Photography Exhibit and Auction, Stivers School for the Arts. Click to see a much larger image.
Stivers School for the Arts in Dayton Ohio has an annual photography exhibit and fund raising auction. I was invited to submit my work and this is my first year to participate. All the excitement was last night (April 10). This photo was created early in the evening before the gallery was packed with people. I will post more photos from the evening later on.
Frida Kahlo and one of Dieg0 Rivera’s Murals
DIEGO RIVERA AND FRIDA KAHLO IN DETRIOT. Sunday, March 15, 2015 – Sunday, July 12, 2015.
“Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo were an explosive couple. He carried a pistol. She carried a flask. He romanticized Detroit. She rejected it. But what they shared was a belief in communism, a thirst for tequila and a passion for each other. Discover how they left their mark on Detroit. And how Detroit left its mark on their art. Exclusively on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit brings together nearly 70 works of art that depict the evolution of these two extraordinary artists’ careers, including eight of Rivera’s epic preparatory drawings for the Detroit Industry murals and 23 pieces by Kahlo, whose work has never before been shown at the DIA.”
Original and Corrected Image. Click to see a larger version.
I was a guest at this wedding and seated in a location where the sun created a lot of contrast and flare. If I was the official photographer at the wedding I would have been at a different location, but I took the photo anyway, hoping to fix it later. I will take you through the process with some extra tips along the way.
Print quality and fading with refilled cartridges. Click to see a larger version.
Not long!
Of course it is tempting. If you have your ink cartridges refilled it will cost a lot less than buying new ink cartridges from the printer manufacturer. But is there a price to pay? You bet, a huge price.
A word to the wise. If you have a chance to go to a photo seminar or workshop by Bob Davis, by all means go. You will learn and you will be inspired.
Last Light on El Capitan, Yosemite National Park
In addition to all of the usual photographic challenges, winter provides some extra complications, especially in terms of metering. So I began my series of articles on winter photography. This year I revised three prior articles and added six new ones. They will help you meet the unique challenges of winter photography. So read the articles, get out there, have fun, and create some stunning images!
Denali Sunrise from Reflection Pond
The Sunny f16 rule is really useful on bright sunny days in the spring, summer, and fall, but you can’t rely on it in winter. It will often lead you astray. There are much more accurate ways to meter in the winter.
Camera LCD Display With The Blinkies Turned On. Washed out pixels in the photo are flashing white and black.
Some camera’s come with a highlight overexposure warning, commonly called “the blinkies”. If you have overexposed, blown out pixels, those pixels in your image will flash white and black. A quick look at the LCD image will tell you if part of your image has white, washed out, featureless pixels. If your camera has a highlight overexposure warning, I suggest you turn it on. If you see the blinkies and you don’t want washed out pixels, tone down your exposure until the blinkies go away.
Snowy Owl Sitings in the Northern U.S. – March 2015. Click to see a larger version.
This is just a quick update to my snowy owl post from 2014. I hadn’t intended on an update but there are still snowy owl sightings as recently as yesterday (March 7) across the northern U.S. and southern Canada. This is a rare opportunity. Head north for the purple colors on this map and check out the locations for recent sightings. Set the map date for “March-May Current Year” (to limit the map to recent sitings). The owls are farther north than they were in January and February.
Storm Clouds Rolling In. (Click to see a larger version.)
Storm clouds rolling in over Hallett Peak and Flattop Mountain. Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.
Photo Data: Canon 7D. Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens at 120 mm. 1/200 sec, f/11, ISO 100.
Colorado Photography Workshop
My photography workshops for 2015 are filling up fast. Announced just two weeks ago, there are already 8 people signed up for the Colorado workshop in September. There are only two openings left. If you want to come to this workshop, contact the registrar ASAP before it fills up (link below).
The workshop in August at Lake Charlevoix near Boyne City, Michigan was announced just 3 days ago and there are already 4 people coming. Just 6 openings left. If this workshop is the one for you, contact the registrar soon (link below).
Pika storing up food for the winter. Rock Cut, Trail Ridge Road, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.
Today is World Wildlife Day. Various species of wildlife are in danger around the world. You can make a difference. Donate to the organization of your choice.
If you don’t have a favorite organization to donate to, take a look at this article on the Top 10 Wildlife Conservation Organizations. The first two on the list happen to be my favorites.
Adorama is one of my three favorite “alpha suppliers” when I buy new camera gear (the other two are Amazon and B&H). These new deals consist of price drops and new instant rebates.
Photography Workshops in Michigan
“Capturing Nature’s Wonders”
Photography Workshops in Michigan with Jim Doty, Jr.
I am pleased to announce we are adding a new weekend workshop in Northern Michigan this year. It will be August 14-16, 2015 at Park of the Pines on beautiful Lake Charlevoix near Boyne City, Michigan. I will also be doing a one day workshop May 16, 2015 near Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Cascade, Barry, and Coxe Glaciers, Prince William Sound, Alaska
Exposure compensation is one of the most important keys to good exposures, great images, and the best colors your digital camera is capable of producing. Knowing your camera’s snow exposure latitude is one of the keys to using exposure compensation in a winter scene. It is different for every camera model. You won’t find it in your camera’s manual but it is easy to determine with a simple test.
Horses at sunset, western Michigan
I spent a day in western Michigan scouting field trip locations for a photography workshop. With the day almost over, I was driving south on M-40 near Allegan when the clouds began to part and some beautiful light began to develop to the west.
Leonard Nimoy
We all knew Leonard Nimoy as an actor, but in the art world he was also known as an accomplished photographer. He will be missed.
His best known photography exhibition, “Shekhina”, has been highly praised (links below). The exhibit has also been controversial due to the nude imagery so be advised before you click the link to read further down the page.
Kristina, color corrected image.
Shooting in the shade on a clear sunny day can cause color temperature problems. If you want your colors to be true to life, you need to correct for the color shift.
The filming of Modern Family with iPhones and other Apple devices.
Tonight’s episode (February 25, 2015) of Modern Family was filmed almost entirely using Apple devices. The news media are calling it the “iPhone Episode”. It was bound to happen sooner or later. An entire episode of House M.D. (season 6 finale, “Help Me”) was filmed with a Canon 5D Mark II DSLR. Parts of dozens of movies (link below) have been filmed with DSLRs. Sooner or later someone was going to film a TV episode with a smart phone.
Nature Photography Collage
Photography Workshop
“CAPTURING NATURE’S WONDERS”
with Jim Doty, Jr.
September 25-27, 2015 – Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.
Update, Feb. 28, 2015: We now have 8 people coming to the Colorado workshop. If you want one of the 2 remaining spots, contact the registrar ASAP (contact info at the first link).
Bryce Canyon After An Overnight Snowstorm
Cold and snow can cause a lot of damage to your camera gear. A few simple steps could save you hundreds of dollars in repair bills.
Twilight, Rocky Mountain National Park. Sirius, Canis Major, Orion, Taurus, the Hyades star cluster, and the Pleiades star cluster are all visible in the fading light. Click for a larger version.
You can photograph the night sky year around, but winter brings an added bonus: SNOW! Instead of the black, silhouetted skyline you get most of the year, in winter you have the possibility of including the highly reflective snow. That is why for many photographers winter is their favorite time of year to photograph the night sky.
Comet Lovejoy cropped from a march larger image. Click to see a larger version.
If you have never photographed a comet before, this is a great chance to practice. All you need is a camera with long shutter speeds, a reasonably fast wide angle lens, and a tripod. Most any recent model DSLR will do, plus a few high end point-and-shoot (all in one) cameras.
Snow Hummocks, Merced River
Just like metering daytime winter scenes, the key to metering evening winter scenes is knowing what to meter and deciding how much exposure compensation to use.
Cougar
Most wildlife are medium to dark in tone, making them a challenge to meter properly in the bright, white tones of winter. If you trust your camera’s auto exposure modes, the odds are good you won’t get the best exposure. If you switch over to manual exposure and make the right decisions, you can get great exposures and better quality photos (more about that later).
Elk in the Snow, Horseshoe Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
Metering dark toned wildlife in the snow is a major exposure challenge. It is usually best to avoid large “burned out” areas (washed out, featureless white) in a nature or landscape photograph, but with properly exposed snow, the wildlife can be so dark as to lose all texture. On other hand, metering for the wildlife can burn out the snow.
Kristina in the Snow
The white snow in a winter scene can and often does fool a camera meter into underexposing a portrait, so here are the steps to take to get the right exposure. I throw in a few portrait suggestions too.
Sarah, Professional Fitness Trainer
Your camera is in love with middle gray. The quicker you learn how to deal with this infatuation, the better your photos will look, including all of your color photos.
Mount Hunter from a Bush Plane. Denali National Park. Alaska.
Metering for scenes with a lot of snow can be tricky since the bright snow fools the camera meter. I see a lot of winter photos with gray snow, which means the camera meter did exactly what it was designed to do and the camera owner didn’t know how to use exposure compensation. The solution is quite simple provided you know what to do.
Kristina, IMDb
One of my portraits headlines Kristina’s bio and resume pages at IMDb and six of my portraits are featured in her IMDb portfolio.