Upde Designs

On the way home last night I was looking for something to shoot.  Everything I see gives me the feeling, “I’ve been there done that.”   Jeanne and I are going on vacation one of these days and perhaps some new scenery will awaken my photography vision.  Actually I have a vision of fine art that I have wanted to shoot for over a year.

I have this image in my head that I want to recreate and I have found the perfect location.  Now all I need is a subject.  I know what I am looking for in a model and have even identified a couple of people who would fit the scene.  But trying to get someone to pose for that scene has proven to be the challenge.  The interesting thing is that the image I have in my head isn’t a shot of a person’s face.  In fact it is more of a mood than of a person but the person is critical to the success of the shot.

I’ll keep trying to find that person who will pose for an hour or so while I create the shot in my vision.   Most people (myself included) do not want their picture taken.  They are generally not happy about something with their looks.  We all have something minor or major we wold change about ourselves if we could.  That’s what Photoshop is all about.  🙂

I’ve looked at various photography websites for the last few weeks for inspiration.  Some amateur sites and many professional sites.  What I find is there are three basic categories that I’m drawn to.  Portraits and by that I don’t mean just head shots but images of people in environmental settings.  Landscapes of exotic places and composite images.  The composite images take great imagination and a lot of work but they are breath-taking to behold.  I kind of struggle with the imagination part.   I can look at a composite and WOW, yeah I could do that but to think it up on my own is a completely different thing.

So with all this inspiration what did I find to shoot yesterday but an abandoned farm wagon in a field of mowed hay.  By the time I got it processed I didn’t like it.  I just happened to shoot this image of my car from where I finished shooting the wagon so that’s what you get today.  😦

Thanks for stopping by.  I’m working on getting something of value for you to view when you make the click so hang with me.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Happy Monday.  I hope you had a great weekend.  I believe all weekends are good.  Some are just better than others.  Yesterday I decided to take a drive out to the Dubuque Regional Airport to see if any of the war birds were in town.  This is the time of year when they base in Dubuque to practice their formation flying in preparation for the big air show next week at Oshkosh.

So I got my camera and lens set up for what I anticipated would be proper configuration for the cloudy sky and then I decided to take my iPad along so I would have some entertainment while waiting for the planes.  As I was walking out of the house into the garage, I turned to shut the door behind me, (something I have done almost every day for the last 21 years.)

Today however my foot slipped off the step and I fell backwards from the top step.  I seem to happen in slow motion.  I had the D4 with the 80 – 400 mm lens in my right hand and with my left hand I grasped at various things to stop my fall all to no avail.   I crashed into my tool chest knocking it over and spilling everything and hit the concrete landing on my back.  The only thing I thought about all the way down was protecting that camera.  🙂

I cut a small gash on my right wrist, nothing too serious and a bandage took care of that.  My bottom was pretty sore and I was worried that I might have broken something but after a little walking around I determined I was okay.  So I got in the car (after picking up all the tools) and drove out to the airport.  Sad to say there were no war birds there.  One small corporate jet took off and a couple of birds flying around was all the activity I could come up with for an afternoon shoot.

I do love the intensity of the Brewers Blackbird’s eyes.  They look so serious and intense.

I finally decided to head for home (my bottom and my pride still a little sore.)  When I got home Jeanne was back from sitting with the grand kids and she said oh my God what did you do?  Come to find out the tool chest had not only cut my wrist it had also gouged my dearie.  Tore a big gash out of my shorts and under garment and took a pretty healthy swipe at my bottom.  With the blood and the tear, the shorts were history.  A little Neosporen and a big bandage and I’m fine.

It just goes to show how in the blink of an eye things can change.  I could have broken some bones, cracked my skull or worse smashed my beloved D4.  Thank God none of that happened and other than a couple of scrapes and bruises I’m good to go.

The above image is a little Killdeer.  They are pretty abundant around here.  I love their little brown eyes.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day and be careful.  You never know when you’re going to miss a step and hurt something.

The big news from the Duck Pond is that there are now cygnets at the pond.  I had caught glimpses from time to time as I was passing but never really a clear enough look to distinguish them as cygnets from the many little coots that frequent the pond.  These photo clearly show there are indeed two new cygnets inhabiting the pond.

I must be the biggest pack rat of them all.  I spent from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. yesterday cleaning out my office.  I took out 4 large black garbage bags of stuff (all of which was hard to part with) and I will swear that I cannot tell one iota of difference.  Very sad to be this way.  🙂

Not much of a post today.  Just wanted to update you on the big news at the pond.  Hope to get out and shoot today.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and of course be careful.

Happy Saturday.  It took its sweet time getting here but now I hope you enjoy the day.  Angie, Ben and the kids stopped by for some burgers and Fincel Sweet Corn last night.  We had a wonderful meal and a fun time with the grand kids.  We all over ate and then it was time for baths and bed time.  Ah, the joys of being a grand parent.  Feed them, rev them up with play and then send them home.  🙂

For the photography followers of this blog I have some information that might be of interest.  Adobe (the makers of Photoshop and other creativity products) has made a transition to what they call the Creative Cloud.  Prior to this I would buy Photoshop (I started using it at version 7) use it for 18 months and then they would come out with a new version with new and better features.  Yes, there was a reduction in price if you owned a previous  version and you could pay the upgrade price but there was always this decision to be made, do I upgrade now or wait until the next release?

Trouble is there was usually enough new and exciting features that made upgrading almost a necessity (at least in my tiny mind.)  Well now with the Creative Cloud you pay a monthly subscription price ($10 per month for the first year and $19 a month after that.)  You still have the software on your computer but the difference is you get new features and updates as soon as they come out.  So I started this subscription two months ago and they have added two new features in those two months.

The latest addition is a filter called “camera shake.”  It can literally take a soft image and make it sharp.  Maybe not “tack sharp” but really sharp.  I’ll show an example of this remarkable filter in an upcoming post.  There is a lot of discussion around the net about this new way of doing business but I personally like it.  Go to Adobe’s web site > here

Joshua has always had a fascination with lights and switches.  He loves (even before he could talk or walk) to flip switches and look at the light.  He would flip a switch and then point to the corresponding light with a delightful smile.  So last night while we were all recovering from dinner he was busily checking out all the lights in the house.  🙂

Enjoy your Saturday.  Thank you as always for stopping by the blog.  Check in tomorrow if you have time.  Some exciting news from the Duck Pond.  Be careful.

I’ve been asked by several people over the last few days about Speed Lights and why a photographer needs one.  Need is a subjective term.  It all depends on what you want to shoot and how you want it to look.  Each brand of camera in the DLSR arena has its own lighting system and there are a lot of generic speed lights on the market for a lot less money than the name brand ones.

Nikon calls their speed lights (a flash) CLS or Creative Lighting System.  The little pop up flash on a typical DSLR is a small intense light that sets directly on top of the lens and shoots a straight shaft of light at what ever the lens is pointing at.  This is the reason you see so many shots of people with red-eye.  Because in a lighting situation where a flash is needed people’s eyes are dilated and the shaft of light bounces off their retinas producing the annoying red eyes.

One of the key principles of lighting is to make the light as soft as possible.  The bigger the light source the softer the light.  The speed light gives you the ability to diffuse the light by bouncing it off the ceiling or a nearby wall.  That effectively creates a much bigger light source and lights your subject more evenly.  Because the light source is larger and usually bounced from a white ceiling it is a softer light and much more pleasing and flattering.

Additionally when bouncing the light is not practical there are a host of modifiers that can be attached to the speed light to direct a controlled amount of diffused light onto the subject.  With an attached cable the speed light can be removed from the top of the camera (it fits on the hot shoe of the DLSR) and either put on a light stand, table or other nearby object to enhance the light even more.

You can also use your pop up flash as a “commander” light to send a signal to the speed light to fire when you press the shutter button.  The speed light is set up (with a quick menu selection) to remote and your pop up flash (through the menu system on your camera) is set up to commander mode.  It sends a light signal to the remote speed light when the shutter is pressed and the speed light then fires.

Speed Lights also incorporate TTL (Through The Lens) metering.  So the camera determines (based on your shutter speed, f-stop and ISO) how much light from the speed light is needed to properly illuminate and expose the subject.  There are manual settings as well so that you can control the light output from 1/16 power plus or minus EV stops to full power.  The TTL also reads the focal length of the lens to adjust the flash output accordingly.

The speed light can also be set up for high-speed sync with your camera allowing you to fire the flash numerous times in rapid succession.  The light gets pretty hot when you do that so you need to be mindful of that.  The SB900 had a heat sensor that was a bit too sensitive for my taste and it would shut down at the most in opportune time because the sensor detected too much heat build up.

I’m sure I have left out some important features and perhaps some of my readers with more technical knowledge can add to this information to this discussion.  But for me I can’t imagine not having speed lights.  I just upgraded to the new Nikon SB910.  It is a much bigger light source and again bigger means softer.  I use them all the time indoors of course but also outdoors to over power the sun.  I put them in soft boxes and either use the commander mode or attach a Pocket Wizard to them to fire remotely.

The Nikon D800 DSLR still carries a pop up flash but the pro grade D4, D3S, and D3 do not have a pop up flash on them.  The little light is just too harsh and doesn’t make for a pleasing image.

I’ve told you way more than I know about speed lights.  I think they are a necessity but then again need is a subjective term.  Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Happy Hump Day.  Another HOT one on tap for today.   When I went out to get the paper this morning I could feel the intensity of the humidity well before the sun came up.  I found this barn on our photo shoot Saturday.  We went by it on our way to the lake and there was too much traffic around to stop but on the way back I asked Barb if she would pull over for some images.  I love old barns like this with their original roof and peeling paint.  This one looks like it could withstand many more years.

This John Deere plow was just sitting on a corner lot.  It had no sign around it so I suppose it was meant to be some type of yard display.  There was a house some distance away.  It’s not every day that you see a bright green and yellow one blade plow sitting around so I grabbed an image of it.

Not much to pontificate about today.  I am really getting lazy about my photography.  I haven’t touched a camera since Saturday and that is not good.  So it is obvious I need to figure out a project and soon.

That’s it for today.  Hope you have a wonderful day inside where it is cool.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Happy Monday.  Today is all about squirrels.  We stopped at a city park to shoot some pretty flowers on Saturday and I wasn’t getting the results I wanted so I went back to Barb’s SUV to get my flash.  Because of the overcast day and the fact that I was shooting with the 80 – 400 mm lens meant that I was at a shutter speed that wouldn’t freeze the movement of the flowers.  Additionally I didn’t like they way they looked with a higher ISO so I reasoned they would look better with a flash.

I’m easily distracted and right in the middle of my flower shoot I saw a squirrel.  Well naturally I had to photograph him.  Never mind that I was shooting with a flash (that couldn’t reach the squirrel), but it would inhibit my shutter speed to 1/60 of a second, which as we all know will not freeze action.  So the little squirrel is not tack sharp but he is still the focus of today’s post.  🙂

I followed him to this tree and he was playing a game of hide and seek with me.  Altogether I probably ripped off about 40 shots on this little critter and if I were being honest, not one of them was a keeper.  But I like squirrels and it always reminds me of “Rocky,” the tamed squirrel who used to sit next to my Dad in his back yard and eat oatmeal cookies.  🙂

Hope you have a wonderful Monday.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Jeanne and I drove to Cedar Rapids yesterday and met up with our two friends Barb and Emily.  You remember they came to Dubuque a few weeks back and we did a photography lesson to help them learn their cameras and pick up some composition knowledge.  So this was a repeat of that in Cedar Rapids.

They had lined up some interesting places to shoot and Barb did all the driving, which I like (less chance of running off the road looking for things to shoot.) 🙂  Most of the time we were shooting, it was sprinkling rain with a dark gray over cast sky.  I would have enjoyed that sky at my Reunion Shoot last weekend.

We went to several different spots and captured some images at each location.  I will show those this week.  Barb spent a fair amount of time fiddling with her camera as she wasn’t getting the proper exposure.  After taking a look at it I discovered she had her exposure set to – 1.7 ev and that was causing her images to be under exposed.  That fixed, she was back to enjoying shooting.

Jeanne took along her point and shoot camera.  I don’t think she took any images but she enjoyed seeing all the new places we had never been before.

A little fun with Photoshop.  The first image is processed the way I normally would, the second image is black and white and the image above is a little creative exploration.  It is created by having the black and white image as the top layer and the color image as the bottom layer.  Then create a mask of the boat and its reflection in the water and that will let the bottom color layer show through.  Pretty simple but fun stuff.

After the shoot (around 2:00 p.m.), we had a wonderful lunch at Red Lobster.  It is always a treat for Jeanne and I to eat there since we don’t have on in Dubuque.  😦  Kind of pricey but considering it was lunch and dinner not too bad

Fun Day with Barb and Emily.  Thanks to them for making it special.  Thank you for stopping by today.  Enjoy your Sunday and be careful.