Guanyin

Nikon D7000, 10.5mm, 1/30, f/2.8, ISO 1600, edited

Ever since I was a kid I’ve loved the room in the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art where a statue of Guanyin is displayed. She sits in a temple-like gallery with a giant mural of Nirvana behind her. The atmosphere is delightfully quiet and contemplative.

It’s also a pain to photograph. The uneven lighting that makes the room so nice also makes it difficult to get a good exposure. Thus I needed to employ a little post-production trickery.

Nikon D7000, 10.5mm, 1/30, f/2.8, ISO 1600

I walked away with a good exposure of the statue, but the background looked pale and discolored. After a try or two, I found that I couldn’t bring out the deeper greens on the wall without trashing the subtle reds on the statue.

Enter the mask. I divided the image into two layers (one for the statue and one for the rest of the photo). By masking off everything but the statue on the topmost layer, I was able to leave it unedited while adjusting the wall behind it. Slight changes to the levels and color balance got me the look I remembered.

I briefly considered taking the reds in the carpet down a bit so they wouldn’t distract from the art. But upon further reflection I decided I kinda liked what they did to the visual flow of the piece.

The stadium in winter

Nikon D7000, 18mm (18-55), 1/60, f/10, ISO 250, adjusted

There’s nothing like cloudy winter light to grab what little color might be found in your shot and leech it right out. Add a brisk wind and you’ve got some exposure challenges.

I started this shot by concentrating on the proper exposure for the people. The detail and colors of the clothes are accurate. But the rest of the scene looks highly washed out. What to do?

Photoshop to the rescue. By using the magnetic lasso and doing some correction in quick mask mode, I was able to generate a layer mask to keep my subjects safe from the edits I needed to do on the rest of the photo. After that, a simple level adjustment brought out the color a bit, making the scene look more natural.

Here’s what it looked like to start:

Nikon D7000, 18mm (18-55), 1/60, f/10, ISO 250

The Kaw

Nikon D7000, 44mm (18-55), 1/60, f/6.3, ISO 100, adjusted and cropped

More evidence that it’s never the shot you think it’s going to be. Around 300 times a year I drive the  road that follows the Kansas River for a brief stretch. And in all that time I’ve meant to stop, get out of my car, climb the nearby hills and shoot a panorama of the valley.

Yesterday’s snow storm (and consequent school cancellation) provided me with a great opportunity. Out I went and up I went. If nothing else, it was a good chance to field test my new camera sling and lightweight tripod (both of which performed admirably, especially the sling).

However, I’ve gotta say that I was somewhat underwhelmed by the pan:

Nikon D7000, 44mm (18-55), 1/60, f/5.3, ISO 100, adjusted and edited (panorama)

It’s not terrible. But the trees blocked more of the view than I’d anticipated. I could also have done without the light pole.

On the other hand, while I was there I noticed an illegal trash dump just down the hill from where I parked. The most striking visual was the field of discarded tires (above). But an abandoned chair also caught my eye.

Nikon D7000, 36mm (18-55), 1/60, f/8, ISO 100, adjusted

As did a splash of color painted onto a trio of trees.

Nikon D7000, 18mm (18-55), 1/60, f/10, ISO 100, adjusted

Finally, this entry wouldn’t be complete without a quick note of thanks to my Jeep, which allowed me to venture fearlessly out into Snowpocalypse 2014.

Nikon D7000, 44mm (18-55), 1/60, f/6.3, ISO 100, adjusted and cropped

State Fair - Midway miscellany

Nikon D7000, 48mm (28-200), 1/125, f/4.5, ISO 800

The best part of the fair – for kids and photographers alike – has to be the midway. As the sun goes down, the rides and booths become a festival of fascinating images. They also become a festival of tricky technical challenges.

This close-up of a trash can lid gets in tight to reduce the face to abstract form and color. It also brings out the surface texture and the glittery paint.

Nikon D7000, 135mm (28-200), 1/1250, f/7.1, ISO 800

The colors everywhere were wonderful. Booths full of stuffed animal prizes provided no end of bright patterns.

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/125, f/5.6, ISO 800, cropped

As usual, I had two cameras with me. I put a fisheye lens on my D3000, but I didn’t use it anywhere near as often as I expected to. Here’s one spot where it produced a good result:

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 1/80, f/2.8, ISO 400

I took two photos of this basketball booth, one from the front and one from the back. This one proved to be the more visually interesting of the two, the strong backlight giving the scene an almost ghostly feeling.

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 1/80, f/2.8, ISO 800

As usual, I found that when I carefully planned shots that I ended up with something completely unexpected. My plan was to shoot this large ride with a slow shutter speed, letting it paint long streaks of light in my image (as I did with the Scrambler). Though I got a few shots that captured what I was aiming for, I ended up liking this relatively still image the best. I loved the strange combination of table lamp and War of the Worlds Martian death machine. I also liked the blue color the lights spread over the whole image.

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 1/20, f/4.0, ISO 800

When I first started editing the State Fair photos, I didn’t care much for this one. But Amy liked it, so I gave it a chance. And she was right.

Nikon D7000, 28mm (28-200), 1/60, f/5.6, ISO 800, cropped

My initial objection was that the lights in the background were blurry. But that lends the scene a quality in which the prosaic foreground full of vendors is set apart from the dreamlike realm of the midway.

Halloween

I’m once again interrupting the flow of usual stuff on the blog to share something in the spirit of the season. This time it’s a set of Halloween photos shot by my grandmother back in the 1950s. Actually, the weird one in the basement may not be a Halloween picture, but it still fits well with the rest of the group.

Grandma was a wonderful photographer. I’m greatly in her debt not only for the equipment she passed on to me that helped me get back into photography several years ago but also for the inherited visual sense to occasionally take pictures half as good as hers.

I’m also grateful to my sister, who has been scanning in Grandma’s albums and shared these eerie images from Halloweens past.

State Fair – The Scrambler

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 0.4 sec, f/18, ISO 100

I didn’t catch this ride’s actual name. But I’ve seen this sort of thing called a Scrambler elsewhere, so we’ll go with that.

I shot this set under some unusual lighting conditions. The day was getting on toward dusk and the sky was overcast. The result was outdoor light that looked normal but wasn’t intensely bright. And that allowed me some leeway with my settings. I was also able to brace the camera on a rail, which meant I could slow the shutter down farther than I could have with a strictly hand-held shot.

Thus I was able to capture some interesting light trails while freezing the objects and people around the ride. On the first shot (above), the orange trails and blurred car looked sorta like a tornado.

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 1/8, f/22, ISO 400

The ride moved around in patterns that were difficult to predict. So some of the shots were mostly blur while others featured clearer images of the riders.

Though I framed most of the set horizontally, I also managed to capture a few good ones with the camera turned 90 degrees.

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 0.4 sec, f/20, ISO 100

Omaha Zoo – Cats

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/200, f/5.6, ISO 1000, cropped and retouched

For the next few weeks The Photographer’s Sketchbook is going to consider the fine art of taking pictures of animals in zoos, using shots I took during a recent trip to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. Let’s start with the big cats, such as the fine specimen above.

Here we have a tiger in close to ideal circumstances for indoor zoo photography. Reasonably good light. No bars. And the subject appears at ease. The photo required a bit of cropping to eliminate some foreground clutter. And the image had an odd blue tint that fortunately came right out with a minor color level adjustment.

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/20, f/5.6, ISO 1000, cropped

That isn’t to say that a bar-free indoor shot is always low hanging fruit. This puma was posing perfectly (she actually seemed to respond positively to being photographed), but the light in her enclosure was so shadowy that the low shutter speed required for the shot added some camera shake and marred the image.

At least it gave me an excuse to try the new shake reduction filter in Photoshop CC:

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/20, f/5.6, ISO 1000, retouched

Still, it’s better to get the shot to start with rather than rely on editing to fix mistakes. I’ve tried the shake filter on some other photos with less impressive results.

Nikon D7000, 35mm (28-200), 1/60, f/4, ISO 400, cropped

Speaking of bars, they’re one of the biggest problems you’ll face photographing in zoos. Outdoor light couldn’t have been any better when we were there. But if the subject is close to her bars, the bars are going to end up in the shot.

Nikon D7000, 72mm (28-200), 1/320, f/5, ISO 200

Even the best pose won’t help an image that says “jail” way more than “magnificent creature.”

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/160, f/5.6, ISO 400, cropped

On the other hand, if the subject is farther away from his bars, then you may be able to zoom in, focus tight on the subject and make the bars so blurry that they practically disappear. You can see a little fuzziness caused by the out-of-focus mesh of this jaguar’s cage, but for the most part they’re invisible.

Nikon D7000, 32mm (28-200), 1/200, f/7.1, ISO 1000, cropped

However big a pain those bars can be, they’re still a good idea. As I’m sure the kids in this photo would agree (especially the kid on the right).

Miksang Day Two

Nikon D7000, 55mm (18-55), 1/500, f/11, ISO 500

Day two once again found us in pursuit of color. Today I focused much harder on the Miksang approach, worrying less about getting technically good photos and seeking flashes of visual inspiration.

Nikon D7000, 55mm (18-55), 1/320, f/9, ISO 400

And that proved to be a challenge. Take this photo for example. It was the product of a fairly strong flash of insight in keeping with the Miksang process. Looking at it reminds me of the moment. Trouble is, it isn’t an especially good picture.

Nikon D7000, 55mm (18-55), 1/20, f/5.6, ISO 400

On the other hand, another flash produced this shot of a leaf in a fountain. It’s a product of the practice and a visually appealing shot. But note the motion blur produced by the slow shutter speed. I love the blur, but obviously I didn’t see it with my eye when I looked at the subject. So technically it’s outside the scope of what we should have been capturing.

iPhone

Still, some Miksang moments were there for the taking. My lunch provided this one.

Nikon D7000, 55mm (18-55), 1/400, f/11, ISO 640, cropped

And this one was originally a larger shot that included all the girl and all the stone rabbit she was sitting on. But edited down to the core of the perception, it became a more Miksang photo.

Nikon D3000, 50mm fixed, 1/30, f/1.8, ISO 1600

That evening I stood on the deck and watched the clouds gathering to the east of the Rockies. I liked the thought that the storm developing as I watched might eventually sweep across the plains and find its way to KC.

Miksang Day One

Nikon D7000, 32mm (18-55), 1/250, f/8, ISO 100

First things first: happy birthday to the blog, one year old tomorrow.

Now down to business. In mid June I went to Boulder for a week-long seminar with the Miksang Institute for Contemplative Photography. The Miksang approach is sort of a blend of photography and meditation, a system that seeks to capture flashes of visual insight.

For the next month I’m going to blog some of the photos I look at the workshop. I’ll also stir in a few that I shot on the side, such as the mountain picture at the top of this entry.

Nikon D7000, 55mm (18-55), 1/400, f/10, ISO 200

For the first day of actual shooting, we were sent in search of insight with a strong color component. The first one that hit me was a pastel-painted brick wall where the paint had flaked away revealing the original red.

Nikon D7000, 50mm (18-55), 1/80, f/5.6, ISO 200

Another strong color moment hit with this lid from a recycling can. You can see texture creeping in a bit with the water on the surface.

Nikon D7000, 55mm (18-55), 1/100, f/5.6, ISO 400

I liked the strong yellow on this guy’s bike jersey. However, I didn’t show this one to the class because it was more a picture of a guy than it was a picture of a color. And the chaotic lines, while visually pleasing, also detracted from the sense of color.

Nikon D7000, 55mm (18-55), 1/30, f/5.6, ISO 400

Likewise this one didn’t exactly scream “color.” But I liked it as a photo. It’s a close-up on the face of a sculpture of a frog. Rare moment: you can see a “self portrait” of me reflected in the eye.

Silo demolition

Back in my film days, I spent a fair amount of time photographing buildings in the process of being demolished. Here’s another example.

Notice the difference between the two shots. The subject is the same; the only change is the camera angle. The shot above was taken from a nearby overpass, and the shot below was taken from ground level. Note how the two images look and feel different.

State Drive-In

Ah, those sweet summer nights at the drive-in. Bad food. Warm beer. Awful audio. Barely visible screens (at least until the sun went all the way down). Sigh.

The State was the one we all went to when I was a kid. Many years ago they closed it up and tore it down. But I got some shots of the sign before it vanished.

The photo presents some shot composition lessons, but for this week I’m going to let the teaching slide and just appreciate it for what it is.

Water towers

Almost literally as the last seconds of the spring semester waned away, I finished a photo project I’d been pursuing off and on since January. I’ve been scanning in all the negatives from back in the day when I (and everyone else, for that matter) used to shoot on film rather with digital equipment. Turned out the notebook full of contact sheets and negs contained more than 1400 photos!

So now and again in this blog I’ll post some of this “old school” work. You’ll be able to spot them swiftly because the photos won’t be captioned (as the film gives me no data about settings or lenses or even what camera I was using).

This week’s entry features the famous hot and cold water towers from Pratt, Kansas, which fooled me for some time when I was a kid. One thing I’ve noticed about the neg scans is that many of them are coated with dust specks and scratches that aren’t visible just looking at the strips but show up dramatically when they’re scanned. Fortunately, Photoshop’s spot healing brush makes short work of most such blemishes (compare the uncorrected shot below).