Let There be light

My love affair with the Portland Headlight and Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth is well documented on this site.  I adore the pre-sunrise hour when the air is still, the ocean is calm and the lack of tourists provides a true sense of solitude.  However, I especially love that mesmerizing time when the lighthouse beam itself is visible as it makes its endless back and forth sweep across the rocky shoreline.   Unfortunately, that light beam is practically impossible for the camera to capture even at extremely long exposure times.   Enter Photoshop to the rescue!

As an amateur photographer, I am not governed by the rules of photojournalism that prohibit any sort of image manipulation.  Nevertheless, I do have principles that guide me as to where my photographic license begins and ends.   I have no qualms about adjusting the color and tonal range of an image to match what my eyes saw or what my mind’s eye remembers about a scene.   The human eye can see detail within a tonal range that is 2.5 times greater than the most sophisticated digital camera can record.  I want my viewers to see what I saw and modern photography software helps me accomplish this.  Besides, Ansel Adams didn’t just drop his film off at CVS and hang the resulting prints on his wall.  He spent countless hours in his darkroom developing his zone system for tonal range control to create his masterpieces.   That technology now resides on a computer rather than in chemical bottles.

I also don’t hesitate to remove distracting elements such as telephone poles, electrical wires or the rogue Shaw’s plastic grocery bag that tumbleweeds into my scene.  If it doesn’t help to tell the story, POOF, it’s gone!

But I don’t add things that weren’t there to begin with!

In this case, the lighthouse beam was visible to the naked eye but not my camera.  The only thing that prevented me from adding in the beam immediately was my lack of Photoshop skills to create such an effect.  Finally, I took the time to research and practice the necessary steps and I am pleased with the result.

I’m interested to know your opinion on this matter.   To Beam or Not to Beam; that is the question for today.

I look forward to your responses.

Go Out Empty

Many photography instructors tell their students to “go out empty” when planning a photo excursion.  By that they mean, don’t have any pre-conceived ideas of what to photograph.  Rather, let the images come to you and be ready when they appear.

I think it is good advice but it’s a concept that is difficult for me to put into practice.  Most of the photographs that I’m proud to have taken were swimming around in my head for days or years before I clicked the shutter.

The picture above is a prime example.  Taken in December, 1984 in Lewiston, Maine, I would drive by this street every morning on my way to work.  I envisioned what it would look like after a wet, heavy snowfall, and on this particular morning I brought my camera along hoping to finally capture what my mind had been visualizing.  I saw the paper delivery boy walking down the street and I knew he would add scale and interest to the scene – something I hadn’t envisioned.  Most people think it’s a black and white photo with a little bit of Photoshop trickery to color his newspaper bag orange, but that’s not the case.  I still have the original Kodachrome 64 color slide from which I made this (not so good) digital scan of the image.

This leads me to this morning’s photo outing at the Falmouth Nature Preserve near my home.  My wife and I take our dog running on the trails there and we always pass a section where the tree canopy reminds me of that scene in Lewiston.   In my mind’s eye, snow covered branches at that spot would create a true winter wonderland and a stunning photo.

I set out early and hiked to the location, but I knew immediately upon my arrival that what I had imagined wasn’t what I saw.  I worked the scene a bit but should have abandoned my plan and re-started on “empty”.

Fortunately, this is Maine and it’s winter.  They’ll be more opportunities.

Japan Revisited

It’s hard to believe that almost ten years have passed since I had the opportunity to visit Japan and experience its culture first hand.  Fortunately, thanks to my collection of photographs taken during that trip, I can still relive the sights and recall the wonderful people that make up this great country.

Prior to this 2004 journey, my connection to Japan had been twofold:  my family and I hosted a Japanese exchange student for ten months in 1999 and the chance to reunite with her and her family was too much to pass up.  In addition, I had met and worked with several Japanese engineers and quality consultants through my employer and I felt a need to see for myself what their world was like.   The opportunity presented itself through the Portland, ME /Shinagawa, Japan Sister City relationship program.  My wife, a teacher in the Portland School System, received an invitation to participate in the 20^th anniversary celebration to be held in Shinagawa in late April 2004 and we took advantage of this opening.  So, together with my wife, daughter, brother-in-law and several dozen other Portland area dignitaries and interested citizens, I made the excursion to the Land of the Rising Sun.

Shinagawa’s connection to Portland dates back to the late 1800’s.  It was then that Portland geologist, Edward S. Morse, undertook the first archeological excavation in Japan.  Traveling by train, Morse noticed many shell mounds alongside the railroad tracks and suspected that, beneath their surface, they held secrets to Japan’s proud history.  The citizens of Shinagawa were simply amazed at what Morse found and identified and they made him an honorary citizen and an official hero.

Traveling to Japan is more than a hop, skip and a jump and it took the better part of a whole day to get there.  My wife likes to tell the story of how I fell asleep on the bus from Portland to Boston and didn’t wake up until the plane landed in Tokyo and that isn’t too far-fetched.    However, I paid the price once I arrived in Shinagawa and had several sleepless nights where I resorted to watching televised English spoken trigonometry lessons at 3:00 am because it was the only program I could understand.

The Japanese are very detail oriented people and I knew that prior to embarking on this trip.  Still, I wasn’t quite prepared for their level of detail and really had to chuckle upon arrival when our two page U.S. supplied itinerary was replaced by a version that filled a three-ring binder.  Practically every 15-minute block of time during our stay was scheduled and accounted for.   (That said, just about every event and activity started exactly on time.)

In addition to their attention to detail, the people of Japan are very ceremonial and a perfect example of that occurred during our first day’s visit to city hall.  The event was scheduled so that the mayors of the two cities could exchange gifts and renew their commitment to the sister city relationship.  As our bus pulled up to the curb, a loud round of applause could be heard coming from the building as every window was open and filled with cheering people.  I kept looking around to see whom the applause was for and was shocked to learn that it was for ME and all the other Maine “VIP’s”.   As we entered city hall, we were amazed to see that every single employee on all four stories had lined the halls and staircases to welcome us.   To this day, my family and I have not forgotten that welcome.

Ahh, but there’s a price to pay for all that hospitality.  After dining at a restaurant with our exchange student and her family, we invited them up to our hotel room for tea and deserts.   The pastries were purchased at the local bakery in the train station but I made the mistake of ordering nine cups of tea from the hotel’s room service.   The bill was in yen and, in all the excitement, I didn’t pay much attention to the cost.   Once I did the math, I was shocked that nine cups of tea plus tax and tip totaled $110.00 US dollars.   Yes, Tokyo is a very expensive city.

As I reflect back on that time, I am reminded that ten years is an eternity in the digital photography world, and both my skills and equipment have improved in the last decade.  More importantly, I realize that  photos from that trip taken with a pre-historic 2-megapixel camera still pass a time honored photography test:  they tell a story.

You can view the photos from this trip at my website http://danlevesquephoto.com under the menu item Travel-Japan.   Here’s the link.

Catching a Wave

Today’s high winds brought some heavy wave action along the Maine coast and Reid State Park in Georgetown was the perfect spot to experience Mother Nature’s incredible show.  With temperatures in the mid-40’s, even the strong winds were a welcome break from the so-called Polar Vortex that gripped much of the nation in the past week.

My last trip to Reid State Park was in August of 2012 and I wrote about it here.    On that morning, my friends and I snuck into the park before sunrise, so needless to say we didn’t pay the entrance fee.  Today, however, a park ranger was collecting the normal fee – something I thought was usually waived during the winter months.  To my surprise, she accepted our now expired 2013 season pass which made the visit all the more enjoyable.

There were about as many dogs as people as everyone was happy to finally get out of the house.

Our Golden Retriever, Emmie, expended plenty of energy despite our strict instructions to stay out of the water!

Folks searched for the best vantage point.

Click on image to see a larger version

… but the beach itself seemed to offer the best experience

Surfers were delighted

Saturday’s heavy rains kept the sand moist and prevented it from blowing around.

Not your typical January thaw afternoon in Maine but a very enjoyable one.

Best Way to Stay Warm: Don’t Get Cold

Moose Peterson is a well-known outdoor photographer who spends a lot of time in the cold.  It’s not unlike him to devote a winter’s morning in Yellowstone searching for bison in -30F weather.  His philosophy for staying warm: “don’t get cold”.  This may sound like silly advice but Moose’s theory is you can’t keep your body warm if you’re frequently opening up your jacket to retrieve a filter or a shutter release cable from an inner pocket.   He advocates pre-setting your camera conditions before you exit your vehicle so that you don’t have to take your gloves off to operate the camera.   He also advises against handling your icy cold metal tripod without wearing heavy gloves.  In other words, don’t do things that will allow you to get cold.

As I re-kindle a tradition of photographing the sunrise at Portland Headlight on New Year’s Day, there’s probably another Moose-ism that applies and it involves safeguarding your equipment.   I was a little sloppy in the cold this morning and surrendered a lens cap to the Atlantic Ocean.  It snagged on my camera bag as I removed the lens from its padded cradle, bounced five or six times down the rocky embankment, and went splish-splash into the water.   Not a good way to start the new year!

Happy New Year!