2017 PROJECT 52, Second Quarter by Janis (purplehaze)

[purplehaze]

I'm baaaack!

And boy am I rusty! I spent all afternoon relearning Capture One, so I don't have much to show you, though I did shoot on each of the last four days (in sun and rain and snow!) and have quite a lot of processing ahead.

Week 15

Was up to the lake for part of this Easter weekend. I shot this hanging over the side of the pier.



It was processed as a colour image. Normally, I would have taken it into SEP, and likely will do so anyway, but I was playing with a trial version of Capture One 10 and that is what I came up with.

[Shadowman]

Nice effort, good idea on subject matter.

[joebranko]

+1 to John's comment. Great idea.
Still have ice where you are?

[purplehaze]

Still have ice where you are?

Heh, heh. This was the scene outside my windows this morning.

#1


#2


#3


Happy Earth Day, indeed!

Actually, the snow was mostly gone this afternoon. There is still ice on Lake Winnipeg (roughly 60 km north of here), though, and this week it was getting pushed up onto the western shores and threatening homes and cottages.

Thank you and John, both, for looking and commenting. Criticism is welcome on this thread. I am particularly interested in knowing how well these photos are displaying as I gather that my colorimeter is not up to the challenge of calibrating a 5K monitor and I am going to have to upgrade.

[skitterbug]

I'm no expert about color calibrating but these pics display nicely on my 3 year old iMac monitor (Retina 5K - 27 inch). You made good use of the cold and snow. Excellent photos - the first one being my favorite! I like the muted shades of color in it.

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Sandy, good to know. Your 5K iMac is 3 years old already? That puts me even further behind the curve than I thought!

Week 16

Although I did record this morning's snow, that was not my main, or most important, photographic exercise of the day. Earlier, I had picked up my book on the practice of contemplative photography and realized that the style of photography it describes is pretty close to my original style, which is to capture that which arrests my eye and nothing more, or less. I put down the book to shoot the falling snow out the front window, and while on my way to shoot the snow-laden buds out the back, my eye was caught by this:



The b&w conversion may break the rules of contemplative photography; I am not far enough into the book to know, but I feel this treatment is true to what I saw and that is enough for me.

The hole in the wall is a souvenir of the break-in, btw, one that will finally be repaired in a couple of weeks.

[John 2]

Not sure what it is but the composition is on the nail and the conversion looks to be about right also. A sort of fine art range of tones.

[purplehaze]

Thanks, John. It's actually just window light falling on the wall perpendicular to my side door. The hole was made by the door knob hitting the wall when the thieves forced their way in.

[joebranko]

I love #1! Could be a postcard! The only observation is that the small trees in foreground are out of focus. The exposure is perfect, just allowing enough motion blur to accentuate the snow fall.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Joe. The shrubbery in the foreground is a mugo pine right outside the window. I am going to have to cut it back, as it does interfere with my framing.

[purplehaze]

Week 17

I spent a part of the week reading more about Capture One and watching a webinar on processing landscapes and half of one on color editing and balancing. What I learned made me think I should see what I could save from the shots I took in Costa Rica in November. As I was on an eco-adventure tour, I decided not to lug the DSLR, but just to carry the Sony DSC-RX100M4. There wasn't a lot of opportunity to compose shots as we were moving all the time and the light was very often low, forcing me to shoot at high ISO. I usually have the upper limit set to 1600, which often was not high enough. I have a lot of images shot at too low a shutter speed. My sister got better photos with her iPhone 6. Live and learn. Anyhow, here are few from a late afternoon hike in the Arenal Volcano area. C&C welcome, as always.

#1



#2



#3



#4



#5



#6



#7

[Shadowman]

Week 17, nice compositions and very rich colors.

[purplehaze]

Thanks, John. I fear I have utterly failed in capturing the light.

[skitterbug]

Since you said that your pics were pretty much taken "on the run", they turned out nicely! My favorite one is #7 - totally intriguing and well done in my estimation!

[Wavelength]

Very nice set; i specially like the first one and last one; why, the eye of the small frog has a lace upon it

[JohnRostron]

I like the reflections in #4 and also the Red-eyed Tree-frog.

Why has eye of the small frog has a lace upon it:

The 'lace' is the nictitating membrane, a sort of third eyelid found in amphibians, reptiles and birds. It helps clean and protect the eye.

John

[bnnrcn]

Very nice compositions Janis, I like them all

[bje07]

My preferred in the last series : # 7

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Sandy. It was a grab shot. Our driver got much better shots on his Galaxy 7 and I had serious phone envy.

Thanks, Nandakumar. I rather thought people might take issue with the composition in #1, but I like the colour contrast.

John, thanks for answering my own question. I like #4, too, but am now wondering whether it is over-saturated.

Binnur, always glad to satisfy my toughest critic. Thanks.

Thanks, Jean. Again, no real credit to me on that one, but gratitude to our driver, who found the frogs and some other wonderful critters for us while he was waiting for us to come off the volcano.

[joebranko]

I like all in this set. All well composed and exposed.