Sunsets through a Lens :dltphoto

So, we have all seen beautiful sunsets. Many times they are so incredibly hard to photograph and you really just can't capture on camera what your seeing. Also as a creative photographer how do you make this sunset be something that someone wants to look at. How many variations of a sunset can be done before its all been done??

I just found some images from my camping this year and I remembered that I had attempted to change my normal view to something more creative or did i just something crap and should I delete it?

 I have shot through these trees a million times and I am sure I have dozens of images like this on previous posts. Can I do something more to make this some thing everyone will want to look at? What if I make it out of focus?

At the time I thought this looked pretty cool. I have never done an out of focus sunset before. At least not this intentional! So I pushed it a little further...

How abstract can one now start to get? Is it now a beautiful sunset on the lake or just some computer generated file from some paint program?? What now? Can I really show this? After all now it has no context. No obvious signs that its a beautiful moment in time by a lake with a camera..

Did I create a design piece?

Hmmm, Or is it just a orange blob with some vague reddish blobs???

Can I use the two images together?

      Original                                                   Out of Focus                                  Combined

Perhaps I should just stick to my day blob!!!

The End

Side by Side, Lenses:dltphoto

OK, so this isn't exactly a side by side comparison but it'll help you understand why some people buy the bigger, more expensive lenses.
Here are two images shot as close to being the same as I could by hand holding it etc... one image with the Nikon 1 V1 with 30-110 4.5-5.6 1 series lens attached, the other with my ancient Nikon D200 with the 70-200 2.8 VR1 version lens.

I think both have great characteristics, I really see the "bokeh" come forward in the D200 image. Since the Nikon 1 lens doesn't have the 2.8 capability I think it makes it obvious which is which.
Having said that the Nikon 1, 1" sensor, stacks up quite nicely against the older  APS-C sensor.
Both please me from a composition point of view and both have an equal opportunity to make it framed on the wall.

High Street ( Night edition) :dltphoto

Since we had a day time shoot it seemed only fitting to try an evening shoot.

Granny and Grumpa's, Revisit 2013: dltphoto

Its been over a year now since Wallace and I visited Granny and Grumpa's Antique collection in Abbotsford. Last time was very overwhelming and I was not well prepared for so much stuff. This time I went with an idea not to try to see it all, just to pick out certain shots and concentrate on nailing them. This time also I only frequented one of the barns. With another 3 barns available I'll have plenty more to shoot on 3 future occasions.
I shot with a few different camera's... As to be expected! I finally had chance to muck around with some wireless flash with my trusty Nikon 1 V1. This first image of the Ice Cream toting Statue of Liberty was done using one remote flash off camera. I really enjoy this shot. Possibly my favourite from the day. It shows wonderfully the clutter and craziness of this corner of the barn. It's actually where I picked up an interesting Lenticular Print which I bargained with Grumpa for. I'll attempt of shot of this in the future.

Here are a few images, still have some film out and some other gems to go though. I'll save them for a rainy day!

APAC Submissions, October 2013: dltphoto

I wasn't able to be present at this months exhibition evening due to a 'man cold'. I relied on my fellow club members to give me any feedback that the adjudicator had with my images.
All I know is that adjudicator enjoyed a lot of the images, she ( Betty Andres) tended to score on the high side according to my above average scores.

 

"Private Peeker", Architecture Score 9.5

 This was shot at Barkerville, BC. Initially for the textures it offered but I also enjoyed the fact the curtain is set in such a way as someone could be peeking out at me. She reviewed it but I haven't gotten any feedback on it.

'Life Lines', Floral, Score 8.5

This shot was from my phone last Autumn. I enjoyed the overall feel of the image and thought I had a pretty sweet shot from such a limited camera. The Leaf shot she reviewed and wished the depth of field could have been better but overall she enjoyed the colours but wished I might have come closer to pay more attention to the lines of the leaf. Of course I wasn't there to inform her it was from my phone....

'Smile for Dad', Assigned ( Humourous), Score 9.5

Last Christmas's photo shoot in my studio, I always enjoy getting the girls to do a little something odd and it worked well for scoring.

Nightfall : dltphoto

Normally every year I post some glorious fall/ autumn tree shots. All glowing red and orange etc... But this time I tried something a little different. Must trickier and something that needs to be better thought out for next year!

I went out a night with Mr Koopmans to find the perfect coloured tree at night. Scouting ahead of time would have been smart as the pretty trees aren't so easy to spot, but that wasn't the only issue. FOCUS. Since we were basically shooting under pitch black nighttime it was incredibly hard to focus. Fortunately I had my blast of light flashlight with me (Fenix) and we atttempted to set our focus, it was still very challenging though.

So initially I started off doing some wireless flash to attempt to light up a tree we found in Fishtrap Creek. Along with a long exposure we got some nice effects, but that soon morphed into Flash and Flashlight which became a little bit of light painting which I have never really fooled with. Plenty of experimenting that night!
Light painting is simply using a long exposure (tripod required) and walking around with a light type device, in our case a really bright flashlight. Then at the end it wasn't about the colourful trees anymore since we couldn't tell if they were colourful or not. So we just messed around with a gazebo type thing in the park!

Out Of Focus!!!

Anyways, we played for a while and here are some of my winners.

Double Trouble: dltphoto

Nope, this isn't a post about my two adorable girls or that we are having twins.. nope. Never.
This is just about a technique I have seen from the past and thought about revisiting it. Basically its an image stacking process. Back in the day, before computers, people would have stacked/ sandwiched two or three negatives together into an enlarger and the art would have been created, or they could have sandwiched slide or even multiple exposed...
Today, I am simply able to drop one image onto another image and then simply reduce the opacity (see-throughness) of one of the images to allow the rear image to be visible.

Here are my two original images below. one correctly focused and one desperately out of focus. Combined I think they make an interesting image. Perhaps I cold explore the process of editing them more to see if I can make the image MORE pleasing. Just wondering if anyone has any views on this technique?

Wash, Rinse, Repeat! But this time use film!

"But my phone takes better pictures...":dltphoto

Sadly, I hear this all to often. What can you say to this? YES, certainly a Phone is a handy device. More than likely you have it on at all times and as Chase Jarvis says, "the best camera is the one you have with you", at least I think Chase thought that up. However, NO your phone is not better than a camera. The final output is so much better with an actual camera. Now I have been promoting the use of a phone as a cool imaging device, and that's what it is, Cool, Handy, Quick, Convenient. Sometimes, if the scene is right, it can be hard to tell a phone shot from a camera shot, but it doesn't  replace a real camera.

Below are two images of the same scene, but dramatically different in look. One from my Nikon DSLR, and the other from my Samsung Galaxy S Phone.

In my eyes the more intriguing image is the first one. Its far more interesting with the wonderfully shallow depth of field that can be only created by the superior talents of a real camera, I could probably add some fancy action to the phone image, like a tilt-shift effect to make it more appealing but I still don't have the in-camera control to get the shot the way I want.

So, Yes a phone creates fun images but a REAL camera creates much BETTER images as long as you are willing to learn it!

Further to that... here are two images below. One with my phone and one with another camera, cropped to almost the same shot and both straight out of ummmm, well Camera!!!! Can you tell?

David & Goliath: dltphoto

At the time of composure I had absolutely NO idea that  "David" (as he is now known), was wondering out of my frame toward the bottom. The little guy was soooooo miniscule I didn't notice him until editing this shot. Goliath, sadly, was supposed to be my main point of focus!
Who do you look at more?

"The Highlander": dltphoto

One of the questions people always ask me "whats your favourite lens?". ( favourite, yes I am British!)

So it may not happen to be the smallest lens in the world, or even the lightest. Actually its quite cumbersome, expensive and jolly heavy after an entire day of shooting.

Camping 2012, Digital, Part 3: dltphoto

the last of the DSLR Pics, Sorry to bore you all!.

Wells, BC

Somewhere in Wells, BC