We visited Smith Rocks (near Bend, OR) with a couple of great friends in early July at mid-day. Not the best time for great breath-taking images. So I focused on finding good compositions that I can come back to during another trip, at sunrise. This image frames Broken Top between two spires of Smith Rocks. The round boulder in the middle provides a little interest. I removed houses that were located along the tree-lined ridge in Photoshop. If you look close you can still see a few remnants.
From John Barclay, “When you see RED … Shoot!” Yesterday evening I walked out our front door and saw this Salvia “on fire” from the early evening sun. I ran inside to get my camera and try to capture the brilliance of the light. I walked around the Salvia to find a suitable background to set the red against. I stood on my tip toes to see if I could get it against some dark green foliage. I got down on my back to see if I could set off the red against a cloudless blue sky. I finally rolled on by belly and look up against the house and this is what I came up with. I spent about 20 minutes trying to beat the setting sun to find this one image.
Lessons employed/learned:
1. When you see red > shoot
2. Find a good background, then put something in front of it.
3. Explore all angles.
4. Wait for the image to come to me, sometimes it doesn’t.
Lonesome??? … Not really, just beyond the ridge there were hundreds more. I selected to isolate this single wind turbine to portray the landscape the way I remember it back 13 years ago when I moved from the Northwest to the East Coast. Wind turbines now are abundant on the desolate Washington hills above the Columbia River gorge. I roamed on these lonesome hills as a young boy scout so many years ago. It gives me a sad feeling to see the once beautiful open hill country covered with industrial mechanical giants.
This image was taken along the roadside coming down from the Oregon plateau to the Columbia River near Biggs Junction, OR.
During a recent trip to Bend, my wife and I did a little exploring around the area. We took a drive to Tumalo Falls during the middle of the day. The mid-day sun did not do this beautiful waterfall justice. To capture the bright greens without washing the bright water out, I blended two exposures together; one taken for the water and the other for the green trees.
Welcome Summer! This Spring has been very interesting … periods of heat, cold, wet, and dry conditions, all mixed together. Right now we are between periods of rain and warm days. It is hard to tell which is growing faster, our flowers or the weeds. One thing for sure, our knees are getting their workout separating the two.
This image is a multiple exposure created by simultaneously rotating and zooming around the center flower. Karen’s garden creates an abundance of photographic opportunities.
More of the Fonthill Study coming …
Karen and I had planned a trip up to Hershey, PA to see the Hershey Rose Garden for quite some time. We delayed the trip one day due to an extremely severe rain and lightning storm that passed through the area. We knew that the gardens would be impacted, but went the next day anyway. The day was a beautiful bright summer day in the 80’s. However, the roses had been damaged by the previous day’s storm as expected. It was not the best for photography. It was time to get creative and try some different things.
The image above is an “in-camera” multiple exposure of a group of roses with a water fountain in the background. The first image was taken with a moderate depth of field at normal exposure. The second image was defocused and slightly overexposed. The combined image was adjusted for brightness with NIK Viveza and NIK Color Efex Pro. A painterly look was then added with Topaz Simplify.
No matter what the condition, there always seems to be something worth capturing.
For reference below are the two images that were combined.
I was after a subdued image of our Bleeding Hearts on a bright early morning. I stood above these “hearts” and shot through an Atlas Cedar. A slight gap between the branches framed the “hearts”.
I next got down on my belly and shot the macro below focusing on the simple two heart image. I added a little contrast and darkened the background to highlight the “hearts”. I plan to use this one for a Mother’s Day card for Mom.
This post will be my last of my “Emerging” series … at least for a little while.
I saw this emerging Lilac blossom against the bright red of a Flowering Quince and could not resist shooting an image. As they say, “When you see red, shoot!” The red background tends to overwhelm the Lilac buds. I tried to separate the two with a shallow DOF. Later in post processing, I added a little structure to the Lilac and added a little blur to the Quince which helped the separation a little more. Just experimenting …
I was experimenting with swipes and pans on this Redbud tree to create some interesting images for backgrounds. While I had my camera set for a blur (f/32, 1/4 second, ISO 200), I let the wind create a little magic on its own. I just held the camera still, waited for a gust of wind, then snapped the shutter. It’s pretty amazing what nature can do!
The sweet smell of the Holly blossoms greet me as I go out our back door. Who could help not noticing these small blossoms especially when they are highlighted by the sun-lit red Japanese Maple leaves in the background.