Tag Archives: Photography

It is what it is

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I will freely admit that I don’t really like to go out in the rain to shoot but when that’s what we have and it is foggy, and I haven’t been out with a camera for a few days, well, it’s that or nothing.


I seldom have anything but the most general expectation for what I will find, this morning it was ‘there will be fog’.  Sure enough, there was fog and it works well to separate subject from background.

I made a print of the image above and I was surprised at how well it works.  Part of the reason was the condition of the weather but another important factor was the software I used to sharpen the image.  For a variety of reasons a digital camera softens the image a bit and it makes all the difference to get the sharpness back and accentuate it some.  There are lots of ways of sharpening and the garden variety methods, in the hands of an expert, work very well.  I’m not an expert.  I have been using Pixel Genius’s most recent version of their sharpening software (PhotoKit Sharpener 2.0)  and it performs well beyond expectation.  One of its features is to produce an image that looks just lousy on the screen but works well as a print.  As it turns out, the process of printing introduces some softening too and their software accounts for that.  The image above used a different set of parameters for display on a monitor.


I was also pleased to get all the shots appropriately vertical.  I am forever tilting the camera one way or the other and then having to straighten the image in Photoshop or live with it.  Today all went well.


It’s really pretty funny when you think of it, but I was out with a couple of thousand dollars worth of equipment (camera, three lenses, good tripod, etc.) and one addition that saved the day  This was a plastic grocery bag I put over the camera as I was lining up the shot and leveling it.   This is not exactly in the same league as

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

But it was essential that the camera and lens not get too wet.  The plastic bag came through.

Off to shoot buffalo (or bison, whichever you prefer)

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Sally had learned of English’s Buffalo Farm west of Bainbridge IN and we went there this morning.  Arriving in the area before our appointment, we wandered around.  Here was a prototypic Indiana farm with a well kept barn and a basketball hoop.


We arrived at the buffalo farm right on time and went out to the pasture where the adults are kept.  We rode out with the owner on a Ranger vehicle.  This is an open vehicle that will seat about six or seven people.  It has neither sides nor roof and is excellent as a platform for photography.  We were warned to stay in the Ranger; buffalo are unpredictable and not our friends.  This is not a petting zoo.


This is the number one bull who weighs in at nearly a ton.  He can run at a speed up to 30 miles an hour and turn on a dime.  Very impressive.  We spent about half an hour in the pasture and then were on our way back to Bainbridge and lunch at the Bonton Cafe.  After lunch we stopped at a derelict house we have admired on other occasions.


I don’t know what it is about buildings in this kind of shape but they draw photographers more than buildings that might appear in House Beautiful.


Windows seem especially interesting.


Perhaps it is time to organize a field trip for our photography club designed around visiting abandoned buildings.

Paying attention

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I suppose that someone walking through the woods on a beautiful day in the winter talking on a cell phone is staying in touch after a fashion.  They just aren’t in touch with what is around them.

Thomas Jefferson had something to say about this:

” A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this gives a moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprize, and independance to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks. Never think of taking a book with you.  The object of walking is to relax the mind.  You should therefore not permit yourself even to  think while you walk; but divert yourself by the objects surrounding you.  Walking is the best possible exercise.”

Nowadays, Mr. Jefferson wouldn’t have to take a gun with him, he could take a camera.  You can shoot with either device.  I have an idea he would have been an avid photographer.


The world around us goes on its merry way whether we pay attention to it or not.  And it’s beautiful whether we pay attention to it or not.


I had shot the same scene (below) the day before but it was overcast then and there were no shadows.


I couldn’t think of a good reason to go swimming, so I didn’t.  To use Jefferson’s words that would likely have been “too violent for the body” although it would probably have stamped “character on the mind”.


Watching the water from the bank was enough of an experience and one I’m likely to repeat.

Wondering in the trees

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I really had no idea what I would be shooting today, I just knew I was going out.  The day was bright and around 20 degrees.  We haven’t had a great deal of snow but what there is, is hanging on.

I would like to say that I was ready to shoot anything that would stand still long enough but in the case of the image below, the seed pods were still for most of the 1/3200th of a second the shutter was open.  Otherwise they were moving pretty briskly.


I had to chase this one for awhile too.  Not exactly strenuous exercise but fun.


I’ve been doing more with sandwiching multiple images exposed for different lengths of time (high dynamic range or HDR).  This is part of a walnut plantation.

It reminds me of the Robert Frost poem, ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ – ‘The woods are lovely, dark and deep.’  And like all of us, I have promises to keep.

Telephone survey

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I got a call a few minutes ago; the fellow was doing a survey of in-home use of broadband, cellular, long distance and cable service.  I’m not really the one to talk to since I don’t watch TV and while I have a cell phone, I still have to read the customer instruction manual to figure out how to use it.  I believe it does have a camera on it and that might get some use.  But I was the senior male in the household so I got tagged for the survey.


As I was answering his questions, typically by saying ‘that does not apply’, I was thinking about which images from today’s shooting at Fort Harrison State Park I would include in this post.  There were shots of trees but they didn’t seem to have the same impact as simple dead weeds do in the snow.


Or, for that matter, water flowing among snow-covered rocks.  I took several shots and they all are different because the patterns in the water keep changing.  Fascinating to watch.


I remember several years ago watching a movie (on TV) where a fellow put his foot through the screen.  That seemed a bit extreme at the time.  It doesn’t seem odd at all now.


I don’t advocate watching less TV.  If you enjoy it, more power to you.  My interests are just different.  Not better or worse, just different.


I’ll probably go back and shoot more tomorrow.  I know I missed a lot of good stuff.  Especially close to the ground.  And close to the water.

Snowy day

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We’ve had a few inches of snow so far today, enough to go out with the snowblower but not enough to argue against going out to shoot so it was off to Fort Harrison State Park.


Picnic tables have nice geometries in the winter.


Reflections are fascinating any time of the year but especially so in the winter when the snow outlines shapes.


When I was composing this shot of the tree I thought I would take out the little red flags with Photoshop but I find that they add to the composition.


I wouldn’t even have noticed these leaves in spring, summer or autumn.  But there they are in winter.


Maybe there will be more leaves tomorrow.  Probably, but I had better go check.

EcoLab at Marian University in Indianapolis

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Becky and I went to look at the EcoLab at Marian University this morning.  Last night someone brought a picture of a cedar waxwing to our camera club and was talking about what a good place the EcoLab is to go to see birds.  So we went.  We did hear a couple of birds but didn’t see any.  That didn’t matter in the least.  This place is well worth visiting for the general photography possibilities.


It was gently snowing and that only added to the charm of the place.



When I saw the scene below I thought of the caption ‘Three Points of View’.


We’ll be going back, I’m sure of that.

Some days it’s ‘HEY!’ and some days it’s ‘pssst’

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Subjects for the camera talk to me.  Not in so many words, but they do seem to communicate about how desirable they would be for image making.  Keeping in mind that this is a metaphor rather than what passes for ‘reality’, I’ll continue to describe our interaction as a conversation.  On some days, some subjects are pretty insistent in commanding attention.  It is as if they are yelling ‘HEY!’  Today was at the opposite end of the scale, subjects were whispering.  That is not to say they were intrinsically less interesting, they were just more subtle.


I could as easily have stepped on these leaves as notice them.  But once noticed they speak quietly and don’t repeat themselves.


Moving water doesn’t repeat itself either.


Same rock, slightly different cropping and different water.  The water is always different.

I’m listening to Joan Baez sing ‘I wonder as I wander‘ as I am writing this.  It’s a little easier to wonder if the conversation with the subjects is quiet.


Less is said.  More is heard.  And seen.


Good day to be out.  Good day to go wondering.

Nature in human hands or is it the other way around?

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Most of the photography trips I have taken around Indianapolis have been to state and city parks and other areas that were once wild but have since yielded to the human hand enough to make them easily accessible.  Sally and I went on a different kind of shoot today.  She lives north of the city and we went into the countryside.  Farm land.  Flat land and big sky.  I’ve been wanting to do this for some time.


What becomes immediately apparent is that the governing of this land is bicameral – the farmer brings great skill and talent but still relies to a large extent on luck because there is nature, the other branch which governs this land.  The farmer brings order to the land, planting corn or walnut trees in rows for easier tending.


Nature brings variations in temperature, snow, rain, wind.  Weather is fickle.  Even the best estimates of what is going to happen with the weather (The Old Farmer’s Almanac aside) are made only a few days in advance and then with a probability attached.  Nothing is certain here.  The human proposes and nature, or God, disposes.  All of which adds to the appreciation of what we see when we come here.


It is unlikely that the tree above was intentionally planted.  The one below probably was.


Both are beautiful in their own ways.  All things considered we humans do pretty well producing food and some of the beauty we need and enjoy.  But in the end, nature is the variable and always present factor.  When we are no longer able to work or if there is no one to take over, nature reclaims the land.


Where wheat, corn or grass once was once planted, nature takes over with its own plan.




If we think only within the perimeter of human activity, this might be seen as tragic; entropy has taken over and the chaos of nature has won.  But is it a contest, a war?  If it is, we humans are going to lose.  But if we see ourselves as part of a larger universe, it is all quite beautiful.  I’m thankful to be here, see it and be part of it.

First shoot in awhile

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Becky and I went out with our cameras this morning.  There were little rain squalls from time to time but not enough to worry about.  At first we thought we might go downtown Indianapolis, then we switched to maybe the Indianapolis Art Museum – we had gone there last New Year’s Eve day.  We were going across the Butler University campus and the fountain said ‘stop here.’  So we did.

Using it for a background was as close as I got to photographing the fountain and being happy with the result.

Reflections in the ice were interesting.


The leaves are dead but not altogether gone.



And there is a bell tower.


A very satisfying morning.