Girls at the Fair

Today I spent the day with some fellow photographers in Chesapeake City, with Steve Gottlieb, instructing the group on people photography. After a an hour or so in the workshop conference room we headed out to the Cecil County Fair. Steve cut us loose at the fair but was only a phone call away if needed. I never called but had fun and found my shots.....I fell in love with some little girls that were just being little girls at the fair......I made lots more shots, but these are some of my favorites from the day.

Shoot it when you see it! Yes, it may never happen again...

     Today I was reminded once again of one of my fundamental philosophies regarding making images:            Shoot it when you see it!
How many times have you seen a shot and then for some reason said oh, I'll come back and get that! Well guess what, no you won't! The light will be different the subject will be different and you will never see that exact shot again! Trust me (I have said just that one too many times) and missed a few good opportunities. I also had that philosophy when traveling if I saw some jewelry I wanted only it was; Buy it when you see it! That became a philosophy after I passed up a pair of earrings I wanted and never saw them again. ; - )
      So......today as I looked out the kitchen window in the morning the butterflies were not there. A few came this afternoon and I had plans so I could not make any images. I am glad I made the decision to shoot them yesterday, who knows if they will be there tomorrow....this image is another of the series I shot yesterday. They might make a fun triptych.

Of Tiger Swallowtails and Joe Pye Weed.....

The days are getting shorter, the acorns are beginning to fall, the dogwood nuts are being eaten feverishly by the squirrels and the Tiger Swallowtails are feeding on the Joe Pye Weed, sure signs that the seasons are about to change.......This morning while fixing breakfast I noticed, through the kitchen window,  the Joe Pye weed at the end of the yard was full of Tiger Swallowtail butterflies. I had planted the Joe Pye weed for just that purpose, to bring butterflies into the yard. I did not have time to try and make any images at that time; however after my appointment today I went out to cut the grass, and as I approached the shed, I saw the butterflies again. So the yard had to wait....I put my 200mm macro on and in natural light had fun chasing the butterflies around. I think they can hear, every time my shutter went the butterflies took flight. A little research..butterflies really don't hear but respond to vibration...so maybe they did vibrate to my shutter...anyhow it was fun. Instead of shooting straight on, I decided I wanted to shoot through the Joe Pye weed to see if I could get some surreal looking soft images...after about 100 shots, the butterflies seemed to drift away and I went on with  my chore of mowing the lawn.
  These images obviously are made with image overlays....I find when using image overlays some extra curves processing helps give me more of a look I am striving to achieve, as well as some localized levels adjustments, and some opacity adjustments using masks on the overlay.......

Fashion in Photography..not Fashion Photography....

Having been a retailer for many years I am constantly aware of fashion and trends, even extending beyond the clothing business...and, I have been noticing a trend or fashion in contemporary photography....I don't know that it has a name, but the use of layers, textures and layer applications has really become a "Fashion" in photography. It's been around for a long time and you can still buy texture screens for developing with 35 mm slides in the enlarger from Paterson Photographic, but it has really taken off again with I-phone apps and free shared textures on Flicker and textures also sold on line in software bundles, etc. Mostly, it seems to impart an aged looked to images.
     I wonder if there is some desire to escape from today's tack sharp digital imaging. Does the trend indicate the desire for aged films and textures, and grains of the past in the photographic evolution cycle? The current trend does make our images look some what aged, or antiqued: Like furniture, old books and 2nd hand clothing. Don't get me wrong I am not saying it is bad, in fact I like the look too. Just making an observation, with my certain perspective on the trend.
     So I made this image today with that trend in mind as I was doing some file management. The original image was a straight shot on the beach of the unattended fishing rod in the sand, in early morning light with some pretty good surf. I collect textures when I am out shooting, only they are images I have shot from "subjects" that I anticipate might make a nice overlay or texture for an image overlay,  such as mossy rocks, concrete, raindrops etc. (Actually I got this idea, keeping and shooting textures, from Ferrell McCullough a tremendous photographer and an early user of the technique. I had admired Barbara Kile's flower images also using texture overlays a year ago, and of course the master of overlays Tony Sweet, who has now really gotten into the IPhone apps overlays and has been using overlays from Totally Rad for quite some time, among other textures and his own shots as well.
     So I went to my texture file and grabbed a mossy rock, did some opacity adjustments to get the texture where I wanted it and then overlaid it in PS, changing the blend mode until I landed on one I liked for this set of images. Then I applied a fill layer of black at 50% in dissolve mode to get some more texture and reduced the opacity on that layer. After that I applied a vignette using the rectangular marquee tool and refined the edge until I had the look I wanted. I then made some color adjustments going for the old postcard hand colored look. Then I went one step further and ran the image through snapart2 using the pencil filter, and made some adjustments there to get the image presented here. My rendition on the textured, layered, aged image trend I see today in so many interesting fun images! Hooray for fashion and trends! Whats next?

Lotus Processing

From this:

  To this: some difference, well at least I think so...

Subtle differences in processing make for very different images

This image was shot the night Annette and I were in the sunflower and corn fields. The scene was rather average until the raking light of sundown began to light the tops of the corn tassels, the side of the silo and brighten a stretch of grass in the foreground. As a photo its OK, no Grand Canyon at sunset, but we are not all photographing The Grand Canyon at sunset. With this image, I wanted to make a point about the subtle differences in processing an image from cropping to coloring to levels and curves decisions, selective brightening and color adjustments....The first image is a Photoshop "processed" photo. The second two versions are processed in Photoshop and then Snapart2....do you see differences (aside from the Snapart treatments)? how do the differences affect the scene, the mood and the effect on the viewer? Taking the image is not the end of the image making process.......processing makes a difference....it is as important as getting the exposure and composition right in the camera. I often have students say they don't want to spend any time processing they just want it to come out of the camera right...well what is right? the creative options are endless and processing is part of the process! What image do you like best?
Nothing beats experimenting.....now for today............

 After my renters called to tell me of some problems in my little rental house on Sunday....... I spent the day there in Federal Hill, mopping up the basement floor, trying to figure out what the source of the continued water flow was. Well, I was very happy that, after calling Gary Faulkner, he decided to assist me in doing an inspection. He determined what the issue was with the water coming from the AC: a non-functioning sump pump (the float was stuck) and a clogged AC drain..double trouble..so he helped clear the line and get the pump going...thanks so much Gary! Now I have scheduled the plumber to fix or replace the sump pump, and the outside hose bib which was also not working properly and BGE to further inspect the AC! Monday I meet the roofer there to see if they can determine the source of the water damage to the interior walls....yikes property management!
And I was going to go back to Kenilworth Gardens and do some real Lotus shooting today, oh well...

Sunflowers with Annette

Annette e-mailed me Saturday and asked if I wanted to go with her Sunday night and shoot some sunflowers on a farm in Maryland, so I said why not. She had been there the night before and didn't get one shot she saw as she was leaving so she wanted to return. Even though it was dreadfully hot, I didn't have any plans and I missed shooting at McKee-Beshers this year, so I went. When we drove up the tractor road at 6:30 pm the corn was a wall eight feet high and the sunflowers were all facing east.....hmmm..what to do...the light was still pretty harsh. After a few shots with the 70-200 and not liking it I switched gears to my 200 mm macro lens. There was a slight breeze, the light was fading and there were bugs and bees rattling the sunflowers busily gathering pollen.....so that was a challenge too...I dialed up my ISO a little but I don't like the image quality much over 250 in the now old Nikon D2x (time for a new camera).

Looking through a macro lens at a subject opens up a whole new world in your image making...and I began to see subtle colors and graceful curves, and then the bees and the butterfly. Then I played with some multiple exposures...and the corn......and the landscape........fun, but very hot. Thanks Annette!

image evolution, breakin the rules and what if's?

Sometimes images evolve...yes, I think I have had this thought before....
While doing some quick shooting at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens on Friday, I made an image of a Dragonfly eating an ant while cool in the shade of a big green lotus leaf, hanging on with his feet in a vertical position...it was not the first image I wanted to process from that shoot. It was the prettier ones I went for first. But I did process it..and looked at it again and again...First I thought it looked best cropped into a square.....then I watched a little demonstration by Craig Tanner of The Mindful Eye today, who suggested the image he had processed could also be a diptych. That gave me an idea for the dragonfly eating lunch...so playing around with that idea I came up with this presentation. I also played around with snapart Impasto filter and applied it to the canvas as well as the image. It moved the light around in cool ways, that I liked in the dragonfly image above. Well it was something to play around with tonight.  Evolution......below....DF Lunch 1 is processed with the Pointillism filter in Snapart2....while the same image Dragonfly lunch is the original photo squared up.

Breaking the rules: Yes I have heard in critiques 1. Never to cut the petals off the edge of the frame and 2. No bullseyes and 3. Never shoot flowers in the blazing sun. ..hmmm...breaking all my own rules........

This lotus I shot in blazing sunlight, centered the subject and cut off some petals, but I loved the curves and shadows of the petals exaggerated by the harsh light.....so I turned it into a B&W image, because I liked it better that way and honestly shot it thinking B&W. So by doing some quick adjustments it was where I had envisioned it, but I said what if I try it with some snapart2? and so there are two versions...

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens Workshop

Left the beach last night and was very bummed out! The weather was awesome, the water was wonderful and it was just a magnificent beach day yesterday on the Delaware shore, but duty called. I was scheduled to lead a workshop for Penn Camera at the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens..an amazing place! We had a great group and made lots of great  images shooting first in the shaded areas then on to the reflections in the water lily ponds......the participants were real troopers shooting the whole time in 90+++ temps. The cooler filled with iced water bottles I brought really came in handy...
I got to do a little shooting after the group left but by then everything was in bright sun light so I was challenged to think differently...thinking of the sun as a studio light on some close ups worked well, at least I think ; - ) , on the B&W conversions.

The multiple exposure technique also did fine on some plants on the edge of the pond, and playing with some floating lily leaves in bright light with reflected blue sky worked for me too.

After that I was about ready to drop from the heat, so I packed it up and headed for some lunch and a rest! Some of these I went a bit further with and added some Snapart2 effects...

Finally a Sunrise!

After three mornings of rained out sunrises, on my last day here I was lucky! Waking at 5:10 and jumping in the car for the short two block ride to Ocean Drive...I jumped out with  my tripod a couple memory cards and my camera on my back. A short hike over the dune revealed a fairly calm sea that had cut the ledge down over night and flattened out the beach. So a short step down onto the surf line I set up  my tripod and began shooting....and didn't stop until 6:45.....here's a few from my beautiful last morning on the beach until August! I used the last couple rainy days to clean up and do some laundry so, now I am going to spend the rest of the day on the beach, before heading home tonight, for my Workshop tomorrow morning at Kenilworth Gardens...

Double Rainbow....

OK, so this week, the Double Rainbow Guy in California went viral on U-tube...if you haven't see it, it's pretty hilarious...so when I saw the sun breaking out this afternoon around 4:30, I grabbed my umbrella, yes it was still raining, and camera and headed to the beach. It was not too long after I got there that the rain ceased and yes a double rainbow appeared....I might not have seen this had it not been for my friend Steve who convinced me to stay at the beach another couple days! So thanks Steve...the beach was empty except for the life guards who were about to finish their day.

I also thought maybe there would be a really good sunset tonight so I went out but noooooo.........so that's it from me for the day!

Rainy Day Walk

 This morning I had set the alarm to 5:00 and just before it went off I was awakened by the pouring rain of the passing storm....so I went back to bed, but I couldn't sleep, thinking there was some great sunrise going to happen, so I went to the front room and peaked out...no just a hint of light but nothing too much...so I went back and laid down...then my inner self said no maybe there will be something....having cleaned my sensor off the night before I was ready to make some images...so I grabbed my keys and headed to the beach. There was a big bank of heavy clouds shrouding the sun. I left my camera in the car and just watched, but it never materialized...it was nice to see the dawn.....
I headed back and did go to sleep......
Later today......
Just as I was about to head out to the beach with my camera it poured again...so I put down the new throw rugs in the kitchen while it rained. It didn't last too long and I wanted to make some images today, since I only have another day here before I have to begin my pack out and head back home. Leaving the beach is always a bummer, but I can't stay here forever...well not just yet anyway. I had taken a few walks the last couple days in between the rain and seen some little cottages that still remain in between the McMansions, and I also identified a view of the beach fencing I had in mind to come back and shoot. I always suggest to my students to go out and walk around places they like without their cameras and just observe, then when they do walk they see more, and have some ideas at hand.

I went for a walk with my umbrella in my pack. Stopping at the little house across the street on Bayshore that is so charming I made a few shots there, and then wandered on, passing a cute house that backs up to the canal, and then on to 5th street where "Dunrentin" proudly boasts circa 1952! Across the street from "Dunrentin" is 4 5th street and I just loved the yellow and blue with the little green plants along the deck.

I headed to the beach on 3rd  street where the walk way is boarded out to the beach. The beach had been cleared by the storm except for the umbrella on the  life guard stand and the two green umbrella tents. As I set foot on the beach the lifeguard came out of their hut and said I needed to wait fifteen more minutes as we had lightening...OK...no problem.....

With overcast skies and freshly saturated fences the beach fencing was dark against the sand, so I made the shot I saw there a night ago. It was getting very hot and really humid I bet its 90% humidity now, and I walked back via Ocean Drive....where I saw the life guards reclaim their chair on the beach in the distance. As I walked I met a couple who said to me, there are plenty of pictures here, and I agreed. I told them I just love the beach architecture and they said they had a house on 8th street, it was built the year they got married....and I began to think how a house is more than a house, its a marker! A life marker...so I started to look at the names folks had given their houses and there was "High Five" "Friendly Financed" "Captain's Quarters" "Macmansion" and more....a house is very personal...and I thought how my house here is too...a life marker and personal.
These are all processed with Snapart, oil paint, with different choices on each image...I like this look for these shots, and think I might like to have one hanging in the beach house processed this way......maybe the dune fences....it;s still grey and it looks like another storm is brewing in the western sky......

Sunrise Maybe....

Today I also tried to catch a good sunrise over the ocean.....you never know until you get up and get out there.......and every day the sea is different and the light is different...the storm really cleared out over night and there were no clouds except for a pretty big flat bank right at the horizon line when I arrived.  It took a while for the sun to break and as a result there was no spectacular color, but heck I had the Atlantic ocean with beautiful breakers in front of me so what was I complaining about! I made lots of images...400+ cracking shots one after the other well every few seconds I guess with some real slow exposures. When the waves are breaking hard and fast you can not anticipate, you just have to shoot and check your exposure often with fast changing light as it is at sunrise. The sun was well above the horizon before it actually broke through, then it went back behind some cloud cover which had drifted in and eventually came back as harsh light...I started shooting around 5:20 and was having some breakfast at McCabes by 7:00. These are a few from this morning; enjoy the breakers. It looks like it might be a good beach day....I could use a snooze!