Will Spring Ever Arrive??

This has been the coldest, wettest April I can remember since moving to Oregon in 1996. The ivy that covers the wooden fence around my house should be covered in fresh green leaves, but is instead only just now budding. The Japanese maple should full of color, but is bare and covered with moss.

Although this weekend has been nice with dry weather and relatively warm temperatures, it has been nothing like our normal April. We're all hoping that May will be better and we'll actually get more than two days of nice weather in a row.

The long term forecast calls for a hot dry summer. One can only hope, and I certainly do, as I have a number of outdoor photographic projects I plan to shoot with various models this summer. I'm giving up some of my normal faire and festival events to concentrate on expanding my portfolio to complete at least three more shoots in my fairly project. I've lined up at least three models already, including a lovely Asian girl, a Latino beauty, and blond-haired, blue-eyed lovely who will be my Winter Fairy (you've seen her in my portfolio already as I've done a couple of shoots with her).

So, although the weather has been less than conducive to photography, I've been working on planning for these projects (gather costume material, visualizing the images in my head, and getting the locations planned out for the shoot). I do need to find someone interested in being my photographer's assistant for the shoots, but I don't think that will be too difficult.

In the meantime, I'm continuing to post-process the images from my last few shoots. The model above, Lisa, has a very natural look, is very fun to work with, and when we finished our shoot, left me with over a 1000 images to sort through. Of course, not every image will be used or processed, but they still need to be reviewed and the best poses tagged for use. That should keep me busy until the weather gets better.

Post Processing is fun? (NSFW)

Shoots are fun, but there is still lots of work to be done once the model goes home.

I haven't posted many new images here lately, primarily due to the amount of post-processing that I need to do on the images before I consider them ready for publication. Now, don't get me wrong, I think it's the photographer's responsibility to get lighting, exposure and composition right in the camera so that minimal post processing is required, but in the digital age, some post processing is required for almost all images, especially when working with human models.

In all cases, due to the anti-aliasing filter used in most Digital SLR cameras, some sharpening must be done post processing, especially if you're like me and shoot RAW. Even if I shoot JPG I have sharpening set to minimum so I can use the more powerful algorithms in my computer to sharpen the images instead of the smaller, less powerful CPU's in my cameras.

In addition, the best white balance can be set and fine tuned with the computer and, of course, the histogram and image curves can be adjusted to give the best details in the highlights and shadows.

Finally, models do not have flawless skin or hair. Often times a blemish, or even several blemishes will need to be retouched away. Small wrinkles will need to be de-emphasized or obscured, while wisps of hair will need to be removed from the face. Small threads have to disappear from the edges of clothing and fabric, and the overall look of the image will required some sort of treatment: B&W, a subtle color shift, selective coloring, additional vignetting.

Post-processing an image is what moves photography further along the scale toward art rather than merely the craft of recording a scene. After all, Ansel Adams did his best work in the dark room.

Shooting with Sierra

I had just an amazing shoot with Sierra yesterday. This is the third time I've shot with her (including her test shoot), and I have to say she just keeps getting better. She doesn't do nude shots, but she's quite creative when working with the photographer to produce images that are fun, sensual and even provocative. She has a great attitude and really enjoys collaborating in the shoot. And, as you can see from the photo to the right, she's quite beautiful.

When she arrived yesterday, she was ready to get to work and we managed to get through about 9 costume changes in the 3 hours that we shot. It's a real pleasure to work with her and she has great potential as she gains more experience. We're already discussing some projects we can work on this summer, so I'm really looking forward to completing more shoots with her.

Lisa

I had the distinct pleasure of working with a new model today. Lisa was prompt, professional, and very classy. She takes direction easily, self-poses and understands the photographic process. She understands hot to quickly accommodates the photographer's needs. She collaborated completely in the creative process and provided excellent suggestions on how to make the shoot better. Her enthusiasm was invigorating and contagious and made the shoot one of the best I've done in a very long time.

We were able to get through several scenarios in about 2 1/2 hours of shooting and it was definitely enjoyable for both of us. Lisa is very photogenic, curvy and has great legs. We were able to have a great conversation throughout the shoot which made it even more enjoyable for us both. I certainly look forward to shooting with her again.

Post-processing (NSFW)

Post-processing is the modern term for what photographers used to do in the darkroom. Some photographers disdain the idea of post processing and use the philosophy that if you didn't get it right in the camera you didn't do the job.

Other photographers obsessively post-process everything they capture to the point that the image is no longly truly a photograph but becomes, instead, a piece of graphic art. These folks use all the tricks of the computer trade -- saturation, sharpening, Gaussian blur, three or four filters, and so much more that they spend more time working on the computer than they do taking photographs.

There is another set of photographers that take a more lackadaisical approach to photography and use the philosophy that "it can be fixed in post processing." By this, I mean they don't excessively post process, but they're not particular careful with their original image so that they have to post process in order to correct obvious flaws with the image. Typically these go beyond difficult exposure and are in the realm or poor composition and extraneous objects in the field of view.

My philosophy lies somewhere off to the side of all this. I strive to get the image as close to the final product as possible as part of the initial in-camera exposure. In general, however, almost every image I publish will have some degree of post processing applied, though it's typically pretty minor. Usually it's a touch of sharpening and saturation, and if it's a high ISO image, some noise reduction. I try to shoot RAW image formats as much as possible so that I have as much data as possible to manipulate. I am not, however, against extensive post processing to produce a more graphical art type of image. In fact, I think that it's fun and I enjoy playing around with different techniques to produce those types of images.

Usually though, I take a minimalist approach and limit my manipulations to that necessary to subtlety improve the image and I try to make the post-processing indiscernible. Too much processing can render unnatural looking skin and make the model look like a plastic Barbie doll, or it can introduce easily noticed artifacts that detract from the overall look of the image.

The purist will tell you that the best images require no post-processing at all. I'm not sure Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and the other great photographers known for their film and darkroom skills would agree. I imagine that if they were alive and shooting digital today (and I'm sure they would be), they would embrace the computer as their new darkroom and would find the ability to appropriately manipulate their images without smelly and dangerous darkroom chemicals a great leap of technology and in creativity.

Tastes Vary

People vary and that's a good thing.

So, I've only been on Deviant Art a few days, but I've uploaded quite a bit of my work there. It's been interesting to note which images get the most views, which ones get the most comments, and the ones that are collected the most. It's even more interesting to visit the pages of the collectors to see what it is that they enjoy adding to their favorites.

Some people like landscapes, some like flowers, and many, many people like nudes. I suppose that's to be expected, but I was surprised at how many ladies also collected images of the female form. I suppose I shouldn't be as I've been a photographer for many years and I've met lots of women who have enjoyed my more erotic images.

So, I'll keep uploading a variety of work as it seems it does get looked at and enjoyed. That site is certainly helping my enthusiasm for photography, but I think it's more of an ego thing than anything else. I guess everyone needs their ego stroked from time to time.

Themed Photography

I've been working on a series of photos with a unifying theme for a while. I've completed the first set of the series, and it seems that I have models lined up for at least the next half-dozen or so sets. The problem is that I can't seem to get the coordination of models, costumes and weather to cooperate to make much progress on the series. With any luck, though, I'll make better progress this year.

Although, I have no set deadline for any of the sets and the series is open-ended, it would be good to get at least a couple of more sets done this year, possibly even more. Last year there was just so much happening in my personal life that my photographic projects took a backseat to everything else. This year should be better.

I have several photographic expeditions planned and a couple of new and interesting models to work with so I'm looking forward to a fun spring, summer and fall. I already have three locations scoped out for my projects and ideas for what to shoot for each of the sets. So wish me luck.

Deviant Art

My friend, Mark, who lives up on the mountain, got me interested in the deviantART website. It's an interesting site where people can share their art and creativity. It's more than just a photography site as there is a wide variety of artistic endeavors showcased on the site. People share sketches, writings, poetry, computer graphics, and even lyrics to songs they've written. I find that it's quite refreshing to read more about the creative aspects of art than the technical aspects that I find on most photography forums.

I've uploaded a number of my photos and graphic art experiments there, and have received a fairly enthusiastic response, so I'm quite likely to keep posting and contributing there, and I hope to make a few new online friends as well. Some of the people that post there are just beyond talented, and I'm sure I can learn quite a lot from them.

The photo above seems to be a favorite of many on that site and has been "collected" by several folks who seem to think it's a good example of pinup photography which is an area of photographic interest I'm currently pursuing.

If you are an artist in any media, you should probably check the site out if you haven't already done so. You may find something there you like as well as a new outlet for your creativity.

Weekend Trips

We spent the last weekend in the lovely little coastal town of Florence. We had a wonderful time visiting with our friends Mark and Bridgett and their children, Gabriel (Gabby) and Morgan. It was good to get away for the weekend to spend some time with our friends and do some photography in a different part of the state.

Florence is a relatively small town located on the Siuslaw River. Fishing and logging used to be the primary industries, but these days tourism is the major contributor to the area's economy due to the Three Feathers Casino that opened there in 2004 as well as the 40 miles of sand dunes that stretch through the area. The Old Town area is very picturesque with several small and friendly restaurants, bars, shops, and a delectable coffee shop. We had a couple of very nice meals there, and managed to get in a little shopping as well, especially when Wanda found a shop with fairy figurines.

Mark and Bridgett are among our very best friends and we always have a great time when we see them. We met them several years ago at a social event we were hosting at our favorite watering hole. They were brought along by some other friends of ours, and we just seem to hit it off and found that we had many common interests. Since then we attended many events together including the Oregon Country Fair and the Shrewsbury Faire. At the Oregon Country Fair, Bridgett and Wanda make quite the eye-turning pair as they wander around the fair in the sarongs, jewelry and body paint. At the Ren Faires they turn eyes with their lovely costumes and happy smiles.

Since they both enjoy photography, it's always fun to attend events with them. Mark has an excellent eye for composition and seems to enjoy shooting from the odd angle just as much as I do. Bridgett has been known to pick up the camera and shoot from time to time too and I think she looks pretty good holding my big lenses. :) In any case, just about anytime we hang out with these guys, there are cameras and lenses to be found.

Unfortunately, since we all live busy lives and Florence is about 180 miles from Portland, we don't get to see this folks as often as we'd like. Fortunately, in the days of e-mail, instant messaging and cell phones, we do manage to stay in touch and can arrange to meet at various events. And, on occasion, we just meet somewhere along the coast and spend the weekend away from all of our kids. Of course, in the days of e-mail, instant messages, and especially cell phones, we can't get completely away from the kids, but we can get far enough away to have relatively uninterrupted conversations.

But sometimes, it's fun to do things with the family as well. Gabby and Morgan both enjoy the fairs as much as their parents do, especially when they get to play dress up and their parents dress up too. Our kids aren't so much into the fairs anymore, since they're quite a bit older than Gabby and Morgan, so it's fun for us to see them at the various events.

Family and friends are the two most important aspects of life, and we're lucky to have both. Our children and our grandchildren give us the joy of family love, and friends like Mark and Bridgett helps us maintain our sanity by providing the friendship, conversations, and adult companionship that everyone needs to have balance in their life.

Of course, these guys aren't our only friends, but they're the subject of this entry because we just visited them, and I teased Bridgett that I would blog about her. She seemed to think that I couldn't find anything to write about, so I just had to prove her wrong.

Mortality Redeux

My Aunt Joyce died last week. Though she was not in the greatest of health, her death caught me by surprise. When my mother died last summer, I knew that Aunt Joyce wouldn't last too many years longer. After all, she and my mom had lived together in the same small house for more than twenty years, taking care of each other, and sometimes fussing like an old married couple. But Aunt Joyce (actually Great-Aunt Joyce) had always looked after my mother, treated me and my brothers and sister as though we were her own children--all the more so since she did not and could not have any children of her own.

I called her every Sunday to check on her, and sometimes more often if I felt that she wasn't feeling well. She sometimes called me too when she was scared or lonely. When her doctor found a spot on her lung last November, she called me right away and I did my best to reassure her and to calm her down until the doctor could do more test. She told me at the end of the conversation that she was so glad that I was there for her to talk to when she she needed me. I could tell, however, that she was not only scared, but lonely and sad as well, but she seemed to be getting along.

At the end of January though, I called her one weekend and did not get an answer. I tried again the next day, and still didn't get answer. When I called other members of the family, I was told she had been taken to the hospital for a stomach infection. I spoke to her several times while she was there, hoping to reassure her and to remind her she was loved. Then one day, I called her room and there was no answer. Three days later she was gone.

The reason I write this today is that I have an automatic reminder in my calendar that pops up to remind me of her birthday. It popped up to day to let me know it was time to get her a card and small gift in the mail so it would arrive by her birthday. My mom died only four days after her 69th birthday. Aunt Joyce died only 13 days before her 78th birthday and almost 6 months to the day after my mom died. They always needed each other.

Shots from Tonight's Lunar Eclipse

Canon 50mm f/1.4 Article

I just finished writing another article for my personal website. In this case, I wrote a review of the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 lens. You can read it here: Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens review.

I do enjoy reviewing and writing about equipment, and I've received a few kudos for posting my reviews. Often when I'm shooting, I'll consider whether a particular shot will make a good example for review article. For my less frequently used lenses, I have to dig back through an archive of images to find example photographs. Fortunately, the Adobe Lightroom program allows me to filter the images by the specific lenses that were used to produce them. Lightroom has made it much easier to organize and find my photos. It's not only great for reviews, with the judicious use of keywords, it allows me to find almost any image in my extensive library in a very short amount of time.

The photo to the left is an example photo from the 50 f/1.4 and shows this lenses great low-light capability. The image was taken completely by the available light of a little bar in St. Helens, Oregon.

New Article: Composition - Leading Lines, Diagonals and Curves

I just finished writing a new composition lesson on the use of Leading Lines, Diagonals and Curves. The article can be found here on my personal website. It's the 4th in a series of articles or lessons about basic photographic composition.

The lesson discusses the use of lines to add a sense of movement to your images and to guide the eye to various elements within the photograph. It also discusses the use of other geometric entities such as triangles, arcs and curves and elements that can be used within an image to provide spatial separation, to frame and to direct the viewer's eye. I hope it's useful to anyone who has the interest and the time to read it. As always, feedback is welcome.

Misty Morning

When I was in the Submarine Service, my favorite time of day, when in port, was the hour right around dawn. That was the time that I would go up on deck with a cup of hot coffee and watch the sunrise. If it was cloudy, I'd watch the mist rise off the water.

Dawn is a peaceful time of the day. The water is usually calm, the harbor is quiet, and everyone seems to me minding their own business. Since life is pretty hectic on a sub, and very crowded, a few moment of peace and solitude were necessary components to continued sanity.

I captured this image of Mount Vesuvious wrapped in the clouds from the deck of the USS Springfield on a misty day in 1994 when we were moored in Naples, Italy. It was a few days before Christmas, and we had only been in port for a day and a night after several weeks at sea.

Salt Creek

Salt Creek is an area of Death Valley that is both beautiful and intriguing. As you can see in the photo to the left, there is a long wooden boardwalk that stretches into the distance from the parking area. The boardwalk provides a path above the waters of Salt Creek. In the summer, the creek bed is mostly dry and the boardwalk rises over cracked mud and vegetation for most of its length, though there is at least a small amount of water year round.

In the spring, however, the water flows and the streams can be several feet deep and the boardwalk is quite necessary. It's at this time, the Salt Creek Pupfish population explodes and the clear waters of the stream allow clear viewing of these small creatures.

Salt Creek is a beautiful and, in the summer, empty spot. We wandered there shooting photos, even some outdoor glamour stuff, for well over an hour without seeing another soul. It would be a wonderful place to visit again.

Sarongs

I really love the look of sarongs on a model. There's something so sexy, and a bit exotic, about them. The sarong is very versatile too. It can be wrapped in so many different ways and used to hide flaws or to accentuate the form. The fact that sarongs come is so many different sizes, styles and colors is a great benefit as well.

A few years ago, a gentleman in India saw some of my Oregon Country Fair photos. In the images, many of the fair goers were wearing sarongs of one sort or another, including several of the ladies in my party. He really enjoyed the photos and was kind enough to send me a huge box of sarongs from his factory in India for use to use at the next fair. Both of the sarongs seen in this posting came from the supply that he sent to us and I still use them for the fair and for use in photo sets.

Whenever I travel, especially to any place tropical, I always look for new sarongs to pick up for my photography sessions. In 2006, on a trip to Hawaii, we picked up several new sarongs, and even bought some for souvenirs to bring home to the family. These were very well received. they came is especially useful when we had our Luau Party in 2007.

Clothing certainly helps to determine a mood, and sometimes a sense of location, in photography and the sarong suggests an exotic tropical locale, especially used with water and direct sunlight. Add a bit of sandy beach and a model shoot done is Alaska can be made to look as though it was shot on a tropical island.

I used a sarong for this model shoot with Sierra in September of 2007. Even though we were shooting along the Willamette River in Oregon, the sarong and the framing makes it appear as if we were shooting in some exotic tropical location.

So, if you enjoy shooting glamour, or enjoy just want a different look for portraits or other shots, pick up a few inexpensive sarongs and experiment with them. I think you'll find they're a lot of fun for both you and your model.

New Photography Article

Just added a new article about the Columbia River Gorge, one of my favorite places to visit for photography. You can read it here.

You can read about it here.

Feedback is always welcome.

Not much else is happening photographically recently. I did help a friend last night with the flooring in the studio he's putting together over his garage. He has a great space for it, and I've got some gear he can use once the space it all put together. It will be fun working with him and show him how to set up and use studio strobes once we get everything going.

I also ordered a couple of new backdrops from B&H photo. These will come in useful when shooting in limited space as they are the Botero Collapsible units. I'm hoping they'll be just the right size for location shooting and for a smaller studio space.

I had been saving for a couple of new lenses, but unfortunately, the furnace went out on Tuesday, and had to be replaced today to the tune of a little over $2400. That, along with the new garage door openers and the repairs my truck is going to need, will set back my plans for a while. Fortunately, the money for the repairs is available, but it would sure have been nice to hang on to it for a while longer.

I'm getting a bit of the winter photographic blues, so I've been trying to work around them by writing more articles for my website. That's been fun and interesting and it allows me to put my photos to good use by helping others, I hope, learn more about photography, equipment and places to shoot. Still, I'd rather be shooting. Having a read day job puts a crimp in that during the wintertime, since by the time I get home, it's already too dark for outdoor shooting and I don't have any new models to work with right now. But, soon, I hope, there will be more shooting for fun and profit.

Working with MacJournal 5.0

I’ve been trying to find a good journaling interface that will work well with the Blogspot site. I had hopes for MacJournal, so I bought version 3.5 and tried it out. It was fine for uploading text, but it simply couldn’t deal with the photos. That is, to say, it would not let me insert the photos into the entry on the computer and then upload both the text and the photos to Blogspot.com. So, I used the Blogspot online interface, and that’s one of the reasons my entries for the first couple of years were so sparse. It was simply too cumbersome a process to pick out the photos, resize them for the web, upload them to a file sharing site, write the blogger post using their interface, then insert the photos in the right spot. And with the old Blogspot interface is was a major pain.

When the Blogspot interface improved, it became a bit easier, as I could use my own web server where I host my portfolio photos, but I still wanted a one step solution. So, I tried upgrading to MacJournal 4.0.

Despite the upgrade, there was no significant improvement. The Blogspot interface still gave me a better solution for putting the photos and text together - and especially for aligning photos the way I wanted them to be (left, right or center). But, at least with MacJournal 4.0, I had the option of downloading the photos from my online journal into the MacJournal interface so they would show up in the local entries. That was at least an improvement, and I was satisfied to use the improved online interface for Blogspot for the time being.

Then today, I got a notice from Mariner Software that MacJournal 5.0 was available and I could upgrade for a mere $19.95. The press release touted an improved interface with the ability add video and audio to the journal. So, I though, “what the hell” for twenty bucks, I’ll try it out. Maybe it will finally give me the working interface I’ve been looking for this time.

It didn’t. First of all, I’ve lost my ability to download the photos from the entries posted using the Blogspot interface. I don’t know why, as this seemed to work quite well with MacJournal 4.0.

Then, after I downloaded the initial entries from Blogspot, any attempt to download additional entries, caused the program to crash hard. I tried resetting the preferences, deleting the preference, and even removing and reloading the application, but nothing helped.

And, although this version of MacJournal is supposed to let me upload my photos, videos, and audio to an ftp server (preferably my own), it simply doesn’t work. By that, I mean, if I put in the ftp address, provide the correct username and password and the desired path, the files simply don’t upload. Interestingly enough, though, if I use .Mac, the photos do upload and MacJournal correctly links to the images (though without any alignment parameters). That’s what I’m doing with this entry.

You might have noticed that the images associated with this entry are somewhat aligned (left and right), but that’s simply because I’m using a work around of putting tables into the MacJournal entry and aligning the photos into the individual table cells. Edit: The table alignment didn’t work. I had to actually go add the photos later via the blogger interface, so this sucks even worse than I thought it did before.

So, I guess I’m only out $20 for this experiment, and although it does give me a one step option for uploading both photos and text in a simple unaligned format using a non-centralized location for the photos, it’s still a downgrade since I can no longer use the Blogspot interface and then download the entries with photos into MacJournal. I also don’t like having to put the photos into .Mac vs. putting them with the rest of my photos on my own server. Geez, why can’t someone just create a nice elegant user interface that works well across the board?

BTW, the photos are supposed to represent my willingness to experiment. :)

Test with photo

Test with photo and ftp to mac-photo.net

Exxageration (NSFW)

Back a few years ago, a Harley Davidson Drag Racing team came to me with the idea of creating a t-shirt they could sell at their drag meets. They lined up the girls, the graphic artist that would convert the photos into the final t-shirt graphic, as well as the t-shirt printing company. So early one Saturday morning in July, a big trailer pulled up in front of my house, and this very interesting bike was rolled out of the back and into my garage where I had set up a back drop and some studio lights.

The backdrop didn't matter a great deal since it was going to be cut from the final photos when the images were turned into the t-shirt graphics. The interesting part was that the bike, with it's extended front rails was much, much longer than I had anticipated, and though I thought that I had more than enough room in my garage studio, the front end of the bike stuck out of the garage and into the driveway a bit - which prevented closing the garage door.

This really wasn't a problem until the models showed up, and I realized that what the team had envisioned was a couple of nude girls on the bike with their "bits" to be covered by the team banners when the graphic artist did the final work later. To top it off, my 13 year old niece and my 65 year old mother were visiting from their small hometown in Georgia. I wasn't too worried about my mom and my niece, though they were quite curious about what was going on in the garage, but I didn't think it was the best idea to be shooting nudes in my wide open garage on a Saturday morning in the summer.

So, I got the bike team to help me rig another set of backdrops over the garage door to add some privacy and we started shooting. The team had several ideas, and we tried a number of variations, which did include some bikini shots. The rider had to dress up in full leathers and a helmet, and this meant we had to take several breaks to let him cool off (both physically and mentally).

At one point, my niece eluded my wife and manged to get out to the garage to get a drink from the beverage refrigerator, and her eyes got quite wide when she saw the shooting activity. She just had to run back inside to tell my mother that "Uncle Mark has a bunch of naked women and a biker gang in the garage."

Of course, that meant Mom had to come out for a look herself. She just chuckled at the site, and then she started chatting up one of the bike team members. Soon enough the shoot was over, the models hung around to get a few shots for their own portfolios, and the bike team loaded up the equipment in the trailer and got ready to leave. While I was burning the raw images to a disk for the team, the girls got dressed, the team finished their loading and my mom invited them all out to the back deck for a cold beer. She must have kept them out there talking for the better part of an hour, and when she got back to Georgia she bragged about how she had beers out on my deck with a biker gang and a bunch of naked women.