Using a Polarizer

To Reduce Glare and Reflections

These photographs were made with a polarizing filter attached to the lens. For the photo on the left, the filter was set for minimum effect, and for the one on the right it was rotated 90 degrees for maximum effect. As you can see, the polarizer eliminated almost all the glare from the water. Not only did the polarizer remove the glare, but it also removed the reflections. In the photo on the left you can see the reflections of the trees and sky. The highlights in the water are not actually direct sunlight, but are reflections of the overcast sky. In the photo on the right, the water is clear and you can see the bottom. Dialing in the polarizer also eliminated the shiny highlights from the leaves and from the scales of our little reptilian friend.

A polarizing filter will reduce the light reaching your sensor by a stop or two. In that regard, it can perform as a neutral density filter, should you so desire. Some folks are so enthralled by the wonderful things their polarizing filter can do that they keep it mounted all the time, but in most cases I think one should remove the filter from the lens if it isn't needed. In this example, dialing in the polarizer reduced the light by another full stop. Both photos were made at ISO 400 and f8, using aperture priority with +1/3 stop of exposure compensation. The exposure time for the photo on the left was 4/10 of a second and 8/10 for the one on the right. It was an overcast day, deep in a cypress swamp – not enough light for hand-holding, especially so with the filter attached. (Even though the camera was tripod mounted, I'm ashamed to admit that I did not use proper slow-shutter-speed technique, e.g. mirror lock-up and cable release, for these photos and so their sharpness is wanting)

The handsome creature on the log is a cottonmouth water moccasin, a venomous snake. In my experience, the reputation of the cottonmouth for being aggressive is greatly exaggerated.

© 2013 Buck Ward                        The Photographist                                www.buckward.net 

An Exhibition

On Sanibel Island, at the Sanibel Steakhouse

I'm proud to announce my exhibition of thirteen black and white photographs in the Sanibel Steakhouse on Periwinkle Way, Sanibel.   Most of the scenes were photographed on Sanibel and several depict the Sanibel Lighthouse.   The presentations range in size from 16" x 20" to 30" x 40".

“We are looking to update our art in the restaurant with black and white local photographs,” She wrote. “Would you be interested in this sort of thing?  I think that your local scenes would really appeal to our clientele.”  That's how it started.  It's been a lot of work and a little bit exciting.  In recent days I've come to appreciate the work of curators.

I hope everybody will dash on over and enjoy art with your steak dinner.

© 2013 Buck Ward                        The Photographist                                www.buckward.net 

Underneath Another Bridge

The previous blog post put me in mind of this.  I was under this bridge not because I wanted to photograph it's underneath, but because it afforded a good location from which to shoot a sunrise. (You can see that the angle of the light is nearly horizontal.) There were pelicans and other birds coming and going, stopping on the supports and then flying on, so I did photograph it's underneath, hoping the pelicans would give some interest or variety to the repeating patterns. Those photographs were unsatisfactory, so the next time I was there, a week or two later, I made a point of photographing the underneath of the bridge. This time there were no pelicans or egrets or any other type of bird. Nothing remarkable about this picture, but these numbers had mysteriously appeared.  

Just one of those odd little things that once photographed, the picture stays in the mind.  If I hadn't made this photo, I'm sure I wouldn't remember those numbers being there.

© 2013 Buck Ward                  The Photographist                      www.buckward.net 

A Bridge Too Far

It wasn't foggy, but just kinda hazy.   As I came up on the causeway, I could see the bridge at the far end, a couple of miles away. It seemed almost to glow in the morning sun, in the haze. I didn't expect it to keep this hazy, glowy effect as I drove, as I drew nearer.  But sure enough, it did. I followed the turnaround lane that took me under the bridge and stopped the car. It looked good. I drove on and parked on the causeway and walked back under the bridge. This is what I saw.  It's almost churchy, isn't it?

© 2013 Buck Ward                  The Photographist                      www.buckward.net  

Nature Photographers Network

Oops.
I've let my subscription lapse to NaturePhotographers.Net Online Magazine. My remorse is doubled because I just found out that I won First Honorable Mention in the Weekly Challenge category in the 2012 Editor's Picks Awards with this photograph. The Weekly Challenge theme that week was urban wildlife, if I recall.  

It was a complete surprise to me for this image to win anything.  I had posted it at  NPN, months ago, just for the fun of it.   Aside from a little shameless self-horn-tooting, my purpose here is to tout a great photography website –  NPN.

 

NaturePhotographers.Net is one of the best photography websites out there. It focuses on nature photography obviously, and it does have at least one gallery for non-nature photography. The people who hang out there, including a lot of world-class photographers, are helpful, good-natured, and knowledgeable. There are discussion forums, regional forums, and image critique galleries. Critiquing images and having your own critiqued is a great way to improve your photography. You can find out the answer to practically any question regarding nature photography and photography in general in the discussion forums.  You can hook up with photographers in your area through the regional forums. The editors publish informative articles every month. And there's a classified section for buying or selling gear. 

I highly recommend NPN as a good place to hang out on the web. You can even visit NPN's Facebook page   Try it - you'll 'like' it.

© 2013 Buck Ward                  The Photographist                      www.buxpix.net        

HopeLine - For Melissa

Melissa Morrison had finally broken off her rocky relationship with her fiance.  Her sister Julie had warned her to stay clear of him, but as he had done before, he wormed his way back into her life.  Julie's worst nightmare came true on Easter Sunday, 2011.  He shot and killed Melissa in her Tampa apartment. 

Julie Noble is pissed off. She doesn't want her sister Melissa's murder to become just another statistic of domestic violence. She's working with the Verizon Wireless Hopeline program. Hopeline collects and refurbishes old cell phones and gets them to women in abusive relationships. A person in trouble doesn't need to have a phone service plan to call 911. All that's needed is a working cellular phone.  After being turned away by several large businesses for help in posting or distributing information about Hopeline, Julie found Joe's Crab Shack's Chelsea Ward. With support from Dal Tile and through a promotion by Joe's Crab Shack in October, Julie and Verizon collected 406 cell phones and 330 accessories and Verizon donated $1500 to ACT, Abuse Counseling and Treatment.  Following the month-long promotion at Joe's, Julie and Chelsea asked if I would make some photographs to illustrate their efforts. These are three of the photos we made together.

ACT reports that 40% of homicides here in Lee County in 2011 were related to domestic violence. At the end of October, ACT's shelters for victims of domestic violence were full.

 

Julie doesn't want other families to learn about domestic violence the same tragic way she and her family did. She wants to get across three important messages:

1. To victims in abusive situations now: You need to start thinking about the abuse you're enduring the way schools think of bullying - zero tolerance, not 1,2,3 strikes you're out - because your life is not a baseball game and you might not make it to the 3rd strike.
   
   
2. To family members of loved ones in trouble: Get involved. Speak up. Voice concerns. Take action! A loved one angry at you for meddling is still alive. A loved one gone because you didn't do enough becomes a painful memory.
   
   
3. To our community: Step up! We need help to bring attention to this epidemic nationally. It takes a village to raise our kids; it takes a community to raise awareness.
   
   
   
   

To learn how you can donate your old cell phone, click here.

© 2012 Buck Ward             The Photographist                www.buckward.net         

Verizon HopeLine graphics used with permission

I Love the Beach

I love the beach. I always have.   Especially a deserted beach, all to myself.   In a resort area, a deserted beach is hard to come by.   So I like to go early in the morning. It's not always deserted, but it's usually not too crowded. I go to the beach for photographic opportunities. But going to the same beach over and over again... I know, the same old tired photographs.  But...I love the beach.   Let the pix fall where they may.

So I went to the beach, full photo paraphernalia and all.  I had it all to myself. Quiet. Solitude. Nature's beauty. I found a photograph to make - no footprints, a little tide pool, a reflection of the lighthouse, a nice cloud pattern, a lone plover. It took several tries 'til finally the plover held still for the entire five-second exposure.   It's not a great photograph, but it expresses my quiet pleasure.   I can't help but smile as I remember.

As sun neared the horizon, I walked, strolled, sauntered, along the beach towards the point. As the sunrise grew closer, the pale lavender gradually shifted toward the red. And then, almost suddenly, the color became dramatic. The pelicans and the terns seemed to revel in the glory. The redness erupted into fire for a brief few moments and then faded quickly as Sol entered the sky. This dramatic sunrise color swelled, peaked, and faded in a scant six or seven minutes.

I love the beach.

© 2012 Buck Ward        The Photographist       www.buckward.net

The River District in Fog

Please, Ma, just let me sleep a little while longer. I'm tired. Oh, well, it's after five, and I'm awake. Might as well get up. A little later than usual, but wait, we were supposed to set the clocks back an hour, so its really not even five yet. Yeah but the sun comes up an hour earlier than it did yesterday. I showered, shaved, dressed, and went outside to check the weather. Hey, we've got fog! Oh, man. I was lying in bed wasting our first fog of the season.

I hurried downtown, to the River District, thinking of scenes of streetlights receding into foggy oblivion.   At my first set up, on narrow Dean Street, after a couple of tentative exposures, a car turned in at the other end of street and stopped, its headlights shining into my lens. The passenger got out, opened the trunk, and started unloading packages. The headlights stayed on.   *Sigh*   I moved on.  It was beginning to get light. I was losing the deserted-city-in- the-middle-of-the-night look I was trying for.   I muddled around framing the Model A in front of Ford's Garage. Not too bad, but that was my last opportunity on this foggy morning for that kind of a scene, as the darkness seeped out of the misty air.

I like black and white photography, but in heavy fog I usually prefer a color photograph. Fog reduces contrast, mutes color, and hides detail. I like black and white photographs with plenty of contrast, and distinct highlight and shadow. What little color there may be in a fog photograph helps to subtly define shapes, texture, and depth; to make amends for the loss of highlight and shadow.

Illumination by incandescent streetlight gives a strong red-yellow color cast to a photograph. In fog the hue seems to fill the air. An adjustment of the white balance in this photograph of the Model A on First Street reduces the too-strong orangey color, and gives the color photo the look of a monochrome photo with a sepia tint.

As the morning light matured the streetlights went out, and I drifted along in the fog. A photograph of Joe's in the fog is so different from the one I made last year; nice reflection again, though.

I meandered over to the yacht basin. The pilings, standing tip-toe on their own reflections in the still water, seemed to float on nothingness.  An old gent on his boat called out, “Hey, are you taking my picture?” I hadn't even seen him there. He had just bought the boat, a good sized power yacht, from up on the Peace River two days before. The fog had delayed his departure. He was going up the Caloosahatchee to Lake Okeechobee and then on to Jupiter, his home port. Yes, I had taken his picture, but it didn't survive the cull.

© 2012 Buck Ward        The Photographist       www.buckward.net

PS.
I prepared this on my nice color-calibrated monitor.  Today I saw these photographs on a different monitor.  They all have a sickly greenish cast, especially the top one.  So, if they look off to you, sorry about that.