Bell Comes Down

I was coming home from the local grocery store and found this scene on the square in Winterset, Iowa. A renovation crew was lowering the old courthouse bell, using a crane, onto a flatbed truck, to clean and refurbish it as part of an overall facelift for the old stone building.

Since I had no camera on me, the iPhone did just fine in HDR mode. Gotta hold steady for it though.

Painting With Light - Another Try

Which one do you like? I went downtown last week, while still employed by the Des Moines Register (all good things come to an end, right?) and decided to illustrate, in advance, the upcoming Des Moines Arts Festival.

I went to the downtown Western Gateway, set up the camera on a tripod, set the iso at 100, the f-stop at 32 and left the camera in Aperture Priority. This gave me about a 45 second exposure. I used an LED night light, very bright, to paint an rough impression of the wall of tent fronts that would soon invade. Vote for your favorite and I'll tell you which one I like.

This weekend Robin and I will be showing at ArtFest Midwest, The Other Art Show, in the air conditioning of the Varied Industries Building at the Fairgrounds. Best way to see both shows is to park in the ample lots at the Fairgrounds, hop the shuttle to the downtown show, walk around, sweat, look at the booths and then come back to the pleasant indoor show, say "Hi," while you're there and find your vehicle with no hassle.

Hope to see you this weekend, let me know which one you like.

 Number 1

 Number 2

Number 3

Number 4

Just Friends

While waiting along a county road for a guide to take me into a habitat area to photograph eaglets still in the nest, a farm dog approached me as I sat in my car. One of the people nearby said, "Watch out for them huskies, they can be mean." Watch closely as this dog "attacks me." 

Good puppy. I miss him already

Ground View from Joplin

Mark George, an Iowa photo friend, when to Joplin recently and has shared some pictures. This is his message to me:
"Every year Kris's family has a reunion. We kept it at Joplin and planned on helping out. Saturday, 7,000 volunteers helped Joplin. More main roads were able to open up and get cleared of all debris. Tire punctures slowed the progress down. Curfew was lifted Friday night, but the Police stepped up on patrols. So Much Destruction.  Only took a few photos."

 Note: Sorry the postings have slowed... it's art show season, seven days a week, 12 to 14 hours in the lovely heat. If you have some photo endeavors you'd like to share, this is the place.

Art Show Season Begins

Tomorrow we begin the outdoor Art Show Season with a one day event in Valley Junction, West Des Moines, Iowa. It is their Spring Art Market. I haven't show in Valley Junction for several years, neither has my wife Robin. One day shows are physically demanding and a single thunderstorm can wipe out the day. But... let's hope the rain is done by then. Rain isn't the only fear. Hail can be a real show-stopper. This was in Edina Minnesota four years ago.

Also high winds, up to 100 MPH in this case, crushed the Omaha Summer Arts Festival three years ago.

But you take your chances. Most of my work revolves around exploring the abstractions created in atmospheric event or in the movement in water. I was in Rome and made this image, while genltly moving the camera, left to right, creating my own abstraction. It's new this year, the newest photo to the collection. I'll only have one with me tomorrow, to see how people like it.

Time flies unless you shoot it down

Last week was a wedding week in the family. My daughter Sarah was married in a brisk outdoor affair at Sand Piper Recreation Area near Polk City, Iowa.

So blogging has been far down on the list. My former brother in law Bill took photos and Charlie the video. I walked my lovely daughter down the aisle and then, later, couldn't help myself. I went to the car, got a camera and found a little moment of joy. After cutting the wedding cake, Sarah fed a bit to her new husband John and then to their first daugther Georgia.

I spend a good deal of time talking about technique on this blog. But the heart of creation is answering the question, "Does this work?" Who cares about the exposure, camera or lens. "Does this work?" Of course it does because it's a little moment.

All we are doing, at the end of the day, is using idioms... sorry, let me rephrase. The bottom line (another idiom) is that we are simply rescuing moments from vanishing into eternity. Amen.

The Heart of the Portable Strobe Shoot

Terra is a budding professional photographer from Ankeny, Iowa. She has a strong eye for portraiture, a winning smile and a great deal of patience. In our Digital Studio Safari class on Saturday, I was demonstrating to Terra and Gail (on the left) and Marnae, the how and why of using portable strobes in an environmental situation, using an infrared remote on my Canon SLR.

Zeroing in on Terra, I demonstrated that sometimes the ambient light of a room isn't intense enough to be able to hand-hold a heavy digital SLR. Also, the light isn't very interesting. Here's the starting point:

So, here is the shaky image depending on some overhead but mostly window light. Not very good. We need to improve the situation.

The lighting gear I'm using are two Canon speedlites and an infrared remote trigger, that fits into the hotshoe of the camera.
But we begin with one strobe in the hotshoe.
The first step, when I'm teaching this approach, is to place the portable speedlite on the Canon camera and give the subject the old blast in the face, lots of light, oh my, this is what Terra would look like to a coal miner. Flash on camera. Yuck.

So first things first, we get that light thrown up into the ceiling by bouncing turning the flash at 90-degrees to the subject. A slight improvement.

 But I know I'm going to use two lights so I take the strobe off the camera and place it to the side. At 45-degrees to subject Terra will look better...

A huge improvement. Now it's time to separate Terra and that sassy blonde hair with the red streak from the background. A second strobe, on the same channel as the infrared remote is placed behind her... like this.

And now it is time to play with the angles and exposures to keep Terra separated from the background, while making sure the light in front is not too direct.

This is only a partial success. The camera is set at ISO200, f5.6 with a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second. At that exposure the we aren't taking advantage of the significant ambient light in the room, mostly daylight streaming in through eight windows. As I try dialing down the shutter speed, Terra gets bored...

But now I'm getting closer. The last exposure was 1/125th of a second at 5.6. I drop down the shutter speed to 1/60th and VIOLA!!! Success.

Click on the photo to see it larger. It's a simple idea but really makes a difference for an environmental portrait.