Paint №3

 Process, Walks  No Responses »
Oct 252013
 

Paint №3{click image to view large}

While our cat Sassafras was at her “spa” for grooming, I went out walking with my camera in the Andersonville area of Chicago. It’s a colorful Swedish neighborhood, with unusual shops and restaurants, outdoor seating and huge urns filled with flowers in bloom. Surely I could find something to photograph.

For some reason, though, I felt overwhelmed and couldn’t “see” anything. So, I decided to travel the alleys where it might be quieter with less distraction.

About a half-hour into that exploration, I (finally!) came across a garage door of peeling paint, each rectangular panel filled with fascinating patterns in green and orange. This image is one of my favorites.

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Nikon D300; 1/250 sec @ f11, ISO 200 (handheld);
18-200 mm f/3.5–5.6 @ 70mm (105mm EFL); focus distance 1.0m

Growth

 Walks  No Responses »
Jul 172012
 

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Before returning home from the Miksang workshop in Boulder, Colorado, I decided to take one last walk along Pearl Street. Despite having spent hours and hours prowling that area to fulfill our assignments in the past two weeks, I still discovered something I’d never seen before. That’s a heartening lesson to take back to my oh-so-familiar neighborhood in Chicago!

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Nikon D300; 1/250 sec @ f11, ISO 200 (handheld);
70-300 mm f/4.5–5.6 @ 180mm (270mm EFL); focus distance 11.89m

Liveliness

 Uncategorized  2 Responses »
Feb 112012
 

{click image to view large}

After spending a couple of hours photographing beautiful flowers in the Lincoln Park Conservatory, what really caught my eye was this scene just as I was leaving…

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Nikon D300; f8 @ 1/60 sec, ISO 2200 (handheld);
18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm 27m EFL); focus distance .79m

Autumn Tapestry

 Nature  6 Responses »
Oct 132011
 

{click images to view large}

To sample colors for this image using Photoshop, I first converted to 8-bit Mode and then applied Filter > Pixelate > Mosaic with a Cell Size of 200 square. The resulting palette is pretty cool!

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Nikon D300; f8 @ 1/125 sec, ISO 3200 (handheld);
18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 200mm (300mm EFL); focus distance .67m

Vivid

 Walks  3 Responses »
Jun 122011
 

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A red car, green leaves, and blue overcast light: RGB!

Peering through foliage to find a clear shot, the in-camera square format helped convey an impression of tapestry as I saw it.

But, the highly saturated complimentary colors created some nasty fringing around the edges of the leaves—challenge a lens/confuse the sensor. 😉 After trying several correction methods found online, I made up a solution for this particular image. In Photoshop:

  1. Select the red background, Invert to select the leaves, and Stroke > Outside with a pixel width to cover the fringe.
  2. Because the red changes in value from light-to-dark, top-to-bottom, create a selection from the stroke and fill with a gradient of light-to-dark red using the Eyedropper to sample hues.
  3. Add a Gaussian blur to further help blend, and;
  4. A little high-pass sharpening on the edges to finish.

This result isn’t quite print-ready, but with some refinement I think it could be. Getting it to print within gamut, however, is likely another thing altogether.

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Panasonic DMC-FZ40; f4 @ 1/50 sec, ISO 400 (handheld);
Focal length: 45.6mm (299mm EFL)

On the Tarmac

 Walks  1 Response »
Jan 222011
 

On the Tarmac №1
{click image to view large}

Lumix DMC-FZ40; f5 @ 1/80sec, ISO 80 (handheld);
Focal length: 16.6mm (91mm EFL)

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On the Tarmac №2
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Lumix DMC-FZ40; f5 @ 1/160sec, ISO 80 (handheld);
Focal length: 35.3mm (196mm EFL)

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Photographed through an airplane window as the wings were deiced, color first caught my eye on this gray day. Then I noticed the interlocking shapes and lines.

Two from the Archives

 Walks  2 Responses »
Nov 262010
 

In morning sidelight, shadows play off the rivets of a metal door.

Silver Door
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Nikon D300; f8.0 @ 1/180sec, ISO 200 (handheld);
18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 28mm (42mm EFL); subject distance 1.5m

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In morning sidelight, shadows play off the lattice bars of a metal gate.

Green Gate
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Nikon D300; f11.0 @ 1/130sec, ISO 200 (handheld);
18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 200mm (300mm EFL); subject distance 3.76m

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Only 20°F outside, so it’s a good day to process older photographs.

Though I must have passed these subjects in a back alley many times before, on this particular September morning they jumped out at me. I’m learning we can pass the same things over and over, but their appearance is constantly changing.

 

Window Blind №1

 Walks  4 Responses »
Aug 302010
 

A white blind tied back with a green ribbon in front of a dark room.

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Photographed from the street, looking up on a hot summer day.

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Nikon D300; f/5.3 @ 1/45sec, ISO 800 (handheld);
18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 95mm (142mm EFL); focus distance 7.9m