Embrace Your Conditions: From Another WorldPosted by drfl on October 13th, 2011

As I mentioned yesterday, for the next few blog posts, with the exception of the Photo Fridays, I will be presenting a photograph and then giving a little background on how I was either able to create the photograph or what I did that made the photograph different or better.

For landscape photography I generally want partly to mostly cloudy conditions with some dynamic light. Unfortunately, on my recent trip to extreme Northwestern Nebraska, I had clear skies on a couple of the days. Rural Nebraska, however, has very little light pollution and makes for great night photography. Instead of not shooting, I embraced my conditions and I took the oppotunity of having these clear skies to capture the Milky Way rising from Toadstool Park. It made me feel like I was standing on the moon!

Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 17-40 f/4l @ 17mm, f/4l, 30 sec.
Toadstool Geologic Park, Nebraska

5 Arguments Against “Is That REALLY How You Saw It?” – #1: Are You Empathic?Posted by admin on June 11th, 2010

The best photographs are the ones that evoke emotions from the viewers.  No emotion, no connection.  The problem with photography is that it strips all the other senses from the image, leaving it a decidedly one sense experience.  No smell of the fragrance of flowers, no feeling of the wind whipping around one’s body, no evidence of the sound of water lapping at one’s feet.  As humans, we rely on all our senses to help build a scene, and as we experience the events unfolding before us, we develop emotions related to these events.  As photographers, we are in the thick, capturing images, all the while feeling these emotions.  The camera strips it all, except for sight.  As artists we must become cognizant of not only our feelings, but how to portray them within this confinement.  We must build the serenity, the joy, the sorrow, all the feelings that the scene invokes in us, into the image. 

Going back to the question posed for the week, “Is that REALLY how you saw it?”.  Perhaps, but the better question is, “Is that REALLY how you experienced it?”  Our experiences are what needs to be transposed to print, not just a stale, static scene.

At the beginning of the week I promised I would address how I feel the best way to handle the objections from viewers that question the validity of images.  Simple, I tell them “That is how I experienced it!”  If we can give our viewers even a glimpse into our emotions, our mind, then we have succeeded wholly as artists and that is the only answer that is needed.

Mass Believability? - 1 That must of have been an electrifying unreal experience!

Technical Details:
Canon 20D, 70-200 f/4l @ 91mm, f/5, 3.1 sec.
Omaha, Nebraska

Photo Friday: StargazerPosted by drfl on April 9th, 2010

Today’s image was taken last summer at (and of) my brother-in-law’s cabin in central(ish) Nebraska. I haven’t done much night photography, but since the sky in that area of the country is so clear and it was a moonless night, I had to give it a go. It’s been a while since I’ve posted a Photo Friday and indeed, my blog posts have been fairly lean recently. In the immortal and often-quoted words of John Lennon, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 17-40 f/4l @ 17mm, f/4, 30 sec.
Near Cedar Rapids, Nebraska