Thought that I would intoduce myself

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naturephoto1
Posts: 509
Joined: Sun Nov 13, 2011 5:37 pm
Location: Breinigsville, PA
Contact:

Thought that I would intoduce myself

Post by naturephoto1 »

Being new on the forum, I thought that I would introduce myself. Though trained in the sciences, and having worked as a consultant, I am a Fine Art Photographer specializing in Nature, Landscape, and Wildlife.

I work with my Master Printer, Bill Nordstom who prints my work and who has been my printer for 17 years.

My work is somewhat different from most that I have seen thus far on this website. So, I thought that I would share some of my work that at least would fall under the category of close-up. With the exception of the last piece that I will share (with the exception of my Avatar) these have all been scanned from transparencies and worked in Photoshop.

The oldest of the pieces that I will share is called Red Berries Encased in Ice which was taken on Kodachrome 64 and photographed with a Leica R4SP camera with either my Leica 60mm f2.8 Macro Elmarit lens or my Leica 70-210mm f4.0 Vario Elmar lens and a Nikon 5T diopter. The photo was taken in the field next to my parents house in Woodbridge, CT soon after an ice storm in January of 1991, the camera was supported by a monopod, and the photo has been cropped.

Image

The second photo that I would like to present is entitled Grass, Spider Web, and Dew and was taken during a workshop with Dewitt Jones at Point Reyes National Seashore, California in 1991. The photo was taken on Fuichrome Velvia 50 with a Leica R4SP camera with a Leica 70-210mm f4.0 Vario Elmar lens and a Nikon 5T diopter. The camera was tripod mounted and the photo shows silhouetted blades of grass with spiderwebs laden with dew.

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The third photo that I would like to present is entitled Kissing the Cloud which was taken during a workshop with Charles Campbell near Woody Creek, Colorado in 1996. The photo was taken on Fujichrome Velvia 50 with a Leica R7 camera and a Leica 24mm f2.8 Elmarit lens. The f stop was f22 and the camera was tripod mounted with a focusing rail; the Columbine flowers (Colorado State Flower) were perhaps 20" from the front of the lens hood. It was somewhat windy and I had to take the photo between gusts of wind. The photo has had the most done to clean up some of the dead grasses and such in the Photoshop; but this is being presented as a piece of Art Work. The title of the piece comes from a friend that noted that the center Columbine looked like it was "Kissing the Cloud".

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The forth photo that I would like to present was taken in the studio and is entitled Sweet Rose. The photo was taken on either Fujichrome Velvia 50 or Fujichrome Provia 100 with a tripod mounted Leica R8, Leica f4.0 100mm Macro Elmar Bellows lens on a Leica Bellows R. The rose was sprayed with water and lighting was from a tungsten ring fiber optic behind the rose and 2 additional tungsten fiber optics, one from each side to additionally light the image. The image was exposed so that the rose would look like it glowed or was illuminated from within. The light coming from the rear ring fiber optic can be seen punching through the yellow/orange petals near the lower right.

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The fifth photo that I would like to present was also taken in the studio and is entitled Miniature Yellow Carnation. The photo was taken with the same film and the same photo equipment as the rose. The Miniature Yellow Carnation was about the size of a quarter and it was I sprayed with water. Illuminiation was from a tungsten fiber optic from behind the flower and 2 tungsten fiber optics from each side of the flower. The exposure was taken so that the flower looked like it was glowing and exposure would just hold on film.

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All of the previous 5 photos were taken on film as mentioned and Bill Nordstrom, my printer did all of the work on them in Photoshop.

The sixth photo that I would like to present is entitled Leaves, Needles, and Cones and was taken in Zion National Park, Utah in November of 2008. The photo was taken with a Canon G10 digital camera at ISO 80 and I used the built in flash to give an extra kick to the exposure. I did the rather "quick and dirty" work on this image in Photoshop. The final version of this is still better and was worked on by my printer Bill Nordstrom.

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For those interested in my Avatar, it certainly is not a close-up. This is a photo entitled Old Faithful and Star Trails; it is one of my most recognized photos and is of Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. It was taken on Kodak Ektachrome Plus 100 sheet film with a Linhof Technika IV 4" X 5" camera, Rodenstock 90mm f6.8 Grandagon N MC lens. The exposure was for 2 hours at f8.0 and focus was on both the North Star and Old Faithful Geyser. The photo was taken between 0100 and 0300 AM after the moon had set (the moon was almost full) on September 29, 1993; the exposure was started just after the beginning of the first eruption of Old Faithful Geyser and closed after the 2nd eruption had been completed. This was a Hail Mary exposure due to a combination of the natural star light and the artificial lights around Old Faithful Geyser all night long. In order to get the image to look this way I under exposed the image by 2 stops and push processed the film processing by 1 stop. The image has been cropped from the bottom eliminating the lighting and walkway.

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Rich
Last edited by naturephoto1 on Mon Dec 05, 2011 3:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Craig Gerard
Posts: 2877
Joined: Sat May 01, 2010 1:51 am
Location: Australia

Post by Craig Gerard »

Rich,

An official welcome.

I noticed your 'introduction' post had received no replies, but many 'viewings' :? . This is not uncommon. 8)

Anyway, glad to have you active on the forums and appreciate your contribution to discussions and image presentations. :)



Craig
To use a classic quote from 'Antz' - "I almost know exactly what I'm doing!"

RogelioMoreno
Posts: 2979
Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2009 11:24 am
Location: Panama

Post by RogelioMoreno »

Rich,

Welcome, hope to see a lot of pictures from you.

Rogelio

naturephoto1
Posts: 509
Joined: Sun Nov 13, 2011 5:37 pm
Location: Breinigsville, PA
Contact:

Post by naturephoto1 »

Hi Craig,

Thanks very much for the welcome as well as all of the guidance for the purchase and modification of the Velmex A2506B-S2.5 which I plan to order on December 19. I will keep you posted and will start a thread about this once everything is here and up and running.
RogelioMoreno wrote:Rich,

Welcome, hope to see a lot of pictures from you.

Rogelio
Thanks Rogelio. I have to get familiar with the "new" Lumix G1 which has been sitting here for some time and try to experiment with it along with many of my Leica R legacy lenses.

Rich

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