Category: photography

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.

Too Many Eggs in One Basket

I just got back from 3 week vacation and… it is a second time I lost all vacation photos.

First time I lost vacation photos was due to hard drive failure in my laptop close to the end of the vacation. The problem was mechanical, thus recovering disk content was just too expensive ($2000). I had an external drive with me to make backups but never got around to actually do them. From that case I told myself I’m going to do backups every night on my trips.

A few years forward. This time I have done backups to two external hard drives. Both laptop and hard drives as well as some other valuables were in one very important bag – the most important bag, the only bag not to lose. And I lost it in an airport. Later I was contacted by airport authorities that the bag was found and everything but laptop was in it. I have not got the bag back yet and I can only hope that I eventually get it back with hard drives undamaged. But I was not very persistent about backing up to external hard drives every night and thus a lot of photos are lost for sure.

What I have learnt from this? First, backup should be simple and done consistently during a trip. Second, those backups should be placed to different bags to decrease probability of losing all photos as a result of loosing one bag.

What camera should I buy?

I get this question asked a lot “What DSL should I buy?”. I understand why I’m asked this question. I’m a photographer. I must know a lot about cameras and photographic equipment. That’s true I know some but not a lot.

What camera to buy is a question that you and only you can answer. What camera or lenses to buy depends on what you’d like to do with it. It takes some time to learn that. So, my answer is always buy the cheapest. That’s what I did when I started.

I don’t follow what’s current in photographic equipment. Rather than follow the latest trends in cameras and gear I spend time learning history of photography, work by old and contemporary photographers, reading books about photography. It is more satisfying to me and allows me to grow myself, my vision, rather than acquiring more gear.

And if you’re in photography because you are into photographic gear. I’m not the right person to ask for an advice; there are plenty of photography gear magazines and websites out there.

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

Art Fair: My Experience

This year I tried something new – selling canvases with my photographs at art fairs. I’ve been to two art fairs: Kirkland Uncorked and 6th Street in Bellevue. A few weeks passed since the last one. I had time to recover and reflect on this new for me experience.

The Most Important Takeaway

The most important takeaway – my audience. I found more people who like my work and keep in touch with me. Talking to people gave me insights and unusual perspectives on my photography.

Thanks to all who stopped by my booth on either of the art fairs, talked to me, purchased my work – you’re my audience and I love you all.

The Best Encouragement

I got encouraging response to my photo impressionism work. This was very surprising. This is something that I like to do a lot and at the same time I thought people would not accept. Well, I was wrong, people loved it.

The Best Moment

When someone passing by would suddenly freeze seeing my work and in a few seconds after catching a breath slowly say “wow!”.

The Worst Moment

Pouring rain on the first day of the art fair in Kirkland. Everyone simple disappeared from art fair. Staying alone in a booth without anyone even passing by is the worst.

The Funniest Moment

When a woman passing by saw my photo with a boat Stillness and said “I love this image but I’m done with color blue”. Should I have offered it to her in some other color?

Kirkland Uncorked

Last month I have been extremely busy printing a lot of my images preparing for Kirkland Uncorked – an art fair in downtown Kirkland. The art fair is at the end of this week July 15-17.

50 canvases are ready to be hung. Today we did a “dry run” of the art fair. We’ve raised the tent, assembled grid walls, hung a few canvases.

Below is the result of the test. It will be even prettier at the art fair. I hope to see some of you there. I’ll post booth number and location once I have it.

WP_000441

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

Manual

With all the advancements in technology I still find that in a lot of situations it is easier to set exposure and focus manually. It does not mean my camera is broken. The camera simply does not know what I want to photograph. I always have white balance on manual and often use manual focusing. During last trip at some point I’ve also realized that I was fighting with automatic exposure with compensations, and eventually gave up and set it to manual. After that I could do much more and better photographs easier.

This reminds me when back in high school I had completely manual rangefinder camera. Then my parents gave me SLR with a built-in exposure meter as a birthday present. I was relying on it completely… and have not had a single frame with good exposure.

Automatic settings are great for casual photography but when I try to get an image as close as possible to the one in my mind’s eye automatic settings often get in my way.