Staying Alive
Whether I want to admit it to myself or not, the whole issue before us (myself, my loved ones, and the living creatures around me) is how to stay alive!
After 70+ years of life I have found that the most prominent element of what is around me is: staying alive. I have somewhat subconsciously realized this all of my life, but now it has reached critical importance. Probably because there is only so much time left for me to expend (?use up?). In other words, time is running short, as it were.
Okay. Maybe this is a bit over the top as far as blog dialog is supposed to go, but in the Winter of Our Discontent (read as God- Forsaken-Curse-of-a-Present-as-this) and as far as a Winter as hard as this (despite the denials of which the current President is saying regarding Global warming), then this is quite reasonable to say that I am in a phase of a somewhat gray-view of reality.
“So What!,” says the countering voice within me. “Falling in Love is Miraculous. It is realizing this fact that is important. I am in love with my wife. As always, I am involved with carrying on the process that I started when I was an infant, namely—living the wonders before me.”
I shoot photography to capture/steal moments. Moments which exist within a fraction (sometimes) of a second, but which are revealing and transcendent.
The currently posted photograph was taken in early morning at the beginning of January 2018. Life has been harsh this year with frequent winter storms of snow and wind. I have been feeding the birds, but the larger animals are on their own. Hence, the coyote seaching for his breakfast meal. It’s been hard for me watching this display of life trying to survive this winter: this ranges from Hawks killing other birds to survive to smaller birds fighting to get seeds from a feeder. That being said, the photo was taken with a Canon 5DS, EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 400mm, f/9.0, 1/500″, ISO 2000, post processed with Adobe Raw, DxO Optics Pro 11, gradient map in PS, and Silver Efex Pro.
Vacation Shooting
In my analysis of what I shoot and where I shoot photographs, it is quite clear that I do, indeed, have a restricted range of times and subjects. This has becomes even painfully obvious to me after meeting with professional and very avid photographic enthisiasts. These latter photographers place a high value in going to places which maximize their chances of some great photographs, e.g., shooting volcanic eruptions from helicopters or from boats at sea, not to mention just taking off at the spur of a moment (on a flight several hundred miles away) to capture the Northern Lights over a particularly interesting foreground object.
“You must go to interesting places to take interesting photographs,” is what I am told. I do not doubt this, but there is a rebellious element/genie within me which says that there are great and wondrous moments all around oneself if one is open to seeing them. I truly believe this also. However, placing oneself in a propitious place is far easier than searching out the miraculous moment in the ordinary.
Such is the conflicted state I find myself in: Do I devote more time and energy into placing myself in places which will yield good photographs? Or, do I continue to make escapes or vacations to places which may produce opportunities for good shots, or do I go the extra mile to shoot, trying to find the miraculous in the ordinary?
The currently posted shot if of the USS Arizona taken while on vacation to Hawaii. I was lucky to actually get a ticket to travel to the monument, but when I got there it was so crowded that trying to capture the solemnity of the place where so many died was almost impossible. Added to this situation was the fact that I had on a 70-200m lens (because I could not take my other gear because bags were not allowed on the boat to the monument). I was forced to shoot with the canon 70-200mm lens. And then “take out” some visitors peering through the openings along the monument side using Photoshop.
The current shot was taken with a Canon 5 DS, EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM @ 70mm, f/10, 1/60″, -1/3 stop, 200 ISO, using DxO Optics Pro, a gradient map, and Color Efex Pro.
Smell the Roses
While no posts were forthcoming in July, I had been busy going through my 3000+ images from the Hawaii shoot. Admittedly, while I did reach the 1% keeper goal of about 30-40 photos, this process in itself created challenges within me to see things I had not considered or even forgot when I was actually taking the said photo “keepers.” In other words, so much time and so many different scenes have come in between the actual shots and then the processing of these shots that I had forgotten many of the details. Note: the major ones I remembered, but the nuances to many shots were lost to memory. Even while I was taking these many shots in Hawaii I wish I had a way to record along with the photos themselves (a tag, if you will) what I was actually thinking or trying to do at the time.
That being said, I was forced in hindsight to find another way to accomplish the above. What I decided to do was allow myself to “Be” with the shot (I know this sounds corny and hackneyed); in other words to stop and “smell the roses.” If there was a shot to begin with, then I should be able to recover it within perceptual memory.
Honestly, this is not an easy process, but it does work.
The current photo to this post is of the USS Arizona Memorial looking upward. I’ve always felt a reverence for Pearl Harbor and the lives that were lost. I felt privileged to be able to visit this site, but upon arriving I found that the sheer number of visitors actually detracted from the solemnity of the site. This is not to cast aspersions on anyone about the actual memorial but it was difficult to find peace and reflection with so many visitors coming and going. The positive is that Americans still care and feel deeply about this event.
There was definitely a solemnity to the Harbor and I tried to capture it photographically. One way I did this is to look skyward from where the bombs fell, and I found a unique ceiling to the Memorial, intended or not in it design, I do not know. Nonetheless, it was beautiful and reflected the simplicity of the sacrifice that many men gave for their country.
The posted photo was taken with a Canon 5 DS, EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM @ 70mm, f/10, 1/500, ISO 400, -1/3 stop compensation, processed with DxO Optics Pro 11, using a Gradient map, and Color Efex Pro.
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.
Photo Boot Camp
In my ongoing endeavor to increase my nascent photo skills I decided to take a p
hoto workshop offered by Canon Professional Services. Not many of these workshops are offered on the east coast so it made sense to immerse myself within some serious training and critiquing while I had the chance.
The workshop took place in Rockport, MA and the surrounding Gloucester area. However, the weather for mid September did not cooperate, and it was more like mid August with high temperatures and humidity to go with it. Rain was always a threat, and the night sky was not clear for star shooting.
Nonetheless, the workshop made the most of the circumstances with intense in-class training. The whole group of us was up at 5 AM each day, and out again to shoot at sunset. At times I felt we were in basic training maneuvers jumping in and out of SUVs to find optimal photo areas based on the conditions, which were always in flux.
Happy to say this type of exposure to learning was what I needed to continue my journey to creating finer photos. Luckily the class members were congenial and quite talented, each taking some wonderful photographs themselves.
The photograph on the upper right was taken around 6 AM at Eastern Point Lighthouse, Glouchester, MA. The shifting fog made it difficult to find perspectives on the lighthouse itself and other items of interest on the shore. I tried to incorporate what was stressed in class in this particular shot. It was shot with a Canon 5 DS, EF24-105mm f/4 IS USM lens @ 47mm, f/18, 0.4″, ISO 100, with a Gitzo tripod, and RRS ballhead.
Transition or Transformation
The year has been productive as far as changes within my style and understanding in what I am doing with photographs. It’s been an interesting display, for me, at least, between the right and left sides of my brain. The right side seeking form and creativity, and the left side begging for order and direction. Luckily there has been an amicable compromise between the two and my shooting and processing has taken on more of a creative direction, which was aimless in the recent past.
I have revisited several of my photos of years past and have tried to look at them afresh and see what I would do with them in my current state of creative flux. The current post is of Sanary-sur-Mer, France where I was dining at the time a few years ago. Of course I had on my de rigueur Panama hat which I bought in Sorrento, Italy, so I felt quite International (although I doubt this is how I actually appeared).
The south coast of France on a sunny late Spring Day. This is what I imagined I wanted to capture in my photo. I had tried to do this in the past and had failed, but with my last attempt I believe I came close to the mark, if, nothing more than with nostalgic, halcyon type of overtones.
The photo was taken on a Canon 30D, 24-105mm, f/4L IS lens @ 24mm, f/22, 1/400, ISO 1600. It was an unusually noisy and dirt prone camera which I have since parted company. However, I always wanted to capture that special sense of place there in France at the sea port. This I believe I approximated using DxO Optics Pro 11 and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 (Antique Plate preset) in post processing.
Der Schwarzwald In Transit
The title to this post is not as enigmatic as it appears. It is in the flavor of my recent posts of light and darkness, black and white. In my just finished visit to the Rhine Valley I was fortunate enough to catch a spring snowfall on the very morning that I was approaching the Black Forest (viz., Der Schwarzwald). This was such a contrast in not only the visual but also the experiential terra firma where the unexpected was suddenly upon us.
Unfortunately, I was in a bus traveling along a narrow road with magnificent scenery around me. I was spell-bound, but I wanted to take a picture to capture this transcendent moment. My first impulse was that it was not possible traveling in a bus with a camera that was not my best (simply a small tourist camera), but my wife stated emphatically, “Yes, indeed, take the photos!” As an obedient spouse I compiled, not having much hope of success.
Needless to say, my wife was right. I was able to salvage several quite extraordinary moments. Whether these moments translated into good photos was another matter. This photo of a farm on a mountainside in the midst of a sudden spring snow storm is my attempt to relay a very transient moment. On reflexion, this appears that many great photos are all about these transient moments (hence, “in transit”), that try to capture the ephemeral but also the equally eternally transcendent.
The shot was taken with a Canon Powershot G3X, 24 mm, f/8.0, 1/800, ISO 125, enhanced with DxO Optics Pro, with tonality adjusted in Photoshop.
Conflicted Image
- At April 21, 2016
- By Firstmate
- In Black & White, Germany
0
About this time a year ago my wife & I were in Nuremberg, Germany and we both were overwhelmed by the architecture, milieu, food, and history. It was our first exposure to Germany and it was a positive one. We had the opportunity to explore the Nuremberg Castle and the old town, which captures the essence of so-called fairy tale type images of Germany (think of Grimms’ fairy tales).
But there was a darker side to Nuremberg (not of its own making), and that was that it was seen by Adolf Hitler as the the quintessential German town, and chosen by him as the site of the Nazi Party Conventions, the Zeppelinfeld or Nazi Part rally grounds.
I wanted to capture that part of history since I grew up with it and had a hard time coming to terms with the cruelty of that part of German history. The tour guide on our visit of the Zeppelinfeld spoke of the conflicted attitudes of current German citizens to that part of their history, i.e., should it be preserved (at an expense) or should it simply be allowed to fade into the past without saving such vestiges as the Nazi parade/rally grounds.
There were many photos I took of that part of German history while I was in Nuremberg, but only recently was I able to feel comfortable with capturing what I felt when I visited that former Nazi rally grounds.
Specifically, the color photo did not capture what I felt. But then I realized that I must submit to how that part of history settled onto my visual memory, namely, black and white imagery.
So, I searched for the image that most captured that time of Germany’s dark past. I finally found one photo where the heavens opened up to shine on the center stage/platform where Hitler spoke in historically passionate terms of total war and global conquest. To me it was an image of contrast, and an image of conflict. Was the heavenly light shining on the former Hitler platform that of acceptance or was it that of final judgement, i.e., it was an empty stage of lost opportunity and unfulfilled and ill conceived ambitions. It was an image that the purifying light of the heavens shines on the emptiness of man’s folly and empty ambitions. That was the judgement of history and world time.
The actual photo of the Nazi rally grounds was crafted to this final image by using Photoshop to eliminate the two large light poles and many fence posts preventing people from accessing the stands. Notice that there are no actual Nazi symbols located anywhere. We were told by the tour guide that Nazi symbols do indeed exist but not in areas of public access. (Again, an element of conflict.)
Ars Artis
- At February 13, 2016
- By Firstmate
- In Black & White, Canon 30D, France, On 1 Photo 10
- 0
The last month or so, despite an absence of blog posts, has been a productive period for me. Time has been spent focusing on skill development of post processing of black and white photos (à la Vincent Versace). Several series of photos from France and Italy I revisited, and tried to re-imagine them through Vincent’s eyes. It was a slow process of trying to acquire an understanding of light and contrast as well as what I really wanted in a scene. The path was not always clear but I trudged onward, nonetheless, knowing that progress had to be made, despite my uncertainty on what lay before me.
On the way to understanding black and white I actually discovered that I was beginning to understand the technical aspected of photography itself better. For example, the importance of pixel count, bit depth, and how to use photoshop more efficiently and fully (i.e., channels and blending modes, not to mention finally feeling more comfortable with curves and its power).
There seemed to be an interplay within me of technique and style, and how advancing in the discovery of one leads to a better grasp of the other. This is somewhat abstract, admittedly, but it was a growing experiencing I am trying to document.
The photo in this post is of the Côte d’Azur (French Riviera) seen from the Rothschild’s Villa and Gardens. It is a truly idyllic location of tranquility and beauty. It was taken on my old Canon Eos 30D (a very noisy and dust prone camera), using a 24-105mm L lense. I converted the color photo using Photoshop Gradient Map adjustment layer as well as On 1 Photo 10 for Vignette Effects.
Four Quartets
This enigmatic blog title is from T.S.Eliots’s poem of the same name. It has always resonated for me since I am committed to the dynamic nature of the way life presents itself; namely, in a series of apparent contradictions in an attempt to show us the sheer complexity of itself.
Enough of philosophy, though, and on with photography. Oh, but by the way, an encapsulated meaning of the poem (not doing it real justice) is, as Eliot states, “What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning.”
I am using this reference to describe my current state in trying to become a photographer worthy of that name, and not simply someone that lucks out in taking photos, i.e.hit or miss. That current state is, unfortunately, one of unsuccessful attempts to acquire a thoroughgoing process of conceptualizing, actually taking, then processing, and finally printing the photograph I had in mind when I stood in front of the scene before me with my camera. After several years of trying to acquire skills through reading, attending workshops, and then experimenting with different techniques, I am left unfulfilled and inchoate.
But fate has smiled on me, since I recently discovered an artist and teacher worthy of those titles. His name is Vincent Versace. After reading an interview of him and also an articled on processing black and while photos, I purchased his book, Welcome to Oz 2.0. It is the second revision of his original work, Welcome to Oz, but I would have to say that he has so much information and pearls of wisdom in this book that I feel that I have found a gold mine.
After recently hitting the nadir of photographic growth I believe that I have been saved by whatever guardian there is of photographers that watches over us.
I am posting a photo of no consequence subject-wise, but one I feel challenged me to use some of the ideas that Vincent Versace expressed. I used a gradient map to make a black and white photo of a misty morning. I chose this scene since it seemed to challenge me to understand and bring out the tonality that was before me. These are very simple concepts to the accomplished photographer but not to me, who was trained to think verbally, not visually.
The photo was taken in full color with a Canon 5 Ds, using a 16-35mm lens, f/2.8, @35mm, f/11, 1/250, iso 250. Conversion to BW done in Photoshop, Gradient Map, and denoised in DxO, and stylized in On1 Photo 10.
Recent Comments