Time for another look at the fallen Wagon Wheel Bridge.
Probably have quite a few more of these sad images in the hopper.
PARTICULARS
CAMERA: SONY SLT-A65V
ISO: 100
FOCAL LENGTH: 24mm
APERTURE: f/8
EXPOSURE: 1/320
DATE: 03/11/2016 – 14:07
LATITUDE: 42.06252
LONGITUDE: -93.96999
PHOTO ASSISTANT: Carla Stensland
I’ve been looking forward to this week’s theme since I wrote it on a green Post-It Note and dropped it in the hat. Jesse Howard, long time Photography 139 supporter and apparent beard lover, entered his first submission. Hopefully it is the beginning of many more.
Let’s look at the submissions for RUINS:
Carla Stensland 2
Carla Stensland 3
Bill Wentworth
Christopher D. Bennett
Jesse Howard
Kim Barker 1
Kim Barker 2
Time to look to the future. This week’s theme is…
Maybe it is unfortunate that these two themes got drawn back to back, but they are different ya know. While RUINS calls for you to photograph something that is deteriorating. This just calls for you to photograph something that is old. OLD can still be in very good shape. See William MacAlpine.
No new email subscribers this week. Maybe next week.
As we are over halfway home, now is a good time to share the remainder of the themes. If this continues into another year, please put ideas for new THEMES in the COMMMENTS section of this here blog.
THE REMAINING THEMES
BLUE
HOMETOWN
PORTRAIT
MACRO
COUNTRY
FLOWER
PERSPECTIVE
ARCHITECTURE
LETTERS OR NUMBERS
GLASS
ART
SKY/CLOUDS
WINDOW
SMOKE
TRANSPORTATION
ROAD TRIP
SPORTS
REFLECTIONS
EMOTIONS
SUNSET/SUNRISE
WILD CARD
Recently my WB Joe stumbled across an article that Google had made their Nik Plugins free.
I rushed to the website and downloaded this collection of 7 plugins to play with immediately.
I thought I would give you a quick overview of some of the settings of these plugins, starting with the Analog Efex Pro plugin.
The description of this plugin from the website is as follows:
Get the photo you’re looking for, even if you don’t own the equipment. Let effects inspired by traditional cameras bring you back to the vintage age of photo development.
There are 9 default classic cameras you can start from and I’ll show you what those look like.
Let’s start with the original image from a gas station in tourist hot spot Cottonwood Falls, Kansas (photo assistant – Nate Miller).
When I took this photo, this was my original vision.
Here is a look at the 9 default Classic Camera settings in the Plugin.
Classic Camera 2
Classic Camera 3
Classic Camera 4
Classic Camera 5
Classic Camera 6
Classic Camera 7
Classic Camera 8
Classic Camera 9
But these Classic Cameras are just a jumping off point. Within this plugin you can play with roughly 50 different DIRT & SCRATCHES settings, 3 different LENS VIGNETTE settings, and roughly 50 different FILM TYPE settings.
I played with it a bit and came up with this image that feels like Cottonwood Falls, Kansas to me:
It is a cool FREE plugin to grab and add to your arsenal. Especially if you’re like me and love old and vintage photography.
Works with Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements (more or less), and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
There are several more plugins in this collection. We’ll be taking a look at those as well.
On my recent trip to Kansas I stopped and took a few photos here and there.
Kansans were burning their prairie, which made for interesting views. I missed a golden opportunity to get a pretty sweet fire picture. So I did stop to get a picture of the aftermath of a prairie fire.
This scene was right across the highway from a Scenic View. I found it to be scenic.
PARTICULARS
CAMERA: SONY SLT-A65V
ISO: 100
FOCAL LENGTH: 22mm
APERTURE: f/8
EXPOSURE: 1/250
DATE: 04/03/2016 – 10:10
LATITUDE: 38.32089°
LONGITUDE: -96.54260°
PHOTO ASSISTANT: Nate Miller
On the Saturday before Easter I was sitting in a darkened in theater in Ankeny experiencing the “tortures of the damned” that is watching BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN, my phone buzzed. Since the movie picture had lost my interest moments into it, I felt no guilt in checking my text message. After all, I was probably already checking the score of the Oklahoma-Oregon game any ways.
The text message was from my church’s (the church I attend) Youth Minister Alisa wanting me to simultaneously run a photo booth and take pictures of our Sunday School Easter Egg Hunt.
You all know how I feel about multi-tasking.
So here are a few of the pictures almost exclusively from the Easter Egg Hunt.
But on the positive, If Easter was today, I could actually multi-task and run a photo booth and take pictures at the same time.
This week’s collection was supposed to be from the folder SNOW. That folder is just too large to go through in a weekend that involved 15 or so hours in the car.
So I skipped ahead to STORE, because it is considerably less ambitious.
In this small collection is an image of a tool that was instrumental in the manufacture of the Photography Calendar for several years. Craft Night. A young Nate starting on the path to becoming a Master Baker. That was when I used to participate in the whole feed your co-workers on your work anniversary scam at the Computer Mine.
That peanut butter cake though…
This is the last photo from my trip to Minnehaha Falls from February.
Because of recent events, I’ll probably be visiting Minneapolis again in the near future.
PARTICULARS
CAMERA: SONY SLT-A65V
ISO: 100
FOCAL LENGTH: 18mm
APERTURE: f/20
EXPOSURE: 8 seconds
DATE: 02/26/2016 – 18:14
LATITUDE: 44.91549°
LONGITUDE: -93.21059°
PHOTO ASSISTANT: BETHANY YOON
Don’t forget that tonight is the Panera Youth Group Fundraiser. From 4-8 tonight! See you there.
You need bring this flyer with you!
This image is the result of an experiment in post-processing. When I have a good solid wedge of free time, I will explain in further detail with a ton of examples. Or I might not. Magician and his tricks… you know.
For now, just enjoy this image of the fallen Wagon Wheel Bridge.
Of course, there will be many more pictures of the mangled remains of the Wagon Wheel Bridge in our future.
PARTICULARS
CAMERA: SONY SLT-A65V
ISO: 100
FOCAL LENGTH: 18mm
APERTURE: f/8
EXPOSURE: 1/250
DATE: 03/11/16 – 14:06
LATITUDE: 42.06255°
LONGITUDE: -93.97008°
PHOTO ASSISTANT: Carla Stensland
This week being more of a challenging theme, it was expected that participation might take a dip. However, on the positive side, my nephew Logan became a first time contributor. I’m expecting big things from that guy in the future.
The submissions for SILHOUETTE:
Logan Kahler 1
Logan Kahler 2
Logan Kahler 3
Angie DeWaard
Christopher D. Bennett
Kim Barker
Carla Stensland
But what is this week’s theme?!?!?
Look below this text…
A quick shout out to the Baier clan for providing the blocks for the Theme Release Image.
So what does that SHAPES mean? You could almost take a picture of anything and submit it and say “that has a shape”, however what you really want to look for is a subject or scene where a shape or shapes are heavy in the composition. A tile floor. A pile of pipes. A brick wall. A bunch of street signs. You get the idea.
However, define the theme any way that you want.
We haven’t went over the rules lately, so here is a quick refresher.
RULES
1. The picture has to be taken the week of the theme. This isn’t a curate your pictures challenge. This is a get your butt off the couch (my personal experience) and put your camera in your hands challenge. Don’t send me a picture of you next to the Eiffel Tower, when I know you were in Iowa all week.
2. Your submission needs to be emailed to bennett@photography139.com by noon on the Monday of the challenge. It should be pointed out that this blog auto-publishes at 12:01 on Mondays. So it wouldn’t hurt to get your picture in earlier.
That is it, them’s the rules.
Once again, no HOUSEKEEPING this week. I’ll try to do better next Monday.
These images are still from January 2007. The come from a folder called SCULPTURE GARDEN.
They appear to be from a trip to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden with Bethany.
Next week’s folder is called SNOW.
