41 Destination: unknown ... let's name it

Let's take a journey together ... to a place not only of sight and sound but of mind.  A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination.  That's a signpost up ahead.  Destination: ... ummm ... crap!  I don't know the name.  Ok, let's pick a new name for this twisted car wreck I call a blog.

photopoema

Poema is latin for poem (oh, gee, really!?!).   This is one of those names that sounds cute but you can never remember it.  Ummmm ... was that photopopo ... or, uhh ... photopoma ...grrr ... no, I know ... photo-dodo after the dufus that thought of it.  Forget it, let's just go visit PixelatedImage.

glen goffin photography

Now that's cutting edge!  Nonetheless ... my leading candidate.  At least it perfectly captures my complete lack of imagination.  "Yeah, mom, I would've used a cutting edge name but they kept confiscating it at the airport."

stinky fish photography

Brilliant!  And by brilliant, I mean lame.   So why do I like it?  Wait, don't answer that.

So I tried to find an English to Gaelic translator because Gaelic is just sooo cool.   So many vowels and stuff.  I like that arthurian faery woodsy vibe.  Hmmm ...

Ok, so what are the goals for this new name ...

1. fun

2. creative (aka. fresh)

3. memorable

4. distinct 

5. makes people think you know what you're doing

6. looks impressive on business cards

7. makes your mom say ... oh, son, I'm so proud of you

8. sorts first alphabetically ... just kidding ... that doesn't work anymore

9. still available - this is the toughest one

Oh, about this photo.  I was at our local high school picnic and the kids were bouncing around in the inflatable bouncy thingies.  This little girl was drawn straight to my camera.  Her face is only inches away from my lens here, that's why the DoF is so narrow.  I tried my best to get her eyes in focus but that left the netting and even HER EYEBROWS out of focus.  Now that's narrow!  And this was at f/4.   Just goes to show that focal distance is as much a factor as f-stop.  

I did a little dodge/burn on her eyes and teeth and I'm still working on skin tones.   Skin tone was a killer.  I tried many different approaches.  In this, I used a PS action from Night Fate (#62-5) that I loaded from Deviant Art.

And to quote one of my favorite commercials ... oh, Miss Foster! ... my daughter loooves your art class!  

Peace and joy,

Glen

40 How much color or ... "Desaturated Dreams" or ... less is more

This image is a perfect example of the dilemma I face these days.  Being a relative newbie (in a middle-bie body), I struggle with very basic issues right now and this image demonstrates my clear lack of tokens for the clue bus heading to ...

how much STINKING COLOR - ville !!?!

Of course, it's the choices we make that define who we are as artists ... yeah, yeah ... and I should always wear clean underwear in case I get hit by a car.  I  know, mom, I know.   

It is Kathleen Connally's work (see the last post or go here) that has me really thinking about this.  As I continue to study her work and shamelessly copy elements of it, I realize that it varies in it's level of saturatedness (saturation being such a boring word).  The pieces I like most, however, come across as rich and full but somewhat desaturated.   My head is trying to wrap itself around this magic spot where less is more in photography.  Where pulling color out ends up releasing richness and vibrancy.  

I think color is often used to mask other problems.  It's like ... hey, this is a picture of a dead leaf ...  but if I crank up the color it kindof grabs your attention.  Sortof like ambulance flashers at a crash scene.

I think it's more like salt ... too much is nasty and too little is bland.  But the only measure for the right amount is ... well ...  'a dash'.  Ok, I guess I'm still figuring out what a dash of color means in photography.  I know that the image above is too much.  I guess I'll just have to keep tasting till I like it :)

Love and peace,

Glen

39 Kathleen Connally - A study in light

Ok, I'm infatuated again. This time with a woman named Kathleen Connally ... or rather ... her photography, that is.

A couple of posts ago I wrote my opinions on the difference between good photography and great photography and about how great photography won't let you go. It's borders are secure and, once inside, you don't want to leave. Captivating ... taken captive ... captured

Well ... I've been captured and, if you dare, go here. But remember that you were warned.

So what is it about her work?

1. Light - She likes to shoot on overcast or foggy days

2. Light - She likes diffuse light for the most part

3. Light - She likes the subject to glow

4. Sharp - she has a very steady hand indeed!

5. Almost 3D quality - I think it is her beautiful 85mm f/1.2 and her Canon 5D that have an almost magic quality. So much so, that I've begun reconsidering my Nikon friends! But she is by no means limited to that 85mm lens! Graciously, she describes each photograph and the lens and processing she uses. I have scheduled much study time :))

6. Wonderful choice of models and subjects - Her children, her family, her pets, her farm ... all are adorable and captivating subjects. In fact, she has dedicated her blog to her township and she calls it ... "A Walk Through Durham Township".

7. Gentleness - For the most part, her images are very understated. Desaturated more than saturated but perfectly so. You know that spot where the colors pop even though they have been pulled down? It's that 'magic spot' where the image comes to life. This is her gift. Finding that spot.

Please, you must go visit. But promise to come back ... even though you won't want to!!

Peace and blessings,
Glen

27 The sweet smell of magnolias

It's spring ... and not a moment too soon >.<>

Here's another ;)

So gentle and lovely. And the miniature magnolia that we have only grows a few inches a year. Very bonsai in it's attitude really. The feng shui of trees I guess.

Those of you with a keen eye (and that's all of you, of course) will spot that I moved the tint a little toward yellow to warm it up a bit while still trying to keep it close to white. What do you think? I only used LightRoom (demo) for image adjustments on these. Didn't even go into PS. They could use some dodge/burn in the petals and someday I may go in and finlaize them. I have a feeling I'll be finding some other shots more worth the time ... hehe.

We also have another of my most favoritest of trees ... the cherokee chief dogwood. But that hasn't bloomed yet. I'll post again when it does :)))

I wish this post was smellovision but alas, you'll have to imagine it yourself. Fresh and clean with a hint of sweetness ... mmmm

Here's another flower from the same tree. This guy had a tougher go with the rain today but he'll bounce back.

Hope this brightened your day ;D

Peace, my friends

Glen

24 True HDR ... can be brittle

This picture of some trees in Nockamixon Park seems to me to be dry and brittle. My goal was to get the image to closely represent what I "saw" when I took it. What I saw wasn't really what was there .. it was my impression of what was there. I used bracketing on my D80 with a 2EV bracket spacing and shot this handheld. I always set everything manually and generally use center-weighted metering but I use it like spot metering by metering the highlights and shadows separately. I've been shooting RAW (NEF) almost always and occasionally checking histograms in odd lighting situations. I've selected Adobe RGB color space since it seems to be the least compressed.

Sometimes you have to take some steps backward before you move forward ;D That let's you see the bigger picture ... then you can move forward and focus on the really interesting things ..xxx

I'm in the 'few steps backward' phase right now. Learning new tools and techniques. Seeing what they can do ... yada yada. Hopefully I'll be a better photographer in the end ;D

If anyone has fave HDR compositing tools ... please drop me a note with your recommendation!!! Photomatix seems to be the one I come back to. I tried compositing with Photoshop and realized that there was slight rotation in the images (they were handheld) and finding the rotation point was nearly impossible. :DDD What I don't like about Photomatix is that it doesn't seem to let you select the blend styles or percentages for each layer. It does however provide some nice tone mapping controls.

With Photomatix, the initial HDR compositing is performed on the source images and any special processing selections that were made such as 'remove chromatic aberrations' are done as one big batch process. The final composited image is then presented to you. At that point, you can select whether you want to perform tone mapping or not. The tonemapping module seems to be pretty powerful but not entirely intuitive. More on that later when I figure it out better :)

When Photomatix was done with this image ... it was much too heavy! You know what I mean, don't you!?! That over-processed look. I'll attach it when I convert it to JPEG. So I had to blend it back together with the original image that had a lighter, airier feel in PS.

Peace,
Glen