Category: photo

Step Out of the Door

Sometime all it takes to get a nice photo is to step out of your door.

I live in an area that had a lot of construction sites in hey days of housing bubble. When recession started a lot of them were abandoned. In just a couple of years nature reclaimed them and turned them into meadows with a beautiful display of wild flowers. There are lots and lots of different kinds of flowers. What’s interesting is that every year there is a predominant flower. This year is a year of lupines.

Now I don’t need to drive or fly far away – it takes only 5 minutes to get into a wild flower meadow. I guess there is something good about recession after all.

Not Like Others
Not Like Others

Naïve and Romantic

Recently I got a link to a somewhat interesting article Preparation In Fine Art Landscape Photography. While I found it interesting (I do myself lots of the things listed in the article and find them useful), at the same time I thought it is too simplistic and pragmatic.

The most important thing I do in the field is missing from the article’s list: connecting with a landscape. Before I even take my camera out of a bag I spend time observing landscape that surround me – from tiny flowers to tall mountains to high sky up above. What’s interesting in it, how do I feel about it, is it a happy place or a sad place, is it powerful or weak? I spend as much time as I need to feel the things that surround me, walking around or simply sitting. I may even close my eyes and focus on scents or sounds of birds singing or waves crashing onto the shore. Can you imagine that – a photographer with his eyes closed?

Call me naïve and romantic – because quite frankly that who I am – but when I photograph I don’t follow any specific list of steps, I follow my emotions.

Two Trees on a Hill at Sunset
Two Trees on a Hill at Sunset

Riding in the Storm

I admire stormy skies. There is just so much energy, power, emotions in it. Sometimes I just take pictures of such skies. On my last trip to California I saw just that kind of skies, when you can actually see a storm front with a blue sky on one side and wild darkness on the other.

Riding in the Storm

Zen

The question that I here the most is where do I get an inspiration. The answer is simple – I don’t get it, I wait for it.

When I’m on a photo trip I start photographing without inspiration, even without clear goal in my mind. I’m photographing and waiting; waiting for that one image after which everything becomes clear. Suddenly, my mind and my soul opens up to the world. I start seeing everything differently. The world becomes part of me and I become part of it.

Here is that photo from my last trip to California. After it I started seeing beyond flowers; seeing lines shapes and light.

California Poppy

What if that doesn’t happen, you may ask. Well, that means I was not in tune with the world was around me. Maybe next time or next place.

In a Flower Field

Remember the times when we were kids and it was so much fun to run into the middle of a flower field and lye down on your back and look into the sky? I remember it.

The same works very well in photography too: get down to the ground, to flower level and feel the connection. Look at the flowers, breath flower scent filled air, listen to the field.

In the morning the ground is cold and the air is fresh. Dew drops are covering flowers that are still asleep. Air is filled with birds singing.

In a Flower Field

As the sun gets higher it gets warmer. Flowers open up and flies wake up. Buzzing is all around.

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When it gets closer to the dusk the field goes to sleep. It gets quieter and quieter. Flowers close up. Only lonely crickets disturb the stillness.

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Photography Starts on a Plane

When I go on a photo trip, my photography starts on a plane. I take my camera out of a bag and start photographing thru airplane window. It is a great way way to jump start my creativity, get into photographic mindset. And sometimes I also get some interesting photographs. Here is a couple of photos I took from the plane on my last trip:

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The way the Nature meant to be

Sometimes you can find inspiration where you least expected. My inspiration today was coming from my four year old son. On his third birthday we gave him a point-n-shoot camera as a present. Since then he has been photographing his day-to-day life – people and things that surround him.

Today was a beautiful warm spring day. I offered him to go to botanical garden to photograph flowers. He happily agreed. On the way there he was photographing all kind of ordinary things that we got used to: “Lake!” – click, click, click, “Boat!” – click, click, click, “Puffy cloud!” – click, click, click.

Then we walked the paths of botanical garden taking photographs of flowers. He saw a mom with a son about his age and asked me:

– Why they were not photographing trees and flowers.

– Maybe they did not know how. – I told him.

– It can’t be. – He said and I asked him why.

His answer was:

– Because that’s the way the Nature meant to be.

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I envy him, I envy his ability to see extraordinary in ordinary, I envy the voyage of discovery he is going thru. He teaches me to see the world around, see thru his eyes, see it in an awe inspiring way.

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Here is today thru my son’s eyes:

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Taking a Risk

As I mentioned in the previous post I’ve recently visited Palouse during winter time. I watched for this opportunity for a while. Everything seemed to fit this time. But the day before I left for a trip I checked road conditions and they were icy. One city – Spokane – alone saw more than 200 car accidents as a result of cars sliding down hills on icy road. And what Palouse is famous for? Right, hills!

That made me consider staying home instead. But my photo-biological clock was set already. I woke up at 2 am – the time I planned to leave to get there for sunrise. I thought it might be a sign that I should go. And I went. Turned out that the roads cleared up and driving was as safe as it could be. I finally could see Palouse in white – what a pleasure.

The morale of the story: sometime it is worth taking a risk. And be safe on your next trip!

Road to Steptoe Butte
Road to Steptoe Butte

Palouse in White

Winter Sunrise in Palouse

I’ve dreamt of seeing Palouse in white for several years but every winter when it was snowing in Palouse there was a snow storm at mountain summits that I would need to cross to get to Palouse and those summits would be closed. Finally, this year I caught a forecast of snow in Palouse while it was not snowing at all on the west coast of the state of Washington. This meant that I would have an opportunity to get there.

There was only one day on the forecast between snow and rain with possibility of sunshine. That’s the day I wanted to be there.

I woke up at 2am, checked driving conditions, put clothe on, re-checked equipment and took off for a long drive to Palouse. Four and a half hours later I was standing on Steptoe Butte looking at Palouse in white. I was there just in time for a gorgeous sunrise. It was like a Christmas dream come true.

Hand Waving

Photographer’s hand is a very useful tool. And it is useful not only for pressing a shutter button. It can also be used to create a shade for lenses to avoid lens flare. Or it can be used to block out sun that gets into a corner of a frame.

It can also be used as a gradient neutral density filter. With a long expose you can simply block out part of the frame for some time to reduce amount of light that gets into the frame. That’s exactly what I did when I took the photo below. While composing it I put my hand in front of a lens to cover sky down to horizon and took a note of how “deep” my hand should go to cover the sky. I pressed the shutter and started waving my hand in front of the lens, so my hand is not recorded but it blocked out enough light to produce dark moody sky.

Sure I could actually use gradient neutral density filter but it would not be so much fun. At some point I understood that photographer is a human and can carry only so much weight on his back. I started lightening up my backpack, gradient neutral density filters were one of the things that went away. In some way it actually made photography more interesting to me as I would spend less time unpacking my gadgets and preparing for a shot and spend more time seeing and connecting with a scene.

Kauai. Early Morning. Storm is comingKauai. Early Morning. Storm is coming