Tag: ozark bill

Ansel Adams or Bob Ross???

abstract, landscape

Ansel Adams and some of his cohorts fought an epic battle in the first half of the 20th century against pictorialism – the manipulation of pure, sharp photographs with other artistic objectives.  Pictorialists often produced images that were deliberately lacking in sharpness, low DoF, were hand-painted or toned with various pigments, all in order to place more of an artistic interpretation to the relatively cold and literal technological tools that photography introduced.  Although most of the greats of this period, Adams and Steichen, Weston and Cunningham, began as Pictorialists, by the end of their respective careers these folks had shunned this practice and those that persisted to its employ.  The literal interpretive of negative to positive in the photographic process was considered to be the only truly valid option of the photographic artist.  Certain protocol were acceptable – using darkroom tools to manipulate emphasis in tones of the final print, for example.  But, other than focusing on composition and obtaining as much DoF and overall sharpness as possible, the photographer became shackled in the tools that were “acceptable” to being taken seriously as an artist.

This is pretty much true today.  Sure photography has been and to this day is still used in other types of art – using photos in mixed-media, pop culture works for instance.  But the modernist view of photography is still the dominant and expected form.  Any manipulation in making the exposure “in the camera” is acceptable, but other than the digital manipulation that is analogous to the darkroom of old, you are not allowed to interfere with risk of being completely shunned.  For as long as I have been involved in serious photography I have wholeheartedly agreed with this.  We have all seen the effects of plug-in filters in “Photoshop” and how tacky and cliched they become.  I have looked through images like these on Flickr and thought those thoughts exactly.  Until recently.  The latest Photoshop, “CS6” has a new and improved “oil paint” filter.  I have experimented with it a bit lately and I must say, it is growing on me.  I think it does a great job of mimicking a real oil-painting.

“St. Francis Rock Garden″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 50mm, ISO 100,  f/13, 1/4 sec

The “photographer” is given six sliders to manipulate their painting/photo: four for the “brush”: stylization, cleanliness, scale and bristle detail, and two for “lighting”: angular direction and shine.  With these sliders the artist can manipulate the “canvas” almost as much as one of those snobby old people with an easel who insist in sitting right where you’d prefer to set up your tripod.  Just kidding!  The majority of painters I’ve come across have been quite friendly and eager to talk nature with me.  My point is that you have a lot of options in how the final output can look like.

“Marble Creek Shut-Ins″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 85mm, ISO 100,  f/14, 1 sec

What I feel I like best about doing this to a photograph can be observed in the two images above.  In both of these un-manipulated photos the bush was nearly too chaotic, although each had pleasing colors, shapes and form.  It made the composition messy.  Putting some brush strokes on top of this took a bite out of all that detail and presented, may I say – order? from the brush of the “composer”.

“Shortleaf Pine″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF17-40mm f/4L USM @ 20mm, ISO 100,  f/11, 1/8 sec

One of the most characteristic plants of the St. Francois Mountain region of the Missouri Ozarks, these trees are easily identified by their unique bark.  If I were patient enough to paint, I know that bark would be my favorite thing to represent in this composition.  The oil paint filter adds a bit of texture to the empty, white negative space.  I feel this images is improved by this treatment as well.

“Pair of Planes″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM @ 116mm, ISO 160,  f/16, 6 sec

I love that this technique can be used to emphasize texture and pattern, something that could be difficult to do in a traditional modern photograph.  I can easily see an image like one of these printed on canvas.  Would you be able to tell the difference?  I’m not saying that all photos should be presented like this.  It would be easy to overdo and I can see this one becoming cliche’ like the emboss or watercolor filters that have been in PS for years.  I do think there is something interesting going on.  Painters have been using photography, to greater or lesser degree, to help their art work for decades.  In some of these cases the only difference in output is that the person lays down oils on top of projections.  Here, the computer does the same thing in a shorter time.

Transitions

landscape

“When you come to observe faithfully the changes of each humblest plant, you find that each has, sooner or later, its peculiar autumnal tint; and if you undertake to make a complete list of the bright tints, it will be nearly as long as a catalogue of the plants in your vicinity.”

-Henry David Thoreau-

“October Transitions″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 105mm, ISO 100,  f/11, 2 sec

October Poetry

landscape

“When the leaves fall, the whole earth is a cemetery pleasant to walk in. I love to wander and muse over them in their graves. Here are no lying nor vain epitaphs.”

-Henry David Thoreau-

“October Poetry″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 73mm, ISO 100,  f/11, 1/6 sec

An Early Hike on the Ozark Trail – Marble Creek Section

landscape

During my fall break I finally visited Crane Lake for a hike on a beautiful autumn morning.  There was not a cloud in the sky and the colors were really popping.  The hike was just perfect and I had several interesting wildlife encounters, including watching a Bald Eagle nearby along the shore as soon as I left my car.  The primary tree in this image is the short-leaf pine, the only native pine of the Missouri Ozarks and definitely a characteristic species of the St. Francois Mountains.

“An Early Hike on the Ozark Trail″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF17-40mm f/4L USM @ 17mm, ISO 160,  f/16, 0.6 sec

Autumn Explodes in the Ozarks!

abstract, landscape

Following the winter that never was of 2011/2012 came one of the hottest and driest summers on record in the Ozarks.  Of course the autumn would be some sort of disappointment, right?  Boy was I pleasantly surprised!  Sarah and I have taken an October vacation, exploring the Ozarks, looking for color for about four years straight.  Even if our trip coincided with “peak color”, more often than not that peak wasn’t necessarily anything to jump up and down about.  Well, this year was nearly everything I dreamed an Ozark autumn should be.

Every tree tried on it’s best outfit a couple of weeks ago.  The black gum and dogwood were draped in their dark warm shades of reds and violet.  The maples were a schism of warm tones – sometimes on separate trees, sometimes with contrasting leaves on the same tree, and often with a mix on the same individual leaf!  My personal autumn favorite, the grand sycamore was gloriously showcased in yellows, burnt umber and mild reds that set off so nicely it’s bright, ivory bark.  Hickories, normally easily forgotten as the dull yellow leaves drop so quickly, were an incandescent display of quintessential amber.  Even the usually boring – white oak wasn’t going into its winter nap without a show, bringing out a variety of mild warm tones before dropping brown to become part of next year’s forest floor.  As usual, the small sumac and sassafras brought their best to stop you in your tracks.
This was darn-near too much!  Driving hundreds of miles and putting tens of miles on the trails I wanted to stop every five minutes and find a composition.  There was the problem.  Everywhere I looked was a potential composition, but actually putting something together was often a tremendous difficulty!  I now truly understand the concept of chaos in the biological world.  There were periods of frustration as I realized I wasn’t going to be able fulfill my desire to nail all the potential autumn shots that I dreamed about.  As I begin delving into and processing the several hundred images I took that magical week, I can only hope I nailed a few images.  Over the next several weeks I hope to post a lot images here with some info or story behind it.  Hopefully not all of the photos will be the typical cliche’.  Geez, are there any autumn photos that aren’t?

“Explosion of Autumn in the Missouri Ozarks″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens zoomed during exposure, ISO 100,  f/20, 1/5 sec

Mondays Are For The Birds – Red-shouldered Hawks

birds, Mondays Are For The Birds

Monday greetings, human.  Another great day at work instead of taking pictures of birds.  I heard the migratory songbird fallout was quite nice around the St. Louis area today.  Good thing I was at work.  One or two days a week being able to do what I want just doesn’t seem to be enough anymore.  I will have a week’s vacation coming up next month, but that seems a long way off.

Anyway, I’m finally getting around to processing some photos of the Red-shouldered Hawk nest I photographed over several weeks this past May.  Here, this little one is showing off one of those innate behaviors.  I’m sure those of you with human babies wish they could do something like this a lot earlier than they do.  Have a great week.

“Red-shouldered Hawk Nest”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera,  EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 640,  f/6.3, 1/250 sec

Mondays Are For The Birds – Red-Eyed Vireo

birds, Mondays Are For The Birds, wildlife

Hello again.  Today I am starting a new blog series that I am calling “Mondays Are For The Birds” and today’s first spotlight bird is this Red-eyed Vireo.  For anyone fool-hardy enough to do some summer hiking in the deciduous woodlands and forests of the Missouri Ozarks, the Red-eyed Vireo shouldn’t be new to you.  When almost all other songbirds have given up claims to their nesting grounds and quit vocalizing for the season, the REVI is just warming up.  In the middle of a sweltering summer’s day one will still hear the questions this guy’s song seems to ask. “Who are you, who am I, Here I am, Look at me, In this tree!”

This photo was taken recently during the fall migration.  This species along with other vireos and warblers will eat primarily caterpillars and other arthropods during spring migration and throughout the summer breeding season, but in fall will switch to a diet primarily consisting of berries, such as those found on the wild grape.

Thanks for visiting today.  I hope you like the photo and I hope you had the best possible Monday.

“Red-Eyed Vireo”

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera,  EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens, ISO 800,  f/5.6, 1/250 sec

What Would YOU Call a 680 Ton Rock?

landscape

Meet Dumbo, probably the largest of the free standing boulders to be found at Elephant Rocks.  I’ve shared images of this beast before.  You can see more photographs of Dumbo and it’s granite pachyderm brethren on my Elephant Rocks State Park Set on Flickr.  I’ve recently started really trying to take my post-processing to the next level.  I have come to believe that I can control what happens to the exposure inside the magic light-capture box almost as well as I could possibly want. I’m not saying I know every trick in the book, but I do not feel that I am missing too much.  Post-processing on the ol’ computer (equivalent of working on prints in the wet dark room of yesterday), I realize I can use some improvements and practice.  So, recently I adopted some new software and set out to better improve my workflow and learn some new tricks on the other side of the negative.  I am NOT saying I want to become a Photoshop/graphic artist, but just desire to be able to control aspects of the file that will allow me to create a final image that best represents my concept of the scene when I hit the shutter release.

What am I getting at and just what does it have to do with this image?  One of the possible adjustments that can be found in the latest versions of Adobe software products is the ability to correct for geometric lens distortion.  This is a very cool correction device that allows issues of wide angle (barrel) and telephoto (pin cushion) distortions, usually seen in at least some respect in any zoom lens, to be easily corrected for in the computer.  Depending on the subject, barrel distortion can be particularly troublesome.  In this photo of Dumbo, I proudly went to ACR’s lens correction tab and hit the go button and looked at the results of the default setting.  All of a sudden the cool, slightly exaggerated perspective of Dumbo was gone.  The image became pretty boring, to be honest.  This was a good lessen for me for a couple of reasons.  First, just as nature photographers might use changes in color-cast, manipulations of tonal range, or cropping unwanted portions of an image, we can also use (or remove) perspective changes from lens distortions to make our desired image.  Second, any of these lens corrections made (vignetting, chromatic aberration, and especially geometric distortion) can and will cause degradation to the quality of the final image.  We must carefully decide what corrections are necessary and use the sliders to make the minimum needed adjustments.  Do not blindly accept the defaults given by the software.  I have not been able to find much to read on this specific topic and I am still learning as I get more practice.

“Dumbo”
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF17-40mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 17mm, ISO 160,  f/13, 1/30 sec

Earth & Sky

landscape

Along with being a place of limitless compositions, another reason I love visiting and making pictures at Elephant Rocks is the variety of those potential compositions.  The grander landscape shots are there; however, if you find yourself visiting on a late Saturday morning during the summer (why do most people venture to these places during the hottest times of the year?), you’ll find that these types of comps are not possible without catching little Johnny and his folks as well.  Trust me little Johnny and his mother don’t give a damn that you have been sitting in the same spot for over an hour waiting for just the right light or clouds to move in.  They’ll walk directly in front of your lens.  At Elephant Rocks there is also great potential for the intimate landscapes.  With these types of comps you can move right into the tight spaces and will have a much better chance of not having little Johnny and his booger-picking fingers in you final image.  Do be careful though, as little Johnny and his siblings will likely be climbing on these rocks and might easily come into contact with your tripod, which might be precariously setup on the same rocks they’re interested in jumping on.

Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 24mm, ISO 100,  f/14, 1/4 sec