Photographing Morocco

Morocco is a horn of photographic plenty. It has so many aspects that appeal to the photographer. Walled, labyrinthian medieval cities, coastlines that border on the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, an inland spine of mountains running up the middle of the country, canyons with marvelous rock formations, isolated villages, and crumbling kasbahs, and beyond that, camels kicking up the sand of the Sahara desert. This is North Africa, the Mahgreb, the western-most edge of the known world as mapped by Arab cartographers of long ago. Inhabited by a mix of Arab and Berber stocks, with a bit of sub-saharan spice thrown in, it is exotic without being dangerous, the food is great and inexpensive, and the traditional Moroccan hotel or riad (a mansion converted to a small hotel) is exceedingly charming, and will find favor with even the most budget-conscious traveler. Read and see more in the full article Photographing Morocco.

Cascades d'Ouzoud, Middle Atlas Mountains

Medina Lane, Marrakech

I Found Lost Negatives by Ansel Adams at a Garage Sale

Well, not really, but I did find a charming old broom that I may use as a prop in a future still life. I've been reading about a fellow in California who, at a garage sale, purchased 65 "lost" negatives he says were taken by Ansel Adams.  Even after these negatives were certified by "experts" as being genuine Adams, and valued at $200 million dollars, there is still doubt as to their provenance.  A woman in Fresno California has produced a print by her uncle Earl that appears to have been taken within minutes of one of the "Adams" negatives, thus suggesting that the negatives were created by uncle Earl, and not Adams.  In all the discussion and debate about whether these images were the work of Adams or uncle Earl Brooks, there seems to be little mention of the artistic merit of the photographs.  The small-sized images I have seen displayed on the inernet do not appear to me to be among Adams' more compelling images.

      Day's End, Santa Rosa Mountains, California

If the photo above could be unquestionably identified as a previously undiscovered image by Ansel Adams, the negative alone would perhaps be valued in excess of a million dollars, not to mention the value of any subsequent prints made from it (Mr. Norsigian, the owner of the 65 garage-sale negatives, is selling prints from his "Adams" negatives for up to $7500 each).  Unfortunately for me, this is not an Adams image, it's one of my own, and because I am the photographer and not Adams, the image is worth (to be kind) considerably less than a million dollars.  I believe this current controversy is just another sad example of how an artwork's merit is too often judged more by who authored it than by its actual content. What do you think?

Turning the Mundane into Something Special

Sometimes the ordinary may be made compelling. At the last full moon I strolled down to Matthews Beach, which is a Seattle city park on the western shore of Lake Washington, not far from my home.  Like many city parks, Matthews Beach gets its grass mowed periodically, has some nice trees, and is popular for picnics in the summertime, but it is hardly a scenic wonderland.  Nevertheless, armed with my tripod and a telephoto lens, I marched down there to photograph the moon rising over the Cascades in the east. Compositional elements being rather scarce, I was forced to choose between a drab but tall lifeguard's chair, and some tree or other to provide foreground interest; I chose the chair. The simple elements combine, I think, to produce an interesting image.

                               Full moon over Matthews Beach, Seattle

Still Life Photography, Renaissance-style

I find it quite rewarding to create a still life photographically in the style of the Renaissance masters such as Caravaggio (see one of his paintings below ).  It's actually quite easy to create the type of lighting that is typical of this style, but more challenging to create a compelling composition.  You don't have to restrict your subjects to fruits, hourglasses and dead pheasants--just about anything is fair game. Thrift stores can be a wonderful and inexpensive source for props, and you may have stuff lying around your house that may be used. The two photographs below were created using the techniques explained in my article Renaissance Still Life Photography.  See more of my still life images here.

                                              Caravaggio's Still life with Fruit on a Stone Ledge

      Still life with Mandolin

      Photographica

  

Looking for one kind of photo, finding another instead

Yesterday evening I went to a spot in Seattle I had noticed while riding the bus, a place where the street overlooks some curved freeway off ramps and on ramps, which in turn lead the viewer to the Space Needle in the distance.  It turns out I was unable to construct a compelling composition from this scene, but the radio towers on a hill on the other side of Lake Union caught my attention, and the resulting image has a bit of an abstract quality to it. The bright sunset sky put the towers and hilltop into stark silhouette, with the clouds looking as if someone might have sketched them in with a crayon.

      Radio towers on Queen Anne Hill, Seattle

On-camera user's manual

Why don't camera manufacturers put the camera's instruction manual into the camera's memory?  With today's high resolution screens, the manual can be perfectly readable and always handy when it's needed most. Below you see a page of the user's manual that I loaded into my Samsung TL500/EX1.  You may be surprised how I did it. See On-Camera User's Manual for the full article.

No sunset color? Try black & white.

Sometimes what promises to be a colorful sunset turns out to be pretty ho-hum.  If there are nice cloud patterns present though, a grayscale rendition of the image can be very compelling.  The sunset in the photo below was fairly colorless, but the clouds were nice, so I waited until the city lights appeared, then took the picture.

     Seattle from the Jose Rizal bridge (thanks to my friend Mahesh for showing me this location.)

6 great reasons to shoot macros at your local nursery

Your local plant nursery may offer wonderful opportunities for flower and foliage macro photography with the following advantages over going out into the field:

1. A wide variety of flowers and foliage is on display

2. No need to get close to the ground for most shots

3. Protection from windy conditions

4. Shooting is possible even on rainy days

5. Pleasing quality of light from overhead diffusing panels

6. Your local nursery is local, no need to travel far afield.

See the full article at Macro Photography at Your Local Nursery.  Below are a few shots I obtained at Molbak's nursery, not too far from my home in Seattle.

    Red hibiscus

Caladium leaves

   Orange hibiscus