Tow Truck

Nothing wrong with this little tow truck...still got another 100K in these tires!  Just the driver is finally growing out of it!

With this shot I wanted to test the depth of field a telephoto would deliver.  I wanted the car and driver in focus, the background into bokeh.  Since the car is in this photo the long way, you have to make sure your depth of field covers more than the driver's eyes.  In this case I went wanted from bumper to bumper.

I accomplished this by going f5.6 on an APS-C Pentax K-5 at 220mm (330mm equivalent 35mm).  I think it worked pretty well, let me know what you think!

-ehw

Pool Shark

My son plays his first game of pool...while doing a Cub Scout achievement no less!

To capture a moment of timeless contemplation what else to do other than get a nice photo finished as sepia?

I am really starting to enjoy environmental portraiture.  To photograph people in their element makes catching a glimpse of their soul so much easier!

For you camera geeks like me...shot with a Pentax K-5, Sigma 17-50 F2.8 OS with reflection coming off the pool table itself actually giving me some fill light!  Fantastic combo of camera and lens.  Post was completed in Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

-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

Motherly Love

My youngest was feeling under the weather Friday...doing better now but not getting far from a parent's arms (writting one handed now as I make this Saturday AM).

I love capturing these emotional scenes. They really speak to the moment, and tender love my wife gives the children.  It speaks volumes to the peace I feel when I come home at night. (Yes even with four kids you can have peace in your home).

On an editorial note...I edited this RAW photo with a few curves, and a brush to handle shadows on my daughter's face.  Overall I wanted a more analog quality to the photograph.  I personally like contrasty photos with natural skin tones.  In this photo the light in the room reflecting off those purple/pink sheets gave everything this glow I wanted to keep.  It was that color mood I wanted to freeze.

Is that perfectly, and technically correct?  Nope.  Is it what every camera maker and software converter does when they process your photos into JPEGs though!

So just be aware that you are always being influenced by different parts of the photographic process.  Everything from 77-automatic exposure zones, to JPEG processing, to the color calibration of your screen, and a hundred other sub-routines we cannot even begin to fathom.  If you want to be in charge of the memories you make, be aware of this and take charge of the photo wherever possible in this process so it looks the way you want.

...and that will take me to tomorrow's piece...

-ehw

Bright Light in the house!

For this little challenge I wanted to do two things: Study a high contrast light environment in post and see what type of results my little Fujifilm X10 can make in this harsh environment.

I took several pictures, but this one looking up and into light gave me the photo with the highest contrast between highlights and complete darkness.

I like the color range and detail rendered despite the bright light attempting to overpower both.  To prevent radical blowout of highlights, and the edge areas between them, I used the camera's EXR mode with a -1.33 exposure.  I ran it through Perfect Effects to help bring out some details, and extend the dynamic range with some HDR effects.

This little camera had a ton of data for the Perfect Effects to work with (much more than I anticipated).  Remember, the best software in the world can do nothing if you and the camera give it bad data to work with.  What you see is the result of my two minute and done rule in post.

So the moral of this story is to push the limits of a scene by taking enough shots to find one which will get the effect you want, and remember to use post processing to pull all the data out of the photo possible to give you the best image possible.  A corollary to running through many perspectives is to work with other settings such as exposure compensation in each camera position to observe its effects on dynamic range and composition.

-ehw

Edge to your photos

I just had to try this...

My lovely daughter was enjoying her book in the warm afternoon sun, and I wanted to see what effect camera tilt would have on the scene.

When you are taking a photograph most of the time you want the horizon to be perfectly straight.  That way the viewers mind does not have distractions.  The scene looks like it "should."

If you tilt your camera just a little, you make the viewer have to search and make sense of the photo.  Sometimes being off horizontal can also give the photographer a "this is real life in motion" feeling.

If you do this every once in a while ok...but do it for an entire photo album?  Sorry not for me.  I'd bee sea sick and ready to head for steady shores.

-ehw

Color me Purple

I was out front a little while ago on a glorious Sunday and was playing a bit with backlight and fill flash...

While developing the "roll"I thought it would be fun to make the purple really stand out and make a statement.  What better way to make a photographic color statement than to make it the centerpiece of the photo?

Since one of my co-workers today said they liked photos with one color left outstanding, I thought I'd make this post for him!

-ehw

Friendly Surprise

When you lay on your back to photograph a flower always remember to keep an eye on your surroundings.

I turned and looked up to find this guy about to breathe on my face...luckily with a snap shot I caught him looking pretty cool inches from my nose.

This was a surprise...why?

I don't own a cat.

I was in my own yard.

I'm allergic to cats.

My favorite cats are the neighborhood mouser and snake eaters...all others need to keep a respectful distance.

My five year old (child 3 of 4) and wife...well they love cats.  They'd have one if I was eaten by this one.

Well luckily this guy did not lick my face.  He works very well as a good mouser and snake eater.  He belongs to a neighbor who rescues cats.  She has four or five that roam the neighborhood.

Two of them work shifts in my yard.  Every once in a while they pose for me after they get happy petting visit from my cat loving son.

Ok so the moral of the story is?  Just keep your eyes on more than the pretty picture.  Especially if you want to visit Africa, Brazil, Los Angeles, Chicago, downtown Atlanta...there are dangerous cats that might visit you not so nicely if you forget to monitor your surroundings.

-ehw

UP! UP! And Wonderful!

I was enjoying a birthday party with my family at the Georgia Aquarium and as we walked a ray of light ran over my head...so I looked up to behold...this wonderful sight!

I loved the confluence of the circles, rectangles, reflections extending the scene into the glass and the beyond.

So the moral of the story is an old one.  When you are roaming looking for photos remember the world goes left, right, up and down!

-ehw

REACH!

Visiting the park is a joy...you see the fearless try to fly and the nervous take small steps...but the kids just know to keep moving.  If you stop moving of course parents may just find you and take you home!

For this one I framed and shot the photo a little larger and cropped when I got home.  I do that a lot when photographing action.  You just have to know where you put your focus point, and make sure that was actually the part of the photo you wanted attention drawn to.

Some people do focus, recompose and then shoot.  This is ok if you are using a really large depth of field, but will not work on shallow depths.  The focal plane will just be too small, and your properly composed shot will be out of focus on the heart of your photo.

So the moral of the story is...frame enough to catch the action and then use your little select autofocus point option to get the part of the photo you want sharp.

-ehw

Why I shoot to capture the joys of life.

This is why I capture photos...to celebrate the joys and trials of life.  They remind me why we as a family have to fight through the troughs to ride the crest into the shore.

What you see here are two of highs of the last twelve months.

Kellie Marie is our fourth child.  We prayed long and hard for her to come join us...the adventure of pregnancy was a tough one.  The reward however is beyond anything a word or photo could do justice to.

To get that child and her three siblings to a happy birthday we had a job transfer, new city, new church, started to make new friends...and left our old secure network of friends and family....and new bonds formed between the children, parents and family in our new home.

Many troughs to navigate, but on the crest of the last weekend where we saw happy family and friends celebrate here first year.  It was a glorious day to celebrate the lives God gave us all.

-ehw

Heavenly Helpers

On a bright sunny day the angels in the front window shone bright with the light from above...

What I tried to do with this photo was catch a frame inside the frame.  I did this by using the extreme contrast between the light and dark areas going from inside out.

I did learn a good deal about the difficulty in obtaining focus from an object with very high luminosity and high reflections.  If you are shooting in the same conditions, I would suggest finding the best defined contrast location and using that to focus.

-ehw

Scouting Growth

I often don't get to travel and grab majestic photos of the grad highlights of the world outside of work travel.  Usually the reason is that I am helping nurture the greatest treasures we all have...our children.  Whether it is my family, or my extended scout family, it is the focus of what we do all the time.

This photo shows three of my cub scouts doing one of our projects.  They are completing a diorama.  I showed them how to mark off an area where they would put the "fort" and now they had to place the catapult, trees, soldiers, earthworks and catapult projectiles.  We'd then glue everything down and be ready to show it off at the pack meeting.

This is all part of an 18 month project to get them ready for Boy Scouts where they will set the agenda and execute it.  In little steps they are learning to draw out plans on a board, identify materials required to make the project, identify who has the skill to do the job, and then think through spacial relationships to make it all come together.

It is an awesome adventure for both them and us parents.  Thankfully I have good parents who are fully involved the program, and we've resolved we are not going to make this play time....we're making it focused character growth time.  Things like launching playdoh bombs from a working model catapult..well that is just tactile reinforcement of a job well done!

-ehw

Where I have not gone before...

Well this is a fun blog for me!  My Christmas tree, decorated exclusively with Star Trek ornaments, is about ready to come down.  Before it went I just had to take the blog to someplace it has not been before!  SPACE!

Star Trek and the Next Generation were my favorite shows growing up.  I always preferred the optimism of the first series rather than the darkness of many succeeding ones.  One of my favorite episodes was Darmok in Next Generation.  Why?  Because two beings had to solve an "impossible" puzzle of communications to help their people communicate with one another and prevent a misunderstanding....and they were willing to die to make it happen.

And that goes into my thought of the day....don't be afraid to take a chance.  My wife and I tried to get some of my photos placed in a gift shop a few days ago.  The owner was very nice, but it really did not fit her shop's current inventory...and there is no space at all on a wall.  She uses every inch very well.  So she complimented the photos and said, "No Thanks."  She did take my card and offered to refer some customers to me looking for portraits.

When my wife asked me later about it, she was curious why I was not the least bit upset.  I told her that we did something we had not ever done before.  We got a referral opportunity we did not have earlier in the day, and we still had money for dinner!  There was nothing lost in the attempt, and a lot learned in the process.  The next time we will be better prepared, and go further into the unknown...maybe even make a sale!

I listened to two podcasts with successful photographers today (one on Photofocus and one on The Candid Frame..go try them out) and both reiterated we must be cautious, but not frozen by our fears.  If we do not experiment, or look beyond the normal of our existence we learn nothing and do not grow.  We'd be afraid to take criticism and then never listen to other people honestly.  We could never have a true collegial discussion balancing faith, emotion and reason on important issues of our day, art or business.

So I'm going to try and keep moving boldly...innovate...learn...grow...and try to chase my dream a little bit further to where I have not gone before.

-ehw

PS Thanks to my wife I have the support to move along...and I am very happy she chose me 14.5 years ago is a life far, far away!

Skip Cohen is Back!

Hello everyone!

Skip Cohen has been very helpful to me as a mentor in learning about the business of photography.  He's got me introduced to some great photographers and friends in the industry in the last few months.  He has an interesting past full of helping others at PPA, Hasselblad, and through Skip's Photo Network.  You can follow his latest sharing resource at www.photoresourcehub.com.  If you want to learn, grow and go somewhere on the professional side of photography he has lessons or experts he shares everyday.

So when he asked me to put out a short message for him it is a no brainer to do him a favor.

"Skip Cohen is Back!"

What it means I do not know....but I am sure we shall see soon

-ehw

Sunday Morning Reflections - What a way to start the year!

Great line about "family" in Skip's post today.  As an Army Brat I can say with confidence that the quote could come from scripture..the proverb goes: "Do not give up your own friend and your father's friend; do not resort to the house of your kindred when trouble strikes.  Better a neighbor near than kin far away."

Proverbs 27:10 (NABRE)

Enjoy!

Sunday Morning Reflections - What a way to start the year!.

Study in Light

I was testing out a new camera and I observed these lights in the dining room.  I wanted to see how the sensor would handle the bright filament.  Would it totally destroy the photo?

Well...it did not.  Instead I got a very nice study in light my naked eye could not see!  The study I enjoyed the most was the "bent" light coming from the glass around the filament.  I enjoyed the curves above and below the lights, and the built in vignette coming from my focus on the bight light at the heart of the photo.

So the moral of the story here is to remember that glass is a very helpful element in a photo, but sometimes you just have to take the shot and adjust based on the elements composing your photo.

-ehw

Hardship and toil...they saw it too...

This weekend my church celebrated the Holy Family.  It is my wife's favorite mass of the year.   It is a very personal theme for us, and gives us as a role model family to look up to.

This statue sits outside our church, and on the cold rainy we saw today it reminded me of their challenging life together.

Here we have a man and woman, given the mission of raising Christ.  They are displaced from home during the pregnancy, chased into exile by a homicidal king killing every male child from Bethlehem, go into Egypt a country alien to them with nothing but their clothes and talents, and finally they lose their child in the temple together.  They fought hunger, exposure, heat and other men to survive.  Any way you chalk it up, this family faced hardship, toil and challenges matched by the most unfortunate in this world past and present.

Through all these challenges, and the madness of trying to keep their family alive, they still found time to listen for the direction God sends each of us for these adventures.  The most prolific messages came from angels, but I often wonder how many were just whispers in the wind of the desert or the guidance of old proverbs.

Our pastor today at mass reminded us, the last words we hear attributed directly to Mary are at the wedding in Cana.  There she instructs the servants to do whatever her son directs them to do.  This in a manner was the culmination of the Holy Family's stewardship of the Son of God.  The love of Joseph and Mary ensured the people of the world have the word of God no longer confined to angels and prophets.  We actually have it now available to us in the first person.  The words of Christ in the bible direct our hearts and actions on the way to communion with the Father because of their faith.  It is the Holy Family's eternal gift to our past, present and future.

So this year, I challenge myself and anyone else out there to 1) Read the words of Christ and 2) Meditate on those words.  Just then maybe out hearts will hear the whispers of wisdom directing you through life's challenges in the fashion Jesus directs.

Who knows...we just may find ourselves following the footsteps of the Holy Family!

-ehw

P.S.  The inspiration to write this came from the image of the stature I saw at church, and the many friends and family of mine of know of in crisis.  Please pray for them and all those you know of in need as well.