"The battle for conservation will go on endlessly. It is part of the universal warfare between right and wrong."
John Muir.
My good friend Mike Houge, www.mikehouge.typepad.com , has been keeping me informed of flower locations this spring and this past couple of weeks he and I both have been hunting for the first sightings of native Blue Flag's (Iris) in our wetlands. As his luck would have it, he beat me to it and informed me of an area close to where I live and I finally broke away to take a look. It was late afternoon so the slanted western sunlight was throwing a brilliant light on the area, but high winds were also in the mix. After the capture of several images I hung around the area for a while to catch a sunset on the ponds of the Spring Run Wildlife Management Areas near Spirit Lake, Iowa.
When I got down to editing the work in Adobe Elements 8 I began to use my Nik software to deal with some separation and harsh lighting issues. It was during this process that I was reminded that digital photography has brought a host of tools to our fingertips that we can use subtly or dramatically to create our artistry. While I'm keenly aware that many viewers have become suspicious of the digital format and its subsequent ability to provide a palette of artistic tools for the photographer, I have learned to become somewhat "tone deaf" to these suggestions so that I can enjoy, as any other fine artists, the tools of our trade.
At any rate the above blog image is the original capture and through the use of Nik Color Efex and Viveza plug-ins I was able to, I believe, enhance the final image, and then complete the work with the use of Topaz Adjust 4 and and Alien Skin Bokeh.
As you can see the adjustments are subtle, but I believe I've achieved additional separation of the iris from background while "stimulating" the colors and softening the highlight areas. Nik software, with it's U-point technology has made "nuance" a tool that allows the artist to click on an area in the image and enhance a small area easily and precisely. In the case of this image I was able to decrease the highlight of petal areas without affecting other areas and to enhance the saturation of the warm, golden areas of the petals, without affecting the other warm tones.
Digital photography, with all it's equipment and software tools, has opened the avenues of pre-visualization to photographers so that, while we're in the field at the tripod, we can access our mental file to decide our approach(s) at editing. It can be both liberating and frustrating, but so is the use of the right brush at the right time.
Before I close I want to also draw your attention to a another artist that I follow during my educational journey in photography. Anthony Vodraska is a new addition to our area of Northwest Iowa and his work and illuminating essays can be found at www. x-altartstudio.blogspot.com . His works, and that of his wife, Anita Gilbert, are stunning, imaginative, thought provoking and varied. Take the time for a visit.
For more views of my work visit;
"A Piece Of Work", Spirit Lake, Iowa http://www.apieceofworkinc.com
"Art On 16th" http://www.hankhallarton16th.com
Artisans Road Trip www.artisansroadtrip.com
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