Against the wind

The only thing I like better than photographing people is photographing people doing something they love to do in the environment in which they love to do it. Suzanne was kind enough set aside some time to model for me. More than once. Unpredictable weather canceled more than one scheduled session. We finally wwere able to connect on a chilly spring day to get the picture above. Several times running around the bend. Sun in her face. Wind blowing like crazy. But she loves to run. She loves to help others. By posing for me, she got to do both.

Walking the lonely path

Taken last weekend on the shores of Lake Michigan near Evanston, Illinois. Recent weather has been more suited for late November than mid-May, and this picture is indicative of that.

What's on the horizon?

You can sit and wait to see what happens or you can go out and meet it.

Walk on by

Continuing with the theme of taking people's pictures while they're walking away from me. This is my wife, taken while out for a walk this past weekend. Curve of the path, shadow line and placement of the figure were all intentional. The footprint of a dude with a large foot and that of a horse are bonuses.

Photograph © 2010 James Jordan.

Watching the day fade

At the aptly-named Sunset Park. Door County, Wisconsin.

Photograph © 2010 James Jordan.

Autumn journey

If you haven't noticed, today's image is a little different than what's usually posted here. Or is it?

The photographs I make and share with the world are not so much depictions of things -- they are depictions of the feelings created by viewing those things within a particular setting. At least that's the goal I have in mind when setting out to create pictures.

The photo above started as a contrasty, lens flare-y, moderately underexposed shot of the hillside, the tree and the hiker against the afternoon sun. I punched the contrast even further, added a background photo layer of dried field grasses (blurred beyond recognition), then added another photo layer of stone tile to add some texture.

The result is an image of a person leaving the comfort of a life that is past (note the windmill in the lower left) and beginning an arduous journey into an uncertain future that grants no promises (note the dead tree) while at the same time harboring hope that things will work out well (note the bright sunshine amid the chaos).

In many respects, this photo is a self-portrait.

Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.

Twisted thoughts on a Monday morning

The past several days have been pretty rough on 50-year-old guys. First Michael Jackson, then Billy Mays came to a sudden stop. Maybe I would not have thought much about it had I not been a 50-year-old guy myself. But I am and I did.

What I have been thinking about is how fine a line exists between creative genius and insanity. The very thing that causes creatives to think differently from everyone else causes them to think differently than everyone else. Those who are comfortable thinking the same as everyone else generally labels that type of thinking as “weird.”

Would Michael or Billy have made the same kind of impact in their lines of work if they thought and behaved like everyone else? I doubt it.

The same-thinking crowd recognizes that creativity is valuable. That’s why they make reference to it frequently in conferences, staff meetings and on job descriptions. The truth is, if they were to experience the full force of a truly creative person, it would scare them to death. Real “thinking outside the box” changes the box forever, and very few people are comfortable with that prospect.

Instead, most organizations practice a sort of “safe creativity” – push the envelope, but not too far, the result of which is still homogenized with everything else that organization ever did; a unique shade of beige perhaps, but beige nonetheless.

I’ve never been happy with beige. I like bold strokes of color. Extreme contrasts. Paths that take unusual turns. Stuff that 90 percent of everyone else would never have thought of doing, or if they had thought of doing it, not doing it for fear of being labeled “weird.” I guess that makes me weird.

OK, I’ll take it.

Photograph © 2008 James Jordan; licensed by Getty Images.

A few days on the road

My wife and I spent the weekend in Door County, Wisconsin. The prime objective was to deliver a number of photographs to an art gallery in Gills Rock. Eight black and white prints of Door County scenery in the twilight hours will be on display starting May 2 and will remain for the season which ends in October.

The pieces were well received. So well, that the gallery owner and I are discussing the possibility of a 5-week solo exhibition next year. I'm slowly building a photographic presence in the county. A lighthouse photo of mine runs across two pages of this year's official county visitor's guide. The same lighthouse (different photo) graces the introduction page of the city of Sturgeon Bay's promotional magazine.

The secondary objective was to add to my overall volume of Door County photos. The photo above is one of those new photographs. This is Clark Lake Road, which travels across the Door peninsula. It crests the high point of the county, passing farms and fields along either side. This is the view from the top on a cold, misty, early spring day.

In between rain showers, I was able to photograph some old buildings and cars, capturing an older, weathered side of the county.

Oh, yeah. I was able to stack a few rocks here and there.



Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.

Southern hospitality

Seen on a rural road in central Tennessee. Paw done got an itchy trigger finger. Y'all don't come back now, y'hear?

Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.

Peers on a pier

A photo taken on one of those warm hazy days on Lake Michigan when the sky and water merge into a single backdrop of blue. I'm so there.

42 days until spring.

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

After and Before #2

Seeing the Forest Through the Trees This was taken during a recent walk through a forest preserve not too far from my home. I liked the various angles of the pine trees and the pathway lined with stalks of grasses and weeds leading to the wooded area in the background. It would have been very inviting had the day not been freezing cold and the path icy. Maybe another day.

This is another installment of "After and Before." Here is the original image, straight from the camera:

Yeah, I know. Ugh. Here's what I did to fix it in Photoshop Elements:

1. Selected Enhance/Lighting/Shadows and Highlights. Set the sliders thusly: Lighten Shadows 25%, Darken Highlights 6%, Midtone Contrast +17%. Nothing too magical about those numbers. I just liked the resulting "pop" that those settings provided.

2. I ran the photo through Enhance/Unsharp Mask. I've posted a brief tutorial on using Unsharp Mask on my photo advice blog, Ready, Aim, Click. If you want to get good at editing pictures, it's just something you gotta know. I used my default settings (also listed on RAC).

3. Selected Enhance/Color/Hue and Saturation and set the Saturation at +30%. Ooooh.

4. Then, just because I like it, I ran a violet filter on the photo - Filter/Adjustments/Photo Filter/Violet/Density 25%. It just seems to add a bit of winter chill to the image.

That was about it, other than using the Clone Tool to clean up some goop in the foreground snow.

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

Three million turns make a straight line

The shortest path between two points may be a straight line, but that only works in theory and makes for a lousy story. Life is more complicated. The straightest path is still a series of turns - some small, some big – on the way to the destination.

Hope you’re negotiating those turns successfully today.

I been blogged: One of my photos has been grabbed to illustrate a post that advocates starting a journey in a big way.

Photo: Turn on a rural road in winter fog. Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.

Winter fog

This photo was taken at a local forest preserve on a foggy winter day in late December. The day had begun with patches of dense fog and I set out to see what photo possibilities would present themselves to me.

I pulled into the parking lot which was empty except for a county sheriff's car with two deputies sitting inside. Feeling extremely self conscious, I managed to make a couple of shots without leaving the parking lot, then packed up and left.

I'm not sure what they were doing in an otherwise empty forest preserve on a foggy winter day. They were probably wondering the same thing about me.

Post processing details, for those who dig this kind of stuff: High Pass effect added with Photoshop Elements 6, levels adjustments, violet filter applied at 35%. Vignette added with elliptical selection tool, feathering and levels adjustment. Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.

Into the sun

On the day that this blog should receive a visit from its 100,000th guest, I thought that I would re-post the single most-viewed photograph I have taken to date. I posted it to the internet on July 1 of last year, both here and on Flickr. Since then, it has received nearly 14,000 combined views, 350 comments, been bookmarked 380 times and has appeared on 54 assorted blogs and Web pages, illustrating everything from save-the-planet-from-us admonitions to self-help enlightenment to graphic design color palettes.

And it's a scene that I (almost literally) stumbled upon by accident. I was photographing at a local gravel quarry turned wildlife sanctuary on a foggy morning. I followed a path into a wooded area hoping to find something interesting to photograph there. About halfway through, I decided there was not much to see and rather than continue into the next clearing, turned around and headed back from where I came. This scene greeted me as I neared the clearing. I took two exposures, one for the foreground and one for the trees and sun, then blended them together in Photoshop.

About the stumbling part - just past the opening is a steep embankment. While negotiating the slope after having taken my shots, I lost my footing and tumbled down about 12 feet of gravel and rocks, losing hold of my camera in the process. I wound up relatively unscathed (I narrowly missed sliding over some broken glass left by some previous party), but the camera took a severe beating, receiving some dents and losing both the lens cap and part of the lens' outside covering, revealing the metal brace inside that held the front lens element in place. It was like looking at the skeleton of the lens through a gaping wound. Amazingly, there were no scratches on the glass itself and the film door (you remember cameras that take film don't you?) stayed closed - I've had the door pop open on a far lesser jolt to the camera, losing a roll of photos in the process.

The lens remained functional, and even served later that year to photograph my second and third most-viewed photos before being semi-retired along with the film camera when I made the switch to digital.

Be sure to take a peek at the Sitemeter counter at the bottom of the right hand sidebar. If you're visitor number 100K, let me know with a comment, would you? I have a gift for you. If visitor 100K does not come forward, I'll go up the list until I identify someone.

Photo: No EXIF data available - it was shot on film and I don't remember any of the settings for this shot. Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2007 James Jordan.

Enchanted

I could post something about finding and following your path, but ... Oops, I just did.

Have a great weekend.

Photo blogging: Mark Rebilas is a professional photographer who is currently covering the Olympic Games in Beijing. During his assignment, he is finding time to blog about his experiences and post photos. Should be an interesting blog to follow over the next couple of weeks. Mark J. Rebilas blog.

Photo: Wooded path, Cave Point County Park, Door County, Wisconsin. Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.

Sunset Park

Back from a week in Door county, Wisconsin. The memory card in my camera and the one in my head are full, so I'll be emptying those out here over the next few days.

Sunset Park in Fish Creek, Wisconsin is aptly named. The main street through Fish Creek will get you there, but it’s better to take the wooded path to the park. The path comes upon a clearing where people gather to gaze westward over Green Bay to bid the day farewell.

This picture was selected as Photo of the Day at the Karma Group on Flickr.

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

Along the path

Take time to discover and enjoy the small bits of beauty along the path.

Have a great weekend.

Roads, fences, boundaries, grids

Once upon a time, a sea of prairie grass covered what is now the state of Illinois and much of the Great Plains. Free and wild. That is now gone, replaced by the checkerboard pattern of farms and fields, cities and towns – roads, fences, boundaries and grids.

You can argue whether that is a good thing or a bad thing.

Once upon a time all of us were young and unformed. Free and wild. Over time, we accepted the boundaries and learned to color within the lines. What remains is a checkerboard of roads, fences, boundaries and grids.

You can argue whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. But we all tend to take notice of and obsess over those who break free from those boundaries. How else to explain supermarket tabloids and American Idol?

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

Foggy day in the neighborhood

When the winter fog obscures the cars, gaudy lawn ornaments and houses in my neighborhood, it's a beautiful thing. This photo was taken on a walk through my suburban subdivision.

Amazing how much beauty there is when you get rid of the clutter.

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

A little traveling music, if you please

Courage, hope and friendship – all in the context of finding one’s way home again. That’s the vision that Italian composer Francesco Lettera held when he created The Wizard of Oz, a symphonic poem honoring L. Frank Baum.

Mr. Lettera recorded his work and recently released it on DharmaSound, an internet label based in Italy which offers 30 titles under Creative Commons licenses, which means the works are available for download at no charge for non-commercial use.

Mr Lettera contacted me a few weeks ago asking permission to use my photograph Into the Sun (above) as cover art for his CD. He discovered the photo while searching Flickr, where I cross post many of my pictures. Once I understood how he was distributing his work, I readily agreed.

The Wizard of Oz is a richly orchestrated, multi-textured work in six movements. The entire work can be downloaded along with artwork for a CD label and CD sleeve. Lettera’s two previous albums are also available at DharmaSound, along with works by a number of other artists.

Who knows? I may have just solved your holiday gift giving for everyone on your list.

Click on pictures to enlarge. Into the Sun © 2007 James Jordan.