Tag Archives: Fountainville

Back to Reality

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140219_Weed in Snow 1 by © 2013 Karl Graf. Canon 5D MkIII, EF24-70mm f/2.8L @ 38mm, f/8.0, 1/1000 sec, ISO 400

We had another snow! The temperatures warmed up a little (high 20’s).  With this little incentive, I went exploring in our back yard, walking in snow up to my knees at times.  Everything was beautiful with the fresh coat of white.  What caught my eye the most were the the little spent seed pods that were sticking above the snow.  These were meant for black and white conversion.

I will post a few more gems I found during the next few days.

 

 

 

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Where to Focus ??

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140217_Kitchen Window by © 2013 Karl Graf. Canon 7D, EF24-70, f/2.8L @ 52mm, f/8.0, 1/800 sec, ISO 400

Fixing our morning coffee, this view through our kitchen window caught my eye.  I rushed to get my camera and capture the moment.  Should I use a shallow DOF and just capture the subject or use a narrow aperture to grab the ice on the window and the tree through the crystal vase?  What is my subject … the ice, the crystal vase, or the tree within the vase?  I tried several different approaches and chose to focus on the tree in the vase and maintain a moderate depth of field to highlight the shape and lines of the vase.  I thought the ice on the window distracted from the main image, so I subdued it with a white vignette.

 

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Enough is Enough!

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140216_Adirondack's & Snow by © 2013 Karl Graf. Canon 7D , EF24-70 f/2.8L @ 59mm, f/8.0, 1/250 sec, ISO 400

Enough is enough!  We have had enough snow this season to last for several years.  This year is expected to be the third highest snowfall recorded for the Philadelphia area.  We are close to 57 inches.  Enough is enough!

I caught this image just as the sun broke over the horizon creating long deep shadows in the snow.  I worked the contrast to capture the shadows without blowing out the snow highlights. I used NIK Silver Efex Pro to convert to black and white and Color Efex Pro to work the contrasts.

 

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Where Did the Sun Go???

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131210_Sunflower in Snow by Karl Graf. Canon 5D MKIII, EF24-70mm f/2.8L @ 70mm, f/8.0, 1/80 sec, ISO 1600

This spent sunflower hung its head over when it couldn’t see the sun.  The ice crystals added to the “over the hill” state of the flower.  Even under the weight of the snow and ice, the stalk remained strong.

I normally do not use the presets in Silver Efex Pro, but this one (film noir #1) seemed to highlight the image I visualized.

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First Snow

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131209_Leaf in Snow by Karl Graf. Canon 5D MKIII with EF24-70mm f2.8L @ 62mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec. ISO 800

Fall color is gone.  We just had our first snow fall, quickly followed by freezing rain.  I got up early to capture the moment before it melted.  The fresh snow was covered by a thin layer of ice leaving interesting ice encased shapes.  To capture the contrast of the dark leaf against the bright snow, I over exposed by +2 stops.  Treatment in B&W captured the dreariness of the morning.

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Fall Color: Last Bloom

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131207_Fall_Last Bloom by Karl Graf. Canon 5D MKIII with EF24-70mm f/2.8L @ 66mm, f/5.6, 1/800 sec, ISO 1600

Looking down on a brilliant bed of fallen leaves, I noticed this single geranium bloom soaking up the early morning sun rays.  It stood out stretching its neck out to show off its last hurrah.  The rest of the plant had withered away preparing for the winter ahead.  I will have to wait until the end of May to catch its first bloom of the new year.

 

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Fall Color: Leaves in the Grass

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131206_Fall_Leaves in the Grass by Karl Graf. Canon 5D MKIII with EF24-70mm f/2.8L @ 63mm, f/8.0, 1/400 sec, ISO 1600

The color of fall in Eastern Pennsylvania has all passed.  This entry is the start of a series of posts of an early November morning shoot in our back yard capturing the last of the fall color.  The early morning sun caught these fallen leaves just right to pop them out from the frosted grass.  Simple things tend to catch my eye.  I constantly look down as I walk through the landscape.

On this shoot, I was testing out the low noise performance of the 5D.  There was  a steady breeze which required me to use a fast shutter speed.  I also normally use a tripod where ever I go.  This day I wanted to be “free” and capture images quickly as I saw them.  With a high ISO of 1600, the 5D performed exceptionally well and allowed me to capture the images that I was targeting.

 

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When You See Red

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130815_RedFlowers_Entryway by Karl Graf.

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.

 

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Welcome Summer !

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130621_YellowZoomTwist by Karl Graf.

 

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 …

 

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