From Color to Grayscale

Not all subjects can make the conversion from a color image to grayscale and still look good.  In most cases, the best grayscale photos were visualized in grayscale before they were even taken.  There has to be good tonal contrast so that everything doesn't simply become a muddy gray.  Patterns and shapes show up much better in grayscale without the distraction of color.

I have to confess that I didn't previsualize how this image would look in grayscale.  Someone asked me if I had any grayscale images, and I ended up going through some images with grayscale conversion in mind.  I liked this one of a cluster of cherry blossoms better than most.  It isn't a straight grayscale as I have added a little yellow to warm it up some.

A Sense of Mystery II

Some of my favorite photographs (ones I have taken) capture an element that is hard to define.  The first blog by the same title tries to examine one aspect of it.  I get that same... feeling?... from this image.  Maybe it is the idea that the beauty of the light is contrasted best when seen against its antithesis - darkness.  They are usually both present in this type of image, but notice how your attention is immediately drawn to the light.

Peach Orchard

This is the best run local farm I know of.  They are constantly working their fields and harvesting their crops.  Their discipline is reflected in how this peach orchard was pruned.  Look how level the tops of the trees are.  All are exactly the same height.  I wanted to capture it in a way that highlighted their careful pruning.  To get up high enough to see over the tops of the trees, I climbed a bank on the side of the road.  Then an alarm went off.  No... only kidding. The road is in front of the camera, but not in the picture.  I also wanted the leading lines of the rows of trees to lead the eye back to the barn, so I had to choose the spot carefully.

A Sense of Mystery

On this morning, I took a lot of images of beautiful, tiny flowers and I liked them all.  But, the one that most enthralled me was this one, and I wondered why since at first glance, it doesn't seem to be much of a picture.  You can hardly tell what is the main subject.  And yet, every time I come across the image, I have to stop and examine it again.  It seems to me to hold a promise of something more as you look beyond the flower to a background that only suggests what is further on.  The part that is in focus extends an invitation to explore this tiny world, as though it will reveal some of it's mysteries if you will only take the time to look.  I don't know.  Maybe I'm crazy.  But I love this picture and I'm glad I felt compelled to view the tiny world at my feet.

Japanese Kerria

This plant has one redeeming value and that is it's bright yellow blooms in spring.  It blossoms around the same time as the dogwoods and redbuds.  The plant itself is not much to look at as you can tell if you imagine this photo without the blossoms.  The leaves are sparse and they grow on a stem with few branches.  They spread by sending out suckers underground so, if not controlled, they can become a pest.

I thought I would illustrate some photo tips using this plant as an example.  Some considerations pertain to DSLR cameras while others are general hints that can be used with any camera.  It also gives me an excuse to post more pictures of the blossoms since I had a hard time choosing which ones to post.

Here is what a single stem looks like.  While the flower is lovely, the bright areas of sky in the background detract from the image because they are too distracting.  So, the first suggestion is to be aware of what is in the background of your picture because it can easily rune (as Danny DeVito said a lot in some movie [Throw Momma from the Train?]) - it can rune your otherwise nice photo.

You would be surprised at how small a move can completely change the background when you are shooting something close up.  Sometimes, it is as little as a couple inches - although it does depend on how close you are to the subject.  I couldn't get rid of the white area altogether, but by angling the camera up and lowering the camera a couple of inches, I was able to minimize its effect.  I wanted to place the yellow flower against the complementary color of the sky.

Supposedly, one main subject is better than two because two causes your attention to compete between both of the subjects.  This rule is somewhat modified by where the subjects are placed in the composition.  If they are both at the same level, they will in all likelihood compete for attention.  If they are framed in more dynamic triangular shape, however, the effect is lessened.  Here, you can see the highly-serrated heart-shaped leaves of the Kerria.

Here, a single blossom takes center stage.  Sometimes the hardest aspect of taking close-up photos of flowers is the wind.  And I do mean wind.  You couldn't even call it a breeze the first time I went out to film them.  I had to give it up and come back another day.  It was just too windy.  But even on a day when there is not much more than a zephyr, keeping the photo sharp can be a problem.  Not because of film speed - you can take it in 1/1000th of a second if you want to.  But in that split second, the breeze will have moved the flower just enough to soften depth of field.

Dark background areas can be just as much a distraction as light areas.  The main reason I don't consider this photograph a success is because my eye keeps being drawn to the dark area at the bottom of the image.  One way to fix it would be to Photoshop it, replacing the dark area with a background similar to the upper portion of the photo.  Or - here's an novel idea - go back and get it right in-camera.

Porch... er, House Finches

If you have a porch with hanging baskets, you know they represent a prime nesting site to certain species of song birds, most notably wrens, sparrows and finches.  The last couple of years, the finches have taken their turn at nesting on our porch.  Last year it ended disastrously with a black snake climbing straight up the siding (!) and going into the nest after the chicks who were probably within a day of fledging.  The snake didn't get any of them, but the babies abandoned the nest and scattered.  They were never seen again - with or without the parents. 

The hanging basket pictured doesn't even contain any real plants; their silk fakes.  Its too early.  The plants are all fake, but that didn't make any difference to the female.  She was probably thinking, if the plants aren't real then they don't need to be watered, so I won't get water dumped on me from time to time. At least, that is what I would be thinking.  You can see that, for a plain brown bird, she is pretty handsome.

The only thing about these birds is they will drive you crazy when you want to enjoy the porch yourself.  She is not too bold, so when you come out the door, she flies off.  Sometimes she sneaks back and sits on her eggs (of which she has five currently), but sometimes she stays away for quite a while.  So, like last year, when we deferred to her and stayed down the other end of the porch as much as possible, we find our use of the porch restricted.  Whaddaya gonna do?

They are basically pretty sweet birds and have a mellow little voice.  To his credit, the male doesn't run off gallivanting, but stays and keeps a look out if not actually guarding the female during the nesting period.  Here, he is biding his time on the branch closest to the nest.  He came in the other day and helped her drive off another pair of house finches who had designs on their spot.  He doesn't help build the nest either, but he stays with the female everywhere she goes to gather nesting material. 

Dogwoods in Spring

It takes some time to distill the essence of a subject into an image that reveals something about it's nature.  Few (if any) times can I ever remember picking up a camera, taking a single photo and saying, "I'm done. I've got it."  I'm not talking composition, technical details, camera angles or anything like that.  It is something more ephemeral than that; something that helps to define the subject or reveal it's character.  And sometimes I can take a hundred photos before I can say, "This is it."

As lovely as cultivated dogwoods are, I think I enjoy the wild ones more.  If you compare the blossoms between a wild and cultivated dogwood, you'll notice the blooms on the wild one are much "floppier," larger and looser.  The little reddish-brown tips left over from the bud stage aren't as noticeable either, so there is more of an impression of white.  The off-colored tip can give the sense that the blossoms are beginning to die and turn brown even on first opening and I think that is what I don't like about them.  Of course, seen from more of a distance, that isn't a problem. 

This wild dogwood sits on the edge of the yard, just inside the wood.

I find I enjoy it more than the cultivated one on the other side of the yard.

It isn't always necessary to place the entire subject within the confines of a photograph.  Leaving part of the content out can create a sense of there being more to see, but not in an dissatisfying manner. This image, in which nothing much is in focus - and, certainly not the blossoms - is near the top of my list of favorite dogwood photos.  It was taken on a rainy day using my piece-of-junk telephoto that can barely acquire focus and I was using a polarizer to cut down on stray light even though it was a cloudy day.  It captures something of the sense of this tree, if not of all dogwoods.  Until I had my eyes examined at age thirteen and was given a prescription for glasses, I thought the entire world looked pretty much like this. I didn't know any better.  I didn't even know I didn't know better.  Maybe that is why I don't mind when an image isn't entirely in focus.