A change of pace

Just for a change of pace I stopped and shot a couple pictures at the local alpaca farm. I have included a few shots here in the blog. The alpaca's were generally in the shade (but not always) with a bright sunny background. This creates some challenges for a photographer. Shooting HDR with moving subjects is not really an option (yet) so I decided to let the backgrounds blow out and use a shallow depth of field when possible (f6.3 for most of these shots - allows for some focus error due to animal movement). But the backgrounds don't totally go white so I had to make some post processing decisions. For the lead image I selected the background and increased the exposure until it went totally white. In the second image I diffused the background and added a vignette.

Have I got a secret for you.

Hey there.

Rainy Day

We have a joke here in the NW, "What do you call two rainy days in a row? - A weekend". We've been having beautiful 80 deg weather right up to Labor Day weekend and what do you know, two days of rain so far with 80 deg weather forecast for Tuesday. I had planned to go out and shoot this morning in the garden, but it was too windy and rainy to do that. So I went out to the garden and cut a couple of the flowers, the ones I had planned to shoot outside, and took them in doors. The blog images are from that shoot - what follows is a brief outline of how I created the images.

First, after cutting the flowers and putting them in a small vase with water, I set up a small table next to the window as shown - it was cloudy so the light was nice and diffused. I have a set of fabrics on a rod that I use for backgrounds on such occasions (al a Tony Sweet's studio). In this case I chose a light spring green. Second, I popped a Lensbaby 3G on my D300 and proceeded to create. I used a f4 aperture ring on the Lensbaby and in general used the push method where you extend the Lensbaby bellows instead of compressing it. I moved the flowers as needed to create compositions that seemed pleasing to me. I also needed to use a small reflector to fill in some of the shadows (a white sheet of paper does the trick). Later I put on a 50mm lens with an extension tube to do more closeup work. Note, I also used a tripod and cable release as feasible. Once I had the images I wanted, I went through a set of post-processing steps as needed.

1. Load image into Lightroom and sort through the images in the Library mode to find ones you want to develop (discard the rest). Go to the Develop mode.
2. Adjust the Exposure slider to the right until the histogram is to the right without blowing out the whites. I do this for creating a light airing feeling - called "high key" lighting.
3. Use the Fill Light slider to get rid of "black holes" - they tend to draw your eye. Try to avoid these with the reflector during the shoot.
4. If there are some really dark areas, you may need to use the Adjustment Brush to select an area and increase the local exposure and/or brightness.
5. Use the clone tool to remove imperfections from the flowers - brown spots just don't look good (the flowers you cut should be as pristine as possible).
6. In a soft focus image like this, I might use the Adjustment Brush to select the focal point (one focused area where the eye can rest) to add some Clarity and/or Sharpness.

The final image is one shot with the 50mm lens with a little diffusion added in post processing.

Back in the Saddle

Well this week I submitted two bodies of work to a local cultural arts center for a possible exhibition next year. Just after picking up my rejected material from the local coop gallery last week my wife and I stopped by the cultural arts center. We happened to catch the curator there setting up the next exhibit. While the primary call to artist for next year's exhibits was over, the curator did say that if I brought something in it may be taken in as a late submittal. So I submitted two bodies of work - People of the Plateau and Simple Impressions. These are very different bodies of work. Given the quick turn time I didn't have the usual time to research what type of work they usually accept. We will see. But the arts center is in a bigger town and a bit more progressive. That leads me to an additional comment on the coop gallery rejection.

After talking with the coop gallery jury foreman, it quickly became apparent that even though I had asked specifically about the galleries recent decline in photographic work, the answer was not correct. It turns out that photographic work had not been selling well so they were really not inclined to accept new photographic work. In addition, it appears the jury foreman was somewhat new to that position. Unfortunately that is who I talked to the most before choosing a body of work. This is a small town and without going into specifics, the jury "just didn't get it" when it came to several of the impressionistic images. So live and learn.

As for the Cultural Arts Center submission, only time will tell. While a show there will not necessarily result in direct sales, it does increase your name recognition and may result in indirect sales on your website.

The blog image is a promo I created for the People of the Plateau. I gave a copy of this to the curator hoping he would hang it on the bulletin board in his office he mentioned the week before. Click here if you haven't visited my People of the Plateau website gallery before to see more.