The Weekly Photo – November 14, 2011

©Darwin Wiggett

Here’s the Ice, Where’s the Fire?

This photo was taken on the last morning of the Fire and Ice Photo Tour in the Canadian Rockies which ended yesterday. Unlike most November tours, this tour we were given cloudy and snowy conditions. But even with the lack of ‘fire’ (sunrises and sunsets), the group of intrepid photographers made some great images.

One of the tricks I use in ‘bad light’ (e.g. overcast, grey days) is to set my digital camera to ‘monochrome’ so that the LCD of my camera shows B+W photos. I find it helps to strip away the colour to see compositions in B+W. Often there will be great images out there that speak to be taken even in the ‘crappy’ light. The image is a case in point. In colour it had no life but when I saw how it looked on the LCD in monochrome, I decided the photo was worth taking. If you shoot in RAW format the camera will display a B+W image on your LCD but record a full colour image in-camera which you can use to make B+W conversion later in post processing. I use Silver Efex Pro 2 as my default B+W conversion program (for a 15% discount on the software just enter darwin as the discount code on checkout). Stay tuned for great shots from participants in the following weeks most of whom used the monochrome setting on their cameras to mine wonderful B+W images in the moody light

For anyone wanting to see the new ice in the Rockies and hopefully to get a bit of fire to boot, there is one spot left starting this Wednesday (November 16) until Sunday (November 20). Contact Alan at the Aurum Lodge (info@aurumlodge.com) to for more information.

Inspirations – The Victorian Printer by Phil Morgan

© Phil Morgan

Canon 5D II with a 17-40 L lens @ 26mm.  1/50 sec @ f/4. ISO 400

This image was taken at Blists Hill Victorian village, in Ironbridge (Shropshire UK) It’s an amazing place, recreated exactly as it would have been in the Victorian Era. I chose a slightly unconventional lens for portraiture here, due to the tight confines of the shop. I do however like the effect the wide angle lens has had on the foreground printing plate, and his hands in particular. Shot wide open at F4, in attempt to make the printer ‘pop’ from the background. The shot was composed to have the printer fairly dominant in the scene, while still allowing the viewer to see the ‘tools of the trade’ in the background. I am fairly pleased with the way that the final image turned out. The image was initially processed from the raw file in Adobe camera raw, and finished off in Photoshop. The mono conversion was carried out with Nik Silver Efex, which I find a superb piece of software. ~ Phil Morgan

Fabulous Film Fridays – Back to Back Again

Last week Sam posted a comparison of the same subject shot with film and digital. Her point was to show that the two media deliver very different results and that neither was ‘true’ to her experience of being there. Of course, we all know that cameras do not record things exactly like we see them. Some capture devices seem ‘truer’ than others but none record the ‘truth’ (5 human observers to the same event will all ‘record’ or remember the event differently – so what is truth anyway?).

Given that there is no universal truth then it simply becomes a question of what tool (camera, film type, digital sensor type, processing workflow etc)  returns results closer to the way you view or want to present the world in your art. Of course you can enhance or alter the capture in processing (either in the digital or chemical darkroom) to get the results even closer to your personal view. I believe it’s always better to use the media that delivers results closest to where you want to end up, rather than shaving a square block down to fit into a round hole (but maybe that is just me, some of you might like the shaving process ;-)).

The two images below were photographed at the Nordegg mine and were taken at the same time as Sam’s shots in her post. The results of the comparison look similar to the Sam’s in terms of colour and contrast. Which you prefer is personal, you might like one better than the other, or you might not like either rendition. Your job as a photographer is to translate what you see and feel about a scene to your viewer. Using the media that gets you the results you want is really all that matters.

©Darwin Wiggett

Above – Shot with a Tachihara 4×5 view camera using Fujichrome Velvia 50 slide film (I used a flashlight to paint light onto the wheels – the orange cast).

Below – Shot with a Canon EOS-1ds digital camera and light-painted as described above.

©Darwin Wiggett

Inspirations – New Forest by David Baker

© David Baker

Canon 5D II with a 24mm TS-E II 0.6 secs @ f/11 with a 0.3 Lee ND grad

I wanted to capture a typical New Forest scene at around dawn. The weather forecast was for mist/fog and I knew that if it appeared, it would linger at a favourite location in the Forest due primarily to the depression of the land.

It’s a typical forest scene because of the New Forest pony (there are usually at least two or three Forest ponies here at around sunrise), the singular tree and the heathland. I was fortunate that this pony stopped where s/he did. The autumn colour in the heath was just about to show but I like the muted palette due to the mist. At this time of day it’s a peaceful place. ~ David Baker

The Weekly Photo – November 7, 2011

Making photos usually does not stop at pressing the shutter. Image making is a three part process and this process was really popularized by Ansel Adams in his series of books; The Camera, The Negative and The Print. In today’s digital world photography world, we capture images in our camera, we process the resulting image (often a RAW ‘negative’) in the computer and then we output our images to print (or the web) so the process has not changed just the technology of how we do the process.

I would add a fourth component to Ansel Adams equation and that is The Person. The camera does not make the image; it is the photographer. What interests you, what attracts your eye, what you choose to include or exclude, how you compose and ‘see’ are individual and personal. So let’s not forget that the end product is the result of the personal vision of the photographer (and this vision can and should carry through from seeing to capture, development and print).

As a photographer who learned and grew up photographically using slide film, I was mostly denied the luxury of carrying my photographic vision beyond the press of the shutter. The end product was the slide (a piece of positive film). The image was ‘processed’ by a lab and there was little ‘creative’ input at the processing stage (save for altering the the exposure by pushing or pulling the development). Really, the film was developed in a set formula to insure that the exposure captured in-camera was the exposure that came out on the slide. And as far as printing was concerned slide film could be printed but with difficulty and serious photographic printers stuck with negative film. Mostly slides were used to hand to publishers who printed the image in books and magazines and calendars (the printing was out of the photographer’s control). The simple point here is that a slide shooter had to use all his or her craft and art in the capture stage. The image had to be finished in-camera. End of story.

I was reminded of the ‘getting it right’ in-camera during a recent Creative Expression Masterclass workshop with Royce Howland and Samantha Crysanthou. For some of the exercises in seeing we needed participants to capture images in-camera using JPEG and the images were not to be processed after the fact. Having to capture what to what you see and getting it the best possible in-camera is great exercise in discipline. Even this former slide shooter realized just how much I have come to rely on ‘enhancing’ my personal vision through the development of the digital negative. The image below is an in-camera JPEG capture and this image reminded me how rewarding it was and is to get a completely finished image in-camera. No post-processing was done on this image save for resizing and sharpening for the web.

©Darwin Wiggett

Canon EOS-1ds Mark III, Canon TS-E 24mm lens, 1/4s at f11, Singh-Ray LB warming polarizer, Singh-Ray 3 stop soft-edge grad filter.

Canadian Rockies Fall Photo Tour Results – Catherine Byram (AKA The Border Collie).

When Catherine, Darwin’s assistant, wasn’t running around trying to herd all the participants to a designated spot,  or wasn’t busy collecting lunch garbage, headed for the recycle bin at Aurum Lodge, she did manage to take a few photos. Below are the six favorite pictures from Catherine Byram on the Fall 2011 Photo Tour.

Photo by Catherine Byram

 Abraham Lake

Near Nordegg Alberta

Photo by Catherine Byram

 Misty Morning at Waterfowl Lake

Photo by Catherine Byram

Forest fire area near Abraham Lake

©Catherine Byram

Garden Path at Nordegg Mine Site

Photo by Catherine Byram

  Exposed tree roots on a well used path at Waterfowl Lake.

Photo by Catherine Byram

Sunset at Reflecting Ponds

Canadian Rockies Fall Photo Tour Results – John Deines

Below are the six favorite pictures from John Deines on the Fall 2011 Photo Tour.

Photo by John Deines

Allstones Creek gave us opportunities in landscapes and macros.  Here, I present the image of a cliff which shows a vertical pattern of alternating layers of rock.  I was impressed with different rates of erosion between the brown and gray layers and the darker or black layers.  Splashes of green show the life that clings to the steep fins.  Canon 50D, 24-105 f/4L, 100 ISO, 55mm, 0.6s, f/11.

Photo by John Deines

Sunrise on a somewhat windy morning on Abraham Lake presented a beautiful sky of red and dark clouds.  I chose to keep the mountains in silhouette to preserve the intensity of the sky and light painted the blowing grasses in front of the camera to provide some foreground.  The four second exposure smoothed the lake waters somewhat.  Canon 50D, 10-22 EFS, 200 ISO, 22mm, 4s, f/22.

Photo by John Deines

As we waited at Preachers Point, a set of vaguely lenticular clouds caught the gold and pink rays of the setting sun.  The wild grasses on the near shore provided a nice foreground and the sprinkle of yellow-gold trees on the distant shore provide some mid-range interest.  Canon 50D, 10-22 EFS, 200 ISO, 22mm, 1.3s, f/22.

Photo by John Deines

The Nordegg Mine site was a treasure trove of images.  One image that represented to me the past life of the mine and the impact of machinery on the process of mining coal was this set of three gears balanced in the grass.  A little post processing to blur out or vignette the edges of the frame amplify the focus of the image.  Canon Powershot G12, 80 ISO, 11mm, 1/100s, f/4.

Photo by John Deines

Upper Waterfowl Lake presented us with the rising sun behind us, trying to illuminate the peaks through a heavy mist.  My early frames such as this one, showed color in the mountain tops and reflections, through the thickening mist which almost obscured the forested shoreline across the lake.  Canon 50D, 10-22 EFS, 400 ISO, 14mm, 1s, f/22.

Photo by John Deines

This boat dock on Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park, BC, provided some nice color and pattern leading to the emerald colored water beyond.  Canon 50D, 10-22 EFS, 100 ISO, 13mm, 5s, f/16.

Inspirations – Budding 2 by Katarina Fagerstrom Levring

© Katarina Fagerstrom Levring

1/100 sec., f/0.0, ISO 160, shutter prio, spot metering mode
Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Lensbaby Composer (50 mm) with  double glass optics and macro filters

Using flowers as my main motif and creating abstractions of them has made me realize that I had totally missed out on how sensual they could be. That is before I used the camera as my first creative tool of choice. During the time I have worked this way it has shown that I seem to have a natural talent to make the most out of this special trait in their personalities. I do see each flower as a personality, most often a female and as I spend sometimes several months with each species (the Iris for example) I’ve also learned that there is so much more to discover than what first meets the eye, with each flower. A budding tulip reminded me of how vulnerable one can be in the beginning of say a relationship, with a partner, emotionally and sexually or for that matter, the vulnerability in a beginning artist, hoping to flourish in her medium. ~ Katarina Fagerstrom Levring

Beyond the Trophy

Samantha and I just got back from the SNAP! Photography Seminars ‘Weekend Workshop’ with John Marriott which, based on the feedback forms was a great success. We had a wonderful group of talented photographers ranging from absolute beginners to semi-pro shooters. Because our location was based in the heart of Banff National Park near Lake Louise it was hard for photographers not to wish for ‘good light’ for the sunrise and sunset shoots. Good light to most of us means richly-coloured skies and warm light skimming across the peaks. Well, the weather did not co-operate with these expectations and we were mostly met with overcast skies.

The problem with expectations is that they blind you to other opportunities which can lead to thrilling images. On the last day of the workshop we all went to Lake Louise at sunrise. Of course, there was no sunrise but instead it was cloudy, then fog rolled in, and then it started to snow. There was some grumbling about the ‘crappy’ light but where some people saw a curse of bad luck, others found inspiration. There really is no such thing as bad light (just bad attitudes ;-)). Below are two images made from the ‘crappy light’ that morning at Lake Louise that show that photographers with an open mind can create amazing images no matter what the conditions.

These two photos were the images that John, Sam and I felt were the most compelling of the weekend (all made in the ‘worst’ light by the way). To us these were refreshing and novel images of Lake Louise. How many more pink alpen-glow images need to be made from here anyway? To see more work by each photographer simply click on their photos. Watch in the future for new workshop offerings from Samantha and myself and new offerings from John Marriott.

©Wojtek Zlobicki

©Rosana Ramos

The Weekly Photo – October 31, 2011

Today I drove my friend David Topping to the airport in a snow storm. On the way home I saw that the Bow River between Calgary and Cochrane was full of fog, crazy cool clouds and the aspen trees were freshly frosted with snow as well. I immediately thought of Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park with its high overviews of the Bow River Valley.  But I had an appointment with the dentist for a ‘tooth emergency’. So… the photos went un-taken and the toothache won out.

I have a photo from the Glenbow Ranch taken in August with fog in the valley to remind me of what I missed today (click on the photo to see a larger version). Sometimes pain trumps photos.

©Darwin Wiggett

Canon Rebel T2i camera, Sigma 17-50mm f2.8 lens (1/4s at f8 at 50mm), Singh-Ray LB warming polarizer and Singh-Ray 2-stop hard-edge grad filter over the sky — image cropped slightly in post.