Happy Thanksgiving

Hoping everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.  And some good pie.  ;-)

Fall Desktop

I'm a little conflicted.  I'm sort of bummed that the best fall color here in Boise is quickly passing.  But the good news is that there is already snow in the peaks north of town.  Fall is quickly showing hints of winter, and that means it's almost time to get a fresh coat of wax on the skis.

Before that happens, however, enjoy a nice fall desktop.  October almost got away from me but I thought I'd bring out a seasonal image to download.  I've made it simpler this time, just click on the image and you'll be able to save it.

Backlit maple leaves in the fall sunshine.

Until next time!

Freestyle BMX in the park.

It's gorgeous in Boise right now, clearly fall is in the air and the foliage is about at its peak.  So yesterday morning I went out and chased down a few images of fall.  (Here's a link.)  It was an inspiring start to the day, but I realized what I really wanted to do was shake off the scenics and dig into some gnarly action.

There's a kick-ass skate and bicycle park just up the road from my house and that turned out to be the ticket.  Met some dudes who can really wick it up and we were set!  

Some of the key elements I wanted to accomplish was to set the athletes out from their environment.  There are many ways to put the emphasis on your subject, including depth of focus, careful clean background selection, contrast, etc.  But my goal was to use lights.  I love the look when you overpower mid-day light with strobes to add drama, but that's hard to do with small flash unless the working distance is really close.  It's possible, but not within enough space to allow BMX riders to pull their tricks.  In order to be able to light them and still leave room to move, I waited until the sun was low and the light levels dropped a bit.  The lights themselves make an appearance in some of the images.  Some folks might find that distracting but I left them in there, as I think they add a cool element of style.  

Know what? Enough details, let's get right into the images!

Nik's HDR Efex Pro

Spent a little time playing around with Nik's new HDR program this afternoon and had some thoughts and images to share. I'm no HDR expert by any means, but even a cursory examination reveals there's a lot going on here for everyone from rank beginner to seasoned artist.   My initial reaction is that this program is going to be a great addition to the image manipulation toolkit.  The feature set is remarkable!  You can get an idea of what's available for your image in this screenshot.

Screenshot of Nik's HDR Efex Pro

Let's start at the beginning.  How do you get started in HDR Efex Pro?  I've become a Lightroom 3 user in the last few weeks, so that's where I begin.  Start by selecting a series of images with differing exposures.  There are a few ways to go from this point, but I'd suggest hitting the export button in the lower left.  This brings up an export dialogue where you can select HDR Efex Pro from the Nik Software preset.  This is set up right out of the box, as the program is installed, with the correct parameters including JPEG or TIFF and appropriate color space (AdobeRGB is the default but you can select sRGB and ProPhoto RGB if you desire).  Just hit Export when you're ready.  Lightroom creates the TIFFs and opens HDR Efex Pro right up for you.  The HDR program takes if from there, assembling a basic image.  


Continued after the break.

A big day for HDR

Although I find myself drawn to a fairly "photo-realistic" style, with generally not much in the way of image manipulation being done, it's hard to avoid the fact that HDR-style photography can be a very powerful tool for some images.  Late last evening I got an email from the great folks at Nik indicating that their new, eagerly-ancipated program, HDR Efex Pro, was ready for prime time.  

Over the last few months we've seen some great previews of what will be possible with this program, and being familiar with other Nik products I knew that this was something I was going to want.  Well, today's the day.  If you're interested in what HDR, and more specifically HDR Efex Pro can do for you, head on over to the Nik site and have a look!

I've got some images to go process.  Maybe I can put some samples up later tonight.

Desktop image downloads

Today I'm starting what will hopefully be a fun monthly event.  I'm going to start periodically offering download of a photo which can be used as a desktop image.  To kick things off, I've put what I think is a pretty neat image of the Garden of the Gods in Lanai in a password-protected gallery on my website.  After clicking the link, you'll be asked for a password.  Enter the word "Facebook", work through just a couple of prompts and you should have a great new image to use on your computer's desktop.  

Cheers!

Prints

I remember back in the day when every picture taken was magically turned into a print at the local drugstore or camera shop.  In a way, it was easy, just dropping the roll off at the counter, filling out the order on the back of the envelope, then checking back in a few days.  But if your experiences were anything like mine, the prints rarely matched our expectations.  First, not nearly every picture was ever intended to see the light of day.  There were just too many "do overs" that no one needed to see.  Second, even for the shots wherein things seemed to line up perfectly, the little 4 x 6 rarely seemed to meet up with my vision for the image.  Ultimately I've decided that I was leaving too much up to the printers.  They were great at producing a perfectly average exposure and saved most of us from ourselves a lot of the time, let's admit.  But great prints need individual attention to detail, and mass production just wasn't a way to get down to the good stuff.

My frustration with the lab development and printing process was peaking at just about the time digital photography became available to the masses.  All of a sudden here was a practical, accessible, relatively affordable way to have complete control of the negative, from capture to print.  Never mind the discussion about when digital may or may not have exceeded the quality of film, digital brought so much control that my images were almost immediately closer to what I'd envisioned when squeezing the shutter.

Several years later, we're almost completely accustomed to viewing images on electronic devices.  We've got a million ways to share and enjoy images, and in my opinion the world is entirely better for it.  I love the instant gratification of sharing an image literally seconds after it was made.  Yet I continue to come back full circle.  The view on even my 24 inch monitor doesn't approach the pleasure of holding a freshly minted print in my hands and watching the light play off the surface.  No, certainly not every image should be printed.  But when you just nail that image, when things come together just right, there's something special about immortalizing that image on paper that really brings satisfaction.

No doubt, taking control out of the hands of the technician operating the print machine at the drugstore has meant that we've had to acquire some new skills.  Now, if the print sucks, there's no one to blame but ourselves.  But what else do you have to do with your life if not to continue to learn, adapt, move forward?  There's literally not one moment, if we're alive and breathing, that we have the right to sit and be complacent, to stop growing.  I'm personally so much a happier camper with the ability to have such an effect across the whole imaging process, I'm completely happy to accept responsibility for the results.

And with that in mind, I am glad to announce the availability of prints on www.curtisbrandt.com.  For a long time I've wanted to have a place where these are available, and that day is finally here.  As you click around, you'll notice a "BUY" button.  Click there to check on size and finish options.  There are currently a limited number of images available, but that will change with time, and before long I hope to have hundreds of images available from which to choose.  Until the collection is more completely filled out, feel free to inquire about a specific theme or location, I may have just what you're looking for even if it's not available on the website yet!

I'm sitting here looking at a fresh 16 x 24 print of the taro fields in Kauai.  I can't help but think back when the first thoughts of this image crossed my mind.  It's an amazing process: conceiving of an image, going out and capturing it, preparing the file with lots of care for a print, then holding the end result in your hands.  I have to say, the print of the taro fields is WAY beyond what I felt could be accomplished.  I'm completely happy with it and I know, if you see it first hand, you'll enjoy it too.  The metallic finish is out of this world!

I'd love to make a custom print for you, just click on your favorite, make an order, and you'll have an amazing print in your hands in just a few days.

Until next time...enjoy the photography in your life!