Ryan
Processed this from a raw file with Nik Silver to HP5, for a whole lot more on this and a comparison of film and digital check out Chris Klug’s experiment at Patterns of Light n’ Dark. Excellent work on the difference between digital and film with some conclusions that will surprise most folks.
This looks better large on black so check this link Tulip set. Thanks to my friend Mark K for pointing this trick out for me it makes things easier for quick slideshows that I don’t want to custom build. Check out his latest from the Big Apple, I really would like to spend some time there as well as the tulip fields.
A little touch of NJ diner goodness, 3000 miles from the diner capital.
I drive past this place at the very head of Discovery Bay everytime I go to Port Townsend. It hasn’t been open for years, but used to be a great place to explore for fairly odd treasures. It always seemed to catch my eye but I could never quite visualize how I would photograph it. Last week I finally took my own advice and went to take a closer look. Sun was all wrong, it was also 18 degrees out so I drove the 6 miles home and started to stew on it. Finally looked up the exact spot on Google Earth and tried to figure out when the light would be better. Went back made a few images of this and some other old buildings that are next to it. I will now be going back there a lot at different times of the day til I get the image I see in my head. I may even have to drag the lights out for this.
Point is I see the image I want a lot of the time before I try to make it. I have looked at that spot for years with a vague feeling about what I wanted to say and it finally is bubbling up so bad I have to get it out. Previsualize and have something to say in mind first is a help to me, and a lot of things get into the notebook for rethink until I just have to get them out. I keep a note book of things I see and ideas that pop into my head for images and then revise them until I just have to see how they will look in the viewfinder. The notebook is never very far from me and is continually updated and added to. I can end up laying awake in the night for hours seeing images I want to make until I decide to just get the idea down on paper so it will keep til daylight.
Just wondering if others wake up in the night or morning with an image they have to make that day or have images in their head that just won’t go away until it is on film?
I guess I’m not much of a walk around and take pictures kind of guy, I do walk around and take ideas for pictures though. Yes the occasional image comes out of the walking around but I still end up thinking about it and going back a lot to make something I saw in my head. That ‘decisive moment’ for me is more often one I put together than observe.
Of course it helps if the weather cooperates when I get this way.
Death Valley
Flew to Las Vegas to pick this Shelby Cobra up with my friend Marv last Friday. What can I say I picked all the straight no traffic (few cops) roads to get back to Washington. 720hp with a race trans and suspension ohhh yeah it was fun. Had dinner in Vegas and wanted to stay for Photoshop world but had to head back. That city was an eye opener, I hadn’t been down town before and couldn’t believe the excess in everything from architecture to shows. Stopped at the MGM for lunch and wow it was worth every penny.
Shot a few with the G9 and a few with the D300, wished I had more time and some lights with me for the desert to showcase the car but time was short. I did get a chance to do a little night shoot on the Cobra when we got back and try out the new D700. The shot below is with a street light for main, sb28 @ 1/4 w/shoot thru umbrellla in front to light the grill and a Vivitar 285 wide @1/2 at the back corner to rim the back of the car. I haven’t had time to go thru all of the shots yet but this one was one of the first that caught my eye.
I am really starting to like the G9 for traveling as it is quick quiet and handy. Planning of attending the Keatly show in Seattle tomorrow and am off to a social media marketing seminar tonight. More to come on all of this…….
There is something about wandering around a small town after they roll up the streets that I really like. Quiet and peaceful, the occasional car wandering home from work or the tavern, all the stores closed, nothing parked along the street, the only light being from the scattered street lights or the odd closed sign in shop windows.
As always things change, my little town has grown and has all night grocery stores and large parking lots with lights, places we could see the stars from town now are overpowered with shop light and traffic lights and cars moving through. Still a lot more quiet than any city I have ever been in but much more busy than it was. It almost creates a wish that I had wandered in the dark streets more when I was younger and it was a lot simpler place to live. Some times that appreciation only comes in hindsight. Adapt or die, but I still have the memories.
I like shooting images at night or just before dark when things slow down, the hectic pace and the crowds of people are gone. I don’t get into Sequim after dark that often and last night was an enjoyable walk about. The dark and quiet seem to allow a little more insight into what I see without the distractions. I also like the moody saturated color that night brings, especially after a rain. Photography is about mood and feeling, information and emotion night does that to me.
Of Note:
Speaking of Rain, pray they get a little in central Texas for my friend Jeff Lynch he still has a few openings for his Landscape Safari here If you get to go with Jeff, let me know and I will be very envious.
If you have ever played baseball in the summer or watched and really want to know what the end of summer feels like check out JerseyStyle’s slide show of a ball field after the season is over. Some of the most moving photos I’ve seen in a while, I felt the loss of my youth and the end of summer all at once. JerseyStyle slide show website
D300 1/3200 f8
Early morning on the way home from a try at a sunrise over Mt Rainier.
At last the rejection is over I finally put together my own bird feeder and they started to show up. My guess is they don’t recognize the fact they are eating out of frying pans. The feeder I bought is still getting ignored, just goes to show I guess. I still have to fancy up the feeder I made it is a little embarrassing for a guy that has his own machine shop. Birds don’t seem to care though.
I’m no Jeff Lynch or Moose Peterson and these were shot thru a kitchen window that needs cleaning. Now on to get photos of the Douglas Fir Squirrels before the cats get them.
Strobist: Winter Treat: Frozen Hummingbirds.
This is another example of capturing birds in flight with incredible detail. Great read and beautiful photos.
UPDATE on my feeders
I added another feeder with different seeds in it and now own the two lonliest bird feeders on the Olympic Penninsula. The level hasn’t changed in two weeks on the original feeder.
I am planning on going up on the roof today and looking for the warning sign in bird language that says Cats live in this house.
Sometimes things don’t go as planned.
I spent the last few weeks waiting for a weekend with good weather so I could go shoot some ideas I had with Di. I am not much on landscape photography but she really likes it so I try to figure in a shoot now and then. Well, today was the perfect setup for a photo I really want. The shot is the sun coming up over Mt Rainier with the lowlands covered in fog. Today is the day light is going to be right, timing is right and fog is just right. Get up before dawn and we rush out of the house and head down to the spot about 45 minute drive. The gate to the highest point with a view is locked, and it is a 4 mile real steep hike. Oh yeah and it is cold outside. OK, so we go to plan B, which is, go and get breakfast and wait till the Forest Service office opens. Now we find out that the gate opens in May. May!! my memory doesn’t last that long. So that shot goes into the notebook of things I want to do sometime this year.
However one nice thing about visiting the FS office is they will direct you to all kinds of cool places to see. We managed to find a huge waterfall right off of one of the main roads that was unmarked so it doesn’t get many viewers. Spent all morning waiting for the light to get just right and about the time it did the fog rolled in and you couldn’t see 20 ft. So back to the notebook for later. Although when I got home I managed to line up a couple of people to model at the waterfall this spring. Being as it is only 150 yds off the road I think I’ll drag the lights along next time.
All in all it was a good day even if we didn’t get many shots at least we got plans for later. Which brings me to the notebook, I have always kept a list of notes on photos I want to take, or ideas that need a little more work. I love street and ‘see it shoot it’ photography, but I seem to work a little better if I have some idea of what I am trying to capture or say before I go after it. Years worth of ideas on a few pages and they keep me looking for that right moment to make them happen.
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