I recently posted a few reflection photos to Instagram, and it got me thinking about how much time I spend looking for reflections. My conclusion? Not nearly enough!
Photos of boats in a marina with still water are pretty low-hanging fruit. I need to remind myself that while I am looking for lines, pattern and shadows, to keep my eyes peeled for good candidates for reflections.
Kirk Tuck recently posted about how (paraphrasing) walking around town with a camera taking random pictures of interesting things is “almost like playing scales on the piano.” As a reformed musician that’s a reference I understand. Practicing technique is what allows us to nail the performance.
One of my recurring dreams involves being invited – and accepting – to perform some kind of solo concert. I haven’t touched my trombones – although I still have them – in nearly 30 years but when the day comes for me to play the dream ends. There’s probably some important symbolism there but I won’t try to analyze.
“Winter” or what we know as winter took this past weekend off, so Kathy & I took advantage of the 70 degree temperatures to enjoy the day at Latta Nature Preserve. I took my camera, of course, and took a few photos. To make it a little harder I took only my widest prime lens – the 14mm f2.8 (21mm full-frame equivalent). I don’t shoot a lot with wide angle lenses and it tends to show. While I didn’t come back with anything truly exceptional the idea of practice was my intention. Kathy helps me by seeing things she sees and giving me an “assignment” like the photos of purple leaves and the fallen branches with pine cones below. Now I have a name for the concept – practicing my scales.
It was almost like I had heard Jeff Curto’s words in my head, although I didn’t actually hear them until we got home. Jeff’s most recent podcast talks about it isn’t necessary to travel long distances or to exotic locations to make interesting photographs. Give it a listen if you don’t already subscribe. And you know you should. 😉
Kathy and I decided to spend a nice late-fall Sunday afternoon at Latta Plantation Nature Preserve, a county park near Huntersville, North Carolina and about 8 miles from our house. We packed a picnic lunch, laced up our hiking shoes and spent a couple of hours wandering the trails along Mountain Island Lake, the lake that we live close to, but not at. It’s not Lake Superior, but it’s what we’ve got. 🙂
We’ve been to Latta a number of times over the years, and I’ve made lots of photographs there. But it had been a while. There are things to see and photograph at all times of the year, but I have often sold it short since it is – as Jeff alluded to – in our “back yard.”
Kathy & I had already decided that we’re going to stick close to home for the next few months, and are planning to get out and explore our own area. I’ve said for years that I like to be a “tourist in my own town” but have never sat still long enough to give it a chance. Sounds like now is as good a time as any!
I’ve always had a thing for boat bows, especially reflections of bows in the water. Shelter Cove Marina is of course full of boat bows. Other boat parts, too! Here are a few from our evening there that I found notable.
Kathy & I woke this morning to a temperature of 68 degrees and a noticeable drop in humidity. We had our morning coffee & tea on the screened porch and almost needed our sleeves! 🙂
Kathy & I met our friend Paul for lunch today, and on the way home Kathy said that the shadows and colors on the houses looked like fall. The air is crispy clear and it does have that fall look. But we’re not fooled! This will only last a few days before the heat and humidity return. In the meantime we’ll enjoy it!
Kirk Tuck recently used this phrase in regards to making choices between camera options, specifically about different lenses. The full quote follows:
The “science” of optical design can not have changed a tremendous amount in four or five years so you have to understand that the “new versus old” shift is largely a recalibration of compromises. Buy the new one and watch your left biceps atrophy. Buy the old one and suffer the dreaded effects of manual portage. Suffer the ruinous added weight of the original for the extra 1% of quality in the corners or choose the lightweight version and forever wonder how much optical magic they had to remove to get the lens corpulence under control.
It occurred to me, however, that the concept applies in a much broader context, especially in recent months.
Every decision we make requires some effort to balance the options, to compromise. Do I want the camera with the big sensor that is huge, heavy and requires a large suitcase to cart around, or am I better off with the compact camera with a smaller sensor, small but excellent lenses and “good enough” image quality? We want to travel – we love to fly but not not any time soon. We have spent a lot of time on cruise ships but won’t for a while. Our trip to the beach worked out really well – just like living at home but with better scenery. 😉
We love to eat our but have limited our restaurant outings. We’ve gotten even better at preparing simple but delicious meals at home – much to the delight of the bathroom scale!
Kathy and I are currently in the process of planning a road trip to the Pacific Northwest. The places we’re planning to visit are the places where we’re less likely to encounter big crowds. As crazy as it sounds, we’ll probably drive within a few miles of Yellowstone or Glacier National Parks, but have no intention of stopping. First, crowds are not our thing. We probably would be doing pretty much the same thing even without all the Coronacrisis hoopla. But second is that we don’t want to have to deal with the logistics of large crowds. Third is that when we do go to those parks we want to be able to spend several days or even a couple of weeks there. That isn’t the plan for this time.
Our recent drive to Ohio and Wisconsin taught us that we can eat, sleep, pee and get gas just about anywhere. Sometimes it requires a little compromise on location or timing, but it can get done. Ultimately, once we solve that basic equation we can go just about anywhere!
People ask us why we don’t buy an RV. For some people it’s the perfect solution. For us, we like knowing that when we get to the motel, tired after or driving or exploring all day, we don’t need to spend another hour setting up camp. I can have cocktails made within minutes after arrival! And the next morning, we grab a cup of coffee, drop the keys at the front desk and get on our way again. Neither option is right or wrong, just different ways to calibrate the compromises.
None of our choices are either/or or yes/no. We need to consider what we can do instead We have to look at the options and recalibrate our compromises. Our priorities, if you will. It can be hard, particularly for those of us who don’t care for change. But the effort is worth it, because there are still plenty of things to do once we have worked out the details.
I’m going back through my old photos for a website update. This one is already on my website, but I thought I would see what the current software (and my current Lightroom chops) could do with some of the files. This is the first one I’ve tried this go-around, and I think I’ve made significant improvement.
I made a Snapshot in case I messed something up, then hit Reset. Using the Adobe Landscape profile, I went though my usual routine with contrast, etc. I added a gradient to the sky, using a Luminance Mask to apply the settings only to the lightest parts. Overall contrast and saturation is much better, which is hard to see in the web versions.
It will be interesting to see what I can do with other files. This may take a while…. 😉
Canon 20D w/17-40 f4
I’ve been fans of Really Right Stuff (RRS) products since I purchased an L-bracket and clamp for my Mamiya 7 camera back in (approximately) 2002. Paying my ‘RRS Tax’ has been an important part of each camera purchase since then. The rare exception was with the brackets for my Fujifilm X-T1 and X-E2. I bought very well-made brackets from a company in England which is (sadly) no longer in business. I still have the bracket I purchased for the Mamiya, as it is a “universal” model and has fit every camera I have owned since. Handy for those few weeks while I’ve waited for the “real” bracket to be available!
The biggest issue with Really Right Stuff products is that they are Really Really Expensive. But like owning Craftsman tools or All-Clad cookware, you can’t go wrong buying the good stuff. I currently own a RRS tripod with ballhead, and until recently had two ballheads. I’ll never need to buy another tripod. Unless I change my mind and decide I need a smaller one. 😉
When I placed the order for my X-T4, I also ordered an L-bracket from another manufacturer. That bracket was supposed to cost about $65 less than the RRS version, and because it was also a quality brand, I figured I would save some money. Because it is a brand-new camera, neither company had released their L-brackets at the time I got my camera.
I kept checking the Kirk and RRS websites for information on their delivery times. Kirk’s website said that they didn’t expect to ship until late July. As of the time of this post, the bracket is showing up on their website for ordering but is out of stock. The photos on the Kirk website show a product that isn’t (in my opinion) as well designed and integrated with the camera as the RRS version. Plus it is $25 more than I originally expected, making it nearly as much as the RRS while not being nearly as nice.
One day I checked the websites and the RRS version was in stock and shipping. I ordered one immediately and cancelled the order for the other one. Of course it came 3 days after we left for our trip to Ohio, but it was waiting for me when I returned.
The photos will show better than my words will, but the RRS product is exceptionally well designed. The relatively recent addition of the magnets for mounting the Allen wrench is genius, and the sliding plate to accommodate accessories in a vertical configuration is a nice touch, much better than some kind of add-on adapter.
I haven’t had a chance to actually use the bracket in real life, but hope to be able to put it through its paces soon. Of course as long as it works there won’t be a lot more to say!
It may be a dicey time to try and get out to other parts of the country, but Kathy & I are fixin’ to get back on the road again. We’ll be headed to Ohio and beyond for a few days. So I’m going to end the post-a-day I’ve been doing and concentrate on taking photos and spending time with family and friends. You may see an occasional postcard from time to time.
One thing I did do, for anyone who is interested, is post a gallery of photos from our recent trip to the beach: 2020-06 Hilton Head
Monte commented on my last post about having been inside having dinner when a nice sunset was happening. As it turned out, Friday’s sunset here was also pretty nice, but I missed it for the same reason. I’ve often told non-photographers that many of the best landscape photos are taken when people are either eating or sleeping. Of course, Kathy’s version of that saying is that a sunset is best observed through a glass. Albeit not a glass in the form of a camera lens. 😉
I had my camera all ready to go on Saturday night but it turned out to be a colorless mass of gray clouds. But I left everything out in the office to I would be ready last night. When the first hint of pink started in the sky I went inside, grabbed my gear and headed to the patio. But in the course of that 1-2 minute window the pink faded as fast as it started. I did manage to salvage a bit of the last remaining hints of color as it faded. First photo and last photo were about 12 minutes apart.
Transmission towers aren’t as nice a subject as palm trees, but they aren’t drift fences, either. 🙂
