Insane amount of gear

Insane amount of gear
Originally uploaded by Benjamin Humphrey

I think I just basically drooled all over my damn keyboard!

Recent Works

DA: Winter Approaches.... by =kkart

Winter Approaches....

Captured along Trailridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado...I believe looking towards Storm Mountain....(how fitting a mountain name, huh? )

At an elevation of close to 12,000 feet high when I shot this (as you can see I am actually above the tree line here) this scene was majestic, eerie, solemn, stoic, and downright ominous. It was cold, the wind whipping by me at over 40MPH at times, and basically with no surrounding shelter to cut the wind back, except the backside of my car, it was enough to make my eyes water something like a faucet! Now here is the eerie part....and I have never seen this outside of Colorado...

At times the wind would stop it's outflow from the approaching winter storm, and you would hear the rumble of thunder....this is an effect we call "Thunder Snows" here in Colorado, in essence, a thunderstorm but also a snow storm, and yes, lighting is a regular occurance, and all things considered, when THAT started happening, and I was teh tallest object on the Alpine Tundra, my keester got back in the car faster than you can say "BBQ'd Johnny at 12,000 feet! All you can eat!"

The Alpine Tundra is an incredible place, very fragile, and is frozen usually more than 8 months of the year. It is as though time stands still up here, but at the same time, in spite of it's beauty, it also carries a real danger with it!

Processed in HDR
Singh-Ray CPL
Hoya UV


DA: The Dawn Of Paradise .... by kkart

The Dawn of Paradise

Shot yesterday morning at Lake Estes in Estes Park, Colorado....this was just quite a scene to behold! Sure, I froze my hands off (steel tripods aren't know to conduct heat real well lol ) and had to keep running back to the car to thaw out my fingers. But what a time! It has been awhile since I have done any real long exposure work, and I have been meaning to get back at it...on this I used an ND4 and my CPL, taken on my Minolta 18-70 DT lens. The light and color was changing ever so fast, it seemed like every passing second it was different...and this was the first shot out of about 75 I took, later the sky would turn totally orange along with the water,....those are yet to come. It was sheer serenity I tell ya!

Reunion, Colorado and the Skies of Summer

Yeah, I know it has been awhile, probably to long, but I suppose that is what happens when you are busy most of the summer shooting away like a mad man. Lately I have been working a LOT on processing shots from what can only be called one of my favorite local hangout's now...Reunion, Colorado and the Buffalo Run Golf Course. Odd that such a place would have so many photo opportunities, but the reality is undeniable.

It has the makings of everything, at the Reunion clubhouse, which overlooks a lake, and is done in an old yet modern farm house style, there is a wrap around deck. Heck they even have benches to sit on so you sit and watch the sun sink in the sky. Ya know, I think I might head back over there again this evening and see what I can find. This time though, besides my camera gear, I think I will take along a jug of sun tea and just sit, relax, and pamper myself for once!

These shots above are from a recent trip over there, more can be seen on my website at jdebordphoto.com

---John

FireFlickr - Where Firefox meets Flickr

FireFlickr - Where Firefox meets Flickr
Originally uploaded by Frenck's Photography

This is wild, I do agree that Flickr is perhaps one of the best sites out there to share, post, and learn about photography, but getting around it and actually 'getting in it' can be a tad hard, especially for new people. One thing I always hear from people on other photography sites such as deviantArt is that always find artwork being 'ripped' (stolen and posted) on Flickr. My take---if it's posted, someone's probably already grabbed it, sadly. However with a community that is the largest on the net for photography, it stands to reason that it is also one of the best places to get your work scene, too....look what is happening with Getty Images and Flickr, if that doesn't speak volumes, I don't know what does.

So I happened upon this in the "flickr hacks" group I am in. No questions, Firefox 3 has made some innovation, bringing us now a second browser that can read color profiles (finally!) but...this side shoot spin off of FF3 is unique, it is a flickr based FF3 browser! Still being beta tested, this could really be something unique for Flickr users and the photography community as a whole.

Check it out!
---John

Tales of Insomnia, Photography sites, and Postwork

Sigh....so here I sit again, my sleeping hours these days are now fully dysfunctional it seems. Thought I will say this, it has allowed me for some more time in getting work done. Not that I don't mind, but I would rather be sleeping I think. If anything it has certainly made photography interesting at higher altitudes! I thi9nk I get the lack of o2 effecting me more and more....Anyways, back to processing...

I am seriously behind though in processing my work. It's hard trying to keep up on all this stuff, between DA which basically drowns me, RedBubble, and Flickr has become totally ignored. I think I need a game plan to balance things a lot more. Add in that mix submitting to stock agencies and it is a full time job. And therein lies the problem...

I think I need a change of direction and need to start concentrating more on my work and really getting it out there instead of worrying about catching up on comments and so forth on deviantArt. Granted I love DA, but it doesn't pay my bills, and I wish to see my work published in greeting cards, on calendars, etc...I do sell a few prints here and then on DA but my stock sales run circles around it over and over. So with that in mind I am going to write an agenda out for myself and do my best at sticking to it.

Afterall I don't shoot just to my work on photography sites, I shoot because I love it, and also because I wish to sell my work and make a good living at it. Yet I process all these photos, post them around at various sites, and other than that, don't do much really. Time to have it start paying off and getting my rear in gear and writing query letters to publishers I think!

Anyways, that's my story and I am sticking to it!
---John

Sharing Some Processing Secrets

Yes, you read correctly the title. I thought that I would go ahead and share some of my secrets with you guys and how I process my photos. Why? Well why not!?!? I get a LOT of notes asking me "How did you do this and that?", "Can you help me with.....?", "I am curious how you got the look of such and such shot.....", etc. etc. So I thought that I would go ahead and basically tackle everything in one journal. So buckle up. go grab a cup of Joe, pull up a chair, and get ready to dive in! Away we go!

I shoot everything in RAW. And I am of the FIRM belief that if your camera has the ability and capability then you should be too. About the only exception I can see is if you are a sports shooter and your camera can't do 8fps in RAW when you need it. In reality, I don't know of anyone on DA who does that kinda work. There probably is somewhere though. There is just NO excuse for not taking your images in th ebest possible settings and at the highest quality allowed.

The whole creative process is essentially 2 fold for me. Basically when I am out in the field shooting, I know how I want a shot to look already. I study the composition and choose an angle which I feel works, cropping in camera, trying different focal lengths, etc. This is usually part one, so in my head I know what I want. Now this can and often gets totally turned around 180 degrees when I download my shots and I start the post work processing. Often times, I will change the way I wanted the shot to look in the field, inside PS. B&W, Sepia, Cropping, etc. Often I edit and then I compare..mentally and physically. Sometimes I like it how I shot it, other times, I prefer something else.

Now some of you may be surprised by this next one lol My camera's white balance is almost ALWAYS set on 'sunset' white balance. Why? Well...basically what I have discovered on my camera is this---when I shoot this way, everything has a yellow & orange tint, and often these colors are very hard to expose for correctly. By having my white balance as such, it allows me some greater flexibility when I go to edit my shots. Seeing as I shoot in RAW, my white balance is totally adjustable. So I can always fine tune it, but doing it first in camera allows for a lot of speed and also accuracy. I first started doing this last Autumn when I was shooting the colors of Fall, and since then I haven't changed it really.

Filters. A Circular Polarizer is absolutely mandatory, and Neutral Density filters are not far behind.

I use essentially 3 RAW converters in my workflow---Lightroom, Photoshop's ACR, and AcDeeSee Pro Photo v2. So why 3? Because they each do different things. There really isn't one whole solution that I have found yet when it comes to editing RAW files. Lightroom can do things AcDeeSee can't and vice versa. So I will use one if I am wanting a specific look & feel for a shot.

LucisArt is used in almost EVERYTHING I process. One of the great things about this program is it's ability to recover specific areas of dynamic range in a shot, like adding the sun's highlights on the blades of grass. The info is already contained within a photo, but by using LucisArt, I am able to bring that out farther.

Fred Miranda Photography Plugins & Actions are used constantly for final results. The "Intellisharpner" plugin is the greatest thing since sliced bread and I also use the "Velvia" and "B&W Workflow Pro" with regularity as well.

Layer Masking...and what a Godsend that is! Live it, love it, breathe it! For those of you who wish to see a technique similar to mine using layer masking, but a lil more in depth than mine, head over to the BlueHourPhoto Blog for a video demonstration.

I shoot almost 100% of my shots in ISO 100, and sometimes use ISO 80 or 200. Rarely ever will I shoot above that....unless I need a shot off FAST. But generally, I shoot in lower ISO ranges.

HDR. Sometimes I know when I am shooting a shot if it will be HDR, other times I don't know til I am editing. Some shots are made for the technique while others don't work at all for it. Not all shots have the look and feel that is right for it IMO.

I actually don't use my tripod much unless I am needing a longer exposure say with waterfalls, or if the light is low. I know I should, and don't get me wrong, I do use it, but often when I am shooting, I sometimes need to be fast, cuz I am holding up traffic behind me while I am out in the middle of the road! lol

I use Noise Ninja exclusively for Noise Reduction in post work and every shot incorporates it and often combined with layer masking as well. It is an essential part of my workflow.

Every single shot I take has the curves, levels, and exposure adjusted. Call it fine tuning if you will. Again, essential part of my workflow.

I don't have or use a dedicated Macro lens, instead I use my Minolta kit lens, an 18-70mm zoom that has 1:2 Macro capability, along with a set of macro filters (close up diopters) that screw on the end of my lens and can be stacked for greater magnification. These are cheap, 10- off ebay! And they work excellent!


Well that be about all that I can think of at the moment, if anyone has any questions, just feel free to ask me, and I will do my best in answering. I know there is a lot more that I do, but it is early yet and my brain doesn't function it's best at this time of the morning on Sunday's lol

I hope you all are having a nice weekend. Mine is going pretty good. Yesterday's photoshoot in Rocky Mountain National Park yielded some nice results. A little about that real quickly----it was rather challenging for me, as I was with a friend and we left late. But I was of the mind set that this would be something different, shooting in not optimal and harsh lighting, so I took it as a challenge. And if anything, it forced me to look and see things differently, and to look closer and not so much at the massive view styled landscapes, but something of a more intimate and closer flavor...immediate surroundings. I came out doing pretty good. Now if someone can just hold off the tourists...sheesh what a damn zoo it was. To many people, now ya know why I leave at 4am! So there were like 20 cars pulled off the side of teh road, all these people had their lil cameras taking pics, we pull up and here is this HUGE Bull Elk standing in a river in the middle of the forest 15 feet from the road. I roll down my window to fire a shot off with my 75-300 and all the sudden....I see someone ass in my frame! I was all 'wtf.....they are to close!" And I back off my lens to see this VERY GOOD looking redhead in a miniskirt, about 25, and I yell out, "you are to close to him! you are putting yourself in danger!" And she looks back at me, like I am being rude. So I say "Never mind the fact that your ass is a closeup in my 300mm and is about to be plastered all over the internet too! Not that I mind, you have a nice ass, but hey! Just a FYI!!!"..she moved but by that time the damn Elk was gone! Ugh people!
A few shots down below from RMNP......enjoy!
---John












Technorati Tags: Colorado, Photography, Photo, Tecnique, Photoshop, Rocky Mountain National Park, Processing, RAW, nature, Outdoors, landscape

The Famous Lipizzan & Arabian Horses

Where to even start this at......
I was given the VERY rare opportunity to spend some time with the world famous Lipizzan & Arabian Stallions today...up close, intimate, personal, and essentially alone.... Capturing them in the camera is well, the only thing I can describe is that it's akin to a spiritual experience. One Arabian really took a special liking to me, and I was able to spend a lot of time with him, getting to know him, while he constantly goofed around, wanting to play. The bruises all up and down my right arm from 'love taps' say it all. What a character and what personality!

What IS a beautiful photo?

I almost feel compelled to write this, after Thursday evening. I was on here, bored, killing some time for a few minutes when I decided to browse the photography>artistic nudes area, which I NEVER do. But I figured I would see how fast it would take til I filed a report for a porn picture. Well after about 1 minute, I saw this shot that got my attention. It was of a gal who was in her 30s, very overweight, who took some nude self portraits. These weren't snapshots, but were artistically done, she obviously has skill in lighting and posing. I thought to myself " I am going to click on this just to see what people are saying", and ya know, I shouldn't have. What I saw not only disgusted me but pissed me off as well. A few deviants were really going off on her, saying some of the meanest, crudest, and rudest things you can imagine....about her weight and how disgusting she is. I sat in total shock.

But then I started reading her watchers comments and seeing how they defended her and how she would respond with nothing but actually nice words to these people.

Ya know what? I sat and I wrote her a length reply about how I respect her, for everything she does and everything she stands for. She certainly has more balls than I do, I will say that! I couldn't do what she does! I think it's people like her that the world needs more of. Someone who breaks down sociological stereotypes, and makes people think. She basically threw herself to the Wolves on DA, but the message she was sending was loud and clear. And the comments she received indicated that....people these days are sad....and so is humankind.

So with this, seeing all this, I had to ask myself, what is a beautiful photo? What makes people stop and look, longer at one shot than another? What blurs the line between subject matter interest and technical perfection? Can YOU see through the lines, when a model who weighs 400 pounds is nude, and see the beauty within the contained the photo? The lighting, the shadow, the exposure? Or are YOU blinded by societies social blinding of Paris Hilton and what beauty is?

Think about it...you'll get it......maybe....

---John

Only In Colorado

Only in Colorado can one go on a photoshoot and be driving through a blizzard in the mountains, only to come back down to Denver 2 hours later and have to start ducking Tornado's & Hail! The image below was captured as I was coming back down into Denver on a rural stretch of country where I would dearly love to own a piece of land someday.....enjoy!

Thunderstorms On the Farm

Captured yesterday 5/22/08, outside of Chief Hosa, Colorado. Some of you mayhave had about our crazy weather here in Colorado yesterday withTornado's and all that jazz,....well, here is a story for ya all......

The storm you see in this photo is the very storm which would spawn a Tornado outbreak north of Denver and basically level the town of Windsor, Colorado. I drove through this storm while heading to Lake Dillon, to do some shooting, which is pretty high up in the mountains.While going through it in the mountains, I basically drove through ablizzard. I knew that if this storm kept heading East, it was going to be bad as Denver was warm and the humidity so high, 94% which is rare,because it usually stays at about 10%....all that and the storm colliding with said air makes for some dangerous conditions.

Heading back, after Lake Dillon, I detoured some when I saw this barn and just had to get it...the rain stopped for just a second, which added somenice atmosphere for the scene as a whole. Especially with those storm clouds! It was so quiet, almost spooky, just the thunder is all ya heard and the occasional Blackbird.

An interview with yours truely!

A couple of days ago, watcher and friend *LadyAnubis noted me asking if she could do a news article interviewing me. Totally completely shocked, I jumped at the chance. It is pretty in-depth and has been posted and is here check it out and make sure to fav it giving her props for doing it! She should do more of these as her questions were very good in asking me about photography. So a heads up!

Tired, sore, and exhausted, I sit here as AOL Radio belts out "Mean Eyed Cat" from Johnny Cash. And after I am done writing this, I am heading back to bed. I WAS going to go shooting early again this morning, but honestly, I am just to damn tired. So I will save it for later today and maybe hit up golden hour in th evening which is rare for me to do, I am a morning shooter. yesterdays photo shoot in Rocky Mountain National Park turned out nice! 4 Gigs worth of photos, and the light and weather was just perfect as can be. Was able to get 1/2 up Trailridge which shocked me, I thought it would be fully closed until next weekend, but just above the 2 mile marker, they closed it. Needless to say have a TON of shots...and I mean a TON. The Elk were down pretty low, they are getting their summer coats now, losing their winter ones...not the prettiest sight to photography, but their antler's are starting to come in nicely. Got a few really nice shots of em as well. I also learned my lesson and now know I need a 8ND filter while trying to photograph a waterfall. my Polarizer combined with my 4ND wasn't dark enough to get the exposure I really wanted...oh well, that will be on order this week. I also never really thought about using my Minolta 50mm f1.7 as a landscape lens, until yesterday. Sheesh, I need to start doing that! Tack sharp! Also used my 75-300 a lot for landscapes....which I never use for that either...so kinda experimented some. Came away thinking that the new Tamrom 70-200mm F2.8 which just came out is going to have to be a MUST do...especially for wildlife. All in all a great photoshoot, got in before the tourists and out as they were arriving!

Hope you all are having a nice weekend and getting some shooting in!

--John

What IS a beautiful photo?

I almost feel compelled to write this, after Thursday evening. I was on here, bored, killing some time for a few minutes when I decided to browse the photography>artistic nudes area, which I NEVER do. But I figured I would see how fast it would take til I filed a report for a porn picture. Well after about 1 minute, I saw this shot that got my attention. It was of a gal who was in her 30s, very overweight, who took some nude self portraits. These weren't snapshots, but were artistically done, she obviously has skill in lighting and posing. I thought to myself " I am going to click on this just to see what people are saying", and ya know, I shouldn't have. What I saw not only disgusted me but pissed me off as well. A few deviants were really going off on her, saying some of the meanest, crudest, and rudest things you can imagine....about her weight and how disgusting she is. I sat in total shock.

But then I started reading her watchers comments and seeing how they defended her and how she would respond with nothing but actually nice words to these people.

Ya know what? I sat and I wrote her a length reply about how I respect her, for everything she does and everything she stands for. She certainly has more balls than I do, I will say that! I couldn't do what she does! I think it's people like her that the world needs more of. Someone who breaks down sociological stereotypes, and makes people think. She basically threw herself to the Wolves on DA, but the message she was sending was loud and clear. And the comments she received indicated that....people these days are sad....and so is humankind.

So with this, seeing all this, I had to ask myself, what is a beautiful photo? What makes people stop and look, longer at one shot than another? What blurs the line between subject matter interest and technical perfection? Can YOU see through the lines, when a model who weighs 400 pounds is nude, and see the beauty within the contained the photo? The lighting, the shadow, the exposure? Or are YOU blinded by societies social blinding of Paris Hilton and what beauty is?

Think about it...you'll get it......maybe....

---John

Just a few thoughts

I spose I kinda have to tread lightly with this post as I really wish to talk about a few things that might be offensive to some, but ya know, it's my blog and these are my thoughts.

Popularity on deviantARt....it isn't all what it is cracked up to be. With a page there fastly approaching 200k views, with closing in on 3,000 watchers, I find it not only hard to keep up, but downright nearly impossible. It also isn't easy when someone you hold dear to you gets mad because you no longer see the comments right away that they leave for you. Comments get buried ultra fast and it can take me over 2 weeks to get through comments...but why on earth should I be held accountable for not seeing someone's messages right away?? It isn't my fault that I get inundated with feedback...sigh...this has really left a sour taste in my mouth....

Balancing my time between DA, RedBubble, and Flickr, along with the ther sites I am on is becoming liek a job....not to mention all the stock sites I sell my work on. There just isn't enough hours in the day honestly and ya know, it sure as hell isn't helping my health any.

I think it's tiem I just do some shooting and leave the stresses of the net behind me, so with that in mind, Rocky Mountains, today here I come!

The Great Postwork vs Image Manipulation Debate!

Desert Light Landascape in HDR
The Sandia Mountains outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico at dusk....the light simply shines this tme ofthe year in the "Land of Enchantment" as the storms start to blow in, leaving traces of snow on the peaks



Before I start this, please keep in mind I am talking about photo-manipulation.

Ok enough is enough, I have had it and well it is high time I speak my mind. I 'spose I was a tad astonished at some of the replies I have seen lately floating around DA how "HDR is image manipulation" and so forth. So here I am, about to address this and other issues which fall under "The Great Postwork vs Image Manipulation Debate!"

Now I am sure that a few of us (maybe more than a few) are aware of the controversy that started a couple months ago about one of DA's biggest and most popular photographers who seemingly took part of an image, added in areas and mirrored parts of the image. Yet, the photo was submitted under the photography category. Myself along with a couple other photographers were quite amazed by this and we asked ourselves, "isn't this technically a manip?" I still technically hold true in saying that yes it was.

So what defines a manip from a photo you ask?? Well personally, MOST hold to the notion that if can be done in the traditional darkroom, it isn't a manip. Well, hate to tell 'em, but I would wager a guess that people who have said this have never actually spent time INSIDE a real darkroom. I have seen things done with film that is utterly mind blowing, long before Photoshop came onto the scene, when B&W was hand developed in the sinks. Image manipulation in the actual darkroom is just about endless. My take on it is this---if you change the scene so much to where you are adding elements which didn't readily exist when the photo was shot, then you creating a manip. I see nothing wrong with taking out a powerline, cloning out dust spots, burning ad dodging, using gradients (as the same can be attached to the camera lens itself) and so forth. Basic stuff pretty much. And I see nothing with HDR processing either. The minute you start adding in an entire crowd of people into a scene, well, hello manip! The minute you start having to mirror the left side of an image so the right side matches, hello manip! I think you can see where I am going with this huh?

The one thing though that I am having a VERY hard time understanding is how some see HDR as a manip. Say again???? Yes, some see it as a manip. All because it is done with software and not with a camera. It isn't? To have an actual HDR you have to have multiple exposures of a shot, correct? Generally you do that in the camera, though you can do it in a good RAW converter as well. Ohhh yeah.....RAW files, gee, those have to be converted using software to, so are all us RAW shooters then image manippers as well? Give me a break. The whole purpose of an HDR image is to catch the dynamic range in a photo which the camera a can not, to see things how the human eye sees them. And it is with that I think why so many have an issue with HDR and the way it often looks. Now don't get me wrong, I have seen stuff that is so overprocessed it looks like someone Skittles just went to take a shit! But people are used to seeing traditional photos that don't have so much dynamic range in them, after all, our brain and eyes know what they know and have been trained for YEARS that a photograph looks a certain way...flat. HDR challenges this and changes how we see things, and in that, people jump to the conclusion that it is wrong.

Here is the bottom line and the real deal folks. Look, if you are using PS to make your photo look so much BETTER then chances are you are more a photoshopper than a photographer. Sure, we must edit in RAW and all that, but if you are going totally overboard in PS and don't have a single clue how to even switch your camera to where it is shooting in RAW, NOW would be a damn good time to start investing in your self by READING YOUR CAMERAS MANUAL!!!!! First and foremost, is the camera, always, forever. The shot itself, the click of the shutter. Pay attention to cropping in camera, and maybe you won't be accused of image manipulation in the future. Always the camera first, take your time shooting, setting up your shot, don't rush it. Study your manual and get to know your camera inside out. Treat it like it is your lifeline! Photoshop is always second, no questions asked, and is meant to compliment YOUR photos, not add to them!

/off my soap box for now.

--John

The Early Morning Creative Drive

"Morning On the Colorado Plains"
A Sunrise Morning greets travelers on Colorado's E-470 Tollway Highway, coming and going to Denver International Airport; DIA. Pike's Peak stands like a sentinel in the distance along the Front Range


Ya know, as odd as it seems, we all have our most creative times of the day. I used to be a nightowl spending late nights painting and drawing when I was in art college. Now it seems I have come full circle in a way. I 'spose having trouble sleeping tends to do that to one's soul and mind, but there is something to be said to be awake when your side of the world is all but asleep. It is quiet, it is serene, and it is tranquil. I find these early morning hours the best time fro my creative juices and blood to be flowing. I generally use this time to edit my photographs, browse photography sites, answer comments and questions on my DA and RB accounts, and become inspired.

Strange though, and how it became like this I shall never know. I will say one thing though, it certainly has allowed me to catch some sunrise images..has it ever!

An Introduction!

I suppose that I have always wanted to a photoblog, somewhere I can really share my thoughts and others can join me on my experience. And with that, I guess this is how this came about. It has been in the back of my head awhile now, and well, here I be!

Photography has been a passion of mine for some time now, I suppose living in Colorado it sort of reflects on us, especially considering the natural environment here. I am always looking for something new, something that grabs the vewers attention and holds it, something that makes a good photograph, great!

Welcome to my journey!
--John