Daniel Ruf

Close up

"There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea,

and music in its roar; I love not Man the less, but Nature more." Lord Byron

When I saw this iPhone close up of leaves on the floor of a forest I was astonished about the eye popping color that existed as well as the details and textures that came with the capture.

All to often I believe that we lose sight of the loveliness of small parts of our world as we spend more time looking forward than looking down at the delicate space beneath our feet.

Take the time...take a walk!

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

 

Crisp Mornings

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

John Burroughs

Days of foggy mornings gave way to colder mornings with crisp chilly winds, which gave way to sub zero temps and frosty coverings on stiff creaking trees. It was such a morning when I made my way to Gull Point State Park with hopes of ice, strong shadows and frosty trees.  I got all that plus fog blowing in from open areas of water across West Lake.

The trees were glittered like crystal and the sun rays broke through a fork in the nearby tree making for strong shadows acting as definite leading line into the scene. The view was more than I could have hoped for especially since the lake near our home had no indications of fog, but West Lake is a deep lake and holds on to its deep warm water for as long as possible.

Standing here, putting tripod together and setting up my Canon camera, the feeling of winter surrounded me. The patches of autumns earth were gone, the shards of ice hid the lake edges and the sky had the deep blue color of a winter day. The beauty of winter was finally here.

Thank you for visiting my blog site and I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a bountiful new year.  Be safe and enjoy the season of winter

 

Places to see more of Daniel's work:

Pearson Lakes Art Center - lakesart.org 

Arts On Grand - artsongrand.org

 

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???)

 

"I search for realness, the real feeling of a subject, all the texture around it... I always want to see the third dimension... I want to come alive with the subject.  Andrew Wyeth

We had a really foggy morning a couple of days ago and the farther away from the boat ramp that I got with my kayak the more dense the fog became.  It was so dense that I finally decided that the safe option was to stay close to shore in case boaters were zooming through the lake.

I was intentionally headed toward a wetland that I was familiar with, but the water level is so high in our area that shore birds were none existent.  I continued paddling and the sunlight was starting to get brighter which, with the dense fog, might show as a crisp fireball on the horizon.  A workable spot came into view and I got the kayak positioned so that I could catch the sun coming up over the landscape.

The blog image is the result, but with some alterations. I was fortunate that I had a duck fly through as the shutter was released  which gave a sky attraction.  I've added some textures as well to give the sky some interest, opened up the shadows a slight bit and also did a digital watercolor version pulling a bit of the original back through using a layer mask.

My camera was a Canon 5D Mark IV with a 28-105mm lens with an ISO setting of 1600. Initial editing was done in Lightroom, with the final  work being done in Photoshop

We're starting to dry off here in NW Iowa after several days of rain and saturated soils. It should start to look like summer and be wonderful weather for a while.

Thanks for visiting and enjoy summer!

Places to see more of Daniel's work:

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

500px.com

 

Deep In A Slot

"Be true to yourself. Make each day a masterpiece. Help others. Drink deeply from good books. Make friendships a fine art. Build a shelter against a rainy day."  John Wooden

Waiting for Spring to come in Iowa is like watching paint dry. We're in the last week of March and every winter event has hit us in some way shape or form. Snow? We got it.  Rain? We're having it. Ice? You guessed it. Wind? Never stops. The geese are flying about undecided whether they should stay, head North, or fly like jets back to the South.

That puts me right back where I was the last time I sat down to write this blog.  I'm now editing and deleting iPhone files.  It's been fun and I've been doing a lot with Distressed FX textures for the first time. I finally downloaded files to my computer, which makes it easier to work with iPhone images with more effort and detail. Thanks to Cheryl Tarrant's website and blog for that information.

The slot canyon blog image is from a couple of years ago when my wife and I were on our annual "get out of Iowa in ugly March" trip.  I had made a Zion NP trip over 30 years ago on my own and really was excited to show her what a marvelous national park it is. Without thinking we hit the Easter break period for California schools and it was a bit crowded, but there is always a place to hide from the maddening crowd as well as galleries to visit.

Cross your fingers with the hope that Spring will actually show up. Next year we'll board up that groundhog den to see if we can't have an earlier Spring.

Thanks for visiting and don't be a stranger!

"Be true to yourself. Make each day a masterpiece. Help others. Drink deeply from good books. Make friendships a fine art. Build a shelter against a rainy day."  John Wooden

Waiting for Spring to come in Iowa is like watching paint dry. We're in the last week of March and every winter event has hit us in some way shape or form. Snow? We got it.  Rain? We're having it. Ice? You guessed it. Wind? Never stops. The geese are flying about undecided whether they should stay, head North, or fly like jets back to the South.

That puts me right back where I was the last time I sat down to write this blog.  I'm now editing and deleting iPhone files.  It's been fun and I've been doing a lot with Distressed FX textures for the first time. I finally downloaded files to my computer, which makes it easier to work with iPhone images with more effort and detail. Thanks to Cheryl Tarrant's website and blog for that information.

The slot canyon blog image is from a couple of years ago when my wife and I were on our annual "get out of Iowa in ugly March" trip.  I had made a Zion NP trip over 30 years ago on my own and really was excited to show her what a marvelous national park it is. Without thinking we hit the Easter break period for California schools and it was a bit crowded, but there is always a place to hide from the maddening crowd as well as galleries to visit.

Cross your fingers with the hope that Spring will actually show up. Next year we'll board up that groundhog den to see if we can't have an earlier Spring.

Thanks for visiting and don't be a stranger!

Little Things

"It's the little details that are vital.  Little things make big things happen."  John Wooden

My wife and I attended the "Friends And Family Night" for the "Spirit Of Harmony Chorus" last evening and have been doing so for several years now.  It's a group of women from all walks of life that come together for the sheer joy of singing, but have also found themselves as regular competitors in national competitions and doing extremely well in the process.

Being in the audience for their "tune ups" for these competitions has allowed us to not only hear some outstanding music and voices, but also to see, hear and follow the evolution of their sound and choreography.  In the opening comments by the director special emphasis was placed on the amount of time that all have spent in practice sessions, critique sessions, and individual preparations that blend together in the final outcome on "opening night".  Believe me, the effort shows every time we see them and sitting in the audience is nothing short of awesome.  It proves the John Wooden quote above that attending to little things can blossom into big outcomes.

Being a different sort of creative artist I am also aware of the time and effort the it takes to create my artistic outcomes and the image above is one of my efforts from a recent trip to the West Coast.  In working through any editing process I am continually reminded of "the whole being a part of its sums".  Little tweaks here to emphasize the touches of light or "brushes" there to bring forward an element like a waterfall is very similar to tweaks made to a voice, sculpture, pencil line and brush stroke.  In fact these sorts of "tweaks toward perfection" are also applicable to life, jobs, relationships and so on.

In the case of the women in the chorus and many artists the tweaks are our inner voices challenging each of us to take another step forward in the betterment of our creative vision and ourselves. The result of our attention to details is our reward.

Thank you for visiting this site and join the Summerwind Gallery of artists for opening night on May 4, for the "Art Crawl" in Arnolds Park, Iowa.

Spring

"A drop of water, if it could write out its own history, would explain the universe to us."  Lucy Larcom

Winter has finally turned itself off and spring is following close behind, especially in Sabino Canyon near Tucson, Arizona.  The fresh greens, in all hues, is giving life along the creek and surrounding this birch that is waiting to flourish.

Water is music to me and every stream sounds different as it bounces across rocks and around boulders.  While stopping to enjoy the music I ws struck by the leaning lines of this subject...the grasses, rocks and tree all in harmony. 

Summerwind Gallery in Arnolds Park, Iowa will be opening soon and I'm excited to be invited back as one of the artists.  If you get in the area you need to make the stop to enjoy some of the finest art and artists in Iowa.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your weekend.

Other sites where you can find my work:

 

Google +

http://500px.com

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

Squeezing The Creativity Tube

        

My good friend Mike Houge (mikehouge.typepad.com) headed for Sioux Falls, SD a week ago to do some photography at the Falls Park near the downtown area with high expectations.  The falls were mostly frozen, but we did have running water and geese to try our skills on as well as some interesting vintage buildings.  Unfortunately the light was a bit harsh so most of the morning shoot dealt with avoiding hot spots, glare and incoming geese.  Several groups of geese glided into the water area passing within a few yards of where we were playing, but our attention was usually in the opposite direction.

After a bite to eat we headed to the town of Jasper, Mn. to search for a windmill collection that Mike had seen online.  What a find!  We not only had about a dozen of vintage windmills as subjects, but beautiful wispy clouds as our arial backdrop.  We spent most of the afternoon trying every angle we could imagine and enjoyed the variety of styles and details.  

The first blog image was taken after I thought I had exhausted my ingenuity, but after walking and looking for different points of view I used a leg structure as a frame for a farm that I had seen across the road.  Works for me!

The second is a more inclusive angle with a farmstead behind adding to the rural setting.  I used several textures to add to the vintage/grunge look.  

So, another place to add to our list of year round shooting opportunities, plus it was close to the Blue Mound SP near Laverne, Mn. where we spent the sunset hours shooting before heading home.

Thanks for joining me here and I hope you all have a nice weekend.  Spring is just around the corner.

Other sites where you can find my work:

Twitter

Instagram

Google +

http://500px.com

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