leaves

November 14, 2013 by Kat

Leaf Dance (A Mobile Tutorial)

I was standing on the front lawn, waiting for a friend to pick me up. Rather than wait in the house, I decided to take the few minutes I had to capture the fading leaves of the trees along my street. It was windy and partly cloudy, the sun dancing in and out of the clouds and the leaves dancing in the breeze. Stalking the trees for a few graceful branches against an open sky, I finally found the right scene.

This edit, Leaf Dance, feels nostalgic to me. Vintage memories of autumn, from a year that already seems long gone. Capturing the leaves in transition is already poignant, but vintage processing can make it even more so. I thought I would share this edit as a mobile tutorial, so you can see the challenges and phases an image goes through along the way. I usually can’t see where it will end up. I just have an idea of the next step I should take at each phase.

Lets’s start with the original image. I really liked these reaching branches, but was impossible to get them with a blank sky. The trees of the neighborhood were too close. So I endeavored to frame the branches against the clouds with some space between any other trees. Did I mention it was windy? I probably have 10 shots of the same scene because the branches were moving around. This was the best one.

The next step was to remove the distractions of the other neighborhood trees. If there is a gap between the distraction and subject of interest, it is much easier to accomplish. I used the Retouch feature of Handy Photo to remove the trees, crop in closer, and the remove a few of the branches in the background. Here’s the next phase:

Because of the lighting, the leaves and branches look like a silhouette but I want to pull out more detail. In Snapseed, I start with a global adjustment for brightness, but that didn’t do quite enough for the leaves, so I add a selective adjust to increase the brightness only on the leaves. By doing this, I pull out the details in the leaves, both color and texture, but don’t adjust the sky any further. I want the clouds as is. It looks very odd at this point, my eye can tell it’s wrong, but since I know it’s a transition step I don’t worry about it. Things sometimes have to look worse before they look better.

Next step is through Snapseed’s Grunge filter. I dialed the texture way back and scrolled through the options to see what colors felt right for the image. Purpleish-pink! I also played with the center spot and adjusted the location and radius to make sure the focal point of the image was clear, while the less important corners were darkened and fogged.

Time for some texture! I pulled the image into Pic Grunger to see what I could do. This app can overwhelm images with its default settings, but if you play with dialing it back a bit you can often find a great aged texture effect.

It is almost there. I’d like to pull the focus more tightly in on the branch, minimizing the pull if the brighter sky in the upper left. I pull the image into XnView FX and play with some of my favorite textures. These textures often give just the subtle effect I’m looking for, and this time was no exception. It darkened much of the sky but left the brightness where I wanted it – under the branch. This provides great contrast to pull your eye right to the intended area of focus.

Both the color and processing of the final image leaves me with a romantic, vintage feel. Exactly what I was looking for! Unlike most of my mobile tutorials, there was no blending in this edit. It’s just an image, a couple of apps and the willingness to imagine and experiment. That’s all you need to create mobile art!

November 12, 2013 by Kat

Repeating Myself

I’m on a roll these days. A roll creating imagery filled with delicate branches and fading leaves. It’s my own personal quest… Can I create just one more? Can I convey the grace and beauty of this transitory time? Can I create another piece that touches my soul? Maybe touches another’s?

What do you think?

Sometimes the thought pops into my head, I shouldn’t share yet another image like this. People will get bored. I remember feeling that last year with my bare trees too. But out of that came a body of work, Treescapes. Out of that came a more cohesive vision than I’ve had before in my photography.

So… maybe a fascination with something is really needed to develop vision. The desire to try to create just one more piece with a specific subject, a specific technique, a specific feeling isn’t so wrong.

I only need to look to the great masters, painters like Picasso and Van Gogh, to see they repeated themselves. They would often paint and repaint the same subject and scene, varying things slightly to see what happened. Why do I feel I shouldn’t do the same?

Maybe I’ll reframe it… I’m not repeating myself, I’m exploring the theme. I’m seeing how far I can take it. And when I get bored with it, I’ll move on. Until then, there are still branches with leaves to capture, for a little while yet. Then there are branches without leaves, too. Oh yes, I’ve noticed them. Their time will come.

What about you? Do you worry about repeating yourself, or do you follow your fancy even if it leads to the same place every time? Where do you think this idea that we must create something “novel” every time comes from?

October 22, 2013 by Kat

Creative Cycles

It’s been a year since I started using my mobile device to take pictures. It was this time last year that I began carrying my old iPod Touch with me everywhere, discovering a whole new world in the possibilities. The possibilities of images in the places I move through every day. The possibilities of processing with apps. The possibilities for mobile photography to change everything. Oh my, but it was a wondrous time! Creativity at its best.

This year, things are different and yet not. It is once again autumn, and the sun has been shining through the trees in their gorgeous colors. I’ve been inspired, picking up the pace of collecting photographs, doing more editing. This year, I have better tools in my iPhone 5 and iPad. This year, I have more knowledge of apps and processing. This year, I see even more possibilities.

It almost feels as if I’m waking up after a long, dry summer. I created a number of wonderful images this summer, don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t like this. I didn’t make extra time, out and about, to photograph. I didn’t spend most of my free time experimenting with editing. I’ve been having a blast, exploring new techniques like I used for this image here. (You can see more on Flickr.)

I’m a big believer in creative cycles. I know that my creative energy has peaks and valleys during the day, and I try to to honor my personal cycle. I know that on a larger scale, creativity ebbs and flows over time with many variables. But what I wonder, with the arrival of autumn and inspiration, is if it’s possible to have a creative time of year. Because that’s what it feels like right now. As if I hit some threshold on the calendar and inspiration turned on. And I’m having a fantastic time.

I can sense there is lot more to come for me as the trees lose their leaves. There is so much more to explore with my new favorite artistic tools, and what may be my best time of year for creativity. I’m loving every minute.

How about you? Do you have a creative time of year? When is it and how does it show up for you?

September 17, 2013 by Kat

Chasing Lines and Light

We arrived home from Eastern Oregon on Thursday evening and I’ve had a few days now to process the trip. I’ve been processing in more ways than one: Both editing the photographs and thinking about what I discovered about myself and my photography.

This was the first time I had ever traveled with other photographers for multiple days, with the express purpose of finding photographs. Sure, I’ve gone out for a day with photographer-friends before, and I’ve photographed over multiple days on trips with family and friends. But the purpose of this trip was all photography, all the time. That’s new for me.

So what did I learn?

First, I really enjoy traveling with other photographers, or at least these photographers in the PhotoArts Guild. They are respectful of everyone’s creative process. If anyone saw something that they wanted to photograph, they’d stop the car (as soon as it’s safe, of course). After we’d stopped, everyone went their separate ways, wandering back to the car when done where they patiently waited until the last person was ready to go. I sensed it as an unspoken rule: You didn’t hurry anyone along. You respected the creative process of each individual. After a while I stopped worrying about making anyone wait and just went with the muse… If I was inspired, I continued to photograph. If not, I hung out at the car, editing on my iPhone or chatting with the others. This approach meant that we didn’t always get to the destination that was planned for the day. It meant that we might miss dinner. But that was ok, because we were all doing something we enjoyed and were (hopefully) creating amazing photographs.

I took only my iPhone, intent to continue learning how this little camera was going to work for me in new situations. It was a last minute decision to do it this way. I had my camera bag packed with dSLR + 3 lenses, along with my tripod, all laying by the door waiting to go. Then, the night before leaving I thought, who am I kidding? I haven’t been inspired to edit a dSLR photograph in months. Why not just take the iPhone? Why not just see if I felt limited or not? I’ve always thought the only way to really learn a new tool — camera, lens, whatever — is to use it exclusively for a while, and see where it works and it doesn’t. So I left the dSLR at home and brought only the iPhone and accessories.

I got some good-natured teasing from the rest of the crew, but as always, the iPhone worked wonderfully for me. The only times I felt limited were when I wanted to zoom in on something I just couldn’t get closer to, because it was too far or there was some obstacle in the way or it would change the angle too much. When that happened, I found I kept looking and discovered different things to photograph. Or I framed things differently. Or I discovered new ways to include the feature I might have zoomed in on, maybe with a foreground or some other feature included. It was a good challenge, and I found I wasn’t frustrated by the shots I couldn’t get. I was pleased with the ones I did get.

I also had the chance to really work with the Photojojo lenses I bought a few months ago. I discovered that I don’t like them. Not because I didn’t like having other lenses to use, because I did like that. I just didn’t like these lenses. I didn’t like the sticky ring that you have to put on your camera; it fell off at one point and I had to apply a new one. I didn’t like the way the lenses have all of these pieces and parts you have to undo to put the lens onto the camera. I didn’t like the optical quality of the lenses. They are all fuzzy at the edges, and you have to focus in the center – which is not usually my composition style. I also managed to lose the wide angle lens, which screws onto the macro lens. That actually turned out to be a good thing – because it made it easier to use the macro lens and that’s the one lens I actually liked of the bunch. After playing with these I’ve decided I’m going to try the Olloclip instead. Fewer pieces and parts, no sticky magnetic ring and hopefully better optical quality. I’ll let you know how it goes in the future.

I discovered that while I’m getting better at capturing landscapes and the wide angle view…

…it’s still not my favorite perspective to photograph.

I prefer to get closer, and share a more intimate view of things. I find having parts of things included in my photos more intriguing than the whole. Photographing this boat one morning, one of the other photographers on the trip joked that I could stop taking pictures, he had already photographed the scene. I held up my iPhone and asked him, “But did you take THIS photograph?” He quipped back, “No, I managed to get the whole thing in.” We laughed, and went on. But the comment made me think. You see, I don’t WANT to get the whole thing in. The image I created with part of the boat is more compelling to me than the ones I created with the whole boat. That held true for most of the photographs I liked from the trip. They weren’t the big picture view; they were the small scenes and details.

At first I attributed it to the iPhone, thinking that’s just the type of image it is well-suited for: Getting up close and intimate, since it’s doesn’t have a zoom. Then I realized focusing on the small scenes and details really comes from within me. It is my eye; my view of the world. Small scenes and details are what I have ALWAYS been drawn to, regardless of the camera I carry. So saying that the iPhone is well-suited to this type of photograph means that the iPhone is well-suited to my style of photography. Which must be why I don’t feel limited with this little camera in my pocket. In fact, I’m liberated, because it is always with me.

I wasn’t sure I would find anything to photograph on this trip. I have to be honest, going to Eastern Oregon was not my first choice of places to go to photograph. If you asked me to make a list of places I want to photograph, this area wouldn’t have even appeared on my list. But these guys were going, and they said, “Want to come?” I had the vacation time, the family was busy with work and school, so I thought, Why not? Not only did it appeal to me to just go off and photograph for a few days, I wanted to get to know the other Guild members better and I held a bit of curiosity about the place that draws so many of them back year after year.

And while it wasn’t my usual subject matter, it grew on me. I discovered the sand dunes and the aspens and way of life that is completely different from mine in Corvallis. It showed me that there is so much to Oregon that I haven’t explored yet. So many places to go, so many things to photograph.

In the end, I discovered that no matter where I go, or what camera I have with me, I will always find things to photograph and find ways to make interesting images. I am, at my core, a photographer. It’s just how I see the world: I’m always chasing lines and light.

August 20, 2013 by Kat

The Whole Truth

The camera never lies, right? I wonder where we came up with this idea that the camera always captures truth. Where we picked up the idea that a photograph represents reality.

Maybe it’s because the camera gives a representation that seems like reality. Maybe it’s because the edges are sharp and the likeness to what we are looking at is closer than most art brings us. But what we what the camera captures is not truth. A photograph is not reality.

Reality encompasses a much broader range of the senses than a photograph can. Sight and sound and touch and smell. Reality encompasses a three dimensional world that is experienced with more than just the eyes. Reality is everything, everywhere in the moment. The whole truth.

A photograph starts with the photographer. As humans we can’t handle the whole of reality, so we filter. We filter based on our interests and our knowledge and our experience. We decide where to look, what to experience, out of everything that is available in our environment. So right there, we start to alter reality.

Next, we alter reality with our cameras. Think about it, we are taking a three dimensional world and collapsing it into two dimensions. We take the whole of the sensory experience and collapse it to visual alone. That’s a drastic alteration right there. Not only that, but as we study photography, we learn the camera itself is an imperfect tool for capturing even visual reality. It can’t capture the range of light and dark we see with our eyes. It can’t capture the form and the depth that we experience. So we learn to adapt through our exposure and optics and techniques. We make choices about the lens we want to use, the aperture and shutter speed, and what is in or out of the frame.

The photograph, as captured by the camera, is already significantly different from reality. The viewer can’t turn their head left or right and see what is happening beyond the edges of the frame. They can’t walk closer or further away. They can’t reach out and touch. They only see what the photographer has chosen for them to see. A slice of the photographer’s reality; a partial truth.

Then, we get into post-processing. It’s funny that this is often maligned as the part of the photographic process where reality is removed. In my view, post-processing is only a continuation of what we started with our cameras, since the as-captured image is not reality either. In post-processing, we can further adjust the photograph, to try to shift it to what we perceived as “reality” visually or to better express the feeling we had at the moment it was taken. We can create a new feeling with it, if we so choose. We can create an experience that is completely unrelated to our own experience when we took the photograph.

The “reality” that is presented in the final image is all in the choices made by the photographer, from the moment of capture to completion. It is not reality at all.

Take this photograph of light on the leaves in the forest, for example. The camera could not capture the shifting range of light and dark that I saw in those leaves. It could not capture the feeling of the breeze cooling my sun- and hike-warmed skin. It could not capture the rustle of the leaves, or the sound of my husband and son playing with the dog down the trail. It could not come anywhere close to my reality, but I did the best I could at capturing one thing: The light filtering through the canopy of leaves. I could find a scene that framed one single leaf in the light, and filled the background with the repetition of leaves in light and shadow. In my post-processing, I could add warmth through the tone, softness through a texture, and depth through a vignette. I could express my feelings about this one particular piece of my experience of that moment and that day. Beyond that, what you feel as you look at this photograph depends on your own reality and experiences in the past. Your filters and perceptions kick in, altering what I’ve presented further.

Is this photograph the whole truth? No.
Is it reality? No.
A photograph never, ever will be.

I think it’s time that we leave behind the idea that the camera never lies. It’s time to shed the idea that in photography, alterations to reality come only in post-processing. The alterations to reality start in the photographer’s mind, and continue from seeing to camera to post-processing.

Instead, let’s focus on the one truth that we can express with photography: The truth of the experiences, feelings and emotions of the photographer.

Expressions of the artist, practicing their art.

May 30, 2013 by Kat

Tis the Season

It is the season of beginnings, with new growth in a bright spring green. The season of glorious sunshine one day and pouring rain the next week.

And it’s the season of endings, as graduates finish up their schooling and move onto the next phase of life.

I’m off to Colorado today with my pink suitcase in tow, heading to attend my nephew’s high school graduation tomorrow and celebrations with my family over the weekend.

I’m a bit in shock that I have a nephew graduating. That my younger sister will have a kid in college next year. Oh my. So many of the people I know are well beyond this place, but it’s a threshold that, for my family, pushes my generation into a new phase of life. One with adult children and empty nests. I can’t quite wrap my head around it. I’m not ready for it.

But off I go… because it’s happening whether I’m ready or not. ‘Tis the season!

Oh, and don’t forget: The May Photo-Heart Connection link up will open on Saturday, June 1. That, at least, I am ready for!

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