One Long Series

So shot at Sebastian Inlet last Saturday and while there saw a good number of Ospreys search for a meal. We thought the weather was going to be really good but the light was a bit flat with rain moving in. Took this series and probably one of my best in terms of the number of consecutive shots I captured where all of the photos are reasonably sharp. Certainly just a few that I like but very happy getting the entire series.

I think Mike and I are in agreement that when I was able to capture this series, it had started to mist, so he had gone back to the car and missed this. Usually when we go out shooting, he seems to miss some very good opportunities which seem to be caused very much by a series of unfortunate events.

A Series of A Series of Birds

Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day at the Reserve. While I got a later start than was planned, after falling back asleep, I was only slightly later arriving around 8am. Heading for the pier, there was no one in sight and it was so calm and cool out. Watching from the pier there really was not a lot going on but it was cloudy, and gray, with streaks of silvery light and just very peaceful. I spent the first hour or so completely alone, and it was wonderful.

Initially after going through some photos I took this past Saturday, I thought that maybe I would be able to continue my Series of Birds post as I was able to capture the following series.

Shots 5O4A0619-5O4A0631

(5O4A0626 and 5O4A0627, missing as they went under the surface).

But as I was looking over the photos, I found that the series of photos were not as complete as the past week.

The following three shots, 5O4A0717, 5O4A0619, and 5O4A0620

The following four shots, 5O4A0615, 5O4A0618, 5O4A0621, and 5O4A0624

The following four shots, 5O4A0654, 5O4A0656, 5O4A0660, and 5O4A0661

As the morning progressed, others found this tranquil spot and I decided to move on. But as I began my slog back to the car, I found in that stillness I had experienced, it impacted what I saw and crafted my photos to match the feeling and color I had experienced from the pier.

By late morning, the sun had begun to break through and color slowly began to return.

I am not sure yet, but my Series of Birds may be ending after presenting the Pilot and the first episode.

No Depth.....

Stepped out the other day and found this little guy hanging out on a rock. Looks to be changing out of some old skin. After seeing him/her, I bolted inside to grab the camera (if you know me, you know I don’t bolt) and came back to grab some photos. Two shots and he/she took off, but I like this one.

But, speaking of depth, or lack thereof, for purposes of this I am speaking about depth of field and my struggle to get enough. If we were talking about me and my struggles, I would go on forever here. But I am struggling with getting sufficient depth of field in some of my close up photos. Probably doesn’t help getting as close as I can with a 400mm lens, but at f8 or f11 I would expect a bit more than a few millimeters. For these shots however, the blurriness caused by a lack of depth of field afforded these two a bit of privacy.

Also took a moment to grab a quick shot of a Crown of Thorns.

Who Knew

On Monday I was able to go over to a friends house to take a few photos of a peacock and her new chicks. I thought they were peacocks. Technically maybe, but wanted to search a little bit to find out more about them. Peafowl, Peahens, Peachicks, what……So of course you Google it and get directed to Wikipedia so I assume this is true:

Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera Pavo and Afropavo of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female peafowl as peahens, though peafowl of either sex are often referred to colloquially as "peacocks".

Anyway, Alan was very kind to allow me to come over to his backyard, where the peahen and her two peachicks were hanging out. It was really neat to see how the chicks stayed close to mom and many times would move up under her canopy of feathers. Since it was evening, there were several times the little ones struggled to stay awake and would just lay down, close their eyes, and appear to drift away. I only wish I looked this peaceful when I sleep.

Brief moments of two peachicks and a peahen in a neighborhood backyard.

Alan was keeping me up to date on the progress of the nest and eggs. After these two had hatched, he said there were still three eggs. On the Saturday night prior to my arrival, something took the three eggs and on Sunday night the mother and chicks slept on the other side of the yard under the mango tree. I am so grateful to Alan for letting me come over on Monday night to share this little group with me, as by Wednesday, he said they had left the backyard and were gone.

Again, learning from my photographic journeys, taking the time to enjoy the moments, as we do not know what tomorrow may bring.

So..... How Much

After giving it some thought, I thought I would show a before and after of a photograph as an example of how much I may work on a particular photo. The below is probably about the most I would do. In this particular case, I intentionally underexposed the photo as I wanted the flower to really stand out against a dark background. This was not that difficult as this was taken just after noon and so it was very bright. By underexposing the photo to bring the brightness down on the flower, it darkened the water in the background. Knowing I could increase the exposure of the flower in post processing, I allowed the original to be dark. However, I felt in the original there were some distracting stems and so they were mostly removed by burning in a layer and making the background even darker. This is something that would not have been that difficult in a traditional darkroom.

So to reduce the amount of work needed, I simply underexposed the photo. This is one of two ways I generally create my photos, this way by underexposing to create a darker background to remove distractions, or you will notice that I take the opposite approach and overexpose my photos in order to blow out the background and allow it to go to white. Generally this is also used to eliminate background distractions but also depending on the direction of the light, it allows me to properly expose for my subject so as to not allow it to appear as a silhouette.

Trying to Save Horrible Photographs

Went out to Circle B early on Saturday morning as I had to be back by 9 am for work, so we took off at 5:45 and arrived around 6:30. Someone just had to stop to get coffee, not me.

I think we both really had one goal in mind and that was to head to the pier on Lake Hancock and try to capture the ospreys crashing into the water, and coming out with a nutritious breakfast. I think for shooting just over an hour we were presented with numerous opportunities and I think we both got many of the shots we were looking for. Just one problem, the fish had decided to swim in the center of the lake (which was very inconsiderate) and so the hunting area was about 300 yards away and even with our long lenses, we really were not able to get close enough to capture what we truly wanted.

So upon returning home and looking through what I had captured, it felt so disappointing to not have anything from the morning. So when you don’t get good photos, what is the next step? Delete……Absolutely not, you try to get creative and take a bad color photograph and make a bad black and white photograph. I got the moments in time I was hoping to capture, just not good enough and so here is where I ended up.

I’m not really too disappointed because its always good to be out with a good friend, photographing and watching the sun rise on another day. And you can always find something to photograph.

and don’t forget the flowers, Mike there were flowers.

MY Art

I’m tired…. I’m frustrated….and I need inward resolution to be able to fully enjoy my hobby. I absolutely love going out and taking photographs, for me it is the process that I enjoy so much and everything that is involved in making photographs and I have allowed some of that joy to be taken away from me by a pursuit of perfection and the endless questions I ask myself about what others will think of the photographs that they will see, which is such a small part of the journey. I have been ruminating about this for years and have allowed it to take much of the joy of photography away from me and while I have wanted to express my thoughts about it, it is this inward drive toward perfection that has prevented me from doing so.

I think I have often confused the difference between striving for perfection, or expecting everything to be perfect, and doing what I enjoy to the best of my abilities. For me, the first comes with a lot of stress and anxiety which prevents me from full enjoyment, and the second is a peace I hope to find and have in the journey.

In photography, when you produce an image, that image in whatever format, is all anyone else gets to see. And today, I am sure it has always been this way, it seems that we don’t enjoy what has been presented but begin by judging it. And in photography, the first judgment always seems to be, was this edited, doctored, or is this real, and therefore the viewer, who did not make the journey in producing the photograph, seems to be looking for some justification for the image.

YES, I edit every photograph that I make. And for every photograph that I make, it is a very long editing process that has taken years. I bring to every photo, years of my life experiences, my viewpoints, my personal struggles, and my joys. And then for every photograph, there are the decisions about, when am I going to shoot, where do I go and even then I really have no idea what I may find and so the editing process continues with deciding what am I going to photograph based on what “I” see. Once I find something of interest, the editing process continues with some of the following choices: what camera, what lens, what focal length, what settings (aperature, iso, and shutter speed), where do I stand, what do I include in the photo, what don’t I include, what angle do I take this at, as well as other choices (and in a prior journal entry I have noted that I like to get close). So up to this point, every photographer has edited what they take and it will be different for us all.

Now to the part that everyone appears to be interested in and what bothers me the most, how is this particular photo edited following capture.

For me, it depends, and this is where I actually feel the most turmoil. This is where the journey and joy of photography has begun to fade for me. Not in the continuation of the editing process but in the external and internal judgments that this photo isn’t real or right, it’s fake somehow. This is the struggle for me, that with every click on the computer, I feel a drive to “perfect” the photo at the same time allowing the pressure of criticism to affect me and therefore remove the joy I feel from the journey.

I edit my photos very simply using several programs. I generally make the following edits: I set the camera and lens profile, I adjust texture, clarity, and vibrancy and I crop. I will then clone the image for hot pixels and distracting specular highlights. I generally use a preset for contrast or if converting to black and white, adjust curves and brightness and then apply sharpening.

I can’t draw, I can’t paint, I can’t sing, but I can take my camera and journey out and make a photograph. I need to enjoy that journey. These photographs are a part of my journey, they are not perfect, but they are me, and I hope that when you view them, they and I can at least be a part of your journey.

_MG_7196 wlayers framed.jpg

A Visitor and Getting Close

So the other night, our friendly rabbit, who has been visiting the yard for a while, made another appearance following a late afternoon rain shower. So as not to scare him away as he decided to eat my plants, I made a few photos through the windows in our backdoor.

After he moved on, I went out see if the butterflies had returned. I need to find out where they go during a rain storm. After a bit, a butterfly, some moths, and other insects reappeared, so again I took the opportunity to make a few more photos.

And these photos got me thinking about all of the wildlife photos that I take. I get close and I tend to isolate the subject, leaving very little room for anything else. Even when using a telephoto lens, I still tend to move as close as possible and with these shots, sometimes it’s too close (due to the minimum focusing distance) and then when working on them, I may crop them to get even closer.

What is it about the closeness, the detail, that I find so fascinating. I often think about this when looking at photos or other artwork, that I find the smaller the size the more intimate, they draw you in, they invite you to look more closely. But if that were true, why make the subject of my work so isolated, the subject dominating the frame, that makes an obvious point? It keeps you back and no matter the size, you don’t need to get close to see the subject, the detail…..to have the opportunity to connect with the photo.

Close to Home

I realize I had just posted but after shooting yesterday it reminded me of a time where the only things I was really making photographs of were what I saw on walks from the house. I remember thinking at the time, I see all these things and most people I saw just seemed to walk on by without noticing. I have not done as much shooting close to home as I have found other places around the state that have presented new opportunities, but going out for a few minutes the other day just took me back to some of my favorite photos I made right here in the neighborhood, mostly around the many retention ponds scattered about.

These are some of the first ones, taken at a pond at the end of the street.

Taking a Quick Break

I was feeling a bit anxious yesterday so decided to take 10 minutes at lunch to see what was going on in the backyard as there have been a lot of butterflies and birds moving about the yard. Most photos that I make I tend to either get close to the subject or will zoom in on the subject, but I have not yet crossed over to macro photography. I find it interesting the things we see everyday but really don’t take the time to notice, and if we do notice the ability to capture it in a way we can’t see it even when looking, I find very appealing.

Missed Opportunity and a Very Long Wait

So Mike and I had made plans to possibly go to Cedar Key this past Sunday to try to get photographs of the Comet Neowise and possibly the Milky Way as well. This would be quite the drive but worth it if it all worked out. A last minute change of plans and Mike texts me at 4pm on Saturday and says he would like to go to Crystal River that night to see if we could get the shots we were looking for and probably about an hour closer it would make a good test run.

Well, we arrived plenty early for sunset but were greeted by some low clouds, but knowing they were supposed to be moving off to the west, by the appropriate time after sunset, it should be good. Being at Crystal River for the first time on the coast was really cool and we had time to go out onto the pier to take photos of the sunset.

Well the low clouds never left, so the best I was able to capture was this single photo of the Crystal River Nuclear Plant. The low cloud line you see running across the top third of this image continued on lower to the left which is where we expected to view the Comet Neowise.

5O4A9041 wlayers framed.jpg

So we returned Sunday evening to try again. As we pulled into the parking lot, it began to rain, and the five shots I was able to make in a single minute occurred just after arriving and then the sun disappeared behind the clouds. This shot of the sun, which to me looks like a fried egg, is all I could grab through the windshield of the car.

I don’t think we will make it back out as Neowise continues to move away and certainly don’t expect to shoot it on it’s return 6,800 years from now. A missed opportunity as I had plenty of time to make plans to go out and my initial lack of inspiration falls on me.

Oaks

This past Tuesday, I went to Circle B with a friend to take some photos. Usually this is a place Mike and I go to early on the weekend mornings, but we had just gone on Saturday and he was really wanting to get a shot of an osprey diving into the water. I thought instead of waiting an entire week, maybe we could get something during the evening so suggested that we go on a weeknight.

With typical evening thunderstorms we ventured over. Upon arrival, at the start of our hike to the pier, we were greeted with a sign that indicted trail closures. Nothing unusual at this time of year because they do close trails due to alligator breeding season. However, this closure was for restoration work and it closed the trail to the pier. So we had a decision to make as to where to go shoot. I elected to continue on through the oaks, as I love this part of the reserve and knowing it had been raining recently, I was hoping the resurrection ferns would be be up and green. This is an area I have always wanted to shoot early in the morning with fog, but I have not had the opportunity yet to capture this, but I was hoping this would still be a good opportunity. It was absolutely gorgeous. Everything was still wet from the rain, no one around, and it was so nice just to be present on the trail walking through the oak grove.

While it was nice to always want to shoot this area and some idea what attracted me to the trees, now that I was there, I was overwhelmed with all the choices. Originally I thought I wanted to capture the low light with the dense greenness of the ferns against the dark wet trunks and branches.

Oaks with Resurrection Ferns

But as I continued to shoot, I was drawn to the contrast between the dark branches and the ligher background and thought the gnarly branches would really pop against the more muted background if done in black and white. This allowed me to focus on trying to capture the shapes of the trees. Upon reviewing the photos and beginning to process, I headed in the direction of black and white and produced these 14 photos.

While I do like these and what I was able to capture, I have also left them in color to more closely capture the mood and color present in the early evening following some brief rain.

There is always another day to return and follow these old trees through the seasons and perhaps one day I will make it over there one early morning to be greeted by these old friends softened by a light fog which has stopped to settle in the grove.

Why a Journal

So many thoughts and I just can't get my head around why or what I am doing.  I get paralyzed trying to think through everything and how it should be done, what it should look like, will it be good, so much so that I never start.  Trying to balance those thoughts and actually getting something down, I am at least finally starting.

This is to be a place for me to journal my experiences with photography with where I am, what I am doing and maybe some thoughts about what I may want to photograph next.

From about 2003, when I bought my first digital camera, I shot mostly activities that my kids were involved with and as they have grown and moved on, I began spending more time with other photographic opportunities.  Then on a trip in August 2015 to South Carolina, I went to one of my favorite places, Jones Gap State Park, with my wife to take a few photos. As I was taking some of my last shots of the morning, I was standing in the middle of the Saluda river taking a long exposure shot. It was to be a 6 second shot, and after starting the exposure, I turned to look at a possible new composition. Turning back to the camera, I saw my tripod begin to slide off of the slick rocks and as time seemed to stand still, $4,000 worth of camera equipment slowly submerged into the river.  What I thought was extremely quick reactions to save the inevitable, it was not quick enough. As I walked back to where my wife was sitting, she could tell something must have happened when she saw my face.  I did everything I could over the next few days and then upon my return home sent it on to Canon to see if it could be saved. I realized the news would not be good as the tracking indicated that it had been received and shipped back in less than an hour.

As a result of the event, my enthusiasm for photography for some reason also slid slowly away.

My last exposure, taken as my tripod and camera slid into the Saluda river.Canon 7D, Canon 24-70mm  f/2.8L.  ISO 100 6.0 sec

My last exposure, taken as my tripod and camera slid into the Saluda river.

Canon 7D, Canon 24-70mm  f/2.8L.  ISO 100 6.0 sec