Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Idaho Farm (1/640 at f/7.1) 16mm at ISO 200)

Old Tire Swing

I don’t know about you but I really enjoy shooting old abandoned buildings.   I don’t quite know what it is that I love about these rundown buildings other than I think I’m drawn to their solitude.   David E. Jackson, a photographer based out of Appleton Wisconsin, spent several years photographing “rural abandonment” in Wisconsin.  His book, “Simple + Dirty” should have been labeled “Simply Amazing.”  The book is beautiful and his work is well worth checking out.  If you’re not familiar with his work then do yourself a favor and check out his work HERE.   If you’re into shooting abandoned places, I would love to hear why.  Maybe it will help reconcile that I’m not suffering from some Freudian fear of abandonment myself…;)   So drop me a line and tell me why you like shooting these empty, rundown, old buildings.

Frozen Ladder (1/100 at f/8.0; 16mm at ISO 100)

This weekend I had all intentions of taking my camera out and shooting a few frames. But as they say, “life got in the way.”  Between grocery shopping, walking dogs, exercising, and spending time with my kid….time just seemed to slip by.  Instead of beating myself up or making excuses, I’ve decided to embark on a yearlong journey to photograph an image a day.  I’ve been debating this for quite some time, but have shrugged it off due to what I feel would be my inability to deliver the goods.  Like most things, it’s all about making time and giving yourself permission to stink from time to time.   Having said that , I decided to establish some rules that I feel I could live by:  1. It’s ok to take some crappy photos 2. The image or video must be posted on the day it was shot 3. The only way out of posting for the day is in the case of an emergency or zero internet (which sadly enough is an emergency in my world) 4. Most importantly – have fun.  This is all about growing as a photographer and experimenting  a bit to get the creative juices flowing.  I plan on embarking on this journey beginning April 1^st (no, this isn’t an April Fool’s Joke)  and pushing through for the next 365 days.   I’ll let everyone know where I plan on posting the images in the weeks to come, but until then wish me luck…John

If you found this helpful consider subscribing to my blog HERE or checking out one of my workshops HERE.

Bear x-ings, photo by Kajsa Stolberg

Kajsa here this Sunday and I want to share a little something with you.  I was having coffee with my longtime friend last week and even though we haven’t lived in the same town in over six years it’s still as if she lives two blocks away.  She was updating me on her week, her students, the leadership conference she recently attended, and her life as a “grown up.”  I had little to update her on in the progress of my photography as I swept my arm to display the littered parking lot in front of the coffee shop – the scenery that I currently spend my hours observing.   In the past my drive to take pictures was always fueled by all the cool things I saw when I got out of my comfort zone, but for the past few months I’ve been sticking close to home trying to earn some extra money, and also taking this opportunity for a breather.  In my effort to ground myself I’ve gotten “out of shape” and my creative juices are definitely not flowing – I mean, I’ve been looking at these same surroundings since birth – what could possibly be cool??  Seeing that I was clearly uninspired, my friend gave me the boost which has stuck with me all week: she replied, “Kajsa, have you ever seen the arrow on the FedEx truck?  It’s always been there, you just have to look for it. See the arrow.”  (I wish I could give credit to the speaker of the aforementioned leadership conference who gave this advice to my friend, but unfortunately I don’t know!)  By taking the time to look at my home from an outsider’s perspective I can see all sorts of wild things: bear crossing signs, tractors holding up traffic, old barns, beautiful sunsets, and even art in the trash outside the coffee shop.  It’s the same old prompt: even if you don’t feel like there’s something to shoot, get out and shoot anyway!  You might find material to create some pretty great stuff. Now it’s your turn – see the arrow!

Henry's Fork Moose

Ok…it’s been a while since I’ve done a Q&A session so I thought I would answer a few questions I’ve received over last few months.

Why should I use a lens hood?
I always use my lens hood because it reduces flare from the sun and lights.  Most importantly, it is just another way to protect your glass. I don’t know how many times I’ve knocked my camera in doorways, poles, trees, etc.

Do I need a UV filter?
I always use a UV filter on my lens (personal preference). Once again it’s just another way to protect your lens. I do want to add a special note for those of you who have gone out and bought an expensive lens. There is no sense whatsoever in spending $1,000+ on a lens just to put a cheap $5.00 UV filter on it. You get what you pay for, and if you’re buying expensive glass and plan on using a UV filter, than I suggest buying a quality filter.

When I’m taking sunset/sunrise photos, do I need to remove my polarizing filter?
Depends. Using a polarized filter and playing with the exposure can result in a dramatic sunset/sunrises. Or, if you prefer you can leave the filter off and apply filters in Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture…etc.

What’s your favorite all around lens?
I love shooting with my Canon 24-70mm USM L series. This lens goes with me everywhere.  But I did stop sleeping with it a few years back…

Your favorite camera bag?
I’ve owned a few but I have to say Think Tank’s Streetwalker Pro is my favorite hands down.  This bag is sturdy, has a rain cover thrown in, and it simply works.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I’m always looking for good Q&A ideas so if you have any questions feel free to leave them here.

If you found this helpful consider subscribing to my blog HERE or checking out one of my workshops HERE.

The Chief

Golden Retreiver

"Old Barn"

All of us remember our first kiss, our first real car, maybe even our first camera, but do you remember the very first image that spoke to you as a photographer?  Not like, “hey, you photographer shoot me” but more like “hey, I’m really enjoying this!  I think this is something I could really get into.”   I was looking through my old photos recently trying to locate the four images that I vividly remember changing my path as a photographer.  Not because they were great, but because they spoke to me.  They truly made me want to become a better photographer. I was only successful in locating three of the four photos….yes, the story of my life    Two of the photos were of an old barn and a fence post.  I remember taking these photos and  thinking this just rocks.  To be honest,  any image I was able to make a decent print of  at the time simply rocked when I was 14.    Another photo  I vividly recall was a of the local Culligan guy’s golden retriever.  Wherever this guy was, his dog was in tow, so I took a few photos one day when he was delivering salt to our house.  The owner  was so thrilled with how they turned out  he insisted on making a large print for his office. And at the ripe old age of 15 I felt as though I had won the lottery.  Lastly, some 12 years later while traveling to Zimbabwe I came across a gentlemen that simply described himself as the “Village Chief.” While I was photographing him and listening to his story, I remember thinking to myself, “ I could do this for the rest of my life.”   I still enjoy, shooting old buildings, dogs (I live with a pack of 4) and people.  It’s funny how your  style might change, your quality improves (hopefully), but at the end of the day you still  shoot what you enjoy.  So my question for all of you is, “What images do you remember directing or fueling your photographic journey?

John is always saying that this site is a little bit about him, but a lot about you guys. Batdorff Photography is doing a Spotlight feature in an effort to get to know more about his followers and fellow photographers. Enjoy with us the responses that Lori Rosenfelder Nicoli and Aaron Graham had to a couple of simple questions…

Lori Rosenfelder Nicoli

Photo by Lori Rosenfelder Nicoli (Canon 40D, 70mm, ISO 100, f/4.0, 1/125s)

Batdorff Photography: What got you into photography?
Lori: Photography has been a point of interest as far back as I can recall. My grandfather and father were both avid amateur photographers; my dad had actually built a darkroom in our basement in the 50’s where he developed his 35mm B&W film.

Batdorff Photography: What’s your favorite piece of equipment?
Lori: I became more personally involved with photography in the early 80’s, shooting mostly slides with a Canon A-1 and an old Exakta 35mm camera. My first DSLR was a Canon EOS Rebel. I have since purchased a Canon 40D, with which I have been very happy. My favorite piece of equipment, so far, has to be the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM Telephoto lens. It is so versatile and creates such wonderful images.

Through the years, photography has always been a hobby. But now that our children are grown, I have once again taken a more active interest. I still have so much to learn about the craft, equipment, and processing, but find myself always looking at my surroundings as “through the lens”, making mental notes to revisit places and see what I can capture. Photography is so engaging. It never fails to draw me into its web of artistic expression.

You can see more of Lori’s photos at her photography blog HERE.

Aaron Graham

New & Used Tires, photo by Aaron Graham

Batdorff Photography: What got you into photography?
Aaron: It was kind of inevitable I guess.  As a child there were always cameras around.  My father and my aunts took pictures of what seemed like everything everywhere we went.  They had the slide shows to prove it.  Hours and hours of slide shows to prove it.  In the eighth grade we had photography as part of our art class.  I really enjoyed it but because of the costs and resources required I wasn’t able to pursue it to the degree I would have liked.  I took casual “snap shot” pictures from time to time but 35mm film didn’t give me the type of control over the final image that I really wanted.  Finally, the cost of high resolution DSLR’s reached a point that is practical for hobbyists like myself so a little over a year ago my wife and I purchased one.  It has been so much fun!  The upsides to shooting digital are probably too numerous to list but for me it is all about control.  The available camera adjustments and the digital processing options give me, what seems like, infinite possibilities.  It turned a hobby into a passion!

Batdorff Photography: What’s your favorite piece of equipment?
My Carl Zeiss 16-80mm zoom lens.  The zoom range is perfect for most of the shooting I do and it is razor sharp from corner to corner.

You can see more of Aaron’s work on his Facebook site HERE.

Thank you so much Lori and Aaron for answering our questions. I hope everyone else continues to comment on the blog, Facebook and submit photos for future contests. You might get an email asking to be featured in the next Spotlight on the Reader post!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Cabrini-Green Demolition (1/125 at f/14 30mm, ISO 125)

Picking a treatment for an image can sometimes make or break the  image. In the case of my Cabrini-Green shots I had a strong suspicion I would be converting the images to black  and white. There are several reasons why I was leaning toward black and white. First, I the love the timeless factor BW lends to an image. Second, the scene felt cold, gritty,  and sinister in small way.  Lastly, the sky was a brilliant blue and I knew I would be able to convert the sky to pure black with the use of a red filter. I thought the black sky would add to the mood and serve as a nice contrast to the white building and the dust/debris that was being  knocked loose by the wrecking ball.

Once I had the images in Lightroom I did process several of them as straight up color images, and truth be told I just wasn’t feeling it. I had even gone as far as to process a few  HDR images, but once again I just wasn’t feeling it. I know this process can be extremely subjective and at the end of the day some people may have preferred the color images over BW but I just wasn’t feeling color, so I decided to stay true to my original gut instinct and  focus on converting the images as BW.

I didn’t use an on camera filter for this image but rather used a red filter preset that you can find HERE. Once the preset was applied, I decided to work on increasing the contrast through the tone curve. I wanted the white of the dust to really pop against the black sky so I increased the Lights slider a bit (this is located under the tone curve in Lightroom). I darkened the shadows just a hair to help set the mood and I added a little clarity. Now you can go crazy with clarity, and some people avoid it all together and use sharpen brush instead.  I feel when you have an image that has some texture, using the clarity slider can work nicely if you don’t push it too far.

The following images were processed very similar to the above image.

Cabrini-Green (1/250 at f/10, 70mm at ISO 125)

Cabrini-Green (1/200 at f/10, 85mm at ISO 125)

Cabrini-Green (1/125 sec at f/11, 80mm at ISO 125)

If you found this helpful consider subscribing to my blog HERE or checking out one of my workshops HERE.

Cabrini-Green Demolition (1/125 at f/14 30mm, ISO 125)

I remember one of my first cab rides was right here in Chicago at the ripe old age of 19.  I was visiting the Windy City scouting out potential graduate schools, or so the story was that a few friends and I had told our parents.  Truth be told, we thought  the legal drinking age was 19, but come to find out we were a few years off on that one.   But, I digress, so there I was a very sober 19 year old cruising the city (late at night)  in the back seat of taxi-cab with a few friends.  I remember the cab driver asking us , “Do you mind if I cut through Cabrini-Green?”  Well, honestly I had no idea what Cabrini-Green was but I knew I didn’t want to  sound like a small town kid, so I spoke for all of us and said  “sure.”   That  shortcut, with a  few stop lights thrown in,  felt like a lifetime back then….I was very young, very naïve, and most of all afraid of the unknown.

Fast forward, 20 years later, I find myself driving by Cabrini -Green  several times a week.  I’m older now and a lot has changed, but fear is the last emotion I think about when I drive by Cabrini-Green.  Cabrini-Green has undergone tremendous change in the last few years.  The area that once housed nearly 15,000 residents and was thought undesirable by many people has now become a valuable asset as Chicago’s Near North Side has been developed.  Many of the area’s residents have been forced to relocate as their neighborhood has slowly been demolished, while watching multi-million dollar townhomes being erected in their place.   The point of this isn’t to make a political statement, but simply to explain that while many of us might rejoice in the demolition of Cabrini-Green for a variety of reasons, there are still many people that continue to reside there and call it home.  And those being forced to relocate may have left behind family, friends and many fond memories.

So, here’s where I’m going with this.  The teardown of Cabrini is every bit as historic as its original construction, and I think as photographers it’s our nature to document our surroundings.  But, I think it’s our job to be as respectful as possible in that process.  Case in point, while I was taking photographs at Cabrini I noticed car after car rolling in taking quick snap shots.  Sure, it’s cool to watch a building this large being torn down.  I mean how often do you see a 15 story building with a wrecking ball taken to it?   But the image that stuck in my mind as I was photographing the scene was the two teenage school kids walking home with groceries.  As they walked by me, I gave them both a smile and quick hello but they offered nothing  in return other than a look of disgust.   That’s when it dawned on me  that I was being just like the snapshot photographer only with better equipment.  I should have taken more time to get to know someone who lived in the building or connect in some other fashion, but I had failed.  I took a few more shots, called it a day, and reminded myself it’s not always about getting the shot, but how you go about getting the shot that counts.

If you found this helpful consider subscribing to my blog HERE or checking out one of my workshops HERE.

Repetition, photo by Kajsa Stolberg

Hello!  Kajsa here for the weekend post.  The last poll we did asked which late photographer you would shadow if given the chance, and Ansel Adams had the largest response with Henri Cartier-Bresson in close second.  I can understand these choices given each one’s expertise and reputation. It’s always great to hear all of your responses and to see how different everyones tastes are so I hope you’ll participate in this week’s poll too.
This week I’m curious to know if your photography reflects your personality.  Are you a naturally shy person who opens up and becomes adventurous with your camera in hand?  Or maybe you’re an outgoing, outspoken person who finds photography to be a quieter way to express yourself?  Personally, I’m not the type of person who will get in your face when we’re talking and I stay true to that behind the camera.  I’m drawn to geometrical shapes and repetitive patterns because I don’t have to confront anyone or step on anyone’s toes to get my shot. Now think about your own work…  and answer this poll in the right-side column: Do your photographs capture your personality? Feel free to explain with a comment!

First Place: Tiffany Burke’s “True Love Can Weather Through Anything.”

Second Place: Jana Davilla, “She holds my heart in her hands”

We had fun judging February’s photo contest and I’m pleased to announce the winners.  First place goes to Tiffany Burke’s “True Love Can Weather  Through  Anything.”  Valentines are all about couples and we love the composition and texture of this image.  Second place goes to Jana Davilla, “She holds my heart in her hands”….I mean what says Valentines more than a heart shaped lollipop in a baby’s hand?  Contest winners: please contact me via the blog so I can send you your prizes. Thanks again to everyone that participated!