Daniel Ruf

Crisp

 

"To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring."

George Santayana

Last week brought the first frost of the Fall season and I had already staked out a field of scarlet colored Sumac that would be a first stop on the first frosty morning.  When the time came I was up with the early roosters and kneeling among the red flashes of leaves that were ladden with frost.  As the sun rose off the horizon I knew I had to work fast as I was already seeing the rising steam from fields indicating that the melting process was underway. 

As the end of the morning shoot was nearing I was packing up gear and getting ready to walk out of the field when I noticed a white leaf on the ground near where I was standing.  As I got closer I thought that a quick snap would preserve the moment, but, as I started becoming more serious, camera angle, shutter speeds and aperture settings became important.  The blazing colors that dominated my mind just minutes before faded as I looked at this beautiful still life....of still life...in an almost monochromatic state.  In this situation, unlike that of the pulsating reds of the Sumac leaves, the frost crystals became THE subject, becoming front and center to the composition.

Sometimes turning ones head will result in a better opportunity, but it takes changing ones mind to reach the desired result.  In this case I spent 95% of the morning fixated on the color red and 4% on the capture of frost.  Oh, and the final 1% of the time was the walking in and walking out...which, as my friend Mike Houge would say, is all part of the journey.

The season is changing, the geese are getting restless, the corn is turning to beige and the morning air is crisp with the hint of the winter to come.  Take advantage of these golden days to get out, absorb and reflect.

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

Sometimes...

  

"Passion is in all great searches and is necessary to all creative endeavors."

W. Eugene Smith

...you just have to turn around to see the image you have been looking for and in this case, on an extremely hot day at Ft. Defiance State Park, such was the case when I turned from the actual coneflowers I was shooting and found this window view staring at me.  Sometimes it's a no brainer...even if the brain is in sleep mode.

The original capture, actually two of them are below and due to the low light conditions it was 

necessary to make two captures with specific focus for the window frame and the flowers.  During the editing process the two were merged as combined layers and the flowers were then painted into the window frame areas.  After some adjustments in Photoshop CS5 for brightness and contrast the next step was to go into Nik Color Efex Pro to make additional adjustment in tonal contrast and foliage color.

The last steps included some color work in Nik Viveza using their fantastic "U-Point" technology and then doing a little "copy and paste" to rid the window frame of the obnoxious chip in the lower left.

Finally some work was done in Alien Skin's "Topaz" to give the scene a slight painterly effect for the final blog image at the top.

As I remind participants of my local workshops most subjects have at least 6 sides to explore which can give you at least 6 different lighting scenario's.  In this case, though, it was necessary for a 180 degree turn from the subject to see what was behind both me and the camera. 

Move your feet and take the time to investigate all the possibilities.

Thank you for stopping and feel free to comment.

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

Flower Child

"People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time

to have such things about us."   Iris Murdoch

It was during an evening of wandering that I came upon a new prairie tucked among some buildings in our town which has given me a new playground for the past couple of weeks.  I'm not sure where my love of flowers has come from since my biology background of college was more involved with the "dissecting" of parts and identification than fostering wonder.  While crisscrossing this field it came to me that the area becomes one big still life where movement and elevation become the keys to making portraits, and, after all, that is what we're always making when we click the shutter...just beautiful portraits.

This image of "Indian Blankets" was taken with my Canon 5D Mark II and a 70 - 200mm f/2.8 lens with a 1.4 teleconverter attached.  This lens is one of my favorites and I don't know how I lasted so long without this magnificant tool.  It is extremely sharp and has such a shallow depth of field that foreground and background areas become more about colors and shapes rather than clutter.

Very little processing was necessary other than the visits to Nik Color Efex Complete as set up selection and lighting becomes the most important part of these types of capture...as they are with any photography.  Taking the time to find the right accompniment for the main subject goes a long way to formulating the final outcome...plus a little love for flowers!

Thank you for stopping and feel free to comment.

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

A Twist

"Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties."

Gail Sheehy

This week the gallery know as "A Piece Of Work" (APOW)in downtown Spirit Lake will hang a show comprised of work by member artists that are also employees of the gallery.  The reception for this show will be on March 11 at 5:30pm and will give the public the opportunity to see creations by staff artists and also listen to them speak about their work.  I will be among those artist and will "unveil" some new work that I have been working with during the winter months that is a bit new and a "twist" on my previous style of photography. 

This past winter has been a little unusual since part of the time I was in recuperation from surgery and its effects and much of the winter weather has been quite gloomy with the touches of snowfall, ice and heavy winds thrown in for good measure.  Due to these factors I spent a good deal of time indoors, which had me going a little "batty", and forced me to finally really start to learn Photoshop CS5, read a fantastic book "Layers" by Matt Kloskowski, and get some technical and artistic support from my good friend Anthony Vodraska (check out X-Alt Studio in side bar to the right).

It was during this time that I also had the opportunity to revisit my image files for some needed house cleaning and that journey led me to the conclusion that there was a lot of work that had promise for the use in making composite images.  The blog image is one of these composites and will be one of the examples of this new direction that will be in the staff show at APOW.  While this change in my work has been enlightening and exciting, it will certainly not replace the style that most are accustom to seeing, but will be another avenue that I believe will strengthen my creative process.

In the case of this blog image I was reunited with a capture from a couple of years ago of a shot of Anderson Prairie with a looming wall cloud passing over.  I had always loved this shot, with blooming wildflowers in the foreground, but it was a bit empty and really never went much farther than one exhibition print for a local prairie photography show.  It was during the "house cleaning" event that I discovered a barn that I had photographed, a few years before the prairie shot, and thought that it would serve an honorable purpose of being an "anchor" in the landscape while the addition of a line of geese is the bond for "Fall Voices" which becomes a compilation of many of my Fall memories of landscapes and fading calls of migratory geese on crisp autumn days.

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

 

Early Riser

"There is only you and your camera.  The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are."    Ernst Haas

It took several trips to my favorite prairie, Freda Haffner Kettlehole Preserve, near Milford, Iowa, but finally I found the Pasque Flowers in early bloom.  One of my favorite Spring arrivals, small, short, and extremely fragile, but growing in some of the least desirable location of the prairie ecosystem.  On this day the wind was howling and it took a while to find a protected location where movement was reduced.  It was my intention to get some back lighting from the rising sun, but, as luck would have it, the clouds were moving in and the situation didn't look promising. 

My tripod was set with camera and 100 - 400 mm zoom with extender attached so that I could get up close and personal with the camera lens.  Now, it was waiting time.  While slits in the clouds passed within small distances of letting light from the fireball out, I had time to sit, think, observe the surrounding hillside and once again marvel at the opportunity to sit in the quietness of natures arms.  It's times like this that I am reminded that it's less about the shoot and more about the content of the shoot, which gets me out of bed at these hours.

Finally it appeared that the sun had found an opening and for one brief 30 second period I had time to capture the above shot.  I was expecting more, but often we have to make due with what were given and just enjoy the process.  In this setting the thrill of the wait was present and my heart was touched by the fragility of the moment.  I'll be back next year.

Enjoy this remarkable season and for all the farmers out there, stay save during the hectic planting season.

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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