by Mark ~ March 10th, 2010
Rock face in Katmai National Park, Alaska
You folks probably already know I am a sucker for cool looking rocks, and if you don’t – well – I have revealed my kryptonite. They are pretty cooperative subjects, they don’t ask for much, work for free, and not demanding at all actually. They can look good in a variety of light conditions, do their own makeup, and are fairly reliable. If I go back tomorrow, chances are that darn rock wall will still be there just where I left it. You typically don’t have to worry about them moving much. Can’t say that about many subjects now can ya?
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Tagged: abstract patterns, abstract photography, Alaska, Katmai National Park, rock abstracts, rocks
Filed under: abstracts, art, artistry, nature photography, rock :: 20 Comments
by Mark ~ March 7th, 2010
I have been working on a website redesign steadily for about the past 2 months or so. I finish off little bit by little bit. When anyone works on web design, you are likely to go out and see what’s out there lately. One thing I noticed is that a lot of photographers use Adobe Flash on their websites. Whether you love Flash or hate it isn’t really what I care to debate here. I have seen some pretty cool stuff done with Flash and have little bits of it on my site now. But one thing that is soon going to bubble over is this ongoing spat between Apple and Adobe on support of Flash on Apple’s mobile devices.
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Tagged: Adobe, Apple, iPad
Filed under: business, technostress, website news :: 16 Comments
by Mark ~ March 3rd, 2010
Scarface of Katmai
Hard to believe I didn’t introduce this big guy to you folks sooner. Obviously from my bear trip last fall, but this particular bear made quite an impression for obvious reasons. Not only was this male boar huge, but the scar across his nose gave him, well to put it bluntly – the total badass look. I still get a little freaked out when I look at this image and think about being so close to an animal like this.
The male bears were probably the most shy of all of them. It took quite awhile for Scarface to make close approaches to us through the river. I particularly wanted to catch a moment when those claws were clearly visible.
If you ever saw the movie Scarface, and if this bear could talk, I think it is likely he would say a lot of what Tony Montana said in the movie.
“…The last time you gonna see a bad guy like this again, let me tell you. Come on. Make way for the bad guy. There’s a bad guy comin’ through! Better get outta his way!” – Tony Montana, from the movie Scarface, 1983.
Only this bear’s little friends are his claws instead of a machine gun. :-)
Tagged: Alaska, coastal brown bears, Grizzly bear photos, Katmai National Park
Filed under: nature photography, wildlife :: 18 Comments
by Mark ~ March 1st, 2010
If you have followed this blog in the past year or so, you know I have become a fan of a few of the TopazLabs Photoshop plugins. Today they just released a major update to their popular Topaz Adjust plugin, Topaz Adjust 4.
Topaz Adjust 4
If you are already a Topaz Adjust user, the bonus is that the upgrade is a free one. This was a nice surprise because it is a rather significant update, especially in the user interface. You will notice like the update they made to Topaz Detail, the interface resembles the dark grey interface made popular by Adobe Lightroom and Apple’s Aperture. I love this style of interface because it draws more attention to what is going on in the image versus drawing your eye away to the controls.
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Tagged: Photoshop plugins, Topaz Adjust, winter landscape pictures
Filed under: Photoshop Tips, art, artistry, landscape, nature photography :: 1 Comment
by Mark ~ February 28th, 2010
Henry Ford Detroit
Health care centers are increasingly looking to nature photography to help add some color, warmth, and serenity to normally visually cold, sterile, bland environments. This is one of the latest installations of my work at a hospital in Detroit in one of those environments. This is the radiology corridor at Henry Ford Hospital Detroit, where three 36×48 inch panels of landscape photographs from Michigan hang. There is certainly an interesting paradox going on between the display environment and the photographs.
While one could say that the environment and lighting doesn’t flatter the imagery, (as in most “gallery” situations), the flip side of this is that the imagery allows an escape from the environment. This hallway didn’t offer much for those that have to walk it everyday. For an often stressful environment like a hospital, this can only be a welcome addition. There has been an ongoing shift in health care facility design towards changing the old ways of looking at these places.
Nothing could be a better example of this than the newly designed Henry Ford West Bloomfield hospital that took advantage of evidence based design concepts in a new construction.
It was good to see the pieces finally up and many, many people walking past them. It seems like a high traffic corridor. As my wife Lisa wisely pointed out, “it looks like the hospital’s gift to the employees. All in all, it was a nice visit to Detroit, followed up with a great dinner at Small Plates in the Broadway district.
Tagged: evidence based design, health care fine art, Henry Ford hospital, Michigan health care art
Filed under: Michigan, art, business, landscape, nature photography :: 22 Comments
by Mark ~ February 24th, 2010
Just a test of my Wordpress iPhone app that allows me to make quick posts from my phone. I took this photo just 30 minutes ago and did all processing on my iPhone using the Best Camera app and Photoshop Mobile. Sometimes the best camera (and computer as well) IS the one you have with you.
EDIT; now that I have had the chance to look at this on a real computer, I saw I needed to shrink the image size a bit. While not up to the quality I am used to with my DSLRs, going through this type of exercise certainly can help spark some creative thoughts when it comes time to work with other images. It was just for fun and a test anyway.
Tagged: iPhone, winter
Filed under: Michigan, art, artistry, landscape, nature photography, processing :: 20 Comments
by Mark ~ February 20th, 2010
Wet beach rocks
I processed this image recently, although I actually made the exposure back in August 2008. I worked with it quite a bit to give it some depth and dimension. I wanted it to look like you could pick one of the rocks up off the page and put it in your pocket. It represents nature’s continuously changing patterns, continuously changing harmony, and continuously changing chaos.
We naturally want to find harmony in any visual stimuli. Harmony leads to less tension, and less visual stress so to speak. If it is something we find comfort in, we gravitate naturally towards it. So what is it about a pile of rocks that so many people can find something of interest in?
Shorelines with beach rocks are nature’s continuous random pattern generator. Two people can stare at the same pile of rocks, and the characteristics that stand out to one are likely to be completely different from the other. There is something there that appeals to both. That visual absorption and preference is an accumulation of all of our personal likes, dislikes and experiences. Come back minutes later, and there are new discoveries to be found. It is no wonder people can spend hours walking up and down rocky beaches just staring at the ground.
Nature has a way of creating something for everyone. Photography for me is one way to not let those gifts go unnoticed.
This photograph was created using a Nikon D2X and Nikon 24-85 f2.8-4.0 lens, on a Lake Superior shoreline in the Little Traverse Conservancy property in Michigan. Post processing using Adobe Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS3 using Topaz Adjust, Layer blend modes, and luminosity masking on a Mac Pro. More beach rock pictures in my gallery.
Tagged: beach pictures, beach rock photos, beachcombing, Great Lakes, rock collecting, rock pictures, rockhound
Filed under: Great Lakes, Michigan, abstracts, art, composition, macro, nature photography, rock :: 20 Comments
by Mark ~ February 14th, 2010
Textured hillside
There is one thing that kills an afternoon for me (in a good way?), and that is poking around for new music. My music tastes tend to be fairly diverse, which is probably reflected equally in my preferences for nature subjects. One of the things I tend to do is to go to the record labels of some artists I like, and poke around with who else they have signed. I have noticed that some of the indie record labels tend to have groups of artists that tend to appeal to me, even if they are from completely different genres of music.
So this afternoon I listened to a free preview of Peter Gabriel’s new album, and also ended up buying a new artist, The Imagined Village, from his RealWorldRecords label. Probably anyone that likes Peter Gabriel’s blending of world music into his work will end up liking some of the artists his label promotes. Continue reading »
Tagged: Alaska, Denali National Park, Michigan, music, texture
Filed under: Michigan, art, artistry, landscape, my woods, nature photography, philosophy :: 12 Comments
by Mark ~ February 11th, 2010
Winter landscapes
At a bit of loss for words lately folks, so just a photo to share… a bit different from the one I posted before. I am sure this landscape doesn’t even exist anymore, which is a pretty cool aspect of shooting these icescapes. It makes you appreciate the moment even more when the light is happening with some interesting subject matter in front of you.
Tagged: frozen lake, frozen water, winter landscape pictures, winter photos
Filed under: Michigan, landscape, nature photography :: 22 Comments
by Mark ~ February 6th, 2010
I am currently working my way through a book that my wife gave me for my birthday called Camera, by Todd Gustavson. It is a large, coffee table book that takes you through the evolution of the camera from the very first photograph made in 1826 to the modern digital cameras of today. It seems like a perfect book for any photographer to have on their bookshelf.
Not only were the early cameras quite large and bulky (made of wood), but there were some highly toxic, highly flammable chemicals used, all for the pursuit of the permanent image. It is a wonder why there weren’t shorter lifespans on some of these early photographers. Daguerre lived from 1787-1851, and the first photographer, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, from 1765-1833.
ca. 1826
The worlds first permanent photograph from nature was created by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826 from his window in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, in France. And how’s this for an interesting juxtaposition – I am showing the first photograph to you here from a snapshot I took with my iPhone. Joseph’s photograph, recorded with an eight-hour exposure on a pewter plate coated with a light sensitive asphalt compound called bitumen of Judea, suspended in oil of lavender, copied with a device in a fraction of a second onto a micro sized, light sensitive computer chip. I can only wonder at his amazement, not only for the simplicity, but the ability to share the image around the world with a click.
The book reveals the interesting pursuit of reducing exposure times and producing higher quality images. From mercury vapors used to develop early Daguerretypes in 1839 to the toxic chemical collodion in 1852, you really get a sense of the passion these guys must have had in their willingness to try anything. The man who introduced collodion, Frederick Scott Archer, however only lived from 1813-1857 – a short 44 years. I have no idea if he died from using such chemicals, but it makes you wonder.
I am not finished with the book yet, but skimming the back (just to see how it ends… 
) shows the author going into the first digital camera and taking a look at cameras as modern as 2007. It is a great compilation of history and seeing what the original photographers had to work with. The photographs of cameras are very well done, along with accompanying images produced from them. If nothing else, it helps develop a sense of appreciation for what we have today, and how relatively safe it is!
Tagged: camera, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, Todd Gustavson
Filed under: inspiration, nature photography :: 7 Comments
