Thoughts on Photography

Diamond in the Rough - Joe Rosenthal

Last year, Meg and I took a weekend trip to our state capital, Raleigh, North Carolina.  Here we visited the NC Museum of Art.  It's not a bad museum, but I don't remember too much of it.  I do, however, remember finding this great little book of photography called "Regarding Manhattan" by a photographer I'd never heard of before. 

Turns out, this guy is somewhat of a local, living and working in North Carolina and the surrounding states.  Well I bought that book for $12.  A steal really.  I almost felt guilty as it seemed to be the cheapest thing for sale in the gift shop. 

Well, today I randomly stumbled upon a photography site and quickly realized it was this photographer Joe Rosenthal, whose book I had purchased.  This guy really is a great photographer.

Check out his site:  www.johnrosenthal.com

Be sure also to spend some time reading his writings on photography.  I've not come across better writing about photography than this. 

"lost in focus" debuts

I'm excited to be part of a new website featuring the work and commentary of a group of six photographers.  The site was born out of a desire for more meaningful and constructive feedback among photographers who share a common goal.  This goal is one of continual creative exploration. 

Looking among the members, we all have our own style and photographic interests.  At the same time, we all have an obsession with getting better.  This site provides us a forum for doing so.  It is open to feedback from all, so I encourage those who are interested to give it a visit.  I've already captured some new ideas and inspiration from the discussions that are happening there.  I hope you do as well.

Please give a visit to lost in focus

Evolution of a Photograph

Tonight's PAD was a quick snapshot of my new bride.  She graciously posed for me (impatiently actually) before heading out for dinner with the girls.  To say that my original raw capture was bad, is to be kind.  Impatient models don't have time for you to figure out white balance and spot metering...and so I was left with this to work with:

Way too dark at ISO 1600 means horrible noise as a result of increasing exposure in my RAW converter (Capture One).  Well after a while in PS doing some touch-up work, I was left with this as my intended post for the day:

So that is pretty ordinary.   Since I had some extra time, I decided to play around and try to ruin the image.  I did an OK job of it using the Nik Color Efex "Old Photo" filter and a couple of scratch brushes.  I don't particularly love the result, but at least it's a little less predictable. 

After about 20 minutes, I decided I didn't like this ruined version and decided to go with a sepia version....

After another 20 minutes I decided that the photo looked too digital, so I redid it in B&W and added some grain.  At this point, I decided it was time for bed.

Just a thought

I'm just back from a week long business trip in Boston.  It's lunchtime and I'm surfing my favorite photo websites.  I had a thought I figured I should capture.  It was inspired by a photo posted on Luminous Lanscape.  (one of the best photo resources out there).  Anyway, the photo is of a very mediocre, very predictable landscape. 

So I began to wonder...why did they post this photo on the front page?  Someone obviously liked it.  So I figure, maybe I'm just not looking at it appropriately.  Okay, let me try a little harder to like it.  Well, it's got nice wavy lines, and nice color contrast.  The sky has some interesting clouds...but it's just not doing it for me.

Well, then it hits me.  If I have to look for a reason to like something about an image, it's not really that good.  This isn't to take a shot at someone else's photography.  I created a photo just last week that I have to try really hard to like...so in the end I really don't like it that much at all. 

It's that initial reaction of "wow" that I'm going for with an image.  If it doesn't have that...it doesn't have a chance of being a favorite for long.   Given that I've started back up my PAD, I expect to have MANY photos which do not have this "wow" factor...but sometime soon I'll get one.  And that's the fun of it.