Monday, May 28, 2007

Memorial Day

Thank you to all who have served our country in the armed forces. Thanks to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. You are not forgotten.

Headstone, Smoky Mountains, Tennessee. Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2007 James Jordan.

6 comments:

Wanda said...

That is by far, the best cemetery photo I've seen.
Fantastic!

James said...

wanda,
thanks! it was a lonely little cemetery located on top of a wooded hill off a side road. I wanted to capture the isolation and peacefulness of the place. glad you liked it!

rebelBodhi said...

hi, great picture! im curious how you achieved the effect (I'm not sure what it might be called) where the corners seem to fade to black. it gives the photo a strikingly organic effect.. is this digital manipulation or something else? thanks!

James said...

rebelbodhi, I'm not sure what to call it either - I usually refer to the effect as "vignetting." It's a digital manipulation. I select the edges of the photo, feather the selection, adjust the levels downward slightly, then apply a gaussian blur. I agree that it can, in the right circumstances, create a striking effect. Thanks!

rebelBodhi said...

very cool, thanks a lot for the information.. i love low-light/moonlight photos and am trying to start taking more serious photos. I currently only own a Canon 35mm and can't afford to get a DSLR just yet, so I'm trying to get hold of a 24mm f/2.8 lens this one. What type of lens might you you use for low-light photos? Do I have any chance of getting photos like this one with a non-digital and using a lab to develop without getting that horrid grainy effect? Thanks again, communicating with an awesome photographer like you is really inspiring me to try :)

James said...

rebelbodhi, low-tech is my modus operandi. My workhorse camera is an all-manual, bottom-of-the-line Nikon film camera (FM10). The 24mm f/2.8 Canon would be an ideal lens for night photos of sweeping panoramas, although I've used everything from a 210mm f/5.6 on down to good effect.

The film for this graveyard photo was processed and scanned at a Walgreen's in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. I did the digital enhancements after I arrived back home in suburban Chicago. I prefer Kodak processing/scanning, so any outlet that offers it usually gets my business (Target stores usually offer Kodak). I admit that most of my shooting is for this blog and my Flickr gallery, so graininess hasn't been much of an issue. If someone requests an image for publication or photo enlargement, I'll have the negative rescanned at a higher resolution.

I shoot mainly 100 ISO (Fujicolor Reala is my film of choice). I also shoot a lot of 400 ISO. I've found that both work well for night shots, depending on the effect I'm after.

Hope this is helpful. If there's anything else I can help you with, let me know.