I'm sure it's aliens.

The Carrots and the Mushrooms are related

Last week I posted a story about a perfect circle of mushrooms growing on my front lawn. I juxtaposed a link to a story I did a year and a half ago about a giant pile of carrots in a neighbour's field. I could give you the link again but this being Blogger, and Blogger being owned by Google, you know that you can search for that article by simply typing a word or two into the search box at right.

However my old friend Gary must have been sitting with his fingers poised over the keyboard, because he immediately sent me a response with a logical explanation. And no surprise to me, there is a connection.

The mushroom thing is called a "Fairy Ring". And I quote from the Wikipedia article: "Long-term observations of fairy rings on Shillingstone Hill, England, further suggested that the cycle depended on the continuous presence of rabbits." I rest my case. Definitely aliens. Do not venture onto my lawn at Hallowe'en.

The Photography.to site has been updated.

If you're looking for a workshop or a mini-tour in the Highlands, the details are now there. The pages describing the workshops have been updated (one more to do as I write this).  I've even posted a calendar of scheduled courses. And there's some news on the main page that's still a little premature... see if you can find it! 

Here's the link: photography.to

Work the Scene

Remember last week I wrote about "working the scene"? Actually I've written about it before and I admit stealing the phrase from Kelby who used it in a seminar last year. When he said it, he meant to not give up when you can't seem to find that picture you stopped to make; to me it means a bit more: even if you do get your planned image, look around you. There are lots more to be made there. 

I rode my ATV over to the white water with the specific intention of taking a long exposure shot with the ND filter. Since it was a bright sunny day, I knew that an HDR would work better, so that's what I set up to shoot. I published the resulting image last week. But while I was there, I looked around to see what else I could shoot. 

This wildflower was behind me. I liked the juxtaposition of the two flora and the way I could isolate both against the dark background.  

There were a few kayakers playing in the whitewater. I've shot literally thousands of kayak shots and I find them somehow rather compelling. I really like this composition...

Here's another long exposure (2 seconds) of the whitewater, cropped as a pano. Not an HDR, toned in Topaz Adjust.  I really like the textured water.

So I went for one shot and came away with four that I liked. 

Time out for a short teaching moment
Flash Sync Speed

A recent discussion arose on the TIF forum about using flash in low light, and the original poster commented that his pictures were soft. He said that the camera chose 1/60 second as the nominal shutter speed when the flash was being used.

In the old 35mm days (or when using a full-frame sensor), the rule of thumb was that you could get away with one divided by the focal length without noticeable camera shake. If all of the illumination is coming from the flash, the shutter speed isn't a factor because the flash is much faster than that. But the minute you're using the flash to fill in or add light to the ambient, that becomes a factor.

Now, with cropped sensors, that threshold is actually faster, by the multiplier factor. So a Canon APS-C sensor or a Nikon DX sensor behaves like the lens is 1.5 or 1.6x longer and you have to take that into consideration. So that 50mm lens isn't safe handheld at speeds under 1/80 second or so, not 1/50 second.

Most of the modern DSLR's will let you set the nominal shutter sync speed. Check in your manual or menu system but I think you'll find that it will do 1/200 second or faster (Nikon has something called Auto-FP that lets it go even faster with a compatible external flash). Go ahead and reset it, but if you increase that setting, you'll be capturing less ambient light, but the flash won't care. Be cautious, though because even that isn't fast enough when handholding that 200mm lens, with a cropped sensor.

Don't complain about your job

I won't go into details about my septic system problems. Suffice it to say the system needed to be pumped out again.

I don't think I want his job. But he's not unhappy about what he does, although he really does tell some sh&^%ty jokes. 

A few more Kayak pictures

As I said above, the white water is a compelling place. I thought I'd post a few more pictures, from today's visit. I'll try not to bore you with too many.

These kayaks come in fluorescent colours The bright mid-day sunlight reflected off the water and softened the colour of the boat. That's what caught my eye and made me shoot this picture.

This wider view tells the story of what the place is about. 

— 30 —

All work and no play...

Yeah, I know you can finish that. Quite a week.

Since the show, I feel like I haven't stopped. Then I look around and it seems like I haven't accomplished anything, My house is still a mess, I have papers and pictures everywhere, I was trying to work on something and couldn't find an uncluttered horizontal surface to put things on... everywhere I look there's something else I need to do.

The house smells funny: like old cigarette smoke. So I thought it would be a good idea to go clean the creosote out of the fireplace chimney. When I ran the brush down the chimney, there's this odd 6-foot gap between the bottom of the steel pipe and the fireplace insert. I have a call in to a chimney repair guy. Stay tuned... it's a good time of year for that to happen, though. Think what it would have been like mid-winter!

Update: he was just here. There's nothing wrong other than my brush being worn to the point that it's looser than the chimney liner in spots. He figured that it was a combination of things, including the gasket which is worn down a little, and told me how to fix it. That's a relief! I can't fix stuff generally, because all I do is break things!

I broke my Wacom stylus. I went shopping for a new one: even on eBay they're $70 or more. I got lucky, though (and so did one of you!). I found an almost new Intuos4 Small for almost the same price, complete with stylus, mouse and all the goodies! Bought it, got it, I'm a happy camper. I also found a used stylus on Kijiji, bought it too.

FREE Wacom Tablet

So why is one of you going to benefit? I've been using a tablet and stylus since I took the Pixel Painting course several years ago. Once you use one, you'll never go back to a mouse! OK, that's not fair, the mouse is good for certain stuff, like writing and file management and web surfing... but for any kind of photo editing or management, the stylus is like heaven. Imagine trying to write with a brick instead of a pen: that's what the mouse is like in drawing tasks. And don't get me started on trackpads.

 I now have two Intuos4 tablets, one small and one medium. The tablet I bought originally was a Wacom Bamboo Fun, size small. It is great for getting your feet wet. And I'm going to give it to someone. Free. It's used but it works perfectly on PC or Mac, driver is readily available at Wacom. You only need to do three things.

1. Subscribe to my newsletter. Upper right on the blog or click the QR code graphic, or go to www.photography.to/subscribe.html.
2. Send me an email telling me you want the tablet. Put "bamboo" in the subject line. If you're already on the newsletter list, you'll get an error when you try to subscribe, but send me the email and I'll put you in the draw.
3. Promise that you won't sell it, that when you're done with it you'll give it to someone else.

As soon as I get 50 new names, I'll pick someone at random.

Magic Mushrooms

A couple of years ago I posted a picture of a huge pile of carrots and wondered what caused it. The most popular conclusion was that aliens shaped like bunny rabbits had invaded the Earth unknown to mankind and had planted cachés of food while on their mission to enslave mankind and take over the planet. Search for "carrots" if you dare.

The plot thickens. Today I was out talking with the chimney repair guy and I turned around and saw this:

Yes, some mushrooms growing in my water-soaked grass (or what passes for grass here. Mostly dandelions, but that's another story, kids). 

But then I looked a bit more closely, and was compelled to take a little video with my P&S to try to communicate what was going on (if you're not on high speed you may want to skip clicking on it):

The mushrooms are growing in a perfect circle, approximately 4 meters in diameter. There are no other mushrooms around. It's hard to capture unless you get up on a ladder with a wide angle lens (and I don't do ladders), so I opened a ground level shot in Photoshop and circled the mushrooms in the picture:

It's not my septic bed, I'm standing on that to shoot this picture. It's a perfect circle of mushrooms. 

Now I think the alien bunny rabbits landed their spacecraft right here and left behind spores from their extraterrestrial home. There's no other logical explanation.

Disposing of an old computer

I had a Sony Vaio laptop years ago. It got really slow in it's old age (I can relate!), it's probably 120 years old in computer years and I replaced it with a Lenovo. The screen died on that one too, about a year ago and I replaced it with the HP Pavilion that I'm typing this on right now. But it was time for the Vaio to go to the great computer home in the sky. Or in the landfill...

I'd been using it to drive my scanner/fax/printer that's also toast, so it was plugged into the network and I also occasionally would back up files on it, like financial records, email addresses, etc. So it wouldn't be a good idea to just throw it, with the hard drive intact, into the garbage. I'm here to tell you it takes only one shot with an axe to eliminate that problem.

...and there's a certain satisfaction to be gained. By the way, little tiny shards of platter poured out the middle. Wish I had taken the time to photograph it, bet it would have been cool. 

Anyway I wrote this to remind you not to throw out old computer stuff until you make sure your data is really and truly gone. Even CSI, the CIA, CSIS and other "C" groups wouldn't be able to put Humpty together again!

Time for some pictures

I know, you've been waiting and waiting, reading through my rambling drivel, waiting for some pictures. OK, here you are.

On Saturday, I unlimbered the ATV (must give her a name. "Polly", maybe, she's a Polaris... definitely female because you sit... let 's not go there). Anyway, I took Polly out for a ride not only down the trail but also along Horseshoe Lake Road to the White Water Preserve. It was a nice day and I figured I'd see some kayakers there. I've shot thousands of kayak pictures but it's somehow compelling.

I did, but I don't have anything special to show you. However I did take a few other shots in other locations.

In the forest, partway down the trail. I promised you I would keep you apprised of the changes in the scenery. The sun on the forest in the background caught my eye. Great colour! 

Looks like I'm in the African Veldt. Deep in the elephant grass. OK, maybe not, the dandelions give it away. It's 15 feet behind my garage... Go ahead and criticize my over-processed HDR, but I like it! 

How about this one. Remember when you were a kid and set up one friend holding his hand up and another friend in the distance looking like she was standing on his palm? My old satellite dish looking like a communications link while riding through the elephant grass in a third world African country.

One more shot at looking like I was trekking on safari in a remote place. 

I told you I went to the fast water. I had a picture in mind, and here it is:

I spend some time on this. The image is a 3-shot HDR merge, all shot with the 10x ND filter on the camera. The dark rocks and bright white water told me I had to merge more than one shot to capture all the detail; the fast flowing water needed slowing down, hence the ND filter.

I got some other pictures there but I'll save them for next time. I was following my own advice to "work the scene" and look around for other things to shoot. You'll have to come back to see them next week!

— 30 —

Post-show report

Just a quick post so that I don't disappoint all y'all (damn, I've got to stop hanging out with my Suth'n friends, I'm starting to talk like them). I know you've been anxiously awaiting my next blog post.

The show was reasonably successful for me, despite the lower-than-predicted attendance. There were a few factors interplaying: the lousy weather forecast (and there were T-storms all three of the days) kept the cottagers at home in the city; those who did come up were busy repairing their docks from the flooding last month, and I think the early date had an effect too. Someone told me that people come up, open their cottages, then go home until the blackflies are gone in a few weeks. With all the water around on the ground, it's going to be a banner year for the biting bugs.

Minden is still suffering from the high water:

Although I took this picture last month, before the floodwaters peaked (the chairs were right underwater then), I drove past there yesterday and it still looked like this. The waters had receded for a bit, but with all the rains, it's back up at this level. This dock is about 100m from the centre of downtown Minden. 

The Home & Cottage Show

Here are some images from the show. Just P&S record shots, though.

Here's Linda. Our booth was 10'x10' and we set up her stuff on the left, mine on the right. She was a lot more organized than me because she's done this before!

...and this is yours truly. FWIW, I had about 50 prints in that rack, a box of 8x12's behind me and a few greeting cards as well. I gave away that bicycle print in the foreground and a course, in order to get names for my database. Hopefully some of them are reading this blog today. 

By the third day, I made some pricing changes. People were more comfortable buying at this level. Notice the laptop and iPad at the back. The former was for the database, the latter a continuous slideshow of images. 

Next to us was a guy selling flagpoles and flags. For three days he stood there and did this (play the video):

What goes through your mind as you watch him playing with his pole? Sorry, I know what I was thinking!

I didn't sell as many prints as I had hoped. So I have lots of them in stock and I'd be happy to make a special offer to any of you faithful readers who want a print or two. Tell you what: go to my gallery at http://www.faczen.smugmug.com, email me which images you'd be interested in acquiring for your collection, (email address) and what you want to pay, and let's talk. They'll look better on your walls than in my bin. BTW I have full-sized (18x24 sheet), small (8x12) and greeting card sizes  for most of the images.

What was quite successful was the increase in awareness of my products and services up here in the Highlands. I got quite a bit of exposure. And I booked a number of people for both the DSLR and the Basic Skills workshops (here) in the next few weeks. Looks like it's going to be a busy summer. Oh, and I got to spend a weekend with Linda. It's OK, her husband knew about it (and in fact without him, we never would have managed to get that booth together!)

So would I do this show again? Not a fair question yet. Let's see how things work out. My initial impression is that a show featuring art instead of home & cottage stuff would be better, but I did get to meet and talk to a lot of people and that was valuable.

Want to tether your DSLR to your PC? 

I found some incredible software online. DigiCamControl is open source software for DSLR camera remote control. It's designed for Nikons and PC's but a whole bunch of Canon cameras are listed too.  It is amazing. Every control on my camera is available onscreen. It does focus stacking and all kinds of other stuff. I've played with it for 30 minutes and took several images to test it. Here's one

There's nothing wrong with the lens. The camera was sitting on a box on a chair and that's the arm of the chair in the photo at the bottom. I had to increase the exposure 3 stops to display it like this because I had it on pattern metering and of course it exposed for the window light. I did the focusing onscreen in Live View.

It was shot at ISO 100, 1/30 sec at f/2.8, all of which I set on the computer not on the camera. I opened the RAW file in ACR/CS6, changed the exposure value and nothing else. Then I laid the text on top and saved it, then imported it to LR and exported it as a Jpeg.

And the cost? FREE. GRATIS. NADA.

You are going to want to download this.* Here's the link: http://digicamcontrol.com/ 

*Note: I have NO interest or affiliation with this, I just found it. And I don't know if there's any kind of bad stuff like spyware or viruses, etc attached to it. So you download it at your own risk. But it seems to be clean and legit. I needed to download .net Framework and some kind of RAW viewing codec from Microsoft before it would run, BTW but it told me what I needed and one click to get it.

I haven't figured out how to preview images in it yet, and some other stuff. It has a lengthy manual. Next chapter I read is on focus stacking, for sure!

Is there a Mac version? I don't know.

Today's Image

For my new readers: I never leave you without some sort of image to enjoy. But I haven't been shooting because of the show, so here's one for today that I took last weekend when I was teaching a course and wanted to demonstrate shooting from a different point of view. Scroll down to previous posts, you'll see I usually do more.

This is one single click away from the original. I created a new layer (ctrl-J) then used the "Notepaper Filter" in the filter gallery. Done. OK, I took out a couple of artifacts, but that was it. GO AHEAD. Click on the picture to blow it up. I dare you.

— 30 —

Two Days to go 'till the Show!

It's Wednesday and the Haliburton Home & Cottage Show starts on Friday! Two days to go!

Am I ready? Hell, no. I will be, though. As I write this, I still have to create about 25 more greeting cards, bag them all, make one or two more signs, a couple of signup and register sheets, finalize the course agenda for my basic photo skills workshops, frame and re-frame several pictures, run into Toronto tomorrow to go to Staples and Costco for last-minute stuff, buy groceries because my fridge is empty and Linda and Bob will be here for the weekend...

I'm quite satisfied with the images I've produced for the show. I hope I didn't guess wrong about what people would like to buy and I've kept the prices affordable so that hopefully I won't be taking them all home with me! It's a bit of a gamble.

I have 3 goals for the show:

• to sell some images
• to book some workshop students
• to increase the readership for my blogs.

To accomplish the first two, I will be getting out in front of people and they will at least be more aware of me. I've created some show special prices and I'll let my images do the talking for me.

Special offer for my loyal readers: if you come to the show, I'll give you an ADDITIONAL 20% off any print you buy (not the cards. They're cheap enough, at $5 or 3/$10, just check Hallmark's pricing!). So if you see a fine art watercolor image marked at $175, show special $140, your price would be $112. 

All you have to do is tell me you read about it here, and as a skill-testing question, tell me what animal is featured in the header photo of this blog. 

But wait, there's more!

AFTER the show, for the entire month of June 2013, you get the same deal! If you buy art images by going to my gallery and emailing me (I don't have a shopping cart set up yet), and you tell me you read it here, I'll price accordingly. 

To accomplish the third one, I've decided to give some stuff away. If people sign up for my Newsletter, I'll enter their names into two draws: one for a free fine art picture, and one for a free workshop session. 

You can get in on this too! I want you to sign up for my newsletter. Don't worry, if you're not happy, there's an "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of every newsletter. 

Here's the deal: sign up for the newsletter by clicking here or scanning the QR code to the right and I'll automatically enter you in the draw for the picture. If you also want to be considered for the free workshop, leave me a comment at the bottom of this blog post. Make sure I have your name and I can find you in the Newsletter list.

And if you click here in the next 5 minutes... a set of Ginzu knives! Nah, nothing. But I had to say that. Humour. Arr, arr.

Want to see the images I'm exhibiting?

Go to my photo gallery to check them out. Everything you see there is available as an exhibition quality display print, either on fine matte or on fine lustre papers, lovingly printed by hand one at a time! They're all available at very reasonable cost, especially if you read about it here!

The white water is such a great venue...

I ran a DSLR course last weekend (not enough students. Hope that changes!). I heard that CanoeKayak Canada was running the team trials at the MWW (Minden Wild Water Preserve. I'm tired of typing that all out!) so we went over to practice shooting pictures. The winners were chosen for Canada's National Team, for competition in the World Cup and other races in Europe and elsewhere. I was busy with the course, but did manage to capture a few images:

This is Zachary Zwanenburg from Cornwall, Ontario who competed both in the Canoe (C1) and the Kayak (K1) classes and who will represent Canada in the Junior and under-23 teams in both classes. This is a kayak, by the way, if you don't already know. 

 The above image shows how WILD the Wild Water is right now, with record high water levels and flow after the Minden floods a few weeks ago.

Another WILD water shot as  Samuel Primeau from Quebec battles the boiling waters in Earl's Hole during one of his kayak runs.

Haley Daniels from Calgary, Alberta scored at the top in Women's C1 and was named to teams for World Cups, World Championships and Under 23 World Championships. 

20-year-old (I think. I know the year but not the month of birth!) Alexandra McGee from Ottawa placed second behind Daniels in C1 and was named to both the Senior team and the under 21 teams. 

Although 16-year-old Maxime Leboeuf from Valleyfield, Quebec didn't place in the top 3, he will be representing Canada as part of the junior team in Slovenia this summer. 

Competitor names and stats and other information courtesy of Ian Miller from CanoeKayak Canada. Claudia van Wijk from Whitewater Ontario also helped me identify the competitors from their bib numbers.

Nothing to do with white water...

On Saturday, there was a motorcycle ride to raise funds for the flood victims and they started and ended up at the Red Umbrella Inn. This bike was parked out front (and in fact was there overnight). During the DSLR course, I told Dawn to shoot 15 pictures of the bike, all different (trying to get her to work the scene). At the same time, I took a few but I knew what I had in mind.

I took the opportunity to write up how I created the image on my Technical Blog, for those of you who are photographers and interested in Photoshop. Here's the finished image, ready for print. I think it will look fantastic on Epson Cold Press matte paper... you know what to do if you want to order a print! 

So back to work on the show stuff. I hope to see some of you there! Come by and say hello, and bring your wallets...

— 30 —

It's been an exciting week!

I've spent 4 days of the last 6 on the road. The other two stuck in front of the computer! Two days in Southwestern Ontario for the Birds of Prey shoot, and two days with Linda in Ajax learning how to cut mats and frame prints, and sharing some Lightroom and Photoshop knowledge in exchange. Linda and I are co-exhibitors at the Haliburton Home and Cottage Show in a little over 2 weeks and we had a lot of logistics to discuss. First of all, I hope some of you are going to come to the show. To make it worthwhile, here's a bonus for my faithful readers:

just tell me you read about it here, and get a 20% discount on any of my art prints.

Today I spent 11 solid hours at the computer, preparing these images to be printed. I have 22 prints in hand now (printed on Epson Cold Press Natural which is a spectacular cotton textured matte art paper) and as I write this, Jim's got another 22 to print on Epson Premium Lustre 260. I still have about a dozen to get to him, then I have to work on a couple of hundred going to Costco for 4x6's and 8x10's. My clear bags are here, well at the Post Office anyway, Lots to do before the show.

Cutting mats and framing is a lot of work. The first batch of prints are not a standard size, but the next ones are going to be: you can buy pre-cut mats for 19x13's in 24x18 frames. Now I understand why people go with standard sizes. I have to tell you, that matte paper is so nice, it's a shame to hide it behind glass.

Also I have my first DSLR workshop of the year next weekend. I still have space on the course, so if you're interested or you know someone who is, go to http://www.photography.to for info or to register.

New plugin from Topaz
There's a new plugin for Photoshop coming out, called "Clarity". I'm beta testing it, and at first glance, I'm very impressed. It does a lot of the things you can do in Lightroom or in Adobe Camera Raw, but much faster and with considerable precision. I did this picture in about 5 minutes, and that included the time to clone out the leather straps on the bird's ankles in Photoshop:

In fairness, the focus/blur was in the original shot. What I did was increase the clarity and sharpness of the face without negatively affecting the rest of the image. I also spent another 5 or 10 minutes enhancing the catchlight in the owl's eye. By the way, this is a "Barn Owl". 

Topaz Clarity lets you adjust clarity and sharpness (LR and ACR users know what I'm talking about) in a bunch of neat ways without having to exit Photoshop (well technically you do when you run the plug-in but it's just one click) and you can paint masks at the same time with effective controls and brushes. You can also do HSL adjustment (Hue-Saturation-Lightness) and make a separate set of masks at the same time. Very neat. I'll report more later, after I participate in the Webinar tomorrow and spend some more time with the program.

I'm told the final version will be available next week, for under $50. Watch this space for a link where to get it.

Birds of Prey
The venue was the Canadian Raptor Conservancy in Vittoria, Ontario, just west of Port Dover. They bring out several birds to be photographed on a perch or in flight. It's a great experience and I understand that Les Palenik is arranging another session later this month. Contact him if you want to attend. Les posted some images from various attendees on his blog, here.

I want to say right off the top, that anyone who can reliably shoot birds in flight in focus and good timing, have my undying respect. It is difficult! I got some pictures but threw away hundreds of frames that were out of focus, had motion in them, or were composed horribly. Les told me 1/800 second was too SLOW a shutter speed and I didn't believe him. I will for next time, and there will be a next time! So here are some images for your enjoyment.

This is Don, his son Ben is in the background. I met Ben up in Wawa a couple of years ago at the Gales of November workshop and it was great seeing him again. Topaz Adjust is responsible for the toning of this image.  

The owl in the picture above was perched, of course, but we did get to shoot him in flight.

No, this isn't him! It's a "Great Horned Owl" and the wings were blurred because the shutter speed was too slow. So I helped it along by using the Radial Blur filter in Photoshop.  

We got to shoot the Great Horned Owl's younger twin siblings while perched. They're pretty photogenic!

These birds are only 7 weeks old and can't fly yet. The sun peeked out of the clouds momentarily and backlit them! I must have taken 50 pictures of them on this perch and it was hard to choose which one(s) I liked best! 

Here's another shot, playing with the radial blur filter again.  

George was there too, a friend from Humber College. That's Don and Ben in the background again. We were shooting one of the most exciting birds at the CRC, the Bald Eagle, in flight. Ben's camera (I think it's a Canon 1D Mk III? I'm not that familiar with Canon stuff) sounded like a machine gun in comparison with my D600 and George's D800! 

This was pretty well the ONLY good image of the eagle in flight that I got. I need more practice. I had to Photoshop out the restraints and tether ropes around his ankles.  

Here's a posed shot of the bald eagle (I think his name was "Uncle Sammy"), sharpened using Topaz Clarity.

After the morning session at the CRC, we headed over to Port Dover for lunch. The specialty of the house is either the locally caught perch or pickerel and it is a treat. As we came out of the restaurant, the rain that threatened all morning finally started. George and I went down to the pier and I tried to get a long exposure of the lake but failed because despite George's efforts, the raindrops on the lens messed up the shot. Just before we left, I pulled out my point-and-shoot and grabbed one shot:

The Port Dover pier and lighthouse. The rain was just coming in. Processed with the oil paint filter in Photoshop.  

Until next time!

— 30 —

Workin' my buns off!

I wish that were literally true... my buns could use a little working off. OK, more than a "little". I thought I'd start with a short 'show update'.

The Haliburton Home & Cottage Show
It takes place on May 31-June 1-June 2 in the Arena in Haliburton. There are supposed to be about 150 exhibitors, ranging from log house contractors to furniture suppliers to dock and watercraft providers, clothing, gifts, sports and activities and yes, photography! I don't have an exhibitor's list, but I think that Linda Cresswell and I are going to be the only photography exhibitors there. We're working together in Booth #204 and we hope we're going to see you there!

We'll be doing two things: selling prints (and cards), and talking about and booking students for my one- or two-day workshops on learning to take better pictures.

The process of getting ready for the show is quite involved. For Linda less so than me, because she's done them before and already has a body of work printed and ready to go; but I have to spend a lot of time on that aspect!

I've decided NOT to compromise on any of my larger prints. I will be displaying and selling high quality exhibition grade limited edition art prints. I'll have two finishes, Lustre, printed on Epson Premium Lustre Photo Paper 260 gsm, and matte, done on Epson Cold Press Natural 340 gsm. They will be printed by guru Jim Camelford on his Epson Stylus Pro 7900. Not only are the papers and inks archival quality (image lifetimes advertised exceed the human lifespan!) but the gamut and precision of this printer and its media will ensure outstanding image quality.

As I write this, about 1/3 of the prints have been done. In the next few days, I'll be preparing the next batch for printing and that's quite a chore, to do it right! I'll write the process up on my tech blog in a week or so, after I shake the bugs out.

My go-to size for images is a sheet size of 24x18. Images will typically be 19" wide by 13" high, centred on those sheets. Each print will be supplied in a crystal clear bag with a stiffening card, so that the customer can easily mount it in a standard frame. I'll have about a dozen framed prints on hand as well. Here's an example of how the images will appear:

"Reeds" has had an oil paint layer applied to add texture and smooth out the silhouettes. The keyline around it is designed so that if someone wants to frame the print, they don't need a mat. It is printed on the matte watercolor paper and will be on sale at the show for $150. Readers of my blog can buy it for $99! Send me an email...

So aside from the booth design and construction, preparing prints and getting them made, writing descriptions for each print for the accompanying card, creating a database and followup file for my mailing list, making marketing materials and forms, rewriting my basic DSLR course so P&S shooters will benefit, updating both my photography.to and SmugMug websites, I have nothing to do...

...tomorrow I'm off to the Birds of Prey workshop on Lake Erie, so hopefully I'll have some new and exciting images available for the show too!

Pictures from the past

I came across this image while looking for something in my archives. OK, actually, I was looking for this very image, to post on the newly created site for the MRHS Class of 1963 reunion coming up in September, 50 years. Gawd, I'm old... this image hangs on my wall near my computer and it brings back great memories of that trip and other ones, and motorcycling in general.

This is me, riding my ST-1100 back in 2005 at the Tail of the Dragon in Deal's Gap, North Carolina (or Tennessee, depending where I was on Rte. 129 at the time). 

By the way, this set of pictures was taken by a company known as "Killboy" who used to set up in the Gap and diligently photographed and posted pictures of every one of the thousands of bikes that rode through on a weekend. I bought these images from them so I can publish them here. I miss riding, but it was time to move on.

Here's another older image of me, taken by Iris during our motorcycle trip down the Blue Ridge Parkway in 2007:

At the top of Grandfather Mountain, near Boone, NC. When I look at pictures like this, I realize I really should lose that weight I've put on since those days! 

Some Wallpaper for you

Here's a new FREE wallpaper shot for you. It works well as a background image on your computer.

Wild Water. There are two versions of this image, one for regular monitors at http://photography.to/wallpaper/wildwater4x3.jpg and the other for widescreen monitors at http://photography.to/wallpaper/wildwater16x9.jpg. The watermark is not on either file. Help yourself to them; just go to those links, right-click and copy them to your computer. They are for your own personal use only, not for reproduction or resale. "Creative Commons" copyright protection. If you do download it, please drop me a note: it's interesting to know how many people are using it!

If the icons on your screen have white labels on them, they will be hard to read on this background. Here's how to change the font colour to black (Windows 7. You're on your own with other O/S's!): go to Control Panel → Personalization → Window Color → Advanced Appearance Settings. Change the "Desktop Color 1" to white if you want black type, to black if you want white type. They do make it tough, don't they?

By the way, this image, "Wild Water", is also available as a fine art print on matte watercolour paper, like the "Reeds" image at the top of this post. $150 at the show, $99 here.

A few more pictures

Here are a couple more shots that I took on the way home last weekend, just for your enjoyment!

Every time I drive past the Wessel farm on Highway 35 south of Minden, I look for these horses. I'm always in a hurry, somehow, but I stopped on Saturday. I'm guessing these are young horses, mom & dad are behind the fence in the background. 

I'd love to get them running towards me, wind in their manes, instead of standing there curiously wondering what I'm doing! Next time, maybe. 

This is the dam at Lock 44 on the Trent-Severn Canal, just West of Bolsover, on Canal Road. I used the 10x ND filter, so I could take a 30 second exposure, then I added some Topaz Adjust to bring out the water detail. 

And finally, light painting with a flashlight during a 1-minute shot on a starry night up at 12 Mile Lake. the wide angle lens, wide open at f/2.8 allowed this to happen. Looking at it at 72dpi on the computer is less than ideal, though! Click on the picture to blow it up.

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Spring has Sprung at last!

I have a bunch of new pictures, so I thought I'd get this post up. Heading into Toronto today. Spring has finally sprung, though: to my friends in Minnesota and Wisconsin, chin up: it'll get to you eventually! I had lunch al fresco yesterday!

A lot of people up here are still under water. I feel for them and I hope that the Government and insurance companies come through. That's why we pay them all that money!

Working on the Dam

Parks Canada was working on the dam at the South end of 12-Mile Lake (the water flows into Mountain Lake, the headwaters for the Gull River. The Gull is the waterway for the Minden Wildwater Preserve, then the Hydro Dam, then Minden, then all the way down to the Trent-Severn Canal).

Remember, you can click on any picture to see a bigger version of it.

They were blocking off the West half of the dam (nearest the camera) but leaving the overall flow the same. You can see that there are 3 or 4 logs in the back not going in. The purpose was to retrieve a dock which the floods had driven under the dam by forcing it through the East channel. 

The old-fashioned mechanism still works. Step 1 is to remove the boards blocking the opening, then winch a log into position (it's 12" x 12" by whatever length). The guy in the middle has a hook that looks like a gaff to hold the log in place while they release the winch cables. When he lets it go, the log falls into place on top of the stack in the water. Then they do the next one. Once they're prepared, it takes them about 2 minutes to drop one in. Retrieving it is a similar operation, although I'm not sure how they get the winch cable attached when it's down under water.

The lad on the left seems to be the group leader. He was coordinating the operation. I must be getting old, but I swear he's too young to shave yet... 

Here they are actually operating the winch. Note the flotation vests around each of their necks. The fellow with the blue one (his name is Mike) is actually from the Peterborough detachment, on loan up here during the flood crisis. The young lad's name is Ryan.

I talked for a while with these guys about what caused the flooding in Minden and elsewhere. Their basic response was that it was due to the heavy rains that fell in a one or two day period before the ground defrosted enough to absorb it, coupled with the snow melt the very next day. They couldn't hold any more of it back because the lakes upstream were overflowing their shorelines and around the dams that were in place. The lowering of the lake levels in late summer has two purposes: to maintain the levels in the Trent-Severn and to prevent just such an occurrence by making room to accommodate the anticipated spring runoff. This year was just too much, in fact in my experience, the August lake levels were lower than I'd ever seen them.

See? You learned something!

First ATV Ride
I took my ATV out on the trail off Pleasant Point Road the other day, for the first time not on a road or on the ice. At first I was nervous, especially about what the clearance was like and for some reason, it feels like it falls off to the right. But I got a bit more used to it after a while and the clearance is awesome. I can put pretty big rocks in between the wheels instead of going around them.

I plan to be on this trail through the summer. I'm going to try to document the way the forest changes from month to month by taking pictures at the same spot on the trail. Here are a few images:

Looking South along the trail from the high point. The white spots are NOT flowers, they're dead leaves (beech, I think) 

Here's where my ATV was parked. It's an HDR, then I used Topaz Adjust "Glamor Glow" on the trees.  

Another shot of the bike. I like the high-key effect on the trees and may try to take some more like that. I had shot this as part of an HDR burst but didn't combine it. 

This is at the South end of the trail as I'm about to go back in. I was concerned about getting stuck in the mud but there wasn't even a hint of a problem. 

On the way back, I handheld my Point-and-Shoot camera and took a video while riding with one hand (there's one spot where I blip the throttle because my thumb slipped, riding one-handed!). Here's the link to the video on YouTube. The 6-minute video was 400Mb in size! I found a utility to reduce it and it ended up around 50Mb. Remember, this was my first time and I was being cautious. I didn't go through the mud/water because I was wearing sneakers and didn't want to get them all wet.

At the end of the video, you can see the level of the lake water over the road where Point Pleasant Road meets Red Umbrella Road. Normally there's a boat launch there that's at least 2-3 feet high, down into the water which is normally about 20 feet away from the shore.

Crispy Car HDR's

Credit Michael White (an HDR photographer from Florida who specializes in car images, see his work here) with the phrase "Crispy Cars", which he posted in a message on the TIF forum.

So when I got back from my ATV ride, I noticed this car in the Red Umbrella Inn parking lot. It had been quietly sitting there for at least a year, then apparently on Sunday, while I was in Toronto, it turned into a toasted auto. No discernible reason: it was wet from heavy rains and the Fire Marshall even said there was no trace of accelerants that would point to it being torched: a mystery! Anyway, HDR's of crispy cars are cool. Here are some.

This last one is also a "Paintograph" since I applied the Oil Paint filter to the HDR. Actually it's not; that would imply that I actually digitally painted it but all I did was click and move a few sliders around.  

Lots of pictures today: I'll stop here until next time!

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