Alternative Presentations

Here is another composition from my short trip to Ricketts Glen State Park. (The other composition.) And I want to take the opportunity to say a little about the possibility of showing more than one interpretation of a digital shot (capture).

A while back I did a post titled Digital Has Changed the Way We Shoot. In it are links to a few of Brooks Jensen’s audio podcasts. These particular podcasts were about the differences in how he used to shoot with film and how he now shoots with digital capture. In part, he talks about when he shot with film needing to capture the tonal values the way he wanted them to show in the final output (print). But with digital he wants to capture, not necessarily the best looking image, but rather a file that contains the most data for future post processing. Read more »

I was out at twilight on Tuesday evening and I thought I would share some images.

1. Asplundh Concert Hall, West Chester University
2. Papa John’s, West Chester University
3. DK Dinner

Entrance of the Asplundh Concert Hall at West Chester University. I wanted to shoot this at twilight so I would get mixed lighting conditions–very cool evening light and very warm interior from the incandescent lights.

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This question is asked of every photography instructor and workshop leader. My answer is simply, “Before you trip the shutter, think about it.”

Think about what the subject of the image is and what you are trying to say with the image. If you don’t know what the image is about, neither will the viewer of the image.

 Think about how you can use the other elements in the image to draw attention to your subject or how they can be used to add emotional impact or mood to the image.

Think about how each element in the image relates to the subject. If it does not add impact to the subject then think about a new framing that will eliminating that element from the composition.

Stopping to think about these three things may slow you down and you may take fewer pictures. But that’s ok; because the images you do make will be stronger images. Read more »

Last week I posted an image of a Union Solder’s Coat. This is an updated version of that image.

I did two more things in Nik Silver Effects Pro for this update. The first was to add a control point to add contrast  and slightly darken to the bottom of the solder’s jacket. This accentuated the folds in the coat and created more depth.

The other was to add a bit of a vignette. Besides the usual framing to draw the viewers eye into the subject, the vignette added to the chiaroscuro-the visual interplay of highlight and shadow to make the coats the focal point of the image. Read more »

This image, of a closed bloodroot blossom, was shot on the same morning as the spring beauty that I posted last week. The water drops are from an over night rain shower.

As with all genre of photography, but especially so with close-up and macro photography, the background is as important as the subject. A strong subject against a busy background will not make for a strong image. The viewer will keep being pulled away from the subject

Here only the blossom was lit and most of the background was in the shade. Exposing for the flower resulted in the background being rendered very dark (black). Thus all the details and busyness in the background are hidden.

Only the up turned out of focus green leaf of the bloodroot caught enough light to be visible. And in this image that is important to give it context. If the background had been pure black I don’t think the image would be as strong. Read more »

Day 8 is the last day of our trip. Shooting-wise, it’s going to be a very short day. Our flight out of Las Vegas isn’t until late morning so we have just enough time to shoot sunrise before the two hour drive to the airport. We chose to shoot Dante’s View, that we had scouted out a few days earlier, as it was on our way out of the park.

The full moon would not occur until the next day but it was showing very large on the horizon as we drove to the park. Had to stop and shoot it. Read more »

Day 7 is our last full day of shooting for the trip. From the day’s selects I’ve picked 2 from our mid-day scouting and three from another afternoon shoot at Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes.

These two ladies are part of a tour group on a day trip out of Las Vegas. They had chosen to sit and wait while the rest of their group explored Artist’s Pallet. When I saw the green blouse on the lady on the right I couldn’t resist taking a picture because of how well her blouse’s color matched the color in the rock. Read more »

We started off the day back at Zebriskie Point for sunrises. This first image was shot during twilight, before the sun has risen, and there was still a glow on the western horizon. The two black specs on the hills below are two photographers. Since I couldn’t find a composition, with the glow in the sky, and without them; I decided to include them for a sense of scale.

But the magic doesn’t start to happen at Zebriskie Point until the sun is up and over the mountains.  The warm color temperature and low angle of light brings out the colors and textures of the hills that line the wash. Read more »