Walls of the Missing

I am planning to visit the Cambridge American Cemetery again soon and as part of that, I was looking through some photo files that I shot this past winter. One of the features in the cemetery is its Walls of the Missing that have 5,127 names on it. It’s an interesting structure in that there are places where you can walk through and it operates as both a barrier to the outside, but also an entrance and exit between the cemetery and it’s exterior. So it’s both a wall and a door. It’s imposing, yet delicate; Both personal and impersonal. During this particular photo editing session, I was working with images that included the Wall:

Hipstamatic, shot with iPhone.

Hipstamatic, shot with iPhone

Hipstamatic, shot with iPhone

These first images are ones that I shot on my iPhone using the app Hipstamatic. One of the features of that app is “randomize” which means you shake your phone, take your photo, and the app applies a random selection of filters. I created a series of those over the course of my visit.

I also brought my Canon 80D:

ISO 400 24mm f/11 1/250sec

 

ISO 400 24mm f/11 1/640

These two photos I edited in Luminar 3 with an eye to accentuating the warm but quickly fading light of a February afternoon.

It was an interesting work session, and I was giving some thought to how different the lighting conditions will be since my next visit will be in July. In that vein, I think it is nice as a photographer to have the experience of shooting the same place at different times of the year. It’s a good exercise in thinking through things like light. It’s also interesting to then have the time of year be part of the narrative of the image.

Do you have a place like this, that you visit regularly over the year in part just to see the changes? What do you think of my various photos, is there a particular one that speaks to you? Feel free to comment below.

Cheers!

Added to Tuesday Photo Challenge, Wall and Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge, 5+ Items.

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Gone But Not Forgotten

Interesting topic this week for the Photo Challenge.  It made me think of grave stone markers, so I went back to work on a photo that I took a few months ago:

ISO 100 70mm F/3.5 1/160

This edited version is an HDR photo.  I was interested in creating an HDR version because I thought that the detail of the stone would match the bokeh of the background in an interesting way.  The edit is a slight and subtle one.  Here is the original, middle exposure of the three images that I combined:

ISO 100 70mm F/3.5 1/160

I think that the HDR treatment gave the grave marker the bit of pop that it need to separate from the background.  What do you think? Feel free to leave a comment below.

I love looking at grave stone markers, especially weather-worn ones, monuments to those who are gone but not forgotten.

Cheers!

Weekly Photo Challenge: The Hue is Green

This panorama is the second of two that I created for my Photoshop class:

It’s actually two panoramas in one.

In full size this is a 36″x 17″ print.  I know there is a limit to what can be viewed here on the blog, so I have put it in my Flickr photo stream as well.

Since the theme of the WordPress photo challenge is hue, I will start by talking about that.  When I was thinking about the final panorama, I wasn’t sure at first if I was going to stick with the green tones that were in the original photograph.  So, I experimented with that a bit.  You might remember that I blogged this photo a few weeks ago:

ISO 250 50mm 0ev f/1.8 1/400

At this stage I was trying to decide if I was going to make the panorama match this more golden hue instead of the green.  I decided to stick with green, but if you would like to see how I made the green photo golden, the post is here.  You found the green version of this photo in the panorama above right?

Once I had decided to stick with the green hue, I created the panorama of gravestones in Photoshop.  In order to get these photos, I used my tripod.  My tripod can pretty much lay flat, and I used it in that position, because I liked the angle that included the grass in the foreground and I also like the way the background turned out in the series of photos.

If you are going to shoot a panorama, consider using a tripod or other flat surface because it makes it easier for the software to put together your final image.  The other thing to remember when shooting a panorama is to leave overlap in your photos so that the software has things from your first image that it can match up with your second image and so on.

But this is actually two panoramas.  The stone angel is a panorama as well, although a smaller one than the gravestones.  I put these two panoramas together in Photoshop.  The gravestones are one layer and the angel is another.  The original canvas was white, but I put a stone texture on it and then a layer of green.  I chose the specific green color by using the eyedropper tool and selecting a green that was in the gravestone panorama.  The cross that is behind the angel is actually a photoshop brush that I downloaded from Obsidian Dawn.  I included just a general link so that you can see the wide range of brushes they have, but I used one from a series of celtic crosses.  The text is Psalm 23, and I just used a separate layer for that and typed it in.

So, that is actually a pretty brief version of how I created the panorama, it was a fairly involved project.  What do you think of the final version? Questions and comments are welcome below.

I look at a lot of different blogs, including those of artists whose work is quite different from mine.  I get a lot of inspiration and other tips from various blogs here on WordPress.  The blogger I’m about to thank is one whose blog has content that some would label as “mature” in terms of content and vocabulary, if that bothers you, don’t click on the links. I’d like to thank Cardinal Guzman for the idea to post my larger panoramas on Flickr, he does a lot of street photography and has some beautiful, moody images on both of his blogs, which can be found here and here.

Also, the other panorama I created in this series is here on Flickr and here on my blog.

Cheers!

Travel Theme: Ripples in Stone

One thing that I like to photograph in my travels, even if I’m not wandering far from home, is cemeteries and other religious spaces.  This particular image is HDR and I shot it at night:

ISO 320 50mm 0ev f/6.3 1/5

It was 7pm when I shot this, so the sky was not completely dark yet, but the sun was down.  It was the longer exposure time that helped bring out the blue color of the sky.  The lighting on the statue of Mary meant that I did have to be careful not to have too long of an exposure or I would risk too many blown out areas with no detail.  I put the f-stop to 6.3 because I did want to show the ripples in Mary’s robes, that is one of the reasons that I also chose to make an HDR of this scene.  HDR can be a very powerful tool to capture detail.  I used a tripod to keep my camera steady as I took three exposures.  I used Photomatix to create this image and then did some cropping and sharpening in Aperture.

Have you ever created an HDR image from photos taken at night? how did it go, what challenges did you face? Did you blog about it? if so feel free to leave a link in the comment section below  Other thoughts about night photography or HDR that you want to share? feel free to do so.

This post was written in response to the travel theme over at Where’s My backpack? this week featuring ripples.

Cheers!

HDR on a Friday

I do like HDR photography.  It can be used in a variety of ways to create some really unique images.  My photo today though is using HDR to just capture as much detail as possible:

ISO 100 50mm 0ev f/7.1 1/400

This photo was taken at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.  I just thought this was a beautiful marker.  What I wanted to capture was as much of its detail as possible.  I used a bracketed exposure on my camera.  So, I have three photos that are the same except one is lighter, one is darker, and one is in the middle.  I put these three exposures together using Photomatix.  Photomatix then offers a bunch of options and there is a lot you can tweak in the image.  For this image I am using a setting that provides detail while still looking like a standard photo.  What do you think? Feel free to comment below.

I am thinking of going back to Bellefontaine to try to get some infrared images.  I will be using an IR filter on my camera.  Do you do this type of photography?  have some tips for me? please leave them in the comments.

Using HDR to look through a window

Recently I have enjoyed looking at the blog, Lingering Visions, and one of the things the author, Dawn, is doing is a weekly look at windows.  I have found it interesting to look through the various posts and this week I have a photo that fits so I thought I would join in.

This photo was taken at Bellfontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.  The cemetery is a beautiful spot.  Be sure to stop at their front offices on the way in because they offer a complementary map of the grounds.  I took a bunch of pictures but for this particular post, here is my window shot:

ISO 100 50mm 0ev f/10 1/100

As I approached this mausoleum, I could see there was a lot going on in this potential photo.  I decided then that I would bracket the exposure to try and capture as much of the detail as possible.  First I wanted the peeling frame of the exterior.  Then in the window itself you can see several things.  The bottom and top you can see the interior, but in the bottom you can also see a reflection of what is outside behind me.  The middle of the window is dominated by the stain glass window that was on the far side of the mausoleum through which you can see back out to the rear.  So, that is a lot to look at.  There is also a lot of contrast here between bright color and more muted color.

So, this is a very busy window.  What do you think?  Would you have shot it differently or processed it differently?  Your comments are most welcome below.

Cheers!

Travel Theme: Shadows

This week at Where’s my backpack? the theme is shadows.  I thought I would do a little bit different of a take on shadows.  In this case I am talking about shadows of the past.  I enjoy taking pictures of graveyards.  These are a few I took in Halifax, Nova Scotia:

ISO 200 50mm 0ev f/4.5 1/40

ISO 250 135mm -0.67ev f/5.6 1/30

ISO 250 70mm -0.67ev f/5 1/40

I enjoy walking around, looking at the markers, and appreciating the quiet that cemeteries usually afford.

Cheers!