Tracks in the sand... 2014

 

The year comes to an end and as always in late December I spend some time cleaning and organizing my photo library. There are always photos that have never seen the public light but they are important to me, and as far I’m concerned deserve to be shown somewhere.

One of the best landscape shootings in 2014 happened on top of the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado one early morning in September. If you missed that story feel free to click HERE and see some of the magic that unfolded during sunrise.

The photo I show you today was made during the ascent to the ridge of the sand dunes. My tracks in the sand left an interesting pattern that inspired me to push the shutter button…

In search for the right perspective

 

We discovered the story telling potential of this setting immediately after getting out of the car in Potawatomi State Park along the Sturgeon Bay. The track of broken ice from the island to shore, the reflections, and the overall mood just had an effect on us. However, I scratched my head shortly after starting to work the subject. I just could not find a perspective that satisfied me totally. One of the reasons is that I’m not a big fan of bare branches sticking into the frame from any direction. The canoe needed to be within the picture, because it is an important part of the story, and the curves in the ice are the lines in the story telling. I used my feet for zooming and ups and downs, but sometimes it is just a little detail that makes the difference between a great image, just a decent one, and a goner. (I have not seen Joan's photo's yet. She may have kicked my butt... ;-)   )

The blue toned black & white seems to reflect the mood of this gray winter day better than any other finishing I tried. Sometimes it takes me a year or two to find the final version of a photo. But this is ok, it is part of the artistic process and part of the learning curve…

Colorado landscapes: Aspen (no, not the city... ;-) )

 

Hey, I’m back. A busy travel schedule during the last couple weeks kept me away from any photography work. I still like to show you a few more photos from our trip to Colorado in September.

We were a little early for the peak of the autumn colors, the aspens just started turning yellow. But we kept our eyes open for locations with some color and good texture in the timber. As soon the light touches a scene like this you have your shot, a photo that tells the story of the changing season in the Rocky Mountains.

Another interesting subject for a nature photographer can be the tall and mostly straight stems of the aspens. Their light color in combination with a subtle light and a dark background always appealed to me. I like the graphic impact of the staggered arrangement and the rich texture of the bark and grass in the foreground.

While making the photo I already had a black and white image in mind. As always when it comes to black and white, the post processing was done with NIK Silver Efex Pro.

Colorado landscapes: San Luis

 

I like the rotten charm of the old buildings in the west and the story they may tell about a time that is long gone. It is sad to realize that there are often no resources to preserve more of them and that they might be lost forever soon. I think it is our job as photographers to keep at least the memories alive by shooting these buildings, even if they are in a state of decay. We discovered this old general store in San Luis, the oldest town in Colorado, on our way from the Great Sand Dunes to our next destination, which I will reveal shortly. So please stay tuned…

Great music, good time, a little bit photography...

 

My blog says “Nature Photography” but I enjoy walking off my own beaten path sometime. I do this more often than you may think but I don’t publish much outside of this genre. Yesterday we went to “Dubuque… and All That Jazz”, a Friday night concert series that takes place ones a month during the summer in downtown Dubuque. 10 of Soul was the the band last night and they played some great soul, funk, r&b, and blues music. I didn’t take my photography efforts too serious, just enjoyed the music, food, and beer, but made a few clicks during the evening. 10 of Soul has a great rhythm section, a four-piece horn section, and some very good vocalists. The two female vocalists got the best light (sorry guys!) and so most of their shots were sharp enough to be shown here.

I used my favorite Photoshop plug-in NIK Silver Efex Pro 2 to do the B&W post processing. A KODAK Tri-X 400TX Pro film preset was my starting point, just because I like the look of this film for these shots, but I fine tuned it to my personal taste. A selenium toning was applied and I also lowered the grade of the film grain a little. I hope you enjoy!

Fine Art Gallery - "Pemaquid Point Lighthouse"

 

Back to our trip to the coast of Maine in October. Joan and I were up very early that day. We had scouted the location of Pemaquid Point Lighthouse the evening before and had already some good ideas about how to shoot the lighthouse in the morning. I have posted here before some photos of the lighthouse that were made around sunrise. The fact that there was almost no cloud in the sky forced me to rethink my ideas for some black and white photos. This building has some strong graphic elements, like the conical shape, the window, or the fence, and this is what I was going for in this image. This is my first approach but I have a lot more photos to choose from. I like to try different things before I consider to make a final print on paper. I like it but I don’t think I’m there yet…