Happy New Year 2012 from Melbourne

We've ushered in the New Year about 4hrs ago and I thought I would post a few shots from Melbourne (including some H2O for Craig)....  Wishing you and your loved ones good health and prosperity in 2012!
 

Early crowd...

Almost midnight...

Some of the early fireworks

About 600,000 people attended...

Crusing along...

Water, water, everywhere!

It looks like we may have slowed down a bit over the holidays. That was probably predictable but hey, who was paying attention? I hope everyone had a great time with family and friends, ate too much, and took too many naps (is there such a thing Paula?). I am going to attempt to get us up off our couches with a new assignment theme, one we should all be able to do fairly easily.

The theme: WATER

Water in any form - could be liquid, frozen, solid, steam, snow, bottled, moving, still, ice carvings, wild animal breath, you name it. I'm thinking we could all post a few photos of any sort of water that strikes our fancy. So let's see what you've got in those creative heads of yours. Go get your H2O on!

Let it snow!

It was snowing like crazy the other nite...and I dragged out the trusty tripod, to take some snow pics...and it kept moving....dang...so I threw in the towel and then I tried a flash with my little canon g11...and here is how it turned out.

Canon G11       ISO 800    13mm     f/3.5 @ 1/15   (with flash)

Ice Feathers

Thought I would share this photo I took this morning. I went out to start my truck and noticed these ice crystal formations on my wife's car's windshield. What made them different was how they were formed. As the temperature dropped below the dew point and moisture formed on the windshield, the wind was blowing fairly hard. This caused the micro-droplets of water to move across the glass surface in these wispy formations before they froze. Now it dawns on me I should have put something green in the car beside Irene's red sweatshirt to make it look more Christmasy.

Maiden voyage

Well it wasn't the best of days for shooting but I had to get out with the new 60D and see what it would do for me. This thing has some features that my old 350 did not so there was a lot of learning today. One of the really cool features this camera has is some good controls over the auto-focus. In one of the modes you focus on your subject and if it moves, the camera continues to auto-focus on the subject as long as you keep it in frame. This turns out to be great for shooting birds since they move around so much.

These wood ducks are among my favorites, very colorful but extremely shy. I shot these in one of the wetland areas along the river by my house. These guys only show up in the winter so it's a treat to actually get to photograph them...if you can. I took great stealth and lots of patience to keep from spooking them. When they are standing on one foot, you can tell their guard is down a bit and can move in a little closer.

Note to self...turn off cell phone when stalking wild animals.

B+W Conversions...

D90 f/4 12-24mm/13mm 1/30sec ISO1100

B+W Contrast

B+W

I decided to use one of my earlier posts (5 favourite/grateful things) because it leaned towards B+W to begin with thinking it might be easier....  don't ask me what I did exactly as I cannot recall except to say that image on LHS is normal, middle image is B+W conversion with added contrast, however whilst it shows up some additional features I prefer the RHS which aims for purer B's and W's.

D90 f/5.6 12-24/12mm 0.62sec
+0.7Stop ISO200

Another attempt....

B+W Contrast

B+W

thanks for the suggested assignment Paula and I agree that taking the "flatness" or excessive grey-scale out by playing around with the brightness/contrast livens up the image although trick seems to be not to replace with washed out or too dark an image...  and there is still room for improvement if I spent more time tweaking I'm sure...

Now if only someone (anyone?) can explain why this crazy blog publishing tool behaves erratically or is it just me??? Any attempt to move and place images and text is like buying a lottery ticket - purely random and I never seem to win!!!

Finally!

Hopefully this is the only photo I will post taken from my iPhone. I know, I shouldn't be doing that even once but it is the only way to show you what a great day it was for me today. I finally went down to Idaho Camera and plopped down the bucks on a Canon 60D body. This is a great upgrade in technology from the original Canon Rebel 350D entry-level SLR I have been using for the last eight years.

I realize this means I have no excuses now but I am willing to take the heat from all y'all in order to own this jewell. The best thing about this 60D? It has a flip out screen so I no longer have to lay down in the goose poop to get that great lizard-level shot! Like my mama always says, "for crying out loud, will ya get up out of the goose poop already?"

I'm excited and looking forward to exploring my world through this new camera and getting my shutter on!

Winter's Black and White

I am new to blogging, and since I talk with my hands, I am quite challenged at this. So please bear with me. As usual, I blog like I used to parent. Assuming everyone else knows what I mean before I even speak.
I will work on that.

Thanks for posting your B&W images. I apologize for making you think you need software to create a great B&W image. That is farthest from the truth. Just ask Ansel Adams.

I am also posting a link to some images of Jane Bown, who was an extraordinory B&W portraitist...Great exposures defined her work and her images. Well. One of the reasons. You might also "google image" her...lots of her work there too.
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2009/oct/18/jane-bown-60-years-portraits#/?picture=354266999&index=5

There are only a couple of other things I wanted to point out about B&W images and conversions.
The best thing you can do, (as Craig pointed out) is to get the correct exposure straight out of the camera(sooc)...Use your histogram to double check your exposure, and then bracket what you believe to be a good exposure.
The other thing, is that when you look at the blacks in your image, there should be detail there. The same for the highlights. It can be challenging, but fun working toward that goal...just try to stay away from the flat gray tones across the whole image.

Ansel Adams once said that "The negative is the score, the print the symphony".
In this digital age, we have many resources at our fingertips to create limitless symphonys from the same image.
But we don't want to rely on having to correct something in software when we could have got it from a good exposure. Black and white underscores that concept.

Ok.

So now I have to post my weak image. I was trying for shooting falling snow, and I have been more successful at other things...like mod podge, or folding laundry. I had in my mind what I was trying for, but it was pretty much a nonstarter. But my blacks are black, my whites are white...and there is even some bokeh....and even a couple snowflakes in focus. Mostly this is for Stef and Tony, so they know what they are missing....:) 

Not much.

D700  ISO 200 105mm
f 2.8 @ 1/100

Motivationally Challenged

I have nothing interesting to say. Rather bland. It was more exciting last week. I had a fire truck over.......

B&W Assignment

Well, this one was interesting. The assignment was B&W conversions...finding the right blend that gives you the depth in an image vs a flat presentation. Not having a high-end software package to work with, I had to get into my owner's manual and see what I could do with just the camera. In the end that was a great learning experience for me that will serve me well in my photography journey. Things that I had available to me on the camera that made a difference:

White balance
Metering mode
Auto exposure bracketing
Filter effects
Toning effects

Just like magic, they DID make a difference! Good assignment, Paula. It forced me to learn.

I could have spent all day fooling around with the different combinations of these settings but it was cold out and I was missing the Army-Navy football game. Navy won, BTW...tenth year in a row.

Koko Head

Mele kalikimaka to everyone! I'm soaking up Hawaii right now. Here is my latest balck and white work.

Nikon D3100, F/8, 1/250 sec, iso speed-100, 24mm

Black and White conversions

It has been fun to see what you all are grateful for, which is as diverse as our group!

When I took a photography class (film) and ended up being "The Darkroom Lady" for 3 semesters,
the importance of contrast in creating a good B&W print was really driven home.

So many of our images are either "shot" or "developed"  with a result being an image that is termed "Flat".
That is when the whole image itself is many shades of gray, but without BLACK blacks, and WHITE whites.
My instructor, Jim Frey, was rabid about two things. A tack sharp image, and a b&w image having contrast. Content was secondary.

When we do post production on our images, whether it is in the darkroom, or in Lightroom or Photoshop, we need to be mindful of how we are creating those B&W images. With so many options available, and with each creating a different feel, not all "recipies" you use will work on all images. Some you may want to have a lot of contrast, or very high key...up to you to use whatever you want in order to create the image that pleases you. BUT. Remember, when you step back from the processing ask your self, "are my blacks black? and my whites white?"  If not, go back and tweak until the answer is yes!
Most people take a color image and then just remove the color, or desaturate it. This usually results in a flat image. If you then take that same B&W image, and use "levels" on it in photoshop, or increase/decrease "brightness/contrast" in lightroom, you will be much closer to getting those blacks and whites.
I am not sure what programs are used on a Mac, but I am sure there is some software that allows you control over a  "channel mixer" that is good for creating great B&W images.

I used a pic of granddaughter Emily to show some examples of what styles can be achieved for a b&w conversion. Check out the first, which is a straight desaturation...resulting in a flat image. The others have varying degrees of contrast and brightness added to the mix, and I was hoping that you could really tell a difference when you see them side by side. They are all a matter of preference, but only 2 have black blacks and white whites.

So. I thought we might try shooting any subject that interests you and doing a B&W conversion on it... what do you think?

OK, I admit it...I have been a slacker. Between two sons visiting, the last hometown college football game of the year (that's right - fiddy yard line season tickets), and work (damn work), I haven't been paying enough attention to our blog. I will set about correcting that now.

self portrait

Hi all, Per request I am introducing my self portrait. Currently I am using a cannon G 12 to shoot. It is pretty delightful but less of a serious photographers tool than other cameras. Thus I am looking for another camera to shoot with for our photography club. So here lies the dilemma. Film or digital? I love the idea of film and that it is rich and tangible but as beginner a slr might be best to experiment and improve quickly. What are your thoughts?

Oh and I should tell you a bit about myself. Three things I love are: A new pair of socks, pulling warm towels out of the dryer, and no bake cookies. Three things I hate are: Being "shushed", when my nose gets cold, and people who drive the speed limit in the passing lane.

Grateful 2

Twas the day to hang ornaments
And light up the tree
When out our front window
My wife should happen to see

Our beautiful mountains
All covered in green
Upon the power pole and power lines
Was resting a tree

A windstorm from nature
And man made electricity
Helped in the process
Of lighting our Christmas tree.





NIKON D3100 | ISO 3200 | 52mm | f5.6 | 1/60


In all the commotion
And all of the clatter
I dialed 911
They asked what's the matter

In almost an instant
In almost a flash
The men in nomex firesuits
came in a dash

They came to save property
They came to save lives
Hey don't you touch that!
It wouldn't be wise
NIKON D3100 | ISO 800 | 22mm | f13 | 1/10 (hand held)

5 Things to be Grateful for: #1 and #2

#1 and #2 Mom and Dad:

I beat you to it Blair, lol. I love how a parent's love is evident no matter where or who is showering their kids with it. It warms my heart and reminds me how lucky I was to have parent's that loved me unconditionally.

Catching Up! Self Portrait.

So I promise...my photos will have more effort! But being one of the few (if any) newbies, I figure you will tolerate this for a starting photo ;).

Couple things about me:

I buckle up (<- proof).

I write for a magazine in Al Ain, UAE where my husband and I are living.

New to blogging, so this will be a fun experience. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's perspective on the assignments; if it's one thing about people, no two are alike and that is pretty amazing considering the world population!

Hello Stefanie!

We have a new member to our INTERNATIONAL blog, Stefanie Farris, oops, aka Stef Peterson. (She was just married in August, I need to get used to the name change).
Altho Stef's main claim to fame in life is being Blair's best friend since age 7, she has done some other things too! She was awarded a full athletic scholarship to the Citadel. AND graduated. She interned with the Chicago Bulls doing physical therapy. She is a fitness freak, and runs marathons and mountains. A lot. Most important tho, she makes me laugh.
Stef and her husband currently live in Al Ain, where she is working for Oasis Living Magazine. In order to get a job and a drivers licence in Al Ain, she had to get permission from her husband. Yikes.  I am looking forward to having her here with us, showing us a part of the world I will never see.
Welcome Stef!