I went on a little tour last Sunday with a few local camera club members. We were primarily scouting/reviewing areas for future shooting. Along the way, we did get to grab some images. Given it was bright midday light I decided I would use my IR camera. This particular scene struck me as a good use of IR. IR adds mystery to an already mysterious place. Who lived here? Why did they leave? When did they go? What was their life like? This was out in the middle of no where. The large sky and the house dwarfed by the large tree add to this feel of remoteness and insignificance.

Blog Image: Shot with a modified Infrared Nikon D70. Converted to B&W using Nik Software’s Silver Efx Pro during the post processing. The glow was added using Nik’s Glamour Glow filter found in Color Efx Pro.

There is nothing quite like a quiet morning watching the light as the sun comes up. The soft shades of blue and magenta are quite pleasant and calming. In this particular case I was on top of The Dalles Mountain watching the light as it hit Mt. Hood and Mt Adams. This was a location I learned about the night before by talking to a local photographer, John Davis. I ran into him on the Rowena Plateau – known for its spring wildflower display. While the wildflowers on the plateau were spent as I expected, I did get to see some nice pre-reticular clouds and learn about other good locations from John.

It is hard to get up early enough for sunrise this time of year (sunrise 5:15am in the NW), but if you do, the rewards can be worth it. I am not talking about capturing a great image, that may or may not be the case, but about experiencing the beauty and wonder of morning light.

Blog Images: Mt. Hood at sunrise. For me this image was all about capturing the subtle hues from that morning. No dramatic clouds, just simply beautiful soft light. I pushed the mountain low in the frame to force the viewer’s eyes up through the transition from blue to magenta to blue.

I thought I would share this series of images I shot a while back. It provides just another example of what you can do with one subject. In this case it is a red poppy plant. As I have mention now and then I enjoy working in the garden. Sometimes before I place a new plant in the garden I will bring it inside to my make shift studio.

Don’t forget to explore all sides of your subject. Even if it isn’t the one you see – maybe I should say especially if it isn’t the normal side. The first image is one example.

This is a three multiple exposure shot against a black background. Shot using the multiple exposure mode in my Nikon.

A white poppy was most in front of the red poppy in this shot. It has been processed to be hi-key.

Another back view of the poppy but giving it more context. This is a bit of a before and after shot. Notice the diagonal composition. The background was switched to a light green.

More of a classical poppy close up. Ideally the poppy details would be more symmetric but that was not the case. I still like it though.

As you can see, a lot can be done with one subject in just a single session.

It is finally here after nearly 9 months – my first formal exhibit. My wife and I spent many hours printing, matting and framing prints and are glad to have that part completed. Tonight is opening night and I am sure I will be excited and perhaps a bit nervous.

Last Saturday I did get a preview of the exhibit as you can see in the pictures here. It is very satisfying and fun to see your images all hung together and lit with those gallery spots. Those lights can make your images really pop – like the “Windblown Poppy” below.

And here is one thing you will rarely (close to never) see in my blog – a picture of me, but here I am with one group of prints.

If you are in the area, I would enjoy meeting you tonight. There will be music and food to enjoy along with artwork from several artists.

The exhibit will be open from June 7th-June29th.  Hours are 9AM to 9PM M-Thu, 9AM to 6PM Fri and 10AM to 4PM on Sat. The Glenn and Viola Walters Cultural Arts Center is located at 527 E Main St., Hillsboro, OR 97123. For more information call (503) 615-3494 or visit www.ci.hillsboro.or.us/wcac.

I just delivered my framed prints to the Glenn and Viola Walters Cultural Arts Center in Hillsboro Oregon for my upcoming exhibit. While I was there I was informed that one of my images had been featured on the cover of the Washington County  Summer Arts Guide. This was totally unexpected and I was pleased to see the extra publicity. The “Windblown Poppy” image is mine in case you haven’t seen it.

With the upcoming gallery exhibit my focus as of late has been on publicity. Last week I submitted a press release to multiple newspapers. My wife and I have begun leaving 4×6 exhibit announcement cards at different business we frequent. We also sent out  8×5 flyers to friends and acquaintances inviting them to the opening night.

This blog, Facebook and my website are of course other ways to publicize the exhibit. If you know people in the area please pass along an invite for me.

The exhibit will be open from June 7th-June29th.  Hours are 9AM to 9PM M-Thu, 9AM to 6PM Fri and 10AM to 4PM on Sat. The Glenn and Viola Walters Cultural Arts Center is located at 527 E Main St., Hillsboro, OR 97123. For more information call (503) 615-3494 or visit www.ci.hillsboro.or.us/wcac.

Please join me opening night June 7th: 6-8pm. There will be live music, food and great art.

Sometimes when you are headed somewhere for a shoot, you need to keep your eyes open because some of the best images might appear before you get there. Such was the case when I took this blog image a few weeks ago while waiting on a boat to Alcatraz. Not that Alcatraz is not a cool subject, but I really ended up liking this image (I think its that quality of light thing again….).

This isn’t the first time I have had this happen. It is easy to be mentally focused and ready to get “on location” but as always it is good to keep our minds open and see what is right in front of us.

I thought I would share the good news that my first nationally published article on photography will be coming to you via the newsstand on October 18th. It will be included in Shutterbug Magazine’s special issue “Expert Techniques Guide” and is titled “Floral Fusions”. So put that date on your calendar! But if you don’t remember, don’t worry, I am sure I will remind you later!

Now that I am done tooting my own horn, let me give you a little history which might prove useful to those of you looking to get published. First, one of the reasons I started writing this blog three years ago was to start honing my writing skills, so that really was the first step. In some respects, my first draft was posted as a blog entry a year or so ago.

Second, I had to search for possible publishers. Finding out where to submit an article idea isn’t always easy (still haven’t found where to propose articles for some national magazines). I searched online, in the magazines themselves and in the “Photographer’s Market”.

Third, I learned that editors generally only want you to submit a few small images and the proposal for the article – not the article itself. They also want you to provide examples of your writing (this blog served that purpose).  I first proposed this article via email to Shutterbug’s editor last fall. While the editor liked the images, the proposal and my blog, he felt they would be better for a spring edition of the magazine and suggested I resubmit it in February. I did that and he quickly accepted the article proposal. But that doesn’t mean your article will be published.

Fourth, I received minimal guidance on the article itself: less than 500 words for the main body; captions for the images didn’t count against that. Believing that it was best to strike while the iron is hot (what does that mean anyway?) I decided to sit down and write the article that weekend. Keeping it under 500 words was the real trick. I learned to take advantage of the caption text to get in all the necessary information. Creating the captions, selecting the final images and creating illustrations took as long or longer as the article itself. My wife served as my initial editor as she often does for this blog.

Fifth, I submitted the article that Monday as a MS Word document and a Photoshop proof sheet of the images as requested. It only took a week in my case to get a response – made my day.

Sixth, there are the contracts to be signed. Once accepted you need to do the paperwork. This will involve the terms of payment, usage rights, etc. Terms of payment in this case are based on the amount of page area that will be filled by the article – so many dollars for a half page, so much for a full page, etc. Rights can cover not only the printing of the article, but magazine advertising use of the article, website usage, etc. Once the paperwork is done though, this can set you up for future articles.

Finally there is the scheduling of the article. Once your article is accepted, it may be a while before it is actually scheduled for print. One reason my article was delayed to Fall were test reports. When test reports come in at a magazine such as Shutterbug, they trump other articles due to their short shelf life.

In the end, if everything goes well, you will have the satisfaction of seeing your article and images in print, plus a few extra dollars in your pocket.

Now onto writing the next article…

As spring has sprung with its fresh bright and vibrant greens it is time to get out those IR filters and IR cameras. Now that may not be the first thing you think of with spring coming on, but the rich greens of spring do provide great material for those of you who love IR photography. The images here were captured with my Nikon D70 that I had converted to IR last year. Both images were processed using SilverEfx Pro for the B&W conversion.

I have repeated the first image at the end of the blog where I have added an IR glow using the Glamour Glow filter in Nik’s ColorEfx Pro software package. This glow is more typical of the IR films used previously.

If you haven’t tried out IR photography the lower cost way to try it out is using an IR filter. It is more difficult to use (can’t see through the lens once the filter is on) but it will only cost you $80-100 for a good filter. The filter will require very long exposures (tripod required) because the camera’s sensor has an IR blocking filter still in place.

A converted camera is much easier to use, but cost you $250-350 depending on the camera and conversion house. With the camera conversion you can see what are shooting through the lens and the exposures time are much shorter (closer to “normal”).