The Big Photography Thread

[Daniel Wade]

 

I feel for you on the cactus thing, those can be some wicked painful plants, especially those barbed cactus. I guess I've been lucky, I have only accidentally stumbled into the fuzzy cactus. You know the type that you don't think are to bad, until it starts to burn, and then you can't believe how many of the tiny thorns are actually in you, and you can't figure how to get all of them out. Funny to think about it now, not so funny then.

 

[KenElevenShadows]

I've nailed those. The one that got my ankle and lower leg was a very very sharp cactus with thorns that were a couple of inches long, a frightening looking thing. The thorns were painful to pull out from my leg, and I was afraid to do it at first.

 

I've also been running with my flashlight, light painting something within a specified exposure time, and gotten nailed by a branch with thorns hanging bizarrely high and away from all the other branches. That raked across my hand and arm. I had scars showing for half a year from that one.

 

For night photography with light painting, one needs a certain amount of activity and athleticism to pull off, including running up rocks at night, squatting down and staying in awkward positions for a long time, and hiking in at night to specific locations. And sometimes, things happen.

[KenElevenShadows]

 

I front-lit and back-lit the famous Arch Rock in Joshua Tree. Illuminated by a ProtoMachines LED2 flashlight and a full moon. 19.5 minute second exposure in total ("stacked"). The photo shows the movement of the stars over a long period of time, created by the movement of the earth. This is not a post-processing creation. No pixels were harmed during the creation of this photo.

[KenElevenShadows]

 

Joshua Tree National Park, CA at night. Tree illuminated by flashlight during exposure. This was a particularly c-c-c-c-ooooold night.......not that it was the coldest night we shot, but that it was about 15 degrees colder than the other locations, taking us by surprise. It was approaching freezing, and the place we drove from was in the upper 40s F. And that feels very very different.

[KenElevenShadows]

 

"Star Forest"

 

More night hiking in Joshua Tree National Park, CA.

 

I began to walk back to my car in the dark after photographing Samuelson's Rocks. My car was a mile away. However, it took much longer to arrive at my car because I kept finding these beautiful Joshua Trees. I had to stop and photograph them.

[Lindaru]

These are beautiful, Ken!

 

Your fortitude against weather and difficult conditions pays off well as you are unique in the beauty you capture.

 

 

[Theo Verelst]

Great pictures, Ken11. Can't help wondering what the scenes look like with natural light.

 

 

For all who have "he must mean something with that HDR talk", for other purposes than glossy mag type pictures, I had the need to revisit an old desire to have a decent image processing program allowing at least 16 bits per color to read, process and write photographs. That's because all the 24 bit per pixel tools soon annoy me, especially when I want to use them to combine film-type of processing step results, and generally, more bits are desirable at least for storing intermediate results.

 

Now there's Free and Open Source (so we engineers can check out what iy actually works like when we want to) Krita (Linux and Windows) that supports 8/16/32 bits per color, and has decent operations, effects, color options and layer processing.

 

On Linux the test I did with it made me satisfied it works good, so maybe give it a try.

 

T

[Daniel Wade]

Ken, I know it's a lot of hazardous and tiring work to get these shots, but the results are absolutely worth it. They just stand out when you see them, as beautiful with an original style that is all your own.

 

I do have a question about what tripod you are using though. (If you don't mind me asking) I know a heavier tripod would be more stable for the long exposure shots, but I also know hiking miles through rough terrain with heavy equipment would be tough also. So do you just accept the need for a heavier tripod and carry one, or do you carry a lighter one and hang weight (rocks) from a net underneath the tripod, or something like that, or is a lightweight tripod ok for what you are doing?

 

I have a lightweight and a heavier tripod, but it seems I always have to carry the heavier one for outdoors because of the wind, especially when zooming. Or maybe I just need a better lightweight tripod.

[KenElevenShadows]

Thanks!

 

As for tripods, I don't know what the right answer is. I have a heavier tripod, a Feisol CT-3372 (which is really quite lightweight considering how rock solid and heavy a load this carries - http://www.amazon.com/Feisol-CT-3372-3-Section-Carbon-Tripod/dp/B00573N8YU) and a lighter weight Feisol, a CT-3342 (http://www.amazon.com/Feisol-Tournament-CT-3342-3-Section-Carbon/dp/B00573N8GI?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage).

 

So lately, for night shots, I have been hiking in with the heavier Feisol CT-3372 and this amazing but heavy ballhead made by Really Right Stuff, called the BH-55. It's the Rolls Royce of ballheads, but it's not light.

 

But for traveling overseas, I'm going to take the lighter CT-3342 and an Accratech ballhead, which is considerably lighter than the RRS BH-55 ballhead. My reasoning is that I have to diddle with airplanes and such and need something that packs down much smaller and lighter, and I wouldn't be doing exclusively night shots. I am going to Iceland, and this is what I intend to take. I can actually fit the tripod in my backpack (although I probably won't do that) and it'll just be easier all the way around. But I also am not doing star trails or things that absolutely require rock solid stability in high winds or things like that, as I may do long exposures in Iceland that are only a few seconds at the most. And the setup I am taking could do star trails or things like that where I am creating an exposure for 1-2 hours anyway if the wind is not really kicking up.

 

And yes, my lighter tripod does have a hook at the bottom to hang stuff if I need to. I usually hang a bag with extra gear.

[KenElevenShadows]

Great pictures, Ken11. Can't help wondering what the scenes look like with natural light.

 

T

 

Well, there's a lot of day photos, so it's not too difficult to imagine. The following two are not shot in the same place, but they give you an idea of the general landscape and color during the day, at least where Joshua Tree landscapes are concerned.

 

As for natural light, my light painting of the foreground is obviously not natural, but the rest of the scene is natural light, illuminated by a nearly full moon.

 

http://www.elevenshadows.com/travels/joshuatree2012december/images/1joshuatree1212_117covington.jpg

 

http://www.elevenshadows.com/travels/joshuatree2012december/images/1joshuatree1212_220trees.jpg

[KenElevenShadows]

 

 

For all who have "he must mean something with that HDR talk", for other purposes than glossy mag type pictures, I had the need to revisit an old desire to have a decent image processing program allowing at least 16 bits per color to read, process and write photographs. That's because all the 24 bit per pixel tools soon annoy me, especially when I want to use them to combine film-type of processing step results, and generally, more bits are desirable at least for storing intermediate results.

 

Now there's Free and Open Source (so we engineers can check out what iy actually works like when we want to) Krita (Linux and Windows) that supports 8/16/32 bits per color, and has decent operations, effects, color options and layer processing.

 

On Linux the test I did with it made me satisfied it works good, so maybe give it a try.

 

T

 

I hope this works out. I'm working on 16-bit images only for now. I guess it's enough. Some of the challenge occurs when you carefully work on this photo that has 16-bits and lots of colors represented, and then you go convert that into an sRGB JPG for use on web, which has a considerably smaller palette of colors. Because of this data compression when converting, that can create banding, especially if one is doing night photos, which are even more susceptible to things like that.

[KenElevenShadows]

These are beautiful, Ken!

 

Your fortitude against weather and difficult conditions pays off well as you are unique in the beauty you capture.

 

 

Thanks! Thankfully, it's just a few scratches here and there. But even on super hot nights, I still wear long pants due to cactus, as tempting as it is to run out in shorts and sandals.

 

Now, what I do is nowhere like some people, where they hike in for days in really harsh climates. I tend to keep an approximate limit of 2 miles one way, as a 4-mile round trip can take quite a long time in darkness. And if there's a real risk of getting lost or falling off a cliff or something, I just don't do it (although my GPS has taken much of the risk of getting lost out of the equation).

 

 

[KenElevenShadows]

 

This was also done on the same trip. And instead of long hikes in, this was simply trying to endure the awful stench and the threat of mud wasp attacks.

 

This is the first photo in which I decided to slowly morph the color from cold to hot, a cool effect that can sometimes be too gimmicky, but seemed to work in this otherwise extremely drab-colored but fascinating ruins.

 

"Technicolor Bath" (9740)

One of the spa rooms at an abandoned mineral spa. The walls were covered with mud wasp nests, and there were some bats flying around. Multi-colored lights from a ProtoMachines LED2 flashlight, two minute exposure, done in almost total darkness.

 

Photo: Ken Lee Photography

Location: Salton Sea, CA USA

[KenElevenShadows]

 

I went black and white at the last moment here. I had spent a lot of time getting the blue light painting to look perfect....and then I switched it to black and white and thought, "Ohhhhhhh.....y'know, I think this actually works better." But it was hard to give up all that work at first.....

 

"Back At the Wonderland Ranch" (9867)

Night photo of a ranch built by the Ohlson family when they were mining for gold in the early 1900s. Illuminated by a ProtoMachines LED2 flashlight and a full moon. 483 second exposure. The photo shows the movement of the stars over a long period of time, created by the movement of the earth. This is not a post-processing creation. No pixels were harmed during the creation of this photo.

Photo: Ken Lee Photography

Location: Joshua Tree National Park, CA USA

[Lindaru]

The color morphing looks like it was all done at one time, but you did this over a period of time? So seamless!

 

The black and white lends to the mood of the ruins.

 

 

[xKnuckles]

Wow Ken - a whole page of your pics! Absolutely glorious - congratulations. I love the technicolor bath & the black & white Ranch, but especially the arch rock. Really cool angle. Looks to me like a giant arm.

[KenElevenShadows]

The color morphing looks like it was all done at one time, but you did this over a period of time? So seamless!

 

The black and white lends to the mood of the ruins.

 

 

Thanks. I did the color morphing, taking about maybe ten seconds or so to do, and of course doing this in a single exposure. The morphing was done in a single, if rather slow, motion.

 

I illuminated the bottom part, which was the spa, from three or four different positions, a combination of angles and reflection, to try and pick up as much texture as possible.

 

And thanks. I thought the black and white lent a mood to it.

 

I check out all of my photos in B&W to see how they look. Most of the time, I keep them in color, but sometimes, the image looks more striking to me in B&W or says something that the color photo does not.

[KenElevenShadows]

Wow Ken - a whole page of your pics! Absolutely glorious - congratulations. I love the technicolor bath & the black & white Ranch, but especially the arch rock. Really cool angle. Looks to me like a giant arm.

 

Thanks! That's my favorite out of these three as well, mostly due to the angle. I don't see this angle very much, and wanted to shoot different angles this time around so it would look different from everyone else's photos.

 

This is another angle, coming at it from the other side. And yes, this one is a "selfie".

 

 

 

[Mike Martin]

Tulips by Mike Martin, on Flickr

[KenElevenShadows]

Suh-weeet.

[xKnuckles]

Really nice pic Mike. To me they seem to have a sort of antique feel - I have no idea why.

[Lindaru]

To me they seem to have a sort of antique feel - I have no idea why.

 

To me it is the gentle soft focus and slight muting of color that give them that feeling. Nice work, Mike and Ken!

 

 

[Mike Martin]

To me they seem to have a sort of antique feel - I have no idea why.

 

To me it is the gentle soft focus and slight muting of color that give them that feeling. Nice work, Mike and Ken!

 

 

That is taken with an old manual focus 50mm f/1.4 lens and I shot it at f/1.4. I could have spent more time to nail the focus but even if I did, only a sliver would be sharp at that aperture and that close distance. The sun flared into the lens washing a lot of the color out, so I exaggerated that in post with the tone curve and a little bit of split-toning for style.

[Mike Martin]

I was back in Salt Lake City again today. I must get over to this area for a sunrise on my next visit. This was over at Antelope Island.

 

From Antelope Island by Mike Martin, on Flickr

[Lindaru]

Great, Mike! Can almost feel the temperature, sun and breeze.

 

Maybe they should rename it "Buffalo Island"?

 

 

[Theo Verelst]

 

 

For all who have "he must mean something with that HDR talk",...

Krita (Linux and Windows) that supports 8/16/32 bits per color, ...

 

T

 

I hope this works out. I'm working on 16-bit images only ...

... especially if one is doing night photos, which are even more susceptible to things like that.

 

Hi Ken, the contrast I meant was between only 8 bits of processing and higher. I suppose you're satisfied about 16 bits per color component ? I know I've when it was just out experimented with Cinelerra (movie editing) which allows 128 bits (RGBA*32bit floating point) processing of frames, and I was absolutely and in a very short time able to see the difference when going back to 16 bits per color, surprisingly!

 

Sure for the web, maybe some can view jpeg2000 with more bits per color (actually I don't know, I didn't look it up) but pretty much all formats that normally load in a web page are limited to 24 bits per pixel. Jpeg can work OK, but sometimes I like the added realism (sharpness, color fidelity) of PNGs.

 

T.

[KenElevenShadows]

 

 

For all who have "he must mean something with that HDR talk",...

Krita (Linux and Windows) that supports 8/16/32 bits per color, ...

 

T

 

I hope this works out. I'm working on 16-bit images only ...

... especially if one is doing night photos, which are even more susceptible to things like that.

 

Hi Ken, the contrast I meant was between only 8 bits of processing and higher. I suppose you're satisfied about 16 bits per color component ? I know I've when it was just out experimented with Cinelerra (movie editing) which allows 128 bits (RGBA*32bit floating point) processing of frames, and I was absolutely and in a very short time able to see the difference when going back to 16 bits per color, surprisingly!

 

Sure for the web, maybe some can view jpeg2000 with more bits per color (actually I don't know, I didn't look it up) but pretty much all formats that normally load in a web page are limited to 24 bits per pixel. Jpeg can work OK, but sometimes I like the added realism (sharpness, color fidelity) of PNGs.

 

T.

 

Got it.

 

I have not experimented with jpeg2000. I should look that up.

 

I guess 16-bit is fine. I haven't messed with anything other than that, as I don't think Photoshop supports anything higher. I don't know anything about bits beyond 16 bits, really. I am also a Photoshop/post-processing idiot. Truly. I'm not being falsely modest. I know how to do what I need to do, and that's about it.

 

I love PNGs, but they can be rather large files. Lately, I have been "mixing down" to PNGs and then converting those to JPGs.

[Mike Martin]

Seattle, The Other Side by Mike Martin, on Flickr

[Lindaru]

Beautiful! I will keep this image in my mind's eye as I will be going there middle of May for a week or so and I just know it is not going to be this gorgeous from ground level in all of the traffic.

 

 

[KenElevenShadows]

 

"I Guess I Should've Known By The Way You Parked Your Car Sideways" (9787)

SOME WORDS FOR PRINCE:

Photography. Music. Recording engineering. Gardening. Poetry. Writing. Drawing. Painting. Coding.

 

It's all art to me. They're all manifestations of inspiration, of expression, and they are at their greatest when they are at their purest.

 

I am writing this shortly after finding out that Prince passed away. He inspired me to stick to my vision, no matter what people initially thought, both in music and with photography.

 

There are very few musicians or artists that I would apply the word "genius" to. Prince is one of them. Incredibly gifted, talented, creative, innovative, he created music that was all his own, instantly recognizable. When he began his career, he blew away music executives by his beautifully crafted songs and sound, playing all the instruments, writing the songs, and doing all the vocals and background vocals. He is a towering figure in pop, funk, R&B, rock, outsider music...and artists who have the spine to stick to their vision no matter what.

 

I am very lucky to have seen him perform.

 

This has been a horrible year for many well-known musicians. It's only April, and it seems so many legends have passed away already this year. Hopefully somewhere, there is a big ol' greasy, funky jam underway, with Prince, Bowie, Frey, Haggard, Kantner, and White gettin' loose, and Abe Vigoda introducing the band.

 

R.I.P. Prince Nelson. Most anyone who has played pop, rock, funk - or anyone who has ever stuck to their artistic vision despite great obstacles or criticism - owes you a giant hug and a thank you. Max respect.

~~~~

Joshua Tree National Park holds many strange mysteries. One such mystery is the collection of half-buried old cars. Night photo. Illuminated by a ProtoMachines LED2 flashlight and a full moon. 291 second exposure. The photo also hows the movement of the stars over a long period of time, created by the movement of the earth.This is not a post-processing creation. No pixels were harmed during the creation of this photo.