Fall Leaf On Window

My sons and I went up to the mountains of North Carolina nearly two years ago to spend some time hiking in and around some of the many trails and waterfalls to be found up there.

© 2004 – Michael Brown
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I was packing the truck early one morning to go view the waterfalls at Dupont State Forest, when I looked up to see this leaf stuck to the passenger side window.
I took time to put the camera on the tripod and to shoot a few with the wonderful fall colors in the background.
It was a nice weekend!

Canon Rebel 300D
Canon 100mm macro and 2X teleconverter
Natural light
Tripod
1/80 sec. @ f2.8
ISO 200

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“I Can’t” – - A Photographer’s Phrase From Hell!

This is the post that caused the most private e-mails ever to arrive in my inbox! Happy to see that it did some good for others.

Stem & Foliage – Abstract
© 2005 – Michael Brown
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Those two words, “I can’t”, is one of the most common phrases that you will hear from photographers or artists and especially from those who are just learning their craft. It is the phrase that will often bring a individual down into the depths of where they will never want to be. You will never get to where you want to be in photography if you continually and verbally speak those words. It is “not” a good thing!

Yet, … it just recently happened to me, but this is the image that brought me back from that hell!

It was the last few weeks of September and into October of 2005, that I found myself in one of the worst creative funks that I had ever experienced. At that time, I did not know what brought all of that on to me. Sitting in the chair, no urge to do anything really! I felt that I did not want to go out and shoot, not to get on the computer to do some much needed editing, not to visit my favorite photography forum, … it was a bit maddening. Things just did not seem right. Nothing seemed right! Things seemed to be so repetitive, even the dozen or so top news stories seemed to be repeated every 30 seconds on television. Was it depression? Depression can come at you in so many different ways and blind side you. But no, I don’t think that was the case here.

So what was the problem?
As I said, I was beginning to wonder if it was depression but then thought about how I did not hesitate to get out with my sons, to go out and play with the dog, talk with the neighbors, do a bit of gardening, … but I did not want to pick up a camera, … or did I?
Yes, deep down inside I realized that I wanted to shoot but found myself not being able to think about what to shoot, or how I would wanted to shoot something. Just could not concentrate on it at all!

One day I was sitting in the chair and listening to that news that simply kept repeating itself, when I looked over into the computer room and then looked at the camera bag sitting up on the desk. I thought to myself, … “I can’t”.
I cut the television off and sat there in silence for awhile, and it seemed that my dog Flash could sense that something was not right at all, as he jumped up into my lap and layed his head on my chest.
I kept thinking about how I would like to get out and shoot, but I can’t think of what to shoot or how I want to shoot, I can’t get myself in a creative mood, I can’t see any kind of vision at all of what I want to do in photography, ….. I can’t, …

Well damn it, “yes I can” I thought to myself. I then got up off my ass, went over to the bag and pulled out the camera and lens with a couple of reflectors and headed for the back door of the house. I stopped for a moment, and asked myself did I want to go out and see if I could find something that inspires me?
This is when I decided not to “hope” that I find something outside, but to “take” what was “given” to me, and to create from that.
I decided before I even opened up that door, that I was going to shoot the very first and closest thing at the bottom of the steps with foliage no matter what it was or what it looked like, shoot it creatively, and not come back inside until I had something that appealed to me.
I came across this lone plant at the bottom of those steps coming out of the ground and at about 4 or 5 inches in height. It was somewhat seperated from other little grasses/weeds. I noticed how it seemed to stand out. “I noticed”!
That was a part of my problem, “not noticing” things. My eyes were open but mind was not.
Couple that with those words from hell “I can’t”, and suddenly I realized that I had been in the worst of “burn outs” that I had ever known.
Not just in photography, but in anything that you long to do, those words “I can’t” can kill whatever goals and creative juices you may have. I honestly think that those words nearly did me in, at least in the world of photography.

I shot this small plant with different lenses, different lighting, some close, some from a distance and shooting it through other foliage, … I was creating again.
This image appealed to me.

This image here has shown me that “I can”. It has shown me that “I can” shoot whatever my visions are for a given subject. “I can” pick myself right back up after falling down. “I can” enjoy photography. “I can” enjoy creating again and “I can” have some fun. “I can” find beauty in this world of ours!
If you ever say those words “I can’t”, then you should also say to yourself “it’s only temporary”, because I know good and damn well that you can!

When I was a little kid and would tell my mom that “I can’t” do something, she would always say, “Can’t never could do anything”!

Please don’t ever tell me that you can’t do something!
Is 2006 your year? Can you do it? Can you get where you want to be in your photography? Can you be patient and simply work hard at it? Can you take “one step” at a time? Can you answer “yes” to all of these questions?

I can!

Well, ….. if there is one thing in this world though that “I can’t” do, that is, to cook like my mom!
She is surely a notch above most southern cooks!! : )

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Portfolio Now Listed At “PhotoShelter”

“Macro Art In Nature”

Halloween Pennant – (Celithemis eponina)

It seemed as if this particular dragonfly on this day knew what I was wanting. He posed, rarely flying away from his perch but when he did, would always return to that same perch and sit again for awhile. The water in the background was gray, reflecting the sky.

© 2005 – Michael Brown
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“Halloween Pennant” Dragonfly – (Celithemis eponina)

I shot this with the Canon 420EX flash to help brighten him up a bit, used the Canon 75-300mm lens, and simply enjoyed a day where dragons were king!

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That Odd One Is Sometimes The Best Subject

So many times, it is that odd looking one that turns out to be your best subject when you are out exploring and searching for something a bit different.
I was out in the garden this past season, looking at all of the daylily seedlings that I hybridize when I noticed this lone stamen gracefully coming from the throat of a richly colored rose/purple daylily. The other stamens were stunted and never matured.
It was as if it were calling me to come take a look!

© 2006 – Michael Brown
* Copying/downloading of images is prohibited.

The light was already perfect that morning, with a slight breeze blowing.
I set the camera up on the tripod, and shot this with the Canon 100mm macro and 2X teleconverter.
1/400 sec. @ f2.8
ISO 400
Plamp attached from tripod to the scape of the daylily to steady it.

So, next time you are out exploring, look for the odd, the different.
Plan this year to have a more open and creative mind when you are out shooting.
Plan on being different with the way that you look at things, more than you have at any other time in the past!
If you can achieve that one thing, “to be different”, I bet it will take you in your photography where you have never been before.
It is like giving yourself a treat every time you go out to shoot, and you will almost always come home with something very different than the norm!

My eyes are getting heavy!
Gd’nite gang!!

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Composition & Selective Focus

So, … you want to give it a try and shoot wide open? Well, just do it!
Some helpful hints I would like to give.
First, go ahead and use whatever lens you have. A dedicated macro lens or zoom lens works wonderfully well and is my choice for the shooting that I do, and I have seen some wonderful looking closeups using a wide angle lens. Just play and experiment with what you have in your bag right now. You might get a big surprise!

“Rose Campion”
Lychnis Coronaria
© 2005 – Michael Brown
* Copying/downloading of images is prohibited.

So again, I use either the macro or the zoom lens for much of my work.
Now, as far as compositional rules? Use those rules that you have learned, master them, then throw them out the door once they have been learned and do your own creative thing. Get wild, have some fun, do some funky crops/compositions, … just let yourself go and simply “have some fun”! Whatever pleases you, then do it!!

Now, most importantly when shooting with your lens wide open is the use of “selective focus”.
You selectively decide what is the most important area to get some details in. What do you want to have in focus more than any other area? (Use a tripod!)
Get that area in focus and then the rest of the image usually will fall into place with a fall off in details, going into a nice soft blend of that subject and into the background.
I think one is easily able to figure out where my selective focus is within this image here.

I hope that I am making sense here this morning. (I need more coffee!)
Still, to get those creative and appealing abstracts in nature, I choose to shoot wide open, decide what is “the most important area” of the subject to get details in, try some playfull compositions, … and just play!
Opening your mind to just about anything and everything is a must when out shooting in nature.

Thanks for looking everyone!

This was posted over 1 year ago, but comments did not make the transfer from the old blog to WordPress.

The Shot That Started An Adventure In Macro Photography.

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I have been asked in the past, just what got me started with my “In Their World” series of images, showing insects in their world and trying to show them in a more artistic and sometimes abstract way.
It was when I was looking through some foliage with the zoom lens, moving the lens in and out of the foliage while zooming back and forth and looking for abstract compositions, that I came across this leafhopper.

© 2003 – Michael Brown
* Copying/downloading of images is prohibited.
“Leafhopper” – “In Their World” Series

I had the lens set to wide open, as I normally do.
I quickly discovered this composition that you see here with a perfect blending in the background, and I suddenly started to think of “his world”, the “leafhopper’s world”, and maybe, just maybe, is he thinking the same thing that I am thinking? Could he possibly realize the beauty of the world that surrounds him?
Does he only think of food, reproducing, and survival, … or can he possibly be sitting there and enjoying his surroundings, its beauty?
Is he in awe, as I often am while viewing the small world in nature?

I was hoping that he would sit there for me, and let me set the camera on the tripod to try and get some shots with the composition and lighting I had in mind. He did!
He never moved once, allowing me to move in closer while adjusting reflectors, adding the off camera flash, adding a diopter to the front of the lens, … quite a remarkable few moments since they never ever sit still for me! I was amazed!!

I had to get the lens parallel or on the same plane to the leafhopper in order to shoot with the lens virtually wide open but with enough depth to get the details in the leafhopper.
I composed, shot almost wide open, used the off camera flash pointing down on him and pointing the flash through an additional diffusor. The reflector I had off to the camera’s left and below the subject along with available light helped to balance things out nicely.
The slight blur that you see in the lower left corner is from out of focus foliage.

The “In Their World” series is a series of images I am working on, showing the insects and other small things/objects in their world in what I see as being more artistic in nature and macro, and less documentary.

As I sit here typing this, thinking about how this shot came about, the feelings involved with it and the images I have created similar to this one since then, … the music from “Exodus” just started to play.

Damn, ………. I am ready for some more impacting visuals, … some more inspiration.
Nature gives me that, every single day!

Hover Fly – “In Their World” Series

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© 2005 – Michael Brown Copying
Downloading of images is prohibited.

Hoverfly – “In Their World” Series

I was in the middle of a large clump of oak leaf hydrangea blooms, looking for comps and as always, the light.
I had all of the reflectors set to fill in the shadows, camera on the tripod, exploring with my eyes while looking through the lens, when this little guy plopped down into view.
He was kind enough to let me get a couple of quick shots, then he was off again to explore his own world.

Canon 100mm macro & Kenko 2x teleconverter
Tripod, macro slider, reflectors, shutter release
1/250 sec. @ f2.8
ISO 400

And as always, … thanks for looking gang!