When You've Got The Blues

"Quiet Dusk"

Dusk. Things quiet down. Bird song is amplified. Music carries from the distant pier. The water barely moves. We walk the trail by the local marina and here and there a couple sits on benches overlooking the restful scenery, letting the calm do the talking. I let it call to my camera on this particular night.

Why haven't I used this wonderful low light more often?

We see in colour, we see in black & white, but I have struggled with seeing in 'blues' I'll confess. There are only subtle, gradual changes from highlight to shadow. From one tone to another to distinguish shape and line. If anything, the blues of dusk cause me to really pay attention to the light, where it plays, where it disappears, what and how it illuminates and not as much on good composition to also carry a story.

When you've got the blues that come with dusk's final light, you are forced to sacrifice blatant contrast for more subtle details, in order to preserve mood and perception. And in processing, you have personal considerations galore. Do I remain true to the colour cast? Do I only accentuate the light skimming over the objects in the foreground? Across the water?

I decide it's not necessary to see every bold detail on the boats, we know they are there and that's enough for the image. I decide I love how the light grew intense near the sun's connection to the horizon and keep that intensity. I keep the composition consistent with the lily pads mimicking the clouds above.

When all is said and done, how lovely and quiet the evening was comes rushing back to me. You'll all see something different, which is just as wonderful. It's what I love about the arts period.

Have a great week, and thanks for this ramble in the dusk.

Imagination Set Sail

"Evenings Companions"

Another image from the Tall Ships that visited Hamilton last long weekend. Grown ups and children alike were excited to see these beauties. If you click on the photograph to enlarge, you will notice all the flags fluttering in the background from the other ships waiting for visitors as well. Some of the festival personnel were decked out in 1812 era gear, demonstrating musket firings and drills, and two of the ships touring the harbor fired "canons" at each other, shaking the pier.

I don't care who you are, but at that point your imagination reminds you of other fantastic vessels you've encountered over time. Maybe from childhood. Maybe from current films. The eerie but trusty Black Pearl from the movies, the glorious danger of Captain Hook's ship from J.M Barrie's "Peter Pan", the Hispaniola which emerges from "Treasure Island" and the delightful mind of Robert Louis Stevenson.

I don't know if this image is my favorite from that evening... but it's the one that causes my imagination to ramble through all the things we love about these fantastical vessels. So I thought I'd share.

Have a great day, explore your own local festivals, and heck, take the camera.... but whatever you do, take your imagination.

Thanks for the ramble! 

A Natural Progression ~ My Creative Process

Cowboy Boots Study #1

A week or so ago, I noticed my husband's boots sitting out near the back door. I've been chiding myself on neglecting my camera lately. So I grabbed the boots and started looking for some nice light to photograph them in. It'd been a while since I'd done any sort of still life photography, and something was waking up inside me.

Today I'd like to post the resulting images, in the order of how my creative process worked, so you can see how I got from the beginning image above, to the final image that felt right, and why. Not EVERY shoot goes exactly like this, but this is my general process. And it's not methodical tedious thinking per se, it's a natural process that happens while I find the light and composition I feel melds with my intent. There's a rhythm and a flow.

Study #1: The most interesting light (above) was happening from the southwest, very late in the afternoon, shining in on our stairway. I don't like images that look too staged, so I plunked the boots down in a way that looked like they'd been left there. I wasn't sure how I wanted to use the stairs at all, and when I begin to explore a subject I pop my wide angle zoom on first, allowing me to photograph certain elements in the scene all at once and decide what I'm continually drawn to.

Cowboy Boots Study #2

The #2 shot (above) is actually much better than my first for a few reasons. I moved from eye level to shooting across the stairs and slightly below. Rarely do I stay at eye level for anything. The light shifted slightly at this point too, giving some definitive shadows and highlights. And including more of the surroundings actually helped this perspective, while showing off the light. It started to occur to me that the wear and tear on these 22 yr. old boots was a way to express my intent when lit with low side light.

Shot #3 below became a switch for a couple of reasons. I was still looking for a more interesting way to frame these while the warm light was hitting them. I liked the worn spots on the stairs and thought to play that against the wear on the boots in that light. Plus, at some point, I ditch the wide angle, and grab a lens that will bring me closer to the subject. I grabbed my F1.4 50mm prime lens instead, and getting aggressive with my point of view, I placed myself above the boots on the stairs. I also changed the placement of the boots, using them to pull you into the frame naturally to the right. But somewhere in a series of shots taken of this version of the composition, I realized I loved the details on the boots more than anything, and that the deep interior of the boots from above pulled the eye away from those same details.

Cowboy Boots Study #3

Which brings us to the final image. The shot that shows my intent. The shot the emphasizes those rugged details, that leaves nothing unnecessary in the frame, that even propelled my decision making process in the digital darkroom. I got low, I got close, I used a shallow aperture, I waited till the light would bounce off the back of the stairs and skim the wrinkles and lines of the boots. I made a decision to point the detailed toes of the boots into the camera lens which seemed natural to me. And in post, I overlayed a very subtle and warm sepia-type preset I'd created for myself, enhancing the used look of the old boots. It's my favorite image from my self-imposed exercise. 

"These Boots" Study #4

There's just a glimpse into how my head works as I photograph. It's my creative process. Some of it is born out of adapting to the light changing, some of it to how a composition feels, and some of it's born out of how the whole package speaks to me. It's the work flow of a shoot. A natural progression, and very abstract in many ways. For those that have wondered how this all progresses for me, I hope this helps. (You can click on any image to see it enlarged and of better quality.)

What's your creative process? It's something every artist should be aware of. Have a good one, and thanks for the longer than normal ramble.

Flash & The Fiddle ~ Telephoto Tuesday!

"Waiting On The Music"

(1/60 sec. @ F/4.5, ISO 100, 80mm fl, SB600 off-camera flash bounced off reflector)

(secondary lighting from window diffused with light panel)

Well as promised, I've managed not to smother you all (yet) with peony pics. That's only because I've been waiting for this week's telephoto theme day! Pictured in today's post is my fiddle. Actually, it was graciously handed down to me by my in laws several years ago with the stipulation that I continue to learn how to play the ol' girl. And play it I do, usually late in the day to one of my slower Celtic Cd's on the stereo. Jigs are not my forte. Yet. I've been in love with her full bodied sound, her color, her shape, and her history. So I figured she deserves a much better portrait than what I was able to supply until recently.

I've been waiting for ages to learn how to better use my flash so that I could get a photo of my fiddle in more dramatic lighting. This is my first attempt, and I will continue to tweak my settings in camera till I get the exact look I'm looking for. But this step was big for me, as I finally figured out the nuances of shooting with the flash off-camera. Especially using a light panel to soften available light coming from one direction, and a reflector to bounce the light off of to get light that would skim across the fiddle from near the top down, kissing it's shape without being overwhelming.

It took time, patience, and some experimenting. Especially since the spot I used is in a dark blue room that eats up the light almost instantly. But I knew I wanted deep color and a darker backdrop so it worked out that the one window in the room has an old window seat in deep browns perfect to lay the fiddle on. Low light enabled me to really see the effects the flash was having, and to create an intimate looking still life. To use Nikon's speed light off camera, you have to use your small on-camera flash as the trigger. This meant dialing down that small flash's output as low as it would go so that from the distance I was at with the telephoto it wouldn't give off too much light while trying to get the right light out of the SB600 placed opposite me.

Flash felt intimidating to me for the longest time. But I persisted in watching tutorials online and reading manuals, and playing with light and reviewing the shots later to decide what worked and why. I can already tell you the next time I'll set my light panel diffusing the window light even further back so that I don't get the white shape that's visible in the shot above. In the meantime, I'm happy with how she gleams warmly in the light I used. Like she's waiting to be played....

Thanks for the ramble folks! I'm still swamped with editing but all is going well... hope you're all having a superb week!

Queens Park ~ Wide Angle Wednesday

"Light From On High"

(1/25 sec.@ F/3.5, ISO 640, 18mm fl, low light diffused, handheld)

Another post from the Doors Open TO Event. This is the Victorian style lightwell that shines down on the east wing of the Ontario Legislative Building at Queens Park. It was beautiful. It was regal. It was the only light source that made it possible to photograph the cavernous space full of tourists and photographers on Sunday. I'll say this for the rest of my life... interiors are very tricky.

Tripods were not allowed, and I cringed as I took each shot because with the surging crowds of visitors I had no chance to balance the camera on something like my kit bag or a railing to use a lower ISO and slower shutter speed, and no offence Nikon, but unless you're using a more expensive body, Nikon's higher ISO's (starting at 250) become very noisy/grainy. And the more I have to fix that in PSP, the less detailed it becomes. And that's working in Raw. Guess I'll see how she prints.

Knowing that my high ISO was going to cost me, I chose subjects that were fairly architectural with nice perspectives and interesting light. And in areas where I could lean against a pillar or railing for a few seconds to steady my shots since I had to be tripod-less. And I'm sure there's tons of similar shots being posted to flickr and such right this second, but I still needed to try my own approach to this anyways. If you don't shoot, you don't learn, and you don't improve. And trust me, I still have so much to improve!

Thanks for the ramble today folks! Hope you're all improving your craft too!

Have a super day gang! See you all tomorrow!

Any Opportunity ~ Mono Monday!

"BayFront Thaws"

(1/80sec. @ F/8, 23mm fl, ISO 160, 18-55mm kit lens, late evening light)

Ever feel driven? Have all consuming thoughts? Can't shake the urge?

Just can't help yourself?

That's me and photography. Next to serving God, and caring for my family, photography pretty much finds a way into everything I do or say. Just ask some of my closest friends. I eat, sleep, and breath it. I'm always looking for any opportunity to shoot. My eyes always scouting for fresh possible subjects every where I go. Watching the weather. Biding my time. Rearranging my day in order to include it (and sometimes that of my family, heh heh). Those who know me well understand that it just comes naturally.

The images today came from an opportunity to shoot with another local photographer whom I mentioned in my post last week. And it was an opportunity to photograph the sunset. And it was an opportunity to use the nice light to stretch my B&W skills once more. Low laying light is the optimal lighting for emphasizing texture, contrast, and shadow.

Hamilton's BayFront Park proved to be a good place for all of that.

"Spring Approaches the Bay"

(1/125 sec.@ F/8, ISO 100, 18mm fl, 18-55 kit lens, late evening light)

It was a wondrous evening. The light took it's time, the sun gently setting down onto the horizon. All the while, we wandered the park, finding ways to use the light. Being inspired. Making mental notes on where to return to... next time. There's always a return visit. Always.

Can't help it.

Thanks for letting me ramble. Have a good one folks!