Epiphany

New Blog Header picture

Some newsreaders don't show the header picture and whenever I change it, the old one is lost. So here's the current picture preserved in the body of the blog as well. This is a rendering of a snowmobile track on the ice of 12-Mile Lake just opposite my dock. I shrunk it proportionally; the original is much taller. I was going to leave it black-and-white but I really liked the tonality of this version.

Contact me if this speaks to you as it does to me. Picture the image (without the text, of course) as a
48" by 12" canvas or matte print on your wall.

Epiphany

No, not the Christian holiday. A "Leap of Understanding". Wikipedia defines it as,

An epiphany (from the ancient Greek ἐπιφάνεια, epiphaneia, "manifestation, striking appearance") is an experience of sudden and striking realization. 

 In my humble opinion, they're rare, and they should be, otherwise they wouldn't be significant. And in my case, stating them can be a bit embarrassing. Because it feels like you're restating the obvious. Cognoscenti will stare down their noses at you and say, "Yeah, and? This is something you didn't know?"

The last one I can recall had to do with motorcycling. For 12 years I taught the motorcycle course at Humber College. There was one really, really basic concept that all motorcycle students had to grasp. I must have used the words 10,000 times. But it wasn't until one day, riding my bike down at Deal's Gap (The "Tail of the Dragon". Google it if you don't know what it is) when I had an epiphany: "You have to look where you want to go". Motorcyclists will understand this, the rest of you probably won't. I can hear my friend George thinking, "like what are you, new?"

Do you understand what I mean? Yes, you know it but do you KNOW it? Robert A. Heinlein coined a word that applies: GROK. (From his book, Stranger in a Strange Land, and if you haven't read it, you should).

So here's my epiphany for today:

"The only people who care how a picture was made are those who are trying to figure out how to emulate it". 

People who don't have that agenda, flat out don't care. They either like it or they don't like it. They either see and appreciate the maker's vision or they don't. Am I restating the obvious?

Look at that banner picture up top. Do you care how many pixels wide it is? Is it noisy? Is the colour balance off? What's that dark lump about 1/3 in from the right? Do you care what technique I used to make it? WHO CARES? It's an expression of MY VISION.

During the time I spent with Rosa, I think she tried to tell me that 1000 times. I didn't hear it until now. She also used to disagree vehemently with my premise, when teaching composition, that "you need to know the rules so you can know when to break them". I still don't get that – she was probably right but I don't Grok it.

How does that change what I do? It's a bit of a sticky wicket, as my British friends like to say. On the one hand, I'm teaching, and that involves giving people ideas and examples of what to do and what not to do. On the other side, I'm trying to express my vision in my art and that involves none of the above. I've stopped submitting images for competitions and yet with the new club, I'm fostering that learning vehicle. What to do, what to do...

So here are a couple more quotes for your enjoyment.

"I'm succeeding admirably in my rôle as a starving artist!"

"Everything hurts. Except the things that don't work anymore."

Attribute the last one to my father (Robert Springer, 1920-2010), who also coined "female dark chocolate" (no nuts!) in his later years! The other two are mine.

You know what would be cool? If years from now you entered these quotes in Wikipedia and they came back attributed appropriately!

Haliburton Highlands Camera Club

We have, as they say, Liftoff! After a snow-delayed launch, the inaugural meeting of the Haliburton Highlands Camera Club took place on a memorable date: Friday the 13th of December! There were 26 people in attendance (good thing, that’s all the chairs we had!), and at this writing, 17 of them have joined the fledgling club. I find this an auspicious number. For one thing, there are no snowbirds or cottagers in the group, imagine the headcount had we done this in the summer! And a lot of people wrote to say they wanted to be there but couldn't make the last minute schedule change.

I have an amazing 55 names on my HHCC list, from a population that would be dwarfed by the number of residents in one city block in the 'Big Smoke'. My assumption that there is a need for a camera club up here in the Highlands seems to be true. The next step is to make the promised programs happen, and we're getting a start at it. First step is to assemble a team to coordinate our activities, and that's in the works.

Part of the group at the inaugural Camera Club meeting. 

So if you're in the Highlands and you haven't joined yet, have a look at our web page and contact me for more information.

Photomatix Pro 5.0

HDRsoft has released version 5.0 of their signature Photomatix Pro software. The world seems to be divided by the three big HDR generating products, Photomatix, Nik HDR Efex Pro and Photoshop HDR Pro (there are other tone-mapping products out there, notably Topaz Adjust). Photomatix is the only one that can run as a standalone, without requiring Photoshop or Lightroom.

HDRsoft has always provided free upgrades to their existing customers, and there seems to be no exception here: I went to hdrsoft.com, downloaded and installed it over Photomatix 4.2.2 and it never even asked for a serial number. They didn't send me a heads-up, though, so if you're a customer, get thee over to the site for an upgrade. Kudo's to HDRsoft for this policy.

I've spent a total of 5 minutes on it since I installed it. I opened a 3-shot/2 stop burst and played with it briefly. It appears to run smoother that before and with more subtle control over the effects. I'll have to do some more testing. My normal go-to has been the Nik product and the one thing it has that Photomatix doesn't is Control Points, although you can do much the same thing with layer masks in Photoshop.

Here's that 3-shot image I ran. All I did to it after returning from Photomatix was to dodge out the bottom of the dirty door a bit, and straighten/crop in Lightroom.

I really should have cleaned the spider webs off the side of the building before winter. Then again, I wouldn't have gotten this shot! 

Topaz Star Filter

If you hurry, you can get the new Topaz Star Effects filter for half price (until year-end). It does really neat stars, but it also does glows: I learned that by watching their Webinar last week, then I tried it on this image:

The glow makes a big difference in the feel of this image. 

I used the star effect on this photopainting of the snowplow after the first snowstorm of the year. 

Go to this link and enter decstar as the coupon code at checkout.

Winter in the Highlands

A day in the life... here's what you have to do when you live up in the Highlands!

...and this

He had no problem with me taking his picture! That's $300 of heating oil being pumped into my tank! I must say the D610 delivers spectacular performance at ISO 6400.

It's not even winter yet officially until Saturday. Looks like we're in for a long one.

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Workin' my buns off!

I wish that were literally true... my buns could use a little working off. OK, more than a "little". I thought I'd start with a short 'show update'.

The Haliburton Home & Cottage Show
It takes place on May 31-June 1-June 2 in the Arena in Haliburton. There are supposed to be about 150 exhibitors, ranging from log house contractors to furniture suppliers to dock and watercraft providers, clothing, gifts, sports and activities and yes, photography! I don't have an exhibitor's list, but I think that Linda Cresswell and I are going to be the only photography exhibitors there. We're working together in Booth #204 and we hope we're going to see you there!

We'll be doing two things: selling prints (and cards), and talking about and booking students for my one- or two-day workshops on learning to take better pictures.

The process of getting ready for the show is quite involved. For Linda less so than me, because she's done them before and already has a body of work printed and ready to go; but I have to spend a lot of time on that aspect!

I've decided NOT to compromise on any of my larger prints. I will be displaying and selling high quality exhibition grade limited edition art prints. I'll have two finishes, Lustre, printed on Epson Premium Lustre Photo Paper 260 gsm, and matte, done on Epson Cold Press Natural 340 gsm. They will be printed by guru Jim Camelford on his Epson Stylus Pro 7900. Not only are the papers and inks archival quality (image lifetimes advertised exceed the human lifespan!) but the gamut and precision of this printer and its media will ensure outstanding image quality.

As I write this, about 1/3 of the prints have been done. In the next few days, I'll be preparing the next batch for printing and that's quite a chore, to do it right! I'll write the process up on my tech blog in a week or so, after I shake the bugs out.

My go-to size for images is a sheet size of 24x18. Images will typically be 19" wide by 13" high, centred on those sheets. Each print will be supplied in a crystal clear bag with a stiffening card, so that the customer can easily mount it in a standard frame. I'll have about a dozen framed prints on hand as well. Here's an example of how the images will appear:

"Reeds" has had an oil paint layer applied to add texture and smooth out the silhouettes. The keyline around it is designed so that if someone wants to frame the print, they don't need a mat. It is printed on the matte watercolor paper and will be on sale at the show for $150. Readers of my blog can buy it for $99! Send me an email...

So aside from the booth design and construction, preparing prints and getting them made, writing descriptions for each print for the accompanying card, creating a database and followup file for my mailing list, making marketing materials and forms, rewriting my basic DSLR course so P&S shooters will benefit, updating both my photography.to and SmugMug websites, I have nothing to do...

...tomorrow I'm off to the Birds of Prey workshop on Lake Erie, so hopefully I'll have some new and exciting images available for the show too!

Pictures from the past

I came across this image while looking for something in my archives. OK, actually, I was looking for this very image, to post on the newly created site for the MRHS Class of 1963 reunion coming up in September, 50 years. Gawd, I'm old... this image hangs on my wall near my computer and it brings back great memories of that trip and other ones, and motorcycling in general.

This is me, riding my ST-1100 back in 2005 at the Tail of the Dragon in Deal's Gap, North Carolina (or Tennessee, depending where I was on Rte. 129 at the time). 

By the way, this set of pictures was taken by a company known as "Killboy" who used to set up in the Gap and diligently photographed and posted pictures of every one of the thousands of bikes that rode through on a weekend. I bought these images from them so I can publish them here. I miss riding, but it was time to move on.

Here's another older image of me, taken by Iris during our motorcycle trip down the Blue Ridge Parkway in 2007:

At the top of Grandfather Mountain, near Boone, NC. When I look at pictures like this, I realize I really should lose that weight I've put on since those days! 

Some Wallpaper for you

Here's a new FREE wallpaper shot for you. It works well as a background image on your computer.

Wild Water. There are two versions of this image, one for regular monitors at http://photography.to/wallpaper/wildwater4x3.jpg and the other for widescreen monitors at http://photography.to/wallpaper/wildwater16x9.jpg. The watermark is not on either file. Help yourself to them; just go to those links, right-click and copy them to your computer. They are for your own personal use only, not for reproduction or resale. "Creative Commons" copyright protection. If you do download it, please drop me a note: it's interesting to know how many people are using it!

If the icons on your screen have white labels on them, they will be hard to read on this background. Here's how to change the font colour to black (Windows 7. You're on your own with other O/S's!): go to Control Panel → Personalization → Window Color → Advanced Appearance Settings. Change the "Desktop Color 1" to white if you want black type, to black if you want white type. They do make it tough, don't they?

By the way, this image, "Wild Water", is also available as a fine art print on matte watercolour paper, like the "Reeds" image at the top of this post. $150 at the show, $99 here.

A few more pictures

Here are a couple more shots that I took on the way home last weekend, just for your enjoyment!

Every time I drive past the Wessel farm on Highway 35 south of Minden, I look for these horses. I'm always in a hurry, somehow, but I stopped on Saturday. I'm guessing these are young horses, mom & dad are behind the fence in the background. 

I'd love to get them running towards me, wind in their manes, instead of standing there curiously wondering what I'm doing! Next time, maybe. 

This is the dam at Lock 44 on the Trent-Severn Canal, just West of Bolsover, on Canal Road. I used the 10x ND filter, so I could take a 30 second exposure, then I added some Topaz Adjust to bring out the water detail. 

And finally, light painting with a flashlight during a 1-minute shot on a starry night up at 12 Mile Lake. the wide angle lens, wide open at f/2.8 allowed this to happen. Looking at it at 72dpi on the computer is less than ideal, though! Click on the picture to blow it up.

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All Right! Tons of visitors

I'm honoured (Canadian/British spelling!). 80 distinct visitors so far, and from all over the place. The Philippines, New Zealand, Belgium and of course all over the US and Canada. I attached a neat hit counter that lets me see all that stuff.

Remember, you can see most, if not all of my images by going to my photo gallery. Click here, or at right.

I know where a lot of you are from -- VROC. For those not in the know, that's the "Vulcan Riders and Owners Club", a group I've been a member of for several years and although we're all joined by the common link to the venerable Kawasaki Vulcan motorcycle, we're an eclectic group including some members with discriminating taste (demonstrated by the fact that they're reading this!).

So since there are motorcyclists here, it behooves me to give them something to look at. Here you go:



Now Luc is an RCMP Sergeant (maybe Staff... I'm not sure). I met him at the Police motorcycle competition mid-August at Humber College. He's a friend of a friend of mine, Lori (Twuble) who rides a little Ninja 500. I'll have to find a picture of Lori to post later. Anyway, the layout that Luc was riding -- successfully I might add -- was really really tight. I tried it later on a little Virago 250 and was generally able to do it, but not a chance on my ST-1100. Here's me on the ST-1100:



I'm not as skilled. I'm trying, but I can't do what these folks can do. Of course they can't take pictures... this photo was taken by "Killboy" at Deal's Gap in North Carolina. Quite the place: 318 turns in 11 miles. (I just read that the record amateur time on the Dragon was 11 minutes. I did it in 14. Not as bad as I thought!) here's a couple of links: a video of still images from Killboy and a link to the "Tail of the Dragon" website.

Here's me on a dirt bike last June:


A little Orton effect for you photographers. I didn't take the photo (obviously) but I did do the PhotoShopping! I have to tell you, I was SORE after that day. I used muscles I didn't even know I had! But was it ever fun. Oh, and I did end up planting my face in that puddle!

And here's another friend, Shawna Aron, a couple of years ago on her R6. I took this at Shannonville racetrack right after I got my 70-200 lens. Shawna was the Canadian Women's Superbike Champion that year.



OK, so I promised you waterfalls. Be patient, they're coming! First I wanted to show motorcycles to my loyal followers!