He is Risen! He is Risen indeed!

 

After watching the altar stripped and made bare on Thursday, it was so refreshing to come back and see it set to celebrate his rising!

The contrast between Thursday's post and today's could not be greater.  As a photographer, much of my mind is constantly searching the world in front of me for a composition.  Something in the daily course of life that tells a story.

Friday while at Stations of the Cross, with the bare sanctuary I remembered the lessons of black and white photography.  In B&W you strip something normal from the picture, in this case color.  This absence of color subconsciously forces the viewer to look for patters, form, contrast changes and ask why something familiar looks different.  Good B&W artwork lets you appreciate the world in a way you never could before because of the forced re-examination of the "normal."

For three days I forced myself see the world differently and I heard it in my devotional.  I took home lessons I was not ready to receive at different points in my life...and have a new set of challenges I hear Christ calling me to rise myself up to.

I hope you have a good Easter celebration today, and accept whatever challenges God has set before you to come closer to him and his people.

-ehw

The Way of His Cross

It was all done to save each of us...the pain...the suffering...the perfect sacrifice of God's only son as ransom for our lives.

Through the suffering he delivered his last sermon.  He demonstrated his love for us while he lived out the ancient prophecies.

Now we have a long night to contemplate the way of the cross...and if we will begin accepting its calling to change our lives.

-ehw

Prayers for Jack Please!

I'd like to ask a great favor from everyone who sees this blog over the weekend.  It involves prayers for a very good man and his wife.

We honored WWII veteran Jack at our little Cub Scout Veteran's Day ceremony back in November.  He's 90 now, but in this photo you see 17 year old Jack in the US Navy at the end of World War II on his Destroyer Escort.  A very little tin can that floated all over the Atlantic Ocean protecting troopships and the merchant marine from submarine attacks.

Jack sits right behind us at church every week with his lovely wife Ann....and he got charmed by my toddler every week for the past year until about five weeks ago.

Concerned that I had not seen him or his wife, I found his number an called this week to make sure everything was ok.  Unfortunately Jack fell, and was in the hospital for 11 days.  Now he is in a rehab facility trying to get out and home.

His wife is exhausted, but she shared with me that she could tell people like myself were praying for them when they were not at church.  She felt the prayers were what was giving her the strength to keep up her care for Jack in the long days since his fall.

To help with get some extra prayer support please say a prayer and "like" this page.  On Easter Monday I would like to give Jack and Ann a simple present.  A long list of people who are praying to God for their continued strength as they continue their loving example as a married couple working through the challenges of life.

Thank You for a even a moment of prayer for this good family to help them keep living out their faith.

-ehw

Published on Bill Fortney!

 

Hey Hey!

My friend Bill Fortney just published one of my HDR photos to illustrate how you can use various types of tripods to get "surprising" shots.

To check it out please go here!   http://billfortney.com/?p=7863

In this photo I wanted to try and see what motion would look like in an HDR photo.  In my first attempt the exposures were way to long, and the trains actually disappeared.  So unlike my other HDR where I kept the ISO down at 80, these are way up at 1600.

And in my final photo of the day I wanted you to see what it looks like when a group photo is requested...and you get a lonely tripod field of dreams...

If you get a chance do attend a His Light Workshop!  It is so much more than the photos!

-ehw

Field of Dreams

Went out to test a new camera tonight....a Fujifilm X20.  Out of the box, with no manual read yet...all I can say is that for a point and shoot I am amazed.  Almost able to do sports photography AT NIGHT!

I picked up this camera as a go everywhere camera.  I really enjoyed the X10, but this new camera has a viewfinder which actually works.  I can read focus point and other information inside the viewfinder.

There are a lot of other little improvements I still have to learn, but so far so great.

For this photo I shot it in color, and converted it to B&W in Perfect Suite's B&W.  I used a full dynamic range B&W conversion, and loved what I saw on the big screen in terms of available range and detail.

So far highly recommended....just too tired tonight to write or think any harder.

-ehw

Game on!

T-Ball season is on!  I've been moving up the baseball chain with my older son, and now its time for my younger son to join in the games.

This is a typical early season sight...multiple players creating a scrum for the baseball...oh that's a rugby term?  Well it might as well be rugby for the first few weeks.

By the end they will start actually making a few plays..that is just the way it is.

So the challenge for the photographer is finding the scene which captures the love of this new game...with the innocence of youth springing forth in boundless energy.

In all, it is a wonderful journey to take frame by frame.

Because in a blink of an eye they will be....ready to fly away.

-ehw

Self Portrait

Just had such a fun time this weekend, that I also snapped a quick one of me that actually came out alright...

I will not make self portraits a habit, but for a change up I wanted to toss it in.

-ehw

Bel Air Glamor

One of the effects of HDR photography is also to bring out textures and color in a very realistic way.

I took this photo and had some fun with it in HDR Efex Pro 2, then ran it through Color Efex 4.  Sharpened to taste and called it a day.

RC Conception pointed out to us on the second night that the purpose of HDR is to get a good product to finish in post processing.  He found many people shot, process and don't finish.

It would be like writing the first acts of a play, and then walking away from the final act.

I called this Bel Air Glamor because the Glamor Glow filter seems to be all the rage in many a circle today, and I wanted to try it out for myself.

If you want to see some really extraordinary HDR check out both RC Conception's website and Jim Begley's.  Both are true master artists with this technique.

Check them out at www.aboutrc.com and www.wowphotoshdr.com.

-ehw

-ehw

Mail Time!

Day Three at the Old Car City HDR Workshop took us to the Duluth, Georgia Southeastern Railway Museum.  Twenty six photographers danced their way through this car...which except for the cooking cars was the top attraction for the day.

The team was fantastic. During the day talked gear, life, Christ, and how to get shots right in camera.  It was big boy rules, if you wanted help you got it.  If you did not want help you just shot... and shot...and shot again.

This postal car was the first scene one I wanted to process and share.

I'll write more later.  For now I wanted to let you know to keep His Light shining in your hearts and send it out for all to see.

God Bless.

-ehw

Buick at Peace

A lovely day to shoot in Northern Georgia..Day Two of His Light's Old Car City HDR Workshop.

Check out www.billfortney.com to see what it is all about...It is heaven sent for photos and the soul.

More later..in class now!

-ehw

Day One at Old Car City

Heading back into the evening class...put wanted to post something from this morning.  Six miles of trails and seventy years of cars to photograph!  I only covered two small yards so far, and they are full of fun shapes and images just crying to be photographed.  I am of course the only Pentax shooter here!  So my stuff does not get borrowed much for some reason.

Getting ready for critiques tonight and learning from what I've done and failed to do...

More tomorrow!

-ehw

Old Car City

I arrived and met the gang of His Light Photographers...

This weekend will primarily be an HDR photograph weekend.  That means multiple exposures with the same aperture which over and under expose the image.  This batch of photos becomes data for combination into a single image.  A program will merge the images, taking the best exposed parts of each exposure and make them one photo.

Why do this?  Well a camera, even the best camera built, still cannot see what your eye sees in one frame.  So to replicate what your eye sees you need merge a few frames and make and HDR to capture the dynamic range of light that is actually right in front of you...if you look hard enough.

If you want to know what is going on, and the program...I'll fill you in a bit over the next few days.  Until then check out

www.billfortney.com  and see what it is all about.

-ehw

On Freedom's Wings Pt 1

Driving to work today I swung by the airfield to see Memphis Belle on her annual visit to Atlanta.

She will fly over my office a few times during her visit, and the roar is tremendous.  I cannot image the site of a 1,000 plane raid, with hundreds of fighters darting around guarding the flock.

This aircraft was also the first plastic model I ever built, with my Dad after my first communion.  It hung over my bed for years with doors open  suspended by fishing line.

I'll post a few variations of the photo to show the effects of creating a black and white from this image...but today I just wanted to imagine walking out to the flight line on a cold English morning and getting ready to risk my life fighting for freedom in the skies  of Europe.

-ehw

White Out!

What kid does not like Power Rangers?  Heck I like them when I was a kid listening to them in Japanese in an Army Post in Japan in 1982!

Well I needed to practice with my flash and lighting this weekend and I wanted to try blowing out a background with a color gel.  So I got a few willing volunteers to hop in and play Pink, Green and Blue Rangers.  This is one of the final shots.

Set up?  Standard camera with short zoom.  One constant florescent into and umbrella to the left of the picture in front of my son.  One medium strength flash fun on manual set behind my son on a flash stand with a green gel.  Remote trigger via a radio popper.

When it fires it gives me a pretty well blown out set of white double doors acting as a back drop.  I could improve on the glow a little by adjusting the distance of my son from the door to create more separation and using s diffuser of some sort.

As it was I am happy to get the subject in focus and depth of field set properly so he remains the focal point of the photo.

I am pleased to report all three customers were happy with their final portraits!

-ehw

Fun Under "Water"

A trip to the Atlanta Aquarium a few weeks ago brought up this fun opportunity to shoot under "water."  As you walk through the plexiglass tunnel huge fish and sharks swim over you.  Amazing stuff.

Now to shoot underwater like this will trick your white balance.  So you have to either adjust it there or in post.  Not being the good boy, I did it in post processing.  Doing it in post should never be your default...I know...but I was running and snapping away for two grandparents, two sets of parents and seven kiddos.  So I chose to shoot and then fix in post.

-ehw

Spring's a coming!

Signs of Spring are popping out here in Atlanta.  Just about one year ago we saw out current home for the first time.  It was the third of forty homes we would see...and I knew it was "the one".

If I get to shoot it again I'll try for the hyperfocal effect..but for now the hint of Spring color on a warm later winter day will have to do!  In this shot I wanted the heavy bokeh and got it instead of hyperfocal.

Techies...K-5 with 60-250 set at 153mm ( 229mm in 35mm terms), F4.5 and 1/400 @ ISO200.

-ehw

Friday Night Family

By Friday I am smoked.  Coming home from work all I could think of was getting dinner down and crashing.  As God would have it I walked into the kitchen with four kids all doing their assigned tasks (table setting, feeding baby, getting water) while Mom and the five year old boy spoke to Grandma on the phone about his Valentine card.   Somewhere in there dinner was almost done on the stove.  Each child broke away from their job one at a time to give me a hug before I put my work bags away and hang up my coat.  We had a great dinner, and then my daughter hopped to her newly assigned duty of clearing the kitchen with me.

The reason you see her smiling...is not because Dad was goofing off with his camera ... but because I had her favorite music kicking on my iPad.  We trade turns choosing songs while we work.  It is sweet and fun to be able to enjoy my eldest daughter on nights like this..and let me remember why there was so much more than a nice nap waiting for me at home on Friday night.

For you techies...nothing fancy.  Just a snap with Mr. Pentax K-5, Sigma 17-50 zoomed out to 50mm  So on the crop it gives me a 75mm short telephoto compression effect.  I used a high contrast B&W conversion in Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 with a sepia tint.  I used a U-Point option here to increase the exposure on her face and skin...which of course helped remove some minor flaws just like they do with fancy smancy models.

-ehw

Winter Holds On

Winter is holding on for another weekend here in Roswell, GA.

This was an experiment to capture the feeling of being in the woods on a cold day with a "small" sun fighting through the trees.

The lens is at 68mm (102mm equivalent) and then closed down the shutter to F29.  I went to B&W in Silver Efex Pro 2, and then added a hint of contrast and structure to enhance the star burst a bit.

Please let me know if I got the effect I wanted!

-ehw

Valentines Day with Four...

Even with four little ones, and a crazy week of family trials we had a great night!  I hope you did as well!

I really did not know how my wife did it, but she pulled it all off.  Candlelight dinner for six...Pork Tenderloin, Roasted Potatoes, and Squash for the toddler.

Just a quick snap with my little X10 and some photo fun in my current favorite editing app Perfect Effects 7.1. Both have a light HDR effect added to enhance the dynamic range of the photos.

-EHW

Do you capture or create?

When you say, "Lets go out and take a photo!" do you usually record a scene or create a scene?

This is important for us to all examine if we want to improve our photography.  Why?  Well if you are a creator you might miss the elements in front of you in your haste to make your creation.  If you are a recorder you may forget that you can enhance the scene with a new element added by you.

What got me thinking of this was this photo.  I was walking by the grotto at church, when I saw all these elements (frame, ground light, sunlight, perspective and golden rule potential) create a possible composition in the morning light.  I then asked myself..but could I build this photo myself?

So this is setting me on a little path of needed enlightenment.  Now I have to not only look at scenes for what they are, but evaluate what they could be if I develop my creativity as well as my recording skills.

So what are you?  And what does that say about what you need to develop to meet your full potential?

-ehw