Taking A Second Look

This image of Boston viewed from Longfellow Bridge languished on a hard drive for three years while other images from that day garnered more attention from me. I finally edited and posted it this past weekend, and a print sold within three days.

Recently I had a free day to myself, and I found myself looking at images from past photo shoots.  I look through old images for a variety of reasons. Sometimes I may want to rework an image with a new processing technique I’ve learned. Sometimes I find that the processing I originally liked is no longer to my liking. Sometimes I just go back to see if there’s anything I may have missed.  That was the case last week.

Since I’ve started selling my images online (www.rickberk.com), I’ve found it’s hard to know what images will resonate with people, so I try to just judge my images on technical merits, and leave my personal feelings out of it.  Often, immediately after a shoot, I get so emotionally attached to one image or series of images that I fail to see other winning shots from other points during the session. That was the case with two shots from last week.

I was going through shots from August of 2009.  I traveled extensively back then for work, and often used the downtime to photograph the area I was in.  So in August 2009, I found myself in Boston and headed to Longfellow Bridge at sunset.  I got several great images that day, and was immediately drawn to several.  The image shown here was not one of them. For three years it languished on a hard drive, unseen by anyone except me the first time I went through them.  However, over the past year, my most sold images have been images I have taken of Boston.  So last week when I dove into the older files, I did so with the intent of finding more images of Boston that might sell.

This image of Sand Harbor sat unseen on a hard drive for three years before I edited it and posted it on my website. Within 3 hours of posting it, it sold to a buyer from Ireland.

A few weeks after that Boston trip, I took a vacation to Northern California to visit a friend.  We traveled around NorCal (San Fran, Monterey, Yosemite), and also hit Lake Tahoe on the Nevada side. One evening at sunset we went to Sand Harbor, which features some beautiful rock formations. I got quite attached to some images taken later at sunset, and immediately processed those.  Those images were problematic due to the high contrast of the scene, and took a bit of time in Photoshop to get to look right. Earlier in the evening I took an image of Sand Harbor from a slightly different angle. At the time, it didn’t strike me, for whatever reason. As I went back into the unedited files,  this image jumped out at me.  It didn’t take much editing- a quick contrast adjustment and color adjustment in Photoshop and I was done.  This “new” image really spoke to me.

I immediately uploaded the new images (along with some others) to my website and publicized them.  Within 3 hours, Sand Harbor sold a 20×30 on acrylic.  Three days later, a buyer ordered an 8×12 of the Boston Skyline, matted and framed.

Moral of the story:  It pays to go back and look at old images with a fresh eye, and more emotional separation between the artist and the heat of the moment of creation.  What resonates with you as the artist may not resonate with buyers, and vice versa.  By all means post the images you love.  But don’t hesitate to post images that, while there may be no emotional attachment, are certainly salable images.  Someone else may find an emotional attachment there.

A selection of my images is featured on this page as well: clouds photos

Working With What You Have

I went in close here to get the expression on her face better. I shot this using a shallow depth of field to really bring the focus on her eyes. A reflector at camera right throws some light into her eyes and creates some nice catchlights.

Backed off some more for this one. Emma wore a hot pink sweatshirt, which really popped in the fog. Thought the burst of color was perfect in the flat light.

The fog created such a nice background, it was almost like shooting on a cyc wall in a studio.

So this past Saturday, while celebrating my birthday, I decided to photograph my son and daughter, along with a friend of ours.  The day was sunny, the sky was blue, and I planned to leave at the perfect time to get some later afternoon sun at Barnegat Lighthouse.

By the time we got there, however, a thick fog had rolled in, making the light somewhat flat, and obscuring the backgrounds. So I changed my plan a little bit.  The fog suddenly became an excellent background, and the soft, even lighting suited itself well to a different style of portraiture than I had originally intended.

Using my 5D Mark II, and my EF 85mm f/1.2L II lens, I decided to use the shallow depth of field that lens is capable of and just grab a few shots with a simple look to them. I used a reflector at camera-right to kick light into my subjects’ eyes, and create
those nice catch lights.

This kind of thing is a common problem with location portraiture. You can never count on the light. I didn’t plan this shoot, or I might have used wireless speedlites to create the light I wanted. But being flexible in your plans, with the ability to use different styles, gives you the ability to make pictures no matter the light.  That’s what separates the pros from the wannabes.

While I didn't use the fog background here, the soft light made it easy to get some nice even lighting and wait for a great smile.

Staying Local

This was the last shot I took. I was walking back to the stairs to go back up the cliff and spotted this composition. When I viewed the three shots on my camera's LCD, I was pretty sure I had a winner.

So I love to go to exotic locales- specifically US National Parks- as much as anyone.  They are my favorite locations to shoot.  But sadly, I don’t live anywhere within 3 hours of a true National Park.  So when I’m just itchin’ to make some pictures, I have to look closer to home. Thankfully, living in New York, specifically on Long Island, offers me a few opportunities.

I do get bored with Long Island tho. I’ve scouted out my favorite locations, shot them countless times, and quite honestly, I’m scared I’ll get stale.  So last night I went to a location I’d been to before, but had never truly photographed properly. This spot is a sunset spot, thanks to the high cliffs, on the the north shore of the North Fork of Long Island.  At sunrise, the entire area is in shadow.  The location? The beach at Horton Point, looking out onto the Long Island Sound, in Southold, NY.

Thanks to the bright sky and some backlighting, the huge amount of contrast put these scenes well out of the dynamic range of the camera. A Neutral Density Grad helped some, but was an imperfect solution.  Still too much contrast, and the rocks got a weird gradient on them.  So, the next solution? HDR.  I have slowly gotten more and more into HDR, as I seek to find ways to render the scenes more as I saw them, rather than simply as the camera is capable of.

Horton Point at Sunset

For these shots, I took 3 images. One at even exposure, one at -3 stops, and one at +3.   I was using the EOS 5D Mark II, and EF 24mm f/1.4L II lens.

For some more great Long Island Photos, click here: long island photos

For this one, I knew it was going to be tough, thanks to the sun being directly behind the rocks. But I wanted the color in the sky, AND detail in the rocks, so again, taking three shots, with a range of plus/minus 3 stops, I was able to get this. I'm using Nik HDR Efex Pro to blend the exposures.

Only Photos of Boston Sell

Zakim Bridge spans the Charles River, in Boston.

An Arch in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.

Last Fall I began selling my images as fine art prints on FineArtAmerica.com and my personal page there at artistwebsites.com. I uploaded over 200 images, taken over the past 10 years. Taken as a whole, it’s a pretty good indicator of my growth as a photographer and an artist, as well as a record of where I’ve gone over the past ten years.

I’ve had modest success with FAA- a handful of sales that has made it worthwhile to me to maintain my presence there, as well as given me a desire to continue to photograph my travels and one day hope to do more with my images- gallery shows, etc.  By the way, anyone with any tips on how to get shown in a gallery? I’m clueless there….

Now the weirdest thing has happened. Of the eight sales I’ve had since joining FAA, EVERY SINGLE ONE has been an image of Boston- including the one above.  Now, I’m not complaining.  I’ve taken some fantastic images of Boston and I’m thrilled that people appreciate my work.

But I also have some great images of places OTHER than Boston in my portfolio- Alaska, Yosemite, the Nevada Desert, and of course, my home state of New York.   It’s not that my images from other places aren’t as good- they are every bit as strong on the whole as my Boston images are.  They’re tagged equally as well, sorted, and displayed well. So I’m curious as to why my Boston stuff is so popular, while other images don’t seem to be getting the love.

I’m sure over time the trend will shift, especially as I travel more and add more images. But this trend was highly unexpected, and has me puzzled.

To view some of my images, and other images of Boston, click here: Boston Art

Be sure to check my other images as well and show them some love!  And if you’re an artist and want to show your work to a larger audience, be sure to check out Fine Art America!

Wonder Lake, Denali National Park, Alaska

Painting With Light

Using a red LED, I painted this arch to achieve better detail against the night sky. An exposure of about 15 seconds, ISO 800, at f/1.4 was used. The camera was a Canon EOS 5D Mark II, and EF 24mm f/1.4L II lens.

A couple of weeks ago I was in Las Vegas on business and wanted to shoot a little. My days were all tied up so my options were limited.  I’d done the whole neon lights on the strip thing, the fountains at Bellagio, etc. Some friends had plans to go to the desert and paint with light.  I’d seen their results before, and figured it was as good an option as any. We loaded up into a couple of cars and off we went.

So we headed out to the desert after sunset and prepared to paint with light, armed with LED lights, steel wool, and some string.

We ventured about 50 miles east of Las Vegas into the desert, and found some rock formations.  Now, on a moonlit night, it would have been perfect for night landscape photography.  The stars were brilliant.  But with little ambient light, we had to create our own.  LED lights from headlamps and keyrings provided the perfect way to “paint” the rock formations, and using long exposures gave us the chance to build up the star exposure.  I won’t explain exactly what we did with the steel

Steel wool was used to help create the cascading light effect on this rock formation.

wool, but you can see the effect as steaks of light cascading down the rocks.

Again, steel wool was used here to create the light effect at the center of the arch. Red LED's were used to paint the arch's face.

I used a Canon EOS 5D

Mark II, EF 24mm f/1.4L II. For the shot of the Arch in red, with no light streaks, ISO was 800, f/1.4, 15 second shutter speed.   For the shots of streaking light, ISO was 320, f/8, exposure was about 3 minutes.

If you would like to purchase any of my images, you can visit this page of landscape photos.

Window Lighting & Subject Comfort

So I wanted to take some portraits of Stefanie, but wanted a softer, more natural looking light with her, like soft light coming through a window.  The problem? We did this shoot in the evening.

So, what to do? It boils down to a simple concept.  The larger the light source, the softer the light. I had two speedlites, a transmitter, and a selection of softboxes from Westcott, and my EOS 5D Mark II.  I placed one speedlite in the 52″ softbox- the biggest one I have.  Nothing replicates that gorgeous light of a north-facing window better.  I didn’t need to be concerned about spill- this was mostly going to be a headshot mostly anyway, and it would just appear as window light in the background. So for this shot here, one 52″ softbox at camera left, and that was it.

So lighting was the easy part. As pretty and sweet as she is, Stef is not all that comfortable having a camera pointed at her.  This can get compounded when you have a parent in the room, criticizing the expressions because they want a “good smile.”  Honestly, whenever I hear a parent utter those words when I am taking photos, I cringe.  That’s the end of things usually.  After that, the smiles become forced, the expressions become stiff, and the subject gets self-conscious.

I try to avoid the parents getting too involved.  I want them there, obviously, but depending on the relationship, it can get awkward, because the kids can get self-conscious and the parents get annoyed. With Stefanie, we knew each other so we just started a conversation.  Mom chimed in now and then, but for the most part just let things go.  For this shot here, Mom and I started joking with each other, which of course got Stef laughing and smiling. I just kept snapping (Tip of the day- ALWAYS be shooting), and nailed this expression as she sat on the floor against the wall.  Ultimately, the secret is to just get the subject to forget the camera is there. Get a conversation going, with her, with mom, with her friends, and keep everyone involved. Then just snap away as if it’s normal. Because it is.

Alaska Photos

The Alaska Range above the clouds.

Here is another page I’ve sponsored:

alaska photos

Please visit the website and take a look at the fantastic work!