Windswept

I have driven past this tree every work-day since we moved to Canton 14 months ago, but I never noticed it until this past Friday. It stands high up on a hill, far above my normal line of sight as I'm driving down the highway. For some reason, I looked up that way Friday morning as I was driving to work, and there it was! The silhouette of the windswept branches against the morning sky made me say to myself, "I've got to come back here tomorrow morning and make a picture of that." So I did.

The tree has been shaped by the prevailing winds that sweep through the valley where the tree stands. Because it is on a hill within the valley, it is likely subjected to stronger winds than down on the valley floor. In the summer, when the branches are covered with leaves, the wind-shaped branches wouldn't be noticeable. In the winter, however, their beautiful form is revealed.

Yes, I tinkered with this one in Photoshop. Saturday's sky was a bright, but gray overcast. I fiddled with the brightness with Levels, and Curves, and then added some color to the sky with Hue/Saturation. As Ansel Adams often admitted, I made the photograph as I saw it in my mind, which often isn't exactly the same as reality.

I almost forgot . . .

Light the fireworks! It was one year ago today that I began My Viewfinder, and made my first post. I've had a lot of fun with this photo blog, and the comments and encouragement I receive motivate me to keep shooting and keep posting. Thank you to all who check in for a look now and then, and especially to those who take the time to comment. You've made this a fun project for me, and I know it's helped me grow as a photographer. My best wishes to all in 2007!

This photo was actually made last July 4th, and I finally found a use for it. Happy first anniversary to My Viewfinder, and Happy New Year to everyone else!

Courtney's Sunflower

Three summers ago, our youngest daughter grew this single sunflower in a small plastic flowerpot from a seed she got from our birdfeeder. She was as proud of this solitary bloom as any gardener could be. Here, I gave the original color photo a monotone look.

Retired

I found this old (1948?) Ford F-3 tow truck while driving around in the Maggie Valley area a couple of weeks ago. I find I am attracted to photographing old, rusted clunkers like this one as much as I am to nice, shiny new ones. Maybe it's the mix of colors and textures in the rust and decay. Maybe it's because every dent and scratch probably has a story to tell. Maybe it's because almost everybody admires hard workers, and this old truck was certainly that before it was retired. Or probably it's just that I've always liked trucks.

Another Hot Rod

Yep, I've still got some yet unposted hot rod photos. As I said on an earlier post of another orange vehicle, it's not a color I'd choose for my car, but I gotta admit, this one looks pretty cool!

Precision

White Pine plantation in Pisgah National Forest, NC. The trees here are planted equidistant in rows and columns, which really looks odd compared to the randomness of the surrounding natural forest. We came upon this scene while driving down a forest road on the way to a morning of hiking. As soon as I saw it, I immediately thought of the work of photographers such as Andre Gallant, Michael Orton, and Lynn Geesaman. I tried to emulate their approach of creating a soft, dreamy look. I made four different versions of this photo, and found I liked this one best.

Hiker Gothic

My two daughters, grudgingly allowing Dad to take yet another picture while hiking in the Pisgah National Forest today. When they find out that I posted this photo of them on the web for all to see, I may have to leave town for a few days.

Old Dodge

This is a view of an old Dodge truck from an earlier post. I love trucks, especially old ones. I like to see them restored to like-new glory, but even old, rusted wrecks have a certain dignity and beauty to them. Exploring them with the camera allows me to focus on the lines, forms, and shapes that make these old trucks unique. Like I would when photographing any senior citizen, I softened the focus a bit so as not to reveal every line and wrinkle.

What Santa Saw

The Lads were waiting when Santa came down the chimney last night. Since it's their first Christmas, they weren't really sure of the proper response to a fat guy in a sooty, red suit suddenly showing up in their living room. Barnes (on the left in the photo) took a "wait and see" approach - after all, fat guys usually bring snacks. Noble, on the other hand, went into attack mode, and rushed the poor guy. Of course, Santa's been doing this gig for many years, so he knows how to appease an over-zealous dog. Out of his sack he produced a new pull rope (Barnes' favorite kind of toy), and a couple of bags of dog treats. Noble broke off the attack when he saw the dog treats, knowing that anyone who travelled with dog treats must be of the highest character, and was safe to let in the house. Dogs are good at those kind of character evaluations. So Santa was allowed to continue his rounds unhindered, and all is well again at our house this Christmas. I hope your Christmas is a good one too!

Merry Christmas from The Lads!

Our resident mutts, Barnes (R), and Noble (L) wish everyone a wonderful Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everybody!

"and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."

Matthew 1:21

Traffic Jam

Damn this traffic jam
How I hate to be late
It hurts my motor to go so slow
It looks like this traffic jam has been going on for a while!

A little more fun at the junkyard with Photoshop.

F-3

Besides photographing nice, shiny, show cars, I'm also strangely attracted to old, rusted, wrecked cars. I found this 1948 Ford F-3 tow truck on Dellwood Road just begging to have it's picture made. Old trucks are like old people. They may not have a lot of flash and energy any more, but they have a certain character about them, and undoubtedly, some stories to tell. I'd love to hear the stories of all the paint jobs this truck has had!

Caldwell House - Two Versions

Toned B&W

Orton Slide Sandwich

I've still not had time to make any new photographs this week. I've been having to work late, and I've also been side tracked with some family/church problems, so to amuse myself I played around with this photo of the Caldwell house I made last October. I've read that for an activity to be relaxing, it has to require one's concentration. Working on photos on the computer gets my mind off of other things for a little while, and so I guess it does the trick for me.

Cyanotype Round 2

This is another experiment with the cyanotype look, this time using Photoshop's duotone mode. I think I like this look better than what I got using Hue/Sataturation in colorize mode.

The edge effect is part of the cyanotype look. In the real chemical process, a light-sensitive mixture is brushed on the paper before exposure, leaving this brushed edge look. I guess the paper could be trimmed later if a straight edge was desired, but I like the rough edge sometimes.

Am I Blue?

There is nothing wrong with your computer screen. The photo you see is a digital version of a Cyanotype, a chemical printing process that produced a blue (or variation of blue) print. It is a simple process that requires no darkroom, and the exposures for the print are often made in sunlight. I can't go into detail about the process here, but if you Google "cyanotypes", you'll find plenty of info.

Of course, I wanted to try to duplicate the look in Photoshop. At first, it seemed like it would be easy to do with the Hue/Saturation tool in the colorize mode. That gave me a blue tone, but I found it tricky to get the same hue that I saw in real cyanotypes. I think next time I will experiment with the duotone mode to see if that works better.

More Soft Focus

Other photographer's on-line galleries and websites are where I often go for inspiration and ideas. Sometimes I see something new I want to try, and sometimes I'm reminded of techniques I've tried before and want to do again. One site I looked at this morning had a collection of soft focus, impressionistic images that looked better than similar ones that I had done before, so I decided to try my hand at it again.

This is an older photo that I made in the Spring of 2004 of a redbud tree in bloom in front of an old sheet metal barn. I liked the contrast of the new life springing up in front of the old barn. I just experimented with varying degrees of soft focus, saturation, and contrast to come up with this version.

Another view of Cataloochee

Weather's cold. The trees are bare. It's dark when I get home from work. I'm uninspired. Weekends are eaten up by Christmas activities. So I go back and look for photos from 2 months ago to fiddle with on the computer.

This is another view from Cataloochee from this past October. I used the Orton slide sandwich technique to get this soft, dreamy look. I'm running out of backlog images to play with. I hope I get out of my shooting slump soon. I'm going back to bed now.

Age Spots

Another find from the local salvage yard. This is the hood ornament from a late 1950's or early 1960's era Jaguar Mark I (I'm not a Jag expert). This once proud auto sits waiting either to be scrapped, or restored to it's original beauty by some vintage car enthusiast. I happen to know that this car has been sitting in the same spot for a few years now, so I doubt it's destined for the car crusher. Like a dog at the pound, it sits waiting for a loving owner to claim it. Then this age-spotted cat will be able to prowl the streets once again.

Ghost Rider

This is a 1941 (I think) Dodge fire truck. Well, it was at one time. Now, it's fire fighting equipment has been stripped, and it's looking for a new owner and a new role. Perhaps you'll see this truck at a car show one day, restored and beautiful, just like it rolled out of the factory over six decades ago.

The background for this photo was originally more old , junked cars. I removed them in Photoshop, added a gradient sky, and then put it in a soft vignette. I thought this once-proud warrior of the fire fighting wars deserved a more dignified setting.

Classics In The Raw

Probably many of the beautiful cars I photographed at the Cherokee Rod Run last month started right here, at the junkyard. Forgotten, rusted hulks are at yards like this all over the country just waiting to be selected to become the next show piece. What looks to be beyond help to me, is just a diamond in the rough to someone with the right skills, imagination, and desire. I greatly admire their talent and their results.

I decided to apply various filters and effects to give this shot more of a painterly look. Why I do this to some photos is purely a subjective choice - I have no formula or set criteria for choosing which photos will become something other than a photo. And yeah, I know it's supposed to be a photography blog, but like it or not, this kind of manipulation is part of the photography scene today. Besides, it's my blog!

Happy Birthday, Emma!

Every year I make a magazine cover as a birthday present for my best customer and model, three year old Emma. In previous years I had her on the cover of American Kids, and People. This year I decided to put her on the cover of Our State, a magazine covering the culture, cooking, scenery, and travel in North Carolina. I try to replicate the fonts and layout of the real magazine cover, then add my own background and a recent photo of Emma. It's a fun project for me, and Emma's family seems to enjoy getting them. It's become a tradition now, and one day Emma will have a collection of magazine covers chronicling her as she grows up. Happy Birthday, Emma!

Packard Hood Ornament

Another classic hood ornament from the 1930's, this one from a Packard. Originally shot in color, I converted it to B&W in Photoshop. However, I still had the problem of a crummy background, a common problem at outdoor car shows. I have some sky photos that I got from a British photo magazine, so I used one of them for a more complimentary background.

Jack Frost

Christmas season in the mountains includes not only Jack Frost nipping at your nose, but also Jack Frost coating your windshield with a layer of ice that has to be scraped off almost every morning. My wife drives our two daughters to school every morning, and since the family car is a F-150 pick-up, I get to do the scraping (my wife's a little on the short side for that task). Since the frost scraping routine has been going on since late October, I'm a little tired of Jack Frost's nocturnal activities by now.

Then one morning I began to look closely at the frost patterns on the side window. They almost looked like feathers. There were a variety of intricate, delicate patterns that I hadn't taken the time to admire before I bulldozed them away with the ice scraper. Of course, I immediately saw a photo opportunity. As I was making this photograph, I wondered what the neighbors thought of "that camera nut" outside in 22 degree weather taking close-up photos of the frost. It's a photography thing, they wouldn't understand. (Click on the photo for an enlarged view.)

Autumn in Cataloochee Valley, NC

There are still few untouched images in the file from my trip to Cataloochee Valley back in October. It seems like such a long time ago now that the trees are all bare, and winter is here in earnest (24 degrees outside as I'm typing this). The few photos that are left from that day are the ones that weren't quite bad enough to delete, but didn't excite me enough to do anything with them either. This is one of those. Right out of the camera it seemed kind of blah. I guess that's where filters and effects come in.

I used a filter from Red Paw Media http://www.redpawmedia.com/ called the Beautifier. This filter allows you to set different combinations of diffusion, saturation, and brightness. I just experimented with various combinations of settings until I arrived at something that looked OK. To finish it I added a decorative edge. So with the magic of digital filters, I was able to take a so-so photo and turn it into something I think looks rather nice.

Junaluska Chapel

Another view of the Memorial Chapel at Lake Junaluska. I sometimes use the area around the outside of the chapel for outdoor portrait sessions. The arches, stonework, and other architectural details can make intersting backdrops.

This photo was shot just after sunset in my camera's B&W mode. I did some minor tweaking with levels and curves in Photoshop, but the photo is basically as it came out of the camera.

Side Door

This is one of the side doors to the Memorial Chapel at the Lake Junaluska Methodist retreat center. The chapel is made from block stone, and looks like it could be in the countryside of England. I liked the textures in the stone and the wood in this shot. Of course, B&W was the only choice for this photo.

I broke one of my own rules on this one. I always shoot in color, and then convert to B&W in Photoshop. I have always read that one can get the best control over the tones that way. Today, however, I shot using my E-500's B&W mode, and I was generally pleased with the results. It always pays to experiment - the "experts" aren't always right.

Ford V8

This famous logo for the Ford V8 appeared for the first time in the 1930's. A very similar logo has re-appeared on some recent Ford products equipped with V8 engines. The more things change, the more they stay the same.