Daniel Ruf

Winter Entertainment

"Taking pictures is savoring life, every hundredth of a second" Marc Riboud

Iowa winters can be very "charming" if it involves a sunset or sunrise, otherwise it's probably one of the most difficult seasons to photograph. That being as it is I have a "bandaid" for the problem. 

During my senior year at Principia College I was required to develop a senior project that would be on display on some wall, in some building in the art department. I decided to do some sort of wildlife drawings or paintings which would involve my getting to know an artist at the St.Louis Zoo.  I can't remember is name, but the experience was a real heal to being able to finish my senior project.

Fast forward to 2022 and I find myself using these forgotten tools for graphite drawing to push myself through the winter months in Iowa. Like any other art or sport having a long layoff requires a long recovery time lean how to handle a pencil or brush to achieve an acceptable result, as above. It also takes a good camera and long lens to capture the subject as well.

I'm glad I've gotten back to using my finger, brain and camera to achieve a mental thrill over the Winter season.

Spring IS just around the cornerThanks for joining me here and you can view my work at the following galleries;

 Arts On Grand in Spencer, IA as well as the Pearson Lakes Art Center in Okoboji, IA.

 

Missing And Finding

 

"If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of better stuff." Jim Richardson

If there is one thing that has been the result of the virus is that we all have missed something, whether it be time, place or friends each of us have made sacrifices that we'll never get back. My "something" was making the regular trip to Arizona in the winter and also a planned trip to Italy, land of my ancestors even though my DNA says my genes are more comfortable with British and French connections. IT HAS TO BE WRONG! 

The blog post above is from Sabino Canyon, a place I've spoken about more than once on this blog site. Not only do I get to photograph some incredible light in the canyon I also get to take walks with my daughter and her crazy dog Murphy. It's a time to switch gears from the lakes region of Iowa to the comfortable landscapes of Arizona.

That being said...the time of lock downs and masks has also resulted in other photographic adventures and opportunities.

Our town has an amusement park that decided to light it up through the night as a big thank you to the nurses and first responders that have given so much of themselves to keep us safe and healthy.  On this particular morning I found splashes of color that I didn't know existed as the park is usually dark through the deep of night. I can remember scrambling up and down the docks looking for different angle options. Social distancing wasn't a problem here...just me and the lights.

Even during the day I was occupied with other options of social distancing by sitting in my truck and waiting for the possible.  Being retired makes this a normal day, but I made a bigger effort to find warm blooded options for my camera and in many of the situations I wasn't looking at their butt as they scampered away into the dense forest.

It's impossible to "candy coat" this event that we are all facing on our planet. The solutions involve staying safe, wearing a mask (that might be the reason for the perky ears), and finding something to thrill your heart and soul.

Thanks for stopping by

Places to see more of Daniel's work:

Pearson Lakes Art Center - lakesart.org 

Arts On Grand - artsongrand.org

 

"Our forests offer much more than just beautiful landscapes and wildlife. Each one has a different story to tell."  Raveena Tandon

Snow has finally arrived to our part of the world...not much, but getting more today. Finally it beginning to look like winter with a nice white coat covering a thirsty soil.

Years ago I was attending a Tony Sweet (tonysweet.com) workshop, my first, at the Badlands in South Dakota. As we were loading up our vehicles with our gear he made a statement that still stays with me. "Always have your camera ready to work as you never know what's around the corner." I can't tell you how many times I've ignored that strong advice, but as time went by I soon learned, after watching enough wildlife butts heading over the horizon, that I needed to heed his advice. The blog image above is evidence that being ready makes all the difference.

This youngster was on its way not long after I stopped my truck and grabbed a couple of shots. I used my Canon 5D Mark IV with a Canon 70 - 200mm lens attached. As I finished looking at the shots on the LCD I wasn't sure how much I would like the image of the deer looking back, as I had a couple of normal side poses that I finished with before it left for the deeper forest. As it turned out this pose became a new addition to my file named "Intruder" which is full of different shots of wildlife that were alert to my presence.

This image is a cropped portion of an image that has been popular because of this lone canada goose that  had its eye on me the entire time I was composing this image in its full frame form. As I mentioned in the previous post of December 12, I have been watching videos made by Judy Hancock on YouTube concerning "minimalist" photography. It's a new concept to me and I've enjoyed learning the steps to doing more of this kind of work.

Old dogs can learn new tricks....it just takes longer.

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to comment or share with others. Have a happy New Year, stay safe and don't over do on the holiday. I'll be sleeping right through the celebration as always

Places to see more of Daniel's work:

Pearson Lakes Art Center - lakesart.org 

Arts On Grand - artsongrand.org

 

Crop, Crop, Crop!

"There is a vast difference between taking a picture and making a photograph." Robert Heinecken

The last time I had a critique session with Tony Sweet (tonysweet.com) was several years ago and the thing he pounded into my head was cropping images down to their heart and soul. I wasn't an avid cropper prior to that lesson as my framing and matting of images is usually always to an 18"x24" frame with mat. My image is usually an 12"x18" size. Since I have a regimen of reusing both frame and mat to save both myself and my customers some cash, I've learned to make my crop within the camera or in the editing process. I still have an argument with myself, but that's the hard headedness coming out.

The blog image above provided the perfect example of the value of cropping. The funny thing is that had my Photoshop screen not been set up for a crop in a previous edit, I would have never seen the value of cropping the image above.

As you can see, I hope, the effort of cropping has gotten rid of the distractions in the upper right side and put the focus on the subject. It was hard to admit it and I don't really like square crops, but it definitely proves the point.

The image was taken several years ago at a preserve in Minnesota. I felt fortunate that I got the capture and the lighting at the same moment.

Thanks for taking the time to join me here. Take care and have a good weekend. Oh, and one more note...I'm back on Facebook.

Places to see more of Daniel's work:

Pearson Lakes Art Center - lakesart.org 

Arts On Grand - artsongrand.org

 

Entering From Stage Right!

"Great Photography is about depth of feeling not depth of field." Peter Adams

I've spent a lot of mornings waiting for a sunrises, not knowing for sure what the outcome will be, but always with hope for a surprise. There have been a few occasions when Mother Nature adds a significant tune that I wasn't expecting, such as the duck showing up with perfect timing. I'll take these circumstances any way I can get them.

Just when I posted the above blog image I noticed a distraction that I missed in the processing of this image. That distraction would be that buoy left of center. Rather than replace or correct the infraction I thought I'd use it as a lesson.

The change is subtle, but the duck is now the center attraction as opposed to the confusion of the buoy near the horizon. It may be a little thing to many, but removal of distractions either by changing the camera position or software editing is essential to make the story clear and without distractions. It's always a good idea to check the edges of an image for little distractions as well. I use Photoshop CC in most of my work and a Canon 5D Mark IV, which I still love. Lightroom is the first order of editing and Photoshop does the rest, including clean up. I used Topaz AI Denoise to rid the picture of the noise as I had to use a high ISO to achieve the shutter speed to stop the ducks movement. With that being said it's necessary to realize that using multiple editing processes takes a certain bit of balance in the handling. No matter the choice of editing processes used they all seem to leave "artifacts" if not used with a light hand. It's taken me a long time to learn this and, at times, it seems I'm still learning.

Thanks for visiting and enjoy the beautiful Spring weather

Places to see more of Daniel's work:

Pearson Lakes Art Center - lakesart.org 

Arts On Grand - artsongrand.org

 

Where's The Landscape?

"Be like the bird who, pausing in her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing she hath wings."  Victor Hugo

The geese have found their way to the lakes area and Spring was right behind them. They chatter all day and night, talking amongst themselves or warning each other of intrusions or dangers that might be spying from the darkness. I find them enjoyable to have around, though there are those that have lake front lawns are not of the same feeling.

I'm not sure how I got this shot as I was focusing on a Spring scene to the left. The one thing I do know about geese is that when they are getting ready to leap into the sky they have a short moment of making a lot of chatter just before they head down the runway. This simple knowledge has been important in my getting a few lucky shots of takeoffs.

In this particular case there wasn't a lot of time for checking of shutter speeds, aperture or ISO's. Luckily all was set from the landscape shot and even a high ISO for "freezing" the movement of leaves and branches in a previous shot. The other thing that helped was that they took a curved path once in the air, which helped me as my camera was still locked to my tripod.

As I've said before, luck is a part of the creative tools.

Thanks for visiting. I'm starting to for my August 15th exhibit opening at the Pearson Lakes Art Center. Since I have an art in the park function a couple of weeks earlier I need to get all my marbles in a row.

Places to see more of Daniel's work:

Pearson Lakes Art Center  lakesart.com 

500px.com

Facebook - Daniel Ruf Photography  

Spring Finally Made It!

"To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event."   Henri Cartier - Bresson

The morning light striking the side of this dilapidated corn crib was just enough to get my attention. The stark tree skeletons as well as the dirty snow would be an artistic definition of this past winter....cold and wicked.  This also happened to be the first day when huge migrations of geese and other waterfowl were in full swing. The background sounds of the geese along with the stunning sunrise was a complete  symphony for my enjoyment.  I'm sure that the people wizzing by in their cars were really struggling with their own reality as they passed a gray haired old guy standing behind a tripod and camera pointed at WHAT?

The image was taken with my Canon 5D Mark IV, which I think was one of the best camera purchases I've made in my life....except for the first Canon F1 years ago.  I used a Canon 70 - 200mm f/2.8 L lens (another purchase that I've been happy with) just to keep from having to cross a speedy highway.  As it turned out a sizable formation of geese did make a pass and I still had my camera mounted and waiting.

I've been trying out two new editing programs put out by Topaz; one is the A.I. (artificial intelligence) Clear, for dealing with noise like artifacts in digital images, and A.I. Gigapixel which is for magnifying sizes of images.  They both are a real surprise and do a much better job than what I had been using. Since I've been able to get much better high ISO pics with my Canon, I've been shooting more in the ISO 1600 - 2500 ranges, which wasn't possible even with the Mark 2 due to noise reasons.  A.I.Clear has been helpful to remove any noise that might come from the results of high ISO's as well as post processing issues. The A.I. gigapixel has been really helpful in upsizing digital images from years ago that had more issues with resolution caused by cameras of earlier editions. It also be helpful for producing large panorama images for metal print processing.

Both Topaz products can be used for 30 day trial options for free which give one ample time to test them out.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the nice Spring days ahead.

Places to see more of Daniel's work:

Pearson Lakes Art Center  lakesart.com 

500px.com

Facebook - Daniel Ruf Photography  

Light is light...or is it?

"What makes photograph a strange invention is that its primary raw materials are light and time."  John Berger

And light and time I have plenty of!  

While many occupations today require some real industry, sweat and skill, when I'm working behind or near the camera I'm also able to enjoy the landscape in front of me...or behind me, or both.  The joy of photography for me is catching the right situations in the right light, and, in my case, catching the right situation is harder than catching the right light.  Catching the right light is generally checking a few apps that give times and angles of the sun or moon and being somewhere to wait for the "magic".  Finding this grouping of cows was the accident of driving around to places I feel might have the right landscape and "animal attraction".  This is the time consuming process of getting to know the local landscape, be it lakes or rural.  If I wasn't here early enough this lighting would be long past and would probably have been replaced by awful full daylight. The hills and valley would be blasted with unfriendly light and contrasts and little color.

In such situations I would get to a location early enough to watch the changing of early sunrise to dawn and enjoy the watching, thinking and mental processing.  In this case I remained in the truck as not to give the cows an excuse to leave me standing alone with a sad face.

Just thoughts!

Happy New Year, if I don't see you first.

Places to see more of Daniel's work:

Pearson Lakes Art Center  lakesart.com 

500px.com

Facebook - Daniel Ruf Photography  

 

Why Not

"From now on, I'll connect the dots my own way."   Bill Watterson

After finishing an afternoon of photography I was headed down a familiar gravel road and, to my surprise, saw a grouping of canada geese "lounging" on a hill in a large grassland area.  It seemed like an opportunity to get some good shots for various magazine submissions that I do throughout the year, but the little voice in the back of my mind was warning, "you know, when you get out of the truck they'll take to the sky?" But, being of sound mind and strong heart I decided to take the chance as well as do the shooting (camera) from behind my truck using the truck as a nice blind.

As luck wouldn't have it, they all began walking over the crest of the hill while I was trying to get into position. Again, the thought from behind my brain was, "I should have kept on driving".  While scanning the landscape with my 100-400mm zoom I spied these three little heads poking up from behind the hill and started to get excited.  It doesn't take much!  This particular group of three (the magic number) looked more confused than concerned and I grabbed the shot since all of the others had moved from sight.

While driving home I ran the Photoshop editing process through my head and a severe crop was going to be the major adjustment.  I had already gotten an image that had a very shallow depth of field, so other than a few minor tweaks, the work was simple.  The image was sharp, which is always a concern with moving objects and shallow depth of field, so that eliminated another concern.

While I was at the computer finishing up I was laughing while I called to my wife to look at the latest in a long line of critique observations that we have had over new work.  She laughed as well and then thought of the "balloon".  You know, the cartoon balloons that show the dialogue between characters?  "He never asks for directions",was her comment...and we both had a laugh because we both knew who "he" was. ME!

So in summing things up...If it makes you or others laugh, it was worth the time and effort.

Come back again for the next installation of my travels,images and insights.  Have a great holiday.

or more views of my work visit;

Google +

http://500px.com

Summer Wind Gallery, Arnolds Park, Iowa http://www.summerwindgallery.com

Waving Goodbye

"The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it>"  Richard Bach

Life in the lakes area of northwest Iowa is slowing down as the leaves continue to fall and all of us are preparing for winter.  I'm in the process of making a few last minute photo shoots before the white stuff changes my approach and layers of clothing, but I thought I'd post this image from a few months ago when the lakes were teaming with life and activity and the geese were still growing.

This place, as are many of my posts, is a "return to" place whenever I'm in Arnolds Park.  I'm shooting off of a bridge and while I was fussing about with equipment watching the fog and sunrise, a group (gaggle) of geese came from under the bridge heading north.  Being unprepared for the immediate shot I was praying for no fishing boats or any distraction that might cause them to fly off.  As you can see, all went well and I almost think that their position is better than up close, but I'll not know this year.

People often ask what my favorite image is and I often dodge the question as it's kind of like answering the question, which is your favorite child.  Instead I usually just tell them that it's the next one, because in actuality it really is the truth.  I'm always waiting and hoping for what's around the corner, in the next cornfield, or on the next kayak trip.

In the case of this image....I really have a soft spot in my heart for this one.  I think it's largely because it was another reminder to me that although (IMHO) this is a very nice shot, those geese made it all the better.  Had I gotten here a little later or they spooked when seeing me looking down on them, the result would have been a little different and not as exciting.

Thank you all for continuing your visual attention to this site and please tell others.  Have a great weekend.

Sic 'em Bears".  Baylor Football at home vs. Kansas State - TONIGHT!

For more views of my work visit;

http://500px.com

Arts On Grand, Spencer, Iowa http://www.artsongrand.org/

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

Summer Wind Gallery, Arnolds Park, Iowa