Urban Photography

Today I went downtown to shoot photography with a friend. It was the first time I've gotten out in a while solely for the purpose of shooting photography and it's always fun to wander and see what my eye catches. Urban photography seems to present itself as more challenging to me than nature and even portrait photography. One of the challenges for me is having the eye for subjects and composition in an urban setting. On top of that, urban settings seem to more frequently have high contrast scenes that make getting the correct exposure difficult. However, I enjoyed the trip as always and learn what I can.

Here's what caught my eye:

A colorful arched window on W. 3rd St at the RTA center.

Conduits on Front St... Conduits for electric, conduits for water, and a conduit for factory goods.Big Brother is watching.Support posts at the loading docks.
This view of the hole in the wall though the broken window appealed to me.The Fly?Toothy grin.Coon Hunting.Combo meal.Welcome to the graffiti circus.Bob was here.....
Everything urban in one shot? Brick, steel, glass, concrete, graffiti......

Coming in Threes

There's an old saying....bad news comes in threes. I think that's it, maybe, but it could be something else too. I don't know, it's something and threes. But as I was reminded recently that you don't have to leave the house to find ways to exercise the camera (good to remember in Winter when it is cold and dark all the time), I started looking around the house. As I found interesting things to take pictures of, a theme developed. There was always 3.

Three component inputs to the T.V.
Three spots, three bulbs shining on the ceiling from the living room lamp.
Three choices of coffee size (Do I want 6, 8, or 12 oz?)
Three bulbs, three blue pyramids, hanging over the front door.Three adjustable lamps, three dolphin pictures, ironically named Ocean of Light.Three O'clock, well almost (all day, everyday since the clock face battery is dead. But notice the pendulum still swinging.....deceptive to those who don't know.) And finally 3ml of medicine to help Cameron get over his ear infection.

Lagging

There's one more class left after last night's class but I have been so busy with work and things around the house that I haven't even uploaded the pictures from the field trip to the class website. Last night we covered lighting and manually adjusting the strength of your flash. I have already had occasions where that comes in very useful. I suspect everyone has because just like the auto exposure mode doesn't always give you the look you want, the flash very often also doesn't give you the look you want. What I get to it, I will put up a series of pictures from the airport where I was adjusting the flash strength to balance the exposure in the photograph. But anyway, I am still here, just a little swamped for now.

Morning Commute Getting Dark

For the last couple of months, my morning commute has been my time to pick a location to stop and take photos, practice camera settings, and enjoy some peace before starting the crazy workday. This morning I decided to try my luck at the Narrows Reserve in Beavercreek even though it wasn’t quite sunrise. I was lucky, the gates were open. So I went in, parked, and started down the trail along the river. I found a trail that went right down onto some exposed rocks in the riverbed itself. Squirrels and other animals were rustling the crispy dried leaves, the water quietly but noticeably gurgled over the rocks, and now and then the blurp of a fish jumping could be heard. The water was clear exposing the riverbed in some places, reflecting the trees in others. I could have stayed all morning, but since that is not where I earn my paycheck, I set the tripod up here and took some more shots. Many more shots, lots of manual exposure bracketing. Plus I had a polarizing filter on the front of my lens. It was very tricky to not over expose the sky and not under expose the trees. What I do like is how water strung out over the rocks in the shallow part similar to the waterfall shots from Yellow Springs.



I also found the photos to be more appealing after some cropping. For example, see before and after cropping below.

Tag Team Photography

My sister-in-law is bubbling over with ideas for photographs. On in particular has been trapped in her mind for years. She said she has always wanted a picture of a liquor bottle for her brother. But, despite having a clear vision in her head of what she wanted, she's been unable to recreate that vision in a photograph. A large part of that frustration I figure is her equipment. She has a digital point and shoot that doesn't provide a lot of flexibility. However, when she heard I was diving into photography, she asked me to help her out. With her composition suggestion and what I have learned about the camera settings, we were able to capture the look she was going for. It took some trial and error, but here's how it ended up. She has a glass top end table that we use. We put black fabric over the table top with a hole cut in it. I read about the lighting from below on a website. The bottle was placed over the hole and a lamp under the table to allow some light to come up through the hole and the bottle. The window shades were drawn to darken the room, but left enough ambient light to show the label. A secondary benefit of the light from below is that it emphasized the roundness of the stopper on top of the bottle much as side lighting emphasizes the roundness of a mug or cup. The camera was mounted on a tripod and the black fabric was held up as a background. Lastly, the white balance was intentionally set too warm to "yellow the label and glass", and the exposure slightly underexposed, according to the camera meter anyway. It turned out that slight movements of the lamp resulted in various effects such as the edge of the bottle disappearing into the background or the bubbles in the glass being more or less visible. I really enjoyed this and the next time you want to experiment with your camera on a rainy day, I suggest finding things around the house and constructing your own mini studio. Here is the result.

SNAFU - At my work

So....my employer found out about my interest in photography and offered to print some enlargements of my photos and display them on the walls here at work. What a nice gesture, so I thought. They offered to cover all the costs of printing and framing and even take care of all the legwork if I supplied them with the digital images. Well let me tell you, it became an example of, if you want something done right, do it yourself. The color was extremely saturated to the point of looking unnatural to me, and the print was grainy, almost pixelated. So, first off I checked the math. Sure enough my camera should handle producing an 11x14 enlargement at nearly 300dpi straight up without any fancy photoshop tricks. And the color, what happened to the color? Yellows look orange and the greens are so deep they loose contrast with the shadows. At work I have a high res 13x21 inch monitor and I can blow the photo up to double the monitor size and it still looks sharp and has the natural looking color I remember seeing the day I took it.

Ironically, or maybe not so, the people I work with that have seen the photos think they are great. They like the color, they like the detail. So maybe being the artist that took the photos, I had a look in my mind I was going for, the originals echo that look, and thus my opinion of the prints made for the office is maybe biased by that. After all art is an interpretive and individual subject, what one person casually notices speaks deeply to another. And so I have decided to leave my personal disappointment in the look of these prints behind me, and look on the bright side. The bright side being I was able to capture images that now bring enjoyment to others.

Class 3 is Tonight

Looks like the next chance I will get to stop and take photos is Friday. I will be driving myself to work that day. There was a photo contest that was held at the Spring Valley Potato Festival last weekend. The theme was Americana. I was not able to enter the contest, but I did notice a place I would take a photo if I was going to enter. While I think it would be better to shoot in the morning, I will not be able to go that way in the morning. So I will stop in the afternoon and see how it turns out. There is a red house next to a blue house. I know at least the red house has a star on it too. It looked like Americana to me. So that's what you have to look forward to, a red house next to a blue house.

Ideas......anyone?

I know one person has left comments (and I appreciate it) so this might just work. If anyone is following this yet, I'm in need of ideas for photographic subjects/techniques. I've taken just about every different route to work I can think of looking for photo opportunities. The recent trip to Yellow Springs was great, and maybe I'll be back this weekend for the street fair. But soon flowers will be gone, leaves will have fallen, and nature will be bare. I know there is a lot of potential in winter landscapes, but I'm not feeling that right now. Maybe once it gets here I will be in the mood. But for now, besides the obvious wait for the trees to change, if anyone has some suggestions of something for me to try, I'd love to hear them. I would like to watch people and snap things that catch my eye, but I don't really know the etiquette on that.

Color in Yellow Springs

During the field trip, one thing I knew would be plentiful is color. There was color found in the obvious places such as window frames painted to contrast with the wall and the sale I had seen at BP the week before. But then there was unexpected color. Knit rings in a tree, and colorful bands wrapped around poles. Even a woman wearing fuzzy pink slippers as shoes.

Field Trip

We had a field trip to Yellow Springs Saturday. I had planned some things in my mind that I wanted to photograph while I was there. One was an old gold Cadillac very similar to one Dad used to have. I also wanted to find opportunities to photograph color where ever I see it. It was too warm to see breath on the air, conditions were not right for sun beams (except in the way there), and I didn't take the camera out at the coffee shop. However, in addition to what I had planned, I saw plenty of very neat old doors, I discovered how to get a look I had seen in other photographs of buildings and we went to a waterfall to practice photographing water.

In the morning the clouds made for a colorful sunrise, and even showed some sunbeams through the holes in the clouds.


When I got to Yellow Springs, I parked and started walking to the coffee shop where the class was meeting. On the way, I passed the Cadillac I was looking for.


Our first stop to talk, was in the alleyway next to the coffee shop. The shop was called the Underdog Cafe and they had this colorful mural on the side of the building with an inspiring message.


As we walked down the block behind the cafe, we passed this old door. I noticed many old and unique doors and thought a return trip focusing on the doors as subjects would be a good idea.


After spending time around the buildings, we went into the trees along the bike path and then down to a waterfall. On the way to the waterfall is where I discovered how to make a photo of the front of a building look like it is leaning away from you. Most people would aim the building square in the frame, but a slight turn creates this effect that I like.


Then finally we got to the waterfall. I love taking pictures of moving water like this, it makes it look so mystical.

Class Two

We had our second class meeting last night. We spent the first half looking at sample pictures people had posted to the class website. Everyone in the class had some good photos to share. I also enjoyed the variety of locations and situations people brought. We had photos from Hawaii, night photos, action shots, flowers, water and water falls, pets, and children. The second half of class we talked about lenses and depth of field. Depth of field was the main topic and most time was spent on how to control it. It seemed that people were more comfortable talking and sharing last night. I image that must be partly due to the class getting to communicate some on the class blog to break the ice. Our field trip is coming up on Saturday to Yellow Springs so I will have some more photos to share after the field trip.

Caribou Coffee

I love Caribou Coffee. A coule of years ago, I was traveling for work. I had been to the University of Minnesota for a meeting and upon returning to the airport, I was ready for my ritual coffee while I unwind waiting for the flight home. Most airports seem to have a Starbucks, at least one Starbucks, in every terminal. Minneapolis however is the home of Caribou Coffee and as I walked to my gate, I passed this coffee merchant I had never heard of. That day I was in the mood for an iced drink, yes even in Minneapolis, it was Summer. When I took my first sip, I couldn't believe how delicious the coffee taste was. I thought to myself, if the cooler is this good, the brewed coffee must be amazing too. When I got home, I checked their website to see where their other locations were. To my delight I saw that one was "coming soon" to The Greene, a new open air mall that was being built near my home. I have wanted to take some photos there, and finally got the chance to last weekend. Actually, when my son was a week old and his mom was ready to get out of the house, we went to Caribou.









My son at Caribou with the proud Dad - 1 week old.

First Class

I signed up for a photography class through the Greene County Career Center to better learn all the settings an SLR camera is capable of and to get some supervised practice. The first class was very introductory and basic. I am the only male student in the class and at first impression seems I am the only techno-geek in the class. Not that I think I act too geeky, but with a physics and electrical engineering degrees I do understand a lot about the optics and even the electronics and sensor technology. I am going to research it to make sure, but I think I might even teach the instructor something about why higher ISO settings give larger files sizes. I suspect this is only true in JPEG and not RAW. And if so, other electronics/sensor people reading this will know where I am headed. I don't hold that against the instructor at all because the relationship between noise, or more correctly image entropy and file size is not relevant to being a good photographer. So as class progresses, I will make notes here about it.

The class has its separate blog and photobucket account and our homework is to take pictures. I took photographs on my drive into work this morning as I often do. Since this is a photography blog, I will share some. Finally I know, sorry. There will be many more to come, I promise.

These pictures are called, "Where's the Water?". This low-head dam on the Great Miami river has been around a long time. My grandfater fished here and has a story he loves to tell about how when he was a kid he caught a carp so big that he carried it home over his shoulder and it was dragging the ground. More recently as the bike-way travels along the side of the river, I can recall many family bike rides past this same location. Never do I remember seeing the dam without water passing over it. I make mental notes of things I see that I would like to photograph and saw the top of this dam sticking out of the water last weekend. I've been taking lots of nature photos lately, but I want to try and focus on photos that tell stories, have meaning or history attached to them. Here is my start. Enjoy.

More Background

I’ve owned a camera for almost as long as I can remember. Most people probably do. I have pictures from when I was a kid (4x4 prints I think) that I took with that camera. It was a Kodak point and shoot with manual film advancement and it took flash cubes. From there I had a little plastic 110 camera, then a 35mm point and shoot with automatic film advancing and rewinding and an electronic flash. These cameras were all used for “capturing the moment”. Pictures of family get-togethers, pets, outings, vacations. They produced snapshots, the kinds of photos you would expect to find in a typical family photo album.

When I graduated high school, I bought my first SLR. It was a Minolta Maxxim with several automatic modes as well as a full manual option. I knew that an SLR camera offered much more room in the way of creativity than a point and shoot, but college came and between homework, studying, a job and a girl friend, the camera became a dust collector. I never really got to explore the creative possibilities and again the camera generated more basic snapshots.

Fast forward to today. Approximately a decade after graduating with degrees in Engineering Physics and Electrical Engineering working for two different fast paced startup companies trying to push new technology into medical practice, I feel the need for change. Maybe not a total change, maybe balance is more appropriate. Contributing to the advancement of healthcare is a very rewarding cause for getting out of bed each day. And it pays the bills. However, staring at pixels and the corner of a room without windows day in and day out does not feel like a sustainable situation.

Inspired

I apologize now for the length of these first couple of posts, once I get the background info out of the way, it won't be so bad, I promise. Now, to let you all know where I am coming from.Inspiration comes in many forms, some of them positive, some of them negative. When the inspiration factors interfere with your life in a coherent way (see the physics degree coming out) the force can be great enough to move you toward change.

Negative Factor: Rat Race
Same old, same old job. Day in and day out, staring at a computer, in front of a wall, without windows, in a quiet room with 2 (sometimes 3) other occupants all doing the same thing. My fellow researchers seem to be content, quietly staring, thinking logically and mathematically, in silence broken only by the clickity-clack of keystrokes on a keyboard for hours on end. I had the opportunity to fill in some roles that required me to travel, meet with people, negotiate, set up and manage temporary remote operations in different cities. Not any easier of a task than research if you ask me, but the variety of new faces, new personalities, changing views and landscapes, and seeing a lot of country from both the road and the air was enjoyable. This experience let me know that I need to end up in a place with more human interaction. Going back to the role of researcher was a change, and change is always refreshing. But now, almost 2 years of being back into that research role, I miss the human element of going to work each day.

Positive Factor: New life
I have a son! Four years after making the conscious decision to have a baby, we finally got one. What could be better inspiration than a baby? Babies are beautiful, babies are fun, babies are work. Babies certainly bring change. Sure your social calendar, sleep schedule, eating habits, workout schedule, pretty much you name it, changes. But also changes occur inside, changes in your thoughts, your emotions, and your outlook on life. You want to be home, you want to be happy when you are home. You want to leave the stress of the office behind. I not only want to be a provider, but also a mentor, nurturer, coach, tutor, etc… Life is not completely about success and achievement, it is about family and doing all I can with and for them.

Positive Factor: Pure Inspiration
A friend of a friend turned out to be a professional photographer. We were at a cookout hosted by the friend and the photographer happened to be there. She “borrowed” our camera to take photos of the party. Later when I got to review these photos, my impression was “Wow, my camera can do that?” She has a blog and continually posts beautiful photos. In addition to a photographer, she is a great writer. She has a good eye, and a good mind’s eye.

Additionally I was looking through a listing of local photographers online and happened upon one who mentioned he started in the Engineering Physics curriculum at his chosen university, but in the third semester came to the realization that physics is too left-brained for him and that he needed a profession that was more balanced between the two cerebral hemispheres. He switched majors in college. I however am well beyond that point but nonetheless, his story actually has more than one similarity to me and his photographs are outstanding. I interpreted discovering his story as inspiration and a sign to pursue deeper into my own photography endeavors.

Positive Factor: Feedback
Who can resist taking picture after picture of a baby? They are just so beautiful. And in preparation for baby’s arrival we bought a new camera. It is a Nikon D40x, arguably the best consumer grade (as opposed to those cameras marketed as professional) digital SLR available at the time. Most if not all of the pictures I share here will be taken with that camera. I started using it to take pictures of our baby for family and they were asking if the pictures were professionally done. Hmmm……maybe there’s something to be said about that? Having seen what my camera can produce in the hands of someone that knows what they are doing, I began to read and experiment. My wife continued to give me very encouraging feedback.

I’m sure there are other factors, but those are the main ones that come to mind.