J_Winter11-0914

Fading light near Sisters, OR.

Well, now that all the ski resorts have closed down, I guess we can call winter officially over. Was hoping to get up one more time to the mountains before the warm weather hit, but we didn't get the chance. But the wonderful thing about photography, is there is always something to photograph, no matter what time of year it is. The only limit is your creativity!

But, back tot thinking about winter, I've been reviewing alot of our wintry pics from the last year or so, and thought I'd share some that haven't been published before. Part of why I'm excited to post these is that we also just upgraded to Lightroom 4, and it makes a big difference in developing photos, allowing more depth and detail than the previous version of the software (I'll post more on Lightroom 4 later). What this means practically, is that pictures that were too noisy or may have needed too much correction for me to consider as worth showing, can now see the light of day :-). Enjoy!




J_Winter11-1189

Passing snow storm on the coastal range

J_Winter12-8163

Sunset at Mt. Hood, after a fantastic day of skiing

Summer has come early to Oregon. We've had beautfiul 80+ degree weather over the weekend which is pretty unusual for April. I haven't quite had to break out the air conditioner yet, but its getting close.

Naturally, we've been outside as much as possible. Which meant we were out walking during the stunning sunset we had Saturday night. At the start of our walk, I'd asked Amy if we should run back to grab a camera (one of the big ones) but neither of us felt like it so we headed out. That was a mistake, because about 1/4 of a mile down the road we were out in beautiful fields with the setting sun highlighting the clouds, and nothing but the camera on my phone to shoot with! DISASTER, or so I thought.

Having had digital SLR cameras for the last eight years, I am admittedly biased against cellphone cameras. Generally speaking, they take ugly, pixelated pictures. And up until Titus was born, I never really used mine for anything other than quick little snapshots. In my mind, cameras in phones are still back at the same level they were when they first launched over a decade ago. So, to me, they don't perform well enough for me to want to use them in any serious or creative photography.

But, necessity being the mother of all invention, I couldn't let the sunset go without at least trying to get a cool image. So out came the camera phone, at Amy's suggestion. And in the process of shooting the sunset, I have revised my negative opinion about camera phones. They are no longer "pointless" for serious photography :-).

One of the most limiting factors about most current camera phones is their low pixel count, and this was my biggest concern when trying to capture our sunset Saturday. Our 5d MkII SLR is 22mp, where as my phone is only 5mp, and that (along with many other factors) makes a big difference in the kind of results you get. Trying to think of a way to overcome this limitation, and having recently spent quite a bit of time with GigaPan's Stitch software, I wondered if I could handhold the phone steady enough to get images that the progrom could stitch together when we got home. This would mean I could get an image that would be much higher resolution, and give me greater opportunities in the digital darkroom, and allow me to capture more of the scene in front of me (when camera phones can shoot in RAW it will be awesome!). Holding my phone vertically, and setting it to scenic, I took a series of about 6 pictures in a couple locations. Then, at home, I put them together using Stitch, and then exported them to Photoshop for refinement, contrast, and reducing the noise in the image that is such a factor for camera phones. Here's the results I was able to get:


So what do you think? Is there such a thing as a bad camera? What piece of equipment do you find limiting, and have you figured out how to make in work creatively despite its weaknesses? Will camera phones at some point be the only picture taking device we need?

Also want to share a few more pictures from the tulip fields. Hope "summer" is being as good to you as it is to us!

Hi everyone,
Like I posted about earlier, this past Saturday we went up to Woodburn to photograph the tulip fields at the Wooden Shoe. It was a spectacular day, warm, light breeze, and blooms everywhere. The kind of day that makes you feel like everything is in its place. A great day to relax and welcome Spring!

Now, while the outdoorsman in me was drinking it in and thinking this was fantastic, the photographer in me was having a much more challenging day. I had hoped to setup the GigaPan and capture some gigapixel images of the tulip fields. Part of what made the day so wonderful was the white puffy clouds dotting the sky, like sheep in a field. But that also meant they periodically drifted across the sun, which changed the light completely. And this in turn meant that any gigapan I was going to create would have been splotchy and funny looking, because as you stitch images together to make a gigapan, if the light is not very close or the same in each frame you capture, it ends up creating aberrations in the final image. Then, as the sun was higher and there was starting to be some consistent light, the crowds showed up and there was no way to capture the kind of epic shot I had in mind with out lots of people in it. So gigapanning was out, at least for that afternoon.

Frustrated that my initial idea hadn't panned out (get it? gigapanning, panned out, heh), I snapped some random images just to feel like something was getting created. But they weren't very good, and I couldn't get the close crops on the tulips that I wanted, because I didn't have a macro lens. Which led to more feelings of frustration.

About that time, Amy came out to photograph, having gotten little Titus squared away in his stroller. As is her usual way, she pointed out (after listening to me vent) that I had a choice to be frustrated and feel like the day was a waste artistically, or I could think of something/somehow else to photograph and still get good pictures, even if it wasn't what I had initially planned on. She was having no problems taking pictures that were visually arresting and satisfying to her, because she wasn't worried about all the technical things I was thinking about. She was just focused on finding someway to get good photos with the gear and conditions at hand. Well, duh....why didn't I think of that?

So that led to pulling out the 2x extender and our 70-200mm lens, which when put on our 7D that due to its APS-C sized sensor has some extra zoom, made quite a serviceable macro setup. Of course with a zoom somewhere around 600mm when all factors are considered, shutter speed and ISO settings became an issue in order to get sharp pictures handheld. That, and you lose a couple of stops of light going through the extender. Fortunately, modern cameras like the 7D have such low noise even at extreme ISOs, that I was able to get a fast enough shutter speed to handhold the beast of a lens and still get sharp images. Below are some of our results from the day. You can also see these, and more soon, in our Recent Work gallery on our website: D'Vine Photography - Recent Work Gallery

And I'll leave you with one last thought, having spent the day surrounded by flowers and examining them from all angles, to get photos. This verse kept just recurring in my head as I'd find a new variety of tulip, or the geometry of the petals and light dancing through them had me standing, sitting in the dirt, and lying down to get the shot.

"... See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these." Matthew 6:28-29



J_Spring12-5834