auburn dog Brookfield, NH

The white balance (overall color cast) of this image has been set to complement the auburn coat of my neighbor's dog. I like the quirky placement of the subject where he is almost off the image. This creates a little tension and allows him to be looking into the frame. Notice that the eyes are the sharpest part of the image. He's waiting for me to toss his ball. Shading has been adjusted by applying a subtle freehand vignetting.

Fan Ho fanboy

Someone once asked me who my influences were. This blog entry is the definitive answer.

The most effective way to improve your compositional skills as a photographer is to study the great masters. There is one photographer in the world whom I think stands out above the rest in terms of composition. That would be Fan Ho.
He is a master of compositional techniques. He directs your eye using lines, subject placement, and chiaroscuro*. He masterfully uses fog/smoke/smog to create a feeling of depth. All the elements of his images have MEANINGFUL impact. His composite images are well designed with composition in mind using scale not only thoughtfully, but playfully at times. His image, An Early Morn is a visual Haiku displaying balance and simplicity eliminating all but the essential elements.
You would benefit from viewing Fan Ho's work at: http://www.modernbook.com/fanho/new-work/images.htm and keep coming back on occasion for a refresher course.


(*contrasting light- think of a spotlight in a dark image)

Panda Cub at San Diego Zoo San Diego,CA

This image required a lot of tonal adjustments.  Besides having contrast problems and structure problems, his face also had a yellow cast. However it was easily corrected by using NIK Software Viveza control points. He also was very dirty and required a beauty makeover that was done using the spot healing brush in Photoshop CS5. The rock also had some clipped highlights that were easily remedied using control points. I cannot say enough good things about the NIK Software suite of plugins.
By the way, his pose is not photoshopped. This is an example of a "decisive moment" for the shot.

Flower and Bee at Bleu Lavande Fitch Bay, Quebec Canada

Checking the metadata of this image revealed that I used the 18-200mm a (relatively) cheaper lens that came with my camera. It has a different bokeh than my 70-200mm lens which I also had with me. Bokeh refers to the quality of the out of focus portions of the image. Compare it to the bokeh in the two previous images that I created while at the San Diego Zoo which employed the 70-200mm lens. I'm still not done with this image. I'm going to try softening it with noise reduction and see what happens. PLEASE CLICK ON THIS IMAGE TO VIEW AT FULL QUALITY!

Exotic Bird San Diego Zoo San Diego, CAL

As I mentioned in an earlier post, it's all about the eyes. When I brightened his eyes in postproduction I realized why he posed so graciously. I suspect that he has cataracts! This was shot using an aperture of f/8 which should be a medium to shallow depth of field. The reason that it appears so shallow is because I was right on top of him. This blurs the background thereby separating the subject from it. That aperture is also in the best quality range of the lens which is about two stops from wide open.

Prairie Dog San Diego Zoo San Diego California

This image was created during a session at the San Diego Zoo with nature photographer, Laurie Shupp.
She is truly amazing. Do yourself a favor and visit her website: www.imagesbylaurie.com/
The most important thing that I learned from her is that, like all portraits, it's all about the eyes. This little guy had very shaded eyes. His eye details were brightened using a NIK Software control point. Again the NIK Software suite saves the day.

Autumn Delight Westmoreland, NH

The orange tree would be lost in this forest image if not for the contrast in tone and complementary color. This is another example of backlighting that causes the subject to glow.