A Different Kind of Light

Vermont has been an area that I have visited and photographed for a long time. Admittedly, I may not have been as disciplined and focused in my shooting then as I am now, but I had a great difficulty in adapting to the lighting conditions on my just completed visit. The scenery was in full brilliant color, it being the height of the foliage season, but getting to a spot or angle to shoot what were on the face of it spectacular vistas or compositions, was challenging, if not impossible due to how the lighting conditions were.

The many hills, mountains, ravines, and valleys created sharp contrasts and haze. Positioning or re-positioning oneself to overcome these obstacles was difficult at best due to the terrain (streams, hill, private property). It seems that one would have to develop a log of sorts to work out when to shoot and where to shoot precisely in order to get a good composition.

Living on the coast of the eastern USA makes photography immensely easier as compared to Vermont. Sunsets and sunrises are completely different in the Green Mountain State. Consequently, for the time being I have not posted any panoramas or long shots of Vermont on this blog.

The photo to the right was taken in the heart of Gaysville, which has to be one of the more unique and diminutive villages in the state. The lantern sat on the side of an old unique Vermont barn next to an historic inn by Cobble Hill. The sun had just risen and morning mist was burning off.The photograph was taken with a Canon 5 DS, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 55mm, f/16, 1/25, ISO 800, post-processed with DxO Optics Pro 11, Camera Raw, and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

 

 

The Missing Element

This is a shot of Pigeon Cove, Gloucester, MA, taken around 8 AM on a very foggy mid-September day. This shot would never have occurred if I were not “forced” to be at this location. I say this in jest for I was not forced literally but I was forced since I signed up to take this Canon Destination Workshop.

The point of all of this is that I had to be “there” to have this shot, even though it is a photo of no consequence. It does serve to illustrate a point that I have recently become very sensitive to, and that is, I have to put myself out there for the likelihood of capturing that special moment in a photograph that leads to the “Ahh” experience. If I do not do this, it will not matter. The subject matter of my photography will simply be ordinary. This is the insight that has come upon me. It may appear quite elementary but the demands of this insight are quite “demanding.”

The photo was taken with a Canon 5 DS, EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM @ 176mm, f/11, 1/400, ISO 1000, post-processed with DxO Optics Pro 11, Nik Color Efex Pro 4, Skylight Filter.

Style: Coming Softly

The last couple of weeks have seen a resurgence in disparate elements of my photographic skills coming together. Why this is so is anyone’s guess, but my recent Canon Professional Services Destination Workshop in Rockport, MA was certainly  a catalyst.


Arriving at a style is a curious process since so much of what I have been doing with photographs is unconscious and intuitive, but this has been occurring with a certitude I did not have before.  Also it is a subtle process in developing this so-called individual styling preference.

While I am not totally happy with the photo in this post, I am offering it as an example in what I am trying to do. The subject matter of the shot was difficult to craft. It was taken on a very foggy morning around 6 AM at Eastern Point Lighthouse, Gloucester, MA. It was a long exposure of sorts using a polarizing filter to stop down. There is a vagueness to the photo but I tried to capture the unsettledness yet order of the sea and coast. Certainly the sepia toning added to the mood.

It was shot with a Canon 5 DS, EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 58mm, f/22, 4″, ISO 100.