Not the end of this dance

The photography class is nearing it's end and I am fee (6:32am and one kid's now up) ling, I'm feeling, oh I forgot now but I'm definitely not feeling finished. Interruptions are the story of my life. I was telling my friend yesterday that I am amazed by the ideas I come up with in the shower or in the car when there aren't any kids in it. That's nothing new except that these complete quiet moments are much farther and fewer in between than they were when I was in college. However, I do think I played it right. Study mathematics, chemistry, biology as a single undergraduate, environmental science which is less technical as a graduate with babies in my belly (and out), and photography which is even less technical with two toddlers at my feet ("I'm hungry," he says). Photography is just a little easier to grasp. In fact, I think anyone can do it. And I don't mean that anyone who is doing it can do it, but I mean really anyone who takes the time to learn how to do it properly and has some patience can and will take photos as well as or better than those who do it professionally.

I am supposed to find inspiration in online galleries for my class and for a journal entry and let's just say I've had quite some trouble. The fact is that I am not inspired by many of the black and white photos in the Yancey Richardson, Catherine Edelman, Fraenkel, Yossi Milo online galleries. I looked at all of the galleries for plenty of time and without knowing the stories behind the photos I find few I like and that could very well be because I don't have much training in art appreciation. In fact, I have found myself becoming more and more critical of visual arts. Photographers whose work has mesmerized me in the past I now page through uninterested. There is one photographer Hellen Van Meene whose work is now in the Yancey Richardson Gallery who caught my eye . She is one of the more contempory photographers in all of the galleries displaying photos as recent as 2010. The images are colorful portraits that in my opinion develop the soul of the individual subject through their eyes. The light is natural, usually from a window, and it is visible in the scene somewhere but not usually on the subject itself. This is exactly how I like to frame my images. Although I can appreciate photos taken in complete shade or on overcast days or just after the sun has gone down, for they sometimes allow for brilliant color and glistening eyes, this type of photography with less direct light is much easier, I think, and also less dramatic.

My problem this week is that it's almost December; the sunlight outside is so amazing but it is almost invincible. The amount of time each clear day that the rays touch my front yard is about an hour. It doesn't any longer hit the floor of my home, but rather only a couple walls and only for a matter of minutes. I drive into town four afternoons a week for my class and to bring my son to preschool and I can tell in these short daily drives that the sky changes dramatically in a matter of 20 minutes in interior Alaska. It's quite powerful, but it is something I have decided to just sit back and let myself observe rather than try to capture with kids at my side. It's been cold and when it's been 30 degrees warmer at -10, it's been cloudy. There might have been a good day or two in there where it was -10 and clear but if there was I missed it because I was spending time with my ("I really really really want raisins and peanuts, mom") family. I'm thankful that my younger toddler knows the value of sleep as much as I wouldn't trade these sweet interruptions for anything else in the world. It's nice to have time to sit and write like this. My classmates are fighting for studio time, but for my final I am still hoping for some natural light. Unfortunately, a series of chinooks are scheduled to arrive which probably means the skies will be less grand. Stay tuned for my final project ... although this will hardly be the end of my dance with digital photography with all its lovely interruptions that sometimes seem to meet in the middle. I have to remember to keep taking photos and videos of these happy little moments.

Two Triptychs

A triptych is basically a series of three something (photos maybe :) that tell a story. A diptych would be a series of two, etc. We were required to create two triptychs for class in anticipation of a final project that must be a series of 5-10 photos that tell a story but that do not contain redundant subject matter or composition. It turns out that this isn't so easy to follow these basic guidelines, even in series of only three. I mulled over a ton of ideas for my triptychs. Some were not in my heart because they were not as much tied to nature as I like: an arm composed of animal, machine, robot. Some were, but were not achievable at temps hovering around -40F: the moon's reflection on water in solid, liquid, and gas forms or my family in silhouette at sunset as we progressed from a family of two to a family of five (dog included). Some of my classmates had neat ideas that are very simple: an apple progressing from whole form to eaten to the core, tangled wires (like fishline, headphones, necklaces) whose abstract form continued from frame to frame, three different colored dog's heads posed identically. One of my ideas was to bring the bounty of fall into winter's preservation by using high bush cranberries.

We broke 6 low temperature records in 7 days last week but I went out every day if only for 5 or 10 minutes, brought my kids out in their best gear, and even drove 2.5 hours with my kids to try to photograph the mountains in the sunrise. It was refreshing to be out when we otherwise would not have been. Photography is not alone. There are so many other hobbies that have people out there at low temps: running sled dogs, biking, cross country skiing, ice carving. This community is full of energetic outdoors people. I wanted to photograph frosty eyelashes and steamy mouths, but it didn't work out exactly as I'd planned. Working with a subject at -40 is not exactly predictable. My fingers froze and I couldn't think but I still think this is nice and conveys "cold:"

The tie to the weather and the sun is what I love about natural light photography. I have seen things during this class that I would not have seen otherwise: the phases of the moon, ice dogs around the sun, the differences between the colorcast of the sun on the snow between early November and late November. There are such drastic differences between each week of winter in the subarctic and noting these changes makes the cold months pass quickly.

Flash

To complete a flash photography assignment, I borrowed a Vivitar 283 flash from the university. This is a universal manual type flash that can be mounted to the top of many different brands of cameras. The flash can be swiveled so that it can either be bounced off of a reflective surface onto the subject or directed right at the subject. The electronics work like this; you set the flash to the ISO that your camera is at and then you based on your distance from the subject--10, 15, 20, or 40 feet--you set the flash to one of four color coded settings and these settings in turn tell you where to put your camera's aperture. The shutter speed has to stay generally constant, a speed at or below the speed of the flash. My camera's flash synch speed is 1/200 of a second, but to acquire more light I could set it lower than the synch speed.

It's not really as confusing as I make it sound but getting a great pictures was not an easy feat. I took 200 photos inside my home based on a list I made of things to try and these are the ones I chose to submit.

Direct Flash. The area was lit from the chandelier above but flash was needed because it was an indoor situation and with motion to boot. I chose direct flash because since the walls were very close and both visible in the scene, bounce flash off of one of the walls would have created a very bright spot on the wall in part of the scene. This photo is cropped, so only one wall is shown.

Direct Flash. This one turned out well. The shadow created by the direct flash creates depth in the image, and the washed out white feeling created by the harsh direct light enhances the washed diaper scene. In this situation the room was lit from the recessed lights. I chose to use direct flash because the camera's tripod was situated outside of the room's door and because of the way the doorway is built there was not any place to bounce a flash.

Bounce Flash. This was the first photo that I took and I played with it a lot to get it to look this bright. I ended up bouncing the flash off of the vaulted ceiling, which I think is 18 feet from the floor. I was bummed that I couldn't capture the grandness of the window in the background, but that is one problem with a bounce flash; if you turn the camera on it's side to get a vertical image, the flash is also turned, which means you can only use direct flash or flash bounced off of a wall. Bouncing a flash off of a ceiling is out of the question unless the camera is horizontal. This is a 40 foot bounce.

Bounce Flash. This photo turned out more dark than I had planned. This was the last photo that I took and I think the batteries were giving out becuase I was having trouble getting the flash to fully charge. With these flashes, you can set them off before they are fully charged and they'll give a fraction of the light that they would have if you wait the full time. As I backed away from the subject, there was not enough light on him and when I came closer, he had shadows on his eyes. In the end, I'm not sure that the eyes are important ... like the photo above, it is more about symmetry.

Fill Flash. Fill flash requires depth in the background and a slower shutter speed than the synch shutter speed. In this photo I slowed the shutter to 1/20 second from 1/200 to catch some of the light of the chandelier which at 1/200 is non-existent. The flash is pointed directly at the subject, but is slightly diffused by tissue paper that I had taped over the flash. It would have been a bit better if I'd had a taller tripod. In class the students titled this photo for me: Domestic Diva.

Fill Flash. Here the depth is not in the room, but instead outside. At 1/200 you don't really see the light outside, but at 1/20 you can see the colors that the low November sunlight casts outside. The direct flash provides some light on dog. It was very difficult to get the majority of the flash to hit the dog and not the window (glare!). If he had been taller and wider, it would not have been such a challenge.

And one last photo ... the best photo I've gotten Santa Clause. I used a 40 foot bounce off of the ceiling above us and the effect is really quite nice I think. You are used to seeing this scene with the use of direct flash and that way it looks much more flat therefore less intimate.

Film Speed

I never thought I'd have fun with low light and high film speed photography since I'm not much of a sports fanatic , but it is also useful for taking photographs of kids in the wintertime. Inside or even outside on a cloudy day sometimes the largest aperture and the fastest shutter speed for the light available is not enough to catch a moving image or even to put a still image in adequate light. So, you either have to use a flash or you have to increase your film sensitivity or film ISO (Internal Standards Organization). In my case, I'm talking about the digital sensor's reaction to light not film's reaction to light, but same gist without all the dark lab chemicals.

The photos of our boys below are at a fairly large aperture f/2.8, shutter speed 1/100-1/125, and ISO 1600. Normally, I shoot my photos at ISO 100-400 because there is less noise which gives them much more crisp quality. In fact, when I did my first photojournalism assignment of the federal agencies state agencies and city mayor addressing the public on air quality and health, it did not even occur to me to increase the ISO so that I could get brighter photo in a dark room. I was looking over at the local newspaper photographer wondering why her shutter speed was so much faster than mine; I just assumed her monstrous lenses has much larger apertures than my best of f/3.5 at 18mm or f/5.6 at 55mm. After that night when I collected some subpar photos, we discussed film speed in class and when I did my next mock photojournalism shoot of the scientists at the local university museum discussing their work in animal preservation for halloween, I had much better luck. However, that time I brought my 50mm lens because it has a larger maximum aperture of f/1.8, which was good because the rooms were extremely dark, but then of course I was restricted in each frame by the higher mm because the rooms were small and I had to back up all the way, stand on chairs, and then still couldn't get much into each frame. Both experiences were a bit awkward, but not too bad, and I definitely learned some lessons. The third time I try to get some newspaper-worthy shots, I should not have any trouble at all.

The house is caught at aperture f/5, 30 second shutter speed, and ISO 1600. The blue light on the snow in the foreground and in the sky is from the moon. Even though it is nighttime, the high film sensitivity to light and the long shutter speed, together, give the scene a day-time feel. In any of these 3 instances, using flash would not have given the same effect because it either would not have created enough light or it would have created unwanted shadows.

Winter Warmth

I am going to use the onset of winter to talk about a few things for my journal entry on portraits.

I think that less is more. Simple is better. I prefer natural light because there is not much fussing required. By using sunlight, there are not any lights to lug around, not any strange shadows to fix, and not any backdrops to iron. You don't have to worry about things like carpet dating or degrading your image or bringing in props to make things like classy or creative. Every backdrop outdoors is unique and all you have to do is wait for the light and then move around and find the sweetest spots. Even a blade of grass can glisten like diamonds against the blue shadows in snow at the right time of day.

In my opinion winter looks great backlit. Like a drop of water, snowflakes catch the eye best when illuminated from behind. They look more translucent and bright this way and therefore are able to stand out from their background. I like people backlit also, in any season. I realize this is not preferred by all, but the feeling of warmth that is created when there is yellow, orange, or red sunlight streaming into the background is appealing to me. I tried to find portrait inspiration in the local galleries this past month, but it was just not there, perhaps because I have already made up my mind. There is a local contemporary photographer Chelsea Mach who is able to convey this feeling of warmth ... through bokah and through silhouette.

There are two problems though that I see with backlighting. Obviously, a photographer cannot capture as much detail even at large aperture of the subject because it is/they are in the shadow. You get bright spots. This can be helped with the use of a reflector but then of course you lose some of the effect. Also, sometimes, you get solar flare on your lens (red circle in top right above) if you're not using a hood or shade. But, if it is art, sometimes a strong feeling is more important than the quantity of pixels with detail or the absence of scattered light. I think most families want warm photos of themselves on their walls. If backlight can make these three photos at 0 degrees F look warm and appealing, I think it can enhance any human portrait just the same.

These are for You, Mom.

I know being a mom myself that you're probably tired of seeing photos of everyone and everything else and want to see some of your own baby, who is so far away. My midterm assignment is to collect 3 photos of myself and 3 photos of others in under 200 exposures. 3 of my 6 photos ended up being profile or silhouette type photos because that is a skill I had not tackled before and I ended up having fun with it. Each photo, for the assignment, has to tell a story ... or at least be an amazing use of light. I admit, these aren't anywhere near as inventive as I'd imagined, but they are both decent and simple and I did them without any assistance while watching my children, during a week that was almost completely cloudy.

Now, here are your grand babies and some really great light.

Freckles

I told her to be ready for a spur of the moment visit and there I was at her doorstep as soon as we had some snow (a good reflector for some soft natural portrait light). My friend here is a beauty and I desperately needed her freckles for my midterm assignment. I spot metered off of her face and the snow appeared white as it should instead of grey, which can happen in matrix meter mode if you do not overexpose to compensate.

Which one of the three tells the best story? And is the story the youthful freckles alone or is it the content and concerned mom looking over her children falling in the first snow of the year while finally getting to drink her coffee hours after it was poured? See, there, now I left nothing for your imagination!

Milk and Cookies

This family of three makes me feel better inside than warm chocolate chip cookies and cold milk.

We had scheduled this session for today, mid October, with snow in mind at Chena River Park in the Chena Lake Recreation Area. We did not have snow and we did not have sun and we (I mostly) almost postponed because of it. I am glad we did not because THEY made these memories as sunny or as snowy as it gets with their energy, personality, and love.

This set, I cannot wait to edit. I shot in RAW format and good thing because I realized early on that Auto white balance was going to be too cool (or blue) and Cloudy and Shady settings were going to be too warm (or orange). For the first time, I used Auto White balance as the default and decided to fine-tune them to the Kelvin scale later in Adobe Camera Raw. They are going to be even more vibrant than they are here unedited ... something maybe one could not ever notice until it's printed. This is my third family session (see here and here) and this time I did not forget, not even once, to check my light meter. I also adjusted the aperture and shutter speed often. I prefer the most shallow depth of field possible for any given situation in portrait photography. This is a milestone for me ... especially since I am by nature a poor multi-tasker and might have also been playing soccer, running, or telling a joke in the mix). Today was a really good experience for me. Thanks for the opportunity.

Negative Space: The Moon

A friend gave me a heads up that the full-moon was going to be arriving and that it might be a good way to practice night photography and the use of negative space in my frame. The moon, the stars, and the aurora were all on my hit list and the moon was the last to be tried so I jumped on it. However, I caught it a bit too late in the night. You can see how little of the frame the moon takes up at 9pm--even at 300mm which is extremely zoomed in. Catching it just after it rises of course is best because it is largest ... which of course isn't possible in complete darkness yet because we still have too much daylight in October. But, I did learn a few other things that I can use next time:

1) at such a long focal length the remote shutter release (which I did find Nikon brand for only $27 locally) is essential. Even at fast shutter speeds, you do not want your hand anywhere near the camera and this is mostly because

2) you need a very sturdy tripod with a long focal length, which I do not have, especially when the moon is high like it is here (say maybe 60 degrees above the horizon). I was holding my tripod to keep it from tipping onto myself. I ran into the same problem with the aurora (even though then I was using a much lighter lens and a longer exposure). And not only does the tripod need to be sturdy to prevent camera shake but it needs to have a decent ball head for extreme upward rotation if you want to catch things high in the sky.

Auora vs Moon. Although (generally) for the aurora you use a long exposure and the shortest focal length money can buy (wide angle if you can) and for the moon you use short exposure and the longest focal length you can get your hands on, the remote shutter release is ideal for both. And I'm glad I decided on the one that plugs into the camera instead of the true remote so I am able to stay behind the camera at all times (plus not have to deal with two batteries). Another difference between the two types of night photography is that the aurora requires manual focus completely. It is not possible to focus on the aurora automatically or manually. You really need a bright light on some trees in the foreground for a focal point or to focus on infinity. The moon is bright enough however that you can auto focus on it and then switch the lens to manual mode to lock it into place while you work on the correct exposure. Like any frame with a lot of black, to capture the detail on the moon, the photo must be underexposed and in this case more stops than I could keep track off. I am curious to see if I catch the moon on the horizon if I can get away with only a couple of stops of underexposure. The aurora on the other hand may be overexposed or longer exposed because this can capture more detail and movement.

I really needed this challenge to get me excited again. If we have clear skies again tomorrow, I'm going to get the kids in bed as early as I can and try to catch the moon earlier.

We are far from studying negative space. Actually, we've been talking about abstraction, perspectives, angles, and patterns. I took most of my photos for this assignment at an appliance junk yard. But, I would've liked to do something like this. I have a feeling this landscape was pieced together. But, if it wasn't it sure has all of the elements we've been talking about. The shape of the dandelions in the foreground mimic the shape of the full-moon and the clouds create many more repeating bubble around the moon. The bright colors of the grass at night make it abstract even though the perspective from ground level and the anchor or the mountains gives it a realistic feel. My favorite perspectives are those that have a real element to them. A kid looking down at the art he just made. A photo of the sky the includes a bit of the foreground or at least clouds. A photo that makes you feel like you're there. I don't really identify much with photos that don't provide a sense of scale or have some realistic element to them. I guess I don't see the purpose of the effort necessary to create the art unless the brain can eventually relate the image to something it know. Because of the digital editing software available you see a lot of photos that are over-saturated to create either an unrealistic effect or a photo that looks better than real life. I am not a fan of this. I think you can catch good enough light with a camera and over-editing is cheating. I'll end at that. If you were reading, hopefully you stopped before this last paragraph :) It is part of my latest journal assignment on angles and preferences.

Motion and the Aurora Borealis

30 second exposure

Motion photography can be broken down into three main categories: Stop, blur, and pan. In general, "stop" photography is catching something in focus that your eye would normally see in motion; you have to use a fast shutter speed, probably more than 1/60 second, to do this. Examples are a kid blowing bubbles, embers flying away from a fire that was just disturbed, a chainsaw spewing sawdust, etc. "Pan" is moving your camera parallel (or in another direction) with the subject so that the focal point is clear but the background is blurry. The typical shot that displays this is someone riding a bike. And "blur" is the opposite of "pan;" the subject is moving in a blur but the background is in clear and motionless. "Pan" requires almost a second of exposure and "blur" usually requires longer exposures. Above, the aurora is an example of blur photography. At 30 seconds of open shutter, the aurora's color is enhanced and it is able to be seen in multiple locations yet the foreground, the trees, are clear.

For aurora and star photography, I read in an article about aurora photography that ISO should be as close to 400 as possible. If the aurora is quite dull, a higher ISO might be needed. It is a good idea to go into the menu of the camera and turn on the long exposure noise reduction feature. An exposure of at least 15 seconds is probably ideal. This means if you do not have a sturdy tripod, it should be set low, you should not move around it, and of course it won't work if it's windy. The shutter release should be depressed not by your finger but by using the timer function. For my camera, for exposures longer than 30 seconds you must use "bulb" which means you can have exposures up to 30 minutes as long as you hold down the shutter release button the entire time. This introduces slight camera shake (from my hand) seen below, but you can tell how much the extra 53 seconds grabs the red light from the nearby city and the neighbor's homes. I need to run to the photography shop and grab a remote to plug into my camera. Another student said the generic brands run as cheap as 20 dollars nowadays. I do not have a wide-angle lens and that is why the strange angles. Although my 50mm lens has a largest aperture of 1.8 thereby letting in more light, my 18mm at its largest aperture of 3.5 can capture a much larger view of the sky so is a compromise. If I wanted to catch just one constellation, I think I would opt for the 50mm because I could get by probably with a shorter exposure and therefore have less noise.

I am supposed to mention an inspiring motion photograph so now I'll mention a family friend Tony Rath (Photography) out of Belize. I grew up next to his parents and he does some amazing things with stop and blur. He recently posted some 90 second exposure photos of the stars on small island we visited a couple of years ago, South Water Caye as well as some stop photographs of dirt bike races and beach volleyball. I can't link to the photos individually, but here is one of his websites.

83 second exposure (using "bulb")

Leaps and Bounds

I'm learning as quickly as this guy is growing, these days. Each day I come home from class, I am inspired from looking at the work of other artists or just other students that I take out my camera and try something new. Tuesday, I practiced long-exposure with fire, the aurora, and headlights. Thursday, I grabbed a new perspective of potty time before bath.

I am frustrated with digital editing software and really I wish it didn't exist so I would not feel obligated to touch it. I am finding that I don't always agree with it. And I am wondering what is the best of the many ways to convert a file to "black and white," which turns out isn't really black and white in the digital world. I am frustrated by the internet and how it changes the images it accepts. I just want to know everything now. But, I guess it's best just to think back and look at the progress made. Only a month ago, I was shooting manually without even using my light meter. That's major.

Early Ties

This set of photos is all about the intimate connection between a mother and a child. A baby who is learning to eat food with a spoon. A boy who today took his first steps on his knees. The sun came out for a brief moment today on this chilly fall day to remind us that these important stages in life are much too short and best not forgotten.

Above are 6 of 25 that I chose to retain for my friend. This time around, I bracketed 0.7EV (underexposed) from what the meter suggested and I ended up using a couple of the bracketed shots. These were taken on a short public trail in our town. Since we were going to catch light in a mostly shaded area, we met mid-day. I was a bit concerned that the light would not be wonderful because we did not meet at the beginning or the end of the day, but I think the colors turned out great, even unedited. Sometimes experiments turn out better than expected.

Annex Inspiration

When I arrived at the Annex, it was raining. Therefore, instead of photographing myself in front of the gallery using my tripod as I had planned, I allowed my three year old to help. He doesn't have unique perspective necessarily; it's just that that a DSLR is pretty hefty for him to handle and this was his first and only shot.

There were only about 4 photographs displayed at the Annex. However, a black and white by Herb Melchior was relevant to this week's discussion of shutter speeds. He displayed some sort of thicket, which was crystal clear, and used a long shutter speed to cause the rain to flow through it. My first thought when it comes to rain is to "stop" it using a very fast shutter speed, but creating flow, like one would for a waterfall, river, or fire using a long shutter speed, looked lovely here in the case of rain as well. Of course, as soon as I arrived home, the rain had stopped. We have been having some lousy weather, neither sunny nor rainy. The leaves have fallen, and I am having trouble finding inspiration out there.

The aperture assignment that we did was not very challenging for me. I felt like I already had a good handle on the differences between small and large apertures and the differences in depth of field that result. Some of the ideas that ran through my head for days, like photographing a field full of cows or trees in a burn area, did not really work out as well as I'd hoped because for example the cows were too far away or the weather was not good when I arrived at the scene to create nice photos of various depths. However, I have a number of ideas for the shutter speed assignment that involve objects/instances that I can find at home which should be more feasible to attain for a mom with two small children: aurora, candle light, steam, water, bubbles, fireworks, fog, night light, and stars.

The Goods

Six unedited favorite photos that I captured during my first photo session with a family of four (as opposed to shooting one or two people at a time). (I am not uploading edited photos because I know when I put photos on the internet they are changed drastically so I don't think it's worth it at this point to wait for the slight adjustments. I will have to figure out the quirks of the internet. Is it just discrepancies in dpi or is it one of the problems with using JPEGs or something else altogether?) This was also my first time bracketing my exposures and my first time shooting in RAW (on purpose). Bracketing was not necessary or at least bracketing a whole exposure was not necessary. And I can see now why a 50mm lens (effective about 80mm) on a less than full-frame camera is best for portraits. Shooting four subjects is a bit overwhelming for 50mm but at the same time we have here some appealing portraits of the kids and the couples that I would not have been achievable with a shorter focal length. So, it's a trade-off. Prior to the session, I was most worried about choosing the appropriate aperture so that all four people are perfectly in focus but so that the background is as blurry as possible. Sometimes I did this correctly and sometimes I did not. Sometimes I think the source of my error was my own motion or trying to shoot in spots in too low of light.

This should sum up the first Journal Entry, as I am just beginning and very excited about the basic digital photography course at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. This session was a good experience for me. I took 150 photos and immediately reduced that number to 75 (deleting mostly the photos bracketed for the correctly metered exposure). There will probably be about 20 that will be printable in significant size. I'm not sure how these odds compare to a professional's, but I think to get 15 good photos from a session is considered acceptable. The most appealing part of photography for me is looking for the light. This session was done at the home of this family, a small lot next to the slough. As you can see there were plenty of wonderful backdrops. Granted, it was a gorgeous Fall Equinox day . . . possibly the most beautiful day of the entire year.