I was out wandering about with my newly purchased 8mm fisheye lens on a crisp Sunday afternoon. The temperature was hovering at minus 20 C with the bit of wind chill. It was sunny and the snow was reflecting the light back on every surface. I was in the skate park with the idea I could try out some interesting experiments with the snow covered skate domes. The new C Train overpass also runs along the edge of the park, so I thought it would work well with the lens’s distortion as well.

Urban Trek by Jacqueline A. Sheen

The problems that a cityscape photographer faces in winter are not much different than what a landscape photographer would experience. Our terrain is generally a bit smoother but it is equally as cold, so I always dress about the same as you would expect to dress if you were out in the mountains. I am usually out for a few hours at a time, so I make sure I am prepared for the weather.  The advantage I have over the rugged landscape photographer is that I can find a Starbucks to warm up in pretty quickly when the going gets too cold!

If you are out in sub-zero temperatures for extended periods of time, you will have to consider how to care for your gear.  I usually carry an extra battery in my pocket but so far I have not had to use it. Recently, while out on the street on a crisp day of about minus 10 C, I noticed the sun shining into one of our plus 15s that is accessible from the street. I thought it might make for an interesting shot from the inside and climbed up the stairs to go inside. Well– myself, (I wear glasses) the camera LCD screen and the lens filter all fogged up as you might expect. After a few minutes the fogginess cleared and I was able to get the shot. I am told that having a filter on the front of your lens helps keep moisture off the lens itself so you may want to consider a UV filter for that reason. Also when I come in from shooting on a cold day,  I remove the memory cards  from my camera,  pack up the camera and lenses  in the bag, then I zip it up tightly. I let everything return to room temperature for several hours before removing the gear  from my bag. That way I avoid the problem of condensation on my camera and lenses.  Having a well padded camera bag is useful for this reason.

For this photo, which I call “Urban Trek”, I was lining up the 8mm fisheye lens to show off the circle of street lights in the park. Someone walked into my frame and I snapped the picture.  The idea of the urban trekker appealed to me. Here we have an urbanite facing the harsh cold elements surrounded by this stark bright landscape. His dress and posture further emphasize the cold temperatures as he quickly walks to his destination.

Jacqueline A. Sheen is a photographer living in Calgary Alberta, Canada. You can check out more of her work at www.jasphoto.ca and she also goes by the handle JAS_Photo on our photography forum.

Calgary Cityscape by Jacqueline A. Sheen

Calgary is not a big city although it suffers a bit from urban sprawl. It sits nicely on the prairies, where the Bow River runs through it. The CPR railway also runs through the downtown core. This is a vibrant, wealthy city, that was built on a ‚“can do‚ pioneer spirit.

Calgary‚„s many skyscrapers afford some wonderful skyline photography. Because the city core runs east to west along the core, some really wonderful late day photos can be had from the western side of downtown facing east. The glass towers literally glow pink and gold. The downtown core itself is located near the riverbed in a bit of a valley, which makes for some awesome vantage points both at river level and from higher vantage points.

When photographing the city, I walk everywhere. It is not really much different than landscape photography in that respect. To see, really see what you are looking at, you have to slow down. I try to photograph the city in a way that shows off its beauty but at the same time, shows it in a way that the common commuter may not notice in their race to get downtown. Look up. Did you notice the classic art deco styling on that old building? ‚Did you see those gargoyles way high up on another?

Calgary is blessed in that the downtown core is vibrant and alive. There is an active arts community and there is much public and private funded art. The photo above shows a portion of a large sculpture that graces the sidewalk in front of one of the ‚“Oil Towers‚ downtown. It looks like a stylized dinosaur skeleton, which makes sense as all the oil reserves come from ‚“dinosaur bones‚ so to speak. Although the owners of the sculpture may not like my use of it to frame a skyscraper other than their own, when I saw the photo, the title came immediately to mind. ‚“This City was Built On Dinosaur Bones.‚

Jacqueline A. Sheen is a photographer living in Calgary Alberta, Canada. You can check out more of her work at www.jasphoto.ca and she also goes by the handle JAS_Photo on our photography forum.

A Haas quote that I really dig is, “The best pictures differentiate themselves by nuances‚¦a tiny relationship ‚ either a harmony or a disharmony — that creates a picture.”

Binoculars by Ernst Haas — 1952

This photograph works on‚multiple‚levels which is likely why it works so well.
The‚binoculars‚themselves look like human faces so we are‚immediately‚attracted to that aspect. However, other elements also make this image interesting. These elements include the fence and the buildings in the background. For me, the fence, binoculars and background buildings represent the fact that ‘making it’ in New York is difficult. The fence separates you from the buildings but you can see them through the binoculars. Getting there, is a battle…but if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.

Scene from Oka Park Quebec Canada

This image from OKA Park looks pleasing enough and looking at it here you might not know that the image was underexposed. I boosted the levels in Photoshop so at first glance it looks pretty good.

HOWEVER, this 100% crop from the same image reveals the noise (colours in the snow) due to underexposure.

Snow detail crop at 100% shows colour noise

TIP — Don’t automatically underexpose. Underexpose the scene only when necessary.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Cambridge in Colour article on noise
Noise Ninja
Dfine
Topaz Denoise

Shiny‚is the regular assignment this month on our photography forum
Ton sur Ton is the level 2 assignment this month on our photography forum

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Thanks to rabs, Lee Sacrey, Las Vegas Weddings, Charles binns landscape photography, and Michael Van der Tol who posted a blog comment about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

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Happy Holidays everyone and only the best for 2011 — thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

Today’s image of the day is Hungry For Your Touch, 1971 by Jan Saudek. I love the angle of this image and the positions of the hands which are reminiscent of‚ the Creation of Adam painting. I love the bright light entering the doorway in the background as it makes the theme of the image far richer. Without the door the image is more about hands and intimacy. WITH the door though, all kinds of additional themes (at least to me) are suggested. These themes include, creation, spirituality, union, longing and birth. That’s my take on it anyway, what do YOU see?

Hungry For Your Touch, 1971 by Jan Saudek

There was a crazy snowstorm yesterday so it was the perfect time to go outside and take pictures.

I took about 10 shots of various scenes but when it came time to select just one image, I gravitated toward this detail shot below. I had no ‘goal’ in mind except to take a wintery shot. What attracted my eye to this shot were the lines. Lines in general are an extremely powerful compositional element when used correctly. Often they are used to guide the eye to another element in the image. In this case though, the lines themselves are part of the subject matter and they just screamed to be photographed.

Winter Mat by Marko Kulik

Icy Sunrise at Preacher‚„s Point, Abraham Lake, Alberta by Marko Kulik

The ice formations at Preacher‚„s Point were just awesome. I could have easily stayed there the entire day and the sunrise was also one of the best that we had. I spent a good part of the morning on my belly sliding on the ice looking for cool ice formations. Although the ice I laid on was solid, the lake was not totally frozen and I kept hearing ice cracking sounds which freaked me out quite a bit.

Ice Cave at Beauty Creek, Jasper National Park, Alberta by Marko Kulik

I must have 20 shots of this ‚Ëœice cave‚„. I kept moving closer and closer and closer until my footwear would not let me move any closer or my feet would have been soaked with ice-water. I was super-intrigued with the ice-forms to the right of the central rushing water as they seemed smoke-like to my eye.

Waveform at Coleman Creek, Banff National Park, Alberta by Marko Kulik

I really dug Coleman Creek and had the 105mm Macro on for close up details. The great thing about the 105 (I have the Nikon version) is that it‚„s also a lovely portrait lens. When I spotted the interplay between the water and the ice here, I immediately focused a few feet in front of me. I thought of surfing as I captured this waveform.

Junction, North Saskatchewan River, Banff National Park by Marko Kulik

The rushing water, the icicles, as well as the rock faces all caught my attention in this composition. I was also struck by the strong shapes and the interplay between them.

Icy Tree Reflection at Waterfowl Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta by Marko Kulik

I was struck by the painterly feel of this reflected tree in the ice. The cracked ice and textures made for a nice canvas for the tree‚„s reflection.

Ice Disks, Abraham Lake, Alberta by Marko Kulik

This was a challenging shot to get because I cut my pinky finger on the ice maybe 5 minutes before taking this shot. I was bleeding a bit and tried to stop it with kleenex and it worked for a while. Every time I needed real dexterity though I moved the kleenex and it started up again. Anyway it healed up nicely. Sorry if I spoiled any macro compositions for anyone. Wait a sec the interplay of blood and ice ‚œ that might have been cool! I chose to convert this image to black and white because the natural colours of rocks in the background were interfering with the form of the ice disks I wanted to highlight.

And those were the 6 that I sent off to Darwin. Just in case people are interested to see a few additional shots, I posted 2 threads in our forum here.
http://www.photography.ca/Forums/f11/alberta-rockies-batch-1-a-12807.html
http://www.photography.ca/Forums/f11/alberta-rockies-batch-2-a-12821.html

Today’s image is by Master photographer Paul Strand and it’s called Young Boy, Gondeville, Charente, France . I just love the fact that this image is almost 60 years old. It’s a very intense portrait of a boy staring right into the camera. What makes this portrait work for me are the very intense and sharp eyes along with good lighting that reveals texture in the fence, boy’s hair, face and clothing. The well chosen background suits the subject and suggests a working environment to me. The printing is also wonderful with a full range of tones (that show up better in reproductions and books versus here on the web).

Young Boy, Gondeville, Charente, France, 1951 by Paul Strand

We have lots of photographs being submitted each month on our forum for critiques, assignments or just to show the photo. Choosing Kent’s photo as the ‘winner’ took about 3.5 hours of careful sifting. Given that it took so long to choose, I came across many many many close contenders. Seems like a waste of time just to include 1 photo so I’d like to include 3 honourable mentions right here.

If you haven’t joined our forum I would encourage you to do so. We are an extremely friendly bunch that share and learn daily.

Here’s the winning photo:

Eagles on the Mississippi by kentw

Here are the 3 honourable mentions:

A leaf in water by Michaelaw

From ‘Exploring b/w thread’ by Mad Aussie

Shot of my dd…by ~Carla~

Below is the original image (with distractions) — added as a result of the comments

The top image tries to follow the ‘rules’ from photo podcast #46 where we talked about distracting elements in photographs. This is a shot of a dog sleeping in a local convenience store. I spent about 15 minutes ‘cleaning up’ this photo. By cleaning up I’m specifically talking about removing distracting elements. In this case the distracting elements were brightness problems. I wanted the focus of the shot to be on the dog’s face and snout so I burned in (darkened) almost everything that was brighter than the face and snout. By doing this I’m actively guiding the viewer’s eye to where I want it to go.
Did I do a good job? Comments? Questions?

FYI — Next podcast will be less philosophical and more instructional/practical.

Photography links mentioned in this podcast:
Post processing thread

Thanks as always to Vlad,‚Andre_f,‚debbieT, ‚Elio and Alen for‚recent comments and suggestions. We LOVE comments and suggestions so please send more.

You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player below.