Monthly Archives: March 2012

Image by Miles Smith

 

I’ve spent most of Monday and today catching up from being out of my office for a week!  This afternoon I put together the show of some of the students (their actually not students, their just coming to learn more, they are pretty terrific shooters in their own right!)  Jim and I went through the last minute plans for this upcoming workshop in White, Georgia, and I have to say we looked to like first graders jumping with excitement.  So many dear friends to see again, so many new friends to make, couldn’t be better!  I imagine sometimes you guys wonder what I’m so excited about?!  The fellowship mostly but I do love to see greet images and these guys and gals often show us stuffs that will knock your socks off!  I thought I would share a few of the many images sent to me for the show, all were great, but these were some that really caught my eye!

 

Over the next few days I will try to post, but it’s hard when doing a workshoop, but I will do my best!  For tonight I just want to thank God for this great opportunity to spend quality time with great people!  Come join us one of these days!

 

the pilgrim

 

Image by Kent Ervin

 

Image by Raymond Jabola

 

Image by Joe Tucker

 

Image by Carl Turner

 

Image by Jim Haverstock

 

Image by Lynn Rogers

 

 

Now you can see why we are pumped!!!!!!

 

Sherelene and I had wonderful trip last week, honestly we slept a ton!  I didn’t realize how much I needed the rest!  My Nikon job is brutal in terms of travel, and this year started out, and has stayed very busy.  I am thankful to have gotten this time with Sherelene and to just get my feet back under me.  If you have been following the blog, you know I didn’t do a lot of serious photography, mostly just fun stuff around where we stayed.  I did get a chance to play a little more with a neat app for the iPhone called Simply HDR, a very cool way to do HDR in a very simple way.  I also have been spending a lot of time praying about the upcoming workshop!  I have some great friends coming and some new folks I know we will really enjoy meeting.  I have been feeling a great deal of anticipation about this workshop for months, God has really been up to some amazing things in my life,and I just know He has some wonderful things in store for us!  Please continue to pray for that group, I will share the exciting results right here, after the event.

 

Last week i shared about a number of things I’m thankful for, may I add one more?  You!  Doing this blog has been a great adventure for me, and God  has used it to richly bless my life.  I would write it even if no one ever read it, but it is great knowing you guys are dropping in from time to time and letting me share what God has placed on my heart with you, if you’ve been blessed  one tenth as much as I have, it’s been good for you!  Thanks again for your coming here to visit with me!

 

In Him,

 

the pilgrim

 

Couple of other Simply HDR shots I liked from St Thomas!

 

 

 

 

As I was looking over my take for the week, it dawned on me just how much I depend on lines of direction as part of the design of my images.  I teach these principles all the time, but use them without much thought!   Actually that is as it should be, we  should naturally use the devices that work to make and image work, almost without thought, we should sense, when they are working.

 

 

Finally my favorite image from the week, a simple shot of my cross lying in the table next to my lounge chair at the pool, casually shot, but carefully designed in my minds eye.  Below the lines that make up the composition and below, the actual shot.

 

 

 

Effective images are the result of careful design.  God’s plan for our lives is also a very careful, divine, design.  Nothing is an accident after we place our lives in His hands, everything tht happens, happens for a reason.  His reasons may be hard to understand, but they always yield His will, and His will is what we should always be seeking.

 

In Him,

 

the pilgrim

 

*Technical Note on last shot:  Made with a point and shoot camera in close focusing mode.  The image was processed with Nik Color Efex 3.0 Glamour Glow filter and then re-filtered with Topaz Spicey to give it that grit.  Further processing was done with increased, Contrast, saturation and added amounts of Red and Yellow color balance to make the gold in the cross and reflection in the table pop.

Since we will be doing critiques at the upcoming workshop in Georgia, I  thought it might be fun to critique one of my own shots to give you and idea what happens in a critique!  First of all I shot this mess, so I will critique it just like any other critique!!!  Here goes:

 

“The photographer saw a very beautiful scene and for the most part captured it well.  The exposure is very good, colors are attractive and well saturated, but a lot of things are distracting.  Let’s take a look at them.  Number 1, In the upper left hand corner we have something sticking into the frame, not large enough to identify, it just pulls our attention away from the scene. Number 2, an ugly tree limb not only sticks out into the scene, it also merges with the boat, it just feels messy. Numbers 3 & 4 are more plants sticking into the frame, if they were smaller and less intrusive they might not have been as big a problem, but unfortunately they dominate the right side of the frame and block our view of a pretty scene.  So how could we have handled this better?  One thing would be to step up into the scene to eliminate the stuff on the right (3 & 4)   Next is to always do Border Patrol, look around the borders and make sure nothing is sticking into the frame that is distracting.  The photographer used a polarizer which is good and it worked making the colors richer, and the overall idea for the scene was nice.  The horizon was around the upper third line and that is good too.  This is a great example of nice effort that fell short, because of just too much clutter!!!  It’s a shame too, because this is a great scene!“

 

So that’s how we do it.  Can’t wait to see a lot of the work people bring to the event!  The reason critiques are so valuable is that we all make the same fifteen or twenty mistakes, the more we recognize them and learn what to do,  the less we will make those common mistakes.  Never be afraid to hear a critique it will only make you a stronger photographer!

 

the pilgrim

 

Tomorrow I will try to shoot his again and post it here hopefully, I will do a better job!

 

Update:  Stuck my head out this morning to see about remaking the shot and noticed the white fishing boat had left during the night!  When the light is better I will make another attempt,  but this is a valuable lesson, you can’t always count on shooting the same scene later, things change!!!!

The image was made at 4:07 p.m. yesterday, so I will wait for that light and see what is possible, the fishing boat may even be back???? 

 

O.K. better but still not perfect!