Making an Impression

I love making this type of image. On the one hand I get to experiment and channel my inner artist to create something that is unique and personal, yet on the other hand the technique used is so simple that anyone can make this kind of image.

Similar to traditional landscape photography, choosing what to include in the composition and where each element is placed within the frame in relation to each other is key… as of course is the quality of light. I look for compositions where moving the camera through the scene will define and accentuate shapes, shadows, colors and lines. To me there is almost a painterly feel to these impressionistic scenes, and in some there is a luminosity and glow when the elements all blend together. Trees are a favorite subject of mine for this style of image, and in the one above I returned to a favorite place.

The path leading from the Nature Center past the Wild Gardens of Acadia and toward the Jesup Trail takes you by some beautiful tall grasses and several stands of birch trees that, in the right light, are absolutely spectacular. I choose a shutter speed of 0.5 seconds and let the camera select the corresponding aperture that it thinks will render a correct exposure. I then pan the camera in a vertical movement while the shutter is open, check the histogram to make any necessary exposure adjustments, and then go to work on trying to capture a scene that I like.

The images below were all created using a similar technique – each was captured on a wonderful hike to Bubble Rock earlier on this same day. As I wandered along the trail, the fresh spring leaves on the canopy were being backlit by the morning sun, and the intense greens contrasting with the rain-soaked earthy browns of the trees and trail made for some striking opportunities.

I think a big part of what I like about this style of photography is that every time the shutter is pressed the result is different. I can make a dozen images of exactly the same scene, and depending on the speed and direction of movement employed, each will be unique. Though I realize that these images are not everyone’s cup of tea, I am intrigued by them and that’s what matters most 🙂

An Early Morning Impression of Acadia

Another glorious morning on Saturday in Acadia. In my quest to be in the right place at the right time when conditions come together for an exceptional sunrise in a pretty location, I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours wandering the coastline along the Loop Road near the cliffs at Otter Point. Sunny and clear, unfortunately the elusive dramatic cloud-infused sunrise did not materialize. I wasn’t complaining though.

After shooting at Boulder Beach, with camera in hand I took a quiet walk along the Ocean Path toward the top of Otter Cliffs. Incredibly peaceful and solitary, my walk along the path offered impressive views of the Atlantic Ocean, along with pockets of dappled light reaching in between the trees to shine on the groundcover enjoying the early spring. The image below is from that walk, moving the camera vertically while the shutter was open to create an impressionistic blur.

As we move into spring and summer, the sun starts to rise in Maine at a very early hour. Saturday’s scheduled sunrise was at 5:24am, which means an even earlier departure from home to get where I am going to catch the pre-dawn light. Below is part of my reward for getting up early 🙂

Tip-toe Through the Tulips

A couple of years ago Lori and I wanted to add some color to the garden for when the snow melted in early spring, so we planted a ton of tulips in and around the house. When I say a ton, I mean a ton – we planted them everywhere! We figured the squirrels would get some, the frost would get some, and some just wouldn’t make it. And if by some chance they all made it, then great… we would have the most amazing springtime garden.

That first spring was indeed pretty spectacular. We must have had close to one hundred tulips come up in all sorts of colors, and in all sorts of places we had forgotten we had even planted. Over the years though, fewer and fewer of them have survived the harsh Maine winters, and now there are only maybe twenty brightly colored blooms scattered around the yard.

There might not be as many of them, but those that have bloomed are no less beautiful. The reds, yellows and oranges are incredibly vibrant, and for us Mainers they are a very welcome sight as we ease out of another long winter. Stay tuned though… Lori and Sam have been doing some work on the front garden, and it is starting to take shape very nicely – I will post photographs soon.

Both of the images in this post are from the same group of tulips in the front yard from this evening. I moved the camera across the scene while the shutter was open for about half a second creating what is, for me, a very pleasing effect. See more images using this technique here.

Acadia Birch

It is mid-March in Maine, and as I write this we are experiencing very pleasant and unseasonably warm temperatures. Spring and summer cannot come quickly enough for me, and the nice weather has me thinking about Acadia National Park. Beautiful in all seasons, I have to admit that my preference to visit and explore is when the sun is higher in the sky and the snow on the ground has melted. Perhaps a trip to my favorite national park is in order this weekend?

In the meantime, here’s one from last summer’s archives… just thinking about when I made this image makes me feel warm! As you travel along the loop road toward the ranger station and park fee entrance, there are several stands of beautiful birch trees on either side of the road. I have always wanted to capture how impressive these trees are, but despite trying on many occasions and at different times of day, I have yet to truly do them justice. The image above is a simplification of the scene taken late one afternoon – I moved the camera vertically while keeping the shutter open for half a second. I did add just a touch of motion blur in post-processing to smooth out the very front of the foreground. On this particular evening, I liked how the soft light from the side illuminated the tree bark, and how the colors of the forest floor came together in a simple, yet pleasing, way.

A Walk in the Woods

The whole family enjoyed a long walk together in the woods this weekend. The Bangor Forest is a place we visit often, and on this morning we decided to explore a different part of the area. We parked in the less popular southern lot, bundled up against the cold and headed out on the trail. The sun was bright and almost warm when we started out, but by the time we made it back to the car it had clouded over. We covered about 2.5 miles in total, with Jack handling the distance and conditions with ease. Even though the trails were icy, the forest is a place that is refreshingly beautiful at any time of the year, and time spent together is always a good thing. Moving the camera through the scene, this image is from along the trail (added two more):

Favorite Photographs

I like taking photographs.

I have recently been reading some blog posts by photographers about the task of paring down all of the images you might have taken in the past year, and presenting your favorites for others to see. These photographers are very active shooters, who have enough images to actually make this a more worthwhile activity. I haven’t really been shooting all that much in 2009, so rather than limiting myself to just the past 12 months, I decided to take on the challenge of creating a collection of favorites from all of my images.

New to the blog are several pages that can be accessed from the menu above under the heading “Gallery” –  from there you can access several categories that I thought best suited the path that my photography has taken.

These are my favorites… not just based on how the final image is presented, but also because of the story behind how each of them was obtained, and the places and experiences I have been able to enjoy along the way. Many of these images were created either early in the morning or later in the day, usually outside of the general population’s tolerance for hanging around. Quite often I am alone in very pretty and peaceful settings when these images were made, and that often means more to me than the making of the actual photographs – though it is nice to empty the memory card and see what I was able to capture.

Here’s one of my all-time favorites to get things started:

Bangor Forest

The Bangor Forest is a really neat 650 acre parcel of land located right here in my own backyard. A short drive gets us here to enjoy the many paths and trails that intertwine all across what is still a vibrant working forest. We try to get out here as often as we can, and today was a perfect day to explore the area and admire the changing fall foliage.

We headed left out of the main parking lot, and eventually ended up on the Deer Trail, a pretty, winding pathway that meandered through the forest. Even though the foliage in the greater Bangor area is probably right about peak color this weekend, the leaves within much of the forest had already turned. Much of the forest landscape is swampy and low lying, and most of the brighter colors look to already have been and gone.

I carried my camera with me knowing that I might not get to see much in the way of bright, fall colors, but I did hope to come across some scenes where I could include movement in the composition. This technique involves opening the shutter for a longer period of time and dragging the camera across or through the scene. Depending on the light, the shapes, the colors and the elements… sometimes an image of interest can be captured.

I like how this type of scene can be created by anyone, and also how it can be created just about anywhere. The remaining fall color certainly added to these two images, and they are a reminder of what was an enjoyable fall family walk together… though as I write this it is snowing here in the mid-Maine area… way too early to be thinking about winter!

Technical data: both images were shot at f16 at iso 100 with 17-40mm Canon L lens and a shutter speed of 4/10ths of a second. The camera was panned in a vertical direction each time to try to accentuate the lines and shapes of the trees.

Camden Hills State Park

Continuing the theme of movement and the camera, I made more images on a recent camping trip to Camden Hills State Park.

In this first image, I especially liked how the definition of the trees stood out, but also how the colors in the foreground blended together. The foreground colors are a combination of different greens, reddish brown pine needles, and dappled lighting conditions on the forest floor. The larger version of the image is quite painterly.

To create these type of images, I first find a composition that I like – one that I think will translate well to this format. I then attempt to get a correct exposure with the shutter of my camera open for anywhere between 1/4 of a second and 1 second. I then experiment with moving the camera until I get a pleasing image.

Digital photography and the ability to instantly view the results is such a great learning advantage. The final image depends largely on the direction and speed of movement, along with what I choose to include and exclude from the composition.

In this second image made on the summit of Mount Battie just outside Camden, the early evening light was coming from the side and was pretty special. I was attracted to the depth created between the trees in the foreground and those in the background.

Hope you like these latest experiments? I am very excited to be heading out West to Yosemite, San Francisco and Big Sur at the start of August. Lots of photo opportunities to take advantage of for sure : )

For more, go to my Flickr account

It’s all a blur!

Normally I drive north and south on I-95 on my way to and from work. Lately in Maine it has been dreary and dull for what seems like an eternity, but today we finally got a break in the weather. Enjoying the rare glimpse of the sun, I decided to forego the highway this morning and take the more scenic route from Bangor to Augusta.

Route 9 runs pretty much parallel to I-95, as it winds through the countryside and towns like Newburgh, Unity, China, and then Augusta. Typical central Maine scenery, there are undulating hills with patches of forest, mixed in with green rolling fields where farmers are trying hard to make a living. With my windows wide open to soak in the warm air, I enjoyed the ride to work this morning, stopping off every now and again to try to make a photograph.

I have long wanted to capture the June bloom of lupine in Maine, but I have yet to manage to do so in a way that I like. As I wandered down Route 9 on this morning, I came across a couple of stands of lupine dotted on the side of the road. Though the warm early morning light was good, I wasn’t especially excited about any of the scenes I came across and their potential for making an interesting traditional landscape image. I did however try to capture the light and how it interacted with the shapes and colors that I saw. Here is one of the results… f22, iso 100, 1/3 sec with 17-40mm at 40mm

Backyard Blurs

I was experimenting in the back yard with moving the camera while the shutter was held open for anywhere between half a second and two seconds. Depending on how the light was interacting with the subject, how long the shutter was open for, and the direction and the speed of the movement, some pretty neat effects were rendered by the camera.

More from the Bangor Forest

OK… I have to admit, I am really intrigued by the images I was able to make last weekend at the Bangor Forest. There is something – at least to me – ethereal and extremely interesting about these blurred images. Not everyone’s cup of tea I know, but for me… they are intriguing.

Here are a couple more images from the day. In all, I think I tried this maybe five times… and each time I was successful in capturing an image that I liked. That is actually a pretty high success rate, especially considering the subject matter… and am looking forward to trying this technique when I head out West next week.