Magic

When Kellie was born I was able to capture some really nice moments. I caught her first breath, her bath and the reactions of siblings to seeing her for the first time. It was amazing, and reminded me why i love photography. Catching the moment that comes once is such an incredible opportunity. You can't stage moments like this, your have to live them and just execute the creation of lifelong memories. I guess as a mentor says, know your gear and don't worry about what you don't have available. If you know what you can do, you'll watch, anticipate and execute inside those limits without thinking. You'll be forced to compose a photo and that makes you a better photographer. I know it worked for me that day one month ago![slideshow]

Life's Little Gifts

Yesterday one of the Greatest of Life's Little Gifts arrived, a healthy baby girl named Kellie Marie. She is all of 7.1 lbs and 19.5 inches long at birth and has me wrapped around her little finger. Later some thoughts will follow...but for now here are some photos from the family experience of one of life's little gifts.

Raising Spirits!

[slideshow] Well my poor boys caught one bug after another for the last 10 days, and today they needed a break from feeling sick.  So when the temperature hit 65 degrees I took them outside and let them race their little Tonka race car.  Kalen got excited as well when I told him I was taking pictures.  So excited that he grabbed his camera to join in the fun of taking photos!

We caught the cars flipping, jumping, and getting stuck in the grass.  I saw boys get excited, laugh and smile in ways they just have not been able to do for a while.  We were sad to come in, but the setting sun dictated we just had to go on to our next set of chores.

On the happy side for me, I was capturing on memory card what I love best...my family.

On the techie side all are shot with my new DA*60-250mm lens.  It did a great job of isolating the subject, focusing quickly and rendering good contrast even at an iso of 1600. Bravo!  Baseball season should be fun!

ehw

Frames and Lines

[slideshow] I went out with the family and my brother's family to the park with the children.  We had just enjoyed several displays (with live examples) about our local reptiles, and I memorized the colors on the Copperhead trapped nicely in the display in front of me.  I just do not like those Copperheads since they come too close to the house for their own good health.

The kids were extremely excited when we turned them loose not the park outside the nature exhibit.  I need to get some practice in on technique.  So today I decided to hone my skills of framing a picture with the environment I'm shooting in with the lines around my subjects.

As Kevin climbed up a slide I knew I could use the slide to aim you up at his face and mischievious grin.  Then he switched to the cargo net.  I quickly crouched down to use the wood and ropes to frame him in.  Kalen tried to do the money rings, and I found converging lines to use in framing his actions.  JuliaRose was jumping on the bridge.  I used the posts to framer her in mid jump.  With her feet bent up she shows there is no floor to box in the shot.  I also wanted to see how Julia's hair would dance around as she jumped.  So there were two goals in the shot.  As with all shots with competing goals...they usually don't completely satisfy both objectives.

Well it felt good to get a little creative today, and practice skills rather than just dream about it!

"Don't take pictures, Make Pictures"...Scott Bourne

ehw

Race Cars

[slideshow] Racing cars come in all shapes and sizes.  This one is my buddy Rich's.  It is fast.  He had it running up to 30-40 mph in bursts of speed.  To shoot the photos in the setting sun and overcast skies I used his Nikon D7000 rig with the 105mm F2.8 Micro.  I pre-focused some of the shots, but the AF is really pretty fast.  I kept the Aperture at F3.3 and let it rip using ISOs anywhere from 1600 to 2200 just because I had to.  Rich did the post processing in Lightroom.

The D7000 is an excellent camera.  It focuses fast and has terrific metering.  The Micro focused far faster than my macro ever would.  It is also amazing.  I could live very well with it if I had too!

Only thing I did not like was the size of the hand grip and the heavy weight.  Small gripes to tell you the truth for what it can do.  My K5 is lighter, and I really don't think it could have focused in the light that I was dealing with here.

Oh well, both excellent pieces of machinery.  The important thing is that it caught some worthwhile memories!

ehw

Light and Lens

[slideshow] I came home Saturday a little frustrated from a shoot with my knowledge of lighting with flash.  I think I've got the shot visualized, do the math about the light in my head, and bam...something was too strong or too weak.  Back the books!

I came home to find the kids and their friends having a blast making Gingerbread Houses and role playing their favorite adventure shows.  I look up and the light is pretty nice.  I visualize happy child, good light...and what if I slipped on my favorite lens...a Pentax 77mm Limited Prime.  I knew I could catch these shots and make a golden memory.

If you want to succeed in flash photography you have to keep working.  Learn, relearn, practice and then practice some more.  When you get frustrated stop for a minute and breathe.

The moral of the story is that light is light.  There is good light and rotten light to photographers.  If you find yourself making bad light and getting frustrated, take a minute to shoot what you can see.  Shoot the seen well, and enjoy the moment you caught something beautiful.  Then start to learn again how to capture that magic when the God given light is not there by using the tools he gave us brains to make (or buy).

Oh and for the record...a lovely prime makes feeling better a lot easier too!

ehw

Farm Days

[slideshow] My Dad acquired a great deal of equipment this year to make his work more efficient.  Since he is being thrifty he picked up a great deal of used equipment, and I find it so darn interesting!  Gears, chains, tires, grease are all just fascinating objects to photograph. These "ancient" pieces of equipment soldier on for generations under good caregiving hands.   I know some of the pieces are at least as old as I am.

Well here is to another day of getting interesting subjects with good light on the farm!

The Power of Parts

[slideshow] I do a lot of photo-journalistic type work.  That is what you get when you cover events that your children do.  I find telling a story with photos and then placing them into a slideshow is an effective method of sharing images and providing context for the whole sequence.

These three photos helped me illustrate our Scouting for Food event.  The words Boy Scouts of America provide context to the event.  Scouting for Food was written on the opening screen.  When that is followed by "Boy Scouts of America" the average person usually conjures up the image of young boys doing good deeds.  The Pack Number on the shoulder was in my opening sequence, and showed off who specifically the photos were about.   The photo of an adult hand recording numbers lets you know we are tracking a number of collections over the course of the event.

By using only parts of uniforms or hands I made the focus not on an individual, but rather on the event, the group and its results.  I told a story not just of my children, but one that many people involved would be desiring to dive into.  It is funny to me, in retrospect, that using parts of a whole person or event can be a very effective way of telling a much larger story.

I guess I should not be surprised.  The trick is as old as time itself.  It is just the first time I created photos during my story collection phase where I was entirely conscious of what my intended results would be.  One more baby step towards being a real photographer.  Now if I can do it two more times it won't be called beginners luck anymore.

Here is the video I made

Scouting for Food 2011

ehw

Software Power

[slideshow] I am currently evaluating software for editing photos.  Selecting a suite is hard because each one displays strengths and weaknesses.  So like everything you have to make the best decision based on logical analysis and your gut reaction.

I put a few fun photos in here to show some before and after effects you can do with digital photography and these nice programs.  The one I used to night is from On One Software can is called Perfect Photo Suite.  This suite offers you the ability to create photoshop layers, and then stack the effects across all the sub programs.  After testing three different software packages this one is the best at integration by far.  Its integration of tools makes it very fast.

On the negative side I think Nik software does better in detailed results.  The problem there remains you have to use each program individually to get the type of effects On One gets in one pass.

So here is a quick conversion of each of my children in their Halloween costumes in to B&W, a vintage film effect and a special effect which removes backgrounds.  Snapshots get a second shot at the keeper bin if given the right effect!

Enjoy!

ehw

Fall Colors

[slideshow] Short days with lovely golden sunlight is the only reason I love the fall.  Problem with working inside all day is that you do not get a chance to capture those lovely rays when they are looking their best.  Instead you grab your camera and shoot a bit while your child is playing baseball...and that gives you twelve minutes of light from 5:45PM to 5:57PM!

Some of my favorite colors are popping now the reds and yellows.  Here are some reds trying to peek out of the shadows at the boys playing ball...and the yellows...well those are for another day!

ehw

Get in a photo

There comes a time when you have to put the camera down and be part of the story.  I really want to capture my children's growth and make it art.  However after being with Kalen for the last four months while he worked on his Wolf badge for Cub Scouts, there was no way I could be outside of this moment in his life. I put the camera on a monopod, program mode and handed it to another nice dad as I walked away.  It was a hard thing to hand over my camera and join the event, but the result was a tremendous capture.  Kalen and a proud Dad in the shadows.  It is a photo story that I am finally part of.  It is a moment I do not want to forget.

Thanks Rodney!

ehw

Capture the Life Moment

[slideshow] At the risk of sounding a little too "Oprahish" when you capture photos try to capture a moment with life in it.  Studio shots have their place, but if you want to remember the fun or life enriching moment you have to catch an element of that in the photo!

In each of these photos I tried to do just that.

I tried to use a little inherent distortion of the wide angle in the big sphere rock folder to bring some focus back to the boys and girls getting wet pushing that rock around.  The shutter speed allows movement to be felt, but captures the frozen focus around the rock of the boys and girls.

You can see the squirt of the water going by Kalen's face...even though he never got wet it certainly appeared that way.  He was laughing when he tried to reach out to the water, and seeing the photo he laughed the same way because it was actually the effect he sought.

In the photo of the boys, Kevin (the little guy) would not stand still.  So Kalen froze him for the photo.  It captures the smiles of two best friends.  The post editing I did lightened up the shadows and smoothed the features a bit to enhance the nostalgia of the photo.

The last two were at today's ballgame.  The first shows Kalen intensely throwing the ball back to the picture.  He wants to own that plate the best he can.  The second shows that even though brother likes baseball, the gravel is so much more fun to play with!

I hope I am illustrating the point well enough here.  In the film based past we needed to take a lot of care with our shots.  Each one cost 25 cents to process.  So you made them count by lining up the actors.  Today take a chance, take a shot if you see elements converging.  Something will pop and you'll have a fitting memory preserved.

ehw

Getting the Point

[slideshow] One technique I have to master is making photographs direct you to a point.  I am going to use two photos to illustrate this.

In the first, the architecture and the colors of the beams all bring your eye to the top of the photo.  As your eye moves, I hope it takes in all the elements of the photo, beams, color and complimentary circular and triangular shapes.  This was nice to shoot because everything was stationary.  I could take my time to compose and shoot.

In the second photo I use three people all doing things to draw you to the "point."  The one boy needing his gear put on, and needing help with the shin guards forms the base.  Kalen and a coach rush to help him get into the field so we don't delay the game.  Both Kalen's eyes and the coaches are focused on the shin guard to bring our entire focus to the problem and its collaborative solution.  The whole photo jelled itself in a matter of seconds.  I was lucky to recognize it, frame it, reset the aperture and click in time to catch it.

Photography is fun, but it is also story telling.  Some stories stand still, and others move. The best photos will convey the story quickly and efficiently.   If a photo leaves you hanging for an answer, you will probably scratch your head an move right along.  Our objective is to not let that happen!

I hope this helps you see one way to make a story come to life!

ehw

While the Five is Away

[slideshow] While the K5 is enjoying an unscheduled Arizona vacation for maintenance, I've been shooting my lovely K200D.  She may be old, but the richness of the CCD sensor at low ISO's is displayed here.

I grabbed a shot of the pitching machine waiting for business.  I loved the play the play of greens, red and blue with a shallow depth of field.

The baseball bats lined up nicely before the game to show off their color and variety.

The boys in motion put on a face and action worthy of a millionaire...if you look through a telephoto!  The capture was my attempt at being a little Norman Rockwellish.

Speaking of Mr. Rockwell!  My lovely family gave me a fantastic 40th birthday present today.  A Boy Scout Eagle Belt and a Norman Rockwell Boy Scouting book.  His vision of what America is will forever be the one in my heart and dreams.  Pride, honor, passion, hard work and reverence for God all stream from every brush stroke.

As I begin the fourth decade of my life today I hope you can see some of that in my photos as well.

ehw

When the greys disappear

[slideshow] Recently I posted a series of black and white photographs.  I was happy with the result at first.  Something was nagging me though, and a friend showed me what is was with a simple comment.  He said "the blacks are too black."

I looked at the photos and realized that I took away the tones of grey usually vital to the success of a black and white.  I did this by adding to much contrast and micro contrast in a tool called curves.  In a color photo, the "punch" added by the curves is usually pretty pleasing.  In my case on top of the black and white, the contrast made the photos too dark to see detail.

To see what I mean I've included correct photo followed by the too dark photo.  We'll see how this website handles the texture when uploaded!

So the next time you process a  black and white, make sure the details you desired or expect are present in your final presentation!  Also remember that friends don't let friends post without making sure the greys are grey.

Please put God with Country today

[slideshow] Today is a special day in many of our lives.  Those of us of the age who can remember probably know the time and place we were when we found our country under open attack by enemies of everything our Founders created.

Today many public officials literally are pushing God out of the public ceremonies as to not inflame our sensitive cultural landscape.  This is a travesty, because no matter who you are and what faith you practiced on that day when you learned the news you probably said "Oh my God what is happening?!"  Then if you were like millions of us in the country we got on our knees, filled churches beyond capacity and prayed to God for those who suffered, those who so gallantly reacted to save lives, and now those who respond in our protection of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Today I ask that each of you fly the flag and attend church with others.  We should be asking God for mercy on us, those who perished and those who live as the one standing between the darkness and the light.

Today's heroes guard the frontier against evil,  build cities, grow crops to feed us, and raise children in light of Christ.  Without any of these heroes we are lost as both a country and civilization.

Uniformed or not, obviously each citizen has a role as "one who stands between the darkness and the light."  None of us are off the hook for ensuring the survival of our experiment of government by the people, for the people and of the people.

God Bless America!

Let us all try to earn that blessing each and everyday!

ehw

Artist and Geek

[slideshow] I am finding that playing with color in a photo is the beginning of making art, and that scares me a bit.  I never thought of myself as an artist.  Photography was one part science of capture (aka geekness) and one part composition (art).  Now as I learn a bit more about image processing, I find that it really is the artist who has to arrive to make a photo come alive.

The great photographers all do extensive work in the darkroom (or on a computer now in digital photography).  I'm told this is where they often create the image their mind saw when they pressed the shutter.  Ansel Adams dodged and burned his compositions into legends.  Artists with brushes did the same for generations before that.

For these photos I played a bit with color on purpose.  In the leaf I provide the photo in color, and the photo I imagined in B&W.  In the Rose I added just a touch of contrast to make the leaves pop out against a complimentary green background.  In the fire bush I removed the yellowish green background of grass to have the red pop from the dark grey background.

For stepping out in to artist realms I hope this is just a beginning for me, and I can continue to make my images art both in camera and in post.

Besides the geek was already having fun since these captures came from my three year old backup camera with my classic 77mm prime mounted!  I had not shot with it for two months and it was feeling lonely, so this was its morning walkabout!

ehw

Close to home

[slideshow] Many times we look at our surroundings and think we have nothing interesting at all around us.  Such a feeling only gets amplified in our digital and fast food world.  Today I took my usual photos at baseball practice, but I set a challenge for myself while cooking dinner to find something in my backyard to make a photo out of.

A log covered by my least favorite local vine created a nice frame for itself.  Then I wanted to photograph a web I found in that vine.  Suddenly a spider appeared to give me an even better subject.  The spider was pretty hard to catch in the falling light though.  Of six shots only one was any good.

The moral of today's story is that something around us will always be interesting.  You just have to get your eye to stop looking at what you always looked at before!  Look at it like a child does a new toy, and a vision will spring out at you that you never saw before.

EHW

Come and Dance!

Capturing the emotion of flowing motion is something my daughter gives me a few chances to do each year.  Here the girls are lining up for their final pose, and I saw this standard group shot forming before me.  Then I realized on the camera was a telephoto prime, and I had to quickly think beyond the snap shot and make one.

I remembered, telephoto means compression, compression of many arms makes them appear as one, and inside that mass were a dozen hopes and dreams of dancing sugar plums.

Something a little different and I hope it captured a moment to remember!

One Eye at a Time

[slideshow][gallery] One Eye at a Time

During Kalen's Birthday I just wanted a few snapshots of all the children at this milestone.  Something kept nagging me though....it was the desire to make a picture.  One of my podcasting mentors, Scott Bourne, always closes his show with the tag line, "Don't take pictures, make pictures."

He is correct.  Unless you are  a rare bird who is a natural at photography and art you need to think out a picture. It is no different than thinking out this blog post...decide the story you want to tell, then identify the elements in the scene before you, compose and shoot.

For this photo I wanted to shoot something making you want more.  So to do that I photographed a portion of their faces, the eye.  This way you look into their soul just a bit.  I also intended to turn the photo into a Black and White to take away just a portion of reality and let let you focus on their shape and image more than color.

An experiment to be sure, and one of many I hope to share here on my blog.

EHW