Lovely Light, Shadow, Forms & Textures

I selected another image from the same 24 exposure roll of Ilford FP4+ that yielded the image of Maddy and Livvy a few weeks back. This time it’s one of the photos I took during a short morning walk in Chestnut Branch Park in May.

Black and White photography needs contrast and this image has just the right mixture of light and shadow to bring the photo to life. The contrast transforms and renders the scene with lovely light, shadow, forms, textures and depth. I like it.

Been awhile since I’ve gotten out for a walk in the park. Soon, John, soon. Maybe if I get off my butt and swing my kettle bells more I’d build up my stamina so I can walk longer and farther without my legs giving me the hurts. Actually, I did swing a set while thinking about what I wanted to write. Now all I need do is repeat the set(s) in another day or two.

Livvy & Maddy Planting Their Flower Garden

Tracy bought a flat of flowers (impatiens) for Livvy and Maddy to plant in our yard. I couldn’t miss this opportunity to photograph the girls and their flowers in glorious monochrome.

I took this shot earlier this week. It can take me weeks to use a 24 exposure roll of film. I started the roll this image came from weeks ago with half a dozen or so pics I took during a morning walk in the park.

Another half dozen or so shots of the twins took me to frame 15. Pictures of my neice Mary in her prom dress finished the roll. I developed the film this morning (Saturday)and hung it to dry for six or seven hours in the shower stall. I scanned and edited after dinner.

Back to my subjects. Livvy and Maddy had a lovely time planting their flower garden (with a lot of help from Tracy). Now let’s see how patient they are waiting impatiently for their impatiens to bloom.

Monochrome Maple

Good Lord! It’s been over a month since I posted anything on Aware Writer. I don’t have any new images but that’s not an excuse. I poked about in my archives and found an image that I made a few years ago in our back yard.

Click on the photo to view larger image

This is a shot of a branch from a small Japanese maple. The original came from a roll of color transparency film, but I thought the photo would be better as monochrome so I converted it. I like the photo but never posted it because there was (please note past tense here) a nasty blown highlight and a few other smaller blown highlights (in the wrong places). I looked at the image again. Hey, I can fix that and I did.

The eye is drawn to lighter tones in a photo which is why the blown highlight (pure white with no texture) ruined the image. The picture came to life once I got rid of the distractions.

The image is peaceful with a kind of Zen feeling — I like it.

More Textures

Here are a few more images from the same roll of film as last week.

This was taken at the entrance to the Ceres Nature Preserve one morning after a light snowfall the night before.

This is an image of a piece of fallen tree. The textures interested me so I took a picture. Nothing special here though.

Here’s a nicer image of fallen trees and texture with a dash of light thrown in.

The bottom two images were taken in Chestnut Branch Park on the 911 trail behind all the playing fields. The first was the frame before last week’s image and the second was the frame after.

Layered Light & Texture

I went for a short walk in the woods in Chestnut Branch Park a few weeks ago. Of course I had one of my cameras with me. The day was bright and sunny. I took four pictures. This one is the winner.

I operate on instinct when I’m out taking pictures. I see things that interest me and when I’m in the zone, my design mind takes over and I snap a photo. Not to say I don’t move about framing and re-framing to get just the right image. That’s part of the fun of photography. How do I know when I’ve gotten it right and it’s time to press the shutter? I go by feel, I just “know” when to press the shutter.

This was one of those times when my knowing how to frame and when to press the shutter worked and I got a quality image.

I went for the light and got just what I wanted in this image. The lovely side lighting layers the light and brings out the textures of the tree stumps. My choice of focal length and aperture renders the foreground and background softly while the stumps are in sharp focus. This image pleases me.

My Nikon 8008s has become my workhorse for walk about shooting. I used an uncommon lens, the Nikon 35-135mm f/3.5-4.5 AF Zoom-Nikkor. This is one heavy lens but I love the focal length range, goes from wide-normal to moderate-tele in a single lens. Can’t fault the sharpness of this lens either.

When I want to travel lighter (most of the time) I mount my 35mm f/2.8 AF Nikkor, the only lens in my collection that I bought new.

Here we are, well into the digital age and I cling to my film cameras. I am not a Luddite who rants and raves about digital vs. film photography. I accumulated a nice collection of high quality film equipment that still works and since I’m retired with a fixed income, I use what I have because I don’t have the resources to match the level of quality with new digital equipment (and the necessary computer resources to go with a high end digital camera).

I thought about buying a mid-range digital camera a few weeks back, but even with a price reduction the camera alone costs $799. I compromised and bought two rolls of Kodak Ektar color print film instead for $9.98. Add $7.00 (round number) for processing each roll and my total comes to $24 (rounded again). I’ll load the Ektar into my flagship camera, my F3HP. I want to shoot a few rolls of color macros of flowers and other fun, fresh things. It’s Spring!!

Wow, I really ran off at the mouth here today. Take another look at today’s image. I’m happy with this one.

Happy Birthday Julia

Julia turned 11 last week. We helped Julia celebrate her special day when the whole family (all except the Florida contingent) enjoyed Easter dinner at our home.

Here’s Jules, smile on her face, waiting for our Happy Birthday song to end so she could blow out her candles.

And here she goes. Blew out all two candles.

I used a bounce flash for both shots. Usually I try to shoot birthday cakes by candle light and have had good success over the years (mostly). Both of these pics turned out nicely in spite of the flash.

Two More Pics From Ceres

Happy Easter. I finished off a roll of film today that I will process during the week. In the meantime, here are two images from the last roll of film that I shot and developed in Feb.

Whenever I go to Ceres and take the ridge trail, I pass by this collection of fallen trees, parts of trees, etc. I like the images and have probably taken dozens at this spot over the past few years. Here’s another.

I zoomed (with my feets) to get a different perspective on this one.