Look Closer: Sandhill AbstractPosted by drfl on October 17th, 2011

Completely overcast and rainy conditions can present real challenges for landscape photography.  Often, photographers get caught up in the idea that successful landscape photography must be captured with a wide-angle lens.  Some of the most successful images, however, are captured with long lenses.  This image was captured with a 300mm lens coupled with a 1.4 teleconverter on a Canon 50D.  That’s long for a landscape!  I really wanted to isolate the abstract nature of the intense red and orange colors of the prairie grass that were emerged during the rain.  While I was initially bummed by the rainy conditions, I wouldn’t have seen these colors without it and if it had been sunny, the colors would be contrasty and hard to capture.  I found that when I looked closer I could find a more intimate and abstract landscape that I might not have seen otherwise.

Technical Details:
Canon 50D, 300 f/4l + 1.4tc, f/7.1, 1/250 sec.
Cherry County, Nebraska

Also, I wanted to mention that if you have not “liked” me on Facebook, please do by following the link below. I will be adding some unique information, events and deals there in the future.

http://www.facebook.com/JourneyOfLightPhotography

Photo Friday: Happy Arbor Day!Posted by drfl on April 29th, 2011

Happy Arbor Day!

A little bit about Arbor Day from Wikipedia:

Arbor Day (from the Latin arbor, meaning tree) is a holiday in which individuals and groups are encouraged to plant and care for trees. It originated in Nebraska City, Nebraska during 1872 by J. Sterling Morton. The first Arbor Day was held on April 10, 1872, and an estimated 1 million trees were planted that day. The national holiday is celebrated every year on the last Friday in April; in Nebraska, it is a civic holiday. Each state celebrates its own state holiday. The customary observance is to plant a tree.

Arbor Day Lodge State Park is one of my favorite state parks in my home state and every fall I try to make it down to Nebraska City for Apples and to see the large variety of trees transform to their autumn dress. Today’s photograph was taken last fall at Arbor Day Lodge State Park under a beautifully changed Maple tree.

Technical Details:
Canon 50D, 50 CM, f/7.1, 1/100 sec.
Arbor Day Lodge State Park, Nebraska

Photo Friday: A Look at Silver Efex Pro 2 (Mini-Review)Posted by drfl on March 18th, 2011

In addition to my normal Photo Friday image, today I’m going to do a mini-review of Silver Efex Pro 2 by Nik Software.  Having used Silver Efex in the past, I became quite a fan of the engine and options behind the filter.  Besides giving me some granular control over the image, I was able to modify items such as film grain, structure, color filters, and contrast with ease which helped take my black and white conversions to the next level.  Silver Efex Pro 2 takes all of this and adds even more.  All the same stuff is there, but now they have added fine structure, soft contrast, image borders, the ability to amplify both the whites and blacks, and a feature for selective color.  The normal presets are still there with the ability to set your own and export and import them.  This is great because if you develop a “look” and want a team of people to have access, it can be readily available.  One last item to note, the software seems faster to me than the previous version.  While version 1 wasn’t a slouch, I am impressed by how quickly it rendered the output.  The only nit I found was that when changing presents, sometimes I had to click on the image to get it to update.  Not a huge problem, but it was somewhat annoying, initially.

Last week I photographed a duck feather I found with my daughter and I thought it the perfect opportunity to put the software through a test.  Below are some of the looks I created with Silver Efex Pro 2.  Mind you, this is only scratching the surface, but it can create some wildly varied output. See the examples after the jump.

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Photo Friday: From Wind and SnowPosted by drfl on February 11th, 2011

Today’s Photo Friday post is another view of the snow drifts from last week, in Black and White, but instead of using the Tilt/Shift function to increase my DOF, I used it to narrow my vertical DOF causing a sharp center, following the patterns of the drifts and losing focus to the left and right. This photo also exhibits the wedge-shaped DOF phenomenon, being smaller at the beginning and fanning out as distance increases.  Cool to be able to do this all in-camera!

Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 24 f/3.5L II TS-E, f/3.5, 1/100 sec., Tilted for minimum DOF, vertically
Chalco Hills Recreation Area, Nebraska

Photo Friday: Drifts of Cold (In Black and White, Too!)Posted by drfl on February 4th, 2011

As promised earlier for this year, I am actively capturing images to convert to Black and White.  Today’s is a double whammy because I also took it using my tilt-shift lens. As I mentioned last week, the 24 TS-E f/3.5L is sharp.  Did I mention it’s sharp and it’s a workhorse?  Nothing tests equipment better than subjecting it to negative degree days (Fahrenheit) with strong winds across an open stretch of nothingness.  For today’s image, I am including the color version as well, as I like them both.  This image was taken two days ago in the frigid cold on Wehrspann Lake in eastern Nebraska.  The strong winds had created some great patterns and contrasts in the recently fallen snow.  If you like, tell me which you prefer.

Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 24mm TS-E f/3.5L, f/11, 1/13 sec.
The Black and White was converted using Nik Silver Efex Pro
Chalco Hills Recreation Area, Nebraska

11 Necessities in Building A Photography BusinessPosted by drfl on January 26th, 2011

I would venture to say 99% of people who start in off in the photography business believe it’s all shooting, technique, and fun!. Sure, maybe there will be a little digital darkroom work, but that’s fun too, right?!

Coming from a fairly entrepreneurial family and having worked on building other businesses, I knew there would be more to it than the shooting and I even knew some of what I would need to do to get the business side done, but I didn’t realize everything I had to do. I’ve had my share of bruises and setbacks, but year after year I keep doing this and year after year my business grows. So today I’m going outline 11 things to keep in mind about what I’ve learned to keep up the business side of photography. Some of it may surprise, other may not, but let’s dive in.

1. Taxes, taxes, taxes! That’s right, if you’re in any kind of business, you must pay taxes. Some businesses go a long time without paying taxes on their income. I’m not advocating this in the least, but it will catch up with you. I just sent in my Nebraska Sales Tax form so it’s at the top of my mind. Oh, that brings up another point, be sure to understand the tax laws in your state. For instance, if I deliver photography to someone in Nebraska physically – i.e. on disk or print, I must collect Sales Tax. If I email it, i.e. for stock, then I do not have to collect.
2. Get a fax number. What? Fax – that’s so 1985! Well, it is, but I have to get forms with signatures faxed all the time. Email is not secure and most people do not know how to secure these forms. It’s ironic, but faxing is actually more secure and more accessible to several businesses. I choose to have a fax to email capability so that I can receive faxes (Such as a Nebraska Resale License – Form 13 – see above) and have them emailed to me.

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