Click the player at the end of this post to listen to or download this (almost)10 minute podcast.

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

My Facebook profile — Feel free to “friend” me — please just mention Photography.ca
My Twitter page — I will follow you if you follow me — Let’s connect — PLEASE email me and tell me who you are in case I don’t reciprocate because I think you are a spammer.

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly  Photography forum

Thanks for all the support emails and welcome to all the new members of the photography.ca forum!

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. |Subscribe with iTunes|Subscribe via RSS feed |Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email

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

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!!

It goes without saying that you need to do this carefully so as not to allow the Vaseline to touch your camera or lens. The Vaseline should only be on the front of the filter. When you’re done shooting, remove the filter immediately and place it in a plastic bag. Then clean it (I just used regular dish soap) when you get home. If you have a few wet wipes along with a dry cloth (to thoroughly wipe your finger between moving the vaseline around and touching the shutter release button) and an extra plastic bag or two, you should have no problem doing this.

Feel free to add to the conversation by leaving a comment or sharing/liking this post in some way.

Click the player at the end of this post to listen to (or download) this 9.5 minute podcast.

Here are some of the photographs I was able to make with this technique;

Crossing Ducks — Lafontaine Park Montreal — Image shot with a 50mm lens using a UV filter coated with petroleum jelly

Dreamy Carmy — Laurier Park Montreal — Vaseline in front of an old polarizing filter

Lily pads — In this series of images I took a straight shot and then 2 vaseline shots over the UV filter. You can see how completely different the 2 vaseline images look from one another. This difference is simply due to the quantity and position/pattern of the Vaseline on the filter

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
Exhibition and Film on Impressionism and Photography (Lorin’s comment from podcast 135)
Pictorial Composition and the Critical Judgement of Pictures by Henry Rankin Poore

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

My Facebook profile — Feel free to “friend” me — please just mention Photography.ca
My Twitter page — I will follow you if you follow me — Let’s connect — PLEASE email me and tell me who you are in case I don’t reciprocate because I think you are a spammer.

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly  Photography forum

Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred — Thanks Lorin Duckman, Dave Johnson and Jane Chesebrough! Thanks for all the support emails and welcome to all the new members of the photography.ca forum!

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. |Subscribe with iTunes|Subscribe via RSS feed |Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email

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

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

In case you are new around here this is where the Admin (me) chooses one excellent photo nominated by other members from the Member’s monthly choice forum. Once 10 images are nominated, I choose a ‘winner’.

Just so it’s clear, the photo I choose are not necessarily the best ones of the month. I’ve come to realize it’s not logical to pit images from totally different genres against each other. That’s why there are categories in photo contests. My goal is to simply choose an excellent photo and talk about why I think it rocks. 

This round of nominations, once again yielded images of exceptional quality and I waffled for a few it was very difficult to choose just one. This round’s winner is Late Snowy Owl for the GTA by Rdbender. I chose these images for several reasons;

1 — Colour/exposure — The colour here was well seen with the yellow sign matching the owl’s yellow eyes and blending into the yellowy background. Exposure is well handled with lovely non-clipped white tones.
2 — Sharpness/aperture — The eyes look razor sharp as they should be and I really like the super-shallow depth of field that separates the owl from the background.
3 — Framing/composition — Unlike many compositions that include words that become a distraction, here the word ‘caution’ on the sign compliments this composition big time. We see the owl’s direct intense stare as well as its sharp claws and we should indeed take caution. I very much like the scratch marks on the sign that may well have been the result of those sharp claws.

For all these reasons, this is my choice for this round. Since we all have opinions, some members may disagree with my choice. That’s cool but THIS thread is not the place for debate over my pick, NOR is it the place to further critique the image. The purpose here is to suggest strong elements in the photo that we may learn from.

Congrats again Rdbender!

Late Snowy Owl for the GTA by Rdbender

Feel free to add to the conversation by leaving a comment or sharing/liking this post in some way.

Click the player at the end of this post to listen to (or download) this 15 minute podcast.

Caravaggio — The Conversion on the way to Damascus — 1601
Look how the scene and the subjects’ faces are lit, look at the gestures of the subjects and the overall composition. Photographers can learn a lot from the master painters that lived long ago.

When it comes to lighting portraits in photography, painters have been thinking about the lighting for their own subjects many hundreds of years before photography was invented. Photographers can learn so much about lighting by studying the great portrait painters.

Rembrandt — Self-Portrait — 1630 — Rembrandt is well known for his portrait lighting style. The triangle of light on the darker side of the face is one of Rembrandt’s signatures. Photographers love this lighting technique and it has become a basic portrait lighting style in photography.

Rembrandt — Jacob Blessing the Children of Joseph 1656 — Lovely lighting, great gestures and interesting compositions work well in photography as well as in painting.

When it comes to photographing mountains and other landscapes, photographers often zoom right into them as their first instinct and of course that’s a good thing to do for a shot or two, but then what? By studying the compositional techniques of landscape painters, we see that they often include lots of elements that compliment the main focal point in their images.

A.Y. Jackson — Winter Charlevoix County — 1932–33  - We can see that this painting has a mountain in the background. But it’s the way that Jackson ties in the foreground and midground with their visually interesting elements that help make this landscape painting interesting.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
Outline of painting history
Caravaggio
Rembrandt
A. Y. Jackson
Group of Seven (artists)

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

My Facebook profile — Feel free to “friend” me — please just mention Photography.ca
My Twitter page — I will follow you if you follow me — Let’s connect — PLEASE email me and tell me who you are in case I don’t reciprocate because I think you are a spammer.

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly  Photography forum

Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks for all the support emails and welcome to all the new members of the photography.ca forum!

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. |Subscribe with iTunes|Subscribe via RSS feed |Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email

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

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

In case you are new around here this is where the Admin (me) chooses one (occasionally 2) excellent photos nominated by other members from the Member’s monthly choice forum. Once 10 images are nominated, I choose a ‘winner’.

Just so it’s clear, the photo(s) I choose are not necessarily the best ones of the month. I’ve come to realize it’s not really logical to pit images from totally different genres against each other. That’s why there are categories in photo contests. My goal is to simply choose an excellent photo and talk about why I think it rocks.

This round of nomination yielded images of exceptional quality and now for the second time in a row I was unable to choose just one.

This round’s two winners are “If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.” by mbrager and Fort Myer’s Beach Birding by Mike Bons

I chose these images for several reasons;

“If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.” by mbrager

“If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.” by mbrager

1 — Mood/Contrast/Exposure — I like everything about this image but it’s the exposure itself and the subsequent post-processing (which I’ll get to) that are the stars for me. This is a late sunset shot and it looks and feels like it. The contrast is low, as it should be, and yet beautiful shadow detail dances with varying degrees of highlight detail. This creates the wonderfully gorgeous and thoughtful mood of the image.

2 — Composition — Extremely well framed image and I can see the deliberate thinking that went into making it. Very thoughtful placement of the focal points and other elements that make up the image. I love the dark moody reflections at foreground left that seem to play diagonally with the brighter highlight reflections in the water as well as in the sky. There are lots of gorgeous lines for our eyes to follow in this photograph. These include the snowline at midground left toward the center, bridgeline in the center, vertical lines in the trees and reflections. There are even lines in the sky for our eye to explore and enjoy.

3 — Post processing — Fabulous choices were made in this regard. Temptation was surely there to pull additional highlight detail as well as shadow detail from the water in particular. This would have made the tones more dramatic and exciting, but it would have forever changed the mood and turned this into a completely different, and less interesting photograph.

(4) — The title — I don’t think it influenced my decision, but I’m a sucker for perfect titles like this one.

Fort Myer’s Beach Birding by Mike Bons (Reddish Egret)

Fort Myer’s Beach Birding by Mike Bons (Reddish Egret)

1– Colour, Clarity and sharpness — All 3 are superb in this image. I really like the tones of grey in the feathers and the reddish feather tones as well. The colours and contrast look natural.

2 — Gesturing and decisive moment — The bird’s gesture is grand and Mike’s quick trigger finger was there to capture it.

3 — Exposure — Exposure is bang on for me. A nice high shutter speed captures the lovely feather detail and a medium aperture on a long lens gets good eye and feather sharpness while blurring the background for good foreground to background separation.

For all these reasons, these are my choices for this round. Since we all have opinions, some members may disagree with my choices. That’s cool but THIS thread is not the place for debate over my picks, NOR is it the place to further critique the image. The purpose here is to suggest strong elements in the photos that we may learn from.

Congrats again to Mike Bons and mbrager!

Feel free to add to the conversation by leaving a comment or sharing/liking this post in some way.

Thanks to The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada)  for sponsoring the Photography.ca podcast.

Click the player at the end of this post to listen to (or download) the 30ish minute podcast.

Monolith, The face of Half Dome (1927) by Ansel Adams

Clearing Winter Storm (1938) by Ansel Adams

The Dark Hedges, Antrim, Northern Ireland, 2011 by Bret Culp

Dunluce Castle, Antrim, Northern Ireland, 2012 by Bret Culp

Bret shares his own Artist Statement on his Irish portfolio just to give listeners/readers an example on how developing an Artist Statement can focus you.

Irish Portfolio Artist Statement

“The mythic Irish landscape and its people have had a profound impact on one another. The Celts saw the land as a living source of wisdom, beauty and transformative spiritual power. Among the first to believe in the eternal nature of the human spirit they constructed monuments to death, rebirth and the cycles of the seasons and stars. Castles, fortresses and ruins are evidence of untold invasions and conflicts throughout a tumultuous history. These vestiges of the past continue to resonate through the countryside today. Beautifully poignant in the process of decay they tell their own story and possess their own mortality. Nothing that belongs to the earth is ever free from it. The sacred connection between the landscape of Ireland and its people has not disappeared over the centuries.” —Bret Culp

Overall Body Of Work Statement

“The transitory nature of existence binds everything in the material world. Careful observation reveals the beauty within each fleeting moment.” —Bret Culp

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
Bret Culp’s Irish Portfolio
Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

My Facebook profile — Feel free to “friend” me — please just mention Photography.ca
My Twitter page — I will follow you if you follow me — Let’s connect — PLEASE email me and tell me who you are in case I don’t reciprocate because I think you are a spammer.

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly  Photography forum

Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Many thanks to Tim Mackle and Ruth M for their comments from the last podcast. Thanks as well for the emails and welcome to all the new members of the photography.ca forum!

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. |Subscribe with iTunes|Subscribe via RSS feed |Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email

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

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

Of course feel free to let us know if you feel we missed something essential.

Thanks to The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada)  for sponsoring the Photography.ca podcast.

Click the player at the end of this post to listen to (or download) the 44ish minute podcast.

I Should Be So Industrious by Royce Howland

Royce wanted to mention something about this image because it relates to a cool feature of some new screens on cameras.

“Something we’re seeing more commonly, and the Pentax 645Z also has it, is a camera LCD that pops out with tilt or tilt-swivel movements so you can see it from different angles. I think this idea is great.….

…This sea holly bloom and bees were about 18 inches off the ground. I wanted a shooting angle of more or less straight across, rather than steeply downwards or whatever. That would have been very awkward (or even painful!) to shoot through the camera viewfinder, having to contort my neck, back, knees, etc. to work through the viewfinder for any length of time. Even using a normal, non-moving LCD would have been a bit of a challenge to see from above. Instead, I was able to put the camera on a stable tripod, sit on a short 3-legged stool, and pop out the LCD to a comfortable angle that I could see just by looking down. No neck or back strain even though I photographed from the low shooting angle for about an hour.”

Nick Cave Osheaga 2014 by Marko Kulik — This high ISO image was made using aperture priority and I moved the focus points over the hand invading Nick’s shirt. Moving those focus points is my favourite essential camera feature.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Royce Howland’s Photography / workshops
Tours-courses by Marko Kulik

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

My Facebook profile — Feel free to “friend” me — please just mention Photography.ca
My Twitter page — I will follow you if you follow me — Let’s connect — PLEASE email me and tell me who you are in case I don’t reciprocate because I think you are a spammer.

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly  Photography forum

Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Many thanks to Sandra Foster for her comment from the last podcast. Thanks as well for the emails and welcome to all the new members of the bulletin board.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. |Subscribe with iTunes|Subscribe via RSS feed |Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email

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

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

Wounded — Karl Hinett © Bryan Adams

Wounded: The Legacy of War — Q&A with Bryan Adams

Ph.ca - I’ve been following your photography for a while and this latest work is the ‘rawest’ work of yours I’ve seen thus far. Can I ask what drew you to this subject matter?

ba: I felt compelled to do something for these guys as I was never happy that we went to war in the Middle East. I was fortunate to have meet a journalist called Caroline Froggatt who wanted to do something and she was acquainted with some of the soldiers already, so the project started from that.

Ph.ca - Why photograph wounded soldiers?

ba: I want to create photos of the time and document as many people as I could that had incurred these severe war injuries in order to raise awareness to their plight and also show people a side of the horror of war that is often concealed from everyday media. The long term idea was that perhaps it could maybe be an exhibition or maybe even a book down the road. All of that happened thankfully in part to my publisher Steidl who saw the beauty in the photos and agreed to make the “Wounded — The Legacy of War” book with me. It’s now its touring the world as an exhibition.

Wounded Mark Ormrod © Bryan Adams

Ph.ca –How long did you photograph each veteran?

ba: For an hour at the most, then we would sit and have a chat and film that, I’ve not even looked at the interview footage, it’s just archived. Sometimes these guys would stay over at my house as they had come great distances from the North of England and even Scotland to be involved and it was too much to travel there and back in a day.

Ph.ca - How long did this project take from start to finish and where were the photographs taken?

ba: schedules were always being sorted out, I suppose the whole thing took nearly 5 years, it was very on and off. Initially it wasn’t easy to find subjects that would agree to being photographed, but once a few subjects had agreed and participated, recommending their friends became normal and the word got out.

Ph.ca - All of the photographs that I’ve seen from this series highlight the veterans’ wounds, versus playing them down through posing techniques as other photographers have often done. Was the posing of the subjects a collaborative process or solely under your direction?

ba: it was all ultimately under my direction, however they were welcome to show as much as they liked and I always hoped they would show as much as possible.

I would show them what I had done with other soldiers, and usually once they saw what was going on, the shirts would come off and the wounds became very apparent.

Wounded Rory Mackenzie © Bryan Adams

Ph.ca - Did some veterans have trouble exposing their wounds so boldly?

ba: Only one as I can remember who didn’t want to take off his prosthetic limb. I never asked why.

Ph.ca - Was it an emotional/cathartic process for some veterans?

ba: I think they were curious that someone like me was doing something like this, but I’ve had a lot of positive conversations with them since and the reactions have been incredible. Too many to mention here.

Mostly to do with seeing themselves as a vehicle to help other people, the unselfishness was humbling, let me tell you.

Wounded Rick Clement © Bryan Adams

Ph.ca - Our readers will want to know - Can you describe the camera gear and the lighting gear you used to create these photographs?

ba: It’s all shot in my daylight studio using natural light which I would drape off to create the amount of light for each guy. Occasionally if the studio got too dark in the late afternoon, I would bounce a light into the wall to give me a stop or two and mix it with the daylight. There was never a direct source of light it was always diffused. I used a Mamiya RZ camera with a Phase One back.

Ph.ca - Given that the legacy of war will continue, and there will be no shortage of future wounded veterans, will you be adding to this body of work, or is this a closed project?

ba: it’s closed for now, especially now that the book is done.

Ph.ca - What additional photography projects are on the horizon?

ba: another book of subjects I’ve worked with is being planned, but it may be another year before it’s ready.

—————————–

I’d like to thank Bryan Adams for taking the time to answer this Q&A.
30 images of Bryan’s new work are on exhibit at Somerset House from 12th November 2014 – 25th January 2015. The photography book Wounded: The Legacy of War, Photography by Bryan Adams, Edited by Caroline Froggatt is available here.

Fuji X-T1

For those that want the conclusion at the beginning, I really liked the Fuji– XT1 and I’ll talk about why in a few paragraphs, but let’s get that DSLR killer thing out of the way.

Straight off the bat this is one of the best mirrorless or point and shoot digital cameras I have tested. It goes head to head to with my DSLR on many levels. That said, it cannot kill my DSLR or even lower priced DSLRs built in the past couple of years because it can’t track and capture moving subjects with the same ease. I’m NOT a sports photographer but I regularly want to shoot a bird, squirrel, fast moving dog, or running baby. For me, a DSLR killer must be able to track and capture a moving subject with the same ease and efficacy (and ratio of keepers) as a DSLR. The X-T1 cannot easily do this and admits to being unable to do this on page 68 of the manual. It’s the one big thing that’s missing for me in this (and every other mirrorless or point and shoot on the market today) camera. It does a better job at this task than all the other mirrorless or point and shoot cameras I’ve tried, but DSLRs costing the same or less money as this camera will get you sharper results with greater ease. If you accept this limitation and you have the budget for it ($2100. for the camera and lens) it’s the best non-DSLR camera that I’ve tried.

Here’s a checklist of the main things I really liked about the Fuji X-T1

1 — Solid feel and size — The Fuji  X-T1 is a solid feeling metal camera and I like that. I’m sick of plasticky feeling devices. This camera is VERY reminiscent of my old Nikon FM2 film camera in terms of shape, size and weight. One of the main advantages of this camera is that it is much smaller and weighs less than most DSLRs. The FUJI X-T1 weighs 440 grams with the camera and card. My D800E with battery and card weighs more than double (994 grams)!

Size comparison between the new Fuji XT-1 and a 30ish year old Nikon F3. Hat tip and © Wendy Kennedy for this image.

2 — Overall sharpness — Aside from sharpness on fast moving subjects, you will love the sharpness of this camera!

The XT-1 gives you lovely natural colours. Images are sharp straight out of the camera. Exif — ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/100. Note:  I did NOT try to get the birds sharp in this image, I was framing the people on the bench and the moving birds were a happy coincidence.

3 — Automatic electronic viewfinder  - You can frame your scene by looking at the back of the LCD screen or through the viewfinder. The camera ‘knows’ when you bring the viewfinder to your eye and all interior controls become instantly visible — It’s very cool.

4 — Horizon line — This appears automatically in order to let you know if your camera is parallel to the subject for distortion free images. I really like this but you can shut it off if you don’t.

5 — Shoots in RAW format, Jpeg and RAW/Jpeg

6 — Although I already ragged on the autofocus being inferior for moving subjects when compared to a DSLR, it does a better job than all other non-DSLR camera that I’ve tried. In addition it has focus points that you can move around your screen fairly easily to allow the autofocus to focus where you want. I use these focus points all the time when I’m framing a scene.

In order to assure sharp eyes (or sharp anything) I am always moving the auto-focusing square to exactly where I want the most sharpness to be. In this case, I moved it right over my boy Baci’s eye. The Fuji X-T1 does a decent job at this! (Not as fluid as most DSRs mind you, but MUCH better than most mirrorless/point and shoot cameras I’ve tried).
As an aside, this was a relatively low light shot with EXIF data at ISO 6400, f/4.7 at 1/80.

7  - Low light shooting. This camera does a killer-good job in low light!  It’s a low light maven! This image below was shot/pushed at ISO 12800. I never shoot at this ISO because normally you get tons of noise (pixelization/grain) at this speed. But look how acceptable this image is! I have even included a 100% crop of a portion of the image with shadow detail as noise is most visible in the shadows. Yes there is noise in those shadows but it’s acceptable noise, it’s not a hailstorm. Most mirrorless/point and shoot cameras (and most DSLRs) on the market today are inferior to the Fuji X-T1 with regard to their low-light and low-noise performance.

This image was shot at f/3.5 at 1/110 at ISO 12800! Look how acceptable the noise level is.

Here’s a 100% crop from the same image.

Noise is its nastiest in the shadows but look at how well the noise is handled at ISO 12800 — Very, very impressive!

X-T1 Gripes

As hinted at previously, my main gripe with the X-T1 (and every other point and shoot/mirrorless camera that I’ve tried) is that it cannot autofocus fast enough to capture fast moving objects as sharp as I like them. Here is a shot of a squirrel. I admit it’s very good for cameras in its class but my DSLR and most others I’ve tried does better.

A 100% crop detail of a squirrel. I focused on the eye for about 15 images and the eye in this image is good but it is not tack sharp. My DSLR has a much better ratio of keepers for difficult shots like these. EXIF data was ISO 800, f/5.6 @ 1/850

The main other gripe would be the price as $2100. for a mirrorless camera and lens is quite a chunk of change when DSLRs with lenses can be had for many hundreds of dollars less. That said, we should be used to paying more for devices that are physically smaller; it’s the trend across so many consumer products. To temper the price blow a bit, this camera is very versatile and can accommodate many different lenses of varying focal lengths. It’s solidly built and it seems like it will last.

In conclusion, if you have the budget for this camera you will love its size, shape, feel and its weight. The quality and sharpness of the files are superb and as long as you don’t expect tack sharp eyes from moving subjects, you will love this camera. To date, it’s the best non DSLR camera I’ve tried.

Thanks to The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada)  for sponsoring the Photography.ca podcast.

Click the player at the end of this post to listen to (or download) the 13ish minute podcast.

Fargo Mania by Bryan Davies

Artful Rust image by Bryan Davies

Artful Rust image by Bryan Davies

Artful Rust image by Bryan Davies

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Bryan Davies Rust photography
Bryan Davies’s work on fineartamerica.com
Facebook Rust art group
Contraste Art Agency
Photography.ca forum regular assignment — Frozen action images
Photography.ca forum level 2 assignment — Sounds

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

My Facebook profile — Feel free to “friend” me — please just mention Photography.ca
My Twitter page — I will follow you if you follow me — Let’s connect — PLEASE email me and tell me who you are in case I don’t reciprocate because I think you are a spammer.

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly  Photography forum

Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Many thanks to Teddy Naimus for his comment from the last podcast. Thanks as well for the emails and welcome to all the new members of the bulletin board.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. |Subscribe with iTunes|Subscribe via RSS feed |Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email

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

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

Thanks to The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada)  for sponsoring the Photography.ca podcast and for allowing me to test this lens.

Click the player at the end of this post to listen to (or download) the 11ish minute podcast.

This is an image of the Jacques-Cartier Bridge in Montreal, Quebec. It was very easy to see and capture this effect in camera.

An image of the Jacques-Cartier Bridge in Montreal, Quebec. Because the bridge was not centered in the lens, I had to physically move the sharp sweet spot of focus by actually bending the lens and thus the image took longer to compose.

Norco Bicycle shot with the Lensbaby Composer

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Lensbaby Composer user guide
The Lensbaby Composer  and other Lensbabies at The Camera Store
Tilt shift lenses for landscape photography
Lensbaby 3G review

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

My Facebook profile — Feel free to “friend” me — please just mention Photography.ca
My Twitter page — I will follow you if you follow me — Let’s connect — PLEASE email me and tell me who you are in case I don’t reciprocate because I think you are a spammer.

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly  Photography forum

Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Many thanks to Barefoot, Troy Borque and Terry Babij for their comments from the last podcast. Thanks as well for the emails and welcome to all the new members of the bulletin board.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. |Subscribe with iTunes|Subscribe via RSS feed |Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email

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

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

André Kertész (1894–1985) is another photographer whose work you should (re)discover in this blog post series on photographers you need to check out. Kertész was born in Budapest, Hungary and started making photographs as a teenager. In 1925, while in his early thirties, he moved to Paris France where he worked as a freelance photographer/photojournalist for himself and for photo magazines. He gained notoriety for his fresh style and interesting compositions, was published in multiple magazines and self published multiple books of his photography. In addition, he had several exhibitions of his work.

About a decade later he moved to the USA where he spent the rest of his working life working as a photographer. He was on exclusive contract with Condé Nast magazine for many years and he always devoted time to his personal work and projects. In his later years he spent a lot of time experimenting with Polaroid photography.

I’ve always admired Kertész’s work because of his attention to the elements that make up a good photograph. For Kertész, the story of a photograph is crafted from everyday people and objects but he managed to make whatever he photographed stand out. He used light, angles, compositions, juxtapositions as well experimenting with alternative photographic techniques to create interesting moods and tell interesting visual stories.

André Kertész — The Fork — 1928

André Kertész — Pont des Arts, Paris — 1929

André Kertész — Distortion #40 — 1933

André Kertész — Melancholic Tulip — 1939

André Kertész — Self portrait — Martinique — 1972

André Kertész — Polaroid — August 13, 1979

Additional André Kertész resources and links:

Wikipedia -  André Kertész
Kertész on Photography-now.net — (click the grey link that says Selected Work — over 30 images)
Kertész on Artnet
Kertész’s portfolio at The Stephen Bulger gallery in Toronto, Ontraio

Thanks to The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada)  for sponsoring the Photography.ca podcast.

Click the player at the end of this post to listen to (or download) the 18ish minute podcast.

This evening image of Rue Laurier in Montreal is a long exposure image using the big stopper. You can see movement in the clouds, and in the cars. The people look ‘ghostlike’ because they moved (somewhat) in place while waiting for the traffic light. Notice the traffic light has all 3 colours lit because the traffic light cycled during this 30 second exposure. Exif data — ISO 100, f/11, 30 second shutter speed.

Fast moving water at Chutes Dorwin in Rawdon, QC. Canada. In the top image I used my lowest ISO (50) with my smallest aperture (f/32) and this yielded a shutter speed of .4 seconds. The water does look dreamy. But when I used the big stopper, I was able to get much slower shutter speeds and the lower image was exposed for 15 seconds. It’s much dreamier and more ethereal looking but the filter must be used with care. If you look at the top of the bottom image you can see a rainbowish arc and this where flare entered my camera. As discussed in the podcast, this is easily solved with a hat (or postprocessing).

Fountain at Parc Lafontaine in Montreal, QC., Canada — The slowest shutter speed I could get without a filter was 1/60 in this light. When I put the big stopper on, It extends the available shutter speeds big time. The image on the right was a 15 second exposure using the big stopper and look how dreamy the water looks.

How the Lee filter system works

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Podcast 77 - On Neutral density filters and graduated neutral density filters
Podcast 84 - Back Button autofocus
The big stopper at The Camera Store
Regular forum assignment — Repetition
Level 2 photography assignment — Forced perspective

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

My Facebook profile — Feel free to “friend” me — please just mention Photography.ca
My Twitter page — I will follow you if you follow me — Let’s connect — PLEASE email me and tell me who you are in case I don’t reciprocate because I think you are a spammer.

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly  Photography forum

Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. |Subscribe with iTunes|Subscribe via RSS feed |Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email

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

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

Every month on our pho­tog­ra­phy forum mem­bers nom­i­nate images that they like. Then at the end of the month I choose an excel­lent image and talk about why it rocks. The photo I choose is not nec­es­sar­ily the best one of the month. I’ve come to real­ize it’s not really log­i­cal to pit images from totally dif­fer­ent gen­res against each other. That’s why there are cat­e­gories in photo con­tests. I just choose a photo that has extremely strong ele­ments that we can learn from.

This month’s choice goes to Lizardqing for capturing Sunset on the Blue Ridge Parkway

I chose this image for several reasons:

1. Composition/Framing — This sunset image has many strong compositional elements going for it. The laying of the foreground trees, midground hills and background clouds/sky and sun works really well for me. My eye really enjoys the lines and curves in the mountains and hills. There are also no major distractions on the edges in this scene for me. My eye goes straight to the sun, then straight below it to the midground sun patch, and then it explores the rest of the photograph with delight.

2 . Exposure/lighting — The light is just plain lovely here due to the partial cloud cover. That said, shooting into the sun is often challenging and often yields underexposure. Correcting it often leaves lots of shadow noise but this image looks clean and the tones in the foreground and midground have lovely shadow detail.

3.  Colour and post processing — The colours are warm and bright in the sky but not too overdone. Sharpness works well for me and looks very natural.

For all these reasons, this is my choice for image of the month. Since we all have opinions, some members may disagree with my choice. That’s cool but THIS thread is not the place for debate over my pick, NOR is it the place to further critique the image. The purpose here is to suggest strong elements in the photo that we may learn from.

Congrats again to Lizardqing for capturing this fabulous moment!

I’m starting a new category in this blog for photographers that I think are worth checking out. I’ll start off with photographers that have been around awhile and I’ll write a few paragraphs, show a few pics and offer additional links to whet your photographic appetites. Let’s start off with Nan Goldin.

Nan Goldin is a contemporary American photographer born in 1953 currently living in NYC, USA and I’ve been following her work for a over 2 decades. If I were forced to describe her work I’d write that Goldin is a ‘moment-photojournalist’. She both captures and creates intimate moments of the people in her life and it’s hard not to have an opinion about her photography. If you have never heard of her, research her two most famous photo books (The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, Aperture, 1986 and The Devil’s Playground Phaidon 2003) in order to form your own impressions. One thing you will notice pretty quickly is that a lot of the work breaks the rules. A lot of images are out of focus. A lot of the images are not safe for work.

What I really like about Goldin’s work are the moods she creates in her images. She realized early on that like life itself, ’ life’s moments’ as captured through the lens don’t always need to be sharp to be powerful. The moments of life that Goldin captures, like life itself are often imperfect.

Greer and Robert on the bed, NYC 1982 © Nan Goldin

Nan and Brian in bed, NYC, 1983 © Nan Goldin

Misty and Jimmy Paulette in a taxi, NYC 1991 — © Nan Goldin

Bruno smoking a joint (valerie’s legs) Paris 2001 © Nan Goldin

Swan-like embrace, Paris 2010 © Nan Goldin

Additional Nan Goldin resources and links:

Wikipedia -  Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin interviewed by Adam Mazur and Paulina Skirgajllo-Krajewska
Goldin’s Years By Lisa Liebmann, originally published in ArtForum, October, 2002
Nan Goldin: ‘I wanted to get high from a really early age’ — Interview with Sean O’Hagan — 2014

Thanks to The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada)  for sponsoring the Photography.ca podcast.

Click the player at the end of this post to listen to (or download) the 11ish minute podcast.

Tens of thousands of cyclists lining up to start the Tour de L’isle. All it took was me waving my hand, and cyclists did the same. There is much more engagement than if I had not waved my hand and all the cyclists were looking in random directions. I was not an official photographer for the event. I had the same access as everyone else.

I shot Raphael Aubry from the band Waiting Game at the Montreal Jazzfest. I had the same access as everyone else. I just waited patiently for this moment of eye contact while I was framing the scene.

Every Sunday in Montreal, thousands of people gather at Mont-Royale for drumming, dancing etc. This image has no eye contact, but a strong gesture which for me, carries the image.

Just as a test for a group of adults i was giving a course to, I asked 5–6 people walking down the street if I could take their portrait. 100% of them said yes. Take a deep breath if you feel shy about this, people are flattered and tend to agree over 90% of the time when I simply ask them for permission.

The boy in this image never knew he was being photographed. The second I saw him engage in this behaviour I saw a story. (click to enlarge this image)

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Photography forum assignments

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

My Facebook profile — Feel free to “friend” me — please just mention Photography.ca
My Twitter page — I will follow you if you follow me — Let’s connect — PLEASE email me and tell me who you are in case I don’t reciprocate because I think you are a spammer.

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly  Photography forum

Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Many thanks to Nuno C., Barefoot and Christopher Steven B. for their comments from the last podcast. Thanks as well for the emails and welcome to all the new members of the bulletin board.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. |Subscribe with iTunes|Subscribe via RSS feed |Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email

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

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

For our next podcast I set up a photography experiment with complete strangers and I’ll share it (and other tips for photographing complete strangers) with you within a week. I give tips for cases when the subject is aware of you, and tips for when subjects are unaware that they are being photographed.

For now, if you are feeling brave try breaking your comfort level; approach complete strangers and photograph them. Tips and the actual podcast to follow next week.

Stranger meditating in Parc La Fontaine in Montreal, QC.

If you have a full frame camera the 50mm will act as the conventional 50mm lens from the film camera days. On a crop sensor camera the lens will act more like a 75mm or 80mm lens and many people are using this lens to make wonderful portraits.

Thanks to The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada)  for sponsoring the Photography.ca podcast.

Click the player at the end of this post to listen to (or download) the 8ish minute podcast.

This is a 50mm lens — It’s the first lens you should buy for your DSLR or SLR.

This image was shot on a full frame DSLR using a 50mm lens at Palais Des Congres in Montreal, QC, Canada. The exposure was ISO 400 f/1.8 at 1/2500

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Good comments from our last podcast - Point and Shoot Cameras Suck for Learning Photography

The Canon 50mm at The Camera Store
The Nikon 50mm at The Camera Store
Reversing rings at The Camera Store

The Canon 50mm at B&H
The Nikon 50mm at B&H
Reversing rings at B&H

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

My Facebook profile — Feel free to “friend” me — please just mention Photography.ca
My Twitter page — I will follow you if you follow me — Let’s connect — PLEASE email me and tell me who you are in case I don’t reciprocate because I think you are a spammer.

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly  Photography forum

Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Many thanks to Alain Casault, Lisa Osta, and Tom Trottier for their comments from the last podcast. Thanks as well for the emails and welcome to all the new members of the bulletin board.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. |Subscribe with iTunes|Subscribe via RSS feed |Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email

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

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

That lovely intro aside, I do recommend a few user friendly Point and shoots for photographers that are comfortable with a Point and shoot’s limitations. They definitely are portable and can be handy in capable hands.

Click the player at the end of this post to listen to (or download) the 13ish minute podcast.

Thanks to The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada)  for sponsoring the Photography.ca podcast.

This point and shoot camera is not a good camera for learning photography

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Podcast # 76 - Point and shoot cameras — Review of Canon G11
Exposure exposed — Easily master camera exposure and make stunning photos by Marko Kulik
Photo tours — private photo instruction in Montreal
Canon G16 at The Camera Store
Nikon P7800 at The Camera Store
The Eos Rebel T5 at The Camera Store
The Nikon D3200 at The Camera Store

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

My Facebook profile — Feel free to “friend” me — please just mention Photography.ca
My Twitter page — I will follow you if you follow me — Let’s connect — PLEASE email me and tell me who you are in case I don’t reciprocate because I think you are a spammer.

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly  Photography forum

Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. |Subscribe with iTunes|Subscribe via RSS feed |Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email

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

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

Thanks to The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada)  for sponsoring the Photography.ca podcast.

A sneak peek to one of the 6 tips which is useful to photographers of all levels is to check out the work of master painters. They knew about the edges, about the overall composition, and the rules of composition. Those rules directly apply to photography. This famous painting below done by Rembrandt shows dark edges all around which is of course no accident. He did it all the time. Notice where your eye ends up in the painting; on the wave at left and this too is no accident. When we can apply some of these principles to photography, our images almost always improve.

1633 — Rembrandt (1606–1669) Christ in the Storm on the Lake of Galilee.

Talk about how edges can add interest! This image by Selena Rhodes Scofield from our forum is framed in an extremely creative way and the unusual perspective just adds to the visual interest. In addition, both the seagull’s neck and its wing are creating interesting positive and negative shapes as they intersect with the edges and the rest of the image. Being on the lookout for these shapes is another way to spicify your photography.

seagull 3 by Selena Rhodes Scofield

Of course when you want to break guidelines, you break them whenever you want to. Just be aware that you are doing so. In this image below, Canadian Master photographer and teacher Freeman Patterson does just that.

From his book Photography and the Art of Seeing he wrote: “I saw this elderly lady as passing away from me and my world, so I photographed her through a window clouded by reflections and curtains. The shallow depth of field, which throws the reflections and curtains out of focus, creates a sense of the surreal and the unknown. The hand of the woman’s friend appears in the lower right corner. By all traditional standards of composition, the hand should not be there because it looks amputated. Yet it seems strangely appropriate, representing support that may be needed in the present, while at the same time adding to the impression of the world dissolving”

Photograph by Freeman Patterson from The Art of Seeing.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Photography and the Art of Seeing by Freeman Patterson. If you can only afford one photography book this year, buy this one.
Composition Basics by oopoomoo

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

My Facebook profile — Feel free to “friend” me — please just mention Photography.ca
My Twitter page — I will follow you if you follow me — Let’s connect — PLEASE email me and tell me who you are in case I don’t reciprocate because I think you are a spammer.

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly  Photography forum

Thanks as well to Don Crasco and Daniel Cybulskie who posted comments directly on the blog.  Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. |Subscribe with iTunes|Subscribe via RSS feed |Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email

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

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

Thanks to The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada)  for sponsoring the Photography.ca podcast.

In this podcast we get into talking about the differences between photographers and digital artists in this changing age where anything seems to go photography-wise. This discussion podcast is inspired by a blog post by Darwin where he asked How Far is too Far?  The post refers to Darwin’s photograph of an owl and a swallow shot at the same time, but shot as two separate files that were blended together in Photoshop after capture.

What do you think, did Darwin go too far?

Great Grey Owl and Tree Swallow on Fence — Composite image by Darwin Wiggett

Butterfly and Flower — Composite image by Darwin Wiggett

In-camera capture by Sam Chrysanthou using a long exposure and a flashlight. The results look surreal but the effect is in-camera, not post production

It goes without saying that both Darwin and Sam DO post-process their images but they spend minimal time doing so. They just released an e-book outlining the shortcuts they use to process their images and they rely mostly on Adobe Bridge and Photoshop to do their editing. The book is called 7 Quick & Dirty Processing Shortcuts for Lazy Photographers.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

How Far is too Far?
Should We Change the Word Photography?
7 Quick & Dirty Processing Shortcuts for Lazy Photographers

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

My Facebook profile — Feel free to “friend” me — please just mention Photography.ca
My Twitter page — I will follow you if you follow me — Let’s connect — PLEASE email me and tell me who you are in case I don’t reciprocate because I think you are a spammer.

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly  Photography forum

Thanks as well to Terry Babij who posted comments directly on the blog.  Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. |Subscribe with iTunes|Subscribe via RSS feed |Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email

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

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting! Happy New Year everyone!

Although this is an intermediate level podcast, newer photographers might want to listen to get ideas for future study and post-processing play. Tony explains the concepts clearly!

Thanks to The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada)  for sponsoring the Photography.ca podcast.

Here are some of Tony’s images processed with and without luminosity masks. You can see that the images processed with the masks ‘sing’ louder.

Brine Stones by Tony Kuyper — processed without luminosity masks

Brine Stones by Tony Kuyper — processed with luminosity masks

Elephant’s Feet by Tony Kuyper processed without luminosity masks

Elephant’s Feet by Tony Kuyper processed with luminosity masks

Navajo Bridge by Tony Kuyper processed without luminosity masks

Navajo Bridge by Tony Kuyper processed with luminosity masks

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Luminosity masks — Tutorial on Tony’s site
Tony’s tutorials page
GIMP luminosity mask tutorial
Photography assignment on our forum — Space
Level 2 photography assignment on our forum — Diptychs
Illuminight — Photography exhibition by Marko Kulik

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

My Facebook profile — Feel free to “friend” me — please just mention Photography.ca
My Twitter page — I will follow you if you follow me — Let’s connect — PLEASE email me and tell me who you are in case I don’t reciprocate because I think you are a spammer.

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly  Photography forum

Thanks as well to Mike Bons, Lucy 72, Jimmy Brown, and Darnell B who posted comments directly on the blog.  Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. |Subscribe with iTunes|Subscribe via RSS feed |Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email

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

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

Today is a late fall day. Leaves had been falling for weeks, morning mists were beginning to appear, skies were a patchy blue. If I’m lucky this time of year lasts a few weeks. I love working when there are spaces in the trees and the branches contrast with the interspersed leaves. I set out to walk the edge of a river not far away. There are a variety of trees, bushes and growth, with logs, large and small stones lining the shoreline. (And the salmon are running ) I made many more than the four images shown, but these I selected because they were made standing in almost the same spot.

“A Good Day” — Image 1 by Michael Orton

Image one is the light reflected off of the leaves of a small bush , which I rendered into hundreds of shards of light with a fast camera movement and short shutter speed. When viewed at full size this image has remarkable complexity and blending . The bush was a short distance to my left.

“A Good Day” — Image 2 by Michael Orton

Image two is simply fallen leaves on a spread of medium sized round stones with the sand washed from between them. They are in the shade , and the blue comes from the reflected blue of the sky. The sky had some clouds which occasionally gave me overcast light. - 1/2 second with what I refer to as medium camera movement speed , using a somewhat oblique line and changing focal length during exposure. When I move my camera most often I do not swivel from a fixed point but move it in a similar fashion to a movie camera on a track. These stones and leaves where just to my right.

“A Good Day” — Image 3 by Michael Orton

Image three is looking across the river . You can see the sandy embankment rendered as a softened wash while the trees and their reflection remain somewhat recognizable. I used an extended oval motion at 2 seconds to retain the vertical lines.

“A Good Day” — Image 4 by Michael Orton

Image four is, yes wait for it, a photograph, and was taken standing in exactly the same spot as # 3 . Sometimes you just take what you are given and make the best of it. I took the polarizer and ND filter off, kneeled down and scooped this image from the surface of the river.The intricate, jagged lines of the reflected trees and a hint blue from the sky were to good to pass up. Handheld at 1/125.

So yes it was a good day. One that I wish every photographer could experience, because when you do, it will fuel your passion . This is what keeps us looking.

The video ” A Walk In The Palm Grove ” on our website is another good example of what can be created at one location.

There is no substitute for seeing… Michael

The preceding article is copyrighted and written by Canadian fine art landscape photographer Michael Orton. You can see more of his work at michaelortonphotography.com

Nikon AF DC 105mm f/2.0 D Lens

Let me say immediately that this specialty lens is not for everyone. It is made in my estimation for portrait, landscape or fine art photographers that love to play with selective focus and who want to be in supreme control of their bokeh. If this last sentence was confusing then you are probably not ready for this lens. But if you already love bokeh and want to play in the bokeh-olympics, this might be the finest tool available.

But Doesn’t Nikon Have Another 105mm Lens That Also Does Macro?

Yes they do and that lens is another fabulous portrait lens that does true macro. The Nikon AF-S 105 mm F2.8 Micro is a lens that I’ve owned for a number of years and it’s about 300. cheaper than the DC lens. It’s razor sharp, has Vibration Reduction (VR) and does true 1:1 Macro. If you like to do portraits as well as Macro work, get this lens instead.

But if you don’t do that much Macro and want a fabulously unique tool that is great for portraits and bokeh-play, the DC may be the better choice for an experienced photographer. The DC lens is also an f/2 lens. The f/2 is brighter in the viewfinder and always delivers more bokeh than f/2.8 all things being equal.

In terms of head to head sharpness and autofocus speed, I found the autofocus a bit faster on the Micro (Macro — Nikon calls their Macro lenses Micro just to be special) lens and I found the sharpness to be a hint sharper. The 105 DC lens is also razor sharp (but has no VR) and has very fast  autofocus, but head to head with the 105 Micro, it loses by the smallest of margins to my eye. Please be aware that I only tested this lens on 2 shoots in coldish Montreal weather which unfortunately limited my play.

How does it work?

The instruction leaflet that comes with the lens is near useless. You’ll want to play with this sucker for a while. But basically, to get good bokeh effects you need a large aperture so you’ll choose an aperture like f/2.0, f/2.8, f/4, or f/5.6. Once you set that aperture, you’ll focus on your subject. Then you’ll decide if you want to defocus what’s in front of the subject, what’s behind the subject, or not defocus at all. The defocusing simply softens the background or foreground more than it would be with other lenses. The effect is subtle and not everyone will even notice it especially novice photographers. Personally though, I love this lens and I made a mistake when I purchased the f/2.8 Macro lens. I don’t do that much macro and would have gotten more use and joy from the bokeh play offered by this lens.

From L to R — Zero defocus, defocused foreground, defocused background — Click to enlarge

The images above were shot against a giant Christmas tree. The middle image makes the foreground lights around the neck have an interesting glow due to the defocused foreground, but the eyes lost sharpness. In general I found that defocusing the foreground looked weird most of the time. To my eye the normal setting and the defocused background settings are the best looking in this set and in general. The non defocused images looked superb actually. But a lens like this is usually bought for the ability to defocus it.

Left image had no defocus. Middle Image had background defocused to f/4 but aperture was f/2.0. The image at right was shot with the 105 Macro lens at f/2.8 its widest aperture — Click to enlarge.

The reason to get the Nikon 105mm DC lens is for the (De)focus play that it offers and normally you’ll set the defocus to the same aperture you are shooting on. But you don’t have to follow that rule and when you break it, it throws the background or foreground into an even softer or dreamier state. In the set of images above, the left image shows beautiful f/2.0 bokeh with a very sharp headstone and no defocus was used. The middle image was shot at f/2.0 but the rear defocus was set to f/4 which thinned out the zone of sharpness in the foreground in this case and softened the background to an even dreamier state compared to the previous shot. For comparison purposes the shot at right was shot with the 105 Macro lens that has no defocus control. It still shows excellent sharpness in the headstone and lovely bokeh in the background, but it is limited to f/2.8 without defocus control, and so it can’t be as dreamy as the DC 105mm.

Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal. Rear Defocus used on the Nikon 105mm DC — Click to enlarge

In summary, if you are just starting out in photography and you want an awesome fast portrait lens that also offers macro, the 105mm f/2.8 with VR is probably a better choice for you and it’s 300 dollars cheaper.  If you just love bokeh and experimentation and are a more experienced photographer that rarely uses Macro, you might well want to try the Nikon 105mm f2.0 DC lens.  It’s a one of a kind lens that will retain and go up in value in the future due to its uniqueness. I plan on adding it to my arsenal in the very near future.

I’ve tried a couple of photo accessories recently that I’d like to share with you because they make my life easier.

1 — The S&F deluxe technical belt by Lowepro.

Lowepro S&F deluxe technical belt

My wife picked this up for me recently as a gift and I’m loving it. As mentioned in previous posts and podcasts, I’m a big fan of lens pouches and I use them almost exclusively (versus carrying a camera bag) on most personal photo shoots. Usually I have 3 lenses on me and 2 of them are carried in lens pouches. Until a few weeks ago I simply clipped the pouches onto an actual belt that goes through my jeans. It works well enough but getting into the jean pockets is difficult and my wife felt I looked all dishevelled especially if I needed to wear a jacket. She was right.

I have to say, the technical belt is WAY better than clipping the pouches to a regular pants belt. It is so much more comfortable and you can see the solid back support if offers, it’s a pure joy to wear. Especially when going from shooting to the car, the whole belt comes off in a flash with the pouches firmly secured onto them. If you do need to get into your pants pockets you just slide the belt around. In addition, it looks and feels great when you have to wear a jacket. It might well be my favourite accessory of 2013. It can be purchased immediately at B&H in the USA or at the The Camera Store within about 1 week.

2 - PhotoRepublik Twin Speedlite Holder — This accessory was loaned to me for review by our sponsor The Camera Store and I find it to be an extremely well built accessory. Some of the common gripes people have with flash holding accessories are their overall ‘dinkiness’  and that the actual point of contact between the flash and the holding shoe is flimsy (read risky) and difficult to control. Good new or used flashes are at least 100–600 dollars, why would you want to attach it to a bracket with a flimsy flash shoe holder that looks like it costs less than a nickel. One careless bump into the light stand can snag the bottom part of the flash right off.

This twin flash holder is crazy solid in all respects and operates smoothly. The point of attachment to the flash as well as the whole unit (except the knobs which are still very solid) is made of steel and operates very smoothly to attach to your flash. It feels safe and that will make you feel more secure about the setup. There’s place for an umbrella holder and it tilts from front to back for easier angling of light. It’s a perfect attachment for shooting with an umbrella when when you need more punch than one flash can offer.

PhotoRepublik Twin Speedlite Holder — Comes with a  threaded mounting screw (shown in between the 2 flash holding units)

The PocketWizard Plus X transceiver (sold as a single unit for $99.00) and the Cactus V5 Duo (2 transceivers for $99.00 or sold individiually at $59.00)

Thanks to The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada)  for sponsoring the Photography.ca podcast and for loaning me the test equipment for this week’s podcast!

Both these units do the identical job with identical (100%) reliability in both my indoor and outdoor tests. The top photo shows how the Cactus transceiver attaches to both the camera and to an off-camera flash. The bottom photo shows how the PocketWizard Plus X transceiver attaches to both the camera and to an off-camera flash. The main difference is that the PocketWizard is missing the extra hot shoe so it attaches to the off camera flash with (an included) sync-wire.

The build quality of the PocketWizard is slightly more robust than the Cactus V5 and its legendary reliability (PocketWizards have been around for decades) and the fact that they work with every other PocketWizard ever made are its main advantages.

Where the Cactus V5 duo really shines is with the addition of the extra hot shoe on the unit. Here the flash will act as an on axis-fill flash to fill in shadows created by another light, and it fits snugly into the hot shoe on top of the Cactus V5. At left is the PocketWizard attempting the same task but because it has no extra hot shoe it must be attached to the camera’s flash via an included sync-wire

Both these units will do the identical job, but the Cactus’s design (at right) is more elegant, easier to attach and the Cactus V5 Duo is half the price of the PocketWizard Plus X. Unfortunately the Cactus V5 will NOT work with PocketWizards or even different Cactus models.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

The PocketWizard Plus X at The Camera Store
The Cactus V5 Duo at The Camera Store
Illuminight — Photography exhibition by Marko Kulik

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

My Facebook profile — Feel free to “friend” me — please just mention Photography.ca
My Twitter page — I will follow you if you follow me — Let’s connect — PLEASE email me and tell me who you are in case I don’t reciprocate because I think you are a spammer.

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly  Photography forum

Thanks as well to Enrique Waizel, Bernard Dallaire, Jason, Darnell B and Royce Howland who posted comments directly on the blog.  Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. |Subscribe with iTunes|Subscribe via RSS feed |Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email

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

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

One of my greatest pet peeves on planet earth is waiting in line. Give me the best restaurant in Paris, New York or Montreal and if I have to wait more than a few minutes, I’d rather pick up a falafel or pizza slice and eat it on the go. Don’t get me wrong, I love good food, but my hate for line-waiting wins over nearly 100% of the time. Needless to say, when I went to the museum last week and saw a line of about forty people I was not happy.  My wife and I surveyed the line. She knows me (and my bad whiny behavior) with lines…so she quickly told me that it was ‘my call’ and that we could leave immediately without consequence. As we (mostly me) were making this decision, the line suddenly started to move rather quickly and a forty person wait turned to a thirty person wait. I bitched a bit but we sucked it up and waited in line.

Here’s my review. Words or pictures can’t do this show justice and I only stayed at the show 60 min. It’s a 10/10 masterpiece that needs to be experienced. Period. So long as you are not colour blind, all I can say is go see it. It’s worth a 30 minute wait. It’s worth a one hour wait which is my max for waiting for absolutely anything non life-threatening. If you are a patient person though, it’s worth waiting all day.

Take your camera because photography is 100% permitted and encouraged. This modern aspect of the exhibition also impressed me because plenty of exhibitions are still in the dark ages with regard to photography. Expect crowds but expect that the wait and bustle will be worth it. Expect to see the work of a Master.

Mantis by David Johndrow

AN: Please introduce yourself. Where do you live and work?

DJ: My name is David Johndrow and I live and work in Austin, Texas.

AN: How did you get into photography?

DJ: I studied photography while getting a film degree at the University of Texas. The first time I saw an image of something that I shot appear in the developer tray I was hooked and decided I wanted to do photography full time. I started doing commercial work after graduating—mostly doing portrait work. I supplemented my income by working as a custom printer in photo labs. I’m glad I had that experience because it forced me to put in a lot of hours in the darkroom. As I got better at making prints that were stronger, I also got better at visualizing my own work. I learned a lot from working with other peoples photographs, both good and bad.

Orb weaver spider by David Johndrow

AN: Tell us about your passion for macro.

DJ: My use of macro came out of combining my obsession with gardening with my interest in photography. For a long time I had no interest in shooting photos in my garden. It was mostly because I didn’t want to do what other photographers have done so well before. But as I spent more and more time outdoors, I started to notice the most sublimely beautiful things going on a very small scale and they looked amazing in the natural light of their own habitat. So, I began experimenting with ways to get up close and still be hand-held. I wanted to be quick and mobile. So I put extension tubes on my regular Hasselblad lens and discovered that although this set-up presented some restrictions (limited ability to focus, lower light gathering power), I liked what I saw. In fact, the forced simplicity of the set-up allowed me to focus more on the image than on the technical aspects of shooting the picture. I used the lens wide open out of necessity because the film I use is relatively slow for the shade light I like. Fortunately, it turned out that the shallow focus worked great at isolating the details of the things I was shooting. Suddenly I would get lost looking through the camera—like entering another world. Ordinary things took on an aura of grandeur and importance. I decided I would treat the subjects in nature as formal portraits and try and make them look iconic and, at the same time, retain their wildness.

AN: What is your inspiration?

DJ: Photographically, my biggest influence is Irving Penn. I love how he can make anything look elegant , from fashion models to tribal people to found objects. I love his high contrast printing style and how graphically strong his compositions are. I also like Edward Weston and Karl Blossfeld. Blossfeld was really good at showing the architecture of nature. Another influence on my art is the botanical artist Ernst Haeckel. I have reproductions of some of his drawings up in my darkroom to inspire me. He really shows the beautifully intricate designs of nature at all scales. Something about his art is wonderfully weird and psychedelic. Besides these photographic and artistic influences, I also need to mention my love of Laurens Van der Post’s stories of the bushmen of the Kalahari and how they revered the small things in nature the most.

Stinkbug by David Johndrow

AN: What do you wish to convey to your viewers?

DJ: I hope that when people look at my photographs, they get a new perspective on the things that are all around us that we sometimes take for granted. We tend to get disassociated from nature and forget what a miracle it is. I am always amazed at the new things I discover out in my garden. Things seem to appear to me as if by magic. I try to capture some of that magic to share with others. It’s a real challenge to depict something that has been photographed so many times. What I’m learning is that the ways of experiencing nature are infinite. I hope people who see my photographs come away with a greater appreciation of the beauty of common things.

AN: Can you tell us about your post processing techniques?

DJ: I like to print my images on silver gelatin, platinum/palladium or gumoil. I let the image dictate what medium I will use to express it. Although I originally capture all of my images on film, I sometimes make enlarged inter-negatives, either with my enlarger or digitally, depending on the image, so that I can make contact prints. By using alternative processes I am able to have a wider range of expression in my printing and a greater chance of the “happy accidents” that I think make photographs unique. I strive for extreme simplicity in my images. Photography, by its nature, is a reduction of information. By removing what is nonessential, images get clearer and more powerful. This is also the reason why I love working in black and white.

AN: Do you have any projects on the go?

DJ: I am now experimenting with simple photograms, bypassing the camera altogether. I’ve gotten so into it that I’ve amassed a large collection of objects that I can print just using sunlight. Of course I still work in my garden with my camera close by and keep my eyes open for the next mystery to present itself.

Toad by David Johndrow

This inter­view and accom­pa­ny­ing images was reprinted with per­mis­sion from Adore Noir.
Adore Noir is a sub­scrip­tion based online pho­tog­ra­phy mag­a­zine spe­cial­iz­ing in awe­some fine art black and white photography.

Every month on our pho­tog­ra­phy forum mem­bers nom­i­nate images that they like. Then at the end of the month I choose an excel­lent image and talk about why it rocks. The photo I choose is not nec­es­sar­ily the best one of the month. I’ve come to real­ize it’s not really log­i­cal to pit images from totally dif­fer­ent gen­res against each other. That’s why there are cat­e­gories in photo con­tests. I just choose a photo that has extremely strong ele­ments that we can learn from.

This month’s choice goes to Hillbillygirl for capturing this image from Rodeo Action

I chose this image for several reasons:

1 — Decisive moment and gesturing — This captured moment is extremely well timed and the captured gestures are superb. Look at the musculature and the angle and stretched out leg of the horse in mid–maneuver — It’s fab. The concentration on the rider is also fab.

2 — Sharpness — The sharpness here is bloody gorgeous and anyone who has tracked moving targets knows it’s not easy. A nice fast shutter speed coupled with precise focusing has frozen an intense moment. Even the kicked-up dirt in the air and on the ground is sharp — love it.

3 — Composition — Composition works really well here with the fence of spectators in the background, The Coors barrel/obstacle on the left and the intense gestures of the central main focal points.

4 — Post processing/exposure — I like the fairly realistic processing in this image with good well controlled tones in the sky and good clarity in the faces of the horse and rider.

For all these reasons, this is my choice for image of the month. Since we all have opinions, some members may disagree with my choice. That’s cool but THIS thread is not the place for debate over my pick, NOR is it the place to further critique the image. The purpose here is to suggest strong elements in the photo that we may learn from.

Congrats again to Hillbillygirl for capturing this fabulous moment!

Rodeo Action by Hillbillygirl — Click to see larger version