Autumn ivy

It's too late to see fall colors on the trees in southeastern Wisconsin. The leaves have fallen. But there are still patches of colors in other places. This was spotted on the exterior wall of the Stage Coach Inn in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.

For the most part, autumn has put away its coat of many colors and settled into something more plain and simple to await the arrival of winter.

Photograph © 2009 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.

Stolen moment

After all the fussing, fretting and furious flurry of activity surrounding the wedding ceremony becomes a thing of the past, the new bride and groom relax and simply begin to enjoy the moment. I love being there when it happens.

Photos from Carlecia and Philip's wedding this past Saturday. The bride was originally from Elgin, moved to New York City and made a career in city government. She returned to Elgin with the man of her dreams and was married in the presence of friends and family from both locales. A reception will be held this coming Saturday in NYC. I'm processing several hundred photos and making selections for a slideshow to be shown at the reception. Two down, lots to go.

Photographs © 2009 James Jordan.

Liquid light

Visitors to Tennessee's Rock Island State Park rave about its natural beauty, especially a series of cascades which tumble down the face of Great Falls Gorge into the Caney Fork River. In actuality, the falls at Rock Island are man made. When the Tennessee Valley Authority built a dam and power station on the Caney Fork River at Rock Island, the Collins River, adjacent to Caney Fork, rose and began to pour over the north face of Great Falls Gorge. Hey, but I'll take 'em.

This shot was taken at the bottom of a trail that leads from a parking area to the base of the gorge. It's a minor cascade, but I was taken by the lush green vegetation and the shafts of sunlight filtering through the trees.

I began a trek to the Great Falls, the largest waterfall in the park, located a half mile up the gorge, which was within sight the entire time. However, the challenging rocky terrain in the open sun and hundred-degree-plus heat index made me reconsider and retreat back to a cooler location. Several vultures circling overhead added to the ominous atmosphere. Aparently one visitor to the park fell victim to heat exhaustion that day while trekking to the falls and an ambulance was called in.

I guess Great Falls will have to wait.

Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.

Ghost trees in the forest

The remains of a tree appears in the mist. A memory of what once was, framed within the light and life of the present.

I took advantage of the foggy backdrop that was provided one morning last week to do some shooting at a couple of forest preserves near my home. A little Orton processing was added to this photo to heighten the dreamlike quality of the scene.

Hope you're making your way out of the fog on this Monday toward what will be a great week.

Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.

Laurel Falls

From our recent trip to the Cumberland Plateau in eastern Tennessee. I'm still making my way through hundreds of photos in addition to several dozen more taken since we got back. Whew.

Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.

Winter dream

Wake me up when spring gets here.

Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.

Like a red, red rose

Taken at the dining room table. Orton processing applied.

Click on pictures to enlarge. Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.

From the Museum of Kitsch

Clyde
Painted ceramic
Approximately 26” tall
Artist unknown

A simple work of art with a simple name belies its complex texture of coincidence and contradiction. This work in ceramic, by an unknown artist, reveals its functional nature by the inch and a half long slot in its upper bank. Clyde is a bank. A piggy bank to be precise.

But not content with the traditional visage of a simple, unadorned pig to dominate the work, the artist has chosen to imbue Clyde with additional qualities appropriate to his duties of guarding a stash of money by depicting the porcine protector as an old west sheriff, complete with six guns and bullets on his belt, his itchy trigger fingers at the ready to plug the first varmint that threatens to make a move. Or perhaps the position of Clyde's hands is simply in trying to keep his pants from falling down. Clyde is identified by the name primitively engraved on the large buckle on his belt.

Far ahead of its time, some would even say prophetic, is the fact that the artist chose to depict a law enforcement officer as a pig. Then again, if this piece was constructed in the late 1960s, the artist, perhaps an anti-war activist himself, may have harbored a grievance that inspired his choice of occupation for Clyde.

A soft smile and goo-goo eyes are at odds with the serious nature of Clyde’s mission, and his five-pointed sheriff star contradicts the fact that sheriff stars traditionally consist of seven points. The inclusion of a lopsided bandanna hints at an informal exterior that masks a will of hardened steel – or hardened ceramic, as the case may be. The careless placement of the bandanna may also indicate a character flaw - Clyde is, after all, a pig.

That the name of this piece hails from one half of a famous duo of bank robbers only adds to the richness of its incongruities.

Clyde resides in a private collection in northern Illinois and has fallen into a state of decay. There are currently no plans to restore the piece to its former glory.

Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.

Winter pine

I snapped this photograph of a pine tree while pining for spring and better days ahead. According to this web site, "pine," the tree, comes from the Latin "pinus," which is related to an earlier Indo-European word meaning "resin" or "sap," which pine trees possess in abundance.

"Pine," the act of longing intensely, comes from the Latin "poena," meaning "punishment," which also gave us "pain" and "penalty."

No doubt that the times are doling out pain, punishment and penalty a-plenty these days. Yet in all of the ugliness, there are still pockets of beauty here and there, a bit of warmth despite the bitterly cold winds that sting.

Click on this post's headline for image exposure data. Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.

Little Chickadee

I am the song bird

depending on providence
to survive winter.

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

First snow

Right on schedule, the first snow fell in our area of the country on December 1, wiping the canvas of late autumn clean and white.

The canvas of a new month is clean and white for me as well. In the three months of my unemployment, I have e-mailed or snail-mailed about 1,000 letters and resumes and have only gotten two nibbles that haven't gone very far - and those were in October.

December will be a month of networking and promoting myself and my work. So I may as well start right here - a number of people recently have purchased photo prints from me. And you can, too. Leave a comment expressing your interest or e-mail me at jjrdns6[at]aol[dot]com and let's get the ball rolling.

A high-quality 8x10 photographic print is $19. But wait, there's more: A 16x20 print is $49 and a few hardy souls have purchased 20x30 prints at $62.

Not sure where to start to select a photo? A good place to browse is my photo stream at Flickr. You can browse my most recent photos or check out my photo sets on the right hand side of the page to find a picture to your liking.

Operators are standing by.

Thanks in advance.

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

Facing winter

A goldfinch keeps a wary eye out for danger while at my backyard feeder. Its plumage, like the background behind it, has faded from its summer colors. Bright golden yellow replaced by shades of brown and gray.

The bird stares off into the future, facing the approach of winter, the darkness closing in.

A note about the EXIF data on this shot: The camera recorded that this image was shot at an aperture and focal length of 0. That's because I used an old Nikkor 135mm prime lens and a 2x teleconverter that doesn't communicate with the camera body. The D60 accepts all Nikon lenses, but for anything other than the AF-S lenses, you're on your own as far as exposure and focus settings are concerned. The combo of lens and teleconverter gives me an effective focal length of 400mm - which corresponds to about a 14x zoom. In bright light, the pictures are fairly clean, but in low light, as this one is, the colors get muted and everything gets muddy. But given what this photo is trying to say, we'll just call it ... moody.

Milestones approaching: If all goes according to plan, two things will happen sometime this week:

1) Someone will trip my visitor counter at 100,000. If it's you, let me know. I have something for you - an 8x10 photographic print of the picture of your choice (it has to be one of mine). :-)

2) My overall view count will pass the 500,000 mark. The internet has been quite good to me as a way to get my photographs seen. Three years ago, I had hundreds of pictures sitting in boxes, albums and notebooks. I started this photo blog, then joined the community at Flickr hoping to garner a few views. Since then, I've published nearly 2,000 images online and I don't have any plans to slow down.

Thanks for being a part of this.

Click on this post's headline to see (somewhat incomplete) image EXIF data. Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.

Wallpaper Wednesday #3

A large stand of birch trees occupies a corner of Peninsula State Park in Door County, Wisconsin. Just enter the park at the Fish Creek entrance. You can't miss it. It's beautiful at any time of year, but autumn adds a colorful backdrop to the long, thin black and white tree trunks.

Shot on an overcast day and given a touch of Orton processing. Click on the picture for a 1440x900 size image for your computer desktop background. Other sizes here: 1280x1024, 1280x800, 1024x768 and 800x600.

Photo: Autumn birch. Click on this post's headline for image EXIF data. Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.

Toft Point

The Toft Point natural area lies just north of Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin on Door County's Lake Michigan coast. The area features wave-cut dolomite cliffs, limestone cobble beaches and marly soils which support more than 440 species of plants, many of them rare and endangered. The site is recognized by the National Park Service as a National Natural Landmark and was designated a State Natural Area in 1967.

As many times as I’ve visited the area, I have never quite gotten a photograph that I thought adequately depicted the rugged, wild nature of the place. I arrived there one more time last month on a day of clouds and spotty sunshine. I noticed an interesting cloud formation to the north and decided to try to capture it against the rocky shore. I camped on a rock surrounded by water, set my tripod low and set my zoom lens to its widest angle. From that position, I took two shots – one of the sky and one of the lakeshore, setting an ideal exposure for each and intending to merge them together later.

I was disappointed with the initial result, which I have bravely posted here. I let it sit for a couple of weeks, then decided to throw everything I had at it to see if I could spice up the image.

In Photoshop Elements 6, I selected the lakeshore and applied an Orton effect – I lightened the image selection by about half, copied it and pasted it over itself on a layer. I put a slight Gaussian blur on the layer, then blended it with the layer beneath using “multiply.” This boosted the color saturation of the rocks and water. I did a similar adjustment to the sky, except this time I converted the adjustment layer to grayscale and cranked the contrast wayyyyy up. I added a slight Gaussian blur then blended the layers using “Soft Light.” The action popped the clouds but added a bit of noise to the sky, which I corrected with Elements’ noise filter. I added a slight vignette to the overall image to finish things up.

The photo was selected as “Photo of the Day” at the Karma Group on Flickr. It’s the third photo of mine selected for that honor.

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

Misty autumn dawn

I came across these lonely trees lost in a foggy meadow in Sleepy Hollow, Illinois last week. A lot of rain has left the ground saturated around northern Illinois. Warm days and cool nights release the moisture in the form of fog and I've been taking advantage of God's gift to photography.

Orton processing was applied to this image to increase the color saturation and further soften focus.

Happy Monday.

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

Morning light

Autumn's morning light is softer than the light of a summer dawn. Perhaps it's the steeper angle at which the sunlight hits our northerly atmosphere. Maybe it's psychological. We see the natural world around us beginning to wrap up its business for the year. Time to dim the lights in anticipation of the night of winter to come.

Click on this post's headline to see EXIF data for this photo. Click on picture to enlarge (1024x768). Photograph © 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.

What's the difference between a duck?

The debate rages on as to whether photographers should work to get their best shot straight from the camera or shoot their photos with a mind to enhance them later in a photo editing program like Photoshop.

Those in the “no edit” camp feel that untouched photos are somehow purer than a post-processed image. Those in the post editing camp feel that the very process of photography itself distorts reality, so why not work to get the strongest possible image that technology will allow?

I usually try to create the best image possible within the confines of whatever camera I’m using. Anything else is just laziness. Every photographer should know the limits of their equipment and what it is capable of producing in any given situation.

But that doesn’t mean that I don’t post process my images, either. A camera doesn’t always capture the range of tones available in a scene. Colors can get lost. More often than not, I will adjust the light levels and color saturation of my photos, sometimes selecting specific areas of a photo to adjust. And sometimes, a particular effect will enhance a photo, like the Orton processing used on this photo above of a female mallard duck.

Orton is a process of creating a duplicate image, blurring it, layering it over the original image then blending it with the original. The result is a soft-focused photo with richly saturated color.

Here is the same duck photo before processing, as it came straight out of the camera.

What’s your preference?

Want to see more before and after photos? Lev Kolobov produces a photo blog with a twist. Lev's blog, LEVitation, gives a before and after glimpse of each image he posts. The trick is to place your cursor over the red "Kolobov" under each image to reveal what the photo looked like before processing.

Click on pictures to enlarge. Photographs © 2008 James Jordan.

Coming up daisies

I was attracted to this scene first by the daisies in the sunlight. I don't usually shoot photos in the middle of the day unless it's overcast, but these flowers were just begging for it. Then there was the surroundings. Steep rocky shoreline, the wind, the waves. A picture not just of surviving, but thriving.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.”

Matthew 6:25-29

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