1.....2......3........

Now hear this. There are Lensworks blogs. And I do mean plural. Not one, not two, but three Lenswork blogs have just been introduced. Given the excellence of each and every LensWork 'product' that I have had the opportunity to read or view, I have no doubts that these will be blogs well worth reading regularly.


#1 Lenswork Technology Blog - In the words of Brooks Jenson, "random collection of thoughts, discoveries, explorations, hard-won experience, and — I fully anticipate — some technological failures and struggles as I wade through this world of technology and its use to create photographic artwork."

#2 "Ask Brooks" Blog - Not simply an ask a question to Brooks blog, as Brooks actively seeks reader partcipation and input to answer the questions.

#3 LensWork Vision Of The Heart Blog - An opportunity to more fully appreciate photographs. In Brooks own words "In this blog we will take a bit of time with an image to look at it more closely, to understand the photographer's point of view in their own words (transcribed from our LensWork Extended interviews), to savor the subtleties and enjoy a photograph to its full, well, or at least "fuller" potential."

I am definitely looking forward to reading and following these.

I'm A Photographer, Not A Terrorist

In the past, I have written a few posts about photographers rights which can be read here and here. I have also posted information about fashionable photographers rights wardrobe here. Who, after all, would want to be without their "I Am A Photographer, Not A Terrorist" tee shirt? Even I have one and I'm not known to be the most stylish guy in the world!

Having been personally and inappropriately asked to stop taking pictures in areas where it was clearly within my legal rights to do so, I am sensitized to this issue and always have my eyes open for similar happenings. Here is a fascinating story, published in The Independent, and entitled "Warning, Do Not Take This Picture" . It tells of repeated inappropriate limitations on public photographing that took place in England.

And finally, also based in England, an entire website devoted to the cause of not impinging on the right to take photographs. And what would the perfect name be for such a website....but of course, "I'm A Photographer Not A Terrorist". Don't miss the self portrait page of the site either. For those of you on Facebook, here is their Facebook page.

Although one might well argue that there are bigger problems in the world today, this issue is not a trivial one as it relates not only to the specific issue of photography but also to the bigger issue of rights in general.

Quick Quotes - Daryl Benson

"The moment you take the leap of understanding to realize you are not photographing a subject but are photographing light is when you have control over the medium."

Daryl Benson

Isn't it quite amazing how the same scene can look wonderful if the light is just right, but quite plain if it isn't?

Foggy Morning
Copyright Howard Grill

Daryl Benson's quote vividly reminded me of taking this photograph. This particular location can look quite amazing with mist and the right light. On this particular autumn morning the fog was just breaking up as the warm rays of sunrise started illuminating the scene. I had bever seen this location in Moraine State Park look quite like this. I really enjoyed photographing this as an 'intimate landscape'. However, if the light isn't right you would just walk right by and not give the spot a second look!

Show Work At Work

Most photographers/artists want an audience. As such, we generally try to get our work published, hung, sold, and shown on our websites. However, for the longest time, I ignored the most obvious and, perhaps, easiest way to show my work and obtain a larger audience. That is to say, I never showed my work at work. Sure, I had framed photos hanging in my office, but not in public spaces at my workplace.

It occurred to me that my workplace was potentially an excellent opportunity to have my work seen by more people than the inside of my office. So I decided to look into having it displayed in a public space. The long drab hallway outside my office seemed to be the perfect location. As some readers may know, I work in a hospital. What many of you might not know is that the levels of bureaucracy in a hospital can rival that of the federal government.

I initially asked permission from the administrator in charge of that particular hallway. He already knew my work and thought it would be a great idea. Hospitals being hospitals however, he had to 'bump up' the decision. After having the work reviewed by two vice presidents and agreeing not to hold the hospital liable if the pictures were stolen off the wall....up they went. I immediately started receiving comments from people who had no idea that I photographed.

Conclusion: the workplace can frequently offer a good opportunity to have one's work shown......so don't overlook it!

HDR

For the last few months, I have been trying to learn all I can about the HDR process before giving it an initial attempt on my own. Two video training CDs and two books later I think I have a handle on the process and how it works.

In my mind (as well as the minds of many others), there are two extremes to the process. On one end of the scale is the use of the process to deliver 'photo-realistic' results, and at the other end of the spectrum are results that have variably been called "comic-bookish", "illustrative", "surreal", or "hyper-realistic". Although my artistic tendency is to stay at the photo-realistic end of the spectrum, I am open minded and can see how, in some circumstances, a move towards the other end of the spectrum can likewise produce very interesting results. In the end, of course, the direction that one's artwork takes is totally up to the artist.

So I am posting my first foray into the HDR processing technique. I was attracted to this tree by the strong graphic lines of the limbs. Since the shape was what I was primarily drawn to, a black and white presentation seemed to be most appropriate. What I was hoping for here was a look that went just a bit beyond photo-realistic in order to give the tree a slightly surreal "spooky" look. The color images were processed in Photomatix and both converted to black and white and toned in Silver Efex Pro.

Tree I
Copyright Howard Grill

Quick Quotes: Michelangelo

"The greatest danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our goal"

Michelangelo

This seemed to me to be a great quote to start off the year with, particularly with a blog titled Motivation! Happy New Year to all.

Digital Blue 'N Gold

When I switched over from film to digital, I retired my Singh-Ray Blue 'N Gold Polarizer. The results I was getting were just horrendous. I had read Darwin Wigget's article in Nature Photographers Online Magazine where he talks about the differences using the Blue 'N Gold Polarizer with digital, as opposed to film, capture and discusses shooting in RAW format while dropping the color temperature to the 2500 to 3200 K range during processing. I tried it but have to admit that I wasn't happy with the results. The filter stayed in retirement.

Recently, I came across Darwin's article reposted on the Singh-Ray blog here. It was a post with excerpts from the original article. But what got me interested was this "Editors Note" that appeared at the end of the blog post that was not contained in the original article:

Editor's note: By setting a "Custom White Balance" in the field with the Gold-N-Blue in place on the lens, virtually all digital SLR cameras can compensate for the magenta tint and display a correct image on the LCD. The color temperature and tint settings on the RAW file will be similar to what Darwin describes here, and should require minimal correction. Refer to your camera's manual for specific instructions on setting a Custom White Balance.

I decided it might just be worth a try. I took the filter with me on a local outing and used my Color-Right white balance tool.....but you can use Expo Disc or whatever custom white balance tool you have.....and took a shot with the tool in place. I was amazed to see just how intensely blue the light from the image was, and, when I used a custom white balance to make that image neutral, the subsequent shots with the filter in place came out just like in the old film days. So I guess the Blue 'N Gold will have to come out of retirement.

If you have a Blue 'N Gold filter that you have retired you might want to get it out and give this technique a try....it really works.

Race Point Lighthouse

I have previously written about the workshop I attended with Nancy Rotenberg, Les Saucier and Don McGowan in Provincetown, Massachusetts. This is one of my favorite images from the trip, and one with a little story behind it.

Race Point Lighthouse
Copyright Howard Grill

A group of us took a hike out to a relatively small sand dune that had a good view of Race Point lighthouse. It was sunset and we were still relatively far from the lighthouse itself (this photo was taken with a Canon 400mm f5.6 lens). We were anxiously waiting (hoping) that the light would turn on, but it was starting to look like it was going to simply remain off for the evening. Our guide and instructor wisely decided that we should leave for the sake of safety, as it can be very hard to find one's way back among the dunes once it is dark.....they all look the same. I was the last one to pack up my equipment. Most people had started back and a buddy of mine had just scurried down the dune. I had my pack on and was just about to do the same when....the light in the lighthouse came on.

My friend Ken urged me to unpack quickly and take a quick shot or two and that he would wait and keep an eye on the folks going back so we wouldn't get lost. I don't think I ever unzipped the pack so quickly. I knew exactly how I wanted to frame the shot as I had already done the visualizing work sitting there with the 400mm lens and camera on the tripod waiting for the light to turn on. I plopped it on, focused, got off a few shots and was on my way in no time. Thanks Ken!

The Best Camera

Perhaps you are familiar with Chase Jarvis and his iPhone app for taking and sharing images, as well as his book The Best Camera Is The One That's With You: iPhone Photography by Chase Jarvis (Voices That Matter). I personally wasn't until I heard Ibarionex Perello's interview with him on The Candid Frame.

What I find far more interesting (since, for one thing, I don't own an iPhone) is Chase's website The Best Camera, where one can see a live feed of images being posted from people using his application. The volume of images is amazing....and even more amazing is the creativity behind a very large percentage of them. I have to admit, I don't think I am 'into' the phenomena myself, but it is interesting to watch it all happen.

Anti-Aliasing And Its Effect On HD Video

I have not personally been particularly interested in video production and thus have not even used the video capability of my Canon 5D MKII as of yet. However, I read a very interesting article that was referenced on the Outback Photo website about the effect of anti-aliasing filters on HD video obtained via the current generation of dSLRs.

The article, entitled "Aliasing" is by Barry Green and can be found here. I found two aspects of the article quite interesting. The first was the detailed general discussion about aliasing and the artifacts it can introduce and the second was the discussion related to the fact that the type of anti-aliasing filters appropriate for high resolution digital still images and video are quite different. When both types of imaging are combined in a single camera body a compromise must be made with regards to the anti-aliasing filter (and the compromise has rightly been made to sacrifice the optimum video anti-aliasing filter in order to have the appropriate anti-aliasing for still images).

Besides being a well-written and extremely interesting article, it is also chock-full of real life video examples. It makes for some fascinating and enlightening reading.

Quick Quotes: Dan Winters

"Its amazing how many unbelievable photographs happened today that weren't recorded." Dan Winters

I was really taken by this quote which was part of an interview with photographer Dan Winters on The Candid Frame podcast. Dan was talking about developing the ability to really be able to see with a photographers eyes. I particularly like the quote because it speaks towards the ability to make meaningful photographs wherever you might live without having to travel to exotic locations.

Photograph America

In my post about my trip to Cuyahoga National Park, I mentioned that my friend Bob and I had picked out the locations we planned to photograph based on an article in Photograph America. I mentioned that Photograph America was a great publication, but that it was a topic for a different post……

So let me tell you about Photograph America. It is a quarterly newsletter put out by photographer Robert Hitchman. Hitchman travels the country on photo journeys and documents his experiences. This includes what he found worthwhile photographing, how to get around the location and often places to stay and where to eat economically. I find his descriptions of what to shoot the best aspect of the newsletter. If you are making a relatively short duration trip to a location, you can put together an essentially completely planned itinerary prior to actually going, so you don’t waste a good deal of time ‘wandering’.

Of course, that isn’t to say that you will find all of Hitchman’s choices perfect for you. For example, on the Cuyahoga trip, we found that we really weren’t all that ‘taken’ by one of Hitchman’s top locations to shoot in the park. But that wasn’t a big problem for several reasons. First of all, because we knew exactly where we were going we didn’t waste much time getting there, and were able to tell pretty quickly that the location didn’t hold as much interest for us as it did for Hitchman. We were then able to move on to the next location, which we found much more enjoyable to photograph.

In addition to subscribing, Hitchman also offers the opportunity to purchase back issues of the newsletter. You can either purchase them all or just the ones that are focused on a specific area of the country that you might be interested in.

I recommend Photograph America very highly to anyone who is interested in traveling to locations for nature photography. The newsletters are very detailed and extremely helpful in planning a photography trip. They are, however, somewhat more focused on the West and Southwest since that is where Hitchman lives. That isn’t to say there isn't coverage of the South, East or Midwest, there certainly is, though not as frequently or to as many locations as in the West. Subscriptions are now available in PDF as well as in print format.

B&W

I was very pleasantly and unexpectedly surprised to find that an image I had submitted to B&W Magazine many months back had been awarded a 'Silver Medal' in the Seascapes/Water category. This image is a black and white conversion from a photograph taken as part of my "Twin Jewels Project".

"Fluidity"
Copyright Howard Grill

Cuyahoga

A few weeks back I went with my friend, lets call him Bob (mainly because that is his name), for a weekend of photographing at Cuyahoga National Park in Ohio, about two hours from my home. We had the 'photo ops' chosen because Photograph America had published an article on Cuyahoga (great publication, but that is a topic for another post). However, as it turned out we were a bit beyond the peak fall color we had come to photograph and, in addition, the weather was quite lousy.

The first day (Friday) it rained the whole time we were there, so we took the opportunity to scout out most of the sites we were thinking of going to. That actually was very helpful as it gave us an opportunity to prioritize where we wanted to shoot and gave us a sense of what areas would be best to photograph in different weather conditions.

We continued to have miserable conditions Saturday morning, as well as late afternoon and evening. However.....for a several hour window early on Saturday afternoon conditions were excellent. It was overcast (great for the waterfalls) and wet (great for saturating the colors,) and because of the rain the waterfalls had plenty of water to 'fall'.

"Blue Hen Falls"
Copyright Howard Grill

I consider getting even one or two of what I feel are good shots a great success on a short weekend trip like this, especially to a place I hadn't been to before and so, without question, the trip was a definite hit. We plan to return to Cuyahoga in the spring.

Rock Project Complete

It would appear that I have completed my 'rock project'....at least it feels that way. I have reached a point where I don't feel a drive (at least for now) to photograph any more rocks, and 'they' say that you will just know when your project is complete.

I have edited the series to 20 images that, to me, represent abstract landscapes within single stones. Some are landscapes as I imagine them from a usual Earthbound point of view and some are land formations as seen from far above.

I have renamed the project "Scene In Stone" and have also re-written the "Artist's Statement" as follows:

I have, on several occasions, had the opportunity to photograph the "red rock" formations found in the American Southwest. These landscapes are magnificent, but portraying their grandeur within a small two-dimensional image is always challenging. While photographing these rock formations, I found myself wondering what might be found if, instead of looking outward towards massive numbers of rocks arranged into a grand landscape, one peered inward, letting a single rock become the entire image.

What if instead of the rocks making up the landscape there were landscapes contained within each individual rock? What if there were rocks that contained shapes and patterns that were images in and of themselves?

As I began to look at rocks that were available from several different mining sources, I found that a truly unbelievable array of shapes, colors, and patterns could be found within them. In many instances, I was amazed to find that these patterns did, indeed, look just like miniature versions of the landscapes I was so used to photographing; images of the outside world that were reflected and indelibly etched into stone.

These "Scene In Stone" landscapes have been photographed using a technique called cross-polarization, which removes the glare from the surface of the cut stone, thus allowing the underlying texture and colors to show through.

Shrink yourself down and enjoy your walk through these imaginary landscapes!

So, I now invite you to view the 20 image project here.

Any comments (especially helpful criticism) regarding the images, statement, or project as a whole are welcome.

How Do You Learn?

I recently had a very interesting insight into myself....or, more accurately, how I learn.

I have always been a 'book learner'. By that I mean that my most efficient way to learn something new has been to get a good book and sit down with it and digest it at my own speed, making sure that I understand everything as the lessons advance. That is how I learned Photoshop and that was the way I made it through various institutions of higher learning. That's not to say that lectures weren't important. But, in a pinch, I always felt that I could get most of what I needed out of the book with lectures and other multimedia highlighting what the most important and practical issues were.

Well, I surprised myself recently. Several months back, I bought a couple of Michael Reichmann's downloadable video tutorials from The Luminous Landscape. I did this in the hopes of learning something new, but also because I thought that a video with Reichmann and Jeff Schewe would be entertaining. And it was, but along the way I surprised myself by feeling that I was learning more than I thought I would.

With this insight, I pursued the idea that perhaps I didn't know as much about my process of learning as I thought I did. So I followed up on this by buying Brooks Jensen's workshop PDF and Folio tutorials on DVD and loved them. In fact, I previously reviewed the PDF tutorial. Once again, I learned a great deal....even more so from this tutorial as I really had no insight into how to make a PDF book prior to watching the DVD. I found the same to be true when I ordered an HDR training DVD from Kelby Training. I have another DVD from Tony Sweet coming in the mail.

I thought I knew the most efficient way that I was able to learn, but am glad that I ended trying out a new approach that is both enjoyable and effective. If you haven't tried learning from a multimedia DVD it just might be an unexpectedly worthwhile approach. It was for me.

I Love Rock 'N Roll

I love rock and roll......do you? Well, if you love photography AND rock music then you owe it yourself to do two things:

1) Go over to The Candid Frame and listen to Ibarionex Perello's interview with Lynn Goldsmith, who is a premier "Rock Photographer" (though she is a wonderful photographer of many other subjects as well). The interview can be found here, though you will need to scroll down to the Oct 11 post to get it.

2) Buy Lynn's book, which Ibarionex discusses in the podcast, called PhotoDiary. The book is chock full of very entertaining stories about photography and rock personalities as well as great shots of your favorite musicians. And the best part.....I got the book for under $5 (yes, that's a 5 with no zero after it) shipping included. What a deal...and you can get a similar one at Abe's Books here.

ENJOY!

One More Rock

One more rock from my project finding landscapes in stone:

"Mesa"
Copyright Howard Grill

Pushing Towards Completion

I am hoping to have my rock project finished within about two weeks. My goal is to have approximately 20 completed images, by which I mean having hard copy prints as well as the files for computer viewing. The unifying idea behind the project is 'landscapes within stone'--the discovery of landscapes that exist as microcosms within a slab of rock.

Today's post is one of the newer images that I have processed:

Over Hill And Dale
Copyright Howard Grill

Absurd

I recently wrote a post entitled "Trusting Photographs" , in which I mentioned a two part post called "Photography And Truth". In these blog installments, I wrote that I was surprised that there was an expectation on the part of many, if not most, viewers that fine art photography should depict ‘the truth’. In reality, there are decisions made by the photographer including focal length, in camera cropping, and shooting in RAW format (to name a few) that explain why most photographs are ‘untruthful’ to at least some degree.

I was recently looking at a highly regarded photography magazine when I read something that I found to be totally absurd and which reflects back on this whole issue of 'truth' in photography. I won't mention the magazine or the particular photographer, but suffice it to say that the photographer had his superb fine art portfolio published and, in an the accompanying article, says " I very seldom change the actual situation, I just make it more dramatic. I use Photoshop, I never use any plug-in to make the photos more dramatic."

I find this a self-contradictory absurdity on multiple levels. The situation isn't changed...just the degree of drama?? It's OK to use Photoshop, but not a Photoshop plug-in (which itself just uses adjustments available in Photoshop)???? Methinks you protest too much.

Can't we just agree that there is no crime in using Photoshop or Lightroom to make adjustments to fine art photographs in order to express our artistic vision? Can't we just disclose to the public that with todays RAW format adjustments have to be made to the out of camera image in order to restore it to what the scene looked like, and that any such restoration is significantly related to our memory and experience of the location? Photoshop and Lightroom (or similar image editing software) is simply an integral part of photography in the digital age. In my opinion, using them does not somehow denegrate a photograph. And, yes, I also think it is OK to use plug-ins!