314 images

A lawyer friend of mine, Michael Hodson, is taking a year off and traveling the world. All the way around it. "One lap, no jet lag," he says. Two conditions apply: no air travel and no advance reservations. I've been watching his blog a little bit, and there was a great article about him in yesterday's Morning News. Check him out here.

Our little wine club gathered last night (Friday) to sample offerings from Washington state. It's hard to believe we haven't had Washington as a theme in the several years we've been doing this. We (Julie and I) were struggling for a theme. Julie suggested Washington, and it didn't disappoint!

Here's the recap (in order served):

1. Chateau St. Michelle 2006 Horse Heaven Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc from the Horse Heaven Hills appellation (courtesy of Will and Liz);

2. Chateau St. Michelle 2006 Canoe Ridge Estate Chardonnay also from the Horse Heaven Hills appellation (courtesy of Jeff and Cynthia);

3. Northstar Winery 2004 Stella Maris Columbia Valley Red Wine (courtesy of Nick and Tamara);

4. Columbia Crest 2005 Horse Heaven Hills Reserve Syrah (courtesy of Paul and Sherry);

5. Col Solare 1999 Columbia Valley Meritage (a magnum, courtesy of Chad and Sara);

6. Spring Valley Vineyard 2004 Walla Walla Syrah "Nina Lee" (courtesy of Brian and Julie); and

7. Chateau St. Michelle Ethos 2006 Columbia Valley Late Harvest White Riesling (courtesy of Chad and Sara).

The brisk autumn evening was no match for the warmth of good food, good friends and good wine.

Like most of you, I have a handful of websites I look at regularly. Here's a few that I've been watching recently, in addition to the usual litany.

Zack Arias (who I propped here);

Joe McNally (enough said); and

a new local acquaintance, Bob Shull.

This is the front of the rocks in the foreground of the picture in the More Tanyard post.

EXIF:

Sigma 10-20 at 18mm
f/5.6
1/25th sec
-.7 EV

I'm about over the cloudy white balance + negative EV setting that I've been using to compensate for the way the D80 meters. I'm always adding it back in when I do the RAW conversion. What's the point? I've gotten to where I just use center-weighted metering, particularly in manual mode.

The obligatory skyline shot from our recent trip to Chicago. Click on the image for larger view.

I really wanted to get down here with a tripod and do a bona fide 5 or 6 frame panoramic. I didn't even put the head on my tripod the entire time we were there. I guess I lucked out on the clouds--the rain was just moving in from the west so I had some good clouds to mess with. We had a few minutes before our bus was set to leave, so I just capped off my 18-135mm walk-around lens with a circular polarizer and headed down to the water.

I've been wanting to do a black and white study of the rock at the top of the waterfall at the Tanyard Creek nature trail. I took several different shots with a couple of different lenses, but I could never really get comfortable with a composition. (Oh yeah. That "stop sign" at the overlook station at the top of the trail? Ignore that. I do.) The rocks are really pretty cool, and it's one of the few times when you'd like a little more daylight to promote some natural contrast. But the sun was just coming up and the fog beginning to lift, so there wasn't really enough contrast.

So I piddlied a little bit and then took this shot, looking down at the rocks. I don't shoot enough shots with my Sigma 10-20mm lens--it's a fantastic piece of glass. This shot is at 10mm (15mm on a full-frame camera), and that's freaky wide; I kept having to move my feet out of the bottom of the shot. I love the exposure on this shot--other than a levels adjustment layer, there's nothing else done to this shot. I may need to punch up the rocks a little just to make them pop a little bit. If you've been out there, you know there's a pretty good elevation change from the foreground to the background that's not really conveyed in the photograph.

But Julie likes it. That's gotta count for something.

EXIF is a little goofy. Out of the camera, it's ISO 400, f11 for 1/20th of a second, and -2/3 EV. A lot of times I'll set the white balance for cloudy and then dial in -0.3 to -.07 exposure compensation to make up for my camera's meter, which tends to try to save the highlights. I shot this in RAW and then added back in about 1/3 of a stop of the the exposure compensation back in. So, there's a little negative EV in here, but not much. I think it helps keep the fog in play.

Saturday morning was foggy. I woke up early, and thought about heading over to the White River. After getting to Lee Town Road in Pea Ridge and realizing I would lose the light before I got there, I turned around and took a leisurely drive back through Price Coffee and Ford Springs Roads, and went to the Tanyard Creek nature trail. I ignore the signs and actually get out into the falls. There was a fair amount of fog shifting around, and I took a lot of shots, experimenting with differing ISO settings and shutter speed settings. I used what Bryan Peterson would call a "who cares" aperture of f11, and ultimately settled on this version. Too slow of a shutter speed tended to lose the detail in the foreground water; too fast tended to lose the silky effect. One thing to note is that your shutter speed will vary the effect across the depth of field. In other words, a slow shutter speed will blur foreground motion more than something further back in the frame, at least with running water.

I don't have a good neutral density filter. But I do have a good circular polarizer, so I popped that baby on and used it to help me extend the shutter speed without burning out the exposure. It was pretty dark, though, and I probably could have done without it. Get out and shoot.

EXIF info: Nikon D80 + 18-135 @80mm, ISO 100, f11, .40 sec

UPDATE: Here's a second
picture from the same shoot:

EXIF data: Same camera and lens, at 75mm, f11 for 1 second.

The first shot is converted to black and white using channel mixer. The second was converted using a gradient map adjustment layer over a levels adjustment layer, and then adjusting the individual red, blue and green historgrams in the levels layer. If you don't have the full version of Photoshop or don't have a channel mixer plug-in, this second method is a great way to exercise a lot of control over black and white conversions.

A few of you have asked me about Hollywood Park. Honestly, I think there's more to it than where I shot, but here is a shot of the 3 turrets I referred to in the Zoom Zoom post. I dodged and burned a little, and a little too much at that. One of these days I'll get better at that, but for this particular post it's not that important. This was shot with a Sigma 10-20 super wide angle lens. Oh yeah--if your subject is a turret, and it has a pointy top to it, don't cut off the top of it. This is the only one of the pictures of the 3 structures together that I kept, so I'll have to go back and do it again.

I mentioned that the Zoom Zoom picture was one of several. See the little windows in the turrets? There are little faces in there. I shot 3--here's a triptych.

The middle face is in the Zoom Zoom post. I think my dodging and burning is much better on these, but that may change--I haven't sharpened these yet. Converted to black and white using channel mixer. And actually, I'm going to crop #1 and #3 much closer to resemble the middle picture. I smell 16x20 on foamboard.

After seeing a picture in the Capture Arkansas project, I made a venture to Hollywood Park in Hot Springs. It's about halfway between Oaklawn and Hot Springs Country Club, in what seems to be a bit of a shady part of town. There are three odd turret-like structures made out of natural stone (I'll post a picture later); two of them have little "windows" in them, and in those windows are these little bas relief faces. Odd faces. Spooky little faces.

Anyway, I decided to try a zoom lens trick where you open the shutter and then zoom the lens before the shutter closes. I took over 30 shots, alternating between starting wide and zooming in, starting close in and zooming out, switching lenses, changing exposures, etc. I started with my super-ultra-wide Sigma 10-20 and learned that you don't get much action over 10mm, so I switched to my 18-135 and found that this worked better. Apparently, telephoto to wide is the way to go, although I'm not sure that's what I actually did on this shot. I was aiming to get something supernatural. I think I got close. I've got a few more that I'll post in an update later this week.

EXIF Data: D80 at ISO 100, f/16 for .60 sec., focal length variable.

I am starting to warm up to the idea of just getting out and shooting. Sunday, I took Hadley and Annalee to the park and I was determined to shoot something. Anything other than kids on swings and slides.

This picture is of a side-by-side slide, converted to black and white, and very little else. One thing I did notice is that, although this was shot at f8, the focus is not sharp from the front of the slide to the back. Why? I suspect the compression from the zoom lens was the culprit. Lesson 1: There's this thing called a LCD screen--use it and zoom in to check sharpness every once in a while.

EXIF data:

Nikon D80 + 70-300 VR at 300mm
ISO 100
f8 at 1/320

This shot was inspired by those pictures you see from the desert southwest. You know, somebody has crawled down in one of those wind-blown, striated rock formations and taken a picture that looks like one of Saturn's rings on acid. It's a close up of a plastic rock wall-looking thing near the slide shown above. Not a whole lot was done to this in post--simple black and white conversion using channel mixer, minor curves adjustment, unsharp mask, and some selective dodging and burning to accentuate the curves (guys like that sort of thing, you know). I dig the potential of this one, and I'll go back with the tripod and get a sharper capture.

Nikon D80 + 70-300 VR at 122mm
ISO 100
f9 at 1/100

Lesson #2 (and this applies to both shots). Both of these shots were taken in a small park in bright sunlight at a little after noon, hopelessly poor light for shooting many things. But remember, black and white is about contrast--whites, blacks and many shades of gray. Mid-day light is harsh because of the shadows it makes, and shadows makes for good contrast in a black and white photograph. This one needs more black, but you get the idea.

Update: As of August 19th (5 days left to submit), Boy Fishing is up to 83 votes (thank you Brandie and Shane for letting me post the photograph) and Hitching a Ride is up to 37 in its 8th day of being posted. I Am Sorry picked up 6 today.

There are about 11 days left in the Capture Arkansas project. Tons of photographs have been submitted for this project, and a great number of them are excellent. I have submitted 10 photographs (well 9 actually because one somehow got posted twice). The picture of Beck Perry fishing has picked up nearly 75 votes to lead my little pic pack. I'm thrilled--that's one of my favorites. The hitch-hiking grasshopper has picked up over a dozen votes since I posted it Monday. Everything else runs the gamut in a surprising way. A couple of the pictures that I think are interesting have fewer than 10 votes. The Cooper Chapel picture has some fundamental flaws, but it's second or third in my vote count. One Tree Hill has 7 votes, but was warmly received at Nikonians. Nice little marketing test.

I want to thank Dalas for making me aware of Capture Arkansas in the first place. I also want to thank those of you who have voted for my stuff. Go check out the site if you haven't--it's a great pictorial of our state.

I was hauling off some weeds and yard stuff out to our little nature dump yesterday. Driving through chest-high grass, this grasshopper decided to hitch a ride. On Saturday, I had put my camera in the truck and left it--just the camera and 18-135mm kit lens. I didn't have my full bag, so this was a lesson in getting a shot with what you have on hand (I would have loved to have used my 70-300 VR to get in closer). Even though this shot is at f5.6, the close-in range lets the compression do its job and limit the depth of field.

I struggled with the crop. I really wanted to leave this guy some space to jump, sort of a kinetic composition. Then I had the unintended reflection that I really felt made the shot unique. Then a little bit of the Rule of Thirds. Then there's my tendency to compose on the right side. Were it not for the reflection, I would have probably put him in the bottom right hand corner and brought in a lot of the out-of-focus green background to give him a grassy place to jump. But I like the reflection, and it just worked out to where I could get him in the top right third of the frame and still convey (I think) some space for him to jump (which he did when I tried to move in for a closer shot.)

EXIF information:

D80+18-135 lens at 135mm
ISO 100
f5.6
1/160 second
aperture priority mode

If you're curious as to how your photographs stack up to the rest of the people out there, go check out the Strobist Flickr group. I've learned a lot from this group, and it's just flat out amazing how many pictures get posted per hour on this group.

Lots to learn.

These chairs are two of several that sit on the front porch of the Buckstaff Bath House in Hot Springs. This was taken the morning of July 4, 2008. Camera on tripod. SB-600 Speedlight is sitting on the window ledge, out of frame camera right, bounced into the awning and triggered by on-camera flash in commander mode (i.e. Nikon's CLS).

Nikon D80
Sigma 10-20 at 14 mm
Manual exposure (f11 at 1/3 sec)
ISO 100

I love barbecue. I also enjoy Hot Springs, home of McClard's. We go there several times each summer, hang out at the lake house, cruise Lake Hamilton, eat at Belle Arti and Italian Villa. I'm embarrassed to say I've never eaten at McClard's, despite the constant urging of Teresa Rich (Judge Duncan's case coordinator).

I've gotten in the habit of driving around Hot Springs early in the morning. It's gotten to be pretty crowded at other times. I go downtown and look for photographs. Last week, I thought it would be cool to shoot the McClard's building for Teresa. So, at 6:45-ish on the morning of July 4th, I set up my tripod and wide-angle lens outside of McClard's to take the shot. Now, etiquette (if not the law and ethics) probably requires permission of the owner, but, the only person in sight was some guy blowing off the parking lot. He didn't look like English was his primary language. I waved, he smiled and nodded. I started dialing in the exposure when this obviously English-speaking guy comes out with an apron on and cautiously approaches me. I walked over and introduced myself to Mr. McClard (as it turns out). He very kindly invited me inside to view the pit. I met his wife, who was finishing up something to eat, and remarked that they had been there since 2:30 a.m. I got a tour of the pit and the kitchen, where many gallons of barbecue sauce were being prepared. Not much to it, but then again, you shouldn't over-complicate cooking barbecue (my opinion). Mr. McClard told me that the 4th was their busiest day, so after a little further chit-chat, I decided to get out of their hair, even though I really wanted to stay and shoot. A free bottle of sauce and a can of spices and I was out the door.

How does this relate to photography? First, there's the old saying about using the right tool for the job. Outside, I used my Sigma 10-20 extreme wide-angle lens. This was planned. When I was asked inside, I decided to leave the bag in the truck and take my 18-135. Good focal length, but slowwww inside (3.5-5.6). My fastest lens is my 50mm 1.8 and I should have taken it. Off-camera flash? Would have been good, but I didn't have the presence of mind to quickly set up the CLS. The lesson? Opportunity will knock, and when it does, get your head on, and make the most of what you have, both equipment and knowledge. Where was it I read, "Don't assume you'll get a second chance to take the shot."

Oh yeah. Why is this post entitled "Tradition"? On the 4th of July, we always had barbecue from Jones Bros. of Marianna (something of a family staple) and my dad's homemade ice cream. So, barbecue on the 4th is tradition, even if I can't quite make myself carry it on without him. Sorry, dad--best I can make myself manage.

Hokay.

I'm not a big Don Imus fan. Everyone knows what he said about the Rutgers women's basketball team, and to say that on the air was, well, inexcusable. Racist? I don't know about that. I think it was slang more than anything, but probably not exactly the type of slang Imus would use in polite conversation, and certainly not the type of pronouncement to make to a national radio audience, where, perhaps, a greater level of ~~sensitivity~~ awareness is warranted. Imus was crucified by many, especially Al Sharpton, and was fired by CBS. Right result.

Imus was criticized yesterday for asking about the race of Pacman Jones during a conversation in which Pacman's various nightclub arrests were discussed. Imus asked what color Pacman was (and you have to assume he already knew the answer). When told that Pacman is African-American, Imus responded, "Well, there you go." Imus later explained he was sarcastically trying to point out that Pacman was being racially profiled. Sharpton was skeptical. Pacman said he'd pray for Imus.

Then, a few months ago, The Golf Channel's Kelly Tilghman and Nick Faldo were talking about Tiger Woods' dominance. Faldo suggested that the only way the other Tour players had a chance to beat Tiger was to gang up on him. Taking that comment to its expected conclusion, Kelly piped in with "take him out and lynch him." Laughter. Sharpton went nuts, calling for Kelly's ouster. Kelly called Tiger and apologized. Tiger accepted. Tiger's agent blew it off. The Golf Channel first indicated that it would do nothing, then, after considering Sharpton's "entreaties," it suspended Kelly for two weeks. Shame.

Another recent ethnic/racial controversy arose during Sunday's fourth round of the men's U.S. Open golf tournament. As many of you now know, the tournament came down to a 19-hole playoff on Monday between Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate (an Italian-American from Pennsylvania). Johnny Miller, a golf commentator known for saying what's on his mind (and a former U.S. Open champion), said that Rocco looks like the guy who cleans Tiger's swimming pool, and "guys with the name 'Rocco' don't get on the trophy." Miller later explained that he was referring to Rocco's "everyman" qualities. Poor judgment/choice of words? Sure. Rather like your preacher swearing during the sermon (think "Dammit, Moses." or something like that). As far as I know, Johnny still has a job. Sharpton has been absent, I guess because non-nappy Italian-Americans either are fair game, or can fend for themselves. (For the record, I like Tiger because of his amazing talent, but I really was pulling for Rocco-what a great guy.)

Can you rank the racists. Discuss what you want. It's a trick question. Sort of.

I haven't posted a photograph in a month. What the hell?

If things seem a little disjointed, fear not--your eyes are fine (yours too, Hamilton). I'm messing around with the layout, and learning a little HTML as I go. Being the famous tinkerer that I am, I'll have it all screwed up in no time

After ~~years~~ months of ~~hounding~~ cajoling me to get back in shape, I think Julie finally pushed the right button. For Father's Day, she and Hadley got me a gift certificate to Rush Running Co., a new store in town owned and operated by Mike Rush and his wife, Allison (I think I have the names right, but I'm going from memory).

Like many places these days (golf stores being a good example), at Rush Running, you get custom fit for your shoe type. I am not a runner. But, I have owned running shoes, and I have long lamented how poorly they fit me and how my feet and legs ache after only a couple of hours. Turns out, not all running shoes are the same. The different types of support are for the different ways in which people's feet rotate during the stride. Mine happen to turn a little, so I need a mid-support shoe, something Mike immediately noticed on my test run through the parking lot.

Out come the shoes. Mike made me try different shoes on different feet and run through the parking lot to feel the difference. Ultimately, I chose the adidas Supernova Sequence (not to be confused with the adidas Supernova 7 worn by my foot-fitted wife--how sad we wear the same line of shoe!) and I have to say-WOW! What a difference.

Then I dutifully went on a run Saturday morning. Sunday, I was sore all over. Today it's raining, so I doubt I'll run. But at least I have a good excuse not to do so.

Update: It stopped raining, and I went for a late night run, equipped with better earphones for the Zen. I hate distance running, so music is a must, and headphones are, therefore, indispensable. Didn't do quite as much as Saturday, but worked on technique. My lungs are pissed.

Happy Day!

I have been itching to put together a respectable off-camera lighting kit on the cheap. A few more speedlights, a few shoot through umbrellas, stands, clamps, gels, etc. Nothing huge, just enough to do some respectable protraiture, particularly in the stock markets.

The one stumbling block has been radio slaves. You have to have a transmitter/transceiver for your camera, and a receiver/transceiver for each strobe. Pocket Wizards are the leading candidate, but cost-inhibitive at $180 a pop. Great if you're a pro. The other alternative has been these cheap little units put out by Gadget Infinity, loosely called "eBay triggers" because that's where you get them. I think there's one or two in between (Skyports, I think).

I learned this week that the guy/company who makes Alien Bees strobes is putting out radio slaves and transmitters. They look like PW's, but for not much money. I can't wait. Check them out here.

Happy Day!

I have been trying to keep my eyes open for cheap strobe flashes. I want to get a couple more (I have one) to really get going with some off-camera lighting. Prime candidates are Nikon's SB-28DX and SB-80. The SB-80 is a generation behind the current SB-600 and the SB-800, and the SB-28DX is (I think) two generations behind. It doesn't really matter for off-camera stuff though, as long as you can set it to manual and as long as you can easily sync it up (no worries here, because they both have PC sync ports).

With probable thanks to the Strobist movement, it's hard to find these on eBay without paying a premium. I've started looking on Craigslist. In doing this, I have located one of each of the above units for competitive prices. For example, an SB-28 went for $107.00 on eBay last night; the guy on Craigslist wants $100. He has one of each. Possible package deal.

Couple of cool things today:

1. Julie and I celebrate our 1oth wedding anniversary, which is (I think) a pretty amazing thing, considering the selfish amount of crap I'm capable of handing out. We're celebrating by getting over a vicious little stomach bug that has terrorized the whole family since Sunday morning; and

2. Shoot! The Day (S!TD for short, not STD). This event is being put on by PhotoShelter in an effort to re-stock (pardon the unavoidably intended pun) stock photography libraries. The underlying motivation is interesting. It seems they surveyed purchasers of stock and learned that not only are these users not finding what they need, but, in many cases, they are underwhelmed by the quality of the images that are out there. The results they have put together is good news to people trying to break into stock (like me).

I may not get out and shoot much today (shame), but I've got some motivation to focus my stock efforts on what is really around us here in NWA--active seniors in Bella Vista and a very present Hispanic community.

There's a lot to shoot-get out and press the button.

High key is all the rage this year. It's everywhere. In a recent edition of Picture magazine, there was an article on several different New York City studios available for rent. If I recall, without exception, those studios were set up for high key work. Even my daughter's ballet class photograph was high key. But this tutorial rocks the house. Thanks to David Hobby for the heads-up.

Now, if I just had 3 Alien Bees, 3 Pocket Wizard Plus II transceivers and a softbox.

David Hobby has released a series of DVD's related to the stuff he teaches on the Strobist blog. Here's an excerpt. The cool thing? With a little thought, a little time, and a very little investment, you can do this too.

The only down side to Strobist stuff is that you kinda need more than one light. And then you gotta sync 'em up. Which means you either need the wireless stuff that Canon and Nikon do, or you need radio transmitters (Pocket Wizards, the cheap-o eBay transmitters, or maybe the new Radio Poppers). The Pocket Wizards are industry standard, but not cheap.

Cool video, though. I need a new flash.

I really like the "I Am Sorry" photograph in the last post, but I want to make it better. I want to be able to get the "S" on the word sorry in the picture, but the angel blocks it out. I either have to change perspectives or move the angel. I like the perspective, so moving the angel is the only choice. Given that this is a death scene, and given my concern about disturbing anything, is it acceptable to move the angel to get the shot?

What do you think?

Here is the second shot from the "Love Lived Here" series I'm working on. I have determined that I need to go back and shoot some more, now that I know the angles. Thank God for digital. This is actually an alternate version of the shot I started working with. The first shot is a boring, straight on shot of the angel statuette against a porch post.

I think this is a much more intimate shot. The angel seems to be surrealistically speaking the words "I am sorry" that are scribbled on the white porch post. I think if I had actually captured the "s" in sorry, this might be a much better shot.

There's a fair amount of processing on this shot for just a plain ol' black and white. First, I used Curves to punch up the contrast. Then the black and white conversion using Channel Mixer (the blend is 40, 20, 40). Then a levels adjustment layer to set the white and black point. Then sharpened.

Mendy recently sent some of us an email that she had ordered a print from Mpix on metallic paper. She sent me the picture she had printed--the kids playing on the beach at sunset. I never would have thought to do that, even though both places I print (Mpix and White House Custom Color) offer this paper option. So, on a whim, I ordered two prints on metallic paper. One was a 6x9 of "Point Loma Glow" and the other was the color version of "Off Duty."

I have to say, I was impressed. Mendy made a great call on using metallic paper with sunset colors. I can't wait to get the Point Loma picture printed at 10X15 for display. What surprised me more was how good the color version of "Off Duty" looked. It's hard to tell from the black and white, but there was just a hair of sunlight striking the life guard hut. The metallic paper really makes the grays of the clouds and rough water pop, and shows off the little bit of sunlight.

Mpix doesn't recommend metallic paper for portraits, and I can see why. But keep this option in mind for sunsets and where you have gray, silver, blue, yellow and red colors.

Thanks, Mendy!

I have this illusion that I'm going to make money with this photography thing. I've made zero money at my other hobbies (not that I've really tried), and I'm determined to make my photography "habit" pay for itself at some point (or at least for that new Nikkor 24-70 2.8 and 70-200 2.8 VR, about $1800 and $1500, respectively). So I'm fooling around. This is all purposeful. I chose flickr to host images because it's a rather large microstock pool. I chose Google Blogger because it's simple. There are apparently opportunities to make money doing this as well, so over the next month or so (provided this blog still exists) I will be exploring advertisements. So, don't get too annoyed over the advertisements. At this point, I'm not choosing the content. I'm not sure I even have the option. The first ad for something involving Sally Struthers and I promise I'll pull it.

Speaking of fire.

You'll remember my earlier post about the tragic fire in Bentonville that claimed the lives of 5 little girls, one of whom my mother tutored. I have been yearning to photograph the house. Call me morbid. I just think it needs to be remembered. When it first happened, I wanted to go in the house to shoot.

I didn't.

I have driven by the house a few times, mostly right after the fire. But there was too much going on. Too many TV cameras. Too many people leaving flowers and writing farewell notes on the house. Too many peers leaving flowers. Too sad.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm no photojournalist. But there's a story here. There's the report that meth and pot were found in the house. This is disputed by the family. There's the public rush to judge. There's the loss of these innocent little girls. The loss to their family. The loss to their friends. There's the reports of how many time police and DHS were called to the house over the years.

And then there's my mom, who is convinced the parents loved those little girls. Kristen, the girl my mom worked with, was always talking about her dad, and all the things they all did as a family. The girls all loved each other it seems.

So yeah , there's a story here. I'm certainly not the one to tell it. How does one tell a story of love being seemingly quenched (torched, as it were) by such a tragedy? I'm not sure. But for whatever reason, I feel compelled to try, so tonight I drove by the house and spent about an hour shooting about 50 shots. I had no idea how to compose. It was like shooting landscape--you're not going to get the whole Grand Canyon, so you have to compose for a foreground object and background subject as well. I tried almost everything in the bag. Ultra-wide. 50mm prime. Zoom. Flash. No flash. Shutter dragging (lots of that). I gave it an hour. I needed 3. I needed an assistant. I needed more lighting stuff (reflectors, umbrellas, softbox, etc.).

I hope I'll follow up and finish this before the house gets torn down or whatever. For now, here's the first fully processed photograph from a series I will call "Love Lived Here."

A dear friend of mine recently got married. The morning of the wedding, the bride asked if I had brought my camera (the wedding was out of town), and would I mind taking pictures.

Panic.

The bride had asked her son's girlfriend (college age) to take some pictures. I'm not really sure why she wanted me involved, and if she knew me better she'd know that shooting a wedding ranks right up there on the list of things I probably should not do (demands more patience than I have, lack of control, dealing with bitchy people (not at this wedding, mind you), etc. Really just not my thing). But the groom is such good friend (and we dig his wife, too). You know, the friend that you could call from jail in Mississippi in the middle of the night and by morning he'd be there with your bond money. Yes, I brought my camera, and yes I'll shoot some pictures at your wedding. I'd be happy to.

Panic.

I have a small library of photography books. Books about exposure. Books about portraiture. Books about lighting. Tons of books on landscape and nature photography (which is what I think I really like). I have nothing on weddings. There was no rehearsal. (Wedding was in the couple's newly remodeled house. Old house. Like, turn of the century old. Has its own name old. Survived The Flood old. You get the picture.) I had no idea what was going on during the ceremony. No checklist. No roadmap.

Panic.

We were over at the house a few hours prior to the wedding, helping to clean up and get things ready.

I had my camera bag. The cake was out, decorations were set. People had scattered and it was sort of quiet. I managed to get a few shots where I actually could think about lighting and exposure. When you're called on to shoot something out of your comfort zone, remember the basics of what makes a good photograph--patterns, leading lines and repeating elements. Pay attention to composition. Pay attention to the light. I like the simplicity of this photograph of wedding programs in a basket. It has all the basics, and has the gold bands (not unlike wedding bands) as the focal point in the middle of the lines and repeating pattern of the programs.

EXIF data is a little disturbing:

Nikon D80; Nikkor 18-135 lens at 66mm; shutter priority mode; f5.3; 1/200; ISO 200.

This photograph has had some major lighting fixes in Photoshop. It was side lit with tons of natural light and I used a fill flash. Straight out of the camera, this picture was much darker and much more out of balance that what it should have been. The good is that I had a lot of available contrast. The bad is that the ambient light got smashed. I can't remember if I had the flash set for rear sync or not (which is one of my fall backs to balance ambient light). One trick to correct this is to "drag the shutter" by taking the shutter speed the meter tells you is correct, and then slowing down a stop or two. I should have done that here. 1/200 is way too slow for a stationary indoor shot. This would have been a perfect shot for manual mode.

Speaking of basics, it's still about the triangle of ISO, aperture and shutter speed. Remember that, too. A well-composed shot that is not properly exposed is a bad shot, and most times you can't save it. I got lucky here.

Audra recently reminded me of a Flash animation entitled "The End of the World." I remember the first time I saw it--I was crying laughing. You've probably seen it before, but it's worth seeing again, just for the laugh.

Until now, I have not "advertised" this blog very much. A few people know of it. Even fewer post anything. So, in an effort to test the viability of this adventure, I'm going to open it up. This blog will now be findable by search engines, and I am going to send the link to more people. Don't worry, though. With the exception of the picture on the first post, pictures of the kids will only be on the Flickr page with access to friends and family only (unless you have given me permission to use the photograph for, say, portfolio purposes, model release, etc.), and only people I know will be permitted to view those areas, so that should be safe enough. Let me know if you don't think so.

Back in the film days, cross processing was the name given to the practice of developing slide film in chemicals used for developing negative film, and vice versa. Cross processing resulted in high contrast and sometimes wild color shifts. In the late 1980's and early 1990's, this was a common technique in vogue portraiture.

By separately adjusting the red, blue and green channels using a Curves adjustment layer in Photoshop (or by using a Curves plug-in for Photoshop Elements), you can achieve a cross-processed look. Here's an article discussing how I did this (and from which I took the historical information in the first paragraph). Here's my first attempt at cross processing, albeit on a sign. Actually, on this version, I duplicated the background layer of the original and used the SmartCurve plug-in for Photoshop Elements on that layer to do the cross-processing (users of the full-blown version of Photoshop can just use a curves adjustment layer). Underneath that is a channel mixer layer to convert the image to black and white. So, what you end up with is marginally colorized, cross processed black and white. Not really what I was looking for, but the full-color version just explodes with green grass, so for the full picture, it's a good compromise.

But, of course, the object is the sign. Here's a cropped version featuring the sign, but without the channel mixer b/w layer. Which do you prefer? Maybe this would be a good candidate for selective coloring--b/w everything except the cross-processed sign? I really like how the cross processing brings out the contrast of the rust and weathered metal on the sign.

EXIF data: Nikon D80,ISO 100,Nikkor 50mm 1.8,f2.8,1/500
Manfrotto 3021BPRO Tripod (488RC2 head)
Sig Sauer P229 40 caliber pistol (just in case)

UPDATE: I took a stab at cross processing the sign only, and leaving everything else black and white.

In honor of the Pink Flamingo parties in our neighborhood during the summer months, here's a guy from Sea World.

EXIF is as follows:

Nikon D80
Nikkor 70-300VR at 105mm
f8 for 1/200 sec
ISO 200
Shutter priority mode

How did I get the out-of-focus background at f8? It's an illusion. First, the telephoto lens compresses everything, which helps throw the background out of focus. Secondly, I shot the flamingo at a downward angle, and used a circular polarizer to eliminate the glare from the water in the pond he was standing in. The bottom of the pond was a brownish concrete, so there's an illusion that the background is out of focus. It sort of is, but the combination of little detail in the background, the compression of the lens, and the elimination of glare from the water (thanks to the polarizer) makes it look like I used a faster (i.e. a 2.8 or better) lens.

How much higher can gas prices go? I suspect $4.00 per gallon by mid-summer. Our federal government is so interested in the next election that we cannot go out and prop up the dollar. Our president is so weak (if for no other reason than he's perceived to be ineffective) that he cannot pressure OPEC and/or the Saudis to increase production (as it is, unless there's evidence of a shortage, OPEC has no intention of increasing production until 2012).

This is an aisle-crossing issue. We're getting our ass kicked on the world stage, and our government just clicks blindly along, as if things can be reversed by opening the strategic reserves. Give me a break. Our last oil refinery was finished in 1976. In 2005, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah remarked that he'd send us more oil but we lack the refining capacity. Duh. If there was one area to allow buhzillion tax incentives, this is it. Incentives for doing the right way--an environmentally responsible way. If gas gets to $4.00, it's gonna be bad. Prices at Wal-Mart will go up. C-stores will struggle. Recreation will suffer. I mean, it's a downhill slide. Middle-class and lower-class Amercians will suffer while Congress piddles.

Piddles.

Apparently called Bella Vista Young Guns, I understand that there is going to be a working man's 9-hole golf league in Bella Vista this year. I've got the email for the guy that's putting it together. Post a comment if you're interested. I'll post more as I learn more.

You might notice that I've removed the Photo.net link for pictures. I have started a page on Flickr.com (the link is http://www.flickr.com/photos/314images). I only have a few pictures out there for public consumption. I have put up about 44 other pictures from the San Diego trip for friends and family, but you have to register to see them. I'll also post picture of the kids playing, get togethers, birthday parties, Ryan and Rex trying to swing a golf club after a few beers (hahaha) as the months go along, so if you want access to that stuff, post a comment, and I'll send you the invite from flickr.

(Yes. Shameless attempt to solicit posts.)

I read way too many photography magazines. I buy way too many photography books (at least relative to other types of books). I study the technical side of digital image creation. I have learned (not enough) about my camera. I know the basics. I know some advanced stuff. This crap is like a drug.

I was at Barnes & Noble today and grabbed the usual assortment of photography books and magazines. One of the Brit mags that are so good. Photo District News. A few books I had seen reviewed. Random magazines I had never purchased. I set them down in a chair and slipped off to the bathroom. Upon my return, some overly-efficient employee had taken my stack off to be re-shelved. So I went and got them again. All of them. All of the books and magazines I had impulsively gathered. I flipped through an interesting book on digital black and white photography (heavy on photoshop, including a very cool sampling technique I had never seen and must learn and ohmygodihavetohavethisbookjustbecauseofthisonetechnique). Another one on landscape photography. I ripped through the stack with all of the cold analysis I would bring to a so many cases I might have dug up for a brief. Sorting. Culling. Stacking (two stacks--one for absolutely not, one to go back through).

And then I opened a magazine called Life Images. The pages of this magazine have very cool shots (although maybe not technically superb) and some words that either inspired them or were inspired by them. (Never mind the fact that the publishing company is apparently big into publishing magazines on quilting.) I created a third stack--keeper--and put this magazine in it.

At that moment, something clicked. I've gotten so into the technical side of my little hobby that I have forgotten what I love about it--creating, capturing, preserving and story-telling. I have managed to get caught (bound?) up in the technical side of photography at the expense of getting out there and pushing the button.

Driving home, I noticed a field of purple flowers leading to a metal barn that will be a great shot if the clouds decide to move out. I noticed the water-laden bunches of scrub grass in a pattern on a hillside next to the interstate that would look oh-so-cool in black and white. Spring is often thought of as a time of renewal. Liberation, too, I hope.

Did anybody watch American Idol last night? I usually space out at this point in the competition because most of the freaks are off the show, and the amusement of the earlier auditions has faded, but I tuned in for a while last night, and caught David Cook's cover of Chris Cornell's cover of Jack-O's Billy Jean. I'm usually pretty sharp with music stuff, who's covered what, who's produced what, etc. I had no clue that Chris Cornell (of Soundgarden fame) had covered this. So while I'm a little less impressed with David Cook for maybe letting this get passed off as his arrangement, at least he knew about it, and if you really listen to it, Ryan Seacrest introduced it as a cover, so it was out there. Whether RandyPaulaSimon picked up on it, I don't know. Bottom line: most incredible performance I've seen on American Idol ever, and a great version of what was a good song (for about 3 minutes, anyway).

A house fire in the early morning hours claimed the lives of 5 children, the oldest of which was a seventh grade girl my mom has tutored for the past five years (Tuesday was their day). The Morning News generally updates its website quickly, so see here for what they are reporting.

As a parent, this is one of those things that just kicks you in the gut.

I'll update this post as I learn more.

UPDATE: There was a press conference a little while ago. KFSM has an updated story here.

UPDATE #2: The story in today's Morning News is pretty thorough.

UPDATE #3: The comments on the Morning News story includes a comment from the aunt and uncle. I guess the meth theory has been explained away. As expected, no clarification on the news tonight.

I shot this on the beach at Coronado Island, just down from The Del. The sun had already gone down and I was trying to get what I could. I learned several things: 1) You're not as far away from the waves as you think you are, so be careful where you set your camera bag; 2) while you'll sometimes get lucky, good shots require planning, particularly when the light changes quickly (shooting in manual mode, I was changing the exposure about every 5 seconds); and 3) the graduated neutral density filter (3-stop hard filter in this shot) ranks right up there with the guitar capo as one of the greatest inventions, dollar for dollar, of all time.

For the curious, here's the EXIF data:

Nikon D80
Sigma 10-20 at 14mm
f/16
1.3 seconds
ISO 400 (don't ask me why)
Manual exposure

All in all, pretty colors, but I think there are some technical issues. Depth of field is pretty good, but the shutter speed blurs the waves to an unacceptable degree. A faster shutter speed would have required higher ISO (more noise in an already dark picture) and/or larger aperture (bye bye, depth of field). If I had to do it over, I'd have lowered the ISO, used something like f/8 and focused on the waves to freeze them a bit, since there's really no detail in the main subject (the glow way out at Point Loma). I probably should have used a 2-stop soft grad instead of the 3-stop hard grad I used (even though I like the result with the 3-stop) because the 2-stop might have allowed me to use a faster shutter speed.

Live and learn.

We got back from San Diego last night about 11:00. I haven't had time to really go through the pictures. I didn't take as many as I thought I would, but here's one that's indicative of having checked out for a while.

Shot in RAW format, double-processed (once for the sky, and once for the foreground) and combined in Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 (using a layer mask from Grant's Tools).

I haven't met Sach Oliver, but he's the lawyer who sued the motel over in Siloam Springs because the room his client rented allegedly had bed bugs. You have to admire Judge Wilson's sense of humor.

Here's something I've been working on. I have another version where I have worked out some of the geometry issues, but I like the tone and contrast of this version better. Comments and critiques welcome. I'd like to get this printed and hang it in the house. My first thought was over the toilet in the red bathroom next to the kitchen. I wonder whether that's sacrilegious? It's something interesting to look at while you're standing there (sorry ladies, you'll have to see it in the mirror).

Lot's of issues to work out on this one before it gets printed. This was just a test shot to see how it might look.

OK, so voters in the Bentonville School District rejected the millage vote by what some are saying is a significant margin. I'll be the first to say that I'm not surprised it didn't pass, and I'll also be the first to blame the school board for what appeared to be a rather lame effort in publicizing the election in the first place. I'll take it a step further and say that because of the way the proposed millage was structured, there may not now be funds available to shore up some dilapidated facilities that our kids will be using. Should we have been forced to accept a new high school (whether you're in favor of one or not) in order to raise money for needed repairs and improvements to other facilities? There were plenty of things in the pot for our kids, and now it's unlikely to happen because this was an all or none election.

How many times were you approached by someone "official" about the election? I was approached once, and that was thanks to a form letter from Gary Compton to let me know of a "town hall" type meeting to mobilize those who would carry the banner. How many commercials did you see? How many newspaper ads did you see? How many direct mailings were there? I saw a few signs in a few yards, proclaiming a need to "End Overcrowding" on March 11th. People get out to vote for people, not issues, and having this millage election as a stand-alone event was a fatal mistake in my judgment, especially in a presidential election cycle when you have a presidential primary, primaries and non-partisan judicial elections in May, and a general election in November. I haven't looked into it, but it would have been better to piggy-back onto something more glamorous, such as the Benton County Sheriff's race.

Going back to the drawing board is not going to work. These people need to get a bigger drawing board and actually draw on it.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not bitter it didn't pass. I'm just tired of the belly-aching. If you're going to have a successful election, you have to campaign successfully. As far as I can tell, the campaign stayed home.

Speaking of Strobist, Julie and Hadley just got me the first installment of the Strobist lighting kit, consisting of a light stand, reflective umbrella and umbrella adapter. I can mount my Nikon SB-600 on it and control it via commander mode on my D80. Limited range, gotta have line of sight, etc., but still very cool. No sync cables. TTL works. Pretty slick. I'll need another flash soon. Just kidding.

I'll be focusing on landscape and nature stuff for a while now that spring is around the corner. The trip to San Diego will be a good outlet for all the reading I've been doing. I'll get to try out the ND grad filters I got for Christmas, too.

I'm not really sure why I started this blog. More than anything, I think this is an avenue to share my passing attempts at amateur photography with friends. LeAnne Parks is always bugging me to share the pictures I take of the Playgroup kids, but I never do. For all the ease of digital photography, it's a bit of a pain to load, cull, crop and edit pics and then email them to people.

I don't know. Maybe this will suffice, maybe it won't. I may need a dedicated gallery like something on Smugmug. I'm not sure I want to pay for it, though. I've been reading Strobist too much recently for that. Besides, all the Strobist people hang out over at Flickr anyway.

I'm not convinced I'm fierce enough to have a "real" blog. We'll see. Gotta start someplace. I tried to upload the very first picture (one of Hadley, Annalee and Ander) but it didn't work--I'll figure it out. I'm not sure how much storage space I get, so there may be a Smugmug account in my future after all. Check it out--something like $39.95 per year for the very basic account with unlimited storage. The $59.95 power user account looks like an even better deal, except I don't need the video option. Too bad there's not an in-between or a la carte package.

UPDATE: Ok, this was the first picture I was going to post. This is from last year's Christmas parade. More, please!

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

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