New blog

Just a reminder to check out my new photography blog:

Rural Kansas Photography.

090521ndw - 52

The Independence, Kan., Public Library held an "End of School" bash Thursday, May 21, 2009.

Thursday was the last day of school here and the public library held a pizza party complete with a local rock band for the kids.

090519ndw - 10

Rolls of barbed wire sit in the mottled light of a tree near Independence, Kan.

Gimmicks

I am so sick of photographic gimmicks.

And it seems that the only way to get ahead in this business right now is to make use of them.

Contest winners in recent years are often gimmicky. Clients want the certain special looks which an artist creates then everyone copies.

Photography has always been an art where the subject was center-stage. But the general public has apparently bored of looking at good photographs of interesting people, places and things. Now folks want to see computer modified versions of reality that bear little resemblance to the actual subjects. Photographs where someone's aptitude with a computer becomes the central factor. Case in point.

I make no bones about it, I am not a fan of Photoshop. Never before in the history of this art has there existed a tool which so easily allows someone to transform crappy photographs into stunning works of art ... or whatever they are.

But I take solace in the fact that there have always been photographic gimmicks of one kind or another, and that the photographs that stand the test of time do not employ them. Yousuf Karsh's portraits are a prime example.

Peonies - 09

Peonies in bloom near Independence, Kan.

See more flower pictures here.

The direction of my photography

I often agonize about which direction I want to take with my photography.

Just this past week in fact. I found a series of books at my library that were published by the National Geographic Society, one of which is titled "Back Roads America: A Portfolio of her People."

It's pictures and words of just regular folks doing regular things. Living life. Not even "fancy" pictures, just plain good photography. And I say to myself, "that's what I want to do with my photography!"

But the other day, I realized that that is what I'm doing with my photography. Photographing the Mitchell's at their farm. The folks at Magnolia making candles. The folks forming the new farmer's market downtown.

Regular folks doing regular things.

Market's open

A member of the new farmer's market rings a bell opening the market for business on its first morning Saturday, May 9, 2009, in downtown Independence, Kan.

This morning was the first day of business for a newly-formed farmer's market in downtown Independence, Kan. The new market will be open Saturday mornings from May till October.

Iris - 10

An iris blooms near Independence, Kan. View On White

I love good black and white. I'm just very often drawn to the color of a scene. But I got to playing with this photo and liked the way it looked black and white.

First Presbyterian - 16

First Presbyterian Church in Independence, Kan. View On Black

It seems that I wasn't being quite fair to iPhoto the other day.

I took a crappy shot and couldn't make it what I wanted with iPhoto, but I could make it "better" with Photoshop.

The other part of Mr. Weese's article talks about exposing the photograph properly to begin with, then using the image editor on the computer to fine tune the image into what you want it. With film you exposed for the shadows and developed for the highlights. With digital it's the other way around, expose for the highlights and "develop" for the shadows.

And while I've known that basic fact of digital photography, I've never really used it. As a newspaper photographer I strove to get my photos the way I wanted them as much as possible in camera. I did not like sitting in front of the computers, futzing around with the picture.

Now that I'm taking my photography in a more artistic direction I find it behooves me to invest the time in developing my photos in order to make better images.

The Monkey Island photo is a great example of how I used to take pictures. I exposed for the castle/habitat structure, which made the sky go almost completely white. iPhoto couldn't fix it, Photoshop kind of could.

But the image of the church above I exposed "correctly." I spot metered from the sky setting it to just beneath the point where it would wash out. And then I used software to bring out the tones in the building.

The surprising part to me was that iPhoto did an excellent job with this image. I couldn't do any better with Photoshop. So it appears that iPhoto is a perfectly capable program if you hand it a well-exposed image.

Trees and walk

First Presbyterian Church in Independence, Kan. View On Black