Monthly Archives: May 2015

We Will Never Forget !

150525_We Will Never Forget-1 by Karl Graf. Fuji X-T1, XF 18-135mm @ 49mm, f/9, 1/280 sec, ISO 200

This image was taken at the “Garden of Memories” near Newtown, PA.  The Gardens memorialize the 9/11 tragedy.  Along its spiral walk it memorializes the 2973 people killed, the the 58 Pennsylvania victims, the 42 children from Pennsylvania who lost a parent, and the 18 Bucks County victims.  On the inner ring of the spiral, the Bucks County victims are etched in glass.  It is a quiet and peaceful place.  A place to walk, sit, and reflect.  Remember … on this Memorial Day!

 

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Looking Down From Above

150514_Osprey_Looking Down From Above-1 by Karl Graf. Canon 7D MkII, EF100-400mm L @ 400mm, f/5.6, 1/5000 sec, ISO 800

A couple of days after my dear wife passed, I was walking along the bridge at Lake Galena in Peace Valley Park.  I looked up and saw a large bird down the lake flying directly for me.  As it approached, the Osprey stopped and hovered in the wind right above me.  It looked down and just stared at me.  I could feel the message from my darling wife above.

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More Fallen Cherry Blossoms – New Perspectives

150513_More Fallen Cherry Blossoms-1 by Karl Graf. Canon 5D MkII, EF24-70mm f/2.8L @ 60mm, f/11, 1/20 sec, ISO 200

Fallen cherry blossoms covered the ground beneath the trees.  I was able to get a few images before the lawn mowing gang cut the grass and swept away the beautiful blooms.  The past few weeks are typically my favorite weeks in the garden each year.  For a few days we are lucky to have the flowering pears, flowering plum, flowering crab apple, and flowering cherries all in bloom at the same time. It is peaceful and beautiful in the garden.

The image below is a new perspective using multiple exposures while zooming out.

150513_More Fallen Cherry Blossoms-2 by Karl Graf.

A different look is achieved by a long exposure and a zoom pan as seen below.

150513_More Fallen Cherry Blossoms-3 by Karl Graf.

Which one catches your eye?  I like them all.

 

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Fallen Cherry Blossoms – A Different Perspective

150512_Fallen Cherry Blossoms_ME2-2 by Karl Graf.

Impressionistic Cherry Blossoms.

I was having a lot of fun creating multiple exposures and just experimenting with various artistic ways of processing images when I came up with this combination.  I first started out taking individual images of fallen cherry blossoms.  I then experimented with multiple exposures (5 exposures in this case).  I then further experimented with different artistic presets in Topaz Impression (Georgia O’Keefe II) to arrive at this image.

For reference, below is the 5 image multiple exposure:

150512_Fallen Cherry Blossoms_ME1 by Karl Graf. Canon 5D MkIII, EF24-70mm f/2.8L @ 70mm, f/8, 1/30 sec, ISO 200 (5 exposures)

Lesson Learned:  Enjoy experimenting, you can never tell what you can come up with!

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When You Are On a Roll

150502_Pear2_ME by Karl Graf. Canon 5D MkIII, EF24-70mm f/2.8L @ 70mm, f/8, 1/1000 sec, ISO 200 (Multiple Exposure)

When things are working, keep the ball rolling.  I was happy with the multiple exposure showed in my last post, so I thought I would try another as the wind was blowing the branches around.  The multiple exposure feature of the 5D MkIII allowed me to see the combined image rather than waiting for post processing.

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Flowering Pear – Multiple Exposure

150501_Pear_ME by Karl Graf. Canon 5D MkIII, EF24-70mm f/2.8L @ 70mm, f/8, 1/1000, ISO 200  (Multiple Exposure)

I was taking images of our flowering Bradford pear.  I could not get anything that really caught my eye.  Then the wind started blowing, the moving blossoms created a surrealistic image in my mind.  How to capture this … why not try a multiple exposure.  I took a 5 image multiple exposure slightly moving my camera, the wind took care of the rest.

Lesson Learned:  Don’t give up.  Work the image.  Visualize and try something else.

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