Posts in Category: painterly
Pastoral. Happy Sunday!
Having a new lens to play with is, remotely, like having new eyes. At least it is when the lens is or does something different than lenses you have owned in the past. I have never owned a lens wider than 24mm. Therefore the 12mm (18mm equivalent) ZEISS Touit f2.8 is opening my eyes to new possibilities, and refining my vision of scenes I have captured before. When you add the extra clarity and resolution of the ZEISS lens…the particular crisp, clear ZEISS look…it makes old scenes well worth revisiting.
I have taken this shot before, with several different cameras and lenses, in various seasons of the year. Of course the sky, never exactly the same twice, would be enough to renew the scene, but each photographic rig certainly lends it’s own character. Here it is the Sony NEX 5T and, as above, the ZEISS Touit 12mm f2.8. ISO 100 @ f13 @ 1/200th. Processed for a somewhat natural HDR effect in Snapseed on my tablet.
And for the Sunday Thought: Well it ought to be something about new eyes and renewed vision, don’t you think, all things considered? After all that is part of the promise of Christ…new eyes…renewed vision. A whole new way of seeing the world. I am certainly thinking that this morning…and it is, indeed, one of the things I treasure most about a life of faith in Christ…but mostly I am thinking how easily amused I am. All it takes is a new camera, a new lens, and I am filled with new energy…happy as a boy with a new toy. All that is ill in life (and there is always a great deal that is ill in life, if not in my own, then certainly in the greater life of humanity in a troubled world) falls away while I go out to explore the new possibilities of new gear. I am happy. I am blessed. Such fun!
And I hope my excitement is at a least a bit contagious. I hope some of it got caught up in this pastoral image and that you feel it, behind the peaceful scene, when you look at it. It does not change the ills of the world, either my own or those of the people who really do suffer, but it somehow clears the mind, elevates the soul, puts the ill in perspective against a backdrop of beauty and light that makes it bearable. I can only really speak for myself here…I would not claim it makes the suffering of others any less intense…but for me the excitement, the fun, of finding and sharing beauty (even facilitated by new stuff) is part of the new eyes, the renewed vision that is our gift in Christ.
The Poinsettia that ate the kitchen :-)
So, I was looking through the manual for my Sony NEX 3NL the other day (I know, it diminishes my manliness to admit to looking at the instructions, but I am old enough not to care anymore…when I want to know something I do resort to the manuals!), when I came across the HDR Painting Mode.
What?
Yup, my new camera will automatically produce the over-the-top, over-cooked, surreal, badly done HDR effect…just set it and forget it 🙂 So of course I had to try it. I grabbed the camera and went in search of a suitable subect. It was 5 degrees outside (or something equally dire) so my search was limited to the insides of the house. I found this Poinsettia in the kitchen. I had seen it there before of course. It was there when I got back from my week in Florida, dominating the corner of the kitchen and blocking a good portion of the sliding glass door. As you might expect, it has a story. It was rescued from the Christmas church decorations when it’s time as a decoration was up, and brought home by a family we know. It outgrew their kitchen. They still have kids in the house and need the space, so my wife took it off their hands, rather than seeing it end it’s life at the local landfill. She is kind that way. And besides, our kids are now all exploring life elsewhere, and we do, presumably, have room for a giant Poinsettia in the kitchen.
So I put the camera on HDR Painting Effect and shot the Poinsettia. I tweaked the image somewhat in Snapseed, but this is basically what it looks like…over-the-top, over-cooked, surrealish paintingish. And automatic too! But it is, I think, kind of interesting for all that. I like the crazy mix of colors here (the blue milk carton really makes it), the patterns in the snow and ice left on the deck outside the window, and the texture of the faux-wood floor, and the angles of the chair. It might not work as a photograph…but as an image it maybe has something to say for itself. 🙂
Sony NEX 3NL with 16-50mm zoom. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
I do suppose I will wake one morning to find that it has completely swallowed that corner of the kitchen…but, all things considered, I can’t consign it to an ignoble death by landfill either. 🙂
(And now we return you to your regularly scheduled program of nature photos.)
Fan Palm. Happy Sunday!
For us northerners (or at least for me), there is nothing more emblematic of being in the south-land, in the sub-tropics, in Mediterranean climes, than the Palm tree. I feel it in, say, San Diego, but it is especially evident (again, to me) in the forest understory of fan palms in the dappled winter sun filtered through live oak draped in hanging fern. (Of course, in the Southeastern sub-tropics, there is sweet tea too 🙂
This is an HDR treatment, to emphasize what the light is doing with the palm. Sony NEX 3NL with 16-50mm zoom. 70mm equivalent field of view. ISO 200 @ 1/80th @ f6.3. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
And for the Sunday Thought. I am always reminded, when I see palms, of the Palm Story Sunday, and how much of the visual imagery of the Bible we northerners can so early miss. The land where Jesus walked is Mediterranean, and as he was fully man, it had to have gotten into his thought. It certainly influenced the words and images the Gospel story is told in. How different would the Bible be, not in its essential truths, but in the telling, if it had been written in England…or, say, Maine? Not that it would matter. Still, the imagery of the Bible is an exotic to me, upstate New York born and bred, and New Englander by choice, as the Fan Palms in the understory, in the filtered winter light of a live oak glade.
Snow Geese Rising in a Cloudy Dawn
On every trip to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, you need to plan to be at the Refuge, or at least at the ponds along the road in, before dawn. The Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes rising for the day is one of the classic sights of the Bosque. It is seldom, during November and December, that a dawn does not find the pond dikes lined with photographers, many of them with their huge 600mm lenses and cameras on tripods. The spectical is the same, no matter how you attempt to catch it. This dawn, I happened on a friend, who was part of a photo-workshop, which, itself, was part of the Festival of the Cranes. They had been assigned to try to capture the blurred motion of the Geese as they came up off the water, so I decided to try as well. Actually, in the low light of an overcast dawn, blurred motion was making virtue of necessity…this shot is at ISO 1600, and that was still not fast enough to freeze the beating wings. I like the effect.
Processing for HDR in Snapseed brought a richness to the background colors that would not have been otherwise possible, and almost turns the image to tapestry. Canon SX50HS in Sports Mode. 1200mm equivalent field of view. 1/60th @ f6.5.
Currier and Ives
No. This is not my house. But it such a classic view that I could not resist framing it. So Currier. So Ives. So Currier and Ives. Actually, a little wiki research this morning informs me that Currier and Ives were only the print makers. The New England winter scenes I associate with the name were actually drawn and painted by George H. Durrie, and in the mid to late 1800s, the Currier and Ives catalog of hand colored Lithographs included everything from scenic landscapes to hunting scenes, portraits of prominent Americans, renderings of important moments in American history, and even political cartoons. Anything and everything that the aspiring American housewife of the period might want to hang on the living room wall. Their speciality was sentiment.
And this is certainly a sentimental scene. It has that “over the river and through the wood” look (and quite literally at that :-). It speaks of Thanksgivings and Christmases in simpler times. It is, in fact, more like an idealized painting than a photograph…though I assure you the scene is very real.
Samsung Smart Camera WB800F in Smart Auto. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 using the HDR Scene filter, Ambiance, Shadow, Sharpen, and Structure. It was cropped from the top for composition.
Winter Pond. Happy Sunday!
Except for family shots at Thanksgiving, I had not taken any pictures since getting back from New Mexico…almost two weeks! I admit I was not inspired by the rainy early winter weather in Southern Maine. When we woke, yesterday, to an inch or so of fresh snow, I knew it was time to take the camera and get out. The weather forecast promised sun for later in the day, but at 7 AM, the sky was still closed with the last of the snow clouds. I knew the snow on the trees would not survive more than a few moments of sun, so it was now or never…no time even for breakfast.
I brushed the snow off the car and headed down toward the beach. Here in Southern Maine you never know if there will be snow right at the shore. Often the closer you get to the great heat sink of the ocean, the thinner the snow gets. Not so yesterday. Even right at the shore, the Beach Roses were well coated. After a half hour or so photographing the snowy marsh and beach, I headed down Route 9A to see what else I could find. By now, the clear sky of the cold front was attempting to push the snow clouds out to sea, and the sky was wonder…with dark clouds breaking up, and light breaking through around the edges. There was not enough snow on the ground to keep me from pulling off at what I call Back Creek Pond #2. It has featured in these posts many times before. It is right by the road, but it has the look of somewhere truly wild in every season.
I framed the winter pond every-which-way, but this is one of my favorites…a low angle with enough zoom to get just the narrow end of the pond and a patch of that wonderful sky…with the snow laden trees overhanging the frosted ice. The branch hanging in from the top, far from spoiling the image, adds a vital element to the composition (at least to my eye, there will undoubtedly be those who see it differently).
Samsung Smart Camera WB800F in Smart Auto. ISO 100 @ 1/320th @ f3.9. 50mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 using the HDR Scene filter, some Ambiance and Shadow Control under Tune Image, and both Sharpening and Structure under Detail.
And for the Sunday Thought: Photography, making images, is one of the primary ways I connect with the world around me, and Photography, sharing those images, is one of the primary ways I connect with the larger social world of like minds and kindred spirits…but it is more than that. While I can, in any moment of true consciousness, see through to the spirit that animates the world around me, the spirit I share with all that lives and all that is…when I have a camera in my hand I am, just by the nature of my photographic intention, forced to do so. After all, when all is said and done, that spirit is what I am trying to capture…that spirit that is all in all and is always expressed as beauty…whether in a still winter pond, or a close up of a bird foraging berries, or in the faces of realatives. In that way, the camera is my crutch. With it I walk in a world of wonder where too often I only crawl. And that is okay. I am not at all ashamed of needing a crutch to walk. And, if you will, the camera is also my basket…it allows me to gather and share some of the walking wonder in a world were we all, where all of us, too often only crawl.
To touch the creative spirit of all that is…to share that touch with my fellows…that is what life is…that is what makes life worth living.
And I am thankful for the privilege of doing it, this morning. I am thankful for my crutch…for the camera and tablet and software of my current imaging process. I am thankful for the world of like minds and kindred spirits that I have found on Google+, and Facebook, and Twitter, and in the blog-sphere. But mostly I am thankful for the spirit that is, in however small a way, me in this moment, and that is beauty in all that is. To be part of that beauty. That is what life is…that is what makes life worth living.
So I give you a still pond in winter, with snowy pines overhanging, and light breaking through the heavy sky. Certainly that is enough.
Happy Sunday!
Painted Cascade Falls
I found a program in the Google Play Store the other day called Photo Painter. As the name suggests, it takes a photograph and renders it in various artistic styles…quite a few painting styles, and several sketching styles. You can then apply a realistically rendered 3D frame. I have used a similar program on the laptop called Dynamic Auto Painter. I am still exploring the features of Photo Painter, but the results so far are promising…if you like this kind of thing.
I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, you can produce some nice effects…on the other what you have created is neither a painting or a photograph. At best it is a photograph processed to look something like a painting. “Ah,” you say (or at least I think) “but is it art?”
Then too, I am fresh from an encounter with a software expert for one of the makers of image processing plug-ins, who claimed that he turned his images into paintings using the software he was demonstrating because he was such a bad photographer. He seemed proud of the fact. That is just sad, and I, personally, do not want to go there. I promise I will never try to save an image by processing it as a painting.
This image, however, stands on its own as a photograph (imho). Processing it as a painting does not make it better…only different.
Samsung Smart Camera WB800F in Rich Tone mode. Processed in Snapseed and rendered as a painting in Photo Painter the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
Oh, and it is Cascade Falls in Saco Maine.
And for those who are wondering, here is the image with standard processing.
Atmosphere in Texas
This shot is, of course, all about atmosphere. We were on the King Ranch in South Texas. I was one of the leaders on a birding fieldtrip. We went out onto a section of open grazing lands in search of Spraigs Pipit and grassland Sparrows. It was not long after dawn and the sun, still behind the bank of clouds, was drawing water…which is the highly descriptive term for those streaks in the air. I always try to capture it when I see it, and here it had the sweep of grassland an the line of greenwood along the stream in the distance to set it off. Who could resist?
From a technical standpoint this is a complex image. The drawing water effect is not easy to catch. I started with a 3 exposure in-camera HDR using the Samsung Smart Camera WB800F in Rich Tone mode. The image was better than a standard shot of this very high range scene would have been, but still did not catch the atmosphere. After transferring the image to my Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 I processed it in Snapseed using the HDR Scene filter and a combination of Ambiance and Shadow in Tune Image, along with some Sharpen and Structure in Details. That brought it closer but still…
I had some time on a flight from Newark to Denver yesterday so I opened the image again in Photo Editor, a very capable image processor for Android that few seem to know about (the lame name does not help:-). Photo Editor allows you to apply color effects…brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, temperature, etc…to the whole scene or to any shape drawn on the scene…or you can brush the effect on just where you want it. The brush is particularly effective with the Note’s stylus. I used a shape to adjust the color balance of the grasses, which were too blue in the original, and then various brushes to adjust saturation and contrast in the belt of trees. I also used a Clone brush to treat an area of the clouds right in front of the sun which had completely burned out even with the HDR treatment. Then I applied some local area contrast (fine detail enhansement) using the Unsharp Mask tool on just the grasses. Finally I applied a some light noise reduction to the whole image. (I told you, Photo Editor is amazing.)
It is still not a perfect image, but it comes close to catching the drawing water effect…and it was fun!
The View from the Marriott Long Island
I am working the NY State Ornithological Society Meeting, held this year at the Marriott Convention Center in Uniondale on Long Island. They put me on the 7th floor with a window that overlooks this view at the end of rainy, blustery day. And, wonder of wonders, the Marriott has windows that actually open…just enough to get the just the tip of the lens of my Samsung Smart Camera WB800F out the crack (and it is a very small lens). The tapestry of Autumn color under the sunset sky was too good to miss.
Camera as above. In Rich Tone mode (in-camera HDR). Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014, using the new HDR scene effect, some Ambiance, Sharpening and Structure. I then opened the image in Photo Editor and applied some Perspective correction to pull the buildings more or less upright. The overall result is a bit painterly but, I think, interesting.
Forest Alchemy. Forest Abstract.
The acidic standing water in a wet Maine forest of mixed hardwoods and softwoods bleached the color out of the leaves of the past years, while a single red berry and a few of this year’s leaves provide vivid contrast. It has the look of an intentional work of art…but it is totally “found”…just as the natural processes of the forest made it.
All I had to do was to provided the frame. Found along the boardwalk through the forest on the way into Saco Heath.
Samsung Smart Camera WB800F in Rich Tone mode. Processed in Snapseed on the Nexus 7.