Lincoln Memorial 2010

Due to an impending move, I haven't had time to post, let alone move the blog over to wordpress.  However, I did manage to get around DC one afternoon with my brother and sister and happened on these two kids reading at the memorial.  They were like statues.  Even after taking several frames, neither moved.

The point of the post is revisit your favorite places once in a while.  Opportunities are always present!

Canon G11, ISO 100, 1/80@f8

Firewood, Ento'to Mountain 2010

I really like both of these images.  Why one is in color and the other in black and white?  They both intimate something different to the viewer. Both are environmental portraits, however the top image speaks more to the environment of the subject and the world she lives in while the second frame is more about their faces.  The magnitude of the weight of the burden is very apparent from the top photo while the second leaves the viewer unaware of the mass the two are shouldering, save for the slim cotton straps around the shoulders of the woman in the foreground.    The first image also shows where the woman is - walking downhill on an asphalted road, shared by vehicular traffic (my hired taxi in the background).

Both frames evoke a different mood.  While the woman in the first frame is smiling, I asked her how heavy the wood and leaves were.  She guessed 70 kilos (approx 160lbs) and I think I winced.  She was smiling, likely only in anticipation that I would make a good picture in exchange for payment.  Listening to their slapping feet along the pavement told me just how grueling the daily ritual was for them.  I usually try to shoot at eye level or below because I believe shooting above a person reduces their dignity that is palatable to the viewer.  However, in the second frame, that size difference between me and the women gives the viewer a sense of mass they carry.   Note how she is weighting herself on the walking stick above and in the first frame, the frayed ends.

Why I chose color for the first and monochromatic for the second?  Maybe it was the way the colors jumped at me the first time and maybe it was the way the faces spoke to me in a very direct way for the second.  The bottom line is, it's just how I felt at the time of exposure.

Canon G11, ISO 200, 1/80@f8 (both images)

Ento'to Mountain, Addis Ababa 2010

I made this image while on a quick, self-guided tour through an old church and palace.  At the time, this was one of those shots where I set the camera, brought it up to my eye and pressed the shutter - no bracketing, no adjusting the frame, just this one.  

As I sit in Frankfurt during a long layover, I realized some quick Lighroom adjustments that yielded a tone-rich scene that I hadn't attempted before.  By default, LR makes auto brightness and contrast adjustments (50% and 25% respectively) to every image.  This is bad.  Any automatic algorithms a software program makes to images deprives the creator of personal control.  Set them to zero.  The only way I found to make this a default setting is to add it as a preset in the left-hand frame in the Develop module.  Then, during import, this preset can be applied to all images as they are rendered into the library.

Next, with the brightness and contrast subdued, I boosted the Clarity slider to 100% and found the result was a deep black in the window frame while leaving smooth mid-to-light gray tones in the background of the stone wall and thatch-roofed house.  The clarity adjustment was followed by a slight increase in sharpness (the new Adobe Camera Raw 6 is amazing and sharpens as good as, if not better than using the Photoshop High Pass method - it can be downloaded as a LR plugin and works fine - however, Raw 6 will NOT work in Photoshop versions prior to CS5).

Finally, I applied a preset I made that warms black and white images (Hue 61, Saturation 3) without looking too sepia.

That's it.  

Canon G11, ISO 200, 1/200@f5.6

Note to Self 2010

We had the pleasure of listening to a superb jazz trio yesterday at our friends' house.  I didn't  spend too much time shooting but felt a couple of images from the set were worthy of a post.  These two illustrate that a tight crop (in-camera, not in post-processing) can make all the difference in balance and structure.  While both work, I prefer the second because of the position of the musicians relative to one another (inverted triangle/rule of thirds).  The three also are in a more pensive state in the bottom frame, giving more of a sense of concentration.  However, the second shot deserves additional curves processing to bring out additional contrast whereas the first frame is about right.  When converting these to black and white, I realized I liked the softness of the high ISO noise with the G11 - instead of blotchy noise, it appears as fine film grain.  A slight increase in yellow split-tone provided warmth.

Canon G11, ISO 1600, 1/160@f8

Morro de São Paulo 2008

A quick post and short point - when I shot a series of images of these kids leaping off a dock in Morro de Sao Paulo, Brazil, I was equipped only with a 50mm prime lens, a favorite.  In order to get the narrow field of view I wanted, I waded up to my neck and contend with an occasional wave and splashing.  Those issues limited how close I could get to the action.  While several shots resulted in great images, I revisited these and found this scene worthy of a tighter crop to emphasize the action and simplify the main elements.  The cropped image has a stronger graphical quality than the original which shows the entire dock and several other individuals that distract from the two boys here.  So the point is this - cropping is not necessarily bad when limited by the distance to the subject or the focal length of the lens.  Furthermore, revisiting older photos and studying various crops can strengthen a sense of space and composition for future shots… and remind one to bring other lenses!

Canon 20D, ISO 400, 1/250@F16; cropped approximately 60% of original

Silver Birch, Balancing Rock Trail, Nova Scotia 2009

Nova Scotia is pristine. A bit on the lonely side but still relatively unscathed by rampant tourists. There's no Wally World or Yosemite Valley.  It's difficult to get there and not exactly cheap if using the catamaran ferry to save an extra days' drive. Nevertheless, if you want to really get away from everything and see unobstructed views of the North Atlantic or Bay of Fundy, sinewing farmland or dozens of small coves, it is the place to visit at least once (and then you'll plan a return).

Along the Evangeline Trail, aka the two-lane highway 217 to Tiverton, a great stop is the easy one-mile trail to St. Mary's Bay and Balancing Rock.  The trail is well-maintained and it's rustic, wooded feel eases the senses with quiet hemlocks and occasional silver birches.  Rounding one of the last corners along the descent to the bay, I encountered this lone birch at the corner of stairs and it was glowing silver.

What frustrated me to no end was knowing that my 20D could not come close to capturing the resolution and smooth tones of a view camera, yet here, I felt like I achieved the right exposure and had the visualization for what the final black and white image should look like. The three images show the original, sharpened, and dodged and burned final result.  The first of the two b/w shots, immediately to the left, is flat - there's too much grey across the frame. By using feathered brushes and low opacities, the birch, stairs and ferns were sculpted with different brightness values to give it the silver shimmer expected.  I decided to burn the lanky trunks behind the birch and to either side of the bottom end of the stairs to draw the eye in.  We are attracted to contrast and light areas surrounded by dark tones bring the eye along.  For me, the birch is immediate because of the silvery tones along the trunk.  Then the stairs wind along the middle left of the frame and to…. who knows.  The bay?  You'll have to go there to discover it for yourself.  I am very satisfied with this capture, which as my friends and family will confirm, is rare.

There's a point to this. From the original capture to the final result, a great photo is possible if you know how a camera's sensor behaves and study some basic photographic concepts.  Ansel Adams' Zone System still applies when dodging and burning digitally or mastering curves/levels. Given the 20D's 8.2MP resolution, most point-and-shoot models are far superior (given a good sensor, like the Canon G-series) than that SLR.

Anyone can make this type of an image.  Now go do it!

Canon 20D, ISO 400, 1/30@f7.1.