photography – Page 360 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Redemption in Black and White

There is the joke that every photograph becomes “art” if it is in black and white. The joke exists for a reason – a lot of pictures that are boring in color become much more interesting in black and white, taking on a new life.

Even though I am a magpie, and am continually drawn to bright colors, the fact is, in art, colors can often confuse me and distract me when I try to work with them. Paintings end in disaster because of a lack of self-control, and nowadays, a lack of experience and skill.

Maybe that is why I keep coming back to sumi-e – there are not the decisions to make about color, but only gradation and loading the brush.

When I think about what I like in black and white photography, it varies. One thing which I love in B&W is its graphic nature. In contrasty pictures, lines can make the eye wander in and out in ways color does not.

Color is subtle, and more luxurious. Soft B&W, with long scale and low contrast, is akin to color because it is more dreamy, and requires more emotional investment.

I like the drama of contrasts which, for me, is the same as a loud noise – startling, awakening, even traumatic.

Discernment

Well . . . I think I am past the point where every picture I take has to be trotted out and uploaded. Yesterday the Photo Troupe went out to the beach behind the Ventura Marina, late in the afternoon (3:30 pm to be specific), parked itself at a jetty, and got to work. I took gobs of photos, but only a few were any good, or worth editing. Some pictures I edited in different ways, from subtle color movement, to dramatic HDR, and finally black and white. My main focus was composition of ocean and rocks; for the birds, I just ran around chasing them with a long lens.

My first attempts at really long exposures on water, using an ND10 filter, ended with my camera toppling into the sand – luckily not the ocean! – and getting a lot of sand on the filter. The filter was saved, set aside, gently brushed off, and cleaned with lens cleaner. However, the one picture I did get, while not particularly dramatic in contrast with the roughness of the rocks and the smoothness of the sea, was worth saving. The lens I used was the Tokina 11-16mm, which is wonderful for taking dramatic shots – but hard to use with refinement, simply because it is so wide.

One thing I totally forgot was I can change my iso settings on the Nikon! It does a really good jobs at high iso, so as the sun went down, I pushed the iso from the 100 I used earlier in the day, to 1600 toward sunset, and using a Tamron 70-300mm lens at that – but it was a grrr moment that made me remember that, when all my pictures were horribly dark.

Although I live in Southern California, the coast is damp and chilly, oftentimes very windy. The salt air clings to everything, and I end up feeling sticky and damp, even if I am not. All of us were shivery, with fingers capable of doing very little. Luckily, there is a rather nice cafe that serves excellent hot chocolate, so we ended up there before returning to our lives elsewhere.

Emergence from Winter

There is a beautiful botanical garden nearby. Originally slated for a development, it was found to be unusable for housing. The owner donated it to the city – so I am told. What has happened since is just wonderful, and continues becoming more wonderful! Not only does it continue to expand, adding different sections, but is always a work-in-progress, from volunteers, and from the changing of the seasons.

Yesterday, after reading and knitting for a few hours in the afternoon, I realized it was Saturday. (I’ve been in a fog with a melt-down, jury duty, and catching up with things at work that didn’t get done during the two days I was gone.) Suddenly, I just wanted to get out of the house, and go see some plants and take some pictures. Of course, my favorite place to go is the gardens!

Spring cleaning has been done in the gardens – undergrowth pulled out and removed so new plants can grow. I was not disappointed. The matilija poppies are just beginning to emerge their new growth for spring. Hummingbird sage is in full bloom. Other salvia plants are sending out buds. The redbud is in flower, with brilliant red and pink blossoms amongst heart-shaped leaves. Bulbs, such as narcissus, are making themselves visible and easily found with their sweet fragrances. Amaryllis, too, are emerging. Bees are busy in the lavendar; fruit trees are beginning to renew their cycles.

The evenings, though lengthening, are still early. Sunset is about 6:30 p.m. The sun was lower in the sky, and tilting through the leaves and branches, backlighting everything from the west. People like me were wandering around, just enjoying a stroll, taking pictures, enjoying an outing with family and friends.

This is the time of year when last year lingers in old leaves on trees, and fallen leaves providing nutrition for future growth.

Never ending . . .

Oh, Nick, You’re Such a Tool . . .

We all talk about “equipment” at sometime or another. Evaluation of the tools we use is important simply because some tools are better than others. Hammers are pretty simple items – you can use a shoe or a rock if necessary – but a well-balanced hammer in hand is quite nice to use. Paint brushes, too, are tools. Every artist has favorites, and ones which are okay, and others which you cannot wait to send to paint brush heaven. There are surgical tools, gardening tools, big tools (cars and tanks), little tools (nail clippers), software. A tool helps one accomplish a task more easily.

Without a doubt, lenses and a camera are tools. For me, they have been tools for a while; I am still struggling with photography, deciding if it is a “yes” or “no” in my vision of creativity. The fact is, it is a bunch of expensive tools, but not necessarily break-the-bank kind of tools. Cameras and lenses are all individual in quality. I’m just beginning to appreciate some of the more sophisticated elements of the Nikon camera. I’m also enjoying the manual art of some of the lenses, and the mechanical and electronic and computer sophistication others display. Software is another area for enjoyment because it can be the vehicle for the final creative effort, but I wonder if it will ever become something I really enjoy because I really don’t like sitting indoors at a computer for hours on end. I probably will enjoy it as I master it.

I’ve acquired a few older lenses in the past year, ones which require manual focus, but which will interface with the aperture priority chip of the Nikon. This means the camera can set the time for my exposure, based on whatever else I’ve dialed into the camera. The other day, I picked up a lens which doesn’t do any of this. It is big and heavy and produces lovely images. It is a Vivitar Series 1 135mm f2.3 lens, and weighs at least a pound.

Last night, we went to dinner at Josh’s parents’ house, so while the light lasted, I played with the lens in the kitchen, garden, wandering around. At times I pushed the ISO, other times I dropped it. I had to think about a lot of things, and totally enjoyed it, looking at the LCD on the back of the camera to “chimp” over the picture. Time, distance, focus, aperture – the old fashioned dance of the photographer with his equipment.

I’m not sure if it is me, but what I see in the older lenses is a very different quality of contrast and color than I see in my newer lenses. I usually use my newer lenses on some variant of the automatic mode, so I wonder if that impacts things. Maybe, maybe not. I suspect some of the differences is in the glass and coatings used. Older lenses seem to have a more mellow quality, as well as brighter, but not as harsh as newer lenses. One day I wlll take the time to find out.

Today’s pictures on this post are taken with that new-to-me old lens. You can see more of them if you want on my flickr page. I didn’t post-process any of them, except to resize them and add my name.

Out and About

A whole day spent outdoors taking pictures! A first in the photo safari department for me.

I went with a friend, another novice in photography, and for both of us, it proved enjoyable and challenging. There is nothing worse than going out to shoot pictures with someone not doing the same – you know who I mean . . . the person who “patiently” waits for you to do whatever, “sneaking” glances at the wrist watch, sighing, texting.

The first stop was the Ventura Marina, and a walk south toward McGrath State Beach and the estuary of the Santa Clara river. The tide was out, halfway between high and low; the beach was broad and long, mostly deserted except for a few strollers and fishermen. The estuary is home to many birds, and provides breeding and feeding grounds. Gulls, terns, pelicans all roost here, and others I cannot identify. We set up our cameras on tripods, used long and short lenses, and played a bit. In particular, we enjoyed the pelicans, out on patrol, flying in groups or in pairs, toward Ventura itself. Often, they head out in the morning, after the first cup of coffee (some sleep in), and then return later in the day.

This really was my first attempt to catch birds in flight. I used my Tamron SP 70-300 f/4-5.6 Di VC lens – yes, long name – but it is a great lens! The VC stands for “vibration control.” This element, combined with autofocus and a short, short exposure time gave me the opportunity to catch the pelicans in flight, still and unblurred. The Nikon also can shoot up to 6 frames / second (I think); this also helped to catch them in flight, swooping in and out of the waves. Even with my camera mounted on the tripod, I was pretty pleased by being able to pan and shoot at the same time.

When we got back to the car, we tucked all the photo gear back into the car, and went to eat lunch. 3 hours on a chilly, windy beach, trudging through the sand, makes you work up an appetite. Some of the best fish and chips is to be had at Andria’s Seafood, so off we went a pile of fish. Then, back to the car to change lenses – I put on a 17-50mm lens – a wander around the marina itself, into the boat yard where numerous fishing boats are up on blocks for repair and repainting. Other areas explored were the commercial fishing area, tourist boat rentals, and down to the local museum for the Channel Islands National Park. Fishing boats are big, some very ugly, but always fascinating as far as I am concerned. I don’t like sailing unless doped up on scopolamine patches, or out in a brisk and wild wind on a sail boat – I get v-e-r-y seasick otherwise.

The little museum has a wonderful section of books, as well as a saltwater open aquarium which replicates tidepools, and there are windows on the floor you can peer into, meeting lobsters and flounders face-to-face, as well as looking in from above at starfish and urchins and barnacles. Behind the museum is a small garden of plants found on the Channel Islands. My favorite one is the coreopsis, which is odd as it has a thick trunk from which many bright yellow flowers erupt – it really looks like something Dr. Seuss might draw!

Finally, a decsion: head to a local beach park, or out to the pier. The pier won, hands down. Here, just a prime 100mm macro lens for me. I wanted the challenge a prime gives, as well as the macro element in case I saw something I really found interesting to look at close up. (I did . . . ewww! . . . someone’s used condom.) Once up on the pier, though, I had wished otherwise as the surfers and parasailing surfers were out in numbers. Despite that, there was a lot to see, above the pier and below.

Gosh, I love digital! I took about 300 pictures, just because I could! Some had to be shot fast, such as gulls and pelicans in flight, as well as sailboats flying before the wind. Overall, I was really pleased with the lenses and their responsiveness. The Tamron 70-300 was fantastic in its response to distance and time and focusing. It was the first time I really put it through some jumps, and I am really glad I got it. The 17-50mm is also a Tamron, while the 100mm macro is a Tokina. I have some manual focus lenses, but I doubt I could have gotten some of what I did of the birds without automation.