Friday January 13, 2012

Posted by Dave Updegraff on January 13, 2012
Posted in: Uncategorized.
Hurstville Kilns

Nikon D3 | Nikon 28 - 300 mm lens | ISO 200 1/125 @f13

Tuesday the temperature was 51 degrees and on my lunch break I drove around looking for images to capture.   Everything was so bland, brown, and barren.  I just didn’t see anything that I liked.  On my way back to the office I went past the Hurstville Kilns.  The sunlight caught the four kilns and I thought it would make a nice image.

What really amazed me was it wasn’t until I brought the image into post processing that I noticed all the tree limbs.  All my eye caught was the interesting light on the side of each kiln.   It’s like when you take a nice landscape picture and then discover all the telephone lines in the image.

I was taking a course the other day and the instructor discussed that very topic.  Apparently our brain interprets what our eyes see in a way that we can understand.  In other words it filters out a lot of the distractions so we don’t have to spend a lot of time looking at the fine detail.

But when you make an image that moment is frozen in time and you see all the fine detail because there is no other stimulus competing with your brain for attention.  I remember in one of Scott Kelby’s photography books he talked about how he shot and entire wedding and was really pleased with his shoot only to get into post processing and discover that the bride had a huge blemish on her neck, which of course required a Photoshop adjustment on about 1,000 images.

Abandoned Structure

Nikon D3 | Nikon 28 - 300 mm lens | ISO 200 1/45 sec @f13

One thing I’m trying to remember to do is “trace” the frame around the viewfinder before I press the shutter.  It is an exercise designed to bring you back to the matter at hand, which is to create a compelling image.   It is not my normal routine and I forget to do it a lot as these two images would suggest.

Winter came back with a vengeance.  I want to capture some of the aftermath over the weekend.  I hate driving in this stuff but I have to admit that it is nice to see some other color than brown.  That feeling won’t last long 🙂

Enjoy your Friday.  Hopefully you get Monday off as well.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful it’s slick.

One comment on “Friday January 13, 2012”

  1. Our eyes do not see, they are just receptors. Our job is to change their function from something used to avoid objects into information channels.
    Here is a helpful hint. Before you press the shutter, identify the ‘negative’ space around your subject matter, In other words, for a moment, focus on the unfocused.
    Great post! Really like the second picture.

    Like

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