Equipment Carried: Nikon D300, 24-70mm, 70-200mm, 2x teleconvertor — Equipment Used: Nikon D300, 24-70mm, 70-200mm

Before going to an event like this, one needs to consider the weather conditions, and exactly what you plan on doing to obtain your photos. As it was in the low 30′s with a mild wind, I knew to dress warmly – especially my feet as I’d be doing a lot of standing around. I also knew I’d be getting some shots that were low(er) to the ground, which meant lying or kneeling in several inches of snow. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring the bath mat I usually use in such situations. An old rubber-backed bath mat is excellent for keeping you off of damp (or snowy) ground that will cause you to be uncomfortable while shooting and dirty/wet when you move to your next location.

I arrived on the site before the main “parade” began and had time to check in with the organizers, other photographers, spectators and horse owners. I also made use of this time to get some intimate portrait shots of the horses before and while they were harnessed up to the sleighs and cutters.

Next, I moved out onto the golf course to find that “perfect” spot. As it turned out, the perfect spot was right next to where the judging would take place. So I set my white balance, settled in and waited for the first sleigh to go by.

One thing to remember when photographing horses – in any capacity, whether they are harnessed or not – is that they can be unpredictable animals. I was forcibly reminded of this this day. As I was photographing the teams going by, a horse pulling a cutter decided that he wanted to take a “shortcut” from the curve I was standing on, to the other side of the course. And I was (kinda) in the way. All I know is that suddenly the horse I was busily photographing was getting bigger and not turning the way I was anticipating. While taking one LARGE step backwards I dropped my camera from my eye and witnessed a cutter with a very concerned driver passing less than a foot away from me. (I’d show the photo taken just before I lowered my camera, but it’s rather out-of-focus) This was the point at which I decided that perhaps this was a good time to change my position on the course.

I moved away from the judging area towards another curve and settled in on a relatively snow-free patch to photograph the rest of the teams.

The location turned out to be great as, in addition to having a curve, there was also an area where the teams paused before going before the judges. This allowed for some different shots.

And, of course, I played a bit….

There’s not much I enjoy more than photographing animals in motion, and this day proved very much worth any discomfort I had (cold toes!).

I hope to get out to more Sleigh & Cutter Rallys next year – but for this year, I think I’ve had enough of snow and cold.

Bring on the warmth of summer!

– Holly Kuchera

• Date: Sunday, January 29th, 2011

• Site: Eagle Valley Golf Course, Woodbury, Minnesota
• Time spent at the site: 2 1/2 hours
• Images taken: 369
• Possible keepers: 86

Equipment used: Nikon D300, 24-70mm f2.8, two Nikon SB800 strobes on light stands

First off I had Geoff dress completely in black and pose for me against a black backdrop/floor. This was to ensure that his hands (the primary subject) would be emphasized. Bare bulb strobes were placed up high on light stands, one to his right and the other, slightly lower, to his left.

Secondly, as I wanted a truly gritty feel to Geoff’s hands, I had him get them as dirty as he could by dipping them into a bag of potting soil I had available.

[SinglePic not found]Shot one is a lighting test – as you can see, adjustment to the strobe position and strength was needed.

After a bit of fiddling, strobe positioning and strength were attained.

Now it was time to add the “Tangled in Blue” element, fabric strips from my stash of craft materials.

I soon realized all the fabric strips were the same and by adding a couple different patterns I would get a little diversity.

After more strip adjustment I had a setup that pleased me.

All the images from the shoot were loaded into Lightroom 3 and given a bit of basic processing:

1. Lens Corrections – enable profile corrections for a Nikkor 24-70mm
2. Clarity and Vibrance (in Basic, under Presence) set to +25

And then on to the specific processing on the image that best fit the topic of “Tangled in Blue”:

1. Cropping
2. Background slightly darkened to remove traces of the cuffs of Geoff’s shirt (Brush mask)
3. Fabric strips brightened and saturated (Brush mask)





4. White balance temperature raised from 5000 to 7057
5. White balance tint reduced from -10 to -22
6. Vibrance reset to zero

Export into Photoshop CS5:

1. Background layer duplicated and Shadow/Highlights adjustment performed. Also a bit of cloning performed on a problematic bright area on the camera-right hand

2. Hue/Saturation adjustment layer with black background masked out: Master Saturation -63, Master Lightness -10

3. Curves adjustment layer with black background masked out: subtle S curve to bring out lines on palms – Overlay mode

4. Channel Mixer adjustment layer (Monochrome – Red +40, Green +40, Blue: +20) with black background masked out: 50% Opacity

5. Blue painted on separate layer (hands masked out) to add color back to fabric strips: Overlay mode at 50% Opacity and 72% Fill

6. Dodge/Burn layer (50% grey layer – Soft Light mode) – lightening up camera right palm and further darkening down of sleeve cuffs and top background

7. Further adjustment to that pesky camera-right hand

8. Levels adjustment layer to to brighten up everything even more: (I’ll admit, I used Auto!)

9. Stamp layer to bring everything together.
10. Duplicate stamp layer.
11. High Pass Filter on Stamp layer (step 9) to sharpen up hands: Radius 6, Layer mode = Hard Light, 50% Opacity

12. Smart Sharpen Filter on duplicate stamp layer (step 10) with hands masked out to sharpen only fabric strips

13. Test print – top of camera-right thumb/wrist and camera-left wrist seemed a bit bright, so I added another Dodge/Burn layer (step 6) to darken them down

Final Image:

Hopefully this will give you some ideas on how to get that dirty and gritty feel to your portraits.

Thanks for reading! – Holly Kuchera

Happy Holidays to everyone!

We at Tortoise Productions hope you have a wonderful holiday season and even better 2011.

Thanks for stopping by!

The general idea is to take a texture/border and overlay it on a photograph (using any one of the blend modes offered in Photoshop) to add a little somethin’-somethin’ to the end product.

Some of the borders and textures I use are from Flickr groups that offer textures and borders for free usage. There are a lot of free texture/border groups and websites available on the ‘Net, but these are the three that I have a good relationship with:

Textures for Layers – Texture Whores – Textures and Textures

After seeing one of my textured/bordered photographs, people often ask me “How do you do that?” I tell them it’s very simple, and they never believe me. Well… it’s not a trade secret… so here are my tried-and-true methods of using a texture or border on a photograph.

1. Pick a texture/border that looks great
2. Of all the blend ones “Overlay” is usually the best one to use – but the others can produce interesting results, so don’t be afraid to experiment and see what they look like.
3. Some of the blend modes completely change the “essence” of a colored texture/border. For this reason, I tend to convert chosen textures/borders to black & white. How?

In PS CS5:

1. Select the texture/border layer
2. Make sure your background/foreground colors are black & white
3. In the PS menu select: Image – Adjustments – Gradient Map

Example: (used in the photo above – texture courtesy of Kerstin Frank art)Before                                       After

I’ve photographed a lot of textures since I started collecting them in 2007. Some are good, some are mediocre. As part of the group culture on the Flickr texture groups is to give back as much as you can, my collection is available on Flickr for usage by other photographers and artists.

Getting a texture photo is pretty simple – see one you like and get a close-up shot of it. Alternatively, use motion blur or panning to create a texture!

Here are nine of my favorite textures that I’ve photographed/created in the past year:

All of these textures (and more!) can be found within my Flickr Set “Textures”. I haven’t quite gotten the hang of creating borders, but until then, I’ve got lots of really creative artists/photographers that graciously provide their images to people like me.

Happy Texturing! — Holly Kuchera

The Black & White texture shown above in my block of nine (left column, middle row) was created using a freeware program called IOGraphica. IOGraphica is a mouse tracking program. I’ve only recently started playing with it, but it can produce some very fun results. Here is a portion  of the texture I created using IOGraphica while creating this blog entry:

1. Bubble Pipes at the Science Museum of Minnesota
   
2. A silver tray found at an auction
   
3. The brushed metal walls of the “Amber Box” floor of the Guthrie
4. IOGraphica – 1.9 hrs
5. Painted loading dock door (secret location)
6. Motion blurred grasses at the local dog park
7. Autumn trees on the Applachian trail (vertical pan)
8. Sidewalk outside IFP in St Paul
9. “Fibers” exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota

My mother lives in a small community on the northwestern edge of Maryland named Smithsburg. Everything you think you know about Maryland that you think would apply to Smithsburg… is wrong. Mom and I often refer it as “hillbilly” country as it is in the Appalachian Mountains and a bit of a backwater. (No offense to anyone from Smithsburg that might be reading this, but your community is – well – a bit odd.) And if anyone can make judgments about Smithsburg, it is my mother. She was born there, lived there for all of her formative years, moved away for college and then away-away to Minnesota for 35 years. She and my father moved back several years ago to be closer to family still living in the area, and simply, I guess, because they wanted to.

As I walked my dog around town each morning, I came to realize that Smithsburg is a contradiction. Many of the buildings in the older part of town are well kept, brick two-story Civil War era homes, but between each, a squat semi-modern (40’s era?) wooden house has been built. Many of those houses are, at best, ramshackle. The paint is peeling, something is askew somewhere and there’s usually some piece of indoor furniture out on the lawn. Not ALL of the more modern homes are that way, but in many areas the financial state of the western Maryland is visible.

Well, I like ramshackle. I like history. I like contradictions. How could I resist? (Plus, I hadn’t done any shooting what-so-ever in a couple weeks so I was itching to photograph something!)

Equipment Carried: Nikon D300, 18-70mm — Equipment Used: Nikon D300, 18-70mm

Here are just some of the photos I took that morning. I know that I haven’t done the town justice, but sometimes it’s hard to get good photos of a tight-knit community – especially at 6AM!

On Friday, I dragged my husband Geoff out to a hill overlooking Smithsburg to get some sunrise shots. My original goal was to show the hills around Smithsburg, as they are quite cool, and a roller-coaster ride if you like driving fast. Unfortunately, to get the shot I was envisioning, I would have had to stand in the middle of a dangerous road at 6AM. An especially dangerous road in a town where many of the residents commute to Washington DC each day (one way = 2 hours). So, I settled for the farms and mountains – but couldn’t decide… color or monochrome? I leave it up to you, faithful reader, to tell me which is better…

Dearest Smithsburg, I know I’ll be back and
perhaps then I’ll have the gumption to explore more…

– Holly Kuchera

(if you’d like a really good sense of what Smithsburg and the surrounding area are like for community – read “Mail Call” from the Hagerstown, MD Herald-Mail newspaper, it’s … “interesting” …)

• Date: Wednesday, September 1^st & Friday, September 3^rd, 2010
• Site: Smithsburg, MD
• Time spent at the site: 1 hour + 1 ½ hours
• Images taken: 62 + 140 (several multi-exposure HDRs)
• Possible keepers: 72

Equipment Carried: Nikon D300, 18-70mm, 70-200mm, 105mm, SB800 Flash, remote, tripod
Equipment Used: Nikon D300, 18-70mm, 70-200mm, remote, tripod

As a member of the Twin Cities Photography Group I get regular updates about events occurring around the Twin Cities area and invitations to attend “meetups” with other photographers. About a week before Oct 10th I got an email about someone wanting to organize a group to attend World Hoop Day. My photographic mind was attracted by the promise of “fire and poi dancers” – something I knew would attract my husband Geoff as well. When I proposed the idea to him, he said “Yes, if we have time.”

The reason for his hesitation was that we had a camera club competition entry due on the following Tuesday. Normally it wouldn’t be much of an issue, but Geoff had been waiting for some information from a co-worker on a cool place to shoot this month’s topic — “Urban Scapes”:

Imagine all the steel and concrete are natural elements outside of the city. This challenge goes beyond cityscapes, architectural, street photography or city panoramas; here you want to find urban shape, patterns and compositions that mimic natural ones. As one person put it, “Urban Landscape photography is often gritty, it’s not always pretty and it can be quite abstract.” Here’s a good link to better understand what Urban Scapes (or Landscapes) is: http://digital-photography-school.com/photographing-urban-landscapes

(definition taken from the Crosstown Camera Club website)

Once we received the info we headed off to the building location. I’m not going to identify exactly where it is as the property is heavily marked with “No Trespass Police Will Be Called” signs, and I don’t want anyone to get themselves into trouble. Let’s just say that if you live in the neighborhood, you know where and what it is.

Being cautious, respectful people we circled the outside of the building getting shot after shot. It’s a place both of us could have spent a LOT more time at, but soon after we arrived more people showed up. And when someone decided to enter the building and wasn’t subtle or quiet about it, we decided to head out and avoid being stopped by the police.

The sun was just beginning to set as we made our way to our second stop – World Hoop Day at Lake Calhoun.

Upon arriving we swallowed our disappointment at seeing only five people with hula-hoops when we realized the hoops were lighted!

Geoff made our introductions and we happily began snapping away as the hoopers did their best to create interesting patterns and displays with downtown Minneapolis as their backdrop. I guess I got caught up in the art of hooping and didn’t take a lot of photos, but Geoff certainly did – he later told me he had shot about 400 photos of the hoopers alone. Not bad for 30 minutes of shooting! (Glad he’ll be doing the processing on those and not me!)

After the sun set and the hoopers began to drift away, we gravitated down to the shore of Lake Calhoun to get that iconic shot of Minneapolis that every Twin Cities photographer seems to have. Our luck was to have an almost absolute calm evening to shoot, meaning the water was like slightly rippled glass. Another 30 minutes and we’d had our fill.

So, the words of wisdom for this week are: keep your ear to the ground and if you hear about an interesting opportunity – grab it! It might be one of the most interesting and fun days you experience in 100 years!

– Holly Kuchera

See more images from the day at my Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hkuchera/

• Site: Urban Exploring building
• Time spent at the site: 1 hour
• Images taken: 67
• Possible keepers: 34

• Site: Lake Calhoun
• Time spent at the site: 1 hour
• Images taken: 105
• Possible keepers: 19

Every once in a while a photographer must go out into the world and do something they wouldn’t normally do – take some risks they normally wouldn’t take. In my case, this week I decided to do something I had done plenty of times before, but take the risk of carrying my “real” camera gear with me. And as my dog Kaylee really needed some good exercise, we headed off to the dog park!

Equipment Carried: Nikon D300, 18-70mm — Equipment Used: Nikon D300, 18-70mm

At this particular park, Wednesday is a less popular day (weekends mornings seeing the most traffic). But as it was a beautiful fall day, we got lucky and the longer we stayed, the more people showed up with their dogs.

Some suggestions for photographing in an off-leash dog park:

Keep your eyes open! There is high potential for damage to occur to yourself and your equipment! The dogs that frequent dog parks aren’t going to be careful around you simply because you are carrying big-buck equipment (how would they know?) — and they WILL want to know what that thing you keep pointing at them is! (bring lens cleaning cloths to get rid of nose prints and dog saliva!) Always keep your camera strap wrapped firmly around your hand and be aware of your surroundings at ALL times. I’ve seen many a person knocked off their feet by a dog speeding after a toy/dog/imaginary creature and have been bruised by many a paw, head, nose, hip and full body collision myself.

If you have brought your own dog with you, you should be somewhat aware of how they react to both photography (of themselves) and to dog parks in general. Kaylee and I spent the first 1/2 hour simply walking around the park, letting Kaylee take care of all those important things dogs just gotta do before I would even consider trying to get any photos of her. And, in Kaylee’s case, if she’s had time to run a bit, she’s easier to get non-blurry photos of. (Not quite as much of a speeding bullet, if you get my gist!)

Dogs don’t always respond well to the “camera up to the face” mode of taking photographs. On this trip Kaylee studiously ignored me if I was looked through the viewfinder and called for her to run to me. A better method is to hold your camera down near the level of your knees and, with the camera set on continuous focus – shoot blind. While it leads to many shots that are obvious throw-aways, you can also get some interesting ones. Always try to get the camera down at the dog’s level to take your shots – holding just your camera down will prevent you from getting pounced on by curious canines!

In your zeal for getting those “Dog having a great time” close-ups, don’t forget the environment shots.

Watch for dog on dog interaction! Some of the best photographs can be in those fleeting moments…

And most of all – have fun and enjoy watching dogs enjoy some time when they can run free!


– Holly Kuchera

“He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion.”

“Art is a calling. Artists do not just paint for themselves, and they don’t simply paint for an audience. Every creation reveals something more about the universe and about the artist.”

–from “Art & Soul Notes on Creating”

On this day I decided to do something a little different, yet familiar. I voyaged over to Centennial Lakes Park in Edina, Minnesota to walk through the Edina Farmer’s Market. I’ve photographed in this area before, but the addition of the farmer’s market brought in some new subject matter.

There either was an air of melancholy about me when I was there that day, or while I processed my chosen images, as most of them seem to have a slightly sad feeling to them. (Or maybe it’s just me that is melancholy?)

I arrived just after the market opened and was impressed by the number and variety of vendors. And I was surprised by the number of people in the area at 3:00 pm on a Thursday buying products from the vendors, strolling around the park and enjoying the offered amenities (paddle-boats, mini-golf, lawn bowling).

I can’t say it was an easy shooting day for me, as I was having difficulties with my camera overexposing images. Last month during a club outing I had similar difficulties to the opposite extreme, (the camera underexposed a bunch of shots by a stop or two) and thought perhaps my camera was showing signs of needing repair. Anyone who has dealt with sending in your camera to its manufacturer will understand my reluctance. As my camera is out of warranty, it’s a couple hundred dollars for service and two weeks of not having my camera in my hands.

Equipment Carried: Nikon D300, 105mm macro, 18-70mm, 70-200mm, polarizer, SB800 flash.
Equipment Used: Nikon D300, 105mm macro, 18-70mm.

I really should have brought my tripod along, but decided not to due to the numbers of people wandering about and … well… cause I didn’t want to carry it. Not having a tripod made taking multi-shot HDRs significantly more difficult, but good hand-holding techniques, “burst” (continuous high) shooting mode and knowing that my HDR software of choice, Photomatix is good at handling alignment issues, helped me through it.

As Centennial Lakes Park is crossed by several bridges and surrounded by office buildings, stores, and senior apartments, it’s a great place to explore architecture.

When I’m oot & aboot (out and about) shooting, I always try to take some time to explore textures and motion within the environment. This day was no different.

Textures and motion are also a way for me to break through a creative block. If I’m not seeing anything through my lens that inspires me, I play with the environment to try to create a mood that wasn’t there before.

But, if in doubt – there are always flowers to photograph!

And then there is the Farmer’s Market itself:

So, that was the day. Did I discover anything for myself? Yes! There are always opportunities if you open yourself up to them. Did I learn anything? Yes! Always check your camera settings before going out on a photo shoot. My problem with my camera overexposing images … it was because the switch that changes my metering system had gotten bumped to something I’m not used to using!  Gah!

Some advice if you go:

Buy stuff from the vendors whose booths you shoot at. Don’t carry a lot of gear as it can get crowded. Get there early if you wish to photograph the flower vendors. And the Gingerbread cookies from the bread booth on the south side of the Centrium Building are simply wonderful!

– Holly Kuchera

The day started out just perfect for photographing flowers – still with a slight cloud cover. (But, of course conditions change!) Once parked and equipped with my pack of Nikon D300, 105mm macro, 18-70mm, polarizer, SB800 flash, small white umbrella (for light diffusion) and with my 70-200mm along for the ride, I started out by visiting this fella: 

I had been introduced to the flowering farmer a couple days prior by a photo taken by a local photographer. Until I saw her photo, I never knew he was there. My visit led me into the Arb’s rain gardens and a beautiful patch of sunflowers.

While I was there a hummingbird came to visit the flowers, but as I had the wrong lens on my camera I decided to simply appreciate her presence.

After this I moved back to the Oswald Visitor Center and a large patch of prairie grasses just by the steps into the center. By now the wind had come up a bit, lending itself to an abstract image of the grasses blowing back and forth. I may have to explore them more in the future.


Moving on into the gardens proper I passed many flowers and plants (as well as volunteers busily weeding and watering and tending) but nothing called out to me until I reached the Daylilies. I guess I’ve had a love affair with Daylily stamens for a long time and am still trying to get the perfect image.

In the Perennial Garden I stopped to attempt a shot for a contest being held on one of the photography forums I frequent. The challenge was “Missed Focus”. I don’t know if I achieved a winner (the due date passed a couple days ago), but I did attempt it.

Now, just so you know, I’m not a great lover of roses. They seem to be the thing that EVERYONE has to photograph, so I tend to avoid them… except on this day. I know I amused some rose garden visitors with my pretty white parasol tucked over my shoulder, but I think I got some photos that I can be proud of. Here’s the exact same rose in two different formats:

The morning was winding on and I was starting to lose some steam, so I meandered my way over to the Koi pond near the Home Demonstration gardens. And once again, I had the wrong lens on the camera as a flock of wild turkeys meandered their way into the vegetable gardens. To console myself I sat next to the Koi pond for a long time attempting to get water-level shots of the fish. This was a time I really wished I had 1) my Canon G9 with me and 2) a waterproof housing for the G9. No great shots came out of that experience, but it was enough relaxation time to re-energize me enough to proceed along through the Home Demonstration gardens — noticing the live-animal trap in which a chubby chipmunk was happily eating all the bait.

The Home Demonstration garden is not a place I usually frequent at the MN Landscape Arboretum, but in the future it might be. There I found some flowers and plants I had never seen before. Here are two:

← the Flowering Maple
and
the Persian Shield →

Yes, the leaves of the Persian Shield really are that purple. How could I resist?

And so, after receiving a call from my husband asking “Aren’t you home yet?” I realized the direct sun and the odd contortions I make to get the right compositions were starting to take their toll on me. Plus, the Arboretum was starting to fill up with visitors (not a bad thing in itself, but large numbers of people sometimes make careful, precise photography difficult), and it was already almost NOON! Time to go home, download what I had taken and contemplate on the successes and failures of the day.

– Holly Kuchera