Daniel Ruf

Looking for Spring

The "The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it!" Ansel Adams

It's tiring to slosh my way through deep winter, then winter warmup, then almost out of winter, then hello winter, then almost spring, then WHERE IS SPRING! And that's exactly where we are right now in NW Iowa, knowing full well that we could see another freeze......or maybe even the flakes.

So, I'm looking for reminders of Spring or something close as I'm bored to death with pale grass, snow piles holding on and winds from hell. 

My files and files of images are always and uplift for downer times. Looking at them I can remember where I was and how it was. The image above brings back a foggy morning as I let my Boston Whaler float closer and closer to the subject as I point my 70 - 200mm canon lens toward the sunrise while steering with the other eye. Timing and place can make all the difference. If I were on dry land with my camera the scene maybe totally different and not as thrilling. We saw morning here in the lakes area when there was heavy fog around one lake and little around another. Treacherous driving and guessing became the "compass" of the morning.

 

The edges of the lakes are just starting to open along with the hope of Spring. Hunting for Pasque Flowers at a local preserve is the beginning of opening the mind to Spring. Missing this by just a few days can mean the difference from a clear sharp looking flower to dull limp petals.

Enjoy the coming Spring and thanks for following my blog site.

Places to see more of Daniel's work:

Pearson Lakes Art Center - lakesart.org 

Arts On Grand - artsongrand.org

 

Keep Looking

"Life rarely presents fully finished photographs. An image evolves, often from a single strand of visual interest - a distant horizon, a moment of light, a held expression." Sam Abell

Our eyes are one of the most magnificent parts of our body we've been blessed with. They are always working, except when sleeping, and making hundreds of "corrections" minute by minute. From bright light to morning softness they adjust and focus continuously.

Photography is an art form that requires vision along with creativity. When one is out with their camera their eyes are flashing from one subject another while at the same time adjusting to light, color, movement, near and far changes. These concepts of our eyes are also a requirement for photography. The camera is our instrument to focus on the subjects we find, enjoy and capture.

In order to progress in the creative process of photography it requires constant looking, evaluating, and returning to the subjects we find. As I've noted in several of my blog posts I continually return to subjects of the past as was advised by my good friend Tony Sweet tonysweet.com during his workshops.

A single subject can change from one day to the next based on time, light, season, etc. and the results of these changes can be amazing and is good enough reason to keep looking and returning to subjects as well is finding new ones.

Keep looking, my friends and thank for visiting my blog site

Places to see more of Daniel's work:

Pearson Lakes Art Center - lakesart.org 

Arts On Grand - artsongrand.org

 

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

 

"It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it."

John Burroughs

We've had many days of frosty/foggy mornings this past couple of weeks up here in NW Iowa and it's a gift for a photographer. Its importance in an image comes forward once the sun throws it's bright rays on the frost laden trees. I've spent a lot of time waiting for the foggy skies to clear so that clarity comes to the rescue. I even managed to remember to pull out my polarizer and attach it to my lens. Doing this even made the scene  perkier .

Atmospheric occasions like this make winter scenes really perk up and will be candidates to send into Our Iowa Magazine for the 2021/22 winter next year. It always feels weird to think that I'm shooting for next year now. It will be that same thing for every season. And what makes it even more unusual is that the call for entry to next winter likely come in the summer when I'm shooting summer scenes.  

A few days later I went to another one of my favorite places that had the frosty covering and enough opacity int the sky to get some color from the sun.Without the sun this scene would be pretty dull and gray. 

Both blog images were captured with a Canon 5D MarkIV and edited in both Lightroom and Photoshop. 

This has been a great start to the new year as I don't think I saw much fog and frost last year or the year before. We're at the point on the calendar that I can start thinking that Spring is just around the corner.Granted, it's a few blocks away yet, but I feel better thinking it's closer.

I wish you all a fabulous New Year and encourage you to get out to enjoy the season of winter wherever you are.

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

 

Transitions

"Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountains and sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.  John Lubbock

It seems like the transition from autumn to winter has happened at least three times here in Northwest Iowa. We have seen the East Okoboji Lake surface freeze at least 4 times and each time the ice succumbs to another warming system that passes through for a week or so at a time. We've had about 3 inches of snow which has also disappeared leaving more leaves to collect, which I hope I've done for the last time this year.

The blog image is a morning a couple of weeks ago showing the ice retreating and the sunrise glowing. This has been a year of many glowing sunrises and sunsets and I presume it's largely the result of the western forest fires which have resulted in days and days of haze over the landscape.

This image was captured with my Canon 5D Mark IV using the HDR process in camera. The editing processes started in Lightroom with finishing touches in Photoshop CC, which mainly was focused on brightening the shoreline landscape.

Thank you for joining me here and I hope you have a marvelous Thanksgiving. Stay safe, use your mask and be aware of social distancing. I'm sure we are all tired of hearing the well meant warning, but when I'm out in public it seems that there is a certain deafness to caution by many.

Places to see more of Daniel's work:

Pearson Lakes Art Center - lakesart.org 

Arts On Grand - artsongrand.org

 

Road Trip

"The love of family and the admiration of  friends is much more important than wealth and privilege."   Charles Kuralt

This past week one of my best friends, Mike Houge, and I made a trip to Blue Mounds State Park in Minnesota with all our camera gear and big expectations. we realized that autumn color was a thing of the past, but had hope that some interesting subject matter would still be available for discovery. Mike had recently sold his business and was just beginning to enjoy retirement and we both knew that we would share some time together sharing creative photographic ideas and skills.

When we got to Luverne, MN we stopped to see the work of  Minnesota photographer, Jim Brandenburg at his gallery in Rock County Veterans Memorial Building in Luverne. The work was fabulous and worth the time.

Blue Mound is not far North of Luverne and has always been a favorite spot and is about and hour and a half from NW Iowa. We did plan on seeing the buffalo herd that is the major attraction, but, as usual, they weren't around. We did some scouting for subject matter, did some "warmup" shooting and then found this grouping of trees known as the "Three Sisters" to concentrate on while waiting for the sun to set and the moon to rise.

Mike had just purchased a new Canon 5D Mark IV, which I have as well, and was getting acquainted with the settings, buttons and options. 

It was an enjoyable day with plenty of time to talk photography on the way home

Thanks for visiting my blog. I will be spending the rest of my day taking down my exhibit at Arts On Grand.

Places to see more of Daniel's work:

Pearson Lakes Art Center - lakesart.org 

Arts On Grand - artsongrand.org

 

Transition

"Autumn's the mellow time." William Allingham

A rainy day, leaves are falling and the color is silently disappearing. While it was the prettiest autumn that I have seen since  moving to Northwest Iowa in the 80's it feels like such a short visit this year. Last year at this time I was wearing out my camera in Maine during my first visit and the color was blazing. Color in our part of Iowa is a little more subdued and a smaller variety of tones.

The blog shot was taken a couple of days while it was raining. Boredom had taken it's toll and I was planning to take my chances that some fog and haze might have some nice options for photography. I decided to handhold my camera rather than drag a tripod around and it was a little test of a new freedom. There was no setting up of the "pod" as well as no extending and retraction of the legs for each photo session. It was fun.

As I passed this scene I happen to catch the reflections in the water and then the "subtle" blue tone in the background. I quickly made a "U" turn and glad I did. With some fog in the background and spots of color in the last tree of autumn I felt that I had some options to work with.

Processing was done in Lightroom and Photoshop and then some dabbling in NIK Color Efex Pro 4. 

The docks are coming out and the area is going through its regular autumn alterations. It won't be long before the scene is covered in ice and white stuff. Actually, the weather report is calling for some snow this weekend.

Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're in the Spencer, Iowa area the last couple of weeks of my exhibit at Arts On Grand is still showing

Places to see more of Daniel's work:

Pearson Lakes Art Center - lakesart.org 

Arts On Grand - artsongrand.org

 

Autumn.....So Soon?

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."  Albert Camus

It's unbelievable that it is autumn already! It seems like just yesterday we were watching the new flowers bursting and having to mow the lawn. The fact is the this is the norm for people of retirement age. It just seems that weeks fly by while we get older. 

The blog image is from a local park on a morning when an unannounced thick fog spread over our landscape. Of course the weather sources didn't happen to mention the fog in the forecast and I had a late start and had to choose the closest location that might have promise.

Just behind me was a totally different composition with the suns rays warming up the color of a grassland landscape. It was a morning of treasures as the fog was around for another hour or so. Since then high winds have shaken a lot of leaves off the trees and the landscape is getting ready for the winter season. 

As I was concentrating on getting these shots I could here pheasants and owls adding their say to the show adding the the autumn feel.

Thanks for following my blog and have a great week and a safe week.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I had an unexpected opportunity to hang and exhibit at Arts On Grand in Spencer,Iowa this past week. The show will be up until November 7. The title of the show is "Along The Way" and is a collection of not only lakes area themes, but other places where my wife and I have been outside of Iowa the last couple of years. If you're in the area Arts On Grand is worth the visit.

Places to see more of Daniel's work:

Pearson Lakes Art Center - lakesart.org 

Arts On Grand - artsongrand.org

 

A Long Time To Wait

"We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us."  Joseph Campbell

It's been quite a awhile since the last fog event in our area of Northwest Iowa...so long that I can't remember the last time. Because of the wait I was thrilled when I woke up to hazy street lights and hoping that the fog was going to lead to some fun photography.

The blog scene has a much welcomed "Z" line running through the picture with layers of fog caught in the depressions. The interesting thing is that the lake areas really didn't have fog hanging around as I found out making my first swing the the lake areas.

This scene was shot with my Canon 5D Mark IV with a 400mm zoom on the front end. It wasn't until I saw the RAW file on the computer that I saw a bird taking flight near the middle of the image. Judge by the size I'd say it was a hawk of some kind.

The editing process started with Lightroom and Topaz AI Denoise, then Photoshop for the details, and NIK software for final touches.

The next day found us with another foggy morning, which provided another opportunity to try some different areas of our area. This wetland area is a prime area for gulls, pelicans, herons and ducks. As I took this shot a line of pelicans was making their way toward me and the camera. Luck is always welcome.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. The season is making a turn with a lot of leaves and acorns hitting the ground. It won't be long before we'll be seeing the white stuff, but the time for logging fall color is on its way.

Thanks for visiting...Keep safe and use the social distancing options and masks

Places to see more of Daniel's work:

Pearson Lakes Art Center - lakesart.org 

Arts On Grand - artsongrand.org