Tag Archives: black and white

Two life birds today at MINWR!

November 5, 2011INSIDE FLORIDA, Merritt Island NWRbirds, black and white, BPWD, infrared, Painted Bunting, Peacock's Pocket, White Crowned SparrowEd Rosack

Well, the weather report for this morning was clear, cool and windy – but whoever arranges the weather didn’t pay attention. They got the cool and windy part right, but it was very cloudy on the east coast with occasional light rain. We persevered and ended up having a great time at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

We arrived a bit before sunrise and had time to scout new locations along Peacock’s Pocket Road. I brought an Olympus E-PL1 camera that I had converted to Infra Red by LifePixel. I’ve dabbled in IR before – both film and digital, but this is my first experience with a modified digital camera and I think I’m going to like it. Here’s a sample:

Somewhere along Peacock’s Pocket Road – In the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Infra Red capture, converted to B&W

Our next stop was the MINWR Visitor’s Center. Painted Buntings migrate to the Refuge in the winter and are often seen there. Sure enough, there was one – and I was able to get a photo, although the light was very poor. These are amazingly colorful little birds!

Painted Bunting – At the MINWR Visitor’s Center. My first sighting and photo of one.

While there we also saw another bird that I didn’t recognize. It turns out this is a White Crowned Sparrow and they’re supposedly quite rare in Florida. My second life bird of the day!

White Crowned Sparrow – Sighted at the MINWR Visitor’s Center even though both iBird and Peterson’s guides say this bird isn’t found in Florida. My first sighting and photo of one.

Before heading home via Cracker Barrel, we also took a turn round Black Point Wildlife Drive. All together, we saw a large variety of birds: Ospreys, a Bald Eagle, Great Blue Herons, Tri-Color Herons, Snowy Egrets, Great Egrets, Reddish Egrets, Belted Kingfishers, Coots, Grebes, Grackles, Vultures, Anhingas, Cormorants, Moorhens, Painted Buntings, White Crowned Sparrows, Wood Storks, a Raccoon, and more. Another wonderful visit to MINWR!

You can see more of my photos in this MINWR set on Flickr.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

In Defense of Post Processing

February 5, 2011Cameras and Photography, Indiana, Techniqueblack and white, Cars, MayberryEd Rosack

This is another article on technique. It’s not so much a “how-to”. It is more of a defense or justification.

The Mayberry Cafe – Danville, Indiana (final B&W image)

We have a few people in our Photography Interest Group that are relatively new to high end DSLRs. They’re used to point & shoot cameras and one question I hear quite often is “why post process?”. Their argument seems to be that the photos “straight out of the camera” (SOOC) are much better than they were with their old cameras and they don’t understand why anyone should waste time learning about software and processing photos on their computers. I even have one friend that uses the “I’m feeling lucky” button whenever photos need some adjustment.

Now, I’ve been using Photoshop since sometime in the ’90s, so I really have to stop and think when someone questions why they should use photo software. My answer comes down to: Control, Quality, and Change.

Control: If you understand post processing, know what your software is capable of, and have the skills to use the software, then you can take control from your camera and choose how your photos will be processed and what their final appearance will be. You decide exposure curves, fill light, sharpening and noise reduction levels, etc. Or even color vs. black and white.

Quality: If you want the best results, post processing allows you to optimize things (e.g. selective noise reduction and sharpening, various filters). You also can try different approaches and use the one that works best.

Change: Especially if you use RAW format, you have the ability to modify many of your settings after you make the photo. And if you need to adjust some parameters (e.g. white balance, saturation, exposure) you can do so after the shot. Also, software constantly improves – witness how much better recent noise reduction algorithms are today than even a few years ago. As the software improves you can apply the updated versions to your existing photos to keep making them even better.

Here’s an example that might illustrate the possibilities. I like to make photos that are “timeless” in the sense that they could have been made a while ago, or don’t give away when they were made. I saw this dinner and old sheriff’s car as I drove through a small town in Indiana. I thought the scene might make a good photo and since I had my camera in the car, I went around the block and made this image hand held through the open window as I passed by a second time:

The Mayberry Cafe – Danville, Indiana (SOOC)

This copy above is SOOC – nice, but too much clutter, and kind of drab. I post-processed it to remove the clutter, selectively reduce noise in the clouds, adjust white balance and exposure, add saturation, etc. Here’s the result:

The Mayberry Cafe – Danville, Indiana (post processed)

This is a lot cleaner, the clouds and sky are brought out, and the colors and contrast are better. Could I have done this in the camera? Some of it. Would the results have been as good? I really doubt it. And if I want, I can keep reprocessing a photo whenever I learn a new technique or get some new software. Should you reprocess every photo? Of course not – if you did you wouldn’t have time to make any more photos. But you definitely need to make an effort when a photo shows some promise.

Finally, I thought this image would be more “timeless” as a black and white photo, so I converted the image above to get the result at the beginning of this post. If you’d only seen the B&W photo, when would you think it was made?

A post of many questions

September 18, 2010Cameras and Photography, OUTSIDE FLORIDA, Techniqueblack and white, Flowers, Japan, Mt. Fuji, warEd Rosack

Something a little different this week. I have some guest photography along with many questions and some information about our photographs and the future.

Cherry blossoms, moon and Mt. Fuji, photo by Edward V. Rosack

Why do you make photographs?

Is it because you see something (interesting, beautiful, unusual, …) and would like to share it with others?

Are you documenting memories so that you can revisit them later?

Are you using the camera as a tool to let you see something you couldn’t see or didn’t notice at the time?

Will your photographs be lost to you or others in the future?

What steps are you taking to make sure they survive? Do you backup? In multiple places? Online? Outside your house?

Are your photos safe from:

Equipment failure? If you Google “Hard Disk MTBF” you’ll find hard drive failure rate predictions are between 1% and 14% a year. And this doesn’t count bit errors that can corrupt single files. And then get copied to all of your backups.
Media failure? DVD lifespan is predicted to be anywhere from 2 to more than 100 years.
Technology obsolescence? Have you tried reading data from a Floppy disc lately? How many years into the future will we still be able to read CDs?
Natural disasters? How many people in New Orleans were able to take their photos to safety during Hurricane Katrina?
Getting hidden in the shear overwhelming number of photos that are made every day? 4,974 photos were uploaded to Flickr in one minute before I wrote this sentence. What about all of the rest of the photo sharing sites? How about the ones that weren’t uploaded? How will someone (even if they’re interested and trying hard) find your photos among the incredible (and increasing) number that exist now?

Pacific Island, photo by Edward V. Rosack

Do your photographs stand alone?

What will people think of them when you aren’t around to explain them and provide some background? Will they even think of them?

Will people look at your photos after you’re gone and wonder where and when they were made and who the people in them are? Will they even know who the photographer was?

The gang at Shuri Castle in Okinawa, Japan; photographer unknown — "The gang at Shuri Castle" in Okinawa, Japan; My uncle is 2nd from the left in the top row; photographer unknown.

Do your photos need words and information along side them so the viewer can understand them?

Do your photos have meta data associated with them? Do you keyword and caption them? Is the EXIF data recorded by your camera and the IPTC data entered by you intact, or stripped away by one or more steps in your work flow?

Do you organize your photos into a meaningful folder structure to make them easier to find?

Do you rename them to something that makes sense?

Do you organize your photos using a proprietary program that may not exist in the future?

Conclusions and Credits

Ted Rosack, Macarello, Henley, On the wing of a German Aircraft after WW II; Photographer unknown.

The photographs in this post belonged to my uncle – Edward V. Rosack. There’s very little information to go along with them. I recognize my Dad and my Uncle, but none of the other people. I can tell from the context more or less where they were made. A few have short captions. I imagine that to my uncle, these photographs were important because they are a record of people and scenes that had a large impact on him as he helped fight WW II.

They were made and printed more than 60 years ago and although they are not in very good shape they’ve lasted until today. Will they last another 60 years? Will any of yours or mine?

Badly damaged church, photo by Edward V. Rosack

There’s a lot to think about and do if you want your photos to last, and people to look at them and see and feel what you want them to see and feel. If you don’t take steps to make them last, no one else is likely to do it for you.

There's more than birds in St. Augustine

July 25, 2010INSIDE FLORIDA, St. Augustineblack and white, boat, church, fort, Fort Matanzas, landscape, sunrise, travelEd Rosack

I have many entries in this blog about the St. Augustine Alligator Farm and it is a great place for bird photography.

But you shouldn’t visit St. Augustine just to watch the birds – it has many other photogenic settings. In this post, I’ll show you a few that you should consider seeing. Make sure you click the links that I’ve inserted into the captions below for more information. You can also visit my St. Augustine set on Flickr to see these and other photos I’ve made there.

Interior of the Lightner Museum, St. Augustine, Florida

Mission of Nombre De Dios: This cross marks the spot of the first mass offered in the new world’s first settlement.

Chapel and candles: The interior of the Our Lady of La Leche Shrine, at the Mission of Nombre De Dios

Quiet bay near the Mission de Nombre de Dios

A view of the Fort Matanzas southern rampart. Also, see my previous post for a view of the Castillo de San Marcos.

A quick visit to Fort Christmas

December 13, 2009Fort Christmas, INSIDE FLORIDA, OrlandoAntiques, black and white, cabin, fall color, Fort ChristmasEd Rosack

Lynn wanted to take Christmas cards to the Christmas, Florida post office to be postmarked. So we drove over there this morning and dropped them off.

On the way back, we stopped for a few minutes at the Fort Christmas Historical Park. Here’s a few of the photos I made while we were there. We’ll have to re-visit this place when we have more time. There’s definitely some interesting photo opportunities lurking about, and I’ll report on them once I have a chance to explore.

The laundry area on the porch

A shed out behind an old cabin. Animal hides hanging on the walls.

A bedroom in one of the cabins.

I also took this photo of Crepe Myrtle berries and leaves this morning before we left. There’s so little fall color in Florida, that this caught our eyes.

Flower show follow up

June 6, 2009Cameras and Photography, Techniqueblack and white, Flowers, OrchidEd Rosack

We bought an orchid at the flower show last weekend. There was some nice light coming through the window this morning, so I decided to photograph it. I spent a little time playing with the image in various ways. Here’s version 1:

White background orchid

I then went back and changed the cloth background and re-photographed it. Here’s version 2:

Black background orchid

And here’s version 3 (a black and white conversion):

Black and white orchid

Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, and Waterton Canyon near Denver

March 15, 2009Coloradoblack and white, Garden of the Gods, landscape, night, panorama, people, travel, vacationEd Rosack

I was lucky enough to go on a business trip to Denver last week. I stayed with my Mom and got to visit a bit with her and her friends. I also got to see my sister LaDonna and brother Jim and their families in Denver and my brother Rob and his family in Colorado Springs.

On the way to Rob’s, I stopped by the Garden of the Gods for a couple of hours. (Note: you can click on any of these photos for a larger version).

The Garden of the Gods park is run by the city of Colorado Springs and is about an hour south of Denver. You take I-25 south and exit right onto Garden of the Gods road. I hadn’t been there before. The rock formations are spectacular and unlike anything we see in Florida. If you go, early morning probably has the best light. I wasn’t able to arrive until around 10 am and by then the lighting was pretty harsh. I wish I had been there earlier or that there had been some nice clouds in the sky to work with, but you take what you get and I was happy to be able to see it. I did some bracketed exposures to work with in HDR and converted some photos to black and white. I like the way they turned out.

Rock climbing is allowed and I made a few photos of a couple of climbers.

While in Denver, I also took a walk through Waterton Canyon and made a few photos.

And one night, my nephew Jared and I made this panorama of the night-time skyline visible from my Mom’s place.

My other photos for this post are here

My first exhibition!!!

October 17, 2008Cameras and Photography, Ohio, VARIOUSblack and white, Cincinnati, landscapeEd Rosack

Mary asked if I would print some of the photographs I’ve made around Cincinnati for her condo association so they could display them in the building hallways.

She picked out these and I printed them on A3 glossy paper as 11×14 black and white prints using my Epson R1900 printer last weekend and mailed them on Tuesday.

They ordered silver frames with black and white mats to mount them in, and hung them yesterday (10/19).

Central Florida Photo Ops

What and where they are and how to photograph them.