Perspective

If there is one key that I could give young photographers it is to change your perspective.  We all see the world from eye level 95% of the time.  This perspective is so ubiquitous that we are instantly drawn to images that change the point of view.  I laid down on my stomach to take this photograph and with that simple step changed a picture of some pretty flowers into something interesting.  We look at the stems as they emerge from the dirt and we can almost feel them pushing upwards.  Get high, get low, do what it takes to change your perspective in interesting ways.  The other concern I had was the very busy background so I stopped down to f/2.8 and got back far enough that I could shoot it at 200mm.  This longer focal length emphasizes and strengthens the effect of the shallow depth of field, turning the distracting background into a blurry field of dark tones.  When I took the photo I was thinking black and white because the the brilliant white petals but little did I realize how converting to B&W in Nik Silver Efex Pro would give the flowers a glow as if lit from within.

-Russell Berg

www.seeingberg.com

A Tree in Lorien

I know the Mallorn tree in Tolkien’s Lothlorien is supposed to have leaves of gold but the bark is a silvery grey and when I saw this tree in Butchart Gardens lit through a small hole in the clouds it made me wander if Sam and Frodo might not have taken shelter under it’s branches.  The tree was covered in droplets of water from the rain the night before and it held the light beautifully.  I did darken the area around the top and top right of the tree to emphasize the contrast between the tree and the background but the fact that I underexposed the shot by one stop meant that the light that was hitting the water droplets on the tree became the dominant light source in the frame and gave the image more punch.  I was very happy with the mood that the picture evokes and the story that it begins to tell.  I was looking for non-traditional images of Butchart Gardens and I think I succeeded in that here.

-Russell Berg

www.seeingberg.com

Pushed Around

We took some of my prairie family on a little boat trip out to see the sea lions, (pictures of those are coming), that winter in Nanaimo near the Harmac Pulp Mill.  On the way we saw this crew loading a barge with logs from the log booms that were floating in the water.  The tug would maneuver logs from the boom so that they were within reach of the crane then the crane operator would hoist them up on to the barge.  It was a fascinating operation and I wanted to get an image that would capture as much of the dynamic motion as you can in a still image.  Before I got this image I got some pictures of the logs coming up out of the water and the water rushing off of them but we weren’t in the right position to get the tug in the frame as well.  I maneuvered around and waited for the next lift.  These tugs dip and dive in the water, heeling over very steeply and I was rewarded with this tug turning sharply to maneuver just as the logs came up out of the water.  The image tells whole story and the movement of the machines is accentuated by the dynamic slash of orange (1.) that cuts across the frame from bottom left corner to upper right.  The other payoff is that you can see both the tug and crane operators (2.).  I was very happy with the result.

-Russell Berg

www.seeingberg.com

Limitations

Limitations can push creativity.  I recently got a Fuji X-E2 and the only lens I have is a 14mm.  I have always been a slave to the zoom and I feel like I always feel as thought I am going to miss shots if I leave a certain focal range at home.  This means that I am often walking around with a lot of gear, and I still like the versatility that this gives me but the other day, with my new Fuji I found my creativity being pushed in interesting directions because I had some self-imposed limits.  The single prime lens became a stimulus to think about the photos that I would make in a different way and I came up with some interesting results.  In this image the sky was very dramatic and the stump provided a compelling foreground element.  With a 14mm lens you can get quite close and by stopping down the aperture to f/11 everything from one metre in front of me out to the horizon was in focus.  The light was really helping to make things dramatic and the dynamic range of this Fuji sensor did not let the front of the backlit stump lose detail in the blacks. Below I have included a little gallery of other images I got on and around this stump.

-Russell Berg

www.seeingberg.com

Support

It’s been a long time since I have been posting regularly and that is largely because all of my gear was stolen and I was waiting for it to be replaced by my insurance company.  I’d like to thank Steve Julien who was a big help.  He’s a fantastic photographer check him out here.  On my first shoot I went out to a local marina and I came across this image underneath one of the piers.  The texture and tone of the wooden posts was very compelling against the glassy smooth ripples of the water and I wanted a treatment that would emphasize this.  I pulled the image into Nik Silver Efex Pro and pulled up the contrast and the structure while maintaining the silver tones in the wood.  Without really intending to this gave the water a glassy smooth texture that contrasted beautifully with rough wood.  The pier on left provided enough visual weight to anchor all of the visual activity on the right side of the frame but I didn’t want it to be distracting so I darkened it substantially.  I think this gives the eye an entry point in the left side of the frame but allows the eye to move into the more complicated structures on the right side.

-Russell Berg

www.seeingberg.com