Category Archives: Photography

Posts regarding photography and related topics.

Film: A Leap of Faith

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Hi Folks:

Just a quick thought, appropos of nothing really, but I invested a good portion of the day sorting through thousands of old 35mm slides… I started photography seriously when I was about 15, and started shooting digital back in 2005 (a few years later).  I still shoot both film and digital and won’t come out in favour of one over the other, but in looking at those images from decades ago it occurred to me that shooting film always involved a leap of faith.  There was no live view, no instant review on the camera’s LCD, no histograms.  As a photographer one took one’s accumulated knowledge and experience, working knowledge of the camera and film in use and made an exposure or series of exposures based on a ‘best estimate’ – but it was often days or weeks before the results could be viewed. By then the moment had indeed passed and could never be brought back again. In shooting slide film the image ‘in hand’ was the finished product, which put great onus on ‘getting it right in camera’.

I fully appreciate the latitude and the options digital processing offers, but to me there was always a certain mystery involved in shooting film.  I don’t think I’ll ever lose that feeling.

Now go out and make some photographs!

Hugs,
Mike.

IMG0005

Swift Current Creek, SK, 1982 (Kodachrome 25)

Photo of the Month – Winter Storm

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Hi Folks:

Through the winter months we can get some very high tides (and consequently very low ones) known as ‘King Tides‘.  Winter here  also tends to involve a fair bit of rain and some really powerful winds.  The combined effect isn’t as strong here in Victoria as it is on the west coast of the island, but it can still be pretty amazing.  I went out a couple of years ago to try to photograph this remarkable occurrence and ended up with my camera (and me) getting swamped by a rogue wave!  Both of us survived the encounter, chronicled here: Photo of the Month – Winter Storm. Continue Reading →

S.O.O.C. (straight out of camera)

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Hi Folks:

This is a short (for me) and somewhat tongue-in-cheek rant because I always find it amusing when I see people post images they’ve made on the various social networking sites, along with comments that say, “No Lightroom!  No Aperture!  No Photoshop!  No iPhoto! No _____!” as if it’s a badge of honour they THEY do not stoop to post-processing their images.  I find it funny because it’s also completely false.

“The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion. There is no such thing as inaccuracy in a photograph. All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth” ~ Richard Avedon

Continue Reading →

2013 Photo Calendars

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Hi Folks:

Update: If you’re looking for 2014 calendars, please click here.

If you’re looking for templates for Lightroom/Photoshop, please see the bottom of this post.

As I’ve done for the past two years, I created a template in MS Word that allows people who don’t have Photoshop, Lightroom or the equivalent to make their own photo calendars.  There are usually a number of people who generate templates for Lightroom/ Photoshop as well, and while I haven’t yet encountered any this year, I’ll add them to this post when I find some.  I used MS Word 2007 to make the template, but saved it as both a Word 2007 file and a Word 97-2003 compatible file. Basically it’s a series of tables, one for each month, that look something like this: Continue Reading →

Photo of the Month – A Return to Film

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Hi Folks:  According to Wikipedia, it was 120 years ago (1892) that George Eastman first began supplying Thomas Edison and William Dickson with 35mm film for their movie projectors.  Film was around before that, of course, but in a variety of sizes and feeding systems; 35mm film became a standard in 1909, and in 1934 the 35mm film cassette for still photography was introduced.

So, in honour of 120 years a group of us met on a rainy afternoon in November at Ross Bay Cemetery to celebrate a (temporary?) return to film and to the days of B&W.  Some had never shot film before, for some it took a while to remember how to work a film-advance lever, and for others film is still in daily use.  For the most part there was no autofocus, no LCD screens (“you have to look through the little viewfinder there”), and no ‘instant’ results.  Those who had film cameras brought them, and those who didn’t were welcome to bring some film and borrow a camera from someone else.  I brought six cameras (five 35mm and one double lens reflex) and loaned out three.  For those who just can’t get into film, they were welcome to bring their digital cameras and there wasn’t a bucket of tar nor a bag of feathers anywhere about.  More on that in a bit.  Overall it was a lot of fun.  Continue Reading →

More on Lightroom and Metadata

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Hi Folks:

Someone on Twitter recently asked about understanding Lightroom’s various metadata fields.  I responded by providing a link to our Lightroom, File Management and Metadata post.  She wrote back and basically said, ‘Thanks for the information, but what I really want to know is what all of those fields are for…”  So I wrote the following.  She seemed to appreciate it, and I thought it might be of use to you as well. Continue Reading →

Photo of the Month – August

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Hi Folks:

Since we profiled one of Marcia’s cell phone camera images for July, it seemed only fair to use one of my cell phone images for August.  I saw this leaf as I was walking down the sidewalk one day, and it reminded me of a little lizard sunning itself on the concrete – blended in really well with the background, too!

Leaf Lizard

Leaf Lizard

Now go out and make some photographs!

Hugs,
Mike.

The ‘Orton Effect’ in Lightroom

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Hi Folks:

As with many photographers, almost from the time I started making photographs I also began playing with them.  For negatives this involved darkroom work, with slide film I would try mounting two images in the same frame, but all of this became a lot easier when I got into digital processing.

In Lightroom 2 (I think), Adobe introduced the ‘negative clarity’ slider, and while it was fun to use on its own, one day I wondered what would happen if I made a virtual copy of an image, overexposed both the original and the VC slightly (dual mounting slides in the same frame holder made the overall image darker), and applied negative clarity to one, then combined them using the LR/Enfuse plugin.  The result was this: Continue Reading →

Photo of the Month – July

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Hi Folks:

End of the month again, and that means it’s time for my favourite image made in the past month.  This month is a little different because the image of choice was sort of a collaborative effort between three people: Marcia, Freeman Patterson, and me.  Granted, my input was limited and Freeman Patterson’s was purely inspirational, because this is Marcia’s image, made with her cell phone camera.  For some inexplicable reason Marcia doesn’t share my fascination with f/stops, ISO and shutter speeds, but she has a very good eye.  To that end, I borrowed a copy of Freeman Patterson’s “Photography and the Art of Seeing” from the library for her.  It remains one of my favourite photography books of all time, and it’s now one Marcia appreciates too.  It’s changed the way she looks at the image in her viewfinder.  As I said, she has a good eye.

This image was taken at the rose garden at the Empress Hotel here in Victoria.  You can see some more images of Marcia’s, made the same day, here: Empress Rose Garden.

Ladybug

Now go out and make some photographs!

Hugs,
M&M

Photo of the Month… Memories

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Hi Folks:

Every photograph has some significance to the person who made it; there’s a ‘story’ attached to every image. Those viewing the image may have their own associations or memories that lend significance to the image, but it’s often said that a great photograph can stand on its own, without explanation. Perhaps. As both a writer and a photographer I like to think the image and the story go hand in hand. Continue Reading →