The 365 - 10/26/17 - Day 95

Happy Thursday -  Today's image was a commission image I made for my parents' cabin in South Dakota.  One of the rooms had been dubbed the "Pinecone Room" and since it was my favorite room to stay in,  I decided to "commision" an image for the room.  I say "commission" loosely because I had taken the image long before anyone had asked for it.  However, it did give me a chance to work with a still life image from conception to execution.  The area around the cabin is full of pine and spruce cones which served as the perfect subject for the image.  I was able to find this copper container which gave the image a more vintage look, and I made an arrangement with the cones I gathered from around the cabin.  In post, I did increase the saturation of the copper to make the color more closely resemble what I saw in my head, but overall the changes to this shot were relatively minor.  The image was lit by a single flash angled off and behind camera.  Overall, I enjoyed the project and I did come out with something I was proud of.  Enjoy your Thursday - 

Commission - Pine Cones

The 365 - 10/25/17 - Day 94

Happy Belated Wednesday - Today's post is tangentially related to the topic I wanted to cover here in the blog.   Many years ago, I got a chance to visit the Storm King Art Center near Cornwall, New York.  For anyone who can visit, I highly recommend this visit as it is really quite something to wander around and see all of the sculptures.  I took a number of photographs that I really love from that day, but these are buried in my personal library and I'll probably never share them.  The biggest reason is that Storm King had put a disclaimer on the ticket that discouraged sharing photos of the exhibits.  Which brings me to the image for today.  It's a simple park bench in a meadow in the center.  I made this image because when I saw this park bench it symbolized the ideal of how I imagine park benches, nestled in a meadow in a soft sunset.  It's not the best composition (I think the park bench is on the wrong side) but this was a photo from my earliest days, and I still love it.  Most importantly, its a photo I can share with everyone while still respecting the wishes of the park in not showing the other images, and I believe that is important.  When I work with my students in our photo club, I do talk a good bit about respecting the rules and wishes of the locations in which they are shooting.  I am comfortable with some places being off-limits to photos and more importantly respecting the wishes of people and places to not be photographed.  We have to view ourselves as stewards of a long profession that will continue to exist in some form or fashion.  The more we respect our subjects and locations, the longer we will be able to explore images with them.  Enjoy your belated Wednesday - 

Storm King Art Center, New York - Park Bench

The 365 - 10/24/17 - Day 93

Happy Tuesday everyone - Spearfish falls in Spearfish Canyon is one of my favorite waterfalls to visit.  The falls is located a very short hike from our cabin, and while it is heavily visited, the trail allows you to get close enough to feel the water blast from the falls.  It's always a great visit and the trip through the botanical gardens just prior to the falls adds something extra.  While shooting Spearfish Falls, I always try to get something in the foreground and allow the falls to dominate in the background.  It's not the easiest thing to do with the tourists and the trail fences in the way, but this particular challenge forces me to think about new angles.  After all, with its easy access there are countless snapshots of this particular falls floating around, and I would have to really work to find something different. Still working on that one. Enjoy your Tuesday - 

Spearfish Canyon, South Dakota - Spearfish Falls

The 365 - 10/23/17 - Day 92

Happy Monday everyone - Today's image is another from the high contrast series developed for my South Dakota book project.  The original image for this shot was taken last winter up in Spearfish Canyon.  The snow both on the cones and all around the tree provide the perfect background to shoot these kinds of images.  The contrast between the white snow and the dark outlines of the cones make pushing the contrast to the extremes much easier, creating more clear outlines and allowing me to keep some additional details in the lines of both the needles and the cones.   These kinds of images can be done almost anywhere, however.  You can use the sky as a background or any other background with a much brighter light value.  That initial contrast will allow you to boost contrast in post-production to these kinds of extremes.  Enjoy your Monday - 

High Contrast Series - Spruce Cones

The 365 - 10/22/17 - Day 91

Happy Sunday everyone - Sunset silhouettes are one of the easiest shots to create and yet they still provide powerful and dynamic images.  Our eyes are incredible at discerning the potent colors in the sunset and still see the objects in the foreground.  The camera's dynamic range limitations actually work to an advantage in this regard.  As the light from the sunset is still powerful for the camera, exposing for that sunset light renders your foreground objects as shadows.  The result is, of course, something different than what your eye sees and its this difference, I think, that makes these kinds of images so popular.  Sometimes the easy solutions are still the best ones. Enjoy your Sunday - 

Red Hook, Brooklyn - Red Hook Sunset