Into the Light

Have you ever lost a blog post? Drafted it, added your photos, maybe even checked for typos, and then never posted it? Let it languish among your drafts for a while and then eventually just forgotten you ever wrote it?

That's what happened to this post. Last summer I had a teeny little obsession with lens flare. Out and about on a sunny day with a camera, I couldn't resist turning my lens towards the sun to see what scattering of light I could capture. I collected a few of my favorite shots to share here, and then they somehow disappeared into the morass of draft posts I have going on at any given time.

Finding this unfinished post in the middle of another (sometimes) sunny summer, remembering the wonder of seeing the sun cast its rays across an image just so, makes me think lens flare might just be an obsession worth revisiting.

While I'm at it perhaps I should revisit my unfinished draft posts once in a while too. Who knows what other good stuff might be in there...

New Yorkers in the Wild

For me, the truest escape from the pressures of everyday life can often be found when I am the farthest removed from my everyday experience. And the watery wild of Pacific Rim National Park on Vancouver Island is about as different from New York City as you can get. There is only one road that leads there. It winds through miles of mountains and woods, past pristine lakes and ancient growth forests. Even at peak season, there are few other cars on the road.


I actually got out of the car and stood in the middle of the road to photograph this scene. I took my time. Nobody was around to care.

In order to maximize our wilderness experience, we planned a day of kayaking in Toquart Bay (accompanied by a trained professional, naturally). The places we paddled were completely inaccessible except by water, untouched by roads, barely marred by a human footprint.



From the seats of our kayaks gliding through that wilderness we saw black bears coming down to the shore to fish, seals and sea lions frolicking in warm pools in the afternoon sun, and majestic bald eagles guarding their aeries. We saw the mountains, still snow-capped in July, and the Pacific Ocean stretching far as the eye could see. And we heard the absolute silence, broken only by the dipping of our paddles in the water. (And we thought to ourselves..."Why do we live in New York City when there is all this?")


Ash must have been quite inspired by all the wilderness and bears and whatnot because some basic human survival instinct seemed to take hold when we returned to land and he insisted that we must cook our dinner ourselves over a fire out on the beach. Being a city girl, I was somewhat hesitant, but I deferred to his boyhood Scout training and agreed to give it a shot. We picked up vegetables and a few basic tools, gathered together some driftwood and kindling, and set out for a beautiful beach (where, fortunately, fires were permitted by the Parks Department).



And would you believe? We had one of the best meals I've enjoyed in a long time. Fire-roasted corn, baked potatoes, buttery vegetables, and soup to wash it all down. And, to top off a perfect evening, toasted marshmallows. All cooked over a fire! Can you imagine? Just like people did it in olden times! I ended the evening feeling that, if push came to shove, these two New Yorkers could definitely survive in the wilderness, and eat well too!

As long as there is a supermarket nearby. And marshmallows of course.

Our evenings outdoors by the fire (because a person can't stop with just one evening of toasted marshmallows) inspired some interesting photography experiments too. This photo below was taken in the backyard of our bed and breakfast, where I opened up the shutter for a long exposure while Ash rustled the burning embers sending sparks flying into the night.


Yes, it was about as far from life in New York as I could get, and a perfect holiday.

Four Strangers

If you have been following this blog for any length of time, you may have noticed that most of the photographs I take are of food or nature, with occasional other inanimate objects mixed in here and there. What you rarely see on this blog is photographs of people.

There are two reasons for that. First: I am not a parent and therefore do not have ready access to adorable children who can act as my subjects. Second (and undoubtedly the larger issue): taking pictures of real live people is quite stressful. I suspect my hesitation stems from my feeling that taking a person's photograph is something of an unwelcome intrusion into personal space, likely to be met with scowling, rolling of eyes, and irritated sighs.

Of course (so I'm told), not everyone feels that way. Some people are quite happy to be photographed. In fact, some people can't get enough of the camera.

With that reassuring thought in mind, and feeling quite inspired by the portraits of talented photographers like Ciao Chessa and nicolejoy1, I have been gathering my nerve for some time to take a plunge into people photography and participate in the 100 Strangers project. 100 Strangers is a website that challenges people to improve their street photography by taking pictures of 100 complete strangers. (And no photos on the sly; you actually have to get permission.)

Below are my first four strangers.

While walking in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden not too long ago my father pointed out these four people--three of them feverishly text-messaging on their cell phones, and one clearly just enjoying the fresh air, sunshine, and smell of the roses. It was an amusing scene and so I decided to go for it and ask the group if I could photograph them. The text-messagers happily assented, and told me that it was quite appropriate that I should want to photograph them because their mother (far left) is 105 years old.

A 105-year old woman enjoying a sunny June day in the gardens with her children is certainly worthy of photographic commemoration. As she gracefully shook my hand and approved the photograph, I felt quite confirmed in my decision to give this project a try.

Losing Focus or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blur

Last month I participated in Nectar and Light's monthly Photo Trade. The theme was Losing Focus: Find beauty in the blur. The idea was to share photographs in which the main subject was out of focus.

I have tried intentionally blurring the main subject of my photos before, here and there. But, more often than not, I've had camera shake, subway vibrations, crowd jostle, and miscalculated shutter speed to thank for my lack of focus, though on occasion those misfortunes lead to an interesting shot.

Last month, however, I systematically set out to get the most out of my blur. It was actually very liberating not to have to worry about focus at all.


Sometimes, in blurring the intended subject of my shot, I ended up with new focus altogether.


I even experimented with the (extremely scientific) technique of swinging my camera around madly in the 8th Street subway stop to see what sort of effect the camera's movement would have this on mural of a woman in the rain.


All in all, it was a very satisfying month of experimenting with blur. And to top it all off, I received this lovely photo in the mail the other day.

June's Photo Trade theme is Into the Light: Learn to love flare. I haven't come up with anything yet, but I'm working on it.

Fun With Textures

Ever since reading a discussion on applying textures to photographs on one of the Digital Photography School forums about six months ago, I have been trying to figure out how to do it myself.


Initially the problem was finding textures to apply (ones that didn't create endless computer crises when I tried to download them). BeeBeeMod resolved that issue when she led me to NinianLif, whose free textures on Flickr offer innumerable possibilities. (All textures used here are hers.)


A few Google searches then turned up this tutorial, and I was on my way. And as I suspected, textures are extremely cool. And so easy to work with! I wonder if some of my favorite photographers and bloggers out there would be into this...



These are a few of my recent experiments.

Hopefully the next step will be creating some textures on my own.

Montreal

I said I would be posting a few more photos from Montreal, and now I am finally getting around to it. Let me begin by apologizing for the fewness of pictures I have to share of the Old City and the outdoors in general. The shooting conditions were less than ideal. In other words, my fingers do not operate well at subzero temperatures. Nonetheless, in the moments before frostbite set in I did manage to capture a couple of winter scenes.

As we were tramping through the Old City trying not to think about the snow soaking our pant legs and getting into our boots, I found myself wishing I could be pulled along on a sled like the lucky little person above.

I have to accompany this second shot of the Hotel de Ville (or City Hall) with a thank you to my brother and husband, who waited patiently on the sidewalk (without gloves! or hats!) while I tried to get a crisp picture by balancing my camera on top of a precarious makeshift tripod consisting of my phone, my wallet, and my camera bag stacked in a tower on the hood of someone's car. It worked well enough in a pinch, though it took some maneuvering.

We really enjoyed Montreal, though our exploring was somewhat limited due to our wimpy-ness in the face of cold (and our lack of proper snow-going attire). We got to enjoy an unfamiliar and beautiful city with some old friends and their adorable daughter. We even got to attempt a little French conversation. ("Un pizza s'il vous plait?") What could be better? (Well, I guess the American dollar could have been a little stronger, but I won't even go there.)

Last shot--our final view of Old Montreal before we headed home:

Welcome to 2008

I rang in the new year in Montreal and took so many photos I haven't had a chance to properly sort them out yet. I will share a few in the next couple of posts. In the meantime, I thought I would begin 2008 with some lights!

While in Montreal I had a chance to try duplicating one of the photos that I liked on the Splendor-Solis photo blog a little while back. (Ian was kind enough to share his technique with me, which made it much easier. ) I love the surreal effect.

Experimenting in Union Square

Last night while wandering through Union Square the light falling on this spindly leafless tree struck me as quite pretty. I experimented with f-stops and shutter speeds to get a picture that captured the effect, and finally managed this one at f4.8, 1.3 seconds, ISO 400.

Above and Beyond

Kimera--it's a store in Brooklyn that has rightfully earned my praise. When I was in there last night, I effusively told the woman behind the counter "This is amazing! I am going to spread the word!" And what better forum than this?

Kimera sells beautiful handcrafted jewelery, clothing, pillowcovers, bags, and other items of artesania, many created by Brooklyn designers or by the store's owner herself. I have gone in a few times to find a gift for a friend, and always come out with just the thing. (I also secretly investigate the ins-and-outs of their pillowcases because I know that, if only I had a sewing machine and knew what to do with it, I could duplicate them.)

A while back I bought a pair of earrings there for a friend's birthday. When she tried on the gift I was so pleased: they looked made for the wearer. Then tragedy struck! (Are you feeling the dramatic tension here?) During the course of the birthday evening, one of the earrings was lost. Knocked out by her scarf? Fallen in the crowded restaurant, or cramped bakery? We'll never know. She'd had them for all of 2 hours! It was so depressing. We pathetically searched around on the street tracing our steps back over 5 blocks or more, to no avail. The restaurant could find no trace of it either.

Our last (and let's face it, slim) hope was that the store would have another pair and would agree to let us have just one. I called Kimera the next day and explained the whole sorry situation to them. They just asked me to call back in a week. When I did call yesterday, the woman on the phone instantly knew me: "Oh yes, the earring. We have one for you!" It was incredible! They had gotten a second pair from the designer and were willing to part with just one of them. When I expressed amazement, the woman just said "Oh, I'll make a necklace out of the other one or something." Talk about going above and beyond in your customer service. The shoe repair place downstairs needs to take a lesson from these ladies. Now you see why I have devoted a post to them--it's well deserved for the efforts they went to on my behalf!

First Snow

Yesterday was the first snow of the year in New York City, and the coldest weekend we've had yet this winter. It was the perfect weekend to stay in, eat warm and hearty foods, knit just a little bit, and watch The Three Tenors on PBS. Still, I couldn't spend the whole weekend on the couch huddled under a blanket next to the electric heater (the heating system in our building hasn't quite worked itself out yet, apparently). I stepped out yesterday morning in my big snowboots to get a few pictures of the blanket of white that covered the neighborhood. There is nothing more peaceful than being one of the first people outside on a snowy morning. There's a stillness and a hush (yes, even in New York) that is absolutely unique. That said, I actually was not one of the first people out--many had already made their footprints in the new snow before I came along.


This weekend was actually momentous for another reason as well. On Saturday I resolved that starting now I am going to use only the manual settings on my camera (switching to programmed auto only if I am truly desperate). Just one weekend, and I'm already feeling a little less intimidated. Maybe I was helped along by the new 50 mm lens I got on Saturday that has introduced me to a heretofore unexplored range of low F-stops (down to 1.8!) These were some of my weekend experiments:

The iron fence in front of St. Ann's Church.


I don't know what this one is, but I've titled it "Cabbage Flower on a Snowy Morning."

The Mysterious World of Photoshop

PHOTOSHOP: Has ever the name of a computer program suggested more mystery and possibility? Perhaps, but not to me. As far as I'm concerned, Photoshop is the ultimate mystifying miracle-worker. Rumor has it you can use it to change colors, textures, effects, backgrounds, and even (gasp) remove a person from a photo altogether.

I've long wished to venture into the uncharted universe of Photoshop, but frankly it has been a little daunting. I open up the screen and am overwhelmed and utterly confused by the options I am presented with. Despeckle? Mezzotint? Craquelure? Are those ways of manipulating photographs? The terms sound like they belong in A Standard Book of Spells: Grade Four by Miranda Goshawk.

Fortunately, when the need to tinker with a photo is truly desperate, Ashkon comes to my aid. That was the case with the picture above, which I took a couple of weeks ago on a rainy day in New Haven, Connecticut. The colors of the house, the tree, the leaves, were so vibrant in real life, but I just could not capture that in my picture. I was so disappointed. My polarizing filter, which I now invariably use to block the glare and deepen the color of my photos, had fallen out of its frame the week prior and was unusable.

I knew there had to be a fix for a washed-out, should-have-been-polarized photo. And I knew Photoshop had to have it somewhere. Rather than meander around trying out different things, Ash suggested Googling something along the lines of "photoshop AND tutorial AND polarizing filter." Lo and behold, we came up with something. And thank goodness, because it was absolutely the least intuitive series of steps you could ever imagine. But it worked! Amazing!

Perhaps I went just a tad bit overboard. In real life the leaves were not approaching fluorescent, bright though they were. Sorry, couldn't help myself; it was just so thrilling to figure out how to do something in Photoshop. The question is, could I ever duplicate it without the tutorial? We're not there yet... Next project: to figure out how to remove pesky things like power lines.

Disco Bowling

For anyone who was under the impression that bowling on the Nintendo Wii might improve one's skills in the actual game, let me assure you that it is not so. Last Friday night I went out bowling for the first time in about eight years. I figured all that Wii bowling would finally get me past the 100 score mark; after all, my little Mii has an average of...okay, I don't remember, but it's definitely respectable. Apparently those skills don't translate. Still, fun times were had by all and there was just a teeny bit of disco dancing under the strobe lights too.

Unsuccessful Experimenting

Taking pictures of rapidly spinning forms are not as easy as you might imagine. The carousel in Central Park caught my fancy last Saturday when we were strolling in the area with my cousins (visiting for the weekend from Chicago). They were kind enough to wait while I took about a hundred pictures, not one of which came out the way I was hoping. I was going for a picture that had a sense of movement, but where you could still clearly discern the subject of the photo. I failed miserably, as the colorful blur above can attest. Maybe I should have increased my shutter speed a little more?

Next time I plan to go in with fully researched techniques at my disposal. I'm sure Digital Photography School has a "how-to" section for just this sort of thing.

Until Next Year

This afternoon I was mournfully looking over some of my photographs of summer days gone by. As of about yesterday, fall seems to have finally begun in New York. It has been weeks since I have had a proper opportunity to wander around with my camera (hence, the lack of recent blog posts) and I have a feeling that if I don't get out there soon, I will miss the new season and it's photogenic qualities entirely. I am, however, feeling newly motivated and promise to follow soon with pictures of pumpkins, leaves changing color, premature Halloween decorations, and people wearing tweed. In the meantime, I'll leave you with an old photo rediscovered--one of my summer experiments in depth of field.

Fourth of July

As you may have noticed, I have been doing a lot of reading on the Digital Photography School blog lately. A recent post gave tips on taking pictures of fireworks, and since 'twas the season, I had to give it a try. So I got myself a beginner's tripod and set it up on our rainy rooftop yesterday evening to try out some shots of the July 4th fireworks. I had to get there early to stake out a good spot, but got some decent shots in spite of the rain and slightly slanted rooftop.


All of these were taken at ISO 200 with shutter speeds varying from 1/2 a second (the last shot) to 10 seconds (the shot above). Though I experimented with some lower apertures, I found f8 served me best.

Before and After

Early in the life of my new camera my husband had the foresight to gift me with a polarizing filter. In spite of his patient explanations, for months I could not understand for the life of me what it was supposed to do. But last week I read a blog entry on polarizing filters at Digital Photography School on the subject and finally had my "eureka" moment. Finally aware of what I was looking for, I immediately set out to try it. It's amazing!

The aim is to rotate the filter just so, causing it to block the glare of the sunlight off of a surface (like sunglasses would do). I've posted some of my "before and after" shots here. The first shot is without the polarizing filter, and the second is with. What a difference!

Sunset over Manhattan

This evening while watching the sun set behind the Brooklyn Bridge, I took the opportunity to experiment with some silhouette shots (after being inspired by this blog entry from the Digital Photography School). I definitely need to work on getting the light right, but this was such a pretty scene, I had to post it in spite of its flaws!

Action Shots

This evening I decided to experiment with high shutter speed "action shots" by shooting some Brooklynites playing soccer. Truthfully it was already past 8:00 p.m. and the light wasn't the best for action shots, but it was fun. I got some particularly good ones of that handsome player in the Owls T-shirt.

Kebab on the Barbie

This afternoon our friends Ramin and Mallory invited us over to their home (and lovely back garden) for a barbecue, Persian style. We had rice, kebabs, and delicious grilled veggies, followed by fruit and ice cream, and excellent company to go along with it all (including a brief appearance by a caped crusader).

I attempted to take advantage of the smoking coals on the barbecue to experiment with these techniques for shooting smoke described by Photocritic, but having forgotten some of the key tips, I had limited success (even shooting at a shutter speed of 1/650).