Daniel Ruf

Review

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.  Live the life you have imagined."  Henry David Thoreau

For those of you that are hard core photographers I have a couple of sites for you to visit that I think will be rewarding and maybe even put a little thrill in your day.  First, I would suggest that you click on the Guy Tal link at the right and then go to his blog site to read his "Course Corrections" post.  It's well written, covers a lot of the curves and hills of this think called fine art photography and is just good reading.  He's one of the masters and makes some excellent points. 

Two other masters, John Barclay and Tony Sweet, also linked in the upper right, also have blogs that are posting their work from a workshop they had in Cuba.  Their work is beautiful and is an artistic journey of the area from their perspective as very fine photographers.  It will be good viewing and give you the opportunity to see how others handle the craft of fine art photography.

As for this blog post the image is one of my still set ups at an old barn at the Peterson Park Heritage site near Ingham Lake.  Both me and my good friend Mike Houge have traveled there often just to stretch our creative muscles and enjoy the lighting of the morning.  As you can see it's nothing fancy, but it is a joy to play, develop, and design.  This sort of thing can be done in your house, in a corner, with ambient light or artifial light and when the weather stinks.  You'll be surprised at how the time flies when you get involved in the creative process.

Go Baylor...Sic 'Em Bears

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

http://500px.com/pigs4u

 

 

 

Grab Shot

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together."   Vincent Van Gogh

As there was little time before or after the art in the park mentioned in the previous blog post I did come upon this classic scene in Northeast Iowa that caught my attention.  The black ribbon of hiway skirting a rural church was made all the more beautiful by the spots of sunlight crossing the landscape.  To me it really doesn't get much better than an afternoon with a scene like this. 

Captured with my Nikon D300s and processed with Photomatix Pro, I did a little more "primping" in Nik Viveza followed by their Color Efex Pro.  I hadn't used Photomatix for sometime since Nik brought out their HDR program, but I'm finding new uses for the newest version of Photomatix as I feel it preserves the colors of the natural landscape much better than before.  This doesn't mean that the Nik product is inferior, but, in this case I think that the rendition of the scene is more closer to my perception of the time.

Revisiting other software haunts proved to me that certain digital tools may not always answer all needs, just as a particular lens may not be the answer for all subjects.  Reading the blogs of such celebrated artists as John Barclay and Tony Sweet has been helpful in learning the importance of flexibility in tool usage.

There are many summer days ahead...enjoy them all!

Sic 'em Bears!

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

http://500px.com/pigs4u