Ripples

Some photos have an interesting story behind them. Others, well, not so much. This one falls into the latter category. No matter, the image speaks for itself. Here the picture-perfect ripples provide an excellent foreground feature, leading the eye to the dunes in the middle ground and the mountains beyond. The wispy cirrus clouds are the icing on the cake. I was running on fumes when I shot this, having had only three hours sleep in the past 36 hours.

www.chrismurrayphotography.com

Cutting the Facebook Cord

This week I made the momentous decision to discontinue my photography page on Facebook. I know, I know, I'm a wild man. But I say that not entirely tongue in cheek, because it was a fairly big decision. Last night I had moments of doubt, wondering if I had cut off my nose to spite my face, something I've been known to do from time to time. But this morning I feel good about my decision.

I spent four years cultivating my Facebook page and accruing fans. However, I feel that Facebook left me long ago. I spent a rather tidy sum of money advertising on Facebook, and in the end Facebook wanted me to pay again (and again, every time I posted something) so those same people I already paid for once would see my posts. My most recent post reached a little over 10% of my fans. And that percentage will only continue to drop. In short, Facebook is no longer free for businesses such as mine. I'm not naive, Facebook is a business and as such has obligations to its shareholders. They won't miss me. But their practices seem duplicitous at best, and I'm not alone in that belief. I feel as if I was abused by Facebook, and staying with them any longer made me feel like I was okay with being abused, even if I didn't drop another penny into their coffers. No longer content to be Facebook's bitch I decided it was time to call it quits. I do have my principles after all. Really, I do. One or two, at least.

So I've moved on, and it feels good. To be completely honest, my years on Facebook contributed next to nothing to my bottom line. That's not Facebook's fault, just a fact. If my page on Facebook was generating business I would be okay with paying to promote my posts, but it hasn't worked out that way. To spend time and effort on something that clearly wasn't progressing my business is foolish. So I have revived this dormant blog, secure in the knowledge that at least I won't be taken advantage of. Thank you to all that have followed me from Facebook, and I hope you may see fit to suggest my blog to your friends and family and help expose my photography to a larger audience. I sincerely appreciate you all and I'm happy you're along for the ride.

The Racetrack, Death Valley National Park

Today's photo is from The Racetrack, a must-see for anyone visiting Death Valley National Park. Here these boulders move by themselves (a phenomenon caused by a combination of strong winds and ice and/or water on the playa) across the ancient dry lake bed, leaving little trails behind them. The lack of clouds made for a rather boring photograph from a color standpoint, but the graphical elements in the scene made for a very strong black and white image.

http://www.chrismurrayphotography.com/

Anatomy of a Shot - Letchworth

Great Bend at sunset

I had scouted this location the evening before, having made the shot you see here. Since the view is to the east I knew it would be much better at sunrise, although this version stands up well on its own. I arrived a good 45 minutes before the sun was up to get in place and have everything ready. Given the very high dynamic range of the scene (bright sky, dark foreground) I knew one exposure was not going to cut it, and in fact three was barely enough to record the range of light in the scene. As many of you (or the few of you who read this) may suspect this is an HDR image composited from five exposures. (I am a fan of HDR as a process, but I don't like the HDR "look" that is so prevalent these days). The sky was so bright relative to the foreground that I also used a 2-stop soft graduated neutral-density filter, something I carry in my arsenal but rarely use these days. The low light and smaller aperture necessary for depth of field meant that the entire time required to obtain five bracketed exposures was several seconds. Fortunately there was little wind this particular morning, otherwise things would have been much more difficult.

I always shoot in RAW, so on the processing end I converted each RAW file to a 16 bit TIFF file and then ran them through Photomatix to obtain the HDR image.

While this was a somewhat technically difficult shot, it by no means was unusual. Shooting at the edge of light often requires these steps.

Here are the particulars:

5 exposures, separated by one stop (-2, -1, 0, +1, +2)

f/11

focal length 24mm

ISO 250

You can never go back (and sometimes that's a good thing)

Last week my wife and I had the occasion to visit Houston, our former home of ten years. It was my first time back in over four years. Living in Houston never agreed with me, it's nothing against the city, just contrasting personalities. Good things did happen while I lived there, however. I met my wife in Houston, and it is also where I learned photography. I am self taught (which probably sometimes shows), and I largely learned my craft taking photos each spring of the wildflowers in the ranch lands between Houston and Austin. For that reason that area will always be special to me. At work I was known (not among the bosses) for contracting what I called "bluebonnet fever" each spring, taking a sick day here and there to go and photograph the wildflowers. Such dedication to my job. A model employee.

On this recent visit we were able to take a drive and visit former photographic haunts. I didn't bring my camera with me, but we did have my wife's new Nikon 1 J3 ILC (interchangeable lens camera). Below are two photos I made with this camera, my first wildflower photos in six years. With no tripod I was limited in what I could do, but they came out nice nonetheless. ILC cameras are the new rage, offering DSLR (or near DSLR) quality photos in a much smaller camera body.

Coreopsis

Bluebonnets

My wife came across a greeting card still in circulation that has my photo on it.

All Work and No Play...

If there are rules for blogging (and there no doubt are), I imagine the first one is to have a clear and specific idea of which to write about. To hell with that, I say. I've had a couple of things on  my mind recently, photographically speaking. Consider this a train of thought type of post, rambling perhaps, but hopefully interesting nonetheless. Quite possibly not.

It has been 6+ weeks since I last tripped the shutter on my camera, the longest drought I've had for some time. The reasons are varied: time of year, work, the holidays, etc. Over the last few years I've noticed that my mood largely hinges on one of two things happening, and those are either making great pics or selling them. And as wonderful a feeling it is to sell a photo, there is nothing quite like the satisfaction and fulfillment I get from making a great image. It's been a long time since that has happened. Yes, I have had success lately selling photos, and that's all well and good, but the creative side of me is starving. Surliness is settling in. The fall colors are long gone, but the snow has yet to fly. The outside world is varying shades of brown and gray. Ugh. I'm beginning to feel like Jack Nicholson in The Shining. The cats are getting worried. They should be. And the forecast for the next week holds little promise for snow. What is a landscape photographer to do? The answer, of course, is to have patience. In the meantime I will continue to focus my efforts on the marketing side and wait patiently for the snow. And try not to kill the cats.

Moving on. Over the years I have sold a fair number of photos, either to individuals or in the publishing world. From a sales standpoint, this photo of Calumet Island has without a doubt been my most successful image ever. Had I known this when I made the image I would have been incredulous. This is an image I came very close to not even making, but since I was there and had some time to kill I thought why not. To my eye at the time it was nothing special. And yet a few years later it has sold repeatedly and continues to garner attention. At my exhibits this photo has always been a standout. Weird. It is ironic that an image that I put little effort into and almost didn't even bother to make has become my most popular. The obvious lesson here is that as a photographer one has no idea what photo will resonate with people. I actually don't make all that many images when I'm out in the field, not bothering to trip the shutter unless I feel it's a scene truly worth capturing. And I can be very lazy when it comes to photography, or anything else for that matter. Quite often when I'm out in the field I will have, thinking I am done with a location, collapsed my tripod and put the camera away, only to find another scene that catches my eye. Out of sheer laziness I have at times eschewed capturing the scene because that would require re-setting up the tripod (takes all of ten seconds) and getting the camera out. Heaven forbid! This image is a reminder to just take the damn photo, one never knows.

Measuring Oneself

Autumn colors adorn the banks of the West Branch of the Ausable River

I'm a very good landscape photographer. There, I said it. Don't hate me. I don't believe I'm being conceited or arrogant, just giving myself an honest assessment. There are times when I think I may even be better than most. Other times not. But I know one thing for sure: I'm not the best. Now, I know you're probably thinking, "No Chris, you are the best!" Right? Right?! But I know that's not true. I'm not the best. I've always known this, and I'm sure it will always be the case. But knowing it and accepting it are two different things. I thought I had accepted this fact, but as it turns out not really.

Being secure in my talents as a photographer has been tough this year, more so than any year previous. The reasons are not entirely clear to me. Part of it may be due to the fact that at this level improvement comes in tiny increments. It's easy to see improvement early on, when there is nowhere to go but up. It's easy to improve on nothing. But now it's getting harder for me to see improvement in my art. I look at the images I made this year and think that I could have easily made them two years ago. Where's the growth? Couple this with the discovery of a few extremely talented photographers in my region and the voices of self doubt in my head begin to get louder. Yes, I am hard on myself. But better that than have delusions of grandeur. It's the only way to get better.

I was in the Adirondack Mountains a couple weeks ago, and my first evening there I was sharing the summit of a mountain with another photographer. The whole time he seemed to be shooting entirely different things than I was, and my first impulse was to think that he was seeing something that I wasn't, that I was missing something. That his photos from that same vantage point were no doubt going to be better than mine. I have always struggled with this insecurity when sharing a location with other photogs. And I wonder if it was just me or was he also pondering the same things, experiencing the same doubts. I'm inclined to think not, as I never caught him glancing my way. He was lost in his art, which is where I should have been. After a while we began chatting and as it turned out we knew who each other was through Flickr, which was pretty cool. I complimented him on his excellent photography; it was not returned. Damn him. We expressed interest in seeing each others photographs once we returned home. Honestly, I'm afraid to look at his photos from that afternoon, worried that my fears will be realized. Ridiculous perhaps, but understandable.

Where am I going with this blog post? I have no idea. I don't have the answers yet. I just thought it might be a help to those other photographers out there who suffer similar insecurities to know they are not alone. You are out there, right? Right?!