I haven’t been able to get out and shoot lately so I decided I would share a couple images from another body of work I have been working on and will continue with in the coming year. They are a series of early morning light images of birds and water fowl in motion. They have been captured at relatively low shutter speeds (1/8 to 1/4 sec) and in some cases I have used an on camera flash set to rear curtain mode at full power. What does that mean? It means that flash doesn’t fire until the end of the time the shutter is open. This combined with loose panning creates a very interesting effect as you can see in the first blog image. Simple soft backgrounds are another common characteristic of these images. Note that it does need to be pre-sunrise light in order to shot at the slow shutter speeds and have any impact with a flash. Hope you like them.

I have been reading,”Within the Frame“, by David duChemin. In the 3rd chapter “The Artist and the Geek” he touches on the duality that exists within the photographer. The photographer must both be an artist and a geek. He points out that it is easy, if we are not careful, for us to slip out of balance and drift to one extreme or the other. The geek can become more concerned with the gear and how to make technically perfect images than the why and what we photograph. On the other hand the artist can become enamored with the idea of the creative process and loose site of the final image and throw aside technique. Where an individual drifts is dependent on their innate nature: artist or geek.

Once identified the photographer can consciously take steps to keep their balance. For example, a geek might do an exercise where they only take a manual camera, one lens and learn to express themselves with the simplest of equipment (no Photoshop either). An artist might take a nuts and bolts class on using layers in Photoshop which might be quite painful for them. Hopefully you get the picture.

I know for me my natural leaning is to be a geek. However, when I stepped into digital photography years ago I knew that about myself and have purposely focused most of my reading and training on the creative/artist side. In addition, because of my background in computer design, I wanted my move into photography to allow my creative/artistic side (which has always been there) to be more fully expressed. Due to this book and other blog discussions, I will also be trying out some exercises that I will share with you in future blogs.

So where is your leaning? Artist or Geek? Are you maintaining balance? How can you correct it if you are not.

Blog images: Given the topic of this blog I decided to include an image that expresses my artistic side using technical skill. In this train passenger car image I wanted to express the sense of loss and nostalgia I feel for the old passenger train lines of the past. On the technical side, to realize this image I took advantage of several post processing tools including Photomatix (for the HDR base image), NikSoft’s ColorEfx Pro, SliverEfx Pro bushed in with a bit of Photoshop’s Liquify. I have also included a second image from my train work using most of these same tools.

I was reminded this past weekend that it is easy to forget about one of the avenues we have for nature photography – our local parks. My wife and I went hiking in a park that is only about 20 minutes away from our house. It is a beautiful park with a lake surrounded by mountain foothills, multi-colored meadow grasses and water foul.  I have not been there for years and for some reason it hadn’t occurred to me to go there for a shoot recently.  It must be that familiarity thing. While I didn’t really take many images, I did take the opportunity to visually scout for a future shoot – I know I will go back.

Think about, where are some places around your home that maybe you used to visit (possible before you took up photography) but just haven’t thought of in a long time.

Blog image: This picture was captured on the meandering drive back home as we moved into the last light of the day. The softness of the vines brushed by the evening light was just delightful.

PRINTS FOR SALE: Just a reminder that I have started selling special edition prints on my website.

I have been busy this week getting eCommerce setup on my primary website which has kept me from blogging. While the website tool I have been using, LRG Complete, supports eCommerce, there is still a bit to get setup and tested. There is basic print pricing structure, shipping and handling price models, Paypal accounts, etc. to setup. So after playing in my PayPal Sandbox I am ready to officially offer a small set of Special Edition prints. I have selected a subset of my Autumn Immersions portfolio for this initial offering. The initial prints are archival quality 6″x9″ prints that have been initialed by me and mounted in 11×14 acid free mats. I will be adding larger sizes and “Limited Edition” prints in the near future. For a mere $30 plus shipping and handling and can own one of these images. Sorry for the shameless self-promotion, but hey I am trying to run a business. To order go to my website and first read the directions found under the ‘Purchase’ tab. You can place the order via PayPal or email (to pay by check).

The opening blog image is from the Autumn Immersions offering. If you click on it you can go directly to the Autumn Immersions gallery. Some of the images have been previously posted on this blog so they might look familiar.

Finally here is a little blurb on the Autumn Immersions portfolio.

Autumn Immersions is all about immersing ones self in the splendor of fall colors and lines. The term immersion has its roots in the act of baptism. This outward act symbolizes the inward change that has taken place – death to the old life and reemergence to the new. In the same way the outward change of nature in fall represents the inward “death” that is taking place in the plants before winter with the promise of new life in the spring. While the root of the term immersion is in the act of baptism, it can more generally reflect the concept of submerging or plunging something into a fluid. These images appear as if they were submerged in a fluid and pulled out – streaking the image. I hope you enjoy them.

It is hard to believe a year has passed since I started this blog. To celebrate I have decided to give my blog a name, “Photography Along the Way”. I chose this name for a couple of reasons. First, most of my photography is done around my home or work, not at far away “exotic” locations. Most of the time I shoot images on my way to work, on my way home, around work or around my home. I drive ~20 miles to work each way. I can vary the route a variety of ways to pass different subject material. For the majority of people this is where their photography happens and should happen. We really do best when we shoot the things we know, are able to go back again and again, and have the time to watch the weather patterns, light shifts throughout the day, etc. We develop our skills, imagination and our ability to see there. Then when we get to go to those more distant places we are better prepared to “capture” it with trained eyes.

I had time on the weekend to visit a couple locations for shooting. One was a state park forest that I wanted hoped to catch in the fog. I had been there in the fall when a light fog was present and had wanted to get back on another foggy day. I was not disappointed. There was a nice moderately dense fog mixed in with the tall fir trees. At the base of some trees were bare vine maples with patches of moss hanging here and there. It was quite magical. Not sure I captured the magic, but I have included a small gallery of the images from that shoot (just click on the blog image).

A couple of reminders about photographing fog:

1) You will generally want to adjust your exposure to +1 to +1.5 EVs to keep your fog more on the lighter side (unless you want a dark moody look). It is like shooting snow, it can end up more gray than white if you aren’t careful

2) Finding the color in the fog (reflected from grass, water, sky, sunrise, etc) or adding some with a filter (on camera or in post-processing) is usually a good idea. You can also bring out existing color during the post processing.

3) Fog images are typically lower contrast than you might want so adding some contrast during post processing is usually necessary to get what you thought you saw .

Blog image: This is a forest fog impression created using a vertical camera swipe. I added contrast and brought out the color using Photoshop curves and Nik’s ColorEfxPro Color Contrast filter. I just love the natural colors in the fog and trees.

In looking back through my images from the past couple of years I noticed that there were some nice abstract images taken in the Palouse area of Washington state. If you have ever been there you know that one could create countless abstracts. I have included three images here taken at sunrise and sunset. The first image has the Orton filter effect applied to add to its abstraction. The second image is purely about shape, shadow and texture. The final image is an abstract impression using a side to side pan.

We are in the usual winter rain pattern here again in the Oregon Willamette Valley. It can start to get you down sometimes, but it can also present opportunities for unique images. Here are a couple I have shot on rainy days like this through the car windshield. The first image is of a store at the Oregon coast with some additional Photomatix and NikSoft processing. The second image is a swipe shot of a forest edge (near my home).The last image is of bushes changing color in the late fall (where I parked my car at work) – nice jewel tone colors and effect.