Category: photo

Walk into Fall

This post was supposed to be about fall and beautiful foliage colors I captured last fall during my visit to my home town in Ukraine. But as I was preparing an image to include in this post the topic of the post changed because of my struggle to fit large image with lots of details in a small viewing area of a screen and make it as enjoyable as original.

Here is the image I’m talking about (you can click on the image to see it in a bigger size):

Walk into Fall
Walk into Fall

In full size it has every leaf with its unique color and details. The whole image is vibrant and lively. You practically want to follow the dirty trail covered with foliage and walk into fall. After reducing it to such small size all the colors blended together into something more or less average.

That’s just another reason I still enjoy more prints over images on a screen. Just to show what I’m talking about here are a couple of snippets at full resolution.

Foliage

Foliage

Change

"When you’re finished changing, you’re finished." – Ben Franklin

I’ve sent a photo that I posted in my previous post Stormy Sky to one photo community up for discussion. I’ve got a few interesting points that I need to think about. There was one common thread though all the feedback that it was not my style, that my style was more artsy images.

It was flattering that people saw style in my images. At the same time it showed that having style may box you in because people expect certain style of the images.

For me trying something new is what keeps me moving. And for those who like my artsy style here is a panorama that I made recently at Rialto beach in Olympic National Park:

Rialto. After Storm
Rialto. After Storm

Stormy Sky

Do you wait for sunny weather, clear skies? I’m waiting for a storm. Lately I’ve been fascinated with stormy skies. There is some wild unruly power in them, something that makes me appreciate the Nature and its rejection of a human will over it.

Rialto Beach, Olympic National Park
Rialto Beach, Olympic National Park

This photo was taken on a rainy, cold and windy day when most people stayed home warming up by a fireplace. Not me. I was out there, trying to capture a beauty of elements.

Do What You Like

Rialto

On one of my trips to the ocean shores of Olympic peninsula at Ruby beach I met an old man who was photographing too. He was very energetic and open. We started talking.

It turned out that he was a professional photographer for many year. His story was both bitter and inspiring. As a professional photographer he spent most of the time photographing things he was not interested in. He did not even mention over our whole conversation what it was.

It was a year since he retired and he finally could start photographing for himself, the things he loved the most – landscapes. He was already on a year long journey, traveling from place to place, capturing the beauty of the Nature. He was finally happy. He drew his energy from the times he was young amateur photographer, open to what the world presented to him.

While I have never been a professional photographer I think I understand him. Just probably as with any other profession once money gets into a picture we start making compromises, that may lead us to completely forgetting why we started doing what we liked in the first place. With my photography I’d prefer photographing what I like and be happy in the process. That’s the place I want to be true to myself.

The Art of… Clean up

Art is not about creativity only. Sometimes you need to do a lot of routine work just because it needs to be done. Such as doing a clean up. My photo archive grew to unmanageable proportions. And for the last two months I’ve been doing clean up: removing technically bad photos, photos about nothing, photos I will never care to do anything about. I’m close to be done, almost 30% of photos deleted in the process.

The positive side of this exercise is that I found some interesting photos that I have not processed before. Here is one of them which I thought is pretty good:

Barn in a Rye Field
Barn in a Rye Field

Getting off a Beaten Path

How much time changes landscape. Last time I visited Zion 7 years ago. Two friends-photographers and me were the only ones photographing at sunrise behind old visitor center. Here is the photo I took that morning: Zion in the Morning.

Just a couple of weeks ago I visited Zion again. This time there were 40 photographers there waiting for sunrise. It looked like a line of people attacking the landscape. I’m glad the popularity of landscape photography grew so much over the years. At the same time I start missing serenity and serendipity of some landscapes.

Nevertheless it was a good thing for me because it forced me to leave that place and go on the search for new places. And I’m glad I did. I found what I think is much stronger composition:

IMG_6062-copy

Till Pitch Black

I was looking thru some old photographs and found this three that I saw as a great illustration of what I like to say about photographing sunset: it is not over until it is pitch black. All three photos were made a top of Hurricane Hill at different times.

The sky was clear. The evening started with sun slowly setting behind mountain peaks. The streaks of sunshine were breaking thru mountain tops, highlighting mist rising from the bottom of valleys.

Sunset on Hurricane Hill

Once the last light of sun vanished the valleys were filled with blue cool tones of shade, while the sky was still deep orange. A few minutes after the moon rose just where the sun disappeared.

Quiet Evening

Later when it got so dark, you could barely see anything deer started gathering at the top against last warm tones of sunset on the horizon.

Deer at Hurricane Hill

Adrian is 5

My son Adrian turned five three days ago. It is a big milestone for him and for his parents. Now he is old enough to participate in family activities. Last summer I took it on a photo trip with me. He has a lot of fun. He had his own camera taking pictures as well as pressing a shutter on my camera.

Here Adrian explains that he took a photo of a beautiful flower on a chilly morning:

DSCF2093

Next year we’ll do several trips like this. Especially, since he expressed specific interest in certain things. Like he wants to see how wheat grows. So, several trips to Palouse will help him to see it.

Fun in the… Moonlight

Light – the basic principal of photography. That’s why so many photographs made during day when we have a lot of sunlight. But photographing at night in moonlight is just as much fun for me (or maybe even more fun).

Night photography is full of surprises. I only have a general idea of a composition since I cannot see as much at night as in sunlight. Then experimenting begins. First, I need to find the right exposure, then find an actually interesting composition. Each attempt lasts for minutes – that how long exposure needs to be.

Then the fun with artificial lights begins. Adding flashes or flashlights to lit up some elements of landscape. There is no limit for creativity, except time.

On my last trip to the Palouse I spent about 5 hours photographing one night, mostly to get this photo. Each exposure was 5 minutes. Once I found exposure I noticed streaks of clouds moving in the sky. I thought it would be cool to align them with the tree, so they coming from behind the tree. Took me about 10 attempts to find that spot. Another hour is gone. Then I started experimenting with two flashlights lighting up the crown of the tree or creating light spots in the field. Eventually I stopped at this image, right around 1am.

Fun in Moonlight

Step out of the Door (part II)

One of the advantages of having a great place to photograph close to my home is that I can always quickly get there. Brooks Jensen – one of the photographers I highly regard – likes to say “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity”. Well, I’m always prepared. All my photo gear is in the car. As soon as I see a great sunset, I hop into my car and take off to those flower fields that I mentioned in the previous post.

Here is one of the lucky moments I think:

Chamomile at Sunset
Chamomile at Sunset