PJ Anderson Photography

Photo of the Week

2012-01-31T23:31:00.001-06:00

Thought I’d change things up from the people photography I’ve been working with lately.

Here’s a photo from the “small” world around us.

I shot this little guy in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora, ND.

ISO 160, 1/1500 second, f/3.5, 60mm – Fuji S3 Pro

Photo of the Week

2012-01-24T11:09:00.001-06:00

Photo of the week! We decided to start up a photo of the week to share with our friends on the blog. We shoot a lot of photos that only a limited group of people get to see. We'll try to give you a glimpse at many different styles and projects. We'll start this week with a wedding photograph. Amy and I LOVE to have fun when we shoot weddings. We couldn't have asked for a more fun couple than Alyssa and Josh! Goofing around behind the church :)

Some of my favorites from 2011 Weddings

2011-12-16T22:25:00.001-06:00

Just a big thank you to all the great couples we worked with this year! You were great.

Here’s a slideshow of some of our favorite shots.

Favorites from 2011 Weddings

Looking forward to 2012 couples! We already weddings booked at Grand Superior Lodge in Two Harbors, MN and Watertown, SD. One at the Joy Ranch – be fun to work a new venue!

Red Riding Hood

2011-09-20T20:36:00.001-05:00

I’ve been wanting to do my version of various fairytales for several years. Thanks to Jeri Anderson a mom of a model that I worked with in the past at the Academie Agencie in Fargo, I’ve finally been able to realize one of these shoots.

The model is Heather and she fit the part perfectly! After searching the internet for costumes, we settled on one that was not too cartoony or “Disney-fied”.

I wanted to work in a dark and sort of creepy forest. One of my favorite locations – Sica Hollow State Park was ideal. We had a great day and walked away with a number of excellent images. I’m going to have a lot of fun continuing to edit these photos, but I thought I’d share a handful immediately.

Holga Photography from a Nikon D700

2011-08-08T22:54:00.001-05:00

If you’ve read my posts in the past, you know I have an appreciation for “toy camera” photography. I’ve seriously considered buying a Holga or a Lomo camera in the past, but I couldn’t really justify buying that and purchasing and developing the film.

However, I found a way to perhaps get the best of both worlds!

I bought a set of Holga lenses for my Nikon digital cameras. Sort of bizarre to be dumbing down these really expensive cameras, but I do love Holga photography. I haven't had more than a minute to play yet, but I shot a quick photo outside the door. Hard to see through the viewfinder as it is so dark, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it.

I bought the Holga lenses here (the kitchen sink option): http://shop.holgadirect.com/collections/digital-holga-for-nikon-slr

I wasn't sure I much liked this first image, but then I remembered that a lot of Holga photography is cross processed. A couple of quick steps in Lightroom and I like the end result a lot better.

Here they are side by side. The cross processed photo is on the right.

Hope to share more in the coming weeks!

A photograph, seen through different eyes.

2011-06-16T17:34:00.001-05:00

I’ve always been interested in how different people see things differently. This holds true for my photographs.

The photo above introduced me to another artist. A writer attending Utah State University, Alex Baldwin. Alex wrote in an email:

Tonight I just found your beautiful photo from 2009 of a feather in a bottle and was wondering if I could use it on the Cover page of my project. My project is actually about the author Sherman Alexie but he addresses often the problem of alcoholism on reservations, so your photo would be perfect!

Alex was awarded USU’s Creative Writing Student of the Year and USU’s Overall Outstanding English Student of the Year. This email started a great dialogue with Alex about his work and my photography. I was more than happy to help out.

By the way, the photo above that Alex found was really just something I was using to demonstrate how I achieved the photo I was after. I was on a weekend outing with two wonderful friends. I was trying to figure out how to capture the texture and color of the feather. The beer bottle and the twist tie just happened to be convenient! How very interesting that my “example” made a completely different impression on Alex. Here is my finished product for comparison:

I was excited when Alex sent me a short piece so I could share it with you. I look forward to reading his creative portfolio that he turned in for graduation (where he is using the photograph.)

So, here is an example of Alex’s work. I hope you enjoy!

What is that Sound High in the Air

A mist, too thick for a waking sun,

slouches against mountains

east of Cache Valley,

and somehow turns January snow

blue: leftover scraps of sky

draping the view

beside campus.

Students, dozens, rush

by: cell phones flipped open,

ears clogged with iPods,

palms warm to the foam

touch of cups brim

with hot chocolate.

Cat Stevens hopes I have a lot

of nice things to wear,

a sideways smiley-face

buzzes in my right hand:

Sapphire’s in for lunch

at Quadside Café,

OJ from Einstein’s Bagels

sloshes almost empty to my stride.

Ten minutes away from a class

starting in five, I give ten seconds

of semester to the mist,

imagine my Faded Glory

treads climbing air.

Could I summit before losing myself

in absence of up and down?

Like a bluebird spreading

a shiver of feathers

between cloudlessness

and a lake of glacier run-off.

Alex can be contacted at: alexbaldwin2@yahoo.com

Fata Morgana

2011-06-14T08:37:00.001-05:00

I was fortunate enough to photograph a wedding last Friday at the Grand Superior Lodge in Caste Danger, Minnesota. It is a truly fantastic location for a wedding. Hard to go wrong with Lake Superior as your backdrop.

My wife and I decided to stay until Sunday and make it a mini-vacation. On Saturday, we drove up MN Highway 61 to Tettegouche State Park. If you know me, you know I was out shooting various wildflowers and chasing butterflies as much as photographing the standard attraction there (waterfalls).

After hiking up to the aptly named High Falls, we went in the opposite direction and made our way to the lake shore. We sat and took in the sun and poked around in the rocks for Lake Superior Agates – Minnesota’s state rock.

My wife pointed out to me some unusual formations on the horizon. At first I thought perhaps storm clouds, but then a light bulb went off in my head about an atmospheric phenomenon that I had read about, but had never seen. Of course, it had to wait until I had an internet connection to help me recall the name and the details. What we were seeing was a mirage from the Apostle Islands approximately 25 miles across Lake Superior. Below is a map from Google Maps giving you some perspective. Click here to see in Google Maps if you wish to see larger:

According to the Wikipedia article: A Fata Morgana is an unusual and very complex form of mirage, a form of superior mirage, which, like many other kinds of superior mirages, is seen in a narrow band right above the horizon. It is an Italian phrase derived from the vulgar Latin for "fairy" and the Arthurian sorcerer Morgan le Fay, from a belief that the mirage, often seen in the Strait of Messina, were fairy castles in the air or false land designed to lure sailors to their death created by her witchcraft. Although the term Fata Morgana is sometimes incorrectly applied to other, more common kinds of mirages, the true Fata Morgana is not the same as an ordinary superior mirage, and is certainly not the same as an inferior mirage.

I’d be the first to admit, perhaps these may be an “ordinary” superior mirage, but it was cool to see and I’m glad I finally had some kind of an idea of what it might be like.

I hope to post a few more photos from the trip soon and also a special post from a writer that used one of my photos in a recent project.

Tych Panel

2011-04-08T19:14:00.001-05:00

I learned about a neat tool for Photoshop and blogging from @Photoshop_ GU on Twitter. This tool is a Photoshop Extension that automates diptychs and triptychs creation, perfect for photoblogs. To me, this a nice alternative way to present photos – rather than just one single photo in the column. To read more about and download, go to http://lumens.se/tychpanel/

Here are a couple of example layouts. There are several to choose from:

A diptych featuring our cat, Pixel.

A triptych from photos underneath the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

I thought this was a nice, quick little tool that others might want to be aware of. Have fun with it!

OTA Sessions, the Orpheum Theater in Sioux Falls and a new Nikon

2011-04-03T14:51:00.001-05:00

Where to start!?

I had the extreme pleasure of doing event photography for the OTA Sessions in Sioux Falls on Friday. The OTA sessions are described as:

Creativity and originality of thought are critical to our success as a region, but without action and implementation it's all just idle chitchat. OTA challenges us to bring originality and action together. o + a

The OTA Sessions are a chance for all of us Midwesterners to shatter the perception that creativity and thought leadership in business, marketing, communications and education live solely on the east and west coasts.

I was blown away by the speakers: Sally Hogshead, Ellen McGirt, CC Chapman, Ann Handley, John Winsor, Ricardo Crespo, Rod Arnold, Jeff Slobotsky and Dusty Davidson.

All were very motivating and a pleasure to listen to. Sally Hogshead had me cracking up (while trying to be steady and focus), John motivated the heck out of me and Ellen and Rod moved me immensely. I was torn in some ways as I couldn’t be both focused on the presentations and focused with my camera. I was there to take photographs!

Working with Hugh Weber, the founder of OTA was fantastic. He’s put together a fantastic event and I really identified with his motivations for creating this event.

The venue for the OTA Sessions was the Orpheum Theater in Sioux Falls. What a fantastic place! I was so excited as soon as I got a look at it.

My plans for PJ Anderson Photography this year called for a new camera so that I had a solid backup for the spring/summer weddings. I also wanted to get up to the next level of pro cameras. As great as my workhorse Nikon D300 has been for years, I was more than ready to get up onto the Nikon D700. With the OTA event being held at the Orpheum, I knew I wanted to get the D700 in my hands immediately - to make sure that I could take advantage of the great high ISO results. I wanted to be able to walk away with photos that weren’t overly grainy in the dark light of a theater.

The D700 did NOT let me down. I am very pleased with the quality of the images! This is going to open up even more opportunities at weddings in darker churches. Should allow for some wonderful moody lighting situations!

I’m in the middle of editing/finishing four assignments, but while taking a break – I tossed together 7 or 8 photos in Photoshop that I shot “hand held” in the Orpheum to create an interesting panorama. This photograph is in no way to be considered a “finished” product. If I was going to shoot this in a serious fashion, I would have definitely set this up on a tripod and would have spent some serious time getting the shot down perfectly. I might have even took some time to try an HDR study. BUT, I do think this shows the power of the camera (and the beauty of the theater.) So, just for fun, here you go!

Nikon D700, ISO 2000, f/2.8, 1/60 second – multiple exposures stitched in Photoshop

Converted and added my old blog

2011-02-24T17:12:00.000-06:00

Last summer we were informed by Microsoft that LiveSpaces was going to be closing. I’d had my blog there for some time – so it was a bit of a concern for me.

I started looking around to see what would be a good alternative. A few friends used Blogger and so this is where I ended up. However, then I found out Microsoft was automatically moving our blogs to WordPress!

Well, I’ve maintained a link here to my old blog – but I figured most wouldn’t see the link or even if they did – they wouldn’t go look. It is sort of sad that I’ve lost connections with many that used to stop by the old blog.

However, today I found out about a service that can convert WordPress blogs to Blogger for import. I figured it would probably bring the text, but not the photos. BUT, I was surprised and the photos and comments and all came with! How terrific. Of course, there is some quality issues with the old photos, but I am not going to complain too much.

If you find yourself in a similar spot, here is the tool I used: http://wordpress2blogger.appspot.com/

Posts prior to July 2010 are from the old blog if anyone wants to dig that deep! I hope you do as there are some photos I really would like people to see!

Until next time!

Shooting tethered in Lightroom

2011-02-17T13:06:00.001-06:00

I’ve seen videos online of people shooting with their camera tethered to their computer. It has often been one of those things I thought I’d try someday, but I really had no pressing desire to do so. I rarely shoot in a studio environment and when I do, I hate to be tied down with cables attached to my camera.

However, the other day I was stuck in my office waiting on an important call that I couldn’t miss and my camera and computer were just sitting here. The thought popped into my head to give it a shot.

I connected my camera to the laptop with the USB cable and fired up Lightroom. Once there, it was really a no-brainer to set this up. I work on a PC, so I opened the File menu and selected “Tethered Capture”. This opens the following window where I can name the session, set the location where the files to be saved and set my Metadata presets.

After clicking the OK button, a new toolbar opens in lightroom:

I could quickly see the camera attached and the settings currently set on it – ISO, shutter speed, aperture and white balance.

What really interested me was the ability to set the develop settings in Lightroom. These settings are applied as the file gets transferred to the computer and is then displayed in Lightroom. Being I was taking self portraits of myself (yikes!), I opted immediately for a black and white preset that I like.

Then, all I did was click the big grey button on the far right of the toolbar to trigger the shutter release. I had my camera set to autofocus and it did that first and then triggered the shutter.

In just a moment, the photo appeared on my screen. I’ll spare you the agony of looking at most of these captures – not easy taking a self portrait that I liked! However, here is one of the end results that my family and friends say best looks like me.

I really may think more on this – in particular when I am doing some product photography or working with models in a studio environment. It was worth playing with.

Hope to talk again soon!

Winter Landscapes

2011-01-06T17:07:00.001-06:00

Earlier this week, I was in Madison, South Dakota doing some commercial photography for J-Gable. The client was driving, so I was a passenger for this trip. On the way home that afternoon (about 60 miles) I was blown away by the light and the blowing snow creating a very moody look.

As soon as I made it back to Watertown, I turned my truck back south chasing that great light. The blowing snow had disappeared, but I still found several good shots as the sun was starting to go down.

Taking photos with snow is always a challenge. Getting the exposure right can be tricky. I’ve been shooting a lot of auto bracketed photos lately so that I can combine certain images into HDR shots. Being it was REALLY cold and windy, I thought I’d just continue to shoot that way to make sure I got the shot. So, I composed my shot, made my best choice on exposure and bracketed by 2 stops. This gave me one at the exposure I selected and two underexposed and two overexposed.

With the sun setting I had very bright highlights (sun and snow) and some dark shadows (tree line and farm). Turned out this was one of those great opportunities to use HDR pro in Photoshop CS5 to merge these different exposures.

I tweaked the final product using onOne’s Phototools and I think this image really reflects what it felt like on that day on a lakeshore beside the old Meridian Highway (US 81)!

ISO 200, 1/50 sec, f/13 – Nikon D300

Happy New Year (and stay warm!)

Remembering summer days with HDR Pro in Photoshop CS5

2010-11-28T20:15:00.001-06:00

I spent some time today putting up Christmas lights on the house today. The temperature wasn’t bad, but there was a pretty good wind out there. We are also looking at a winter storm tomorrow!

When I decided to review an HDR (high dynamic range) training on the National Association of Photoshop Professionals website this afternoon, all the photos that I pulled up to play with were from our summer vacation in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The holidays are a nice time of the year, but spring and summer is when I thrive!

Very pleasant memories as I practiced this methodology. I’ve done several posts on HDR, so if you are unfamiliar with it, you might want to look back (primarily at the old blog – link on the right!)

The process began with my original photos five photos auto-bracketed in my Nikon. The original photo and then an underexposed by 2 stops and 1 stop. Overexposed by 1 stop and 2 stops.

After importing all photos into Adobe Lightroom, I selected all five frames, right clicked to select Edit > Merge to HDR Pro in Photoshop. In the Merge to HDR settings, I increased the detail and then the strength and the radius to dial in the look I wanted.

I saved the result from Photoshop (returning the photo to Lightoom) and then fine tuned the image in Lightroom. Note: For those not using Lightroom, you can accomplish this in Adobe Camera Raw as well.

Here’s the final result and my warm memories of Sylvan Lake:

Below is the original correctly exposed base photo:

ISO 250, 1/13 second, f/16 – Nikon D300

Lightroom Publishing the Sequel

2010-09-07T19:45:00.001-05:00

I just discovered one additional tidbit on the Publish to Flickr tool in Adobe Lightroom 3.2.

Because this publishing is an on-going relationship between Lightroom and Flickr, when someone makes a comment on a photograph on Flickr, that information comes back into Lightroom.

Here’s a screen shot. Thank you to Lisa for making comments and thus making this discovery possible!

Closer:

I’ll have to see how this plays out over time to determine how valuable this is. For now, it is just “cool!”

New Publish Feature in Lightroom

2010-09-06T15:36:00.001-05:00

I’ve been putting off creating a presence on Flickr for a VERY long time. With a rainy Labor Day keeping me inside and working, I started to look into it again.

The timing is pretty good as the newest release of Adobe Lightroom has a “publish” feature that allows me to post photos directly to Flickr (and Facebook, SmugMug and other sites. A plugin is also available to do the same thing on Zenfolio – one of the sites I use).

Thought I’d just walk through an example and post a photo out to Flickr. For a more detailed explanation/demo, you might want to check out this video from Julianne Kost at Adobe TV.

I do more and more of my work in Lightroom and this feature makes it so easy for me to get my working photos off my computer to the web without first having to do a bunch of file handling (sizing, naming, metadata entry, etc.) All these items are set up in my publish settings. This means, all I do is drag my photo for the Library Module in Lightroom to the appropriate site to publish to and essentially say “go”! Sweet.

Here is a screen shot of some variations on a photo I talked about in the last post. If I want to quickly post the photo with my logo to Flickr – here is what it looks like.

1. With my photo selected in the Library Module, I just drag the selected photo to the Flickr section under Publish Services.

2. Next, clicking on the Photostream section, I can see the photos that have been published and those needing to be published. Clicking on Publish is all I need to do.

3. With my publish settings in place, you can see all my metadata is also uploaded with the photo!

I guess I have all the tools in place. Now it is just a matter of getting the appropriate photos posted to Flickr!

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day Weekend.

Adobe Lightroom and Presets

2010-09-04T14:17:00.001-05:00

I don’t think there is a more valuable tool in my digital darkroom than Adobe Lightroom. I’m using release 3.2 these days.

A couple of weeks ago I had serious problems with my laptop. A corrupt user profile – if you’ve ever had to deal with that issue, you know how frustrated I was with that! However, to try to find a positive slant to this, it did require me to reload a few things. I guess once you get things set the way you want, it is easy to forget that there are other settings or opportunities available.

Today I reloaded some free presets for Lightroom developed by Photoshop Guru Jack Davis. I was fortunate to see him speak a couple of years ago at Photoshop World in Orlando. Anyways, what a great pack of tools AND you can’t beat the price. I downloaded the presets from the onOne software site (one of my favorite Photoshop add-on’s.) If you use Lightroom and want to try these yourself, click here.

The photo at the top was achieved by applying three presets called Wow-Antique 1, Wow Antique 2 and Wow-f_Vignette_Lt_07. Finished with a thin black ‘Edge Treatment’ in onOne’s Phototools.

Here is the original and a two additional pre-sets.

Original, c_HSL-Only Brown (Jack Davis preset) and Creamtone (LR preset).

This photo was taken in Custer State Park in South Dakota with a Nikon D300. ISO 200, 1/1600 sec, f/4.0, 55 mm.

Photoshop CS5 and HDR

2010-07-22T22:41:00.001-05:00

One of the features I was excited to try in the new release of Photoshop was the upgraded High Dynamic Range (HDR) functionality. In the past, HDR required additional plugin products or a lot of labor intensive work.

After doing a photo assignment today, I had the opportunity to photograph a couple of South Dakota landscapes with some dramatic clouds in the sky. I shot three rapid fire photos with a bracketing setting on my Nikon D300 as I often do these days to open up options in post production.

When I arrived at home, I was thinking I wish I had CS5 already as it would make some of my editing go easier (referring to other features – perhaps a future blog post.) I decided I’d download the trial software as I will probably be upgrading in the next month. Of course, the FIRST thing I needed to try was the HDR!

I started in Lightroom and identified the set of photos I wanted to work with. Here is the landscape in the photo exposed at the level I decided was “correct”.

Right from Lightroom, I selected “merge to HDR in Photoshop”.

There are many presets and much more control in the new release. I selected a preset for “surreal” and then played with sliders to more closely match what I saw with my own eyes a few hours ago.

And along with a frame from onOne Photoframes, here is the finished product!

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Through the Viewfinder (TTV)

2010-07-17T13:28:00.001-05:00

I discovered a photography technique that piqued my curiosity on PhotoJoJo some time ago. Their posting described how some photographers have been shooting a photo of their subject through the viewfinder of an old TTL camera for an interesting effect. Here is the original posting: Photojojo

I decided to give it a try and so I found an old vintage Voigtlander Brilliant on eBay for the right price. I didn’t want to spend a ton of money at first – at least until I saw some results. The Brilliant is a pseudo twin lens reflex camera (TLR) that was manufactured in Austria in the 1930’s. You can read more details about this camera (and many others) here: Camerapedia.

My first chance to really try was last week while I was doing a photo shoot with Taylor Kearns, Miss ND USA 2010. We had found a wall that had a great shade of red on it. The setting sun was shining on the wall with a relatively intense light. I figured that would be a perfect time to try. Taylor and the wall would be well lit and I could block the sun on the viewfinder of the Brilliant with my body. I’m sure holding the vintage camera at waist level with my left hand and trying to focus and compose a shot with my pro DSLR had to look ridiculous, but I was excited about the results. In this first photo, I’ve cropped a bit, but still included my hand and the camera in the shot. Did a little work in Photoshop to remove the color in all except what is in the viewfinder. I also added a border from onOne’s PhotoFrame tool.

I went on to finish the “real” shoot with Taylor – you can see some of that series on my Facebook page here: Taylor. As we were packing up, I happened to notice a bicycle leaning up against a fire escape on the next building. Now THAT was exactly the sort of subject I had been looking for. I grabbed the Brilliant and fired off another shot. In this one, I cropped the photo down to just what was seen in the viewfinder.

I can see this is going to take a bit of practice and maybe some trial and error. Even still, I think this is going to be a creative way to produce some interesting photographs! Hopefully, there will be more to share in the future.

Spring!

2010-03-26T09:07:00.001-05:00

Apparently, Emily Dickinson called Crocuses “Spring’s first conviction.”

I sure can't top that! So, I'll stop writing now and show you a photo.

Spring… finally.

ISO 250, f/5.6, 1/250 second, 55mm – Nikon D300

www.pjandersonphotography.com

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HDR Style Photo in Lightroom

2010-03-16T18:12:00.000-05:00

I came across this tutorial on the Digital Photography School website from a link on Facebook posted by the Adobe Lightroom team. I guess that’s just an example of how posting something on a blog or on Facebook or LiveSpaces can really get a message out. Even though I get emails directly from DPS and look at that site from time to time, I somehow missed this tutorial .

If you’ve read my LiveSpaces blog in the past, you know that High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography is a technique that I am fond of. Not only for the effects, but knowing that my eye sees a much broader range of light than my camera can (at least today) and a single photograph doesn’t really capture that range.

Over the last few years, I’ve been completely sold on shooting RAW images in my camera. Knowing that it is giving me the most information about my photograph. Much more than a jpeg that is processed inside my camera. This tutorial really shows how to take advantage of all that information.

I won’t type out all the instructions, but rather send you to the source here. I will, however, give you the “before” and “after” of one image that I worked on. The author does recommend starting with a photo that is a bit underexposed so that we don’t lose the information in the shadows and that is why I picked the following image.

I used a similar photo to this one on an earlier post. This was shot one evening on my drive on US Highway 212 on my way home from Minneapolis. The sun was setting and really lighting up a bank of storm clouds with wonderful shades of red.

ISO 200, f/16, 0.6 sec, 28mm - Nikon D300

You can begin to get a sense of the dramatic sky here, but no where near the impact I had while seeing it with my own eyes. I shot this and several other frames at different exposures (on a tripod) with the intent of combining three photos for an HDR photo in Photoshop. You’ll have to jump back here in the blog to last June 1st to see how that turned out.

One thing I liked about THIS technique, is I’d be using one RAW file and working exclusively in Lightroom.

In the final image, I am able to pull back the blown highlights in the sky and also see the subtle shadows in the grass and in the tree line. Definitely going to be a technique I’ll play with more!

I’m looking forward to the return of spring! Hope to have more photos to share on a more regular basis.

http://www.pjandersonphotography.com

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My Office Manager

2010-02-13T16:31:00.000-06:00

Just for fun.

This is my office manager – Pixie Feather Sue (Pixel) Anderson.

ISO 1000, f/3.2, 1/125 sec, 28mm - Nikon D300

Pixel joined our family last autumn. She was a rescued pet (that I sort of fell in love with at first sight) from Dr. Gretchen Gerber’s Country Care Pet Hospital, LLC and Helping PAWS Pet Rescue, Inc. in Washburn, WI.

Dr. Gretchen told us all “no one leaves without a kitten” – she didn’t have to twist my arm too much! By the way, what a fantastic veterinarian! She’s been a fantastic help in Pixel’s transition to a family cat.

Anyway, this is one of Pixel’s favorite afternoon tricks. Wait for me to get off my chair at my desk and then steal my spot. She doesn’t give up that seat too easily either!

Homage to “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy

2010-02-11T15:35:00.000-06:00

It has been a ridiculously long time since I posted!

Thought I’d jump back in with a photo I played with and the steps I took to get there.

This all started when I was looking at Photoshop tutorials available on www.wikihow.com. I found one that demonstrated how to polarize an image in Photoshop here. I have to admit, the last couple of years there have been many times I wish I had my circular polarizer in my bag – and yet it was back at the office. So, I figured I’d give it a go.

After I played with the test image there, I decided to give it a go with one of my own images. The one I selected isn’t anything to write home about. However, it was an interesting place – I took a few photos with the intent to go back at another time and do it justice.

ISO 400, f/13, 1/15th second, 50mm – Nikon D300

I won’t repeat all the steps, as you can read about them in the Wikihow article, but here is the same photo after the polarizing tutorial. I can see where I might use this in some situations.

If you are like me, on occasion you might start messing around with Photoshop, just to see what happens. In this case, I had an interesting surprise that ties it back to the title of this post and the book called “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy. (NY Times Review)

A theme from the book that always pops into my head is how the world is pretty much covered in dust and is very dark.

Well, when I changed the last step in the polarizing tutorial (where it says to change the blend mode to “Overlay”) I decided to go with “Difference”. With the result, I was transported directly into that bleak world of McCarthy’s – dark, foreboding and covered in dust. It is kind of a creepy feel. I’ve got no clue if this is what the author had in mind, but this sure worked for me.

I think most of my photos try to show the world and nature in its most beautiful light. So, this is a bit of a departure for me! I’m not sure if anyone else would like it, but it was fun for me to do.

Old Boots

2009-12-14T10:39:00.000-06:00

File this under “They don’t make ‘em like this anymore!”

After I came in from shoveling this morning – I found myself staring at my snow boots. I’ve had them for most of my life. Started doing some math in my head… this is about the 29th winter with these boots. I have had no desire to get new ones. My parents bought these Sorel’s for me back in high school when we lived in northern Minnesota. Granted, I don’t use them nearly as much here as I did up on the lake in the middle of the Superior National Forest, but they go on most winter trips with me.

Anyways, I thought they looked cool and I figured I’d play with some photos. I’m still convinced the day to day, normal, simple things make the best photographs. Things you generally just walk by on your way to photograph that flower or that sunset or beautiful bird in the feeder.

Here’s a black and white that I liked:

ISO 800, f/5.0, 1/60th sec, 28mm - Nikon D300

And here are a series of different treatments of the same image. All have been tweaked in Adobe Lightroom. I used a number of different pre-sets. If you want to know more – give a shout. My personal favorite is probably the third one – but they all have some fun to them!

Wishing you the best of the season! Hope to have more posted before Christmas and New Year, but you know how it goes!

A Winter Curse

2009-12-10T08:01:00.000-06:00

You’ve heard of the old saying “It always rains after I was my car.”?

Here is the South Dakota winter version. “The snowplow always comes after I finish shoveling the driveway.”

I figured as long as I’d have to shovel again, I could at least capture a photo of the darn thing. Here it is – just for fun.

ISO 200, f/14, 1/125 sec, 30mm – Nikon D300

Stay warm!

Patrick

Pageant Program Book

2009-11-09T08:26:00.000-06:00

First off – I’m apologize to all my friends here in LiveSpaces. I’ve been away for quite a while with no updates at all!

Been a rather trying period as I deal with work and the economy, but I would like to say I’ve made some progress in that arena. Thanks for your positive vibes sent in my direction. I appreciate it.

Ok, on to photography. In October, I was involved in shooting glamour/pin up style photos for the Miss ND USA and Miss ND Teen USA pageant program book. For the most part, I tried to shoot my photos in an “old hollywood glamour” style. It was a complex style to shoot, but SO much fun compared to normal modeling work that I do on a regular basis.

I’m going to post a couple of my favorites here, but I’ll post links to ALL the photos at the end of this message (if you want to see more!)

Jenna - ISO 250, 1/250 sec, f/11 – Nikon D300

Kyla – ISO 250, 1/250 sec, f/11 – Nikon D300

Rachel - ISO 250, 1/250 sec, f/11 – Nikon D300

Lena - ISO 250, 1/250 sec, f/11 – Nikon D300

The rest of my photos are here on my Facebook Page.

I only shot a portion of the contestants. I encourage you too look at the rest shot by Matt Lentz here: Miss ND USA

I’m working on some other photos. Hope to have another post soon.

Patrick

Interesting Video

2009-09-22T07:06:00.000-05:00

Been a very busy person the last couple of weeks! I do have some new photos coming, but it will be at least a few days until I can post.

However, in the meantime, I did come across a pretty interesting video from a photographer. Kind of makes me want an iPhone, but the bottom line is this: The best camera is the one that you have with you! Brilliant.

Check it out:

http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2009/09/best-camera-iphone-app-book-community.html

Also, if you haven’t looked – my new webpage is www.pjandersonphotography.com I’d love to hear your comments. I’m still tweaking it, but it is getting close.

A Fun Discovery

2009-09-09T07:37:00.000-05:00

I was trying to remember back to my first camera – it was a hand me down that either my parents or another relative had. I’m not sure how it came to be in my possession. Growing up, I was very accustomed to mom taking our photos with a Kodak Instamatic with the rotating disposable flash cube on top. I also remember her following the advice in the instructions at the time – have the sun to your back as you are taking photos of your subject (that’s why there are so many photos of squinting family portraits!)

However, the camera I was looking for was some kind of Kodak Brownie camera. In my search, I found this neat website: Camerapedia.org, a wiki site that “is a free-content encyclopedia of camera information, a repository of information about all still camera brands and models.”

So, there I found my first camera – when I first fell in love with the media! The Kodak Brownie Starflash.

Brownie Starflash, in black
by Hillary Stein (image rights)

Other significant cameras in my life can also be found there:

My first 35mm SLR – the Nikon FG – a real workhorse of a camera all through my college years and the “dark ages” where my photography was not front in center in my life.

My first semi-pro camera/modern 35mm SLR – the Nikon N80 – the re-awakening of the passion.

My first professional DSLR – the Fuji S1 – I’m still convinced this camera had the best color of a digital camera that I’ve ever owned. New possibilities!

Followed by the Fuji S2 and Fuji S3 – my work with models expands with these cameras.

And that brings me to my current “workhorse” the Nikon D300. A wonderful camera that brought in the sharpness lacking in my previous Fuji cameras. That sharpness necessary for stock work – although, I just don’t think you can beat Fuji color!

My next cameras? Who knows – but I do still want the Fuji S5 (Fuji color built on the Nikon D300 body – the only camera I don’t find on Camerapedia.org) for my work with models/brides. Perhaps it will be the Nikon D700 for even more sharpness and resolution. Or if I win the lottery, I’ll be able to get the flagship Nikon D3 (or whatever Nikon comes up with next!)

Not sure if this is of ANY interest to you – but it was a fun distraction for me today! Fun to think back to the equipment on my journey.

I’ll return tomorrow with some more photos.

Until then! PJ

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September

2009-09-08T07:50:00.000-05:00

September is a month that generally makes me a bit moody. I always live in anticipation of spring and summer as I so enjoy getting outside and photographing nature. September is a wake up call for me. Autumn has arrived and summer is now a memory. Cold winter is only a short time away.

So, I’ve been brooding a bit and haven’t gone out with the camera to catch what is still out there. Several days ago, I noticed the peas in the garden have some beautiful flowers on what is left of the plants. I’ve put it off, day after day. Too bright, too windy, too many other things to get done first.

The calendar keeps marching forward and it was time for me to shake it off and get out there. So, here are a couple of photos of the flowers. It is rather windy out there today (you might ask, when isn’t it windy in South Dakota?) so, it required quite a bit of patience to wait for a lull in the wind and capture these tiny flowers in focus!

ISO 200, f/6.3, 1/80 second, 60mm – Nikon D300

ISO 200, f/5.0, 1/125 second, 75mm – Nikon D300

I have a few more shots from the garden that I’ll post over the next day or two.

Another Chicago photo

2009-08-27T18:09:00.000-05:00

This is another photo I shot yesterday evening on the shores of Lake Michigan.

I was kind of in the mood to keep playing with these photos to see what I could transform them into. With this photo, I’ve kind of pushed this one to be more like a painting in CS4. I also wanted to go with a panoramic aspect ratio.

There’s really no tips or instructional for this post. Other than perhaps this: “keep playing!” with the tools. Have fun and try new things.

ISO 640, f/10, 1/80, 75mm – Nikon D300

Chicago Skyline HDR Style

2009-08-26T15:34:00.000-05:00

Finally got out to take a few photos here in Chicago – of course the rain came in today! But, I walked out toward Navy Pier this evening and made a walk through Olive Park. I've never spent any time in this particular part of Chicago and it was an enjoyable walk.

I was trying to take a photo of the building I’ve been working in this week (for the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation) when the fog started to break in spots and the Sears Tower and other buildings started popping out. It was kind of a dramatic effect.

In Photoshop, I corrected the perspective as I was below buildings and shooting up – but then I decided to use eOne’s PhotoTools 2.0 to apply an HDR effect to the skyline. If I had a tripod, I would have done it the right way with multiple exposures, but I figured what the heck. I took it to the max and then darkened the levels just a tad once I returned it to Photoshop. I’m pretty darn happy with the result. Hope you like.

Below is the original:

Next is the more surreal HDR feel:

ISO 640, f/11, 1/60 second, 28mm – Nikon D300

I might have another photo or two to post from Chicago, but that will have to wait until I get home tomorrow!

Chicago

2009-08-23T17:31:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note to say I am off to Chicago for the week for a consulting gig. Hopefully, I’ll get some time in the evenings to find something to photograph.

I helped a colleague shoot a wedding this weekend – it was kind of fun to just be the second camera and not to be the one in charge. Here’s a “cutesy” photo from the event – while my friend was shooting serious photos I was free to spot candid opportunities like this.

ISO 320, f/4.5, 1/160 second, 75mm – Nikon D300

Check out my colleague’s website here: www.jrportraitdesign.com She does fantastic work.

New Web Site

2009-08-21T13:46:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone!

I’ve been working on a new web site for a while – been a slow process, but I think it is 99% ready to go. And I may make it “Live” anyway, as I am the kind that will tweak it and tweak it until it is perfect in my mind… meaning, it would never get done.

I’m inviting you to take a look if you would like. You can find it here: www.pjandersonphotography.com

There are actually two web sites under the splash screen. One for “people” and another for everything else (nature, places and things). Also there is a link back here to the blog. Hope you take a look at both sites and let me know what you think! I know I won’t please everyone 100%, but I hope it shows off a bit of my work.

Sica Hollow

2009-08-18T11:57:00.000-05:00

I wanted to do a post on the trip my parents and I took to Sica Hollow State Park near Sisseton, SD. BUT, first a big “thank you!” to Tatyana T and J for their assistance on the identification of the plant I posted yesterday. So far, everyone seems to be in consensus that it is indeed a Trillian. How great is it that we can develop these networks of people from all around the world to be able to converse and ask questions like this!

Check yesterday’s post for photos.

Ok, on to Sica Hollow (pronounced she-cha meaning evil or bad.) First some background, hope it isn’t too boring! The part of South Dakota that I live in and where Sica Hollow is located is called the Coteau des Prairies. This is French for the “Hills of the Prairie”. If we could travel with Peabody and Sherman in the Wayback Machine (click here for you to young to have watched Rocky and Bullwinkle aka Moose and Squirrel) back to the the last Ice Age in the Pleistocene era, we would see two glaciers part on the east and west side of the Coteau. You can read more and see a satellite photo of the Coteau here.

I don’t think most people driving down Interstate 29 give it a much thought, but I’ve been fascinated with that hill for nearly twenty years. Something about that makes me wonder and contemplate.

Sica Hollow is on the northeast side of the Coteau where the hill is maybe most dramatic. It is amazing to me as you cannot see the hollow until you are in it. It is a quiet place. Where noises like traffic, lawnmowers or people in general don’t really exist. I can see why the place holds meaning for the Sioux. Sica Hollow has a very interesting Sioux legend that you can read here.

Sica Hollow is pretty much off the beaten path. Which gives it some pros and cons. The pros are that it REALLY is quiet. You get to hear nature around you. If you do hear someone else’s voice, it seems out of place. One of the cons is that the park is mostly unsupervised. It is common for me to see beer cans tossed off the side of the trail. This trip I was treated to a dirty diaper in a tree. People are funny/strange animals. I didn’t bring a bag with me this time to pick up all the trash, but I did take out an old Budweiser case, a foam paper plate and a couple of plastic water bottles.

There were a number of beautiful flowers to photograph – although for this trip, I mostly looked and just took it all in. One flower that I do want to share today is this one. I believe this to be a Cup Rosinweed (Silphium perfoliatum). Again, if anyone has a better identification, I’d love to hear it.

ISO 250, f/5.6, 1/200 second, 35mm – Nikon D300

This flower was at least as tall as I am – right around six feet. It was a very vibrant yellow and it sucked me in from at least 50 yards!

It had been a year or so since I’ve been to Sica Hollow and the first time my parents had been there. I’m so glad the magic is still there and that my parents enjoyed it as much as I do.

I’d like to make it a goal for next year to try to get into the park every month to photograph the changes. In winter, the road is not plowed – so no guarantees that I can make it in every month if the snow gets too deep. So, wish me luck and if anyone wants to push me into sticking to my goal, I’d sure be open to that. Especially on those COLD days in January and February!

I hope this post didn’t drag on too much! Always like to hear your thoughts!

Patrick

Flower Identification

2009-08-17T09:34:00.000-05:00

I visited Sica Hollow State Park, north of Sisseton, SD yesterday. I’ll give more information and details on the park in the next post. I’m shooting for tomorrow on that one.

However, I could use some help tracking down the identification of one of the plants I photographed. As I was walking the trails, I saw a red seed pod hanging under a plant. It took me a while before I could find a plant that was accessible enough that I could photograph.

I believe this to be a Trillium, but if anyone can confirm this or give me more specifics about this particular plant, I’d sure appreciate it.

The first photo is a detailed look at the seed pod (also the “keeper” of my photos of the plant). The second photo shows more of the leaf structure. The plant stood about 12-18 inches tall. The seed pod is about the size of a grocery store strawberry and had a smooth texture. This location is a very damp, shady hardwood forest where it was growing.

ISO 800, f/3.2, 1/80 second, 60mm – Nikon D300

Thanks for your help!

Surreal Grungy Look

2009-08-12T20:42:00.000-05:00

Been a while since I updated last. Been working behind the scenes on my business, wedding photos, websites, etc. I apologize for the quiet period.

Right now I am actually exporting some photos out of Lightroom tonight, in prep for burning photos to a CD so that I can get them shipped out tomorrow. The export can take a while, so while I was waiting I decided to try a tutorial on the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) website www.photoshopuser.com.

Being those tutorials are provided to the members as a benefit of membership, I don’t feel it is exactly ethical to lay it out step by step. But, I’ll give you the lowdown on what settings I manipulated. If you enjoy Photoshop, I’d recommend checking out NAPP – it is SO worth the price.

This process is all done in Adobe Camera Raw, which makes it kind of neat going forward as I can save these settings as a preset and apply it to any other RAW image in the future.

Essentially, opening the photo in ACR, I set Recovery, Fill Light, Contrast, Clarity, Vibrance all to +100. Then to tone it down, I slide the Saturation down until it looks good. Finally, I tweak the “Lens Correction” to add quite a bit of vignetting to darken the sides of the image.

The photo I played with was of an old truck I photographed at Itasca State Park in Minnesota (at the old Itasca Sawmill). First up is the original with no tweaking.

ISO 1000, 1/500 second, f/4.5, 28mm – Nikon D300

Next is the “After”

You can really see the changes in the windshield and the tires. It is a fun effect that I’ll probably play with more in the future.

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Beautiful Day

2009-07-26T06:46:00.000-05:00

I’m splitting my time on this perfect Sunday between stripping paint on kitchen cabinets and working on my new website.

Summer days like these are why I put up with winter. The sun is shining, blue sky, tiny trace of a breeze occasionally and about 75 degrees (23 Celsius for my more metrically enlightened friends!). By the way, click here for a pretty good site for conversion: Edheads

Anyway, as I was going through photos for the website, I ran across this one that I took at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. Nice reminder for me to take advantage of days like today. Hope it gives you a smile!

By the way, for those of you on Facebook – I’m trying to get my “fan” numbers up. Please swing by and become a fan.

PJ Anderson Photography on FB

Have a great remainder of your weekend! PJ

Hen and Chicks

2009-07-21T15:06:00.000-05:00

After I built the waterfall for our backyard pond, I planted a few succulents amongst the rocks. All of them have really thrived out there the last year or so. In the last few weeks, one of the Hen and Chicks shot up a stalk about 12 inches tall with terrific little flowers

Apparently, this happens when the plant reaches maturity after three or four years. You can read about it here at Wikipedia.

I’ve been meaning to go out and photograph the flowers for several days. Fortunately, it has stayed blooming until I finally made the trip. Crawling on the rocks in a very uncomfortable position, I was able to get a nice macro photo of one of the flowers. Thanks again to my friends on the network for motivating me to get out with the macro lens again!

ISO 800, f/4.5, 1/50 sec, macro – Nikon D300

Below is a photo of the full plant

Hoping to have my new business web site up and running in the next few days. I’ll post a link here when it is ready.

Patrick

Trying times

2009-07-20T07:31:00.000-05:00

First off, apologies for not keeping up with the blog and posting photos.

The economic situation continues to hit closer to home for me. Been several months of worry and frustration. Today, my primary job put me on an “hourly” status. I continue the mantra “at least I have a job” but it gets hard to even stay positive.

I’m in the process of waiting for an email that describes the change in my employment status. Hard to do any productive work while I am waiting. I took a cup of coffee out to the deck look at the weather as we have thunderstorms in the area. I was out looking at the sky before I noticed at my feet that there was a Mourning Dove sitting.

I’m not sure if he flew into the sliding glass door or what the situation was – but he didn’t fly away. I figured I might as well grab the camera and see what kind of close up work I could get.

ISO 200, F/3.2, 1/1250 sec, 75mm – Nikon D300

I should have probably gone out with a longer lens and I probably should have shot more depth of field. Instead I focused on the eyes… like I always do with models. The flowers in the background are a tad distracting as well. Guess that just sort of sums up my emotions right now.

I’m challenged as I’d like to stay where I am to allow the kids to graduate from high school here. But, to take photography to the next step, I probably need a bigger market. Same for my current “real job” as an HR consultant.

Sorry for the venting I’ve done in this post – but if anyone has any positive vibes to shoot this direction, I’d appreciate it.

Patrick

End of June? Already!?

2009-06-30T15:01:00.000-05:00

I can’t believe June has zoomed by so fast. It is usually my favorite summer month – but at least I get to see fireworks in a few days! Anyone going to try to photograph fireworks?

I’m a bit behind in editing photos. I’ve got a few modeling sessions in the queue that I hope to get done tonight. I’ll post a few examples when I am done.

In the meantime, the office squirrel was outside the window again yesterday. He’s being quite lazy again, even though the temperature was quite nice. Not too hot at all. I grabbed the camera and fired off a shot – then went to go get a longer lens to do a better job. Apparently, he was camera shy as disappeared by the time I was prepared to do a decent photograph.

But, just for laughs – here’s a SNAPSHOT (yes, that is ALL it is.)

I’ll post in a day or two with updates of the modeling photography.

Become a fan at my Facebook page – click the button below:

Invaded Again.

2009-06-28T09:34:00.001-05:00

I took some photos of wildflowers along the highway on my return to South Dakota from Minneapolis yesterday.

They were tiny, but they looked great. I pulled out the macro lens that I’ve been working with the last few days, sat in the ditch and worked on the photo. Being the wind was gusting, it made for a real challenge. Had to be very patient to get anything.

When I tried to identify the flower this afternoon, I kept striking out. I found a few other photos of the same flower, but no one seemed to know what it was. I finally found the flower on a website in the UK here. Once I knew the name, I searched for the flower in Minnesota and found out that this is another non-native plant to the prairie and the Minnesota DNR considers it an invasive species that causes trouble on the prairie. You can read about it here.

So, twice in a week I find what looks like a pretty flower, but it turns out they probably shouldn’t be growing here. I’m for protecting the prairie and all environments for their native species.

ISO 200, f/11.0, 1/160 sec, macro – Nikon D300

Check out more photos and discussion on my business Facebook Page:

Invaded Again.

2009-06-28T09:34:00.000-05:00

I took some photos of wildflowers along the highway on my return to South Dakota from Minneapolis yesterday.

So, twice in a week I find what looks like a pretty flower, but it turns out they probably shouldn’t be growing here. I’m for protecting the prairie and all environments for their native species.

ISO 200, f/11.0, 1/160 sec, macro – Nikon D300

Check out more photos and discussion on my business Facebook Page:

The One that Got Away.

2009-06-26T12:49:00.001-05:00

Sometimes I think photography is like golf. You go out there and take your swings. When you are on, you are on. Every shot goes exactly how you envisioned.

Sometimes though, even if you have all the mechanics right and the right equipment, you still can’t make the shot.

Sometimes even when you are on – the environment plays against you – the weather, or critters, or a branch that is in the wrong spot.

Here’s my example of why this popped into my mind today. Yesterday evening, I was sitting outside talking with my parents when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. Turned out it was a massive bumblebee. Biggest I had ever saw!

He was so big – I wondered if he was some other kind of critter masquerading as a bumblebee. So, off I went to get the camera to try to get a few shots. I figured we could then search the internet to find out what it was.

Had a macro lens on and I decided just to go with that. I figured by the time I got back, I might miss the photo if I took the time to switch lenses. However, this bumblebee was in no hurry. I sat and took several frames. The light was bright and harsh, but I figured I nailed a few.

While looking at the photos in Adobe Lightroom this afternoon, I realized I might have shanked my shot (with no hope of a Mulligan either!) The photo that was the best, unfortunately wasn’t as sharp and focused as I like. So, I worked on one that was. Well, it is an “ok” photo. Nothing that I’ll get to excited about – but it will at least give you a feel of what I saw.

ISO 200, f/9.0, 1/125 sec – Nikon D300

THIS is the one that got away. The light is better, I like the composition better. My problem is some key parts aren’t in focus – in particular around the front of his face! Maybe not so noticeable on this little computer image, but it is enough to make me not quite satisfied.

ISO 400, f/6.3, 1/60 sec – Nikon D300

So, back to the old golf analogy. I suppose I came up with par today. No birdies or eagles! BUT, when you think about it – that’s what makes golfers (and photographers) go back out and keep trying! So, I’ll see you on the links tomorrow!

The One that Got Away.

2009-06-26T12:49:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I think photography is like golf. You go out there and take your swings. When you are on, you are on. Every shot goes exactly how you envisioned.

Sometimes though, even if you have all the mechanics right and the right equipment, you still can’t make the shot.

Sometimes even when you are on – the environment plays against you – the weather, or critters, or a branch that is in the wrong spot.

ISO 200, f/9.0, 1/125 sec – Nikon D300

ISO 400, f/6.3, 1/60 sec – Nikon D300

Flowers in Macro

2009-06-24T07:59:00.001-05:00

I made a promise to myself to get up early this morning to get out in the garden to take a few photos with a macro lens as a few of us in the network have been having a bit of a conversation around that. I was also inspired by Lisa’s June 21st posting that has an excellent macro photograph of a dandelion! Check out Lisa’s blog here: http://joyinthesimplethings.spaces.live.com/

I had a couple of obstacles this morning – first being I am not generally a morning person! But, in addition to that – it was raining a little bit and the breeze was kicking around the flowers slightly. With macro photography, objects have to be VERY in focus and VERY still. Any minor shake is going to be magnified at this level.

Fortunately, the sky cleared up and with my tripod, remote shutter release, a cup of coffee and a little patience – I ended up with a couple that I liked!

First off, the same Cone Flower I posted last night – just looking at it in a different way!

ISO 800, f/9.0, 1/60 sec, macro – Nikon D300

Next up is the old standard – a Daisy. I know this photo has been done over and over again by many photographers. Here’s my entry into the foray. I’m so happy I was able to capture a couple of rain or dew drops here!

ISO 500, f/16, 1/100, macro – Nikon D300

Finally, the next flower is one my wife and I discovered growing up the trellis with our Honeysuckle. We didn’t plant it, so we thought it was kind of cool. It is a pretty flower, but we’ll have to discuss if we let it go as it apparently is not a native flower to North America and is considered by some to be a noxious weed. The name I found is Bittersweet Nightshade (Solanum dulcamara). The link will take you to the Wikipedia article.

While the jury is out deliberating – take a look at the photo. It is a VERY tiny flower.

ISO 500, f/9.0, 1/60, macro – Nikon D300

I’ll be traveling this evening and away for a few days. Hopefully, I’ll have a few more photos for the weekend! Just want to say a BIG THANK YOU – to those of you that comment on my photos. The feedback is always helpful and inspires me to do more and better!

Patrick

Flowers in Macro

2009-06-24T07:59:00.000-05:00

Fortunately, the sky cleared up and with my tripod, remote shutter release, a cup of coffee and a little patience – I ended up with a couple that I liked!

First off, the same Cone Flower I posted last night – just looking at it in a different way!

ISO 800, f/9.0, 1/60 sec, macro – Nikon D300

ISO 500, f/16, 1/100, macro – Nikon D300

While the jury is out deliberating – take a look at the photo. It is a VERY tiny flower.

ISO 500, f/9.0, 1/60, macro – Nikon D300

Patrick

Cone Flower – the sequel

2009-06-24T05:20:00.001-05:00

First off – the macro photos are still coming! But, I played around with one adjustment to the Cone Flower image I posted last night. To my network friend Kevin – I know you aren’t much into border effects, but hopefully, you’ll permit me one more tweak!

I decided I wanted some of the petals to pop out of the frame. The tools I used to create the frame in the first place made it SUPER easy to go into the layer mask and “paint” the petals right back into the image – making the petals show over the frame. Hope you like this new version!

Cone Flower – the sequel

2009-06-24T05:20:00.000-05:00

Cone Flower

2009-06-23T19:01:00.001-05:00

I had planned to attend a photography webinar this evening – but after about a half hour, it appeared technical difficulties were going to make it impossible.

So, I decided to utilize the time I allotted to this session in just going out and shooting. The evening light was fading, but I hauled out the camera, tripod and remote shutter release out to the garden.

I love the way this Cone Flower looked in the evening light! Thought I’d share this one. I utilized another border from onOne Software’s PhotoFrame 4.0. I like the way the frame is translucent and the petals of the flowers show through.

ISO 200, f/6.3, 3 sec, 60mm – Nikon D300

I think this one would make a decent computer desktop. I’ll probably post this one to my Zenfolio store – once I start making digital downloads available.

Planning on getting out in the morning to shoot a few more photos (going to go for some macro work – so head’s up for network friends: Lisa and Workinprogress!)

Cone Flower

2009-06-23T19:01:00.000-05:00

I had planned to attend a photography webinar this evening – but after about a half hour, it appeared technical difficulties were going to make it impossible.

ISO 200, f/6.3, 3 sec, 60mm – Nikon D300

I think this one would make a decent computer desktop. I’ll probably post this one to my Zenfolio store – once I start making digital downloads available.

Planning on getting out in the morning to shoot a few more photos (going to go for some macro work – so head’s up for network friends: Lisa and Workinprogress!)

Hot and Humid

2009-06-23T10:40:00.001-05:00

It is a rather hot and humid day here in South Dakota. Thunderstorms are predicted for later and I always love those.

However, the squirrel that is a regular outside my window made an appearance a little while ago and the heat and humidity are even getting to him it seems! Either that or he and his squirrel buddies were up WAY too late goofing around!

I shot this through the office window (obviously needs to be cleaned!) so this isn’t a work of art – but it made me laugh. Hope it has the same result with you.

That “pillow” he has his head on, is a piece of rubber hose that is holding up a hanging basket of flowers under the branch.

Always good to have a camera handy when Nature proves she has a sense of humor!

Patrick

Hot and Humid

2009-06-23T10:40:00.000-05:00

It is a rather hot and humid day here in South Dakota. Thunderstorms are predicted for later and I always love those.

I shot this through the office window (obviously needs to be cleaned!) so this isn’t a work of art – but it made me laugh. Hope it has the same result with you.

That “pillow” he has his head on, is a piece of rubber hose that is holding up a hanging basket of flowers under the branch.

Always good to have a camera handy when Nature proves she has a sense of humor!

Patrick

More Flowers from Itasca State Park

2009-06-15T09:48:00.001-05:00

Maybe some are getting tired with the flower photos from Lake Itasca State Park, so this will be the last one (until I make another trip there anyways!)

Three flowers this time. The first is a Bellwort and they were out in number throughout the park.

ISO 1000, f/7.0, 1/125 70mm – Nikon D300

This next one is a wild Columbine

ISO 800, f/6.7, 1/125, 280mm – Nikon D300

Finally, fortunately, I had my good friend Steve with me that has a wealth of information on the flora and fauna of northern Minnesota. He spotted the wild Ginger to me and pointed out how the flower was at the base of the stem. I did some looking and found this plant has a number of other ‘common names’ such as: Heartleaf, Indian ginger, Colicroot, Heart snakeroot, Vermont snakeroot, False coltsfoot, Canada snakeroot, Asarabacca, Little Brown Jugs

ISO 400, f/2.8, 1/60 28mm – Nikon D300

Once again, a flower had me crawling all over the forest floor to get the right shot! Always worth it to get a different perspective of the world. One we often miss!

More Flowers from Itasca State Park

2009-06-15T09:48:00.000-05:00

Maybe some are getting tired with the flower photos from Lake Itasca State Park, so this will be the last one (until I make another trip there anyways!)

Three flowers this time. The first is a Bellwort and they were out in number throughout the park.

ISO 1000, f/7.0, 1/125 70mm – Nikon D300

This next one is a wild Columbine

ISO 800, f/6.7, 1/125, 280mm – Nikon D300

ISO 400, f/2.8, 1/60 28mm – Nikon D300

Once again, a flower had me crawling all over the forest floor to get the right shot! Always worth it to get a different perspective of the world. One we often miss!

The Historic Itasca Park Sawmill

2009-06-09T16:29:00.001-05:00

Most of my photos in state and national parks revolve around nature, but while hiking with my family in the Itasca State Park in Minnesota, we explored the old sawmill.

When the trail opened up and I saw the operation, I realized that I could shoot at that location all day! Unfortunately, we were racing the rain and so I only had a short time. I hope I’ll get more time on a future trip.

Being that the subject was mostly machinery, on many of the photos I added an “acid burn” frame in Photoshop using the PhotoFrames 4.0 plugin from onOneSoftware. I thought it really added to the feel of this old machinery.

There are really two themes seen here. The first is interesting perspectives of portions of machinery… where I might not look at the whole of the piece of machinery, but smaller parts. This probably dovetails nicely with how much I enjoy photographing tiny details. The second theme is nature’s reclamation of humankind’s machines. Hope you like what I’ve done!

Close-up of Saw Blade - ISO 2000, 1/80 sec, f/2.8 – Nikon D300

Gears and Chains – ISO 800, 1/60 sec, f/6.3 – Nikon D300

Nature Moving In – ISO 1000, 1/500 sec, f/3.2 – Nikon D300

Nails in Fence Posts – ISO 1000, 1/250 sec, f/3.2 – Nikon D300

Pressure Gauge - ISO 1000, 1/250 sec, f/3.2 – Nikon D300

Blades, Hooks and Tongs – ISO 2000, 1/80 sec, f/2.8 – Nikon D300

End of the Line – ISO 1000, 1/500 sec, f/4.5 – Nikon D300

Rusting Wheel – ISO 400, 1/80 sec, f/8.0 – Nikon D300

Reminder – please do not use my photos without permission. Prints are available at a reasonable price as well.

The Historic Itasca Park Sawmill

2009-06-09T16:29:00.000-05:00

Most of my photos in state and national parks revolve around nature, but while hiking with my family in the Itasca State Park in Minnesota, we explored the old sawmill.

Close-up of Saw Blade - ISO 2000, 1/80 sec, f/2.8 – Nikon D300

Gears and Chains – ISO 800, 1/60 sec, f/6.3 – Nikon D300

Nature Moving In – ISO 1000, 1/500 sec, f/3.2 – Nikon D300

Nails in Fence Posts – ISO 1000, 1/250 sec, f/3.2 – Nikon D300

Pressure Gauge - ISO 1000, 1/250 sec, f/3.2 – Nikon D300

Blades, Hooks and Tongs – ISO 2000, 1/80 sec, f/2.8 – Nikon D300

End of the Line – ISO 1000, 1/500 sec, f/4.5 – Nikon D300

Rusting Wheel – ISO 400, 1/80 sec, f/8.0 – Nikon D300

Reminder – please do not use my photos without permission. Prints are available at a reasonable price as well.

Lake Itasca State Park #2

2009-06-08T04:55:00.001-05:00

Made a second trip out to Lake Itasca State Park in Minnesota over the weekend. It was cool and rainy, but we still got out to hike and take photos.

It is amazing how different the park is now as compared to just a month ago. The park is incredibly green and many more flowers are visible. My favorite this trip was the Yellow Lady Slipper orchids. They were out in numbers! Even though I grew up in northern Minnesota, this was the first time I’ve seen the yellow variety. I couldn’t find the Pink and White Showy Lady Slipper (MN State Flower) that I remember from growing up – might have been just a tad too early yet.

ISO 400, 1/80, f/7.0, 40mm – Nikon D300

The colors on this orchid are amazing! So very glad I had a chance to make the trip and photograph this. I will probably post a few of the other flower photos in a follow up message.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Lake Itasca State Park #2

2009-06-08T04:55:00.000-05:00

Made a second trip out to Lake Itasca State Park in Minnesota over the weekend. It was cool and rainy, but we still got out to hike and take photos.

ISO 400, 1/80, f/7.0, 40mm – Nikon D300

The colors on this orchid are amazing! So very glad I had a chance to make the trip and photograph this. I will probably post a few of the other flower photos in a follow up message.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Storm Clouds (HDR)

2009-06-01T12:58:00.001-05:00

Last October, I wrote a post talking about HDR or High Dynamic Range photography (you can find it here: HDR Post) At the time, I was using a tutorial for Photoshop CS4, but I was still working in Photoshop CS3. I was pretty happy with the results and I’ve intended to do more.

Last evening, while driving across the state of Minnesota and nearing home – I noticed some tall thunderheads to the south that were reflecting the setting sun. Figured that would be a good subject to try another HDR image.

As you probably know, capturing the image that time of day is a race against time as the light quickly fades. I found a decent foreground – not exactly what I wanted, but workable and I got down to work.

This particular tutorial works with two images – one exposed for the foreground shadows and one exposed for the highlights… although I shot several at various exposures to have on hand.

As in the previous post – here are the two starting images:

Both images shot at ISO 200, f/14, 28mm. First at 10/16 sec., Second at 1/15 sec.

The final result of the merged images with a little additional tweaking and cropping in Photoshop:

I’m not entirely sure I am done with this photo – but I thought I’d share.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Patrick

Storm Clouds (HDR)

2009-06-01T12:58:00.000-05:00

This particular tutorial works with two images – one exposed for the foreground shadows and one exposed for the highlights… although I shot several at various exposures to have on hand.

As in the previous post – here are the two starting images:

Both images shot at ISO 200, f/14, 28mm. First at 10/16 sec., Second at 1/15 sec.

The final result of the merged images with a little additional tweaking and cropping in Photoshop:

I’m not entirely sure I am done with this photo – but I thought I’d share.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Patrick

Cross Processing

2009-05-27T19:30:00.003-05:00

Not sure if it is really valid anymore – cross processing in the darkroom was where you would deliberately process film in a chemical solution that was intended for a different type of film – resulting in some unique results.

Fortunately, these same kind of results can be obtained in Photoshop. Of course, as I’ve mentioned in some of my recent posts, I’ve been using PhotoTools 2.0 from onOne Software to play around with some photos. Really streamlines the work that I’d have to do in Photoshop to create something similar.

Tonight I was playing around with some cross processing styles and came up with this photo:

ISO 200, 1/200, f/4.5, 55mm – Nikon D300

Here is the image prior to cross processing:

This model is Shealyn – someone local to me that I hope I can work with all summer to try out some new techniques and just to stay sharp with extra shooting. She did a fantastic job on this shoot. I’m looking forward to working with her again.

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend!

Feather Photo

2009-05-17T18:07:00.001-05:00

Last weekend, I had a chance to hook up with a couple of wonderful friends from my high school days. We decided a long weekend at Lake Itasca State Park in Minnesota was the perfect location.

In addition to a fantastic time to catch up – we had a number of photo excursions. While driving the “wildlife loop” we spotted a feather that we thought might make for some good photos.

I tried a number of backgrounds, but I just wasn’t satisfied. Finally, I thought I really wanted it on a background of the overcast sky. I thought it might be fun to share my solution. First, one of the end results:

ISO 800, 1/200, f/5.6, 75mm – Nikon D300

If you use your imagination, you’ll be able to make out the tree line behind the feather in the right hand side of the photo.

Here was my solution on how to shoot this… equipment required: old twisty tie from a package of rice cakes and a used beer bottle!

The background here at this angle is one of our cars (I preferred the forest! haha)

As always – I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Feather Photo

2009-05-17T18:07:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, I had a chance to hook up with a couple of wonderful friends from my high school days. We decided a long weekend at Lake Itasca State Park in Minnesota was the perfect location.

In addition to a fantastic time to catch up – we had a number of photo excursions. While driving the “wildlife loop” we spotted a feather that we thought might make for some good photos.

ISO 800, 1/200, f/5.6, 75mm – Nikon D300

If you use your imagination, you’ll be able to make out the tree line behind the feather in the right hand side of the photo.

Here was my solution on how to shoot this… equipment required: old twisty tie from a package of rice cakes and a used beer bottle!

The background here at this angle is one of our cars (I preferred the forest! haha)

As always – I’d love to hear your thoughts!

The Photo I PLANNED on for Earth Day

2009-05-07T02:52:00.001-05:00

I mentioned the Earth Mosaic project a while back – and expressed a little frustration that I couldn’t find something spring-like or green. I was still happy with the photo I submitted, but that sure wasn’t the plan.

Yesterday evening, I finally found the photo that more closely represents what I had intended to submit. Just a couple weeks too late!

I had just brought one of my daughter’s friends home and as I parked the truck under the maple tree in my front yard, the evening sun was catching the new growth on the branches. What incredible light! What a wonderful shade of green. I went into the house planning on grabbing the camera and rushing right back out. Unfortunately, I got sidetracked and then finally remembered about 30 minutes later!

The good news is the light was still great and the photo was still there waiting to be shot. Here’s the result!

ISO 200, 1/125, f/7.0, 60mm - Nikon D300

The Photo I PLANNED on for Earth Day

2009-05-07T02:52:00.000-05:00

Yesterday evening, I finally found the photo that more closely represents what I had intended to submit. Just a couple weeks too late!

The good news is the light was still great and the photo was still there waiting to be shot. Here’s the result!

ISO 200, 1/125, f/7.0, 60mm - Nikon D300

My Co-worker

2009-05-06T07:46:00.001-05:00

Seems like this guy shows up at work with me every morning. I’ll sit down and my desk and get started on email or something… then look up and there he is staring at me.

Figured I better get a shot of him!

I suppose, I’ll need to come up with a name now. Any suggestions!?

ISO 400, 1/160, f/6.7, 300mm Nikon D300

My Co-worker

2009-05-06T07:46:00.000-05:00

Seems like this guy shows up at work with me every morning. I’ll sit down and my desk and get started on email or something… then look up and there he is staring at me.

Figured I better get a shot of him!

I suppose, I’ll need to come up with a name now. Any suggestions!?

ISO 400, 1/160, f/6.7, 300mm Nikon D300