Visual Journey Photography

The Coming Storm

f/6.3, 1/1250, ISO-1600, 18mm

The first few raindrops of a coming storm create a handful of ripples on otherwise still water reflecting the dramatic clouds of the coming deluge.

OK, truth is it hardly sprinkled at all, but it looks impressive.

Tags: clouds, rain, raindrops, storm, trees

I spent about 4 hours yesterday doing senior portraits of a young lady who, I’ve noticed, enjoys posting “selfies” on Facebook, pictures of herself in a mirror with her camera phone. The idea of the selfie is something I’m not stranger too (just look at all the narcissistic photos I have of myself on this blog) but it’s something I wondered if I could incorporate into her portrait session. On the other hand, her step-mother expressed great interest in a shot that would really bring out the young woman’s eyes, as they are very much like her grandmother’s.

The idea I came up with was to give myself many years of bad luck and light her from the front, but shoot her from behind, focusing on a shard of mirror reflecting only her eyes and lit dramatically and sharply different from the background. It’s not the sort of senior picture she’s likely to hand out to her friends, but it might be the sort that her mother hangs on her wall with fondness, wonderful memories, and pride.

Tags: eyes, Madison Boies, Minne Estema Park, mirror, reflection, trees

Splash Of Color

Just a quick splash of color from my Samsung tablet and Snapseed this morning. Location is my favorite coffee shop, the Fifth Street Koffee Haus.

Tags: art, fern, Fifth Street Koffee Haus, morning, plants, Window

Ray Of Hope

f/9, 1/400, ISO-800, 18mm

Another product from my canoe trip last weekend, but this one is a little different. All the post-processing was done in Lightroom 5. I downloaded the trial version of it as soon as I was able and decided to put it to the test. Normally I use a combination of Lightroom and various other tools such as Perfect Photo Suite or Nik Software. It’s been quite awhile, actually, since I’ve limited myself to Lightroom alone, but I think version 5 acquitted itself nicely.

Much of the effect here was done using the new radial filter tool. I added two such filters – one to the clouds and another to the trees and water. With this tool I was able to quickly and easily create vibrant color and high contrast, and I’m not certain I could have duplicated this effect at all in previous versions of Lightroom. I imagine I would have had to use the adjustment brush, and I’ve never been good with that tool, and it would have been tedious. I created this images in under 15 minutes. If that doesn’t sound impressive to you, let me say that the guy paddling the canoe while I lazed in the front is no photography slouch himself, though he doesn’t practice the craft as much as me. He complained at how the view in general that evening was not very impressive. He’s right, but I was able to see potential in what I could achieve in post work. The sky was gray, the water was brown, and the trees were bland when we were actually out on the water.

I could have achieved much the same effect in Color Efex Pro, but probably not as quickly. I think the only real issue I have with Lightroom’s performance here is that the grain is a little high, even after nudging the noise reduction to 38. Granted, I’m at a high ISO, but I don’t recall the noise being quite this noticeable before.