2012...I Hate to Say Goodbye

 I started the last day of 2012 never intending to write down any sort of end-of-year reflection.  However, as 2013 inched closer, I felt more inclined to at least document a little something.

This past year I have had ample time to reflect on the position I am in.  Financially, I'm in a place that scares me a little, but it has been slowly improving as of late.  Emotionally I feel that I've grown stronger and more resilient.  My outlook on life has been brighter.  I like to think that I smile a little more, dream a little bigger, laugh a little louder.  I believe that Rain and photography had a large part to do with that.

To be honest, I am not entirely sure if it is the actual act of photography that I am so enamored with.  I suppose it is a combination of several things, the smallest of which may actually be photography itself.

I absolutely enjoy taking shots of things I find beautiful.  Most of the time they are sunsets and mountains and clouds.  Occasionally they will be emotions.  Rain has been my subject countless times as well.

Seeing those moments captured by what seems to be my vision, my eye, creates a feeling of satisfaction that is quite addictive.  But that really isn't all there is.

No, photography has become more than trying to capture a beautiful image for me.  It has become an outlet and an inlet.  An outlet to forget the day to day mundaneness and lose myself in the small and large overlooked wonders of the world around me.  An inlet to discover and rely on the child inside me and foster the creativity that I believe I once had.

It's taken me 28 years to learn how to trust in that child.  Actually I take that back.  28 years to START learning how to trust in that child.

Photography has also become a much valued time that I spend with Rain.  She irritates me sometimes.  Wandering off to find some deer poop to munch on.  Crying when I tie her up so that she doesn't wander off to find some deer poop to munch on.  Rushing off whenever other people or dogs come close.  Half the time is spent taking pictures, the other half is making sure Rain isn't off doing something mischievous.

But I think she enjoys coming along.  She makes it so much more fun.  She's funny too.  Munching on deer poop.  Lol.  And when I catch her, she's like a deer in headlights.  Could I get better shots if she weren't there?  Probably.  But it's hard to say that I would be out there if she weren't.  I like to think that my photography has been improving because of her, not despite her.

I just read over what I wrote, and I guess I didn't really document much of anything.  Just rambled on a little about how I felt about my dog and taking pictures.  But that really was my 2012.

Rain.  Photography.  And how they have changed my life.

It was a good year.

See you in 2013.

Snow Days

Four day weekends are the best.  We went up on a hike we go on pretty often, but never when there has been this much snow.

 

The lighting wasn't stellar so I went with a shot that seemed to match the fog and dull, gray light.  A solitary tree.

A Short Vid of Rain

The pictures I post of Rain usually show her sitting calmly contemplating dog life.  Here is a short vid I took today when we went out to shoot that shows how she is 90% of the time.

She is still quite the puppy.

So far 12 people have entered the drawing for the two free prints.  I'm hoping to get at least 20 before the deadline so if you haven't commented here, and would like to be entered please do so by January 10th.

And here is a 4 shot pano of Utah Lake taken two weeks ago.  I just got around to putting it together and then I decided to split it into a triptych.

Thank You Giveaway

Part of the fun of photography for me is being able to share my work with others.  I honestly appreciate everyone that has offered words of encouragement.  As a small way to give back and say thank you, I'll be giving away two prints in January to two people selected at random.  If you'd like to be entered into the drawing, just leave a comment below that identifies yourself, or email me at adogandacamera@gmail.com.  The deadline will be midnight January 10th mountain time.

The canvas size will probably be a 20x30" or a 24X30", while the actual image size will be approximately 14x24" to 18x24" (so basically there will be around a 3 inch border around the image).  Those selected can choose one of the following images:

 

Merry Christmas!

Not to sound like a Grinch, but the magical feeling of Christmas seems to have diminished year after year.  Is anyone else feeling this?  Perhaps I am just getting older.  Or maybe because it has been a while since I spent Christmas back home.

Rain and photography has helped to fill that void though, and for that I am thankful.  And Christmas will never really lose its magic.  Not as long as there is a copy of Home Alone to be found.

A few things:
1) I have started a facebook page.  Here is the link.
2) I have decided that I will focus more on landscape type photos.  I still have much interest in portraiture, and will continue to try and develop that skill (and post about it as the opportunities arise), but I think landscape photos fit Rain and I better.
3) I gave away my first camera to the two boys of the family that I got Rain from.  Rain got me into photography.  Now I'm giving photography to them.  Full circle.  Or so I like to think.


Here are some shots from Christmas weekend:

Lindon Harbor.

Utah Lake.  This was a really cool sight.  I'm guessing the lake froze over several times and each time the current would push a layer of ice against the rocks.

Also Utah Lake.  I went back the following day to see if there would be a cool sunset.  There was.  By this time though, the ice had started to melt.

  
I have started to use a two capture process more in my pictures now.  With the dynamic range of my camera, it is hard to adequately capture details in the sky and the ground because the contrast is usually pretty large in sunset shots.  I've also started to add a signature in my pics as well.  I forgot to for the middle one, and am too lazy to do it right now.

And here are a few shots of Rain:

I was able to get this shot because she was intently following a plane as it slowly made its way across the sky.  Otherwise she would have been whining, or exploring, or trying to make her way back to me.

That camera there belonged to my dad.  It could be older than I am.  No idea how to use it.  Neither does Rain.

Rain and I on a Christmas morning hike starting at 6:30 AM.  No, it's not a tradition.  Nor will it likely become one.

Stay Just A Little Longer

I work the evening shift Monday through Friday, so almost all my photography is done on the weekends.  I try to make it a point to go shooting every Sunday whether I feel like it or not.  Fortunately, most times I feel like it.

This Sunday I did not.

I often rent a wide angle lens because the majority of what I do is landscape photos and that wide angle lends a sense of drama to landscape shots.  The 35mm and 50mm that I own are too narrow for my taste, especially on the crop sensor of the D7000.  The local camera store near my house has a 12-24mm that I will try to rent each Saturday after 1:00 pm because then I can get it half off.  I stopped by on Saturday at 2:30.  The rental book showed that someone had already rented the lens...for half off.  Someone had beat me by less than two hours.  I tried not to be bummed out about it, convincing myself that it was going to be a lousy weekend to shoot landscapes anyway because the clouds for the most part had been the flat, boring kind that just make you want to sleep in on cold winter mornings.

But Sunday came, and I convinced myself to go shooting again.  Actually, it was probably more Rain that did the convincing.  The weekends are when I get to spend the bulk of my time with her outside.  So I thought that since I'm going to be outside anyway, I might as well bring my camera along.  After tiring Rain out a little at the park, we headed down to the nearby lake to see if there was anything interesting to shoot.  I didn't have my hopes up because the clouds still were the same clouds from Saturday.  We walked around the park for a bit, Rain sniffing every rock she came across, and me looking around for promising shots (and scolding Rain for always pulling on the leash).  After trying several shots, I settled on staying for the sunset and doing long exposure shots of the water and the mountain range.

About 10 shots in, I was ready to call it quits.  I had already spent well over an hour at the lake.  The clouds weren't budging, it was getting colder, and Rain kept on whining because I had tied her leash to a nearby post.  But as I put away my tri-pod, I looked across the mountain range at the slight orange glow that was just fighting to get through the clouds.  It took me moment, but I decided that I should wait a couple more minutes to see if anything would happen.

Rain hates being tied up.

And I'm sure glad I did.  The sunset was absolutely beautiful.  The clouds started to open up a little, and the clouds closest to me started to light up a bright yellowish orange color while the clouds behind them caught a bluish purple hue.  The edges of the mountains glowed a bright orange, but what was most amazing was the water.  The lake had turned into a rippling, golden-orange, beautiful mess that really looked like something out of a dream.

It lasted maybe 8 minutes at the most.  Just a fleeting moment, but it was a sunset that I'll remember for a while.

I'm glad I decided to stick it out just a little bit longer.  It made all the difference.

This was a two exposure shot.  The sky was around 1/10 of a second while the water was captured using a ND filter and setting the shutter speed at 20-25 seconds.  I had to boost the colors in post because the RAW files always come out dull.  Even then, I think the colors of the actual sunset were even more vibrant than this image.

 

The Bitter Cold

Went down to the harbor with Rain to try and catch the sunset as I usually do on Sunday afternoons.  I was not prepared for the near freezing temperatures that greeted me near the water.  Three layers of clothes and the wind still ripped through my skin.  I felt like my fingers were going to fall off.   I only shot six pictures before deciding that I would rather maintain the use of all my appendages than stay out any longer.  The pictures I took turned out like crap.  I miss the summer.  I'll have to prep myself if I plan on shooting for the next several months.  Note to self: buy a ski mask, hand warmers, and better gloves.  

On a warmer note, here are two more pics from Hawai'i.  Probably two of my best thus far, in my opinion.

 This was taken near Makapu'u Lighthouse.  It was near sunset and my younger brother and I were about headed back to the car, but I decided I wanted to try one last image.  The ocean was actually quite rough and I was in a somewhat precarious position.  One good wave and it would have been goodbye to my camera.  Nonetheless, I took a few shots, and this is what came out of it!  I kind of forgot the settings on this, probably f16ish and 3-5 seconds.  In photoshop I used fill light to bring out the definition in the rocks, and also boosted the orange/yellow from the sunset and the turquoise in the ocean..

This was a sunrise shot at Yokohama Bay.  There is this really awesome rock formation that the waves break on.  Sometimes it even shoots water through a large hole in the reef (which you can see in the top left of the rocks).  I had to take two exposures for this shot as the sky and the ground was quite contrasted.  The sky was probably 1/15 of a second or so, while the water was about 3-4 seconds.  I wanted the time to be long enough to catch the movement of the whitewater but slow enough to get the hint of a wave.  The two exposures were then combined in photoshop where I increased the strength of the yellow/orange from the sunrise.

Thanksgiving Back Home

The past week and a half was spent back home.  Family, food and photography.  Hard to beat that combo.  The only thing that was missing was Rain.  Hawaii has pretty strict policies about animals flying in, so she stayed with her mom and dad.  I missed that dog like she was family because, well, she is family.

I took a good number of pictures back home.  I really am loving photography more and more.  And I dare say that I am improving bit by bit.  It really is all about getting out and using your camera.  No substitute for personal experience.  Not just in terms of learning how to use a camera, but also being able to get to a point where the camera is no longer there, and you can connect to the subject in front of you, whatever it may be.  Still working to get there.  But part of the fun is in the process.

Been contemplating getting more into dog photography...

Now that I'm back in Utah, I have a pile of pictures to go through and edit.  I'll post them as I go along, but here are a few.

Lanikai Beach.  All my years living in Hawaii, and can you believe I've never been here till now?  Thanks to Tyler and Alana Yates for taking me here.  Awesome little piece of paradise, and this canoe just happened to be at the waters edge at sunrise.  How lucky can you get.  This picture was about a 2-3 second shutter at f16(ish).  It was about 7am just as the sun was coming up.  I had to boost the colors in post.  The lighting was actually a bit dull, but there were hints of color that I was able to utilize.  I also cropped out some of the sky to make the composition a little more tight.  The pano-ish feel works with the long canoe, IMO.  I do wish there was some point of interest on the left hand side though.  Maybe Rain.  Overall, I'd give it maybe a 6/10.

Pics From the Holga

Here are the latest Holga pics.  I'm actually a little impressed with some of the landscape ones.  I didn't think a toy camera could get that sort of sharpness and detail.

I Got My Camera Back

After nearly 3 weeks, my camera is fixed and back in action.  It was quite fun and educational experimenting with film but I must say that it is nice to have a digital in my hands again, one of the biggest reasons being that I don't need to dish out $9 per roll of film.

Trying to shoot with film has definitely piqued my interest though and reminded me that I still have tons to learn about photography.  The time while my camera was getting fixed, I thought a lot about what direction I want to go in with photography.  I have a few thoughts brewing in my mind, but they are still a little too premature to say anything right now.

On a side note, I have added the Nikon F6 to my wish list.  Perhaps in a couple years...

Needless to say, I went out shooting this weekend, hoping to catch something...anything really.  And even if I didn't, man did it feel nice to be walking along the harbor with my camera and Rain.  It was a cloudy weekend, but the sky cleared up Sunday afternoon and provided a nice sunset to welcome back the return of my camera.

This was a 25 or 30 second exposure at f16 and ISO100.  Because the contrast between the sky and the foreground was so great, I increased the fill light in photoshop and then boosted the colors.  More detail in the shadow was recovered using some HDR editing.  It was my first time using this technique, and I will probably experiment with it more on future shots.

Week 2 without my camera

Rain is back to normal and now I can function again.  She is currently wagging her tail while sleeping. Probably dreaming about food.

It has been nearly two weeks, and still no word on when I'll be getting back my D7000.  So in the meantime I've continued to stumble through the world of toy cameras and film.

The Holga has been fun to use, but the results from my attempts at pinhole photography have been quite discouraging. Really the only improvement I've made is that I didn't open the camera body in the middle of a roll.  Perhaps pinhole photography isn't best suited for landscape shots.  I've only used the pinhole on a tripod because of the required shutter speeds of 2-3+ seconds, but if the camera isn't going to give me sharp shots, I'll need to change my approach.  I think I'll try it handheld and get some motion blur to see what kind of look that will give me.  I'll have to find the type of images that work with soft definition and long exposures.

Here are some shots from this past weekend.  (Square format shots are from the Holga)

Ran into this little guy at the park.  Rain accidentally stepped on him and the poor thing started crying.

Saturday afternoon hike.

One of the best views of the city.

Failed attempt at a double exposure.

About 20 minutes before sunset.

Sunset with the pinhole.

I've been worried about Rain since last night.  She's been drinking way more water and breathing a little heavier than normal.  Took her to the vet this morning and was told that if her energy levels drop or if she gets worse that we can get some blood work done, but nothing seems to be wrong with her and that perhaps it's anxiety.  

I really hope so.

This dog means the world to me.

December 2011

What The Film

Took my first shot at pinhole photography this past weekend.  I took about 20 exposures before getting to the end of a 24 exposure roll.  Out of those, only 4 were able to be developed.  A few things I learned:

1) Never open the camera to check if the film is in place before you've finished the roll.

2) Never turn the Advance knob in the opposite direction.  If you do, don't open the camera to check if the film is in place before you've finished the roll.

3) Always bring extra rolls...just in case you open the camera to check if the film is in place before you've finished the roll.

It will take some time to get used to shooting pictures like this.  The biggest difference is not having the luxury of immediate feedback via digital playback.  I found myself greatly missing my DSLR...especially when the sunset started to explode in colors after I had finished my only roll.  The photographer 50 yards down shore was recording it all with his massive lens, while I basically had a cereal box attached to a tripod.

At least the Holga was a bit easier to use.  All the square format images were taken using the Holga.

The obligatory shot of Rain.

There it is.  The cereal box.

One of the four pinhole shots that came out.  I think the exposure was probably around 15 seconds.  I didn't do a good job of documenting...too busy trying to keep Rain from running into the water.