Project 52 by Mal Schulstad

[Kathy O]

This week sees me venturing beyond my normal comfort zone and into the nature and landscapes area. I've been chasing a majestic sunrise for weeks and thought for sure I'd be able to get one this week - but no luck. So we all headed out to Curtis Falls at Mt Tamborine for a bit of a bush walk to see what we could see.

I'm posting two photos with different treatments just to get everyone's opinions. As I said, this stuff isn't my forte and I struggle to see the nature and landscape scenes with the same passion as many of you on here so I'm hoping that with a bit of guidance and encouragement my blinders will eventually come off

This first one literally is just down the garden path. It was a challenge obviously being in the shadow at the base and then shooting the sky to get the detail in the clouds without going HDR. I've used a couple of graduated filters to bring up the detail in the darker areas.

In the first version I'm not sure if I've over done the colours:


The second one was my thought that there seemed to be enough tones and textures for a black and white conversion. However, on doing it, I'm not sure that it really has a dramatic impact:


So I ended up doing a hybrid:


And I'm not sure which one is best!

The second photo is my attempt at trying to get my people subjects into a natural setting. In this case the colour photo was a bit bland so I did a B&W treatment and a partial removal of colour.






Again - help on what works best would be great

Biggest challenge I had on the day - taking photos quickly with a tripod stuck to the bottom of my camera! I ended up using my tripod like a monopod!

I really like the black and white tree, it looks as though the sky is opening up and wecoming the tree into it. I like the partial color photo of the one with the people hiking, it gets my attention more than the black and white one. I like the creativity with all of your photos -- makes them fun!

Kathy

[Goldcoastgolfer]

So photo #1 is 1 vote for the full colour, 1 vote for the B&W so far.

Photo #2 is 2 votes to the partial colour version.

Anyone else?

[Goldcoastgolfer]

I've decided to go back to shooting what I'm naturally better at (at least in my own mind) for the time being. All this learning was beginning to make my head hurt and take some of the fun out of shooting. And I'm not convinced that I was getting any better either! So for the next few weeks or perhaps even the rest of the year I'm just going to work on the photography that I enjoy - portraits (or something like that).

In any case, I did actually have a theme for this week and that was about capturing the relationship between two people. I've found that a lot of portraiture tends to concentrate on a single person or a group of people. Portraits capturing just two people, while they exist, aren't in the majority.

In the portraits I've taken though I've discovered that portraits of two people can capture the intensity of a relationship between them. It's shared, it's intimate, and it's focussed. If the right moment is captured it can deliver another level of emotion to the viewer that group or single portraits can sometimes struggle to provide.

Or maybe I'm just rambling nonsense In any case, here's my photo for Week 5, and while it perhaps doesn't quite deliver what I just described, it's a photo that speaks volumes to me about the relationship between Kerry and Alex.



There's a few other photos that I took today in trying to capture what I described today. I'll post them in a Project 52 Week 5 rejects thread over in the People and Portraits Forum.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

So this is a photo that I took on a trip away to Victoria that Kerry and I went on last week. It was something at the time that I knew I had to take a photo of, but I was unsure as to exactly why. It wasn't until I had it on the computer and looked at it for 5 minutes or so that I realised what is should become.



I've titled this photo "Portal". I hope the photo itself holds enough interest for a viewer to realise that all is not as it seems. I'll be interested to hear people's thoughts - if the photo is interesting enough to warranty them.

It's possible though that what I've captured is too subtle - but I know what it is and I'm really impressed with myself, even if few others find this photo interesting For that reason, I've included it as only the second photo to make it into my "Seeing The Light" album. I may not have realised exactly why at the time I wanted to take this capture, by my intuition was screaming at me loud enough to stop and capture the moment.

[FrankMi]

It gives a nice sense of mystery as you rattle your brain to figure out what it is you are seeing and why it looks that way it does. I love a mystery, don't you?

[Wendy Stanford]

What an interesting image, has so many different facets to it, I'm thinking reflection, but not sure.
I like the framing with what I think are rocks, draws you to the main trunk of the tree which is nicely positioned on the third line, awaiting the next installment

[Bunty Plumchip]

The way the whole tree is caught in the pool like that and the others in a sideways rather than an upside down reflection does make this image look like youu can juust walk through the portal framed by the rock into a parallel universe. The perspective and depth that has been created , along wth the gentle movement is inviting, beckons you right into the magic world below the surface. Fabulous capture.

[kezmal]

Carolyn has described it perfectly Its such a beautiful shot, that I find more and more each time I look at it. How did I walk right past this when were together photographing LOL.

[Donald]

That's a wonderfully imaginative and creative image. The capture and presentation are good. The really clever bit was in seeing the image in the first place.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Well done for figuring it out everyone

Just for a bit of perspective here's the original unedited, uncropped photo.

[Bunty Plumchip]

Well done for figuring it out everyone

Just for a bit of perspective here's the original unedited, uncropped photo.

Certainly lives up to your signature- and encourages 'us' to open our eyes and really see what we are looking at. I am certainly learning more about photography than how to use the camera from you guys.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Certainly lives up to your signature- and encourages 'us' to open our eyes and really see what we are looking at.

Thanks Carolyn. I've found since picking up camera late last year that I observe a lot more in the world that I used to miss. It's made me slow down and really appreciate what I have around me - and find opportunities like this photo.

[Antonio Correia]

Mal, you are building your "body of work"

I think you shouldn't diverge so much. I think you should concentrate on one single work. I have talked about coherence haven't I ? Coherence in size, treatment, subject and so forth.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Mal, you are building your "body of work"

I think you shouldn't diverge so much. I think you should concentrate on one single work. I have talked about coherence haven't I ? Coherence in size, treatment, subject and so forth.

Thanks Antonio and I agree with you. I hadn't thought so much about the coherence in size prior to your coins post but it makes perfect sense.

I'm still working on understanding what it is that I will be focussing on. I believe it will be people - a subcategory of people in any case (with a few sideline interests to just for fun). Something along the lines and style of what I did with my Silhouettes In A Window Series.

Unfortunately I haven't had the time to focus in this area (and I need my model to be in the mood to have a photo shoot as well ) but I will get back to it. Your advice actually brings that back to the forefront of my mind

Just give me a few weeks to get back there

[Dave Humphries]

I've decided to go back to shooting what I'm naturally better at (at least in my own mind) for the time being. All this learning was beginning to make my head hurt and take some of the fun out of shooting. And I'm not convinced that I was getting any better either! So for the next few weeks or perhaps even the rest of the year I'm just going to work on the photography that I enjoy - portraits (or something like that).

In any case, I did actually have a theme for this week and that was about capturing the relationship between two people. I've found that a lot of portraiture tends to concentrate on a single person or a group of people. Portraits capturing just two people, while they exist, aren't in the majority.

In the portraits I've taken though I've discovered that portraits of two people can capture the intensity of a relationship between them. It's shared, it's intimate, and it's focussed. If the right moment is captured it can deliver another level of emotion to the viewer that group or single portraits can sometimes struggle to provide.

Or maybe I'm just rambling nonsense In any case, here's my photo for Week 5, and while it perhaps doesn't quite deliver what I just described, it's a photo that speaks volumes to me about the relationship between Kerry and Alex.



There's a few other photos that I took today in trying to capture what I described today. I'll post them in a Project 52 Week 5 rejects thread over in the People and Portraits Forum.

Hi Mal,

I can't believe everyone missed replying to your Week 5 post here

It probably has a lot to do with the way you led them out of this thread to the 'Week 5 reject photos' thread and they then engaged with you there and this got overlooked - I'm sure there is a photographic analogy that's appropriate, leading lines going out of frame

I think you're correct in your analysis of why a picture of two (or more) close family members can 'ace' a single person portrait with the possible exception if the sitter has that close relationship with the photographer, and (say) their minds are not entirely on photography - or both the model and 'tog are professional and can imitate/act that relationship, but probably 'the real thing' is better. Now you have me "ramblin' nonsense"

Anyways; to this picture ...

Being super critical, because it is a good shot - I'm afraid I do find the skin tones a little too bright, perhaps only 1/3 to 1/2 a stop less overall exposure required though, because looking at the sun from behind and shadow, I think the FEC used is good to avoid harsh (and potentially distracting) shadows.

I find the bright background peeking through between your son's shoulder and Kerry's arm drags my eye and; to a lesser extent, because not as bright, the triangle at the left edge of frame on your son's right shoulder - may be there's enough space to crop that off.

Hope that all helps, if somewhat belatedly

[Goldcoastgolfer]

It probably has a lot to do with the way you led them out of this thread to the 'Week 5 reject photos' thread and they then engaged with you there and this got overlooked - I'm sure there is a photographic analogy that's appropriate, leading lines going out of frame

I thought it was just that everyone had gotten sick of looking at Kerry and the kids

I think you're correct in your analysis of why a picture of two (or more) close family members can 'ace' a single person portrait with the possible exception if the sitter has that close relationship with the photographer, and (say) their minds are not entirely on photography - or both the model and 'tog are professional and can imitate/act that relationship, but probably 'the real thing' is better. Now you have me "ramblin' nonsense"

I whole heartedly agree with you there. I think in terms of a professional relationship there would have to be a bond previously created that the photographer and model could draw upon to emulate the genuine bond from a true relationship of some sort.

Anyways; to this picture ...

Being super critical, because it is a good shot - I'm afraid I do find the skin tones a little too bright, perhaps only 1/3 to 1/2 a stop less overall exposure required though, because looking at the sun from behind and shadow, I think the FEC used is good to avoid harsh (and potentially distracting) shadows.

I find the bright background peeking through between your son's shoulder and Kerry's arm drags my eye and; to a lesser extent, because not as bright, the triangle at the left edge of frame on your son's right shoulder - may be there's enough space to crop that off.

Hope that all helps, if somewhat belatedly

Your keen eye is always very much appreciated. It's interesting that you found the skin tones a bit bright as this is the first time I've used fill flash in my portrait shots. I wasn't quite sure whether it would be noticeable or not. I'd only had the new speedlight (SB700) for half a day and had it set to auto TTL. I have a lot of work to do with on camera flash (as well as off camera flash) and I suspect I need tweaking manual exposure for different conditions is something I will need to refine.

The arm areas in this shot are things that I found as being a problem with this photo. You're right regarding the triangle - that's easy enough to crop out but the other area not so much Yet another thing to remember for next time!

[Goldcoastgolfer]

I know two weeks ago I said that I would be returning back to people photography. Unfortunately I haven't had the time to get myself organised lately so it's another week of an off topic theme - a little bit of bug photography. It wouldn't be proper Project 52 post if I didn't tell a little bit of a story so I thought this week I would just touch on my interest in macro bug photography.

Why bugs is probably the question that someone would ask, myself included. Well, for me it begun with (as it always seems to) seeing something in the photo of these little creatures that I would never have noticed in the normal course of life. Photography for me tends to make me slow down and really appreciate the finer details of life that are all around me. Photographing the tinier inhabitants of the planet takes that to a whole other level.

Searching for bugs to take photos of is a painstakingly slow exercise. They are skittish little creatures who shy away from attention a lot of the time. Kerry and I only have a 90mm macro lens which a lot of people would argue is far too short to get good pictures of bugs. There's probably some truth to this. However just as you can perform street photography with a telezoom, it could be argued the best photos are those that are up close and personal.

The process that I have to use to get full frame photos of bugs is to effectively stalk the little critters, approaching them slowly and with the camera glued to my face as fire off an occasional shot in case I end up scaring them off, until I'm at minimum focussing distance in most cases. I'm sure if anybody was watching me do it, they would think I was mad!

There are of course other challenges. Depth of field at minimum focussing distance is razor thin, which works against me a lot. And little things like a gentle breeze very quickly blow a branch that a bug that is no larger than your pinky's thumbnail can very suddenly jerk out of the frame. Not only that, some of the little critters enjoy playing hide and seek too!

However I have seen some amazing things while doing this. Through the magnification provided by a macro lens I've watched them turn their heads toward me in curiosity, raise their limbs in agitation, and even on an odd occasion give me a smile. And I've found that if stay in a place for long enough and stick to moving slowly, the bugs do end up getting used to me and the big black thing filling the space all around them.

Which brings me to my photo for the week (and apologies for all the ramblings!). While I was in the garden last weekend doing the macro bug thing to relax (yes, I do find taking photos of bugs relaxing!), a dragonfly conveniently landed on plant not two feet away from me.

Dragonflies, for those you who don't shoot them, become easier to shoot after a while. They have a certain pattern of behaviour which makes them a bit more predictable than other bugs. But when I saw this one, it was a little bit different...

Battle Damage


If you look in Light Box, you might notice that this particular fella looks like he's literally been in the wars. I've seen some odd things while taking photos of bugs but this guys topped the list. And amazingly, despite how badly hurt he appears to be, he seemed to be able to fly just fine. In fact, he even seemed to be able to smile about his ordeal.

Portrait of a War Veteran


Truthfully, I think it was eating. But it certainly wasn't your everyday dragonfly pose!

And so there is this week's post. Nothing technically fantastic, but something different for certain. The strangest thing of all though, was that after I'd finished taking a few photos, I stepped back and said, "I'm finished." With that, the dragonfly took off and flew away. I was a bit astonished, as it seemed that he had literally flown in to have his photo taken. I even blurted out a "Thanks!" to him as he flew away....

[kezmal]

I said to you before and I'll say it again - 'Im blown away by this photo, its fantastic' Love it!

[gregj1763]

Fantastic photo Mal.
As you mentioned with my dragonfly photo last week, they can be considerate.

[woty87]

I think this photo just made a macro lens jump to the top of the wish list. Great one, Mal!