While there, I enjoyed photographing a foggy, sunrise morning.
After a long (and I do mean long) unsafe period of Covid 19 virus, things are much better, now that many people are vaccinated. I finally found an opportunity to visit the Wilds. This is an animal conservancy, not too far from Columbus, that provides good viewing of many animals from around the world. While there, I enjoyed photographing a foggy, sunrise morning. Of course I photographed some of the animals as well. I was lucky to enjoy good weather and it was cool enough that many of the animals were awake and active.
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We have a new President elect! Time to celebrate.
Celebrate that competent experts will be put in leadership positions in all elements of the federal government. This is an important improvement over the staffing of critical positions with inappropriate, yes men and women who lacked the knowledge necessary to do their jobs by the past Republican president. Celebrate the fact that science and medical expertise will be used to educate people and fight the coronavirus. Celebrate that tested, proven-safe vaccines will be made available in early 2021 to help win the battle against covid19. Celebrate that America will once again be seen as an important leader by other countries and that America will participate in climate control, medical care, peace-keeping strategies, and nuclear weapon deactivation measures with other major world powers. Celebrate that honesty and transparency will be a part of the governing of the nation. Celebrate that America will begin healing it's wounds. Celebrate that efforts to unite all citizens we be made. Lets learn that recent Republican administrations, led by conservative policies and efforts to divide Americans have been economic and political disasters. We have a long way to go, but we are beginning to take the needed actions to get back onto a better future. CELEBRATE! The coronavirus has changed so much. For a photographer, especially one who travels, things are very different. All my opportunities for photo presentations are gone. My travel is limited to portions of Michigan. Having read about the horrible fires in California, Oregon and Washington, I wanted to see a sunrise here in Michigan. I can't go to any other state. Would there be any effect? Well, I guess so. Look how red the rising sun was. Last weekend, desperate for something to do, we visited a show on the grounds of Meadowbrook Hall (which is the Dodge family mansion). It was called "Art in the Elements" and was comprised of floral art in the woods based on storybook and movie themes. Here are a few of the photos from that visit: I did get away to the West coast of Michigan for a few days. We rented an Air B and B home deep in the woods near Three Oaks. We went to a state park on the coast called Warren Dunes and a garden. I did go to Kensington park which is one of my favorite spots, but it was very hot and not much wildlife was out and about. So I have made efforts to stay busy and I have done more cooking than usual. I recently played horseshoes with a friend. We spent a pleasant evening outdoors in the back yard with friends. I am watching for a good sunset. We watched all nine seasons of Doc Martin on TV and re-watched the Ken Burns National Parks documentary. And that about sums up our past three months of the pandemic.
My age is starting to show me how much the world has changed. My journalism education is a good example.
Writing - All writing was done on manual typewriters. When we were out getting the story on a evolving event and needed to get the information to a copywriter or an editor, we had to find a phone booth and some coins to call the story in from our notes. There were no computers, cell phones or tablets. Today, urgent stories are emailed directly from tablet or cell phone to home office computers. If person to person discussion is needed, cell phones are used from wherever the reporter is working. Photography - All photos were taken on cameras using film. After 36 shots, you had to change film. Just imagine how inefficient this was covering sporting events or events with lots of changing activity happening in rapid succession. Covering protests or riots were difficult and you had to learn to change film in the camera very fast (I often carried two cameras so I could get 72 photos). There were no digital cameras with huge memory cards... Back at the shop, the film had to be developed and images printed in a dark room (a time-consuming activity). Today the digital images can be quickly edited (or in a real emergency used with no editing). I worked evening shift as a photographer for a Gannet newspaper (right after college) and I remember leaving two hours later than my shift ended due to the darkroom work. Printing newspapers for distribution - I worked for the school newspaper at SIU. The school newspaper published four days a week (we skipped Saturday, Sunday and Monday). Each day, around 4 to 5 pm, we would paste up each page of the newspaper by hand. We used printed text and individual photos to create the layout, using a standard template. This involved a rubbery glue and rollers! then the paste-ups were delivered to the printer and the newspapers were delivered to us early next morning for distribution. Today the entire newspaper is made on computers using digital photos and text and sent directly to the printing operation. I graduated in 1974. By the early 90's, these new technologies were changing nearly every aspect of capturing the news and creating the newspapers. That's less than 20 years after my training. I am in my 14th week of self-isolation. This is not good for a photographer. I have recently began to venture out carefully, with mask and camera. I go to a lake about 15 minutes from my home and avoid close contact with people. I began taking sunset photos on a day that was not a great sunset. A few nights later, the sunset color was somewhat better. A few more nights later and the sunset was nice. This time I stayed around 30 minutes after the sunset appeared to fade - just in case. I was rewarded with these nice images: I turned around and looked behind. Thick clouds opposite the lake were reflecting the warm light from the sunset. I suppose I'm hooked on sunsets for some time. Until I can travel farther away I will be trying to capture the ultimate sunset.
How to goTravel is not happening right now with the coronavirus situation. I understand the uncertainty of how and when travel will be back on. But let's look ahead by looking back at one of my past trips. For the Galapagos Islands, I would recommend a tour. A few medium-sized ships tour the islands with daily tender trips in to one of the islands. These tend to be 2 hour visits for wildlife adventures, then return to the mother ship. The islands do not have bathroom facilities, so long visits are not a great idea. Most tours will require flight to Quito, Ecuador. You will meet tour personnel there and take a short flight to the island with a landing strip (left from World War two). You will board the main ship for your tour of the various islands that make up the Galapagos. Going on your own is not a good idea. Ship/boat traffic is carefully controlled by Ecuador to maintain the natural conditions in this region. The number of ships are very limited. What you will see and experienceThe small boats that take you to the islands generally hold 10 to 14 people. This could vary by tour company. Understand that there is no handicapped access to these islands. You should be reasonably healthy and in good physical condition to make it easier to get on and off the small boats. Expect to walk a few steps (4 to 8 steps) in waist-deep water to get onto the island. On a windy day, waves could make it a bit harder to walk onto the island. There are no facilities on these islands (no bathroom, no snacks, no drinkable water). Camera equipment is best contained in freezer-strength plastic bags in a back-pack or tote bag. But...WOW, check out these photos: The wildlife on these islands are not afraid of visitors. You can get fairly close to take amazing photographs. You will find various booby birds, seals and sea lions, iguanas, flamingos, lots of birds. These are volcanic islands. Some have black rock and some have red rock. Here are some more photos.
This is the most devastating event in my lifetime (worse than my limited experience supporting bombing over Vietnam from a small base in Thailand). Yes this is a travel and photography web site/blog, but I cannot avoid writing about the horrible impact this has had on my home country.
First I have difficulty expressing my horror over the toll it has taken on Americans. Health care workers and doctors have born the heaviest burden; a daily grind of medical care and witnessing the deaths. Long hours, insufficient personal protection equipment and a shocking and embarrassing lack of needed medical equipment/supplies has taken its toll. Health care professionals will suffer some of the same detrimental after-effects as the first line support personnel during the 911 terrorist attacks. American workers (many at the lowest paying jobs) have lost their work, their income and their dignity. Unemployment benefit systems have been overloaded and slow to respond. The federal relief response has been poor and very slow. Hundreds of thousands of people in America do not know where or how they will obtain food on a daily basis. Small businesses and some medium to large businesses/industries are either not operational or are operating on a limited basis. The impact is far-reaching and has severely damaged our economy. Recovery is actually unknown. We do not know how long it will take. We do not know if full recovery is even possible. We do not know the total cost and added National Debt that will be incurred as we struggle to repair the Nation and our citizen's lives. This is the impact of the pandemic on the USA that has been well documented and is widely known. I am not providing any new revelation. But I was born after the great depression and both world wars and although some say that American is strong and capable and that we will survive this, I just do not know. I have no experience with this kind of upheaval. I have not been even slightly impressed with the current administration and their handling of this crisis. Many individuals are performing in heroic fashion. Many of our governors have done good work despite almost total lack of federal government leadership, policy and action to buy and make the equipment and supplies that the states have needed. Some parts of the federal government have worked diligently to inform the public, to provide some needed materiel, and to offer hope. The scientific and human health professionals (without enough funding or support) have stepped up. There are many ongoing efforts to find and test medication, vaccines, and treatment procedures to fight this virus, to help patients survive and to prevent others from becoming victims of the virus. We must continue to appreciate, thank and applaud the incredible work our medical and health care professionals are doing on a daily basis. We must appreciate the hard work being done in medial research labs in the effort to develop a successful and safe vaccine and medications. America must learn from this ordeal. A vaccine must be developed and mass produced and it must be made available to everyone. America must re-establish a department within the federal government to study viral pandemics, to plan for future pandemics and to establish supplies and equipment storage facilities to enable health care professionals to do their jobs well and efficiently. America must gain a new understanding of the importance of science and medicine and must more properly fund the scientific and medical operations in America so that we can be ready for this kind of crisis. America must develop an improved health insurance program that meets the needs of every American citizen (including the very poorest). This crisis has shown just how devastating the virus has been on those who have not been able to take advantage of good medical care in their daily lives, due to low income, living in rural or remote areas of the country, living in inner cities or lack of medical knowledge, information or education. America is a great nation. However, it is a healthier, happier, and more fulfilling nation for those with substantial money than it is for those with little or no money. On this coronavirus day I challenge myself to figure out what makes a great photograph - what is the formula. Is there one? I have been stuck at home now for nearly 6 weeks. Maybe this is an excercise to combat boredom, but here goes... Vision What to photograph? Could it be anything? I don't think so. Oh, I know you literally can point your camera at anything, but not everything is a candidate for creating a great photograph. One must develop a sense of good subject matter. I call that "vision" or the art of "seeing". In my presentations, I talk about learning to "see". To me that means learning to see an excellent thing to photograph as opposed to something that just is not that interesting. This happens in at least two ways (probably more). When you get your camera to do some photography, it can be planned or unplanned. By this I mean you can choose your subject or you can find your subject. Planned subjects are nearly infinite - there are lots of them. People, children, horses, barns, natural beauty, flowers, animals, interesting buildings or structures, events, cultural diversity, graffiti, icons of the world, sports - the list goes on. Unplanned subjects are those you were not expecting. Fires, storms, weather, accidents, acts of kindness, acts of terror, crimes, acts of love, unusual light, rainbows, lightning, animal interactions, and other unexpected things. Learning to see; having good photographic vision is the result of experience, studying art and photographs of others, trying new subjects and developing a sense of what is striking, beautiful, emotional, funny, or interesting. It is a little like trying to explain how an interior decorator can transform a room into a thing of beauty or an interesting space. I don't think you are born with this vision; I believe you can develop it with effort, hard work, study and experience. Exposure For a photograph to be great, it must be properly exposed. The photo cannot be too dark and cannot be too light. This means learning to use your tool (the camera) to obtain well exposed photographs. Modern cameras have excellent light meters built into them. But the camera averages the dark and light objects in the scene and tries to expose to 18% gray. As a photographer, you must learn how to use exposure compensation and exposure bracketing to make sure you get well exposed photos. This is not the place to teach how to do that. Please be aware that this is knowledge and skill that you must develop. Also, there are high key and low key images being made. These can be useful techniques (as long as they are not overused). Low key photos concentrate the tones in the photo to the darker tones and high key photos concentrate the tones in the photo to the lighter tones. Composition Composition of an image can be very important. This is not the place to teach composition, but know that a great photograph has great composition. You learn this by taking classes, studying books on the subject, looking at art in museums, and by learning how you look at a photograph and understanding what works and what does not. There are some time-tested rules or guides. These can be very helpful. Learning how to successfully "break" the rules can be a life-long experience. Focus A great photograph should be sharp (not fuzzy or out-of-focus). Modern cameras and lenses help you achieve this clarity. Modern camera equipment provides auto-focus (if you choose to use it). However, auto-focus is a mixed bag. It helps a lot when you are shooting fast moving objects. In good light it can be very accurate. But there are many situations where auto-focus works poorly. So you need to know when to manually focus. When you are photographing a subject that is among tree branches or plant growth, if something is between you and your subject the lens will focus on that something and your subject will be out-of-focus. For example, often when shooting wildlife, grass or other vegetation or tree branches will cause fuzzy or soft photos of the animal you are trying to photograph. This is one place where manual focus may be better. Shooting in low light can also require manual focusing. There are creative ways to use focus to achieve an effect in your photograph. You must learn about depth-of-field which is the area that will be in focus. Several interesting "looks" can be achieved using a shallow or a deep depth-of-field. This is a skill needed to help you create great photographs. Color vrs Monotone You must not be a color photographer or a black and white photographer - you must be both! Use color when your subject contains lots of color. Use grey tones (known as black and white photos) or monotones when your subject contains little color. It is really that simple and yet it is not easy at all. I fight with myself as to when to produce a black and white image. Like many people, I am oriented to color photographs. Even when there is very little color in the scene, I can be very reluctant to go to an image of black, white and grey tones. It is a resistance that I battle with often. And you should as well, because color photography begins to lose meaning when the images contain very little color. All of these elements taken together influence the creation of a great photograph. Great photographs should be rare. I strive (and often fail) to create high quality photographs. But very few rise to greatness. And that is fine, because if many photographs are great then the word (great) becomes meaningless. I have been busy with lots of projects during the stay at home time due to the coronavirus.
For some time I have been learning how to use software to produce works of art from some of my photographs. I thought I would show you some of them. Sony DSC-HX80 – this camera uses a tiny 6x4.5mm sensor, but it does have a view-finder and a 24-720mm zoom lens.
The camera lens is f3.5 to 6.4. It captures photos at 18 million pixels. My wife uses this camera and I can say it is pretty good. Cost is about $300.00 (you should be able to find one used for $175 to $200) The other Sony models that are similar are the HX 90, HX95 and HX99. Each one adds some minor new feature, but all are more expensive and you will get the same quality photos. Olympus Stylus 1 – this camera uses a slightly larger sensor (7.5x5.5mm) so the photos are slightly better than the Sony above. This camera has a view-finder, a 24-300mm zoom and captures photos at 12 million pixels. Another big selling point is that the lens is f2.8 through the entire zoom range. That will help in lower light situations. I used an Olympus camera a few years ago and it was a good camera. I believe this one would be very good. Cost is about $450.00 (you should be able to find a used one for $350.00). A newer Stylus 1S is out, but has mostly the same features and sells for more. Panasonic DC-ZS70 – this camera uses the 6x4.5mm sensor. It has a view-finder and a 24-720mm zoom lens. It captures photos at 20 million Pixels and the lens is f3.3 to 6.4. At $300.00, it is much like the Sony HX80. If you can find a used one for $200 to $250. I would suggest you buy it. This is a nice camera. Panasonic makes a camera with a larger sensor. The ZS200 uses a 13x9mm sensor. This means the sensor is twice as big as the standard point n’ shoot camera, so the resulting photo quality is much better. The lens is a 24-360mm f3.3 to 6.4 zoom. It captures photos at 20 million pixels. However, for this quality you will pay - $600.00 new and $500 used. Nikon P530 is a standard sensor camera (6x4.5mm) that has a view-finder and a 24-1000mm zoom lens. It captures photos at 16 million pixels. The price is around $350,00 used. The zoom range is incredible. If you like to shoot pictures of birds or other small wildlife, this is the camera for you. The lens is f3 to 5.9. Good camera, however big enlargements (more than 8x10 inches) will be impossible. Please remember: 1)The camera you buy should have a view-finder (so it will be more expensive). A larger sensor is better. |
AuthorExperienced photographer who used Canon equipment for several years. Uses Photo Shop Elements to post-process images. Archives
June 2021
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