Daniel Ruf

Spring?

"I'm always mentally photographing what I see as practice."

Minor White

While the calender might say March 30 the weather gods have continued to send Northwest Iowa flakes of snow and chilly weather.  The forecast for early next week is still showing some snow activity, which makes for grumpy attitudes.  While I continue to wait for the first Spring flowers I have been "flipping" through my files from 2010 and have found several images that I had passed over during the primary editing go around.

The blog image is from South Dakota's Badlands National Park and I can remember "hunkering" down in a gully trying to get a low shot while staying out of the raging wind.  This was an HDR capture and processed in Nik HDR Efex software and Photoshop CS5.  The HDR process helped to define the sky much more than a single shot process would have, as the whites would have "blocked up" lacking definition.  The landscape reminded my of sharks teeth, or at least what I think sharks teeth would look like and was the main reason I thought this would be a good place to capture.

This once again is a reminder that some captures which don't stand out at first glance often need a second look as a reminder as to why the capture was first made.  In this case the strong sky character with sharp edges outcroppings were the draw to my eye.  The shadow across the foreground served to add depth to the image as did the light diagonal that stretches from the bottom right hand corner to the farthest outcropping on the right.

While winter winds continue to blow I know that Mother Nature is stirring and blossoms will soon break through earth's fertile crust.  Until then I'll continue my mission of scouring files and learning Photoshop techniques for further use.

Thanks to all that stop by to visit my blog and happy shooting.

    My new book "Places I've Been, Things I've Seen" can be purchased online at-

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1868649

    For more views of my work visit;

"A Piece Of Work", Spirit Lake, Iowa  http://www.apieceofworkinc.com

Lanesboro Art Center, Lanesboro, Minnesota   www.lanesboroarts.org

BetterPhoto.com   http://www.betterphoto.com/Premium/Default.aspx?id=251674&mp=V1

Some Shorts

"Scientific research and other studies have demonstrated that arts education can enhance American students' math and language skills and improve test scores which in turn increase chances of higher education and good jobs in the future."

Thad Cochran

I came across the following link on YouTube that deals with the demise of arts education in the United States.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY  I think you'll find it informative and sobering as does the above blog quote.

My son also sent me a link to a friends blog site that I found equally compelling as it relates to our "slippage" from the natural world.   http://aaronschwenzfeier.blogspot.com/2011/03/play-again.html

As you view these sites ask yourself how you or our children might benefit with a little more time away from the t.v. and more time with their crayola's and a picnic basket.

The blog image is from my trip in the Spring of 2010 to the Badlands of South Dakota.  It was deliciously quiet.

Thanks to all that stop by to visit my blog and happy shooting.

    My new book "Places I've Been, Things I've Seen" can be purchased online at-

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1868649

    For more views of my work visit;

"A Piece Of Work", Spirit Lake, Iowa  http://www.apieceofworkinc.com

Lanesboro Art Center, Lanesboro, Minnesota   www.lanesboroarts.org

BetterPhoto.com   http://www.betterphoto.com/Premium/Default.aspx?id=251674&mp=V1

Idle Time

    The last few weeks have been a hodge podge of recovering from surgery, traveling to and from Texas to visit our grand daughter, and sitting inside watching freezing rain cover the landscape.  My time in the field with a camera has been limited, mainly by a load limit placed on me by my doctors, but it has allowed me time to sit in front of the computer (not exactly like sitting behind the lens) and revisit some work with the colors of black and white in mind.

The blog image is from my trip to the South Dakota Badlands when I was fortunate to be a participant in a Tony Sweet workshop.  While it has been a full 6 months since the trip I do remember thinking that final image was going to end up as black and white composition. Surprisingly I was so taken with the color rendering that I really didn't pursue the "dark side", being perfectly content with the original capture, but that might have been a big mistake on my part. 

The set up included an extremely long 25 second exposure using the Singh Ray Vari ND filter in the beautiful diffuse morning light, camera on tripod, mirror lockup and remote cable release.  It was my first experience using the Singh Ray filter and the results were beyond my wildest imaginations for this situation involving rapidly moving clouds and I wasn't prepared for the great separation that occurred from the motion blur.  The editing process was pretty simple with some touch up with Nik Color Efex and the general contrast and color tweaks.

Yesterday, while watching cars sliding down the street from my office window, I started playing with this capture again using Nik Silver Efex Pro and I believe the results are closer to my original concept adding a little more drama to the sky and highlighting the background peaks.

As can be seen in the works of other photographers, both film based and digital, the first horse out of the chute is not necessarily the final act of the play.  With some maturity of thought or creative process or new technical applications the original capture can almost become a living entity, changing with the whim of the artist.

I hope you are all having a marvelous Thanksgiving and thanks to everyone for connecting with my blog past, present and future.

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  

Lanesboro Art Center, Lanesboro, Minnesota  www.lanesboroarts.org

http://www.betterphoto.com/Premium/Default.aspx?id=251674&mp=V1

 

Real Cost

"Though men now possess the power to dominate and exploit every corner of the natural world, nothing in that fact implies that they have the right or the need to do so."    

            Edward Abbey - from "A Voice Crying In The Wilderness"

The work goes on with the editing of images from my journey to the Tony Sweet workshop in the Badlands of South Dakota, though I think the end is in sight.  While it's been time consuming I am so pleased that the time spent in this beautiful space was so rewarding in so many ways.  The blog image is from the Pinnacles area of the park and, during my free time before the official start of the workshop, I spent many hours working this find.

The only real special application for achieving this capture was the use of a Singh-Ray "Vari-ND" filter which is a neutral density filter that is adjustable from 2 to 8 stops of density and allowed for a longer exposure that recorded the movement in the clouds overhead.  By using this effect it I feel a greater sense of depth is achieved.

The dawning of the technology age that we find ourselves immersed in has been cause for a lot of mental turbulence for the last several days, part of which has been spent with a phone in my ear while discussing a faulty download issue for a product that I needed to update.  While I will agree that digital technology has given photography a truck load of artistry tools that have made the medium all the more thrilling to use, I am struggling to find areas where the technological advances of the last 10 years have added quality to our lives overall.

As I traveled the roads of the Badlands I swerved or stopped behind vehicles that had an arm sticking out with a phone device attached to a hand which I assume was in the process of image capture with the camera phone device.  Somehow I just couldn't make myself believe that this process was anything more than a reflex reaction by someone unwilling to invest themselves, their brain, their eyes, or their ears in the geographic area that we were both sitting in at the moment.  There is something about being involved in hiking a trail or gazing into a great abyss that makes for a much more rewarding experience at image capture than the "drive by shoot" that was in progress.  The same is the case for waking up in a tent that one has taken the time to erect and, with the air still and the blackness of night all around, being able to hear a distant call of wolves instead of seeing a stuffed display in some park info station as the alternative.

Another example, and again I'm equally guilty of this infraction, would be the sending of an email to someone, which to me equates the operation of communication to being a chore, instead of sitting down to a handsomely rich piece of paper and actually composing a letter in ones own script, thereby making the process of communication more about caring and the literary process.

Have we gained that much with the advent of computers, ipods, laptops and cell phone?  It would appear that these "toys" have gained us material instruments in our lives, but have they appreciated the quality of our lives?  Those that are in the work force are probably getting more "through put" by the end of the day, but are the number of work hours in the day diminished from years gone by?  How has technology added "quality" to our living experience?

"A Piece Of Work", Spirit Lake, Iowa  http://www.apieceofworkinc.com

"Art On 16th"  http://www.hankhallarton16th.com

Artisans Road Trip www.artisansroadtrip.com  

http://www.betterphoto.com/Premium/Default.aspx?id=251674&mp=V1

Spaces

My mind is still filing through those days at the Badlands workshop and while sitting in front of the computer editing work I am continually reminded of lessons learned from Tony Sweet and Susan Milestone.  The keys to the whole workshop class work and field work sessions could be summed up in a few words; designing space and subtle adjustments.  So, while hunting down subjects I found myself looking for situations that made for unique design elements while still recording the beauty that is the Badlands.

The blog image was taken at sunrise at the "doors and windows" area on the eastern side of the Badlands National Park.  While watching the sun rise I was attracted to this unique silhouette and the hard edge line that trickled down the cliff and then proceeded across the viewing plane.  The only real problem in the capture of the image was situating the camera in such a place as to hide the sun to alleviate any specular highlights from causing distracting problems in the image and, of course, finding this position before all the color was drained from the scene.

The black negative space is a compliment to the overall scene and I think enriches the design and color of the image.  So far this is one of my favorites, but I'm sure that memory of the morning, time and place, are strong prejudices for me.

The time at the Badlands proved a long standing belief I have that location workshops are a good jolt to the learning process, especially when led by qualified instructors that are mentors of the art of photography.

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  

http://www.betterphoto.com/Premium/Default.aspx?id=251674&mp=V1

Learning Can Be Fun

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength..."  John Muir

This past week found me at South Dakota's Badlands at a five day photography workshop given by Tony Sweet and his partner, Susan Milestone, and what a week it was.  Both of these master photographers were excellent in knowing where to be and when and I can still hear Tony calling to all of us "here comes the light" while many of us were facing the opposite direction waiting for the sunrise glow to paint the eastern facing escarpments of the Badlands area.

The blog image was taken during a 3 minute period of luxurious light at the Big Badlands overlook area.  Just below my feet is a large expanse of air which I was trying not to be blown into by the south westerly winds of the morning.  While we all stood in awe of the special lighting effects I somehow managed to get the camera reset, shutter speeds and f/stops dialed in to fire off this three image file for HDR processing later in my motel room.  While making such a capture is a real thrill, being in the very presence of this changing light in a vast open landscape such as the Badlands, is indescribable. 

Both instructors fulfill the word "work" in workshop with a fairly non stop schedule of activity.  By 4:30am most of the attendees were loading their vehicles for departure at 4:45am to parts unknown in the Badlands National Park near Wall, South Dakota, our home for the five day photographic event.  We usually were on site long before the actual rising of the famed fireball, our sun, but the dawn light can be some of the most delicate pastels that any artist can imagine, and this morning was no exception...except for the gala event shown above. 

After about a four to five hour shoot at various locations, we usually gather for our only feast together at a local restaurant and fill up on carbs.  After breakfast we had about 4 hours to ourselves to process our previous work (or nap...so they tell me) and then we would meet for a two hour critique/instructional session with Tony and Susan.  It was a growing experience for me that involved learning about how various color or design nuances can elevate an "o.k." picture to a full fledged image of quality.  After 5 days of this instruction we all were surprised that, while we were all in the same location for a shoot, there were no similar images shown at the meeting.  Could it be that 9 photographers of equal ability proved that vision IS in the eye of the beholder?

When the class was over, we grabbed a bite to eat and loaded our gear again at about 4:30pm for the evening shoot, which took us to new venues and scenic lands within the park.  Usually, and this applied to morning an evening shoots, if the skies were partly cloudy the shoot would last longer since that golden light would spend more time bouncing around the cloud banks making us scurry around for new locations for different lighting situations.  By and large our day would end at about 8pm and we would head back to our rooms to ready ourselves for the next day.

For those of you that are longing for a fulfilling workshop experience and are willing to invest yourself in your artistry, take the time to check out Tony Sweets website, http://tonysweet.com , and click on his workshop tab.  Also, take the time to check his blog and get to know this amazingly gifted artist.

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

Art Of The Vine Gallery http://www.artofthevinegallery.com

Artisans Road Trip www.artisansroadtrip.com  

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