Latrobe (CA), Cloud Ribbons, Light Pockets, Dragon Face

Latrobe, El Dorado County, CA

A uniform scene is probably not.  By accentuating contrast and increasing available light in an image brings out a final composition entirely different from what your eyes saw.

(Click through the image for the 700px view)

Yes, I am going through last month’s archives of images again.  Between work, preparing images for competition, and delivering and retrieving images from competition, there have been few windows to shoot among the even fewer opportunities with atmospherics.

So besides the pockets of light on the left side of the image, what I also wanted in the composition was the wisp of clouds on the far right.  Now that I have looked at the puff of clouds closely do I notice it bears a resemblance to Puff the Magic Dragon with some spectrum color in its eyes.

EXIF data: Nikon D7000, center weighted metering mode, ISO 100, 116mm, f/8, 1/640 sec

Latrobe (CA), Cloud Ribbons, Light Pockets, Dragon Face. Latrobe, California. April 05, 2013. © Copyright Steven Tze – all rights reserved.

Sutter Creek (CA), Wild Grass, Lichen, Contrast

Amador Central, Sutter Creek, CA

A forced photography exercise I imposed for myself this afternoon.  Since I was already out and about running errands and the camera gear almost always in the car, it was an opportunity to shoot despite it being mid-afternoon with the sun shining brightly.

Stopping at the local business park, formerly part of the Amador Central Railroad, I did not have high expectation of sweeping landscapes or great compositions of oak trees.  The task was then to find contrasts, whether they come in the form of light and shadows or of bright objects against dark.

Fortunately, as I was heading back to the car I spied this vignette of bright sidelit grass against a lichen covered boulder. A few snaps and a fun little incident with a lizard (which I will discuss on another day), and I was back in the car on the way home.

EXIF data: Nikon D7000, center weighted metering mode, ISO 100, 135mm, f/5, 1/15 sec

Sutter Creek (CA), Wild Grass, Lichen, Contrast. Sutter Creek, California. May 19, 2013. © Copyright Steven Tze – all rights reserved.

Ione (CA), Lenticular Clouds, Monochrome

Ione, Amador County, CA

I have always wanted to photograph lenticular clouds (commonly know as pancake or UFO clouds), but around here lenticulars tend to form over the Sierra Nevadas.  I am usually in the foothills, but even with a 200mm lens, they are just a bit too far off in the distance.  Fortunately, we have had a surprising storm system roll through the past two days to break the string of warm days in the 80s and 90s.  This disruption in the weather pattern brought along another surprise – lenticular clouds over southern Sacramento and northern San Joaquin Counties.  Though not completely isolated and distinct enough for those out-of-this-world type photographs, these clouds are fun to look at and shoot.

(click through on the image to view in 700px)

While the idea was to find either rolling hills with one tree or none to provide the foreground point of interest and potential leading lines, the area I drove through did not cooperate.  So I am forced to shoot clouds with and land features as context.  Not optimal.  The great thing about lenticulars is the fact that they really do not move across the sky like normal clouds.  I suppose I could try to explain how these formations occur and why they do not visually move, but that would be futile.  Instead, go ahead and read the Wikipedia entry on these clouds.

EXIF data: Nikon D7000, center weighted metering mode, ISO 100, 135mm, f/11, 1/60 sec

Ione (CA), Lenticular Clouds, Monochrome.  Ione, Amador County, California.  May 16, 2013. © Copyright Steven Tze – all rights reserved.

Plymouth (CA), Storm Clouds, Last Light

Plymouth, CA

Another photograph resurrected from the archives.  The reason?  Spectacular clouds, poor landscape context.  This image was originally planned as part of a panorama, but the idea was nixed due to the same lack of interesting context.  For once the rolling hills hinder, rather than improve the image.

(click through on the image to view in 700px)

To compose a strong photograph, the elements need to strengthen the overall image.  Far too often we snap a shot because something catches our eye, but in our haste to capture the moment, we do not carefully select all the elements to complement the focal point.

In this particular case, with the foreground hills not enhancing the image, but rather creating a distraction for the eyes away from the clouds, I darkened the foreground to ensure the focus is only on the clouds.

EXIF data: Nikon D7000, center-weighted metering mode, 80mm, ISO 100, f/11, 1/13 sec

Plymouth (CA), Storm Clouds, Last Light. Plymouth, California. December 26, 2012. © Copyright Steven Tze – all rights reserved.

Pfeiffer Beach, Keyhole Rock, Splashing Surf, Square Crop

Pfeiffer Beach, Big Sur, CA

I pulled this image from the “scrapheap”.  Photographed on Christmas Eve, initially processed on New Year’s Day, revisited between then and late February, and eventually relegated to the self-assigned 1-star “maybe I will revisit the image someday” pile.

(Click through the photo for the usual 700px view)

Well, I decided to scan through photos from the past few months to see what might be worth another attempt.  I am also woefully short on selection from this month’s shooting efforts.  15 total photographs of which there are only 6 different compositions for the month of May.  2 of the 6 compositions I have already processed and blogged.

So to the archives I went.  There were big hopes for this one day jaunt to Big Sur, mostly to shoot sunset at Pfeiffer Beach.  Yet when it because obvious to me there were too many clouds at the horizon to achieve the shot I wanted, the focus was then on abstracts and vignettes normally bypassed when there is “the shot” to capture.  This became an exercise in capturing light, sand texture, and fast shutter speeds on the waves crashing.

An additional 15-20 minutes of tinkering with this image in Lightroom and some adjustments on the original square crop results in what we see here today.

More of last year’s Big Sur-area photographs:

• Rock, Keyhole, Sunshaft
• Arch Rock, Sunset, Waves
• Coastal Ridge, Fog, Monochrome
  
• Sunset, Waves, Rocks
• McWay Falls, Cove, Fog
• Point Sur Lighthouse, Midday, Monochrome
• Pfeiffer Beach, Purple Sand, Streaks
• Pfeiffer Beach, Keyhole Rock, Photographers, Long Exposure

EXIF data: Nikon D7000, patterned metering mode, 68mm, ISO 100, 1/80 sec, f/11

Pfeiffer Beach, Keyhole Rock, Splashing Surf, Square Crop.  Big Sur, California. December 24, 2012. © Copyright Steven Tze – all rights reserved.

Folsom (CA), Parallel Lines: Grass, Rocks, Rails, Fence, Powerline – Monochrome

Folsom, CA

As I have mentioned previously, shooting B&W (or monochrome) images is not a matter of taking any color photograph and converting the image in Lightroom, Silver EFex Pro, or similar application.  Not any old photograph looks great once it has been converted.  It is about seeing the final photo in your head in monochrome based on the elements in front of you.

It is having a good sense of light and shadow and structural elements within the image.  That sense enables you to take an ordinary scene (which usually includes bad light) and be able to break it down into workable pieces for the end result.

For instance, here I see the following layers: hillside versus sky, sky and power line, darker versus lighter hillside grass, dark fence post against grass, sunlit versus shadowed grass between the fence and rail, rocks and rails, and rocks and foreground grass.  Of all of these, the weakest contrast is the last element listed.  I could have done a better job separating the elements by adding light to grass.  Perhaps there are too many elements and contrasts here, but there are certainly other compositions I can create out of this one image.

EXIF data: Nikon D7000, center weighted metering mode, ISO 100, 22mm, f/16, 1/20 sec

Folsom (CA), Parallel Lines: Grass, Rocks, Rails, Fence, Powerline – Monochrome.  Folsom, California.  April 17, 2013. © Copyright Steven Tze – all rights reserved.

Latrobe (CA), Barn, Rolling Foothills, Storm, Rays of Light, Monochrome

Latrobe, CA

After what seemed like interminable weeks of hazy skies, a weather system is finally moving through the area for a couple of days.  Though there are forecasts of thunderstorms, we have only seen pockets of rain.  At least that means there are atmospherics to photograph.

(Click through the image for the 700px view)

One of the shooting locations I have come to frequent in recent months has been the area of Latrobe in the Sierra foothills.  With the higher elevation, there are clear views of the valley towards the south and southwest.  On a day such as this, the sunlight filtering through the storm clouds is an invitation to spend a few minutes admiring the view and snap a few photographs.

EXIF data: Nikon D7000, center weighted metering mode, ISO 100, 116mm, f/13, 1/125 sec

Latrobe (CA), Barn, Rolling Foothills, Storm, Rays of Light, Monochrome. Latrobe, California. May 06, 2013. © Copyright Steven Tze – all rights reserved.