Haystack

Here's a digital stitch i did recently of a sea stack known as Haystack rock in Cannon Beach, Oregon.


Thanks for having a look!

Tracy Lebenzon said:

Here's a digital stitch i did recently of a sea stack known as Haystack rock in Cannon Beach, Oregon.

Thanks for having a look!

Click to expand...

Tracy,

I'm impressed. This is a view to be revisited many times, like Monet's fiber haystacks, which vary with the season and time of day.

For this particular pano, I wonder if you have any more images to add to the right. The waves coming to the lower edge of the frame would be magnificent. I'd still love to see the center enlarged. How large can your pano be printed?

Asher

What makes this landscape different is the idea to go back in the fields. I would think that most pictures of that place are taken from the beach. It is a good idea.

Hi Tracy,

That's a far better view of Haystack Rock than I got last week. I was over in Seattle visiting my family and we spent a few days in Arch Cape just a few miles down the coast. For most of the time it was misty. When were you there?

Regards,

Stuart

> I'm impressed. This is a view to be revisited many times, like Monet's fiber haystacks, which vary with the season and time of day.

Thanks Asher! Haystack never turns down an opportunity to pose. It’s probably the most photographed and painted rock along the coast. If only it wasn’t a 5 hour drive!

> For this particular pano, I wonder if you have any more images to add to the right. The waves coming to the lower edge of the frame would be magnificent.

I agree I should have caught another frame or two to the right.

> I'd still love to see the center enlarged. How large can your pano be printed?

Do you mean a detail shot? The native size of the stitch is about 12” by 34” and it would probably hold together okay at 2x that, but I haven’t printed this one that large.


I do have another stitch taken from about the same place.

Jerome Marot said:

What makes this landscape different is the idea to go back in the fields. I would think that most pictures of that place are taken from the beach. It is a good idea.

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Thanks! I thought so too.

StuartRae said:

Hi Tracy,

That's a far better view of Haystack Rock than I got last week. I was over in Seattle visiting my family and we spent a few days in Arch Cape just a few miles down the coast. For most of the time it was misty. When were you there?

Regards,

Stuart

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Thanks! This was captured around mid August.

Asher,

Thanks for the reference to Monet's Haystacks. It is an interesting read and a wonderful study!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haystacks_(Monet)

Tracy Lebenzon said:

Asher,

Thanks for the reference to Monet's Haystacks. It is an interesting read and a wonderful study!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haystacks_(Monet)

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Tracy,

Monet is one of my favorite French Impressionist Artists I search out in galleries. There's nothing like learning from the very best! Do you have reasons to return to that beach? It would be fantastic if you had an interest in photographing the same scene in different lighting and cloud cover and condition of the foreground grass. Maybe even in winter. Is there snow there? One interesting picture is a treat. A series, though, well that's something that is really impressive and worth getting behind if it is something that inspires and drives you.

If not, it's not your project, just my fantasy of where you interest might lead.

Asher

> Monet is one of my favorite French Impressionist Artists I search out in galleries.

I can certainly see why. A really good photographer I know of from another web site did a series of captures of lily pads and the places they live during sunrise/sunset, to show that Monet was more of a realist than is often acknowledged. The works were great and he made a very good case.

> There's nothing like learning from the very best!

I agree completely.

Looking at Monet’s works makes me want to drop my current lines of study and pursue impressionist techniques, which is an area of photography I’d like to learn a lot more about. He’s definitely an inspiration for that goal.

> Do you have reasons to return to that beach? It would be fantastic if you had an interest in photographing the same scene in different lighting and cloud cover and condition of the foreground grass. Maybe even in winter. Is there snow there?

I've heard it snows sometimes but is unpredictable and fleeting. I’ll be back there from time to time. If a project I'm working on pans out, I may have more regular access to the area.

Do you know of any reference materials that show some impressionistic techniques with a camera? I haven’t dipped my toes into this area.

> One interesting picture is a treat. A series, though, well that's something that is really impressive and worth getting behind if it is something that inspires and drives you.

The idea is a great one!

Heres a sunset over the pond.

I rather like it.



It will easily print at about 20" x 66"

What do you think?

Tracy Lebenzon said:

Heres a sunset over the pond.

I rather like it.

It will easily print at about 20" x 66"

What do you think?

Click to expand...

I think you are on to a good project. I'd try to drop down further to see f you like more of the grasses seen clearly or else silhouetted against the sky. Always try to depart from typical romantic sunsets and ask, "In what way is my sunset, (/little girl/flower/Eiffel Tower), picture different from all the millions of others?

Good luck!

Asher

Thank you very much for your comments!

> I'd try to drop down further to see f you like more of the grasses seen clearly or else silhouetted against the sky.

Interesting. I've had others say that I don’t put in enough foreground. Yet I'm happy with the percentage of the image that’s taken by the grasses. The grass area of the image is intended as a visual resting space and jumping off point, and not the focal point. Here, if the observer looks closely, they can see the grasses colors (green to yellow and brown) and nearly every minute detail about them. Apology that this gets lost due to the image reduction. Yet, I’ll continue to ponder your thoughtful observation.

> Always try to depart from typical romantic sunsets and ask, "In what way is my sunset, (/little girl/flower/Eiffel Tower), picture different from all the millions of others?

While a good rhetorical question, this image is different from many sunsets. In the first place it’s well composed and executed. Secondly, it’s a pano, and thereby a lot bigger and containing greater detail than most of those millions of other images on the same topic. As example, while you can’t see in the jpg, there are scores of birds in flight in the image.

The product will be a roughly 2’ by 6’ on veneered canvas and packaged as a gallery wrap. It grabs the attention of anyone who is in the same room, and it’s a nice place to get lost.

Next, just by making it into print, it will be different from the majority of those millions of sunsets that don’t make it beyond screen savers, and lastly, but most importantly, the reason there are millions of sunsets is that people the world over are irresistibly drawn to them.

It’s risky tactic to put too much emphasis on visual uniqueness rather than on producing a subject in a pleasing manner. Emphasizing uniqueness is like a thorn tipped whip that demands the artist dig ever deeper into technique and to ultimately put technique ahead of the subject. An emphasis on uniqueness eventually pushes frustration or worse upon most artists. If one feels that they have to be “unique” in their work, it is the roadway to all but guaranteeing an eventual perception of failure.

In the end, the goal is to present the simple subject of an arresting and dazzling sunset. Do you think I did it?

...another day...

Tracy Lebenzon said:

...another day...

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Tracy,

Now we are seeing the great potential. Let the skies be painted and you can harvest your haystacks!

Asher

Tracy
I rather like the last haystack- I am from the South and have never seen these formations "rock" amazing!
I like the catch so much from an artist pov because of the immediate Autumnal effect one feels from looking at the photo
it is pleasing and gives us a sense of peacefulness right away-
lovely work!

Charlotte-

Thanks to both of you!!

Hi Tracy!

I like your approach in these images, but, I must say, I prefer the greater dynamic range of the second "haystack" over the first one.

I agree with Asher that a series would be a wonderful undertaking; and, with Charlotte about the peace and calm these images evoke.

Jean

Hi Jean,

Thank you for the thoughtful comments!

charlotte thompson said:

.....
I like the catch so much from an artist pov because of the immediate Autumnal effect one feels from looking at the photo
it is pleasing and gives us a sense of peacefulness right away-
lovely work!

Click to expand...

Well put, Charlotte,

It's like capturing a range of emotions in a portrait of a person.

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

Now we are seeing the great potential. Let the skies be painted and you can harvest your haystacks!

Click to expand...

I don't quite agree. The two images are more similar than what appears at first sight, the main difference is the color balance. I tried to correct the color balance and contrast of the second in PShop (*), and I come to an image quite similar to the first, except that the sky is not as nice.

Of course, if you like this color balance, you could process the first to match the second (PShop has a command called "match colors" to that effect) and then you get the second with a more interesting sky.



(*) 82 cooling photo filter at 50%, lower gamma a bit in levels and lighten up the shadow to 20-25%.

Thank you for the comment and the time you spent on this but I don’t understand what the point might be.

They were both captured at around the same proximity of sunset but a few weeks apart.

Hi Tracy,

Tracy Lebenzon said:

Thank you for the comment and the time you spent on this but I don’t understand what the point might be.

They were both captured at around the same proximity of sunset but a few weeks apart.

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The dynamics of these discussions can baffle even the old hands around here, lol.
If I understood correctly, Asher wrote "Now we are seeing the great potential. Let the skies be painted and you can harvest your haystacks!" in response to your second picture. Jerome "did not quite agree" with Asher's statement. Implying that there is not much difference of potential in these two images and that one could almost derive one from the other based on mere color corrections. Now here comes my interpretation, I think what Jerome says is that for achieving an additional potential, some other aspects such as composition would have be changed. I may be 100% off the mark of course.

I thought that the last sentence was clear enough: please try to give the first image the colors of the second, using the suggested Pshop command and tell me what you think.

Since we are talking about variations in the appearance of haystacks in different light, we can be inspired by Monet who returned on different days of the year, with variants in cloud cover and angle of the sun in the sky and mist in the air. The light then differed in colour, angle and fall off. Those changes, are recorded, but in Monet's rich saturated style, making careful note of where the sun strikes and the shadows lay.

Tracy has only started in his haystack project! Of course on can attempt to transform several different pictures of the same object to come to look closely similar. That exercise serves only to demonstrate how own prowess in manipulating images in Photoshop or other elegant software.

The ethics of the project, if there could be one, would be to make each photograph representative of the lighting of the same object at different times and weather conditions in order to more fully explore the nature of being a haystack, stuck where it is for a seeming eternity.

Ansel Adams and Edward Weston both invested great amount of time in waiting for the light to change to what they imagined might be found that day in that location from that one special vantage point. I have little doubt that either of them could, with their mastery of the wet darkroom tricks of the trade, alter one picture to make it appear like another, but that was not how they generally worked.

Working from real life, just revisiting the same place in all weathers and lights is what will open up this remarkable vista to many new aesthetic revelations. That's what we're after. Still, as Jerome suggests, if one can transform any one of these to another, one might learn a lot from technique. Matching images is a process worthy in itself for us to try out. This can be a good exercise for its own sake but not replace the real thing, which means more new pictures!

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

Still, as Jerome suggests, if one can transform any one of these to another, one might learn a lot from technique. Matching images is a process worthy in itself for us to try out. This can be a good exercise for its own sake but not replace the real thing, which means more new pictures!

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I am not suggesting anything (beyond trying a quick manipulation and telling me what the results are, that is). I am just remarking that the two pictures are quite similar, even in their light.

Was the light visually different at the times the first and the second picture were taken? I would not know from this set of pictures. The difference could be entirely due to a different processing.

Jerome Marot said:

I am not suggesting anything (beyond trying a quick manipulation and telling me what the results are, that is). I am just remarking that the two pictures are quite similar, even in their light.

Was the light visually different at the times the first and the second picture were taken? I would not know from this set of pictures. The difference could be entirely due to a different processing.

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The things is, the two images are obviously not captured in similar light. One is overcast while the other shows direct sunlight.

If you have the time take a look at Monet’s Haystack series, mentioned above. Here's the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haystacks_(Monet) If you feel motivated, you can apply variants of your “quick manipulation” on these images and post your results. I have no interest in this kind of thing but you clearly do.

Tracy Lebenzon said:

The things is, the two images are obviously not captured in similar light. One is overcast while the other shows direct sunlight.

If you have the time take a look at Monet’s Haystack series, mentioned above. Here's the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haystacks_(Monet) If you feel motivated, you can apply variants of your “quick manipulation” on these images and post your results. I have no interest in this kind of thing but you clearly do.

Click to expand...

Tracy,

Nevertheless, especially with snow coming, we'd be so disappointed if you didn't take more picture as the haystack is presented to you in different conditions. I can understand eschewing gross manipulations! After all, Monet could have changed the weather and light from memory, but he was there to view and then paint.

Asher

^I am very much looking foreword to another trip there. Today I had one of those days which reminds me of how important it is to get away to other favored places.

I don’t have any problem with processing works to enhance the end result, but my PS skills are simply no where near good enough to have produced the two images from the same session.

But I've found a subject much nearer home that I'm going to use for series of studies over the next several months. It’s a great opportunity to show a simple subject against an ever changing combination of sea and sky.

If Jerome can give us variations of your haystacks, it would indeed be impressive. I for one, would appreciate that a lot. It does require both imagination and skill. At least you have the skills to take the picture. With that you can just simply return. So. when it really snows, make sure you invest in that journey! Meanwhile, good luck on your new project.

Asher