Defining Photography

I love taking photographs of just about anything... But what about after the picture has been taken? Is that all there is to photography? Read on for more...

Defining Photography

Edited on 3/13/2009 at 8:55pm

I love taking photographs of just about anything. I'll take pictures of stray clouds wafting by, an old barn in a field, an animal doing something interesting (or not), people doing interesting things(or, again, not doing interesting things), etc. I enjoy taking lots of shots of bolts and nails and ordinary things, but I also enjoy taking shots of things you just don't see everyday. Sometimes a picture I took starts off as ordinary, and then transforms into the extraordinary by the time it gets uploaded.

But what about after the picture has been taken? Is that all there is to photography? Some would say that all we should do is take the picture - and do nothing more - no post-processing, no nothing - to do so is to alter - to violate - the original image. Somehow the post-processed image is less than the original. Others, however, post-process like crazy - rendering some truly mind-blowing scenes, while others try to aim for what their own eye thought it saw.

I suppose I'm planted firmly in the latter camp. Rarely does a photo make it online or in my portfolio without some sort of work. Occasionally an image is perfect out of the camera, but when it isn't - or, when I want to evoke a mood or emotion, then I resort to post-processing.

Bench with a View

Some of the post-processing work I do on a photograph is similar to what one would have done in a darkroom - adjusting, tweaking, etc., to get the result as close to the way my eyes saw a scene. For example, the blue out of the camera may not be quite blue enough, or the contrast may be off, etc. These kinds of tweaks are really just that - they do not alter the result in any significant way, except to render it as I, the photographer, saw it.

Distant Clouds

However, another type of post-processing I do is to significantly alter the image from reality. This might entail converting from color to black and white, significantly altering color balances and hues, removing items that may have actually been in the image (but were distracting), and, in extreme circumstances, totally creating a new image from the photograph that is barely comparable to the original. For example, the image above has been heavily post-processed. In reality the sky this day was bright blue, and the clouds soft and puffy - nothing as austere and contrasted as this image displays.

The first method I simply call "reality post-processing". It's just getting something to look as I remembered it. The second, though, I call "art". Photography records a moment in time, yes - but an artist can take that moment in time and further work it to create something new. Both are valid approaches to creating interesting images, in my opinion, and neither violates the original photograph.

Looking At You ("Reality Post-Processed")

Stones in a Field ("Art")

Perhaps I am, to some extent, wrong in this - perhaps I should call myself an artist instead of a photographer, but truth is - I am both - and sometimes I wish to render an image as it was, and sometimes I with to render it artistically.

Given that I post images I find interesting, I am not as beholden to a certain standard of post-processing as others - especially those in the photo-journalistic world. In that world one must be as faithful to the original scene as possible, but outside of that world, we are free to express images in any number of ways, both realistically and surrealistically.

Sunset at 50mm and Other Miscellany

Well, I finally ventured into Chicago to go to a photography store (Calumet) that I've always wanted to go check out ever since I bought my dSLR. Getting there and back in one piece was quite the adventure (miraculous, too!) but the trip was well worth it.

I ended up purchasing several items - a red leather bag by Jill-E, which is absolutely gorgeous, and has tons of space - and I also picked up the "nifty fifty" - the Canon 50mm f/1.8 II lens. I can't believe how tiny and light it is, but having no metal will do that to a lens. The focus ring is a sad thing; the older 50mm lenses had a better focus ring, but it's still serviceable (no worse than the 18-55mm kit lens' focusing ring).

But the pictures this thing can take. Wow. Far better contrast and colors than my other two lenses, and it's sharp. And fast. And of course, I had to play with it a little - as you can see from the image on the left. I found this tree on my drive home, and the colors were so beautiful that I had to stop and take a quick pic. Actually "quick" is a misnomer - I probably have twenty or thirty similar pics taken in the span of a few minutes. The only things I tinkered with were the color (the original was a very dark blue - but in playing, I moved it a little towards blue-green) and the vignette. I did adjust the "clarity" in Lightroom as well so as to bring the branches out even more.

And then there's this one. Normally I'd nuke a photo for being so blurry and having so much camera shake, but something about this photo intrigued me, in a strange artistic kind of way. So it survived deletion. Perhaps I'm the only one who would have let it survive, but somehow, it speaks to me. I don't know what it says, but it definitely speaks!

While at the store I also picked up an X-Rite i1 Display 2 to properly calibrate my monitors (instead of 'eyeing' it). For $169, it was a great price, and is working very well. The difference was immediate on both my laptops, and so it's already well worth it. And for anyone else who's looking at one - yes, it does work on Vista x64 - you just have to download the drivers from the website.

And always, for more photos and images, you can view my gallery...

March Spotlight

Here's some links I've found interesting:

Design

• "Means of Transportation" Vectors (free!)
• "People" Vectors
• RGBa Browser Support - the "a" here means "alpha" support, as in transparency.
• Beautiful Datepickers and Calendars for Web Developers - some great examples of how to make a calendar look classy.
• The Proper Way to Draw Rounded Corners" - it speaks for itself!

Photography

• Morning Sunbeams Through Forest - just absolutely gorgeous!
• Heart of Darkness - if I see a cloud like this... I'm running!
• Photography 101.5: Aperture - It's never to late to revisit the basics!

I love Geese...

Don't ask me why, but they're just so cute to me. I find it funny when they bicker at each other, and stare in awe at their flight... Continue Reading...

I love Geese

I love geese. Don't ask me why, but they're just so cute to me. I find it funny when they bicker at each other, and stare in awe at their flight. Or wonder what in the world told one set of geese to join another set, or some to depart mid-flight to go after another few passing geese. So, I thought I'd offer a "Mini Goose Gallery" of the pics I've taken of geese:

As always, view these and more in my gallery...

Introducing KSROT

I just released the code for version 1 of KSROT, a new image rotator, that when compressed is 5K, and requires no other scripts (like jQuery or Prototype). Check it out here.

New Image Rotator

You've probably noticed the image rotator on our front page. (And if you haven't, go take a look.) I recently updated it with a better coded, easier to use version, and decided to give it away to whomever would like it. It is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license (v3), so you're free to use it wherever you'd like - just please give me attribution somewhere on your site or page.

Introducing KSROT

KSROT, while it may not sound particularly exciting or enticing, is the newest version of the image rotator. It is easy to install on your site and it is easy to use. You need four files (two, if you're really stingy) - the javascript code, the CSS code, and two image files (for next/back arrows). If you make your own images or decide you don't want that part, you can forget about the two images.

• ksrot.js (23.5k), or ksrot_compressed.js (5k)
• ksrot.css (1k)
• direction_left.png (1.2k)
• direction_right.png (1.2k)

Using KSROT

Using KSROT is extremely easy. First, include the stylesheet in your page:

<link rel=stylesheet href="/scripts/ksrot/ksrot.css" type="text/css">

And include the script in your page, before any code that utilizes it:

<SCRIPT type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="/scripts/ksrot_compressed.js"></SCRIPT>

Next, you need a DIV somewhere on your page that the rotator can attach itself to. It doesn't need anything inside it - just an ID that you'll remember later:

<div id="rotator"></div>

Okay - now that you've got that, we're ready to tell the rotator what DIV to attach to, and the settings we want to use:

<SCRIPT type="text/javascript">
  var r = new Rotator("rotator", [ { 'width':'642', 'height':'353',
                                      'controlBar':'yes',
                                      'navigation':'yes',
                                      'duration':'7500',
                                      'animationSpeed':'25',
                                      'tryAgainDelay':'500',
                                      'useCaptions':'no',
                                      'autoAdvance':'yes',
                                      'useTitles':'yes' } ]);

The first parameter is the ID of the DIV you want to attach to. In our case, our DIV is named "rotator", so that's what we put in the code. The next parameter is an array of configuration options. Most of these you can omit if you want - reasonable defaults will be supplied if you do, but you must specify the width and height options - otherwise you'll end up with a rotator that is pretty much unusable.

Each of the configuration options control how the rotator works. Here's what each mean:

• width: width of the rotator. I.E., "650". Do NOT add "px" to the option.
• height: height of the rotator. I.E., "350". Do NOT add "px" to the option.
• controlBar: An area at the bottom of the rotator that appears when the user hovers over the rotator. If "yes", this bar is enabled. If "no", the bar is disabled. The bar contains direct-access links to specific items in the rotator. The default is "yes".
• navigation: Two areas at the left and right of the rotator that allows the user to navigate to the previous and next images. If "no", these areas are disabled. If "yes", these are enabled. They only appear when the mouse is over the rotator. The default is "yes".
• autoAdvance: Determines if the rotator will auto-advance to the next image after a short delay. If "yes", the advance will occur automatically. If "no", the user must initiate an advance. The default is "yes".
• duration: Determines, in microseconds, the delay between automatic advances. It has no meaning if autoAdvance is "no". The default is "20000".
• animationSpeed: Determines, in microseconds, the delay between transition frames. A transition consists of 20 frames, so set this to a low value. The default is 25ms.
• tryAgainDelay: If a user attempts to navigate to another image while a transition is in progress, the action is queued up so that the current transition can complete uninterrupted. This delay is the amount of time, in milliseconds, until the action will be tried again. The default is 1 second (1000ms).
• useCaptions: If "yes", the caption of the image will be used in the control bar instead of numbers. If "no", the control bar will use numbers (i.e., 1 2 3 4). The default is "no".
• useTitles: If "yes", the title of the image will be displayed within the rotator. If "no", the image will not be displayed. The default is "yes".
• shuffle: not yet supported, but coming.

Once you've done this, you need to add items to the rotator. Here's how:

    r.addItem (
              new RotatorItem    ("/images/rotator/image.jpg")
                  .setCaption    ("My Image")
                  .setTitle      ("My Image: © 2009 Me")
                  .setHREF       ("http://www.example.com")
                  .setTransition ("fade")
            );

That's it. Again, like in the previous code, most of this is optional. What you must have is the "new RotatorItem ( url )" part; the caption, title, HREF, and transition are optional.

The Caption is the text that will appear in the image tooltip and in the control bar (if you set useCaptions to "yes"). Keep this short, since long captions will limit the number of links can be displayed in the control bar.

The Title is the text that will appear above the image if you've set useTitles to "yes". Otherwise it has no meaning.

The HREF is the location the image should link to when clicked. If it isn't set, the default HREF is "#", effectively reloading the page. When set to an off-site URL (prefixed with http or https), the link will automatically open a new window (or tab). If it is an on-site URL (not prefixed), the link will replace the current page.

And finally, the transition is the animation that will occur when showing this image. There are five transitions currently supported: "fade", "slideLeft", "slideRight", "slideTop", "slideBottom". Any other value is interpreted as a "fade".

Of course, one item isn't the point of the rotator, so add some more. Go on - I'll wait.

Okay - now that you've got more than one item, you have to tell the rotator to start:

    r.start();
</SCRIPT>

And that's it. Your rotator will load its first image, and start cycling through the other images. Cool, eh? And if you've used the compressed javascript, the browser had to load only 5k of javascript, 1k of CSS, and 2.5k of images. Not too bad! (If you can enable gzip, do so - the savings are even better.)

Compatibility

I've tested this on the following browsers:

• Firefox 3.x
• Safari 3
• Google Chrome 1.x, 2.x
• Internet Explorer 7.x, 8.x

It should work in IE 6 if you take care of the transparent PNGs. Don't count on it working in anything less, and don't even think about it working in anything resembling NS 4, etc.

If you have any problems, just holler. I can't guarantee a quick response, but I'll try to assist wherever possible. I hope you enjoy it!

The Moon

I looked up tonight and guess what I saw hanging up in the sky - the moon. It was so pretty I just had to snap a picture of it:

Pretty cool, eh? Sometimes God just floors me with the beauty of His creation. Wow.

Snow Texture

While shooting recently I found this little gem hidden away in part of another image. I couldn't get over the colors - it looks like little snow crystals! Enjoy - this one is free (Under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License), and should tile nicely.

Rust Texture

So while shooting I found this absolutely amazing bridge - and zoomed up it gave me this absolutely amazing rust texture. It's set up so that it will tile just fine, and it is free for use (Under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License).

Winter Shots

So, I bought a new lens - the Canon 75-300mm f/4-6.5 cheapy. (Sort of - it cost $200.) I knew full well going in that it wasn't the best lens, and that it had plenty of problems throughout the zoom range, but hey - I wanted something that would let me get in nice and close to whatever I was shooting. So of course I had to go play with it, right?

So, below, you can find some of the pictures I took with the new lens. Some are very heavily processed for an artistic feel, but some are only marginally touched up. I must say - even knowing the lens isn't the sharpest thing in the world - it did a very good job. I wouldn't use it for a full-on professional shoot (too much color fringing, and not enough sharpness), but it works just fine for what I wanted it for.

As always, you can see these and more in my gallery!

In Chicago

I was in Chicago near the end of the week for a conference. So what better place to take some pictures, right?

Morning in Chicago

This sunrise was the view from my hotel window. Catching two birds in flight was totally by chance (look really close in the upper-right corner).

The three images below were taken at roughly the same time, each showing slightly different views out my window:

A Brick Building

This building fascinated me for some reason. Don't ask why - I can't tell you. But I just love the colors that pop out of it! The image on the right is the building in more detail - what particularly fascinated me was the green stairs on the roof. I never really thought about it, but I guess someone has to get up to those big heating units to do maintenance, right? Speaking of heating units - can you tell it was cold that day?

Then I noticed this "thing" - not sure what it is, but thought it was interesting so I had to take a picture of it too!

All Lit Up

I call the image to the left "All Lit Up" - obviously the image has been played with a lot, but somehow it evokes something in me that I like. Not sure what - but there's definitely a "feel" here!

The image on the right is also of Chicago at night; I just love the "glow" evident here. I can definitely undersand why people love the skyline - because it's beautiful!

The Guv's Out!

FINALLY. Blago is out.

Now maybe we can get on with the business of fixing the state of Illinois. (A girl can dream, right?!!!!)

Winter Photos

I finally convinced myself to go out in the cold and take some pictures. Let me say: it was very cold! But some good pictures came out nonetheless. See more pictures...

Ahh, the Coldness

Yesterday I convinced my body to go outside for a few brief moments to take some pictures. Let me tell you that when the wind chills are like 30 and 40 below zero those moments are very brief indeed. Even so, I think i got some good ones!

Given how cold it was, you had to really feel sorry for this little bush thing on the left. Just one thing - this picture was actually taken inside where I was nice and warm. Not so for the plant.

The image on the right was taken while outside. I couldn't help but wonder who in the world took the time to carve the battlements in the snow on the wall at the bottom of the photo, especially knowing how could it had to have been. But it gave an interesting photo, nonetheless. And the field beyond is just stunning. And no, the sun did not help warm things up.

The final image on the left was taken at the same place as the prior photo, and it was still just as cold. But I saw this cloud hanging up there in the sky, and it looked sorta lonely. So I just had to take a picture!

As always you can find these images and more in my photo gallery. Take a look...

Ok, Seriously!

Ok, Seriously, It's Cold Outside!

On my way into to work yesterday and today my car registered outside temperatures as low as -26. Add a wind-chill factor on to that, and brrrrrrrrr!

All I know is this: I'm SO ready for winter to be over, and spring to arrive. And hey - by Wednesday next week it might just feel like it - why? The difference in how it feels outside will be roughly SEVENTY degrees. Wow. Break out the shorts!

New Camera!!!!

I stopped by Target last night, and guess what I walked out with? A nice new shiny Canon Rebel XSI (or EOS 450D, as it is otherwise known). Mmmmmmmm, very nice.

And now the fun of learning its quirks and how to get the best pictures out of it begins!

Ghosts in Winter

Check this image out - a recent snow afforded the opportunity to play with a picture of these trees - and then this came out. Too cool! View all images...

Expect the Unexpected

Oy, vey!

This is what greeted me when I started driving this morning. Fun. Not. Most of the roads had yet to be plowed (or plowed well), and the radio commentary was even more fun listening to (i.e., accidents here, there, everywhere!) Of course, none of this had been forecast, so it was as much a surprise to the weather forecasters (even an hour before) as it was to me. But, oh well... that's life in the midwest, right?

Newest Images

The image on the left was actually a mistake - just a "what-if" experiment. A relatively bright lamp was placed behind the bottle, and then I just shot into it. The camera focused on the words at the back and produced this amazing image. I've done nothing else to it, save post it.

On the right was a photo taken a few years back, but the way the animal was looking back at me just struck me. The effect was achieved after a bit of playing around with layers and blends, but I like it. Not to mention that it seems this guy has a rather good bit of attitude - and therefore it is entitled Whatchoo lookin' at?

These two photos were taken about two years ago on one summer's day - apparently one filled with a bit of weather. The rainbow has been enhanced in the image on the far left, and something just struck me about those ominous clouds hanging over this lone farm in the distance. Given that both were taken from a moving vehicle makes them that more amazing (that they even came out!)

As always, if you want to see all the images I've created or photos I've taken, just wander over to my gallery...

It's a New Year...

Wow - it's a new year. It's hard to believe that it's 2009. It's hard to believe that sometime this year I will turn 30. (Oh my!) It's hard to believe that there's an entire year stretching out before me - some of it planned, some of it blank - but all of it ready to be filled with experience.

The year ahead has great potential, I think. No future is written in stone - it is what we make it. I think my "New Year Resolution" is to approach this new year with an attitude of betterment - to enjoy those moments I can - and to not always think thoughts that bring me down. I'm certain I won't always succeed - but with luck, and with God's help, I believe 2009 will be a fantastic year - not just for me, but I pray that it will be for many others.

So, with all that in mind - let's say goodbye to 2008 (but not forget the great memories), and welcome 2009. I'm sure great things are coming...