Landscape Portraits

These are landscape portraits. I photographed them in a place that I frequently visit when I have time off, not doing a shoot, or just want to get out and see some nice scenery. My intentions were to  is to make photographs that show the likeness, personality, and the mood in which these tree can help create. This is what makes these photographs portraits of trees and not just landscape photographs. I am by no means a landscape photographer. I do however enjoy making photographs along these lines when I am not shooting for a client or working on a project.

 

These next few photographs were not blurred using any photoshop blur filters. They were photographed creating this feel. 

This is diptych-portrait of a tree that has memories of a photo shoot that I did last year. Most of Ashley Reservoir is covered with memories that either exist in my photographs or my mind.

    

Its not often...and more

Its not often that you find a professional photographer now a days that desires to shoot mainly in black-and-white. But fashion photographer Michael Creagh does just that. I read a great publication, Digital Photo Pro, they have a very inspiring article about Michael Creagh. You can read it here on their website. Digital Photo Pro: Michael Creagh

When I bought the latest that has this particular article in it, I noticed that it seemed as if it has lost some weight. It seems to be about 1/8th the size of the last few issues I have bought. I sincerely hope that they are not facing financial troubles like some of the other publications that are folding up. Digital Photo Pro is easily one of my top five publications that I read on a monthly basis. I suggest picking up an issue and reading what they have to offer. I find reading an actually magazine/publication is a lot more satisfying than reading publications through digital mediums.

Nikon D3x Video


CS4 Panorama

Shoot Through Umbrellas Vs. Reflective Umbrellas

So I came across this company a few weeks back. It was one of those late night internet searches that lead to finding a few products I was desperately in need of. So I managed to stumble my way onto their website. Cowboy Studios, based out of Texas has a great line of products at even better prices. I suggest taking a look at their site. They will no doubt have something you need for your business, studio, or personal equipment. After a few emails back and forth with Judy Fort, Cowboy Studios Manager, she graciously put together a nice post. They asked me for a suggestion for their blog. I was in the middle of writing a post covering the same topic. However, I found it a little more beneficial for them to write it because, after all, they sell what I was going to write about.   Cowboy Studios Blog 

Using Umbrellas as Light Modifiers
Umbrellas are useful as light modifiers because they are quick to setup, easy to transport, and generally less expensive than other options. There are many umbrellas on the market in many different styles and knowing what each does will help you narrow down your choices.

Shoot Through Umbrellas

Shoot through umbrellas, also called white, soft, or translucent umbrellas, are one of the most common umbrellas used by photographers. When you need to diffuse your light source, shoot through umbrellas are a good choice. The material used will produce results similar to a softbox, diffusing your lighting source and softening the light that hits your subject. When you use a shoot through umbrella, position it between the light and your subject, adjusting the position of the light in regards to the umbrella until you get your desired effect.

Reflective Umbrellas

  Reflective umbrellas are also useful modifiers, allowing you to bounce light directly onto your subject without the use of standard reflectors. This keeps your studio more organized and clean and still allows you to get the benefits of a reflective surface. Reflective umbrellas come in many different colors; black, silver, gold, and white are a few of the options available.

Gold: Use gold reflectors to warm up your pictures.
Silver: Silver reflectors can be used to brighten your picture, without affecting the color of the light.
White: Use white reflectors to bounce light into shadows, without affecting the quantity, quality, or color of light being cast on your subject.
Black: Black reflectors act in a subtractive manner, removing excess light from your photos.

You will also notice that some umbrellas have black backing and some have white. An advantage of the black backing is that it will keep out more unwanted light and heighten the effect of your reflected light. When you use a reflective umbrella, position the light source between the umbrella and the subject, with the opening of the umbrella pointed towards the subject.

Umbrella Size

In both cases, the size of your umbrella will impact your end results. Just remember that the larger the umbrella, the more your light will be spread out. Using smaller umbrellas can give you more focus, while larger umbrellas can illuminate more area. This is something you'll have to play with to know what you like best; most photographers learn with a 33" umbrella because they are an inexpensive way to become familiar with how they work.

Joerg Colberg

Today I had the pleasure of meeting Joerg Colberg. Joerg has been described as "one of the webs' most insightful photo-blog personalities, photographer, writer, and critic" (quoted from Assistant Professor at HCC Frank Ward.) Joerg Colberg is the author of Conscientious a fine-art photography blog. Frank gave me an advanced notice that Joerg was going to be speaking at HCC. I was very eager to meet him and hear his thoughts on photography. I sat in on an interactive lecture by Colberg and Ward today. Frank had explained to me that Colberg was living localy and that he was a very prominent figure in the blog o' sphere. I did not recognize his name, however, I did recognize his photographs and the series titled: "No Place Like The Cape" a body of work that he did at Cape Cod. I also recognized his other body of work, titled: "Higher Education". I listened intently as Colberg explained his body of work. "It is a comentary", reaction to what he has seen. As he says it, "it is a comentary as how we as a society are not treating ourselves well." He went on to explain that the conditions in which our people work, refering to the academic institutions and the conditions of the buildings. His photographs, as he put them, are geometric masterpieces. Images comprised of shapes that are equally composed into the photographs.

His photography aside, Colberg gave some very serious advice to the students that sat in to listen to him speak. I sat dilligently, lingering on his words, as he spoke softly with his german accent. It was within the first few minutes that I realized Joerg is a very brilliant individual. I jotted down roughly two (small note book sized) pages of words that he spoke to the students. What I came up with was a few great quotes that some people could find inspiring.

" At the end of the day what really matters is the photograph. It doesn't matter how you made the photograph or what camera you used."
Colberg went on to express that he is not completely partial to digital photography. He explained that it is to easy to make to many photographs, where as shooting with film gives you a more controled perspective on making a photograph. A way of being more centered and more thorough in your photography. Do not just shoot as much as you can, is the point being conveyed. Be more conscious of your image making.

"You can stifle your own work if you are to conceptual."
I found this quote to be rather intersting. His explanation was merely simple, your own ideas can get in the way of how people see your photographs. It maybe clear to you as to why your photographs exist, but how people read them, see them, and interpret them maybe entirely different.

"Whatever you want to do, do it, but be prepared to defend it."
This is a real no brainer. Basically, be able to explain your work, your thoughts, and interpretations of what the photographs mean and why they exist.

I had very high expectations previous to meeting Colberg. Expectations which had been shattered by his brillance and the way he addressed the students. Colberg was very interested in hearing why the students pursued photography and what compelled them to make photographs. Joerg took a look at some of the students photographs and gave them a professional critique. I was impressed that such a professional in the industry was able to take a few moments of his time and give his opinions and share his thoughts with a room full of students. Defined as being insightful, I find Colberg to be both infulential and inspiring.

I would like to thank Frank Ward for having invited me to meet Joerg Colberg.

Online Photography Magazines

Lenshare is still in its infancy stages by my standards. Lenshare is still less a year old and growing up very quickly. However, there are big changes in the works, some exciting new things to come.

When I come across online publications such as the list of Online Photography Magazines that Smashing Magazine has put together, I get very inspired. I see a lot more publications starting to form online vs. print. Print media has taken a huge change over the past few years, as some publications fold up, some new ones are starting up online. I am always excited when I come across a new photography publication. There is a mulititude of information streaming across the internet. Every day is a chance to learn something new. Check out the list of online photography magazines, you will discover something new in their pages.

Surrealist Photograph

I made this photograph over the course of this weekend. It is the first photo composite that I have made in a few months. This weekend was about including an international friend of mine into my life and the things I do, places I go, and what I do when I am not behind a computer or looking through the lens of a camera. That is the reason why I have not made a few posts since the beginning of the week. I have also been very busy the past 3 weeks setting up a new business. There will be a post about that to come very soon. Being that I have devoted so much time to the new business, I have been unable to make photographs like these for some time. But hopefully the new work I have been doing will also allow me a few creative breaks to make a few more surrealist photographs.

Here is my surrealist photograph. I made this photograph on the Historic Warf in Salem Massachusetts.

Lenshare Welcomes FreePhotoResources

I am pleased to welcome FreePhotoResources to Lenshare. FreePhotoResources is an outstanding site that I just discovered last week. I have read quite a few of the articles on the site and find it to be a great resource for photographers. The site is filled with news, interviews, tutorials, galleries, videos and more. Don't take my word for it. Go learn something that you have yet to see here on Lenshare.

Some Black and White Photographs

Holyoke, MA is a post industrialist city. Once a thriving, economically building city of factories and mills, Holyoke is seeing a lot of change as the creativity and talent flourish. Holyoke is beautiful. There are endless possibilities and prospects in Holyoke. Holyoke is a period of rebirth. Someday very soon we are going to see Holyoke be as strong and viable as it once was.

Northampton, Ma: This next photograph is of a Street philosopher in Northampton. Steve, AKA Philo has but one mission in life, and that is to “make things make sense”.

Shellburn Falls, MA

Photoshop Shut Down: A terrifying disaster.

I use photoshop regularly. By regularly, I mean obsessively. Photoshop to me, is what an enlarger used to be a photographer before digital took over the world. So naturally you can understand that if something were to say, happen to photoshop, it would be very crippling. Restoring the damage can be a very daunting task that might not even gurantee me the results I need.

So here is the problem. I opened photoshop and walked away to grab something. In the 30 seconds I was gone, a dialog box popped up. Never seeing the box before, "could not perform this action" is what the first part said. I hit ok and watched as photoshop open. Once and a while photoshop resets itself and opens all the boxes on the right side of the screen. Today, it did that very exact thing. Great! Now I have to go and restore this. So I go to the top, Window>Workspace>and looked for the very last time I saved my workspace. Now, if you are unfamiliar with what this means let me explain. Say you install a bunch of actions and set your tools to the specifications you want. Now in order to prevent from loosing all this you can go over to Window>Save Workspace>Title it the date (this is the best possible way remember when you saved it last) click the apporprate boxes, and hit save. This saves your information and your actions. So if photoshop ever resets itself, all you have to do is go to Window>Workspace>find the date saved and click on it. This would restore your last saved workspace.

Now back to my problem. I installed over 100 actions back in the fall. So very hard to find actions. I saved the workspace after loosing them once before. Tonight, as photoshop was opening, something happened. Some how, some where, all my actions and presets had vanished. I went to restore to the last time I saved the workspace, only to realized that the workspace I had saved no longer exsisted. So now I am sitting here wondering, where o' where are these actions saved on my laptop so I can reinstall them, if, if, if, that is I still have them on here. Wish me luck as I try and restore photoshop to the way it was...

Nikon New: Introducing the D5000

Nikon has done it again. Nikon has introduced the D5000. A very impressive little camera, nicknamed the D90 Lite. This camera is essentially the same thing as the D90 but with a few twists.

It houses the same sensor as the D90 as well as these key features.

• 12.3-megapixel DX-format CMOS image sensor
• D-Movie Mode with sound Record 720p HD movie clips
• Vari-angle color 2.7-inch LCD monitor
  
• 19 Auto-exposure Scene Modes
• One-button Live View
• Continuous shooting as fast as 4 frames-per-second
• Low noise ISO sensitivity from 200 to 3200
• Built-in image sensor cleaning
• 11-point auto-focus system with 3D Focus Tracking
• Auto Active D-Lighting
• In-camera Retouch image editing
• Nikon 3D Color Matrix Metering II
• Durable, high precision shutter

I knew it was only a matter of time before Nikon would put an LCD screen (like the above pictured one) on one of their cameras. Nikon keeps putting out something new and exciting every few months or so. Check the Nikon USA site for a full list of Features and Specs that this little camera has to offer.