Haunting Memories

077a1124dxopps9gradmapnikThe year was 1974 and both my good friend and I were totally enchanted by Martha’s Vineyard, and for good measure, Chappaquiddick Island. Remember, the movie Jaws was recently released, so images of adventure and the sea ran rampant with our generation.

We had the good fortune to be able to take a short trip to the Vineyard in early fall. We disembarked in Vineyard Haven and proceeded to rent bikes to see the Island. As luck would have it we rode along the sea bike trail between Vineyard Haven and Edgartown. Both of us were overcome with the land and sea scapes. When we arrived in Edgartown we decided to take the Chappy Ferry across the channel. As memory would have it, we rode to the very end of the rode on Chappy until we hit a dirt rode and then we walked our bikes. Then the vista of the sea and beach met our eyes. The vision was seared into my memory and I always wanted to relive it. A desolate and sun drenched stretch of land and sea.

Fast forward to 2015 when my wife and I decide to visit Chappy. This is a photo I took along the “road” where our cottage stood. The location was hauntingly familiar, for, I believe, it was the same vision that came before me 41 years earlier.

The photo was taken on a Canon 5 DS, 70-200mm f/4 lens, @ 70 mm, f/4.5, 1/640, ISO 1000. Post processing occurred with DxO Optic Pro, Adobe Camera Raw, Perfect PhotoSuite 9, a gradient map, and Nik Color Efex Pro 2.

Was it Endórë or Iceland?

This is an image of Kirkjufell Mountain, west of Grundarfjordur, in Snaefellsnes, Iceland. But it easily could have been from J.R.R.Tokien’s mythological land of Middle Earth or using his language from the myth, Endórë, because it presented as quite alien and unusual as compared to the work a day world in which we all live.

My recent adventure to Iceland in July was productive albeit challenging due to the weather. Because of the many water falls, volcanic activity or remnants of it, and the utter ruggedness of the countryside, there were multiple opportunities to capture winning photos, of which I did. Since that time I have spent time learning new post-processing technique to let my original raw photographs come to life.

This present posted photo is obviously a panorama, shot with a Canon 5 DS, a 24-105mm L lens, at 24mm, f/16, 1/640, and ISO 800. Post-Processing was accomplished with DxO Optics Pro, Adobe Camera Raw, and Photoshop.

Four Quartets

077A1154_DxOOn1P10VigCtrSpotBWThis 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.

 

Valley of Darkness

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It has been a struggle recently to engage in photographic creations. I must be going through a transformation of schemata in what I want or want to see in the world around me. Since the range of these schemata or modes or ways of visualizing what is before me is infinite, I must rely on my deepest intuitions to non verbally grasp them and bring them into the light of conscious thought.

The tactic I have chosen to accomplish this, at least at this particular time, is to review my most recent photo shoots, and try to pull from them elements that I find attractive. In other words, I find the living moment of actually taking a photograph  to be too challenging to focus on exactly what I want. If I may impose an analogy it would be that of a football quarterback who is a rookie versus a quarterback of pro standing. For the rookie time moves too quickly, for the pro time moves slowly. So, only on reflection can I acquire what I want; the lived moment is too fading to control.

That being said, I am still at a loss as to what my spirit or photographic eye really sees. It appears that I am drawn to the shadows. If shadows do not exist, I want to create them.

Also, I found that on my Chappaquiddick photo shoot that I had to compensate again in post processing what was lacking in optimal conditions while on the island. It was very windy and lighting was unpredictable.

I found that my long exposure shots were salvageable, especially of subjects as coastlines, sky and water. One shot drew me to often revisit it simply because of the grass. It seemed the long exposure of the grass in the particular light created an oil-paint-pallet. I stayed with the grass with that paint-like effect and kept the water more contrasted and the sky even more so in On1 Photo 10 software program. The final posted photo is of Katama Bay. The camera was a Canon 5 Ds with a Canon EF 16-35mm f2.8L lens @ 16mm, with settings of f/16 and speed of 36 seconds, ISO 100.

Summer of 15

880PPS9A coming of age movie came out in 1971 titled “Summer of 42”. It was a captivating journey into what life was like in the summer on an island off the east coast of the US, narrated in the first person of a man who depicted what his life was like as a teenager visiting the island for the summer. Besides the movie’s theme song, “The Summer Knows,” what was more haunting was the scenery and mood created for that era. It was akin to a dreamscape, sometimes blurry, sometimes glowing, and sometimes dark.

I had the opportunity to spend two weeks on Chappaquiddick Island in the summer of 2015. Chappy, as the locals call it, is literally an island off the island of Martha’s Vineyard. I had grand visions of capturing photos that would recreate that vision which the movie Summer of 42 created in my mind. [By the way, before my trip I also watched the movie “Jaws” (celebrating its 40th anniversary).]

Unfortunately, the opportunities which my Summer of 15 presented me were not equal to those visions and vistas in the Summer of 42. That’s not to say I was not trying. For the record I forced myself to shoot exclusively in manual mode in all conditions. I was consciously aware of setting my Canon 5 Ds to what conditions were before me. These conditions ranged from handheld impromptu shots on the beach to shots with a tripod. There were long exposure shots (water, lighthouse, clouds), rapid movement (birds like the Black Skimmers flying inches above the wave, wind surfers), nighttime shot of the moon and milky way, wide angle shots, and closeups of people. I took a little over 400 shots, had several good, sharp photos, but really was only happy with one photo which I posted to the Gallery.

Despite the dearth of acceptable shots I did learn quite a bit. As an athlete must adapt himself to game conditions by only exposing himself to those games (the more experience the better he performs), so I learned that I must constantly be thinking. I believe I am conquering the sharpness problem I’ve had; all I need to do is master the lighting conditions.

The photo I’m posting with this blog entry (shot with an iPhone 5, not a Canon 5 Ds) is of Menemsha Galley in the small village of Menemsha in the town of Chilmark, Martha’s Vineyard. This is the area filmed in the movie Jaws. By far, it is the most quaint area on Martha’s Vineyard, but not the only  pictureque.  If I ever mature in photography I should find more shots in the future on that dreamy island off the coast of Massachusetts.

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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