Merry Christmas

Tomorrow will be the 10th anniversary of my Grandpa's death. He along with my Grandma helped raise me and my cousins when we were kids while our parents were working. I never got a chance to talk about photography with him since I didn't pick up a camera until three years later but I'm sure he reads this blog somewhere out there.

My grandpa wanted to be buried in a location that faces the sunset and Downtown L.A. off in the distance so I have gone for the past several years to photograph this landscape for him. The Christmas tree is something that our family has done for him every December for the past nine years.

With that said, this is going to be my last blog post for 2007 so I would like to wish you a happy holidays and Merry Christmas. Ho! Ho! Ho!

Living on the Edge

Out of Control Sledder on Mount Baldy

I photographed this on Sunday with a 300mm focal length. What I want to do next time is use my 17-35mm wide angle lens while actually sledding down the slopes myself! I don't know how I am going to keep control of the sled while shooting photos but I haven't seen anyone else do this before so it is worth a shot.

One scenario might be to set my camera on a one or two second time-lapse (gotta read the instruction manual...) while dangling around my neck. The perspective should be about ideal as I'd want my feet showing with snow flying all over the place. The hard part would be keeping the camera facing in the right direction.

The one-handed approach would probably yield the most consistent compositions but the degree of difficulty would be really high. Even without cameras, the people I saw weren't able to consistently make it down the slopes without wiping out. There is another method that I will most likely use but I'll keep that a secret for now. Though if you've read some of my previous blog entries then maybe you might have an idea for what that is.

A Heavenly Day on Mount Baldy

First Winter Snow on Mount Baldy

It was two years in the making, but this past weekend finally brought a significant amount of fresh snow powder to the local slopes. Making up for lost time seemingly, the road was packed with cars from Mount Baldy Village up to the ski lifts. It was exciting to see daredevils going up these steep slopes then sledding down, wiping out and taking out spectators along the way.

It had been overcast for several days and I actually had other plans yesterday but as soon as I got to the top of my street, I saw the conditions on Mount Baldy then I immediately had a change of plans and headed up there. For much of the year, Mount Baldy looks unremarkable but right after a snow storm it is as beautiful as a mountain can get. Mount Baldy has a vertical relief in excess of 9,000 feet depending on where you are photographing it from. I think there is about 7 or 8,000 thousand feet of vertical relief from this vantage point. By comparison, I think Mount Everest has 12,000 feet of vertical relief from base camp.

The drawback to photographing mountains with a wide angle lens is that makes them look small. Wide angles are the most commonly used type of lens for landscape photography, but mountains are supposed to be big, imposing, powerful. So I used a 70-300mm zoom lens at 192mm to focus in on the summit ridges.

Photo Impressionism

Photo Impressionistic Red Serrano Chili Peppers

After emailing with a friend about macro lenses, I felt inspired this week to dust off my macro lens and try some new approaches I hadn't done before. My macro lens is the sharpest lens I own and typically I use it for photographing trees and forests to get as much detail possible, but I wanted to do exactly opposite of that with these shots while putting an emphasis on light and abstract shapes.

To get this image, I used a large Mag-Lite on the wide angle setting to illuminate the chili peppers since they would have been silhouettes otherwise. Then I used the macro lens at f2.8 up close and framed the composition how I wanted it on a tripod while searching for a pleasing background color. I adjusted my polarizer to cut the reflections then kept adjusting the focus until it had a painterly look to it. I didn't want abstract blobs either so it took some fine-tuning of the focusing to get it how I envisioned. As is, I'm not sure I could duplicate this image.

To see some more of what I have photographed this week check out these images:

Serrano Hot Chili Peppers Impressions

Red Chili Pepper Impressionism

Red Serrano Hot Chili Peppers Abstract Impressionism Blur

Oak Tree Fall Color Forest Photo Impressionism, Big Dalton Canyon Wilderness Park, Glendora, California

Oak Tree Autumn Leaves Orton Effect, Big Dalton Canyon Wilderness Park, California

Photo Editing

Most photographers always talk about their "vision" and how they shot such and such. However, the in-camera aspect is only the first step toward realizing a vision. There was an old cliche among photographers that the only difference between pros and hobbyists were that pros took a lot more bad photos. There is some truth to that. Most good photographers take a liberal amount of images while out in the field and most of which ends up in the garbage bin. The goal is to come away with enough different images to edit into a story or portfolio when back home. The photo edit represents the final vision of the photographer.

Take for example a typical photo shoot. A "good" photographer can take all of the bad photos from that shoot and edit them into a "portfolio" of ten images and compare them to any ten photos from a "bad" photographer. They'd likely look similar in quality. No definitive vision, poor technique, horrible lighting, etc... The difference is that the better photographer will have also tried shooting enough different types of images to edit into a clear vision once the final edit is completed. He made bad images while in the quest for realizing a clear vision. The other photographer just merely took random photos.

How you edit and present your work creates the perception of who you are as a photographer. Look at the following two groups of examples I have posted here. The first group of photos represent bird habitats. The 2nd group of pictures are the birds that inhabit those habitats. If I were to show the 1st group in a portfolio, then I might be perceived as a fine art photographer. If I show the 2nd group, then I'd probably be considered a bird photographer. By having two distinct groups of images like this then I can market myself however I wish. The underlying message is that a photographers' vision is most easily viewed and understood when grouped together in coherent collections. It could be a single collection or many collections, the important part is to have them organized according to your goals.

Photo: Southern California Bird Habitats

Picture: Pacific Flyway Waterfowl

If you feel your photography is lacking direction, then try this exercise. Find a clear theme or subject matter to edit into a portfolio. Even a mediocre vacation snapshot photographer can probably have their pictures edited into a somewhat presentable portfolio by someone with a good eye if they were passionate about what they shot. If you never strike out, then you aren't swinging for the fences either.