David’s Blog
Photograph’n with Lisa
Last week I went out photographing with my friend Lisa Cumen an extremely accomplished equine fine art photographer. When I say I went out photographing what I mean is that I held her lenses and water bottle while she did what she does so well- create magic. And by the way, I was quite happy to do so. I love watching artists at work. Lisa was shooting on...
Fun in Venice
Okay so these aren't my standard shots but what the heck- when in Venice by whacky! I processed these by what I call my Slider Slapping technique- In Lightroom slapping the vibrance and saturation slider as far to the right as they could go. No thought, just fun. The more color in your picture the better. I'll post more normal pics soon. And no I wasn't...
Gesture
Many times it is the little things that make a big difference in your photography. And lots of times we don't even notice these little things despite their importance. When photographing people or animal portraits gesture is a very compositional element of your image. Gesture is the position of your subjects arms or legs, the tilt of the head, the twist of...
Stained Glass
As I was wandering around Notre Dame I became captivated by the beautiful stained glass windows. Here are a few that I took. don't look at the photography, look at the stained glass! Look at the intricacy and the colorfulness and think of the time it took to create these master pieces. It would be fun to photograph these windows more seriously and then...
Notre Dame Cathedral
Went to see Notre Dame this morning and spent a hour wandering around inside awe struck by its immensity and beauty as well as the hard work over many generations it took to build it. My pictures aren't ground breaking but they are new for me so that is good enough. All hand held, high ISO, wide open f-stop, aperture priority, -.3 auto compensation,...
Live From Paris!
The Withering Look Chronicles (or how my days are going in Paris) Instance 1. On the predawn trip in from De Gaulle airport amid a lovesick chorus of “Look France!” and “Ah, Paris” of francophillia I ask the driver “Where’s this tower thing I’ve heard so much about?” Instance 2. In a cheese shop picking up a bottle of wine I ask “Is this good wine?” and...
Two Pictures
Two handheld pictures from Acadia National Park last week. Snap shots really, taken to help my workshop participants with a few compositions, but nice. Here is how I did it. Bass Harbor in the fog ISO 2000 (on my Nikon D4 I can shoot publishable shots up to ISO 6400 ) to get a high enough shutter speed. F8 because I didn't need a lot of depth of field with...
Things Learned
Three consecutive workshops forces lots of insight into my small but perfectly formed brain. Lots. Let me share... Histograms are not inconvenient, they are necessary. A histogram will tell you exactly what your exposure is going to be, exactly what it is. No interpretation, no guessing, just the facts. Take your picture, check the histogram, see if there...
I’m Back!!!
Yes it has been a long time since my last post but I haven't been idle. I just completed three workshops with 40 total participants over the last 3 weeks- two in Vermont and one in Acadia National Park on the coast of Maine. Now I'm back and ready to deluge you continued sense and nonsense. Stayed tuned and I will begin posting again. Here is a picture...
On the Light Table
Share!!!
Okay, so lets get right down the nitty-gritty- Why? Why show your creative efforts? Why share what you make or write or photograph or weave or cook or digitally cobble together? What’s the point? Can’t you be a photographer or a writer or a web designer or a weaver or a painter or a code writer or teacher without sharing your talents with others? Nope,...