First Bloom

The first peony blossom opened yesterday - it's one of Grandma Wilk's. Seems fitting for Memorial Day.

To soften the vivid magenta and green and reduce the contrast against the house, I used a Lightroom 3 preset called "Aged Photo" on this shot, and added a vignette and a bit of grain.

Marietta, Ohio

One of the little shops in Harmar Village had unique landscape art - yep, a dozen old bikes hanging from a tree. Only open on weekends, so we didn't get to see what interesting stuff was inside.

I adjusted the color temperature, saturated the blues, increase contrast, sharpened and added a vignette, all in Lightroom 3.

The Brenda Tharp tips are coming, it's been a really busy couple of weeks. I hope it slows down a bit next week.

Composition Tips from Brenda Tharp

Some notes on composition from Brenda Tharp's workshop

Rather than giving us a lesson on composition, she wove the information through the first critique on Friday morning. We each submitted 6 photos taken before the workshop, and she reviewed them with us in a group session. It could have been nerve-racking - putting our work out there for a professional to, basically, tear apart - but Brenda is very thoughtful and direct.

The first thing she zeroed in on was "bulls eying", the tendency we have to put the subject smack in the middle of the frame. It makes for a very static picture. She reminded us about the "rule of thirds", which means dividing the frame into thirds horizontally and vertically, and placing the subject roughly where the lines intersect. She cropped some one's bulls eye shot to follow the rule, and it made a dramatic improvement in the photo. Brenda was adamant about splitting the frame in half, vertically or horizontally, because it just stops the eye. Move the horizon or strong lines out of the center to allow the eye to flow through the photo.

Visual clutter is a bad thing in a photo. It distracts from the subject and makes it hard for the viewer to understand what the photographer wants to convey. She suggest using depth of field to isolate the subject from a busy background. This is one of Chuck's favorite techniques: get the subject really sharp, and blur out the background.

Brenda told us to simply, even in big landscapes. This is something I have a trouble with. My landscape shots are just a mess of everything I see, so there's no real subject to catch your eye.

Another interesting thing she noted is that we generally look at pictures from left to right, top to bottom. It's easier for the viewer if you set up your composition to be "read" that way.

Brenda had more good information on composition, but I think I'll save it for another post.

Brenda Tharp - Thoughts from the Workshop

Brenda is a wonderful teacher - her focus is as much on the art of photography as on technical finesse. She opened the workshop Thursday night with some thoughts on the essence of photography.

She suggested that we practice "daily seeing" - increasing our awareness of light and compostion, noting what would make a good picture, even when we don't have a camera in hand. She asked that we work to clarify our vision, show what excited us about a subject. If it's the dew on a daffodil, compose to highlight the dew. If it's the cheerful abundance of a field a daffodils, use color and depth of field to fill the frame. "What," she asked, "are you trying to express - on the simplest level, what is the picture about?"

I'll post some additional notes from the workshop this week, hoping both to share and to more firmly fix the information in my brain.

For more information about Brenda and her work, visit: http://www.brendatharp.com

Cabela's, Fun but Kinda Creepy

Chuck and I stopped at Cabela's in Triadelphia, WV, yesterday. The place is huge and has every single kind of sporting good anyone could want. It also has a bunch of stuffed dead critters, including things you wouldn't think any one would want to kill, like squirrels, polar bears and otters. And about 400 stuffed deer. Did you know bucks came in "typical" and "not typical". Yep. The "not typical" come with antlers like waterfalls, hands, steroidal cypress knees, and bristlecone pine trees. Who knew? It was a little creepy with all the dead stuff, but I found a breathable waterproof jacket for outdoor (photo) shooting and Chuck found some shorts with pockets for everything but a laptop.

April 25, 2011

Ohio River Panorama

We spent a pleasant day today. We did the factory tour at Fenton Glass in Williamstown, WV, then drove to Parkersburg. Lunched at a nice cafe, The Daily Grind, went to the Blennerhasset Museum, and stopped at Fort Boreman. Tucked in the Museum basement were display cases filled with prehistoric Indian stone tools and weapons, all hand labeled on yellowing paper in old style calligraphy. The labels must have been 70 or so years old. Some one put a lot of time into the history. The second floor had "A Century of Wedding Dresses" and river boat memoribilia - and some very cool old desks, several of which would look good in my house.

The pano was taken from Ft. Boreman on the West Virginia side of the Ohio River. Spectacular view of Belpre and Parkersburg, as well as miles of the Ohio.

Ice Follies

I had to post daffodils today. The weather has been so freaky - cold, windy, stormy, with the tiniest sliver of sun now and then - I just need to see some Spring cheerfulness. These daffs are 'Ice Follies' from my front yard. They bloom light yellow, then turn pure white.

Hard to believe the crocuses are done and gone already. Is it really Spring?

Brr!

Mad Mama

Robins are nesting under the top deck again. I was innocently checking my flowers, and Mama blasted out from under the deck, swearing a blue streak. So I apologized and left. I hope she'll cut me some slack when it's time to weed. Oh, and PS, Mother Nature, rotten weather during the week, not the weekend. There's lawn to be mowed and stuff to be planted!

Finish Every Day

The Emerson quote was posted on Gretchen Rubin's blog, The Happiness Project. I was feeling a little lost, and creatively stuck, and it caught my attention. "Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt, crept in. Forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense." - Ralph Waldo Emerson Photographed the heron at Beaver Marsh in the Cuyahoga Valley. To get the pen and water color look, I used the poster edges filter in PhotoShop Elements 9, then brightened up the color a bit. The text brush was downloaded from the web and the border brush is from Sande Krieger of 2 Peas in a Bucket. She's a really talented digital designer, love her stuff!! A couple of faint drop shadows, and there you go! The font is Calibri, my new favorite sans serif. The sun's shining, and I'm having dinner with Chuck tonight - should be a nice day! Hope yours is, too.

Hot Air Balloon

Ravenna, Ohio attracts hot air ballon enthusiasts. And, lucky me, they occasionally float over my house. This one is from a brilliant day in September, 2010.

It's Not Over Yet...

Last Thursday's snow, thickly coating trees along the railroad tracks. Added a vignette and grain in Lightroom. So cold and so beautiful. March 31, 2011.

Full Moon at Perigee

Just about froze my butt off trying to get this shot - glad I did. Taken from my driveway.

Before & After

Sunset Pond at North Chagrin Reservation (Willoughby Hills, Ohio) has a bunch of feeders outside the visitor center. I went there February 19th after visiting with my brothers at Mom’s, mostly to get a little outdoor solitude. It was the day after Larry died, and I just needed peace. These little guys provided a welcome distraction from the sadness. Chickadees are one of my favorite birds. Pert, bright-eyed, and relatively unafraid of people, their cheerful calls brightened up a tough day.

Here’s the before – the wind ruffled up the feathers on her head, pretty cute.

After cropping, adjusting the white balance, brightening up the exposure, “clarify” (has to be my current favorite tool), sharpening, and some selective sharpening of the beak and feet, here we are:

From blah to sweet! Lightroom is an amazing tool.

Messing With Lightroom

Another photo of one of my childhood treasures – you can see the broken foreleg. This was processed in Lightroom using a few of Matt Kloskowski’s LR presets: classic duotone, medium edge darkening, heavy grain, and bleach bypass. I like the grainy desaturation for this photo – looks good with the coloring and dark points of the figurine.

The Lodge at Geneva on the Lake, B & W

Lightroom 3 has a handy masking tool that, among other things, allows the use of a gradient mask to simulate a polarizing filter. It's used here to make the clouds more dramatic. Sept.8, 2010.