Thursday, April 30, 2020

Behind the Image: Lilac Bush

For a full index of posts in this series, check out the "Behind the Images" page - here. Be sure to follow the hashtag #JoeValencia_BehindTheImage on Instagram and Twitter to learn of new installments.

Lilac Bush

So.... What happens when the world around you is shut down and you cannot go anywhere? I don't know about you but I will often just sit on my back steps and look at what nature is doing in my back yard and neighboring woods. I've been known to watch squirrels, rabbits, deer and birds for long periods of time. It can be both relaxing and quite tiring at the same time - they never stop!

One day while sitting on the steps, my eyes followed a bird into the lilac bush in the back yard. "I wonder what the world looks like from inside the lilac bush?", I said to no one. The photograph here is just one of the answers.

Believe it or not, this is the first time I put a camera inside of a bush - for any reason. I really didn't know what to expect or if a "usable" image would come from this but time is one commodity I have a lot of these days. The setup was simple - put the camera on the tripod, set the camera as low to the ground as possible, and point it straight up. The camera was set on full manual, including focus, so that each image was exposed the same. I started with the lens set to it's closest focus distance and then changed the focus slightly after each of the first few shots. The wind was fairly still so the possibility of focus stacking existed, if necessary. There was no way to see the flip out screen on the camera once it was inside the bush so I was, literally, shooting blindly.

Once I had a few shots done at the initial focal length (18mm) I took a series of images at longer focal lengths, just for kicks. This wasn't the easiest setup and I suffered numerous scratches so it probably wasn't something that was going to be attempted more than once. After all, the inspiration came from a somewhat silly thought borne out of boredom. Expectations were not very high.

When the images where uploaded and imported to Lightroom I was pleasantly surprised to find some interesting images. The longer focal length images were quite out of focus and, honestly, not very interesting - just a grouping of leaves with some blue sky. The best of the bunch is the one I chose to show here, though there were maybe two or three others that were pretty close. What immediately draws me to the image is the perception of being in the woods and looking up among trees. The two foreground trunks lead you right up and into the canopy and sky above, with just enough of the sky and clouds peeking thru.

I am quite pleased with this image and think I may put the camera into the bush again once the flowers on the bush are in full bloom. In the meantime I am going to try to find a way to see the screen so I can take a more active role in composing and focusing. A long sleeve shirt will help with the scratches.

In the end, what started out as a silly thought turned into a pleasing image and a lesson learned. I am thinking about other suitable subjects for similar shots and have been eyeing a large holly tree in the back. I've never been "inside" of it before and not really sure what might be awaiting me but it might be worth finding out.

Have you ever done anything like this before? If so, how did they turn out? What did you learn from it? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below.

Technical information

Exposure: 18mm - 1/125 @ f/16 - ISO 100
Note: The Canon EOS Rebel T3i is a crop-sensor camera with a magnification of 1.6 - the full-frame equivalent is approximately 29mm.
    Equipment List
  • Canon EOS Rebel T3i body
  • Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens
  • Canon RS-60E3 wired remote
  • MeFOTO RoadTrip Classic tripod
  • 3 Legged Thing QR11-LC Universal L-Bracket (Orange)

Note: As I publish this I am ending Week Seven (7) of working from home and social distancing. It is a scary time and I hope everyone is staying safe and in good health. Until next time!



Friday, April 24, 2020

Behind the Image: Manasquan Reservoir Sunset in Black and White

For a full index of posts in this series, check out the "Behind the Images" page - here. Be sure to follow the hashtag #JoeValencia_BehindTheImage on Instagram and Twitter to learn of new installments.

Manasquan Reservoir Sunset

Manasquan Reservoir is quickly becoming my go-to location for sunrise and sunset, especially around Chestnut Point. I was about 300 yards from the parking lot for this image, about a week before New Jersey starting shutting down due to COVID-19. It turns out to be the last sunset I got at the reservoir and the second to last before we completely shut down.

As is usually the case, I made a last minute decision to stop at the reservoir on my way home from the office. Normally, I would not have stopped because the conditions weren't really what I look for in a sunset but we had been told earlier in the day that we could start working from home, at our discretion, and I had planned to start doing so on Monday. Once I started that, I knew I wasn't going to have much chance to get to the reservoir; as it turns out, I was right.

I arrived at the park right about 5:00 PM for a 5:53 PM sunset and had a pretty good idea of where I was going to set up. Why get there an hour early? There are a number of reasons but the primary being that it gives me plenty of time to leisurely look around to find my composition. I do this even if I have been to the same location many times as there is always something different to find. When it comes to the reservoir, you may also have to show up early to find a spot. It is a rather popular location and I have seen as many as ten photographers setting up tripods.

As luck would have it, there were a half-dozen cars in the lot but no other photographers so I had my pick of spots. I chose to stay at the top of the rocks, right next to the trail mainly because I didn't have a headlamp with me and the rocks can be a bit treacherous. This final composition was actually the third one that I tried that afternoon, another reason for showing up as early as I do.

There was enough of a breeze to make small ripples in the water so I decided to put my 10-stop ND filter on and go for long exposures. I was also hoping that some clouds would come in to add a bit of drama to the sky. When I arrived there were almost none. I finally settled on this composition for a number of reasons. The sun was setting directly behind me which I hoped would give me some nice Golden Hour light (it didn't) and I liked this grouping of dead trees. The tree that drew my attention initially is the tall one on the left of the frame.

The idea of the long exposure was to smooth out the water and get some interesting reflections of the trees and clouds. We have all heard of the "Rule of Thirds" and I'm sure you have been told to "never put the horizon in the middle of the frame." I know that I have more times that I can count. When I am shooting something like this I purposely compose the image with the horizon right in the middle of the frame; the idea is that I want to accomplish a "mirror image." I knew that was not going to happen here because of the wind but I also knew I would get some nice reflections so - middle it was. I also find it more appealing when the reflections aren't getting cut off at the bottom or the object cut off at the top.

The decision to convert this to black & white was a matter of, "I wonder if this would work in black & white?" I was watching television while casually looking thru images on my tablet looking for something I could upload to Instagram the next afternoon. I had already done some preliminary editing to this image - see the color image - and, though I liked it, it didn't really captivate me. The more I worked on the monochrome, the more excited I got. Darkening the foreground and clouds gave it a moody, almost foreboding, feel to it. I cropped the image to a 5:4 (close but not exactly) ratio for make it look good for Instagram and to crop out some distracting elements in the background. The color image is the original 100% crop.

I think the black & white image is a bit more powerful than the color one. Do you agree? Which do you like best? I would love to hear your thoughts - leave me a comment below.

I hope you enjoyed this first installment in my Behind the Image series. Stay tuned for more.

Technical information

Exposure: 21mm - 65 seconds @ f/11 - ISO 100 - 10-stop ND filter
The black & white conversion was done with Lightroom for Mobile on a Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 tablet.
    Equipment List
  • Canon EOS Rebel T3i body
  • Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens
  • Canon RS-60E3 wired remote
  • MeFOTO RoadTrip Classic tripod
  • 3 Legged Thing QR11-LC Universal L-Bracket (Orange)
  • ICE 10-stop Neutral Density filter

Links and Further Reading

To learn more about Manasquan Reservoir, check out some of my earlier posts, Manasquan Reservoir - A Sunrise & Sunset Weekend and Parks of Monmouth County - Manasquan Reservoir and from the parks official website, Monmouth County Park System - Manasquan Reservoir

The Canon EOS Rebel T3i is no longer available but the line continues with the T7i. Check it out, and the full line of Canon gear, at Canon Shop.

I did reviews for the MeFOTO RoadTrip Classic on my blog and YouTube channel - Product Review: MeFOTO RoadTrip tripod and Equipment Review: MeFOTO RoadTrip, respectively. To view the entire line of MeFOTO products, check out their website - here

The 3 Legged Thing universal bracket is one of the best investments I have made. Check it out - here



Monday, April 20, 2020

A New Series - "Behind the Image"

For a full index of posts in this series, check out the "Behind the Images" page - here. Be sure to follow the hashtag #JoeValencia_BehindTheImage on Instagram and Twitter to learn of new installments.

Behind the Image

The COVID-19 pandemic is still dominating the news and our lives; I am beginning my fifth (sixth?) week of working from home. It's been almost as long since I have been to a park or photographed a sunset, instead venturing out to my yard looking for something to catch my eye. This has given me time to go thru some of my older (some forgotten) images and look at them thru "new eyes." I have also decided to use this time to work on my black and white processing skills.

As I go thru the images I am reminded of the circumstances that lead up to making it - it's funny, I find it difficult some days to remember why I got up from the couch or even the name of someone I've known for a long time. When I look at a photograph it is like I was there just yesterday. Art, like music, can evoke memories lost since forgotten. That is one of the things that is so attractive about the medium of photography to me; there is no better "high" than when when someone says that one of my images brought back fond memories.

I decided to create a new series titled, Behind the Image. Each post will be a single image (well... maybe two or three in a series) with the story of "what", "why", and "where" with a little bit of "how" thrown in now and again. I will create an index page with links to all of the posts in the series for easy reference - look for it in the tabs with the other pages.

Behind the self-portrait

The image I used here is a self-portrait that I shot a number of years ago when I had my original blog. I used to participate in challenges where a theme was presented and we were to post images representing it. The theme for this particular challenge, if you haven't guessed, was orange. We had a good amount of fresh snow in the back yard so I put on my orange fleece jacket and orange backpack before heading out. The camera I am holding is my old Canon A1 35mm film camera fitted with a Sigma 400mm f/5.6 lens. I used a selective color technique to turn the background monochrome and help accentuate the orange.

I was happy with the image, overall, except for the prominence of the fence. I would have liked to have a clean background to make it look like I was "in the field" instead of the back yard but I wasn't. Could I clone to fence out? That's possible I suppose but I don't have that kind of patience. I am also not that good with Photoshop, yet.

I hope you will enjoy the series as much as I enjoy reliving the experience of making the images. The first post should be ready in a few days, I hope. The image will be a recent black and white conversion of the last sunset I shot at Manasquan Reservoir, just prior to the state shutdown. Stay tuned!



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