It was a rainy day...

It was a rainy day... well it is April!

The power of advertising. Who among you doesn't finish the title of this blog entry with... "in Pizzaville..." What do you think of when I write, "two all-beef patties..." or "It's the real thing" or "Gales of November"? Repetition is the key! Just sayin'...

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Sometimes a new piece of software adds a new dimension to one's images.

It was a rainy day... 

This is the case with Seven Styles Watercolor actions for Photoshop. I saw someone else using it, got interested and purchased the action for the princely sum of $6.

Here's the thing. You can get carried away and use it endlessly, in appropriate and not so appropriate cases. The effect is intriguing but like HDR, not all the time! I'm looking forward to using it on some of those pretty outports in Newfoundland and maybe the odd landscape.

In this case it worked well: the original photo was ugly, all the powerlines, garbage cans and complicated foreground details. The building in the background jumps out at you in the finished image, and although I've lived here for 10 years, I never noticed it before!

The original image. 

Here's another image I processed with this interesting software:

While we're on the subject of software, if you're really quick (the sale ends tonight at midnight), Topaz Labs has everything in their program on sale for 40% off. Here's the link, and enter "SPRING40" in the discount field on checkout.

They have a new product in the works: called Topaz Studio. It's designed to let you access all their plugins and more, much more, with ease. It's in Beta-testing right now, a bit buggy, but they'll work it out soon! Stay tuned.

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...musings

There was another thread in the Algonquin Park group on Facebook deploring the behaviour of many of the selfish and thoughtless tourists who stop dangerously on Highway 60 and who pester and annoy us, and feed the wildlife, and get in our shots and who are not there for the quiet enjoyment we are. I responded to that thread as follows and would like you, my readers, to think about what I meant. 

" ...stopping is NOT prohibited. In fact I often stop (safely) along 60 for photographs. Like you, I deplore people who do so unsafely or do not get right off the travelled lanes when they stop.

I too avoid the Park on a holiday weekend (or any weekend in the Fall) because of the hordes of busses and tourists, many of whom come from a culture where the concept of personal space and courtesy is different from mine (and presumably yours). But this IS a Provincial Park and it is intended, among other things, to be enjoyed by the public.

It's been discovered by many more people now, some of whom have never seen wildlife or even fall colours and as much as they sometimes inconvenience and annoy me, I'm not about to deny them their enjoyment of this fine example of Canada's natural splendor.  

Sure, I'm in favour of increasing education and enforcement of the laws and regulations, but let's have some tolerance for people who are not as privileged as we, who want a chance to enjoy this beautiful park."

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Newfoundland Update:

I'm working on my agenda as we speak. It's back to a solo trip, and I'm still looking at late June/early July, for 3-4 weeks by car.  East coast, primarily: the drive up the Western peninsula, as attractive as it looks, is a LOT of extra miles. That could possibly change...

I'm going back to my painting classes this week. I really want to bring my oil paint stuff and sketch pad with me. I'm very frustrated by my inability to paint what my mind sees, but I'm determined not to give up just yet. 

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Gales of November update:

It's filling up, only a few spaces remaining. For those who are procrastinating, it's that time. And yes, it's a long day drive up to the Soo from Toronto but really worth it! Last time I drove up, I decided NOT to turn on the radio or listen to music the entire trip: instead I focused on what was going on around me, and I turned it into a Zen experience.  Try it, you'll be pleasantly surprised. I drove all the way to the Soo in one day last time, but if you want a shorter day, stop for the night along the North Channel, in Thessalon or Iron Bridge... the drive from the Soo to Wawa is only 200 km.

Here's the link, if you forgot! www.photography.to/gales

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Parting shots

I took two trips out to shoot pictures this week. One was to the White Water, where we met the fisherman above and where I took this image of rushing water and rocks:

If you're a member of the Haliburton Highlands Camera Club, we (the exec) are undertaking to have multiple outings for our members. Informal ones, like the visit to the whitewater last weekend, as well as more formal trips. Watch the Facebook group for meetup information. 

You don't need to be an HHCC member to access the group, you just have to be a legitimate person interested in photography, not someone trying to sell Sensy products or sunglasses, or give away some of the money being held for me by someone who knows a Nigerian prince. Visit  https://www.facebook.com/groups/165270077016715/ and ask to join, it's an interesting group.

The other visit was to the rookery in Georgina where I got some pictures of Herons nesting last year. I chatted with the landowner and learned that most of the land around there is below the level of Lake Simcoe and it would be flooded if it weren't for the berms and the roadway. Most of the landowners rent out their land to companies growing 'asian vegetables' which he couldn't name. They use the same water for irrigation in the summer. He was there maintaining the berm and bringing in pipe for irrigation. I also learned from another source (the "other" Glenn S, I think) that the land on which the rookery sits has been donated to the township as a conservation area. 

This was cropped somewhat tightly from a shot with the 600mm lens. He was somewhat far away – not all the nests were occupied yet, including the closer ones. 

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Back in the real world

...from the sporadic musings department

Do you remember your dreams?

One weird thing that's been going on since my surgery is that I'm not sleeping well, consequently I seem to fall asleep with no notice right in the middle of things (unfulfilled REM sleep, according to my cousin the psychologist!). Maybe I'm a Narc. Narcoleptic, that is. And I have dreams. I'm writing this now because here I sit in my computer chair and I just woke up from an unplanned nap, in which I had a vivid dream.

I was facilitating some workshops, others were teaching them but they were my program. I was in some sort of teaching facility – maybe a hospital – and although I had pre-booked classroom space for three simultaneous sessions, I couldn't find the third one, the one that I myself was supposed to be teaching. Not only had they moved it to a different room, I learned that it was not even in the same building and nobody could tell me where it was! I asked them to point to the building on a map or just give me the street address and they couldn't. Then I woke up really frustrated.

I had another dream the other day, in the car when I had pulled over on the side of the road for a nap, and I dreamed about being high on a mountain side and in a hurry to get down, so I basically flew down a trail being pulled along at speed by my walker (you know, the thing that my mother uses to help her get around) except mine was powered and  it was very fast and the trails were twisty and narrow and dangerous. I had to descend several flights of stairs and I found myself jumping whole stair sections like Jackie Chan. I remember being somehow stymied and frustrated when I woke up.

This morning, I dreamed I was in a college dorm room and with me was this very tall, very beautiful blond girl and we were just starting to explore some of the physical differences between us when I woke up. I really, really tried to get back to sleep into that dream!

There's this disorienting moment when you wake up and you think you're still in the dream. Very weird, I never experienced that before with the vividness I am now. Let me try to go back to sleep now. There's this college dorm I want to visit...

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Practicing what I preach

A couple of years ago, I borrowed a phrase from a Scott Kelby video, "Work the Scene". I Grokked the concept (stole that one from Robert A. Heinlein), and part of it ties in with the old Norwegian fable by Hans Christian Anderson, "The Billy Goats Gruff". Marrying concepts is what I do and whether I communicate them well is for you to decide.

I went out yesterday to shoot some pictures. It's been a few weeks, I'm still recuperating so a day-long trip was pushing it. I went over to the Minden Wildwater Preserve for an hour to see what I could see. It's an ugly time of year here, brown melting snow and mud, no colour out there other than grey and brown and white, it was a dull day. But, I said, that doesn't mean there isn't something to photograph, there are a million things out there in Nature, from the very small to the very large (Oh dear. That one comes from DeWitt Jones! It is said that "...great artists steal". Stole that from Pablo Picasso.). However, I only had my long telephoto lens with me, or at least that's the only one I took out.

So when I got there, I saw that the Gull River had overflowed its banks, there was an incredible cascade of rushing water and there were little ice caps everywhere because the temperature was still below freezing. So that's what caught my eye and I spent some time trying to make some images of the crystallized waters. With a little success.

But I wasn't done. This is where working the scene comes in. I'm here, there's more to shoot, work it. Find something else interesting.

A spot o' colour on a dull day 

More colour. This was the only natural thing that I found that was colourful! 

By the way, except for the screaming tree below, everything was shot with the Tamron 150-600 lens. Mostly at ISO 6400.

My photo of the day wouldn't have happened if I hadn't kept at it.

I liked the original too, before post-processing. But when I looked at this image I saw the possibility of doing it as a painting, so I used Topaz Impression, Impasto preset as a starting point.

It's also interesting to note that the first pass had too much detail in the lower left corner. So I took the original image into Photoshop and used Content-Aware-Fill to change that area and only then took it into Impression. I also did a charcoal version to play with later using real charcoal pencils on sketching paper. 

On the way home, I drove down Horseshoe Lake Road, a road I've been on a thousand times  over the 9 years I've lived here. As I came over a rise I spotted something interesting but I kept going for a bit until it registered. Here's where the "billy goat" thing enters into it. In the past, I've driven along and saw a nice sunset, then figured if I kept going I might find a better foreground for a shot. You never do: by the time you find something, the peak is gone, the light has changed. So I've learned not to drive by and hope for something better to come along, I've learned to stop. So I made a u-turn. Here's what I had seen:

A tree stump that looked like a screaming figure! Like I said, I've driven this road many times before, how come I never saw it? 

I took several shots. I remembered that the 105mm lens was in the bag so I changed to it and kept shooting. I tried an HDR bracket, I changed the colour temperature, I wanted to make this guy stand out!

So many options. Adding fog, duo-toning... but in the end, here's what I came up with.

The "Screaming Tree on Horseshoe Lake Road". Rendered with Topaz Impression and Texture Effects.

The lesson? If you see something, if it catches your eye, STOP and SHOOT IT. It may not be there later!

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It's about a week later now. Writing this thing over time... when I re-read what I wrote I realize that "I woke up today..." isn't exactly right. Forgive me!

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Cops for Cancer

Last Saturday I did the Cops for Cancer headshave thing. Bottom line: they raised over $60,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society. Proud to have been a part of it. I saw a lot of really nice and dedicated people, talked with a bunch of them, saw my old friend Sean and Dr. Ron was nice enough to come down as well to take some pictures (which I haven't seen yet!). Had my head shaved, took a few pictures myself, it was a worthwhile event and I'm glad I did it.

More importantly: a number of my friends and colleagues donated to the cause, so I raised almost $1000. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. We will beat this thing.

So here's a short photo sequence, of my shots and Sean's iPhone pix of me!

Deputy Chief Mike Federico gives a welcoming and big thank you speech

 

and then takes his turn under the clippers 

Karen (I think that's her name) donated 10" of her waist length hair last year and another 8" this year, for wigs for chemotherapy patients. 

For some, it was a family affair, a dad and his two boys did the shave and raised substantial donations 

He said he'd been growing his 'Bon Jovi' hair for years! Yeah, well the wig came off, and then so did his real hair 

Here's my buddy Sean, one of the most imposing cops you'll ever meet at over six-and-a-half-feet tall. He looks mean when he wears his motorcycle duds but he's much too nice a guy!
 

before... 

...and after! I think this could be the poster-boy shot for next year's event. Sean was in fact on the committee that made this happen. The radio reporter in the foreground was one of the many media types on site. 

Now it's my turn. This and the next two photos courtesy of Sean Shapiro 

Ahhh! Feel the wind in my (non) hair! 

"so what are you doing later, my dear?" 

I plan on going back next year. Expect me to bug you for donations again!

(PS: Wendy – you were right – it does feel cold! I even wore my Toronto Police watch cap to bed that night!

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A quiet week, photographically.

The past couple of weeks have been busy, mostly spending time with friends, the usual Toronto trek and without a camera in my hands! But you know me, I never stop shooting pictures. The camera club, planning events, thinking about what's going on next month...(If you're an HHCC member, think "Algonquin Park", fall colours, October 5th), But before I get started,

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Last week I expressed my concern over a proposed generating plant proposal from Orillia Power which would have dramatically affected the beautiful white water rapids in the Minden Wildwater Preserve.

I'm delighted to announce that the Minden Town Council has unanimously voted AGAINST the proposal and it is now effectively dead. Congratulations to the council for their insight and foresight.

I'd like to think that the letter I wrote played some small part in that decision but I guess I'll never know. 

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But the Town of Minden Hills gets one of these too. At the end of June or beginning of July, the town prepped Red Umbrella Road for repaving (they'll say "top coating", not repaving). And they said they'd finish it by the end of July. It's now September.

Why am I complaining? Every time a car drives by, a huge dust storm rises of the graveled road especially when the wind is from the lake as usual. So much that the front yard of my house, the table and chairs in the gazebo are coated with dirt. You can't sit outside. All summer I've only eaten al fresco twice, when the wind was from the east.

Every now and then a water truck comes and sprays the road. That keeps the dust down for, oh I don't know, 30 minutes? Today was 30°C and I had to keep my house closed up tight to prevent the dust from coming in.

First the delay was because of the PanAm Games. Yeah, they've known about that for, like, two years. Then it was because of the weather. I spoke with the road superintendant mid-August. He PROMISED it would be done within a couple of weeks and apologized for the delay. I emailed him today and got this response:

The road will be sealed up soon, the contractor is saying within the next two weeks. Please try to understand that surface treatment contractors work across Ontario and cover tens of thousands of kilometers per season. When they are rained out in one area it has a domino effect on everybody else. 

On Sunday, the Inn is having a RibFest, with live music and everything. I hope for their sake the wind isn't coming from the East that day. You dust ribs with spices and BBQ sauce, not road dirt. Stay tuned.

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Back to painting again

It's so much harder than taking pictures! And I really can't draw or sketch, as I confirmed when Janie and I tried sketching the same scene (from the picture above). I painted it, though – twice! The better one is when I just went for it, with loaded brushes and heavy strokes.

Can you tell from the picture that I put gobs of paint on it? I think I captured the feeling of the rushing water, but I know I got the perspective wrong. Mixing paint colours is a challenge for me too. 

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Reminder: Topaz ReMask 5 is on sale until September 18th, $20 off. If you don't have it and you've ever tried to select something out of an image, you need it! Read last week's blog for more details or go to the Topaz site.

Here's the link to the ReMask product page. You can try it out for free... but complete your purchase before the 18th to take advantage of the sale price. At checkout, enter the code. "GetReMask5". 

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Lambs and Ivy

 Cheryl was up from Oshawa way and we spent the afternoon shooting some pictures. We also tried for a sunset, but the skies didn't cooperate, not too exciting.

Inside the barn at Lambs and Ivy, low light!

I took that picture at Lambs and Ivy, an antiques barn where they have no problem with us taking pictures. It was pretty dark in there and I didn't feel like bringing in a flash or reflector. The D800 does a great job at high ISO. Also, I limited myself again to the 105mm lens. It's so flexible except that you have to zoom with your feet!

Focus on the eyes, they say! 

Loved this old typewriter. Again it was hard to get back far enough to fit it in. And the big problem here was that the backgrounds were always cluttered and busy. We could have spent hours in there, though! 

Lambs and Ivy have some fabulous gardens. Here are some examples:

Processed with Topaz Glow and Impression. 

Sunflower macro. I did one even closer but I liked the symmetry and pattern in this one. 

My favourite, I think. Topaz Impression, "Turner Afternoon" preset. 

Carden Plain

On the way back from Toronto a few days ago, I decided to see what was going on at Carden Plain.

Nothing.

I don't think I saw more than two birds, and none close enough to shoot. I walked down the Sedge Wren Marsh trail, again nothing. I did take the 105 macro with me, so I got a few shots.

Forgive me. I know people are tired of the "Twirl" but this brilliant red leaf (it's coming!!!) lent itself perfectly to this treatment. Here's the original picture:

This flowering plant is called bugloss, or blue weed. This is actually two images focus stacked together. 

After leaving Carden Plain (well, technically I was still there, on Victoria Road), I saw this gentle sunset and managed to capture it:

The unprocessed shot looked pretty good but since I can't leave well enough alone, I of course opened it in Topaz Impression to make it a bit more surreal. 

All in all, not an exciting week, photographically, but I think I made the best of it.

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I'm Famous!

I'm Famous!
(not rich yet, though)

PhotoLife Magazine has chosen my image, "Dahlia Impressions" for their June/July 2015 edition. And printed it... not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES!

ON THE COVER 

 

On the Index page and in the story inside

It's quite an honour to be chosen as the lead image from all the photography clubs in Canada! As I write this, the original print is on display at the Agnes Jamieson Gallery in Minden and you can purchase this original image, impeccably printed and framed by contacting me directly.

Seriously. It's for sale. After this original sells, I'll start a limited edition of prints and prices will go up. Hurry.

There are matching prints of other floral subjects available as well.

Start, or expand your collection of Glenn Springer fine art prints now!



This is for the photographers in my audience.

Topic #1: A place to hang out on Facebook
I've long been involved in some discussion forums online, back to the old NAPP days and then when that died, to a smaller group called "TIF — The Imaging Forum", which still exists but it's pretty quiet (Here's a link to the forum itself. It's free to join...). That's because everyone seems to have migrated to Facebook, where it's harder to organize and maintain an ongoing multi-threaded discussion, but much easier to get a dialog going on a specific topic, to share images and get constructive criticism.

So I helped create a Facebook group called, well, "TIF — The Imaging Forum" and I've included a hyperlink to it here. It's different from the huge FB groups like 'Photoshop and Lightroom' which has over 100K members, but it's got some very friendly and helpful people in it that go back to the old days, as I mentioned. These are people who want to learn, share or help: some are new or novice and others are very knowledgeable and it's not limited by geography, we have people from all over the world! It's kind of like a "Camera Club in the Cloud"!

You need to join the group to participate: it's a closed group so 'anything you post in TIF, stays in TIF'! which means it can't be directly shared outside the group.  Click "join" and the moderator (me!) will approve you.

Note: this group is ONLY for friendly, helpful people. If you're a sh1t-disturber, you'll get kicked out right away. 

If you're on Facebook, have a look. It will take a while to get a critical mass of topics going, so be patient. That can be a good thing, too: you won't get overloaded with messages!

Topic #2: My new preferred shooting mode!
A few weeks ago, I started experimenting with auto-ISO, with the camera mode set on Manual. It's changed my shooting style some, so it's worth talking about.

Some background. I watched the following video from a fellow named Steve Perry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFLxYMLsv8I&feature=youtu.be

I was somewhat skeptical but you know what? It works. He very clearly tells you off the top that (1) it works on pretty well all modern Nikons, but only some Canons and other cameras, but he tells you in the video how to find out if it works in your camera. And (2) it's not for everyone and certainly not for every situation. I find it useful when shooting any kind of action – could be wildlife, could be sports – but turn it off when shooting static subjects or landscapes, situations where I have time to reflect and don't have to shoot on the fly.

Now if you care about what ISO you're shooting, you have to be careful to preset the maximum ISO limit in your camera. When don't you care? Well, when you're shooting those action or quick shots and the image story or content is more important. I've found that the high-ISO performance of my D800 is awesome: I can get low noise images even as high as ISO 6400. But you don't have to go that high!

So what's the big advantage? I've long taught that what makes or breaks the quality of a picture is the aperture: you choose the depth of field you want to select the feel of your composition. So I recommend Aperture-Priority mode in most cases. But when you shoot action, the shutter speed is equally important – maybe even more so if it involves freezing (or on the other side, allowing) motion. And shutter speed is a consideration when you take camera shake into account.

So this gives you the best of both worlds! You can go into manual mode, choose both the aperture and the shutter speed you want, and let the camera choose the ISO! Like I said, it's not appropriate ALL the time, but it's now my go-to mode when shooting anything that moves.

Don't take my word for it: watch the video and try it. And let me know what you think! The best way to do that is on Facebook: link to the "TIF — The Imaging Forum" page as I mentioned above.

More from Carden Plain

First of all, I get why you need a big mother lens when you shoot birds. I've managed to capture some presentable images with my 70-200 + 1.7x teleconverter but you really want to have a 500mm or 600mm lens for this. I'm fortunate in that (a) I have an outstanding camera in the D800 that allows me to crop tightly and still have enough pixels to make an acceptable display image and (b) I have a lens good enough to retain the acuity that I need, but for the large format print work I'd like to do, it isn't enough. Someone suggested I trade in my car for a lens. If only I could!

That said, it's not only about taking their pictures, it's about SEEING the birds in the first place! I'm really not very good at that, which tells you that you really should think about visiting the Carden Plain because you're sure to do better than me.

Carden Alvar is not just about birds, it's about other indigenous wildlife as well, and flowers too. I hope to get back there to shoot some more before they're gone.

This is called "Prairie Smoke" and it is ubiquitous in Carden Plain. Hope they're still around next visit.

 The Scarlet Indian Paintbrush is hard to photograph effectively. I had to resort to Topaz Impression
(Palette Knife/Oil Painting) to get one that I liked. 

Here's a few birds...

Pretty common Song Sparrow, doing his thing on a fence. I like the framing of this shot. BTW there were some out-of-focus weeds in the foreground, minimized by a large aperture.

American Bittern, not common here, in a typical stance. He's saying, "you can't see me! I have great camouflage and  I'm going to hold still"! Works better when you're not on a green background, dude!

The story on the bittern is that as I headed down the trail on the Sedge Wren Marsh Walk, a birder coming the other way said, "there's a heron just to the left when you reach the river". Guess she wasn't a birder either, I was expecting a great blue heron, far more common! I watched him feeding in the river, I got a few shots of him with a minnow in his mouth, but nothing spectacular. Another photographer joined me, someone with one of those humongous lenses and he got the same shots I did, but closer. I don't think he knew what it was either.

In mid-swallow. 

Yellow Warbler, singing his little heart out! I'm not an expert birder, but I think this is what you're going for
when you shoot "birds on a stick"! 

Whitewater Action

As my loyal readers know, I have received press accreditation to shoot the PanAm Games this summer. I'm still waiting for my press card from the Olympic Committee and I have to take it down to Toronto to get it validated and pick up my vest and press kit. I'm SO looking forward to this! We were told, "no vest, no get in". I'm feeling privileged. It better arrive in time!

Last weekend was the CanoeKayak Canada Slalom Team Trials and the winners of this event were seconded to the team representing Canada at the PanAm Games. There were a few foreign competitors trying their mettle against the wild waters of the Gull River, some of whom did very well!

Devin McEwan and Casey Eichfeld from the USA powered their way through the waters just below the "Otter Slide". 

Ben Hayward will represent us in the Men's Canoe Singles. Normally I discard shots where the paddle blocks the athlete's face but in this case the athleticism and power sold me on this shot.

Jazmyne Denholland is our Women's Kayak hopeful on the Canadian Team. 

This is a composite of six images showing Canadian team member Haley Daniels (Women's Canoe) navigating gate #10 on the course. Competitors have to pass through the gates: missing one costs a 50 second penalty and just touching one costs two second. I hope I can get this vantage point during the PanAm's! 

Here's a shot that says to me what this sport, and this river is about. I'm thinking about printing multiple copies of this one for sale during the Games. I'll probably do one original print on museum quality paper, frame it and sign it and make it available for sale as well as a set of limited edition prints. Any interest, speak now before the original is gone!

PanAm Games 2015 at the Minden Wildwater Preserve in Ontario, Canada 

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