Starting 2018 right!

It's that time of year again

It doesn't matter who you are, somehow on this day or this week, you wonder where you're going to be in 12 months. Last year you probably set some goals: how did that work out for you? Are you richer, smarter, have more skills, happier, have better relationships? Did you write that book, get that job, take that trip? I hope you did.

The definition of how successful a year is depends a lot on how old you are. Not necessarily physically, in your spirit. If you're young at heart (yeah, I know: trite, overworked phrase!), you have ambition, things you'd like to accomplish. If you're not, your goals revolve around things you enjoy. None of us are 100% in either of the young/old camps. There are, for all of us, things we would like to learn to do better and the satisfaction of doing them. And each of us wants to experience the warmth of things that impact us, whether it's the growth of relationships or the people around us or more mundane things that touch us emotionally or intellectually.

Not making sense? The young want to DO things; the old to EXPERIENCE them.

I'm not young any more. 2017 was not a great year for me because I finally came to that realization. Sure, there are things I want to accomplish, but on a daily basis, they take a back seat to what I want to experience. Music touches me, for instance: but I finally accept that I can't MAKE music as much as I can feel the music others make. I get carried away, sometimes, listening to music until the wee hours. I did go to Newfoundland again: but I accept that some of the other places I always wanted to visit are beyond my reach now.

I'm not going to write about my regrets. Because I don't want to admit them to my self nor do I want to expose them to the light of day.

Making art — with my camera, my paintbrushes and pencils, with my computer — that's been a success, although I feel I've learned more and I'm poised for a breakthrough, as opposed to having accomplished something this year. Ditto, writing. And sharing my experience with others, that's really my passion. These things are what my life's about now. Will I be healthy enough (that's the elephant in my room) to take any of those things to a higher level next year?

A year from now, I hope you look back at 2018 and say, "that was a pretty good year".

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Printing revisited

If you're not a photographer and you have no interest in printing tips, feel free to skip this section. Go ahead. I won't mind!

Last time, I talked about preparing your images for print, and the problem that what you see onscreen — even on a calibrated monitor — is going to look different from what you see on a print. 

Every printer lays down ink slightly differently from every other printer. Every printing paper absorbs ink and handles it differently from every other paper. Fortunately you can simulate that on your computer using the "ICC Profile" of that printer/paper combination. Any decent professional lab will send you their ICC profiles — even Costco does — and after installing it in your computer you can "soft proof" your image before sending it to the lab. You turn on soft proofing (it's available in both LR and PS) and adjust your image until it looks correct on your calibrated monitor. Generally you can copy those adjustment settings to a group of images but of course if you're fussy, every image is different. So ask your lab for their ICC Profiles. Make sense?

If you print at home, same thing. You should be able to get the ICC profiles for the printer and the paper from the manufacturer's websites.One caution, though: if you use aftermarket inks, you're on your own. They'll be different, of course, and the printer manufacturer certainly isn't going to support it.

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Camera and Computer Gear

Who among you have acquired new equipment this year, or have changed directions? We live in this material world, so my guess is, "lots of you"!  The trend, of course, is to move from DSLR to mirrorless. Sensors are awesome (Sony makes the big sensors for Nikon. It figures that their own lead the pack too). Optics are great, maybe not quite up to Nikon (or grudgingly, Canon) Pro standards, but with advances in computer controlled machining, they exceed most of what was available back in "the day". Mechanically they are faster and more precise and of course smaller and lighter. To use a word banished from the Queen's English, these new little mirrorless wonders are "Covfefe".


Sometimes heavier is better. It's true with rifles, for instance. You want accuracy over a mile, you go .50cal. Benchrest rifles have humungous barrels that weigh 20 or 30 pounds. And it's true with the big light-gathering long super telephotos like the Nikon 600mm f/4. Or, I hope, with the Nikon 200-400mm f/4 which weighs almost as much. I said "I hope" because I'm about that far away from buying one.

Not my photo. Soon my lens! I hope.

So I've gone in the opposite direction. I figure I'll go mirrorless when I get old and I have to! Sort of kidding: those who know me, know I'm a dinosaur.

When my desktop computer died, it didn't owe me anything. It was time. I decided to finally go to the Dark Side and buy a Mac. But then, the screen on my laptop died. So I converted it to desktop use and ended up buying a Macbook Pro. I don't want to foster a huge debate but I've been using it for a year now and the only conclusion I can come to is, well, it's like comparing an Audi with a VW. They're both essentially the same thing, the Audi is more expensive but it's just better.

By the way, the PC laptop finally gave up the ghost last week. I still need a Windows machine to run my old accounting software, so I found a used one for next to nothing. It works. It ain't pretty, but it works.

On the software side, I bought Helicon Focus which automates focus stacking. I've just played with it until now but it's something I want to work with more in the new year.  Stretching my senses. Pretty left-brained, though, I have to admit.

So which direction are you going this year?

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Want to come to Newfoundland this summer?

I'm planning another trip to Newfoundland. The basic concept is to spend the entire summer there in two or three places. I'd like to rent some 2-bedroom places so that I can invite friends to spend some time there with me. And I'm working on lining up some experts to take people to the best spots and events. Think icebergs, whales, puffins, gannets, night shots, outports, seascapes... 

If you are possibly interested in coming down for a week or so, let me know. I need to get the planning under way. And if you happen to know of suitable accommodations in Newfoundland, please contact me too!

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Enough words. Time to share some pictures.

Tied up with other things, I didn't shoot much this month,. And it's been c-c-c-cold so I didn't really feel like getting out either. I did a little, though.

Snowflakes are tough to shoot! When you don't get them right, you can always get artistic, right? Makes a dandy Blog Header photo, though!

This is a little better, but nowhere near what I want to do. It's too cold to shoot them right now (two reasons: even if it does snow, you don't get neat crystals at these temperatures; and I ain't going out there to shoot them. An hour-long session at -30°C? My mom didn't raise any stupid children!). Don't worry, there's lots more winter to come. 

 

Frozen soap bubbles, on the other hand, work better when it's colder.  The complexity of the crystals in the bubbles is a function of the chemical composition. Sugars form the crystals: the top one is from maple syrup, in the bottom one I added some brown sugar to the mix.  More to come! 

I had a great day trip to Algonquin Park  with Amin Shivji and Kevin Beer. We didn't see much wildlife, other than a variety of birds, some beavers and otters (but they were really far away) and a quick glimpse of a pine marten. I kind of liked this shot of a blue jay because of the composition and the complementary maple leaves. 

This blue jay decided to pose for a portrait atop a pine tree. Some post-processing using Topaz Studio helped out here. I've actually ordered a large canvas print of this shot! 

But I realized I couldn't let 2017 get away without doing some landscape shots. 

I wanted to remove the complexity from this shot, to let the patterns of the weighted branches and virgin white snowy path speak for itself.  

While looking for landscape shots, I happened to turn around in this driveway. The setting sun added a golden glow (enhanced by choosing a really warm white balance) and again I simplified the shot. After posting the picture on Facebook, i got a message, "Hey, that's my house!". A dynamite canvas print is on the way.

Parting Shot

I've used that quote from Pablo Picasso before: "Good artists copy, great artists steal".  I saw an image on Facebook that gave me an idea, and I went back to my June visit to Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia to borrow the concept of a silhouette against a colourful sky with a moon for counterpoint. I have a similar, less posed image, from Old Woman Bay on Lake Superior and a shot from Stephenville in Newfoundland. Here's what I came up with. I'm going to be looking for more of these!

I promised myself I'd get back to painting. I'm planning to paint from this image. Wish me luck!

 

Have a super 2018, everyone!

— 30 —

Blowing my own Horn?

...somebody has to!

Art Gallery Exhibition

Last week I wrote that I consider myself more of a craftsman than an artist. It's still true, but it seems others might have a higher opinion of me! This is exciting, some recognition from a respected art venue!

The Agnes Jamieson Gallery and Minden Hills Cultural Centre has selected three of my images in a juried competition. Twenty five images were selected by the curator of the museum, and three of them were mine! They will be exhibited in the Gallery in the month of January. They are for sale in the gallery, or after the exhibit, right here, assuming they haven't sold. If you're in love with any of them, well, you know what to do!

So that's the good news. The bad news is that I had to prepare the images for exhibition which means printing, framing, matting... in the end it cost me over $100 each. They'd better sell...

This was an extra print I did (frames were two-for-one at Michaels...). It's very similar to one of the accepted images and I thought someone might like to acquire the pair. Sorry about the crummy iPhone picture.  

I have to give 'props' to two people. Jim Camelford printed these images for me. Jim is an absolute printing guru. He did his magic with his Epson 7900 and the dynamics and the deep blacks in these monochrome prints are incredible. Jim offers his services for people who want excellent prints made and his pricing is really low. Only bad part is the fact he'll be away for a while in Florida. However you can email him at jimcamel@rogers.com.

The second guy is Bryan deLang who is a frame maker and artist par excellence up here in Minden. I found Bryan through the local facebook buy and sell group, but Bryan is not on the internet. He doesn't own a computer, doesn't want to. I really like this guy: he's eccentric, a curmudgeon, has a wry sense of humour but does fantastic work at very reasonable price. You can reach him at 1 705-286-3572, he's on South Lake Road in a really interesting house!

Sporadic Musings

From the "sporadic musings" department, how much of us is upbringing and how much is DNA? I was sitting and enjoying a Manhattan last night – 2 parts rye, 1 part red vermouth, I skip the bitters, but always put in a maraschino cherry and a couple of ice cubes – and reflected on the fact that it was my father's favourite drink. It's still mine: oh, I've flirted with 18-yo single malts, European beers, Cabernet Sauvignons, but when all is said and done, my dad's favourite is also mine. Then there's my penchant for chocolate, undeniably dad's thing too! So is there a gene sequence for taste buds? Or is it all in the environment in which I grew up?

Waiting for Harder Water

It's freezing up! The weather forecast is for a couple of warm-ish days this week but it shouldn't affect it much. It's been cold for the past few days, and nights are below freezing, so the lakes are getting hard. The Inn across the road has prepared their ice fishing huts to go out when the ice gets thick enough, but I was able to walk on the shallows today. Did you know it's not quiet out on the new ice? If I didn't know better, I'd think I was hearing whale song, there was an almost continuous moaning that was really the still liquid water under the ice finding openings to filter into. Occasionally, you'd hear a big "crack". It's just a guess, but I think there was about 4" to 5" of hard water. You won't catch me out there yet but I'm sure there will be some brave – and foolhardy – souls venturing out very soon!

This was an HDR, converted to black and white with Silver Efex Pro. I loved the sunset sky. Click, as usual, to view it bigger.

When I shot this, I envisioned capturing the essence of the sunset reflecting off the new ice. But it didn't come to life until I processed it with Impression, one of the Georgia O'Keeffe presets. Then I added a Flypaper texture called "Dorian Gray" which made it look like what I had seen in my mind. 

I also shot another picture that I wasn't really satisfied with. But then I used a portion of it after trying the new Topaz Glow plugin:

Could be a huge flock of birds taking off! But it's Glow's interpretation of the fractals in the ice surface. 

Speaking of "Glow", here's a rendering of an older shot

That's the canoe in the morning mist shot from Algonquin Park at the end of September. Topaz Glow is a fascinating program, it lets you explore some off-the-wall ideas! 

Topaz Glow is on sale for the month of December. $20 off the regular $69 price. You can take advantage of it via this link: http://goo.gl/aQvTVd. Enter INTROGLOW in the coupon code at checkout. Because it shares a lot of things with Impression including the hardware requirements, you should do the 30 day free trial before you buy. But bear in mind the deadline is the end of the year.

Parting Shot

I'd like to leave you with one more shot. This one is right in my ballpark, I think. I woke up Wednesday morning to a dusting of new snow and had to go out to take the prints to Bryan to mount. Of course I had the camera with me (I always do). After dropping the pictures off, I went exploring down some back roads and was captivated by two things here: the orange coloured dead leaves still hanging on some bushes (ash, I think), and the tall trees silhouetted against the snowy sky.

So I loved the composition, but again felt it needed some post-processing to make it 'painterly'. The Georgia O'Keeffe preset is turning into one of my favourites. So is this image, I think it'll print well:

The birds aren't real. I "enhanced" the sun, but I actually created the birds with brush strokes in Photoshop. The image needed some balance. I don't know what I'd do without my Wacom tablet!

I haven't shot a lot of straight "photographs" in a while. It's time I did some pictures without adding paint or brush strokes or other impressionistic things, so I'll try to do so in the next little while. We're coming up on the year end, of course, so the deadline is fast approaching for images that will appear in my "Best of 2014" book!

It's not time yet to write that "what I'm looking forward to for 2015" article... stay tuned!

— 30 —

And the beat goes on...

Did you notice the new banner up top? Every now and then I feel the need to change it up. And when I do, I post the previous banner in the body of the blog because otherwise it disappears completely! So...

I chose the new image because (a) I had to find something that would fit in the footprint, an extremely wide pano, and (b) I like the smooth tonality and colour blend of this image. It is a picture taken from my dock on 12 Mile Lake. I've taken hundreds of pictures from the same spot but occasionally one stands out. I like how the shape of the shoreline and its reflection on the left creates a virtual arrowhead that causes the viewer's eye to move from left to right across the image and back again to pick out the structures and detail.

For those who care, it's an HDR merged in Nik HDR Efex Pro 2 from 3 exposures, shot with the 17-35mm lens at 17mm and f/8 on the full-frame D600. For what it's worth, here's the original image (well, the merge!) minus a few pixels for better framing.

I will make this available as a fine art print. I think it would look outstanding on a matte art paper. Check out the gallery link at right to find it and email me to order a print. It also makes a fine wallpaper image for your computer. Two sizes, one for normal and one for wide screens. This wallpaper image is FREE for subscribers to my newsletter, so click here or on the link at upper right to subscribe.

I'm going to start today by nagging you.

Backups

Some of my readers are diligent about doing their backups. Some are not. Some people need a subtle reminder to do it. This is intended for you!

Do your backups. My backup strategy isn't perfect but at least I do them. Today I sync'd my two external drives so I have two up-to-date copies of my photo archives. I also copied my Outlook data files to an external drive. Don't forget those, they're in a weird location (on a PC) and you don't want to go through what I did when the original got corrupted...

On a personal note, I have to sit down and create a new Lightroom catalog that contains all my "Keeper" images, then copy the whole shebang to another drive. Reason is, my external drives are getting very full and I'd really like to have a third copy of the important images, at least. 

Update: I just did that. It took about 8 hours for Lightroom to percolate and copy a little over 500Gb of data. FWIW, I have over 15,000 keeper images (ones which I had flagged earlier as 'not unacceptable')! I should have sent it directly to the external drive because now it wants another 7 hours to do that. I feel better, though. Now I have a third copy of my "keeper" files and it's going to be stored off-site.  

Anyway, do it today. I don't know what your backup strategy is, but do it. Just imagine your house burning down to the ground and in addition to everything else, losing all the images you've ever shot.

Emergency Medical Card

If for some reason you have a medical emergency, the important information about you should be available if you end up in an ER and can't tell them everything, or can't remember. You should also have contact information, a list of meds, all that stuff in your purse or wallet JUST IN CASE.

Years ago, I created a .pdf document that you could fill out (on your own computer, you don't send that out anywhere) and put it up as a public service. At one point I had a hit counter on that page and recorded over 50,000 hits: I lost it, so I'm going to start it over again.

Anyway, go to this page: http://www.faczen.com/medcard.htm and fill out the form. You simply type your info into the page, print it out, then run over to Staples and get it laminated if you want, and carry it in your wallet or purse or camera bag...

Note that this is absolutely FREE and we don't record any information about you including the fact that you downloaded the document or visited the page (except that we count how many people have done that). No worries.

You may be one of the rare people who don't have any medical issues or take any prescription drugs or have any allergies, but at least you should carry your doctor's name and contact info and who to call in case of emergency. Please do it now. And if you think it's a good idea, please tell your friends and loved ones.

OK, finished nagging...

Heads Up!

I'm going to be announcing an Algonquin Park Fall Colours PhotoWalk in the next week or so. My initial concept is that there will be no charge for my students and subscribers to my newsletter, just trying to put it together. Watch for the announcement on the Newsletter.

SmugMug has a new look

There are lots of places you can put your photos up on the web for free. Everyone's doing the "cloud" thing now, but most of the free sites have some down sides. Every day, I read about how someone's pictures were stolen on FlickR or on 500px... I've been a SmugMug subscriber for years and because that's the only thing they do and because it's not totally free, they care about you.

I had a "Professional" account there because I wanted to be able to sell images through them with a markup. They had links to a couple of really great labs, like Bay Photo in San Francisco, and you could easily order directly. I stopped doing that because, well, it wasn't a good way for me to market my images (that said, I haven't found one yet!). Anyway, I downgraded my account to something called a "Power" account which costs me $60/year. If you're interested, here's the comparison between the different accounts they offer.

A couple of weeks ago, they totally revised their interface and look-and-feel. It's really, really slick now, IMHO. Check out my site at faczen.smugmug.com. Go ahead, I'll wait right here...

If you clicked on "Browse", you would have seen some other galleries that I've put in place (works in progress...) but what I like is they are for special purposes and the casual visitor doesn't have to be distracted by them.

So one of the other things I like about SmugMug is that when you send an email to their helpdesk, a real live human being responds in short order. And it's someone who actually knows about things, not some CSR in a foreign call center (Hi, I'm Rajesh, and I can certainly help you with that problem...).

One more thing: Lightroom has a plug-in where you can sync with SmugMug. Just drag photos into it and click "Publish" and you're done. Nice. I just added the image at the top of this post to both my "New and Featured Images" and my "Fine Art Prints" galleries with a couple of clicks.

Anyway, I'm happy to recommend them to all my readers. Go to www.smugmug.com. You can play with it for free for 14 days, then sign up. If you mention me in the referral box when you sign up. Two ways of doing that: put in my email address (glenn dot springer at faczen dot com. You know what to do with that, right?) or just cut and paste in this code:  16NrueyZ8KPmc. You'll save $5 on your first year subscription.

Speaking of new looks...
Business Printing

Tell me how this strikes you:

■ 1000 double sided business cards, printed on both sides in full colour, full bleed, on heavy (16.5 point) card stock with an aqueous coating, all for $20 or so.

This is the front of the business card I printed for myself (no black border. It bleeds right off the edges of the card). By the way, shot from the same dock as the banner up above!.

■ 1000 postcards, similar to the above, 4x6 size, both sides full colour for about $50. All superb quality. That's ONE THOUSAND CARDS, folks!

Here's how it works: the supplier I deal with gangs up print jobs so he prints hundreds of cards at a time and trims them out of a big sheet. So each individual card is inexpensive and the printer is happy because he's making money. As long as everyone uses the same inks (4-colour process) and paper, he's laughing.

If you're interested, I'll send you a template. You fit your art in the template and send it back. We print it. Or you can use, for example, my photos for the background. If you want me to do layout and design work, I can, very inexpensively. Starting to sound interesting?

Have you ever seen prices like that for full colour high quality printing? This is a no-brainer, folks. contact me...

Don't say I didn't warn you!

I shot this a couple of days ago. It is coming... 

On to some images!

Kind of an unusual casual portrait... this was a mistake. For some reason I had a HUGE exposure compensation set: more than +3 stops. I think I turned the dial the wrong way. But when I saw the image onscreen, I liked it! I had to do a little work on the faces to bring them back, and it's at ISO 6400 (the D600 is amazing!). I need to try more of these high key images! Rita and Ray Felson are relatives, visiting my mother. 

Internationally renowned photographer Stu Freedman, visiting with the Felsons at my mother's. Stu's wife and my mother are related, haven't seen each other in 80 years or more. Stu is 90, he founded the Toronto Guild about a million years ago, and is still shooting pictures! Don't criticize my background, OK? It was a casual shot while chatting. At least I got the lighting right! (North-facing window, behind the Felsons above, if anybody cares). 

I know, it's just a seagull (Herring Gull, larus argentatus, if anybody cares!). But the 400mm Sigma lens can be really sharp when it wants to. And it's on the cropped sensor D5100 too, so effectively 600mm! I did some birds-in-flight too, that day. I practice on them sometimes when I'm at the dump. 

While riding my ATV on the trail near my house, I came across these giant fungi on a fallen tree stump. I didn't have anything with me to give it a sense of scale, so I put my Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 in it. If you're not a photographer, that's about 9" long... if you are one, it's still 9" long but you know that!  

I went back yesterday to try again, this time I brought a tripod. Now do you see how big they are? It's weird because (a) I've never seen one that big outside of a rain forest and (b) there are no other ones around anywhere. Aliens, I tell you... 

Until next time! TTFN

— 30 —

It's been an exciting week!

I've spent 4 days of the last 6 on the road. The other two stuck in front of the computer! Two days in Southwestern Ontario for the Birds of Prey shoot, and two days with Linda in Ajax learning how to cut mats and frame prints, and sharing some Lightroom and Photoshop knowledge in exchange. Linda and I are co-exhibitors at the Haliburton Home and Cottage Show in a little over 2 weeks and we had a lot of logistics to discuss. First of all, I hope some of you are going to come to the show. To make it worthwhile, here's a bonus for my faithful readers:

just tell me you read about it here, and get a 20% discount on any of my art prints.

Today I spent 11 solid hours at the computer, preparing these images to be printed. I have 22 prints in hand now (printed on Epson Cold Press Natural which is a spectacular cotton textured matte art paper) and as I write this, Jim's got another 22 to print on Epson Premium Lustre 260. I still have about a dozen to get to him, then I have to work on a couple of hundred going to Costco for 4x6's and 8x10's. My clear bags are here, well at the Post Office anyway, Lots to do before the show.

Cutting mats and framing is a lot of work. The first batch of prints are not a standard size, but the next ones are going to be: you can buy pre-cut mats for 19x13's in 24x18 frames. Now I understand why people go with standard sizes. I have to tell you, that matte paper is so nice, it's a shame to hide it behind glass.

Also I have my first DSLR workshop of the year next weekend. I still have space on the course, so if you're interested or you know someone who is, go to http://www.photography.to for info or to register.

New plugin from Topaz
There's a new plugin for Photoshop coming out, called "Clarity". I'm beta testing it, and at first glance, I'm very impressed. It does a lot of the things you can do in Lightroom or in Adobe Camera Raw, but much faster and with considerable precision. I did this picture in about 5 minutes, and that included the time to clone out the leather straps on the bird's ankles in Photoshop:

In fairness, the focus/blur was in the original shot. What I did was increase the clarity and sharpness of the face without negatively affecting the rest of the image. I also spent another 5 or 10 minutes enhancing the catchlight in the owl's eye. By the way, this is a "Barn Owl". 

Topaz Clarity lets you adjust clarity and sharpness (LR and ACR users know what I'm talking about) in a bunch of neat ways without having to exit Photoshop (well technically you do when you run the plug-in but it's just one click) and you can paint masks at the same time with effective controls and brushes. You can also do HSL adjustment (Hue-Saturation-Lightness) and make a separate set of masks at the same time. Very neat. I'll report more later, after I participate in the Webinar tomorrow and spend some more time with the program.

I'm told the final version will be available next week, for under $50. Watch this space for a link where to get it.

Birds of Prey
The venue was the Canadian Raptor Conservancy in Vittoria, Ontario, just west of Port Dover. They bring out several birds to be photographed on a perch or in flight. It's a great experience and I understand that Les Palenik is arranging another session later this month. Contact him if you want to attend. Les posted some images from various attendees on his blog, here.

I want to say right off the top, that anyone who can reliably shoot birds in flight in focus and good timing, have my undying respect. It is difficult! I got some pictures but threw away hundreds of frames that were out of focus, had motion in them, or were composed horribly. Les told me 1/800 second was too SLOW a shutter speed and I didn't believe him. I will for next time, and there will be a next time! So here are some images for your enjoyment.

This is Don, his son Ben is in the background. I met Ben up in Wawa a couple of years ago at the Gales of November workshop and it was great seeing him again. Topaz Adjust is responsible for the toning of this image.  

The owl in the picture above was perched, of course, but we did get to shoot him in flight.

No, this isn't him! It's a "Great Horned Owl" and the wings were blurred because the shutter speed was too slow. So I helped it along by using the Radial Blur filter in Photoshop.  

We got to shoot the Great Horned Owl's younger twin siblings while perched. They're pretty photogenic!

These birds are only 7 weeks old and can't fly yet. The sun peeked out of the clouds momentarily and backlit them! I must have taken 50 pictures of them on this perch and it was hard to choose which one(s) I liked best! 

Here's another shot, playing with the radial blur filter again.  

George was there too, a friend from Humber College. That's Don and Ben in the background again. We were shooting one of the most exciting birds at the CRC, the Bald Eagle, in flight. Ben's camera (I think it's a Canon 1D Mk III? I'm not that familiar with Canon stuff) sounded like a machine gun in comparison with my D600 and George's D800! 

This was pretty well the ONLY good image of the eagle in flight that I got. I need more practice. I had to Photoshop out the restraints and tether ropes around his ankles.  

Here's a posed shot of the bald eagle (I think his name was "Uncle Sammy"), sharpened using Topaz Clarity.

After the morning session at the CRC, we headed over to Port Dover for lunch. The specialty of the house is either the locally caught perch or pickerel and it is a treat. As we came out of the restaurant, the rain that threatened all morning finally started. George and I went down to the pier and I tried to get a long exposure of the lake but failed because despite George's efforts, the raindrops on the lens messed up the shot. Just before we left, I pulled out my point-and-shoot and grabbed one shot:

The Port Dover pier and lighthouse. The rain was just coming in. Processed with the oil paint filter in Photoshop.  

Until next time!

— 30 —

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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Did Nikon omit something important on the D600?

New Header

The observant among you will have noticed that I've replaced the header picture on the blog. For what it's worth, it's a composite of two images I took a couple of weeks ago at Horseshoe Lake. The eagle was about 400 or 500m away, and I reached out with my 400mm lens to capture it.

Blogger doesn't archive the old image, so as I usually do when I replace it, here's the previous image.

Trouble in Paradise

I put the 10-stop ND filter on the 17-35mm lens the other day and re-shot the Trent Waterway shot, hoping for a smoother effect on the water and some motion in the clouds. When I uploaded the images, I was surprised to see this:

See the big ugly line about 1/4 of the way up, and the dark zone around it? Also look at the vignetting! Click on the image to enlarge it

I THINK this is from not covering the viewfinder while shooting the picture. The amount of light leaking in is visible in comparison to the limited light coming in through the filtered lens. The vignetting is surprisingly more than I expected since the filter is not thick and I didn't have a skylight or any other filter mounted on the lens. I was shooting zoomed all the way out to 17mm.

I'm going to go back out today to test my theory... I have a totally opaque cloth to hang over the viewfinder. I'm a bit surprised Nikon didn't include a cover for the viewfinder like they did on the D800 and D3/D4. It couldn't cost them more than a few cents...

Update: I did go out on Monday to test. That's a relief – it was the viewfinder. I opaqued it out with a heavy cloth and the line and vignetting disappeared. I  created the following HDR while I was there:

Technical notes: This shot was blended from three exposures at 3 seconds, 0.8 seconds and 13 seconds, ISO 400, f/16, F=17mm, D600 FX with the 10-stop B&W ND filter on board. The camera was on the tripod and I used the cable release and the 5-second self-timer to stabilize it. There was a heavy cloth over the camera to opaque the viewfinder. I chose the ISO in order to achieve the 3 second nominal exposure so that I could preserve some structure in the fast flowing water. When I merged it in HDR Efex Pro, I used the middle exposure for de-ghosting. Finishing touches were done in Silver Efex Pro with several custom control points. Contact me for a limited-edition print of this image. Click on the image to view it full sized.

It's pretty well documented that if you are shooting long exposures, especially if there's light behind the camera, that you need to block the viewfinder. Normally your eye does that but not if you're using a cable release, or timer, etc. Light leaks in there and somehow gets to the sensor, messing up your image like the example above. On their higher end cameras, Nikon has a built-in switch to block the viewfinder. Even on the D300, they supplied a little slide-in plastic piece to cover the finder. Not so the D600. They should design a rubber eyecup with a slide-in cover, if they're not prepared to build it into the camera.

Damaged Tripod

The day that I shot the "marsh grass" image that I posted a few days ago (and which, by the way was selected by TIF as their cover image for the month of April), I stumbled with my camera mounted on the tripod, legs fully extended. To prevent falling down, I managed to put my full weight on one of the tripod legs. I broke it. Fortunately, the break is at the top of the second leg segment, where it goes inside the top one. The tripod is still fully functional, except that I have to be careful not to pull the segment all the way out, or it will come out (it doesn't stop any more).

I was thinking that if I had been carrying my full-sized Gitzo, it might not have broken. But then it weighs 3 times as much as the 3-Legged Thing carbon fiber. Bad luck, but it could have been worse: I might have dropped the camera or hurt myself in a fall. Lesson: be more careful!

April Fool!

The most successful April Fools jokes are the ones where people actually believe them for a while, until someone comes along and points out it was a joke. At which point they slap themselves in the head and say, "OK, you got me".

I posted a story yesterday (April 1st) about how one of my images was purchased by Arts Canada, and would be hung in the National Gallery in Ottawa (that's our equivalent to the Smithsonian). Not that credible, right? I added that I couldn't reveal the amount they paid, but I'd never have to work again. Then I said that the curator, Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz would be making a press announcement. Not enough clues?

I have to tell you, I got an entirely satisfying number of congratulatory messages from individuals who should have caught it earlier, including at least two with "Dr." in front of their names... on the other hand I got an "I hate you!" from someone I care about who shall remain nameless (lest I get in further hot water). Seems she told a whole bunch of people about it before I told her the truth! This is where the acronym, "ROTFLMAO" is really appropriate!

Thinking about Printing

The more I research the printing game, the more the thought of printing myself is boiling around in my head. I know it means an investment in time and working my way through a learning curve, and it certainly means I'll have to acquire some equipment and make space available (I have the space)... this might be a direction I want to go.

I posted an article yesterday on my technical blog, just expounding on some of my thought process and describing some of the exotic media and mounting options out there. Have a look. AND: if anyone has an Epson 3800 or equivalent that they might want to part with for a reasonable price, please send me an email or get in touch otherwise.

In case you thought it was Spring...

In the words of the immortal Yogi Berra, "it ain't over until it's over".

I took this picture yesterday, April 1st and no, it's not a joke. It was bloody cold when I went out to the white water for those ND filter test shots, especially since I had my gloves off most of the time. Although it was only about -4°C, the wind was vicious. No sign of the eagles on Horseshoe Lake either, they were too smart to venture out. This was the view from my dock later in the afternoon. You're looking at the ice road plowed mid-winter by the Red Umbrella Inn to get out to the ice fishing huts. The huts were taken in last week when it LOOKED like spring was here and we ventured into double digit temperatures, Saturday and Sunday were georgeous, then along came Monday.

Technical notes: this was a single exposure, 1/4000 sec at f/2.8, ISO 200. I used a masked layer of Topaz adjust on the ice and a masked layer of HDR Efex Pro on the sky, tweaked it in LR and at the last minute, darkened it a stop or more for the dramatic effect.

Until next week...

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