Daniel Ruf

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

Surrounded

   

Recently I had the opportunity to visit a national park that I'd always heard about, but never lived close enough to for a visit.  Luckily the opportunity to visit presented itself during retirement and I  jumped at the chance.  The place, Smoky Mountain National Park is located in eastern Tennessee and, during the Spring that I was there, is now on my "must visit" list for the future.  Aside from the fact that it's a beautiful park it has enough running streams of water to be an institution of higher learning in water photography and enough wildflowers to gentle anyone's heart while stirring their creative imagination.

I sometimes think that really good locations help make good photographers even better, but I KNOW that good locations help make good photographers even better when they get back to home turf.  New places seem to rejuvenate the creative "well" so that when one returns to their native stomping grounds their visual responses are keener, at least that has been my experience.  New places also become a source of "continuing education" which I think is necessary for any artist to do on a regular basis, especially in adjunct to a formal workshop in ones medium.

The other more subliminal result of visiting new places is a renewed appreciation of what our good country has to offer in the way of sites, sounds and people that we often forget we are a part of.  In today's "modern" world it's all to easy to become "home bound" in our perception of our world and we easily forget that there are beautiful spaces not far from our door.  And, in those spaces, are beautiful people with entirely different ways of life, loves and dialect.  Just as in Texas, in Tennessee I never tire of hearing a waitress call me "honey" while helping me make a dinner choice.  For some reason, the people in these places are just in a different daily gear and have time to ask about where you're from, about your family and say "Y'all come back real soon" when they say goodbye...and they all seem to mean it.

The blog image is from the Little River in the Smoky's (that's the accurate spelling) and will become a part of the "Ballerina" series of work that I'm accumulating.  I am drawn to trees that take on a certain "pose" in their environment that might represent what one would expect a ballerina to present.  It was taken with a simple Canon 50D with very little digital editing involved except for a tweak called "glamor glow" in Nik Viveza Complete software.

In just a short generation America's national parks have become our best kept secret.  The world of digital entertainment has distracted all of us from our lands greatest entertainment treasures.  Time spent with our families traveling, camping, fishing, etc. has diminished our real life adventures we adults enjoyed as children.  Take the time to see OUR world...and in the process support the local arts.

Thanks to all that continue to support this site by visiting.

    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

Winter Color

"My apple tree will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'."

from "Mending Wall" by
Robert Frost

Finding winter color can be a challenge up here in Northwest Iowa and I had been looking for quite some time for a Bittersweet vine to work with when I stumbled on this one, clinging to an old fence line that has escaped removal by the land owner. I was most fortunate that the day started with a nice heavy fog which gave way to a heavy layer of hoar frost on everything in the open, including this stunning blast of colorful Bittersweet berries.

The demise of Bittersweet and other fence "decor" is the result of the push/rush by many farmers to add a couple of acres and/or reduce the need to keep planting machinary, etc. clear of snagging these "tempermental" land dividers.  My minimal experience in the field had taught me to allow a couple of feet of clearance to avoid such problems, but I'll admit, watching with a craned neck and steering a tractor were not my strong suit at certain times. 

The biggest problem in removal of a fence line is about more than just the loss of some Bittersweet vines or grape vines.  Since a margin for error was required for working along a fence line with farm equipment, it meant that most fence lines "protected" about 3 - 4 feet, counting both sides of the fence.  This "acreage" was, and still is, vitally important as wildlife cover, especially with such birds as pheasants and animals like rabbits, etc.  Today, it's not uncommon to see whole sections of land (640 acres) that are devoid of fence lines, meaning a large loss of wildlife habitat and food sources, especially during the winter months.  Add to that the fact that fence lines make acceptable snow fences during the winter and one can clearly see that fence removal is a harsh solution to gaining an acre of ground, maybe a row of corn or beans, and faster completion of farming chores. 

While I do understand the farmer "side of the fence" I'm not sure that a row of corn makes up for loss of habitat and snow fence with the removal of these aged lines of demarcation.  And, yes, as I found out personally, good fences do make good neighbors as some farmers tend to farm a little farther out of their fence line when a sturdy fence is absent.

The blog image is a simple production using Photoshop CS5 and a mild use of both Topaz Adjust and Nik Viveza plug in to enhance sharpness and color presentation.

Thanks for visiting my blog site.

    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

Remembrance

 

"Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language."
— Aldo Leopold (A Sand County Almanac)

 

    Last week we were again fortunate to have a morning when fog filled the air that made quite a show of hoar frost that clung to everything in site.  Not wanting to miss a photo op like this I left early in the morning with the anticipation that as the sun burned off the fog some interesting scenes may develop.

    After a couple of hours I hadn't really found anything that caught my eye until I drove around a fa miliar curve in a country road to be greeted by this scene...an old hay rake sitting under a large oak tree.  As a retired farmer this scene evoked a number of memories about my experiences pulling hay rakes.  They are a fantastic instrument that can often break a person by sheer frustration.  Episodes of frustration were usually isolated to days when a pending thunderstorm was looming in the forecast and the hay needed one more turn prior to baling.

    While setting up the tripod and camera my memory could still summon a whiff of new mown hay or the various repetitious sounds of the spinning reel.  The job of raking was fairly simple, or so it would seem as one watched a tractor and rake going back and forth in a field, but actually, as I eventually learned, the running of a rake was much like being a part of a team where the accuracy and efficiency of the rake depended on the timed ability of the person in the tractor.

    The editing of this image in Photoshop CS5 was pretty simple with a few touch-ups in Nik Viveza and some minor color balancing to reduce some of the bluish tint on the snow.  It is my sense that more often than not subjects, such as this one, that really grab my attention, are often the easiest to edit.  Although in this case the good farmer made it much simpler for me since he used the canopy of this expansive oak as shelter for this rake during the summer; the oak became part of the picture frame of this image while the fence-line finished up and also became a strong leading diagonal.

    Take no scene for granted!

    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

You Just Never Know

 

"Vision is the art of seeing what is invisable to others."  Jonathan Swift

Northwest Iowa has its share of beautiful skies and sometimes the trick is to find something to put in front of a good cloudscape as was the case with this image taken on a warm, humid July afternoon.  While driving down a country road it was easy to see that this bank of clouds could be the beginnings of an interesting image and as I was scurrying around I just happen to come upon this set of grain bins that needed a background.  As I was setting up the equipment I immediately was struck by the title before the shutter was even released.  What better title than "The Butler Brothers" sitting alone in one of Iowa's large farm landscapes?

This is a simple HDR image with some primping in Nik's Viveza 2 which helped in strengthening some local areas of the image.  I think I spent more time being amused by the way this came together and its symbolism of the Iowa landscape than any other capture that I've done.  Even my wife and I have had a few laughs about its suitability for framing, especially considering that greeting cards have flown out of the rack and the first framed edition was purchased soon after it was hung.  It is definitely the type of setting that is only going to appeal to a specific customer, and, as I am finding out, not always a farmer.

It's not unusual to fall in love with a subject while preparing to make a capture, but it has been rare that I've laughed as much from start to finish to sale with any other capture that I've made to date.  I hope that I have many more such experiences during future travels.

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

Artisans Road Trip

"My first thought is always of light."  Galen Rowell

Tomorrow, October 1, will be full of preparations for Northwest Iowa's Artisans Road Trip (ART) with the kick off opening for me and others beginning at 4 p.m.  At A Piece Of Work, Inc. in downtown Spirit Lake, Iowa four artist will be participating in this three day event.  They are Anita Plucker, watercolorist extrodinaire, Avis Davis, also an outstanding watercolorist, Mike Houge, gifted photographer and all around good egg, and myself, Daniel Ruf.  Mike and I will be putting the finishing touches on our alcoves so that all is ready for opening night, which goes until 8 p.m.  During the 4 hours A Piece Of Work, Inc. will be having a reception for Ms. Plucker in the special exhibition alcove with gallery talk to follow. 

Thirty five artist in Northwest Iowa will be spending the three day event showing their wares and some will even be demonstrating their artistic skills in their workshops.  Mediums include everything from pottery and sculpture to painting and photography and all points in between and it is a real opportunity for travelers to make the stops, indicated on a provided map (www.artisansroadtrip.com), visit with artisans and purchase outstanding local art of the area while enjoying the fall scenes on the way.

The hours on Saturday and Sunday will be 9am - 5pm which allows travelers ample time during the three day festival to be a part of the sights and sounds of our artistic area.  In past years there have been visitors from as far away as Vermont to the east and California to the west, all taking part in the annual road show.

The above blog image was taken during my recent trip to Banning State Park and is NOT an HDR!  It was captured with a Canon 50D, 17 - 40mm L lens with a Singh-Ray Vari-Neutral Density Filter attached. Some simple work in Adobe Elements 8 ( I hear Element 9 is out) and then some concentrated work in Nik Viveza 2.  I'm headed back to Banning in two weeks or so with the  hopes of catching the tail end of the color show and visiting Jay Cooke State Park during this tour.

Thanks for stopping by and if you're in the area join us for the road trip...otherwise don't you dare miss the opportunity to enjoy the fall color where you are!

 

 

Our Center

"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened.  Happiness never decreases by being shared."   Buddha

Last weekend was pretty full with normal routine things and prepping for a photography class that I'm instructing at "A Piece Of Work" gallery www.apieceofworkinc.com  in downtown Spirit Lake, Iowa, but I did manage to sneak away early in the morning to visit one of my favorite places - Ft. Defiance State Park.  Up until recently Spring Creek, which flows through the park has been a real torrent and not really photogenic, but rains have subsided for a few weeks and normal flow rates are in place.  As the blog image shows the lighting was diffuse and soft, which tends to really bring out the colors of an area.

It's hard for me to get very close to moving water and not want to put my feet in and that's exactly what usually happens when I'm anywhere near Spring Creek.  It's a rather lazy stream that ambles through the tiny park, but makes several 180 degree turns in the process.

While I was setting up for a series of exposures, contemplating some HDR editing with Photomatix, I realized that for the first time in a long time the outside world, with all it's demands, clutter and buzzing, was gone and it was at this point that I realized that when my feet are wet my "being" becomes centered.  The beauty that surrounds me becomes the focus of my creativity, including all the subtleties.  The time in this place was for deep mental cleansing breaths, both for the creative Muse as well as my emotional pulse.

The blog image was worked in both Adobe Elements 8 and Photoshop CS4 and then I used Nik Viveza for improving the color balance throughout.  For some reason (which I'm sure is light related) the bluish and magenta tints were running rampant and the white balance settings in my Canon 50D didn't seem to be handling things very well, but that could be due to the mixture of lighting that this location held.

So, being clear on the center and balance of a photographic image is just as important as one's own personal balance and "centeredness" ( a word not found in Webster's) and, just as a well exposed, thought out photograph, shows the true beauty of a subject. 

Thanks for stopping by my blog site and enjoy the week ahead.

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

Surprises!

"It's not what you look at that matter's, it's what you see."  Henry David Thoreau

A couple of weeks ago I had the great need to get away from the house, daily chores, and prep work to just get out for some serious one on one time with the camera.  The minutes that can be chewed up behind a computer or at the printer can add up to hours and suddenly one finds dust laying on the camera bag from lack of use.  With that in mind I left home at about 4 a.m. wanting to be at a particular spot at a certain time.  I really hate trying to manage shooting time since most times I play things a little loose to keep my creative side open to any and all possibilities.  As I was driving through the countryside I looked out the drivers side window to catch the rising crescent moon and suddenly I knew I had to find a foreground to go with the shot.  Turning at the next gravel/rural road I came the casual morning trek became the frantic search for something of interest.

As time passed, my brain was telling me "the moon's getting higher, the moon's getting higher" while I also noticed that "dawns early light" was also going to become marker of time slipping away.  Finally, I saw a grouping of wind generators in the distance and thought that this might be a possibility, but wasn't really to keen on a landscape with a bunch of steel sticking up into what might be a beautiful sunrise.  I gave it a good look on the way by, thought "yuck" in the back of my mind and then that little argument starts..."you better stop"..."no, I don't like it"..."you better stop"....  Unfortunately, as I continued on to the west, the road made a big dip causing the surface landscape to disappear.  As I made the next rise that familiar voice..."You better stop and get out"...was screaming.  I slammed on the breaks, grabbed my gear and entered MOSQUITO VALLEY!  While throwing tripods up, swatting at pesky, hungry mosquitoes, putting on a 70-200mm zoom, yelling at myself that I couldn't get the whole scene in because the moon (go figure) had risen high enough to slip outside the viewfinder, cussing the two generators that weren't working, changing the lens to a wide angle zoom, slipping in a neutral grad filter and................Finally, yes FINALLY I was ready to get serious.  I was able to slip the tree on the left horizon in so that it wouldn't look so barren and get those wispy clouds in which help break up an otherwise boring sky.

Shot done, wind picked up, moon out of reach and that was pretty much the morning shoot.  Back at the ranch the editing was really pretty simple, a little Viveza on the moving blade patterns to define them a little more as well as giving a little more "body" to the thin, wisps of clouds and it was a done deal.  Of course, as with most captures, a person can sit there, as I did, and do the Monday morning quarterback thing of..."I should of this" or "I should of that", but growing in any artistic medium is about lessons learned, which lead to growth of both our vision and our results.

Heck, those pieces of steel don't look half that bad with the title of "Iowa's New Harvest" attached to the image.  Wind energy...using a renewable resource to preserve those that aren't.

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

A Good Woman And Flowers

"She is a friend of mine. She gather me, man.  The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back in all the right order.  It's good, you know, when you got a woman that is a friend of your mind."

    Toni Morrison

Just recently my wife went on a small journey giving me the house to myself, a place to rattle around in, eat beans from a can if I wish, watch those war movies if I wish, snore and scratch if I wish.  But, as all other times when such trips have occurred, my leaving her or vise versa, there is a distinct difference when her presence is missing.  Together there is a wholeness, even a goodness about a life long friendship...of unity of learning, comforting, laying together in darkness or laughing together on a street corner.  Our separations from one another only serve to define our reasons for being together...that life without the other is certainly livable, but not as flavorful.

I find flowers much the same in that our world would certainly go on without these sprinkles of color that need to be weeded around, fertilized and watered, tended in sickness and in health, but what a dull place our world would be without those names and faces.  Penstamon, Coneflower, Rattlebox, Partridge Pea; musical names with a countenance to match.   Long walks among these silent creatures is like living with a good woman; a life of completeness on a changing stage.

The blog image is from a friends garden which is a refreshing place to gather thoughts while testing one's skills with a camera.  After processing in Elements 8 and a little use of the the "find edges" filter, I dabbled with Totally Rad's "Dirty Pictures", lost my way and then found it again realizing that a "trip" map is good for such forays into the editing world, and finally a touch of Topaz Adjust and Nik Viveza thrown in for good measure.

Enjoy the life before you, take a good woman along for the ride and bring your camera.

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

Some Have Mountains, We Have...

"Photography, for most of us, is not merely a technical pursuit, but an aesthetic one"

             David DuChemin

The summer is when the state of Iowa looks it's very best, although other seasons due tend to shine a bit in their own time.  But summer is the greening of Iowa, with corn and beans growing so fast "you can hear it", according to most farmers, and the sky is full of cloud banks of all different shapes and sizes.  With the heat and humidity late afternoon usually brings about an abundant supply of thunderheads, which will change from minute to minute, giving the field photographer many choices to work with.  The main thing is that one has to be out and about, camera in hand, tripod at the ready.  Sitting in a lazy-boy behind a bay window is not conducive to image gathering, especially at these times.

The blog image is a 3 shot HDR taken in late evening light.  In a couple of minutes the light would vanish from the top of the cloud mass and things deteriorate from there.  The capture was processed in Elements 8 and then, with the use of Nik Viveza, various parts of the scene...the clouds, sky and foreground, were "tweaked" for a little more color and definition.  Finally a little blur was added in the blue sky area to make it more even and less noisy.

One of the high points that I noticed while working at this site near Graettinger, Iowa, was that the air was full of a smell that reminded me of fresh corn on the cob, all buttered and ready to eat.  I can't remember ever sensing that fragrance in all my years of farming and I'm assuming that the high heat and humidity were partially responsible.  Standing on that gravel road was nothing short of mesmerizing to both the eyes and nose.

Grab the tripod and camera and spend an evening outdoors.  It's a darn site better than sitting in front of the "tube" and a lot more productive.  No camera?  Grab the wife and kids instead!

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