Well, to be specific, it’s actually a marsh.  But same idea.  And lots of fun – definitely worth the early hour and the short drive across town.

Tried the park at sunrise, hoping to find the Bluebirds from last week flitting about their nest box, maybe even with some signs of youngin’s about.  Nothing.  I spent an hour there, watching and waiting, and except for a single very noisy catbird, the place was deserted.  I don’t know what happened to the Bluebirds, but I’m quite sad to find them gone.

Went back out in the afternoon, figuring that the elements were right for some IR photography.  I might as well have pounded my head on the floor.IR photography is one of those tricky subsets that really does require special equipment to have any chance at, and unfortunately there are only two levels: an IR filter, or a camera IR conversion.  The filter runs about $50, while the conversion is more like $300.  Oh yeah, and the conversion is permanent.  Since I don’t have a spare camera to sacrifice, about a year back I picked up a Cokin IR filter.  Since then, I’ve taken it out about a half-dozen times, pretty much whenever I feel the need for some good, head throbbing, hair-pulling frustration.

So where to start?  Maybe with the fact that, with the IR filter in place, you can’t actually see much through the viewfinder – it’s very dark, and unless there’s some bright sky in the frame, you can forget composing with the filter on.  Unless of course, you suck up your old fashioned preferences and turn on the damn LiveView. (Okay, so maybe it has a few uses.)

The problem is that even after finally composing the photo, finally finding the right exposure (since the meter doesn’t read correctly, either), and getting the shot, it still looks like solid red crap, even with a custom white balance set.  Apparently Adobe ACR can’t read the extreme white-balance shift, and so succumbs to the intense red of the filter.  (Canon’s DPP can handle the custom setting, but since I hate the software with a passion, we’ll skip over that.)

The solution is to simply bring the crimson tide stained image into Photoshop, run Auto Levels, then convert it to B&W with some minor tweaks to the color channels…well, the red and magenta channels, at least.  The result still doesn’t look like the IR images you see from converted cameras, but at least it’s something.  I did some internet searching this afternoon and came upon one final trick that helps kick things up a notch:

On all the shots posted here, after everything else was done, I used the Photoshop filters to first Add Noise in the Gaussian setting (at a low level, like 2), and then Distort –> Diffused Glow (at mid to high levels, on a duplicate level, it’s opacity reduced to around 25%).  What these last steps do is to recapture some of the missing IR look, that slightly soft, glowing effect that makes IR photos so distinctive.

(Click for larger size)

So really, none of these came out the way I had hoped – which is pretty much par for the course for me when it comes to IR.  Despite being able to (sorta’) fake it in Photoshop, I’d much rather just get it right in the camera.  What’ll happen now is, I’ll curse at the IR filter and throw it back in the closet for another 4 months.  Then sometime down the line I’ll collect up enough misplaced confidence to take it out and try it all again.  Maybe I’ll get a bit closer next time.  Until then, my advice is this – if you really want to do IR, find point & shoot with decent performance and get it converted.

Yeah, it’s just your standard Eastern Cottontail bunny – there’s about 500,000 of them around this year, and every one of them has managed to elude my previous attempts at getting a decent photo.  This guy looked up from his breakfast, but didn’t much care that I was around, and let me get in pretty close and get some good shots.

I like the first shot better, where he’s looking up from amid the tall grass.  But this one shows more of his body, so I included it too.  The small size doesn’t do them justice – at full resolution, you can easily see the full texture of his fur and each individual whisker.

There’ll be more to come tomorrow – this was just the beginning of a highly successful morning outing!

This would probably have been better if I’d gotten closer to the grass in the foreground, to make it a bit more defined.  Shot this at f/3.2, so the grass is really the only thing in sharp focus.  There as plenty of light for f/11 – I even shot a few frames that way.  But I liked this version better, with the shallow DOF seeming to accent the softness of the fog.

I like the shot, even though I’m not convinced it works perfectly.  And I did fall for running it through the Velvia action, which I added as a new layer over the original, with the opacity turned down to about 30%.  The original had a very pastel pallet, which was nice, but the Velvia action bumped the colors up just enough to give back a bit of the punch.  (I’m not sure that it really comes through well on here, though.)

Still playing with the fog here, this time leaving it natural without an enhancements aside from a slight S-curve.  My processing varies wildly, even within photos from the same shoot.  I tend take them as they come – some shots demand minimal processing, while others are better off when enhanced.  Sometimes it’s just fun to take a photo and go a bit crazy with it.

And here I am breaking rules and shooting into the sun, with silhouetted foreground elements.  It took several tries to get this one right; the meter is nearly useless in situations like this.  Meter the foreground and you’re blow the back way to hell; meter the back and everything will be too dark.  I just spin dials and chimp until I’m happy.  It’s not scientific, it’s not drawing on reams of photographic experience – it’s just eyeballin’ it until it works.

This is what happens when I go out in the morning without any real plan, on these mornings when I’m just happy to be out enjoying the world.  Sometimes there’s a good scene, sometimes not so much.  Without the fog, this morning would have been a bit bland.  So thank goodness for the fog.

- Senior portraits: finishing Mandy’s and then I’ll have a second shoot later in the summer with a high school senior. I’m working to further finesse my outdoor portrait technique, so you can expect some tips and pointers on lighting, posing, etc.

- Mandy’s Graduation Party: I’m listing this one here, but it’s by no means an official shoot.  This is going to be candid shots throughout the afternoon, until either the natives refuse to let me chronicle anymore of their antics, or I’m…um…unable to handle the camera anymore.

- Mid-Atlantic Air Museum’s WWII Weekend: I love airshows, but this will be the first one I’ve been to in years, and the first time I’ll really get to try my hand at aviation photography.  WWII warbirds are some of the most beautiful aircraft ever built, and the chance to photograph these living legends is thrilling.  I’m doing a lot of reading to get ready for this one – it’s gonna’ rock!

- Summer Vacation: taking a week this summer and heading off somewhere.  The destination is still vague.  It’ll most likely be Vermont, with the possibility of quick trips both around the state, and maybe even to neighboring regions.  (I’m itching to revisit Franconia Notch in New Hampshire, for instance.)  It’s an actual vacation, with the goal of getting away and relaxing.  But there’ll be photos, at at least one day dedicated purely to photography.

- NE Strobists GTG II: The first workshop back in February was a huge success and a ton of fun, and everybody said they’d like to do it again.  So I’m looking into options and am going to see if I can’t put something together for this Autumn.  Last time we booked a hotel conference room, which worked out, but wasn’t very inspiring (we ended up outside on a loading dock, shooting models atop dumpsters).  This time I’m going to find a much cooler setting that we can use for a more environmental portrait look.

- Specialist at the Park: I’ve accepted a position as the 2010-2011 Specialist at Salt Springs State Park.  Starting in June and running for a full year I’ll be hosting a series of 5-7 workshops at the park, where I’ll cover everything from basic camera use to more advanced/specific topics, such as landscape techniques.  I’ll also be photographing some of the Park’s events, and will be putting together a gallery collection to be displayed next Spring.

SUNRISE FROM THE FIELD AT SALT SPRINGS

This was a grab with the big lens – just a little study in lines and light.

I ain’t crazy about flower shots as a general rule, but these wildflowers has the dandelions in the background for some great color contrast, and the light was just perfect on them, so what the hell.

Your fairly typical sunset landscape shot.  What redeems it for me is that last kiss of light still on the top of the tree, and on the hillside.

]]> http://brentpennington.com/2010/04/thursday-april-29th/feed/ 0 http://brentpennington.com/2010/04/looking-back-2/ http://brentpennington.com/2010/04/looking-back-2/#comments Thu, 29 Apr 2010 00:56:58 +0000 Brent Pennington http://brentpennington.com/?p=2230 How many of you ever take the time to look back through your work?  I mean actually sit down at the archive and look at it just for the sake of looking at it – not just because you happen to be looking for something specific, and take an extra moment to glance at an interesting folder or two?  I don’t hardly ever do this…

It’s a little random, but I started thinking about it the other day and it stuck with me; I hardly ever review my own work.  Which seems rather strange, since it’s work I created for my own enjoyment and to share with others.  But even if a photo is lucky enough to appear here in a post, a week later it’s off the front page and doomed to spend eternity in the dusty bowels of my external HD, along with thousands of others.

Why?

If I were to kick the bucket tomorrow, I have to wonder if anyone would even know where to look for my photo archive – or how to access it and enjoy my work.  There’s a great amount of my last five years tied up in those bytes, a lot of really good memories, and even a few not so good ones.  And I’m starting to realize that I don’t let any of it out enough.  What’s the point of chasing the light to make great images – images that you’re happy to have made – if you never do anything with them?

So here’s a little promise to myself: I’m going to make a better effort to share my work.  That means sitting down with my girlfriend and actually showing her places I’ve been, things I’ve seen, memories I’ve made into pictures.  That means sharing the same with my family next time I see them, instead of just sending a couple of files here and there after a shoot.  It may even mean making one of those cheesy Powerpoint slideshows to send around for the holidays – a “My Year in Photos,” if you will.

This is a good thing for three reasons.  1 – because after all the effort and hours I’ve put into making images, they should be shared, and let out into the light (well, at least the really good ones).  2 – because it will make me review my own work, which is the perfect way to see how I’ve progressed, and where I still need to work.  3 – because the more work I share with the world, the more likely it is that someone will want me to make images for them.

So really, how often do you share/review your own work?

Finally got the chance a few nights back when the golden hour hit and warm sunlight was coming in the back window.  I moved them into the light and grabbed the 7D + 50mm for the f/1.8.  I find that super-thin DOF is one of the better ways to take ordinary subject matter and make interesting photos from it.  For instance, I’m not a huge fan of flower shots, but now and then they’re unavoidable – and even fun, so long as they’re interesting.

Nothing too serious, just playing around, trying to make the most of the light.  Unfortunately, the colors don’t translate well into the sRGB color space, so these shots look a little blah, and certainly don’t do the actual photos justice.  But hopefully they get the idea across still.