Line and Color

This was taken at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson, Kansas.  I liked the contrast between straight line and curve, orange and silver...

Here We Go...

I figure what better way to get into the habit of posting than to start posting a photo (or set of photos) a day.  So, here we go...  This was taken in January 2009 while driving through Red Rock Canyon outside of Las Vegas.

Gone, But Not Far Away

I'm back.  But, I'm not.  I never really left.  It's been in my mind, off and on, to pick back up again...   I realize now that I fell into a rut, that I tried to do what's been done, that I tried to have a blog that should look like a blog or be what I thought a blog should be...  Instead, moving forward, I'm going to just share a random thought or two about photography, share a few of my photos, and have some fun...

In A Funk

I'm back.  Actually, I never left.  But I have been in a funk.  Questioning myself, my abilities.  Working too much during a glorious summer.  Need to regroup, regain focus, start shooting again.  Don't worry about the work of others.  This isn't a competition.  I'll never be a Moose Peterson or a Joe McNally.  But I can be the best Kevin Schaffer that I can be...

To 'Shop or Not To 'Shop?

I’m having a bit of a crisis, mentally, that started slowly has picked up steam in the last few weeks.  A couple of years ago I bought my first DSLR, the Nikon D40, their entry level model at the time.  No great wonder of technology, but a step up from my Olympus digital camera I was dragging around at the time.  Right out the box I got better snapshots.  Not pictures, snapshots.  I had no idea what I was doing.  Set it on “Auto” and started firing away…

Let me back up one step.  A few years before that, soon after getting my Olympus as a birthday present (October 2006, 2005?), I picked up a copy of Photoshop Elements (v. 1, which gives you an idea of how long ago that was).  I toyed with it now and then, did a couple of interesting things, but – always – you could tell immediately that the photo had been digitally manipulated.  Still, it was a fun to play around with on a rainy day…

Back to the recent now.  I started reading about DSLRs, a lot.  Of course I read about my D40.  I started experimenting with Exposure Compensation, changing White Balance, using “P” or “Aperture Priority” mode instead of “Auto.”  I bought a circular polarizing filter.  My snapshots got better, and occasionally through trial-and-error, luck, whatever you call it, I would get a photo that I liked enough to share with other people.  The more I shot, the more I learned.  Hundreds (hell, thousands) of mistakes were made.  But, with each outing, I would come back with more “good”, or “o.k.” shots and less flat out worthless crap. 

I picked up a few books, read them thoroughly and repeatedly, tried things covered in them.  I started following half a dozen or so photography blogs, as mentioned in a previous post (these blogs are listed on the right hand side of this blog).  I read, learned, got simultaneously inspired and intimidated. 

And then it happened.  I was reading a blog entry of one of my favorite photographers.  At the top of the post was a photo of a lighthouse in the fog, with a beautiful beam of light projecting from the tower into the dark. Simple, stark, absolutely beautiful.  Then I got to the part of the post where the photographer described, step by step, how they added the beam of light using Photoshop during post processing.  What???

Now, I know during the days of film and darkrooms in the basement photographers burned, dodged, exposed, etc., and that – technically – what is the difference between that and using Photoshop to manipulate an image? 

Except, in my eyes, there is a difference.  A film photographer may have exposed and tweaked and tweaked, but he didn’t have the ability to drop in a beam of light coming out of a lighthouse.  Or to take a picture of a road winding through the autumn woods of Vermont and then “add some black to the pavement to punch up the contrast.” 

Or, do I just need to stop whining and pick up a copy Photoshop CS5?  And a new laptop with enough memory?  And a Wacom tablet?  And Lightroom?  And Nik ColorFX?  And Photomatix?  And………

Light Posts of Cheyenne

I was in Cheyenne, Wyoming last week on a work related trip.  Of course I brought my camera along.  Although I wasn’t able to spend as much time as I had hoped exploring the city (I was stuck inside until after 5 pm each day, and the sun set at 6:30 or so), I did manage to see a little bit of Cheyenne.  Fortunately, my hotel was located in the Historic Downtown Area.  Although much of this area has been lost to time and redevelopment, there was one thing that caught my eye.  The light posts.  I became obsessed with them.  Be it the single light post, or the clusters of five, I spent quite a bit of time – and burned through quite a few frames – trying to get a few shots that I liked.  These, along with a brief explanation of what I was trying to achieve, are the best of the lot…

This one was in front of an old building near the railroad yard.  I liked how the fall leaves seemed to match the brick exterior of the building, and the light post was icing on the cake…

Same light post, same building, different perspective.  I underexposed one step to emphasis the feel of late evening light…

This cluster of lights was in front of the train depot.  I liked how two lights were on, three off, and how the brick exterior of the building glowed in background from the fading evening light…

Same cluster of lights.  I moved to the left a few feet so that I could frame them against the clean background of the clear sky…

This was the shot I spent the most time on.  Obviously, I was trying to get the moon in focus with the light post in the foreground.  Not a great shot, but it has the mood I was looking for…

Another Day, Another Hike, Another Chance To Snap Away

Another autumn Saturday, perfect for a hike.  Last week’s adventure at Eklutna Lake had looked to be the last of the season, but the weather held – depending on which direction one ventured – long enough for another outing…  I say depending on which direction, because I first headed south in search of adventure, only to encounter heavy rain and blowing wind along Turnagain Arm.  After driving 25 miles with no sign of the weather letting up, I turned tail and headed back north, stopping long enough to take a few shots.  I pulled out my polarizing filter to try to get this rainbow to really “pop”…

I kept driving north and ended up at the Eagle River Nature Center, and soon lit out on the Historic Iditarod Trail.  The sun was out, so I left my polarizing filter on.  Soon a piece of birch bark caught my eye, as it reminded me of a flag waving in the wind, backlit by the sun…

Further along, the clouds moved in front of the sun, the mostly barren trees grew closer together, and I envisioned a black and white scene, like the background of a Bev Doolittle in total grayscale…

Not the best rendition of a black and white scene – by far – but some thing to think about and experiment with more in the future.  

The mountain ridge on the right was lit beautifully as the sun peeked through the clouds, and I tried to capture the dramatic light.  For this shot I underexposed two stops, and turned my polarizer until the sun’s glare on the rocks softened.

Then I concentrated on the section of the ridge to the left, trying to capture blowing snow and the sun’s glow.

On the way out several spruce grouse were spotted.  Since I had left my carrying case of filters in the car (including my clear UV filters), I still had my polarizing filter on.  The reason for this is that I didn’t want to be tromping around the woods without a protective piece of glass between my lens and the elements.  This resulted in losing a stop or two of light, so the ISO went up as I tried to freeze the bird against a rocky, drab background.  I got one shot that I think shows the similarity between the bird’s natural camouflage and its surroundings… 

And I learned a valuable lesson (and felt like a rookie at the same time) – don’t assume that the weather will cooperate.  As soon as the sun disappeared for the day – especially considering that the remaining foliage wasn’t saturated with fresh rain – the polarizer should have come off, to be replaced with a clear, protective filter.

Lastly, I got a couple of shots of a squirrel packing on weight for the winter.

Not my most productive day ever photographically (I don’t think that I got a single “keeper” shot the whole day), but a few lessons were learned that will hopefully push me one step closer to being a better photographer.