by successfulbob | black & white, fine art photography, landscape photography, people photography, photography, photography education
The Five day Black and White Challenge has been floating around the Internet for the last couple months. The basic premise is that a photographer will post a BW image everyday for 5 days at the same time inviting a new photographer each day to join in the challenge. After being tagged a couple times I jumped in… Here are the 5 black and white photos I posted with the comments. What I thought was going to be a PIA turned out to be pretty cool and I’ve been exposed to a lot of new black and white photography images as a result…
Day 1
This from Monument Valley and the box canyon. I like the Shadowed canyon wall, back
light on the horses and the settling dust that give this image it’s depth.
Day 2
Here’s an image captured on the streets of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
His name is Doc and is a truly wonderful character. He was introduced to me by Dennis Chamberlain
Day 3
Scan from an image taken out of the darkroom soup almost 30 years ago… I sometimes wonder if the images we have on our computers will last as long as this. I was actually quite surprised by how much detail was still available. Print origin 1985.
Day 4
Day 4 came from Italy. BW really adds a timeless fell to this image allowing
all the shape, form and textures to shine through with no distraction from color…
Day 5
Repeating shapes, forms, tones and leading lines from this hilltop town in Tuscan region in Italy close out my 5 day challenge.
It’s always good to accept a challenge to push and get feedback on your image making skills. What have you done lately??
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | photography, photography - art quote, photography education, success education
Play
PLAY…
PLAY
pLaY!
pLaY!!! With your pHotOgraPHy…
“The more evolved and animal is, the more time it spends playing.” P.J. O’Rourke
What do you think I mean here?
It’s the advice I give to photographers (and myself) when it’s time to learn something new.
Pick a lens you haven’t used in a long time and use it all day.
Change the shutter speed to a level that you are sure is too low and see what happens.
During the exposure shake the camera. Spin it. Zoom it. Add a rear curtain sync flash to a longer exposure.
Pick one color you want to capture for a day.
Grab a macro lens and add some extension tubes to it. Mix and match some or all of the above.
In Photoshop push some buttons and examine some filters just to see what they will do. Slide a slider as far as it will go to see what it does when pushed to it’s limit. Change the blend modes and opacity. Add textures. Shuffle the layers repeat. Repeat again.
Here’s an example of play with a Salute to Georgia O’Keeffe
Continually ask the question, ‘What happens if I…???’
Become an evolved animal! ROAR…
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – Let me know what you come up with…
by successfulbob | architectural photography, commercial photography, Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, photography, photography gear, photography lighting resources
Had a full day shoot for the Phoenix Airport Hilton. They are going through an $8M renovation with a complete redo of all the rooms and an update on all the common areas in the hotel. They have asked me to photograph the changes. This is the second shoot and we are planning another two day shoot once the lobby and and a few other areas of renovation are completed.
Here are a few from the shoot…
Arizona King room photo at Hilton Phoenix Airport Hotel
Double Queen Room
Junior Suite Room
Images were captured with the Lumix GH4 using multiple exposures to capture the full range of tones from the deepest shadows to the view outside the windows. A handy tool is the on-board WIFI which allowed me to control the camera from the Panasonic App. Not touching the camera makes layering the multiple exposures more accurate because even when your camera is locked down on a tripod any touch of the camera can cause the images to not be in perfect registration.
When photographing for Hilton properties they have guidelines that include no curtains being closed in the room photos. I use a variety of techniques adding some light to the original capture and blending the various exposures using masks in Adobe Photoshop. For those who haven’t already made the upgrade to Photoshop CC 2014 here is a link to $9.99 per month Photoshop and Lightroom)
Sometimes you just want to add a little kick off light to a small area to bring out some detail and the small Fiilex P100 LED light comes in handy. It has the ability to adjust color temperature which is important in mixed lighting situations when working in rooms with natural light coming through the windows and the light from the light fixtures. (order fiilex light here)
Here’s a tip to save you some time in post production. Replace lights in lamps and ceiling fixtures with 15 watt bulbs. This will allow the lamps to read as lit but not give you blown out areas in your captures. It makes a huge difference in the amount of time in post.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | landscape photography, photography, photography education
The Arizona Professional Photographers Association led by Bruce Roscoe had the weekend seeing and photographing parts of Monument Valley that many never get to experience. Here we were led into a box canyon to photograph horses running. It was a pretty cool experience…
This was the most active horse. Excited and bucking and running with mane flying in the wind created by the speed.
AZPPA photographers capturing photos of the running horses in the box canyon.
Horses taking a break to graze during the photo shoot in the canyon.
Linda went off in search of the best angle to photograph the Totem Poles and ended up being used as an element in my image.
All in all a wonderful trip! (did I tell you I enjoyed my time in Monument Valley?)
Trips like this are great to move you in a creative direction. There’s something about making images during travel to new locations to get your creative eye working and trying new ideas. When & where are you going next????
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | Lumix GH3, Lumix Lounge, people photography, photography, photography education
Bruce Roscoe is a wonderful, gentle and caring human being. And it shows in his actions…
Here’s a link to a story about a portrait Bruce flew across the country to make to help a fellow veteran. This story helped raise money to build schools over in Vietnam and bring some healing to those who had served there. And that led to a project Bruce is starting to tell the stories of our veterans that often get lost. Many people know only of the stories they read in the newspapers and magazines but miss the personal stories and revelations of the people behind the stories.
Bruce is working to rectify that. He has begun a portrait project offering professional legacy images to veterans. The vets also share their story in video and will be featured in a new veterans portrait museum Roscoe is working to put together…
But wait! I was only telling you about Bruce’s kind heart to begin to explain a wonderful photographic weekend the Arizona Professional Photographers Association had in Monument Valley this past weekend. Through being the kind of person Bruce is he’s forged an extended family relationship with the Yazzie family in Monument Valley. In order to help the Yazzie’s raise money to help them through the winter months Bruce leads tours a few times a year for photographers to experience the Navajo Way. This is a peek into the culture of the Navajo and includes storytelling, weaving, horse run, sheep herding, traditional food and exploring the back country of Monument Valley’s private areas and more. Bruce leads these tours gratis.
I’ll be sharing some images and stories from the trip and a bit more in subsequent days. Here’s a couple for today.
From the parking lot overlook this white horse managed to find some scrap plants to snack on…
Past President of AZPPA Bob Zimmerlich. Is that a Lumix GH3 camera I see??
Effie Yazzie on horse at Monument Valley on dune in front of the Ear of the Wind.
All in all the weekend was a roaring success thanks to Bruce. In addition Bruce had suggested photographers bring dog food to help feed the animals through the winter and the AZPPA came out in force. Almost 1000 pounds of dog food made it’s way into storage for the winter. Way to go AZPPA photographers!
These images were captured with the Lumix GH4 and the 35-100mm f2.8 Vario lens.
More images from MV soon.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
