Monday Missive — June 4, 2018

Posted on June 4, 2018 by Rich

Quotes

“Becoming “more creative,” whatever that means to you, doesn’t often happen by accident. And it’s not something you either are or are not, so you can check that excuse at the door right now. It’s a choice. It’s something you do. If you’re longing to do more creative work, then stop taking it all so damn seriously; stop thinking about the work you’ve already done and get excited about reinventing it, exploring new ideas, new techniques, and challenge yourself with more interesting problems.” — David duChemin

It was the Rainbow gave thee birth,
And left thee all her lovely hues. — W. H. Davies

“Great art is the outward expression of an inner life of the artist, and this inner life will result in his personal vision of the world.” – Edward Hopper

Links

– Using images to message about PTSD If you don’t read anything else in today’s blog, please read this.

– Bird photography
– Wildlife rescue photography
– Landscape light — Part 2
– Counterfeit memory cards from Amazon
– Does sensor size still make a difference?
– International image theft lawsuit – interesting video story
– Interesting group photos
– Color grading in PS
– Using “apply image” layer masks

Composite of 2 images taken at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. The background trees were taken across an embayment. The “fence” was duplicated and reversed. Red and yellow color layers were used with a circular gradient for the yellow. The judge didn’t like it, but I do. Let me know what you think.

I had some fun with this one. Judges didn’t like it either.

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Monday Missive — May 28, 2018

Posted on May 28, 2018 by Rich

Quotes

“Be unafraid of your imagination.” — Joe McNally in Creative Live

“Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing is a meditation.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson

“Let’s make things exist and then judge later. Don’t cancel the process of creativity too early: Let it flow.” – Ross Lovegrove

Links

– A bunch of good printing tips
– Play with long and multiple exposures
– Histograms
– Creating a vintage look from scratch (without using presets)
– Dry (heat) mounting
– Bird photography on the cheap
– 12 reasons to start a photography blog File under advice to self
– Landscape light – Part 1
– Gourmet macro
– Focus stacking in PS and LR

Extra

– The Photography blog of the LA Times created by Barbara Davidson, a Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist

Framework, the photography and video blog of the Los Angeles Times, celebrates the power and explores the craft of visual storytelling. The blog highlights the work of Times photojournalists who frame by frame, document the drama, the emotion and sometimes the humor of life. Framework also aims to serve as a resource hub for photography, multimedia and video enthusiasts who share our passion. We will trade insights and discuss the tools and techniques of telling stories through images. Have a look and let us know what you think.

Images from the Baltimore Farmers Market.

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Monday Missive — May 21, 2018

Posted on May 21, 2018 by Rich

Quotes

“Every day you play with the light of the universe.” — Pablo Neruda

“To those of you who … have a frustrated streak of anarchy within you: f*ck the rules. Colour outside the lines. Fill your canvas with blazing colours and leave the muted browns for Leonardo DaVinci. He had his chance. Find your own way. You have one life: do you really want to spend it imitating others? … It takes courage to point the camera the other way, to trust your own taste, to do more than what is expected. To open yourself up to the world through your art by saying, “Here it is—here I am—take it or leave it,” knowing that far more people than not will choose to leave it.” — David duChemin

“A photograph has a soul in its own right, incorporating numerous elements which range from the books one has read, the music one has heard to the people one has loved.” — Kita Etsuko from Adore Noir, Issue 40

Links

– Getting unstuck when the image just isn’t working
– Making masking easier
– Art of Photography video on Fan Ho, a fantastic Chinese street photographer
– Your camera is better than Ansel’s Gear matters but is a small part of your photography.
– Good story on photographing foxes which I occasionally see in my backyard.
– How art auctions work
– Creative white balance
– Part 2: Greenland in winter See April 30 for Part 1
– Informative article on night photography Discusses several different situations
– Very interesting description of a creative process

Iris

Iris

Iris

Iris

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Monday Missive — May 14, 2018

Posted on May 14, 2018 by Rich

Quotes

“Taking pictures is like tiptoeing into the kitchen late at night and stealing Oreo cookies.” -– Diane Arbus

“The formula for doing a good job in photography is to think like a poet.” — Imogen Cunningham

“Once a woman who does street work said to me, ‘I’ve never photographed anyone I haven’t asked first.’ I said to her, ‘Suppose Cartier-Bresson asked the man who jumped the puddle to do it again – it never would have been the same. Start stealing!” – Imogen Cunningham

Links

– How to make your own profiles Article also links to a software development kit and a white paper explaining the new profiles in detail.
– How to make a “super-resolution” image with any camera
– The histogram panel
– Shooting and sharing one image per day improves well-being
– Sharpening portraits
– Nature composites
– Beauty retouching Good article for portrait shooters
– Adjusting your image for printing on fine art matte papers
– Good article on the basics of composition
From Steve Oney:
– World Heritage sites in the US

Carnivorous pitcher plants. Insects enter the tube and down-facing spines prevent it from leaving. These yellow pitcher plants were photographed in Green Swamp preserve in NC. They grow in nutrient poor bogs.

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Photo Location: Green Swamp Preserve, North Carolina

Posted on May 14, 2018 by Rich

Green Swamp Preserve is a nature conservancy site near the Cape Fear area of southeastern North Carolina, just a bit west of Wilmington. There is a parking area just under 6 miles north of state route 17 (Ocean Highway) on 211. Google Maps readily identifies the Preserve. About 100 yards before the parking area there is a small sign that indicates the parking area is ahead. The nearest lodging we found was about 7 miles away in Shallote, NC.

The Preserve is a bit over 16,000 acres with long-leaf pine forest, savanna, bog (pocosin) and swamp. It is known for insectivorous plants (sundew, pitcher plants and Venus fly trap) which we saw on May 8, 2018. According to the Nature Conservancy, several types of orchids can also be found but we did not see any on this trip.

The pine forest is very serene and pleasant in May. I was hoping for some ground mist for photography, but no luck on that. On my own, I only found some yellow pitcher plants and after several hours we were preparing to leave, when Julien and Jude arrived hoping to identify Bachman’s Sparrow. They were very familiar with the preserve and graciously offered to show us pitcher plants, sundews and fly traps. There are tons of these interesting plants especially in the savanna after the short boardwalk over a swampy area. The pitcher plants really stand out, but the fly traps are more cryptic and you need to know how to look for them. Sundews are quite small and you need to look carefully for them as well.

In early May, there weren’t many insects although we did see a swallowtail and dragonfly, which is good and bad: no pesky bugs, but not many interesting ones. I was assured that as the season progressed there would be plenty of insects. There were also tons of ferns of several different species.

Photographically I found my 105 macro to be most useful, but also used a 14 mm to try and capture a close-up of purple pitcher plant, and a 24 mm with extension tube to get really close to a Venus fly trap. If you are interested in photography, I highly recommend the work of Skip Pudney and his “Beginner’s Guide” to the preserve.

In the right season, this preserve is definitely worth a half day’s visit to experience both the forest and the bogs. If you are in the area, visits in all the seasons would be worthwhile.

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Monday Missive — May 7, 2018

Posted on May 7, 2018 by Rich

Quotes

“Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.” -– Cecil Beaton

“Allow yourself the freedom to step away from perfection because it is only then that you can find success.” -– Chase Jarvis

“Be yourself. I much prefer seeing something, even it is clumsy, that doesn’t look like somebody else’s work.” -– William Klein

Links

– Advanced Black and White (ABW) on Epson printers
– Perspective
– Custom Brushes
– Explore different aspect ratios Aspect ratios are the proportions of the image, for example, square (1:1), 4 x 5 (= 8 x 10), or 2:3 (= 24 x 36 standard sensor/slide ratio)
– A pro level Lightroom alternative?
– Improving your landscapes with Lightroom This is a series of 5 short videos showing how to improve your landscape images with LR. It includes using the new profiles, dehaze, gradients, straightening, content aware, HDR and panoramas in different videos. Highly recommended for camera club members before the next competition.
– If your images are consistently too dark, this article explains why and how to correct it
– Cape Hatteras/Outer Banks
– Rainy days
From Carl Lancaster:
– Simplifying how to use curves

Inspiration from Steve Adkins – Refine edge.

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Monday Missive — April 30, 2018

Posted on April 30, 2018 by Rich

Quotes

The Trap of Listening to Feedback
You’re devoting your life to making something important. … Something that matters. Mostly, something that hasn’t been done before, that’s going to bend the curve and make an impact.
If you begin and end with surveys and focus groups, all you’re going to do is what’s been done before.
We’re counting on you to trust yourself enough to speak your own version of our future. Yes, you’ll need the empathy to put yourself in our shoes, and the generosity to care enough to make it worth our time and trust. But no, don’t outsource the hard work of insight and creation to the rest of us. That’s on you. — Posted by Seth Godin on April 26, 2018

“To me, it is better to ‘guess’ at how something works, experiment, fail, guess again, fail, and keep repeating that process over and over again until you either figure it out or you discover a multiplicity of other cool tricks along the way.” -– Trey Ratcliff

“Creativity needs to extend beyond the lens. Find creative ways to showcase your work and get it seen. Straight up tenacity, hard work and determination will always be part of the equation, so get to it.” -– Jimmy Chin

Links

– Three nature photography tips
– National Parks Odyssey Interesting story of husband and wife who sold their stuff, bought a travel trailer and traveled and photographed full time. I know that I have thought about doing the same, and probably several of you have as well.
– Most prestigious photo awards
– Keep your photos safe: Part 1 of 4 Everyone should read this. Explains about differences between SSDs and HDDs as well as data preservation.
– 10 images that changed photography
– Part 1: Shooting in Greenland Some unusual images, but I will forgo the frost bite.
– Using natural light in portraiture
– Lightroom Classic and CC updates
– Focus stacking for landscapes
– Guides to BW from 7 photographers Includes Michael Kenna and Jerry Uelsmann, two of my favorites.

Christina. Not really sure about the photographer.

Helena. Lovely, with a red dress on. Both from a modeling workshop at Vickie Gray’s Studio.

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Monday Missive — April 23, 2018

Posted on April 23, 2018 by Rich

Quotes

“I made a decision to write for my readers, not to try to find more readers for my writing.” — Seth Godin

“They should just go out and photograph and stop talking about it. That’s the only way they are going to find themselves. They can’t do it in their heads – they have to go out and do it in the camera and get it on film.” – Berenice Abbott

“…the art is in selecting what is worthwhile to take the trouble about…” – Berenice Abbott

Links

– The edge of light
Adobe recently enhanced the profile options in LR and ACR by providing more profiles and a profile browser to facilitate their use. Colin Smith shows you how to make your own profiles. Profiles are like the presets in most cameras that give you a choice of “vivid,” or “landscape,” or other types of images. They can provide a creative starting point for images and greater consistency in the color palette or appearance of your images.
– How to make your own profiles
– Two Free videos: Eliminating selection fringes and Matching color and Tone in Composites
– The Backbone Havana The other, “non-tourist,” Havana.
– A whole bunch of photography resources
– Art of Photography provides a better understanding of the new profiles
– Jim Herrington has photographed mountain climbers and music legends
Hour long video:
– Photographing Acadia National Park

From Steve Oney, via Facebook:
– Combining images and text

Summer snowflake taken during a walk along Roland Run.

Grape hyacinth.

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Monday Missive — April 16, 2018

Posted on April 16, 2018 by Rich

Quotes

“The photographer is like the cod which produces a million eggs in order that one may reach maturity.” — George Bernard Shaw

“Flow happens when our vision demands the fullness of our craft and pulls us into a state of extreme and almost unconscious focus.” – David duChemin

“The minute there’s a map, there is no art. Paint by numbers is not art. Paint by numbers is a mechanical activity.” — Seth Godin

Links

– Story on using the Leica Monochrome which shoots only BW Since I found out about this camera, I thought it would be neat to shoot with it (it costs $7500 so ain’t gonna happen), but after reading this, it is easier to put the dream aside.
– Planning ahead for photography in every season
– Recent copyright issues and fair use
– Self-portraits
– Landscape abstracts
– Outrage powered photography
– BW for landscapes
– How to photograph the Milky Way
– Are your ideas copyrightable?
From Steve Oney:
– Finding unique landscape locations

Sunday Farmers’ Market at the foot of the JFX. Love them carbs.


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Monday Missive — April 9, 2018

Posted on April 9, 2018 by Rich

Quotes

“The still must tease with the promise of a story the viewer of it itches to be told.” – Cindy Sherman

“A product of the untalented, sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered.” — Al Capp on abstract art

“Get the advice of everybody whose advice is worth having–they are very few–and then do what you think best yourself.” — Charles Stewart Parnell

Links

– Pan like a pro
– 5 guides to types of natural light
– Humanism in photography
– Non-camera gear you should carry
– Photographs that capture the legacy of soul
– Curves, clarity, dehaze and high pass sharpening: how they effect contrast and detail.

New Adobe Profiles in the latest updates to LR and ACR are explained in the links below. Adobe also lists sites that are providing free profiles so that users can explore whether they are useful in their own workflow:
— From Adobe: New profiles: Easier access, greater availability
— Matt K’s version on profiles,
— Jared Platt and from Charlie Bowers,
— DP Review’s comments on profiles

SIGNS OF SPRING

Maple syrup tap. Taken at Catoctin Mountain Park.

Daffodil stigma and anthers.

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Monday Missive — April 2, 2018

Posted on April 2, 2018 by Rich

Quotes

“Critics are useful, but remember that the first to believe in your work must be you.” – Lorenzo Meloni

“Sometimes there’s a unique picture whose composition possesses such vigour and richness and whose content so radiates outward from it that the single picture is a whole story in itself.” — Henri Cartier-Bresson

“I prefer people to look at my pictures and invent their own stories.” – Josef Koudelka

Links

– Photographing in the far north
– Glare
– Bottom weighting when matting
– Aspect ratios This short video specifically references filming but provides food for thought when cropping.
– Candid photography
– Flash modifiers
– Curing dehaze color shifts
– 10 post-processing terms every photographer should know and understand
– Long exposure photography

From Steve Oney:
– Protect your highlights

Long’s Peak from the White cabin at sunrise, Rocky Mountain National Park.

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Monday Missive — March 26, 2018

Posted on March 26, 2018 by Rich

Quotes

We make our own taste, and call it reality
Most of us say, “this is better, therefore I like it.”
In fact, the converse is what actually happens.
“I like it, therefore I’m assuring you (and me) that this is better.” — Posted by Seth Godin on March 15, 2018

Research concluded, though, that a great deal of emphasis should be placed on the generous, social safety net that Icelanders enjoy. They summed this up with a quote from an Icelandic immigrant who collaborated on the study: “Never underestimate what knowing you will always have food, shelter, childcare, and education will do for your creativity.” –From an article by Casey Lesser, “Iceland’s Population Is Staggeringly Creative. Why?” at Artsy

“What does this remind you of?”
That’s a much more useful way to get feedback than asking if we like it.
And while the emotions that are created by your work aren’t exactly like something else, they rhyme.
“What does this remind you of” opens the door for useful conversations that you can actually do something about. — Posted by Seth Godin on March 17, 2018

Links

– Capturing the teenage experience
– Convert to .DNG?
– Shooting in snow
– Matting and Framing
– Photo essay: Women of Rural India
– 32 examples of long-exposure photography
– National Geographic explores its own racist past
– Amusing Alliterative Photo Tips
– Phony contest
– Links to the new Magnum site Links to 8 articles by Magnum photographers on different aspects of photojournalism, e.g., establishing a portfolio, long-term projects and telling stories.

View from the Blue Mesa Overlook just after sunrise at Petrified Forest National Park. Blue Mesa was my favorite place to photograph in the park during an artist residency in 2012. The landscape looks like another planet in a science fiction movie. The Artist in Residence Program in the National Parks is a great program.

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Monday Missive — March 19, 2018

Posted on March 19, 2018 by Rich

Quotes

“…a camera gives you a license to explore.” — Adam Davies in a conversation with Ben Marcin in Bmore Art, March 6, 2018

“A tear contains an ocean. A photographer is aware of the tiny moments in a persons life that reveal greater truths.” — Anonymous

“Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph.” — Matt Hardy

Links

– 10 predictions for the future of photography
– Intro to IR photography
– Diane Arbus gets a NY Times obituary 46 years after her death Includes a video.
– Architectural keystoning: perspective control lenses vs digital correction
– Two hour video on macro and close-up photography
– Differences between phase and contrast autofocus systems
– Sandhill crane migration Very well-written story
– A photographer and his dog – how can you resist?
– Monochrome portraits by Kelly Castro
– Georgia O’Keefe on how to be an artist Applicable to photographers too

Under the highway.

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Monday Missive — March 12, 2018

Posted on March 12, 2018 by Rich

Quotes

“Photographers should follow their own judgment, and not the fads and dictates of others.” – Bill Brandt

“And only the photographer himself knows the effect he wants. He should know by instinct, grounded in experience, what subjects are enhanced by hard or soft, light or dark treatment.” – Bill Brandt

“I consider it essential that the photographer should do his own printing and enlarging. The final effect of the finished print depends so much on these operations.” – Bill Brandt

Links

– Addiction photography
– Young Love
– Extracting liquid glass and smoke in Photoshop
– Sky replacement in Photoshop Shows lots of tools, including getting rid of the bright halos around selections.
– Photographing mountain hares in Scotland in winter Not for me, but still interesting.
– Capturing mist and fog
– Ralph Gibson
– Chromatic compositions
– The decisive moment: some really neat street photos

From Suku:
-Two houseboats converted to floating studios, touring Europe

On the Beach, part of a portfolio I have been working on for a couple of years.

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Monday Missive — March 5, 2018

Posted on March 5, 2018 by Rich

Quotes

“One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular.” – Anthony Robbins

“Concentrate on your motivation… and the thought of what about the scene made you stop to look.” – Richard K. Kaiser

“Who knows how many artists fail because the light that shines through them is defracted in a thousand directions and not concentrated in a single beam?” – Eric Maisel

Links

– High speed flash sync
– 9 BW tips More thoughtful than usual
– Using camera calibration to control color
– Surrealist photographers
– Tips on Nikon settings Some are really neat, like how to save your settings to a card. I would expect that Canon et al. has similar options.
– Color look-up, especially “Crisp-warm” and using the color blend mode
– Introduction to Masks
– Lensbaby velvet lens I rarely do equipment, but I have the 85 mm version so I wanted to see how this experience compares with mine.
– Slow speed synch on flash
– Photographing gannets at the end of the world

Ancient live oak and house on Daufuskie Island, SC.

Ancient live oak and house on Daufuskie Island, SC.

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