The retirement projects

My normal photo process is to take the camera with a particular lens and go for a walk. Sometimes I have a specific thing in mind, and I'll take the appropriate lens. Sometimes I'm just out to see what I can find and have occasionally found I'm carrying the wrong lens. 

Of the few that I actually select to be edited, almost all get global edits and light tweaking and are called done. A very few get special treatment. Some of the edited photos see the light of day via my blog or social media, or get shown to a client. Some never actually get seen by anyone else, but I'm still pleased by them. I'm trying not think about the tree falling in the forest not making any noise conundrum, like, if a photo is never seen does it actually exist? 

But some photographers see an image in their head, and work to create it. That might involve a model or models, make up, a set, lighting, props that could range from a pair of shoes to an expensive car, smoke or fog machines, or whatever else might be necessary to get that image. Some shoot an image, or part of it, knowing they can drop it into Photoshop and create the rest of the image there.

I've got two projects in mind. Each involves a specific portrait idea, and I'm busy rounding up models. A few people might show up in both, but I'm thinking that isn't going to happen much. The plan is to produce two books, one for each project. I'm fine tuning some of the details to make it more than a selection of photographs. I'm hoping that each project will produce photos that tell a story in themselves, and maybe on the facing page the model will add some text. Like I say, still working on the details. 

Generally my thinking when doing something new is the best way to learn is by doing it. This has sometimes led me to think, in the middle of the project, "crap I wish I'd thought of that situation, now I have to redo some stuff." So I'm trying to think this one through first. 

That bit was written a little while ago, and now I've got some models interested in more details, and a few have signed up. They're thinking about prop details for what I'm calling The Handy Book, and we'll get a date organized. I've done the formal first shot of what I'm calling The 50 Book.

Regular readers will know this is the famous Michelle. I'm so pleased with this photo, and it's a great kick off to the next phase of the project.

There isn't a really good shot of the other project that I can use here. It's a permissions thing, not a photo thing. The next actual task is to draft up a model release. 

There are other projects. I've 3 more dates for a theatre company to shoot a kid's circus camp. This is amazing fun! I'm getting a zillion photos out of each day so far.  Some of the kids are amazingly photogenic, amazingly talented, and are naturals in front of the camera. The photos almost take themselves. The hard thing is the selection process. I was happily surprised by one young woman who looked familiar. I asked if I'd seen her at a particular camp a few years ago, and yes! She had been wondering the same thing, if I was the photographer.

You know how on IMDB you'll sometimes see a particular actor listed as participating in 'an unnamed project'? One of my buddies and I have loosely discussed a collaborative project. We know it's called 'Defect 29', but we know very little else about it. This might be a longer term work in progress.

There are the community association events. It's only taken several years, but people are getting used to seeing me and my camera. A few people have asked about family portraits, or other group shots. In a couple weeks I'll be giving the senior's group a presentation of my New Zealand photos. There's more than 15,000 to choose from, so, speaking of a selection process...

Plus, as I alluded at the start of this post, my own photos. Some of you might know I recently spent some time in Fish Creek chasing dragonflies. They photograph easily and beautifully if you catch them relaxing on some object, especially if it's in contrast to their wings. Catching them in flight is a major challenge. This one might be old in dragonfly terms, given the ragged wings.

And Linda's garden. I'm out almost every day as new flowers bloom, or they catch the light in a new way. Here are the newest lilies.

Lastly, this photoblog is updated only periodically, while the personal blog is updated every other day or so. If you're already signed up to get my blog notification emails, you'll know when this one updates. If you'd like to be notified when either of my blogs are updated, send an email to keith at nucleus dot com and I'll add you to the list. Subscribers sometimes get extra tidbits in the email.

Snowy image thoughts

There I was, drying the breakfast dishes (typically 2 each of mugs, bowls, spoons, knives, plus the French press for coffee) when I looked out the front. I didn't quite run for the camera, but did stop drying.

I was loving how the light was playing on the snow across the road. Snow is a difficult thing. We know it's white as white can be, at least until the city starts spreading sand on the roads, or it melts into the mud. Even shadows on snow, we see as a white tending towards grey because we know the snow is white. However the camera often sees it as blue, which can look sort of weird. 

Trying to correct it can get tricky, but I wasn't so fussed about that this time. I was after the textures of the snow and the interplay of light on them. It looked like the wind had blown the snow smooth, then deposited little ice crystals on top. Some of them were doing the rainbow thing. Then there were the footprints and blocks of snow, and the gentle curves. I was loving moving back and forth trying to capture what I was seeing.

The other day we were out for a walk, looking at the texture of snow along the berm. It was looking almost scaly, and glinting nicely in the light. I didn't have the camera with me though, so I wasn't tempted to stop our walk and try to capture it. Just as well, since I was pretty dubious that it would work the way I was seeing it. 

I've been by this log several times, but don't think I've ever got a photo I liked out of it. But on photo day the light was nice, and there was some snow adding interest to the shot. The snow helps give some depth and adds interesting shadows. Of course, the very moment I'm about to take the shot, an absolute herd of cyclists zoom past. I'm just glad they didn't disturb the snow. And yes, this is a pareidolia photo.

Of the Day

Driftwood

Sometimes the sand can look like snow, and behave a little bit like it, particularly with the help of the wind. As I look at this one now, I'm wondering if I should have cropped it 16x9 to get rid of the top bit.

And since I was thinking of it, why not? What do you think?

A kind of family? A new direction?

I took these during a walk the other day. I've been eyeing them for a while, thinking there's a nice image there. One of the 'rules' of photography is to put 3 of a thing in the photo. I'm not sure if any of these qualify on that front. Perhaps one day I'll bring snowshoes and carefully explore up the slope to see if there are better angles.

I've been thinking about the blogging thing and will be making some changes. This blog is going to feature photos from walks or trips where I've deliberately gone out to get photos, and have put some time into composing the image. 

I don't want to say the photos on this blog will be "better". Rather, they are works in progress towards becoming a better photographer. Some might actually be poor images, but are illustrative of a point I want to make, or a lesson I learned. Maybe a before and after, exploring Photoshop and the tablet.

There's likely to be some overlap between this and my other blog, but I'm still working that out. This blog is likely to only appeal to other photographers, and I'm welcoming comments about what worked or didn't work for them, and why. Sean and I have spent some time exploring photos that we didn't care for, and yet someone has decided they are good enough to be hanging on the wall of an exhibition. My thought is that I can learn from that, perhaps coming to a better understanding of why I like certain photos, and how to create better photos.

Both blogs are likely to be a bit erratic over the coming months, what with changing COVID restrictions and my own busy life. I hope it's worth hanging around.

Of the Day

This feature is continuing from my other blog. During the summer I'll have lots of flower photos showing up here. There may be other subjects showing up from time to time. In the past, that's included Curtis and Michelle.

This is a huge chunk of driftwood on a huge rock. The piece is easily taller than I am as I stood beside it. I went around and around, looking for good shots, on two separate occasions. Brighton beach is awesome!

Image of 2020

I've been looking at the year's photographic output for several weeks now, thinking about star ratings, and which images I might want to re-edit.

2020 was a slow photographic year, by my standards. only 18145 images taken, and that includes a month in New Zealand wandering many beaches. However, it does not include any number of races, community association events, and private client shoots that were cancelled. We all know why, so no need to get into that.

Of that, I ended up with:

3521 (19.4%) 3 star or edited images. (Note there are another 400 some community association images, even with the cancelled events. I use a different rating system for them.)

322 (1.77%) 4 star images. These are striking in some way, better than most, but aren't quite 5 stars. These are my prime hunting ground for re-editing with new tools. Perhaps I can fix some flaws and promote them.

50 (0.27%) 5 star images. These make me perk up and say "Wow!" for one reason or another.

It's all terribly subjective. There's times I wonder why I didn't give something a higher rating, or wonder why I gave one such a high rating. There's times I've gone back and forth. Even now, I look at some of the 3 star and wonder if I should nudge them up. There's times I wish there was a 3.5 star rating.

So here's the 50 choices.

Decisions, decisions. I continue to think that publishing an image of the month, and an image of the year is a good exercise for me. It helps keep me accountable to be seeking or creating better images. I like getting the feedback on what other people think are good images, or are not. 

I'm going to continue with the winner and two runner up images. One year I went with an honorary mention because it was taken so late in the year I hadn't had time to sit with it. I just went back and looked at it again and I'm pleased with that choice, but it won't happen this year.

I remain firmly convinced that one does not need to travel to the ends of the earth to get good photos. Yes, some of these really are from the other side of the world, but many are not just within Calgary city limits, they are within our own yard. Photographic beauty is where you find or create it.

Give me a beer and I could probably tell you a story about any of these. Here's a few, while I'm looking at them. Number 48 the bee, is probably the luckiest shot of the year. Getting a good photo of a bee perched on something is tough enough because they move so quickly, and they're so fuzzy it's easy to tell if you blow the focus. Plus whatever they're on is probably moving as well. It usually involves hundreds of rejected photos in any one session. Good thing I don't keep track of rejected photos. Catching them in flight is even more difficult. I don't normally get into camera settings, but this one is at 1/4,000 of a second, which is the fastest my camera can go, and there's still a bit of motion blur in the wings. An eye blink is about 1/10 of a second. Bees flap their wings at about 230 beats per second, or .00434 seconds per beat. 

The New Zealand beaches are amazing. Every time I look at the photos I'm brought back to them, and remember what it was like to walk along them. Every time. I'd hoped to get the Southern aurora and while I couldn't see it with my eyes, the camera caught it. Yay! If it was legal I'd seriously consider becoming a New Zealand beach bum for my next career.

Oddly enough, although I took many photos of the white peony, not many of them ended up at the top of the list. I'm not sure why. Number 40, with the ant waving it's antenna and getting up the courage to cross to the next petal did it for me. I'm not normally a black and white shooter, but 42 was so striking, even better than the colour version. 

The tulips though, they really put on a show. I was catching them in nice light, with water drops on them, and that makes for a great photo. 34 in particular could be printed big and put up on a wall to cheer up people in the middle of winter.

49, the lily took me a couple passes to notice.  Compared to others in the sequence it looked out of focus, and there was a splotch on the stem that looked terrible. Then I realized I could fix that and it would look more like a painting, which is one of the things I work on periodically. 

There's all kinds of cloud drama in Alberta. I normally don't count cloudscapes in my 'best of' photo lists for a variety of reasons, but 46 and 47 are pretty spectacular. Still, I already know they won't be image of the year.

50 looks almost like a constructed image. Some might suspect photoshop trickery, or a double exposure, but I assure you, that is a single exposure, edited normally in Lightroom.

I'm down to 12 now, thinking about intentions. Often when I'm out with the camera I'm an opportunist. I go looking for something interesting, and I take a photo if I find it. There's an element of luck there, but there's work involved. The photographer has to think about where to go to find an interesting scene, actually get out there with the gear, with the skills to compose and capture the image. 

But for many photographers there's more to it. They have an image in their brain, and they create the circumstances where they can capture that image. That could involve a model or models and everything they'll need to look right, the proper lighting, maybe some props, a fog or smoke machine, and who knows what else? If I think of which of my images come closest to capturing an intended image, that cuts it down considerably. Even so, it's still tough.

Second Runner Up

Feb 24 on Brighton Beach. I was trying to capture the reflection of the cloud in the water, then realized Linda was walking into it, then realized I might be able to get a walking on cloud shot. There was a bit of scurrying to get in exactly the right place, and compose for the faint footprints. As soon as I saw it on screen, I knew it would be image of the month for February, and would in the final running for image of the year. If nothing else had worked all year I'd have been happy to go with this one.

First Runner Up

October 23 at home. I'd looked out the window wondering if there was enough snow to make it worth going out to get snowy shots. At first I was looking past the reflections at the cone of lighted snow beneath the streetlights. Then I saw the reflection, and started thinking about how to capture it, wondering if I could get everything lined up, and maybe even get a nice tail light trail from a passing car. This is one where moving the camera even an inch, or tilting it up or down, radically changed the image. It's been growing on me more and more every time I look at it.

Image of 2020

May 13. Michelle and I worked together to plan a photoshoot in conjunction with Melanoma Awareness day. The idea was to get a shot of her with the yellow and blue lights on the tower behind her. That part didn't quite work out as well as we had hoped, but the many other wonderful shots more than made up for it. 

The other shot we discussed was a quiet cancer survivor contemplation shot, letting the light of a candle be reflected in her eyes. It isn't a candle, but a string of LED lights and you have to look carefully to see it, but that's a trivial detail. It's the best example so far of having an idea for a portrait seen through to fruition.

Michelle says, I’m grateful that it mattered to you to take the time to mark the occasion with me. I love the result not only of that shot but of a number of photos that capture the “essence of me” that I have made my profile pics over the past decade! I love working with you!

 

Image of 2019

In a sense, I've been working on this all year, but in the actual writing sense this has started on Solstice. Getting the draft started, and going through all the images to review the star selection. While I'm doing that, you might want to review the image of 2017 and image of 2018 posts. I'll try not to repeat myself.

This was a huge year in terms of photographic output. HUGE! I'm past 50,000 photos and not done the year yet, as of this writing. Of course, 2 months in New Zealand, and 10 days in Yukon might have something to do with that. Lots of star shots in those, which don't get edited in the same sense that the photos you usually see on the blog.

On the edited front, as near as I can tell, about 3600 were done for me, and a further 2000 or so were done for the Community association, and I'm not even sure how many for other client shoots. There are additional ones edited for specific purposes that I'm not counting here, like those for a time lapse, or one particular client shoot. Let's just say I'm not entirely consistent in my Lightroom use.

Right now there are 217 with 4 stars, and 25 with 5 stars. These 242 will be the pool for choosing image of the year. After all, on further consideration, some of the star ratings change. And I could get the shot of the year over the next few days. No, I'm not going to treat the 12 images of the month as the finalists. It's like drawing for the big door prize, all the tickets that won a minor prize go back in the hat.

As in previous years, there was much temptation to choose best within categories, but no, that way madness lies. So many categories are possible, and some overlap. Winner, a couple of runner up, maybe an honourable mention, that's it. There can only be one.

Last year there was a big image showing some of the finalists, so I'll do that again. Hang tough. I'm going away for a while. Don't hold your breath. I got down to 13 and dithering. Then my famous buddy Neil suggested I not wait, and post the photos I like best on his Facebook workshop page, as several others had done. I did the 13 and got some nice comments, thank you. Even now the likes are still coming in.

But 13 is a weird number to screen shot nicely, so I dropped the weakest one, and you get 12.

And now I dither more. Longer. Harder. I think I've got two of the finalists picked out, at least based on one theory of best photograph. If you've read about the previous years image winners, you'll know I have several theories about best.

Which one took the most work? Probably 2 and 5. For 2 I was up I the middle of the night, walked 100 m to the beach, then worked to find a place where the camera was out of the light of the moon, and out of the really strong wind. It took me a long time to get the camera set up for these shots. Finding level with all the conflicting lines seemed to be really hard at the time, to say nothing of all the technical camera stuff. With 5, it took two separate trips to the log, using a bunch of different lenses trying to get the effect I wanted. It was probably the most technically demanding shot of the bunch, with everything having to be just so.

The easiest? Number 4 was one of many of the camera doing its thing, though the editing was tricky. Number 6 was one improvised shot as we were about to leave. Number 9 was one of many. 10 I hopped out of the van, took two shots of the ferry, and hopped back in the van again. If you think of number of shots taken vs used, then 8 wins. I had hundreds of shots chasing dragonflies that day, with only a few to show for it. But so much fun!

In the end, photography is all about the light, and the skill of the photographer in catching it. When I look at these photos and think of where I've captured extraordinary light, the answer becomes clear. Now, which order? Hmmm.

2nd Runner Up
This one has been growing on me ever since I took it. I keep coming back to the smoky twilight, the reflections of the trees and ferry in the calm water, and the textures in the mountain side. Dawson City ferry.

1st Runner Up
This was image of the month for November. Fish Creek Provincial Park.

And the 2019 Image of the Year!
The view from the gazebo at Larnach Castle, New Zealand. I, and other people think it looks a bit like a painting because of the particular quality of the light.
(This was not assembled until after I got home, so it wasn't in the running for January image of the month. It's 11023 x 3149 px, or about 3 feet by 10 inches for a high quality print.)