Daniel Ruf

"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

 

 

 

 

Getting Out

        

"Whatever happens in front of the lens stays. What's captured during the encounter is all that exists."   Gregory Heisler

Last week I was on my way to a friends house when I came upon this rural scene that I couldn't resist pulling off the road and grabbing a few shots. As I was getting things together and set up I was reminded of my many years of farming and how that experience has made me more sensitive to this type of scene.

Ansel Adams, Tony Sweet, Phillip Hyde, and others have taught me and influenced my work in so many ways, but especially the special qualities of light and how if can effect a scene. Add to that my love of the influence of my art background and my love of the Hudson River School, which was from the mid to late 1800's, because the artists of that period were so tuned in to natural light and it's effect on the landscape.

It seems that Summer is finally making a stand over the chill of Spring and things are beginning to warm up. Enjoy and thanks for stopping by

Places to see more of Daniel's work:

Pearson Lakes Art Center - lakesart.org 

Arts On Grand - artsongrand.org

 

Calm Places

May God give you -For every storm - a rainbow,For every tear - a smile,For every care - a promise,
And an answer to every prayer.-Unknown

Since my last blog post a couple of weeks ago things have changed in our world. I spent my evening thinking about how I was going to disinfect A large wooden box, of large prints that is due to be delivered by USP in a couple of days. I spent some time on the internet trying to find out what UPS was doing to minimize the spread of corona virus on its packaging. I found nothing addressing that question. Three weeks ago this wasn't even a thought to contend with. Add to that the new thought processes going on to keep ourself and others safe from the virus factor.

This morning I opened an email from a very talented artist that I follow...Denice Peters, denicepeters.com, and found the simple words posted above along with her latest pastel painting. Her post was refreshing and brought me back to places of comfort like the blog image. 

While our attention is "distracted" by many questions there are places of solace where space is not confined or measured. The natural landscapes are full of interests, color, sounds, and calm that can attach to our busy minds as well as carry us through the days ahead.

I also remember how our parents were thrown into World War II and learning to subsist on ration cards for food as well as the "Victory Gardens"popping up in neighborhoods. The large companies that switched over from making refrigerators to tanks and artillery shells. We are starting to see this amazing cooperation in our country today...a sign that the USA is still strong and caring.

Remember your neighbors, the elderly, making space and giving space, washing hands and all the rest. We will learn something from this challenge.

My love goes out to all of you.

Places to see more of Daniel's work:

Pearson Lakes Art Center - lakesart.org 

Arts On Grand - artsongrand.org

 

Another Icon Gone!

"My father kept me busy from dawn to dusk when I was a kid. When I wasn't pitching hay, hauling corn or running a tractor, I was heaving a baseball into his mitt behind the barn...It all the parents in the country followed his rule, juvenile delinquency would be cut in half in a year's time." Bob Feller

One by one those great icons of the rural landscape are disappearing one after another. The old barns, corn cribs, hog houses and sheds are sliding off into the sunset. Before long Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio will be some of the only states where a person can still be able to see those treasured icons still in use. Here in Iowa they're being replaces by large steel buildings. To me metal buildings have little aesthetic value when it comes to photography. Most barns are different as a structure. There use determines the structural makeup, be it a dairy barn, hog barn, or cattle barn.

There are stories in those barns that you may pass by everyday if you live in rural America. Children grew up in those tall broad structures. My kids all had chores before and after school. Whether it was my young daughter bottle feeding calves, or my sons feeding livestock or mending fences. A lot of times they even hired out to other farmers to bale hay during their summer vacation.

All barns have stories to tell a Photographer or any other artist. The structure, the landscape all play into the final results of this cold winter day with an aging barn in the background and a painted morning sky.

I love 'em, and I miss 'em.

Thanks for visiting

Places to see more of Daniel's work:

Pearson Lakes Art Center - lakesart.org 

Arts On Grand - artsongrand.org

 

On To The Show!

"Little things seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odorless but all together perfume the air."  Georges Bernanos

With a successful "art in the park" behind me I now look forward to my exhibition at the Pearson Lakes Art Center on August 15.  The printing and framing is all done, each piece of work packaged for the trip to the gallery. More than 40 pieces in all and hopefully all "eye catchers" for those that attend the exhibit.

The opening on August 15 will be from 5pm - 7pm and will include appetizers and drinks as well a a gallery discussion with a Q&A as well. The exhibit will be up until September 28, but opening night is always enjoyable and educational.

The blog pic was done a couple of weeks ago when I was out scouting some rural scenes.  While concentrating on the far horizon and landscape in between, I happen to look down at the roadside flowers and got the idea to forget about the landscape since it was a cloudy dull evening and make the flowers the foreground subject and the landscape the "afterthought". Shot with my iPhone, close up, on my knees.

Hope to see some of you at the Pearson, August 15.

Places to see more of Daniel's work:

Pearson Lakes Art Center  lakesart.org 

500px.com

Facebook - Daniel Ruf Photography

Prepping For The Big Show

                          

"The eye should learn to listen before it looks."  Robert Frank

On August 15 the opening of my exhibit "The Eloquence Of Light" at the Pearson Lakes Art Center in Okoboji, Iowa. Right now I'm starting the process of selecting work, printing, framing, etc.  My wife thinks I'm "jumping the gun", but I'm more for not having to rush to the finish line.   I also have an Art In The Park to deal with on August 3 which complicates matters a little bit.  All that being said, it's "nose to the grindstone", "peddle to the metal" and all the other old time saying for "get after it". 

For a little background story....In November, 2018 I had a piece in the Wanda Skogerboa Juried Exhibit at the Pearson Lakes Art Center that won "Best Of Show", which has a prize of an exhibit in the following year. Time flies and showtime is not far away.

At this point it looks like there will be around 40 images on the walls at the art center when the reception opens the evening of August 15. The selection of work for this kind of event is always a challenge as it requires one to be objective, which can be difficult since images become a part of the person that created them.

I hope to see a lot of friends attending and that will be a great time to reconnect as well as make new friendships.

Thanks for stopping by my site and have a great week.

Places to see more of Daniel's work:

Pearson Lakes Art Center  lakesart.com 

500px.com

Facebook - Daniel Ruf Photography  

 

Remains

"To photograph is to hold one’s breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality. It’s at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy."    Henri Cartier-Bresson   

Enjoy the winter!

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  

 

Pocket Camera

"Creativity itself doesn't care at all about the results - the only thing it craves is the process. Learn to love the process and let whatever happens next happen, without fussing too much about it.  Work like a monk, or a mule, or some other representative metaphor for diligence. Love the work.Destiny will do what it wants with you, regardless.                                                                  

Elizabeth Gilbert

Walking everyday has been a daily agenda item for some time, but this summer I've made it a priority and in the process have been averaging  3 - 5 miles a day. I usually go out in the early morning hours specifically for the light, but if there is a partly cloudy forecast, then I'm traveling in my truck with my camera looking for sunrise and special light situations.

The "pocket phone" has been a nice tool to have along when walking. In my case it would be the iPhone as well as a library of photo apps at the ready. The good thing about having a "camera" tagging along is that it's another tool of discovery along the way. It helps keep the creative juices flowing and ready for those just right opportunities that may come along.

The blog image is from the iPhone and is a field I pass many times during the week.  In this case the tree on the right was just getting a brush of sunrise light that attracted my attention. After getting home I sat down to develop the image and found my way to a painting process. In this case I used some textures, a JixiPix painting app and combined it with a Topaz painting app on my MAC to get the results that I was looking for.

Landscape photography only works if one gets up off the couch and walks out the door. The getting off the couch is the same effort required of any type of art that I'm aware of, even if robots are involved. One has to get up to make the effort to turn on the switch.  For me, being in the outdoors is the switch for my adventure to begin.

Thank you for joining me and I hope that you grab a little of the Fall season before it's gone.

Places to see more of Daniel's work:

Pearson Lakes Art Center  lakesart.com 

500px.com

Facebook - Daniel Ruf Photography  (I can't believe I'm on Facebook again???)

 

Chance, Luck, Opportunity Meet

 

"Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity."   Lucius Annaeus Seneca

A couple of weeks ago a really nice fog rolled in to our lakes community and I jumped out of bed and packed my gear into the truck with the idea that I would be doing a bit of photography around the lakes area for most of the morning.  The sun wasn't quite up yet and I had time to explore several spots before "crunch time".  As I drove past the first lake I was surprised  that there was no fog lingering over the lake surface...I drove on.  As I came to another lake I again saw no fog hanging about waiting for this excited photographer. This same disappointment greeted me at my  next water stop and I was starting to get really puzzled and upset.

After one more stop with the same result I thought I'd drive into the rural areas, since shooting fog scenes looked to be off the list for the morning.  As I got into the countryside, however, I found where the fog was hiding, drove to a spot I that had a river running through it and the result was the last blog image.  Once again I realized that just because the initial plan of lake scenes was fixed into my brain, doesn't mean that will be the outcome. God does have a weird sense of humor!

The other two blog images were all taken within a 1/2 mile radius of my first stop, places that I continually visit and that have been a great source of photographic pleasure.  As I've written before, thanks to the words of my good friend and mentor Tony Sweet (tony sweet.com), always revisit those treasure stops of the past under different lighting and weather conditions.  They will continually change in character and dynamics offering a plethora of opportunities.

Luck????

Thank you for your continued support and enjoy the summer as it slips away. Please pass on this site link to your friends. Also, I'm going to have a tent at this years Pearson Lakes Art Center's "Art In The Park" coming to Arnolds Park, Iowa on August 4.  Please join the event for a fun day of looking at some great artwork of over 90 artists.

 

Places to see more of Daniel's work:

Pearson Lakes Art Center  lakesart.com  Also on Facebook for up to date activities

500px.com