Further Impressions

I've been playing with the Topaz Impression software again. These two images were created with a preset I created and saved. I photographed the bed because I liked the folds in the top sheet that had beed pushed in from both sides. I struck me as a good subject for drawing and I knew it wouldn't be around long enough to draw to I took pictures. Then I wondered how it would look rendered with an Impression preset. I found one I sort of liked but ended up modifying substantially and saving for possible future use. I think I like the second one (below) better because it is simpler but the first one may read better for others because it is more obvious what it is.

As always, respect my copyright. If you want to share this post or the photos please link to this page. Don not repost elsewhere without my permission. The photos were made in RAW mode with a Canon G11 on a monopod. Initial processing was done in Lightroom CC 2015 and the drawing effect created in Topaz Impression.

"What is truth? " Pontius Pilate

A while ago on the Online Photographer blog Mike Johnston posted about truth in landscape photos. As an example he posted a photo of a barn in Steamboat Springs and posed the question of whether the photo was truthful. It was a posed promotional photo of a classic barn with two riders on horseback coming down the slope through deep snow in front and mountain slopes behind. Mike's point was that there was only one spot from which that photo could be made without including a lot of other less classic structures and other things.

There was a fair amount of discussion and it was clear that a number of commenters favored a journalistic standard of truth in photographs as did Mike. I have to say that as a landscape photographer that kind of stuck in my craw leading to my revisiting the idea here.

My first and broadest objection to photographs as truth is that the medium takes a 3D world where the photographer is standing in a 360° reality (both horizontally and vertically) which includes sound, smell and touch (temperature, rain/snow falling on you, wind blowing your hair, etc.) and from that selects out one small section of the visual part to show the viewer in 2D. The rest is at best implied, snow tells you it is cold, etc.. So no, a photograph is never "truth", it is never reality. It can convey one small slice of the experience of being there but that's all.

My other objection is that all artists and photographers select from the available subject what part(s) they wish to show their viewer. The artist simply leaves distractions out. The photographer chooses where to stand. Ansel Adams once said that a big part of being a photographer was "knowing where to stand". The tree in the photo above is near one corner of my barn, down the slope behind it is my garden shed and some other evergreens. I didn't want to show you them so I found an angle that moved the barn out of the frame to the right and hid the other trees, one behind this tree and the angle of the slope hides the smaller one. The chosen angle also left out the garden shed. Because I deliberately left those things out of the image I suppose one could look at this and assume that this tree was standing alone somewhere in a field with nothing around it. But that would be their interpretation. It certainly wasn't my intent to give that impression. My intent was simply to show you this tree. The things I left out were simply irrelevant and would have been a distraction. I'm not lying by leaving those things out. I'm directing your attention to what I want to show you.

Artists have always left out distracting elements but because photography was considered a literal view of the world photographs have often been assumed to be a "truthful" representation. One of the main objections to "Photoshopping" an image is that is considered by many to be untruthful. The f.64 group was all about the literal image. I know some photographers who insist on "getting it right in the camera" all the while ignoring that the camera does not "see" like a human does (a whole other discussion) and that the things they do "in camera" are arguably manipulations as well.

Today I went snowshoeing in back of my house. The trip started by the tree above. It also passed the barn and the garden shed but this tree was the only thing on that first section of the jaunt that struck me as something I wanted to share. It's not what my whole back yard looks like but it is an accurate representation of the tree as it impressed me to photograph it. It and the photos below are as truthful as a photo can be even though I did leave some things out of each of them and you can't feel the wind blowing snow in your face while you look at them. All were made with a Canon G11. It was a good outing. I needed to get out. Winter here feels like it is never going to end.

If you'd like to buy a print of any photo that appears on this blog please email me. Please respect my copyright and do not repost without permission.

Like January Without the Snow

I went for a walk this afternoon. The temperature has hovered around 20°F all day. We had some snow a few days ago but it's gone. The highs have been fluctuating between 20° and 40°. It has snowed twice but neither lasted.

I need to go walking more often. It puts me in a better mood even if the air is frosty. My walk today took me down to the river at the bottom of the hill and part way upriver on the Stone Valley Trail that is on my side of the river. At one of the stream crossings I spotted some interesting patterns of ice with leaves. I particularly like this one. It has a sort of cosmic look about it.

Canon G11. A nice little pocket camera.

Endless Winter

Long time, no post. This has been a tough winter and I haven't been doing a lot of photography. Today is the 3rd day of 'official' spring and the photo above of our old apple tree is the view we had this morning. The good news is that the snow stopped early in the afternoon and 5-6" short of the 7 PM and 8" that was forecast for last night and today combined. It was a strange day. In the photo the wind is driving the snow right to left which is South to North. A few minutes later I was looking out a window on the opposite side of the house and it was also blowing right to left but that is North to South. Another few minutes and it was coming straight down.

I hope this is the last serious snow storm. We had one earlier in the week that dropped about a foot of snow, the most in one storm all winter. Like this one the wind swirled it around a lot  and it sculpted some interesting waves in the driveway that I couldn't resist photographing before plowing them away.

All the photos were made with a Canon G11, shot in RAW mode and processed in Lightroom 5.

As always, if you wish to share the photos please respect my copyright and share the URL of this site. Do not repost without permission. Thank you.

Twenty Years Later

Yesterday I climbed Whiteface Mt in the Adirondacks with a small group of friends. The trip was in celebration of the 20th anniversary of my completion of the 46 High Peaks. I had finished on Whiteface on a chilly damp day in 1993 but yesterday was quite the opposite, very hot, high 80s to 90° F and very humid. Once we reached the top it was pleasant enough with a strong breeze to cool us but the trip back down was even hotter and more humid than the climb. I took 4 liters of water and drank it all by the time we got back down.

I took the Canon G11 and a polarizing filter that attaches with some adapter tubes. I wanted to keep my pack as light as possible considering the heat and climbing about 3100 feet in 4 miles. We took our time, averaging a bit less than 1 mph. The view above is from near the Weather Station looking South. The photo below was made from the promontory in this view looking North.

I'm planning to do the trip again for the 25th anniversary although I may hitch a ride back down on that trip, or not. Who knows? If I can stay in shape to climb I should be able to walk back down too.

Below are the celebrants: Dave Allen 46er (finished two years ago), Rick Reed 46er (finished five years ago), Yours Truly and Ron Reed, Rick's twin brother and aspiring 46er. With a bit of luck and good health we should all be 46ers when we do the 25th anniversary climb.

Our Woods

As recently as the Thursday before Christmas we had no snow, then it started. We had a first storm with a lot of wet heavy snow, that was followed by one with even more soft fluffy snow, followed by yet more soft snow. I've shoveled more snow in the last 10 days than all of last winter which admittedly wasn't much of a winter. It was still snowing lightly this morning and we cleaned up the latest 3". Finally this afternoon the sun broke through and I decided to break out my snowshoes. Snowshoeing is hard work too, especially breaking trail, but it is way more fun than shoveling.

I checked the depth in the back field using my hiking pole. I always take one pole when snowshoeing. If you trip and fall it makes getting back up easier. The snow in the field behind the house is now 26" deep. I continued on into our woods. We don't own much woods, 1½ to 2 acres worth, but it's nice having your own woods to hang out in. Walking through I spotted this young beech with the sun shining from behind. Arrayed in golden leaves and a mantle of snow it was ready to have its portrait taken. Shot with a Canon G11.

Van Gogh Exhibit

We went up to Ottawa today to see the Van Gogh exhibit that continues through Sept. 3rd. I saw the announcement when it went up in May and vowed to go but just now got around to it. Van Gogh is among my favorite artists, not the top but right up there. I couldn't help, while standing in line to get tickets and then to see the work, but think about his struggles. He sold only two paintings in his lifetime, and those sold for a pittance. He survived because his brother supported him.

The exhibit was excellent and I recommend it if you can manage to go. Ottawa is only two hours North of me and is the closest large city to where I live. I really ought to make an effort to get up there more often. Unfortunately the "open border" between the US and Canada isn't as open these days but if you have all your papers it's still manageable. I do miss the way it used to be though with lighter handed officialdom and no guns.

The photo is one of a handful I made with a Canon G11. Art galleries aren't fond of people taking photographs so I didn't take the 7D. It has been manipulated in Lightroom, Photoshop and Postworkshop.

Overlook by Whitney Point

We drove downstate to our daughter's for Christmas. The rest stop just before we turn off I-81 overlooks a valley and a ridge on the other side with farms dotted along it. I've always liked the view there and I shot several photos with my Canon G11 which I thought looked like paintings so I decided to heighten the effect.

I've been playing with Postwork Shop Basic which only processes images up to 800 pixels but that is enough for this blog. It works in layers which you can change the transparency of as well as manipulate the effects of each layer from the presets. I layered an Oil Painting effect over the original photo at 50% opacity followed by a Fresco layer at 35% opacity. I also altered the effect from the defaults.

I got the basic version (free) after seeing an ad for it in Photoshop User and have tried a number of the effects, mostly in combinations. 800 pixel images are fine for web use but I think I will buy the Pro version in which will let me work on full sized files because I may want to print some of them. The Pro version also gives you a lot more effects to choose from.

The final effect looks like gouache to me. The faux mat was added in Photoshop. I described how I do that in a post back in 2010. The "frame" uses the same filter as the bevel but set to "round" rather than flat with the added grey border selected and with the light direction reversed from what I used on the mat bevel.

Happy New Year.

Traveling

We drove to Vermont today to visit my sister and her husband. Going through Rouses Point I spotted this building right where Rt 11 turns to avoid dropping into the Lake Champlain. I have a fondness for old buildings anyway and this one is particularly interesting with its multiple signs overlaid on one another with varying degrees of effort at removing the prior ones, none fully successful. I was tempted to philosophize about the resulting confusion and parallels to halfhearted efforts in life but I will leave that to my readers to ponder.

Just the Two of Us

A while back I shot this photo on my kitchen counter. I liked the arrangement of the apples, the fruit equivalent of two people sitting on a park bench or in an elevator. Great natural color in great light. The light is from the window about 12-18" away which faces Northwest, artist's light. I cropped it square and centered the bowl thus violating the so-called "rule of thirds" but I did turn the bowl enough that the apples are on an angle, lending a bit of visual tension.

I've shot quite a few photos on this counter, most of a cyclamen plant that we used to have sitting there. Although I bill myself as a landscape photographer and prefer to photograph in the Adirondacks, a half hour to several hours away, I suspect that half of my photos are close to, or in this case, in my home. There are photographs wherever you are, sometimes right under your nose.

Canon G11, ISO 400, 1/20th @ f/4.5, handheld.

Fungus

I took a hike yesterday and on the way out I sprained my right ankle. I'll be limping around on crutches for several days and have to do a follow up visit to the doctor next week. It was actually an awesome day. The weather was great and I had a great time up to the point where I hurt myself (klutziness strikes again). Unfortunately I was 2 miles in the woods when it happened and no one else was around so I had no choice but to walk out on it with help from a large stick. What would normally take me 30-40 minutes took over 2½ hours and then I drove home 80 miles before going to the ER. By then it was badly swollen but the x-rays showed nothing broken. That was a bit of luck. I just have to stay off it for a while, ice it a couple of times a day, etc. I got some good mushroom/fungus photos though. The one above is the best of the bunch. I used my G11. This group was growing on the side of a tree along the trail.

Another Tall Ship Photo

This was right after we docked in Montreal. The crew are furling the topsail. The other two 'guest crew' climbed the rigging under the watchful eyes of professional crew during the cruise. I didn't even ask. I don't like ladders, especially ones that move, and I don't like heights. That probably sounds strange for a mountain climber but I'm a hiking mountain climber not a technical rope & piton rock climber. I like something solid under my feet. Like the previous photo I posted this was made with my Canon G11. I had run out of memory cards for the 7D at that point.

Tall Ship Cruise

I just returned yesterday from a tall ship cruise on which I was "guest crew", meaning I paid for the privilege. We sailed from Clayton, NY to Montreal, PQ over a three day period. The photo is the very last one I took before turning in for the night on Wednesday. It is six tall ships at the dock in Montreal Harbor under lights at 9:40pm. I had to take several and cross my fingers since I didn't have a tripod for making the 1 second long exposure. A tripod wouldn't have helped all that much anyway since I was standing on a floating dock that moved with the waves and each time people walked by me. I braced my Canon G11 against a post that was attached to the dock and shot several at points in time where the dock seemed to be moving minimally. The others were blurred. This one worked. I may be posting a few more here as I process them and I will post a bunch to my Flickr account over the next few days.

I will be selling prints of this. An archival print on fine art paper matted to 11x14 is $50 including postage within the US. Contact me using my Gmail account (jim.bullard) for larger sizes.

Compensation

Last Friday our son Ian was flying from Texas to Syracuse to spend our anniversary with us. He had a layover in JFK airport but was due in SYR a little before 2pm. I got there a bit ahead of time, a 3+ hour drive. I checked his flight on the arrivals board and it was listed as "On Time". Twenty minutes after the arrival time it was still listed as on time. I reasoned maybe that was touch down time and between taxiing to the terminal etc. he would be along any minute. Thirty minutes after arrival time it was still allegedly on time but still no Ian. Forty minutes after its scheduled time his flight was no longer on the board and there had been no announcements so I called his cell phone. He was still in JFK. The "On Time" flight had never left there.

What ensued after was almost 6 hours of the plane sitting in a queue to take off, returning to the terminal, repeat and finally having everyone get off to get a meal with the prospect of taking off later. After they had eaten they were finally told the flight was cancelled. In the end he rented a car, drove part way home while I drove the 3 hours plus back from Syracuse and he stopped to get a few hours sleep before driving the rest of the way. A very frustrating day for both of us.

The sole bright spot was that I had followed the advice I frequently give others and taken a camera, my Canon G11. I don't sit still well unless I'm at the computer editing photos so I spent a fair amount of the 6 hours I was at the airport wandering and looking for things to photograph between calls to Ian to see what was happening on his end. I came up with a few, all of which seem to work better as B&Ws. I think the one above is the best of the bunch, a small compensation for an otherwise frustrating day.

Fortunately he went back yesterday and all went smoothly. Had it been today the earthquake happened just as he would have been boarding and all the airports shut down to inspect runways for damage. He'd have been stuck in JFK again.

P.S. It was a very good visit. Thanks for coming Ian.

Shows, Human & Nature

I made a quick trip down to the Paul Smith's VIC this evening to see the opening of a juried art show I had entered two photos in. Both were accepted and it is quite a good show. If you will be in the area I recommend stopping by the VIC to have a look at it.

I disagreed with some of the juror's awards (as usual) in particular the Best of Show award. IM{not so}HO the very best entry was a pastel by Joyce Hansen, a view of an Adirondack woodland scene with dark forest and a large rock covered in moss. I'd have declared that one as Best in a nanosecond if I were the judge. The work that the judge did choose was a sunset photo with looming clouds over a shoreline that had dark rocks protruding from the water in the foreground. It is a good photo but (again IMO) there was better work there.

On the way home Mother Nature treated me to another show, the sunset seen above. My original intent was to post one of the two photos that I have in the art show but in this case Nature won Best of Show with its beautiful sunset. The photo was made with my new G11 and was inadvertently shot in JPG. The camera has a habit of resetting itself to JPG. I have to reread the manual to see why that is happening because I almost never shoot in JPG, at least not intentionally.