Bear power

Posted by Mark on Dec 8, 2009 in nature photography | 17 comments

BE9147 Brown Bear freighter

What??!!  A week has gone by and I haven’t posted about any bears?  :-)   Well, this post certainly breaks that bad streak.   Of course I am still editing and processing images from Alaska.   This particular image has a lot of qualities that I like about it.

• Perspective – although I was not in the river with this bear, but on a small bluff outcropping into the river – it certainly looks that way.
• Power - Have you ever seen the way water builds up in the front of a freighter when it is moving against the current?  The water build up in front of the bear reminded me of that here, showing the raw power of these animals moving against a fast moving river in search of salmon.
• No #^$%@$! seagulls!  Ok, only distant blurs in the background.  :-)
• Palette – I happen to like the color palette in general.   The blues are somewhat tranquil.   The gold of the grasses are complimentary.  Wait, I think I just wrote about complimentary colors!

This image was captured using a Nikon D700, 200-400 f4 lens, ISO 1250 at Geographic Harbor, Katmai National Park, Alaska.  Post processing by Lightroom 2, Photoshop CS3 using luminosity masks and Topaz Detail.   Topaz Detail just released their 1.1 update which works much faster and addresses one of my complaints in my previous review.

Complimentary colors

Posted by Mark on Dec 5, 2009 in nature photography | 10 comments

Complimentary Colors

This is one from the archives – a leaf photographed by the side of river at Bridal Veil falls in Tinker’s Creek Gorge in Ohio.    This is a pretty cool area to work in because the shale creates all sorts of interesting lines, shapes, and surfaces.    The bigger bonus was having some blue sky reflecting in the water to act as a complimentary color to this leaf.

Complimentary colors to me are a bonus find in nature.   They create a special dynamic relationship in an image.   My eyes wander back and forth between the leaf and the blue reflecting water – almost as if there was an attracting and opposing force between the two like magnets.   The lines of the shale help contribute to that dynamic.

I plead guilty to not being very systematic about how I tag my posts – haphazard would be a a more fitting term.   I am trying to do better!   I have now created a post tag called “artist favorites.”   This tag will link you to some of my favorite posted images over the last year.  Eventually I will spend time to go back further and tag those.  I encourage you to check it out and see if you missed something.

Often Nature is enough

Posted by Mark on Nov 27, 2009 in nature photography | 12 comments

Fall Aspens in Denali

It is somewhat ironic that I am writing this post as a following to my last one that reviewed a Photoshop plugin, but I think there are some important points to be made .    It seems every year we have new terms to add to the modern photography dictionary.   It seems every year there is a new software upgrade or new tools available that want to convince us that our photography will be so much better for it.   New printers, new pixels, new lenses, etc, etc.    The newest widget isn’t new to photography doing digital.   Film fads, newer, mo’ betta lenses, tripods, papers, etc., have been evolving for a long, long time.

With digital however, tools evolve much more rapidly, and certainly the internet contributes to the communication.   I am just as guilty as the next person to be sucked into some of it, or at the very least, want to try it for myself.   Photographers, after all, tend to love gear and we all want the best image quality we can obtain. (more…)

Topaz Detail

Posted by Mark on Nov 25, 2009 in nature photography | 14 comments

Lounging at the sandbar

I previously wrote about a nice Photoshop plugin from Topaz Labs called Topaz Adjust in these posts.   It remains one of those plugins that I tend to use as a playground to explore possibilities.  Sometimes it works for a particular image, sometimes I don’t care for the effects for that particular shot.     It’s a tool like anything else.    I have now had the opportunity to work on a few of my Alaska bear images with one of their newer plugins called Topaz Detail. (more…)

Shelikof Double occupancy

Posted by Mark on Nov 11, 2009 in nature photography | 19 comments

Shelikof rock island

The waterway that separates Kodiak Island, Alaska from the Alaskan peninsula and Katmai National Park is called the Shelikof Strait.   Our captain during our bear trip indicated it has a nasty reputation for some very serious storms.  Thirty foot seas are not uncommon and crossings are often limited to the good days.    In calmer waters, it is about a 4 hour crossing from Kodiak Island to Katmai, which is why so many travel by float plane.
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