David Griffin Photography

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Monthly Archives: October 2009

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Maynard Downtown Trick or Treat

October 29, 2009 – 5:54 pm

The Assabet Valley Chamber of Commerce sponsors an annual Downtown Trick or Treat here in Maynard and I volunteered to take some photographs for them.

The police close down Nason Street and the little hobgoblins prowl the sidewalks of downtown soliciting treats from local businesses.  Some of the businesses just hand out candy at their door.  A couple really get into the spirit and dress up their shops. It’s really a great and safe way to have the kids experience Halloween.

It’s hard to get good candid photographs, but here are a few of my favorites.  If I do this again next year I think I’ll wear a costume too – a bright orange vest that says “Photographer”.   The full set of photos can be found in my Community gallery: [url]http://community.dmg-photography.com/2009-maynard-trickortreat[/url]




By Dave | Posted in Community, Photography | Tagged , | Comments (0)

2009 Harmony Horse Stables Halloween Show

October 27, 2009 – 6:50 pm

That’s Glenda the Good Witch (Cathy Cosgrove) enjoying the events at the annual Halloween Horse Show at Harmony Horse Stables in Littleton, MA.  The show is a mix of skill and downright silliness/fun including a equitation challenge that requires you to hold an apple under your chin while the riding tasks get more and more complex, and, of course, there are the costume competitions (everybody is a winner…)

Highlights from the show are on the events page and images are available for sale (download or prints).  Visit events.dmg-photography.com

Technical stuff after some of my favorites from the day:




Technical stuff: Shooting without flash in this environment is extremely challenging (I wrote about this last year.) The backlighting, dust, variable light temperatures, and fast motion make for some interesting technical tradeoffs.   I shot mostly with the 1D Mark 2 coupled with the 70-200mm f/2.8L lens at ISO 1600.    I also had the 5D Mark 2 with the 24-70 f/2.8L for wider candids and a bit of jumping.

Exposure management in these conditions is just plain tough. Next year I think I may try using spot exposure for a bit to see what happens – evaluative doesn’t know what the heck is going on.  The widely ranging lighting coupled with the need to freeze action causes me to pick a manual setting (around 1/300) and vary only occasionally.  Later in the afternoon the sun moves around to the end of the barn and I can shoot from there at 1/500 without too much problem, but even that has limitations.

Many of the images require shooting into the light coming from windows along the side of the barn.  This washes all contrast out of the image and makes teasing out a photo rather difficult.  I pushed the Lightroom processing even harder than last year (see aforementioned article) and the result was an interesting stylized look to many of the images (see the girl with the butterfly wings as an example).  After a few tries I found a generally good starting point and created a development preset for it.  I would fine-tune the exposure and black point as needed for the individual image if the preset was off the mark.  Below are two sample “out of the camera” images to compare with the processed/stylized versions above:

wpid1275-2009A-385-3062.jpg wpid1273-2009A-385-2934.jpg

As you can see it is possible to create two very different looks from some low-contrast initial images by attacking the exposure and clarity rather aggressively.

In the jumper image the starting point was very washed out and the result was fairly “natural”.  LR changes were: exposure 0, recovery 23, black point 73(!), clarity +83, and vibrance was +20 (pretty standard there).

For the butterfly rider I went with a more stylized look.  LR changes were: exposure +2/3 stop, black point 27, clarity +65, and vibrance +40.

My thanks to Harmony Horse Stables letting me get in the center of the ring for a little while and try out that vantage point.  It’s a great place to be, but you have to pay attention for the safety of the riders and yourself.  I look forward to returning next year with a few more technique twists to try to capture even more of this holiday event.

By Dave | Posted in Horses, Lightroom, Photography | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Maynard Prints on sale at Gallery Seven

October 27, 2009 – 9:28 am


Attention Maynardites / former DEC/Digital Alumni / and former/current Millrats of all stripes … just in time for the holidays: some familiar, and perhaps not so familiar, images of the town.

Our sleepy little town of Maynard, Massachusetts has a lot of history and character and I’ve tried to capture some of it in a set of prints that are exclusively available for purchase at Gallery Seven right here in Maynard on Nason Street. We are lucky to have a number of excellent frame shops in the area (Star Framers in Stow comes to mind), but having one in downtown Maynard has been a real treat.  Nick and Kelli are friendly and talented people and they can put these archival prints into the perfect matte/frame combination for you.

The images include views of the Town Clock, the Mill Pond, the Mill Street Bridge, and the Assabet River.   The initial set of prints in the store are on Ilford Gold Fibre Silk, my favorite paper.  If the size in the store isn’t what you want, just ask Nick or Kelli and we’ll get a custom print made for you.  We’ve done our best to make these prints affordable (under $100) – a great value for these hard economic times.

Gallery Seven is worth a visit even if you don’t select one of my prints.  They always have a great art show on the walls and a fine selection of photographs and artwork from area artists.







By Dave | Posted in Community, Photography | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Mini-portfolio: Strange Light

October 23, 2009 – 10:25 pm







I was killing time waiting for Betsy to finish a meeting at the Great Meadows NWR headquarters in Sudbury, and brought my camera along.  I thought it would be fun to mix long exposures with indirect light from the parking lot.  Not much more to say other than the results were curious.

By Dave | Posted in Photography | Tagged | Comments (0)

Great talk on color and visual perception

October 13, 2009 – 4:14 pm

A few weeks ago I gave a talk at Baypath College on the issue of authenticity and conservation photography.  The first part of my presentation was a short tour of the human visual system — providing a bit of context about the challenges of photography vs. human perception, plus some of the intrinsic limitations of how our eyes (and brains) see the world around us.   My aim was to show that a photograph could be modified in certain ways that preserves the essential content of the image (thereby retaining a fair degree of authenticity) while allowing the photography the ability to express emotion or other intent.

A recent TED talk by Beau Lotto delves into the topic of color perception and uses a number of wonderful illusions to demonstrate how the brain can be fooled — and how it varies across a wide audience.  If you have the time (the video is about 18 minutes long) it is worth the time.  Just watching the first few minutes is pretty educational.

[flv]http://video.ted.com/talks/dynamic/BeauLotto_2009G-medium.flv[/flv]

If your not already addicted to TED talks, consider visiting their site or, better yet, subscribe to their podcast series.   I heard someone say that watching TED presentations should be required for all high school sophomores… I’d go along with that thought.

By Dave | Posted in Photography | Comments (0)

Lightroom-enhanced time-lapse video

October 12, 2009 – 9:12 pm

[video filename=http://dmg-photography.com/video/bsd2-24fps.mp4 title=Autumn-Mist-Timelapse /]

I’m in the process of putting together a short video highlighting some of the fall foliage and other seasonal changes happening here in central Massachusetts.  I hope to have it ready for viewing next week.    I wanted to include a couple of time-lapse sequences in it.   On Sunday I shot a test sequence on the Assabet River just upstream of the Ben Smith Dam.  Happy with the results, I headed out this morning hoping to catch the sunrise on the water along with the mist.

I happened to be using the Canon 5D Mark 2 because it was handy.  Normally I use either my old 10D or the 40D for timelapse captures.  I set the 5D to “SRAW2″ because I only need HD resolution. SRAW2 exceeds that and leaves plenty of breathing room on the flash card.   The camera was attached to the 24-70mm f/2.8L lens, with polarizing filter, set at 34mm.   I set the exposure at 1/60 second, f/8.0, ISO 200.   I could have, and you might argue, should have, slowed the shutter down a bit more — but motion blur with slow-moving mist and clouds isn’t that noticeable.

The interval timer was set for 2 seconds.  I captured 450 frames.  That’s just 18 seconds at 24fps and 14 seconds at 30fps.   (Remember it is just a clip for a larger work.)  I could have captured longer but, quite frankly, the “show” was mostly over.    (I need to see if the 5D can sustain out 1 frame/second of SRAW2 files.)

The choice of a polarizing filter was problematic.  It provided me with the saturated colors I wanted in the foliage, but the wide angle of the shot means that the polarizing effect would drop off across the image … and this happened.  Here’s a sample source frame:

wpid1210-2009A-263-3195.jpg

Because of the combination of both the polarizer and the sheer brightness of the sun, the right side of the frame got “hot” as the sequence went along.  Not overexposed or anything, but definitely much brighter.  I used Lightroom to create a 1/2 stop graduated filter across the right 1/3rd of the image – providing a bit more room for details in the clouds.  The color still changes (adding blue to the filter is an option, but it colors the mist as well so I kept it neutral).  This change, coupled with some other minor exposure and contrast tweaks, coupled with a 16×9 crop, was then synched across all 450 frames.

I have to admit that this is probably just my first attempt at editing this sequence.  I may well try other edit configurations.  The ability to try them out with Lightroom and then easily apply the changes to hundreds of images is really a joy.

—-

This post is actually two tests in one.  I’m also trying out a WordPress plugin that uses the JW video player to directly play H.264 files and I want to see if it is worth purchasing a license for.  Drop me a line (or comment) if you like or dislike it (vs. YouTube HD or Vimeo hosted files).

By Dave | Posted in Lightroom, Photography, Technology | Tagged | Comments (2)

Nashoba Brook

October 12, 2009 – 11:28 am

wpid1206-2009A-263-3186.jpg

I visited Nashoba Brook in Acton, MA — pretty much on a scouting trip to see if there was any potential for photography this year.  The sun was really quite strong and I didn’t expect to be making many images but I ended up there a bit longer and the light started to soften a bit.   There is a tree down just to the left of this footbridge creating a nasty snag and pretty much ruining the view in that direction for 20-30 yards.  I might try hiking further upstream to see if there is a vantage point.

When I took this photo I was a little surprised at how well the eddies were showing up.  (This is a 5 second exposure.)  So I headed over to the larger one hoping to make a nice abstract image.  They looked pretty good on the camera’s viewfinder but surprisingly lose a lot of their appeal at larger sizes:

I don’t think this is a camera artifact, but rather the chaotic movement of the water is visible in this 10 second exposure.  It may look smooth to the untrained eye, but apparently the water (and bubbles on the surface) is moving in little bursts.  I may have to go back and look at it more intently as there was something happening here that I didn’t originally see.

Nashoba Brook is a major tributary of the Assabet River. It flows from Littleton, through Acton and then merges with the Assabet mainstem in Concord.

Technical stuff:

Canon 5D Mark 2, 24-70mm f/2.8L with polarizer on a tripod.  Exposures were 4, 5 and 10 seconds, respectively.  No special Lightroom processing — just basic exposure and contrast adjustments.

By Dave | Posted in Environment, Photography | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Sunapee Lake Region Panorama

October 8, 2009 – 9:33 pm

While up in New Hampshire I visited with my friends Peter and Marty Hurley who have a place in the Lake Sunapee area.  It was a pretty dreary evening but Peter offered me a tour of some local viewing spots and I was happy to accept.  Sadly no bursts of light onto the landscape, but the autumn colors were beginning to show.

This is a 9 segment panorama looking towards Lake Sunapee. That’s Sunapee Mountain on the left – you can see the ski trails.  I placed the leftmost tree so that it lined up with the radio tower on the mountain directly behind it.  I understand that if you have $600,000 burning a hole in your pocket, you could own this view (there’s a well in one of the foreground bushes).

Peter and Marty have a wonderful Japan-inspired garden, complete with bridges designed and built by Peter.  They have a little online tour if you are interested.

Technical Stuff….

Captures: Canon 5D Mark 2, 24-70mm f/2.8L lens set at 32mm, exposure: 1/13 sec at f/16, ISO 200.  Expose to the right technique was used — not all that hard considering how flat the light was.

Processing: Lightroom used to set consistent white balance for the segments and then exported to 16-bit TIFF / ProPhoto colorspace.   Stitched with the Photoshop merge automation gizmo.  (I used to be able to do this directly from Lightroom, but for some reason that stopped working recently.  Not sure what’s going on there.)  Resulting stitched image imported into Lightroom where a variety of tweaks were applied:

Because the original files were intentionally exposed slightly higher than you normally would, the exposure was dropped by 2/3rds of a stop to bring the overall brightness back to “reality”.

Dust spot removal was particularly fun because 1 dust spot on the sensor = 9 in the panorama — and I had 4 or 5 spots to clean up…  Ugh!

A 1/4 stop graduated filter was added to darken the sky slightly and, since Lightroom can do multiple things in those filters, I also lowered the contrast (-52) – which, somewhat counterintuitively, provides more definition to the clouds.

By Dave | Posted in Lightroom, Photography | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Woodland Scenes – Bradford, NH

October 7, 2009 – 11:42 am

There’s a lot going on in the  photograph above — I’m not sure how well it works when it is small, but every time I look at it on the big screen I find something new: curious reflections, things above the water, on the water, below the water, light obscuring while shadow reveals – intersections of land, water, and light.

Photographed with a Canon 5D Mark 2, 70-200mm lens w/ polarizing filter, all on a tripod.  Post-processing: Basic exposure and contrast tweaks in Lightroom.

By Dave | Posted in Photography | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Scenes from Wabasso – 1

October 4, 2009 – 9:30 pm

Just finished a 4-day excursion to New Hampshire (the Lake Sunapee region) and have a few images to share.

On Saturday I taught a workshop, “Exploring Nature Through Photography”, at the Girl Scouts Great Escape at Camp Wabasso. The Great Escape is a retreat for Girl Scout Leaders – a combination of workshops, social activities, and a bit of relaxation. Much to everyone’s chagrin, it rained buckets on Saturday. But the rain departed by Sunday morning and in between cleanup and packing activities I tried to capture a bit of the environment around the camp.

All of these images were captured with a Canon 5D Mark 2, 70-200mm f/2.8L lens w/polarizing filter, all except the canoe image had the rig firmly mounted on a tripod.  The images were captured using “expose to the right” methodology and then shifted to the desired exposure values with Lightroom.

Images all had different levels of black adjustment and varying amounts of clarity.  A bit of vibrance was added as normal (the polarizer does most of the heavy lifting for the saturated colors — well, that and 20 hours of rain the day before).   The final image (road) used a local adjustment to lower the foreground  path and grass by 1/4 stop.  I used the local adjustment brush adding 1/3 stop of exposure to Pat and Paula in the canoe, making it possible to maintain the contrast for the rest of the scene.

I’ll be posting a few more images from Wabasso over the next couple of days.

By Dave | Posted in Environment, Lightroom, Photography | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)
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