August, 2009

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Urban wildlife – Dealing with Moose

Monday, August 31st, 2009
Moose Mother and Child

Moose and Baby, earlier this summer

Occasionally when talking with folks who aren’t from Anchorage, they mention things about how “amazing” it is that we have moose in our town.  Wild moose, walking the streets.  Well, yes – it’s cool.  It’s also a nuisance.

You do see some cool things.  Like the photo to right (previously posted, I believe).  You also run into several inconveniences.  Things I’ve had to deal with over the last several years:

  • A thoroughly devoured tree, which I had to dig up this year (grrr);
  • Countless traffic jams due to dead/injured moose running out into the road in the middle of winter;
  • Being chased (!!!) by a moose that decided my jogging was a threat to it (it was 200 yards away);
  • Having to go cross-country on skate (racing) skiis to avoid moose that were blocking the trail;
  • Getting spooked by bears that come into town for easier meals (as the moose population in town has grown, so has the bear population – moose being part of the reason);

As I look over this I realize: I’ve been up here too long.  I forget what it’s like to live where there are effectively no animals…

I’m not sure that’s problem.

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What do I need an ND filter for?

Saturday, August 29th, 2009

I remember many years ago thinking about how rediculous it was (well, seemed at the time) that people would pay good money for an ND filter.  It seemed to me that everyone was trying to speed up their shots, not slow them down.  The goal seemed to be taking good hand-held photos in dim light.

I think, for the majority, that is still true.  However, ND filters are now something that I crave.  Having seen so many slow, beautifully detailed shots of the sea, it’s now something I aspire to.

Take a look at this gentleman’s photostream (on flickr) to see some excellent examples!

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Making a high-key photograph

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

Yesterday’s picture was an example of a high-key photo.  Notice how there’s so much white in the image?  That’s the “high” part of the key.

Now, how to pull this off.  First of all, you need a layout for the photo.  In my case, I started with a white peice of paper as a background (yeah, it was pretty big).  I also added the tea, cup, plate and chocolate, deliberately picking white dishes.

So that’s the first part, making sure everything is light. Click to continue »

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Tea and Chocolate

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

Originally a side-snapshot from a different photoshoot, this image was taken over the weekend when I was trying to capture the essense of honey.  I still don’t have a good idea for honey, but this is a good capture of a European-style dessert: black tea and chocolate (more European if it were plain dark chocolate, but I claim success anyway).

Tomorrow: the how-to.

Tea and Chocolate

Tea and Chocolate

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Urban Camping in Anchorage

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

well, kinda.  Normally, “urban campers” are the homeless.  In this case though, I’m referring to a friend of mine in anchor-town (ed. fine, I’ll explain:  local slang for “Anchorage”). He went camping this weekend in an area that is definately wild, but could still be considered part of town.

Check out his post, and especially his photographs.  When’s the last time you’ve seen a moose carcass like that?  Awesome!

While you’re at it, check out his site.  He’s a local realtor and I’m sure he’d love some feedback.  And if you’re in the market for a home in Anchorage, I’m sure he’d love the business!

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Change – yes we can?

Monday, August 24th, 2009

I guess I’m kinda giving up on the title.  What I really want to direct you to is a photo and post from Sunday by Kimbery Richards.  Scroll down to the comment by Eric W_ (yes, that’s me) for my initial response.

Go ahead & read it.  I’ll be here when you get back. Click to continue »

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Getting off my duff

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009

I was reading a post the other day on Beyond Phototips titled “Stop reading this… and take some photographs” and I had to stop and think – is this me?  I mean, I have a virtual 365 project going on.  I carry a camera with me every day and almost daily take or make a photo.  I will be in a few minutes, in fact.

And yet, it rang a bell.  I think it’s bullet #2 – “Some people read too much”.  Almost word-for-word what Moose said to me at one point.

It’s probably also point #5, too.  That’s why I put so much effort into making my pics quickly.

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Hue, Saturation, and Luminosity

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009
Just above Seward

Mountains over Seward

Almost a year ago, I went to the NAPP Photoshop World in Las Vegas.  I’m dying to go again this year, but I’m afraid I’m out of time.  Maybe next year – especially if they would add more about using Photoshop in the medical field… but I digress.

One of the main concepts I came away with was courtesy of Jean Paul Caponigro.  He said: color is merely a blend of hue, saturation, and luminosity.  He lamented that a photoshop filter (similar to the channel mixer or the contrast/brightness applet) had been removed, but then pointed out that it was back in Adobe Raw, and pointed out a couple of ways to fake it in Photoshop.

Well, that’s kind of the point of the photo to the right.  It was a poorly processed HDR image, which just couldn’t be brought close to color properly in Photomatix – not easily, at least.  The original was far too grey, in fact.  But with H/S/L, we can bring back the colors to how they should be.  The steps I took here, and why:

  • Tweaked hue for yellows and greens – moved them more to the green side of the scale, but very slightly.  Yellows, about 11, Greens about 18.  This moved the muted greens over to a more pure green, without adding saturation or brightness.
  • Tweaked green luminosity – added no more than 10.  This brightens the greens, which means we lose saturation.  A side benefit: we lose some of the greys.
  • Removed about 8 in luminosity from yellows – after the tweaks, they were almost too saturated.
  • Slighty bumped green & yellow in saturation – this gets rid of the last of those greys and makes the hills feel “alive.”
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Thinking about weak posts today

Friday, August 21st, 2009

I re-read yesterday’s post & realize it’s a bit weak.  The idea was there, and there’s good information, but I’m not sure I could come back in a year and understand what I meant by everything.  I suppose that’s what happens when you run yourself too ragged.

The main concept that I wanted to impart was this: color saturation is regulated by how bright the light is.  The brighter the light source, the more washed-out the color.  So in yesterday’s photo, by limiting light I was able to keep the saturation of the flower.

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Shooting red on a blue background

Thursday, August 20th, 2009
Red strobed flowers (and tagged)

Red strobed flowers

Taking a picture with strobes can be somewhat challenging with the setup that you have to the right.  What we have here are two primary colors, red and blue, with slightly different tones that need to come out well saturated.  I’m doing this indoors, so I don’t want the light to be quite as harsh as I did last time, so I’ll use a softbox.  How am I going to set this up so that the background recedes and the flowers are well saturated?

A few things.  First, I need to keep the lighting on the flowers delicate.  They’re already pretty bright, so they don’t need a lot of light.  Too much, and the colors bleach out.  I also need them to be brighter than the background – the background is actually a mid-to-light blue color (my daughter’s lunchbox, in fact).

So I start by exposing f/stop wise where I think I’ll need it for the light.  f/11 or so.  Then I adjust shutter speed while exposing for the background, aiming to hit -1EV for that guy.  Flash with softbox is perched to camera left, set on manual (14 mm spread) at 1/32nd power.  Blinds it out on the petals.  Move it down in third stops until it stops bleaching out: 1/64 even is the flash.  Try slightly smaller and larger f/stops, find f/11 is still the best.

That’s all there was to this.  These petals are from the www.moosestooth.net parking lot (my daughter snagged them).  I did the full setup, shooting and teardown in 20 minutes – her bath.

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