Sojourns

Phi

Considering the Image: On a recent late afternoon walk I noticed these pine trees standing tall and leggy with some dramatic sunlight creating depth and form.  I wanted to try and capture some of the natural light and form here in contrast to the manmade version I posted earlier in the week.  As I walked along the area this evening I saw the curving branch juxtaposed against the straight, tall pines and considered the implications of that form relative to the golden mean or at least the rule of thirds.  The afternoon light perfectly highlights the form and creates the dynamics of this image.

Making the Photograph: It took very few frames to get the image tonight.  I first composed on the vertical and then decided the horizontal might be even stronger.  I also took bracketed shots of both vertical and horizontal compositions to try HDR techniques.  The HDR effort ultimately did not feel right and tended to flatten the light more than a straight 0EV matrix metered scene.  Post processing consisted of black and white conversion, high pass contrast, sharpening, sizing and a neutral tritone.

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Late Sunset

Considering the image: This was the backup shot that I took while waiting on the moonrise tonight.  I had in mind to do a shot of the full moon silhouetting a palm tree along the marsh front near my house.  But since I don’t have a grad-ND filter for my EF 80-200mm f/2.8L, that made for technical difficulty in achieving the shot I wanted to take.  I tried taking separate shots and considered compositing in Photoshop, but that was simply going to take more time in processing than I have available for this project.  So here is a late sunset shot.  I like the colors in the sky.

Making the photograph: This shot was straightforward.  Just frame a decent composition with the trees, dial in -2EV to saturate the colors of the sky and ensure the trees are black silhouette and take the shot.  Post processing was curves and sharpening before saving the .jpg.  There was a bit of movement in the trees from the wind that I could have dealt with using a higher ISO, but all-in-all this is a pleasing image.  The exposure turned out as 4″ at f/8.0 and ISO 100.  Focal length was 160mm.

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Achoo!

Yes, it is Benadryl and Zyrtec season again!  The pine pollen is out in force this week, making it difficult to keep windows open or be outside.  For this photograph I used a polarizer on my 24 f/2.8 and stopped it about midway between where the reflections were strongest and where they disappeared altogether.  I wanted to have some reflection of the offending pine trees in the water behind the rocks where the pollen is collecting.

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One Less Traveled

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

~Robert Frost~

The Old South

The old south is still alive and well near Charleston.  Despite some of the negative connotations of old southern plantation life, the country is undeniably beautiful.  Here is an old plantation lane with moss-covered oaks lining the way.  In the area where I took this photograph, these homes usually usually sit near a river, with grand lawns leading to water’s edge. I have made locations on most of my photographs public so that you can find the spot where they were taken.

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Sakura

Spring must be close with trees coming into bloom!  These early spring cherry trees are blossoming along Longpoint Road in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina.  I saw them while I was headed out for a cold and windy bike ride today and wished for the warm weather that usually accompanies a spring bloom.  The Weather Channel says that warmer days are still more than a week away!  I don’t know who is more confused, me or the trees.

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Gnarled

I saw this old tree in Hampton Park near The Citadel while on my usual Thursday tempo run.  I didn’t have much time after the run to come back and get a photo.  And this was the best that it could be isolated given the lenses available to me.  I used my trusty EF 24mm f2.8 and cropped as much out as I could in the viewfinder while leaving the tree top clear against the sky.  There is a trash can behind the trunk, so this was the only angle that could cut that out.  Not a bad composition given all the variables.

My post processing on subjects like this could use some work.   I wanted to bring out the detail in the trunk a little more, but the light was so bright that it was hard to contain the scene in the first place.  I had to be gentle with the adjustments or I started getting a lot of posterization.  I may come back to this image at some point and try a black and white process.

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Nowhere

This railroad trestle is near Yeamans Hall Road and North Rhett in North Charleston. I saw this from the road to the left of the train tracks today and had this image in my mind.  The only thing missing is a train coming head on!  I waited some time for a train to appear, but had other appointments to make.  One day I’ll come out when I know the trains schedules and try to meet one.

The last two days I’ve been working on some new post-processing techniques.  They are doing wonders for bringing the images back to what I experienced through the viewfinder.  I am particularly enthusiastic about finally understanding sharpening and how the various techniques work.  You can read for yourself here at Ron Bigelow’s website.  There is a wealth of information there for how to analyze and optimize what comes out of your camera.  Taking the shot and uploading the digits to your computer are just the beginning of making a truly outstanding image.  Check out my Flikr photostream for the original RAW version of this image to compare what is possible.

Also, if you’re in Charleston and you’re interested in the locations of my photos, I have made the Google Maps locations public here on my blog.

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Yucca

Since I spent the day traveling, here is one last image from Joshua Tree National Park before I move on to new subjects.  This is Big Bear framed from Keys View in the park.  The wind was steady at 20-25 mph and that made keeping the camera steady a chore, even with a tripod.  On the other hand, the wind and cold made for clear skies and beautiful views. 

Click through and see the full-sized view.

Izote de Desierto

Tomorrow I’ll head back east, leaving 29 Palms and Joshua Tree National Park behind.  Still, I feel attached to this place in ways I can’t explain.  I can imagine spending significant time here, photographing  and learning about the park’s myriad of wonders.  The Joshua Trees fascinate me.  The rock formations and mountains awe me.  I have learned about a 7-day Buddhist silence retreat that is held here.  I may have to sign up!

I had looked for a good photographic composition of a lone Joshua Tree for as long as I have come here.  This was the last image I took today and it is the image I’ve been looking for.  Serendipity.