Patterns

The landscape around northern Illinois is beginning to display patches of green. I decided to take a short cut and hang out where green is a constant.

Playing with the composition of shapes, lines and patterns as presented by the flora of the Mitchell Park Conservatory in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The conservatory features three glass domes, which pretty much guarantees interesting light in which to shoot photographs.

I kept a 70-200mm zoom lens on the camera and a watchful eye for converging/diverging lines in the vegetation. Used aperture priority wide open for minimal depth of field with a slight underexposure to saturate the colors.

More flora to come.

Photographs © 2010 James Jordan.

Getting my black and white on

I finished my first season as a gallery artiste recently. I've had several photographs hanging in an art gallery in Door County, Wisconsin since May of this year. A few brave souls even found it within themselves to part with some money to be able to take my work home with them.

The gallery is now closed for the season and it's time to start making plans for next year. I'm refining my black and white digital processing techniques to put a higher level of visual impact in my fine art photos.

Things I've learned so far (and didn't necessarily know going in to my first season as a b&w fine art photog):

Always convert color files to b&w. Yeah, I know digital cameras come with a b&w mode. Don't use it. Why?

Because back in the days of film (you remember those days, don't you?), serious b&w photographers would use color filters to translate what they saw in the chromatic world into an image comprised of shades of gray. They used red filters to darken the sky, yellow or orange filters to play up foliage and green filters to enhance skin tones. Blue filters? I don't know. Maybe if you were shooting someone wearing an Oakland A's uniform. Indoors.

Today, image editing programs like Photoshop allow you to run hundreds (nay, thousands) of possible color filter combinations over your color file before locking it in to b&w. You don't necessarily need to know the difference between what a yellow filter does as opposed to a red or green filter when converting a black and white image -- a couple of adjustment sliders will display an infinite number of variations -- just pick the one that looks good to you and you're good to go.

This image of gingko leaves was shot as a color RAW file. In Photoshop, the image was converted to black and white by way of two Hue & Saturation adjustment layers. One changed the color image to b&w, the other acted as the filter that enhanced tones. Below, you can see the difference that filtering makes.

On the left is a straight grayscale conversion of the color image file. On the right is the "filtered" version. The tones across the leaves are smoother and richer and there is more detail in the shadow areas.



I finished the photo at the top of this post by adding a slight Orton effect and then applying a green color filter at 25 percent strength to add a silver gelatin print effect to the image.

Can't wait to have another go at the gallery stuff.

Photographs © 2009 James Jordan.

Things I'm thankful for #2

I'm thankful for sustaining grace in the middle of the flowing currents of life.

But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9

Click on this post's headline for image EXIF data. Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.

Fallen

This photo takes me back to the very early days of my photography - developing and printing pictures in the darkroom at my high school. This was the look that I was after - grainy, contrasty, cool. I could never get that look for some reason. My pictures tended to come out flat and dull.

Fast forward a few decades, add a dash of understanding of how to get those tones in a darkroom (thank you, Ansel Adams for publishing how you made some of your pictures), couple that with digital technology and voila! The look - only without the smell and the messy trays of chemicals.

Photo: Poplar leaf on the dried mud of a riverbank. Color desaturated in Photoshop, highlights and shadows boosted 25%, film grain filter added. Vignetting applied. Click on post's headline for image EXIF data. Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.

Taking my own advice

Yesterday while raking the leaves from my yard I had the chance to reflect on being jobless for the third time in my life. I suppose after the first two times, I should have seen number three coming, because there are some interesting similarities between all three companies that let me go.

Each one faced dire enough circumstances that casting off employees became a necessity. Each one blamed everything except itself for its problems. None made any wholesale changes to the way it operated after casting off talent. Each one put a focus on little things when big things needed to be examined first (one company passed an edict that all paperclips had to be removed from paperwork that was being filed, then returned to the front office to be reused. I’m sure that held off bankruptcy for about … two minutes).

I admit I wasted a lot of time yesterday revisiting the sins of companies past. I then decided to apply the same standards to myself. Am I at fault for what happened to me? To be honest, yes, I could have done some things differently. I’m making some wholesale changes to the way I operate and it’s already paying off. I’ll go into some of those later this week. I’m taking time to focus on big picture items, though some may say I still have some improvements to make – things like family relationships, my own work skills, getting out of the comfort zone, etc.

Not that it’s necessarily a big thing, but ever since I started my photo hobby ten years ago, I’ve been about color. Intense, saturated, rich, deep color. With nearly two thousand photos published online, I don’t remember more than one or maybe two that I posted that are black and white. Here’s a challenge – try to find them in my archives here. If nothing else, it will boost my page view count (mwah hahahah).

Anyway, for this week at least, I’m going to look at the world in black and white. I have a backlog of photos to process and I’m going to play with the color desaturation button a lot more than I have previously. We’ll see if anything interesting happens.

Stay tuned.

Click on this post’s headline for image EXIF data. Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.

Fallen fire

Autumn flame of fire
Fallen from a home on high
Flickers in the grass

My annual autumn haiku. Last year's here.

Click on this post's headline for image EXIF data. Click on pcture to enlarge. Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.

Wallpaper Wednesday

Here is some autumn color for your desktop on this week's edition of Wallpaper Wednesday. Taken last weekend in Geneva, Illinois along the Fox River. We're having one of the most colorful autumns in recent memory here in northern Illinois.

Click on the photo for a 1440x900 size image. Right click and set as your desktop background. Other sizes are available here: 1280x1024, 1280x800, 1024x768, 800x600.

Enjoy.

Click on this post's title for image EXIF data. Photograph: "Turn, turn, turn" © 2008 James Jordan.

Autumn rocks

It's shaping up to be a nice colorful autumn here in northern Illinois. The usual routine is for the trees around here to go straight to brown, then lose their leaves. Thanks to an abundant amount of rainfall late in the summer courtesy of hurricanes Gustav and Ike, the trees are happy and are showing their appreciation with a display of golds, oranges and reds not often seen in these parts. Lots of photography fodder for a change. I like.

I'll be catching those golden hues, albeit in an indirect way. The large photo above is the first in a series of "Autumn rocks" images, that will feature ... well, rocks ... but with a touch of autumn thrown into the mix, like the gold heart-shaped leaf sitting atop the subject as Tyler Creek flows by.

I was out this morning catching some more rocks and fall color and will post those here in the days ahead. If you're the curious type and can't wait, head over to Flickr to get an advance peek.

Click on this post's headline for the main image's EXIF data. Click on pictures to enlarge. Photographs © 2008 James Jordan.

Splash of color

The vehicle called autumn has made the turn and is stepping on the gas pedal. Splashes of color are appearing daily within a stand of trees near you. So sit back and enjoy the ride. Photo taken in Peninsula State Park, Door County, Wisconsin.

Picture tip: This is a great time of year to go for a photo walk in a wooded area. Keep an eye out for contrasting splashes of color from leaves that are starting to turn. Yellow is good. Red is better. Bonus tip from Ansel Adams: When Adams shot photos in the woods, he worked hard to position himself so as to eliminate any trace of the sky showing through the foliage, which would appear as distracting bright spots against the dark background.

Click on this post's headline for EXIF data. Click on picture to enlarge (1280x800). Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.

Leaf and hopper

Spotted in the local wildlife sanctuary. I headed out there yesterday morning hoping to recapture the magic of the deer morning, but to no avail. Oh dear, no deer. So I had to settle for plants and bugs, of which there are plenty.

The grasshoppers are particularly plentiful and particularly skittish. Dozens of them would take cover in each of the plants that line the path, then would abandon each plant as I walked by, scattering simultaneously in all directions in a display that resembled fireworks. I wasn’t able to get close enough to get any photos of them.

This little leafhopper stayed put long enough for me to get a few shots. The sun, which had been hiding behind some clouds, came out for a moment, and bathed the leaf and hopper in a golden morning backlight.

Leaf hoppers are very similar to cicadas in that they have the same sound-producing organs (tymbals) to produce a cicada-like song. They’re so small, however, that the sounds cannot be heard by the human ear.

Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.

Japanese tree lilac

When I moved into my current home, I was able to trim and shape a Japanese tree lilac in my backyard using a stepladder. That tree is now about 20 feet tall and ten feet wide. The only trimming I do now is to keep a walking space open underneath the tree.

The white blossoms of this species of lilac blooms later than its more well-known bushy relatives – usually about mid-June, depending on the weather throughout the spring. Cold springs, like we’ve had this year, delays the opening. A warm spring speeds up the process.

A branch hanging down below the others, like the one pictured, would have been a candidate for pruning any other year. But since I’m spending more time taking pictures around my home this year, it became a photo project instead.

I set the camera’s self-timer, then prefocused the autofocus on the branch and locked it in, along with the exposure. After I pushed the shutter, and while the self-timer was counting down, I lifted a sheet of black foam board behind the branch to provide the background. That way the black background doesn’t fool the camera’s meter into thinking the scene is darker than it is, resulting in an overexposure.

In a week or so, I’ll post a photo of the open blossoms.

Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.

Fire and rain

The sky cried last night. The earth held on to some of its tears.

Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.

With fronds like these ...

... who needs anenomes?

Taken at the Garfield Park Conservatory, Chicago.

Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.

Green canyon

I passed this palm plant at the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago and was immediately struck by the light playing among the leaf sections. It reminded me of photos I've seen of the Antelope Slot Canyon, only greener.

I'm officially tired of winter. There comes a point each year when I have reached my limit of snow and cold weather, and this is it. A couple of months ago, the sight of falling snow conjured up wistful feelings. Now it just makes me angry. Enough already. The visit to the conservatory was a chance to break from winter's icy grip and see something warm and green for a change, instead of icy and white.

I'm so ready for spring.

Here's another place to get a fix of green.

My photo, Destination, was selected as February photo of the month at Flickr's Diamond Class Photographer group.

My photo, Moonrise, was selected Best of the Pool at Flickr's Awesome Shot group.

Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.

Easy being green

Growing weary of the unrelenting whiteness of winter. I have a need ... for green. Found some at the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago. Ahhh.

More pics from the GPC to come.

Click on picture to enlarge (makes a great wallpaper - right click and select "Set as background"). Photograph © 2008 James Jordan. Photo available under a Creative Commons license.

Rambling among the frosty leaves

The icy breath of winter is bearing down on us here in northern Illinois, touching the leaves, rattling the windows, exhaling threats of what is to come.

I passed a large retention pond while driving yesterday. A layer of ice sat just under the surface of the water and dozens of geese appeared to be standing on the surface of the water. An avian miracle right here in the suburbs. What a time not to have a camera with me.

It reminds me of a blog in which a photographer posts photos not taken, but describes them in such vivid detail that a picture becomes superfluous.

Photo blogging: Andy Frazer is one of my contacts at Flickr and a specialist in night photography. Andy also photographed last weekend’s full moon from San Francisco and has a number of moonlit beach scenes posted on Flickr. Here is one of them.

Here is a collection of night or near-night photos on Points of Light.

Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2007 James Jordan.

Both sides now

Found this leaf in a parking lot and was impressed by the red hue of the front side and the bright red veins against the pale red of the reverse. I decided to create a diptych showing both sides. I think the final result is equal parts clinical and artistic, celebration and autopsy.

I'm about finished with the leaf photos. Last evening, I set up a small tabletop studio in my basement (the garage is getting too cold to work in), grabbed some seashells and a bag of sand, and recreated some close up beach scenery.

Dude.

Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2007 James Jordan.

Last hurrah

The last leaves to fall;
Jeweled wonders in my yard.
It's time to rake now.

Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2007 James Jordan.

Valor

An oak leaf hangs as it waits to fall to the ground. In the background is the trunk of the tree to which it clings.

I’m a couple of days late for Veteran’s Day, but I just learned that oak leaf clusters are a predominant motif in military awards. Valor. Fidelity to duty. All symbolized by the leaf of the oak tree.

Here’s a fascinating story of how one veteran earned his oak leaves.

Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2007 James Jordan.

The ladybug's leaf

I set up a small tabletop studio in my garage last weekend to shoot some fall leaves under controlled lighting conditions. When I say "small studio," I mean just that. I bent a 30-inch sheet of white foam board into a "C" shape, taped it in place, picked up some leaves in my backyard and placed them in it. I hand-triggered an off-camera flash unit (an el-cheapo my dad bought for me about 20 years ago), reflecting it off the top and back panels to soften the light.

Oh, yeah, and since I don't have a synch cable, I had to trigger the flash by hand after I set the camera on self-timer for a half-second exposure. Talk about making do. Total cost to me to outfit my "studio:" about two bucks. I'm impressed by the level of detail that the small strobe reveals - we're getting into the individual crevasses and pores of the oak leaf in the center. Whoa.

After a couple of shots with oak leaves and water drops (applied with an eye dropper), this little lady stopped by to visit. She sat still just long enough to get a couple of shots. Orton effect and some localized color added in post-processing.

Exposure info: One-half second with strobe firing during exposure; f16, 200 ISO film. Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2007 Jeams Jordan.