Daniel Ruf

Take What You're Given...

"There are no shortcuts to anyplace worth going."  Beverly Sills

....It's called opportunity!

In my case, as you've read here before, sometimes "opportunity" has to literally slap me in the face before I begin to pay attention and the scene above was a perfect case in point.  While standing with my camera I could not for the life of me figure out why I was even contemplating this capture.  The truth be told I almost edited out before downloading my work into the computer and even after looking at it on the computer screen I was none too thrilled. 

After a few days of editing other work I decided to "take the bull by the horns" and wrestle with this "pest".  Don't get me wrong...I love trains and their surroundings and as a boy, usually on Sunday mornings, I would go with my father down to the train yards to watch the large steam locomotives come into the local station.  I even had my own Lionel train set which I held as priceless as a youngster (and now that I don't have it anymore it probably is).

As I looked at this image of the shiny yellow diesel engine and spiffy station I realized that most trains and stations that I've witnessed are pretty "grungy" looking.  In fact the only "shiny" diesel engines I've ever seen are in a magazine ad and never spiffed up in the working world.

So, the answer was to bring this scene into real life by dirtying it up a bit, which I did through the HDR process in Nik HDR Efex Pro. After this process I had to correct some converging lines of the building through Photoshop CS5 and a little later I wandered into Nik Color Efex and worked with the Tonal Contrast alterations and also gave the image a slight vignette.  After looking at it for a while (most of the day) I decided that the blank blue sky (what little there is) was bothersome and the scene was still not "vintage" enough so I used a "Fly Paper" texture to finish the story.

Now, I can sit back and revel in what a smart boy I was to recognize this opportunity when it presented itself.....NOT!  I'm just glad I kept my finger off the delete button and that the pesky image kept showing up on my computer screen.

Sometimes opportunities don't come with a red flag and warning sign.  Don't pass yours up!

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to comment on your favorite of this post.

My 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=V

 

 

Around The Corner

"No Winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn"

Hal Borland

An early winter thaw has given rise to bare roof lines and rich black earth peeking through the thin blankets of snow that have survived a week of warming temps.  The downside to this energetic weather is that things look pretty dead and ugly while we all wait for the first green sprig to push from the earth.  It is nice, however, to be relieved of the piles of snow that have surrounded our house and to see our roof again...meaning I can quit worrying about the strength of our rafters.

The blog image today is from a hill top farm near the small town of Peterson, Iowa, and was one of the final captures of a long day of searching with my friend Mike Houge (check out his newest work at www.mikehouge.typepad.com ).  The scene had changed by the time the truck had stopped and we had set up for the shot since the setting sun found a mass of clouds to hide behind.  What I liked about the shot was the long leading fence line with an old faded barn at the end and the slight bit of magenta color that was bleeding from the sunset.  I processed the image in Photoshop CS5 with Nik HDR Efex software, dropped in a Fly Paper texture for the sky (painted it out of the foreground and barn area), tweaked the contrast, lightened areas of the fence line snow drifts and the barn and that was it.  I found that the Fly Paper texture really helped add some interest to the sky area, which needed some help, yet still retained a bit of the magenta lighting of the original capture.

Waiting for Spring is going to be a struggle since I've scheduled 3 days to photograph Sandhill Cranes at the Rowe Sanctuary, an Audubon Society facility, near Kearney, Nebraska (http://www.rowesanctuary.org/).  It's a great opportunity since the sanctuary has built blinds along the Platte River that photographers can rent for their own photo experience.  Most of the time the birds are within 30 yards of the blind and give the photographer great shot selections of incoming and outgoing birds in flight.  The main requirement, besides the fee, is that the occupant of a blind is taken to the blind at 4pm and must stay in the blind until pick up the following morning.  A warm sleeping bag is a must, but snoozing among the cranes is pretty fantastic.  The cranes are only in the Kearney area for about a month, so blind time is at a premium.  The Rowe also has other viewing opportunities for those that are passing through.

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

Redefine

"We are,each one of us angels with only one wing; and we can only fly by embracing one another."    Luciano de Crescenzo

 

The exciting thing about digital photography is the idea that no image becomes old as long as the photographer is engaged in the learning process and upgrading his creative skills.  With winter settled in here in our corner of the world we've been hunkered down with our share of ice, snow and gloom and, with my being close to the grips of "cabin fever" I have finally begun to deal with Photoshop CS5 and some of its tools.  I've avoided learning this editing software because Adobe Photoshop Elements has been just fine, but just like young boys learning to coexist with young girls, I decided to move on in the creative process...on a first date basis.

The challenge is really no different than learning new tools in the wet darkroom except for the fact that the digital world is never standing still.  The one thing that I've had to come to grips with is that no matter what I learn today, tomorrow is a whole new lesson.  While this may seem to be a never ending challenge, in truth it means that not only is ones creativity always on the move, but the persons work may always have new meaning day, months or years later.  Add to that the fact that when a photographer is lined up in front of a subject they have more skills to use for the "previsualization" of the final outcome of an image.

The above blog image is something that happened on a trip to Florida several years ago that started out in frustration.  This Osprey had been combing the beaches nearby and while I had a 100 - 400mm zoom loaded on my camera, I was really having a hard time trying to get some "pass" shots of this marvelous creature.  As I've said many times before, "as luck would have it" the Osprey found a stream of air overhead and for several seconds we stared at each other.  "What can it be like to have the use of wings?", I thought right before making this capture.

Once at home I was delighted with the image, but disappointed with the blank blue sky overhead.  It seemed to suck the life out of the living creature, but recently I've had the opportunity to revisit this image with a new tool called Fly Paper textures at http://flypapertextures.blogspot.com/ .  These textured overlays are exciting to work with and offer a bundle of choices for creative use.  The result put a whole new life in the capture and also a whole new impetus in my learning experience.  Also, one other great resource for learning is a new book "Layers" by Matt Kloskowski, which was suggested to me by my good friend Anthony Vodraska of "X-Alt Art Studio", and has provided a great starting point for learning about the use of layers in editing.

Of course this simple lesson for creativity is applicable in our daily lives giving new purpose to what may seem to be mundane occurrences or tasks that surround us.  We are all born with a creative Spirit and, like learning to walk, if we don't get up on our feet once in awhile, we forget how to move forward.

Christmas is just around the corner, a time to embrace one another, and new years is next, a time to reinvent ourselves and our purpose!  Wishing you all the very best for the season and a prosperous new year.