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 

— 30 —

Challenge Yourself!

In the past few weeks, I've felt myself getting stale. The fall colours should be inspiring, but you know the expression BTDT (Been there, done that...)? I've lived up here for 6 years and there's no doubt that this is a spectacular place to be this time of year, but I had the feeling that I needed to find a new approach, to shoot something different.

The message here is the trite phrase, "Get out of your Comfort Zone". Do something you're not used to doing. Try some new stuff.

I wasn't really successful. Like I said last week, I'm in a bit of a flat spot. That's not to say I didn't get some images I liked: I did (see below). But I want to find something different. This isn't over: I'm going to look for some stuff I haven't done before.

I did three things this week that I don't normally do: I went out on an ATV ride with some neighbours, experiencing some more challenging riding than the usual, I stopped at a high school football game to shoot some pictures, and I did a small indoor studio shoot for a client.

In reverse order: shooting jewellery without a macro lens and without proper lighting is an exercise in frustration. I was able to produce the image he was looking for, but not up to my quality standards. There are a couple of reasons why I can't show you those pictures here, but trust me, it's all about the light and I didn't have it.

I was driving back from Haliburton and came across a football game. I got there with half of the fourth quarter remaining, so I only had about half an hour to shoot. Now I know that the goal in football photography (and other sports too) is to capture the emotion of the player(s), some outstanding physical effort, and tell a story. And try to get both a face and the ball in the same shot. My excuse is, I didn't have time. I got a few shots I liked, though:

I used some of the new features in Lightroom 5 to enhance the lighting in this shot. If you're shooting sports, set your shutter speed to something REALLY high to freeze the action. This shot was 1/1600 second at f/5.6, F=400mm. He was running right towards me and I just held down the shutter release, using AF-C focus tracking. This was the best of the burst.
  

I know it's not my place to comment, but I will anyway – this is MY blog, after all! The Red Hawks were the home team in Haliburton, the Griffins are from Peterborough. So as a Highlander, I tried to get some good shots of the home team:

The Red Hawks quarterback was an able passer. And this shot shows an offensive lineman doing what he's supposed to do in a classic position protecting his quarterback. A second later he fended off a charging defensive player. 

But you could see the difference in determination between the two teams. I commented to a Red Hawks coach (he coached the younger team that was playing next) that what I missed, as a long-ago player, was the sounds of pads clashing and the almost reckless giving-up-of-the-body, the concept of running through someone, not at them. His comment? "Oh, the game has changed. It's all in the hands now". Nonsense. You've got to want it.

You only need to look at the faces, folks. Looks like the Griffins' running back is about to get levelled, right? Nope. The Red Hawk tackler tried to armtackle him from behind instead of getting his shoulder in front of him and low, and the result? He missed the tackle and 20 yards later, TOUCHDOWN!  

I know. Not my place. And my time on the field was almost 50 years ago. But hey, it's MY BLOG and these are my "sporadic musings"!

PS: Griffins 48, Red Hawks 41.

PPS: Griffins guy: switch the ball to your left hand when you're about to get hit on the right. Just sayin'...

An ATV Ride

For once I went out to do something OTHER than take pictures. I have to get back to doing things instead of just observing them. I met Bill doing a photo workshop here a month ago. He owns 100 acres not far from here and is an avid ATVer, and he invited me to come over for a ride. My neighbour Jack also joined us (by the way, Jack, if you're reading this, I need lessons in barbecueing ribs. Outstanding!).

So although I had the camera gear with me, I only stopped twice in the entire ride, to grab some pictures. And they were just snaps... I was having a lot of fun riding, challenged by the fact that I'm an inexperienced rider and by my OLD ATV that could use some service: I didn't want to break anything!

Here's one spot we stopped for a breather, out in the open on a hydro cut. A snapshot, like I said! Most of the ride was on some narrow, forested trails but I didn't shoot them!

In hindsight, there were a couple of spots I should have taken the time to set up a shot. One was a stream crossing and afterwards I thought I should have set the camera up on a tripod and set it to shoot a timelapse. I think I'll study how to do that more readily, it'll take some figuring out), or maybe a video. There was a second spot going over a little bridge Bill built, over another stream.

Anyway, I hope Bill knows what he has there. His property is extra-special, especially at this time of year. Here's the other spot we stopped for pictures:

Having Bill in the picture adds a sense of scale. The trees are huge and gloriously coloured. Bill was actually standing about 10 meters further away, on the left side and with his ATV. Through the magic of Photoshop... why did I do that? To magnify the scale of the trees and to get him out of the middle.

I also turned the clarity down a LOT in the image (an Adobe Camera Raw function available in Lightroom, Photoshop, and Elements for my newer readers). The purpose was to emphasize colours instead of textures.

This image is available as a large scale art print. Click here to see it full sized.

By the way, here's the link to Bill's Smugmug gallery. Do take a minute to visit it: and check out the bears! He got some AWESOME pictures. I was particularly taken with the Spirit (Kermode) Bear which I originally took to be a light coloured grizzly but it's really a differently coloured black bear!

SPECIAL SALE ON ART PRINTS

I have a bunch of inventory of art prints. I want to sell these by the year-end so I'll make a special offer: $50 buys a large scale art print on lustre or on beautiful matte Epson Cold Press paper. That includes shipping to normal locations: I'll roll them in a tube for mailing. The prints are all on 18x24 sheet, archival quality, with keylines and digitally signed.

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL.
Buy two for $75.

And if you act now, I also have a quantity of 8x12 prints in plastic sleeves and they are only $10 each. AND some 5x7 greeting cards with 4x6 pictures for only $3.33 each if you buy 3 (so three for $10). Shipping included!

The large format prints are here: http://faczen.smugmug.com/FineArt/Limited-Edition-Prints-1

I still have to get the smaller ones up on a gallery somewhere, watch for it in the next blog or ask. Many of the same images are in that group too.

These prices are for existing inventory only.

Email me here.

D600 going back to Nikon for the third time

Sensor dust has raised its ugly head again. I admit I'm pushing the edge of the envelope, doing a detailed HDR at small aperture but if the dust were not there, I wouldn't have the problem.

This is a screen capture of this 3-shot HDR in Lightroom after I spotted out the dust spots. Admittedly everything combined to produce this: it's an HDR, f/16, detail turned up... This was supposed to be one of 6 images I was combining into a large pano. 

Hopefully Nikon will do the right thing. Their policy is to replace the camera after the third return. We'll see...

...and I gave in

How can you NOT go with Adobe's $10/month offer? Lightroom plus Photoshop CC. So I gave in despite my misgivings. The concern is what happens if I let my subscription lapse. Oddly enough, I'm less worried about being able to open my Photoshop .psd files (I get that if I revert to CS6, for which I own a perpetual license, I'll be able to open the layered file but that the tools from CC won't be available to me), than I am about Lightroom. I no longer own a perpetual license for the latest Lightroom (5) and the catalogs are not backwards compatible. Hmmm...

A couple more images

I woke up to a foggy morning and my first thought was, "have coffee later. Go to Vic's place and see what the mist looks like on the lake". So I did.

I made a valiant effort to shoot a multi-exposure panoramic HDR. I failed. But while doing the 18 shots I needed for it, I caught this series. OK, well not strictly true: the 18 shots were 6 bursts of 3 bracketed VERTICAL images. Then I turned the camera horizontal and shot this one. I have a few others I want to come back to another time. 

Vic has a stand of very old Hemlocks that I spent some time on.  

After the mist lifted, the morning skies were so interesting and I was captivated by the reflection on the calm water. I also have a vertical version of this image, can't decide which one I like best!

And finally, on my favourite ATV trail, I liked the sun peeking through the trees. I did enhance the birch trees on the right to make them stand out.  

Until next week! TTFN

— 30 —

Two Days to go 'till the Show!

It's Wednesday and the Haliburton Home & Cottage Show starts on Friday! Two days to go!

Am I ready? Hell, no. I will be, though. As I write this, I still have to create about 25 more greeting cards, bag them all, make one or two more signs, a couple of signup and register sheets, finalize the course agenda for my basic photo skills workshops, frame and re-frame several pictures, run into Toronto tomorrow to go to Staples and Costco for last-minute stuff, buy groceries because my fridge is empty and Linda and Bob will be here for the weekend...

I'm quite satisfied with the images I've produced for the show. I hope I didn't guess wrong about what people would like to buy and I've kept the prices affordable so that hopefully I won't be taking them all home with me! It's a bit of a gamble.

I have 3 goals for the show:

• to sell some images
• to book some workshop students
• to increase the readership for my blogs.

To accomplish the first two, I will be getting out in front of people and they will at least be more aware of me. I've created some show special prices and I'll let my images do the talking for me.

Special offer for my loyal readers: if you come to the show, I'll give you an ADDITIONAL 20% off any print you buy (not the cards. They're cheap enough, at $5 or 3/$10, just check Hallmark's pricing!). So if you see a fine art watercolor image marked at $175, show special $140, your price would be $112. 

All you have to do is tell me you read about it here, and as a skill-testing question, tell me what animal is featured in the header photo of this blog. 

But wait, there's more!

AFTER the show, for the entire month of June 2013, you get the same deal! If you buy art images by going to my gallery and emailing me (I don't have a shopping cart set up yet), and you tell me you read it here, I'll price accordingly. 

To accomplish the third one, I've decided to give some stuff away. If people sign up for my Newsletter, I'll enter their names into two draws: one for a free fine art picture, and one for a free workshop session. 

You can get in on this too! I want you to sign up for my newsletter. Don't worry, if you're not happy, there's an "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of every newsletter. 

Here's the deal: sign up for the newsletter by clicking here or scanning the QR code to the right and I'll automatically enter you in the draw for the picture. If you also want to be considered for the free workshop, leave me a comment at the bottom of this blog post. Make sure I have your name and I can find you in the Newsletter list.

And if you click here in the next 5 minutes... a set of Ginzu knives! Nah, nothing. But I had to say that. Humour. Arr, arr.

Want to see the images I'm exhibiting?

Go to my photo gallery to check them out. Everything you see there is available as an exhibition quality display print, either on fine matte or on fine lustre papers, lovingly printed by hand one at a time! They're all available at very reasonable cost, especially if you read about it here!

The white water is such a great venue...

I ran a DSLR course last weekend (not enough students. Hope that changes!). I heard that CanoeKayak Canada was running the team trials at the MWW (Minden Wild Water Preserve. I'm tired of typing that all out!) so we went over to practice shooting pictures. The winners were chosen for Canada's National Team, for competition in the World Cup and other races in Europe and elsewhere. I was busy with the course, but did manage to capture a few images:

This is Zachary Zwanenburg from Cornwall, Ontario who competed both in the Canoe (C1) and the Kayak (K1) classes and who will represent Canada in the Junior and under-23 teams in both classes. This is a kayak, by the way, if you don't already know. 

 The above image shows how WILD the Wild Water is right now, with record high water levels and flow after the Minden floods a few weeks ago.

Another WILD water shot as  Samuel Primeau from Quebec battles the boiling waters in Earl's Hole during one of his kayak runs.

Haley Daniels from Calgary, Alberta scored at the top in Women's C1 and was named to teams for World Cups, World Championships and Under 23 World Championships. 

20-year-old (I think. I know the year but not the month of birth!) Alexandra McGee from Ottawa placed second behind Daniels in C1 and was named to both the Senior team and the under 21 teams. 

Although 16-year-old Maxime Leboeuf from Valleyfield, Quebec didn't place in the top 3, he will be representing Canada as part of the junior team in Slovenia this summer. 

Competitor names and stats and other information courtesy of Ian Miller from CanoeKayak Canada. Claudia van Wijk from Whitewater Ontario also helped me identify the competitors from their bib numbers.

Nothing to do with white water...

On Saturday, there was a motorcycle ride to raise funds for the flood victims and they started and ended up at the Red Umbrella Inn. This bike was parked out front (and in fact was there overnight). During the DSLR course, I told Dawn to shoot 15 pictures of the bike, all different (trying to get her to work the scene). At the same time, I took a few but I knew what I had in mind.

I took the opportunity to write up how I created the image on my Technical Blog, for those of you who are photographers and interested in Photoshop. Here's the finished image, ready for print. I think it will look fantastic on Epson Cold Press matte paper... you know what to do if you want to order a print! 

So back to work on the show stuff. I hope to see some of you there! Come by and say hello, and bring your wallets...

— 30 —

Winter's last gasp

Before I get into the winter story, there are a few other topics to cover.

Printing Media
Last week, I took some time to review my thinking on various print options. I wrote it up over on my other blog, FACzen Tech tips. I said at the time that it was an open-ended article because I was continuing to research the subject and in fact had ordered some sample prints. Well they arrived.

I have three prints here to review: an acrylic mount, a print on matte museum-grade watercolour paper, and a lustre-finish image lovingly output on an Epson 7900. Since it's a technical topic, head on over to the tech blog to read about it. Bottom line? Three outstanding prints.

When you get lemons, make lemonade.
Those of you who read my ramblings on other social media (Google+, TIF and FaceBook) may have read hints I've dropped about an interesting development coming up. Unfortunately, it did not materialize.

I was in discussions with a local weekly newspaper about authoring a column on basic photography. The working title was "Through the Lens" and it was intended to comprise basic tips for new and inexperienced photographers. It's not happening at this time. But I had written several columns in advance and didn't want them to go to waste.

So I'm rewriting them as short eBooks and planning to give them away for free to anyone who subscribes to my mailing list. I've completed the first one and I plan to release it this week, with a new one every week. If you're not on my mailing list, look over here →→ and subscribe. I'll give you more details next week.

"Why," you may ask, "are you giving them away for free?" Two reasons: my goal is to expand my social network, and giving stuff away for free is a good way to do that; and I want to encourage people to consider attending my basic DSLR workshops.

The Haliburton Home and Cottage Show
Mark your calendars: May 31, June 1 and June 2 are the dates for the Haliburton Home and Cottage Show. I will be exhibiting there, along with Linda Cresswell. We both have prints for sale, from card-sized up to huge: Linda told me about a 40x60 print she wants to produce and sell, and I have some large ones as well (not that big!). We're trying to figure out how to display our work in that 10x10 area we've committed to, if anyone has an appropriate set of walls or a grid structure we can borrow, please get in touch!

Winter's last gasp
Every year, winter delivers a final blow in April. No one seems to expect it but year after year, there's a storm that reminds us we shouldn't have taken off those snow tires or put away those boots. 2013 was no different.

On April 11th, in its usual alarmist fashion, the City of Toronto issued a winter storm warning. They told people to stay home, watch out for driving and walking hazards, because a coating of ice was about to descend upon us. And as usual, it didn't happen. Sure, there was a storm. Heavy winds and rain... but the ice didn't materialize. That is, except for the Barrie area, about 60 km to the North. I drove home on Friday, the 12th through there. There was a band of freezing rain and further North, an accumulation of slushy snow, amounting to about 5cm or 2 inches. The big question is, was that the end of it or is there yet another storm to come?

I stopped for a few photos on the way home. Here's a little visual essay.

Just North of Toronto, on Bathurst Street in the King City area, there's a stretch of beautiful land. I'm sure it will be filled with wall-to-wall houses in the near future, but it's really picturesque now. I stopped at this spot on a misty, rainy day and took a few shots. The colours of this tree are exactly as they appear here. 

Here's another shot from the same area. Again, the colours and details are there, but this time I did a little work in Photoshop to prepare the image. Not much, actually... 

As I mentioned, there was an area of freezing rain just around and North of Barrie. I stopped for some pictures. This was shot with the venerable 200mm f/2.8 lens, wide open.  

Another view, in the same spot. I should have stopped the lens down to get more of the foreground in focus, but I do like the effect anyway.

Same place, just to the right, was this tree, all coated with ice. When I looked at this picture I realize that I missed something: it would have been a better composition with more of the farmer's furrows visible on the left. Can't go back...

This is the same tree, but a different tree-t-ment (sorry!). In fact this is a 3-shot pano, merged in Photoshop, and then I created the light effect from scratch. I had to add a shadow in the foreground as well. The sombre tones and border effect make this into a moody piece. The file size is huge and it will print really well as a 30" or 36" print. I'm thinking Watercolour Paper... 

In his lecture, "Crush the Composition", Scott Kelby reminds us to look around in other directions when you stop to shoot. This has proven helpful to me more than once and in fact I incorporate the concept into my workshops as well. This Maple Syrup facility was directly behind me, across the highway. Although the trees were coated lightly with ice, I couldn't capture that in this image. But there was a lot of work to make this one happen!

First of all, it's a 3-shot HDR. First I processed it in HDR Efex Pro 2, and before exiting, I added some control points to bring out the texture in the roof, and the tone in the wood pile. Next I took it into Photoshop CS6 and used perspective cropping to make the foreground railing and the building parallel. By the way, I was shooting across a busy divided highway. At one point I took my life in my hands and ran to the median (where the railing is), but I like this shot better.

Next I selected the foreground and added a motion blur to the roadway, and masked the posts back in. Finally, I added a light layer of Topaz Adjust to enhance the smoke and the wood pile. To me, this is a very Canadian springtime scene. Too bad about the car and truck, but you get what you get! Again, this will print up really well, probably on watercolour paper.

I saw this sign about 20 km down the road. A final taste of winter! 

And then I turned around and saw this scene off to my right! I just enhanced it a bit by running it through Nik HDR Efex Pro 2 as a single image. Full frame, full resolution image from the D600, again with the 70-200mm lens.  

When I arrived home a couple of hours later, this pair of Mallards was standing on the ice not far from shore. There was a bit of open water to the right. When the hen started to preen, I knew I had to shoot it! I can imagine all kinds of cool captions for this shot, like "Let's go, dear. We'll be late for the party!". Another very printable image.

Remember, if you want a limited edition art print of any picture in the blog, drop me a note, and let's talk! Preliminary prices are in effect.

— 30 —

Sometimes you're in a different place

Life's all about change, right? Some things have changed for me, in my approach to my photography. Maybe it's just temporary, but when I pick up my camera, I have something different in mind. Let's see if I can explain what and why.

I'm planning to take a booth at the Haliburton Home and Cottage Show, to sell pictures. The show is at the end of May, I'll send my commitment in this week. A lot of planning goes into this effort, from the design and construction of the booth, to the choice of images for sale, framing, how to display non-framed pieces, what sizes and media, what price points, finding a device to accept credit and debit cards, lights, and so on. I'm working on all of those things.

The choice of pictures to sell is a major component, also size and quality. I've pretty well decided that most of them will be in the 12x18 size range, and most of those will be printed on lustre paper and priced quite reasonably under 50¢/square inch (so a 12x18 would be nominally $100, unframed). This is, after all, a cottage show. However I plan to have a couple of more expensive pieces there, such as this one:

This is a triptych which I plan to print on canvas and do gallery wraps. The vertical size will be around 18" and the price will be set around $450. The image, by the way, was shot in the fall of 2008 with the D300. It's an HDR and I used the oil paint filter in CS6 to complete it.  

Another image that I plan to display for sale is this one:

I want to print this one on watercolour paper, mat and frame it normally. $350 framed, $250 unframed, 12"x18". I shot this image yesterday (Sunday) with the D600, it's also an HDR. It's the Trent-Severn waterway, with Balsam Lake in the background. 

So here's my dilemma. I'm searching for images in my archives that are suitable for printing. I've come up with about 100 candidates, but some of them don't make it for various reasons: usually because I've cropped them too tightly and there aren't enough pixels left to do a large scale print. Here's an example of that:

I love the oil paint filter in CS6. Some people don't: what do they know?? LOL. It's only about 1600 px wide, so I MIGHT be able to get an 18" print out of it, but only because it's painted and small detail is irrelevant. 

I really like this image. I can picture it as a large scale print, say 24" x 36" flush mounted, or at the very least 18x24 in a mat. But it's never going to happen, unless there's some magic way to go from 1600 pixels to at least 5400 pixels without losing essential detail or introducing artifacts. So as I said, perhaps I can get it to a 12x18 but even then I wonder.

I haven't thought about printing before, really. Among other things I did in the past couple of weeks was to visit a professional print shop, where they specialize in archival and exhibition quality prints. I spent an hour picking the production manager's brain and sitting with some of my own images on their large screen. The conclusion was, if an image isn't originally 4000 pixels on the long side, don't bother. Yes, there are exceptions: the filtered oil painted image above might work because all the detail has been smeared out (his words) but certainly not as a large scale picture.

Incidentally, there's a fantastic print mounting method out there called "acrylic face mount". It's by far the best presentation I've ever seen for saturated, detailed images, they literally "glow". It ain't cheap: I was quoted almost $1 per square inch, just for printing and mounting. But it's beautiful. Google it...

So I've started thinking about composing my image in the camera so I don't need to crop. I'm paying much more attention to detail, to lighting, to textures and nuances of shading (love the snow in the above image, by the way). I've started making images with printing in mind. And that's a whole other mindset. This is stuff that other people have been saying to me for years, but I just haven't listened.

The good news is, I now have a 24 megapixel full sized sensored camera. I can still crop, but only "some". If I want images to look at onscreen, it's still OK to crop up to 100% size: but don't be tempted to print them.

I was out pretty well the whole day on Sunday and while I clicked the shutter about 150 times, many of them were 3-shot bracketed bursts, some were variations of the same image, trying to get it right (about 50 exposures of the Trent-Severn, above for example). And I was in 4 different venues.

By the way, if you want to buy prints, drop me a note and let's talk! If there's a picture you've seen here on the blog that you'd like to see hanging in your house, let me know and I'll figure out if it's do-able, size wise, then let you know how much it will cost. For now, until the business is established, prices will be not much more than the cost of printing and shipping. So a 12 x 18 could end up in your hands for under $40, for example.Send me an email

That said...

I haven't taken a lot of images in the last month, and certainly not snapshots. Well there are some exceptions, after all that's what a point-and-shoot camera is for! Here's one:

Four generations of women, and my brother-in-law. My mother, my sister, my daughter and my granddaughter. North-facing window light.  What's technically wrong with this shot? Well to start with, my daughter is in my sister's shadow. I should have had everyone swing around a bit to their left so the light would be more even. There are lots of other things that make this a less-than-professional portrait but (1) it's a snapshot! and (2) as I've said often in my workshops, "you can't take a bad picture of your family". Because there are memories, not just pixels, embedded in the image.

So what else is going on?

2013 Workshop Schedule

The Spring 2013 workshop schedule is up at www.photography.to. Check it out. I reworked the landing page to clean it up as well. The workshops are designed for beginner and intermediate DSLR users, they're 2 days long and run up here in the Highlands, although I'll come to Toronto to run sessions on demand.

If you're an advanced photographer, I have two things to offer you: one would be to give someone you know (perhaps your SO or child) a step up, when they're ready to inherit that DSLR of yours (an excuse to get that new Nikon or Canon body you've been wanting?)  The other would be an opportunity to get out of the city and spend some time shooting up here in the Highlands. Talk to me.

Some new and exciting news!

But I can't tell you about it yet. Watch this space...

There be eagles there...

A couple of weeks ago, someone told me there were bald eagles on Horseshoe Lake Road, coincidentally, right at one of my very favourite dawn shooting spots. So I wandered over there one afternoon and got lucky:

These were shot with the 400mm lens on the D600, then cropped drastically because they're about 400m away! I spent 2 hours there on Sunday, didn't see hide nor hair of them. I'll be baaaack... 

Lastly, I was testing the light pucks I told you about a while ago, in the light tent. Not a wonderful solution but it works. Here's a test shot of a wedge of Mandarin Orange on my frosted background.

I got all extreme on this shot, playing in the NIK plugin set. Just for fun! 

See? Not everything is print- and exhibition-ready.

— 30 —

The Comfort Zone

It’s been an interesting photography weekend. Quiet, but I’ve been doing a lot of photography-related stuff and I’ve learned a few things in the process.

To digress a little, I've been a touch under the weather -- I think I'm fighting something. It's making me sleepy, sometimes I fall asleep right in the middddddddddddddddddddddd...

Where was I? Anyway I went out and chopped some kindling in the snow, I actually felt better. I spend too much time at this damned keyboard! I actually started writing this last night but got too tired to finish it, so here I am in the morning, getting over my “lack of caffeine headache” (if I don’t have a coffee at least in the evening, I wake up with a headache. I must be actually addicted to the stuff), revisiting what I wrote and rewriting it all!

Oh, and climbing up to fix my satellite dish too!





On Saturday, I visited Shannon, she was exhibiting at a craft show in Huntsville. She sold a bunch of pictures... I'm envious. She has a great eye but she told me she’s weak on the technical side of things. I don’t believe it – a few of the techniques she talked about are beyond me, and I came home to try some of them. I was inspired to write the photo tip below after trying her “multiple exposure in the camera” technique. The results were terrible but I have a little insight in how to do it next time.



In addition to the prints Shannon was selling (and she did well with some very fine images), she had prepared some greeting cards which were selling well. There was another photographer there whose images were so-so and he was selling too! There’s hope for us all. Anyway when I got back I was determined to create some saleable products and I put together some “boutique” size frame able images (my name for it – I’m sure there’s an official name!) which are essentially 3½ x 5 images printed on 5 x 7 paper, with a title and signature. I looked at them last night and realized they are a bit smaller than I would like, so I’m going to revisit it today and make them bigger. 5 x 7 on 8 x 10, I think. I have to redo them because they’re too down-sampled to print well at the larger size. I’ll leave the small ones up but reprice them accordingly.

You can see these images at http://www.faczen.smugmug.com/.

There is now a link on the home page to the featured “Art Print” gallery. Please visit it and BUY SOMETHING! Christmas is coming and these prints make wonderful, thoughtful gifts.

So enough for the commercial. On to the Photo tip of the day.

FacZen Photography Tips All Work and no Play... ...makes me dull. In the sense that you need to experiment in order to move forward. I’m self-taught, for the most part but I do appreciate the value of taking courses to learn new things from time to time. That said, the best way to learn is to try stuff! I joined the Richmond Hill Camera Club a few years ago so that I could learn from others. My first impression was that the club was a bunch of old fuddy duddies but I’ve come to realize that their wealth of experience is a valuable source of learning. Often, when I see how something is done, I want to try it – and that’s what this tip is about. Try things. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Digital “film” is cheap, so what if you burn some shutter actuations? It’s not costing you anything. You will be amazed at the things you can do. Let me give you a few examples. • When I first joined the club, someone showed us pictures taken through “water glass”. I went to a local store, bought a few dollars worth of glass pieces with different patterns in them and played. I got a few acceptable images, but mostly I got an understanding of how it’s done. • Maria, at the club, paints with light. She does studio still life setups but doesn’t use traditional lights, just a flashlight and long exposures. Her work is awesome. I tried it. I now have an appreciation for how hard it is, and I got an idea about trying the same technique on landscapes shot at night. I can’t wait to try it! • “Panning”, or moving the camera to follow a moving subject is an art. There are some technical things you need to know, but how do you figure out what shutter speed you need to get the effect you want? The answer? Experiment! This image was actually taken at 1/80 sec. I was amazed at how much motion blur you get at that speed when you pan the camera! 1/5 sec @ f/36. Again I panned with the bike but you can't be really smooth at that shutter speed. • What about moving the camera when you shoot a long exposure? Or one that isn’t so long… remember that rule of thumb about what shutter speed you can handle? So turn it around. Try shooting at 1/10 second and deliberately moving the camera. Or put a flash on but leave the shutter open for a longer time. 1/5 second stopped right down to f/36 and I deliberately moved the camera while shooting. • Move “parts” of the camera. Like zoom your lens or change your focus while the shutter is open.1/30 sec. I rotated th zoom ring while the shutter was open. Amazing what you can accomplish in 1/30 sec! • “Play” in Photoshop. Do you know what the Art History brush does? Take an image and try all the different filters on it. See what they do. Everyone has a comfort zone. Mine is taking pictures of rocks and trees. I realized that I've taken photos of the exact same log in the water near my house probably 30 times. Sure, I'm waiting for that day when the light will be magic or when a deer will walk out and stand where I want him to. Great, if that's what you want to capture, but get out of your comfort zone and play! You’ll be amazed at what you will learn. I've been shooting 'people' pictures -- some candids and informal portraits; long time exposures at night; camera motion; slow shutter subject exposures and pans; architectural shots; I've been painting in Photoshop and using different adjustment layers; I've even tried printing some images (yeah well, I have a ways to go there!); I'm learning how to judge competitions; learning a new camera, preparing images for sale, researching and writing a blog and technical tips and I'm planning workshops... my bathroom reading is National Geographic and Scott Kelby. In short (OK, it wasn't short!) I'm playing. Learning all kinds of stuff. Now if I were retired, I could spend some real time on it! Let me leave you with something DeWitt Jones said in his motivational video (paraphrasing from memory): "Mother Nature doesn't stand at a forest and say 'there is only one good photo here, one photographer will capture it and all the rest of you are losers'. " If you open your eyes and try to see things differently, there are a million different pictures to take. Go Play!