Shooting Like Liberty Valence

077A0654PPS9B&WruggedBordersRusselLiberty Valence was a gun slinger, and according to lyrics to the song made famous by Gene Pitney (writers: Hal David, Burt F. Bachrach, Burt Bachrach): “…the point of the gun was the only law that Liberty understood.  When it came to shooting straight and fast, he was mighty good.”

I’m finding that in sports and wildlife photography “straight and fast” are especially rewarding. So far in using my new Canon Eos 5 Ds, it was in game practice at the Patriots summer training camp, and more recently in following the pursuits of Ospreys in catching fish in my neighborhood (Occupessatuxet Cove, RI). Verily, I must say that the 5 Ds was quite responsive, i.e., fast. Since all shooting so far has been by hand held method (not tripod), I’d also have to say the 5 Ds was “straight” (i.e., steady).

The photo of this post was taken after the Osprey was perched a while on a branch back-lit by the sun on an overcast day. The camera was able to catch the energy released by the osprey, most easily seen in the wings and powerful talons. However, something was missing, and the easiest fix was to frame the subject and this “energy release”. This was done in Perfect Photo Suite 9 Borders (specifically, Russel). Oh yes, prior to the Borders being added, I tranformed the photo to b & w in PPS9 Black & White module (Rugged).

Ignore the Noise

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This photo is of Patriot’s Training Camp at the beginning of August, 2015. It was taken with my new Canon Eos 5 Ds. I had set the Exposure Compensation to -1 to allow for the bright sun usually present during camp in the middle of summer. This was a mistake since I had a polarizer filter on and for some reason this made all of my shots under-exposed more than I would have liked. Nonetheless, I corrected for this error in Photoshop Camera Raw processing.

I had not had much opportunity for using my new 5 Ds since it was an extremely hot and humid summer, and there was not much opportunity to get to shoot in optimal conditions, or even conditions where shooting out doors would yield some success. I was in New Hampshire in mid August and would have liked to have taken some night photos of the galaxy, but unfortunately it was overcast.

The last several months living in New England was surreal, due to the so-called Deflategate imposed on the New England Patriots and Roger Goodell and the NFL. True to form and as everyone with an ounce of intelligence had know this whole affair against the Patriots and specifically Tom Brady was a witch hunt; and as expected was proven to be so after being brought before the Federal Judge on appeal.

So, this photo is an apt description of how not only to deal with real life but also the game of football. That is, Bill Belichick is fond of using the phrase of “Ignore the noise” to have his team focus on the true elements of the game and not superfluous creations (viz. Goodell and the NFL). I tried to describe this phenomenon photographically by showing how the football mind might see the game action unfold amid the chaos of the practice field. This was accomplished with Perfect Photo Suite 9, using their Black & White module (cyanotype, specifically) for the “background” and leaving the foreground subjects RGB.

Blaming the Camera

The last 2-3 months have been difficult for me to get the right mindset for photography. After my trip to Germany in Spring where I took a ton of photos and a small minority were sharp and descent, I became disheartened as to why I still struggle with taking sharp photos. I even tried recalibrating my Canon lenses (24-105mm L; 70-200 L) but these appeared to be fine.

I lost faith in my Canon 5D Mark II and while this may sound trite I blamed it to a degree, even though I knew I also was at fault with poor technique. I had to find my way out of this state of dismay. Then I read about Canon’s new 5DS camera which has 50 megapixels and was geared to take really sharp photos. I decided to get this camera by selling my 30D and 5D Mark II cameras, figuring that if I still got less than sharp photos the camera could not be blamed. In addition, the 5DS had other features which I could grow into,e.g., setting aspect ratio.

The photo in this post is of Point Judith Lighthouse in Narragansett, RI, taken on a mostly sunny day in mid afternoon summertime, less than the perfect shooting time advocated by professionals, but right up my alley (read post, Mixed Metaphor). I had taken several photos of this lighthouse getting used to my new camera, but this one was descent since clouds had rolled in to provide some shading to much of the seascape, but still keeping the lighthouse lit, so to say. Settings were manual mode, f22, 1/125, ISO 100; Canon 24-105 mm L @ 32mm. Little post processing was done to the photo. I believe the 5DS may be a keeper. Note: there are some slanting vertical “lines” in the blue sky between the lighthouse and white clouds; this is a result of the camera catching the sun’s rays in the suddenly clouded/shaded foreground.

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Spring: Post Mortem

There still is life in this body and this blog. The exigencies of surviving winter trumped all other interests including posting to this blog. Let me explain.469iPhoneDxO

It was a terrible winter. Since arriving in New England 36 years ago from Wisconsin I used to laugh at the responses of locals on how terrible the winters were. In short, they were nothing in comparison to those of the Midwest. However, this past winter made up for all previous 36 winters by being the winter-from-hell, if that could be fathomed. The snow was constant from February on, and the temperatures were routinely in the teens or single digits, as meteorologists are fond of saying.

I tried to take photos but the body was not conditioned for it. What shots I took were not worthy even to be tossed into the waste basket—shivering has a way of destroying sharpness.

The first photo in this post was taken with my iPhone after sunset. Oh, by the way, it was snowing. It is of a lone soul skiing across Occupessatuxet Cove. The Cove was frozen from February to the beginning of April—quite a feat since it is salt water. As bad as it was in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Boston were even worst.

595iPhoneDxOThe second photo is of the breakout, my take on surviving the Winter That Was. It was taken in Nuremberg, Germany, in one of the many local restaurant pubs which had wonderful German food and beers. In this shot there are Nuremberg Bratwurst and potato pancakes, plus the obligatory beer, in this case a doppelbock from the local brewery next door.

Photographically, there is not much to talk about since the best camera available was the iPhone. The winter shot is grainy due to the low light; the second shot is delightful in its own right due to its mere content.

Split Toning

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Some of the so-called film look of movies has intrigued me, since they create an atmosphere or specific time period to better portray the story. In my exploration of style journey I was drawn to this element. For some reason I am drawn to the “blue-ish” cinema look of the latest Hobbit movie, The Battle of the Five Armies. I’ve included a photo from the movie of Bilbo Baggins (credit is from Warner Brothers Movies).

IMG_5650DxOPPS9I assume this blue effect was created with a filter (I will have to research this further), but for me to create this look the quickest I could think of was split-toning. So, that is what I did in a creative fashion in this photo of a barn at Sugarbush Farm in Woodstock, VT.

New Years à la July 4th

FireworksComp7-12-14aSignatureOne of the prime motivators for this post is not necessarily New Year’s Eve but the fact that it is New Year’s Eve in the 67th year of my life. In other words, I can no longer deny the fact of aging, despite the reality that I am in good health, physically and psychologically. I know this because of a core of happiness within but also from the realization that many of my generational cohorts have not had such success or fortune. I count myself blessed in this regard, and am not stating this to boast.

I would like to state that this photo is of New Years but it was taken in July 2014 while watching the intermittent fireworks across Narragansett Bay. I used the bulb setting on my Canon. The photo is actually a compilation of many individual photos. I loaded the lot of them into Photoshop all on individual layers and then used the blending mode of Lighten to only show the light of the fireworks themselves and nothing else (note that also the reflection on the Bay was captured which I thought enhanced the shot).

Extremes

IMG_1966SignatureI am adding to the theme developed in recent blog posts of shooting in difficult or variable elemental conditions. This was a constant challenge while in Yellowstone Park. There were so many contrasts but where to start or where to shoot created a quandary. By choosing one or two elements to compensate for one was eliminating the other equally desirable contrasts.

One such area of shooting was the many geysers, fumeroles, or simply hot springs. There was a lot of mist, haze, and steam in the air, all with mineral content. Protecting one’s camera was a concern. Also, shooting to avoid the many groups of people constantly viewing the scenes was a challenge. Added to all of this was how and what to capture since it was a fluid landscape, either in the foreground or background. The added hard to accept fact was the realization that of the surrounding foliage and countryside was muted in colors, beautiful, but nonetheless muted.

This has led to doing more post-processing than I am usually used to, but again am open to try to understand different avenues of approach to the varying elements IMG_1966DxOPPS8Burnof the photograph. Consequently, I offer this blog post photo as an example. The first photo is unaltered as taken in situ at the Porcelain Basin which lies within the larger Norris Geyser Basin within Yellowston National Park. It is what the camera captured (f/13.0, 1/80, ISO 100, Canon 24-105mm/4L IS USM @ 24mm). The second photo has been processed through Adobe Camera Raw, denoised and tonally corrected (as well as corrected for haze using Clear View) thru DxO Optics Pro, and finally finished stylizing with OnOne Perfect Photo Suite 8. Within OnOne PPS 8 the sky’s contrast was increased (as well as the geysers’ steam plumes) using the Adjustment Brush, while using the same Adjustment Brush to warm up the background (Warm Filter), and cool the blue spring pool (Cool Filter). Finally, within Photoshop I darkened (actually blackened) the lower right corner using the Adjustment Level’s Threshhold.

Vision Melding

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The blog post title is a take off on the words, mind meld, suggesting a sharing of two autonomous entities. Since taking Maxfield Parrish as my guiding spirit on this photo journey, I’ve been attempting to share visions with him.

The current photo composition is from Parrish’s illustration in Italian Gardens; the background being that of the Turquoise Pool in Yellowstone Park. It is an attempt to learn the subtleties of his style and apply what may be compatible to my ongoing work.

The Dark City

IMG_3620DxO10The western states presented challenges due to the extreme conditions of not only temperature and landscape, but also in regard to light. Daytime photos were compelling in regard to the many stark colors of the landscape, esp. in places as Bryce Canyon and Sedona Red Rock country. My attempts at evening shooting turned out to be a bust simply because of the pressure of time (too little allocated) and the lack of a tripod. My only recourse was to shoot silhouettes to capture some of the sky (very similar to the red hues of the countryside) and the ruggedness of the terrain.

This was a happy coincidence for while in Sedona I discovered that the city does not have lights on any of the streets, especially those leading out of town into the near “suburbs.” This realization occurred one night driving back to my bed and breakfast. The road and area were totally and I mean totally dark. The only way I was able to find my way was through the iPhone maps/gps. The next day when talking about this experience I was informed that indeed Sedona was designated as a Dark City by the International Dark-Sky Association.

The above photo is of western Sedona taken from the airport hill where everyone seemed to congregate at this time of day.

Mixed Metaphor

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“When opportunity knocks, make lemonade.” This is my mixed metaphor for dealing with how I habitually shoot. For the most part I do not plan shots. I do not get up early or stay late to get that “golden hour” masterpiece. Instead I try to make the most of the opportunities afforded me (rather passive, in a sense) rather than making my ow opportunities. And when circumstances give me lemons, I make lemonade. That, in a nutshell, is my mixed metaphor explained.

Such was the state of affairs on an early October visit to central Vermont. Apart from the fact that the colors this year were not bright or brilliant (even tho it was supposedly in the peak), it was rather breezy. In other words, the chances of capturing sharp subject matter were remote. But, the countryside presented so many interesting scenes/objects, that this impelled me to shoot despite the odds of not getting any salvageable photos.

There were dozens of places to take long exposures of water. The photo above is of the Ottauquechee River. The water was captured as I desired but the trees and clouds all were blurry making the shot less than good. Then my mixed metaphor kicked in saving the shot. To obviate the blur, I used the Glow filter in Perfect Photo Suit 8. And to capture the fall-ish sense of multicolor, I enhanced the Vibrance using their Adjustment Brush. Violá