Here are a couple of photos of my husband working on our boat at night.

The photo with the flash helps capture the mast on the left and the boat stand on the right. The shop light and my husband are given the same or less importance as those two objects.	Next we have a shot with a covered flash and a slower shutter speed. The shop light does all the lighting work.
Photo using Flash	Photo using Ambient Light

Now, because I am me, I can point out a number of items wrong with the second photo. Mostly that the focus is VERY soft. But I think this photo does a better job of emphasizing the important elements of the photograph and minimizes those elements (the mast and the boat stand) that are of secondary importance. This was actually taken with my first digital camera and it was NOT a DSLR. If had a tripod or had done anything to improve the stability of the camera when taking this photo, I would have been very happy with this shot. The camera is a tool, and getting creative with it is a big part of the fun of photography.

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And this is what I came up with.

To get the lighting right, I used a tripod.  I wanted to use the soft illumination that came from the tree, and hid some of the tree lights behind the sail so it would be nicely backlit, but that meant that the front of ornament would be not be as well lit.  So I took some prelit garland that used that same type of lights as the tree and plugged it in.  During the long exposure I directed (as best I could) the light from the garland to the hull of the ornament.  I got this idea from photographers who  “paint with light”.

I also merged together multiple exposures.  By “multiple” I mean two or three…I’m not high tech HDR girl, but I’ve come to appreciate what can be done when you can pick from the best elements of differently exposed photographs.  I was able to have brighter lights and more intense colors.

It’s really pretty amazing what we have to do with cameras and computers to recreate what our eyes do naturally.  I may touch on this in another post that talks about white balance.

Final touches included minimizing the impact of the electric cords, straightening the boat so it was level, and other small tweaky things.

The water effect was done with the help of the “Flood” filter from Flaming Pear.  Once I had the “Hey, put the boat in water” epiphany, that actually was pretty easy.

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I appreciate that even they have the occasional crooked horizons and blown out skies, but still have great photographs. This tells me everyone has skies that don’t cooperate, and that obsessively straightening horizons is not always the best use of my time. They are photographers that work hard to get it right, right from the camera…lost moments from a regatta can’t be “found” in photoshop.

Here’s an example from a recent regatta:

It’s a GREAT photograph.

And if it it were my shot I’d be thinking “I should really straighten that horizon and is this really worth keeping if the sky isn’t blue?” Grrrrr….need to work on seeing the forest and not stressing about the trees.

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I really love time on and near the water. And I’ve taken some photos that make me happy, but part of me questions “how much skill is really involved to take a wonderful photo of something already so lovely?”. Then I remember songs that inspire and uplift, and how they can be slaughtered by someone with little or no skill. Go to your local karaoke night, and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

I’m not the only one who enjoys capturing beautiful moments in the water. Onne van der Wal is a great example. He has a gallery in Newport, RI that I’ve visited twice. His gallery has given me some great ideas about what you can do when it comes to “thinking big” and displaying your photography. While he has framed and poster-sized prints, he also has his work beautifully rendered on canvas.

My experience with photo on canvas is limited, but in the past I haven’t been too impressed. The last time I stopped by the gallery, the woman working there was kind enough to give me a card with the information of the Rhode Island vendor that does van der Wal’s work. And somewhere along the way, I lost that information. I’m going send them a request through the website to see if I can get the info again. But in the meantime, just know that you can display your photography beautifully on canvas.

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My friend Drew is giving people the opportunity to win an Edge Tech 7″ digital photo frame on his blog, The BenSpark. I thought I would do a quick comment about it, but then I thought…”you know, I would really like this!” So I’m going for the gusto with this blog entry.

I’ve purchased a photo frame previously. A couple years ago for my mother’s birthday, I did my best to find photos, both old and new, of myself and my siblings. Since my mother gave me a scrapbook at my bridal shower and my stepmother has also given me an album with old photos, I actually had a small stash already.

It was at this time I also learned that our scanner at home has a lot of dust somewhere I can’t seem to get to. So some of the photos that were scanned have “texture”, or what some designers call “grunge”, or what could simply described as “dust specks”.  (Interested in high quality film scans?  I haven’t used this service yet, but Ken Rockwell gives a good review of the high quality scans provided by North Coast Photographic Services.)

I even figured out how to get multiple images on a screen so it would be even more like a photo album. Which make the photos smaller (helping to minimize the impact of the dust specks), but this particular digital frame was a 10″, so it still worked out nicely.  So did converting the photo to black and white.

So if you’ve been reading this blog because you enjoy photography, here’s a great gift idea that you can integrate with your love of photography. Or it’s a great way to get your photos out of your computer and into your home or office.

Take a look at some of the great features and functions of the 7″ digital photo frame, and if you’d like a chance to win this or two other prizes for someone special (or maybe just for you), check out TheBenSpark-where you can see “Everyday Pictures..Every Day”.

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I’m quick to delete in camera, but I don’t get them all. (I love my D50, but the size of its LCD screen leaves something to be desired. I have to zoom in the verify photo sharpness, and I don’t always catch the unsalvageable. Wait, what’s that? I hear you D90…soon we’ll be together with your 3 inch LCD screen, in camera straightening and red eye fixing. Be patient…and stop calling out to me…I can’t afford you right now!!)

I’m pretty dependent on my auto focus, my days of 20/20 vision are long over. Auto focus is a big help, but sometimes I overestimate it’s ability to capture a moment. So I end up with blurry photos…especially in low light. Sometimes I look at the LCD screen and think “Ooooo, I think I got it this time” and then later find out I really got this:

Boat movement can not only cause our boat parts to inadvertantly make their way into photos, they can also cause me to “lose” parts of other boats. This has taught me I should work harder to not zoom in so closely. I try to leave some room for error…or sudden movement. See examples below:

^This boat is NOT sinking

^This boat is NOT falling into a giant whirlpool

And here’s a final photo showing my never ending optimism about what I can do while taking photos on the boat.

I call it simply “Full Moon Beauty-Captured View from a Sailboat”

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It doesn’t always work.

The most frequent compositional problem that comes up is tilted horizons. In fact, it happens so frequently I don’t even consider it a problem anymore. I have become Kung Fu Horizon Fixer. One side of this is that I spot tilted horizons in other photographs and wonder why people don’t take a moment to fix them. The other side is that I know that people create compositionally pleasing photos with tilted horizons…but I’m so used to fixing mine that I haven’t “evolved” to recognize when it’s OK to NOT make a straight horizon in a photo.

Photography means lifelong learning…

I think it’s safe to say that these photos can’t pull off their off-kilter horizons:

No one said anything about sailing uphill…
Wheee!!!!!!

What can also happen is that when I move to keep my subject in the frame, at the same time various parts of the boat move into the frame as well.

Slideshow transition interupted or attention hungry boat stays?

And sometimes you get a combination of both, and when that happens you get that rare shot:

Sailboat Attacked by Dust Bunny

as it’s about to

Sail Off The End Of The Earth

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The other day we were out for a sunset sail and saw a barge coming along. Well, I have more then my fair share of commercial boat photos, but this was my first opportunity to take one at sunset…I’ll be the first to admit there are some subjects that I can’t seem to say “enough!”.

One particular challenge was the rolling waves coming toward us. Sure the boat I was photographing was moving pretty steadily, but the boat I was on was moving enough to make looking through the viewfinder pretty challenging. Not only was I just pointing the lens only to suddenly be moved out of position (which is also how I end up taking photos that unintentionally include part of our boat), but I was also getting seasick. Keeping an eye on the horizon is an important part of avoiding seasickness. Trying look at something through a viewfinder doesn’t count.

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After adjusting, if the photo comes out pretty close to what was in the camera, I give myself a pat on the back.

That’s what happened with this photo. The photo that came out of the camera is on the left side. The one after Auto Smart Fix is on the right.

And when a photo looks good, I always like to check and see how it would look in black & white

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