Down in the Delta

Took a friend’s Canon G11 Powershot for a quick trip to the small towns of Isleton and Locke in the Sacramento Delta region. Great area to walk around and work on composition: shape, form, lines, color, balance–the basics. Had some strong light, but that played up the shadows nicely and gave me a chance to use them as elements in designing my shots. Lots of reflections to work with too.

I used the G11′s zoom to good advantage here to simplify the image and cut out what I didn’t want. Picked up some noise, though, as the light was beginning to fade.

 

Shady side windows on this storefront reflecting the sunny side of the street. I liked the repeating windows above- like an old film strip.

 

Couldn’t resist the bait sign for obvious reasons. Stark outlines and hot edges.

 

Lots of color here in this window. I like the contrast in sharpness between the butterfly behind the wet glass and the flowers in the upper left. More reflections to manage as well. Turquoise window frame anchors the bottom.

 

A past-its-prime display of water lilies in an old metal tub. Great muted tones and ‘organic’ colors.

 

More reflections and softer contrasting warm and cool colors. Again, the play between sharp and blurred parts of the image.

 

Apple Hill in November

A quick trip to Apple Hill along Hwy.50 on a beautiful fall day. We stopped at the Boeger Winery for a little wine tasting and a walk around the grounds. This shot was slightly uphill. The different types of lighting created a lot of depth.

 

The afternoon sun backlit the autumn vines just right. Blurring the background creates depth and contrast.

 

These vats at the winery were a great study in form and color. The gold contrasted with the blue reflections and the shapes had an attractive three dimensional quality.

Desolation Wilderness revisited

Three of us hiked up the Pacific Crest Trail from Echo Lakes almost to Lake Aloha last Thursday. As we approached the lake we turned right and went cross-country up a long wooded and rocky slope to the hidden Lake Jabu. From the top of a ridge (about 8200′) we could look back and down at Lake Aloha and its awesome basin with Pyramid Peak as the backdrop. I used an 18-200mm lens and a circular polarizer for almost all the shots. The above image is stitched together in PS from 3 separate shots.

 

Lots of expressive trees and branches for interesting compositions.

 

These leafy plants grew along a creek that flowed from the summit.

Adventures in Infrared

Took a quick 3 hour drive to Yosemite last Thursday. Using a Cokin 007 Infrared filter I came away with some alternative views of the iconic park.

I used a custom white balance that I had set a few days before. It was good enough to work with. I could have set a new one at the park, but I think the color shift would have looked pretty much the same.

A tripod was necessary for the 30 sec. exposures at f8. Focus was the major problem. I used the AF to get focus, then put the IR filter in front of the lens. I switched to Manual Focus for the exposure. My lens didn’t have an IR focus mark, and my only attempt to fake the IR focus by turning the focus ring to what I thought might be better resulted in an extremely out-of-focus shot.

I shot RAW+jpeg so I could get an approximation of the color shift of the shot on my LCD. Once I opened the file from Adobe Camera Raw I got pretty much what I saw on the screen at the time I made the shot. Any light leaks between the filter (hand-held!) and the lens resulted in bright blue alien orbs dancing across the image.

I ran through one battery and part of another taking the 50+ images. I was impressed for the most part with the strange but beautiful color shifts caused by the IR filter. It was slow work though. These images were only slightly adjusted in PS. More work would need to be done for final imaging. I lost several to focus problems and light leaks. Fun though.

Black and White Portraits

Here’s a few black and white portraits. For me, the lack of color in a portrait allows the viewer to more fully contemplate the subject without the ‘distraction’ of color. Often, though, color provides critical context and support to the subject.

Good friend LC soaks in a swimming pool. The slight elevation gets me a little background water to work with. I like the pattern in the water on the right. This was shot in B&W mode in the camera. A cock of the head and a great expression works for me.

AB relaxing with a smoke. This shot is slightly blurred from a slow shutter speed, but I think it has a bit of a journalistic feel as a result. Again, a little elevation of the camera position lends a nice dynamic, along with the head at an angle. Toned slightly in PS.

JC in an available light outdoor portrait. Her intense gaze compelled me to center her in the frame for added impact. Out-of-focus leaves in the background give the shot a little added interest.

Lastly, an old shot from many years ago on film. An open front door provides the available light. A 55mm macro lens shot wide open blurred the background and hallway. Putting the subject off-center and showing the interior makes us wonder-are we being invited inside or barred at the door?

I feel the need to do more portraiture. Looking at a photo of another person is compelling in a way other subject matter is not. That, and the interesting interaction during the session makes it obvious why so many photographers choose to specialize in portraiture.

Return to Napa

Another trip to the Napa/Sonoma wine country yielded more images from this photogenic area. It was late fall. There weren’t any grapes on the vines, but the leaves were a variety of greens and autumn colors. We found a few new vantage points and came away with some perspectives we hadn’t found on previous trips.

 

With the 18-200mm at the widest aperture, I got fairly close to this vine in order to blur the background a bit. Soft afternoon light backlit the leaves and brightened them up nicely.

 

I was standing in the middle of a side road looking slightly upward for this shot. Focus was rather deep, but allowed to fall off toward the foreground. I also paid close attention to the background. The darker trees make a ‘V’ shape that extends to the ground dividing up the frame. That makes it a little more interesting for me. There’s also a bit of red color back there for the eye to focus on.

 

This long-distance view was a flattened purposefully with a telephoto. I just wanted to show the different bands of color and texture from the dark blue shade at the top to the brown foreground. I would brighten up the narrow yellow strip just before the trees if I was going to make a print.

 

Another backlit shot of leaves. Composition here mostly consists of getting a little rhythm going across the frame. The red leaves are like musical notes on a page.

 

Gino shoots across a golden expanse of grape vines at the end of the day.

Napa continues to be a great place to spend a day. Shooting in any season results in at least a few good images to work with.

Eagle Falls

Earlier in the summer photographer Gino Creglia and I drove up Hwy. 50 to Eagle Falls, which spills into Lake Tahoe in dramatic fashion.

Following the falls down from the highway toward the lake, this view was looking back toward the ridge of the Sierras.

 

Just down from the road the falls drop steeply. Best light is early morning-before we arrived.

 

There’s lots of opportunity for different compositions. Here I placed the falls in context as it drops through a wooded area.

 

Again, looking back away from the falls toward the mountains. Morning light was diffused by thin clouds helping with even exposure. This shot has several secondary subjects-enough hopefully to keep a viewers interest a bit longer.

Return to Coloma

Another nice afternoon and the urge to photograph struck me. I went to Coloma, CA., the state park that is the site of the first gold strike in California. Old period buildings, historical artifacts and a nice park-like setting make it a great place to walk around and unwind while shooting some interesting stuff you don’t see every day.

The one-room schoolhouse is complete with period wall map, old fashioned chalk boards and these student desks. I focused on the ornamental iron pieces on each desk, putting them in silhouette against a brighter portion of the background. I also liked how each desk had a slightly different color of wood, giving each a unique ‘personality’ and making the photo a little more interesting.

 

The side door of the old church in late afternoon. The leaf shapes echo each other-on the step and in shadow form. Maybe a little busy, but I like how it’s almost a monochrome shot, but for the golden leaves piled in front of the door.

 

I abstracted this shot of an old barn. Large areas divide up the space with the important detail left in the lower left.

 

Nice indirect light coming mostly from windows on the left. I had to shoot through the barred door at the front since the church was closed. If I was to print this, I’d correct the slight distortion evident on the sides. The color is pretty much were I’d like it-very warm with clean white on the cloth on the alter.

Artistic blur

A while back I took a walk on the bike trail along Lake Natoma. It’s a favorite place to exercise a little creativity when needed. It’s close and easily accessible. I took my digital SLR and an old manual 50mm Nikkor lens. My D200 can work with these older lenses, so I opened it up to a 1.4 aperture and let the resulting shallow depth of field create a nice drop off in focus. Very arty!

I decided that a conversion to black and white would add to the effect I was after. I even chose to shoot in B&W mode in the camera in order to review my shots on the LCD in B&W and not color. This way I can see the end result and not have to do a mental ‘conversion’ from the color while I’m shooting. This may not be the accepted way of doing things, but I do what works for me.

 

The lake provided a nice background since I was shooting a little above the subject, looking slightly downward. A little PS filter effect (sepia 25%) gave me a nice warm tone.

 

Again, the lake water is the background, transitioning nicely light to dark, top to bottom. The selective focus gives me an impressionistic look, and I’m not relying on full foliage and blossom to give me a ‘pretty’ view. Stark, out-of-season nature shots have a beauty all their own.

City at Night

I went downtown the other night with a couple of friends taking in the monthly Second Saturday Artwalk. I took my D200, but installed a 20-year old manual focus 35mm f2.0 on it. I set the camera to take black and white jpegs at ISO 400 and away I went, pretending I was shooting Tri-X in the old days when I was learning photography. This first shot was made from the middle of the street (quickly). Cropped to accentuate the horizontal. The lighting store was visually rich, but I had just time for this one exposure.

A young couple were entertaining everyone (and each other) with a marionette and small guitar-like instrument. No rhyme or reason, just some dancing around with a little musical improv. The girl decided to join in the fun.

A row of cars parked at a car wash reminded me somehow of those old shots from the 50′s of nighttime street scenes. It’s got a nostalgic feel to it for me. I let the blacks go deep to play up the highlights. They get busier as they move from the bottom to the top of the frame.

A bit of a departure for me. This panned shot from a balcony is a little chaotic, but I kind of like it.

Another experimental shot. I blurred out the taxi and the person getting in to fill the shot with out-of-focus circles of light. Just enough definition remains to barely identify the subjects.