Blogodocious ramblings of a landscape photographer living in Maine.
Woah on the old days of film!, but then again- same as it ever was in other ways!
Little House on the Ice Long Pond
Todays picture is: another ice shack! Yay!
Here's the way I see it- a while back I figured to make a work on ice shacks- because they almost all have an unique character, and almost always are in beautiful places. And the fog spoke to me, therefore: when the fog speaks- you listen! And in the meantime it gives me direction and something to think about regarding planning a shoot, or I could even go so far as to make like it's a project for a client and take the faux initiative that way- "gotta get the work done and all!" But honestly I've been really enjoying it, where before I would see them [the ice shacks], and appreciate them strictly out of a "that's a cool looking one" stand point. -Now I'm looking at everyone I see and considering lines and angles and backgrounds and weather and times of day and what not, which is just good practice, period. What I mean by that is we get used to seeing things as the things that they are and take them for granted but when we have to look at the things that we are seeing critically then we see them anew like for the first time all over again. Look- I don't mean to get all preachy here: I'd rather listen to a good sermon then give one, so forgive me if I sometimes get all enchanted by a thing, but with photography you can explore and study the things that fascinate you, a real double-whammy bonus in that way! Always curious, sometimes a satisfied photographer, that's me.
Now dig this: here's some nifty bonus materials that I found on the interwebs yesterday- whether or not you like 'The Fro', he does a pretty good job of showing you how it was, or used to be in this video of shooting instamatic film and getting it developed and made this wicked cool vid showing that whole ridiculous process. I used to shoot film on a Kodak instamatic 110 before my voice cracked and I was still sporting tube socks and short shorts, check this style out:
We used to really pull those socks up- for support you know. -1982, with the greatest cat: "Patches"
I recently found some of the old pictures taken with that 110 and I'll put them up here some other time- but I wonder what I was thinking back then clicking the shutter? Can't quite remember- I remember taking pictures of my dog and the old pictures that recently found that were made with that camera had some suburban landscapes and pictures of some rocks and chipmunks and stuff. Can't even imagine having to rely on that technology now though. So anyways check this viddy out and start it at about 09:30 if you want to skip the rest of the basketball game stuff (worst basketballing and worst pictures I've seen since the 80's that's for sure!), but interesting the rest-
Ha! One of things he points out is that one of the scary moments is when the negatives pop out of the machine and you look for (1.) exposure: to see if there is even a picture there, and (2.) focus- look through a loupe to see if what there to see is being seen. And seriously, has anything changed?! That's the same thing I'm doing now when I bring the files into Lightroom, getting all psyched to see the thumbnbail, looking promising, but then seeing that I missed focus by just a little bit here or there- eesh! And that's why they call it photography instead of taking pictures- (rolling off the analogy 'fishing instead of catching') it's really a big deal to make all of the elements come together perfectly to make a great image, and it takes a bit of alchemy-to make sure that you're doing everything right on the spot, at the time. That's where practice and knowledge come in, and when all else fails: muscle memory and reactionary instinct may save the day. Then again there's always the fall back tried and true method of 'spray and pray'- whatever works: keep making those great pictures mis amigos, my friends! Because the lord of the pixels knows that I'm tested everytime out there!
-Right then, and, as usual, have a good one- Nate!
Duck Brook Cyanopowder
Duck Brook Cyanopowder 74 seconds at f/11 iso 100 24mm Ts-e with a little diagonal tilt for the heck of it.
Oy! Hello my stable-mates (not inferring that anyone of us is even tempered, just a greeting to my upright walking animal friends.) So I've been working on this image on and off since it was made back on the 31'st of December of last year. We had just had our sweet big powder snow fall of the winter of about a foot or so with lots of fluffy blowing drifts and I figured to revisit the 'Duck Brook Bridge in the Snow' shot that I haven't made now for a few years. The fun part of this trip is always the glissade down the hill to the streams edge in the snow. When the powder is deep enough, like it was that day, it's just a few big but slides down the hill- the trick is to not ruin the snow in your shot or go too fast and end up in the water. Here's the thing: I've had the hardest time with this picture since I made it, I just couldn't find the soul in it in post, I could never find the direction to go with completing it. But I still thought it could be a beautiful image even with the clear blue sky that it was that day. The thing is about our winters here is that it gets so cold and so high pressure system after another that more often than not it's a bitter chilly day with bald blue skies. Which isn't usually what gets me motivated to go picture making. But I had this shot here that had beautiful powder and really such a crisp and clean feel of the winter in Acadia and Maine and when I put it through my usual black and white rendition paces I wasn't feeling it- something was always missing from the emotional side of it. So I went at it again today and this time I again approached it with my usual B+W developing order to bring out the shadows and attenuate the highlights and sharpen and d+B etc etc, then it hit me like a ton of elephant's in the rooms to pop it back to blue and just like that, it was done. So that's dumb- because really it looks just a little different from the capture in the first place. There's a lesson in this somewhere maybe? Something about "don't let your process blind you to seeing"- case in point: I used to be an HDR addict! I've been off the HDR now for almost three years. I should get a nice 77mm commemorative lens cap for that or something. You all have your own vices when it comes to your process- fess up: what are your crutches? Hmmm>?
And as usual, have a nice day. -Nate!
oh and here's the original raw file.
Because It's There: The Bass Harbor Lighthouse in the Mist.
Bass Harbor Lighthouse January Mist. 149 seconds at f/7.1 iso 100 17mm on 17-40L 5D 2.
Ayuh- so last Friday I was lamenting about getting nailed in the face by three fire hydrants worth of full blast seawater after a giant wave leapt up out of the Atlantic to hug me, and my gear. Well this shot was the other time (in the last two months, or years for that matter)- see I usually never get an ocean bath when I don't want one, especially while toting around expensive camera gear, so two times in two months is a ridiculous record that I don't hope to break soon. This time in the photograph above the wave jumped down my back, and I couldn't have been more shocked first at the bucketfull's of ocean that managed to get inside my sweatshirt, and second at how embarrassingly ridiculous of a situation it must have appeared to the rest of the world in the case that anyone cared to be looking. I live around here, grew up on the ocean, I was watching the patterns that day and still I couldn't imagine how so much water could have launched itself onto me at the place where we were set up. Maybe there's an invention of commerce to be found in this lesson? A photographers safety leash or something. Comes in stylish black with red trim for Canon or black with gold trim for you Nikoners, also urban camo for you rooftoppers, and pink- just because. And we could sell them for a bunch because we get to call it "Camera Gear" or "Photography Accessory". Any other good inventions that you guys have thought of (or gals, I say guys referring to include all of you breathren and sistren.) Here's another one of my inventions: "The Beer Bandolier!". Illustrations and description to come...
Have a good one my friendlies and photophiles and be careful out there while you're shooting! -Nate!
Nailed in the face with a wave again while making photos-
Acadia Moods January whitewater
Right then- so in yesterday's post, I alluded to taking another wave while photographing down by the ocean. This time it was to the face- instead of the previous soaking to the back and down the neck. But this time it was a real doozie- think of it like this: imagine being blasted in the face with your 5D mkII (or your new fancy D800 you Nikoners), cause I still love my 5D2 like the day I got it))- on a tripod, with say about 3 fire hydrants worth of full blast sea water for 2 seconds- and that get's close to what it felt like. Now picture me standing on a 40 foot cliff top when that happened and that's the kind of mood that Acadia can have in the winter here. Freekin awesome- but at the same time literally breath taking, salt water drenched, gasping, "didn't see that coming!", fickleness. I mean I can't even begin to worry about my kit yet because I'm so shocked by being in the ocean even though I'm still standing on land, and thank the lord of all things electronic and pixeled that even though the remote shorted out soon after the next few images, everything still worked the morning after following a thorough wipe down and debatterying and a drying out by the heater. But seriously- this is two times in two months here that I've been mostly immersed in the Atlantic Ocean without my choosing, camera in tow- so that's enough of that- can I get a "hey man! hallelujah on that!" Right- with that in mind- keep safe out there my fellow picture chasing fools friendsies! -Nate!
This is the shot I was making when i got nailed- the ocean was telling me this shot sucked! P.s. :I can take a hint-
Acadia Moods January Whitewater II
Ice Shacks On Thin Ice!
All the ice shacks sunk last night. That is all that were left out on the ice- the smarter folk dragged them to the shore and staked them, the rest sunk. It went from -20f to +45 and blowing a gale and raining a few inches of warm rain in the space of a few days so I figure what happens is that even though there is 10 inches of ice- the rain collects on the roof and sides of the shacks and pours down the corners and melts a whole and then it's just a matter of time and momentum and they're going down.
"Doing Their Part To Keep Acadia Beautiful"
Overnight we had 50 knot winds and a German friend of mine thought she was going to Oz and it rained to beat the band. At noon the whole thing started to break up and when that happened I wanted to head out there to get some long exposure cloud whispies streaking by. Eagle lake on Mount Desert Island in Acadia always has a lot of ice shacks so that was where I was headed to continue my current project- when I pulled in there tho the usually busy parking area was packed with people rushing all about and I was even more jacked to get shooting and set up my kit at the car and headed down there and here was this giant frackas of sunk ice shacks and tow trucks and guys in dry suits and on and on. And I tell ya the whole thing would have been a lot more efficient if everyone including the workers working the disaster weren't so busy making pictures with thier phones and Ipads and cameras of all kinds. The only one missing was a large-format-wooden-legged-tripod-shooting old-timer with a beard bigger than my own. Pretty weird deal indeed. Add to that one of the dry suit wearing ice shack lassoers kept blowing an old train whistle while he was out on the ice made an already surreal scene even more surreal-ler. But it did make a great time to make pictures! Then I went on to take another massive wave to the Face down by the seaside that left me gasping like a famished large man eating a New York pizza, that's another story for another time- more on that tomorrow.
"Ice Shacks On Thin Ice"