Preparing

Yesterday my friend Deigh sent me a link to a website featuring long exposure, black and white photography.  He’s good at pointing me (and others) to places I would miss if left to my own devices.  I’m fairly sure that the opening image on the site, a shot from Iceland, was a lot of the incentive to share the site with me. He also knows that I love this type of image… glassy water surfaces, clouds in motion, high contrast.  Since we are on our way to Iceland soon I am trying to figure out what camera gear to take if my hopes, perhaps too high, are to come back with shots that show the stark beauty of Iceland that I’ve seen so many times in others’ photos.  It isn’t necessarily easy for me to reach these decisions.

Some thoughts so far:

• We will be day hiking anywhere from 2-8 hours.  My gear, including a small laptop, will be on my back.  Weight matters.
• We will be in Iceland in July when the sun stays out most of the day.  No northern lights this trip.
• We can expect wind.  Traditional advice is to take a heavy tripod if you want to get long exposure images.  I admit to being totally on the fence about what tripod to take but bought a little Siuri carbon fiber tripod and ball head with hopes that it will make do.  Initial tests say that I’m dreaming but I have not given up on it yet.
• Waterfalls everywhere.  My hope is to come back with image files that can be made into something other than postcards.  I’m operating on the assumption that we will be able to have time to actually linger at some locations rather than just hike through. I’m studying famous waterfalls in Iceland so I can be somewhat prepared for compositions that I can avoid due to their popularity (ease?). Time will tell.

The gear so far:

• D700 without the add-on battery pack.
• Nikon 28-300 f/3.5-5.6 lens (same one that went to India)
• Nikon 20 mm f/2.8 lens
• 2 and 3 stop graduated neutral density filters with 77mm adapter and holder
• 8 stop variable neutral density filter
• cable release
• diGPS camera unit
• CF cards (1-16 gb, 4 -8gb)
• Toshiba Ultrabook laptop with Lightroom 4
• Card reader
• 2 Western Digital Passport 500 gb external hard disks
• Siuri T1250SX carbon fiber tripod
• Siuri ballhead
• Lowepro Photo Sport 200AW back pack (love it)

My biggest concern is tripod stability and shake due to the anticipated winds and my generally crappy technique.  So I’m training myself to the degree that I can.  Today I ventured down to the Portland waterfront to see if I could get a sharp photo from the gear if I expose for 20-30 seconds or more.  Joints on the tripod tight?  Check.  Cable release? Check.  Mirror lock up?  Check.

It’s a start.  I’m thinking that another neutral density filter may be needed to get the real sense of cloud movement (and water) that I want.  My friend Eric uses a 10 stop filter to great effect.  The image from Iceland that Deigh pointed me to was made with a 13 stop neutral density filter in place.  Filters are light but not cheap.  I’ll keep experimenting and hope to land in Iceland with a lot more confidence than I have now.

Ahhh, Spring

Even though this has been one of the coolest and wettest Springs I can remember, our bleeding hearts are displaying like never before.  This annual rite of Spring is one that I anticipate each year and I enjoy watching the blossoms mature outside our dining area window.

This year’s first portraits were done the other day using the “field studio” approach that creates a pure white background and eliminates the need to cutout the flowers in order to composite the flowers with other subjects on white.  The shoot went well and the results were as anticipated.  I’m still trying to decide if I really like the pure white so I tinkered around a little to experiment with some other backgrounds.  The photo below uses a textured background in which the color and contrast has been adjusted to taste.

You can click on the image to get a larger view if you’re so inclined.

On white

You may have suspected that this would be coming.  We are preparing all the gear for a busy day tomorrow… granddaughter Gina’s lacrosse tournament tomorrow morning and a long anticipated yoga shoot with the Savonn at Sellwood Yoga tomorrow afternoon.  Since the equipment was out and available I thought I’d shoot a couple more blossoms on white to see if I can become more familiar with the technical parts of the setup.

I call this one “Who’s your daddy?”

Simple, sensual lines.  I like simple.

Have a great Easter!

 

Loving spring

Our shamrock is experiencing a phase of luxuriant growth and blossoming.  It has given me many hours of pondering, shooting and playing with the varied blossoms that pop up and which last about 1 – 1.5 weeks.  The other day I set the camera up and started it on the task of taking a photo every 15 seconds as a group of blooms opened up…. or were supposed to.  Turns out it was too cloudy and dull to really get the blossoms to expand as anticipated.  I took 2600 files and made a small movie.  If you’re interested you can find the 1.5 minute production here.  Be gentle with me, please…. I know it isn’t real exciting or necessarily well done.  Ya’ll know that I learn by doing…over and over and over it seems.

http://www.bpmphotography.com/Movies/Good-Morning/22272703_8dw7sB

I’ve been reading another book about nature photography and was impressed with the author’s presentation of blossoms against a white background.  My first thought was that he was cutting them out and compositing them in a Photoshop file.  Turns out that the “on white” product is actually done in the field and totally in-camera.  It’s all about a white background and light thereon.  I don’t have the plexiglass that he uses in the field but I can sure make a white background using a small softbox and a speedlight.  I’m pretty content with this collection of images of our shamrock.  A few technical issues but overall the technique will get used quite a bit as spring brings blossoms to the Cascades.  It will, won’t it?  Please!

Our bleeding hearts are getting ready for their annual posing session.  I’ve done black and green backgrounds in the past.  This year will see some white as well.

The gift

If you look at the previous post you may find a theme… be it flowers or friends. This post goes to a long-time friend in Walla Walla who years ago gave us some shamrock cuttings. Our shamrock has given us a lot of joy over the years and I thought that maybe we’d run out of luck when the plant just seemed to be waning… lacking spirit and vitality if you will. And then it started to recover. I thought it must be a seasonal thing. Unbeknownst to me Dianne had fertilized the house plants and the shamrock bounced back… vigorously. New leaves and flowers are abundant and the plant just seems to be really enjoying itself.

I had a recent email exchange with friend Deigh about stacking images to create a depth of field in a photo that can not be attained without some magic. Macro shots are noted for their shallow depth of field so it is hard to get a full blossom in focus. I’ve seen a lot of photos posted recently that I really like. They show flowers in full light and with great focus across the blossom which fades into a very blurry background and foreground. I’m just guessing that most of the images were made by stacking a sharp image with another copy that is blurred out and then masking out the flower so it shows as being sharp. However they do it I like the results. I set up my camera today and used the shamrock blossoms to test a composite image creation using layer blending in Photoshop. I’ve had good luck using this routine in the past and will continue to use it in lieu of software that is designed to do just this one thing… blend sharp parts of multiple images to form one image in which the sharpness is extended.

I loaded 13 images into Photoshop on our new PC and waited for the magic to happen. It did. My thanks to Stacia for the gift that keeps on giving. My thanks to Dianne for bringing this beautiful plant back to life so I could play among its blossoms.

Ballerina – oh my

This is likely to be a fairly long post so please hang in there.  The main story is about two ballerinas, Gavin and Nikki.  The nerdy substory is about the lessons we learned during the process of photographing these two wonderful dancers

We were given the opportunity to photograph Gavin Larsen, Prima Ballerina, at the Oregon Ballet Theater thanks to a friend who is painting her into a series of extraordinary oil paintings.  Gavin is one of these people who exudes kindness and grace.  She gave us a couple of hours of astonishing dance and poses and we did our best to light her and capture the dynamic grace and strength she controls.  We learned a lot.  We learned even more when we sat with Gavin a few months later to share tea and have her critique the entire set of images from the shoot.  Since it was our first time shooting a dancer of any sort our direction to Gavin was a simple “try to center on this spot and keep your face to the main light”.  She’s done this before and knew what we needed even if I didn’t.  It was a wonderful series of moves and poses, all of which looked good to me.  Gavin talked about her position to the camera, the camera position to her and distortions that were created by shooting from too high up.  We learned to understand the pose or move and when the peak occurs. Like I said, we learned a lot.  At the end of the critique session I asked Gavin to please let her students know that we would love the opportunity to implement our new knowledge while photographing them.  We didn’t wait too long before Gavin connected us to a young lady named Nikki.  After a few email exchanges we set a date and time to photograph Nikki. I’m serious when I say that I was very excited about the opportunity.  I love our images of Gavin and had high hopes that I could do Nikki’s talents justice.

We got to OBT after a rehearsal for Giselle, a ballet in which Nikki is performing currently.  She met us in the lobby and we began the set up.  This time I was determined to shoot from waist height, use a different lighting setup and to use a tripod to assure sharpness… or at least help.  We got set up in near record time and Nikki took the stage.  She needed portfolio shots to accompany audition packages she is submitting as she moves toward being a professional ballerina and all her poses for us were static.  The fact that she was not jumping, twirling and moving was a bonus for us and allowed her and Gavin to fine tune her posing as we shot.  Later in this post I’ll share my trials with shooting tethered to a laptop… great idea if I’d not had some technical issues.  More on that in a bit.

Please meet Nikki.  She is, like Gavin, quiet, confident and extremely talented.  We’d shoot and then examine the images to make any adjustments needed to the pose. I’m always amazed at how precise and deliberate a ballerina can be while performing in a position that requires great strength and flexibility.  To say I’m impressed is a huge understatement.  Please click on the images below to see them larger.

I’m thrilled with the images and Nikki has a collection that she is pleased with and can use to support her interviews.  Another great opportunity to provide a photographic product that matters to someone.  I still pinch myself that we got to photograph a talented lady like Nikki and we give her our most sincere thanks and best wishes for a wonderful future.

Now the nerdy, not-for-everyone story behind the images.  If you aren’t into digital cameras and computers and all the issues that they create at the worst possible moments then you can just move along… the rest of this is not for you.

Still here?  Welcome to my nerdy confession and public disclosure.  I’ll start by saying that if the images had not turned out well I’d never bring this up in public.  Since the images are, in my opinion, quite nice, I feel I can talk about the errors I made during the shoot.  It’s how I make sure they are ingrained in my head so I don’t repeat them.  Hopefully they will be of some use to others who may have an opportunity to shoot like we were.

The basic gear was a D700 camera and a 50mm f/1.4 lens tethered to a laptop computer running the beta version of Lightroom 4.  Tethering is possible in LR3 as well but I put LR4 on our new laptop so that was what was in place.  No problems at all making the tether work.  And then I took the first shot… SAY WHAT?  The image appeared on the screen as expected… mostly.  What I saw on the screen was about 60-70% of what I saw in the viewfinder.  My first reaction was that I had LR zoomed in on the image preview. That was not the case.  I began to sweat.  I shot several more images hoping that something magical would happen and all would be well.  It didn’t.  My next instinct was to change the lens so I put on the 70-200 and found that the lens was not the problem.. it just looked bigger. I unplugged the tether to see if that was a problem.  Nope. Dianne always encourages me to be quiet when I have problems while shooting for a client.  That’s darn good advice but I’m lousy at it.  I started to mutter but did not swear.  I called a break and walked to the side of the room to review the menus in the camera to see if I could find something that said “hey, look at this” and provide a cure.  It didn’t happen.  I was beginning to frame a way to tell Nikki how sorry I was but that we’d need to reschedule.  GULP.  That was when Dianne walked up and suggested that I use the backup camera (D200).  Did I ever tell you how smart she is?  Duh… have a backup but don’t think to use it?  Hmmmmm.  Thanks (again) Dianne.

We put the 50 mm lens on the D200, adjusted the settings and took a test shot.  All was well in the world again.  I took a couple more shots just to make sure I had a camera that would work as it should.  I began to calm down and Nikki smiled as we began to seriously take some photos of her.  I thanked her for her patience and she just smiled… “no problem” she says.  Whew.

So then I thought “why don’t we hook the tether to the laptop up to the D200 so we can review the images on a large screen rather than the little LCD on the camera.  Dianne goes to get the cable and hands it to me.  I realize that I need the little pigtail USB cord that is firmly attached to the D700 and enclosed in a bracket that allows the cable to move between the camera and tripod when it is mounted in vertical position.  I can’t get the USB cable out of the bracket without an Allen wrench to loosen the bracket.  The Allen wrench is at home.  I don’t have another mini-USB cable.  So we go back to shooting the old fashioned way but you know what…. we’re making images.  Gavin and Nikki are making adjustments to the poses and I’m content to sit there and take pictures until they are content with what they see on the LCD.  In one hour we are done and head for home.

Once I got home I sat down with the D700 to see if I could resolve the problem somehow.  I put a different memory card in and confirmed that there was still a problem.  The camera was only recording a part of the scene.  Then I realized that I’d been troubled by a small signal prior to the shoot that should have been enough clue to tell me that something was amiss.  I use a 16gb CF card most of the time and I’m used to seeing about 740 images available when the card is formatted and empty.  I was seeing 1300 images available.  I didn’t understand why but did not worry about it.  But the issue was that the camera has a menu setting that comes into play when a lens that is designed to be used on a camera with a crop sensor is in place on the camera.  When that happens the camera wants to adjust the active part of the sensor to record the image the DX lens sees.  I don’t expect you to fully appreciate this but the result was I could get more files on the memory card.. they just wouldn’t be the full image that I was seeing in the viewfinder.  Good grief.  The default setting in the camera is to turn the DX switch “on”.  I turned it back to “off” and a miracle happened.  I took a photo and all was well.  The file counter was back down to about 740. The full image was present.  It took all of 2 minutes to do this.  I sure wish that I’d had the awareness to connect the dots and make the correction while we were with Nikki and Gavin.

So, we have images that I can be proud of.  Nikki has her images and seems happy.  We walked away without sacrificing a session or a relationship.  As Joe McNally says, there is always something that will go wrong while shooting on assignment… it’s how we learn.  Consider me better educated.

Time on the river

Yesterday morning was spent on the Columbia River. Yesterday afternoon was spent with my good friend Connie. Both periods were well spent if you ask me.

I made a commitment to myself to slow down when taking photos and to try to be more deliberate in producing higher quality images more frequently. This is a stretch for me as many of you know. But, with the commitment in mind I’ve been studying the workflow of Vincent Versace who is a well known and respected fine art photographer. This guy is VERY deliberate in what he does with his photos while in the field and once he enters Photoshop. He’s not for everyone and I have a bit of a hard time not yelling at him “HURRY UP”. But the lessons, for me, were well placed and timed. You can get a taste of Versace by looking at his book “Welcome to Oz” if you are so inclined.

I balance Versace’s approach with Moose Peterson’s approach. Moose declares that he doesn’t want to spend more than 4 minutes on an image and purports to exercise more care while shooting to “get it right in the camera”. Well, there’s something to be said for that and I want to get better at the moment of capture. Back to the “slow down” approach.

I have a keen interest in the variety of rows of pilings that jut out into the Columbia River between Corbett and Cascade Locks. I still don’t know the history of these features but I do know that they intrigue me. One set near Corbett offers a background on the Washington side that is (a) not cluttered with houses or factories and (b) has a nice unifrom row of alders growing along the bank. Someday I hope to capture a scene where the tree line is lit brightly and the sky is filled with dark storm clouds to the north. I keep waiting.

Part of my plan to get pictures of the pilings and alders involves having the river be in a calm state. That means little or no wind. It also means no boats creating wakes. In the Gorge both of these conditions are fleeting. I had been watching the weather and knew that yesterday had a good chance of being calm in the early hours. It was worth a chance to get up early and get out there.

My main goal was to get a shot of the row of pilings extending toward the far shore from the south (Oregon) bank. I parked at the Corbett off ramp and walked toward the river. A low cloud at the east end of the Gorge caught my eye. I saw a few posts and pilings that I thought could make a nice composition. I walked down the closed road trying to get as close to the river as I could before entering the field of loose rocks and black berry bushes. Let me tell you that those rocks were SLICK. It took me a good while to walk back downstream to get the pilings/posts in the frame. No falls but amazingly tricky walking. The rocks were like ice.

Tech details: Nikon D700, 16-35mm lens at 16mm, 3 stop ND grad filter, 8 stop ND filter, 30 seconds at f/22, ISO 100. 14 bit capture, uncompressed NEF. Processed in Lightroom 3 and Photoshop using Color Efex Pro and Topaz BW plugins.

If you click on the images you’ll get an expanded view.

After making my way back to the interstate highway I walked the short distance to the row of pilings that was my original target of the day. I’d been in here before and was not looking forward to the beating the blackberries were going to give me. I kept looking for a spot to drop down to the river that was not a 10 foot vertical wall and that offered the least berry vines to contend with. A miracle happened. When I got to the point where the row of pilings was just below me I saw fresh churned dirt and what looked like a small debris flow heading right down the shortest path to where I wanted to be. Turns out that ODOT had been in there with a machine to open a drain. The result was as easy an approach that anyone could ask for. No berries. No slick rocks. Made me want to whistle as I walked.

Once I got to the flat at the river I started trying to find compositions that worked. I tried several from the upstream/up-light side of the row of pilings. As I shot I kept noticing that the sky and clouds were developing nicely. The shot quickly became one of the clouds more than the pilings. I moved to the downstream side of the pilings and found a foreground feature to put in the frame. Again, this was shot with the same gear listed above but this is a 5 shot HDR set processed in Photomatix before going into Photoshop.

I really enjoy the clouds and reflections in both of these images. I’ll say thank you to Vincent Versace for reminding me that treatment within an image can be very tightly controlled and does not need to apply globally to the image. Effects created by a variety of plugins can be tuned and masked to emphasize those elements of an image that are the most important to the photographer. I spent about 2 hours on each of these images… sorry Moose.

A tugboat came upriver and spoiled any more shooting of the calm river. Wake waves set up and persisted long enough to frustrate me. When I realized that I was both frustrated and cold I gave myself a little talking to and headed back to the car and the thermos of coffee. It’s always good to return to your car and see that all the windows are in place. I celebrated with a quick camera review of the images as the car warmed up. Then I headed for Multnomah Falls… an icon for sure and a scene I never really tire of photographing even though it is so overly photographed by the millions of tourists who pull in to view it. It is an amazing waterfall.

Same camera gear but without the split ND grad filter. This is a 5 image HDR shot processed in Photomatix. Perhaps the blurry leaves in the foreground give away that the exposures were long and the wind had started to come up. A bit of rain fell as I started to leave to meet Connie.

I drove over to Estacada via my old stomping grounds near Bull Run. It had been a long time since I’d been on the Sandy River in the Aims area and I enjoyed the drive filled with memories of bike rides with Dianne and our boys. The hills are a lot easier in a car than they were on the tandem. I got to Estacada in time to wander around a bit before meeting Connie at the Spiral Gallery in which she displays her art and works part time. We had arranged to meet for lunch and catch up conversation…. always a treat when I can get her time. I now own another Athman original painting. The first one, Bull Run Lake and Mt. Hood, was given to me by Connie as a retirement gift. The one I procured yesterday started as one of my photographs of Sandhill Cranes lifting off during a Bosque del Apache sunrise. The scene is now a wonderful watercolor that is hanging directly over my keyboard as I type.

What a treat. A day out where I had time and inclination to better my approach to photography and to visit with a close friend who creates wonderful art. Life is rich.

Citrus

I am going to participate in a “macro photo” shoot at a local club tonight.  It’s nothing real special… just a chance to get together and do some shooting with some friends.  All of us will use a macro lens of one sort or another.  To prepare for the shoot I started thinking about a way to add a bit of novelty to the shoot.   We meet in a fairly dark restaurant that is closed to the public and I do not expect a lot of light to be hanging around just to be used for our subjects.  I wondered about using the iPad and iPhone as a light source since they will be with me anyway.  I downloaded a couple of apps and set out to experiment.

To create this shot I bought some citrus and sliced them apart to get fairly thin slices.  I laid the slices on top of the iPad and used a flashlight app that allows me to change the color of the background light source.  I suspected that I wanted a background color that would contrast with the warmer colors of the fruit so I dialed in what I think of as blue.  I put the camera on a tripod and exposed for daylight.  First shot reminded me that the glossy surface of the iPad   created all sorts of reflections of anything above the camera.  Putting a piece of black foam core board above the camera eliminated the chaff.  I tried several different colors of background but like this one best.

And, yes, I ate the fruit when done.  I also decided to NOT do this at the club meeting tonight but I will be using the iPad and iPhone as light sources for what I do shoot.  Stay tuned.

Hobby? Not hardly

Our friends Steve and Suzanne hosted Dianne and me at their home for a couple of days recently.  I’d talked to Steve about wanting to experiment with “light painting” photography and how I thought his model railroad cars and collection would be a great subject to experiment on as I learned.  Steve and Suzanne say that they enjoy our company so they agreed to a visit with the purpose of playing with some trains and light.  We always enjoy stopping or staying at their home as we migrate to Bozeman to see our family and we knew that Steve and Suzanne would have everything organized for our visit.  They certainly did not disappoint… great food, good conversations, laughs, a tour of the McNary Wildlife Refuge where Steve volunteers and, of course, trains.

Steve and I started out by reviewing Dave Black’s training videos about light painting on the Kelby training website.  This gave Steve a lot better idea about what was to come and reminded me of several things about the process.  We set up our first “hero” engine and car and added a couple of relevant books (his collection of “things train” is comprehensive) and an original switch lantern.  Much to the surprise of our wives we closed the office door and turned off the room lights and turned on a couple of snooted flashlights.  We shot tethered to our laptop using LR4 beta and enjoyed the speed with which you can see a large image appear after the exposure.  We painted for 30 seconds and split the duties with our lights.  Let’s say that we learned a lot the first night.

The image above is obviously using a background made in Photoshop.  The table top was black and there were bookcases and display cases on the wall behind the engine.  We did our best to black them out and avoid painting light on the walls but the light seems to have a mind of its own and we got some light pollution scattered on the background.  I thought it was easier to just cut the train and books out.  I’m not sure that this is a good background but it was a quick solution to the problem.

The next night we used a different hero engine and car along with a new prop to round out the scene.  The original Great Northern lantern appears again.

This time the background is pretty “natural” since we were more successful in keeping light off the walls.  I did paint out the gray table top.  I think we did better at painting the train to show some differential lighting to add some dimension to the body of the engine and cars.  These are pretty linear subjects and trying to add a third dimension with light is probably trickier than I am skilled.  Overall I enjoy this image a bit more than the one from the day before.

As we were getting ready to call it a wrap Dianne and Suzanne joined in the fun.  We did a few more shots of this setup and then switched over to “Brownie”… a doll that Suzanne had bought for Steve some years earlier.  The ladies posed Brownie and I painted him up over another 30 second exposure.  With a flashlight you can sure direct light under the hat brim and still create shadows and highlights to model the face.  I painted the face too flatly I think but it was fun to swing the light around and try to create three dimensional light on the doll.  Again, I learned a lot and will continue to experiment with other sets.

We had a great time with our friends and hope that we did not overstay our welcome.  We want to go back another time and hope that they can visit us in Portland soon as well. Friendships are dear things that mature well in most cases… this one sure has.  Thanks Steve and Suzanne.

Hooded Mergansers and Lightroom 4 beta

This is not a great picture but it was nice to actually get some images of hooded mergansers on my hard disk the other day.  I shot this in bright near-noon sun at Ridgefield NWR.  The birds were moving fast and the opening in which they were located was pretty small.  I jumped to the other side of the car and shot as they traveled across the opening.  When I loaded the files into LR3 (my normal practice) I was disappointed to find that the white breast on the male was blown out and that it could not be recovered with the recovery slider.  Bye bye whites!  Drat.

I have downloaded the beta version of LR4 and am running it on a laptop with Windows 7.  In order to upgrade to LR4 once it is available I’m going to have to look at replacing the operating system on my PC – move from XP to Win7 – or move to another machine totally.  Time for a 27″ iMac?  Hmmmm.

Anyway, I brought one image into LR4 to see how it did with the whites.  I’ve heard great things about the LR4 beta and it represents a total redo of the RAW conversion we know now in LR3 or ACR.  With a small decrease in exposure and a small tweak of the Highlights slider, the blownout whites disappeared from the histogram.  Now, the breast of the bird still looks absolutely blown out to me but the histogram says that the whites are now less than 255.  Frankly, I was amazed at how little adjustment it took to recover the bright part of the histogram and look forward to experimenting more with LR4.  I won’t do too much in the beta except play around but it sure looks like a promising upgrade so far.