My good friend and awesome photographer Josh Bradley has started a new mobile blog. It is centered around only using mobile devices from shot to post to blog. It’s amazing what he can do with his Olympus Pen cam and iPad. Inspires you to push the boundaries and drop the excuses of what’s ‘ideal’ gear to make fantastic images.
Taking inspiration from some of his flower posts I thought I might share a few of the ones I recently acquired when looking for insects (more on that in another post.)
I was waiting for a bee to land on this little [yellow] flower and he chose every other flower but mine (ain’t it always the truth.) Rather then walk away I decided to make a capture.
In post I used the ‘Dark Sepia Filter‘ in Silver eFex Pro and then I used a ‘Glamour Glow‘ filter in Color eFex Pro with the stats of
- 28% Glow
- +1% Saturation
- +9% Glow Temperature
and then lastly to bring out a white and add contrast I moved in my highlights slider in levels. That simple. The trickier part I think is seeing in B&W (if you intend on converting to such.) I was just enjoying my macro lens and the more I looked at the color image I wasn’t satisfied with it. What I mean by seeing in B&W is that your reds and purples will tend to come out very dark if not next to black. For instance if I were to convert this next image it would look down right awful.
All the pink would become black and it would lose its punch and meaning. When I see the color in these images it screams at me and it refuses to be ignored. That’s something I look for and want to enhance. B&W just didn’t work for me here. (These flowers are no bigger then your thumbnail for reference)
Thank you to everyone who came out and practiced their photography skills with me. It was a great time to get out with your fellow photographers and learning a new thing or two to boost that skill set of ours. For those who didn’t attend and are curious I taught an advanced nature photo walk at Clay Pit Ponds State Park Preserve. We skipped the classroom and went straight into the field.
We started out at Sharrotts Pond and then worked the trails. No specific shot was sought after just anything and everything that was in our path. From landscapes to macros we had it covered.
Looking to the skies for a photograph was an option I normally don’t take. I tend to have a hard time making it work. Plus a lot of the time like most if you take this shot with your typical auto settings that sky will be blown out and white. Well; the key is knowing how to deal with that exposure. I happened to like the dramatic light filtering through. This gave me the opportunity to get the sky into exposure and create something dramatic. Underexposing over a stop did the trick and made the rest fall into place. In post I added a touch of saturation to the skies and a black point to the darks.
Don’t underestimate the power of a well placed black point. Here is an image without the black point dropped.
This is the same image with the black point dropped in. It’s subtle, but I think its vital to making subjects pop. If your looking for a black point in the options for your post process workflow look for an icon like this:
Along the green trail there is a great fern meadow that I always like to look for images in. Now obviously this one didn’t come out of the camera like this. I used Silver Efex Pro from NIK to make this happen. Using antique plate II and combining it with a green b&w filter. High contrast is always a great lighting source to seek out. Knowing how to put it to work is the real key.
Wow, I’m finally back. Technology can be so much fun and then such a major pain in the ass all at the same time. Finally got a new machine and I am up and running now. Where to begin? Well I left off with posting about the last nature photography lecture/photo-walk. It was a ton of fun. Had some great people come out and share in our love of photography. Sitting in a class learning is great and all, but don’t we all just want to get out and shoot sometimes? Well you are in luck! My next teaching event will be exactly that. All photography. We will be exploring the Clay Pit Ponds area and see what we can make of it… photographically of course. You will be shooting along side me and be encouraged to ask all the questions you have and I expect you to hold nothing back! I will also be making pointers as we walk around trying to make our images just that much better. The price for all of this? FREE! Yep you heard it right. Free. So come on down and have a great time with me and your fellow photographers. It is guaranteed to be a ball!
Now down to business. I wanted to recap a concept or two that we talked about when we went out for our photo-walk. One was exposure. A major concept that isn’t the easiest to grasp and the other involved working on depth of field and understanding it on a physical plane.
Not only did we discuss how to expose for this type of shot, but more importantly looking for light! It’s vital to have an eye for that selective lighting. You don’t always want everything lit. It can be a lot more appealing when you only light the parts of the story you are trying to share.
We didn’t use spot metering and just have it do the job. We used a combination of matrix metering, exposure compensation and then using the highlights or “blinkies” in the playback details. Once you see the light and then know how to expose for your subject, can you reach your true potential as a story teller.
This is a moth that we found as we walked the trails at Clay Pit Ponds State Park preserve. It’s amazing what you can find when you just slow down for a moment. Something we are all guilty of not doing from time to time. It was so dark in the woods as we walked that I was shooting at f/2.8 in order to get a decent enough shutter speed. Even with that I had to remember to use proper hand holding and shooting technique. Making sure that focus point was where I wanted and then hoped one came out sharp. I got lucky here. One thing that is vital is to remember from what angle you are photographing your subject. Regardless if it’s an animal or a person. If you are pointing it downward opposed to eye level or straight on, things will look drastically different. I highly encourage you to get out there and try it out. You might just surprise yourself.
If all this sounds interesting and you want to learn more directly in the field then make sure to sign up and reserve a spot for our advanced photo walk July 17th at the Clay Pit Ponds State Park Preserve. More info can be found in my event section in the upper right hand corner. Hope to see you there!
So my laptop totally tanked. I am out of a computer to process any images and I am working on getting up and running or borrowing gear in the meantime. Sorry to leave you all hanging!
Feel free to send me any deals you might know are going on 
*Update* Just ordered a new i7 Core laptop and 25″ screen from newegg! I bit the bullet and will pay it over time, but I should be back shortly. I hope it gets here before the trip to the nations capital. It will be a close one! *Update*
Want to learn how to use that new DSLR or point and shoot? Have questions from every spectrum of photography? Plus you don’t want to pay a dime to learn it?! Then come down to the Clay Pit Pond Interpretive Center this Saturday where you can be taught by yours truly. We will start off with approximately an hour long lecture and then a hour or so walk around the grounds putting your new knowledge to work. Bring questions and paper to take notes! Framed prints and my self-published book will also be on display. For more information see the events section on the upper right portion of the site. See you there!
