my kids in
school, when you write, you are free to express yourself any way you want.
Works for college students, not so sure about middle school kids. But hey, I just try to get mine
to WRITE. Put something down on paper ... So, yeah, works in 6th grade.
Works for me.
Works in photography. Works in art. Works at the zoo. Express yourself.
I went to the zoo. I have not been for years. I used to take my college photography, oops, I mean
ART, classes to the zoo, in Asheboro, North Carolina, once a year.
Big group, free admission, free fun. For students of all ages. And we had students of all ages,
trust me. It was always fun, and we always got some nice shots.
No more Saturday class. No more zoo.
What is a man supposed to do? Wait until one of their former students (you know who) asks them
to join her family for a day of fun and games, which, for me, of course, means ... Fun and fotos (yes, fotos. If it works
in Germany, it works for me!).
Jennifer
called Friday night and said be ready by 6:40AM on Saturday.
I know Jennifer, and didn't even set my alarm. 6:40AM on a day she took off from work, sounded
almost funny to me, coming from her. But ... I was ready.
And, around 6:45AM, by gosh, she showed up. Sweet. And here I was doubting her ...
But, it was the zoo, and there where going to
be a bunch of nieces and nephews ... Jennifer was ready!
And her uncle, sisters, brother-in-laws, her husband, her daughter, and ... Well, you know,
family.
And students ... Yes,
three of them were former students of mine at the college. And yes, they had their cameras ...
Yes, this is the same family I have written about before.
About teaching them in college. The uncle, and a couple of his cousins. His daughter, his niece (Jennifer), Jennifer's husband,
and ... Even Jennifer's daughter. But not in college, she is only in 8th grade, but I did stop by her school and give a talk
about the Holocaust to her class ... So, yes, I know her family.
And then, I was "part of it".
Family day at the zoo. How cool. True, there were a few people I didn't know that well, but hey ... There is time!
Anyway ... The Zoo.
22 Mar 14. A Saturday. A warm, beautiful, sunny day. The first weekend of Spring ...
And lots of people at the zoo. Like, you know, LOTS.
Not the best day to be there with a tripod and
long lens. But, a great day, just the same.
I can't say I shot everything, but what I did shoot, I was very pleased with. Many of the places were jammed packed.
Like, waiting lines, jammed pack. I waited. I was kind. I looked on over the shoulders and didn't worry about tripping people
up and shoving my way past the kids ... I just looked, moved on, and looked for open spaces ...
And light. Patterns. Shapes. Cool stuff.
And pink.
Yes, the flamingoes got me. Wonderful side light. Shadows. Shapes. Patterns. Texture. And did
I mention pink? And pinkish orange? And feathers? Yeah, that kind of fun. Pink fun. Shadow fun.
And, just a wee bit of room for the tripod. And me.
I was using my new "birthday present" from me
to me. My Nikon D300 with the battery grip. Yeah ... Like a kid in a candy shop (or zoo). BamBamBam. BamBamBam. Three shoots,
Rattle-and-Hum. I love it.
First
was the hawk ... A Red Shoulder Hawk. First thing I came to that I could actually photograph ... The Polar Bear section was
PACKED.
A worker was holding the
hawk near the fence talking about this and that ... Yeah, nice. I didn't really "hear" her, I just saw ... A Red Shoulder
Hawk, about six feet away from me. Oh yeah ...
I have a history with these birds. You knew there was a story coming at some point ...
1988. The Florida Everglades.
I was a not-so-young, inspiring photographer, that just returned
from Europe, after working in my first paid, real-life, photo job, for the U.S. Department of the Army. Military photos
for the Second Armor Division over in Germany.
Studio work. Official portraits of staff NCOs for their promotions.
Studio shots of soldiers? Yeah. Really. But I did get out in the field as much as I could. Tanks.
Mud. Helicopters. Bergen-Belsen (where Anne Frank died). Yeah ... The former Concentration Camp was used by the U.S. Army
as a tank practice area ... Crazy.
Anyway
... Hawks. Red-Shoulder, not Blackhawks.
I spent a week in the Everglades and came across a young, red-shoulder hawk, sitting low in a tree ... Oh, yeah.
Wildlife photographer, baby!. My old Minolta X-700 with the MD-1 motor drive (I can still remember the gear ...
I love it). My trusty 70-200mm f4-5.6 zoom lens. Tilt-All tripod (I still own one). Cable release.
I was amazed it didn't fly off. I shot quick. I just knew each
shot would be my last.
Moved
closer. Shot. Fast. Focus. Shoot. Shoot again. Bracket my exposures (ahh, pre-digital). Guess. Pray (same thing). Move closer
... Repeat. MANUAL focus. Check it again and again. Focus on the eyes ... Tweak it just a little bit. Tweak, not twerk (remember,
this was pre-Miley too).
It
just sat there, looking down over it's red shoulder (I had no idea what it was called back then). Just a bird. A hawk. I think
I remember thinking it was a hawk ... I was that good.
I got some nice shots.
I remember.
And then,
there was one right out in front of me again. All these years later. A red-shouldered hawk. I knew what it was this time.
I have photographed them over the years, but not as close as before, or now.
A Nikon D300 with a Nikkor (fancy name for a Nikon lens) 80-400mm f4.5-5.6 VR zoom lens. Old school.
Not manual focus, Minolta Old School, but still ... The oldest lens I own. Not the newer digital lens with the same name.
Well, except for the "G" after the whole 80-400mm thing (photography is a language all to itself). Mine actually has an aperture
ring (that is no longer used). Like I said, Old School, baby.
But ... A GREAT lens. A sharp lens. And it doesn't cost ... Well, more than I can afford, let's
just put it that way. I can't even remember how much they cost (a lot). I tend not to tempt myself ... too much.
Old, but sharp.
Got a nice shot. I like the little details ... Like the blood.
And texture of the feathers ... And, as always, the eye.
How about the giraffe? Do I really have to show you, or tell you, what this animal is? If so,
go to the zoo. Or Africa, whichever is cheaper. Or open a book. A magazine. Or, Lord help us, Google it.
Enough about that.
Yes, I shot other images of the WHOLE giraffe, but come on ...
This is what I SAW ... What I wanted. Zoopatterns, remember?
They are big. And tall. And well ... Sometimes, they just don't fit in the frame. So, why force
it. Long lens, long subject ...
Play.
But, I must say, I liked playing/shooting the
flamingoes the most ... I always stop and shoot them when at the zoo. I haven't been to East Africa yet, but when I do go,
I hope to be able to sit in front of pink flamingoes. Like, thousands of them ... PinkPinkPink. BamBamBam.
Oh, and in good light ...
Here,"Closer to Home" (I kid you not, that song
is playing as I write this), the birds were being lit beautifully. The background was not. Ha, magic in the making.
A given in photography. Remember that ...
The birds are exposed for the "hightlights", the rest of the image goes BLACK. Period. That is the way it works.
But ... Make it work for you. Push some buttons.
If you read this BLOG, or have taken my class, or heard me talk, or seen my images, you know I do this, like, all the freakin'
time ...
MINUSMINUSMINUS.
That's it.
Minus the exposure. The camera (and the Camera Wizards) want
to make everything 18% mid-tone. You don't. Not in this case anyways. Not with the EXTREME difference in where the light is
hitting. You want shadows. You want darkness ... You will learn to love the darkness of the shadows -- Your "backdrop".
BLACK. DARK. Yes!
Period.
I knew I would get it. I just had to convince
my camera of that fact.
MINUS.
That reminds me ... I also tell my students
that one word CAN be a paragraph.
Just
not it 6th grade.
No. In this
case (middle school), do as I say, not what I actually do.
Maybe by high school ... College.
But I digress once again ...
In the second
shot, I saw the light on another flamingo's back ... A "spotlight" effect. That is something else to keep in mind
... The inter-play of light and shadow. Goes back to that quote I stole (yeah, THAT one) about not lighting everything.
You know, I actually think of these things while
standing there ... Looking. Seeing. Photographing.
Quotes ... "If you want something lit interestingly, don't light all of it" ... Or something like that. Read my BLOG
with the same title ... It is on here somewhere ... Just scroll down. And down. And down some more. It's there, I promise.
You just have to work at it ...
Like photography. Work.
And
play.
That was my day at the
zoo. Friends, Fotos, Fun. Yes, all with capital letters. It was great. I even behaved, and stayed out of people's way ...
And didn't freak out when kids came close, even wove in-and-out between my tripod legs. Me? Worry? No. I teach middle school.
The zoo. Get there. Take your camera (and friends),
look ...
See.
Shoot what you see.
And ... What you don't see. Express yourself, any way you want,
as often as you want, however you want.
Go to the zoo.
Thanks Jenn ...
Again.
Quality Matters
As does ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ... Technique.
Got a "new" camera for my birthday. OK, it's not my birthday, and the camera is not new, but it
is what I tell myself when I click on that little button at www.adorama.com (you know, THE camera store of choice) ... Proceed to Checkout.
A Nikon D300.
Came out in 2007. A lifetime ago in the Digital World. Old School.
E+ rating. Perfect. $419. Even better.
If it is E+ and from Adorama, it is a sure thing. Like, brand new. Looks new, works like new,
heck, even smells like new. Sorry, that just came to me ...
I like it.
True, my birthday is a couple of weeks away ... But come on, an E+ rating, $419. I just knew it wouldn't be around
if I waited ... Couldn't help myself (And, as it turns out, I'm right, it is no longer available).
They don't make 'em anymore. Haven't for years now ... They replaced
it with the D300s years ago. They sell for about $1600 new. Yes, they still have a few new ones listed on-line. But really,
they were replaced by the D7100 a couple years ago ... On the way out. Just the fact they are still in the stores is a testament
to how good a camera they are/were.
A trusted, professional camera, built to deliver, no matter where you take it. You can just feel the quality. I love
it.
I also ordered the battery
grip for it, but that is on back-order. You know, that will actually make it my birthday present, for real. Perfect. I love
it when my "plan" comes together ...
I know, I don't really "need" another camera. I have a few upstairs, and on the couch, but, another birthday, another
camera ... Works for me.
And
... Because I buy so much from Adorama, I just click on the name of one of the people up in New York, and they "fix me up" by
knocking off any little bit that they can ... I have "worked with" Steve Chill for many years, and, I don't know how, or really
why, but $10 here, $10 there ... Yeah, it pays for the shipping, if nothing else. But, it is nice to see a bill less
than what you signed on for. How often do you see that? A Nikon D300. E+. $409. Even better.
Cool. Like, you know, "Happy Birthday to me" ...
Now, about the camera ...
Excellent. Even without the optional grip, it just feels good.
I set it up the way I like it ... Grid-lines, reverse the dials so that I control the aperture with my thumb (like, who doesn't?),
Quality, File Size, White Balance, etc ... For example, I only use the Center Point when I focus. Very important,
for me ... My "Normal", on all my Nikons.
And, then I sit there and ... Well, I shoot my ceiling fan/light. Like, all the time, over and over again.
Yeah ... My "test subject". See, I always
sit on the couch when I set my camera up, and, well ... It is just there. Right in front of me. Light. You know, like Rule
Number One -- Look at the Light. I fire away ... Have for years ... And have deleted all but two; these two.
Ten years in the apartment, I have eight DSLRs
upstairs, you do the math. Plus my Point-n-Create cameras ... Oh, like thousands of the same images ... Ceiling fan/light.
With this D300, I just had to try out the multiple
exposures, right? Ten shots, one image. What do I do? I take a shot, rotate the camera, take another, rotate, another ...
Ten shots rotating around the pull cord ... Sweet.
OK, that works. Yeah? But what if I try this? Ten more. Oh, five in focus, five way out of focus? Oh yeah ... Do
it again. And again ... How fast can I shoot ten frames while spinning the camera? (Yeah, this is my
life, what I do on Friday nights).
Really.
Which brings me to another thing. Six frames
per second. That is why I bought this model. Eight, once I get my grip. That is fast, by the way. Pretty good. I know, not
the fastest ... But, faster than my D90. D200. And, yes, way faster than my D100. Speed. Sweet.
And image quality.
That is what this little piece is all about.
I posted two images ... Yes, of my ceiling fan/light. One full frame, as I took it. The other,
just a tiny, little, section of the image. The pull-cord thing. Same image, I just cropped the crap out of it, to show
you what I was going for. What I like about the camera.
Same 12.2 (or something) mega-pixels as my D90, same controls, heck, even the same batteries
(as are in all my cameras). That, by the way, is very important.
The Nikon EN-EL3e.
Eight cameras, one battery fits all. Crazy. The key really isn't the battery, as much as the battery charger.
Yeah ... ONE battery charger to pack on my trips. Well, no ... I pack two, one for my little Nikon AW100, but you know
what I mean ... D90 (4), D100, D200 (2), D300, one type of battery. Yeah, I have fifteen of them. Gray, and numbered,
so I can keep track of them. And ... Even one original, black, EN-EL3 that came with the D100 (the patriarch
of the group) in 2002. It is now my "spare". And yes, it uses the same charger ... Love it.
Back to the images ... The Quality.
35mm f1.8 lens. As close as I could focus. 800 ISO (to give me
more aperture). Zero Compensation (just seeing what the camera would give me). An aperture of f7.1, for some
depth of field that close, and 1/500th of a second. Hand-held (a non-VR lens).
BAM.
And
yes, years of practice, good stance (Ah, Judo baby!), left hand up under the lens, Marine Corps training (B.R.A.S.S.), and
... More like, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM. Quick. Rip off three, or four frames, quick. Real quick. Like, six frames/second quick.
Quality. Sharp. One happy camper. You know ...
HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY (True, I have only watched the show once, at my sister's, but my students wear the t-shirts, and
sweatshirts, ALL the time!).
I
was impressed.
I zoomed in
while viewing the image on the HUGE (3") LCD on the back of the camera and ...
Straight out of the camera. No Sharpening, no nothing. Well, except for re-sizing it for my website.
I cut it down to 15" height, to better fit the computer screen, and change the resolution from 300 dpi to 72 dpi, again, for
my website.
As for the cropped
image ... I took a small section of the image, yet re-sized it to the same size as the original -- That 15" height I was talking
about. Held up pretty good.
Well,
like I said, HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY ... Early birthday.
Now ... It's Saturday, I think I'll walk around and see what else I can photograph. Lights/fans
are nice, true, but, maybe I can find something different.
Outside.
A real image ...
Now,
I can really test 'er out.
Oh,
and with my "new" camera strap ... Found while running around town, "my loop" (did I mention I am a creature of habit?), I
found an old, white, "strap" of nylon. Yes, I stopped, picked it up, brought it home, washed it, melted the ends, and
yes ... Just today, attached it to my new toy.
Call
me crazy ... Hey, I just watched a Cory Rich photography video, and he does it ... So, I'm cool, and ... I pick up litter
on the streets of Hudson, NC. How sweet is that?
And
it is strong ... And free.
Perfect.
I love early birthdays ...
And even better ... I almost forgot.
On my actual birthday? I have dinner plans. No, mom, not that kind of dinner plans ...
I will be giving a Photography Talk for the Arts Council of Lenoir. A Fund-Raiser.
Sounds cool. Dinner. Talk. Sunset Images. I'm looking forward to it. And I will have a "new" camera
to play with. Like, on my birthday.
HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY
Viewer's Choice
I upload images to National Geographic's YOUR SHOT every week. I have been
doing this for a couple of months now ... I like it.
There are some really great images from people around the world.
This shot from my Alaska trip is the viewer's choice ... 180 people have "Liked" this
image so far. And it hasn't even been up a week. Wow.
It made it to 100 in less than 24 hours, by far the fastest one I have ever had. I only
have one other image that has made it to the three digit count ... Two total, one close, at around 98 ... (UPDATE: Yes!
Made it to 100)
Not many.
So it came as a surprise to me, to tell you the truth.
I couldn't even remember where I shot it.
I remember why I shot it ... And that is the key to the image. And photography.
Light.
It just goes to prove that anything shot in good light, is better than the most famous
of subjects, photographed in bad light.
A Weather Vane in a RV Park.
I was on my trip to Alaska and had been on the road a few weeks, and was in need
of a shower. That I remember. That is the story behind this image.
White Sulfur Springs, Montana. Cowboy Country.
I know this now, because a few people have asked about the image, and I felt bad that
I couldn't remember much about it. I went upstairs and dug out my journals ... Yes, even my middle school kids were impressed,
and shocked, that I do, indeed, keep journals from all my trips; I have for forty years (True, I no longer have my motorcycle
journals ... But that is another story for another time ...).
The date was on the image info found on the YOUR SHOT website. You have to love digital
... From there, it was just a matter of finding which Journal covered my trip to Alaska in 2010, and go back through the dates
... Got it.
Oh yeah. That easy.
Like I said, I do remember taking this shot ... It was in a RV Campground (I stop in one
when I need a shower, like I said). I remember stuff like that ...
What I didn't remember, was where. Montana. Nice country. Big, open country. And
Huckleberry ice cream ...
Yeah, now that, I forgot about, until reading about in in the journal. Now I remember
... The campground was having an Ice Cream Social.
Really.
They do that in Cowboy Country, I guess, or is that RV Country? I don't know, all I remember
is that I picked Huckleberry ... What some of us refer to as Blueberry. Two scoops of Huckleberry Ice Cream ... And
a shower. And one image. I love being on the road ...
After the ice cream (and being social), I went for a little walk among the RVs, and came
across this weather vane.
Thought it was cool ... Took a few wide shots of the whole North, South, East, and West thing,
but soon found myself doing what I usually end up doing ... I zoomed in. That is why I have Rule number Two: Get
Closer.
I wanted to "compress" the sunset/clouds with the cowboy weather vane.
A telephoto (zoom or not) lens does that ... It narrows the field of view, and
draws the background right up to the foreground.
BAM.
That was the image I had in my "mine's eye". That is what I wanted ... Use the relationship
between the sunset and the weather vane to "make an image".
Not just take a picture, but rather, make a photograph.
I walked around looking for the light. Nice sunset in the making ... Let's see??? RVs
or the Cowboy Weather Vane?
A no-brainer. Even for a non-cowboy from the East Coast.
I liked it ... Then forgot about it. Come on ... It was taken on my trip to Alaska.
Nashville, St. Louis, The Corn Palace, The Badlands, Mount Rushmore, The Battle of the Little Bighorn, Banff National Park,
The Alaska Highway, Whitehorse, The Grizzlies of Katmai, The Artic Circle, The North Slope, The Brooks range, A Polar Plunge
in the Artic Ocean ...
And that was just getting there!
One image among thousands. Two months on the road. Images and memories from that summer
trip. Unreal. Overwhelming really.
And now this image on YOUR SHOT three and a half years later ...
The people like it ...
And that is why I make, LOOK at the LIGHT, Rule Number One.
That simple.
It is all about the light.
And that Cowboy Spirit ...
But to me, it is the joy of re-living a great Road Trip, a great summer. That is photography.
That is why I do what I do.
Well, that, and Huckleberry Ice Cream.
Thin Blue Ice
Killing two themes with one shot. Monochrome and selective focus. Got it.
Yes, I wrote about having the class work on shooting one color ... Monochrome. They are
working on that for their print that is due in a couple of weeks. Easy enough.
Then we had our "big storm" ... I still find it hard to call one inch of snow, a storm ...
Let alone a big storm. Twenty one years I've lived here -- The longest in any one place in my life! - And I still find it
funny that we miss school (and college) for one inch of snow.
Cool.
Which brings us back to the image ... Cool.
Blue. Frost. Ice. Blue ice. I like it.
What? We got out of school early Tuesday, missed a college class that night, had two "Teacher
Work Days" (with two hour delays), and then a three hour delay on Friday.
One inch.
And cold. Can't forget the cold. Single digits.
Single image. Single cold image.
Yes, it's my Element's windshield before I turned on the defroster ...
Yes, I have a camera handy.
I shot this with a Nikon D90 with the 105mm f2.8 macro lens. Key words (and numbers) being
macro and f2.8.
That adds up to a very shallow depth of field, or what we sometimes refer to as "selective
focus".
The telephoto lens (157.5mm equivalent), combined with the large aperture (f2.8), and the ability
to focus real close (macro), all add up to a very thin strip of focus in this image.
Dare I say ... I was shooting "on thin ice"? Yes I was. Thin Depth of Field (Oh, I like the
sound of that).
Anyway ...
That is a game I like to play. To show. Thin ice (OK ... frost). Thin strip of focus.
Thin strip of blue frost. Or ice. Blue ice.
Hand held, ISO 400, VR turned on ... And B.R.A.S.S.
Breathe, Relax, Aim, Stop, Squeeze.
And fire off a few in a row ... Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam ... Quick, you know, fire between my
heart beats! Yeah, that quick.
And hope for the best.
Color? Check. Selective focus? Check. Mood? Check. Sharpness (something!)? Check. Giggles?
Check.
I love Snow Days. Turned out to be very productive.
And I hadn't even taken off for work yet ...
Cool.
See It?
Real quick ... I was over in Black Mountain today and took a few images of a
train ... 23 to be exact.
OK, not a real train,
but that is not what this is all about. Well, I could go on and tell you how my grandfather used to build these types of silhouettes
back in the day and sell them to Maria Von Trapp, in Stowe, Vermont. Yes, that Maria Von Trapp, of THE SOUND
of MUSIC fame. No, not Julie Andrews, the REAL Maria Von Trapp. They sold them at their lodge. Big Time.
Really.
My
uncle took over his business and made them for years ... I kind of like them.
No, I can't make them. And no, my uncle did not make this one ... As far as I know.
But I can take pictures of them ... I know my limitations. I can live with that.
Two images, one is better than the other.
Can
you see it?
Kind of small ... But then again, that is
the point. It doesn't take much ...
I always say, take
a lot, you never know which one you will like when it comes down to it. An inch (or less) to your right, an inch up
or down ... The little things. Tiny.
I even came up with
a term I use for it ... Emotional Nuance. That little something that makes all the difference.
Bam.
Hope you notice it.
I did. But not until I got home and saw it on the larger computer screen. 23
shots ... One image.
That simple. That little. That
good.
Yes, that little Star Burst. Got the sun right where I wanted it.
RGB
Red. Green. Blue.
Yeah, I know ... In Art Class you learned that the Primary Colors were Red, Blue, and Yellow. Me too.
Of course, as soon as I got out of the classroom, I forgot about it. Yeah, I was one of those kids
in my younger years. Art class? Me? Yeah. If only you could talk to my art teachers ...
And if only I could apologize ...
But, now that I am teaching art, I kind of, sort of remember. Primary colors ... Red, blue, and yellow.
Mix them, and you get black.
That was art class.
In photography, they changed it on me. We go with Red, Green, Blue. As in RGB.
What happened to yellow?
Just when I thought I had it down pat ... What is that all about?
As it turns out ... I had no clue.
Typo? Don't think so. Green and yellow aren't even close ... Tell you the truth, I never even thought about
it. Hey, I went to an Art School and everything (pre-digital). I thought I knew what they were talking about. I got a Master's
Degree. I teach Art. Art 264. And Art 265. At a real college.
Then I read a book.
My new Art Wolfe book I bought ... I mean, the book Santa brought me. You know, Christmas. In fact, I got
two new Art Wolfe books this winter ... Picked up my second one right after New Year's ... Yes, I was a good boy.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah ... Red, Yellow, Blue, and then Green ...
Red, blue, and yellow are the primary colors for pigments. True enough. Sounds good. Paint. Artists. House
paint. Painters. Car paint. Mix them and you get black. That was then ...
This is now, RGB ... Red, Green, and Blue are the primary colors for LIGHT. Mix them, and
you get white.
Bam.
Light. Photography. What I do. I don't paint. I don't even pretend to know how to paint. Or painting.
I don't want to paint, like ... Anything. Ever.
I take pictures. I paint with light.
That is why all my camera's color space are set to sRGB. I let the camera take care of everything
for me. Red. Green. Blue.
I never knew.
Never thought about it. Or if I did, I forgot about it.
That simple.
I just have always heard of RGB.
Yes, one word! A photography word. Something, sort of, kind of new ... Computer stuff. Digital stuff. My
cameras come set with sRGB, I leave it at sRGB. Period.
Yes, little "s" big RGB. I don't know ... That's just how it is. I don't make this stuff up!
Sounds cool. Looks cool. You know, a photography buzz-word. sRGB. Cool. Just a push of a button. Well, no.
I don't touch that button ... Don't go there. Never have. Never will. I just leave it alone. I never really knew. I just trusted
the tech people back in Japan. Those Japanese Wizards I talk about in class ... You know, The Wizards of Nikon,
Canon, Pentax, Sony ... All of 'em.
You know. Now I know.
Now I can go into class and sound like a genius ... I can also go into my Middle School classes and say,
with conviction, that yes, "Reading is FUNdamental".
I still won't touch that setting, that button. No. And to make it more interesting ... There is also another
Color Space option ... AdobeRGB. Again, yes ... One word.
This is where I just, sort of ... Well, just stick with the "default" and go with it. I have used Nikon
digital cameras for about nine, ten years now, and have never changed the setting. I go with sRGB. Period.
The difference ... From what I can tell, is that AdobeRGB has more colors to offer if you shoot RAW
and work on your images a
lot in Photoshop. I don't. I have never had an issue with my JPEG images that use the default setting of
sRGB. Even more important, the companies I work for, don't have an issue with the JPEG files I send them.
If I did large gallery prints, well, maybe. I don't. My images are used mostly on websites, and smaller
brochures and calendars. That is why I shoot JPEG and stick with the standard sRGB Color Space on all my cameras.
Hey, it is still RED, GREEN, and BLUE.
So, that said, what did I come up with this semester at the college? Yeah ... We are going to
go out and shoot RedGreenBlue. One word.
Color. One image, one color. One emotion. Simple.
I like color. Although I shot mostly in B/W for the military, in my early years, I changed over to slides
for magazine work and never really looked back. I shot in color. I shoot in color. I think in color.
All my travel work is in color.
I see in color.
So do you.
What we have to learn to do, as photographers, is to think in color (or shoot everything in Black and
White). How does our use of color effect our images? Effect our viewers emotions?
The whole "Color Theory" notion that is part of our Western Culture. The power of color. The emotional connection
with color. It plays an important part in our lives, both in front of the camera, as well as behind it.
Color.
Red: DANGER. PASSION. ACTION.
Just wait a while, and witness the color of Valentine's Day. Yeah, you know. Or the next red light.
Or STOP sign.
Or that little, tiny, red flower in the background that draws your eye right away from the main subject.
Yeah, that red.
That simple.
Blue: COOL. CALM. Not red. Just the opposite. Again, that simple. I like blue. My eyes are blue. My jeans
are blue. My DUKE sweatshirt is blue. I like blue. Chill. Calm. Peaceful.
Green: NATURE. LIFE. GROWTH. HEALTH. Go out in the woods. Go visit a farm. The grocery store. Buy some vegetables.
You might as well, I don't. Well, no, I do buy lettuce. That's green. If it isn't, I won't buy it. Green. Got to love it.
Green is a "Secondary Color", meaning it is a mix of blue and yellow. That said, it can look almost
yellow, and/or, almost blue. Go figure. Very interesting color. Green. Photograph green.
I know green. I was in the Marine Corps. I lived green. Thought green. Was green.
And, years later, I photographed green. Different shade of green. Army green. Over fifty
shades of Army green ... On three different continents.
That is what we work with in photography: Red. Green. Blue.
Light.(R)ed, (G)reen, and (B)lue.
Get out there and shoot some red, green, and blue. Make it tell a story. Say something with color. With
emotions. With light.
In fact, that is one of our class assignments: COLOR. They have an image due 20 Feb on COLOR.
Period. Any color. Any subject.
That is what I played with today while over in Morganton before I went to see the movie, LONE SURVIVIOR.
Good movie by the way. Strong emotion. A lot of red.
Emotion.
Look at the Light. Look at the Color. Look for the emotions that color gives you. Capture that emotion.
Capture that mood.
sRGB. Red. Green. Blue.
Those are just three ... You have plenty of other options. Aim for them all. Yellow is good. Violet. Orange.
Pink. And don't forget white. Black. Oh, and gray. Can't forget gray.
Your whole camera metering system is based on ... No, not "Fifty Shades of Gray". Just one. 18%
Gray. Shoot it. Capture the shade you see ... You feel.
Get the black that you want. Work at it. Want white? You have to push a button ... If you don't, it will
be gray. How white is your white? How black is that black? Push the button (+/-). Work at it. Get it. Black. Gray. White.
Photograph color.
Just color.
Make color your subject. Look. See. Play.
sRGB. Light and color.
Photography. Emotion. Mood.
Now you know.
New Year,
Same Place
Yeah, I started the New Year (2014) in the same place I ended last year (2013). How cool is
that?
Well, of course, everyone does, it's really only one second, but it just sounded cool.
I was back up in the woods. Back up behind Collettsville, if there is such a place. I know
what I mean anyways. Turn left, first gravel road to the right, then the next gravel road up over the mountain. Bear hunters,
hikers, bicycle clubs, and me, we know what I'm talking about.
A great place.
OK, I just got done spending six nights up there, took a day off to take a shower, buy some
books, and BAM! Right back at the same place.
Yeah, I was going to spend a few days at home, then go back up, but no, that's not how it
worked out. So much for great plans ...
Perfect. Not much changed in the 24 hours I was gone.
I had two new books: Lonely Planet's Guide to TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY, by Richard I'Anson, and
THE ART OF THE PHOTOGRAPH: Essential Habits for Stronger Compositions , by Art Wolfe and Rob Sheppard.
Love those gift cards. I now have my college semester all planned out. That simple. I love
to read something, get inspired, and go with it.
BAM.
Just like my license plate. Who would of thought?
OK, what did I do? I read.
And ... Yes, I shot photos. More photos. Last week it was seven images ... Total. The
past three nights, four days (well, OK, I was gone by 7:30 something this morning, but hey ...) I shot 450 images.
Very different.
And ... For 93.236% of those images, I shot in Black and White. You know, went in
and pushed a button or two ... Black and White. In the camera. Right then and there. I shot in Black and White. I "saw"
in Black and White. I looked for things in Black and White. And I reviewed my images in black and white ...
Very important. Very different.
See, it is just another game I play ...
Oh, that reminds me of my days back in the Marines ... We had a saying ... "United States
Marine Corps, just another game by Milton Bradley". See, it was just after the Vietnam War, the military was at an all-time
low, moral was shot, and, to us, as we marched along, it summed up all the little games they would play when we were not out
in the field actually acting like Marines ... Oh, the games we played.
Anyway ... Back to the games I play now. I am always trying to try something to get me ready
for the next semester, the next assignment, the next trip. Something. Be it One Shot a Day, or to shoot everything (well,
most everything) in Black and White, I try to mix it up. Learn. Practice.
I also thought about where I was, when I was there, and what was going on around me.
Winter.
No color.
Well, that's not true.
But you know what I mean. It isn't Spring with all the green, the leaves, the flowers
... Or Fall, with all the ... Well, you know, Fall Colors. Orange. Red. Yellow. Green.
No, Winter is different. Color? Yes, of course. Gray. Brown. Black. Some (dull) greens. A
few left-over burnt orange-ish color still left in the few leaves hanging on for dear life ... Winter Colors.
So, Black and White wasn't a big stretch ... Pretty much what was there. But hey,
it sounded cool. My big decision. Perfect. My Game, my rules.
And that was pretty much it ... Seeing in color, thinking in black and white, shooting in
Black and White. Easy. Got it?
Well, until I wanted to express the cold I was feeling. What did I do? What magic button did
I push?
Vivid.
Yeah, right above Black and White on my menu. Oh, it is that simple.
What color did I get on those wet, foggy mornings, or evenings? Cold, wet, foggy times in
the dark, grey, woods?
Blue, of course.
Yes, I did switch from B/W to Vivid a few times ... And here is the catch: I stayed with my
Cloudy White Balance.
Yes. My favorite - my "standard", my default, setting for my White Balance setting. CLOUDY.
I know what you are thinking ... That's wrong. He's nuts. Yeah, maybe, but I stuck with
Cloudy. Took a shot ... And yep, blue.
Light blue. More UNC than Duke. But just what I was looking for. What I "felt"... Perfect.
Well, except for that whole UNC thing ... But lets move on, stick with the woods ... The images
(hey, I did see where Duke is playing tomorrow on CBS ... I will finally get to actually watch a game! Me and my basic cable
...).
Anyway ...
Yes, I know, you thought I was going to go with the INCANDESCENT White Balance to "cool" things
down. Yes, so did I. That was my first thought ... To be honest.
But ... For some reason, I just took a shot to see what the camera would give me. Smart move
on my part. I like to think I am smarter than the camera, but that has just been proven not to be the case.
No worries. I know that.
I just went with my gut ... Tried it, liked it, then thought I was a genius. Perfect. How
can that not be perfect? Be wrong (at first), but come out smelling like a rose.
And after three nights in the Element, I did not smell like a rose ...
See, Incandescent would have turned EVERYTHING blue. Like dark, heavy, darker-than-Duke Blue.
Too much.
Overcast, foggy, rainy light (as seen by a digital sensor - or, Lord forbid, film ... Is blue,
no problem. So, if I went with my first thought, I would have gone overboard. Like way overboard. Way too much blue.
So ... My Cloudy White Balance did, in fact, balance out SOME of that blue and gave me a more
natural light hint of blue ... Just right. Genius, without even knowing it.
So ... Think like a camera, shoot, and see what happens. That is what photography is all about.
After awhile, you just might get "lucky", like me, and come up with the right answer ... For once. If not, change it,
move on. Learn from it. File it away for the next time you are out walking in the cold, foggy mountains looking at light ...
Or lack there of.
Anyway ... That was one little tit-bit I came away with this time. The second, is that it
got really cold the last night.
Ha! My windows were frosted over big time this morning. I was "up" for what seemed like hours
just "thinking" (about staying warm), when I thought I noticed a hint of pale light coming through the frosted windows ...
I knew it must be around 7am.
Whoa. Nice.
Got dressed, and out came the camera. I was ready. 6:58am. Perfect.
The first shot is what I came away with. My view from "My Spot". Yes, for the sunrise,
I went back to color. This button falls under my "SET PICTURE CONTROL" settings. I went back to my standard, VIVID, as mentioned
earlier. Simple. Push a button.
I just stood there, while, I might add, the Element was running, trying to break the ice on
the INSIDE of my windows ... And fired away. 800 ISO. No tripod. 35mm lens @ f1.8 and 1/200th of a second (Yes, I just checked!).
That was why I was there.
Ten mornings.
Not all of them looked like this, of course, in fact, this was not even the best sunrise (see
my BLOG below), but it wasn't all fogged in either, like many a morning.
The second image is the image I had all set up the first time I was up there ... But
then ended up taking another vine shot just around another curve (see the below BLOG). I can't keep them straight (Oh, that
is a pun!) ... One curve looks like any other curve.
Yes, I knew it was a DIFFERENT vine, but I liked the little "hook" at the top, and ... Well,
I just went with that one that time. One day. One shot. One moment. Again, I got carried away looking through the viewfinder.
Not a bad thing ...
But, I went back ...
I knew I liked this set-up. I knew there was an image there. Or two. Or fifty ... Wait,
I'll check and see how many I actually took of this one time ...
21. OK, maybe not 50.
But that was just this one time ... I shot it several times, over three different
days. No "One Shot" stuff this time, I fired away ... I played. One time I even "fogged up" the lens with my breath,
and shot several ... Bam, bam, bam. Pretty cool. I moved right, I moved left (just a little), I moved up, I moved down (just
a little). I tried different looks.
Remember, I sized this all up the week before. I had my image ... I knew I had an image ...
I just got down to an inch here, an inch there ... Little adjustments. I was ready. I had it all in figured out in my head.
Pre-visualization. I had the mat and framed all picked out ...
So, from Christmas to New Year's, I had this shot lined up, thought out, planned. I just had
to go get it.
I did.
And that was what the whole thing was about.
I had it planned ... Checked out. Marked.
Then, I went another direction.
OK. It happens. If you know me, you know that.
Then, I went back and got the image I had in my head ... Ahh, like, for a week. Come
on ... Again, if you know me, you know that. One track mind.
The first week I shot in color. Cool. It works.
The second time ... Black and White.
It works.
Lines, shape and pattern, diagonals, spirals, texture ... It has it all. Which just happens
to be where all this is going ...
That is my semester in a nut-shell: The Five Elements of Design.
It is what Art Wolfe goes over in his book. How to design a photograph. Five "tools" ...
And guess what his next section is titled? Color and Black and White.
I am not making this stuff up. Excellent.
I am ready.
And I'm not even done with the book yet ... Yeah, that whole Travel Photography thing got
me going too. Go figure. I switched back and forth ... Oh, I'm bad.
Two great books, three cold nights, four wonderful days, 450 images. Not bad. Oh wait, plus
the six nights, seven days, seven images the first time-a-round.
Happy Holidays.
Time to get ready for college.
And the middle school, of course, can't forget them. I will finally get to answer that question
about showers.
You have to love those 6th graders ...
One Out of Seven
Period.
In seven days, I took just seven shots, or "clicks". Oh, wait, that's not true. One of my images was made up
of three shots, a multiple-exposure, but it is only one image. Three clicks, one image. Works for me.
So ... Seven days, nine clicks. Close enough.
I took off for the mountains on Christmas Eve to enjoy the Christmas Break after going out to dinner with
some friends the night before. Perfect.
On the way to
Edgemont, I stopped to make a few calls before going "off the grid" ... You know, mom, brother, sister. I guess I talked a
lot ... My Element would not start once I was ready to start my adventure.
What? It's an Element, it never lets me down.
Unless,
of course, I sit there and talk for a half hour or more (must have been more) with my lights on.
Crap.
Jennifer
to the rescue. Or more correctly, her husband and son. Yeah, they came and got me going, gave me a jump. Jennifer
was working, but she was my contact, she got things started.
As
she usually does.
The Element started right up. No problem.
Crazy me. Next time I have to remember to get out of the car ... The little beeper thing will go off to remind me I left
my lights on. I guess I should of done what everyone else does, and just talk and drive ...
No.
Anyway, there I was ... Ready to go hide
out for a week, and before I even started, there I was with a dead battery. Or was it? I don't know ... I wanted to check
this out.
I drove home. Went in, piddled around for a
half hour or so ... Oh, one of my images on YOUR SHOT broke the 100 mark. Cool. In less than 24 hours I might add. I was ready
to go shoot some more!
OK, back to the battery.
Went out, it started right up. Proof enough. I was ready.
I was off ... Again.
I headed for Edgemont ... Things seemed fine. But yes, I stopped for gas just to make sure. See, the "plan" was to
go up in the woods, park, and stay for seven clicks. Six nights, seven days. Seven images. Seven (turns out nine) "clicks"
of the shutter and then come home. Period. Easy.
Six
nights? Would my Element start after six nights in the cold? Just wanted to make sure.
Bought $10 worth of gas ... And of course, it started right up. No worries.
A couple of hours late, but my Seven Days Project was about to actually begin.
Change of plans.
Since I was going through
beautiful Collettsville anyway (and was running later than planned) ... I decided to just stay there, go up to another
of my favorite places to "camp" ... Up the gravel road I ride my mountain bike up every weekend in the Fall. Maple Sally Road.
Up in a National Forest along a twisty, uphill road just made for my kind of camping. Again, perfect.
Why not? It was closer. I was ready to begin.
Got to "My Spot", parked, and turned off the engine. I made it. I was done for six nights, seven days. I knew
my Element wouldn't let me down.
Cold. But nice. First
things first, I transformed the Element into my vacation cabin. You know, pulled the driver's seat forward, moved a few things,
BAM. Done. My home away from home. Took three minutes. Four tops ... I've done this before. A place for everything, everything
in its place. You know, perfect.
I got out, went for
what would become a habit, a nice little walk up the mountain. But no, first I took an image of "My Spot", my Element. My
first shot. Done for the day. One click.
Next morning.
The coldest. Flat out. The frost on the inside of my windows was something else. Oh, photo-op. Got out my Nikon D90 with the
35mm f1.8 lens (my only lens) and fired away. Yes, I even used my tripod. In the Element. That is what I call fun. Cold, but
fun.
All this before, or during, sunrise. Done for the
day. Whew, that was quick. Now what?
More walks. I "looked"
for the next image. Found, oh, like about 327. But no, I found some ice on the side of the road. I liked it. And some ice
on the side of the cliff. I liked the one with ice coming out of the moss ...
Yeah, I saw images everywhere. When should I take them? Morning light? Evening light? Were they in the sun,
or shade? What about mid-day? What direction would the light be coming from? Would there be any light?
No. What about this shot? Some vines all twisted up, forest in the background.
Complex Simplicity. I love it.
Oh wait, this one is
better. I even moved a log ... Checked it out. I'm glad nobody was around to see me ... Holding my hands out making a little
frame, looking for images like some crazed movie director ... Oh, brother, what a nut. But that was going to be one
of my shots ...
Day after day ... For six nights, seven
days.
Looking for images.
Planning the seven images ... This one today, the leaf tomorrow, then the ice, then the ...
Oh crap. One day ... maybe Day Three or Four (I don't remember), I woke up to
the best sunrise like ever ... See, there was some kind of fire the day before (what does that mean? Some kind of fire?)
Anyway ... The sunrise. Beautiful. Must have been the smoke. I jumped up out
of bed (my futons) ... It was wild. True, I was frozen, and half asleep, but come on ... The Light.
Got the camera ... Got the tripod ... Now, where do I take this? I didn't have
this one planned out ...
Trees everywhere ... Yeah, like
hello? I'm in the woods!
Where should I set up? Get
the image. Get something. Quick. The Light. The smoke. Perfect.
Then it wasn't.
Gone. That fast.
Crap.
But
I was ready. I wanted to take a picture of that fire sunlight. That early morning red light.
Oh wait. The cliff on the other side of the road. It turns red every morning ... Quick. Do something.
Multiple-exposure. Slow shutter speed. Warm light. Fire. Make the bare trees
look like match-sticks. Boom. Boom. Boom. Three exposures. Tilt the camera up, slow shutter speed. Oh yeah ...
How did it look?
Look.
Oh ... I forgot.
I couldn't look.
Yeah, yeah, I know, it's digital. Just look at the LCD.
No. I turned it off. Part of the game I was playing (I was going to say "with myself", but naw, just didn't sound
right). See, it was all part of the game.
One image
a day. No peeking.
Try it. Tougher than it sounds, especially
in this age of "chimping" and instant feed-back. I turned off the IMAGE REVIEW. Simple.
Old school baby. Just like the good 'ol days of shooting slides ... Wait. That's just me. And no, I didn't peek.
Which reminds me ... On Christmas (Day Two), I opened my presents. Yeah,
you know, like Christmas. Fun. It felt like Christmas ... Cold.
Tore off the wrapping like I was ten again, and what did my sister write on the box? DON'T OPEN UNTIL CHRISTMAS.
Really? Me? What does she think I am? Ten?
No, I didn't
peek. Not once. Not at my present, not at my images. Not all week. Not even after that muti-exposure, dreamy, artsy,
crazy dream-like shot? Nope.
Drove me nuts.
Almost as much as whether my Element would start on Day Seven, or not. Oh
yeah ... I was coming up with some wild thoughts up there in them there hills. Dark, cold hills. Lonely hills. Dark, cold,
lonely hills, out in the middle of nowhere.
No worries.
I had my cell phone. I could text. I think I even had two bars, whatever that means. Jennifer would come save me. Or her husband.
Or her son. Her daughter can't drive yet, but I know she would volunteer, no problem.
I had it covered.
Each day I just woke up, had
a fruit bar, took a drink of nice cold water, read, went on walks, had another fruit bar, or apple, for lunch, and took that
one image. That one click. Day after day. Same thing ... Like clockwork, without the clock.
Only thing different was the weather ... First few days, wonderful. Cold, but
sunny. Day after day.
Then came the clouds. The fog.
The rain. Rained all day one day ... Maybe Day Four, or five. Can't remember. Rain.
Loved it.
I love sleeping (living) in the Element
when it rains. The sound of the rain on my roof - Priceless. I love it. Spent twenty something hours that day in my
Element. Get it? In my Element. I never grow tire of that line ... I know, I'm hopeless.
Got my image that day all right. Guess what it was of?
Raindrops on my window.
Big surprise, I know.
Just like my image this summer out in Oregon ... Well, without the sea-stacks blurred out in the background. Oregon. North
Carolina. No problem. I am good at doing nothing, trust me.
Which
is another thing that drove me nuts ... I couldn't "play" with my camera. You know, like take shot after shot of drops of
rain on my window, or leaves frozen in the ice.
I even
made a rule that I couldn't go back and photograph another scene from the one I took the day before. Oh no ... That would
be ... well, I don't know what it would be, but it wasn't going to happen. Not me.
One shot. One day. One location.
That was the
plan. That was the way it was going to be. Period.
Great
seven days. I made it. And yes, to answer one of the questions from one of my 6th grade students ... What about a shower?
Well, I did have Baby Wipes (what I playfully refer to as Butt Wipes), so I was set.
Sort off.
I must admit it got a little "sticky"
by Day Five or Six. Or Four. Three? Maybe, but I hung in there. Took me back to my Marine Days ... You know, out running through
the woods of North Carolina with a bunch of Special Forces guys leading our "Gorilla" Force of Marines, in civilian
clothes ... With M-16s. Yeah, like we didn't hide every time a pick-up headed our way ... Remember, I grew up a Yankee. Up-State
New York. I saw the movie Deliverance. I hid. But, I hid like a Marine.
Anyway ... Yeah, fun. I aired out the Element every day. You know, just because I could.
Except for the day it rained ...
Where was I?
Oh yeah, great week. Great experience. Great photography challenge. Just what I was looking for.
Saw a few pick-up trucks, one with their hunting dog standing up in the back, on top of his cage ... Trucks going
up the mountain early every morning (except for the 24th and Christmas) and back down again each night. That was about it.
Bear hunters, I think.
Never said a word to anyone, right
up to the last day, while walking back from taking my last shot. There was a man parked on the side of the road trying
to get his phone, or tracking thingy, to work, I don't know. At first I thought he was going to the bathroom ... He wasn't.
I wished him a good morning ... He asked if I was getting some good photos.
Felt weird talking out loud. To another real person. But, yes, I told him I was.
If only he knew ...
Six nights. Seven days.
Nine clicks. Seven images. Peace. And quiet. Peace and quiet. And cold. Rain. Fog. Sunshine.
And six cans of food (two each of beans, tuna, and chicken), along with six cans of fruit (peaches, pears,
and fruit cocktail). Plus some apples, Trail Mix, Breakfast Bars, and ... Oh, I think that was it. No, crackers. Toasted crackers,
with just the right amount of peanut butter. Oh yeah ...
The other part of
my Master Plan ... The diet.
If
you can remember school, you know what the week before Christmas can be like. Holy crap. I ate crap, crap, crap ... Did I
mention crap?
Anyways ... Seven days of no crap. Unless,
of course you count canned beans, and canned meat, crap. And canned fruit. No? Come on ... Peaches? Now, that's good stuff
right there ...
Six nights. Seven days. Seven images.
And yes ... When I turned the key on Day Seven,
magic happened. It's an Element. You didn't think I would be stuck out there in them there woods, did ya?
No, I didn't think so ...
I got my (LONG, HOT) shower ...
Oh yeah.
Oh ... Which reminds me ... I picked up three or four little shopping bags
full of trash that people threw out at "MY SPOT", it drives me nuts ...
But anyway, I packed them all up in my Element to throw out ... And the smell was pretty bad ... I rolled down my
windows until I could find a trash can.
Turned out
the smell wasn't all from the trash ...
Think I'll go
take another shower ... Before heading back out into the woods for three more nights this weekend.
Why not? This time I will take as many pictures as I want.
So there.
I
can play all I want and nobody can say anything. Not even me. And yes, I'll even turn my REVIEW IMAGE thing back on ... Go
back to my evil ways.
Play, play, play.
Perfect.
Just
need a few nights to regroup. And warm up. And do all the things I planned while cooped-up, I mean relaxing, for the
past week.
Make a video of all my rafting trips, contact
a few more travel companies, write this BLOG, you know, stuff ...
Order a new used camera from Adorama (Come on, think of all the money I saved on gas by not going to Florida, or
New Mexico, or ... You know, anywhere).
Christmas ...
Round Two. An old Nikon D100. Hey, it takes the same batteries as my D90s and D200s, what's not to like? Going old
school -- One more time.
Just stuff you do on Christmas
Break. Before I go and do it all again ...
So, why show
only one image? Well, good question. At first, I was only going to post two ... But then I said, what the heck, there
are only seven ... So, I posted all seven of 'em. Done.
Then
I went to Barnes and Nobles and bought two photography books with my Christmas Gift Cards ... And Bam! On some whim, I decided
to head back up into the woods for three more nights right then and there, you know, to read ...
And think.
That is when it hit me ... I didn't
like all seven images. So, I took them off. Simple.
And that is important.
Not every image I took
that week was good. I am not Jim Brandenburg. But that's OK, I know that. But I have been to his gallery in Ely, Minnesota,
and have his video CHASED by the LIGHT (he was the one that shot - on slides - One shot a day, for 90 days, and then had them
ALL published in NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC). Just flat out INSANE. Google him ... You can thank me later.
Anyway ... I also known I'm not him because I haven't shot for NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
for the past thirty years or so, and plus, I know because I even had to look up how to spell his name ... "berg"
or "burg"... OK, so I'm not a good speller either. I know that too. But that is not what this is all about.
It is all about the experience. Period. Six nights, seven days.
Doing it. Looking for it. Thinking about it. "It" being that one image, that
one shot, out of the hundreds that I saw each day as I walked up and down that mountain just looking ...
That is what it was all about.
Being out there, in the cold, in the rain, the fog, the sunshine (I would just stand there and face into the
sun for it's warmth), the quiet, the peace, the woods ... Beautiful.
Good images? Maybe. Great images? No. I tried. In fact, I tried different things ... I played. My favorite thing
to do. I took chances.
I learned.
That was that ... Now, I am headed back up into the woods ... My "camp".
Peek-a-Boo
I was going through my images from Egypt to find the original file of this little boy I photographed
while walking around a tiny little village late one evening.
I wanted to use it on the YOUR SHOT website and wanted the larger file. See, I re-size all
the images you see on my website so they fit better on the page and don't take up as much space on the website. I change the
Resolution from 300 dpi (dots per inch) to 72 dpi to save space. A computer screen only uses 72dpi no matter what. Like I
said, it saves space.
I also re-size them to 15 inches in height. Again, this is just for computer screens. Most
of them ... Well, some of them, are still 15 inches in height. I must say they are getting bigger so I have begun using 17
inches as my standard. That is, if I remember ... I am so used to using 15 inches, sometimes I forget.
One of my college students also told me that the new HD screens use 96 dpi instead of 72 dpi.
Go figure. Again, if I remember, I go with 96 dpi, but you know me ...
I try.
This is all good for my meager little website ... But NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC provides all
the space you will ever need, plus they show them at a larger size, so I like to use the larger files to keep them sharp.
That is when I was reminded of this one ... My favorite image from the trip. Yeah,
the one I didn't take.
I took the one of the young boy, the portrait ... I love the way he fixed his collar
to look his best for the crazy American photographer ... If he even had any idea as to where I was from.
I handed the camera to another child to take this image ... And when I saw it, I remember
thinking, THIS is the image that tells the story of photographing in a Muslim country.
The older girls shy away ...
I understand, and don't push it, or worry about it. No worries. And ... No photographs.
But I like this one.
Me and my buddy. And his sister peeking out, wanting to see what is going on. Wanting to be
part of the experience ... Part of being a child.
Well, that is what I think anyways ... I really have no idea. I did not grow up a Muslim
girl in Egypt, so I really can't speak for her. That is just my American, Christian, and male thoughts on the whole experience
... You know, clueless.
But, it is my favorite image I never took.
It tells the story. The story of my travels, the people I meet. See, she was outside with
her friends. She was outside having fun ... Or whatever.
Then a man, a stranger, came walking around with a camera. She booked. I did not photograph
her. But I did get this picture, this memory ...
I love it.
The portrait of a young girl. A young Muslim girl. An Egyptian girl. And her brother.
And me.
Perfect.
Yield
I was going through my images from my trip to Alaska looking for "simple" images ... I remembered that
shot of the fox's fur, and I went hunting for it.
I came across this ... One of many that I have forgotten over the past three years. Looking at it, I know
why; it is not a good photograph. Period. Too much empty space. Poor composition, you know, a dud.
I do remember taking it ... The vast expanse of Northern Alaska - The Brook's
Range. But I really don't know just where I was in relation to the beginning, middle, or end.
The sign caught my eye ... and the vast wilderness of the North Slope. But ... Sort of a weak image.
Yeah, it all looked pretty much the same. Tundra. Like the truck.
The road to The Arctic Ocean. Dalton Highway. The gravel road to Prudhoe Bay. The road to adventure. That
is what made me take another look. Not the image itself, not the sign.
No, it was what was behind the sign ... The road. The memories. That is what I saw,
I remembered.
I once said that there is no such thing
as a bad photograph. And this is why. Yes, I'll be the first to admit this is not a good image. To anyone else. But, for me
... Looking back at this, yeah, I like it. I like what it reminds me of ...
I love roads like that.
I love country like that.
I love moments like that.
On trips like this, we tend to dwell on the destination ... Prudhoe Bay, Inuvik, Yellowknife,
Reindeer Lake, Chisasibi, Goose Bay.
But, actually, on roads like this, the road is the destination, is the adventure. Period.
Pick a road, any road, in The United States or Canada, and drive north. Pretty simple. Pretty
easy.
Years ago, when I was working with motorcycle magazines, they joked and called me the Moto-journalist
on the gravel road to nowhere.
Now, looking at this image, I know why.
I like being in the middle of nowhere.
On a motorcycle, or in my Element, I tend to enjoy being in "my element" ... Out There. Always have, always
will.
Yield.
Perfect.
Yield in the middle of nowhere. I can't even remember why this sign was there ... I just remember thinking
how strange it was.
Yield.
I was in no hurry ... And no one was probably within twenty miles of me, but yeah, I'll yield when told
to.
I follow the traffic signs, I follow the rules.
In fact, here is visual proof that I did yield. I even did one better, I stopped, and took a picture.
I gave way to a photograph. Yield to photographs.
That is what I do.
I look forward to my next picture of nowhere. In fact, looking back at this one, I think I will plan a
return trip up to Goose Bay this summer, you know, up in Labrador, Canada. Our neighbor to the North. Another wild road
to nowhere ...
Well, sort of. Goose Bay is somewhere ... But you know what I mean.
Hey, I'm from up-state New York, what is a few more miles north? It has been around twenty years since
I first drove up there ... Nineteen actually, seems like a good idea to me.
Half the fun is dreaming, I mean, planning, the adventure. That keeps me busy doing nothing for months.
The return trip to Alaska, thirty years later, was crazy ... Like, now, it's a paved, four-lane
highway. Crazy. I look forward to seeing what has changed on the road to Goose Bay. Pretty remote, just a lot closer.
Hope it's still wild. Like it was in 1995. I can see it now ... NORTHERN EXPOSURE II.
I love it. Now I have to see how it all plays out ... You never know.
Now ... I just need to find a Yield Sign out in the middle of another nowhere.
Can't be that hard ...
Yield. Yield to Nowhere.
I love it.
Dream.
Something to be Said of Simple
I have been
posting some images on the YOUR SHOT website run by NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC for the past few months ... Pretty interesting site
that has images from THOUSANDS of people from around the world.
Thousands.
Pretty overwhelming really. I first got into it a few years ago by just looking ... Images after images, page after
page.
I posted a few -- six,
I think -- and just kept going back to look at the images from other photographers. Images of EVERYTHING ... and from EVERYWHERE.
Unreal.
Then, this year, I started adding more and more images from my
trips. Then, people would start posting a few comments, saying this or that. It was kind of nice.
But then, it was like, from where? Iran? Pakistan? New Jersey.
India? Florida? Hong Kong? Colorado? This is wild. Crazy.
So then, I started uploading every week ... You can upload 15 in any given seven-day period. Pretty
simple really. Click, click, type a few words, Save, done.
Then I told my college students about it ... We started looking at the images on the site, talking
about them, it is a great source for inspiration and ideas.
That was that. A few of the students uploaded images and now I'm thinking of making it part of
the college class. In fact, next semester, I am going to make it a requirement. Yeah. Part of their grade. Just like that.
I just decided. Done. Bam.
I
like it. That is how I work.
First
off, it is free. Good. College students like free. Next, it is a GREAT place to view images ... BIG images. You have your
own Gallery Page, anyone, anywhere, can check it out ... Yes, even your college photography instructor.
Anytime.
And we don't have to waste time uploading them to the one computer
in the classroom hooked up to the projector in order to see each other's images ... Sweet.
And not just OUR images ... But images from people all over the
world. Everyone from beginners (like college students) to professional, and semi-professional photographers. From nature to
people, landscapes to wildlife, abstract to marco, every type of photography you can think of, to even some you can't, the
images are there for you to enjoy. An amazing site.
Nature and wildlife seem to be the most popular, but it really is wide open. Everything.
They also have mini-contests going on all the time, they have editors
that go through the images and pick their favorite, make comments, etc ... It really is a pretty interactive site. A great
place to see what people are doing around the world.
They even publish a few every once in awhile in the magazine. Yeah, that magazine. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC.
So yes, I am excited about making it part of
my college course. I always say anything to do with NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC is good for photography, and photographers. Which,
of course, includes beginning college photography students. And me. And you.
Perfect.
Today, I was replying to a comment from a photographer from Hong Kong about one of my images when I took
the time to check out his work ...
I
clicked on his gallery, and came across a very clean, simple, image of a plant against a pure white background ... a type
of "studio" shot of Mother Nature.
I
commented, "Something to be said of simple". And it hit me ... I will use that quote on my BLOG. Bam. Done. Genius.
Then, of course, that led to me going back through
some images from my past trips to see what I could come up with. I like plain, simple, clean images. Always have.
Found this one from my trip to Alaska a few
years ago that I knew would work. The little red fox came so close I had to hold my camera out
the Element's window with one hand and shoot down.
Yes, I was stopped along the side of the road ...
Simple. I like the "flow" ... The "movement" of the fur. The "energy". The lines ...
Part of RULE NUMBER TWO ... You know, GET CLOSER.
Get rid of all the crap. The clutter. The junk.
The whole Zen Photography thing. The whole "Keep it Simple Students" (OK, I changes it alittle bit ...)
concept that has been flying around for years, if not centuries. Again, nothing new here.
Something to be said about simple.
Simple.
Below, you will find a link to my YOUR SHOT Gallery Page. Take a look around ... Click on FAVORITES
to see some of my favorite images ...
It should give you some kind of idea as to why I like this site, and why I check it out over and over again.
I look forward to seeing your images on YOUR SHOT.
Revisit
Right up front ... Yes, I admit I stole this title from an e-mail I
just got from THE PICTURE PERFECT SCHOOL of PHOTOGRAPHY.
There, I feel better.
That is how I work/think/write. I didn't even read the article, I just knew it
was perfect title for the article I had in my head ...
See, I just completed shooting the same Bradford Pear tree in my front yard for
a month ... Showed the images to my class, discussed the project, and thought I was done with it.
Finished. Delete.
Then I got home today. Saw the leaves on the ground ... Bam. It hit me. I knew
I had to get out and get that one last image. That perfect last shot ...
Oh crap. I left my pants at school.
Really?
Yeah, really ...
Yes, I had to drive back to school to get my pants, that I left in the
restroom where I change, before going out for a run ... Yeah, I did that.
True story.
Anyway ...
Once I got home, for the second time, I knew what I had to do.
I had an image in my head. Close-up of the leaves on the ground. Color. Shapes.
Texture. A classic. A time-honored image that I (and just about every other photographer in the world) have taken over and
over again for years.
Got out the gear ... Got out in the yard.
Revisit.
Went for that close-up of the leaves.
Looked around. Shot this, shot that. Pretty simple really. Tripod. f16. Cloudy
White Balance. Two second self-timer. Minus One Stop (-1.0) compensation. Leaves. Period.
Fill the frame. Done.
No ... Keep looking/shooting (You know, Rule Number Three) ... Find that
one thing, that one aspect, that catches my eye ... Bam.
Got it.
Liked the one leaf with the hole in it ... Used the "hole" to show the "whole"
process of Fall. The leaves. The falling leaves. Fall. The end of Fall. Another season.
Another year.
I like it. The end. Done.
Until next year.
Then, I got inside and checked my e-mail.
Revisit. Are you kidding me? Unreal.
Revisit.
Revisit "my" tree. Revisit the tree. The Project. Bradford Pear. The leaves.
I liked it. Perfect timing ... You know me, always looking for that "hook" for
an article. Revisit. I got it.
That is what photographers do ... They revisit their images over and over again.
Year in, year out. If it is nice one day, can't it be nicer another day?
Good? Gooder? Goodest?
Yeah. It can.
That simple.
I have the camera. I have the lens. I have the tripod.
I have the yard. The tree. The leaves. Twelve and a half yards away, fifteen,
or something like that ... Close enough. Just out my door. I had the time. All what? Five minutes?
I had the light ... Soft even light. Diffused. Overcast. Perfect.
Why not?
Nice way to wrap up the whole (Get it?) Bradford Pear Tree 2013 Project - That
I thought I finished up Tuesday afternoon.
3 Nov to 3 Dec. Perfect.
One month ...
And now ... One month and three days. Even better.
Revisit.
I like it.
Get out there and revisit whatever it is that you visit. That you photograph, time
and time again.
One more image ...
Again ...
Now, let me go read that article. It sounded good ...
"Big Number" (f16) Big Depth of Field
"Little Number" (f2.2) Little Depth
of Field
Slow Shutter Speed (1/6 Second)
The Notion of Motion
Lenoir
Lights Downtown Lenoir ... Again. I moved to Lenoir twenty years ago. I remember driving downtown,
stopping on Main Street, and using a phone booth (long gone), calling about renting a house. One of the people I called turned
out to be a lawyer, who just happened to have an office right across the street. That simple. Been here ever since ... And I was there Thursday night with my college class photographing the Christmas Tree Lighting. True, I had no clue
it was going to happen that night, one of my students told me about it right before class, but that is how class goes. Well, my class anyway. We were planning to go to Granite Falls ...
We were just in Lenoir a week ago ... But, come on ... Christmas Lights! Perfect ... First we took a look at their images that were due that night; Shallow Depth of Field. Using "Selective Focus" they were to "tell a story" with their
image. It is always fun ... Beginning photographers using their tools to tell a story. I love it. I am always impressed with the work that they produce ...
Three months removed from entering the class, they come up with some great images. In fact, I just thought of this, I'll get
a couple from them and post them on my website -- Good idea. That is how I work/think/plan ... Then we went downtown. I never knew Thursday night was such a busy night on Main Street. We have been down there three times
this semester ... And it has been hopping every time. I never knew. OK ... Shooting Christmas lights. Always fun. I remember doing the exact same thing last year with
my class ... Main Street.
Lights. Benches. Christmas trees up and down the streets ... Perfect. As my students can tell you, Rule Number One is LOOK AT THE LIGHT. Pretty simple. Can't go wrong here ... Lights, colors, magic. I left the tripod in the Element. Never used
the flash I carried in my Fanny Pack. I just spent an hour walking around, drawn to the lights. Even ran into one of my former students ... She was there
with her husband and kids. Ah, it has been a few years, and yes, I can't think of her name, but I did remember her ... To tell you the truth, I remember an
image I took of her at the college, as she was laying down in the parking lot taking pictures ... Funny how that works!
She mentioned that she is still taking images ... Kids, portraits, weddings ... And just loves it. Great ... That's what I love to hear. Made
my night. Anyway ...
Lights. I had my trusty
35mm f1.8 lens and just pumped up my ISO to 1000, and fired away. Lights. Color. Movement. And, at just about at the same place I made
that call, all those years ago, there was this bench. Right next to a Christmas Tree decorated up by the Girl Scouts, if I
remember right ... Lit up by the lights. Black bench, colorful lights, reflections, and the actual lights themselves in the
background. Kolor! Yeah, tripod in the Element. No worries. I just set the camera on the bench, set my 2-second self-timer,
and, fired away. That easy. That simple. Rule Number Two -- Get Closer. Subject as tripod, can't get any closer than that. Shot some "wide open" @ f1.8, others "closed down" @ f16. Different numbers, different
results. Different visual results. Look again. Take a look at the first two images ... The camera didn't move. The focus didn't move. The only thing I moved was the aperture. Moved
a little dial. Easy. Let's
review ... Selective
focus, or Small Depth of Field, or Shallow Depth of Field(different terms for the same thing). It is determined by three things: 1. Lens choice 2. Aperture 3. Distance from subject I just noticed ... When written like that, listed out ...
Pretty dry. Just facts. Boring. The key is how the three work together. That is where the fun begins ... The blending of "facts" to produce art.
Love it. Here is how
I explain it ... There are two "types" of Depth of Field. Shallow Depth of Field and Great Depth of Field. For starters, I tell anyone that will
listen (or even show up to class to check their Facebook Page) it is all about the APERTURE. I break it down into my famous (sort of) one-liners: Big Number, Big Depth of Field. Small Number, Small Depth of Field. Ta-Da. Then, of course, I mention that nothing is that perfect, or
easy, and discuss the other two aspects; lens choice, and distance. But ... The above little tit-bit ALWAYS is true. The "look" of the final image, just depends
on how the three work together, blend together. Magic. Here, I just enjoyed playing with all the different variables, and played. Some "closed down" to f16, others "wide
open" @ f1.8. Shoot, shoot, shoot. Even used my "Live View" on a few, just so I could have some idea as to what the camera was seeing. It was sort
of hard getting my eye down to camera level while it was on the bench, underneath the arm rest ... No worries. I
just focused one-third (or there about) into the frame, took it off auto-focus, and fired away. You can see that even at the "Big Number"
(f16), there is not much "depth" to the Depth of Field. True. But, compare that to the second shot ... Where I "opened up" my lens to the smallest number, f1.8.
Yeah. Less. From "just
a wee bit" to nothing! Everything
remained the same ... My lens, a 35mm, my distance to the subject, and my focus point. Some of you might notice that I listed f2.2 as my aperture,
but said I "opened up" to the smallest number, f1.8. Yeah, weird. Well, I goofed up. With "all my playing" (and, come on, it was dark!), I guess I didn't spin far
enough ... Go figure. Oh
yeah, that crazy. Only in the digital world would I ever have know that. Never even heard of f2.2. I got close. Still a small number. Don't worry
about the numbers - they will change - just worry about the results. I don't get hung up on the numbers, I just go with the
concepts ... Open Up, or Close Down. It doesn't matter. Go for it, worry about the numbers later. Or not. Anyway, I was at the bench for at least half an hour. Tried this, tried that. Held the camera ...
Moved the camera ... Set the camera down, whatever. Tried this, tried that. Shoot, shoot, shoot. Rule Number Three. Perfect. Got all three rules covered ... The results are
all I'm worried about. I
love rules. Well, just
the ones I make up anyway. They are all good, but I have to admit, Rule Number One seems to get me going in the right direction
... Gets me started. Follow
the light. Look at the light. Explore the light. Play with the light. Look at the results of the lights on a bench. Photograph
that bench. Be happy. It
all just seems to fall into place. Sometimes in the strangest places ... Like at a park bench on Main Street, in Lenoir, North Carolina. At night. Late November. 7:30pm
to 8:00pm. Light. Color.
Movement. Photography.
Art. Great way to kick
off the Holiday Season. And to come full circle, twenty years later. The bench replaced the phone booth on Main Street, Lenoir. Works
for me. Get out there
and photograph the Holidays. Photograph the lights ... Or a bench. Or the lights on the bench. Just look for the light. The color. And play.
What
a Deal Came across this on Yahoo ... Rare Leica Camera sells for $620,000 in Hong
Kong Auction. A great deal. It sold for much less than the $1,000,000 expected price ... Say what? I got mine for $20.00.
That's right, $20. Oh yeah, what a shopper ... Even if you take in the price of getting to Russia, spending a week in Moscow,
and a week in St. Petersburg, I got the better deal. My Leica rip-off, that was made in the former USSR, after they stole everything
(machines, tools, etc ...) from the Germans in WWII, cost me $20. And that is after any Russian taxes ... That is,
if they have any taxes. I don't know ... It is all just play money to me. For real. Now, true, mine is NOT a rare
special-edition Leica, but ... Even if it was, it would just sit in my apartment, just like my rare (in the United States
anyway), cheapo, Soviet rip-off does. I don't really go out and shoot with it or anything. I forgot what film is ... No, it is
just part of my collection. My art. OK, so the real Leica is gold plated ... Yeah, nice. And has alligator leather ... Again, cool.
But, does it have a yellow filter on the lens? Mine does ... It came with it. Free! Ha. $619,980 cheaper. What a
deal. Oh, I almost forgot. True, mine did not come with a nice leather case. But ... I did pick up another Lecia rip-off,
a later model, The FED 2, for another $20. Oh yeah ... And to tell you the truth, just from looking at the photo, my cameras
look like they are in much better shape, you know, cleaner, shinier, than the real, rare, expensive Leica in the picture. Just saying
... As far as my savings go, OK, I think I spent, at the most, $2,000 on my Russian trip, maybe $3,000. Max. So ... Let's
just call it a $619,000 savings. Well, OK, I did buy some gum at the airport, and some useless, fake, rip-off AA batteries,
oh, and a nice fake Russian military winter hat ... Oh, and three years later, I did spend some more time in Russia, with
Viking River Cruises ... I must have bought something fake then, too. I did go back to the camera shop in St. Petersburg where
I bought the first two ... But didn't see any other "classic" Leica rip-offs that time around. I even had some real, fake-looking,
Russian Rubbles with me to spend ... Darn. So, even if we combine my two trips to Russia ... Let's be kind, and just round
it off to a nice sounding, $600,000 savings, and call it a deal of a life-time. I'll take it. Leica. $620,00
bargain. Two FED cameras (Soviet Rip-Offs). $20 each. Come on, not that much different LOOKING. And I have the yellow filter
... Plus, the second Soviet rip-off, fake Leica, look-a-like camera. Sweet. What a deal. What a shopper.
Downtown Studio Downtown Lenoir, NC. Why not? My class has an assignment due in a few weeks on SHALLOW DEPTH OF FIELD. I thought
I would take them downtown Lenoir on a nice "crisp" November night and show them about out of focus lights in the background. I took along
my 2'x2' portable softbox, my Nikon SB600 flash, and my fancy-dancy Adorama 42" reflector. I then set up my studio on a
park bench, and made sure I had some streetlights on the other side of the street in my background. After some discussion, one student
stepped up and took a seat on the park bench. Whew ... Then, one student held the flash and softbox on the left side, another student
held the reflector, just off camera, on the right. Using my Nikkor 85mm f1.8 (Small Number), I set my camera to Shutter Priority
(ISO 200), picked a slow shutter speed to bring out the distant street lights, and took a few shots. It was dark. I came up
with 1/6th of a second. Don't ask me, I just picked a slow shutter speed. Actually, I thought I picked 1/8th of a second,
but it was dark, I couldn't see the numbers that well. No worries. The camera matched that shutter speed with f3.2. That is what cameras do. You
pick the shutter speed, it does the math, and comes up with f3.2. Magic. I took a few images ... Played around, and came
up with these two images. Different subjects, pretty much the same results. Played with the background lights. At f3.2, the
lights were WAY out of focus, giving us those soft, round balls of light. Perfect. Remember, "small number, small depth of field". I used a long
lens (85mm), got close, and used a small number for my aperture (f3.2). They all added up to SHALLOW DEPTH OF FIELD. Daylight,
darkness, sun, or flash, the concept is the same. Get close, use a long lens, and set you aperture to a small number, or set your
shutter speed to give you a small number ... It works both ways. I wanted the slow shutter speed for the flash, you know, to suck up all the light
I could in all that darkness, but I knew the flash would "freeze" my subject and keep everything sharp. No tripod. No lightstands. No
wires. Just a subject, someone to hold the flash/softbox, and another person to hold the reflector to bounce light back
onto the left side ... You know, to make both me and the model look good. Fill-in the side away from the flash with some reflected
light. One light, two "light sources". Pretty cool (yes, that is a pun) little exercise on the streets of Lenoir. In
November. Love the hat! Covered a few different topics in one image. Isn't photography fun? Maybe not always warm, but it
was fun ... Get out and try something crazy on your own. There is always something to learn. And try. Downtown Studio. The flash lights
the subject, the streetlights make up the background. And I had fun. Perfect.
11 November 2013 Happy Veteran's Day
10 November 1775
Happy Birthday Semper
Fi
Work (Well, not really
...) I have my photography class shooting a single tree just outside the classroom
before the start of each class. Pretty simple. Before you walk into class, take a photograph. They have a hard time doing it.
Cool.
That means I'm teaching them something. I'll take that. If they were good at doing what I ask them, what am I actually teaching
them? So, we take a picture of a tree before each class. We WORK at taking a picture of a tree before each class. Yes, this
whole "Fall Back" clock thing is making it tough ... Class starts at 6pm. It is dark. Or, darkish. Kind of dark. Getting dark ...
Real dark, real fast. Good. Again, if it was easy, why do it? What is photography anyway? Some Greek word ... Drawing with
light. OK, draw with light. Open
your shutter and suck up that light, what little light there is. Bring it in and ... Draw. Paint. Play. Doodle. Whatever
it is you do when you allow light to hit that little digital sensor thingy. Dark? You have options. Relax. Think. Play with
buttons. Play with the light. Play? How? Use that tripod. Yes, this is what you bought it for. Set your camera on it, use the self-timer,
push the button and step back ... Click .... wait, wait ... Click. That simple. The camera will open up ... Suck what
little light there is, and close, all by itself. Look at the results. If you like it, good. If you don't adjust. Too light? Minus.
Too dark? Plus. Use the +/- Button. No tripod? What? You still don't have a tripod? Get one! Or make one ... Use a trash can, a rock,
anything that doesn't breathe. Try that. Not too good? Go to a higher ISO setting (say 800 or 1000). Fire away. See what you can come
up with. Like the quality of a low ISO? Cool. Pop up, or turn on, that cute little flash on your camera and fire away.
See what happens. Keep the camera as still as possible. Or not. Move it. Swrill it around. This way and that. Up and down. Move it. Have a flashlight?
Ahh, turn it on and "paint" the leaves with it while you take a picture. A tripod helps. So do friends (or three hands) ...
Let them play with the light while you push the button. Does your camera have a "Night Scene" flash mode? Try it. Rear Curtain flash setting?
Not sure? Read your manual. Or do what everyone else does and "Google It". Or "YouTube" it ... There are probably 1,204 articles/videos
on any given camera. Really. That is how I found out I could shoot wireless flash without buying anything else for my camera.
Duh. I love it. My middle school students taught me that ... Google It. I think it is a new type of verb or
something ... Try it. Google It. Want me to just tell you? Good. Here is what I did ... I set my camera to fire a remote flash (what I learned on YouTube) held
in my left hand. I then set my camera to Shutter Priority (S), picked a SLOW shutter speed (1/6 of a second), had my ISO set
at 200, and had -1 dialed up on my compensation. Ta-da ... Oh, and I pushed the button to actually take the image. One shot. I looked at
the little screen on the back of the camera ... Said, "cool", and went up to class. Bam. Done. Got it. Now, yes, I have done this before.
A few times. Year after year. Even had time to spare ... And to remind the students that they had a job to do (they all forgot).
All before 6pm. One shot. No Photoshop. All this was done "in-camera". "Shake and Bake" Slow shutter speed (and spinning the camera) for blurrrr ... Flash for that little "pop"
of light that freezes everything, and gives you that "ghosting" effect. I like this image because it looks a "little
different" from what I have gotten in the past, what? Twenty years? Something new using an old technique. I love it. That is why I do it (have done
it) for over twenty years. Something new. Here, I think it is the "blending" of colors ... The browns, tans, yellows, and
red. Bam. Looks like a painting ... The leaves look "folded" ... Something. Play. Play before going to class. Sounds like
a great college class to me. Try
it. Pick a tree ... Any tree, and shoot it before going to class. To work. To the mall. To the gym. To the ... Whatever. One week.
Hurry, you still have time. I am also taking one image a day of the Bradford Pear tree I have out front ... You know, the same
tree as last year. And the year before that. And the year before that ... Like I said ... I have done this before. If I can teach
my students anything, this is it. I even have a RULE for it ... Rule Number Three to be exact. Number three, out of three. Take Lots
of Images We only have class twice a week ... Come on. And the leaves are almost gone ... As you can
see here. Yes, I timed it just about right. Perfect. Yes, these are on the ground. OK, so I didn't photograph "THE TREE", what are
you going to do? Tell the teacher? I am the teacher. I make up the rules. I have them memorize my rules. I have also told
them the most important rule ... Unwritten Rule Number Four, if I had that many ... Break
the Rules. Yes, I know. OK, lets just say I have Three Rules ... and One Request. 1. Look at the Light 2. Get Closer 3. Take Lots
of Images And ... Break the Rules There. Simple. My job is done. Until tomorrow ...
Vision Vision.
Yeah,
pretty important. Photography is a visual art. The camera - and lens - records that which is put in front of it. That part
is fairly simple. The old "f8 and be there" type of thinking, that really isn't that simple. Or old. Yes, you still
have to be there ... Sort of. With remote cameras, Photoshop, and whatever else is out there now, even that isn't so simple
any more. But, yes, for most "normal" photography, or what could be called "straight" photography, the photographer, and camera,
still has to be there in order to capture an image that is in front of them. That's just me ... I went to South Mountain State
Park early Saturday morning ... Got there when the gate opens (8am). Fall is a great season in the park, even with the campground closed due to new
construction. Great day, great color, great hike. I took two cameras, my small Nikon AW100 (my "macro camera"), and a Nikon D90
with my 16-85mm lens. I went for a walk ... Walked up to the falls from the campground parking lot. No hurry. No plan. No
worries. Just looking for ... something. I didn't take my "big" tripod, the old Tiltall ... No, not one of those days.
Didn't even carry my little tripod (Dolica) that I packed that morning. No ... I had other plans. Plans that I didn't really know
about myself. I really didn't have any plans. Well, no, I did, that is why I brought the tripods to begin with, but no
one showed up, so ... Just went for a hike. Relax. Enjoy the day. Enjoy coming up with images that I didn't really plan
on taking until I got out there and began walking ... Looking. With my D90, I played with multiple exposures. Three images blended into
one. No tripod? This is the next best thing. Simple. That is where the "Zoom Effect" image comes in. Take one image, zoom in, take
the second image, zoom in some more, take the third image. 1,2,3. That quick, that easy. That look. Practice, practice, practice.
I took a bunch. I went with the color. Period. The marco shot was taken with the Nikon AW100. Used my little Joby Gorilla-Pod
and 2 second self-timer, and just played around, looking for something ... Texture. Light. Patterns. Lines. Color. Detail. The second
shot is a straight shot of a reflection of a pool up by the waterfall, taken with my D90 braced up against the railing. Love
that VR. The waterfall was nice ... But, without a tripod ... I looked around for something else. I didn't want to climb all
those stairs and come away with nothing! No, I just turned around and shot away from the falls ... Toward the bottom
of the falls. Towards the light. A reflection of the light hitting the trees to the right of the falls. You know me ... Look at the Light.
Look where no one else is looking. There were photographers all over the place ... Again, they hiked to the falls to
see the falls. They had tripods. Well, a few of them anyway. They had the falls covered ... I was looking for something else. Three shots,
two cameras, one tripod, five hours. Not bad. A game of vision. Two images that I actually "saw", one that I totally
envisioned. That is photography. That is art. That is what I like to do on Saturday mornings. Looking for something ... Vision. Simple.
Stone Mountain
Stone Mountain State Park. No, not THAT Stone Mountain. No, this is a state park
in North Carolina. Same name, same idea, but smaller.
And no statue carved into the side of a mountain.
OK, so it is nothing like Stone Mountain in Georgia, well, except in name only. And it is
closer ...
But the story is that I had no idea I was going to spend two nights in a park to
begin with. Any park.
No.
But I have a great friend that keeps everything a secret until 6pm on a Friday night ...
I got home late after my last cross-country practice of the year. Yeah, The Old Marine Running
Club ... Last day. Orange Sherbet and Oreos. "Run" to the Tater Hole ... Eat. Walk back ...
Yeah, Orange Sherbet and Oreos. Something I have shared with the kids at GFMS for the past
20 years ... A Northern treat for my Southern Cross-Country, Track, and Geography Bee students.
Yeah, crunch 'em up ... Mix 'em up, eat 'em up. That simple. Try it. Looks bad, tastes good.
Really.
Anyway ... Where was I?
Got home late, around 5:45pm - Don't ask.
Turned on my phone ... A few messages. I started with the last one ...
Trout license? I can fish there? Like South Mountain? What?
Yeah, my friend, Jennifer.
What is she up to now? Where is she?
Stone Mountain camping ... With her husband and uncle. Can I join them?
Yeah ... Sounds good to me. I'll head out early tomorrow morning ... You know, Saturday morning.
Early.
Right now? I have two hours before they close the gate? How long does it take? A little over
an hour ...
Yeah, OK.
I'm still wearing my running clothes ...
My bicycle is in the back of the Element.
Two hours?
6pm.
Gate closes at 8pm.
Where the crap is this place? I was there once. Twenty years ago.
No worries.
Out comes the bike. In goes the futons ... And my Camp Chair (that I got from Jenn years ago).
Toothbrush. Check.
Jacket. Sweats. Raincoat. Check.
Camera bag. My D200 with an 85mm lens. Perfect. Check.
Out the door at 6:15pm.
Gas? Crap.
GPS. Good.
I'm outta here ... Good.
Getting dark. Not good.
Got gas in Lenoir. Got out the GPS and plugged in the address ... Jen is good. Full tank ...
6:30pm. Love her text ... Be careful, but hurry.
GPS tells me I'll be at my destination at 8:10pm ...
No worries ...
Crap, it is dark.
Turn here ... Go there ... Be careful but hurry.
Yeah, I remember ... Wilkesboro. Good.
Don't look at the clock ...
Speed limits ... Do look at the speedometer.
I know I can beat the GPS. No problem.
I drive an Element.
Way out there ... Turn here. Turn there. In the dark.
Got a text ... 7:48pm. Are you close?
Yes
Pulled into the campground, Loop B, Number 40.
7:52pm.
No worries ...
Beautiful.
I love it.
And the night sky ... Holy Crap.
Yeah. Nice. But it was COLD. The coldest night of the year. Windy.
But they had a fire going ... Hotdogs, baby.
Wow. Two hours. I was home looking forward to a hot shower ...
Did I mention the COLD?
Did I mention the fire?
Yeah, but it was cold. What the crap did I bring to wear?
My GFMS Track sweatshirt (they call them Hoodies down here) and sweatpants.
And a raincoat. Say what? Hey, I just grabbed anything ...
OK ... I can hang.
Nikon D200. No tripod.
But, I'm with three of my former college photography students ... Jennifer, her uncle, and
her husband. No problem.
One of them brought their camera. And a tripod.
One?
Yeah.
That fire was nice ... And HOTdogs. Three or four ... Key word being hot.
One tripod, four hotdogs. Perfect. I went with the hotdogs.
No images that night ... Always tomorrow. I was cold. I had the "wrong" lens. I would have
to borrow a tripod. I didn't ... Blah, blah, blah. I was cold. Period.
I also brought the "wrong" sleeping bag, my "summer" sleeping bag. No worries, I'm a
Marine.
A cold Marine. But hey, I'm there ...
COLD.
I woke up ... Whoa. My phone was buzzing ... Messages? Now? What time is it? Zero Dark Thirty
something ...
Heck with that ... I'm not getting out from beneath the covers, my hood pulled up tight ...
No way.
Beep.
What the heck?
OK ... I'll see what she wants ... It could only be one person.
Oh, dead battery. Duh.
No worries.
I don't need no phone.
Back under the covers ...
OK. Saturday morning ... Perfect. Can't see a thing. Frost. On the inside. Checked my
water bottle ... Not frozen. Good sign.
Up before the sun. Perfect.
Everything is perfect.
Nice "frost" images around the campsite. Leaves. Grass. Frost.
Then the sun.
All over again ... Leaves. Grass. Frost. In the sun! Light. Yes.
Breakfast.
This group knows how to camp.
I don't camp. I stop for the night.
They camp.
Eggs. Bacon. Taters ... Yeah, they say "taters". They call them taters.
They taste like taters ... Perfect. I'll call 'em taters.
A hot breakfast. Wow. Camping. In a campground. Not a Rest Stop on I-80 someplace with a can
of beans. Sweet.
Heaven.
And a four hour hike. Up one side of a stone mountain, down the other.
I forgot to mention Baron.
The little dog with big ears.
Yeah, he joined us. His first hike. Tiny little thing.
Off we went.
Beautiful day. People out hiking ... It even warmed up nice. Perfect.
Four hours hiking. Stone Mountain.
Back to the campground.
Ready for lunch.
Then dinner.
Then the stars ... It was warmer.
Crap. Once again, if you see something, shoot it then and there. Cold? Tough. No tripod? Tough.
The Milky Way was there ... Looked nice. Should have asked for the tripod. Pulled myself away from the fire ...
Saturday night? Yeah, warmer, but cloudy. No stars. No Milky Way.
Well yes, there were stars, I'm sure, we just couldn't see them. Clouds. Gray clouds. Nothing.
Crap.
But, it was warmer ...
Perfect.
Sunday morning ... I could see out my windows. Good sign.
Once the sun came up ... I did the whole art thing with the trees and leaves. Ten exposures,
turning the camera this way and that ... Try this, try that. Spun it around.
Up and down. Pan the camera from left to right. Fast shutter speeds at 800 ISO, slow shutter
speeds at 100 ISO.
This one is at 100 ISO (or 200, can't remember) and "closed down" to get a long exposure
... Ten of them, as I panned the camera this way and that.
You know me ... Playing.
Art 261.
I played Art Teacher. I "painted" my image in the camera. Over and over again. That tree,
those leaves, a couple of bare, gray trees ... Things that looked, you know, like art. Tree art. Leaf art. Five exposures.
10 exposures.
Play, play, play ...
That, and another breakfast. No playing there ... I ate.
Camping.
Real camping. Real food. Real friends.
Real art.
Photography is not so much about photography. Not about art. Not about cameras. ISO. Lenses.
Or lack of tripods.
No, photography is about you. What you do. Or me. What I do. Where I go, what I experience.
Friends. My friend's dog. Leaves.
Those ears. That color. The color of the leaves. Orange. Orange art. Orange ears. Big ears.
And leaves. Trees. The color of Fall. The movement in the trees. The leaves. The Notion of
Motion.
Great weekend.
I actually went camping. They had a grill and everything. Forks. Plates. Bacon. Bacon at a
campground. Scrambled eggs. Red taters ... Salt and pepper.
Really. On the picnic table. Food. Everything. Well, except for a can of beans.
Thank goodness.
No time to plan. Two hours until the gate closes.
Perfect.
Thanks Jenn.
Attention
to Detail I was
a sergeant in the United States Marine Corps. That makes me good at taking pictures. Yeah, really. For three
years I had to wear a uniform. Polish my shoes and everything. Except in Japan, where we paid "Pappa-San" to polish them for
us. Or until I bought the "non-polish" ones ... We cheated, and just used Pledge. But still, you know what
I mean ... I had to pay attention to details. The little things. Like how far above your pocket the name tag goes ... You
know, Marine stuff. Important stuff. I was good at it. Glad I didn't get any medals ... Now they are tricky. You have to place them just
right ... Whew. Later, I was a civilian photographer for the Department of the Army while living in Germany. My job was to make the
staff NCOs and officers look good for their promotion photos. Talk about work (A Marine joke :) !!! Attention to detail. That is really all photographers
do. Walk around, and look. Look for details. Look for what makes something interesting. To us. What detail about our subject
made us stop and look in the first place? Pay attention to that ... I was up in Blowing Rock, North Carolina shooting
with a few (ahh, two) of my students on an optional Saturday outing ... A Saturday Shoot, and came across this flower. If you know me, you know I shoot flowers. Why not?
They are art. They are nature's design samples, just sitting there waiting for photographers to stop and pay attention
to them. You know, to learn design. To study art. Patterns. Form. Shapes. Color. Texture. Art. All the things they try to teach you in a photography class. An art class. Or Marine
Boot Camp. Walk around and pay
attention. God made the flower
... It is up to us, the artist, to make the photograph. Study it. See what is special, and record it. Pretty simple really. Maybe too simple. Remember, I am also a Special Education teacher. I know simple isn't that simple. So, as a Marine, a former civilian photographer for the Department of the
Army, a Special Ed. teacher, a college photography instructor, and ... A travel/adventure photographer, I want to
pass on one of the many "secrets" that I've learned over, what? The past 40 years. We'll skip the whole high school thing.
I could have paid a little more attention ... Oh wait, I did play football. Middle linebacker. I picked up which
way the guard would be pulling by his stance. Which way a back was going to run by him looking at the hole before the play,
you know, linebacker stuff, important stuff. I was pretty good at it. The little things ... Details. Anyway. Pay attention. I picked this
flower because ... Let me think. It was in good shape, at the right angle to the path I was walking on, at the right height
(I didn't have to adjust my tripod), the background was pretty "clean", and ... As I said, I like flowers. Simple. That was
it. I set it up ... Ahh, again, pretty simple ... BAM. There it is. Pretty much dead center, let the "flow" of the "spoke"
do all the work for me. A wheel. It was invented before photography, why fight it? As I got closer (Rule Number 2), I saw it. First I saw
... Do you see it? Go back and LOOK. Study it. What do you see? What did I see? What shape? Look close. Take your
time ... Scroll up. OK, ready? First I saw the little mini-yellow star things ...
Yes, stars. Really. Look! That is what caught my attention. Love it. Stars on a flower ... Crazy. Then, the second thing I saw, was
what I thought was a shadow ... At first. Like on Sesame Street ... "The one thing that doesn't belong". Not a shadow
... It is some green stem looking thing, like a blade of grass, sticking its little self right in there between the petals,
like it actually belongs there. At first, the Marine in me, wanted to step over there and remove it, just like
an "Irish Pennant" on my dress uniform in Boot Camp. You know, a loose thread. We clipped the crap out of 'em them before Graduation
... There are even pictures of us doing it in the Squad Bay, on Parris Island. Honest. It is that important! They took
pictures of us trimming Irish Pennants off our uniforms. I show my kids at the middle school the pictures every year from
my Boot Camp "Yearbook" (What would you call it?). Finger-nail clippers, clipping loose threads. You know, Marine stuff. Important
stuff. Now that I think about it, from a photographer's perspective, all you really see is the back of our heads. Our buzzed
heads ... That is what my students like ... They try to guess which one is me. Like we all didn't look the same ... There
were "Light Green Marines, and Dark Green Marines", that's it! I have a hard time picking me out ... But, again, I digress ... Yeah ... Get rid of anything
that doesn't belong. Trim 'em up! Keep it tight. I graduated from Boot Camp in 1976. 1 Jun 76 to be exact (But who would remember
that?). Long time ago. I let it go today ... I saw it. Reacted to it. Laughed. And took the picture. Sometimes you just have
to let nature play its little game ... That, whatever it is, worked pretty hard to get in there, I just couldn't cut
it out. And really ... IT does belong there. It's part of the flower. Who am I to mess with that? No way. Most people
won't even notice it. Unless they are photographers. Or read this Blog. Or were in the Marines ... Attention to detail. Little details.
Pay attention to them. It's what makes you an artist. A photographer. A nut. Let it Be (Yes, I grew up listening to the
Beatles as well). Sometimes ... It just doesn't make any sense to fool with Mother Nature. Or the Beatles. The yellow star-shaped things are still pretty cool. Stars. In nature. A shape in nature. On a little
white/yellow flower thingy ... Almost wanted to salute it once it caught my eye ... Some things never change. "AHH-TEN-
HUUTTTTT" (Trust me, it sounds cooler than it looks). Just ask to hear it sometime ... I love it! It wasn't THAT long ago! I still have
it ... Attention to Detail. Semper Fi, Flower Photographers.
See? Little Mini-Yellow Stars. Really.
Playing
Monet Did I ever tell you that I've been to Monet's
Garden? I have. In France. Pretty cool. Giverny, France. Near the Seine River. Viking River Cruises. 2004. I remember ...
My first cruise with Viking and there I was, photographing Monet's Garden ... Wow. Lily Pads. Monet's lily pads ... I photographed
them. I walked across that bridge ... He liked to paint his Lily Pads. He is famous. I have even seen the paintings
of his Lily Pads. They are big, famous too. I'm not. But, hey, that doesn't stop me from playing being famous. Playing Monet. I like
Lily Pads too. True, they are not in "my garden", I don't have a garden. Heck, I don't even own a plant. Unless you
count the 8"x10" print I have of one sitting on my staircase in my apartment. Some kind of lily, I think,
but not a Lily Pad. Tiger Lily? Orange/red close up shot (Taken with my small "Point-n-Create" Waterproof Nikon AW100)
... My garden image from my sister's garden. My "garden". My "plant". I did go to a Vocational School for Landscaping and Greenhouse Management my junior
and senior years of high school. Close as I can get ... No, no garden with Lily Pads for me. But I do know where there is one. Bass Lake.
Blowing Rock, NC. Just "up the mountain". I have photographed it for years ... With and without my college class. I even
have a couple of good stories about Bass Lake. Ask me about when two of my students found a man, a jogger, dead, just
off the main running trails (The very one I ran on today after taking photos of Lily Pads), or, the time a Park
Ranger (Yes, Bass Lake is now part of The National Park System) gave me a $250 ticket for taking photos of my college
students lined up while trying to explain "Depth of Field" and "The Notion of Motion". Really. He was something ... I e-mailed
the National Park System that afternoon, and they found that, "They could not win the case", and so, "it would be dropped". Yeah. I
can't make this stuff up. Oh, I have stories ... Don't get me started. Ask me about the time I punched a horse ... Oh yeah. Anyway, Bass
Lake. Lily Pads. Monet. Art. After photographing in Blowing Rock (Remember Attention to Detail?) in the morning, I headed up to Bass Lake. 5 minutes outside of town. I parked before the entrance
... I used to spend a lot of time up here running in years past ... And just knew that the place would be packed. Beautiful
Saturday Fall morning ... And, Art in the Park. If you know Blowing Rock, and Art in the Park, you know what I'm talking about.
Cars everywhere. So, I parked when I saw an opening, got out my "other" camera - a Nikon D200, with my trusty Nikkor
85mm f1.8 lens, no tripod. That's it. That's all I'm taking for this new location. See, it's a game I play. In the morning (downtown
Blowing Rock), I had a Nikon D90 with my trusty 18-200mm "do everything" lens, mounted on my Gitzo tripod. Slow
things down ... Look. For Bass Lake, I was planning on meeting the two students that showed up for the Saturday Shoot and
just walk around with the fixed focal length lens ... You know, see differently. New location, new lens. No zoom. No wide
angle. No long telephoto. Just sort of a medium telephoto. 85mm. That's it. Period. One lens, one focal length. Old school.
Old school with a new lens. It really isn't even a true "85mm" lens. Oh no. That would be old school. And too simple. Digital is
a whole new ball game. This is the "new" Nikon (Nikkor)85mm f1.8 "G" lens, on a camera with a "crop factor" of 1.5X, my
Nikon D200. The DX sensor is 1.5 times smaller than the larger, FX sensors that are the same size as 35mm film back in the day. Yeah, kind
of crazy. On my camera, it has the same "field of view", or perspective, as a 127.5mm lens, if there ever was such
a thing as a 127.5mm lens. There wasn't. The best I could do, back in the day, was to use my 70-210mm zoom
lens, and zoom out there somewhere in the middle, and guess where 127.5mm would be. Now that I think about it, I, maybe, by freak
accident, shot pretty close to that one time, maybe. I will never know. I wouldn't know. I wouldn't have cared. 127.5mm. Who knew?
Never even thought of 127.5mm. Still don't really believe there is such a thing, even though I have owned one for a few
years now ... Too crazy. 127.5mm. Weird. It even sounds weird. But here is how it works ... Take half of 85mm. Ahh, 42.5mm. You know, add
a decimal point, and a zero. Bring down the zero ... Make it a ten. Divide by two ... Put up a five ... Simple. Long
division. Add that to the original 85. BAM, you got it. 1.5X Crop Factor. Done. Easy. Sweet. Find half, add it to the original number. That is Nikon.
For Canon ... Wild. You have to work with a 1.6X "crop factor". Good luck. You have to actually do some math. Hint:
Just ask any teenager. They have a phone, or "device" that they can use ... Don't worry, the School Board allows it. New math.
BYOD. Yeah. "Bring Your Own Device". Really. I read it in the Lenoir News Topic and everything. Probably even got an e-mail
about it ... From The Education Center. I told you, I can't make this stuff up. I don't actually think like this ... I just stick the lens on, look through it, and shoot. A "medium" telephoto.
Whatever. And yes ... I don't carry my phone with me. I worked it out on a scrap piece of paper ... You know, to make sure.
Really. Even drew my arrow when I brought down my zero and everything. Just like I was taught, and how I teach my middle
school kids! Old School. Well, we use markers now ... Not chalk. That is Old School. But some photographers like to
know ... Others just zone out at the mention of any thing to do with the "M" word ... Math. Digital photography, got to love
it. Where was I? Yes, a game I play. Seeing. Photographic Vision. Knowing your equipment. Seeing like a lens. Thinking
like a camera. I have talked about this before. I walked around the Bass Lake and looked. Shot. Moved. Zoomed with my
feet. Never did meet up with my students ... 127.5mm. Perfect. It makes you stop and really look. Check your edges. Get rid of all the crap. Painters add,
photographers subtract. I believe I have mentioned this before as well ... Which brings us back to Monet. And France. His
garden. His paintings. His BIG canvas. My small sensor. He added what he wanted, I subtracted. I zoomed in, with my feet. He used his
hands. Crazy. I deleted all but one of my images when I got home, wonder how many different layers Monet ended up
painting over on his stuff? Art. Got to love it. Get out and "see" some today. Just be aware that Bass Lake is closed ... You
know, The Government Shut Down. Yeah. I was walking out and was surprised that the Parking Lot was empty. Very strange. Didn't really
sink in (thought it might be The Art in the Park thing). Everyone was going downtown. I don't know. Then I saw the main gate. The road down
to the lake was blocked off. Shut down. Our government at work. Well, no, our government not at work. So much for me paying attention
to details ... Duh. I knew it was strange to have an empty parking lot at Bass Lake. On a Saturday. A beautiful Fall day in
the mountains. It never dawned on me. There were a lot of people walking, and jogging ... Oh, and cars out by the road.
Where the Horse Trailers are ... Oh, yeah ... Now it all becomes clear. You know, little details. Sometimes I'm just not very good
with that ... You know, I'm so focused on getting my shots. And I was getting ready to go for a run up the mountain, like
the old days. I had to change into my running shoes and shorts, you know, important stuff. Put on socks ... A government
shut down? In Blowing Rock, NC? No way. Yes way. Really.
Fast Shutter Speed
Slow Shutter Speed with Panning
Slow Shutter Speed
The Notion of Motion There are
really two aspects of photography that drive me ... Move me. Depth of Field. And, The Notion of Motion (I really think I came up with that one ...). Aperture. Shutter Speed. This past
week at the college I talked about the Exposure Triangle (I know I didn't come up with that one) and how that is really photography
in a nutshell; the relationship between ISO, Aperture, and the Shutter. Period. That's it. That simple. That complex. A simple
relationship, that, as in life, is not that simple at all. That is what has kept me behind a camera for the past 40 years. Yes, 40. True,
the first ten I was clueless, but what else is new? That's the way it goes ... Live and learn. And yes, in life as well as
photography. That simple. That complex. That crazy. This summer I ended up in Vale, Oregon over the Fourth of July Weekend (or whenever
it was ... Weekday, weekend, the summer is all "weekend" to me). Great little "Cattle Town" near the border with Idaho. Or
maybe it is a "Horse Town", I don't know ... It was a great place to get out and see a rodeo. I believe it was the 90th year
they had it in the town ... Yeah, that kind of town. I was driving through on my way back from photographing a raft trip for O.A.R.S.
when I saw the signs. STOP. Found a campground, paid for two nights, settled in. Yeah. That is why I drive out west for these raft trips
instead of flying ... Vale, Oregon. Fourth of July. Rodeo. I love it. Went to the Rodeo, found a seat up in the bleachers,
and got ready for some photography... I mean, rodeo. The light was great. Late afternoon warm light. I shot. I moved. I shot some more.
The good news is that while the sun was setting, it actually began to get cooler. Did I mention it was hot out there? Over
100 degrees during the day ... Cooler at sun set. Of course, that is also the bad news. The light was fading as the action
was pickin' up ... That is why I say "Shoot Lots of Images". Get it while it's hot. No pun intended. Then adjust
... Once the "Good Light" was gone, I just kept on shooting ... I went all artsy on 'em and began to play ... Played with
slower shutter speeds and went for The Notion of Motion. Panning with the movement, I shot image after image going for blur,
for action, for movement. All in a still photograph. Go figure. I mean, really ... The sun went down, my shutter speeds plummeted as fast as the
temperature, so why not? Yes, I know what my students will ask, "Why not just raise the ISO to get faster shutter speeds"? Great question! Light. Let me repeat,
the light was gone. So, I played. That is what I do. And I do it often. Remember the shot of the Marine Corps' Silent
Drill Team marching off into the night (See the Blog below)? Same deal. When you get lemons, make lemonade. When the light fades away, play. Panning and
rodeo go hand-in-hand. They ride, you follow. Pretty cool really. What shutter speed? What aperture? Who knows? Who cares? Just do it (No, I didn't
come up with that one either ... Wish I did). My students have a hard time with that ... They want the numbers. The answer
to the puzzle. The secret. There are none. Number are just that, numbers. They change as fast as the light. Faster. Sorry.
I can't give you numbers that will work in any situation other than the one at the moment. Then and there. Done. It's gone.
I even have to check to see what I did ... I just ... Slower, or faster ... I just "feel" the motion, the movement. Truth is,
I just spin a dial. You have to just go with the flow (I just can't stop myself), you have to feel the action, move with
the action, try this, try that. It becomes second nature after a few dozen years ... Just kidding. I can't say how many years
it will take, just like I can't tell you what numbers will work in any given situation. It changes. True, I could
give you some ball-park figures, but this rodeo wasn't in a ball park, it was in a Rodeo ... Whatever you call a place where
they have rodeos out in Vale, Oregon. Stadium? Arena? Like I said, I don't know. Here you go ... Try this. 1/60th of a second.
As of last Tuesday, I have picked the number of all numbers when talking about shutter speeds and motion. 60. 1/60th of
a second. The "Magic Number". For those that like such things ... Slower speeds, are, well ... Slower. Faster speeds are faster. Wow. Yeah, that
is how it works. I just picked 1/60th of a second out of all the "fractions of a second" your camera deals with. Fast/Slow.
1/60th of a second. Sharp/Blur. It will get you started ... See, years ago when things were simple, there
was a cute little relationship that photographers could tattoo on their arm to remind them about camera shake and unwanted
blur in their images ... Went something like this (it seems like a LONG time ago) ... The length of the lens should
match up with your shutter speed. Short and sweet. See? If you were hand-holding a lens and wanted a sharp image ... And believed
in such rules to live by ... You thought about things like this. 50mm lens? 1/60th of a second. 28mm? 1/30th of
a second. Pretty simple, right. 200mm lens? 1/250th of a second. Yes, life is not perfect, and the numbers are
off a wee bit, but come on, this was the Olden Days, remember? We struggled with the best of them, and kept on shooting. It worked. Well, it was
a starting point anyways. In fact, we lied all the time about how slow we could shoot with any given lens ... That is what
photographers did in the good 'ol days ... The cameras didn't lie, we did. Same thing today. It is just that the numbers
are so different, the equipment is so much better, and the whole "crop factor" thing with all the different size sensors is
way too confusing to mess with cute little sayings like this any more. And that was without panning. That was just "regular"
shooting ... No. Things are different now. So, I took it upon myself to move things into the 21st Century and just went with 1/60th
of a second. Start there, and work it. You know, try this, try that. 1/30th of a second? 1/15th? Even 1/125th of a second? Why
not? See what happens in real time, real situations. Right then, right there. Shoot, shoot, shoot. It depends on how fast
your subject is moving. Horses, cows, NASCAR, football, frogs, whatever ... You have to match the speed of the subject with
the speed of the shutter. The saying (Again, back in the day) for panning was ... Think Miles per Hour. 15 MPH? 1/15th
of a second. 200 MPH? 1/200th of a second. And pan like crazy ... Move that camera. Track that car. Or horse. Or chicken. That still
holds up ... Today, speeds like 1/75th of a second, or 1/224th of a second might pop-up, but the idea is the same ... Match
the speed of the subject with the shutter speed. Panning? Smooth motion. Follow through. Follow the subject, shoot like crazy.
Try different shutter speeds. Different numbers. Numbers. You can't put numbers on art. I like that ... You can't put numbers on art.
Sweet. Glad I came up with that one. Right then. Right now. Just like in Vale. Right then, right there. Rodeo Town. Fourth of July. American
Town. I never saw so many Wrangler jeans and cowboy hats in one place, at one time. Oh, and plaid, short sleeve, button down shirts.
Every boy old enough to walk, was wearing the same "uniform". Babies, too, I'm sure. And the girls ... Big belt buckles too. Oh yeah.
My 8th grade boys here in North Carolina would love it ... Some of them anyway. I even bought a few of the shirts (Wrangler as
well) for school this year. Yeah, it changed me ... Now, where was I? Movement in still photography. Numbers. The Notion of Motion. Shutter Speeds. And did I
mention I shoot 99.5673% of all my images in Aperture Priority? Yeah, that's weird. I think shutter speeds, but shoot in Aperture Priority.
Remember that Triangle thing? If you move one, the other will follow. Very Zen-Like really. Yes, I move my Aperture to get
the Shutter Speed I need. That is what I do. That is how my brain works. That is how cameras work. I could go on and explain my
logic, but that would take forever (and another Blog) ... Just trust me, and try it, if you don't do it already. That
is photography. That is what the relationship between the Aperture and Shutter Speed (Yes, I capitalize them ...) is
all about. That's it. Again, that simple. Or complex. Ying/Yang. Simple/Complex. Photography/Art. Play with the numbers ... But remember the concept: More Light, Less time. Less light, More Time. The numbers change, the concept doesn't. It all goes back to Rule #3:
Take Lots of Images. In all kids of light, with all kinds of numbers ... Play. Figure it all out before heading out to Vale,
Oregon for yourself. You have until next July ... Yes, it's (should be) that simple.
Elk I had planned this for weeks ... Well, years,
really. Yeah, I have wanted to photograph elk for the past several years. Each Fall, a friend of mine has shown me her photographs
of elk from over in The Smokies. Each year, I said, "next year" ... I have always had a Saturday class at the college and had never made it over there
to photograph them. This semester I don't have a Saturday class. It all works out. Today was the day. Up at 4:45am
... Juice, yogurt, camera gear, tripod. Done. Out the door and at their house by 5:30am. That's early ... That's photography.
That's friends. That's crazy. Off we went. Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I-40W. Cataloochee. Cove Creek. Exit 20.
Turn right. Turn right again. Drive up a mountain. Got there by 8am ... After a quick stop for an Egg and Cheese Sandwich and
OJ at Arby's ... Anyway ... The gate opens at 8am ... Perfect timing. Did I mention they have done this before? Yeah. Within five
minutes, at least five elk. That fast. But not fast enough. Rain. Yeah, it started raining five minutes after we got out of the truck. Well, actually,
it started about five minutes before we got out of the truck, but we didn't want to admit it. Still perfect. I was there.
I know how to get there ... It really is, like, the "Back Door" to the National Park. I had never heard of this section before,
and still get it mixed up with all the other "loochees" of the South. Cataloochee. Long, steep, twisty gravel road
... But, there I was ... Being told by a Park Volunteer that the field was closed and I had to stay up on the road. Perfect. Right
where I wanted to be. To be clear, I was not "in the field", I was on the edge of the field, behind a tree. But ... Perfect. The Shot of
the Day? Inside a church. Yeah, go figure. On a Saturday. My mom will be happy. The elk were gone in 10 minutes ... Guess they
don't like the rain either. Yes, I got some shots of the elk ... Even a few I like. But this is
the shot. Nothing to do with elk, but everything to do with "Getting Out There" and making photographs. Getting up at 4:45am
... Planning. Lucky for me I didn't just take my big 80-400mm lens for the elk. I also had another camera with my 12-24mm lens
on it ... You know, just in case. I had planned on elk, dreamed about elk, thought about elk, yet came away with some nice images from
inside an old church, an old barn, and an old house. In a National Park. I lugged the tripod all the way over there ... The "big" tripod, to use with my
big lens, but ended up taking far more images with the 12-24mm. The big tripod with the little lens. You never know ... Plan for the
best, go for it, do what you can. Adjust, and go for it again. Repeat. It is that simple. Plan for wildlife, end up in a one room school house. Or better yet, a one room
church. And play. Play inside, where it is dry. Push buttons (In this case, Multiple Exposure). Try this. Try that. Look. See.
And play some more. And come away happy. Even in the rain. And yes ... It is still raining as I type this. No worries. I got the shot. I know where
those elk live. I know how to get there. And I also know that even if "the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray"
(something like that), I can always work on my inside images. The 'ol newspaper wallpaper thing ... The neat rows
of little school desks and the painted-on blackboard ... The slats in the barns ... The lines, shapes, textures ... It is all good. But the sound of elk bellowing ... That will bring me back. Come rain or shine, I'll be there next week.
ISO: 800 WB: Incandescent COMP:
-3
ISO: 100 WB: Shade COMP: -2
Photo Cliff Notes Art 264/265
CCC&TI HESSELL RULES 1.) Look at the Light Photography is light. Study it. Make it work for you. There are three aspects
of light you should understand. Know these! Quality: Hard Light/Soft Light. Hard light
has sharp shadows, soft light has no shadows. Clouds, fog, haze, and forest fires diffuses the light which takes away
the shadows. Look for the shadows! Color: Warm light: Sunrise/sunset. Yellow, orange, and red tones. Nice. Get
up early and stay out late. Cool Light: Pre-Sunrise, Post-Sunset. Purples, Violets, and Blues. Think
mood ... Cold! Think Incandescent White Balance. Get up earlier, stay out later. Don't pack up after sunset, wait it
out ... Look for the "mixing of tones" at sunrise and sunset. Cool/Warm.
Beautiful. Magical. Direction: Where is the light coming from and how does it effect the subject? Front Lighting.
The sun behind you hitting the subject in the front. Old School. Flat lighting. Think Xerox Copies and Driver's License.
No texture. Back Lighting. Very dynamic. Bold. The light coming from behind the subject. Think silhouette. Think (-). Side Lighting.
Shadows! Brings out texture. A good thing. The shadows give "depth" to the image. 45 degrees is classic. 90 degrees
is more creative. Think Cutting Edge ... Gives you a sharp "edge" between light/dark. Look for side lighting. Look
at the shadows. Love it. Top Lighting: High Noon. Tough lighting condition. Shadows under the eyes, nose, cheek bones,
chin. Wearing a hat? Black-Hole under the brim. Need to use "fill-flash" to "open" those shadows up. But ... Good for water
shots - Think Aruba! Low/Bottom Lighting: Evil. Think Halloween. But ... If used as a gentle "fill light", it can add a
nice touch in portraits. Think Broadway floor lights. Be careful. 2.) Get Closer Move in. Zoom in. Fill the frame with only the things you want in your image. Stop, check the edges
of your frame. Study the subject and zoom in on what you think is the most important aspect. Keep it simple. Get Closer!
Simplify. Get rid of the crap! Again ... Keep it simple. 3.) Take Lots
of Pictures Work the subject. Move around the subject. Look for different angles. Try different things. It is the little
things that make a BIG difference. An inch to the right, a foot higher, a tilt of the head, a smile, a smirk. Look for the
little details that make the subject unique, special. Try something different. And then something else. Work the subject. Don't just blast away ... Blast away from different
angles! Different settings ... Which takes us to MY THREE BUTTONS. MY THREE BUTTONS ISO Button The most
important button!!! Your exposures start with what number you choose. Think! The lower the number, the better the quality.
Aim for 100/200 ISO. More Light: Lower ISO (100/200) Less Light: Higher ISO (400/800) Low ISO = Slower Shutter Speeds High ISO =
Faster Shutter Speeds Want Blur: Low ISO (100/200) No Blur: Higher ISO (400/800) Tripod/Flash: Low ISO No Tripod/Flash: High ISO White Balance Button Changes
the COLOR of an image. Auto is good. But ... You can make your image "cooler"
or "warmer" if you want. Play. You're the artist. Compensation (+/-) Button The one I use the most. Let me repeat
that ... The one I use the most. Wear it out!
Makes your images lighter (+) or darker (-). Shoot. Adjust. Shoot again. Repeat. Take several images at different settings
... Who knows? You just might like the "wrong" one. If the subject is BLACK ... (-) If the subject is WHITE ... (+) Your camera wants everything to be "mid-tone" (18% Gray), life is not so perfect.
Use this button!!! A lot. You are the artist, be creative. Don't settle for what the "Geek Squad" in Japan thinks is the right
exposure. Take charge of your art! Play, play, play. Read this again. Study this. Practice these ideas. Get your camera out. Find these buttons. Get out and shoot.
Think about MY THREE RULES every time you bring the camera to your eye. Use MY THREE BUTTONS. See how your
camera is effected by these buttons. Take charge of YOUR vision. Get out and shoot. Find your passion -- Then go out and shoot it. Again. You MUST use these guidelines to get started. You MUST study
this in order to pass the test. Yes, it really is that simple. Have fun! You must!
"Nature, time and patience
are the three great physicians"
Chinese Fortune Cookie
Fuji #1
Hudson, NC
7 Sep 2013
Yeah, really. Dinner. Fuji #1. Hudson, NC. Fortune Cookie.
Just up the street. Within walking distance. Once a month (or something like that).
My big night out on the town.
OK ... Not so big, I know ...
I went up for dinner ... Ordered what I always order (you know me, creature of
habit), had a nice meal, opened up my Fortune Cookie ...
And this is what I got.
First thing that caught my eye was ... Nature.
Perfect.
Time.
Perfect.
Patience.
Perfect. Just for me.
Photography.
Perfect-er.
Yeah ... I thought of photography. Big surprise, I know.
See? I had these images of an osprey returning to it's nest that I wanted to write
about ... To post on my website.
But I couldn't think of how I was going to do it, what "my hook" was going to be.
I have written about osprey before. I have photographed osprey before. I have written
about how I have photographed osprey before. A few times.
What was I going to say now that was any different?
Nothing.
I just needed an excuse to write about them. To get them out there for you
to see.
I got it.
Who can argue with a Fortune Cookie?
Not me.
So, here I go.
Perfect.
As you might remember, I spent three weeks this summer up in Northern New York
... You know, my "hometown". Pulaski, New York. My 40th Year High School Reunion. My mom's early 80th Birthday Party.
The Field Days. My sister. My uncle's cabins in the woods.
Three weeks.
And osprey.
There is an osprey's nest right next to Route 13 on the way from Pulaski to Richland,
where my mother and sister now live. I drive by it all the time if I take this option to get back to Richland. There are two
ways to get there from Pulaski. The "other" way offers no nest. No osprey.
Right next to the road. Next to the power lines. In fact, the power company built
the platform for the birds to keep them off their power lines. Pretty cool. Same location, just safer. A telephone pole
with no telephone wires ... I mean, power lines. Clever.
The birds return every year.
So do I.
They have two young chicks to fed and return to the nest often.
So do I.
No, I don't have two young chicks ... Truth be told, if I did, I wouldn't be spending
so much time at an osprey's nest!
But that is a different story, for a different time.
I returned to the nest day after day, time after time ... For hours at a time,
or for just a few minutes, to photograph, or just watch, these beautiful birds of prey.
Hours.
Over twenty-five hours total ... Watching, photographing, observing.
Nature. Time. Patience.
My new three words for what I do. Photography. My photography. My life.
Well, my life during the summer anyways.
Not so sure about the middle school. The college.
Nature? Well, in the Fall, I do run with "my kids", The Old Marine Running Club,
three times a week out on the trails, out in the woods. Nature.
And with the track team in the Spring. Same trails. Same woods. Same nature.
Time? Yeah ... I have put in the years (40) behind a camera. Teaching photography
at the college level (20). I have put in the hours. In the classroom. In the field. On the road. Around the world. I have
put in the time.
Patience? Got that covered. Teaching at the middle school has helped in that
regards. I can wait with the best of them. In the summer, I am very good at doing nothing. It doesn't bother me at all to
stand around looking, waiting, and hoping the osprey will do something, anything, so that I can learn more about their behavior,
so that I can come away with a better image. A better understanding of how they live. How they behave. How to photograph
them.
I can sit and watch an osprey do nothing with the best of them.
Or stand.
Even when the light is crap ... And I'm not really worried about making images
(I have a few images of the birds, I really don't need any more), I still just stand there and observe. Day after day. Hour
after hour. I even stop by with my mother in the car, you know, quality time. Not to photograph them per say ... Just to see
... Just so that my mother can see them. Watch them.
I put in the time. I even researched them on the internet. I studied them.
In nature.
If, in this case, you can call standing in the shadow of a telephone pole,
next to a road, nature ... Or standing at the rear of my Honda Element, off on a side road, nature. If so, than
yes ... Time in nature. I can do that. Have done that. Will do that.
"The three great physicians"?
Well, OK ... A bit weird here. But stick with me. Part of me knows that there
are certain things that time can not heal, ever (or at least in my lifetime) ... Trust me, I know.
But yes, for some things, nature, time, and patience, are said to heal many
things ... And I'll even stick with my photography metaphor here and say they can help improve your photography, your
images, your art. I can live with that.
And it is true that all three are good for healing (up to a point). Blood pressure.
Stress. The stress of having the summers off, photographing rafting trips, rodeos, driving cross-country, being stuck
in traffic in Washington, DC and Chicago, the stress of being on the road, with a billion truck drivers. The stress of trying
to find a campsite, with a clean shower, in the middle of, say ... Nebraska. Near a gas station that sells V-8 and Trail Mix.
You know ... Stress.
Watching and photographing osprey could be viewed as a way of combating stress,
a form of healing. Works for me.
That is why I love Fortune Cookies.
They are written in such a manner that you can usually find a way to make them
seem like they are written just for you. Your very own personal fortune delivered to you on a cute little tray, wrapped in
plastic.
Perfect.
How the Chinese know that I'm a school teacher, a photography instructor, a cross-country
and track coach, a nature/travel/adventure photographer, and ... Live just down the street from Fuji #1, I have no idea.
How they delivered the perfect Fortune Cookie, at the perfect time, in the perfect
place, is beyond me. I just read 'em when I get 'em.
Nature. Time. Patience.
Just what I was looking for in order to get these images on my website. The excuse
I was looking for. My "hook".
More osprey images ...
Nature. Time. Patience.
Words to live by.
Perfect.
Two Images Two Oceans One Year 2013. Good year. I was out west this summer on the Oregon Coast and came across a group of young surfers out on the water for the
first time. Yeah, in the
rain. Church group, if I
remember correctly, from someplace in California I believe. They were "camping" in the same Rest Stop that I was ... In fact, looking back on things, they
are the reason I stopped at this Rest Stop in the first place. I didn't know they were surfers at the time I pulled in. No ... I just saw all the cars and
vans. Security in numbers.
That was it. It didn't say
we couldn't park there overnight, but then again, it didn't say we could. This wasn't a Rest Stop like on an Interstate. No. This was no Interstate. I haven't been on this road in a long time
... Route 101. THE Route 101. On the West Coast. Classic drive along the Pacific Coast from
California to Washington State. A "must-drive" (in my opinion) for every American, no matter what coast they happen to live
on. Or anywhere in between. That
good. A destination in itself. I drove all the way across America just to get there. OK, I made it. It poured for two days. No
problem. It is after all, Route 101, and this is Oregon ... The Pacific West Coast. Rain. Rain Forests. This is what it does.
Rain. This is why I drive
"My Tent on Wheels" ... My Honda Element. I was headed up to The Rogue River in Southwest Oregon for a rafting trip with O.A.R.S., but had planned for a few
days along the Coast, just because I could. My first adventure on this road was in 1975. I Love it. Anyways ... Young surfers, Oregon, rain. What's the story here? Here we go ... It struck me as I was walking along taking some photographs of this young boy that I have done
this before ... Photographed this before. You know, Deja-Vu all over again. Funny thing is, I never thought about it until I was actually looking through the lens,
camera in hand, walking along with my subject ... Shooting. Looking. Seeing. That morning, I didn't wake up, look out, notice the surfers in the rain, and think ... Oh,
this is just like on the Outer Banks at Easter, I think I'll go out there and photograph the same image ... No. It doesn't work like that. I did make an effort to get out there, in
the rain, talk to one of the group leaders/parent, whoever ... You know ... Kids, photographs. I always try to explain myself,
first, to any adult near by ... That's just me. Anyway ... I was walking around looking for an image of the kids, the waves, the ocean. That much is true. But I
didn't think of the OBX. No, not at first. But once I singled out this young boy, and he came into my viewfinder ... BAM. It hit me. I saw it. I remembered it. The
Outer Banks. The East Coast. Easter Vacation. What? Two or three months prior to being out on the West Coast ...
In the summer. Crazy. Rain. Surfer. Wide-angle lens. Clouds. Walking
along taking pictures while talking to him, trying to have everything seem as "normal" as it can be while "stalking" a person
with a surfboard. Someone that has no clue as to who I am ... What I'm doing. How crazy I am ... Well, yes, I do believe he knew I was taking his picture. I mean ... Right there, in his face. Two
feet. Three feet max. Looking for an image. Working on an image ... Normal. Normal for me anyways ... Not sure about the young kid. I love it. Hope he did too. Same year ... Different oceans ... Different people ... Different size people ... Same stormy
conditions ... Same wetsuits ... Same surfboards (well, you know what I mean) ... Same, but different. East Coast, West Coast, different. True, the images look nothing alike ... I hope anyways, but "the feel" of the images struck me
as I was walking along, shooting. This happens a lot. Well, OK, not a lot, but enough that when it does, I think about how cool it is. It really boils down to one thing. I have
been doing this for a long time now. Period. That, and
the fact that I like the rain. The clouds. The ocean ... The oceans. And people. Surfers out in the rain, playing in the oceans. It all works for me. The Atlantic Ocean. East Coast. April. The Pacific Ocean. West Coast. June. That is pretty cool. Two oceans. Two months. Two images. Means something else too ... I like to drive ... Take Road Trips. And photograph people out there, doing things while I'm out there as well. Rain
... Or no rain. Bad light?
Poor conditions? What are you talking about? When? Where? Rain?
Clouds? Wind? Camera? Rain? Are you crazy? Yes. Well, me anyways, maybe, not you. I love the rain. I like
being out in the rain. Photographing in the rain. Looking for other people just as crazy as I am ... Or even
more crazy. After all ... I wasn't the one out in the ocean, learning how to surf... In the rain. No. I was just out in the rain getting pictures of crazy people in
the rain. Surfing. I mean,
come on ... How many images do you have of surfers? Period. Surfers
in the rain? Yeah ... That
is the reason why I got out there in the first place. Surfing. Surfing in the rain, even better. Something different.
Something worth photographing. Something worth risking getting wet for. Yes, I had on my "wetsuit", or what some might call a raincoat. I was fine. We
won't mention my hiking shoes, boots, whatever you want to call them ... But I was fine. Even had one of my trusty shower caps over (most of) my camera.
It was fine. And that is
the point. Get out there. These new cameras are tough ... They can take it, if you can take it. New camera? Ha, my Nikon D90 is what? Five years old now. Not
new, that's for sure. Not in this digital world we live in now. No, not new, but still new enough to take whatever I
can thrown at it. It
is a tool. A tool I trust so much, that I have four of them ... You know, just in case one isn't as tough as I like to think
it is. That is one way of thinking about it. The other? I like cameras. I've talked about that before ... Camera. Cameras. Tool. Piece of art. Play toy. Whatever it is that you call them, cameras
can take a lot more than most people are willing to admit to, or put them through. That is half the story. True, cameras can take quite a bit of bad weather.
The other side of the story is that people can too. Get out there, with your camera, and photograph things that move you. Be it surfers, oceans, rainforests, white-water
rafting, or motorcycle tours ... Or not. Whatever moves you. In whatever conditions you find yourself. Who knows? You just might find yourself seeing the same image pop into view, in your viewfinder, as
well. Just like me. On one coast or the other. Get out there.
Light Photography is light. Period. I could end right there, but you know
me. We have our first test in a few weeks, and yes, it is on LIGHT. Well, most of it anyways ... You know, my Three Rules.
Three Buttons. We were out shooting downtown in good 'ol Hudson, North Carolina, and as we were leaving the parking
lot at the end of class, this is what was thrown at us after the sun had set behind some clouds. Yeah. Standing two
feet from my Element ... I was in my element. (Finally. I have been wanting to write
that for years now). Get it? In my element ... Yeah, I drive a Honda Element. I was standing next to it packing up. I happened
to notice the sky, the light. I was actually standing next to my Element, but was in my "element". Photographer.
Light. In my element. Love it. Anyway ... Light. The photographer's element. Rule Number One. Look at the Light. This
is why. Subject? Light. True, there are clouds ... So yes, some might say that the clouds are the subject.
Fine. Clouds it is. I don't care what you call it, as long as you photograph it. Like, now. Clouds. Light. Magic.
Call it what you may, but just photograph it. Get it now. It will change. Real quick. Like I said ...
The sun was gone. We were headed home ... The light was gone. Well, that and the fact that it was 8:15pm and class was over
(OK, 8:07pm ... But, close enough). Done. Finished. Out of here. Then ... The light was reflecting
off these clouds. The best light of the evening. Right then. Right there. Stop everything. Quick. Had
my tripod. Point and shoot. No, not with my Point-n-Shoot camera. But I just aimed at the light/clouds and fired away. Do
I even have to mention that I took more than one image? Didn't think so. Wait ... I just checked ... I took 37 images in
just over 6 minutes. And that was while talking to my students as they were getting in their cars ... Me, babbling on
about white balance, exposure compensation, and the magic of light. Reflected light bouncing off clouds. You know, photography.
Freakin' out. Multiple exposures. Firing away ... One, two, three at a time. Looking. Playing. The Magic Hour. Or
six minutes. The light after the sun goes down. Light. Warm reflected light. Backlit clouds. Photography. Art. When
I talk about light, I am really talking about three things: Quality Color Direction Magic would be number four, but you know me ... Three Rules, Three Buttons. Let's
stick with three. You know, keep it simple. Quality Hard
light. Soft light. Shadows. No shadows. Harsh/Diffused light. Contrast, no contrast. These are terms that deal with the quality
of light. Shadows bring out the texture of the subject, be it the human face, or the rolling hills of the Great
Plains. It gives the subject an edge ... Light/dark. Contrast. It gives the subject depth. Depth in a two dimensional image. It lets the viewer's
eyes "enter" the photograph, and roam around from the foreground, into the middle ground, and end up back there
in the background someplace. Depth. Great concept in still, 2D photography. Texture. Contrast. Love it. And
that was just hard light. Soft light. Diffused light. Just the opposite qualities as hard light. Clouds.
Fog. Mist. Dust. They diffuse the natural light, soften the light, spread the light. No shadows. No texture. No depth. No
contrast. Flat. And all that is a good thing. If you make it so. Good light? Bad light? That
is the beauty of it all ... There is no such thing as "bad light". Yes, at certain times, with certain subjects, there
is such a thing as bad light. But that is only because of the subject, or the story you want to tell, not the light. Still
with me? It depends on what you, the artist, is trying to say about your subject. Soft light is wonderful for certain subjects.
Hard light works great for certain subjects as well. Truth be told, it can work great for the same subject. That is the kicker
... That is where the story-teller within each artist/photographer comes in. What do you want to say? What does your subject
say to you? Rough, tough subject? Go with the harsh light. Soft, delicate subject? Diffuse the light. Tell a
story with light. That is what we do. That is what light does. Make it work for you. The quality of light. Color The color of light. Wow. This is key. What color do you want? What color can you
get? When can you find it? What color? What mood? We are talking about the sun here ... But it doesn't end there. Oh no. The color
of light. What about flash? A flashlight? Your car headlights? No worries. Light is light. Treat it all the same. But
lets keep it simple. We will start with the sun ... And then we just try to copy that light with whatever we can find that
works. So, let's start with the sun. Warm light, cool light. OK. Easy. Sunrise and sunset. That is warm light.
Well, sometimes. But no, if you want warm light, get up early and stay out late. If you are lucky, and Mother Nature is in
a good mood, you just might find some. When the sun hits the earth at an angle, it has to fight its way through all the
"stuff" that hovers around it. Dust. Yes, dust effects the color of light. Warm light as the sun rises and/or sets. That simple. Warm
light refers to the yellow/orange/red light that we hope for in every sunrise/sunset, day after day. Think suntan. If only it
were that simple. Or easy. Next, cool light. Blues. Purples. Violets. The opposite colors on that little
color wheel your middle school art teacher tried to drill into your head all those years. Opposite colors.
Colors that work well with each other. Complementary colors. She was on to something. Go figure. I feel kind of guilty as I am writing this
... If only I knew what I know now, I would have treated her a wee bit different all those years ago. My bad. Sorry. Back to light ... The
day starts with warm light (we hope), fades away to "white" light, or "daylight", then shifts back to warm light towards
the end of the day. The Circle of Light. Hey, I like that ... "The Circle of Light". Sweet. Now, I feel like breaking out
in song ... And holding my camera up to the sun, you know, like in LION KING. The Circle of ... ahh ... LIGHT. Back
to color. Back to reality ... I like warm light. I have used filters (both with film, and now with my choice of White Balance),
different films (in the past), and have gotten up, like crazy early, just so I could photograph something in warm light. I
have also stayed up late in my quest to capture Mother Nature at her warmest. That "kiss of warmth" that works well
with so many subjects. Early/late sun, or, like the "fake-n-bake" tanning booths popping up all over the country, a filter
or change in your White Balance, to give you that early/late beautiful warm look we love so much. Opposite effect,
or look, or mood? Cool light. Blue. Different color, different mood. Different time of day. Think cold, or, moon light.
Think music. Use it to your advantage. Sing the Blues ... White light? Think high noon. Think daylight. White light gets a bad rap. But,
like everything else I have talked about, it can work for you, if you work with it. Around water? Mid-day light works great.
It is high in the sky shooting straight down into the water. Think Aruba. White sands, crystal sky-blue waters, palm trees
... Works for me. The mid-day sunlight brings out the beauty of the water. Use it. Which takes us to ... Direction Last one. The direction of the light. Where is it coming from? What effect does
it have on the subject? How can you use it to your advantage? Again, think Aruba. The high light, or "top" light, shoots straight down into
the water lighting it right down to its lower depths. Nice. That is the key to light. How can we use it to our advantage? Quality. Color.
Direction. That is photography. That is being a photographer. Direction. Front, side(s), back, top, bottom. Where is the light coming from? What happens
to your subject? Different direction, different effect. Look to make the best from what you have. Don't like what you have?
Change it. Or wait until you do like it. That is the beauty of it all ... It changes. I like side lighting.
Goes back to the whole texture thing. Turns a 2D scene into a 3D image. That simple. Contrast. Gives your subject that edge
I was talking about. Makes them "pop" from the background. Move your subject, move your feet, whatever it takes. And, if possible, move the
light. Work at getting the light to work for you. Direction. Backlighting? Love it. Talk about contrast. Shoot into the light and see what
happens. Place your subject in front of a bright window, take a picture. What happens? Simple. Think about
it. No light is hitting your subject's face, or front. What do you think will happen? Yeah. Dark. The
window will be exposed properly. The "bright" light will be exposed fine, the "dark" subject will be really, really dark (jet
black). That is Exposure 101. Your camera can only give you "one exposure". It doesn't know your best friend is in front of
that bright window and you want him, or her, exposed correctly. No, it just reads the light ... and gives you a
nice exposed background sky. One word. Silhouette (Yes, I had to check the spelling on that one!). You know
... French word. Give me a break. Oh wait. I did take French in high school ... and again in college. Silhouette ... Must
be French for backlight (Oh, come on ... Work with me on this one). Silhouette. Great, if that is the look you are going for (and one that I love). Not-so-great,
if you want to see that pretty smile, or who the heck that figure really is. Look at the light. Top lighting? Check
those shadows under the eyes, nose, and chin if photographing a friend. Not your friend? Oh yeah, go for it. Top lighting
is tough on the human face. Is your subject wearing any kind of hat? Forget about it, again ... Black Hole. Pop up that little flash on top of your camera,
that is what it is for. Fill-Flash. As in ... "Fill-in" the black hole. Of course, you have to be fairly close to pull it
off ... But you must do something. Reflect light back up under that brim using a white board, a newspaper, sand on the beach,
snow on the ground, a sheet ... something! Or, have them remove the hat. Duh. Lit from the bottom? Ghoul Lighting. Works
good around the end of October, but that is about it. What does it say about your subject? Evil. Again, if it works for you,
go for it. Just be aware of how light works. How it works for you. If it doesn't work for you, change it. Well ... try
to change it. Come back at a later, or earlier, time of day. A different day. A different season. Bring out the
flash. Unfold that reflector you bought from Adorama. Change the light. Change the ... you guessed it ... Change the QUALITY,
the COLOR, and/or the DIRECTION of the light. Change one. Change two. Change all three. Do whatever you can to make
the light work for you. Tell your story. Make your image yours. Reflectors. Colored Gels. Soft Boxes. Snoots. Grids. Sheets. Pillow cases. Newspapers. A light-colored wall, a white van parked on the street ... Think. Play.
Play some more. Be creative. Light. Got to love it. Even if it is time for class to be over. The good news? All this is going to be on the test. Photography is light. The real test is seeing
it, taking out your camera, and working it to get the image you see in your mind's eye. In this case (the
above photo) ... White Balance (Cloudy). Compensation Button (You know me, darker! ... -1.7). Rule Number One.
Rule Number Two (I did fill the frame). And yes ... Rule Number Three. All that, for one image. In six magical minutes. Oh,
and to borrow a line from Nike: Just Do It. Take the time. Stop. Look at the light. Put the camera back on the tripod, frame
it up, shoot. Actually stay until 8:15pm. Be a good student. Light doesn't wait for you. A minute later ... The light was gone. So
was I. 8:14:37pm. Perfect. Good luck on the test.
Saturday
Shoot No Saturday Class. Feels weird. First semester in
a long time that I can sleep in on Saturdays. I don't. Met with a few of my T/Th students on Main Street, Lenoir, at 8am in the morning
... Yes, earlier than my normal Saturday class! It was a wonderful morning ... Nice early morning (not too early) light, then some clouds came in and offered up
some nice diffused light for awhile, then ... Back to the nice, hard light of a great summer morning. Just perfect. Perfect for
talking about light ... Explaining the difference between soft, diffused, light ... and hard, directional light. Both good,
but with different qualities. Light. This semester we are starting out with "ART" first, cameras second. We talked about setting up our
cameras, but did not go into apertures and shutter speeds just yet. I wanted to, but ... Stick to the plan! I want them
to know just enough about my Three Buttons to get started, but not enough to overwhelm them at first. I want them to
just work on seeing all the possible photographs all around them ... Seeing like a lens. Seeing like
a lens and thinking like a camera, that is the goal. If I can get people (myself included) to make the best of their camera
equipment, I feel like I have succeeded as a photography instructor. Learning how different lenses see the world ... How different camera settings
effect the outcome of the picture, that is learning, that is teaching. That is becoming a better photographer, a better artist. We worked
on seeing ... What does a wide angle (say 18mm) lens do differently than a telephoto lens (55mm, or better yet, a 200mm lens)?
What happens to the background? What happens to my nose when I get right up in front of their 18mm lens? (Oh, you'll see ...
They probably posted some on FACEBOOK or someplace ...) Learn your gear. We spent a lot of time at The First United Methodist Church in Lenoir. My favorite
... From a purely photographic aspect that is. The curves, the shapes, the lines ... The stairs, the shadows, the colors ...
It is just a graphic building that works well with my camera gear. Play, play, play. Shoot the whole thing. Zoom in, zoom out. Walk in, back up. Get on the ground,
look through your lens, play around. Tilt the camera, get in closer. Closer. Pick out a window. Pick out a door. The pillars ... They offered up a great example
of what a telephoto lens does as you zoom in. Try it. Line up those pillars ... Zoom in and see what happens. Well worth your
effort. Learn. See what your 200mm does to the scene, the pillars. Get in tight. How many can up "line up"? What does it look
like? OK ... That is seeing. Now, what about exposure? The camera. One of my favorite buttons. Once you see what you want to
see, get everything lined up just right, have your image ... How does it look? Too bright? Too dark? True, the bricks and the sky
are great ... But what about all that white? The pillars, the doors, the windows? White. And with the nice directional early
morning light, all that beautiful white can look great. If it is white. Not gray. Gray is not white. Are we all clear about that?
If you want white ... You have to work at it. See, cameras are set up to expose for mid-tones. You know ... Little bit of this,
little bit of that. Many things in nature balance out pretty good (that is why our meters work so well) ... Trees,
grass, bricks, blue jeans, red sports cars, etc ... You know, normal stuff. Yellow flowers, blueberries, grasshoppers, pink
slippers, tan pants ... On and on. Not too light, not too dark. Mid-tones. Anything all white and/or all black is different. Remember that. It all deals
with how much light reflects off your subject. The camera meter is based on reflective light. Not the color green, just how
much light reflects off that shade of green. Blue. Brown. Yellow. Purple. Orange. Whatever ... Mid-tones. But ... White reflects more light,
and black reflects less light, all things being equal. Same light, same distance, different amounts of reflective light reaching your
camera's meter. Your camera meter then tells your camera what to do. But remember, they are built to make EVERYTHING mid-tone.
18% GRAY to be exact. That is what cameras do. Simple. Simple, yes. Clear? No. Let me just say right here and now, that your colors will remain the same ...
Orange is orange, purple will be purple. The only time GRAY is involved is with the "colors" white ... and black. Got it? That white
pillar? Gray. That black cat? Gray. That green grass? Green. Yellow flower? Yellow. Yes, darker or lighter shades of green, and/or
yellow, but still green or yellow. Like I said ... Simple. And, as you know ... White is not always white. Ask your dentist. They know.
Go
to a framing shop and ask to see their "white" mats ... Or go to a paint store and ask to see all of their "white" paint. Forget about
it. 67 (Or something like that) shades of white ... And that's just what they have in stock. Photographers
have to work at getting "white". And "black". I haven't checked, but I'm sure there are at least 67 different shades of black
as well ... Ink black, jet black, coal black, blacker than black ... More blacks, and whites, than any photographer
needs. Use your Compensation Button. Compensate for the fact that black and white reflects less, or more, light ...
Than, say red. Green. Blue. All the different colors of the rainbow. Back to the pillars, doors, and windows ... Take a picture. Look. Wait, no ...
Don't even look. Take one, push your PLUS button, spin that little wheel to add more light (+), and take another picture.
Same subject, same light, different results. How much more? I don't know. You are the artist. See what you can come up with. Depends on
how much white you have mixed in there with your bricks, nice blue sky, green plants, gray steps, black railings ... Who knows?
Just maybe, it just might all be perfect. Now wouldn't that be nice. Same with the black park benches on Main Street.
Or the white Lion Bench in the square. How white do you want your lion (+)? How black do you want your benches (-)? If it is all
black, it will come out gray. MINUS (-). You want black. Let in less light. Gray becomes black - As it should be. If it is all
white, PLUS (+). You want white. Add more light. White is lighter than gray. Compensate (+/-). Which is just another word for
fun. Or play. Get out there and play. Spin some dials. That is why they are on your camera. That is why you paid
for all those buttons. See first, spin dials second. Perfect.
Teaching OK, I calmed down a bit from my trip. I have my website up-dated, videos of
the trip made, had my first college class, gone over and over the images. Took a break from the computer ... went for a run
... Slept. In my bed. Ready for the weekend. This is my "new" favorite image from the
trip. I do like a couple of images from the rafting trip as well ... Oh, and the osprey ... Crap. Once again,
I digress ... Back to The Great Salt Lake. That's it. Period. My new "Favorite Place to photograph in the whole wide world". Well
... In the United States anyway. Ahh ... Well, how about in the state of Utah? Oh, OK, let's just
say in the United States, in Utah, along I-80, how is that? Great place. A great new place ... I really did enjoy being there. That first
evening was great, that "first impression", the wonder of the lines. The textures. The whole ... "Holy Crap, it really
is Salt" (Yes, I really did "taste it" to be sure). The next morning was even better. Pre-sunrise. The blending of night into day,
that special time, that special light. That whole cool light/warm light thing going on.That is what makes this image special
to me. Being there. Or, as I like to say, "Getting out there". That is what photography means to me.
That is the first thing I talked about in my college class ... Your art is you. Period. My life. My images.
Like I say on my home page, it is OUR WORLD, but it is MY VISION. Everything that
I have done, seen, experienced in my life (good and bad), comes out in every click of the shutter. Not just me. You. Everyone. The
artist in you is your art. Yes, I can explain this image by the numbers, give you the data that helped make
this photograph, but that would be of little help to anyone unless they were right there with me. That moment. That time.
Being there, that is what makes the photograph. Not the camera. The lens. The self-timer. The Graduated ND Filter.
The choice of White Balance. The ISO. The Aperture. The Shutter Speed. The composition. The angle. Nothing. None
of that matters. No, what mattered, was the fact that I was there, with my "tools", at Zero Dark Thirty, ready to
record whatever happened. Whatever nature threw at me. What did matter, was the weather. What really mattered was all the things
that I had no control over. That is the beauty of nature photography. Travel photography. Wildlife photography.
Action photography. Adventure photography. Anything photography, except studio photography, where you do actually
have (for the most part) control over what goes on in front of you. Control of the light at least. That is the key. That
is why I drive thousands of miles over the summer. That is why I take my college class out of the classroom as much as possible.
That is why I do what I do. That is why I eat a can of beans (Or tuna. Or chicken) and call it dinner. Sleep in my Honda Element
at Rest Stops in the middle of ... well, The Great Salt Lake, for example. Or at a Rest Stop on any road, anywhere.
Route 20 in Iowa. I-70 in Colorado. Route 101 in Oregon (Ahh ... Like for two nights in the pouring rain). I-95 at the
Delaware Visitor's Center. Anywhere. Being there. Or, in most cases, trying to get "there". Much more important
than the gear. Now, I love my gear, don't get me wrong. In fact, just on this year's trip alone, I picked up two
"new" LowePro bags ... Yes, one was actually new (and no, not from Adorama ... But from my store of choice while on the road
-- WalMart), the second bag I picked up in a second-hand store in my "hometown" of Pulaski, New York, where I grew
up. $10 for a black Photo Runner "fanny pack" from back in the day ... Love it. Don't tell anyone, but that makes ten
LowePro bags that I own. Twelve, if you count the little pouch things I use for my Point-and-Shoot cameras - and that is just
the LowePro bags ... I have a few others. Oh yeah, I love my gear. But ... Anyway ... Being there, that
is the key to photography. Getting out there. Being in that moment. That is an art in itself ... And, as a photography instructor,
I hate to say it, but ... Something that can not be taught. Which brings me back to the image. The
Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah. The magic is there. Nature at it's finest. Salt. Mountains. The crazy lines formed by whatever
it is that forms those lines (Hey, give me a break ... I don't even own a salt shaker). The sun, although we can't see it
in this image ... Just the light from the sun, that isn't even above the horizon at this point. Very important. Lack
of rain, clouds ... More important. All I had to do was get up, walk out onto the Salt Lake, point my camera towards
the mountains, and push the button. Simple. "You push the button, nature does the rest". (Yeah, I stole that one, I admit
it. But I don't think Kodak will mind. Heck, they don't even make film anymore, do they? Well, I do know that they don't
make slide film anymore ...) Anyway ... OK, yes, not THAT simple, but you get my point. Pushing the button,
no, that is that simple, but setting the camera up prior to pushing the button, White Balance, aperture, lens selection, making
sure the darn thing is level, etc ... But ... I can actually say, honestly, that being there, seeing that, experiencing that,
was more of a thrill than having this image on my website, seeing this image, taking this image. Let that sink in. Am
I going to chuck this image? Throw it away? No. Like I said, it is now my new all-time, favorite, besttestest (You can't misspell
a made-up word) image I have ever taken. Period. For now anyway. In fact, the experience is making me think about how I am going to change the
way I teach my photography classes from now on. Yes, I've been thinking about this all summer after re-reading one of my NATIONAL
GEOGRAPHIC photography guidebooks I took along with me this summer ... You know, summer reading. I have always started
with the camera first, then the "art". How to hold the camera, ISO, the relationship between aperture and shutter speeds.
You know, the camera stuff ... Nope. Not this year (We'll see how it goes). This year is going to be different. Did
I mention I taught my first photography class in 1984? Long time. But I can change ... The New Me. Like
I said, the very first night at the college was all about THE ARTIST. In this case ... Me. The instructor. The teacher.
The person standing up in front of the class. I did check ... Everyone in the class is a photographer (they have all taken photos
before), but the first night was all about me. Who I am. What I do. How I see. Why I do what I do. What I do on my Summer
Vacations. What I photograph. What I don't photograph (Just as important). Why I photograph. Gotta love that "why" question
... The rest of the semester is all about them ... Who they are. How they see. How they feel. The artist within them. Art
first, camera second. A different approach (for me anyway). Passion first, tools second. Standing on the Salt Flats is one thing
(#1), knowing how to push a button is another (#2,347), but "seeing" has to be #2. Seeing the lines. Seeing the
relationships between the foreground, the middle-ground, and the background. The blending of the cool light and the warm light.
The textures. The patterns. The design. The graphic shapes. The art. That is where we will begin. Art.
Seeing. I can't teach them how to see like me, how to feel like me. No, I can only throw it out
there and see what happens, see what takes. I can't teach them to be me ... But I can help them learn to see like an
artist, a photographer. They will then have to take what I throw at them and make it their own. Be their own artist. Make
their art, their life ... Or is it the other way around? Make their life, their art.
Yes. Make their life, their art. It
is always fun to see the results ... And learn a new way of teaching, sharing. That is the beauty of it all. I throw it out
there, they take what they can - what fits them, and then throw it right back at me. Teaching, got to love it. Changing
the way you teach ... Priceless (Yes, I stole that one too!).
Semper Fi It's a Marine
thing. If I need to explain it ... Well, then you wouldn't understand. Same with the photography ... It is who I am. If you know me, you know I freaked when I saw this ... Oh yeah. Slow shutter speed.
Pan, or move the camera, in the same direction, and at the same speed, as the subject. Over and over again. Try
different shutter speeds. Look at the results. Try other speeds. Over and over again. Feel the photograph. Get in step
with the movement. Be part of the moment. Enough said. Semper Fi
Bonneville Blue Salt. Blue salt. Sunrise
on the Bonneville Salt Flats. What a place. Not the Speedway, that is another story, this is the Salt Flats ... You know,
The Great Salt Lake in Utah. The Great Salt Lake Desert. Yeah, really. This is where you go to take pictures, not to race. OK
... It is at the Wendover Rest Stop on I-80 about, oh, I don't know, like 75 miles west of Salt Lake City in the middle of
... yes, nowhere! In the middle of a dried salt lake. Period. Just head for Nevada ... It is a long drive from
Salt Lake City, but well worth the time and effort. I missed it the last time ... Yeah, really. I read about it in OUTDOOR PHOTOGRAPHER
last year, or two years ago ... The trips blur together. No, it was just last year, I was doing a couple of raft trips out
of Vernal, Utah and wanted to photograph the Salt Flats before heading north. I remember getting up at 3am to get there before
sunrise ... I drove west out of Salt Lake City ... Looking for the Rest Stop I read about. Found one. Water.
Nice lake, but ... I wanted salt! Thought it was just a wet year. Little did I know. I kept going until the next
exit ... Then turned around and headed back to Salt Lake City where I spent the morning taking pictures of the temple. Nice ... But
not Salt. This year, on my way to Oregon, I kept going ... Like 75 miles west, way out there ... towards
"The End" of the state. Rest Stop. THE Rest Stop. Salt. Miles of salt. Dried salt in the shape of ...
well, ART. Lines. Shapes. Patterns. In the salt. Mother Nature at her best. Miles and miles ... Got there in the
late afternoon ... Loved it. Just couldn't believe it. I saw this in one of Art Wolfe's TRAVELS to the EDGE TV programs. Thing
is, I didn't see this ... He was shooting in South America. I did see the patterns in the salt and wanted to get there ... Utah
is closer. I made it. Shot until dark ... No real sunset due to clouds, but I just knew that sunrise would give
me the light I needed. Have I mentioned that I drive a Honda Element? Yeah, thought so. This is why. Slept
right there at the Rest Stop until pre-sunrise. Magic. The sun gave me what I wanted, what I needed. Low angle side lighting to
bring out the texture. Perfect. I shot and shot ... Cool colors. Warm colors. Cool and warm ... Mixed and matched.
Cool blue morning sky with the warm color of the rising sun ... Always nice. Something about art class and the
color wheel ... Once the sun was up, and I got "my shots", I did what I do best - I played. Some more. Changed
my White Balance. That simple. One of my "Three Buttons". This is why it is one of my buttons. Blue. I
liked it. Still do. One of my favorite images of the whole trip. Two months driving cross-country taking thousands of images
... This experience was special ... Being where I wanted to be (making it on my second try), being there
when I needed to be there, and then doing what I love to do to make the image mine. The experience mine. My Salt Lake. My
sunrise. My image. Blue. Cool. Oh, and about that Speedway thing ... Keep driving west. Look for the sign. Turn right.
Drive to the end of the pavement. And ... Well, what do you think you do at the Bonneville Speedway? Speed. This is my third Honda Element. First time I
drove 100 miles per hour in one. Wild. On salt slush ... 100 mph. Just crazy. Miles of salt, as far as you can see. It was fun. I love what I do. Then I drove
- the speed limit - to the nearest car wash. Salt and metal don't mix. I grew up in Up-State New York where they use salt
all winter long. I know what it can do to cars. It's not pretty. But I just had to ... Cooler than cool.
The Alaskan Highway 1982
James Bay, Quebec 1999
Norway 2001
Colorado 2006
Monument Valley 2008
Madison County, Iowa 2011
FORTY YEARS
Yeah, that long. I am sitting here at the computer after spending a few hours getting ready for my next trip
… I have to get my Element registered tomorrow, have dinner with a friend and her family – and pay her for another
year for my cell phone (yeah, I’m on her “Family Plan”) … Yeah, that kind of friend.
All packed … Lots of stuff.
Kind
of reminds me of my first cross-country trip … You got it, 40 years ago. First off, I still drive a Honda … Then
it was a CB350 – ahh, a really small bike for a trip from Up-State New York to Southern Arizona – but I was 18
and fearless. Having never even gone on a camping trip with a motorcycle, I was about as clueless as a ... Well, as an
18 year old could be.
Now it is a Honda Element.
Stuff. I do remember this … An orange nylon backpack with a metal frame strapped onto my “sissy
bar” (had to think for a minute what they were called). Yeah, really.
And a bag strapped on my gas tank … No, not a Tankbag, I mean a bag strapped to my gas tank with bungee
cords. If one could pack a motorcycle any worst, I would like to see it. All wrong. Again, I was 18.
My mother moved to Douglas, Arizona the summer before my senoir year. I didn't. I lived with my grandfather,
Harry David Hessell, until the snow fell ... Remember, I drove a motorcycle. In New York. Up-State NY. The Snow Belt. No car.
No car license.
Yeah
...
I moved in with my football coach. And that notion still blows me away every time I think about it ... He was
also my math teacher; his wife was my English teacher. They had two young daughters ... and they took me in. Wow. It
really did change my life ...
I was Class President, Co-Captain of the football team, President of the Varsity Club, I ran track ...
Arizona was not an option.
Until
I graduated. Perfect. Road Trip #1.
I never knew how stupid the whole idea of driving a 350cc motorcycle over the Rockies until years later, twenty
years or so … I took one of my students to see the movie Dumb and Dumber … I was rolling in my seat watching them
cross the Rockies on their little scooter. Brought back memories!
That was the first … The Graduation Tour. 1973. Got my first camera, a Kodak 110 Instamatic, once I actually
made it to my mom's ... On the return trip, I was a travel photographer. That simple. Just didn’t know it at the time.
I learned a lot. Like Rule Number One; don’t take a lot of stuff. Rule Number Two; keep “The Stuff”
secured lower on the bike – Lower Center of Gravity. That backpack/frame set-up was … Well, not a good idea.
That was the start.
1974: The Sunshine Tour. My mom moved to Florida. Short and sweet, but I did find out about The Blue Ridge Parkway
(which is why I live where I do all these years later).
1975: The Four Corners Tour. No, not THE Four Corners, where you can stand in four states at one time (I
would make it there a few years later) … No, I mean Maine, Washington (The State), California (Where I was born), and
Florida. Those corners – The Four Corners of the Country. One trip … It was a big one. Moved up to a Honda CB550
for that one.
1976 – 1978: The Marine Corps Tour. They sent me to Japan. Home of motorcycles and cameras. Go figure.
And yes … I loved every minute of it. At first I bought a Honda 125cc Trials bike that you could only find in Japan.
A real trials, not TRAIL, trials … You know, skinny little thing with a tiny, thin seat (because you stand up all the
time), but … I could drive it on the roads over there! What a trip. One-of-a-kind. Well, for an American, that is. Fun.
Drove it up in the mountains and to an Army Base where I took my first college classes … Yeah, NCIS. Los Angeles Community
College Overseas. Criminal Investigation. I was going to be Abby, before Abby. But ... Things changed real quick. BAM.
Except
for the motorcycle thing ... and travel.
I bought a Honda CB750. THE bike … Just saw a photo of it this afternoon while I was packing, and
looking for my passport. Yeah, had it fixed up just the way I wanted it … Again, a one-of-a-kind motorcycle for an American.
Japanese bike with American specs to get it into the country. Sweet.
And I bought my first SLR camera just before returning to the States … A Konica T3 with a 50mm lens. Period.
I knew nothing of photography, but I was learning about travel.
1979: The East Coast Tour. Got out of the Marines … Had my Honda 750 shipped over to the Norfolk Naval
Base where I picked it up. I was stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC my last six months and headed down to Florida on 2 Mar 1979,
the day I got out of the Marines. Daytona Bike Week. Yeah, crazy.
The
best part – and how it all ties together all these years later, is that my friend, Mike Harris, who I met in Japan,
drove his motorcycle down to Daytona with me. Tuesday, when I take off, I am headed to Washington, DC to see that same friend
retire from the Marine Corps. Yeah, he stayed in, served 10 years, got out for ten years, or so … and rejoined after
9/11. Did two tours in The Middle East … and now retires. What a trip … 1976 – 2013. Semper Fi.
Back to The Road trips ...
1980: The Southwest Tour. Had to “fill in” the center of the country. Colorado. Iowa ... See, I
wanted to see if I could drive a motorcycle in all 50 States. Hey, I was what? 25. Think Big.
1981: The BMW Tour. BIG CHANGE. Bought a 600cc BMW. No chain. I will never forget trying to drive it out of
the dealer's parking lot … Let’s just say, it wasn’t a Honda. It was … Well, clunky comes to
mind. Germany vs. Japan. That simple. Took a while, but I was hooked. Drove up into Canada and over to Chicago to meet up
with Mike and another friend from Japan – Sam Ross. It turned out to be a practice run for my next trip …
1982:
The Alaska Tour. The summer before my senior year in college … Wild. Gravel roads … Alaska! Are you kidding me?
The Alaskan Highway. Loved it. I remember sitting on a cliff looking out over the wilderness and thinking, this is it. This is who I am.
Things
change (or do they?).
1983: The Honeymoon Tour. Yeah, another lifetime ago. 30 years this month. A LONG time ago. But hey, it
is what it is, and it is part of who I am … Well, it was a trip! Four months on the BMW … NY, Canada, back to
Pulaski, NY for my 10th year HS Reunion (Surprise!) … Washington, DC, The Parkway, Colorado (and the Rockies - on a "real bike!), Mount Rushmore,
Iowa (visited another Marine friend from Japan), Chicago … It was all good.
Two years in Europe - where I actually did become a photographer. Worked for the Department of the Army
in Bremerhaven, Germany. Sold the BMW. But travelled all over Europe - by train, plane, and car.
These were the trips that got me going … Road Trips. I like Road Trips. It really is who I am. I enjoy
“Getting Out There”.
Life is Good. As I am typing this - no kidding ... "Running on Empty"
is playing on my i-tunes. Love it.
Anyway ...
Jump ahead … Yes; there have been many Road Trips since then, motorcycle, cars, and now, in my (third)
Element. Oh, the trips. Germany to Italy … Normandy … Paris ... Spain … Greece and Turkey … Tunisia
… The Alps … Costa Brava … The Florida Keys … The Everglades … Newfoundland … The Badlands
… The Pacific Coast … On and on. Running on empty ...
Then … another BMW. A classic. The original BMW Paris Dakar. Ten gallon gas tank ... built for adventure.
Wrote a photography column for a National BMW Magazine, which lead to motorcycle trips for other magazines as well
… Norway, The German Alps, Mexico, The Italian Alps … The Southwest … Life was Good.
Then … It wasn't. I sold the motorcycle. I stopped the writing, I gave it up. "Too little too
late".
No bike. No wife. It all caught up with me … Bam.
But … Life goes on. I travel.
That is who I am. No motorcycle, no worries.
River Cruises. Australia. New Zealand. The 2005 Around the World (My 50th Birthday) Tour. Moscow.
The Great Wall. Bicycle Tours. Hiking Tours. A mountain bike tour. Baja. Europe. Peru. Alaska. Panama. The Galapagos Islands. The Arctic Circle Tour. Egypt. The OBX (every
Easter). Rafting Trips. The Bridges of Madison County. National Parks up the YingYang.
Road Trips. Tours. Every year, every summer.
Still Crazy After all These Years.
And ... In a couple of days … Road Trip 40.
Blue Ridge Parkway/Skyline Drive to Washington, DC for the big retirement send-off for Mike. Love DC …
Looking forward to The Silent Drill Team. It's a Marine thing …
Then, Oregon. A 5-Day raft trip with O.A.R.S. down the Rogue River. Perfect.
Road Trip to the raft trip. That is how it goes ...
Washington, DC. Interstate 80 West. Lake Tahoe. Highway 101. Crater Lake National Park. Lassen Volcanic National
Park. Redwoods National Park. Highway 101. Then Merlin, Oregon, for the raft trip.
Then, I-80 East to Chicago ... Then Pulaski, New York, for my 40th High School Reunion. Oh yeah
… Talk about
crazy. Once there, I will be giving a photography talk at the local Arts Council.
Fun. Plus, the Field Days. Camping up in my uncles's woods ... Home.
Which got me thinking … I have actually lived in North Carolina longer than anywhere else in my whole life.
20 years. Unreal. I live – and love – North Carolina, but Pulaski is still “Home”. Funny how that
works. High school, growing up. Classmates. Friends. Always a Blue Devil.
And really … My sister and mom now live in Richland, NY, so when I go “home”, it really isn’t
home. Pulaski, Richland. Kind of like Hudson (where I live) and Granite Falls, where I work (Yes! I just finished my 20th
year of teaching Special Education– talk about crazy!). Five, six miles apart.
You wanted to know how living with my football coach/teachers changed my life? There it is ... I'm a teacher.
20 years. Unreal ... Yeah, just ask any of my teachers, prior to my senoir year ... They can tell you some stories ...
Where
was I?
Oh, also this summer -- Ottawa with my mom … She turns 80 this December 27th but I don't do
winters anymore! Reason enough to go in the summer.
So yes … The Summer of 2013. Forty Years.
I have been planning it for weeks now … Well, months, if you count the planning I was dreaming about before
I found out I was going to Oregon. But, once I got the e-mail, (love all this computer stuff) … Road Trip 40 is coming
together.
Planning. The best part. Road maps. National Parks. Connect the dots. Blue Ridge Parkway/SkyIine Drive. Camping.
I have gone over it … Go here, go there … No, look at this … I’m that close, I could take this road,
see that, then get right back on track …
Perfect.
Two more days … All packed. Laundry finished. Stop the mail.
Crap! I have to drink all that milk – fast.
No one is perfect.
"If You Want More Interesting Images, Stick Your Camera in
More Interesting Places"
David H. Hessell (Sort of)
I don't know ... Yes, I probably stole this one from somebody,
just not sure who. Art Wolfe mentioned it (kind of, sort of) in one of his TRAVEL to the EDGE programs, Joe McNally has skimmed
around it, sort of, I'm pretty sure, as well. Ansel Adams said something along
the lines of, "The key to a great photograph is knowing where to stand", the list goes on and on. Anybody who takes photographs,
has, in some way or fashion, talked about it. Mentioned it. Thought about it. Done it.
It's not Rocket Science.
Just to make it simple -- Let's say I came up with it, and
move on ... I mean, let's just get right into it.
Quick, before you realize that someone a whole lot sharper
than me, first came up with this great concept years ago ...
Put the camera in interesting positions to see the world differently.
Pretty simple really. In fact, isn't photography, or art, for that matter, really pretty simple? Try something, see what happens.
Want pictures of fish? Stick your camera in water. Yeah, blows
one's mind. Take your camera, dip it in the stream, point it this way, point it that way, try to line things up, push the
button. Change your "Point of View".
What? Where the heck is the trout? Rocks. Sand. Stuff. No trout.
Oh wait, there it is ... lower right. Part of him anyway.
Try again. One hand, underwater, trying to figure out the angle
...
Oh crap, again, lower right hand edge. Move the camera (lens)
to the left ... shoot. Look. Adjust ... Oh, crap, he moved.
On and on ... Point and shoot camera, lens in the center, viewfinder
in the upper left corner of the camera ... NOT like an SLR (Single Lens Reflex) ... They don't line up ... Off by a few (like,
Holy Crap, a lot!) millimeters or so.
Try again ... Wow.
Now remember, I am actually fishing here -- Trout on the line.
One hand on the fly-rod, the other in the COLD water shooting moving targets ... Fast moving, angry little buggers, that want
nothing to do with me.
Or my camera ...
Or my hand ... Boots. Shadow.
Anything. Bam. Gone ... Jumping, diving, thrashing about, going
crazy.
You know ... Fishing.
Why I fish.
Why I take pictures of fish. Fishing.
Well, it is hard to take pictures of yourself fishing ... In
the stream, fish-on ... Taking pictures?
Sure, why not? That is what I do ... If I can take pictures
while driving a motorcycle -- Oh, wait, my mom might read this ...
Fishing, lets stick with fishing.
I can do it! The camera is small ... My Fishin' Camera, my
Nikon AW 100. I believe I have talked about it before. Great camera. Has a SUPER macro ... I can adjust White Balance, I can
adjust my Exposure Compensation, and I can set my ISO ... You know, MY THREE BUTTONS.
In fact, I changed all three for this one image ...
I remember.
Went from 200 ISO (my NORM) to 400. Wanted a faster shutter
speed ...
Changed from AUTO White Balance, Ahh, not my NORM usually,
but ... When fishing ... I wimped out and had it set there ... But don't tell anyone. Not my photo students anyway ...
OK, from AUTO to my favorite ... CLOUDY. Yeah, I know. Fishing
is tough ... Small stream, overhanging trees, green tint everywhere ... Overcast day. No, wait ... The sun just came out.
Daylight. Cloudy. Tree Green (well, it SHOULD be an option!) ... Auto works fine.
Sometimes.
It was getting late in the afternoon ... The Golden Hour. The
stream was lit up nice ... I could see the light. Feel the light. I knew I had to go CLOUDY. I like CLOUDY on a sunny day.
I set it to CLOUDY.
Perfect.
Got it. Right color, right quality, right direction. Done.
I took care of the light (yeah, I'm that good).
OK, I was in the right spot, at the right time, with my rod,
reel, and ... Nikon. That's all I could do ...
Now, if I could only get that little bugger in the picture.
Stop.
Middle school science class.
I forgot about
that ... I kept thinking it was a "Photo Thing", a "Camera Thing". Well, photography is about light, and light is a science
thing ...
I don't teach science. Can't remember science. Can't remember
middle school science anyway. Heck, I didn't even have a Middle School. I went to a K-12 school, right up to my freshman year
-- They built a new high school, just for me.
So, anyways ... I have a hard enough time telling my college
students that photography is part math ... No! I lost 'em.
Now, science? Oh boy ...
Well, I do mention that light doesn't bend ... Very important
photo fact.
Except for underwater. I forgot about that. The fish is there
... Or seems to be there, but is really here. No, there. Over to the right ... Little more. Crap. Too high. Now, aim it just
a smidge lower. Check.
Boy, that water is cold.
Put down the rod. I will get this darn fish if it kills me.
But not the trout.
I let him go ...
He's tired. Put up a good fight. I move him back and forth
to get the water moving through his gills ... He takes off ... And stops. Like a foot away. Just sits there and waits for
me. Tough workout. Photo-Op.
He does not move. He gives me another chance. Ah, like 48 more
chances ... Click, click, click ... Well, no, I can't hear anything. Press. Press. Press.
With my thumb, no less. One handed. Point and Press.
I know ... So, where was I? Oh yeah ... Put down the rod.
Where? In an overhanging branch of course, not too far away.
Back to the trout. Still there.
Two hands ... Bending down now. Looking. Aiming ... Moving
it from where I know it is, to where it really is. To the left. Up. It feels right ... Push. Push. Push again (In my head,
it still goes, Click. Click. Click again).
Come up. Chimp (That's Photo Talk for, Look at your Images
on the LCD screen). See how bad I messed up.
Try again. Cold.
Got it ...
Once I "Got it", I stick my camera someplace else interesting
... Under the trout, looking up. Over to the right a little more to take in the stream bed. Higher. Lower. How about an inch
away? Wow. He doesn't budge.
I did mention Super Macro, right? Yeah. An inch from the trout's
nose. In Your Fish Face.
Well ... To the left of its fish face really. You know, the
water bending light thingy ... Science. Stick a knife in a glass, see it "bend". Well, I didn't want to "Center My Subject"
anyway ... So there.
Took awhile. Cold water. But the light ... The moment.
And the fact that I had a willing model.
Underwater trout images ... I like 'em. Something new, a new
perspective. Beautiful light, great subject, wonderful experience. The above image was taken while he was still on the line.
Rod in left hand, camera in the right, underwater, pointing somewhere in the neighborhood of my, in this case, moving target.
First off, just catching him was excellent ... South Mountain
State Park. Memorial Day Weekend. Sun getting low ... The Magic Hour. About twelve trout in a little pool. All smarter than
me. Well, all but a couple ... I believe I caught three or four in this one spot.
This trout ... The one in the image, is still on the line.
I was just aiming, guessing, trying different angles. I shot this one from below the fish ... Trying something different.
Stuck the camera way down there ... Pointing up. Cold. Rod in one hand, camera in the other ... Rod tip up, camera down.
You can see the nymph in its mouth (In fact, it looks like
he has another one on his lip, not sure, mine is the bigger one on the side. Didn't notice it before -- or when I released
him).
Tricked him.
Dinner time. Fake dinner, as it turned out ...
Cast in front of the fish ... Let it drift right to it. Wait.
Wait. Watch my "Strike Indicator", a little piece of yellow foam. If it stops, twitches, or even looks like it touched something,
I set the hook. Lift the rod, hold the line ... Yes!
Fish-on.
A game we play. I try to fool the trout, he makes a fool out
of me (Not THIS time). Very simple. Caught about ten, or so, over the weekend. Sometimes the trout win (well, yes, most of
the time), sometimes I do.
Like this photograph.
Simple.
Light. Subject. Moment. Reflection. Energy. Color. Sport.
Sport photography. Underwater. Him vs. Me.
Without looking through the camera. Blind, underwater,
trout/sports photography ... With a twist (or bend) of science in there just to make things fun ... A challenge.
The WHY of spending three nights at South Mountain State Park.
The last weekend of fishing (for me) until October. Catch and
Release is over the first Saturday in June (It's called Delayed Harvest), after that ... I don't think this trout will be
posing for anymore pictures.
I look forward to October. Things get real colorful then ...
I can see it now ... Golden light, golden leaves, some red, some green ... Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout, Brook Trout.
Crap, cut off its head ...
Try again. Push. Push. Push.
All over again.
Dream-On. FYI: Got it. Jim Richardson.
Long time NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC photographer. I knew it ... He is the one that came up with this clever notion. Well, not sure
about that, but he is the one I heard it from. I'm sure he got it from someone before him, etc... That is how it works. I
knew it was a NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC photographer, just wasn't sure which one. Thank you, Jim Richardson.
The Prom
Never
went to a prom myself ... As Senior Class President, I did help decorate the gym for the Big Night back in 1973 (Knights in
White Satin was the theme ...), but never really got into the whole, "I have to wear a Tux thing" ... or dancing.
Strange
kid.
No surprise
there ... Haven't changed much over the past 40 years. Still the same.
Even
as a Marine ... Man, once I was "off duty" ... Oh yeah, jeans and a T-Shirt. I don't know what it is ...
Don't
own a suit. Don't own a pair of dress shoes. Ahh, but I do own some ties ... My "Middle School Ties". Lots of 'em. Crazy ties.
Fun ties.
That
is as close to "Dressing Up" as I get. Period.
But
I did get invited to take some prom pictures by one of my best friends. Her son is a junior this year, and was all set for
the big night.
I must
say up front, that the boy's great-uncle, one of his, what? Second cousins? (his mom's cousin), his mother (and her husband),
have all taken my class at the college. I have known the young man since he was 8 years old.
I have
taken his photo for years ...
But,
I must say, he looked sharp. Oh, and his girlfriend looked nice too ...
True,
it was raining ... But hey, it was "their night" and by gosh, we were going to have fun and get some images ...
Prom
pictures.
Did
I mention I don't do prom pictures?
I don't.
In fact,
the only other time I ever took prom pictures was when ... you guessed
it, when my friend asked me the first time. Her son, the same boy, and the daughter of her best friend went to the girl's
prom over in Burke Co. last year. Or was it two years ago? I don't know ... I took some photos.
So,
no, I really don't do prom pictures ... Unless, of course, you are my friend's children. She has a daughter coming up in a
few years; I've known her since she was four!
But
anyways ...
I had
fun. I just stood there (in the rain ... well, drizzle, really) and took pictures of all the kids ... Ahh, I really don't
know how many ... Oh wait, yes I do ... There were ten kids that got in the limo, that must of been it -- ten.
Yeah,
friends ... Gotta love 'em.
I just
fired away ... The moms lined 'em up, I fired away. This shot, that shot, all the boys, all the girls, all the boys and girls
... The moms, the dads, the grandparents, aunts, I don't know ... 400 something images, almost 500. I did delete some ...
Like, a lot! But as photographers, we just keep that to ourselves ...
Yes,
I took a boatload of images.
Had
my flash right on the camera, which is quite rare now-a-days with all the wireless stuff I've been doing, but I wanted
to be fast, and I wanted to keep it real simple. Rain and flash do not mix.
First
off, the flash lights up every little drop of rain ... Plus, I learned a long time ago ... Water and electric stuff are a
no-no.
So...
On camera flash, keep it simple, fire away. Left all the other stuff (lightstand, softbox, gels, etc ...) in the car. You
know, where it was actually dry.
The
flash added a little "pop" to the colors ... Which is what caught my eye once I started shooting.
Yellow
and green. That was it ... The yellow, the green. The two together worked for me. That was "the moment it clicked" (to steal
a line from Joe McNally). Bam.
The
above images are three of "my favorite" shots from the day ... The colors, the "fun"; images that, to me, say it all, without
showing it all.
Yes,
I promise, I did show the faces ... Got the "regular" shots for mom and dad, and aunts and uncles, grandparents, you name
it... Or, at least I believe I did. They thanked me ... Even took me out for dinner. Perfect.
But
no, these are the three images I like... That I kept.
No matter
what I shoot ... Rafts on the Colorado, motorcycles in the Alps, grizzlies in Alaska, or flowers in my sister's garden ...
I look for the colors. The shapes. The patterns. The graphic elements that fill my viewfinder.
Keep
it simple.
Fill
the frame.
Have
fun.
I did.
So did
they ...
That's
what it’s all about. That and the fact that the mom asked me ...
How
could I refuse?
Prom.
Fun. I must have missed that notion all those years ago.
Glad
I finally came around ... Maybe I'll share this little tidbit of knowledge at my 40th High School Reunion this summer up in
Pulaski, New York.
Never
too old to learn ... Just took a little nudge ... Just like in high school.
In college.
On Prom
night.
Oh, Poop!
My exact words ... Exactly.
Let me explain ...
Yes, I was at South Mountain State Park fishing ... like ALL day Saturday (well
OK, from 8am until 6pm straight ...), and then again Sunday morning from Zero Dark Thirty until noon.
Trout, as in plural.
Caught a lot (20 something). Beautiful Day and a half.
OK, back to the poop.
Sunday afternoon, I got back to the Element, pulled out of the campground, pulled
into the parking lot 50 yards away, and parked.
Hike Mode.
Brought out "The big camera" ... my Nikon D200 with an 85mm f1.8 lens. Old School.
No zoom.
A "real" lens.
I zoom with my feet.
Anyway ... went up the mountain, came back down the mountain. Nice. Four miles.
Yes, I even took a few images ...
Actually ... back to the fishing ... The "Why" I go to South Mountain. Yes, I took
lots of pictures while fishing -- with my "Fishing Camera", my Nikon AW100 Super Macro waterproof, "Don't Leave Home Without
It" camera.
91 images to be exact ... Trout. Trout in my hand, trout and my rod, trout
and water, trout in the water, trout jumping out of the water, several "oops, he moved" images, trout underwater, "where
the heck is he?" photos ... I have 'em all ... Big trout, brown trout, rainbow trout, even two cute little wild
trout ...
But now it was ... well, I was just in hiking mode - with a camera. Not camera
mode while hiking ... Two very different "modes" I program myself for; two different "frame of mind" modes I have.
To be honest ... I even (in a moment of weakness) thought of not even taking a
camera ...
Really.
That lasted about a second ...
I was in for a walk ... and since we are being honest here, I was actually sore
from all the "walking in the river" I did over the weekend. I was just into taking a hike to get the kinks out ... again,
really.
My knees. My hips.
Just a hike.
With my camera.
OK ... walked up, walked down. Headed back to the parking lot, and came across
a butterfly - two really - two butterflies landing on ... Here we go ...
Horse Poop.
Yeah. On the trail ... Horse Poop and Butterflies. Crazy.
So, here I go ... Wildlife Photographer Mode ... sneekin' up on wild butterflies
... on poop.
Really?
Really. That is what I do.
Opened my lens up to f1.8 to blur out the background ... I actually think of stuff
like that at times like these ... Closer ... Closer ... Zoom with my feet ...
Shoot. Move. Shoot. Move. Shoot. Move.
That quick. That fast. Eight, nine shots ... Click, click, click.
I just knew it would move at any second, so I fired away and asked questions later
... Moved in as close as I could with the 85mm lens ... Just "walked it in" while shooting.
Got it. Oh yeah ... I'm that good!
"Oh, poop".
What the heck? Overexposed? Say what?
Oh yeah. That.
Well, lets back up a bit here ...
Like I said, I saw the butterfly on the poop, opened my lens up to blur out the
background (ahh, the poop), and started stalking, closer, closer, clos... Crap!
Off it flew to the nearest flower! Perfect. Like a good Marine, I adapted,
moved in, and ... fired away.
Poop was in the shade -- on the trail -- the flower was not. It was in the light,
the sun.
Wide open at f1.8 was perfect when I set it ... Not so perfect when the stupid
butterfly moved into the sunlight ... LOTS of light poured in.
I don't think of things like this at times like these ...
BAM.
True, the background is blurred, but ... in all my Marine Corps rush to the target
-- My, Mr. Pro Wildlife Expert Photographer Man Mentality -- I, well ... I rushed right in with the camera set-up
to fail. Too much light. I was so focused on getting the shot ...
Maxed out. Wide-Open.
You know, "Into the great wide open" ... (for all you old enough to remember Tom
Petty and the Heartbreakers).
For all you not-so-old folks ... Just imagine me singing those lines, and
stick with me here ...
Anyway ...
I blew it. The camera was maxed out. I had it set at the widest opening the camera
had at f1.8, and the camera, set at Aperture Priority, tried to "match my aperture" with the correct shutter speed, but had
nothing to give me ... Maxed out at 1/4000th of a second.
Too much light, period. I needed to "close down" the lens -- let in less light,
say, f4 or f8 ... Something like that. Then the shutter speed could have matched up and I would have been fine.
Poop.
I started to delete them all ...
But wait.
This is the 21st Century. I have PhotoShop Elements on my computer!
I'm on top of things! I saved two of the last images ... My butterfly! Yes.
Photoshop Elements.
And so ... There it is. The original, and the not-so original.
One button.
Brightness/Contrast.
Little bit of Darkness.
No Contrast.
Done. Simple. Easy. Quick (one minute max).
Fun.
Perfect.
And no poop.
Why
Not why?
Why.
Yes, I stole this title from photographer Corey Rich, I'll admit that. But it works
...
See? It is not a question, it is a statement.
Why.
Why I fish.
Why I go to South Mountain State Park year after year.
Why I "Get Out There".
Why.
Period.
Heck, let's add ... Why I sleep in my Honda Element. Year after year.
And ... Why I call a can of beans, and a can of peaches, dinner. Yeah ... Year after year.
Oh ...
And then there's the whole photography thing ... Can't forget that.
But ... Yes.
Why.
Simple really.
The why is in the images.
The experience.
The fishing is nice.
The photography is fun.
But, it really is all about the experience ...
Getting Out There.
Life.
And the light ...
And the trout.
My digital "Negative"
My digital "Print"
The Digital Darkroom
PhotoShop.
The word is a tricky thing ... It has taken on a bad rap of late.
No. Let me re-state that ...
Even when PhotoShop first came out, it was thought of as "voo-doo" (to borrow a term from
a local Camera Club back in the day ... It has been awhile, but still ...). It had a bad rap from Day One.
Yeah, it was tough.
Why? I have no clue. Tradition, I guess.
Tradition of trashing anything new that comes along, that goes against us being
seen, or thought of, as "artists", I suppose.
Nothing new ...
Photography itself had a few -- OK, many -- years of fighting to be seen as an art form
against all the painters out there that didn't use a "machine" to produce their art.
I wasn't around for that one, but I don't think it was any different than when the first
caveman picked up a few twigs and/or sticks and started using them instead of their fingers while "painting" on the cave walls
... I wasn't around for that one either.
Or when the "toy" 35mm cameras came around, or electric (in camera) meters, or the "strobes"
that came along and put an end to flash powder ... etc ... I missed out on a lot.
I was around for a few big changes ... Starting with "Program" mode. TTL with flashes,
auto-focus ... Oh, that was a big one ... And, of course, digital.
A joke at first -- as I'm sure they all were (and will be). Digital was seen as a
novice idea that would never replace the quality that film had given us for many, many years ... Think about it.
Well, first there were glass plates ... Let's not go there. Try to imagine going into Gettysburg,
150 yeras ago, driving a horse and buggy with glass plates and chemicals ... Looking for a little stream so that you
could develop your plates ...
No.
Even Ansel Adams ... Out there lugging around an old -- ahh, excuse me, "new", top-of-the-line
8"x10" field camera, setting it up on the top of your trusty station wagon's roof, slipping in the huge film plates, focusing
on the back of the ground glass, under your black cloth, looking at the scene upside down, setting the shutter, oh, wait,
I forgot (I never actually did this by the way), first taking your meter reading with your hand-held meter ... Then, and only
then, would you stand there, and make an exposure.
Yes, I did own a manual camera with no meter ... a Chinese twin-lens reflex camera I bought
for $75 dollars back in 1987, but that was just a "toy" ... And yes, I have used hand-held meters before, but not because
I HAD to ...
No, photography, and cameras are forever changing. And that is a good thing. Yes, I loved
film, and yes, it took me awhile, but I did make the big change to digital, and have never looked back ...
But hey, it was tough ...
Like flash in the 1970's ... Digital was crap there for a few years. 1MP cameras. Yeah,
really. 1MP. Oh, then 4MP. Top-of-the-line Nikon and Canon cameras with 4MP sensors ... Really?
I think I jumped in around 6MP. Maybe 4MP. Can't remember ... Well, no, I remember now
... I do know my first digital camera was a small Canon, 4 MP, Point-n-Shoot that I carried with me as something to play
with, explore with, but not really use for any of my real "work", my jobs. No, it was nothing more than a toy, a digital
toy.
2003 maybe ...
Bought my first DSLR in 2004, I think. A FujiFilm S2 (6MP). Weird camera. Really a Nikon
N80 film camera body (ahh, one of the film cameras I was using at the time) with a digital sensor slapped in where the film
used to sit. Part Nikon (I could keep all my lenses), part Fuji.
Looking back -- Crazy.
Hey, I shot with Nikon, and used Fuji film ... What can I say? Plus, a photography student
of mine had been using one for a year or so ... I made the plunge.
Mixed results.
2004 just happened to be the year I started shooting for travel companies ... A jungle
lodge in the Amazon, and Viking River Cruises.
True, I was still shooting slide film, but I used digital as a back-up. Still wasn't that
crazy about the results ...
2005 ... Big year. Turned 50, and traveled around the world. Still shot film. Fuji Sensia
100. Carried 100 rolls of it around the world, through airports, and the x-ray machines ... Still couldn't break free from
the security of film. The quality. The results.
2006. First assignment shot all with digital. Holland. Viking River Cruises.
FujiFilm S2. I made the plunge. Not bad. Much easier ... No x-ray worries, no hand inspections with my zip-lock bags ... nice.
Good results.
Didn't like the "computer" aspect ... Had no ideas how to get all those little digital
things to the editors ... But hey, I fuddled through. Didn't have a DVD burner ... Heck, not even a CD burner, if I remember
right. Had to have my friends help me. Some Pro I was.
Then, 2007.
Crazy summer ... Viking River Cruises, UnTours, and VBT (Vermont Bicycle Tours). Seven
trips, all in Europe, all digital. Wild. The FujiFilm S2.
No problem.
Or so I thought.
Cloudy White Balance. I remember only because I thought I knew more than I did.
For years, I used warming filters to enhance my slide images ... A "kiss of warmth"
that worked great with Fuji film. It was part of my style, my look. Editors like it.
Then digital.
Well, most of the time, Cloudy white balance worked well with the Fuji camera
... or so I thought. Seven trips that summer ... Two trips for a new client -- VBT. I was in Europe working with Viking River
Cruises and shot two bicycle tours -- one in Croatia prior to the first river cruise, and the second along the Danube, before
actually cruising down the Danube for Viking River Cruises. Perfect. Everything worked out great. They flew me from one location
to the next, things worked like clockwork. Even spent ten days driving around Italy in a rental car photographing rental homes
for UnTours in between the river cruises and the bicycle trips. Unreal. Crazy summer.
Loved it. Perfect. Everything came together somehow ... I was always amazed when people
would hand me tickets with my name on them ... Remember, I never meet the people I work for. E-mails. Computers. All done
on-line.
Me in Hudson, NC, them in Califorina, Vermont, Italy, or Germany. Or New York ...
can't remember.
Arrive in Rome? Sure, a car all ready for me. Hotel in Prague? No worries. Train back
to Germany? Thank you very much. Perfect.
Two months on the road (and rivers, and bike paths) ... then, back to school. Wonderful.
It was a great summer.
Until I got the e-mail from VBT about the orange tint on all the images. Say what?
I had DVDs made in Europe ... Shipped them back, everything was fine ... They looked good
to me. I still had the original files on DVD. What were they talking about?
OK, there was a "slight tint" ... Yes, CLOUDY White Balance.
They didn't like it. Was it the copies? Or the orginal files?
OK ... I "fixed them" with a click of a button, no problem. The Auto Fix Button. How easy
is that?
I love digital.
I went through EVERY shot ... Like, it took forever ... But ... I shipped the new DVDs
off and ...
They used them on their website. They were pleased, I guess. But ...
Sold the FujiFilm S2. Had to be the camera!
By this time Nikon had come out with the D80. Their first "real" digital SLR was the D70.
That was around the same time as the FujiFilm S2. Now they had their second generation real digital camera. All Nikon.
Went with the D80.
Not bad. The first digital camera I actually liked. I don't remember the pixel count ...
Maybe 6MP. 8MP. Pretty darn good. For a "middle of the road" consumer digital camera. I have never owned the top-of-the-line
Nikon model - film or digital. Probably never will ... Not new anyways. No, I like the "pro-consumer" models better.
Lighter, cheaper, and yes, let's not forget that I am a school teacher, the price fits my budget.
Never had the CLOUDY White Balance thing happen to me since ... And to this day, I still
have no clue what happened. Did I have it set wrong? Were the copies bad? I don't know ...
I do know that I have never shot for VBT again. Everyone else? Yes, no problem.
And there was that whole 2008 crash which slowed down the travel industry ... Well, my
role in the travel industry anyways. I have shot for Viking River Cruises since, but not VBT. It still bugs me ...
So, yes, the switch to digital was tough. Would I go back? No.
Am I a firm believer in digital? Yes. No question.
I now own four Nikon D90 cameras (12 MP), plus two older model Nikon D200 (10MP)
bodies that I just bought, simply because they are so cheap! I still think of my D90s as my "main" camera ... The ones I will
use for my travel work, but the older D200 is still fun to "play with". My college camera ...
Do I use PhotoShop?
Sort of. No, I do ...
At college we have it on our computers (CS6, I believe). I do introduce it to my college
classes, but no, I don't "teach" PhotoShop. I teach photography. The camera. Basic camera operations.
Do I own PhotoShop? Again, sort of. I actually use PhotoShop Elements something ...
9 or 10. Not the newest version. Baby PhotoShop. I use maybe 6 or 7 "tools" out of the what? 10 gizzillion tools you can pick
from. And that is the "Baby" PhotoShop.
If you have followed my Blog, you know I used PhotoShop Deluxe (the first, free version
of the "Baby" PhotoShop that they gave out when you bought a digital camera back in the day), used it for the first eight
or nine years I shot digital ... Simple. Easy.
So, yes, I LOVE digital cameras, but no, I am not a big fan of digital software programs.
No HDR. No layers, no masks, no taking a sky from one image and putting it into another image ... No, way too much work, way
too much time. Too much time in front of a computer ...
No, I shot slide film ... "Chromes", and I still shoot like I did slides. I think
like I did back then ... I try to get it right in the camera. I see it, I "feel" it, I shoot it. Done.
Got it.
Or so I like to think ...
I also shot Black and White. For newspapers. For college. I knew my way around a darkroom.
I taught B/W printing for years at the college. I know that the great images of the past (think LIFE magazine, Ansel Adams,
etc ...).
Every image printed in a darkroom, both B/W and color (oh, don't get me started with color
printing ... ), was altered in some way in the process.
"PhotoShop".
Before PhotoShop.
Ansel Adams was a great photographer ... And an even better darkroom technician. A Master.
A magician, if you will.
David Douglas Duncan. W. Eugene Smith. The list goes on and on ... I just can't be sure
of the spelling of all the names ... But there are, and were, many great printers out there.
Magic in the Darkroom. From day one ... Back to the glass plates and dangerous chemicals
... Pure magic.
In fact, I just told my college students yesterday - the last class of the year -
that I am always amazed at the quality of work that shows up at the Final Review ... Back in the film days where we used 20
year old enlargers, rigged up over the years to keep working ... the dust, the vibrations when the air kicked on, you name
it ...
Now we have the "Digital Darkroom", or at least that is what I call it. Again, I don't
teach PhotoShop, or Computer Art, that is a totally different class, with a totally different instructor, with a totally different
outcome.
No, I teach The Digital Darkroom.
I have said it before ... Every image you see on my website has been "worked on" in PhotoShop,
or some form of PhotoShop. To fit on the computer screen, you have to re-size the images. The files today are so large --
and only getting larger, that you have to do something, or they wouldn't fit on the screen.
I re-size them, adjust the contrast, brightness, delete, or clone out, all the little
crap that bugs me, crop them when needed, and that is about it. Things I have done in the darkroom for years.
Sort of.
With a push of a button.
Easy. Too easy really ... No smells, no getting your hands wet, no small, dark, darkroom
... No red or yellow glow ... Oh, the good 'ol days.
No. Very different.
But then again, not so different.
Get the image as good as I can in the camera, then "fix it up" in the computer,
and get it on-line. On my website. That is what I do now. True, not as easy as slides -- yeah, they were either good, or not
good. Simple. Throw 'em out, or file 'em away. That was simple.
So, I guess, what I have now is the best of both worlds ... In the camera, and in the
computer. Kind of like, "Slides" that you can "fix" ... I like it.
I'll stick with what I know.
Yeah, like I haven't said that before ...
Take a look at the "behind the scenes" changes I made on my "newest favorite shot of all
time".
Camera magic.
Flash magic.
Computer magic.
That is what it has come down to ... 30 years of my photographic history in one shot.
Well, two shots, really. Or is it one shot, two images? Yeah, one shot ... Two versions.
And remember ... The original was only used here to let you in on my (and every other digital photographer out there) little
secert. I usually only show "The Final Results" ... It would be like asking to see Ansel's negatives ... Boy, wouldn't we
be in for a surprise.
Photography. Got to love it.
What a trip. Can't wait to see what joke they come up with next ...
Control
Control the Light.
If I have said it once ... I have said it a thousand times ...
Look at the Light.
Very simple.
Forgive me. I am going to say it again ...
It is all about light. Look at the light. Control the Light.
And shadow.
You do know that when I say, "Look at the Light", what I am really saying is ...
Look at the Light and See How the Shadows Give Your Subject Depth and Texture, and ...
Well, you get the point.
Light.
Look at the Light.
Look at the Shadow.
Study the shadows.
Ying/Yang.
Light/Dark.
Photography.
Art.
Control.
The interplay of light and shadow.
What does it do? What does it say? How does it "shape" your image?
That is light. That is art.
That is the joy of "making a photograph". Making art.
Look at the image above ...
Trillium.
South Mountain State Park.
The sun.
The shade.
The contrast.
The fill-flash.
The color.
The detail.
The shapes.
The sharpness.
The joy.
The ..." I took twenty something shots to get this right" aspect that we don't
tell people - our viewers, about.
Yeah that.
Light. Controlling light. It is what photographers do.
Sunlight and shadows are great, to bad they are not that great for the sensors
in our cameras. Film, digital ... It has always been a problem for photographers.
Contrast.
Our eyes can deal with it -- ahh, pretty good ... well, OK, like REALLY, REALLY
good. Film, and now these digital sensors things, can't.
That simple. That true.
The answer?
Well ... for me anyways ... is "available light".
Yeah, my flash is available ... I get it out ... I push a few buttons ... I solve
the problem.
Not that simple of course, but, it is a start.
Look at the shadow.
The sun comes from above, casts a great shadow ... so far, so good ... but the
front of the flower, the color - the purple, was lost in the mix. Lost in the shadow.
I could see it ...
But the camera couldn't pick up both ... The light and the dark. The front of the
flower was black. The highlights on the back of the flower were controlled, the shadow was perfect, but ...
Purple. I wanted purple.
I wanted to light -- to highlight -- the color of the flower that was on the "dark
side of the flower" ... the part of the flower that was backlit by the sun.
Fill-Flash.
Yes, on the path, in the woods, down on the ground. You know, like, where the flower
was.
Bam.
A Nikon SB-600 with a Rouge LightBender softbox type flash diffuser thing that
helps "shape" the light, and fill-in the backlit flower with just the right amount of "fill-light".
As in ... Fill in the shadows.
Yes, flash. Think of it as studio lighting ... in the field. On the ground.
Along the path.
That is where the fun begins ... How much "fill"? You can control everything right
at the camera ... well, at least I do.
I pop-up my "Commander Flash" on my camera -- in this case, my Nikon
D200. Big name for a little flash.
Commander.
You know, the little "Pop-Up" flash built right into the camera.
I set it to just send out a pre-flash signal that "commands" the SB-600, which
is sitting about three or four inches away from the flower ... It comes with a little plate that lets you set it down
on the ground ... pretty cool.
I dial in how much flash I want, how dark I want the background to be, and fire
away.
Check the results ... adjust. Fire away. Too light? Too dark? What? Spin a dial,
play with some numbers, see what happens.
The camera is great. TTL is great.
Oh, that is camera talk for "Through the Lens" metering. What it means to you is
that the camera does all the math for you ...
True, it might not be "the right answer" but that is where you -- the artist, comes
into play. Add more light, subtract some light. Yes, it is "math", but you get to come up with your own answer.
How cool is that?
Just don't tell my middle school math students that ...
The camera is the computer, but you still can over-ride anything it comes up with.
Too light? Darken it.
Too dark? No problem ...
Ahh, lighten it.
As simple as ... Plus One, minus one. Or, plus one point seven, or minus two. Think
of a number line in fourth grade, and go one way, than the other, until you come up with something that looks good.
To you.
Heck with what the camera comes up with ...
Who is smarter? You or the camera?
Well, OK. That just might be another article ... another story ... another time
...
For now, just know that you are in charge ... you get to pick. You are in command
of The Commander!
Can you imagine trying to get your math teacher to let you slide, by coming
up with ... say, 9x8=73? 75.7?
Ahh, good luck.
Photographers have that kind of power. It is called art.
It is called control.
It is called knowing how to control the light. Control the look of your image.
The final outcome.
It is not so much what you see, it is how you see it. How you control it.
I didn't see this image. I made it look like I wanted it to look. In fact, it looks
better than what my eyes could see ... more contrast, more color, more "BAM".
OK. Once I got the exposure taken care of ... the next trick was to put the
light where I wanted it.
Control it. Be in command ...
Off to the left ... hitting the flower just right ... place it here, hold it there
... aim it just right ... shoot. Look. Adjust. Try it again ... an inch here, a "tweek" there ... Try it again.
And again ...
Perfect.
Flash in the woods ... Who would of guessed it could be this much fun? Yes, I got
some funny looks as people walked by and saw me laying on the ground, popping off this weird looking flash thing, with a big
white sail sticking up from it, but hey ... I find it weird that people walk right by this beautiful little flower ...
and don't stop and take a picture of it. Don't stop. Don't look.
And they think I'm weird.
I call it even.
I call it art.
I call it ... being in Command.
Yes, with a capital C.
Closed
Edgemont, NC
Coffey's General Store.
No more MoonPie and YooHoo.
Really.
I have been stopping in to the store ... really, the only reason I stop in Edgemont
... for about 20 years. As long as I have lived in North Carolina ...
OK, it might be 19 years ... It might have taken me a year to figure out just where
the heck Edgemont actually is, and how to get there.
It is "out there", no matter which way you come from.
I have taken my photography class there several times over the years as well. Great
place. Wild drive.
And yes, I ALWAYS bought a MoonPie and a YooHoo for "lunch". I don't know why ...
I just did. Coming from Up-State New York, it just seemed like the right thing to do.
Talked to the people, looked around the store ... took pictures all around the
store ... I remember the Post Office (yes, inside the store), the "stuff", like everywhere. And everything ... the bin
full of soda bottle caps.
Yeah, that kind of store.
No more.
Closed.
I couldn't believe it ...
I drove up last week to check out everything for our big "Camping Trip" with Joe
Young and the Photography Club at CVCC. We have been getting together at South Mountain State Park for many years but could
not reserve any campsites this year, so I hatched the idea of meeting up in Mortimer and camping there.
You know ... Mortimer, NC. Just down the gravel road from Edgemont, NC. Which is
just down the gravel road from the Blue Ridge Parkway. All of which is in the middle of a National Forest, in the middle of
Western North Carolina. And the mountains ...
The store was closed ... I thought it was weird, but it was later on in the afternoon
(after my college class) and I didn't think anything of it.
No, that's not true ... What I thought was ... I will have to wait until next week
to get my MoonPie and YooHoo. That is what I thought.
Long story short ... If that is possible ...
The next Saturday ... Rain. No CVCC. No camping. Rain in the mountains. Rain all
weekend.
Well, rain in the forecast anyways.
No rain while we were actually there ... but yes, it did rain later on that day
on our return to the college (and it is raining as I type this) ...
So much for our great plans ...
But ...
Great day.
The Mug House. Flowers. Barns. More flowers. Stop here, stop there. Coffey's General
Store (from the outside anyways). Mortimer. Gravel roads. More flower thingys ... The Edgemont Bapist Church. A Country
Store in Mortimer ... and yes, I had my MoonPie and YooHoo for lunch.
Thank you very much.
Wilson Creek. More flowers.
Photography.
Can't forget that ... I tell myself that is why I get out there. But come on ...
MoonPie.
YooHoo.
I will miss Coffey's General Store. But I have a feeling I haven't seen the last
of Edgemont.
I have a nice little spot up yonder, above the community, that is a great place
to spend a quiet night away from it all.
I'll just have to remember to stop in Mortimer, and pick up, ahh, you know ...
Lunch.
Natural Light
Yes, I have been shouting the praise of Nikon Speedlights (flashes) the past few
months -- and well I should. But ...
This is all about natural light ... still my favorite.
I have photographed the flowers at Granite Falls Middle School now for 19 years
... every Spring. Like clock work. I love 'em.
I get to school early ... which, in the Spring, just happens to be around sunrise.
Ahh ... Perfect.
The iris are lined up perfect (just like Marines) ... in beautiful natural light
that just glows at this time of the morning.
I brought in my camera ... actually, one of the teachers wanted me to take some
images for a project her classes were working on, so ... Sure. Perfect timing.
A few days earlier I had gone out with my little Canon "Aim and Create" camera
that I leave at school -- ahh, for times like this, and had taken a few nice images of the purple/blue/yellow/white iris flowers
that are just outside my end of the school.
Pretty easy. The art is right there ... flowers in great light. Too easy.
This time I had my new 16-85mm Nikkor zoom on my old (but new to me!) D200. Very
nice.
OK, the light was great, what did I do? Well ... alot really. True, the light,
the iris, the camera, and the lens worked pretty hard too, but I did all the thinking. The "work".
First ... and most important, I got "out there", as I like to say, and was ready
when the light did its thing. Very important, and not to be overlooked.
Pretty simple really, but ... key to the whole image.
Second ... I have my camera(s) set up the way I like it. Before I even grabbed
the camera out of the bag, it was ready. 200 ISO. Cloudy White Balance. Highest quality jpeg setting (yes, I shoot everything
in jpeg). Minus something - usually -.3 or -.7, as a starting point -- "my normal". Then I usually go down from there ...
Again, this is the way I set my cameras ... all of them ... up, before I even walk
out the door. It is my "style", my look ... my art.
Have the camera ready ... noise reduction, sharpness, this, that ... have a standard
that you go through each and every time ... have it all set up before the next shoot.
Yes, clean the lens ... the camera body, etc ... Have things ready. Batteries?
LCD screen cleaned? All your settings back to "normal"? You know you changed them the last time you shot, are they ready to
go? Check.
And double check.
Again ...
So ... the light is ready, you are ready, the camera is ready ...
Shoot.
Look at the Light.
Get Closer ... and closer ...
And yes, shoot lots of images. This is where it all comes together. You. Subject.
Light. Shadow. Angle. Perspective. Lines. Shapes. Texture. Design. ISO. Aperture. Shutter Speed. Patterns. Lens. Lens hood.
Good technique. Luck. Color. Magic. Tripod. More luck ... Cable release or self-timer.
Tripod and cable release ... yeah, if needed. In this case ... to be honest ...
nah. Hand-held.
That is where the "more luck" comes into play! And "the good technique" ... How
to hold your camera. And, yes ... 30 plus years of "Boot Camp" with a camera. Not to be overlooked. Practice, practice, practice
... Before the light is perfect. Before the image just jumps out and grabs you ... be ready.
It is all part of the game. The dance. The magic.
And yes, the camera is important. The lens. "The gear" ... but ...
Did I mention "Being There"? Yeah, pretty important.
And vision ... Not hard. Just stick that lens into the subject and take a look
around. Where is the light coming from? What angle? Look. Try something else. Move an inch to the right. Move up over the
flower and look down (as in this case). Look up. Get on the ground ... yeah, I know, get the pants dirty. Don't worry, my
students are used to seeing my right knee having a little dirt on it in the morning ... ahh, no worries.
Just do it. Get out there. Look. See. Play.
See the light. Feel the light.
Explore.
Don't worry ... Even if you are late for class -- or work -- or whatever, just
show them the image. They will understand.
Magic.
That good. That simple.
Well ... If you are ready.
Shutter Speeds
Flash is a trip. I can remember when I first got into photography I did not use
a flash.
Period.
Didn't own one. Didn't want one.
Why?
1978.
That's why.
Yeah ... I was stationed in Japan as a young and motivated United States Marine
...
I didn't need no stinkin' flash.
Flash was crap back in the 'ol days ... I hate to tell you.
Well, for me anyways. I finally bought one -- a Vivitar 283, a classic. Automatic.
Cool.
I had no clue.
Set the sensor to the red dot for close-up and your aperture to f16, or to the
blue sensor thing and f4 if you are between six and 10 feet ... or was in the other way around?
And that was at 100 ASA (yeah, we really did have ASA back then, pre-ISO). Different
numbers for a different ASA. Math.
Yeah ... you had to mount the flash on the hot-shoe (No off-camera cables at first),
match-up the ASA with the camera (No, my Konica "did not speak" Vivitar), then focus to find out how far away your subject
was ... then set the little blue or red thing depending on the distance, cross your fingers, and fire away.
Like I said, I wasn't very good at it. It sucked.
Then I got "really into it" in 1984. Oh yeah ...
Worked in a camera store in Augusta, GA and sold my Konica and went with Minolta.
Why?
The store didn't sell Nikon. That simple.
Well, plus I could afford Minolta.
Anyway ... The Minolta flash system was ... well, like night and day, compared
to the Vivitar 283.
Did I mention "system"? First off, that made a big deal. Minolta camera, Minolta
flash, Minolta off-camera cable ... Yeah, they "talked to each other" and did all the math for me. Whew ... I believe that
is when TTL (Through the Lens) came into play.
Heaven.
Yeah, I still sucked.
Got a wee bit better, even shot a few slow-synch "action" images ... but, overall,
yeah ... still shot 99.9% available light.
And this is when I got my first job as a photographer.
Really.
Yeah, I finished my photography education -- via the mail -- with The New York
Institute of Photography and got a job working for the Department of the Army while in Germany.
BAM.
I was a photographer.
Really, I'm not making this stuff up.
And I worked in a studio.
I never even remember being in a studio before I started working in one ... Studio
lights. Umbrellas. Medium format camera. No prism. Everything was backwards ...
Oh, yeah, I learned real quick.
Clueless.
Shot everything at f16 and 250th of a second. Period.
Well, everything in the studio that is ...
I got out of the studio as much as possible. I didn't think of myself as a studio
photographer. True, that is what I did most of the time, but no ... I worked for the military, and I wanted action!
OK ... Training. I shot training. The Second Armor Division. Tanks. I went
out in the field as much as possible. You know ... The sun. No flash. A subject that actually moves ... The fun stuff. Flew
in helicopters ... Army pilots. Once they found out I was a Marine ... Oh, yeah, they had fun!.
I didn't.
But I digress ...
Flash ... Yes, the Army had Canon cameras -- the F1, and since we were in Germany,
we even had the big "potato smasher" Metz flash that was bigger than the camera ... Top quality gear. Really nice.
And yes, I still thought flash sucked.
I even started making my own "bounce cards" out of 3"x5" cards and a rubber band
... Oh, sweet. I was "The Strobist" before I ever heard of the term ...
Big cardboard bounce card for the Metz ...
Terrible.
Give me available light. Please.
Then ... 1991. Got back from Korea where I worked for KORUS Magazine, a military
magazine for the U.S. Troops, and yes ... the big switch.
Nikon came out with the SB24 flash. That was it.
Yeah, I sold all my Minolta gear, I mean like four cameras, six or seven lenses
(I can't remember) my flash system, all of it ...
And got a Nikon N8008s, the SB24 flash, with the SC-17 off-camera cable, a
28mm lens, a 50mm lens, and 70-210mm zoom lens.
Nikon.
For the flash.
I got into flash. Kind of ...
To be honest, it wasn't until I started shooting for OUR STATE magazine here in
North Carolina, that I really learned how to work with flash. Yeah, like 1997 or something like that. Shooting Christmas at
Old Salem ... blending the flash with the candle light. You learn real quick that "regular" flash ... well, I'll say it one
more time -- regular flash and candle light suck. The trick is to shoot with a flash, but don't let it look like a "flash
picture". It takes practice. You have to play.
1978 (first SLR).
1997. Learned flash. I mean really learned flash. Do the math ...
The trick?
Shutter Speed.
Period.
Yeah, I know ... flash exposure is based on flash to subject distance. The aperture
controls how much light hits the subject. TTL. All good. I agree. That simple.
That is basic flash 101. Heck, the camera does all the work ... pre-flash goes
out there, sees what's going on, tells the camera to select such-n-such an aperture. Super fast, super easy. You are done.
Good exposure. Simple.
To really control your flash, let the camera do all the heavy work with the aperture/exposure
thingy, and you just think about your shutter speeds.
Yes, shutter speeds. For you flash.
You know how I said I always liked "available light", the sun? Well, I still do.
With my flash.
Aperture for the flash, shutter speed for the background ... the "available light"
... ahh, the sun.
Now, of course, this works outside as well as inside.
Look at the Dogwood images. Shot in daylight ... around 5pm or so.
Black background. Fast shutter speed. 1/250th of a second. Killed the ambient (natural
light -- the sun) and just recorded the flash. Yes, the aperture and the TTL took care of "the flower" ... I took care of
the sunlight. Pretty cool, huh?
No, actually, the camera does all the work, I just played with different shutter
speeds until I liked the mix of flash and daylight.
Kind of like my cooking with the microwave ... one minute or two? One and a half?
Push the button for 30 more seconds? Yeah, that will work. Push buttons, see what happens. Works for me.
The second image? Shot about 10 seconds after the first ... I just went
down the line ... How about 1/60th of a second? 1/30th? How's it look? Little more light?
The second one was shot at 1/15th of a second. Everything else was the same
... aperture, ISO, compensation. All the same. I just spun the little wheel and went slower ... ahh, which lets in more light
... which makes the BACKGROUND lighter ... not the flower.
Remember, the flower is lit by the flash. Flash to subject distance. I just
held the flash in my left hand about two inches away, and fired away. No worries.
TTL. Automatic. Like real automatic ... not like 1978 automatic.
Easy.
Magic.
Shutter Speed and your flash. Learn how to mix the "two exposures" together to
improve your flash images ... 1) The flash exposure, and 2) The ambient exposure.
Two "different" exposures at the same time. Go figure.
Outdoors or indoors, the concept is the same. "Drag" that shutter to mix the flash
with whatever light there is ... your household bulbs, or the sun. Slow things down. Mix and match. Play, play, play.
Flash has come a LONG way ... Heck, I now have three. Me. The one that hated flash.
I have lightstands, softboxes -- ahh, yeah, like real ones, not the ones I made
out of cardboard boxes and K-Mart shopping bags (hey, they worked great!) ... I have snoots, gels, grids, clamps to hold
flashes, you name it ... I have "a studio" in my camera bag(s) that I take with me everywhere. It is unreal. I like flash.
I actually use flash.
Just this week, I took my 2'x3' softbox and stand to school to help with a Project
Unify program for our school, then, on Saturday, I took a lightstand with one of my SB600 flashes and a Rouge Light Bender
mini-softbox diffuser thingy to SCHS to photograph runners inside the school running up and down the halls ... The 5K Hall
Pass Run. It was easy, it was fun.
It didn't suck.
And that is a good thing.
And it all started with me understanding the use of shutter speeds when shooting
with my flash.
That easy.
Well, today it is that easy ... Not like back in the day ...
Deja Vu
Yes, I've been here before.
Well, no, not really. Yes, I've been to the OBX (Outer Banks, NC) before ... like,
lots of time.
I spend a week out there each year with my college class. Yeah, we rent a BIG beach
house and ... well, what do you think we do?
Yeah.
Take pictures. Lots of pictures. Every day. One week of "being a photographer".
Very few people get the chance to get away, spend some time in a beautiful place, with other people just as crazy as they
are, and do what they enjoy doing.
In this case, taking pictures. Period.
Very important.
Being a photographer. Thinking like a photographer. Seeing like a camera. Day after
day. Sunrise. Sunset. Light. Aperture. Shutter Speed.
Look at the Light.
Get Closer.
Shoot Lots of Images.
Repeat.
I love it. Have for years. I've been getting out to the OBX, with my photography
students, for about ten years ... Can't really remember the first year I took a group out there ... I do remember we
stayed at The Falcon Motel, down near The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Nice ... two or three nights, can't remember ... Hotels
add up.
Then we started renting a Beach House. Nicer. A whole week. Sweet. Crazy, but sweet.
Something like 20 people ... kids, cameras, sand, and ocean ... ahh ...
Did I mention CRAZY?
Yeah.
Usually in Kill Devel Hills or Kitty Hawk. Kind of a "Central Location" ... kind
of.
North to the Currituck Lighthouse, and then the Wild Horses. South to the Ocracoke
Lighthouse, and the ferry ride (feeding the seagulls). The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Jockey's Ridge. The Wright Brother's
Memorial. Bodie Island Lighthouse ... and everything in between. Flying kites.
Manteo (with their "little lighthouse"). Wanchese, with the fishing boats
-- and pelicans. The Aquarium. The Elizabethan Gardens. And don't forget Duck.
And the ducks.
Fort Raleigh. The piers. Yeah, any of them at sunrise ...
The list goes on and on. The Osprey. Heck, even the seagulls. Kites, can't forget
the kites. Kitty Hawk Kites. Kayak trips. Kite Sailing.
Yeah, special place. The OBX.
OK ... Back to not ever being here before.
This year we stayed in Rodanthe (and no, I still can't remember how it is REALLY
pronounced), for just that reason. I have never stayed there before ... I wanted to try a new location, a place I usually
just drive through to get from Point A to Point B.
So, yes, I have never photographed this fence before, this beach, this section
of sand ... of ocean.
True, I have photographed these fences before. In fact, as someone who grew up
in the Snow Belt, I call them "snow fences" ... used in winter to help control the drifting snow.
I like Sand Fences better ... I guess that is what they are called down here. Used
year round to control the drifting sand. Sounds good to me. They are everywhere up and down the coast.
Light and shadow.
I have shot them for years. I see them. I see the light. I see the shadows. The
patterns. The lines. The photograph. The image. Every year, every beach, every day.
So yes, I have photographed them before.
But this year ...
I thought of another image. Another place. Another state. Another location. Another
image in my head.
I have seen this shape before, this pattern.
Not a Sand Fence. Not a Snow Fence. Where have I photographed this before?
Yeah, that is what I do. What I think. I bring the camera up to my eye and think
... I see patterns, shapes, lines, shadows, curves ...
Deja Vu.
I have been here before. I have seen this ... this image in my head, before.
Utah.
Dinosaur National Monument.
This past summer.
I photographed a couple of rafting trips for O.A.R.S. out in Vernal, Utah. Through
Dinosaur National Monument. The Green River.
Beautiful country. Wild country.
Anyway ...
After the two trips ... back-to-back ... The first one through Flaming Gorge National
Recreation Area (same river, different -- like REAL different -- section), then a longer trip starting in Colorado and
ending back in Utah through The Gates of Ladore and Dinosaur National Monument.
After the trips (and after taking a real shower), I took the time to actually
stop in and visit the Park. Glad I did.
Like the OBX ... Special.
That is where I took the image of the dinosaur bones. The tail. The curve. The
pattern.
That is what I saw in my viewfinder over Easter Break. Different subject, same
image.
Well, sort of.
The image in my head, anyways ...
I knew I have taken that one before. I saw the same thing ... True, it isn't the
same thing, but it is.
Sort of.
Images are just that ... images. We see them all the time, with or without a camera.
Well, I do anyways. Photographers do. Artist do. I just know they do.
I do.
Utah. North Carolina.
Dinosaur fossils. Sand fence.
Not even close.
Sort of.
That is what I was thinking of while photographing a fence one morning on the Outer
Banks ... far removed from the desert region of Northeast Utah. Crazy.
I thought of my image of bones ...
Did I mention I love getting out to the OBX and spending time with a camera?
Yeah, I do.
And Utah too.
Replay
Leaving the college after class ... 2pm Saturday.
Been there, done that, shot that.
And that is the point.
If you know me, and read this Blog, you know I have something about trees. And
going back and shooting the same tree over and over again ... year after year.
Just what? Two weeks ago, I was dropping off my students at the college in a "Snow
Storm" (well, a Carolina Snow Storm anyways) and photographed this same tree, same time, and came away with ... well, a different
image.
Funny how that works. Same tree, same time, same camera, OK, different lens, but
come on ... you get the idea. Close.
I love it ... you know what is really funny ... as I am typing this, I am listening
to a song titled ... REPLAY.
Yeah, really. Anyone over the age of ... Oh, say, 16, won't know what song I'm
talking about, but hey, that's my life at the middle school ... expanding my music in order to better understand pre-teens.
Oh yeah ... Replay.
Anywho ...
Replay.
Over and over again ... Perfect. I love it.
Shoot the same "thing" over and over again. Go back. Stop. Look. Photograph.
If it was nice enough to make me stop in a snow storm, by gosh, it just might
be nice enough to make me stop on a beautiful, sunny Spring Day in the middle of the afternoon.
Take a moment. Relax. Look. See. Enjoy.
Actually ... and to be honest, I needed this moment. OK, it turned out to be more
than a moment ... you know me, I get carried away. Even left my car door open ... Got my camera, ah, you carry yours with
you, right? Yes, I know, it was my photography class ... so yes, I tend to take a camera with me, but hey, we were in class
all morning going over PhotoShop, reviewing our images of FORKS (Yes, that was a real college photography class assignment),
and watching photography videos off the internet ... you know, college stuff. Photography stuff.
I needed a break from all that college stuff.
Ahh ... pink tree stuff. Perfect.
Wait ... I'll check ...
First picture at 14:12:37 (#16 on the card)... last image at 14:19:45 (#72) on
3/9/2013 (Don't you just love digital?). A little over seven minutes of "relax" time ... over 50 images in seven minutes.
More really, but several were mutiple-exposures ... tried 10 at once a few times, ahh, a bit much. Settled on 2.
You know, "Keep it Simple". Play, Play, Play. Shoot this, shoot that ... Even tried to shoot some as close to the "Snow Blizzard"
shot I took ... Why not?
Love it.
True, I had my 18-55mm this time, compared to the 18-200mm I had the first time,
but hey ... I gave it the 'ol college try.
Oh, come on, that just came to me ...
Which brings me to another point ... It is fun to try to "copy" another image ...
be it your own, or another photographer's ... Yeah, try it.
No, really, try it.
Try to copy another image. Same angle, same perspective, same lighting (Ha ...),
same quality, same this, same that ... same image.
Good luck. Same ISO? Same camera settings? Same White Balance? Same exposure? Is
Nikon's Cloudy White Balance the same as Canon's? I don't know. Is Nikon's Vivid the same as Sony's? Whatever? I don't
know? Don't think so. And even if they are, do you set your camera up the same way I do? Shoot JPEG? RAW? Does it make
a difference?
Yes.
Of course, this is nothing new ... I have stood where Ansel Adams took his famous
SNAKE RIVER OVERLOOK image in the Tetons ... Yeah, not even close. River still bends, true.
But ... the trees are bigger ... like, what? 50 years bigger! They cut off the
"bend" ... you can no longer see the famous "S-Curve".
Different image.
Ain't going to happen ...
The fun part is trying. Go back and shoot it again. Whatever the "it" is ... go
back over and over again. Shoot it today, tomorrow, next week, at 5pm and 5am, in the snow, the rain, the fog, at noon on
Saturday, Thursday, yes, even Sunday at 11pm with a flashlight.
Replay.
What a concept. I believe I have it covered in Rule Number Three ... Shoot Lots
of Images.
Good rule. Glad I came up with it.
Now get out there and relax. Work at relaxing. Work on getting a new image out
of an old image.
Replay.
Love it.
A Walk in the Park
"It's a Beautiful Day" ...
South Mountain State Park ... Yeah, if know me, you know I like South Mountain
State Park. I have been going there pretty much since I moved to North Carolina ... maybe my second year. Can't remember --
it's been about nineteen, twenty years. Close enough.
Actually went to go fishing ... NOTHING. Didn't see a single fish, heck, not even
a shadow. And, after twenty years, I know where they hide! The water was high, clear, and cold. Nothing.
No worries ... "It's a Beautiful Day"!
Came back, took out my "new" Nikon D200 and went for a hike. Love the camera.
Very simple really ... Look at the Light, Get Close, and Take Lots of Pictures.
And play with Multiple Exposures .... I tried ten. Ahh, a bit much. I believe I settled on half that ... shot five quick images
of the bare trees and the path. I like it. Shot some more ... Why not? "It's a Beautiful Day". Warm and sunny. In February.
Love it.
But ... Back to the light. Nice sunny day in the woods. Perfect. I just walk around
looking for the light ... and what I can do with it.
That and the moss. What the light can do with the moss on the side of a tree. Did
I notice the light or the moss? Probably it was the light on the moss ... that must have been it. Really, how many trees with
moss on them are along the path? More than one I'm sure. It had to be the light. It is Rule Number One.
I saw this one.
Before I even took a shot I set my compensation to minus more than what it was
... whatever that was. No doubt, no question. Minus. More minus. Minus more.
Then, I got in there and took a few shoots. Minus it some more ... I always say,
if it is good enough to make you take notice, to stop and actually take a picture, take more. Many more.
Now, to be honest, as a photo instructor, I also tell my students to stop, look,
think, shoot, move, shoot some more, look, think, explore every angle, shoot some more, change your exposure, shoot, shoot,
shoot.
Simple.
Yeah, that sounds good -- and you should. I do.
Sort of.
To be honest, as you probably know, I know what I wanted before I even took the
shot. It's drilled in my head -- my photographic DNA. Rim Lighting. I knew what I wanted, I knew how to get what I wanted,
and I got it. That simple. That fast. Shoot, adjust, shoot some more. Get it. Move on. BAM. Done.
One lens -- my 85mm f1.8. One camera. One button ... Compensation.
No, the shutter release doesn't count. One button. One direction. Minus.
In fact, now that I'm typing this, we just talked about this in class this week
-- either T/Th or Saturday (I'm good, but not that good). I don't bracket. I compensate. One way ... The way I need to go.
Last week it was Plus. Plus for white (snow). Today, minus. Minus for rim lighting. Control the highlights ... get
them under control, let the shadows fall into black ... I wanted the moss, heck with the rest. Done. Got it. Move on.
There are other trees. Other subjects. Moss on the tree. Back Lighting. Expose
for the highlights. Yeah, been doing that for awhile now ... Like, from back in the film days. Slide film. Fuji Sensia 100.
Twenty five years? More. Yeah ... more.
Never gets old.
Like looking for trout..
Like South Mountain State Park.
Like me.
Well, two out of three ain't bad.
It was a Beautiful Day.
Snow
Snow is always a nice thing ... for a day anyway.
Photographing snow is always a good thing for a photography class. For photography,
photographers, and "phun" ...
Drove up the mountain and found some snow at Appalachian Ski Mountain ... and some
skiers, and some snowboarders -- of all ages. And best of all, it was snowing. Coming down pretty good at times.
So much for the sunny blue skies, white snow, and bright colors ... this was
more white on white. I loved it.
Spent over three hours on the slope ... we just stayed close to the padded light
poles and photograph anything and everything that comes flying by ... both to our left and right. Back and forth.
As far as photography goes ... the lighting was pretty flat and diffused --
as in snowing, so that made it easy once you got your basic exposure down ... no shadows, no contrast. With all
that white, and the fact that cameras make everything 18% gray, we just kept our eye on things, and kept adjusting the compensation
towards the PLUS side of things. I found myself running back and forth around one third, to two thirds over the settings the
camera was suggesting ... maybe a full-stop every once in a while, depending on just how much white was in the image.
Even in the snowy conditions, the bare trees, along with the colorful outfits, seemed to balance out pretty good. It is just a
game you play. It changes with the amount of snow vs mid-tone colors ... and how much it was actually snowing at any given
moment. It gets crazy ... Crazy fun.
Like I said, pretty even light ... Just had to see how white I wanted my whites.
It is all good.
Got a lot of action shots, people shots, goggle shots, kid shots, graphic shots
... and plenty of "snowing like crazy shots" ... even a few nature shots ... shot over 500 images.
Just playing ...
Had a great time, worked with a "new camera" that I just got a hold of ... Get
this, a Nikon D200 with the battery pack and extra battery -- the same batteries I use in my D90, all for under $400. It looks
brand new.
It isn't.
It is at least seven years old ... out dated. Old.
You know ... Like me.
But it works.
Like me.
I love it. A little bit bigger, a little bit faster, offers mirror lock-up,
shoots up to 10 multiple exposures into one, has weather seals, and ... well, it is the perfect "up grade" to my D90
... and is half the price.
And did I mention the battery thing? Same battery, same battery charger, one less
thing for me to haul around. And the battery grip hold two batteries ... yes, just like my D90. Perfect.
$279 for a D200. Wild.
The perfect match.
I don't really need another camera ... but come on, $279.
Really.
But, all that aside ... What I really wanted to write about was ...
OK. We had a great time up the mountain. Over 500 images. Snow. People. Action.
Fun.
Got back to the college and it was snowing pretty good ... Pulled into the parking
lot. Dropped off the students.
BAM. There it was. The shot.
Yeah, my favorite image of the day, was taken back at the college. I saw the tree
from inside the van. Red. Black. White.
Simple.
I had seven shots left on the card. Perfect.
And just enough battery power to squezzzee off ...
One shot.
Perfect ending for a perfect day.
A simple design image. Graphic. Bold.
Contrast.
I love snow.
For a day.
The Skyline
OK, yes, I'm from the North. I moved here for two reasons ... the Blue Ridge Parkway,
and winter.
Winter in North Carolina ... Nothin' could be finer.
As in, lack of winter. No snow. In mid-January. Winter. The dead of winter. No
snow. Period.
I moved here twenty years ago ... well, OK, in a few months anyway. Twenty years,
and it took me that long to photograph the Queen City's Skyline. Charlotte at night, I have done with my college classes many
times over the years ...
But never the Skyline. The Shot.
We always shot from within the city ... The heart of the city. Nice, but ... I
never knew where to go. Where to get THE shot.
Now I know.
CPCC. Central Piedmont Community College.
I'm sorry, but when I say that (or type that), or see that, all I can think of
is the former Soviet Union ... We say USSR, but in Russian, the letters come out as CPCC. That is
the history teacher in me. That is crazy.
But, I digress ... Sorry.
No, I teach at CCC&TI, but to get THE shot of Charlotte's Skyline, you have
to go to CPCC. I know, because one of my former students -- that drove up each weekend (one hour, one-way) -- told me so.
She knows the location. The bridge. The view.
Because of this, a group of former students and I met in Hickory, and made our
way to Charlotte to meet her at the "The Spot". I was glad one of them knows Charlotte better than I do, let's just leave
it at that.
I was ready with my GPS, but Tom lead the way ... I know where it is now, but
will still have to go with the GPS.
Or Tom.
He knows.
OK, twenty years, and I was finally standing at the spot. Checked
out the spot. Even checked out another spot up on top of one of the college's Parking Garages close by. Always looking.
Waiting ... checking things out. Looking. Then we went to Arby's get something
to drink ... no hurry.
See, it is all about LIGHT. The light. Waiting for the light to be just right.
Or should I say, in this case, the lack of light? You know ... waiting for the sun to set.
Sunset.
Post sunset, to be exact. Twenty years to wait twenty minutes after sunset ...
The best kind of twenty minutes. Wait. Wait ... OK, I can't just wait.
I tried this, I tried that ... Wide angle. Telephoto. I had my favorite lens ...
my 18-200mm. I tried 18mm. I checked out 200mm. Even a few in between, just because I could.
Horizontal. Good. Vertical. Good. Zoom in. Zoom out. Good. Good.
White Balance? Cloudy. Nice. Shade? Well, not so much. Daylight? OK, but
I like the mix of warm and cool light. Auto? (What? Auto? Sure, why not? I paid for it. I use it.)
Until I change it back to Cloudy. Or Daylight. Or ... better yet, Incandescent
(Nice "Twilight Blue", if there is such a thing). Check them out ... all before you really have to start shooting --
like, for real.
Remember ... this is all BEFORE the sun sets ... before the light fades -- like
real fast, and you have to shoot like crazy.
Yes, relax, try things out. We got there early just for this reason. Scout. Plan.
Prepare. Set-Up. Pre-Visualize the image -- all before you actually take the image.
Make the image.
Angles. Perspective. Wacky ideas ... You have twenty minutes after the sun goes
down. Heck, I even talked to the other shooters, you know, for a second or two ... Waiting. Waiting ... Making sure ...
OK, the whole twenty minutes thing is up. The Magic Hour, no ... more like
the the Magic, Frantic, Eighteen Point Seven Minutes ... begins.
Go.
It sort of sneaks up on you even though you have been sitting there waiting
for it. A few lights come on, a building here, a building there, street lights, car headlights, the warm light of sunset ...
ahh, nice. It sucks you in ...
Holy Crap, start shooting!
It comes on slow ... then BAM.
Shoot. Minus the exposure. Shoot again ... and again. Change perspective. Shoot.
Minus it some more. Start all over ... Go vertical. Quick. Shoot. Look. Adjust. Get that twilight ... that mix of warm light
and cool light. Orange and blue. Hurry ... Faster. You know what to do because you spent the time before hand to know what
you are looking for, what you planned on doing before the shot. Easy.
Shoot.
Shoot fast. As John Wooden once said, "Be quick, but don't hurry". Photography,
like basketball, takes practice. Know what you are doing ... and do it well. Relax. You have it all down pat. That is why
you practice. Go to a photography class. Stand out on a bridge with a tripod ... waiting thinking ... planning.
Shoot.
OK, blue is gone. Plus the compensation. Make it lighter. Can you get that lighter
blue sky back? Maybe one or two more ... Ahhh ... quick. Yes.
Gone.
Now what? Pack up and go home?
No.
Play. Time to Play. Relax. Do all the things you never thought about while setting
up for THE Shot. Relax.
Line up your shot, press the remote (you do use a cable release, right?), or the
two-second timer ... Click. One thousand one ... Tilt the camera back on its legs ... slow, smooth. Click. Set it back
down. Repeat.
Cool.
Which reminds me ... If a truck, or bus, drives over the bridge while you are
shooting ... you can feel the vibrations even though you are not paying attention to anything except the Skyline ...
No problem. Tap the tripod a few times. The shot was "ruined" the second the bus rumbled on by ... so, make
it art! Zig it. Zag it. Lift it up and ... well, do whatever you want with it. Move it. You just might like it. Art.
Now, back to shooting "after the shot".
Play. Play. Play.
In focus? Take it out of focus. Yes, everything -- it's alright. It's OK. Shoot,
it's easy. No rules.
Multiple Exposure? If you have it ... Use it. One in focus, one not so much. Try
it again. Take one, move the camera up, take another one. Try this. Try that. Make something up. One at f16 in focus, the
second at f5.6 out of focus. Sharp/Soft. I like it.
Next, set your ISO to 1600 or 3200, whatever ... and take the camera off the
tripod, forget the remote, and shoot away. See, like me, if you can hold a camera steady for the twenty three seconds (or
more) it takes to expose your image. Ha, you thought the twenty minutes you waited for the Magic Moment was a long time ...
one one-thousand, two one-thousand ... twenty somethin' one thousand ... Yeah, that long.
Longer. Sharp? Not going to happen. But how does it look? That is the key ... you
don't know until you try it.
Zoom in, zoom out. See what art you can come up with. Play.
It is fun. Color. Movement. Abstract Art.
The lights fly all over the place. Buildings look like candles ... or Japanese
Art. Impressionist paintings. It never gets old.
Magic after the Magic Light.
That is "night photography". Shot at Twilight -- and a little bit longer.
That is waiting twenty years to capture the Charlotte Skyline. With friends. In
winter. The middle of winter. On a Sunday night. Martin Luther King, Jr Weekend.
Perfect. I can stay out late on a non-school night.
And the images?
Worth the wait.
The experience?
Even better.
Snow Day
Well, yes, it is a Snow Day, but it turned out to be a cleaning day. No ... not
around the apartment. No, not me.
Camera equipment.
Yeah, I mean cleaning ... tripods, camera bodies, lenses, lens hoods, flashes
... everything.
No, not ALL my cameras ... are you kidding? No, just the ones I use. Not my collection
... whew, I would need more than one day for that one.
No, it started with me watching a video ... one of my OUTDOOR PHOTOGRAPHER Ultimate
Photo Guide DVDs, presented by my favorite British host, Karl Taylor. His accent alone, makes it worth while.
Travel Photography: Techniques and Equipment.
Ahh, my favorite of the five videos I own in the series. Go figure.
Anyway ... Yes, I've watched it before, but ... Snow Day, class tomorrow, thought
I would check it out and get pumped for tomorrow. Yeah really. That is what I do ... For my students.
So ... he was talking about tripods and how he uses his in and around the
ocean -- remember, he lives on an island. Salt water ... you know, not a good thing for metal. He washes them off in freash
water ... dries them off ... and then wipes them down with cloth sprayed down with WD-40.
Like I said, I've seen it before, and actually do take pretty good care of
my equipment, but ...
Out they came.
Tripods. I did just return from a trip to the swamps ...
Cameras. Ditto.
Everything ... cases, bags, filters, light stands, softboxes, battery-pack (I am
just charging that), flashes ... You name it.
My stuff.
Clean it, charge it, inspect it, wipe it down. Even picked a bunch of threads out
of where I had a new zipper sewn into one of my tripod bags (felt like I was back at Parris Island trimming the "Irish
Pennants" off my uniforms getting ready for the Final Inspection).
Oh yeah, that type of Cleaning Day.
Old tooth brush ... Q-Tips ... Armor All ... Wash cloth ... WD-40 ... Old rags
...
More of my stuff. Cleaning stuff.
Clean.
I like it.
Looked over everything ... checked out all the little nicks, scrapes, marks,
etc ... Even got out my 'ol pocket knife to open the little rubber "doors" to my cable release on each of my D90s.
Yeah, that bugged me while down in Florida trying to photograph the Osprey. My
L-Brackets makes it tough to get to the doors ... I couldn't use my remote. So, I just popped them open with my knife blade
and left them "sort of" open ... just enough so that I can get to it when needed. I hope.
You know, all the important stuff you never get to while actually having a life.
Not that I do, that is ... well, outside of photography anyways.
Always something.
Until a Snow Day.
Heck, I'm worst than any of my students ...
We even got out of class early last night (Thursday) at the college due to
the storm. Yeah, they kicked us out about 7:15pm or so ... North Carolina and snow don't mix. It was actually snowing(see
photo).
Closed the college early. Closed the Middle School the next morning. Period. Big
storm.
How much snow you ask?
Well ... I'll never tell. It's gone now (the next afternoon), so it's not important.
What is important is that I now have clean tripods, cameras, lenses, filters, bags ... and stuff.
I love Snow Days.
Just as much, if not more, than I did forty plus years ago up in New York ... ahh, Up-State
NY, where we actually did (and still do) have snow.
Real snow. As in FEET of snow.
Not ... well, OK, I'll go ahead and say it ... Not less than an inch we got last
night/this morning. Yeah, we got less than one inch of snow.
No, back in the day, I'm talking feet of snow. As in more than one. In one
night. One day. Feet. Plural.
That's why I live here. In North Carolina. Pretty simple really.
"Oh, How Many, Many Feet You Meet".
Catch Light
OK, it is a small detail, but that just shows how a little detail is a big thing.
A catch light in the eye.
One little dot. Smaller then this period.
Small dot, big deal.
There, that is about it. Take a look at the two images of the little Chikadee and
see if you see the difference.
It gives the eye "life". Makes it pop. Very important in wildlife photography.
Or Chickadee photography.
Same thing.
I took six shots of this little bird and the little dot made the difference.
A big difference.
A tilt of the head.
That is why I stress SHOOT LOTS of IMAGES. You know, Rule Number Three. There
is a reason for the rules.
They work.
I was in the Ocala National Forest just hiking around with a large Bogen tripod with my
trusty 80-400mm lens looking for ... well, not a Chickadee.
An Eagle. Osprey. You know, wildlife.
I had just started and there it was, flying in and out of some bushes.
Why not?
Six shots and it was gone. Did I jump for joy and giggle when I took the shots?
No. Did I see the difference then? No. Did I know I had a shot I was going to write about later on? No. Was I as happy as
a pig eating poop? No.
It was a Chickadee for God's sake.
I didn't even look at the images ... never thought about them again, until
I got home and was going through the images ... and when I went from one shot to the other, BAM, it just popped. Caught my
eye.
Yes, the small Catch Light in the eye caught my eye. It made the shot. It is the
difference between a nice shot and a good shot. One little dot.
Was it in focus? Yes. Whew. How was the light? Good. Yes!
Done.
I like it.
Now I'm as happy as a pig eating poop.
A teaching moment.
As a photography instructor, I really like it. It makes a point. It shows what
a little detail can do for the overall image.
I love it. Small bird. Small detail. Small light. Small dot. Big difference.
The difference.
Makes the shot. Makes my day.
Look for the little details, they make a big difference.
Even to a little bird.
It is, after all, a wild Chickadee.
Crystal River
You go to Crystal River, Florida to swim with the manatees. That
simple.
They are big puppies that visit the river in the winter for one reason:
they get cold. Three Sister's Springs keeps them warm. They hang out in the warm water all winter before heading out as
far as Texas to the west, or North Carolina to the north.
I drove down and signed up with a company called, BIRD'S UNDERWATER,
after seeing a show on-line about it by a South Carolina wildlife photographer, Doug Gardner. I watched it a few times
and just had to go see for myself what it was all about.
In fact, I have heard about it for years ... my mother
lived in Florida for over 20 years and I have had friends that lived in, or around, Tampa for years (which is just south
of Crystal River).
I have been down there in the summer - back in my motorcycle days
- but that is not the time to go see them. True, you can ... some actually hang out there all year long ... but, winter is
THE time to go. They are just about stacked up like firewood near the warm springs. Just waiting for you to come in and play.
Oh yeah, and I mean PLAY.
Here is how it works ... I know you are planning a trip as soon as
possible.
You meet at the dive shop at 6:15am (yeah, like dark). They give you
a wetsuit, snorkel and mask, you watch a video (Rules, Rules, Rules) and off you go. There is a guide that gets you there,
tells you what is what, and off you go.
Yes, it is still dark ...
Off the boat, into the water -- no, it is not cold. Then you head
into the "hot tub" area ... and ...
Holy crap! They are big. Huge. I was swimming along ... can't see
anything ... All of a sudden, I heard this explosion right next to me. Like one foot away. A manatee came up for air right
next to me ... I never knew it was there. Scared the crap out of me. Wow, baby!
Really.
That is how it all began. After that ... I was ready. I was pumped.
They just ... Float out of the darkness.
True, the river is called "crystal" but trust me ... At "zero dark
thirty" you can't see anything.
Then, yes, the sun comes up ... All is good. They are there, you meet,
you have fun. The young ones are a trip ... Like, in your face hello.
"Excuse me, but I'm trying to get a photo here ... Back off"! But
no, they just keep a'coming ...
Yes, you can "pet" them. Scratch them, heck, even talk to them ...
Yeah, with a snorkel shoved up your mouth ... But hey, it's not like they can really understand you anyways. I just laughed
... And almost gaged!
You pet them, they "roll over". Like I said, like big, fat, ugly (well,
come on ...), puppies -- with wiskers. Not big. Huge. Females can weigh up to 8,000 pounds. Yeah, three zeros. New born babies
... 60 lbs. They start big and just get bigger.
OK ... About the photography.
First off, don't go over Christmas/New Year's Break. That is Rule
Number One. Way too many people out there, kickin' up sand, and everything else you can think of, in the river (they missed
the video).
Pick an "off week" in the winter, when the crowds are gone. Easy enough.
Unless you teach ...
Dark. Good for manatees, bad for photographers. True, you can use
flash ... but ... If the river isn't "crystal clear" you get the flash lighting up every piece of sand in the water. Whoa
... Not good (not that I would do anything that foolish, of course).
I went twice ... New Year's Day (hey, I thought everyone would be
sleeping) at 6:15am, and the next afternoon at 11am. Both were great.
Less people in the morning, more light in the afternoon. Yes, more
light, but yeah ... Like 16 million arms and legs kickin' up crap ... Kayaks, boats, police (yes, river police), you
name it.
Hey, this is a BIG TIME deal. Who would of thunk?
But ... Anyway ...
Even in the morning, once the sun comes up (the tours were three hours
long), the light was ... Well, pretty good, say ... The last hour or so. Again, less people, more active manatees. The best
EXPERIENCE.
Oh, and that really is the reason you get out there in the first place,
right?
Right.
The best photos? Afternoon. No question.
Now ... Go on a "quiet" morning, nobody kicking up dirt ... Then yes,
maybe more active manatees with a little flash ... Just might be the best of both worlds. I don't know. Remember, I teach.
I go when all the kids - And their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles (you get my point), are there as well.
See, in the afternoon, MOST manatees are resting. Better light, but
lumps on a log. Or, really, just big 'ol lumps of breathing logs. With wiskers. Small wiskers, but wiskers.
Except for the young ones ... Oh, they still want to play.
So ... Off-day, say about 9am ... Sun is up, people are gone ...
Manatee heaven. Ditto for photographers.
In the morning (dark), I used my small, water-proof Nikon AW
100 -- it has a flash -- and then changed to my Nikon D90, with an Ewe-Marine underwater housing, once the sun came
up. I set my ISO to 800 and fired away. Not bad.
The next day, after shooting Osprey all morning long, in the dive
shop's parking lot (yeah, it's that good), I just used my D90 with the ISO set to 400. Perfect.
Auto White Balance, for those of you that are taking notes. I am no
expert underwater photographer, ahh, this was my first time with my "big" camera ... But that seemed to work pretty good.
You know me, don't try to out think yourself. Auto is your friend.
Auto focus. Auto White Balance. Works for me.
You need a wide-angle lens. Wide. Like 12mm wide (18mm for you full-frame
shooters). 10mm. The widest you have, and pray for more. Like I said ... These little puppies get CLOSE. And remember, underwater
... Close is CLOSER. I set my 12-24mm at 12mm and that was that. Wide as I could get.
And yes, that is that.
Very interesting. I loved it. Something new. Something different.
Something exciting.
And, to steal a quote from Doug Gardner (as close as I can remember
anyways) ... "It's not just about the photograph, it's the outdoor experience".
How true.
And I'll end with one of my (famous ... well, sort of) quotes
... "Just get out there and play". It is all good.
Crystal River, Florida.
Manatees.
Bird's Underwater. Google it.
Then, get out there ...
One-A-Day
Again.
Round three.
Or four ... I can't keep track.
I just know I've been photographing the trees out front for years now ... year
after year. One image a day.
You know, like Jim Brandenburg. First it was "one click" a day. That was hard.
REAL hard. No, that was crazy. REAL crazy.
Then it was trees. Or leaves. A little different ... "several clicks - delete all
but one-a-day". That was good. A tree, any tree. Walk outside. Look. See.
See something ... shoot. Walk inside, delete all but one.
Then it was one tree ... In fact, it was the same tree I picked this year ... One
tree, different views. That was fun ... tough coming up with a "new view" day after day ... like, ah ... for 90
days. Same tree.
That was good.
This year? Well, had to come up with something "new". Something different. Or the
same ...
Same tree, same view. One image a day ... or, One-a-Day. I like it. Different.
Started the end of October ... Yes, it was all part of my bigger plan -- my college
classes. We tried it for one week.
Seven images.
Well ... Should have been a dentist, let's put it that way. You know, like pulling
teeth.
Whew ...
I liked it. They ... well ... Not so much.
It is all about routine ...
Get home from school, walk in, pick up my D90 (with the 105mm macro attached) off
the table ... walk outside to a Dogwood tree 15 yards from my door, stop right in front of it, same spot ... turn
right, face the Pear Tree, take a picture. Maybe two.
Same tree, same camera, same lens, same spot, same view.
Easy. Like five minutes easy.
Or less.
Different ISO. Different exposures. Different light. Different times. Different
colors. Different images.
After awhile, that is ... the first week or two was tough.
Ahh ... Green. Green. Green. Green. Green. More green.
Yellow!
Yeah.
Day in and day out. One day (20 Nov) I even had to bring out the flashlight ...
and tripod. Yeah, Veteran's Day ... didn't get home until late (Bond, James Bond). Dark.
Oops.
No worries.
One-a-Day (or night).
Every day.
In fact, I'm still at it.
The first shot you see here was Day One (28 Oct). The second, Day Twenty One (17
Nov). The third shot is Day Thirty Six (2 Dec). The last image, Day Thirty Nine (5 Dec). Today.
Well, you know ... The day I'm writing this ... wrote this. Whatever ... Day
Thirty Nine.
The leaves are dropping like flies ... won't be long now. But, yes, I will stay
with it until the last leaf drops ... Whenever that is. Day whatever. The number isn't important, it is all about the image.
That last leaf. The last image.
The empty tree.
From green ... well, with a splash of red ... to yellow.
To really red. To yellow/red.
To some. To none.
Not the image. The images.
That is what this excerise is all about. I want to put them all together to make
one image. THE image. Made up of many images.
Tell a story. A visual story. A colorful story.
Now, I just need to get one of my students to show me how to make it all happen
in PhotoShop. You know, the computer. Someone has to know how to make my art a reality.
I have no clue. I just "see it" ...
Art.
But first things first ...
One-a-Day.
The story isn't over yet. The art is still being made. This is a work in progress
...
You don't mess with Mother Nature.
I'll wait.
That is what I do.
Day after day.
One shot at a time.
One-a-Day.
Again.
Art.
Making art.
Waiting for art ...
Simple
"The role of the artist is to simplify"
Yes ... once again, I forgot where I came across this great quote, but it
has stuck with me over the years.
If truth be know ... and if I remember correctly, whoever it was that came
up with this gem has been dead for hundreds -- if not thousands (I can't remember that either) -- of years, and will
not mind that I stole it.
If anything (I know I can't wait until someone quotes me a few hundred years from
now), he should be pleased. Yes, it was a he ... and from China, I believe. Or Japan.
No, China. I am pretty sure.
Asia.
Well, so much for keeping this simple.
I digress ... as usual.
Darn, I just wanted to say that my goal is to always make a photographic image
as simple as possibe ... using only light, line, shape, texture, color, and ... crap, there I go again.
That said, I'm done. Point made. I like to let the image - the art - do my
talking for me.
Yeah, I wish ...
Keep it simple ("my", now famous, quote ... well, sort of). Famous? Yes. Mine?
Ahh ... well, I like to think of it as mine. Can't really prove it's mine ...
But anyways ...
Make it simple. Work at making it simple.
Then ... shut up, let it do it's thing.
Love it.
Simple.
Real simple.
Going Vertical
Photographers tend to shoot more horizontal images ... I know I do.
At first I thought it was just me ... I have always shot that way, be it film or digital. That
is how I see, how I shoot.
But no ... I am not the only one.
But now I have a better excuse ...
The computer.
Blame it on the computer. Might as well, I blame everything else on it.
Look at your computer screen and you will see what I mean. How about movies? Next time you go
see a movie -- like the new James Bond movie -- look at the screen. What shape is it?
Yeah, that is what I thought.
TV? Same.
Even our very own cameras ... forget about the actual viewfinder (for us DSLR shooters), what
about the screen on the back? I have yet to see a vertical viewfinder or LCD screen on a camera. True, some flip out and spin
all around, but come on ... you must admit, they tend to be anything but vertical.
Video? Ha, shoot some vertical video and get back with me ... good luck.
Just like everything in life, if you want vertical shots you have to work for them. Rotate your
camera ... OK, it's not hard work, but you have to do something to get a vertical shot.
Today in class we went out shooting in Lenoir ... beautiful day, and the theme for the day was
vertical. Try it. Every time you shoot a scene, throw in a vertical shot for good measure -- even if it doesn't seem "natural".
That is the key.
Yes, there are some shots that scream horizonal ... good. Shoot it. Then, switch it up and
shoot a vertical just for the fun of it. Practice, practice, practice.
Your compositional skills will get better ... sharper. See? It is a game ...
Shoot it one way, turn the camera, and shoot it another way. Something has to give ... It HAS
to be different. It is a different format. Simple.
You have to think ... study the scene, and make adjustments. That will only make you better.
Yes, thinking is always a good thing, I would think.
As a photography instructor, that is my goal, plain and simple. Get you to
think. Well, OK ... me too. By getting me to think about getting you to think ... oh, that is good stuff. That is teaching.
That is learning.
Think. Think. Think.
See, composition is all about the placement of the elements within the frame. If you switch the
format of that frame, well, you had better switch the placement of the elements -- What do you leave out? What do you keep
in? Keeping things out, that is what photographers do. In many ways, that is key to making stronger images. Photographers
subtract, while painters add ... always remember that. Subtract. Simplify.
Work on getting vertical.
Same subject, two different views.
Oh, and for those of you that shoot more vertical shots ... ah, it works both ways. Switch it
up. See what you can come up with.
The classic example of this is the human face. Shooting the human face as a vertical is ... ahh,
well, natural. Easy. Do it all the time.
Now ... frame the human face as a horizonal. Yeah ... very different.
Try it. Nice and tight. Zoom right in there ... treat it like a landscape. The vertical
face as a horizontal image. Work at it. Not as easy as it sounds.
Back to that work thing ...
Work at it. Rotate that camera. Think about it. Work at it.
Practice makes perfect.
I heard that once ...
Can't remember where, but I know I've heard it somewhere. As a teacher, I know I've said it before,
I just can't remember when. Was it in math class? English? Social Studies? How about track? Yeah, maybe. Cross-country? Yeah.
Someplace.
Go vertical. Work at it.
There, I said it.
Again.
Person
Place
Thing
Noun
You know, like English class.
Person. Place. Thing.
Took my class to Valdese, NC last week. Short 10 minute drive, 15 tops. Great little
North Carolina town. Spent a couple of hours downtown shooting the stores, the church, buildings, flowers, people, the fountain,
what-have-you, you know ... Small Town, USA.
Nice day ...
I have taken my class there for years ... New to them, old for me.
What do you do to keep yourself charged up about photographing the same thing,
same place, over and over again?
Good question.
Give yourself - and in my case, my class - an assignment. Simple.
That is why I love teaching. That is why I love teaching photography. That is what
keeps me charged up for over 20 years helping students learn an art ... a passion.
That helps. Passion.
I have said many times, I don't teach photography, I teach the passion for photography.
Same as in the middle school.
I am working with a student right now ... trying to improve his reading skills
... at the moment, I am not teaching him to read -- the sounds, the letters, vocabulary, etc ... no, I am sharing my
passion for reading.
The Magic Tree House series. He is reading them ... I quiz him, he takes the tests,
he visits the website, he is ... ahh, that is real important, by the way ... He is reading. He is learning to enjoy reading.
A lost art ...
The rest will come. Long "e", short "e", the setting, plot, etc ... all that "other
stuff". The plan is working, he will improve his reading. Once he wants to.
Same with photography ... to be honest, the nuts and bolts of photography can be
tough. Like the English language, or, Lord help us, fractions ... Apertures and shutter speeds are right up there ...
But, I can teach it ... AFTER I can get college students up and out in the field
at 9am ... on a Saturday. Get them out there ... give them an "assignment" (we all love goals ...), and let them loose.
Passion.
The "other stuff" will come as they learn that to do this, they need to do
that. They have to change this to get that. They have to learn what they don't know ... then they build up until they,
like reading, improve their technical skills, which in turn, builds their visual vocabulary.
Photography. That easy.
Valdese.
Person, place, and thing.
Cool.
One of my favorite places to take them is the Winery. True, it is claosed at time
... but the PLACE is still there.
Yeah, I know what you are thinking ... got it covered. College class, winery ...
Yeah, that is why we go before they open (oh, I'm that good).
No, just kidding ... well, sort of.
But, it works out fine. A few rolls of grape vines (they actually get their grapes
from up-state NY, near where I went to college - The Finger Lakes region)... the wooden barn, Bocce Balls, all very nice.
What else could you ask for? A little bit of Europe in NC (yes, Valdese was settled
by a religious sect from Europe).
Great location, great day. And it all started with a little assignment to give
them something to shoot for (and a great pun, I might add) ...
Noun.
Person, place, and thing.
Try it. Not a bad place to start when visiting any location, anywhere ... photograph
a person, a place (that screams the location), and a thing, and you really are off to a great start in trying to capture the
essence of any given place.
Travel Photography 101.
I've been at it for around 30 years, and I never really thought of it as being
that simple.
It is.
Magic
PhotoShop before PhotoShop.
That is the story of photography. I have talked about it before ... you know, the
whole "reality" thing.
Photography is not reality. Never was, never will be. Period.
Yes, that simple.
What camera? What lens? What film? What developer? What paper? What perspective?
What white balance? RAW or JPEG? Filters? Workflow? ... You name it. Not reality.
Magic.
Cameras, and therefore, photographers, photograph reality (the real thing) and
come away with something else. Sometimes really, really close to what the real thing looks like, but not quite.
Sometimes.
Come on ... what are we really doing anyways? Recording the reflected light that
enters a little box thing (ah, upside down) and somehow shows up rightside-up onto a sensor thing that "captures" it so that
I can show you my image on the internet.
Yeah, right.
Not the real thing, that stays put somehow. We record the light reflected off the
real thing ... and then, magic, it shows up on the little screen on the back of the camera.
Pretty cool.
And then you can ... well, you can do a lot of things, but one of my favorite things
to do is ... Multiple Exposures.
In camera ... no Photoshop. No computers. Pure magic.
Here is my latest image ... Oh, did I mention I have done this for years? Like,
you know, before digital? The Old Days.
I have.
It is just easier now. Like, real easy.
If, you have a camera that shoots double exposures, that is.
I do.
The first image is what I saw ...
Well, no. I lied again. It is NOT what I saw, it was what I wanted to see. What
the camera sees ... bright highlights, dark shadows. If you know me, you know I love this look. Backlit trees with shadows
behind them. Always ... I HAVE to shoot them. Somehow.
Contrast. Color. Cool.
I set my exposure for the bright sun (minus about two stops on my compensation
button +/-) and fire away. Check the screen ... go darker if need be. Smile.
OK ... that was the "regular" shot.
Nice. Got it.
Now what?
Double exposure.
Push a few buttons ... Nikon calls it Multiple Exposures (I can shoot up to three
images on the same frame, or picture).
The second shot is made-up of two images blended into one ...
Ready?
I shoot in APERTURE PRIORITY ...
Take one image with everything in focus ... say, f16 (Big Number, Big Depth of
Field).
Now, the magic.
Kick off the Auto-focus.
Change the aperture to a small number (f5.6) to reduce the depth of field
(Small Number, Small Depth of Field).
What? Spin a little dial for less than one second ...
Then, turn the focus dial until everything goes ... Wham. Out of focus. Nothing.
Soft colors flying around everywhere ... another fraction of a second. Twist.
Take the second image. Click.
Wait ... blending ... blending ...
Magic.
Yes! Got it.
Sharp focus. Soft focus.
Art. Beyond giggles. Yes!
What I would paint if I could hold a paintbrush. Or, if I could sit still that
long and actually get it to come out that way ... Paint sharp. Paint soft. What? Or just throw water over the sharp image
and watch the paint run all over the place ... I don't know.
OK. I think I'll just stick to photography. The camera.
Better for everyone.
Repeat.
Over and over again.
For years.
And that is just for this type of look ...
It goes on and on ... Zoom out, zoom in. Stack 'em up ... overlap 'em, whatever
it is you can thing of, and then try something else.
No limits. No boundries.
If you can think it ... you can do it. Heck, I've even done things I didn't think
of, and came away happy.
Happier.
Happiest.
I call it magic.
Some call it photography.
MOVEMENT
Movement?
In a still photograph? Yes.
Pretty cool, eh?
I think so. In fact, it is a very important concept to learn as a photographer.
Movement. Direction. Energy. Flow. Lines. Fun.
These are all important concepts that I teach my students with one simple technique:
Move the Camera.
Yes, move the camera.
Yeah, yeah ... I know. First I tell them that they breathe, and "therefore they
move", and that the tripod is the only piece of equipment that will actually give them a sharper image, blah, blah,
blah ...
Well, I tell them that just to stall for time until the Fall Colors and
Christmas Lights show up around town so I can get these type of shots! Then the whole sharp image, tripod thing,
gets put on the shelf - or left in the car (as usual) - for a little while anyways.
Yes, knowing that a sharp image is a good thing is important, but I also know that
an "artistic" image is a good thing as well -- maybe even ... dare I say it?
Gooder.
Yes. It is.
Swrill. Zoom. Twrill. Rotate. Pan. Twitch. Zig. Zag ... and everything else
you can think of, or come up with ... just move the darn camera. Go wild. Explore your artistic freedom. Make an image. Make
some art. Play.
That's it. Make it a habit to play. I like it.
Here is the concept behind the "trick" of showing motion: Slow shutter speeds.
The whole "Less light, more time" thing. You want "more time" (longer shutter speed).
That is what gives us the "Notion of Motion" in a still photograph.
Real simple (my favorite saying).
Set your camera's ISO to the lowest number (yes, take it off Auto). If you have
a simple point-n-shoot camera, you're done.
Now just wait until the light fades a bit, then run out there and swrill around,
twist, jump, whatever ... and see what happens.
Not enough motion for you? Wait. Wait until it gets darker ... Less light means
more time, more time means more blurrrrrrrrrr. Get it?
Now, if you have a camera where you can adjust your settings, you have a
few more options. Again, it is all about exposure and the whole ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed relationship (this is the
main reason for the excercise in the first place - but don't tell anyone).
Learn to understand how changing one effects the others, you know, like in English Class
-- the good 'ol Cause and Effect thingy.
Yes, really.
Set your camera to PROGRAM (The big "P"). Set your ISO to its lowest number. How does
that effect your aperture? Your shutter speed? What settings does your camera choose for you? Does it give you the effect
you are looking for?
Good. Play.
Then, try Aperture Priority ("A" for Nikon, "AV" for all the others). Change your
aperture. How does that effect your shutter speed? Which gives you longer (slower) shutter speeds? f5.6 or f22?
Listen to your camera ... you will notice a long pause between clicks. The shutter
will be open longer (the pause). No pause? Fast shutter speed. Long pause? Slow shutter speed.
Listen.
Which aperture gives you the shutter speed that gives you the results you want? That is
what it is all about. You pick the aperture (cause), the camera will match it with the correct shutter speed (effect). You
cause the effect you want. Very cool.
Now, what about Shutter Priority (the "S" on Nikon, "TV" on all the rest)? Try
it. Choose a shutter speed that you think will give you the motion effect you are looking for.
I know what you are thinking ... which one? What shutter speed?
Well, that is what this whole not-so-short Blog thing is about ... It is your image -
you tell me. How much blur do you want? Blur, or blurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr? Your image, your choice. Choose one and see what happens.
Just be happy that you are shooting digital ... I don't even want to tell you about the
good 'ol days of shooting film ...
Whew.
Anyway, back to instant gratification ...
Choose a shutter speed, take the shot, look at the results. Adjust. Cause and effect.
That, and the whole relationship thing ... How much light? What ISO are you shooting
at? Aperture? Shutter Speed?
The idea is to get to a shutter speed that shows motion ... a blurred image. Movement.
Art.
Anyway you can.
Yes, all this from one simple concept. One simple excercise. One simple idea. One
not-so-simple image.
Well, I have yet to take one "playful" image and then move on to something else.
That is not how it works ... Not for me anyways.
That is also a key element to this little game we play ... How can you take
just one? Come on, it's like potato chips ... You can't just take one. You HAVE to take another one, and another one, if for
no other reason than to prove to yourself (and me) that no two images will be the same ... yes, just like snowflakes,
only more colorful. And warmer.
Play. Learn. Actually relax a bit ... yeah, it can be that good.
Work at it. Work at playing. Say what? Work at playing ...
Work, work, work. Play, play, play.
And yes ... Learn, learn, learn.
That is why I tell (ask, plead, prod, push, request, force, etc ...) my students
to do this every semester, every class, every year. Heck, if they were really go-getters, they would do it every day, every
hour, every other fourth image ... whatever.
Heck, if I was sharp, I would too. I try, but I forget once in awhile. Then I see
the leaves change color, or remember how the effect works in any given situation (ahh, like Christmas Tree Lights), and it starts
all over again.
Fall Leaves. Yes, every year I swrill around and get dizzy under a colorful tree,
or look down and spin that camera ... I don't know, I just always end up doing it.
Like I haven't done it all before.
I just know I will do it until I can't swrill, twrill, twitch, zoom, zag, or even
zig, anymore.
Want to improve your art? Your photography? Your life? Try it.
See, the thing is ... you can't "see" the image before you take it. You have to imagine
the image. Dream it up.
Think about that ... You can't see what you are planning to take a picture of.
True, you see something in front of the camera (duh) ... but it is unlike the results you see on the back of the
camera -- after whatever it is you did while taking the image.
Did you follow that?
Cool.
A tree with red and white lights does not look like the first image you
see here ... no, the movement makes the image. Well, yes, the movement and the lights ... but you have to do something
to make it look like this ... like art.
Same with leaves on the ground. Move the camera -- somehow, someway. Find the settings
on your camera that gives you the effects you want. You are the artist. The camera? Just a tool. Learn how to get it to do
what you want it to do.
And I dare you to do the exact same thing (even with the same settings - in the
same light) and come up with the exact same image. Oh yeah ... not going to happen.
Ever.
Very important. You have to think it - dream it - not see it. And make it,
not take it.
So, yes, there is a method to my madness, a reason for acting dizzy (as if I need
a reason), a meaning to my swrilling, a lesson in my twitching. That is teaching. That is learning. That is what I do.
That is exposure. That is photography. That is Photographic Vision. That is understanding
how your camera works. That is being an artist. A photographer.
Abstract learning. Abstract seeing. Abstract art.
Go out and make some today.
And tomorrow. Every other day. Next week. In the Spring. On your Birthday ...
Just don't wait until next Fall, or Christmas. You can have fun anytime. Learn
something new every day. You know, just like your mom begged you to do years ago.
Learn to move your camera. Learn to go with the flow ...
Yes, while taking the picture.
It is never ending.
I promise.
Reality
"Don't let reality get in the way of your photography"
David
H. Hessell
Yeah, I said that. Now, you know me, so yes, I probably did steal it from someone,
but to be honest, I've been saying it for so many years now that I can't remember where I came up with it, stole it, whatever
...
So yes, I'll take full credit for this little under-stated form of pure genius.
OK, it might have something to do with Impressionism, but hey, they used paint
brushes ... I'm talking cameras here, no brushes, no paint -- heck, not even any PhotoShop. Promise.
In fact, it really is reality. I recorded what I saw - what was in front of
me - just as I saw it. Really.
Real reality. Just depends on how you look at it.
Isn't that what reality is all about anyways? Just turn on your TV ... Oh, it is
... OK, then you know what I am talking about. The new norm is not normal.
Ahh, that works. Now I understand.
Photographing reality.
Yeah, like that will ever happen.
I think that is what keeps me going, keeps me looking.
Reality.
Go out and photograph some today.
Yeah ... just don't forget to turn off your TV.
Shoot What You Know
Forty years ago I played football.
Wow. I never thought of it until I wrote that line ... forty years ago(1972) I
played my last game of high school football. What a trip. I did play a season of German-American Football while living in
Germany in the 1980's ... but that is for another time.
But anyway ...
Now I lost my train of thought. Oh yeah ... Shoot what you know.
I know football.
I know photography.
Perfect.
Haven't shot it that much over the years ... I can remember one other middle school
football game - many years ago.
I started a Running Club at the school and run on the same day as the football
games, so I don't make it to many any more.
But this year I wanted to shoot a game with my big lens, the old Nikon 80-400mm
VR. Hand-held, moving targets ... you know, like I did with the pelicans while on the Outer Banks last Easter ... Play, play,
play. Practice, practice, practice.
I picked a nice day (that, and it was the last home game of the year ...).
The sun was out, nice crisp Fall day, perfect football weather.
Went running, got back just in time, made it to the field, and shot away. Had a
great time.
Big heavy lens, adjusted my ISO to give me a pretty fast shutter speed, and just
tracked the ball carrier (yes, in this case, he is one of my math students) and fired away.
And yes, I shot other players too ... and cheerleaders ... and coaches, managers,
you name it ... those will be used in the Yearbook (you know, I do what I can).
It was all about ... practice, practice, practice.
The tough part was the light ... clouds would roll in and change the light, which
changed the shutter speeds. Had to keep on top of that.
Started out around 4pm at 400 ISO and went back and forth to 800 ISO depending
on the clouds/sun. By the end of the game, what? 6pm? I noticed I was up at 1000 ISO, sometimes 1600.
It all has to do with shutter speeds. Long lens, fast moving subjects, hand-held
... Shutter speeds are the most important aspect to getting good sport images. 1/1000th of a second is the norm.
Wanting 1/1000th of a second, and getting 1/1000th of a second are two different
things. Again, I mentioned the light. That is what dictated everything -- it always is.
That and my lens. I have what is called a "slow lens" ... a zoom lens with
a f4.5 - 5.6 variable aperture. That means at 400mm (600mm 35mm equivalent), I am shooting at f5.6 when "wide-open". Not much.
It is a small opening ... but the best I can do.
Small opening, small amount of light. Not a good thing when shooting running backs
... By going to a higher ISO, that allowed for faster shutter speeds - which are a good thing when shooting running backs.
Key word - running.
Pretty simple, right?
Of course ...
That and knowing the game, knowing the action, knowing where the play was going,
what to expect ...
Well, kind of ...
Did I mention 40 years ... but hey, football is football; it hasn't changed
much. I also know the players ... and I got right down on the field ... that helps. Working at the school comes in handy
too ... ahh, this is my 19th year at GFMS. It all comes into play ...
That, and about 30 years behind a camera - that helps as well. And knowing my gear.
Knowing the light. Pretty nice. It all comes into play.
Every image I've ever taken ... of anything, helped me photograph a middle school
football game.
Grizzly Bears in Alaska, ballet in Augusta, GA, motorcycles on the Parkway, rafting
trips out West, pelicans at the OBX, seals, whales, and birds in Antarctica, recruits at Boot Camp ... everything.
You name it, it played a role in getting the shots I took on the sidelines of the football game. Simple as that.
The years in the classroom teaching photography. Knowing the light, the situation,
knowing the shutter speeds, the camera ... All that was more important than what I was actually shooting -- a middle
school football game.
I like football. I like photography. I like taking pictures of ... in this
case, a football game - action.
Pretty simple.
And it wasn't like I was really "thinking" about what I was doing ... it all comes
so natural. Sun goes behind a cloud ... Bam, change my ISO. Sun comes back out ... Bam, change it back. Boom, boom, boom ...
simple as that. As fast as that. You know, like being in a zone.
Like playing football.
I love it.
Almost as much as playing football for the Pulaski Blue Devils ... Yeah, even if
it was 40 years ago.
Glory Days. Got a chance to re-live them ...
Even if it was from behind a lens.
The best part was, and I do remember this, I wasn't as sore the
next day as I remember being after a game.
That said ... It is a pretty heavy lens ...
The Art of Nature
Pretty simple right? Photograph beautiful subjects and the results tend to be,
well, beautiful.
I could stop here and be done ... but you know better.
Swans are beautiful. Graceful. I know that, I photograph that. They make it easy
to come away pleased with the results ... even if you have photographed them for years ... been attacked by them, for years.
Man, they are mean ...
Or, can be mean.
Or peaceful. And graceful.
Today they were peaceful.
And close.
Took my class up to Bass Lake to photograph the Fall Colors. Yes, there was some
... pretty good. I shot a few trees ... and the Lily Pads on the surface of the lake. Nice.
But it was a pair of swans that had me shooting away within five minutes of making
it down to the lake ... beautiful. Graceful. Peaceful.
It drove me nuts.
Overcast light. Muted colors. White birds, white water, muted greens and yellows
... nice, but ...
They were off shore ... a wee bit to far to really grab the scene. Again, nice
... but ...
I walked around the lake looking for that color I just knew had to be hanging out
somewhere ...
Shot a little waterfall (well, ripples actually, but hey, dream big, right?). I
just bought a new ten-stop Varible ND filter and wanted to try it out. I just needed some bright sunlight to make
it all work.
Not happening. So, I just tried it anyways to get used to how it works, you
know ... play, play, play. Play now so when I really need it, I'll be ready. Photo Boot Camp. Train, train, train.
Then I moved twenty feet and worked with a student on wireless flash. Overcast
day? Throw some light on it to look like a nice sunny day on the lake. Simple enough.
We got out our flashes, set them up ... added some colored gels ... add two-stops
to the flash to over-ride the sun (yeah, cool, eh?), set my camera exposure compensation to two-stops under the daylight exposure
... to darken the background, added an extra warming gel over the flash to make it look like I got up there at sunrise ...
or sunset, take your pick ... instead of what? Like eleven o'clock, noon?
We were getting into it ... shoot, shoot, shoot. Adjust. Shoot again.
And what happened? The sun came out.
When I wanted the sun for the ND filter ... nothing. When I wanted the overcast
sky for the lighting excercise ... sunlight. Go figure.
No worries ... had fun. Played with light, and yes, pretty much lost out both times, but
hey, not the first time.
It is all good.
Walked back to the parking lot ... in the sun. And there they were again ... my two
swans, waiting for my return -- spot-lit by the sun.
Nice.
And closer this time. Like, real close. A foot from shore, standing there cleaning up
for their shot. Real close.
I shot away ... the light was nice. Made them "pop" from the dark blue water ...
Took the camera off the tripod, turned on the VR (I tend to giggle too much), and walked
down to the shore - slowly. Camly. Gracefully.
Like I said, I have a history with swans ... Germany, 1986. Or '87 ... They were
mean.
Not this time ...
They were nice. Lit nice. Looked nice. I got closer. And then opened fire ... checked
my exposure (white comes out 18% gray -- needs to be lightened about one-stop ... +1 stop). Had that covered ... nailed it.
I was set, I was ready ...
I just waited for the art to take over. For the swan to do its thing.
The S-curve exploded in front of me. Got it.
I was done.
Simple.
I did what any artist would do ... let the subject do all the work. Pose. Adjust.
Try another pose. Look beautiful. Make art.
Hard work.
Filled up my card, and left ... we were going to lunch. Beautiful day.
Yeah, about that "filled up my card" thing ... Are you kidding me? I was right there -
a foot away, I had my shot, and was ready to go ... and the swan got ready to rise up and flap its wings, you know, to thank
me for a great experience in front of the camera ... wow ... I could sense the movement.
I saw it unfold right in front of me ... I turned my camera up for a vertical shot --
quickly -- I knew what to expect, my timing was perfect ... shoot, shoot, shoot .... fast.
Nothing.
What? I had it ... I saw it. I shot it.
Nothing.
Card full.
Lunch was nice.
Pre-Visualization
The key here is the word, "Pre".
I found out about the Caldwell County Fireman's Festival by surfing through my
TV stations and seeing one of my former track runners (fastest kid in the county, I might add) explaining what this new event
was all about.
Sounded good ...
Changed my plans for that Saturday and got the college class out there and photographed
everything ... old fire trucks, close-ups of the gear, abstracts, the back of a pink firewoman's jacket, you name it,
I photographed it.
The Gamewell crew even took me and several other of my students up in their "bucket"
for a different perspective of what was going on below us.
All good.
But ... I knew the image I wanted the very first second (OK, maybe five) I
heard Dino talking on the television ... a close-up, in your face, image of a fireman in uniform.
Bam.
I pre-visualized the shot ... when I heard they were going to have some kind of
skill events going on ... that was it. Get in tight, follow the action. Shoot.
I knew that was what I wanted a week before the event took place. I had the
idea ... I had the vision. Now all I had to do was wait.
You know ... for it to actually unfold in front of me. That is photography. You
have to be there. You have to experience it. That is what I love about it.
Sure ... I am actually writing this a week later; I woke up early thinking about
it ...
Hey wait ... that is pre-visualization of this Blog ... wow, now that is really
crazy. Same concept.
Think about what you will be doing and "seeing" the results before they happen.
How cool is that?
And, like this article - or Blog - as it is called now-a-days, you know what you
want, but when the time comes, the action (or typing) actually is happening in front of you, you adjust, you go with what
is going on and work the situation the best you can. That is the beauty ... you adjust, overcome, and get in there and do
what you can the best way you can.
You go with the flow.
That is who I am, what I do. At the middle school, out in the field, at the
college, my summer trips ... my life.
Always has been ... On the football field. Track meets. On the basketball court.
The Marines. Mortorcycle trips. Writing. My website.
It is how I work. That is what I know, what I do. That is all anyone can do ...
plan for the best, change, adapt. Overcome.
I had no idea what would really happen that Saturday morning, but I was ready.
About thirty years of working with cameras, lenses, people, light, and movement, lead up to this one image.
Again ... Bam.
Getting out there and doing my thing, while they do theirs ... the results showed
up in my camera, this Blog, my website. My mind's eye.
That is why I love doing what I do.
That simple.
Now I have to go to class and find out what will happen today. The plan (made three
months ago or so) was Lenoir, NC. Good.
The color in the mountains changed that ... I switched my plans to include the
mountains ... Bass Lake to be exact.
Then again, one of my students mentioned something about the South Caldwell
Southern Classic going on ... high school bands going at it one-on-one, something like that ...
I'll just do what I always do ... wait until I get to class, see where the "energy"
takes us, and go for it . You know ... go with the flow.
Now let's see ... band instruments shining in the sunlight, or leaves shining in
the sunlight? Yes ... always think (pre-visualize) the best light ... I haven't even opened the door yet to get my weather
report.
No worries. I have them both covered. And everything else.
Now, I just have to wait.
Wait for it to unfold in front of me.
The magic.
Photographic Vision
Vison is seeing a photograph without your camera. You just know it will be a good
image. It is that simple.
You go get your camera and you make the image. Done.
While cleaning out my Element after camping (OK ... maybe not your idea of "camping")
out in the rain (which I love by the way ... the sound on the roof), I opened the door, carried my futons - yes, two, inside
and, on my return for another load ...
There it was. The image. The open door, the window, the rain drops, the trees.
I saw it, I knew it.
That was the first step. The vision. Seeing it.
Walked inside and dug out my camera that I had just taken inside ...
Step two.
I took a few images. Played with the focus, the depth-of-field, and the framing/cropping
out of everything that I didn't want in the image. Ahh, like the door.
That was step three; the photographic vision.
And yes, that was easy.
Well ... yeah, easy now. After all, I have done this before you know. But did the
scene "look" like my image?
No.
It did not "look" like this. My vision of the scene and the reality of the scene
were not one and the same. Very important.
No, in my mind, I saw a different image. Raindrops in focus, the yard out-of-focus.
Photographic vision.
Depth-of-Field.
Love it.
Photographic vision. Seeing like a lens. Shallow depth-of-field. One of my favorite
"tricks" in photography. The "wow factor" that hooked me all those years ago ...
I can still remember thinking, "How did he do that?"
It was June, 1983. My cousin, Johnny, used my camera (my first real 35mm
SLR film camera) I bought in Japan while in the Marines ...
Yeah, my camera. He took some shots with it, and I couldn't believe it. "You took
those with my camera?" Say what? My pictures never looked like that. I thought you had to have a bigger camera (mine was "only"
a Konica T3 with a 50mm lens).
That is when I learned there were pictures, and then there were images. Very different.
I wanted to make images ... to see like a lens, to think like a camera. To be a
photographer.
That was a lifetime ago.
I am still in awe. I still want to be a photographer. An artist.
I focused on the raindrops, opened up my lens to f5.6 (or whatever it was ... I
just kept spinning that little wheel until I couldn't go any farther), and shot away. And yes, I took more than one shot.
And yes ... for those of you that really want to know, it was f5.6. I know. But
that is not the point ... the point is that I just kept spinning until I couldn't spin any more. I "opened up" my lens to
the smallest number -- remember, when dealing with aperture and depth-of-field, my little mantra is, "Little number, little
depth-of-field, big number, big depth-of- field."
Set your camera to "A", or "AV" for all you Canon shooters, and spin that little
wheel until you get to your smallest number ... Yes, you can say it ... "The little f number."
Has something (more math) to do with the FOCAL length of the lens ... but
... f number is good enough for now.
Whatever it might be at any given focal length you are shooting at, find it. Little
number. f3.5, f4, f5.6 ... something in that range. Chances are, if you have smaller numbers, you already know this ... but
yes, there are smaller numbers.
Trust me, you will know by the price of the lens. Little numbers alright, except
for the money you will spend to get them.
But I digress ...
Just spin away.
And shoot.
Repeat.
Giggle.
Repeat.
Yes, you can do it. And yes ... with your camera. Period.
Want to know more? Trust me, you will.
Zoom out, get close, and fire away. Your depth-of-field gets smaller and smaller.
Forget the numbers ... Get closer. Use a "longer lens" (that is where the "zoom" comes in, and ... yes, the little number
thing too. Don't forget.
True, you can actually walk closer, but that is not as cool as the sound of "zooming"
... but go ahead, get closer any way you can. Feet or focal length. Both work. Both, together, work best.
Zoom, zoom.
Want to really go crazy? Use that little "macro" button on your point-n-shoot (looks
like a tulip), or splurge for that macro lens for your DSLR, and get really close ... your depth-of-field is then reduced
to, oh, I don't know ... like, nothing! Big number, small, number ... doesn't matter. Nothing. Well, OK ... how about tiny?
Sound better? Try it. Macro. Close. Tiny depth-of-field. Wild.
Big number? Tiny. Small number? Tiny-er. The trick is, how close you are. The closer
you get, the less depth-of-field. Period.
My mantra still hold true ... you know, I didn't make this up, it has something
to do with real math stuff ... In fact, I can even impress you more by saying that your depth-of-field will always be one-third
in front, and two-thirds behind your focus point, but that would just be showing off. Trust me ... It's true. Has been for
years, ahh, like from day one.
Film, digital, video ... doesn't matter. Point-n-shoot (little camera), or DSLR
(big camera), it makes no difference. One-third in focus in front of your subject, two-thirds in focus behind your subject.
Simple. Always. A given.
Wide angle lens. Telephoto lens. Macro lens. True.
Will they all give you the same effect? No. But the rule still holds.
That is why I mentioned getting closer ... a telephoto lens will give you less
depth-of-field; a wide angle lens will give you more.
Marco? Yeah, we covered that one, remember ... tiny. But ... the whole one-third,
two-thirds thingy remains the same.
Trust me.
OK ... that is enough. You got it.
Pray for rain. Open your car door (after it stops raining works good). And
look. See. See the image. Make the image.
You can thank me later ... After all, it is my trick.
Right?
Reel Image
Delayed Harvest is back ... and I went fishing. Simple as that.
From 1 June to 1 Oct, Catch and Release is put on hold, and I take the summer off and
leave the fishing to others.
First weekend in October, I jumped into the Element and headed to South Mountain State Park ...
Gone Fishin'.
Again.
This summer I bought new Cortland backing, line, leaders, and tippet for my Cortland fly-rod in ... where
else? Cortland, NY, of course.
I was ready.
Beautiful afternoon ... True, the water was low, but the fish were there. Caught six nice trout ... loved
it.
After my can of beans, some tuna fish, and Fig Newtons -- which I call dinner, I brought out my camera
and flash, and took a few shots of ...
You guessed it ... my new Cortland backing and line inside my Cortland reel.
It was getting dark ... I set the flash on the picnic table, about 3" from the reel, off to the
left, and got as close as I could with my 16-85mm zoom lens.
Fired away.
Shot a bunch ... I don't know ... 15, 16, something like that. Move the flash, shoot. Repeat.
Playing with light.
Light. Color. Shape.
Got it.
Simple.
The image was done before I took the shot. Well ... No, I lied.
The image, in my head, was done before I took the shot, but I did have to add the light. That was key.
I had the reel. I had the backing (red). And I had the line (yellow). I had my design elements. I had my shot.
Except for the light.
Without the light, the shot would have been just a shot. A picture.
Light was the key. I had to add the light to bring out the details. The color. Make 'em pop. Make the
image.
Everything came together. My new fishing gear and my old camera gear. Love how that works ...
I had planned that shot for months ... Bought the new line in late July and took the shot in October.
It was a gimme ... Fly fishing and photography.
Perfect.
Liquid Bricks
Art Crawl 2012.
Hickory, NC.
I guess this is where they came up with the name ... Art Crawl. You crawl around
Hickory looking at art. Or, in this case, looking for art.
I took my college class out for a little fun in Hickory for their annual Art Crawl
where the whole downtown area is rocking with ART.
Music. Painting. Pottery. Photography. Heck, even sidewalk chalk art. Everywhere
and anywhere; it is a night to enjoy art. Period.
Joe Young and his CVCC photography students invite us down every year and I find
it a good excuse to get out of the classroom and see what the art scene is all about in Hickory.
Looking at art and making art, what could be better? It seems like every store
has something on display. And of course, the stores themselves are art in the right light.
We got there about 6:30pm which just so happens to be the right time for the right
light.
Within ten minutes of parking my Element, I had my shot. Well, OK, my favorite
shot from several I took that evening.
A car in the parking lot of the Armory Building ... yeah, a car.
The building next door was lit up by the sun, the reflection perfect. My eyes were
drawn to the light. The pattern. The art.
The curves in the car "melted" the bricks and I just played with the magic. Well,
really, all I did was see ... the light and the car did all the real work.
Isn't that the key in photography? Seeing. Seeing the light. Looking for the light. Looking
at the light.
Yes, I did have to "work" at getting the exposure correct ... work at framing the
shot ... work at seeing the image, work at exploring the shapes, light, contours ... work at making the image.
All I did was follow my own rules: Look at the Light, Get Close, and Take Lots
of Images. Simple.
Liquid Bricks.
Had to work at coming up with that title as well ... Oh, that was easy -- It just
came to me. Liquid Bricks ... I love it.
Funny what a night at the Art Crawl will do for you ...
Get out and capture your own art.
AMERICA
I took my college photography class out to shoot on September, 11, 2012. Went to
downtown Hudson, NC, which is where the college just happens to be located; about a three minute drive if you hit the one
light just right.
And don't speed.
The theme was USA, well, that was what I wrote on the board. Or was it America?
I can't remember ... it was yesterday.
The plan was to get out of the classroom and work on the things we have talked
about the first two weeks of class ... and play, play, play. Which, of course, is how I teach -- how we learn.
I knew I was going to photograph a flag. See, I drive through Hudson to get to
the college ... which is how I came up with the idea in the first place. I saw the flags ...
Yeah, I'm that good.
So, yes ... the first flag I came to I shot. No, not this one ... but it was a
good warm-up. The light was not quite working for me.
So, yes, I walked ... what? Maybe twenty yards to the next one - on Main Street,
the one in the light. Perfect.
Then it was just a matter of finding the shapes ... playing with the shapes. Playing
with the light. The colors. The symbol.
I shoot flags all the time ... have for years. But ... this was the first time
I saw it in this manner, this form.
Yeah, this was the first time I shot up a flag. A curled up flag. From directly
below it. I liked it.
I found something new in photographing something I have photographed for years
... over twenty five years (and counting).
I played with the shapes, the lines, the ... ahh, wind. I waited. For the
first time, like in forever, I did not want the wind to blow it out straight, to photograph the whole flag. No, I wanted it
this way. The way I saw it. The way I found it.
It was perfect ...
Right before the class left the college I taught them composition, or, The Art
of Photography. Yeah, in like fifteen minutes. We don't mess around ... I told them for this evening, don't center the main
subject. Simple.
Why? You ask. Well, I tell them I know they can all center their main subject (99.9%
do), so lets try something new. Something different, something racidal -- and see what happens.
See, if you actually think about not putting the main subject in the
center of the frame, you begin to thing about composition. THINK being the key word.
I told them ... the camera will always have something in the middle, you just try
not to always place the main subject there.
Place it in the upper left, lower right, off to one side, maybe over on the other
side ... Just think about why you place it, wherever you actually end up placing it, and I'll be a
happy camper. I win.
They win. You win. I win.
We all win. I love it.
So, back to my flag. Killed two birds with one stone, as they say ... or, as I
say, two concepts with one image.
Composition. America.
I like it.
I like what it stands for.
America. Art.
American Art.
Is it good because I like it? Or do I like it because it is good?
Good question.
I have done this for awhile. I teach photography ... no, excuse me, I teach Art.
Art 264.
I taught my first photography class in 1984. I even went to art school, have an
M.A. in Photography.
I should know the answer to the question. My own question.
Do I like an image because it is good? Or is a photograph good because I like it?
Well, two questions really ... But you get my point.
I hope.
I like this image of a rose. I shot it about a half hour ago. I was out playing
and just cramed my little point-n-shoot Nikon Aw100 all the way up against a rose and fired away ...
Yeah, it was touching the flower. As close as I could get ... closer, really.
Again, yes, I have shot flowers before ... you know that. I can't help it. They
are there, so am I, I have my camera ...
Yeah. I shoot flowers. Over and over and over and over.
I had my college class out shooting and yes, we ended up in front of flowers. I
wanted them to blur the flowers ... to go wild. Move the camera, blur the colors, the shapes, the magic ...
You would have thought I was asking them to eat cooked carrots or something. Really.
They thought I was nuts. One refused (well, kind of). She wanted them sharp! OMG.
Then they tried it -- she tried it.
Done. Hooked 'em good. They loved it. Magic. Art. They were (are) artists. Away
they went ... shoot, shoot, shoot. Play, play, play. They were happy. I was happy.
I shot some myself. Move the camera. Low ISO. Low light. Movement. Camera art.
Camera magic.
Back to my question(s).
Do I like it because it is a good shot? Or, is it a good shot because I like it?
I don't know.
B.R.A.S.S.
I teach a photography class at the local community college; have since 1995.
I like it.
My Saturday class gets out and shoots every other weekend.
I like that too.
So do my students, even if it is, like yesterday, hotter than flapjacks on a griddle.
Don't ask me where I came up with that one ... I couldn't write what I was thinking, so I got real clever. You know? Hotter
than ...
So, we went into the woods behind the college. Cooler. Kind of.
I tell my students that images are EVERYWHERE, and that you only have to look.
We go over everything, then go out and see if we can't put all this wonderful knowledge
to good use.
This was our second meeting. I stressed six things in the first class: Three Rules
and Three Little Buttons.
This was it ... this is where we go outside, walk around, look around, no, we do
more than that ... I want them to see. To see the little things. To see the patterns in nature. To see what effect the light
has on any given subject. To see the images before they actually take the picture.
It is all about seeing ...
And Three Rules.
And yes ... Three Little Buttons.
And a butterfly.
A little yellow butterfly that wasn't quite warmed up just yet. Hidden off the
side of the path, just hangin' around waiting for the sun to warm him up.
Well ... of course, I have no real idea what the heck he was doing there, but it
sounds good, I'll stick with it.
Just hanging there - upside down.
I had my Nikon AW100 super point-n-shoot camera with me and went to work. Well,
I can't say that it is really WORK, but again, it sounds good, and I'm sticking with it.
Shot.
Shot some more. Even tried my flash because I thought I was shaking too much.
Not a good thing. But hey, at the time I trhought I was a genius. Turned out I am - I deleted it real quick. Pure genius.
Braced myself with my knees and elbows ... thought back to my days at Parris Island (I
turned 21 at the Rifle Range). I still remember:
B.R.A.S.S.
Breathe, Relax, Aim, Stop, Squeeze.
True, Parris Island is in the South, but they didn't teach us to mash
anything!
Squeeze.
Worked then, works now. Camera. M-16. No biggy. Steady yourself for a better
shot. Simple.
Had my little Gorilla Pod tripod, but it wasn't tall enough. Plus, I didn't know
how long he would stay there while I got closer. And closer. I was moving the grass. I thought he would take off at any second.
I even got up once and walked away ... talking to some of my students, only to
go back and shoot some more. I wanted that shot.
20/25 images. Something like that. I don't know.
Yeah, I just kept clicking ... I get in a zone ... Slow down and just relax.
I could not believe how close I could get.
He just sat there. I just kneeled there and shot.
I felt I had it.
He had had it too. Finally. Off he went.
Whew ... nice.
I saw it, I got close, and I shot the crap out of it.
I like it.
Breathe. Relax. Aim. Stop. Squeeze ...
And, just like in the Marines ... Repeat.
You know, just to cover your butt.
Oh, the things one learns while on the rifle range ...
A LONG time ago.
Training. Little did I know that my infantry training would someday lead me to
a little yellow butterfly behind the local community college ...
I got the shot.
Sharp.
Sharpshooter.
Oh yeah ...
Semper Fi.
Make the Image
You have probably heard that photographers don't take images, they make them. Nice
quote. Wish I came up with it. Thing is, I wasn't around in, like what? the 1820's? It was true then (even more so), and it
is still true today.
I had the pleasure of having morning duty the first three weeks of school. Always
charming. I had to be at the ready for ... well, I guess, for any kids being where they weren't supposed to be at any given
time.
No problem. Pretty quiet at 7AM.
I was walking around guarding by post, like a good Marine, when I saw an image
I just knew I had to photograph. Not at that moment mind you, but I knew I had a good one set up. I saw it before I took it.
Trick is, it didn't look anything like it turned out. Some leaves with a bunch
of holes in them. Morning Glories, I think, but I'll just go with green, heart-shaped leaves that bugs must really enjoy.
Holes all over the place. Art.
Kind of ...
No, I didn't take the shot that morning because I didn't have a camera with me
... are you kidding? I have a camera at school for just this reason ... You never know when you will need one.
No, I didn't take (oops ... I mean "make") the shot when I first saw it because
I didn't have a way of moving my flash off the little point-n-shoot camera I leave in my room.
It's not about the subject.
No, it is all about the light. The light that wasn't there. The light I needed,
off-camera, to bring out the Wow! that I knew was there ... in my mind's eye.
And knowing that to bring this image to life -- to MAKE -- this image, it is all
about light. How to light it to bring out the shape. The holes. The color. The POW! or the WOW! Whatever that is.
No, not Pow-Wow ...
No, I had to wait until the next morning to bring in the "big guns". My Nikon D90
with a 16-85mm VR lens ... and, the key to the whole image ... a Nikon SB-600 speedlight with a small Omni-Bounce
diffuser attached.
The trick - if you want to call it a "trick" - is to get the flash off-camera,
in order to bring out the texture of the plants. The holes.
Side lighting.
Oh, and don't forget my Rosco warming gel (1/4 CTO - Color Temperture Orange) that
I have taped to the head of the flash at all times, to add a little kiss of nice, warm, early morning light.
See? I made the shot. I didn't let the fact that the scene before me looked nothing
like the final image get in my way.
I like to take credit for my favorite quote of all time ... "Don't let reality
get in the way of your photography" ... Yes, I made that up myself. Probably when walking guard duty at the middle school
some years back ...
Can't remember.
Pre-visualize the image (No, I didn't come up with that one), then make it happen.
I saw the image in my head the very instant I saw the leaves ... well, really, it was the holes in said leaves, that
sealed the deal.
I just needed the right tools to make it happen.
53 shots.
Yeah ... while at the same time keeping my other eye on the look-out for roaming
students ...
53 images. Why so many you ask? Why not? I answer. The placement of the flash is
what makes each image different ... very important.
Exposure. Composition. Background. Light. The direction of the light.
Right-hand side? Left-hand side? Side lighting? Back lighting? Front lighting? 45
degrees? 90 degrees? Up? Down? How about 73.5 degrees? Oh yeah.
A millimeter here, an inch there ...
That is why you take 53 images to get one. You work at it.
The Shot.
You work at getting "The Shot" while working at making sure your day starts off
great at Granite Falls Middle School - The Home of the Blue Demons ...
And little green, heart-shaped, plant things, lit up by the early morning light
of a brand-new day.
Kind of.
Oh, I love my work.
Finished by 7:19AM. Perfect. Just in time to begin my rounds ...
The Gallery
You can't get there from here.
I love that line ...
Not true of course, but kinda.
I had just come back to the Visitor's Center at Arches National Park after getting
up and out there for sunrise. I never tire of it. I do it every time I've been in the area ... five or six times, I don't
know. I love it.
Anyway ... went in and watched the movie and found out about "The Gallery". I've
seen the images before and I had to get there.
Somehow. Someway. It was a done deal, right then and there.
Well, just where is it anyway? It is not even in Arches National Park. Not in Canyonlands
National Park.
Well ... Yes it is. Sort of. But not in the main section anyway.
No, you can't get there from the Visitor's Center from either Arches or Canyonlands
National Parks even though it is part of Canyonlands National Park.
Still with me? Yeah, a bit of an odd one here. Stay with me, it really is worth
the effort.
It really is in Canyonlands National Park but you have to go outside the park and
find your way to Canyonlands National Park Horseshoe Canyon Unit.
As the eagle flies ... maybe 10, 15 miles max.
But unless you can fly, it is not that simple. No. Much more fun.
Two ways I was told. The long way or the hard way. After a rain the day before,
the hard way was to be avoided. It is always a good thing to ask questions to the people who actually live, and
know, the area.
OK ... From Arches, I drove north about twenty miles to I-70, turned west
towards Green River, drove another thirty miles or so, turned south on Route 24, then another twenty miles, until
I came across a little green sign and a gravel road off to the left.
Yeah, really.
No National Park sign. Just a little sign for Horseshoe Canyon. Period.
If you blink, you miss it.
Then the fun began. I love it when you talk to a Ranger and they ask if you have
four wheel drive ... you know it is going to be good.
I do. I drive a Honda Element. Oh yeah.
I turned left.
And drove, something like thirty six miles on this gravel road, with a few
mud holes left over from the rain the day before. No big deal.
And sand. No ... Sand dunes. Yeah. Across the road. That kind of dirt road. Washboard.
With cattle roaming around. Free Range cattle. In the road. For thirty six miles.
Oh, it was good. Bear left at this one intersection, then another right
turn. Simple.
Made it to the top of the canyon. Well named. A big horseshoe shaped thing. Big
horseshoe. Big canyon.
Did you add up the miles? Yeah, not the 10 miles or so ...
I was ready, I was pumped.
I was also hot. It was around 11 or 12 o'clock. Yeah, I know. Did I tell you I
was in the Marines? An Old Marine. And worse yet, a photographer? Once I get something in my head ... I go. And I go
hard. Tunnel vision. Go. Go. Go.
Took off down into the canyon ... Unreal. The trail is great until you get to the
bottom ... then you are walking up the dry creekbed, or riverbed, whatever. There are those cute little piles of rocks
every ... I don't know ... Hundred yards? Fifty? You just keep looking.
Did I mention the rain the day before? Yeah, I believe I did. Well, think about
it. Rain. Riverbed. The water washes away the cute little piles and you just have to guess where the "trail" goes ... True,
you follow the riverbed, but, where are the cliff paintings? No signs. No Park Rangers. No Visitor's Center. No maps. No nuttin'
... well, except for the few standing rock piles still standing.
Go. Go. Go.
Hot. Hot. Hot. Oh, this was getting interesting ...
It is about three and a half miles, give or take, to The Gallery. Yes,
I did stumble across a few other sites ... excellent. But the Gallery was my goal. I pushed on.
Actually ran into three other people roaming around. Heading back ...
I found it.
Don't really know how ... You just seem to pick up on the location. Big overhang.
The perfect place. Just like it was 1000 to 700 years ago. You just know.
You know you are standing in an important spot. A special place. The cliff. The
rocks. The wall. The paintings. The faces. The art.
Whew ...
I set up my tripod (yes, I lugged it all the way down there -- I'm not THAT
old). I took my time and shot. I looked. Studied the work. Shot again. And I sat down. Shade. It was hot. I was hot.
Tired. Thrilled.
I drank all but the last sip from my water bottle. Not good.
I still had, what? Three and a half miles to go? And up the canyon wall this time.
Not the same as coming down. Gravity.
But I was in no hurry. I just sat there. It really is that special. Who were these
artists? When did they stand here and paint these figures? Why did they make them? When did they leave? Why did they
leave?
And most important ... why are these still in good shape? Not shot up and ruined
by every cowboy that has pasted this way since the 1840s? The other walls had names scratched into the rock ... from, like, 1920.
Crazy.
The Gallery is still in good shape.
Special. Like it was painted 20 years ago or so ... Not 700. Or 900. 900 years?
Again, whew ...
I headed back. Slowly.
Hot.
I stopped and dumped all the sand out of my shoes. I stopped and drank half of
my one remaining sip. I stopped just to stop.
Crazy.
Headed up the canyon wall ... and felt it. One foot in front of the other.
Got to the curve where I could see my Element up in the distance ... and made one
last rest stop ( I thought). And finished my sip. Or half sip. Nice, but ...
Distance can be tricky. One step ...
I made it. But to be honest, it kicked my butt. But hey, I had my images. The
images of my trip. My summer. The experience of the summer.
Seven hours. Seven miles.
Yeah, I had water - a lot of water in the Element. But ... key word being "in"
the Element ... windows rolled up. Out in the sun. Like all day. Yeah, not good.
Hot. Hot water. But it was liquid ... I poured some over my head. Drank some.
Rolled down my windows, opened the doors, and got inside out of the sun ... whew.
I just ... rested. Reflected.
What a trip. What an experience.
Special.
I did get there from here. Which of course, was really there; from Arches
National Park, Utah. Took awhile, but it was all good. Even that part about hot. And thirsty. And tired.
And then I had to drive back ...
Sand. Gravel. Cattle. Giggles.
Made it back to Green River just as a storm blew in. Got dark real fast. Poured
big time. A desert storm.
Glad I made it out when I did. They say that dried up riverbeds can get tricky
when wet ...
The picture. The pictures. There is always that one image from every trip ... or
several images.
The Gallery.
Special.
PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT
"THE CHALLENGE"
OK, very simple.
Here it goes ...
Start now, start later, it is up to you.
Below is a list sent to me by one of my students - Kari - that will be our guide
for the following month or so of "The Project" ...
Look at the list, then go out and find/photograph said item ... whatever it is
for that day.
Got it? Shoot one, shoot a hundred. Delete all but one, or keep 'em all ...
who cares? It is YOUR project, do it anyway you want.
Just do it.
Everyday.
Until the list runs out.
Start at the top and shoot one a day, in order, until you reach the bottom.
Then you are finished.
Done.
Well, until you come up with your own list ... and start all over again.
Or just start this list all over again. On your own (Just one shot per day? Tough).
Oh, you can make it your own, the idea is to get you out there ... the rest is
easy.
"THE LIST"
(for "THE PROJECT")
(which is part of "THE CHALLENGE")
Whew ... Let's begin ...
smile
leaves
morning sky
books
nature
something old
hands
written words
movement/in motion
animals
seasonal
transportation
daily routine
nighttime
light
self portrait (with/without face)
clouds
something green
from a high angle
from a low angle
fruit
bad habit
bokeh
sunflare
really close-up
from a distance
soft
empty
sign
hat
drink
six o'clock
black and white
abstract
splash of water
shadows
eye
Honda Element
I like it ... Thank you Kari.
And yes ... I just had to add one.
Follow the Light
That's right ... FOLLOW the light.
I know, I know ... Rule Number Three is actually, Look at the Light. I know.
I am the one that made it up, came up with the idea ... you know, made
it famous.
Light.
Look at the light. Follow the light. Chase the light ... do whatever
you need to do - to capture the light.
I was headed out of Colorado Springs this summer after making the climb up
Pike's Peak and re-visiting The Garden of the Gods. I was on my way back from Utah and wanted to see how Colorado Springs
looked after the fires that I watched on the news for weeks earlier in the year.
Short answer - not bad.
This from an outsider, spending one afternoon in the city. The signs were
still up thanking the firemen, and I did see burned trees right up to the base of Pike's Peak, but that was
all I saw.
I'm glad.
But ... back to the light.
As I was driving through and around and out of the city to get to I-70, the
light was getting good. A storm was working its way toward the city -- the sky got dark.
I could see the rain off in the distance - I could smell the rain. At a stoplight,
I rolled down my window and took a few quick shots. Dark skies, the sun warming up for a great sunset. I had a little time.
But where the heck was I? I was east of the city headed east on Route 24.
Heads right into I-70 East, about an hour away.
Direct, yes ... but busy. I had to get off the "main" road and follow
the light, the storm.
I checked my map ... there is one road that cuts north and could still get
me to I-70. Backroad, out of the way. I was not in a hurry, and I like the backroads anyway.
Next left, I turned. My map didn't even have a number for the road, I just
liked it because it turned me into the light, towards the storm. I could follow it and see what I could come up with.
Nice.
I could stop. I could watch the sun get lower behind the dark clouds
... I could look for images, one of my favorite things to do.
I had the light. I had an empty road. I had a summer storm ... the lighting,
the thunder. I had it made.
Where the heck was I?
In the right place.
I had no idea where this right place was, but it was good.
Pretty much a straight shot. Cattle country. Or horse country. Nice country.
Nice road.
Stopped at a gas station in a small little town, bought something to
eat and drink ... but kept on driving. The sun was setting.
The light was getting good. I did stop to take a few more images here and
there ... Looking. Always looking.
Pulled into Kiowa, Colorado. As far north as I was going. Stopped at
the little park in town and had my dinner. Perfect. I love being on the road.
Turned right onto Route 86 and headed east towards I-70. Two lane road ...
fields on both sides ... the sunset in my rear-view mirror driving me crazy.
The light. The stormy sky. It was getting dark.
But I still needed something ... sunsets are nice, but ...
Then I saw it.
Drove by it actually ... too far off the road, too dark, too this, too that
...
I had just stopped five minutes earlier to get some cars lights
mixed in with the sunlight ... Not bad. I thought I had my shot.
I turned around.
You don't pass this up. A scene right out of my childhood. The old movies.
The Wild West ... My imagination.
An Indian. A lone Indian. On his horse. I had to take this photograph. I
had to.
As a kid, I was always the Indian. Not the Cowboy. Now ... I know why. It
all just came together ... The light, the subject, the setting. It clicked. I clicked.
I knew from the minute I first saw the light an hour or so before ... I just
had to turn left.
Follow the light.
The Garden
Richland, New York.
My sister, her husband, Dan, and my mom, live in Richland, New York. It is five
miles from Pulaski, where we all lived back in the good old days ...
Truth is, back in the "good 'ol days", there was no garden in Richland that comes
close to the garden there now. Not even close.
I really have no clue as to where my sister got schooled in making things actually
grow. It must have been a book or something. Or maybe it was Dan ...
Oh, I don't want to go there ...
See, they really do have a great garden in their yard. Or is it a yard in their
garden? I don't know ... stuff just grows all over the place.
It is nice.
A great place for me to take pictures, to work on my art. Call it what you
may, but it is unreal that I have a place I can reach in twelve short hours (on a good day) and take pictures of flowers.
All kinds of them, you know ...
Pink ones, yellow ones, purple ones, red ones, white ones, and even some green
plant things, that have great lines ... and texture. And form.
Art.
A living art studio. Like all around the house. With butterflies. And bees. A real Flower
Garden. In Richland, New York.
The Garden.
I spent half the summer in and around Richland - my uncle lives about 8 miles north
in Mannsville - and yes, ended up taking ... oh, like a few HUNDRED images of flowers and whatever else I could find in their
yard. Even got a nice butterfly.
Dan has one section ... Nancy has another. Oh yeah, like they see who can outdo each
other ... It can get crazy. Dan's section - well, to me anyway - has more plants and a nice stone wall, while "the other
section" has more flowers.
And the poppies.
I like poppies. I find myself shooting them all the time, everytime, anytime.
I don't know. I'm that way with sunflowers (and ferns) too. Anywhere, anytime. I'm actually glad they don't have any sunflowers
their yard ... I would never get away.
But yes, poppies ... my favorite. I blame it on the light. Backlit poppies
are a no-brainer. The light does all the work. Look at the light, the rest is easy.
With an easy camera. My Nikon AW-100 underwater point-n-shoot camera.
Yeah. really.
I shot ALL the images with my favorite macro lens which happens to be on my AW-100.
Like built-in, push a macro button, 1cm (super) macro, kind of lens. Easy. I love it.
And to really throw you for a loop, I use my super, special, modified, small, macro
tripod that I bought for $35. Easy.
My easy, small, tripod for my easy, small, camera. Perfect.
Dan is also much more of a "tool guy" than I am -- yes, he actually has a "Man
Cave" out back with all kinds of tool things ... He fixed me up with the tripod. He used some kind of pipe cutter thing to
shorten my center column (I was hunting for a hack-saw ...) so now I can get REALLY close ... like an inch off the ground
close. Oh yeah.
Mean little set-up. I just get right in there, get my focus, use my 2 second self-timer,
and fire away. Over and over again. Real close. Real neat. Real easy.
Perfect.
Well, except for that whole twelve hour plus thing ...
Bambi
It is nice to have friends.
Nice friends.
True, friends are nice, but having them get you in the right place,
at the right time, with the right subjects, plus the right lens?
Even better.
That is photography. That is the photographer in me talking.
The best thing about it all is that I have know this person for over
40 years, and just found out she is hooked on "getting out there" herself. In a kayak. With her camera. At the right time, and
in front of the right subjects ...
Ahh, now that is photography.
I couldn't believe it. I told her I was driving up to Pulaski, NY, (where we
grew up) and was having a photography exhibit, and talk, in the summer.
She has known I take pictures for years and mentioned that she was starting
to take pictures herself. She then e-mailed one of her own images ... wow.
A fawn (Bambi, I'm sure). I couldn't believe it. A close-up, at eye
level. What? How in the world?
Simple. She paddles around her backyard -- yes, her backyard is Port Ontario
-- with her camera (in a cute little bag) and takes pictures from about a foot above sea-level.
Her backyard. Her playground. Her studio.
I had to get out there. Heck, I lived down at the Port with my best friends from
high school years ago while going to college. I never knew.
It was great.
Deer? I didn't know deer lived out on the islands and in the marsh.
Unreal. I really wasn't aware of the ducks either to be honest. Oh, a few, maybe ... but I didn't think of it as wildlife
heaven. Who knew?
I had to get out there.
But, she was busy ... I was busy ... took a few weeks, but once I got back
from Utah shooting a couple of white water raft trips, I just had to get out in a kayak and shoot Bambi.
In a nice way, of course.
We did.
I got to her new house around 5:30pm ... had to stop at my other friend's
house to see which house was hers...
Found her.
We went over her camera ... set it up for shooting from a moving craft
... late afternoon light ... talked about shutter speeds, movement, etc ...
Come on ... I had to get "out there" ... I was pumped.
I was polite.
I waited.
Then, really ... we went out to her backyard (discussed her gardening
skills) and yes ... finally, got into the kayaks and off we paddled, looking for Bambi.
Whew ... sweet.
OK, it took awhile ... there was an eagle. That kept us busy (quiet), and
in awe, for awhile. Are you kidding me? An eagle? In her backyard. Even she was impressed.
And cool little duck things ... and some more ducks with awesome punk
haircuts ... good stuff. I giggled. I fired away ... In a kayak!
Then ... Yes.
Bambi.
Ahh ... not so close. Not good.
But ... the light. Good.
Plus, I did have my Nikkor (well, my Nikon) 80-400mm VR lens and fired away.
Yes, the VR was on and working overtime. Perfect.
In a kayak. In late afternoon light. With the giggles. Yeah ... VR rocks.
It allows you to get sharper images without the need of a tripod. Well, up to a point of course.
I fired off three or four quick bursts each time and hoped for
the best. I still had to raise my ISO as the light got lower and lower. But, I was out there, in a kayak, in nice light.
Oh, I was in heaven.
And it kept getting better. The water. The light. The ducks.
And more ducks. Herons. Birds ...
Then the sunset. Come on ... Unreal.
Three hours sitting in a little plastic boat inches above the water, chasing
birds, fawns, and the light.
Perfect.
With a friend.
In her backyard. More perfect-er.
My fawn image? Pretty good. I was happy.
Then I got her e-mail a couple of days later ...
Now remember ... she had a killer shot of Bambi before we even paddled
around together.
Yeah ... that was nice.
Then I saw her new image ...
Ahh ...
And I was headed back to North Carolina the next day.
Are you kidding me? Not fair.
Bambi. With her twin sister. Or brother, whatever ...
And ... Yes, with their mother as well. Nicer than nice. Wow.
I will get back up there. In a kayak. In nice light. And hunt that cute little
Bambi down ... and shoot it. With or without it's sister, brother, mother, dad, you-name-it.
It's mine!
I love photography.
And good friends.
Rule #4 Out of Three
You should always shoot lots of images.
Period.
I know, I know ... You know my three rules: Look at the Light, Get Closer,
and yes ... Shoot Lots of Images.
Pretty simple, right?
You got it already. Enough.
Well, not quite.
One aspect of "Shooting Lots of Images" has nothing to do with the images
themselves.
Say what? Nothing to do with the images? That is crazy.
Well, not quite.
Let me explain ...
If you know me, have taken my class, or read this Blog -- you also know I like
to play ... as in play, play, play.
That would be Rule #4 if I actually had that many ... And get this, there is more
to Play, Play, Play than, well ... just playing.
Really.
Yes, the REAL meaning behind these cute little one-liners of mine is to get you
(and me) to become better photographers. Yes, that simple.
I talked (ahh, well, OK -- blogged) about knowing my equipment when I wrote about
shooting the Osprey this past Easter ... Know your camera, know your lens, know your limitations ... (OK, I did steal that
one).
Well, this is how I get to know my equipment ...
I got up early -- pre sunrise -- to photograph Avon Pier, then came back to
the beach house until later on that evening for the second round of "sweet light".
What did I do for eight hours you ask? I photographed moving targets of course ...
in this case, birds.
I went out back on the deck, down near the ocean, and just sat there,
camera at the ready. And waited. And watched.
There was almost a pattern to it all ... pelicans would fly by (I
noticed this the day before) ... then seagulls ... more pelicans ... more seagulls ... five, ten minutes, and yes, here comes
three more. Four. Six sometimes. Another four. Three. And yes, every once in awhile, a single bird ... over the ocean, or
perhaps, behind me, flying over the houses.
From the south. No, from the north. The south. Over and over. Like clockwork.
Sort of, but not quite.
That is what I did ... just sat there and waited. Eight hours. Watching the waves.
Looking for little specks in the distance ...
See, you want to lock-on to 'em off in the distance and keep re-focusing until
they get closer. Wait. Wait. Wait ... Then, shoot. Focus. Shoot. Quick. Done.
Whew. Breathe. Relax. Sit back down. Wait for the next fly-over.
Eight hours. Waiting. Looking. Dreaming.
Shooting.
Shoot ... Shoot ... Shoot.
Delete. Delete. Delete.
Learn. Learn. Learn.
Yes, you learn when you delete, by the way. Remember that. Remember why
you delete what you do.
See, I had my old Nikon 80-400mm VR lens (from back in my film days) with
a 1.7X converter.
Let's see ... Let's do some math. With the Nikon crop factor of the smaller
sensor, that's what? A 120-600mm zoom. Then the 1.7X converter ... multiply that ... move the decimal ... ahhh,
yeah, I'm hand-holding a 1020mm lens ... chasing birds.
Really? Yes. Really.
That is the key. I wanted to practice using my slow focusing, big 'ol heavy
thing ... hand-held.
No tripod.
Yeah.
So, yes ... I like the images, but it was not ABOUT the images.
It was about the whole camera/lens/converter/moving target thing.
And more.
ISO. Exposure. VR. Panning. Follow-focus. Breathing. Weight training. Relaxation.
Fun.
And, yes ... Birds. Nature. The ocean. The ocean air. Vacation. And, once again
... learning.
That is why I shot hundreds of images ... hundreds ... and kept shooting. Waiting.
Sitting.
To learn. To get better. To be a better photographer. Forget the fact that I have
done this before. Forget the fact that I have images of pelicans. And yes ... thousands of seagulls ... I did it to learn.
To learn that much more. To get faster. Quicker. To know my gear.
To learn my, and my
gear's, limitations. And trust me, there always are both. That is why we practice, play, learn.
And sit around for eight hours.
What else is there do do while on vacation?
I thought so.
Follow my rule ...
Shoot Lots of Images. Over and over.
And over.
Just go out there and sit around for a few hours.
And learn.
Luna Cycles
I have been playing with the Nikon Creative Lighting System for a while now and
wanted to work with my flashes in some local shops with my college photography class.
After buying - and watching - Joe McNally's lighting DVD I knew it was
time to give it a try. He shot in a shoe-repair shop in NYC ...
I got in touch with Luna Cycles in downtown Lenoir, NC.
I asked them if I could drop by with my class and set up a few lights in their
shop ... Free images for them, free fun for us. Perfect.
For the first shot, I set up my 24" x 24" softbox with one Nikon SB-600 on a stand
and placed it off-camera to the right - maybe two feet from the subject. Pretty simple.
The background light was another SB-600 with a blue gel placed on the floor right
behind the model, Shawn Moore, who also happens to be the shop owner. His dad took my class a year or so before
and was the one that mentioned his son owned the shop when I mentioned I dabbled with some riding myself.
I like bikes, I like the shop ... I like photography, I like to play.
And learn.
The second shot was pretty much the same set-up ... well, as far as keeping
the two lights, that is.
The main-light remained off to the right ... but now at more of a 90 degree angle.
The back-light was moved up on the counter and off to the left-hand side of
the frame. No blue gel this time either. I just wanted to place it off to the side at a 90 degree angle and throw some light
on Shawn's back.
Two images ... two lights ... two different lighting effects -- or looks.
I took several ... but moved pretty quick -- I shot these while the shop was still
open and people coming in and out -- and yes, Shawn is actually working on the bike.
Everyone was great ... shoot, shoot, shoot ... get the image and move on. One or
two of the students ran in and moved the back-light, moved this, changed that ... it was great.
We also took some outside as well, but I liked playing with the lights inside.
I liked setting the "stage" and shooting at a fast shutter speed (250th) to kill the store lights ... and then just throwing
light where I wanted it ... and let everything else go black. Not reality, but then again, either is Reality TV.
Everything was controlled by my little pop-up flash on my camera, in COMANDER MODE.
I can change the power of the main-light or the back-light right at the camera ... no running around pushing buttons.
Quick and easy. Shoot. Look. Adjust. And move on ...
My lights, my camera, my vision.
Luna Cycles. Great place to shoot ... Great people. And yes, they know a thing
or two about bikes. With or without lights.
Gone Fishin'
Left Friday after school ... got to South Mountain State Park around 4:30pm.
Left Sunday around 10:15am.
Three nights ...
Fish, eat, sleep, repeat.
That was it -- My Memorial Day Weekend. Fish.
Well, trout really.
Saturday I fished from one hour after sunrise until one hour before sunset.
Fish. Period. Fish and giggles.
Trout.
Rainbow. Brown. Brook.
Oh, and I took one image.
One image, lots of fishes ...
BAM.
What Makes It?
Yes, I've shot this image before ... like every year for the past, what? Five,
ten years? Longer?
Can't help it.
I am a creature of habit. What can I say? If you know me, you know this. If you
don't know me, you do now.
I have taught middle school with Sharon Bryant for 18 years now ... and this
is her last year. Science and math. 30 years. Wow.
Every year she brings in her Pitcher Plants, Venus Fly Traps, and several other
plants, which I have no idea what their names are ... I just like to photograph them.
Year in and year out ... Kind of like teaching middle school students. The names
change, but the kids remain the same ...
Funny how that works. But anyways ... the image.
You know the deal ... off-camera, high-synch flash, to kill the ambient light --
background goes black. I love it. Shot it right in her classroom. My studio.
But no ... that is not "what makes it". No. I like it, but what made me keep this
image is the ...
Wait ... what do you think makes the image? I was going to go ahead and tell you,
but I think I'll just play a little game I learned in math class ...
There is one aspect to this image that made me take a closer look ... made
me pick it from the ten, twelve, however many I took of the two plants.
And this is just two out of the many she had in her room. Why these? Why this picture?
Good question. It really is the key to your photography. That is what makes it
"your" (well, in this case, my) photography in the first place.
First, why do we photograph what we do? And second, why do we pick the images we
publish, print, share, whatever it is we do with our images? Why?
That must be the teacher in me.
And Mrs. Bryant.
I taught math with her last year and that was one thing I came away with ... "Why"?
Nothing like a middle school math teacher that keeps asking her students, "Why"?
She is very good at it.
And even better ... She actually waits until a student (anyone?) answers her.
I remember some long pauses ...
You ever want to see a class of 8th graders sit still and be quiet? Just ask them
why we (and the ancient Greeks) do something in algebra.
Wow. Dead quiet.
Real quiet.
Why?
Simple enough question.
Think about it. What "makes this image"? Is it the same for you and me? Or
for that matter, I wonder what the ancient Greeks would of thought of it? I hope they would have liked the aspect of "writing
with light", which gets right to the meaning of the word "photography" itself.
But I digress ... as I usually do.
A picture of Pitcher Plants ... Why?
Why this one? What makes it special?
Anyone?
I'm waiting ...
Oh, I love teaching.
Ahh ... Still waiting ...
Get It Right
I teach photography. I am a photographer. Yes, I can use a computer -- pretty good.
Yes, I know how to use Photoshop. (I don't own Photoshp ... I have Elements 9 myself). No, I do not teach PhotoShop ...
True, we use Photoshop at the college, but I teach my students "The Digital Darkroom" ... ahh, like six or seven tools
and that is it.
Why? Because I am a photographer. And a photography instructor.
Speaking of which ... I took my class to South Mountain State Park this weekend
... Love the place. Great day ... I modeled for the class while fly-fishing (I do what I can) and actually caught two nice
trout with all the people around just so they could get some nice shots ... Had a great time.
But OK ... what about these two images of the purple flower? Sorry, I got
carried away with my fish story ...
Anyway -- What this is all about is that I have to say it one more time ... Get
it right in the camera and forget about Photoshop.
There, I said it ...
I stress it in my college class, I talk about it all the time, and I truly believe
it ... strive for it.
It goes back to my film/slide days ... Get the exposure correct in the camera while
you are there shooting. Simple. Shoot until you KNOW you got it.
With digital, it is that much easier ... shoot and check your screen. Yes or no?
That simple.
And while I am on my band-wagon ...
Histogram ... or Histo-gram ... or what ever you call it or spell it ...
No, I don't use that either. Shoot, check, shoot again. Learn to know your camera
... know your screen ... know what a one-third stop does ... know that you can't always see the screen well and shoot some
more ... whatever you do, LEARN what you're doing, and practice, practice, practice (I refer to it as play, play, play - same
difference).
Yes, I know ... I've read articles, I've watched videos on Adorama TV,
talked about it for years ... Shoot RAW, check your Histogram, "fix-it" in Photoshop, etc ...
No. Not me. I shoot the way I do, I "fix 'em" the way I do, and I love what I do.
That simple.
Is it the "RIGHT" way? The only way? No. But it is my way.
These two shots are from a little hike up the side of a mountain with
Joe Young and a few members of his CVCC college class -- and his daughter (ahh, none of my students stayed).
We were camping and went out for a little shooting hike as the evening light was
getting nice ...
His students were working on a project and I just tagged along to work on my Nikon
CLS skills ... "just playing".
Tiny little purple things ... I held my flash off to the side, focused as close
as I could with my 16-85mm zoom lens (one camera, one lens, one flash)and fired away ... moving the flash so as not to light
up the gound, sticks, leaves, etc ... that were all around the flower.
Tougher than it sounds.
Remember, these are small flowers - what? Six inches tall (at the most)? Not far
off the ground at all.
High-synch flash ... shot on manual at 4000th of a second (to kill the ambient
light) and at f16 to keep everything in focus. The flash was only about three inches away so it was not a problem at
this small apereture.
Shot maybe thirty images ... five or six different flowers along the trail.
Had fun.
Everything was perfect ...
Well, except that I had the wrong lens. But hey, this is digital, I can "fix it"
in Photoshop, right?
True, just as it was with film.
I got home, loved the shot ... and chose to show how I fix things in Photoshop.
Again, I do what I can.
Yes, I have to use Photoshop on every image you see on my website ... I have to
re-size them so that they fit on the screen, and then I "compress" them, or change the resolution, to 72dpi so that they open
up faster and take up less space ... again, all for the computer.
Tech stuff that deals with the wonderful world of the internet. And computers.
And websites.
All the stuff that I'm not thrilled about.
My thrill is getting the shot. Being on the trail. Finding the little buggers,
working on getting the exposure correct. Seeing the image the way I want it -- then and there. That moment. Done.
Knowing that I will crop it ... I even crop it right on the little screen after
the shot to see my flower explode off the little LCD. Just the way I envisioned it.
Just the way I want it ...
One image ... two photos.
One as I shot it, one as I cropped it. My image. My vision. My camera. My
exposure. My art. And yes, my computer. My Elements 9.
I like it. Period. Isn't that what it is all about? Not jpeg vs RAW. Not about
high-speed flash. Not ISO. Not Nikon. Not white balance. Not histograms. Not Photoshop.
The image. Period.
That and the simple fact that I enjoyed "making" this image. The thinking. The
playing. The adjustments. And the walk. The evening. The experience.
And the fact that it came out alright. The lighting. The exposure.
Got the shot. Got it right.
In camera.
FYI: Adobe CS6 was just announced the day after I wrote this. They must have
read my Blog ...
GET CLOSER
That is it. The famous quote, by Robert Capa, goes something like this, "
If your photographs aren't good enough, you aren't close enough".
True then ... ahh, he was a combat photographer (I am not) ... and it is true today.
I like to get in there, take part in whatever I am photographing. I have been shooting
the BMX Stunt Team at GFMS for about 18 years ... I'm always ready, always willing to get in there with a wide angle lens
-- in this case the nice 16-85mm VR lens -- and see what I can come up with.
The bikers remembered me from the past couple of years - knew I liked to "get close"
and allowed me - trusted me - to do my thing.
Here, they sat me on a bicycle on top of the ramp facing this one bike that is
coming at me head on, while at the same time, another rider is doing a backflip while jumping over me from the side ... Problem
was I only had one camera.
And one chance.
It worked out pretty good.
The kids liked it -- their reward for selling ten items during the annual
fundrasier -- I liked it, and yes, even the riders enjoyed it.
Good day.
Did I ever mention that I love what I do?
I do.
Up close.
Hours
I saw the nest the night before ... that was it. I got up early, shot all morning.
Went back to the house to relax. Went right back at 4pm and stayed until sunset
... six hours total.
Get up early. Stay out late. Very simple. Shoot. Shoot. Shoot. The rest is ...
ahh, well, simple.
The rest is fun. Hours watching a bird. Well, two birds really ... I studied
them. Watched them. I saw this bird fly overhead, followed him as he dove and caught this fish. Watched him shake his wings
to dry off ... as he was flying (well, him, her, I have no idea), watched him fly by and stop under a bridge before heading
back to his nest. I was ready.
I saw the whole thing. When it came time to get the shot ... the actual photography,
well, that was easy. I was ready. I had put in the hours ... This day and others ...
I know my camera. I know my lens. I know my tripod. I knew I wanted the depth-of-
field to cover any focus problems, and I knew I had the exposure under control. Again, I had been there awhile ... I had taken,
well, a lot of shots ... over and over again.
It really is that simple. The more you do this, the easier it gets. It really does
come down to three simple rules ...
Look at the light. Get closer. Take alot of images ... Three rules for one image.
One day.
One unreal day from a great week in the Outer Banks.
Yeah ... nice trip. Nice day. Nice experience.
The Camera
This is the camera. This was THE camera when I got into photography. I wanted
this camera.
1984. I was at Fort Gordon, GA teaching photography at the Arts and Craft Center.
I was shooting for the base newspaper ... I was "a photographer". One of the soliders had this camera ... It was the
top Nikon camera on the market. I dreamed ...
I was also working at N&W Camera in Augusta, GA. They did not sell Nikon gear
... I bought Minolta equipment with my employee discount. That simple. But I wanted the Nikon F3.
Metal. Rugged. The flagship camera for most photojournalist at that time. The camera
... the motordrive ... Oh, it was nice.
And expensive.
Not any more. Fast forward 25 plus years, and I now have my "dream" camera. Took
awhile, but I finally have the camera that started it all for me all those years ago.
That is what happens when I have a week off from school and college at Christmas
and am not out in the field shooting.
Yes, I got on the internet and went "dreaming" at Adorama. If you know me,
you know I like to dream ... and cameras ... and Adorama! I wasn't really thinking of buying anything ...
I just like cameras.
In fact, as I sit here at my computer in my living room typing this I can count
... let's see ... 28 cameras. No ... my cell phone has a camera (I've used it once). Make that 29.
Pieces of art. Well, one of them is the Nikon D90 (one of four) that
I actually shot the above F3 picture with (also in the living room) ... the rest are just on display.
My art collection.
Ah, and that is just what I can see at the moment. The rest are upstairs ... Oh,
say another 25 or 26 ... I have lots of cameras.
I collect cameras.
Russian cameras, box cameras, folding cameras, Kodak (going out of business?) cameras,
Polaroid cameras (Two of the classic SX-70), toy cameras, old digital cameras, even an old movie camera or
two.
Yes, some of them might even work ... but I don't use them as cameras ... I have
six digital cameras that I actually work with.
Remember, the rest are just ... ART. I just like cameras. And photography
gear. I have old film cans (from WWII), meters, filters, you name it ... even a little ceramic camera teapot in
the kitchen ...
To tell you the truth, I haven't bought a used camera in a long time.
I used to hunt them down at yard sales and flea markets. Not any more ... No, I slowed down.
But ... my college students have given me cameras over the past, what?, sixteen
years. Now that I love ... True, most of them are broken and no longer work, but, that is perfect. I don't need them to work.
They look good. They feed my passion. For that, I am truly thankful.
One former student - and now my best friend - gave me several old cameras
that her grandfather collected over the years ... Wow. They make up a major part of the collection. That was big. We are talking
WWII era cameras ... 6 or 8 of them, I can't remember. Awesome.
One, my favorite, is a big 'ol black Kodak 4"x5" box looking thing with a
folding lens on the front and a big hooded piece on top where you look down into the camera ... my "main" piece of the whole
collection. Real nice.
One of Nikon's first digital camera is upstairs ... funny looking folding thing
that you can twist around to shoot at different angles. Another student. Another friend.
Just last semester a student up in Boone gave me an old Kodak 110 Instamatic ...
Ahh, little did he know ... like that was my very first camera!
Ever.
My mom gave me one in 1973 when I drove my motorcycle out to Arizona from New York
after I graduated from high school. Long since lost ...
But now I have one.
Again.
Yes, I like cameras ... And now I have the Nikon F3. I bought it on-line at
Adorama. The lens came off another gift from a student (a Nikon EM) ... That easy, that quick. It is now my favorite camera
in the collection ... my dream camera.
But not the last. I just might start "hunting" again ... Let's see, there
is the Leica M series ... Hasselblad, Contax, Rolleiflex, my old Minolta X-700 and X-570. And the first
35mm SLR I bought while stationed in Japan - the Konica T3. That got me started.
Then there is the Mamiya RB 67 and the RZ67 that I first used in Germany
at my first real photography job ... and the Canon F1, and the little Minox spy camera ...
Oh, the list is long ...
But wait ... my college classes don't start until next week - I have
a little free time ...
** Update ... Yeah, right after I posted this I went back to Adorama to see about a cheap 50mm lens for the
F3. Found one.
Then ... yes, I couldn't help myself ...
I just took a peek at the underwater cameras by Nikon ... The classic Nikonos.
Ahh ... $35.
Again, it doesn't work, but hey ... for that much, it doesn't have to. That was for the body only ...
I bought it ... see, it is too easy. ADD TO CART. One click ...
So, an orange Nikonos with a 15mm (broken) lens coming in the mail ...
Perfect.
I promised myself I wouldn't surf the web any more this weekend.
I promise.
The Answer
Took awhile, but I think I can now answer the question I am always asked once people
find out I am a travel photographer ... you know, "What's your favorite place?"
I was always real clever and said, "The next place" if I was quick (and
clever) enough to think of it. It is a tough question.
Not any more ...
Antarctica.
Simple.
Well, favorite so far. Hands down. It was everything I thought it would be and
more. Just getting there made it special. Charlotte to Washington, DC (yeah ... fly north to go south). Washington, DC to
Buenos Aires - switch airports via taxi. Buenos Aires to Ushuaia, Argentina, at the tip of South America. 28 or 29 hours
... I'm not sure, lost count. Long time.
Then ... The Drake Passage. 48 hours rolling around the South Atlantic.
And I do mean rolling. Two days. The crew mentioned that the crossing rated only a five and a half out of ten ... well,
to them anyway. Just right ... interesting, but not TOO bad. I made it.
Then ...
I really did make it. Antarctia. Left Hudson, NC Friday afternoon, made
my first landing in Antarctia the following Wednesday afternoon ... Now that is an adventure.
First the South Shetland Islands, then down the Bransfield Strait, and then
to the Antarctica Peninsula itself.
Names like Livingston Island, Graham Land, the Gerlache Strait, Port Lockroy (where
you can actually go shopping), Half Moon Bay, Neko Harbour, and my favorite; Deception Island.
Think of taking a ship inside the crater of a sunken volcano and you have Deception
Island. One opening ... kind of like a horse-shoe shaped island with just a narrow gap between the two arms. Very interesting.
And to answer your question ... yes, it was last active in 1969.
Yes ... that's right - 1969.
We landed and hiked around the rim -- even took a Polar Plunge.
Volcano or not, it was COLD. But a plunge in a real polar region ... not to shabby, a REAL Polar Plunge.
Ahh, I wasn't alone, that's for sure ... I would say 20 - 25 more ran in right
behind me (I was second). Wild.
That sums up the whole continent ... wild. Let me say right now, of course, that
I only saw a very small part of the continent ... I mean tiny. But that is all it takes.
It is the highest, coldest, windiest, driest, cleanist, and most peaceful continent
on the planet. Unreal.
Oh, and quietest. That is what struck me. Quiet. We would take a zodiac trip out
into the ice, turn off the motor and just sit there ... whew. Worth the trip alone. Quiet.
Well, except for the moans of the glaciers, the popping of air bubbles escaping
the icebergs - air trapped for thousands of years.
Unbelievable. Cleanest air you will ever breathe. Fresh. Clean. Whew.
That is Antarctica. Unreal.
That was the trip ... over two weeks ... Ushuaia was a destination all by itself.
The End of the World. The tip of Patagonia where the mountains meet the sea. Went for a hike up to a glacier on the first
day of summer and got caught in a snow storm.
Whiteout. Interesting. Loved it. Hiked through a forest to get to a glacier and
couldn't even see the glacier once I got up there. White on white.
The experience. That is what it is all about. Yes, I'm a photographer, but trips
like this are more about the experience -- what I call, "getting out there". The images came easy ... it goes back to a quote
that I'll steal from someone -- I can't remember right off hand; "If you want more interesting pictures, stick your camera
in front of more interesting subjests" ... or something to that effect.
Wait ... Ansel Adams ... yes, I think I stole it from Ansel Adams.
No ... maybe not. I'll have to check that. I remember I wrote it down somewhere
...
Anyway ... very true, no matter who said it!
Patagonia and Antarctica.
Enough said.
Yes, the images are nice, they will let me remember, but oh man ... the whole experience
is what it is all about. Yes, it was cold. Yes, it snowed. It rained. I got wet. My hands got cold. I got hot hiking
up the hills ... over dressed for any real hiking ... but I wouldn't expect anything less.
There were also blue skies. And sun. And the clearest water you will ever see --
I could see the Minke whale as it circled right beneath us in the much smaller zodiac. Again ... wild. The sound of the
whale coming up for air. Whew ...
Again, speaking of sounds ...
Penguins. Elephant seals. Whales. Air bubbles. Glaciers moaning as they grind toward
the sea. The birds. I will remember the sounds.
Oh, and the smells. Yes, clean air. But ... well, let's just say you can tell when
you are around the penguins -- way before you can see them. I won't forget that for awhile either.
It is all good.
What an experience.
The plan to return is already in motion ... South Georgia, The Falklands ... Oh
yeah, it's a done deal.
One Shot
Been a long time ...
New computer -- Finally.
And ...
An end to an era. PhotoDeluxe Era. Over ten years. I loved it. "Start Here" simple.
It is what I used to get my images on this website ... to get images ready to print ... everything. I loved it.
Yes, my students at the college thought I was weird ... my friends laughed when
I told them what I used ... and no, I never mentioned it to my editors. What happens on my computer stays on my computer.
Can't use the old stuff on my new computer ... Hey, my old computer was
eight years olds ...
Yeah -- time for an up-date. New computer, new "Photoshop". That simple. Lenovo
computer. Photoshop Elements 9. Had version 5 or 6 but never used it ... like I said ... I loved PhotoDeluxe.
Anyways ... Haven't been working on my images for awhile. That was then, this is
now.
Just returned from Thanksgiving over at Jordan Lake - my nephew and his family.
Very nice. Just the right amount of food and getting out around the lake.
Sunrise was nice. Cold but rewarding. Yes, all three of them. First one down by
the boat launch ... nice reflections. Second two down at the dam.
This is my favorite ... the sun, the fog, the branch, the color(s). The cold. But
that is another story ...
The image. All that matters.
Well, except for the memory. The experience. Image or no image, I was lucky enough
to witness this. That is what it is all about.
One image. One memory. One Thanksgiving.
Do We All Have It?
Are we all artists? Do we all have an artistic side to us?
I like to think so. No, really, I know so.
I teach art. The college says so anyways. Art 264. Digital Photography. Have for years. I like
teaching art. I tend to do it even when I'm not teaching. Funny how that works.
Funny how much you can learn while not in a classroom. From kids. Yeah, teenagers.
This summer while on a rafting trip for O.A.R.S. down the Lower Salmon River in Idaho, I let
the kids on the trip use my small, water-proof (and kid-proof) Pentax W80 camera. My "I don't go anywhere without it"
camera. Just wanted to see what they could come up with.
They got into it a little bit ... they took a few images, passed it along to the next one, each
one taking their turn. Great kids, great fun.
I told them I would go through the images and post my favorite on my website. I thought it would
be interesting.
In truth, I knew it would be interesting. Remember, in the Spring, on my college OBX (Outer Banks)
trip, I got schooled by an eight year old ... I know.
I learned.
OK, yeah, it took me awhile. Once I got home my computer has not been the same ... trouble logging
into my website. Blah, blah, blah ...
Another reason why I enjoy taking pictures, not working on a computer. And why I should have
had a 13 year old come over and work on it ...
So, anyway ...
Very simple. Went through the images (finally) ... and was surprised by what I saw. One stuck
out ... well, really, a few stuck out. All blurred. All with an "artsy" streak to them that I can't quite explain.
I don't know what caused the blurrrr ... and I really don't care.
Art is art, I'm not going to try to figure out what a 13 year old artist's key to success is.
That is the joy of being an artist. A teenager. Who cares? It looks cool, he had fun shooting it, and it is as simple as that.
Yes, I tried to figure it out. How come the slow shutter speed in all that light? Why were his
blurred when all the others weren't? What button did he push to make them that different from the ones shot just moments before
by the other kids? Same day, same light.
Different artist.
That is the beauty of art. That is why I have been playing with photography for thirty something
years ... I never know what might happen if ...
I try this. Try that. Go here, turn there. Change this, look that way, this way, spin this, turn
that. Hand a kid a camera ... turn into a kid when handed a camera.
You never know. Shoot in the fog. Step out in the rain. Buy an underwater housing. Shoot
with a macro lens. Try 3200 ISO. Go on a raft trip. Take a hike. Ride a motorcycle. Buy a new flash. Hold the camera upside
down. Play like an artist. Play, play, play.
That is photography. That is art. That is my life. And yours. Camera or no camera. Or paint brushes,
or clay, or songs in your head. People are artists.
They are ... well, they are human. They have experiences. They have lives. They feel. They have
emotions. They play. They live.
They hand a kid a camera.
13 years old. Sure is nice to feel 13 again. To live.
Can't wait until my next trip. My next image. My next artistic moment. My next ... art whatever.
Yeah, we all have it. Some how. Some way. I know Cody does.
And now ... so does he.
And you.
Purple and Eye
I have mentioned that I teach in a middle school, right? I hope you know that.
I love it. I can honestly say that working with 6th, 7th, and 8th grade kids is fun. It is rewarding. I love this age group
... "The range of the strange" is how one person sums it all up.
Just plain fun.
Oh yeah ... and crazy.
And have I mentioned I enjoy taking pictures? Oh yeah ... that's fun too. If funners
was a word, it would be perfect. Combine middle school kids and photography, and I really can say I love working at Granite
Falls Middle School. It is who I am. It is what I do.
To me, this image sums it all up ... Fun.
I'm walking down the hall on the last day of school ... well, really, the last
HALF DAY of school. Track is over. Testing is finished. The 8th grade dance is over -- Oh, that is where I really have fun
behind a camera. All the different Award Programs are over. Everything is over ... well, except for walking up the hall after
the Morning News (which is also funners) trying out my new softbox for my flash that I made - well, no ... my friend
and fellow 8th grade math teacher (she can measure and figure things out better than I can, you know, like, real math stuff),
Sharon Bryant made it ... I, I just thought it up, she made it happen.
Little cardboard, little tape, something about a glue gun, and some foam packing
material I found at the college -- where I also have fun teaching photography to some older, fun students as well. It is all
good.
Yeah, I found this white computer packing stuff and just knew I had to make a softbox
out of it. I have been making things to diffuse flash for over twenty five years ... started with 3"x5" note cards and
rubber bands, then moved on to Cool~Whip container tops (you know, the frosted ones) and more rubber bands (then velcro),
to cardboard boxes and old t-shirts - then switched to the hi-tech Wal-Mart shopping bags (No, the first ones were from K-Mart) ...
Oh, I am always looking. Playing.
OK, sure, yes ... I have broken down and actually bought, and now use, the "real
stuff", like the Sto-Fen Omni Bounce, a Harbor Design Honeycomb Grid, Rosco Gels, snoots, etc ... but, darn, I still
like to see what I can come up with on my own.
I take that back ... my snoots, two of them, a 5" one and a longer 8" one are made
from some black foam and velco I bought at Wal-Mart for around $5.00. Ahh, they work fine, thank you very much. Look
cool too ...
And yes, I even haul out my 24"x24"Adorama softbox for the big stuff, but I am
always looking ... white trash bags, black trash bags, I'll use anything to modify the light, soften the light, color the
light ... anything.
OK ... back to the middle school.
Mrs. Bryant fixed me up with this laptop sized foam/cardboard softbox and
I strapped it on my Nikon SB-600 and was trying it out while walking down the hall ... yeah, the kids are used to it,
trust me. Heck, the teachers are used to it.
So, there I was ... holding the flash in one hand, snappin' images with the other.
6th grade hall ... 7th grade hall, boys and girls, shoot, shoot, show them, laugh, shoot some more. 8th grade hall. Laugh.
Cool stuff. The softbox two inches from their face, firing away ... the hallway - and all the kids/stuff in the background
are jet black (has to do with "real life" math and the Inverse Square Law, trust me ...) as if I was working in a studio.
Well, I was, actually. My very own, very long, middle school studio ... took about 30 images, give or take. Maybe ten minutes
... I don't know.
This is one of my favorite.
I don't usually publish images of my students on the internet ... well, ones
where you can tell who they are anyways. That is a whole other subject and an area I don't - and won't - get into.
No, I just enjoy taking the images, and having fun -- and in this case, was
just playing with my new softbox, seeing how it worked.
I did keep one other image. His mom is a teacher at the school and she liked the
picture so I am going to give it to her on Momday, ah, I mean, Monday - a teacher workday. It is a pretty cool image
... black background, nice side lighting ... again, a studio lookin' shot of a fun 7th grader, shot in the hallway. A keeper
... much like the model himself.
The rest? The rest of the images I just delete and remember them for the laughter
... the fun. And the learning. Remember, I shot this in a school, right? I learned about the softbox ... what it can do, and
what it can't. Learning. Playing. Or is it playing and learning?
That is what it is all about ... trying something new, having fun, and actually
coming up with a keeper -- or two. For mom. For reference.
This image? This image, I feel, I can post ... Her idenity hidden by her hands
... behind the purple. Only her and I know who it is. No worries.
This is the type of portrait that I love to do ... and the type that I stress
to my college students ... a portrait "of " the person, not just the person, if you get what I mean. Very important.
Trust me, this sums up the student very well. It is what she, and every other
middle school student is ... fun.
8th grade girl (oops, I mean Freshmen)- I can tell because of the purple fingernail
polish. Yeah ... we had the 8th grade dance a few nights before ... I just know she had them painted up for the big dance.
And yes, I know her well ... she ran track for me for two years. Great kid. Fun kid. Purple fingernail type of fun kid. That
is what makes the image - fun.
Well, that, and the eye ... the eye is really the key. That is the beauty of photography,
of art ... she covered her face, laughing ... but at the same time, peeking ... peeking at me taking the picture. That
eye contact. That joy. That is why I like this image. That is why I enjoy making images. The moment just came together. No
script. No directions. Just her, frozen forever. Forever young. Forever fun.
Purple and Eye. The highlights on the purple and in the
eye. Perfect.
Purple and I. That moment captured between her and I. That connection. That is
what is special to me. That is what I will always remember.
Oh, and the light ... that is what got this whole party started in the first
place. The light. The softbox. And the fun. That makes the image. The highlights.
Middle school kids ... got to love 'em. Purple fingernails and all.
Oh, and after all the testing (oh, don't get me started on testing ...), the softbox
worked just fine. Home-made -- well, no, it was sort of, kind of, made at the school, and sort of at her house
... but tested at the school. Got the image. I love it. I give it an A.
I love teaching.
And, with that said ... Oh, how I love the last (half) day of school.
Visual Poetry
I actually am a poet. Have been since 1985, I believe. I remember it quite clearly
- well, except if it was 1985 or 1986. Heck, it might even have been 1987. I know I was in Germany. But anyways ...
Yeah, I woke up, wrote down something I must have been dreaming about ... and that
was it. I had a poem. It was even published. I am a published poet.
Fame
Even though I am naturally small
there is something inside me
that perceives me as tall
A man should not be judged
my the size of his frame
It is his heart
and his soul
that should gain him is
fame
And that was it ... done. Never happened again. Well, as far as the whole actually writing
something down thing ... well, OK, as in writing another actual poem like thing.
I also got my first job as a real, honest to God, photographer in 1985 as
well. That I do remember. August, 1985. Department of the Army. Bremerhaven, Germany. T.A.S.C. Training, AudioVisual,
Support Center.
Fancy name ... I just took pictures for the Army. Studio stuff. I was clueless
about studio stuff but I got the hang of it real fast. f16 @ 125th. Period. Nothing moved, nothing changed. Medium format,
black and white images of soldiers standing at attention.
Not much poetry.
But that is where it all started. The poetry began, not so much with the image,
but with what happened in the studio to get the image. Pure poetry. I was a poet. I became a poet.
I made the images ... I stuffed paper up their sleeves, I taped their jackets in
the back, I placed their ribbons on crooked so they actually looked straight in the picture ... yeah, really.
I started bringing in the local youth teams and taking their pictures, I went out
in the field (what I really loved) and photographed training missions for the 2nd Armor Division, I rode in Blackhawks,
I ... well, I photographed Army stuff. I had fun. I learned. I played.
I preformed art. I was an artist. A poet. I took the everyday official studio
work and took it to another level. Photography is about the person behind the camera -- in this case, it was the fact
that I was an E-5 (Sgt) in the Marine Corps, my military background, that gave me an edge.
I knew uniforms. I knew attention to detail. I knew the military. I would make
that uniform look good, one way or another. True, it was an Army uniform, but I tried none the less. I worked to make them
look good - for the camera. Poetry.
When you pick up a camera ... you are a poet. Yeah, kind of scary.
Not with words ... but with images. Poetic images. The look of an image ... the
movement of the image ... yeah, I know ... still photography. That is the kicker ... movement, flow, direction, energy ...
all in a still image. Whew ... that has got to be poetry.
Twenty-five plus years as a poet and I've never relly thought about that until
I looked at these images ... ferns. Green ferns. Plain 'ol green ferns along a gravel road up past Collettsville in the foothills
of North Carolina.
I was walking along with my small Pentax W80 camera ... Nice day. Soft light. Diffused
light. Came across a batch, a bunch, whatever it is you call a group of ferns ... Fresh ferns. Green ferns. Nice, fresh, green
ferns.
I stopped ... turned on the camera, and just looked. I saw the poetry. I felt the
poetry. The movement. No, there was no wind - they weren't actually moving ... What I saw was the movement of their lines,
their shape. Their points. Their direction. Their color. The whole green and black thing going on (I knew my shadows
would go black). The texture. The contrast. The beauty.
I saw a poem. I saw my poem.
Simple as that. I spent four, maybe five minutes within my poem. I "wrote
down" the first two images you see here. Then I kept walking ... looking. Always looking.
On the way back, the same thing. I stopped and looked. Looked closer. Something
about these ferns ... Tried my macro (1cm macro) setting this time. Played one fern off the others. You know, the whole
"tree within the forest" thing ... Came away with the third image. One, two minutes at the most. Soft focus poetry.
That fast, that simple.
Of course I didn't really see the poetry until I got home and looked at what
I had "written down". I felt it, but didn't really know if I had it. Or if "it" was really anything at all. Ferns. I shoot
them all the time. Like everywhere. If there is a fern, I'll photograph it. Here, there, anywhere. Have for years. Same with
sunflowers ...
Oh, don't get me started ...
Back to ferns.
The images. The poetry. Point-n-Shoot poetry. It was a nice day. The ferns were
there. The light was there. The magic was there.
That is why I carry a camera. You never know when you might want to "write something
down". Like my first poem ... The images just came to me.
True, they are just ferns. But isn't poetry just letters? Words? Or is poetry more
than that? Feelings? Emotions? More than letters. More than just words. Something more ...
Think of you images - your art - as visual poetry. It really is that simple.
If you take the time. The time to look closer.
If you have your camera with you to write things down.
Getting Schooled
No, this is not my image. I wish I could say it was. After all, I am the instructor. I have
been a photographer for over 25 years. I have photographed the wild horses on the Outer Banks before. I have done this whole
wildlife photography thing over the years.
The Everglades. Bosque del Apache. The Galapagos Islands. Alaska. The Amazon. I know wild.
I know photography.
OK, lets start at the beginning ...
I teach photography at Caldwell Community College in Hudson, NC. Have since 1995. I
have been a photographer since 1985. I have worked for the Department of the Army in Germany, photographed the president,
the vice-president, generals, rock bands, worked for military newspapers and magazines in Florida, Georgia, Germany, Korea,
Illinois, and Kentucky. I have been published in motorcycle and photography magazines, wrote a photography column for
the BMW Owners News, published in OUR STATE magazine, covered over 25 trips for some of the country's top travel companies,
have led several photography workshops throughout the United States, Germany, Denmark, and Korea. I also have had work
published in other newspapers, magazines, websites, CD covers, and publications. I am a photographer. I am a photography teacher.
I take photographs. That is what I do. Thousands of images over the years. I have met some
of the top photographers in the world. I have attended workshops and lectures. Heck, I even have a Master's Degree in Photography
from Columbia College in Chicago.
I teach. I am a teacher. And yes, this year while leading a photography trip to the Outer
Banks, I got schooled. Got schooled good.
The above shot, in my opinion, is THE shot of the trip. About 20 photographers, thousands of
images, this is the best. This is the shot. This is the shot that sums up the whole wild horses of the Outer Banks
thing.
This is a cool shot.
I was there. I saw this. I missed it. It happened that fast.
Whoa! That was cool.
Wild horses. Wild horses on the beach. Wild horses in the dunes. Wild horses in North
Carolina. Wild horses - actually acting wild.
Wild.
For the past two years I have taken my college photography class to the Outer Banks over
Easter Break. We rent a house, get up early, stay out late, and photograph everything in between. I love it. They love it.
There is something about taking what you learn in the classroom and getting out in the field and putting it to good use. In
fact, I tell them that the classroom lectures are like Photography Boot Camp (you know, just like Parris Island).
I tell them what to do. I show them what to do. They practice around the college and in their
backyards, but the real test is when they get out there and actually have to put it all on the line. Practice, practice, practice
... before you go on your first "big photography trip" to the OBX - or Iowa City.
It is a great experience. One week where photography is the key reason for being there. Many
of my students have never been on a trip for a week where photography was the driving force to their day. Think about it.
How often have you spent a week where you do nothing but think about photography, talk about photography, plan your day around
photography, dream about photography, and spend the week with photographers?
I thought so.
I love it. They love it. Several of them bring their husbands, or wives, their kids (or nephews,
nieces, grandkids) ... one even brought her dog (true, she stayed at another house), but still, it is a true photography
vacation. Kids and all.
One of the days we headed north on Route 12 to Corolla for both the Currituck Lighthouse
and the horses -- and Duck, shops, beaches, etc ... But it really is about the lighthouse and the horses.
Getting to the lighthouse is easy, the horses? Not so much. The road ends before you get
there. You must drive on the beach. In the sand. It is fun. It is wild. We had a great time just getting to a place where
we could find the horses. See the horses. Photograph the horses.
Easy.
Getting a shot like this? Not so easy. I led the way ... I was right there with my 50mm
(equivalent) lens.
Yeah, I know. It is a game I play. One lens. Work on seeing images with one lens. Work it,
work it, work it. You should try it.
That is the teacher in me. That is what I do when I'm not working for BACKROADS, VIKING RIVER
CRUISES, or one of the other travel companies I shoot for. I learn. I practice.
One lens. In Black and White.
Oh yeah, not just one lens - a fixed focal lenght lens at that - and, just for fun,
I was shooting everything in B/W this week. Call me crazy.
Well, I must admit I cheated with some of the sunrises and sunsets ... you know, the LIGHT
(as in color!) houses, the skies.
But there I was ... in the dunes with seven wild horses in front of me. Close -- but not
too close (50 foot buffer zone). With my one lens. No zoom. No converter. No nothing. Right place, right subject ...
wrong lens.
No ... not wrong lens, lets just say a challenging lens. Yes, that sounds better. I worked
it. I used what I had. I shot. I looked. I waited. I saw it. I missed it.
Best of all though, I enjoyed it. I stayed. I was into the moment(s). I was into the "wild"
aspect of the moment. These are not your regular horses on the farm back home. These are not pets. These are wild. These are
big. Big and wild.
I kept thinking about being up in Alaska last summer photographing the grizzlies - ah, wild
grizzlies - in Katmai National Park. The same feeling was there ... well, sort of the same feeling. OK, not even close, but
it was a wild moment with wild animals, and I did have my camera. I loved it. It is all about the moment. The time. The experience.
That's it ... the experience of being at the right place at the right time, with the right subject, and yes, even with the
wrong lens. It is all about getting the image.
Just not THIS image. No, this image was captured by Chase Story. No, not one of my college
students. The son of one of my college students. The eight year old son of one of my college students.
Yes. Eight years old.
I got schooled -- well, we got schooled -- by an eight year old photographer with his mother's
camera and long lens.
The best shot of the day.
The best shot of the week.
Now that is photography. That is a photography workshop on the Outer Banks with my college
class. The right place, the right time, with the right camera, the right lens, the right subject, and ... the right moment.
That one moment.
And did I mention, eight years old? In this case ... the right age.
I can't even remember eight. I don't think I even took a picture by age eight. I know I never
saw anything like this at age eight.
What I do know is that I'm ready for next year. I look forward to taking what I learned
this year (from an eight year old) and applying it to next year's trip ...
That is ... To experience the world as an eight year old ... again. And again
... and again.
One frame at a time.
Available Light
I was out front in my yard shooting my favorite Dogwood tree with an
80-400mm lens. Hey, the light was nice, what do you expect?
Shot a few different views before seeing this image in my mind's eye before I even
shot it.
I knew what I wanted. The light was nice, I had a shadow in the background which
I knew would make it go black, and I walked my lens in as close as I could. Perfect.
Well, yes, it was nice, but perfect? I don't know ... there was a slight wind.
Was I getting the branch sharp enough? Was there enough light to shoot with a fast enough shutter speed to stop the motion?
True, it was nice, but late evening, fading light. Did I have to boost up my ISO? Oh, this "yard work" was getting tough.
Then I remembered I had my flash set up in my living room on my stand inside the
softbox ... yeah, I know. That's my life.
So ... it was available, I went in and got it. Simple as that. Available light.
Just what I needed. Left the softbox inside, set the stand just out of the viewfinder's frame, behind and to the left of the
flower -- just like the sun. I then zoomed the flash head out to 85mm to narrow the band of light, programed my Nikon
CLS (Creative Lighting System) to fire the flash off-camera, and was ready.
Had the camera set for -1.7 or -2.0 exposure compensation (OK, so I can't remember
all the details) to darken the background. That seemed to work (that, I do remember) ... I took a photo. I reviewed
the photo. Then I set the flash compensation to +1.0 to kick in and boost the output of the flash one stop brighter than the
sun.
Yeah, I did all this from the camera's menu ... try one setting, change it, shoot
again. The camera's compensation button effects both the flash and the camera ... so, with the camera/flash going dark,
I made up for it by bringing the flash power up one stop -- making it lighter. Has something to do with math, but I don't
tell my college photography students that ... they, like me, freak out at the mention of the "m" word ... you
know, math. Math in an art class? Say what?
But come on, this is photography class, this is art! What does math have to do
with anything?
Art it is. You are the artist, you should worry about art, let the camera do all
the math -- and/or science. Science?
Nikon did name it their "creative lighting system" didn't they? Be creative. Be
artistic. Just set it up, try it, and change it. Play, play, play. Just like I used to do in math class.
And yes, I even tell them ... you can check your own work. And make corrections.
Just don't call it math.
Spring Break
OK, as usual, I goofed up. When I made up my classes for the Spring semester, I
could of swore they did not list 12 March as Spring Break. I double checked.
I had us going to South Mountain State Park. Spring. State Park. Great plan.
And of course, two weeks before the trip, one of the students mentioned that the
college was on Spring Break ... did I really have a trip planned?
Of course not. I was just testing them ...
We had Spring Break. I went to South Mountain. Fishing. The recent rain had the
stream flowing real nice ... Peaceful. Quiet. Sunny. Perfection.
And trout. Rainbow trout. Brook trout. And a fly rod. And the stream all to myself.
Spring. Break. Spring Break. Perfect.
And ... of course, a camera. Remember, I am a photography instructor, right? It
was a Saturday. I have been teaching photography at CCC&TI on Saturdays since 1995. Habit.
I carry my Pentax W80 with me when I fish. Water-proof camera, water ... pretty
easy. The perfect camera. Small. Point-n-shoot. Has my "Three Buttons" ... just add trout.
Being out there ... that is what it is all about. And trout. And a camera. Perfect.
Well, actually catching trout made it perfect ... but being out there is always nice. I have been fishing
this same stream since ... I don't know, since I moved here in 1993. Habit. Spring. Stream. Fly-fishing. Perfect.
Eight trout? Even better. Eight trout. One image. Perfect-est.
Don't Light All of It
I teach photography ... and study photography ... and practice photography. It really
is the same thing.
I believe teaching is really stealing everything you can from other artists and passing it
on to others.
No, really. Think about it ... I read books and magazines, I look at images, I buy Lighting
DVDs, Travel to the Edge DVDs (and watch them over and over again), I explore YouTube, I take pictures like the ones
I read about and look at ... I am a photographer.
And I teach. I teach what I experience, what I learn. What, in reality, I steal along the
way.
Joe McNally ... I read everything I can find on him. You should too. I buy his videos ...
I buy his books ... I read his Blogs ... and yes, I steal every bit of wisdom I can from him - and his years of experience.
I would even attend his workshops and lighting seminars if I wasn't busy teaching my students all that I learned from
him. And everyone else. Heck, I even learn from my students - then pass it on, right back to them.
That is teaching, right? I read something, I see something, I hear something, I try something,
and I share that something with someone else. Simple. Teaching.
And it is not just Joe McNally, or Bob Kirst, or Jody Cobb, or, in that case, just photographers.
No, they all stole it from other artists -- ah, like starting with the cave painters of their day. Rocks, clay, bronze, canvas,
paper, metal, glass, film, computers, vending machines ... it is all the same. Art.
Now, back to Joe McNally and light. Photography is light ... I even made it my First Rule
- Look at the Light. Yes, I made that up all by myself. Pretty good, right?
Light. It is photography. After reading Joe's book, THE MOMENT IT CLICKS, it clicked. I read
the whole book and came away with the brillant idea that if you want to light something and make it look interesting, don't
light all of it. Again, that simple.
Joe wrote it (I guess maybe he even said it first. Well, before me anyways ...). I stole
it from him, and now I practice what he preaches. That is learning. That is teaching. That is what it is all about.
And yes, Joe even hints to the fact that he is sure someone else told him about
this simple fact, this brillant concept, years ago.
After all, they don't call it Rembrant Lighting for nothing. But in this digital age of wireless
flash and big softboxes, McNally Lighting doesn't sound that bad ... has a nice ring to it.
Well, maybe not. Maybe in a couple hundred years ...
OK ... back to the concept. Don't light the whole subject if you want to add a little
mystery, a little drama. A little "art".
I like the concept, I like the results. The beauty of today's equipment is that you can try
it a dozen different ways to see which one looks best to you. No rules, no formulas. No charts or scales to figure out. Place
the flash here, place it there. Low. High. Soft. Harsh. Bright. Dark. Play, play, play (true, another concept I came up with
...).
Just stick the flash somewhere and see how it looks. Try different effects. Spread the light,
funnel the light. Color the light. Control the light. It's digital. Think of it as free artistic expression. Delete what
you don't like, keep the ones you do. And yes, I just came up with that concept too ... all by myself.
I was in Granite Falls, NC, at one of my favorite places to take my classes. ANTIQUE VENDING,
owned and operated by Allan Huffman. Great guy, great place. Think of an old 1950's soda shop that never threw anything
away ... and multiply that by about a hundred. Or two or three hundred. All in one place. Vending machines after vending
machines. All lined up, row after row ...
And stuff. That is the beauty. The "stuff". It keeps growing ... toys, fans, bikes, cameras,
stuff ...
I came across this face in all that stuff. I set-up my flash off-camera in a sofbox on a stand.
Low and to the right. The Nikon CLS (Creative Lighting System) did all the work for me. I just thought of what Joe said -
and Halloween - and came up with this image.
Yeah - in a vending machine museum. In Granite Falls, NC. Who would of thunk?
That simple. Read. Watch YouTube (yes, that is where I found out my camera could do all this
wonderful stuff). Play. Enjoy.
Oh ... and learn.
Try it.
Then pass it on. You don't even have to mention my name.
** FYI: Just purchased Joe McNally's new 2 DVD set, The LANGUAGE of LIGHT. Excellent ... and
now I know who passed on to Joe the notion of not lighting all of the subject -- The great LIFE photographer, and later, editor:
John Loengard.
Another Look
Snow day. No school. For the second day in a row ... Oh yeah.
First day I made a video of my "greatest hits" over the past 25 years or so. Well, you know,
some of my greatest hits. OK, some of my favorite images ...
Truth is, I bought one of those digital picture frames for my mother at Christmas and went through
all (OK ... most) of my digital files and came up with 503 that I thought she would like. Yes, I was going to stop at 500
but just came across a few others ...
And since I had them all on one CD anyway ...
I put them to music ... made the video.
Then I got an e-mail ...
Which led to putting together a free 8"x 8" book via Shutterfly ... I wasn't going
to, but ... all those images on one CD, come on! Easy.
Then, another snow day ...
That got me thinking ... these were only the images I picked out for my website. What if
I went back and took another look? I have thousands and thousands of images on DVDs and CDs that have just been sitting for
years.
I go through them pretty fast ... BAM! I get home from a trip, burn them to DVDs, then skim through
them and pick out the 30 to 40 "bestest" shots ... run them through PhotoDeluxe (yes, really), burn the smaller "final cuts"
to a CD, then post them to my website. Fast. Really fast. Done.
That's it. I forget about the "other" shots I took and only remember the trip through the images
I see every day. I show them to my students at the middle school, my college students, and use them in my videos, that's it.
The rest just sit there. Like my pictures in the photo albums I never look at, and the file cabniet
full of slides from the days of, well, slides. Film. You know, the "good 'ol days". Haven't used them in years ...
Memories.
But ... I digress ... where was I? Oh yeah, snow days.
I was sitting around the apartment and was thinking I have
some shots of the pyramids that I would like to check out. Yeah, that is what two days off from school can do to you.
So, I dug out my Egypt DVDs and went through them, looking
... well, two of them anyway. Now that I think about it, there were some other shots I remember taking that I didn't see ...
Well, the point of all this is that taking another look can
be a good thing. It has been two years ... two and a half years, since I was in Egypt. Since I've looked at the original images
on the DVDs.
I came across this one ...
Glad I took another look. Any more snow days and who knows
what I will come up with.
Take another look ... a new look, at your old images, you never
know what you might come up with.
Over and Over Again
I never tire of this. I have shot subjects like this for years. Over and over again. I
never tire of it.
Place your subject in the light, look for a shadow to use for the background, and under-expose
the image. Simple. Over and over again. In the studio, in the field, in your backyard, downtown Moscow, it does not matter.
Look at the light, check your background, and minus, minus, minus ...
Black background, bright subject. Work it, work it, work it.
Ginko leaf. 8:30am. Held the leaf up against the early morning light. Zoomed in ... checked the
background to make sure it was in shadow (used the shadow of other trees), set my exposure compensation dial to minus two,
and fired off three or four quick shots.
OK. That sounded too easy ... Forgot to mention I did it over and over again. Minus 1.3 ... minus
1.7 ... checked the results ... zoomed in and out, moved around looking for shadows, tried it again. Got it. Headed for the
car ...
Thought about it one more time ... went back, looked for the original leaf (it was big!), couldn't
find it. Looked around for another one ... found a good one. Did it again. Over and over again.
Got it. Again.
Drove home ... opened the image in PhotoDeluxe (yes, I still use the original Adobe
beginner program), re-sized it, added a wee bit of contrast, went a little darker, sharpened.
Got it.
What makes it better than the other Ginko shots over the years (you know I have done this before,
right?)???
The backlit frost on the edges ...
That extra touch. The added bonus.
Got it.
Until next time ...
Seeing
I enjoy fly-fishing at South Mountain State Park, have for years. Same place, same stream, same
rocks, same trees, same parking space. Really, I park at the same place every time. 15 years. Same everything.
Spring and Fall. I don't fish in the Summer. Can't say I drive over much in the Winter either.
Spring and Fall.
I love it.
I fish. I run the trails. I relax. I actually relax while I fish. And run. I guess I relax by
fishing and running.
And looking. I am always looking. I am a photographer. I see things. I see images while I fish.
I see images while I run. While I walk. While I ... well, I just see images. Period. That is who I am. That is what I do.
Always.
Sometimes I even take a camera with me while fishing. Sometimes I don't. It is a love-hate
relationship. I love to fish. I love to take pictures. I hate to miss pictures while I'm fishing. But at the same time,
I hate to think I will miss any fish if I stop and take pictures.
Do I catch fish or take pictures? Or go hiking? Or running? Or just take images?
I see images all the time. Sometimes I just want to fish. Sometimes I just like to enjoy the
park. The stream. The leaves. The color. The beauty. The quiet. The images ...
Didn't catch that many fish this day (caught and released three) ... and didn't take that many
pictures, but this one image (I kept three), gives you some idea of why I go to South Mountain State Park.
And why I fish. And what I see.
What I see while fishing. It is all good.
Rules, Rules, Rules
I have taught photography for years and have said it many times; look at the light,
get closer, and shoot lots of images ... over and over and over again.
I have shot Fall Colors for years and have said over and over again; look at the
light, get closer, and shoot lots of images.
Period.
This Fall is no different. I went to Bass Lake a second weekend in a row and followed
my own rules. Well, true, they are my rules, but I stole them from every photographer and artist from the Middle Ages on ...
Art is art. Shooting Fall Colors is no different. This image takes all of my rules
and shows why I have three rules.
I got there around 6am to be in place before the light arrived. I used my
longest lens (my old 80-400mm VR). And, I hung around for 6 hours - looking, shooting, shooting, looking, shooting,
and shooting some more. And looking.
1, 2, 3. Great light (backlight), got closer (600mm equiv.), and shot over 400
images by noon.
This is the result (well, one of them anyways). Light. Color. Contrast. Shadow.
Design. Art.
I love Fall.
I love rules.
I love the results.
Simple as 1, 2, 3. Even got in a three mile run ... can't get any better than that.
Breaking the Rules
Rule Number Three : Shoot Lots of Images.
Pretty simple. Photographers take lots of pictures to improve the odds of coming
away with that one great image. Makes sense to me. In fact, it is my rule ...
Bass Lake is a wonderful place to do just that; take lots of images. The tress,
the lake, the sky, the leaves, the colors, the water lillies, the patterns, shapes, and lines. Unreal.
This summer I ended up in Jim Brandenburg's Studio in Ely, MN and bought the video
CHASED BY THE LIGHT. I knew the story ... one picture a day for 90 days. Last week I shared it with my class. Today I did
just that ... one click.
I actually sat down, looked through the lens, moved the lens up and down, to the
right, the left. Did it again ... looking. Seeing. I found the scene one minute after parking the van. First scene I
came to; I knew it was the scene. That simple.
The lake, the water lillies, the reflections ... I saw it as a telephoto image
of the lilly pads "stacked up" on top of each other with the reflections of the leaves giving it a surreal look. I tried different
views. My 105mm macro was not quite giving me the look I was looking for.
Changed to a longer lens. Brought out my 18-200mm. Perfect. I liked it. The light
was right, the lake was perfect ... then I thought a polarizer would help. No problem, slipped mine on and turned
it to see the different results. Look, turn, look, turn ... Zoomed in, zoomed out ... Oh, I like it.
Not what I first envisioned, but I like it. The wide angle look took in the sky,
the trees, the lake, the reflection. Nice. That is how it works, you know, "the best laid plans of mice and men" and
all that.
Different perspective, different vision. I liked it. I checked the ISO, I checked
the compensation, thought about the compensation, I checked the white balance ... thought about that darn compensation again
... no, I am not always this careful, this slow. No, usually, I shoot what I feel, when I feel it. Shoot first,
ask questions later. This was different. I only had one shot. I looked, I thought, I waited for the people to walk out
of the image ... I checked again ... I, well, I guessed. I hoped. 200 ISO. Cloudy White Balance. Minus one compensation.
Horizion level. Check, check, check, check. Click. Whew.
Done.
One shot. Even turned off my monitor so I wouldn't see the results until later
... you know, like the good 'ol days of film. Drove me nuts ... Walked away. Had another two hours or so before I was to meet
up with my class. I saw images everywhere ... that really drove me nuts. Spider web lit by the sun ... back-lit leaves ...
the pattern of upside down lilly pads ... the red and green colors ... the yellow leaves/blue sky ... Images everywhere.
I walked into the woods, sat down and just looked. No camera. Just looked.
Then I walked some more ... looked some more. Came back to the lake, ran into a
couple of friends. Talked. Even got my camera out and "looked" with it. Shots everywhere. I just looked, played. I had my
shot.
Beautiful day. Met up with the class, drove to Woodlands for lunch ... talked about
how great the day was. Looked at the image.
Not bad.
One click. One image.
Rule Number Four (If I had that many!) ...
Break the Rules.
GEOGRAPHY PHOTOGRAPHY
I am lucky enough to share my passion for geography and travel with a 7th grade Social Studies
class at Granite Falls Middle School in North Carolina.
I have a degree and everything. I also host the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Geography Bee every
year and just love it. I love geography. And travel. And travel photography. And, I must say, I love the 7th grade.
To tell you the truth, I actually have a hard time remembering the 7th grade, but I do remember
working (OK, looking at the pictures) in the books and dreaming what it must be like to actually see what is in the pictures,
to actually go there ... The Alps, The Sahara, The Amazon, The Great Wall, The Nile ... the list goes on and on. The
Grand Canyon, Alaska, Siberia, The Frozen Continent ... I wanted to go there. See that.
Still do.
Fact is, I have. Well, some of them anyways -- still working on that Frozen Continent thing. The
beauty -- and what I try to explain to my students -- is that there are always more places to go to, more things
to experience, more people (and animals) to meet.
More images to be made.
While putting together a lesson for the class, I came across this image ... from Norway. A motorcycle
adventure riding up and down these roads ... see the road on the far shore? Yeah, up one side, down the other. Unreal.
I took that photograph. I was there. I remember that road. I remember dreaming ...
That is geography. That is teaching. That is sharing. One image, one lesson.
One dream.
Not mine this time ... 7th graders. Who knows where they will go, what they will see?
What roads they will take?
I love it.
Photographic Therapy
2 Aug 09. I will remember that one ...
Luxembourg. Out there shooting the capital at twilight. Crossing the street --
yes, in the walkway ... BAM.
Never saw the wire hoop ... a wire hoop? What? I couldn't believe it. Yes,
some sort of trash in the street tripped me up big time. Torn rotator cuff and ... just to make it more interesting, a
torn bicep tendon.
Whew. Sure, the tripod and camera in my left hand were fine ... but my
shooting hand was gone. Couldn't even hold my camera up to my eye.
Crazy.
Three days later I was in Ireland. Yeah, that Ireland. For the first time.
Driving one handed on the wrong -- oops, different, side of the road.
Crazy.
Yes, I still took hundreds of images -- using my left hand to hold up my right.
Had a great time, just loved it.
Then I got home. Middle school, college. Cross-Country. Monday through Thursday
night classes, even a Saturday class.
Useless right arm. Took awhile ... One doctor to see another doctor, to get
x-rays, MRI, you name it ... All to find out what we knew all along. Surgery on 22 Sep 09. Missed three days of school/college
...
Real crazy.
All because of a wire hoop thrown out of some car's window or something ...
Sling, pain, pain-killers, doctor visits, physical theraphy, more pain, more pain-killers.
Over and over ... everything but photography. I was mad. I couldn't hold my camera. I couldn't take photographs.
School/college was a blur. More pain-killers.
Crazy.
Then it hit me ... BAM. Mentioned it to my college class; I would start taking
a photo-a-day starting 1 Oct 09. Great idea. Force myself to take a picture every day to get over this period in
my life.
Great.
Tried it but I was to mad/angry to really give it a chance. Took one or two ...
Hey, I was busy, I worked all day at the middle school, taught four nights a week at the college - one, a hour drive up the
mountain in Boone (one handed) ... Crazy.
I gave up.
For a day or two ... well, actually, three.
Then, on 6 Oct 09 (a Tuesday no less) I got it right. Got
out the tripod, mounted my camera, attached my cable release, and just left it in my living/dining room.
I had a half-hour window between school and college (and before it got dark!) and
just walked in, took the tripod a few steps out my door, and fired away ... sometimes just once, sometimes a few times --
maybe five or six.
Then I turned around, walked back in, and looked at the images -- and saved just
one. Period. Done. Ready for the next night. It got fun after a few days, weeks, months ... even got home after dark one night
and just reached for the good 'ol flashlight. Fun.
Crazy. Crazy fun.
It is all good ... good for me, good for my arm, and good for my art. 90 days of
looking for something new just outside my front door.
True, I did visit family at Lake James over Thanksgiving, and also took off
for the "Southern Swamps" at Christmas, but I still kept looking for "trees in my front yard". Different trees, different
yard... same theme. Trees. I worked at it, I looked for it.
90 days ... I got out of my sling, I kept up my physical therapy, and worked
on my photographic therapy as well. It all clicked. My attitude changed, I felt better about my injury, I felt better
about my photography. Still couldn't hand-hold my camera, but I was getting better, my shoulder was getting better.
It was all good.
Crazy good.
Copenhagen
Deja-vu
It hit me as I was walking to The Little Mermaid. I was just following the line of people
along the water; turn right, veer left, repeat.
It was a nice day, I was in no hurry, and then it hit me.
Yeah, I knew I was in Copenhagen before, I’m not that bad ... I even remember walking
from the downtown area to the small statute that gains so much attention. That I remember.
What caught me by surprise were the windows ... Bam! that was it. I had been here before, the
same route, the same building, the same windows. I know, I have the picture. My picture. No, not a picture, a slide.
I have the slide upstairs in the filing cabinet somewhere. And a digital file of the image on a CD somewhere downstairs.
I'll find it.
Twenty years ... no, twenty-two. I was walking by this same building - I have no idea what building,
I just remember the windows. Well, to be honest, I didn’t remember the windows. I remembered my reflection in the windows.
That was it. I had taken this image before.
I remember images. Don’t you?
That is what I do; take images. One image out of tens of thousands came into view. I was here,
my camera bag (I still own it) over one shoulder, a camera (either a Minolta X-570 or X-700, OK, I’m not that good -
I had both) over the other, and in my right hand, another Minolta, as I crouched down to photograph a boat as it sailed by.
I remember. Me, framed in a window with a boat.
So, what did I do?
Yeah, I crouched over and looked for another shot just like the last shot. True, I didn’t
have a camera bag over my shoulder (older) or a second camera (smarter) but I did crouch over in my "photographer stance";
looking, waiting, thinking, planning, remembering, and yes, to be real honest - giggling like crazy, having a riot, making
yet another image. A new image.
I love doing what I do. Simple as that. Twenty-two years and I’m still at it, still out
there looking, seeing, playing ...
That is what photography is all about. That is what I am all about. Yeah, it is not all good,
all the time - I have my regrets - but man, it was good this time; just as it was the last time. Giggling.
Deja-vu.
And yes, I kept waiting for a boat to sail by ... different year, different day, different image.
But hey, the bike works.
I’ll see what I can do the next time.
A Vision Shared
I teach photography part-time at a small community college in Hudson, North Carolina. My "real" job is that of a Special
Education teacher, but for the past ten years I have combined my passions for photography, travel, and motorcycles into
a "third" career as a motorcycle adventure photographer/writer. It has turned out to be a great way for me to express myself
doing what I love to do.
I began by writing a motorcycle photography column for the BMW OWNERS NEWS, which lead to writing travel articles for ROADBIKE
magazine, which has lead to motorcycle adventures in the Alps, Canada, Mexico, Norway, and a second trip to the Alps this
past summer. I enjoy what I do and have a passion to share it with others. Which leads me back to my photography classes at
the college.
I first met Jack Daulton in my Saturday class in 1995. As I always say, anyone willing to meet at 9am on a Saturday morning
to learn photography is halfway there. Jack was there and ready to make that next big step - that being a free-lance
photographer. In fact, it was Jack that introduced me to OUR STATE: Down Home in North Carolina, the state magazine.
The fact that neither of us were actually from North Carolina never entered the picture. Jack moved here from Indiana
in 1992, a year before I settled here from ... well, lets just say I worked as a military photographer for ten years
and lived in a number of places, but I grew up in up-state New York. I had never heard of the magazine but we talked
about submitting work to magazines in general and that the most important aspect is to just submit the work in the first place.
I believe Jack went first, I followed.
Jack’s first step was a very successful move to say the least. Over the years he has three covers to his credit and
numerous images inside the magazine. His "real" job is that of a social worker, but as a free-lancer, he is one of the magazine’s
top contributors. He has also become well known in the area for his intimate look at nature and has become heavily involved
in two local camera clubs and a regular award winner at Grandfather Mountain’s annual Nature Photography Weekend held
in June. His most recent success has come in the form of an image being published in OUTDOOR PHOTOGRAPHY magazine, in my opinion,
the finest photography magazine on the market.
He is also a regular guest speaker at my college classes. From student to teacher, Jack has come full circle and continues
to work on his craft. As I viewed Jack’s recent work, the notion of "Shared Vision" entered my mind. Even if the subjects
are different, the vision was the same. Photography is not so much of what you see as it is on how you see it.
Although I am also a contributor to OUR STATE magazine, much of my recent work evolves around my old passions: motorcycles,
travel, and photography. I bought my first motorcycle in 1970. My first cross-country motorcycle adventure took place in 1973,
the same year I received my first camera as a high school graduation present. That was when and where my third "career" began
although it would take another twenty-five years to come full-circle.
In the meantime, I had joined the Marines, gone off to college, learned photography, became a photographer for the Department
of the Army (as a civilian), worked as a free-lance photographer, and received a Master’s Degree in photography while
living near Chicago. It took awhile, but I too have come full-circle.
That is the one aspect of "Shared Vision" that is not obvious, the fact that both Jack and I share more than just a "vision"
or a way of seeing the world, we share a passion that has taken years for us to get to where we are, a drive that pushes us
to succeed, and the willingness to take that extra step, or in our cases, that extra frame.
The goal of any photographer is to make a personal statement on any one aspect of life that comes before the camera or
envisioned with a camera. For many times, what is before the artist and what is seen through the camera are totally different.
In fact, that is the beauty of using a camera. No matter how new a camera is or how advanced the technology is, it is still
just a tool. It is, and always will be, the person behind the camera that dictates the final outcome, it is just a matter
of being able to predict what that outcome will be. Taking a picture is as simple as pushing a button. Making an image, on
the other hand, involves all that goes on before pushing that button. A big difference.
What Jack Daulton and I share is simple. In truth, that is what we share, simplicity. Look at our images and I hope you
come away with one thing: Both photographers keep it simple. One of my favorite quotes that I have posted on my bulletin board
at school is: "The greatest artist is the simplifier". That is the vision that Jack and I share. It really is that simple.
It is not so much what we photograph, it has everything to do with how we photograph it.
PEOPLE PHOTOGRAPHY:
More than the Person
People photography is more than taking pictures of people. That would be the easy part. Just
as there is more to the person than one could tell in 1/250th of a second, telling the story of a person is more than recording
them on film.
Pointing a camera at people has been special since the invention of the tool itself. It is still
one of my greatest joys as a photographer. If I am out with my camera and people are around, sooner or later they tend to
appear in my viewfinder. It was not always that way.
Working with people is just that - work. It is something that I try to convey in my photography
classes that I teach for the local community college, but it is also the hardest concept of photography to teach. In fact,
I tell my students that it is the one aspect of photography that I can not teach them. It must be learned, but it can not
be taught by anyone other than themselves.
Getting out there, meeting people, photographing people, is the only way that anyone can learn
how they relate to other people. Work at working with people, with strangers, that is how one becomes a better people photographer.
Work.
It is also something that is much greater than the subject itself. It is hard to explain, but
I often state that it is not the person I am photographing, but an aspect of that person that I wish to explore, to capture,
to photograph. What caught my eye? Was it the freckles? The mustache? The light? Was it the person, or was it what the
person was wearing or doing? People photography is more than a portrait of a person.
Often, and I hope people take this kindly, I use people as nothing more than props. The Chicago
skyline. The Vietnam Memorial. The Great Wall. Here, it is not so much the person, it is where the person is. Now, if it is
your wife and/or family, or even yourself, the concept is reversed of course, and it becomes the person first, location second.
Same frame, just a different frame of mind.
As far as travel photography is concerned, one of the greatest aspects of traveling
is meeting new people. What would any town or city, or even a National Park be without people? Visit any country,
large city, small village; stop at any general store, anywhere, any country, and you will find people worth meeting. If they
are worth meeting, they are worth photographing. Get to know them better by sharing time on either side of the camera. You
must enjoy meeting people in order to enjoy the results of photographing people. Very simple.
Another simple concept is that the human element, or form, adds to any scene. Landscape, cityscape,
mountain vista, or desert expanse, the placement of a person within the frame gives the image a perspective that the viewer
can relate to. A scale. More than just a landscape, more than just a person.
Take that one step farther. Many cameras today have a self-timer that can be used to place yourself
into the scene. In the middle of nowhere? Show it my making yourself a very small and insignificant part of the image. In
a crowed city? Place yourself within the chaos surrounded by the masses. Your placement within the image alters the
story you wish to tell. Think about what you, the photographer, want to say, and use the human form as another tool to get
your message across. It is more than the person.
One aspect of traveling is that you end up in some great places. All travelers like the "I was
there" aspect that photography offers. You made it, this proves it. The only problem with that is in many cases, the resulting
picture shows a tiny person - could be anybody - standing in front of this or that famous landmark. Proof that someone made
it, but who? Often the landmark is many times the size of the adventurer and, in order to fit it all in, the photographer
backs up, or worst yet, tells the person to back up until they end up the size of an ant in this wonderful landscape, lost
for all practical purposes.
The key is perspective. Next time you are watching the evening news, check out the relationship
between the newscaster and the background while on location. They are up close, and the background plays off them, not the
other way around.
Next time you are at a certain famous landmark (or not so famous) and want to photograph yourself,
and/or your friends, place them close to the lens and then see where you want the landmark placed in relationship to them. A
wide angle lens is great for the situation, as long as you don’t get right up in their face. Many of the cameras on
the market today offer some type of zoom lens. Try using the shortest setting (e.i. 35mm on a 35 - 80 zoom lens) and
have your subject about four or five feet from the camera, off center of the landmark in the background. Perspective
is the key, use it to your advantage. In this case it is more than just the location or the person. It is the relationship
between the two. Work at it.
Which leads me to my last suggestion, which, if you remember, is one of my rules - get closer.
No matter what the case, by getting closer, you fill your frame with what is important. People photography is based on meeting
people, sharing something with those people, and recording that experience on film or digital chip. True, people photography
can mean different things to different people, but to me, getting involved in someone else’s life, even for 1/250th
of a second, is the key to a successful trip and, as Bob Seger once poetically sang ... "Makes me a wealthy soul".
Take the time to show your subject just how important they are to you. Take an extra
shot or two (or eight or twelve) and work on bringing out the best of them in your images.
Which reminds me of the greatest aspects of switching to digital over the past couple
of years - Instant feedback. The ability to share the moment, that one moment, is a great joy that can not be overlooked.
To capture a smile and be able to share it with that person, and their family and friends, opens the door for many more smiles
and images.
I might not be able to speak Russian, Chinese, Spanish, or Greek, but I can communicate with
people anywhere in the world with a digital screen and a smile of my own. It is more than the person or the camera.
I hope this artice (and the images on my website) and concepts on people photography
speak for the need to see people in a new light, one where you begin to see people for what they are, not just what they look
like.
Many of my favorite images are of people. "My" young Tunisian girl, the Russian soldier
saluting, the Hmong girl with her headpiece, the "Amazon Girl" with her paddle ... All these people, and countless
more, are forever with me. That moment, that connection, for however brief, will always be with me. Stay, this moment.
One such encounter was at the Rhinebeck, NY BMW rally where I gave my first motorcycle
photography workshop. I met a gentlemen with the greatest handlebar mustache - No, make that a handlebar beard, I have
ever seen. Wait, make that the only handlebar beard I have ever seen.
After a few shots, and getting the image I envisioned, he commented on the fact that I must
be weird to do what I do, or something to that effect.
We laughed and parted ways. He was right of course, and I was pleased to see that someone else
picked up on the fact that I love to do what I do. Weird? Well yes, but I like to think of it as a good weird ... Like growing
a handlebar beard.
Meeting, and photographing people, is one of my passions. Weird? Maybe, but then again, it is
more than just photographing the person, now isn't it?
Getting Out There
For me, photography is more than recording light on film. No, that is only one small part
of photography. I love getting out there and doing what I enjoy doing. At the same time, being a photographer is what gets
me out there in the first place. It is a vicious cycle. One passion drives another until they actually become one.
During the school year, I work as an Special Education teacher at a middle school, coach cross-country
and track, plus teach photography part-time at the local community college. I keep busy.
My "third job", if I can call it that, is working as a photographer for adventure travel companies
during my Christmas, Easter, and summer vacations. I love teaching. I love to travel. I love to experience life with a camera.
Life is good.
For the past ten summers I have worked with a few motorcycle touring companies and magazines,
a river cruise ship company, a couple bicycle touring companies (both road and off-road), a couple white-water rafting companies,
an Amazon River Lodge, even a company that "rents" out vacation houses in Europe. Works for me.
I combine my passion for travel with photography, throw in the writing aspect that is new to me, and
come up with a wonderful way to spend my spare time. I joke and tell my middle school students that I work during the summer
to get as far away from them as possible. Italy. Austria. Germany. Norway. Slovenia (I like that one, none of the kids has
even heard of it). James Bay. The Copper Canyon. The Seine, Elbe, Danube, Volga, and the Yangtze rivers, plus some Dutch and
Belgium waterways. The Trans-Siberian Railway. Hong Kong. Hawaii. The Colorado River. Baja. Napa Valley. Mammoth Cave. New
Orleans. Egypt. Nova Scotia. Panama. Costa Rica. The Galapagos. The list goes on and on ...
I love getting out there.
Getting out there. That is what drives me, and in so doing, it is therefore the driving force behind
my photography. Think of photography as a visual passion, one that moves you, and you will begin to understand what photography
means to me. The camera is a tool. For me, photography is getting out there, doing something, being involved, working at being
an artist, expressing yourself. Period.
That is photography. That is being an artist. That is getting out there.
Actually, it has very little with photography, and that is the point. Remember, the camera is just
a tool. Letting light reach film, or a digital sensor, has very little to do with being a photographer. True, it is photography
in a nutshell, but it is only a small part of actually being a photographer, an artist. To me, photography is passion, and
that is what makes, or breaks, the final product.
Life experiences make us who we are, as a person, and as an artist. Everything we do, every picture
we take leads us to our next image. My childhood, living in Greece as a child, sports, the Marine Corps, living in Japan,
Germany, and Korea, working in a camera store, motorcycles, everything ... I do what I do because of who I am. My images are
the direct result of my experiences, both as a person and a photographer.
Driving a motorcycle through Arches National Park before sunrise is an experience that is special.
A full moon, the twisting, smooth, empty road, the chill in the air, the vastness which encompassed me, the magnitude of the
place. That is what I remember. That is what I wanted to capture, that is what drove me, not my motorcycle. It was awesome.
Words, my words anyway, can not express how I felt. That is why I carry a camera. That is what I was out there for in the
first place. Experience it first, capture it on film second. It can be no other way. That is photography. That is being a
photographer. That is what I mean by getting out there.
Photographing Army recruits going through boot camp. What I remember most about that experience is
standing around in the pouring rain, in the middle of a huge sand box with pine trees, surrounded by men and women with green
and brown painted faces, working on my art. I loved it. I made a point of being there, staying there, working there. In the
rain, I just brought out my small, point-and-shoot Canon underwater camera, put on a rain jacket, and kept on shooting. I
loved it, the recruits loved it.
It is who I am.
Now, were all the pictures I took in the rain great pieces of art? No. Once more, that is not the point.
Being out there, rain or shine, is the point. Point-and-shoot camera? Not the point (I like that one). The point is getting
out there, experience something that moves you, and record it the best way you can, with whatever you can.
Getting up at 4am to take a taxi to the Great Wall ... a two hour drive north from Beijing. The taxi
driver having to ask directions to a section of the wall not rebuilt for the tourists. Getting there at 6am to find myself
alone with history. Yeah, I got a few nice images, but just being there, walking on a crumpled section of the Great Wall,
it couldn’t get any better than that.
Then again, climbing Ayers Rock was pretty special. Richard the Lionheart’s castle ruins, Monet’s
garden, flying low photographing the Great Barrier Reef, the sunset over Lake Baikal, the mud of the Alaskan Highway, motoring
over the Alps, bicycling the Southern Alps, the Troll’s Staircase in Norway, the rapids of Cataract Canyon, swimming
in the mist of Havasu Falls, running to the Arch at the tip of Baja to capture the sunrise ... The leaves at Old Salem, I
could go on and on.
Experience is the key to becoming a better photographer, and by that, I mean more than just taking
pictures. Every photograph one takes is a building block for the next image. It is also true that everything you do in life
makes you a better photographer, camera or no camera. Simple as that. We are what we do. Get out there and experience life.
Make it your art.
FOREVER YOUNG
I went and listened to Sam Abel, a long time National Geographic photographer, when he presented
a lecture at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. I have admired his work for many years and consider his work an influence
on my own.
Quiet and artistic are words used to describe his work. Artistic I got right away, quiet, on
the other hand, is not a word I would normally associate with describing a photographic image. That took me a bit longer.
The journey was well worth the effort.
His slide show - yes, he still shoots slides - was based on his latest book, Stay, this Moment.
Taken from a line of one of Virginia Wolfe’s novels, Mr. Abel discussed the ability of an image to capture a single
moment and forever keep the subject in the image frozen in time. Forever young. A child. A young bride. Your father. Your
grandparents. One moment that stays the way it is, never changes, never grows old.
What a powerful concept. Stay, this moment. As I look over my work from the past thirty years
or so, I understand the implication. Photography, my photography, lets me re-live all the moments I have captured over the
years. My first cross-country motorcycle tour, my time spent in Japan as a young Marine, my motorcycle trip to Alaska, my
"Honeymoon Tour", then the start of my "real" photographic life. Florida, Georgia, Germany, Korea, Illinois, graduate school,
OUR STATE magazine free-lance work, motorcycle tours and articles, river cruises, bicycle touring, white-water rafting, and
college photography classes and workshops. My photographic life. The images that make up my life.
Stay, this moment.
I wish.
Of course, we all know that life does not work this way. Life goes on. My images of my married
life are the only reminder I have of such a time. Life moves on. I have to resort to looking at my past images to actually
remember what color my hair was. Memories fade. My images also remind me of how there are really never enough to cover a single
life. Moments are lost, moments are forgotten. Never enough moments recorded. Never enough film or these new digital things.
I am just grateful for the images I do have. The moments I can project, the moments that stay
with me forever. I was reminded of this recently while giving a slide show on North Africa to one of the seventh grade Social
Studies classes at Granite Falls Middle School. A picture of a young Tunisian girl standing in front of a pottery kiln with
smoke surrounding her was shown and the teacher mentioned that she liked the image and asked me about it. I went on to explain
the story behind the image - I can remember it like it was yesterday, and was shocked to hear that the girl must be in her
early twenties by now. What? "My" little Tunisian girl? No way ... I couldn’t believe it.
I really never thought about it. 1988. The girl looks to be about four or five years old, maybe
six. I never even talked to her, never had the chance. Two frames. One with eye contact. Then my guide spoke to her, she glanced
at him, another frame. Then she disappeared back behind the kiln. Gone. Less than a minute. Nineteen years ago. Stay, this
moment. Her eye contact, our connection, has stayed with me ever since.
While running the other day, one of my favorite songs played on my I-pod. Forever Young, by
Rod Stewart. The musical interpretation of Virginia Wolfe’s concept of a moment frozen in time. The musical equivalent
of a photograph. I like it. It got me thinking of the role photography plays in one’s life. Forever young.
Every person, young or old, that I photograph on any given day, stays that age in my mind’s
eye. It got me thinking of other images, other strangers, that I never really got to know, but remember through my images.
Thirty, twenty five, twenty, fifteen, ten, five, or even a year ago, my images keep my subjects forever young. Young or old,
the concept remains the same. The old man in Richland, NY that I photographed the summer before his death, remains the "old
man from Unity Acres" sixteen years after the fact. The first "New Year’s Baby" born in the U.S. Army hospital in Bremerhaven,
Germany is just that, a new born baby. I know, I have the image upstairs. OK, so she was born in the early hours of January
1st, 1986. Big deal. I was there, I photographed her. I remember. She was small. Forever young; even twenty plus
years later. She is still tiny.
I could go on and on. Images stand out. My favorite images stay with me. All the others show
up now and again in my lectures and on my website. Images that keep my memories forever on my mind, forever young.
What a concept.
Virginia Wofe wrote about it, Sam Abel talks about it, Rod Stewart sings about it, and I photograph
it. Now I also get the chance to discuss it in my photography class and in my articles. I knew there was a reason I like Sam
Abel’s images. Today, I know it had to do with more than just the images, it was the thought process behind those images.
Quiet images. Images that make you think, to envision, to infer more than what is presented
before you. Again, I like to think they had some influence on my own work. What a concept.
Stay, this moment.
The Connection
(Article for The BMW News)
The place looked familiar. I had been here before. Four years earlier I had turned up this valley on the way to Passo di
Stelvio in Italy, the highest mountain pass that I have yet to cross. It is also one of the few that I actually remember from
my first trip through the Alps.
The cable car traveling overhead was the give away. It was Deja-vu. I had to stop. To be honest, I did not realize I was
on the same road, the same valley. My first trip to the Alps is a faded blur. I was in heaven and really didn’t understand
how special it all was. I was into the moment, but the moment kept getting better and better and I couldn’t keep up.
This time I stopped and reflected on where I was and what I was seeing. More photos, more memories.
I photographed the valley with the cable car traveling overhead. Then my eye moved to the shadow of the cable car moving
over the road. From there, I actually looked up and noticed men working in the field. Well, really, I noticed men working
in a hay field on the side of a mountain. Not a hay field like the ones back home. These were hay fields in the Alps. Different.
Special. Forget the cable car shadow thing, I had a new target. I was into the moment. A new moment. Things are always changing.
I love it.
There was a group of four or five men working the hay field with hand rakes. I was hot just watching them. Like them, I
kept on working. I worked my way around the edge of the road looking for the shot. I focused on a young guy near the edge
of the field who was raking the cut hay into rows, getting it away from the edge and getting it into the sun to dry. I took
a few shots, moved closer, and took a few more. Then I noticed an older gentlemen working up on the side of the mountain,
off on his own. It was steep, the work was hard, yet he seemed to be in his environment. I moved up and joined him. I was
now in my environment. We nodded, he took a second look, smiled, and kept on working. I checked the number of shots I had
left on the roll of film (yes, this was the old days ...), smiled, and kept on working. This is the game I play. This is what
I love to do.
Where was the sun? Where did I need to be? What did I want to say about this man? How could I "say it" photographically?
Would the man continue working with all the attention he was now given? The younger guys were really getting into this now,
yelling something, laughing. We were connecting without the hindrance of language. This is the aspect of photography that
I love. The connection. I stayed and shot, he stayed and worked. He soon forgot about me and went on working. I soon forgot
about how hot I was in my riding gear and kept on working. I had a few more frames left and just hung around, moving, watching,
looking.
I’m not sure who wore who out, but he came down and talked, asked questions, laughed, talked some more, and laughed
some more. Of course I had no idea what we were talking about but that has never stopped me before. I ride a motorcycle to
get out there and meet people, to see things I haven’t seen before, and photograph everything in between. He talked,
I listened. Body language, expressions, gestures, hand signals, and smiles go a long way. He sat down and rambled on while
I stood there below him on the mountain and rambled on, looking, connecting, seeing.
Then I saw my image. If you know my work, you know I like to get close and record what it is that catches my eye about
any one person. Standing there looking at this man holding his rake, I could not help but notice his hands. Hands. I love
them. They tell a lot about a person. I now knew what I wanted to say about this man. As you know, it is a theme of mine that
I never tire of. I saw the image in my head, now I had to record it on film.
I had the right lens on my camera. My favorite lens. A great travel lens that covers a lot of ground, is fairly light and
small, and fits great in the saddlebag or tank bag. The Nikon 28 - 105mm (with macro) is my lens of choice. The keys being
28mm and macro. I tend to think of the 28mm as my "normal" lens. I just like it. It lets me work close without distorting
the scene too much and allows me to place the subject within its environment. Now, throw in the 105mm focal length and, while
working close, it makes a great telephoto lens. It puts me in there optically where I like to look around, yet lets me keep
a comfortable working distance from my subject. Of course, once I kick the lens into macro mode (with a flip of a button),
the lens really earns its money.
To keep it real simple, macro allows me to photograph an object really close. With a flip of a button, the lens allows
me to shoot close-ups within the 85 - 105mm range, a sort of mini-macro zoom lens. I just move in, look through the lens and
keep getting closer until I like what I see. True, the farmer must of got a kick out of me moving in real close and photographing
his hands, but like a real pro, he was into the moment and did a great job. Maybe it is better I have no idea as to what he
was saying or thinking. It is all part of the magic. I thanked the man, we said good-by, he got back to work, I stopped working.
It was time to ride, to find a new moment.
The best part is that I can re-live the moment every time I see the image. It is true that every picture tells a story,
but that is only half of the story. To the photographer, it is the story behind the picture that makes it special. It is the
connection that tells the story. The connection with a man on his mountain.
Point-n-Shoot Does Not Mean
Just Point and Shoot.
Let’s get one thing straight. A camera is a camera is a camera.
Your point-n-shoot compact camera is just that, a camera. It might not look like a "real" camera, but
don’t let the size fool you. Like every camera before it (and after), it is a light-proof box that allows light to reach
film, or now, a digital sensor. It works like any other camera, no matter the size or cost. It has a lens and some sort
of aperture and shutter speed. It is a camera.
Like any camera, it can take stunning pictures, or it can take very bad pictures. After all, it is
a camera. The principal is the same and the rules are the same: LOOK at the LIGHT, GET CLOSER, and SHOOT LOTS OF IMAGES.
The problem is they just don’t look the same, or feel the same, in your hand. One tends to down
play the fact that they are a photographer if they are seen walking around with a small, obscure point-n-shoot camera around
their neck, heaven forbid if they ever placed it on a tripod! Well, a real tripod anyway, you know, not one of those 4 inch
mini-tripods you find at the Dollar Store (and that I love).
Really, have you ever seen someone walking around a National Park with a point-n-shoot camera mounted
on a "real" tripod? Not the trendy thing, but you might see a few out there. You should see alot more, due to the high number
of point-n-shoot cameras being sold today. Use a tripod with yours, they are, after all, cameras.
My point (no pun intended)? There is more to the compact camera - either film or digital, than
just pointing (one handed no doubt) and shooting. Use the camera as you would any other camera. Today’s compact cameras
have top-of-the-line features and fine optical lenses that will more than meet the needs of most photographers. Just don’t
be embarrassed to bend down, steady the camera with two hands, and use what features the camera offers to "make" (work at
it) excellent photographs.
The rules of composition are the same for all art forms and all camera shapes and sizes. In fact, I
find point-n-shoot cameras easier not to center the subject than SLR cameras with their center focusing guides. Just know
where your edges are and move the camera around until you off-center the main subject, or at least place it where you feel
it looks the best, in the viewfinder. It is just knowing what you want and working to capture it. That is photography, that
is art. That is not just pointing and shooting.
I own two point-n-shoot cameras that I carry with me (a third stays at the middle school). Two cameras
that fill two different needs. One, my waterproof Pentax W60 you have heard me rant about often enough to get the message,
is my favorite camera, and the one I have owned the longest (In fact, I am on my second one now ... my first one was stolen).
A very simple camera that does let me control the flash (fill-flash), the ISO, the White Balance,
has unreal macro (1cm), nice wide angle, and I can use it anywhere, rain or shine. It is usually around my neck while
I’m on my bike, hiking, rafting, or just out for a walk. It is my "first-response", emergency, inclement-weather camera
that I don’t leave home without. Check out the new Pentax W60 -- comes in different colors, you can’t
miss it.
The other, a Nikon P50 is another no-frills zoom lens (28 - 105mm) point-n-shoot digitalcamera.
Again, I can control the flash for the effect I want. Nothing fancy but it does the job. Allows me to contol most
features and has great optics.
Between the two, I make due with what I have. If it is raining, my fancy Nikon D-SLR (a "real" camera)
is useless, or would be if I tried to use it that much. I just use my "other" camera, in this case, the Pentax W60, and keep
on shooting.
Another aspect of using a small point-n-shoot camera is the fact that I don't "look" like a photographer
and get those funny looks when I walk into a market, or park. In fact, it seems that everyone now carries a camera of some
sort, even cell-phones, and walking around with a point-n-shoot doesn't raise an eyebrow.
In places like Russia or China, or on the streets of San Antonio (long story), it is best to just fit-in
and look like every other tourist in the world and snap away with your little point-n-shoot. Look harmless and work on
the image, make a photograph. Vision is still the key. Seeing like a photographer is more important than looking like one!
Smaller cameras also come in handy if you want images of yourself while in Rome, Tokyo, or
Peoria. Ever tried to hand (or want to) a stranger a $2000 camera/lens outfit and ask them to take your picture? Most people
back away and act like they have never seen a camera before in their lives. I find it much easier - on both of us - to just
hand them the point-n-shoot and let them fire away. After all, it is not a "real" camera, they can handle that. If only they
knew what you now know!
I like them and use them. You should do the same, no matter what your level is. Get one and use it.
Push them to their limits and never regret being seen, by me or anyone else, with your little point-n-shoot camera working
to capture the perfect image of your touring experiences. Just keep in mind that there is more to just pointing and shooting
your point-n-shoot camera.
Look for me, with mine, on the road, on a cruise, bike trip, or just out playing in the rain. Enjoy.
Travel Photography: The Essence of Time and Place
I joke and say that I was born in California, but made my first move at six months and have never looked
back. It is true, and I have the military to blame for it. My father was in the Army in the 1950s and 1960s, I joined the
Marines in the 1970s, and I worked for the Department of the Army throughout the 1980s as a photographer. I have lost track
of the moves. That is over. I have now lived in Hudson, NC for over thirteen years and am very happy where I am.
Travel led to photography while on my first cross-country motorcycle adventure following my senior
year in high school. I drove to Arizona from New York via Chicago and received my first camera to record my experiences.
That is when it all began. I travel, I take pictures. It really is that simple. The distance nor the
time matters, if I go anywhere, chances are that I will have my camera in hand. Over the years, as my interest in photography
grew, the separation of travel and photography began to blur. Now I am not so sure if I travel to photograph or photograph
because I travel. Like many people, the point is moot. It is my passion and I don’t really care which drives which as
long as it still drives me to get out there and capture what I like to think is the essence of time and space. My time, my
space.
I learned long ago that no image can capture the full travel experience, not even video with its movement
and sound. No, nothing can record the smells, the weather, the energy of a place. That is what makes the experience more overwhelming
than the mere journey. As a still photographer, my goal is to record not just what I see, but what I feel, what I experience.
Not an easy task and one that drives me to keep trying. In fact, travel photography is actually very hard to pull off due
to the fact that one is actually traveling: On the road, between flights, in-between meals, and always, it seems, seeking
the next hotel, campground, or gas station (with a clean restroom). Never mind the fact that after the fourth of fifth of
anything, things all start to look the same. We get tired, hot, and ready to move on. Lets be honest, traveling is not always
what it is cracked up to be. I get sea-sick, tour buses are a trip in themselves, even motorcycle journeys have their downside
(usually in the form of rain), not to mention air travel, which has taken on new meaning of late.
The travel experience is unique to each person, each day, each minute. I can be on tour with hundreds
of other people, yet can come away with different experiences. That is what makes travel so exciting, and which makes travel
photography so rewarding. My images are my interpretation of my time, my space, my experience - no one else’s, at no
other time.
I live in North Carolina because of the Blue Ridge Parkway, period. I have driven every inch of it
many, many times over, yet it is never the same, it is always changing. The light, the weather, the traffic, the leaves, the
people, the wildlife, the construction. It is always in flux, as are my experiences and memories. Without a doubt, I am drawn
there like no other road or place. Yes, I have many images of, or from, the Parkway. Each is a slice of time and place. Same
place, different time. I can never take too many photographs while driving on the Parkway and that is why I head up there
most weekends - when I’m not out on some other adventure.
Travel photography is as old as photography itself. What better way for people to experience other
locations than by seeing it. In fact, most of our knowledge of the world while growing up comes from pictures. As a teacher
now, I see this all the time. Social Studies books are full of pictures of the world far and removed from the average eighth
grade student’s first hand knowledge of the world. It was true one hundred and fifty years ago and it is still true
today. I believe National Geographic is proof of that. People want to see what the world looks like at any given point
in time. Paris in 2004 is unlike Paris in 1904, yet the beauty of all this is the fact that no matter how much things change,
they remain the same. It is the photographer’s job to pick up on what is going on at that moment, to capture the mood
and the energy of the place. Paris is Paris, just as New York City is New York City. Capture the essence of any one place
at any given time, that should be the goal of any traveler.
I am going to Europe this summer on a motorcycle adventure in and around, as well as up and over the
Alps. I am looking forward to revisiting one of the special places in the world aboard my favorite mode of transportation.
I was last in this region in 1998 after a ten year absence. It was special then and I know it will be special once again.
That "specialness" is what I am going to try to record on film. What aspect of Germany is going to catch my attention? Will
the Alps appear different? How will my group experience effect my individual memories? Will I "see" the old or will I sense
the new? Last time I was in Berlin, there was a Wall, what will I feel this time around?
That is why I do what I do - to answer those questions on film for myself as well as my editors and
viewers. Travel photography is more than pretty images on the page or hanging on the wall. Like photography of any type, travel
photography should strike a cord within the viewer, it should connect, evoke a feeling. The subject is not as important as
the emotion.
Film records light differently than our eyes perceives it. That is the beauty of photography. The camera
lens sees differently than the human brain. Again, that is what makes photography so special to me. The magic lies in what
I call "Photographic Vision" - recording on film what is unseen to the human eye, and also in the fact that a still image
is a slice of time that will not, and can not, happen again. The past can not be photographed, nor can the future. I can only
record what happens when I am there, or, in the case of remote cameras, only what appears in front of the camera at any given
time.
Photography is work. Travel photography, for reasons mentioned earlier, is even harder. I’ll
even go out on a limb here and say that motorcycle travel photography is even harder because you have to think about what
you are doing, as well as what the other riders are doing, or more importantly, what they will be doing - before they do it.
Plan, discuss, prepare, scout out different locales, and then rely on mother nature and human nature to make a mess out of
whatever you thought was a good idea at any given moment. Think about it. Ten or twelve people coming together from all walks
of life, from all parts of the country (or the world for that manner), with all types of riding skills, and head out in unfamiliar
surroundings. And you are supposed to capture the "essence" of the tour? Who’s tour? Who’s experiences? Truth
is, you can’t. You can only capture your experience within the group, within the overall motorcycle tour. That is the
joy of photography. That is what makes it unique.
What does all of this mean to you? Well, the point is that your photography is the only record of your
travel experiences, be it by motorcycle, bicycle, canoe, or cruise ship. Make the best of it. Point-n-shoot, digital, or the
top-of-the-line SLR, the equipment is not as important as the attitude. Technical expertise is not as crucial as cultural
expertise. Know, or get to know, the essence of any given place, at any given time, and your photography will reap the rewards.
Not a photographer? Same holds true. Photographs are really nothing more than visual memories. With or without a camera, hooking
into the underlining essence of a city, a country, or village is what travel, and travel photography, should be all about.
Even without a camera (shame on you), memories are memories, and they are the only ones we have. Good luck capturing the essence
of your next adventure in time and place.
Passion
Photography is passion. Art is passion.
Teaching is passion. Life is passion.
Passion. I don’t teach photography,
I teach passion. It really is that simple. Cameras, film, memory cards, lenses, and tripods are just tools we use to show
our passion for whatever it is that drives us. Being a photographer is not about knowing what lens to use for what effect
or knowing that f16 renders greater depth-of-field than, say, f2.8. Photography is being out there and recording that which
moves you. To create a piece of work that captures what it is like to be you, to see what you see, to feel what you feel,
to express what you feel, as only you can express it. That is all any one person, artist, photographer can do. Be driven to
be out there always looking to see something which is special, which is new, which excites you. Chances are, if it excites
you, it will excite someone else as well. That is art.
I teach Art 261 at a local community
college part-time. Photography. A black and white basic photography course. It is a passion of mine. I love teaching. In fact,
my real job, or full-time job, or what I like to do the most, is that of a school teacher. I am a Special Education teacher
in a middle school. Talk about passion. I love working with kids. I am a kid. It is not a job. It is what I do. I teach.
Art. Photography. Reading. Math.
I also coach. Again, not a job, it
is what I do. It is who I am. I coach track. Well no, I coach the passion for track. That is all. I run, I keep in shape.
I actually get paid extra to go out and run with 80 middle school kids in the Spring. I don’t know how much I get paid,
but I do. I love it.
Now, cross-country is different.
That is pure passion. I don't get paid. Pure passion. On my part and the thirty to forty kids that join me in the Fall for
a few months or so. Passion for running. Passion for teaching. Passion for sharing.
That is what I do. Share.
Yes, I like to think I know a little
something about photography, cameras, film, and even this new digital stuff, but what I really do is teach passion. I once
gave an interview for the college television channel. I remember just talking off the top of my head (which I usually do,
as I am doing now) about what I really do is push. Yes, push. I push people to get out there and use that camera they have
in ways they have never used it before. Push. I push passion.
My Saturday class is starting up
after a three year break. I have been thinking about what I can do to get people excited about photography. Passion. I’m
going with passion. Nine o’clock on a Saturday, now that is passion. I always say that anyone willing to pay to be at
college at nine in the morning, on a Saturday, will learn something. That is easy. Getting them to want to come back ... That
is teaching. That is passion. That is what I do.
I am ready. I am excited. I just
returned from a one week trip on the Danube photographing the Christmas Markets for Viking River Cruises in Germany and
Austria. Seven days of getting out there in the fog and rain, the cold, and looking for art. Working at seeing something as
only I can see it. Working at doing what I love to do. Passion got me there, with my mother no less, and passion is what got
me out there looking, working to make images that would excite others to get out there as well.
Pushing. Pushing myself. Pushing
others. That is what I do. I push passion. What could be better than that? Teaching? No, passion is teaching. I like
to say I don’t teach photography, I teach people to want to become better photographers. Or better readers, better students.
I don’t so much teach my middle school students how to read, I work on teaching them to want to become better readers.
Push, push, push.
Same as at the college. If someone
wants to become a better photographer, or artist, I can help. That is the easy part. If explaining depth-of-field helps a
beginning photographer, so be it, I’ll teach them. I can share what I know about cameras, what I know about art. What
is tougher is sharing my passion. It is after all, mine, not theirs.
How I work, how I see, how I react
to different situations, that is what makes me the person, and therefore, the artist that I am. My life, my vision. I can
not teach passion, I can only share my passion with others and help them develop their own passion for photography, for seeing,
for working on being a better photographer, a better artist.
Oh, wait a minute ... That is teaching.
Sharing passion. Not as concrete as shutter speeds and apetures, but the point can be made. Passion teaches passion.
Passion. It all comes down to passion.
Pushing passion.
That is what I do. Now doesn’t
that sound better than Art 261? College ... Go figure. Whoever comes up with these names needs to take my class. Passion.
Passion is life. Passion is art. Passion is photography.
I’m excited. Call it what you
may, I’m ready for my next class to begin. I'll come up with something, it is after all, my passion.
That One Image
It always comes down to one image. I’ve been doing this for more than twenty years, thirty
if you count the trips I took when I had no idea how to use a camera. Thirty years of travel photography and of all the photographs
I take on any given trip, it always comes down to one favorite image. The image that captures the essence of the adventure,
the journey, the experience. One trip, one image.
Yes, I have several images that I like from each adventure, but there is always that one I say
is my favorite. The one I think of when I think of the trip. The image. Not the experience of actually taking the image, just
THE image. I think of that image when I think, or am asked about, any given trip. Funny how that works. When I think of Peru,
I think of the little girl, "my" little girl.
Never said a word to her. Her mother was trying to sell me a necklace or something. There were
two dugout canoes and several women making their sales pitch ... I had no idea what they were showing me, I saw the girl.
Well, and I saw the paddle. The girl caught my attention, but the paddle made me take the picture. I was in the Amazon Rain
Forest and the dugout canoe was a symbol I wanted to capture on film. The canoe itself, and the large, wide paddles I had
seen everyone using. Very unique, to me anyway. It was my first time on the Amazon and the canoe and an odd shaped paddle
became symbols of the river itself. To me, they say AMAZON. In capital letters!
Enter the young girl and her custom fitted paddle. I loved it. Handmade junior sized Amazon
paddle. I had to take the picture. It became my favorite.
True, it is my experience, my memories, but is it a good picture? I believe it is. What makes
it good? First, as a photograph, we must look at the light. Photography is light. Period. Nice light. We were tucked up under
some trees off a small lake, and the trees diffused the light and made it dance off the water, filling in some of the
shadows on the girl’s face.
The girl herself. I always tell my photography students that you can’t go wrong with kids
and/or pets. She was worth taking the picture all by herself. Did I? No. I had to place her in her world with her paddle.
The dugout canoe and that paddle made it the "Amazon Girl," and not just "Young Girl" or "Young Girl in Boat."
How about the background? Her expression? The tight cropping? Her body language? The colors?
Very important. These are all elements that add up to the total image. They are the setting, she is the main character, and
the paddle, well, let’s call the paddle the climax, if I may borrow freely from the literary world. Nothing is in the
image that I don’t want in the image. That is my role. That is the artist in me, telling you, the viewer, what I think
is important, and what I want you to look at. Photographers subtract, painters add.
I call it a "clean image." As the artist, I subtracted the "clutter" around this beautiful young
girl and made her the center of my attention, and in doing so, made her your center of attention. Her and the paddle. I hope
her mother forgives me, but I just had to cut her out of the frame.
Is it a good photograph? Is it more than the girl and her paddle? Does it evoke an emotion?
Does the eye contact draw you to the subject? Does the light enhance the image? Do you like it? Does the paddle add to the
photograph? Should it be my favorite image from more than 25 rolls of film? Does it say "AMAZON" to you? Is it worth me writing
about? Is it worth the fuss?
Yes.
To me anyway. And that is the key. It is MY favorite image from the 400 plus images I kept from
my week on the Amazon. I will remember the river, my week in the Rain Forest, and my trip to Peru, by this one image. Funny
how that works. The Amazon Girl. I saw her about five minutes tops, but the moment, her expression, and yes, even that darn
paddle, will be with me for many, many years to come.
I love photography. I love the power of photography. I love the power of the photograph ...
That one photograph. That one image.
Three Little Buttons
Every camera has two major controls: Aperture and shutter. Period. Very simple. It is with these
two controls that everything else dealing with photography begins. That is the simple part. The fun begins with learning how
to manipulate these two controls. All the different buttons, settings, lenses, flashes, filters, tripods, reflectors,
etc ... they are all there to help make sense of these two simple controls.
Light and Time
A camera must be able to allow light to hit the sensor. Think of a light-proof box with a hole in
it (aperture). Then, there must be a way to control how long (shutter) that light hits the sensor. That is it, a pin-hole
camera. Simple.
Two controls that are at the heart of the matter. Let light in, and control how long that light hits
the sensor. Photography in a nut-shell, so to speak, or in a light proof box. Same difference.
That is your camera; be it a compact point-n-shoot model, or the "big" digital single-lens reflex
(DSLR). A camera is a camera ... the concept is the same. Light and time.
Three Buttons
Now the fun begins. To help you better control your camera, the makers, OK, most camera
makers, give you at least three little buttons that will allow you, the artist, to control the whole light/time thing and
come away with images that meets your needs. The key being, your needs, not the makers of your camera. Art is subjective,
it is up to you to make the image yours by controlling what is being done inside that light-proof box.
ISO BUTTON
First things first. ISO. Find the little button, use it. You should be able to find it in the dark,
by memory, and understand that you must use it if you want to take charge of how your images look once you squeeze that shutter
release.
Keep one thing in mind – OK, two things.
More Light: Less Time
Less Light: More Time
The ISO setting you choose dictates what the shutter speed will be whenever you take a picture.
It is the most important setting you can make. Everything else comes second. Look at the light and choose an ISO setting that
is appropriate for that situation.
AUTO ISO is what your camera comes set with, and in most cases, that is fine, if you want some technician
back in Japan (or Taiwan?) being in charge of your art. The idea is for you to take charge, and this is the first step.
What is ISO? I thought you would never ask. ISO stands for International Standards Organization,
but that tells little about what it actually does. This little button is in charge of how sensitive you want your digital
sensor to be. Higher number, more sensitive. Lower number, less sensitive. If there is a lot of light, use a lower number,
if there is not a lot of light, use a higher number. Each camera must meet the "standards" set by the industry so everyone
is on a level playing field. Nikon's ISO 100 is the same as Canon's ISO 100, etc ... Or so they say.
Yes, these are numbers, which means math, but don’t let that bother you. Most cameras offer
ISO settings of at least 100, 200, and 400. Many have more ... 50 and 80 at the lower end, and/or 800 and 1600 on the
higher end.
They are all about light. If it is bright and sunny, set your camera at 100 and go at it. Once it
gets cloudy, or later on in the evening, or if you happen to walk inside a church, set your ISO to a higher number, say, 800,
and continue taking images. It is all about your shutter speeds. "Faster" number (800), faster shutter speeds; "Slower"
number (100), slower shutter speed. Think NASCAR, and you will be fine.
Really.
Even on a sunny day. If your subject is moving very fast, try a "faster" setting (800). Humming birds,
two year olds, or race cars, the idea is the same. Try it.
Here is the secret, and the key to the whole process; the lower the number (100), the finer quality
image you will be able to capture. Sharper, more vivid colors, finer detail. Think about it; if the sensor is less sensitive
to light, the little "light gathering thingys" (I am not a technician) on your sensor don’t have to be that large, hence,
a sharper, better quality image. If they have to gather more light, they have to be bigger, and that produces bigger grain,
or "noise" in your image. True, that is not a very technical way to describe what goes on, but I hope it helps (if your are
a camera technician, please forgive me). Again, try it and find out what I am talking about. " Noise" is the little dots you
see when you take a photo at ISO 800 or 1600 (or higher).
Another thing to remember is this, the smaller the camera, the smaller the sensor. Small sensor,
more noise, no matter what the ISO is. For example, I don’t think twice of setting my Nikon D90 to 800 or even 1600
ISO when needed, but cringe when I have to use even ISO 800 on my smaller water-proof Pentax W60. Over ISO 400
on the Pentax and things get a wee bit grainy for my taste. Smaller sensor trying to meet the same "standards" as
a larger one, makes sence to me.
It is a game of give and take - blurry images (slower shutter speeds) or noise,
you choose. Use the button and find your camera’s limits. It is after all, your image.
Want an advantage? Buy a tripod. No, let me take that a step further and say, use a tripod.
Buy it first of course, but then carry it with you and use it. Big, small, light or heavy, the choice is up to you, just have
one and use it. It is the one piece of equipment that will make you a technically better photographer. It does not breathe,
so your images will be sharper. Period.
No tripod? No worries. Find something that doesn’t breathe and set your camera on it and use
your self timer ... oops, that would make four buttons, forgive me. Find the button that looks like a stop-watch and
see if you can’t set it to two seconds, and fire away. If not, the 10 second timer will do. The two second setting just
makes it more convenient. You are not touching the camera, the camera is not moving, and your image will be sharper. Period.
Tripod, soda can, fence-post, rock, whatever ... steady your camera, use the self-timer, and step away and let the camera
do all the work. Simple.
All my "night" (twilight) images are shot in this manner. ISO 200, tripod, self-timer. Yes, my shutter
speeds are longer, but that is what the tripod is for. Lower ISO, better quality. I go for better quality every time. Without
the tripod, a higher ISO setting would have to be used which produces more noise.
The trick is, if you have a tripod, you can shoot it both ways for different effects, but if
you don't have a tripod, well, you are down to one option. Two is better.
WB Button
No, not Warner Brothers, this is not a cartoon. WB stands for White Balance. Think filters. Filters
are pieces of glass that photographers use to put over their lens to change the color of the light. The WB button is
the digital version of a "filter" and takes care of all that for you. One button, several "filters". Very nice.
Saves you a lot of money - and time.
Different light sources give off different colors, our cameras, like our brains, balance them all
to look "natural" or what they call "daylight balanced".
If you are new to photography and never change your settings, you have no idea what I am talking
about, right? Find the WB button, take it off AUTO and you will find out fast enough.
Truth is, the AUTO setting works very well. You can shoot outdoors in the sun, in the shade, inside
in various light conditions, and your camera will follow right along and put the needed "filters" in place and you come out
smelling like a rose. The right filter for the right light source. Automatic. Those tech guys are great. But again, they are
not the artist, you are. I can not stress that enough.
Each camera has different settings so I don’t want to get too involved with the different choices/names, so
just take charge and find out what each "filter" does.
I like CLOUDY myself. If you have it, use it. Try it when it is sunny. It warms, or
gives an orange tint, to your images. Makes it look like you got out there at sunrise instead of nine or ten o’clock
in the morning when the color of the sky has shifted more towards afternoon "white" light. That is what your camera does,
it balances the light to look "white" , or like daylight, no matter what type of light it really emits. Play. Have fun. Push
the button.
True, you are "cheating" but that is what the artist does. I always say, "don’t let reality
stand in the way of your art". We have enough reality on TV. Yes, of course, you can choose DAYLIGHT for daylight, or TUNGSTEN
for tungsten, but the fun is to try SHADE in the sunlight, and INCANDESCENT outdoors at noon. Washed in blue, the sun becomes
the moon (that even sounds like art). Try it, you might like it.
And on the other hand, try the "wrong" settings in different situations and you will very quickly
find out why they are wrong. Don’t worry, you can delete them. A green sunset is pushing it.
Yes, you can get carried away (and I have), but the point is to know what the WB button is for, and
at times, be brave and use it to your advantage. AUTO actually works great most of the time, but I want you to know you have
an option. Use everything you paid for on your camera. Push those buttons, get your money’s worth.
Compensation Button
The +/- button. My favorite. The one I use the most. Find it, use it, wear it out. You will need
it. I promise.
This is the big one, that is why I saved it for last. This button "compensates" for the fact that
light reflects off different colors and subjects ... well, differently. Not all subjects are equal. Lighter colors, or subjects,
reflect more light than darker ones. Has something to do with science, but I figure you have had enough of that in school,
so I’ll try to keep it to a minimum here. Just trust me.
Again, find the button and use it. Start with the MENU button and you should find it. If that doesn’t
work, yes, go ahead and pull out that manual that came with the camera (it is probably still in the box) and see if you can’t
find it; looks like more math ( +/-). Same goes for the other two buttons, if you can’t see ISO, or WB, somewhere
on the camera body, try MENU.
Take a picture. Look at the results. Too light? Too dark? Fix it. If your image is to light (to my
taste, most digital cameras right out of the box are) press the minus (-) button a few times. Your art, your choice. Too dark?
Go the other way, press the plus (+) button until it looks good to you. That was easy.
That easy, that important. Every lighting situation, every subject is different, it is up to you
to get the exposure that you like at the time you take the picture. What is the correct exposure? Ha, that is what takes this
very simple concept (light and time) and makes it the most important aspect of photography. Simply stated (my goal in life),
the correct exposure is the one you like.
If you take one image, you have one choice, but if you take several different exposures of the
same subject, you will have several choices. Light, medium, and dark. Like steak, only cheaper. "How do you want yours cooked"?
You decide.
The truth is, and you know just as well as I do, we can not always get a good look at that little monitor
on the back of your camera to see what is what. Take a shot to see if you are in the ballpark, and then take a few more darker
or lighter depending on what you think.
I have my cameras set at -.5 to begin with. That is my "starting point", and it seems I just go darker
and darker much more than I do going the other way. Personal taste, which I hope has nothing to do with my outlook on life
- that would be another article well beyond the scope of this one.
Shoot several, take your pick.
Yes, I know, you can "fix it" in Photoshop. I’ve heard it all before and it is a valid point,
to a degree. I guess I am old-school and come from a photographer’s background, not a computer background. I enjoy "making
the image", being out there capturing what I see, and what I feel, at that time, that place.
True, and I sing this all the time,
"You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you just might
find, you get what you need"
I’m just trying to save you time at the computer later on so you will have more time to check
out my other articles while listening to the Rolling Stones!
I just tell my students to try to get the image in the camera in the field, and worry about the computer
later. I also remind them that they are in an art class (Digital Photography), not a Photoshop class, two different things.
Try getting the hang of the little +/- button. It will compensate for your camera’s "mistakes".
Which, by the way, goes back to my "several choices" concept mentioned earlier. Is the "right" exposure
the correct exposure? You will find out that the answer to that simple little question is not so simple. Oh, wait a minute,
yes it is. The answer is no.
Your "mistake" just might turn out to be your favorite image. Again, back to reality getting in the
way of your art. An under exposed sunset just might set the mood for what you are trying to convey in the image. True, it
might not have been a dark, brooding sunset in reality, but the right exposure in this situation might not be the correct
exposure. Simple, right?
Three buttons, three very important tools that will make you a better artist with your camera. I
have taken photographs now for over twenty five years and I can say without hesitation, that none of the images I take, on
any of my cameras, have been taken with the settings that the camera came with when I pulled it out of the box. No question.
I set my cameras up to fit my needs, to get the results that I want, that I like.
These three buttons are the key. Sure, the bigger the camera, the more buttons, but if you can get
a grasp of these three little buttons, you will be off to a great start.
Start simple, start with three.
ISO.
WB.
Compensation.
Hessell Rules
LOOK AT THE LIGHT
GET CLOSER
SHOOT LOTS OF PIXELS
I teach photography part-time at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute
in Hudson, North Carolina. Two classes, three rules. I start each class with a guarantee. I tell every student that shows
up for a Tuesday/Thursday evening class, or my Saturday morning class, that I can make them a better photographer. Guaranteed.
Period.
Simple. In fact, I go on to say that after the first class, if they follow my three
simple rules, they will already have all it takes to be a better photographer. No shutter speeds, no apertures. No exposure.
No technical jargon. No numbers.
Well, except three. Three rules. Three rules, that I feel anyway, get to the heart
of photography. The rest will fall into place. I then go on to mention that just about everyone in America over the age of
ten is already a photographer. I have never had a student that has not taken a picture in their life. They are photographers
before they ever sign up for the class. The odds are in my favor. True, I have had students that didn’t own a camera,
but that did not stop them from signing up.
Truth be told, the camera is the least of my worries. Today’s cameras are great.
The quality of even the cheapest point-n-shoot is unreal. Taking a picture is simple. Making a photograph, on the other hand,
takes three rules, and a little more effort.
Effort. I have that covered as well. As mentioned, anyone willing to pay money to
show up twice a week for two and a half hours each night already has put forth the effort. Or better yet, nine o'clock on
a Saturday morning. Again, the odds are in my favor. My job just gets easier.
LOOK AT THE LIGHT
Photography is light. Period. Cameras are tools that record reflected light. Film
or digital, photography deals with light. That is why I start with it. Look at the light. Sounds simple, and it is. Sort of.
We have to learn to think about the light. Study the light. Analyze the light. Control the light. That is the key. Taking
what light you have, or don’t have, and using it to your advantage, that is photography. Look at the light.
What type of light? Soft diffused light, or harsh bright light? What direction? What
angle? Is there enough light? Do you have to add more light? Can you manipulate the light? Use reflectors? Move the subject?
Move the light? These are questions that a photographer asks. A picture taker just accepts what is there and snaps away. Look
at the light and ask questions. Even if you just accept what is there and just snap away, at least you thought out the situation
and tried to make the best of it. We can’t always answer the questions, or come up with the ideal solutions, but just
by asking, one becomes a better photographer. Simple.
I remember walking down the streets of Moscow and actually thinking about which side
of the street I wanted to be on depending on the light. It is all a game of asking and answering questions. Trying to be in
the right place at the right time with the right light. It takes work. It takes effort.
What can you do about the light? Simple. Make the light work for you. Get up early
or stay out late in order to capture that "golden", low angle light that, if everything works out for you, makes for great
photographs. True, it doesn’t always present itself as we wish, but being in bed or eating breakfast does not boost
your odds. Get out there. When working with the sun, you never know. Being out there, making the effort, is the key to better
images.
What about when the sun is not available or not working for you? Add or manipulate
the light. Use a reflector to add light. Use a diffuser to change the light. How? Try a white trash bag. Carry several, they
are light, compact, and even water proof. The fact is that you can take "bad" light and make it better. Look at the light.
How about flash photography? I teach flash photography with two simple concepts.
Diffuse it and move it. That is it. I go over several ways to get away from direct, harsh flash images. You know, the washed
out faces, that red-eye look that just does not work for anyone, and the dark shadows. Direct flash has got to be the worst
solution ever devised. Simple, yes. Either pop-up, or turn on your small hot-shoe flash and fire away. But the results are
far from perfect. The answer? Diffuse it and move it.
First off, diffuse it. Scotch-Tape. You know, the frosted kind. Stick a few layers
over your flash head. It softens the flash and takes away those harsh shadows. Well, it helps anyway. Use it. Next, Cool-Whip.
Round frosted plastic lids. Cut out a section and use velcro to attach it to your flash. Works great. Yes, you can spend the
big bucks and buy an Omni-Bounce like the pros use (even I have one), but I like Cool-Whip, so why not kill two birds with
one stone?
Second, move it. Buy the cord that takes your flash off-camera and use it. For Nikon,
it was the SB-17, but now I use the new SC-28 cord which replaced it (There is also the SC-29 with an auto-focus assist
light). Costs over $50 but is priceless when making images. I like to think of it as studio results without the studio. Hold
it off-center to the subject and you have just improved your flash photography. I tell my students, if it comes down to it,
buy the smaller, cheaper flash, take the money you saved, and buy the cord. You can move it, bounce it, and direct it any
way you want. Not as simple as direct flash, but well worth the effort. There is that word again, effort.
GET CLOSER
My favorite. Actually, if I could only have one rule, this would be it. Get closer.
I always point out that film is small (as well as the even smaller digital chip), make the most of it. Fill the frame with
only what you want to have in the viewfinder. Either move in closer or zoom in, but do everything you can to get in there
and fill the frame.
Painters add, photographers subtract. The problem is our selective vision. We "see"
only what we want to see, the camera, on the other hand, does not have that luxury. Again, it takes effort, and it takes practice,
but begin to really look at what is in the viewfinder and eliminate everything that does not add to what you what your image
to say to the viewer. No matter what, the camera fills the frame, that is what cameras do. It is up to you to make sure it
is filled with only what you want it filled with.
Keep it simple. The goal of any good photographer, or any artist, for that matter,
is to simplify. Say what you want to say as simply as possible. It is your statement, make it as clear to the viewer as possible.
One image, one statement. Now here is when it gets tricky. Simple does not mean only one object or subject in each image.
No, many of the great images are complex and thought provoking, but that is the power of photography, the power of art. You
can have as many subjects, objects, what ever you want to call them, in any one image as long as they are the only things
you want in your image. I like to call it "complex simplicity". The message can be complex, just work on keeping the image
simple. It is not that simple. Get closer. Eliminate. Work at it.
I will say right here that getting closer also helps in the technical aspect of getting
the "right" exposure. By working at making the image as simple as possible, you are also making it easier for your camera’s
meter to come up with the simplest exposure. Not always the case, but worth mentioning, worth thinking about. Keep it simple.
SHOOT LOTS OF IMAGES ... or PIXELS
This is where the learning comes in. Shoot lots of pixels, or film. Shoot lots of images
and ask lots of questions. Shoot, shoot, and shoot some more. Get out there and run film through your camera, or whatever
it is that digital cameras do. Push the button, that is the key to becoming a better photographer. No, this does not mean
just holding down the button, this goes well beyond that. Shoot everything and anything. If using film, try slide film. In
fact, try 100 speed slide film. It is a great learning tool. When you get the results back,, you can see your results, not
the results of the machine that prints your pictures.
Shoot slide film and look, really look, at the results. Shoot all types of film in
all types of conditions. Flash photography, night photography, nature photography, action photography, people photography,
studio photography, you name it, shoot it. And shoot it again with a digital camera. Shoot it in the rain, the snow,
the fog. Shoot indoors and out, with flash, without. Shoot a roll of only multi-exposures. Shoot all the new films that come
out. Shoot with only a 50mm lens (Do you own a 50mm lens?). Turn your lens around backwards and explore macro photography.
Shoot at 50 ISO and f16 without a tripod. Heck, shoot two or three hundred images blind-folded, I don’t care.
The truth is, just shoot a lot of pictures. Break every rule you can think of. Shoot, shoot, shoot. Learn, learn, learn.
Same is true with digital cameras. Shoot at ISO 100 (or lower) and you will soon
see why tripods are so important. Boost your ISO up as high as it goes and see what happens. And while you are at it, try
everything in between, and see what works best and when. Play when you can so that when you really need to record something
important, you will have a reference point on which to fall back on. Shoot, shoot, and shoot some more. Play. And look at
the results BEFORE "fixing 'em" in Photoshop!
That is one aspect. The other aspect is to shoot it from every angle you can think
of and then make up a few more. Yes, and hold that button down. Shoot, shoot, and shoot. Look through your lens, shoot. Move,
and shoot again. Go one step further. Change lenses and start all over again. Learn what lens does what at what angle. Shoot
and learn. Shoot sports with as long a lens as you have and then turn around and shoot it with as wide a lens as you have.
Know your equipment, know your limitations. Which lens do you want on your camera to get what results? How close do you have
to be with each lens to get the results you want? Can you change results by changing lenses, your position, your choice of
film or digital ISO setting? Shoot and learn. Ask, and answer questions.
Another aspect of all this is the notion of actually adjusting your tripod while
using it. Yeah, a novice idea for many of my students! Tripods are adjustable. Use those knobs, move those legs, adjust the
tripod so that the camera is where you want it, not just stuck at the top of the tripod.
When using my tripod (which I try to as much as possible), I look through the viewfinder,
find where I want the camera, then I adjust the legs to get the camera where I want it, not the other way around. Don't just
attach the camera to the tripod and set it down and then look for your shot. Find the image first, then place the tripod to
get your image. A big difference.
That is photography. That is becoming a better photographer. That is art. That is
becoming a better artist. Three simple rules. Three huge concepts.
That is how I begin each class. Every semester, every year. I have taught photography
in one form or another for over twenty years and this is the end result. To be honest, the one thing that has made me a better
photography instructor is the fact that for the past fifteen years, my real job is that of a Special Education teacher.
I take broad concepts and make one-liners out of them. My middle school students like me to keep it simple and break down
the facts so they can better understand the information. Wow, what a concept!
Or maybe that is just how I, as a photographer, teach learning disabled students.
Keep it simple. Point is, I have seen my photography lessons change over the years and like the results. Twenty plus years,
three rules. Teaching is learning. Keep it simple.
Without even getting into how a camera works, I believe, one can become a better
photographer in one easy lesson. Simple, I just go over my three rules. No, actually I do mention two other important aspects
of becoming a better photographer. Buy a tripod (the one piece of equipment that actually makes you better), and do not center
the subject, at least for the first half of the semester (no one has ever been able to accomplish that feat!).
The camera comes later. First the concepts, then the understanding. Photography is
much more than the camera. So much more in fact, that it can be summed up in three rules. OK, three rules and two suggestions.
That is what I feel to be the most important aspects of photography.
That and the fact I tell my students to be sure to show up for the next class. Over and over again.
College
|
