Christmas Bells

It amazes me how pleasing compositions unexpectedly produce themselves. Of course, it’s hard not to come away with a winner when one is standing on a mountaintop at sunrise with mist rising out of the valleys, or on a beach at sunset directly following a torrential rainstorm. But it’s those everyday, “normal-rich,” “profundity-scarce” situations that always surprise me.

Of all the pictures I took during the Christmas Conference at the beginning of December, this picture was the only one that really made me say “Wow”. However, I wasn’t thinking anything different when I took it. Every time I see a potential subject, every time I compose and focus on it, every time I press the shutter release, I think about what factors will affect the exposure, what elements will build the composition, and what goal, emotion, or purpose I am trying to reach. But not every picture is a “Wow” picture. In fact, very few are.

So this is why I keep taking pictures; not random pictures, or pictures that will be of no use to me later. Don’t take me wrong; I choose my subjects carefully. But when I see something that tells a story, brings back old memories, or stimulates emotion, I will do my best to capture it despite the likelihood of a favorable outcome.

You might say I received an early Christmas gift the other day.

A fellow from church drove me into the backwoods to a place that a photographer like myself considered to be, almost literally, a treasure cove. Obviously traveling off the highway, and then down a two-lane for awhile, and then on a typical, one-lane back road for a few miles, and then on foot where no vehicle had been for a long time, we finally arrived at our destination.

No, it wasn’t the perfect time of day, it wasn’t good lighting, and the melting, snow-covered surroundings weren’t that appealing, but the location and subjects were like very few left in America. I was told that a 90 year old man (still living today) said that his grandfather had built this farm. It is known that the place was deeded back in 1875. But when it was actually built, no one really knows. The best estimate we could come to was 1865.

This opportunity to photograph a piece of West Virginia heritage, accented with the stories and tales of bygone years by my tour guide, was a blissful experience that neither words nor pictures can accurately express.

An Uninhabited Farm

Woodchip Insulation

Wooden Latch on a Wooden Door Hung on Wooden Hinges

Deserted for Over 30 Years

Scaling House

Remnants of the Past

Have you ever had someone, or a group of people, ask you to take some portraits for them just “really quick?” The IT department at HQ did this just a few days ago. I was warned a few days earlier, but hadn’t had any time to prepare. Well, here are  a few things I learned:

• Choose a nearby location. All the pictures shown here are within yards of each other.
• Don’t rush things; don’t be intimidated by anyone who might continually mention that things need to hurry up.
• Still look for details. In most of the pictures here, you can tell I wasn’t doing this very well (i.e. ruffled hair, untied shoe, dusty table, distracting backgrounds).
• Ask a lot of questions up front, make decisions once, and then do the job without second-guessing yourself.
• After shooting one pose that you “know” will work, do at least one more creative pose that “might” work. These last poses usually are the most relaxed and thus the best looking.

Initial, normal pose

Second, more creative, more fitting pose

Third pose, last-ditch effort for something fun and memorable

Enjoy your next “quick portrait” and hope you’re able to do it better than if you hadn’t read this post!

Last weekend, in Indianapolis for a Christmas Conference, I experimented a little with taking pictures completely out-of-focus. This is a very modern technique, but can look nice if used properly. In "Christmas Inspiration," complete blur transformed a very cluttered looking picture into something quite artistic.

Christmas Inspiration

Christmas Inspiration #2

Lamppost Soliloquy

What you can do in Photoshop is just out of this world! I knew this picture was useless unless I could somehow add some light inside the lamp. Once this was accomplished using another picture taken back in January, I darkened up the background using blending modes, cloned in some extra branches to fill in the distracting white sky, and added a small, circular gradient around the light to make it look like it was glowing. This particular picture has 9 layers, but it was very simple to put together, the edits make a world of difference.

Very seldom do I actually go to this extreme with my pictures. It’s just fun to see how a picture can be transformed every-once-in-a-while.

I was editing pictures the other day while my brother Daniel was reviewing memorized Scripture verses on Memverse. When he broke the silence with an animated chuckle, and I turned to see what he was up to. He was looking over at me and had evidently seen that I was in Lightroom’s Develop Module cropping a picture. He smiled really big, and while still looking at me, began typing away on his computer while quoting this verse:

“The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.” – Isaiah 40:3-5

It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to break away from the stuffy office, magnetic computers, and a demanding schedule to just roam around the great outdoors with a camera! No, it wasn’t for long, just a few strolls from one building to another. But it was great fun experimenting with snowscape exposures (+2/3 I found was best for the extremely cloudy conditions) and working on making nice straight horizons. (Do other people have trouble with this too?)

Path of Whiteness

Reflecting the Snow

Homeless

Snowy Patterns