Just make it up as I go...

With the news that is overwhelming and concerning each day, I do try to find something...anything to take my mind off from it and also ease my whirling brain from both the news and the difficulty of being a Caregiver.

I was stuck inside [during that last cold spell] so I decided to do something interesting 3D printed character I acquired. It has no face, no name, but has the number 13 on its chest. It is a color I would never have chosen, but there it is. 

Pink.

Pink must have a story behind her. She is a she, correct? She came with a faithful robot dog. Everyone needs a faithful sidekick, right? So I call them Pink and Pip. I don't know why but just because I felt like it.

They live somewhere in the future I suppose in a warehouse. 

She dreams of a beautiful place a dreamy place. The sort of place her handlers have talked about in the distant past. Beauty, flowers, tranquility.

Pink and Pip play fetch on their down time as Pink explains about this wonderful world she has never seen but has only heard about.

Pip rejoices with her master and plays fetch. They talk about dreams and possibilities. Why is it that their handlers are the only ones allowed to have dreams?

Robots don't really sleep. But they do have down time. One night...Pip pulls Pink out of her downtime. Pip squeaks and squawks.  

This is no imaginary dream. She awakens to ...

to what? She is not programmed for this.

She goes outside to stare at the unbelievable...

What would happen next? I got stuck here for a long time. Actually for a few weeks. I didn't know what Pink should do.

And I left her in a desperate situation... like a cliff hanger on a mystery show...

But then I recalled my MiniBots from last year. I used them for a while and then gave them a storyline with Donder regarding the fact that they found Worm Holes and Rips in the Fabric of Time to travel through.

Maybe ... maybe Pink should find the MiniBots to help transport her away from this awful future world?

All of the above photos were set up indoors using a digital backgrounds. I made the backgrounds using Deep Dream Generator. I simply create a scene I can imagine [which takes many tries] and then either use my laptop for the background as I do for smaller things, or the old smart TV for the larger items. 

It is like making a movie as you have to build 'a set' for the characters that work. It is like producing a Hollywood scene and is quite fun.

I have learned so much from a site called Toy Photographers. I often go back and read their articles. The tips and tricks are fun to experiment with and I think it helps my regular photography also.

Anyway. If my attention remains focused, I'll see if I can figure out Pink and Pip's next steps.

Always learning/close to home

Regarding Covid-19. Our trauma center is asking people to stay at home as much as possible. The doctors have asked that family indoor gatherings be avoided. 

Our own county is trying to recommend that also.

I don't mind so much because I am one of the lucky ones that can stay home and I have acres and acres of woodland surrounding us to explore. However, I miss my trips to places for hiking and photography. 

I thought I'd go back through my archives and look at what has changed for me in photography.

Here is a photo I shot in August 2016 at Eau Claire Dells. At that time I was into using the longest exposure I could when photographing fast moving water. The one below is a 15 second exposure. And although pretty neat, it is also pretty dull.

Most of the time I take several shots of the same scene with different exposures and at the time I really liked the smooth look of the water.

Now? Meh. I liked some more 'action' to be seen. I found the following shot exposed at just less than a second.

This shot has a lot more umph to it. The water has a sense of flowing and reflects the colors of the trees on the opposite bank. It isn't dull looking.

What changed? My taste for different exposures and sitting and learning editing techniques. 

There is a huge argument by some against edits. And as an old user of film, I was against edits for a long time. Do it right the first time was my motto.

So I decided to work with the old 15 second photo and see if I'd learned anything. I know when I sat on the rocks in the middle of the river, I had a 'vision' of roaring water, bright leaves, and an awe of Mother Nature all bouncing around in my mind.

I was seeing this in my head:

A warm August afternoon. 

And yes, I can still hear the roaring in my mind!

There will always be that argument regarding editing. But in truth, I feel I've had the debate myself and have decided that if it is my vision, the edit works. Photography becomes more of an art form than a recording of events.

Though there sure is a reason to record events!

Think street photography, or like one of my photography classmates does...news photography. 

Or like this... the deer that wandered into the yard last night and the moon later on...

An interesting technique that I haven't tried yet is one where you blend different exposures together.

Uffdah. That requires some heavy lifting from a software program like Adobe Creative Suite or Adobe Creative Cloud. I can't afford to pay monthly fees so I stay away from the program.

There are so many programs out there! Wow!

Anyway. Last shot and then I am taking my little pocket camera and going hiking. The morning light is fantastic.

From yesterday's morning walk with Charlie.

Have a safe weekend. 

The rest of this week is going to be work, work, work. Clearing dead and living Buckthorn Trees from one section of the pasture. 
Lots of fun!

Morning in the creek

This world of late...

has left me a bit uninspired.

I turn to the easy stuff.

You know, photography and light.

Hiking and working on pastures, yard, and garden.

I always feel a bit left out of something though. As if I am missing.

Missing what?

It could be the length of time we have closed ourselves off to the outside world.

86 days. But who is counting?

Who wants to see/read the news? I want to write how I feel about it and found myself trying to explain this verbally to Rich last night.

That didn't go well. I was watching peaceful protesters from all around the United States.

I understand that there are so many factors that have bubbled up and over-spilled into our society right now that it is a cauldron of simmering emotions, feelings, and indignation. 

I tried to explain it to him.

And I found myself really not very good at it. 

I know I feel unease inside of me. Some of the same horrified unease I had in 1968 when I watched Martin Luther King, protests, riots, calls for peace and not War. I wasn't sure of what to make of it all then except to know that things were very wrong.

And all that wrong-ness has not really changed. It has just simmered under the surface to pop up here and there.

So I take a walk down to the creek. The day is going to be hot. I walk along in partial darkness looking for some light.

I walk with Charlie up and down a small stretch of the creek exploring it through the view finder.

It takes my mind off this troubled world. It is my escape.

And in turn I look for beautiful things.

There are the rocks...

...and Greens

And..
then
the light
begins to appear through 
the
forest...

And then I begin to feel better. 

Refreshed and renewed.

At least for a bit.

I whistle.

Charlie and I head home.

Focus Stacking

I like to shoot small things with the camera. One of my frustrations is the fact that if I shoot an insect with the macro lens, I generally only get a portion of the 'bug' because of the limitations of the camera's focus ability.

Here is an example.

An Imperial Moth Caterpillar on my Flickr page:

Just the face of the insect.

Live shots are a challenge to get right.

However, a nice full shot of something like a mushroom would look so much nicer if the full mushroom were in focus.

The bunch was too much for a proper focus. So I got out my mini tripod and focused on each of the little buggers and then tried to put it all together in a photo program.

I failed.

So I finally decided to try a focus stacking program. I have 30 days to decide if this is something I like.

Helicon Soft is the name of the program.

Here is a shot from two days before that I'd failed miserably on a manual focus 'stack'.

This was run through Helicon.

...Oh by the way, these have been Identified as Common Puffballs also known as Gem Studded Puffballs...

4 images stacked:

Then two days later:

The details came out amazing! 

I found that I can go into manual focus and my camera has a manual focus assist which turns things red to tell you what parts are in focus.

So yesterday, I started to experiment.

I didn't find cool fungi as I was hiking new trails and just enjoying the scenery... but I wondered how much depth I could get if I stacked a landscape scene.

Unstacked, one shot:

It is nice and it would have pleased me just fine. I could have shot with an infinity type setting and would have probably been satisfied. But I wanted to see how stacking...stacked up.

4 stacked shots at different focal lengths:

Oh...I liked it!

Here is another one. Not focus stacked:

So I really loved this spot but wanted the viewer to feel the whole breadth of the place....

So I stacked it from front to back. I wanted the forest in the back to be in focus.

This one gives me a feeling of actually being in there... the immense forest and the small me.

I tried other items like some rocks and a flower seed head. There was no amazing before and after, just clarity which was nice.

But there you go. My experiment in focus stacking with Helicon Soft and manual focus.

Yes I keep experimenting with my camera and photography, it is what gives me some mental breaks from the other things going on in our lives.

Thinking in Black and White photos

I like a challenge.

While hiking with Charlie between storms, I took this shot. It was overcast and gloomy but the yellows and greens were nearly glowing.

This is towards the back of our property almost to the fenceline. It is part of the refreshed trail that Jeff the Bulldozer man did for us.

I could have spent the day just gazing at the colors and the leaves. Charlie was following raccoon trails, and I spotted a couple of deer. Inside the forest it was nearly too dark to take a photo.

Charlie is in the lower part of the shot.

We visited the Gnarly tree with the cool roots in the dry run...

Anyway, when I got back home I opened up that first photo and decided to make it a painting.

I love the softness of the lines and bright colors. I could see this on a wall mural. I'd walk right into it...

So I decided to see what would happen to the same shot in black and white.

I posted the Before shot to my Flickr account and a pal of mine mentioned that it could be more interesting if worked with a bit.
So I looked up a tutorial for an old photoshop program and worked with it.

I think the 'masked' version has more depth.

So I went one step further and looked for tutorials for the ON1 program I use.

Black and White Tutorial

I came up with the following:

So why on earth am I taking such a colorful photo and converting it to black and white?
Well, because I want to study black and white photography.

Here is a photo from last year.

It is a nice pleasant shot of Black Hawk Park near the Mississippi River. The clouds were beautiful and the reflections quite nice.

I looked at it when I reviewed photos, but it didn't 'wow' me at all. There was nothing here to make me take a second look.

After watching the tutorial I went back and looked for photos that could be good contenders for black and white conversion. I needed good contrasts. And now I know that skies with white clouds do provide that. The color of the shore in the above photo annoyed me when I took it and cropping it out didn't really help.

So I took this shot and worked with it.

I cropped out the bottom so I wouldn't be annoyed by the shoreline. There was some mild adjustment to straighten the horizon and then I set to work.

Oh but darn those leaves look nasty in the upper left corner...

this isn't what I really wanted...

back to the drawing board...

It qualifies for the gray gradients and the lack of color actually helps accentuate the clouds in the reflections. That part of the photo worked out well.
Darn some of this black and white was harder than I thought!

Here is another example of that day of fishing that I never did anything with....
The black and white includes using some cropping and straightening ~ things I learned about while watching the judging and going to the Camera Club meeting.

Note to self, that tree across the way should be moved to the right a bit?

Like this....

Last note. This is nice, however the rules of 'judging' require that shorelines and horizons do not cut through the middle of the photo.

So I will continue my learning...

After all, Winter is coming. That is when Black and White photography is almost a no brainer. After the snows come, the world essentially is white ... and black.