Retreating Away with Other Wonderful Creatives

2013 brought about many wonderful things. One of them was the 2nd Annual Photography Retreat hosted by Salem Digital Photo Group.

This year's attendance almost tripled the first year's event and everything executed beautifully. We started the weekend on the beach for Sunset on Friday night.

Then we moved to the lake for some late night starry sky shooting.

We awoke Saturday morning to a beautiful morning sunrise shoot followed by some yummy breakfast.

We moved to shooting the myriad of species of mushrooms sprouting up all over the camp.

Lunch came and then naps ensued for some, like me.

Then came more shooting and post processing.

Dinner came and we ate like kings and then our second sunset of the weekend was captured.

We ended the day with a stunning slideshow of wonderful works attendees had created.

Some of us then snuck out at night to hit the beach for some long exposure on the night sky. The stars shone bright that night.

 

Sunday morning came early. But many captured sunrise before breakfast.

We ate breakfast packed up our gear and headed home.

It was a truly amazing weekend with some truly amazing people willing to help, share and create.

I can't wait for next year. It is truly an amazing weekend to spend with some amazing friends.

I want to close this post by thanking our gracious hosts at Camp Magruder, Steve (Camp Director) and Amy (Events Coordinator) for making our stay a special weekend for all involved. These two people rock it like no other. And of course the cooks of camp... for without them, our bellies would not have been full. :) Thank you to everyone that made this event a huge success.

Photography Retreat Part 4

Chris and Shawn Shooting the Misty Lake

 The Salem Digital Photo Group held their first annual photography retreat this fall. The retreat was held on the beautiful Oregon coast at the wonderful Camp Magruder, near Rockaway Beach, Oregon.

To recap, the first day started down on the beach for some beach scenes followed by an amazing sunset. Then late at night we went out to attempt a one hour exposure, which ended in a bust a little before 1:00 AM.

But that didn't stop the happy campers from rising early and heading down to the private lake for some early morning light and water shots.

After breakfast we went on a hike in the woods and then met back up for lunch. After lunch, we got to head to the archery range.

Rick's Bull's-Eye

Yup... that's right, the staff a Camp Magruder thought it was a good idea to take the cameras out of our hands and put bows and arrows in the camera's place.

Everyone took a few shots with both the bows and their cameras.

In the image on the right, Rick is showing off his impressive archery skills.

Melva's Bull's-Eye

 Melva in her last shot of the day nailed a bull's eye.

The archery was a nice mix in the activities for the day providing a little variety in the day's activities.

 My shot of the day, at the archery range was this shot of Tom drawing down on me.

It was shocking how eager everyone, not just Tom, was to point a loaded bow at me.

It was all in good fun, but in all seriousness, Tom and I keep clear and concise communication during this shot. I let him get the bow drawn back and indicate when he was steady. Then I would step in front of him, shoot a few frames and he would let me know when to move.

Tom would take a little rest and then we would set up and do it again.

 That evening, we headed down to the beach. We were running a little behind, and had to run down the beach to get to the point where the setting sun fell between these two rocks.

In doing so, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going and as I ran a little too close to a little camp fire with several people enjoying the beautiful evening on the beach, their dogs didn't like me running so close to their little camp. The dogs ran out and bit me twice on the legs. I stopped, raised my hands and waited. The dogs stopped and the owners came running, apologizing. I looked at the sun sitting on top of the water sad all was good and took off running. I had several hundred yards to cover before the sun dipped under the horizon. I got the shot and the bites didn't break the skin.

After a brief slide show which we invited the camp staff to, three of us wandered exhausted back down to the beach to try again for that elusive one hour exposure.

This time, with full batteries and no yahoos on the beach with their flashlights and no moon, we had success with the first try. Back to the cabin and in bead by 11:00 PM.

 The next morning after breakfast, we hit the lake again, for an hour cruise in rowboats.

In the image on the left, Rick and Shawn tootle around the lake stopping to take photos of geese, shorelines and reflections.

It was the last activity before we packed up and headed home... and it proved to be a great closer.

All in all the weekend was a huge success. Though we all got home exhausted, everyone took some beautiful photos, bonded as friends and learned something over the weekend.

Photography Retreat Part 3

Amy - Camp Staffer

The Salem Digital Photo Group held their first annual photography retreat this fall. The retreat was held on the beautiful Oregon coast at the wonderful Camp Magruder, near Rockaway Beach, Oregon.

To recap, the first day started down on the beach for some beach scenes followed by an amazing sunset. Then late at night we went out to attempt a one hour exposure, which ended in a bust a little before 1:00 AM.

We were up at 6:00 AM on day two and headed down to the lake for some early morning light photography followed by breakfast with the Camp Staff.

The Campers

 After breakfast we posed for a couple of group shots. A motley crew we were, but everyone was in such a good mood following breakfast. It was time for some of us to head into the woods, while a few headed to the beach.







I chose the woods...

Dream

As we headed into the woods a light mist was hanging in the trees allowing for strong sunbeams to creep in through the trees.

I shot a few frames here to capture the image on the left.


Then I moved on, shot a frame or two, moved on again, rinse and repeat.

Enchantment

Beams

Strength

Beach Grass

 As we made our ways through the woods we took time to shoot things other than Sunbeams.

My friend and fellow photographer even let me use his 60mm Macro Lens. This is one of the additional benefits of shooting with friends outside of the wonderful company; sharing equipment.

The world of macros is always ripe with opportunity for you and your camera.

Blade

Pine Cone

Miniature World

Tune in next week for part four of this blog series. It was a beautiful weekend.

Photography Retreat Part 2

Paint Strokes

The Salem Digital Photo Group held their first annual photography retreat this fall. The retreat was held on the beautiful Oregon coast at the wonderful Camp Magruder, near Rockaway Beach, Oregon.

To recap, the first day started down on the beach for some beach scenes followed by an amazing sunset. Then late at night we went out to attempt a one hour exposure, which ended in a bust a little before 1:00 AM.

But that didn't stop the happy campers from rising early and heading down to the private lake for some early morning light and water shots.

Purple Morning Light

The water on the lake was glass-smooth and created a perfect mirror-like reflection. I played with some motion, and some abstract reflection work with the scene.

The Paint Strokes image above was done with a slight shift while the shutter was open.

The Purple Morning Light image to the right is an flipped reflection photography of the reflection that was on the lake with two gradient purple filters  to make it pop.

Rainbow of Colors

Once the light became a little brighter, I moved back up to the boathouse to capture some images I have wanted to do for a while.

To the left is a photograph of four kayaks. I was really wanting the colors and patterns of the boats for a simple, yet colorful image that is aesthetically pleasing to my eyes. I was definitely successful there.

The old canoe

The other image I really wanted was an old, and obviously unused canoe/kayak/boat. I found that in this image of the canoe. Land-bound and aged with time and lack of use this made the perfect subject.

The Old Canoe, on the right, was an attempt to combine the elements of a path, indicating time and the old canoe to indicate the effect of time.

The overall message of the image is that time moves on with or without us.

I was happy with the results of the image. I achieved my goal, from my perspective and I was able to revel in the success of a pre-visualized image successfully captured.

I then turned my camera on the others at the retreat to capture what they were doing and seeing.

After shooting at the lake and other various fun things, it was time for breakfast! I must say, they provided a ton of food that was tasty, filling and a welcome fuel for the day that was to come. We had omletes, sausage, hashbrowns, cereal, oatmeal with all the fixing, milk, coffee, juices and apples or oranges. We left stuffed and ready for a nap, but there was no rest for the wicked.
Next week I will post part three of the series... so stay tuned!

Photography Retreat Part 1

Footprints in the Sand

The Salem Digital Photo Group held their first annual photography retreat this fall. The retreat was held on the beautiful Oregon coast at the wonderful Camp Magruder, near Rockaway Beach, Oregon.

The first day of the retreat was filled with the excitement of getting settled in to the cabin, getting some grocery shopping done to provide snacks for the Retreat-goers between the marvelous and overly abundant food served by the camp and of course a little scouting of the location. As people arrived, the excitement built. Needless to say, everyone had itchy trigger fingers and were ready to get out snapping.

We soon headed out to the beach to for the sunset, arriving an hour early to capture some beach scenes as well.

Beach Fodder

Mini-Dune

Sunset

Long Exposure on the Beach with Star Trails

The first day concluded with an 11:00 PM trip back out to the beach to attempt a 1 hour long exposure. This attempt was plagued with issues, beginning with the the fact that the moon rose at 11:15 PM washing the sand, sky and sea out with its pesky light. Then, 12 minutes into the exposure some yahoo decided he heard voices and shines his flashlight not once, not twice, but three times in our direction, hence the UFO on the beach in the image on the right.

So I scrapped that exposure and decided to try again. Clicked my shutter and waited.

13 minutes into that exposure my batteries died.



I change the batteries, and started again. About  12 minutes into that exposure another photographer stopped his hour long exposure and found a pure white image thanks to the moon. I stopped my third attempt at an exposure. We made the decision to call it a night a little after 12:00 AM and packed up and headed back to the warmth of our cabin and the wood stove heat within. We would try again the next night.

The first day came to a close. People wandered into their beds, exhausted... tomorrow was going to be an early morning full of wonderful opportunities.

Watch for Part Two of this four part blog next week...

The Challenges of Panning

Panning is a fun way to abstract

Red Rider Coming In For A Rest

Panning provides many challenges not only for the photographer, but for the subject as well including; speed, stability, perception and expectations.

A couple of weeks back my friends at the Salem Digital Photo Group got together for a shoot in which we had someone drive, safely, around a parking while a bunch of us photographed him.

Our subject in this case was Paul and his Honda Goldwing appropriately named Red Rider. Another member, John, took over the driving duties in his Mini-Cooper when the brakes started getting warm on Red Rider.

The goal of panning is to blur the background while keeping your subject relatively in focus. Panning creates the illusion of super-speed even if the subject is moving at a moderate pace.

Stability is important with panning. You have to be able to avoid vertical shifts (the camera swinging up and down) while panning horizontally.

And no, you really can't use most tripods successfully for panning. A really expensive tripod might be able to pull this off, but most consumer tripods are not going to allow you to pan effectively and will likely get in the way of a smooth horizontal pan.




Stability comes with practice. 

Speed is another important factor. The subject doesn't need to be flying at 100 mph for a good panning result. What is important is having a constant speed for the subject if you want a smooth pan. 

In the photo of Paul and Red Rider above, you see that while they aren't tack sharp subjects, they are uniform making for a good pan. 

In the photo of John and his Mini, right, notice the deformity of the rear wheel? That is a result of John switching from accelerating to decelerating, while the shutter was open, the speed wasn't constant. The deformity is cool, but was an accidental byproduct of the shifts in speed while the shutter was open.

To prove my point, John above was reaching speeds of about 30 mph. To the left, Paul was reaching speeds of about 5 mph.

This points to the illusion of speed I mentioned above. Paul, on foot, is doing roughly 1/6 the speed of the mini-cooper, but the panning makes it seem like he is flying. And I am sure that in his mind he was flying.

One last thing to keep in mind is to keep your expectations realistic. What I mean by this is that your subject is moving and you are dragging your shutter, therefore your subject isn't going to be tack sharp and you shouldn't expect that the subject would be. Just remember, tack sharp is not required for a photograph to be cool.

The Father's Day Crash

Today is officially a down day for me. it is a down day not because it is Father's Day, but because the last few weeks have been a constant go leading up to yesterday's climatic cresendo.

Each year, our photography group, SalemPhoto.org, does several big events, Help Portrait in December, our recently added annual swap meet in February, our annual BBQ event in June and the State Fair over Labor Day. Yesterday was the annual BBQ event in which we went bigger than ever this year. We had tons of food, drinks, volleyball, horseshoes, a photo scavenger hunt and a raffle.

None of this would have been possible without the help of everyone involved in planning and executing it; Rick, Shawn, Nathan, Heather, Michael, Hermie, my wife and my kids and the other people it took planning the menu and events, Peggy and Jim. It took a small army of planners and executors to make this happen and I appreciate each and every one of you. 

As a result of being so busy that day, I like several others didn't shoot a single shot that day. As a matter of fact, my camera never left its bag, but I wasn't there for me. I was there to make sure everyone else had a wonderful time and outside of some mosquito bites and an army of dancing blue dirvishes that invaded the park, we were successful.

Here are a shot I captured during a BBQ planning field trip with Rick and Nathan. 

 

Experimenting With Nathan

Nathan of SmithFineArt.com came over to my house yesterday with an idea. We set up, settled in and began experimenting. It is so much fun to experiment with photography, especially when the idea comes from the creative genius that is Nathan.

We set up a projector as a light source and my finest bottle of Vodka as the subject... I know.. it's not Grey Goose, but I do happen to be on a budget.

 

By projecting different images on the wall, we were able to shape the light. Many of the projected images were made on the fly, as we shot.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Nathan also has this nifty little program on his Mac that creates varying patterns. Using some special techniques, we were able merge multiple patterns to get some cool results.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Nathan will be teaching this method at the March monthly meeting of the Salem Digital Photo group, salemphoto.org. Come check out this amazing Salem Oregon Photography Club.

Thanks Nathan for all of fun and education you bring to my creative life.