Fall Colours in abstract

[DLibrach]

Soon, the snow will be blanketing the landscape around here and the colours that were so dominant a few weeks ago will be nothing but a fading memory. Just another cycle in in nature and evolution.

Like nature, my photographic journey can follow cycles. There are times when everything seems as empty as winter, as fresh as spring, as busy as summer and as complex as fall.

Over the past month, I've have found myself doing a lot of personal relection and contemplation. This has started to come through more and more in my images and I thought I would share some of them with you here.

Cheers,
Dave

P.S. These do not fit the typical mold of "landscape" photography but I was unsure of where else to place them. Please let me know if they should moved elsewhere.

http://DLPhotography.smugmug.com/photos/102508365-L-4.jpg

http://DLPhotography.smugmug.com/photos/100112162-L-1.jpg

http://DLPhotography.smugmug.com/photos/102507975-L-1.jpg

http://DLPhotography.smugmug.com/photos/102506956-L-1.jpg

[Tim Gray]

First one is a wonderful abstract. Love it!

[Asher Kelman]

These do not fit the typical mold of "landscape" photography but I was unsure of where else to place them. Please let me know if they should moved elsewhere.
Hi Dave,

How delightful. Lovely colors!

I thought I might learn from the jpg naming what the story is about thee first few images? How are they related and how did you take and process the images?

Asher

[DLibrach]

Thanks Tim and Ahser.

Unfortunately I am not that creative with the naming of my files and so they would not provide any insight.

The first and third image where taken back-to-back and were the last two images after shooting all day. I had just spent the previous 6 hrs shooting waterfalls. This task can be quite tiresome mentally for me as it requires a high level of technical concentration. At the end of the day, my mind is pretty much fried. I find it helpful after something like that to just let go photographically and get the creative juices flowing again.

According the exif data, the first was at 1/8s F9 and the second was 1/80s f3.2 -1/3 exposure. Both were accomplished by moving the camera as the shutter was released. The first was in a side-to-side, diagonally downward motion and the other was straight diagonally down.

The was no rhyme nor reason for the above camera settings. What was important was a long enough exposure (but not too long) to create the effect that I was going for. Other than that, it doesn' really matter. The best part is that these images usually require little post processing. Slight curves and saturation were used, but the final images are not far off of the originals.

You can do this with any subject matter in any situation. Try different shutter speeds, moving the camera in different ways...etc.

The last image was taken early in the same day. As you can probably tell, my mind was much more "technical" at that point. The second image was taken a couple of week before the others. They are pictures of some flattened reeds at the side of a tidal river.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Dave

P.S. I had taken the photo below during the summer but thought it would help show what an image can look like if you rotate the camera off-centre while releasing the shutter. Hope that's OK.

http://DLPhotography.smugmug.com/photos/86912500-L-8.jpg

[Asher Kelman]

It may seem obvious to you, but I am worse off fro 1/2 a bottle of red wine! Why is the maple leaf not twirled to blur like everything else?

Asher

[Ray West]

Asher,

'cos you need to drink the other half. I suspect its the bottom half of the bottle that does the trick, you should drink that first ;-)

Best wishes,

Ray

[DLibrach]

It may seem obvious to you, but I am worse off fro 1/2 a bottle of red wine! Why is the maple leaf not twirled to blur like everything else?

Asher

I was afraid someone was going to ask that. To be honest, I can't give a difinetive answer. It is just one of those great unknowns that can happen doing this type of thing.

There are many factors that could be at play on this. One, is that the shutter was released and then I twirled the camera, where as in the top photo, the camera was moving before I released the shutter. It is similar to using 1st or 2nd curtain sync when using a flash. Also, there is quite a bit of distance between the leaf and the background which is the canopy of the forest.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Dave

P.S. Funny you should mention wine as this was taken while I was with my wife on a camping trip and we had just drank a bottle. Maybe the camera sipped a few too!?! ;o)

[David Robertson]

David,

Beautiful. I just love your first image. Thanks for sharing.

Kind regards

Dave

[Asher Kelman]

Well,

This then looks like a project worth doing. To be scientific we need to play with two variables, the speed of rotation and the interval between drinking the bottle of wine and the twirling!

Asher

[Steve Fines]

David - just look at these. Really enjoyable.

Just goes to show that there is always a good picture out there, takes a photographer to find it sometimes.

Funny how the alcohol settles to the bottom - it does seem that the second half of the bottle packs more oommph. : - )