Lovers

I was wandering around Neck Point because I came to see the sunset and make some photographs. It was a beautiful warm evening with the sun dropping into the ocean in a beautiful warm glow.  The sun had gone down behind some clouds and the showy part of the sunset was over when I saw this couple alone  on the grass.  I circled behind them and snapped a few pictures from a distance.  He leaned forward to kiss her cheek and it was the perfect instance that defined their moment together.    It is a moment filled with little intimacies, the little tattoo behind her ear, his arm around her back and... the kiss.  With the the sun still glinting in the grasses around them it is a tender moment shared by two lovers with the ocean the mountains in the background.  Henri Cartier-Bresson, an amazing French photographer, talked about finding the decisive moment that defines a situation or a personality or a relationship.  I think this moment comes pretty close to matching Cartier-Bresson’s criteria.

-Russell Berg

www.seeingberg.com

The Art

When I took this photo I was focused on the design that the barista had produced.  I was trying to underexpose it to make the background less obvious and distracting but when I got it into Aperture I realized that I had a chance to make the background black.  I opened the image in Nik Viveza, (Viveza is the colour version of Nik Silver Efex) and began to work to darken the image.  The Nik image editing suite is an amazing piece of software that is so easy to use and yet is very versatile.  You set a circle that you determine the size of down on the image and whichever tones are under the centre of the circle will be affected by the controls that you set.  Even if there are other tones/colours under the circle they will not be affected by your changes.  It really works wonderfully and you don’t end up with hard edges as so often happens when you use brushes to edit a photo.  I worked my way around the cup until I had only the rim and the coffee floating in a pool of blackness.

For other photos from the coffee shop shoot check here and here. 

-Russell Berg

www.seeingberg.com

The Stacks

Caroline sat waiting.  The warm mug between her outstretched fingers beginning to take the edge off the the damp cold that seemed to have followed her into the coffee shop.  She looked up suddenly, her eyes drawn to movement at the door but it wasn’t her.  She looked down again at the fingers of her left hand, the lines of age just beginning to show in her knuckles and she rubbed them absently.  Anxious, her head jerked up towards the door again but she still wasn’t there.  The clock over the window to her left a reminder that she was at the very least late, but probably… her mother wasn’t coming.

As I was photographing the coffee shop I was drawn to the mugs that sat on the Sineso machine. There was a utilitarian feel to the stacks but enough random placement and tilted lines to make them visually interesting.  The cups where all white and I knew I would convert it to black and white but I wanted a treatment that wouldn’t loose the interesting lines in a field of white.  I brought the image into Nik Silver Efex Pro and chose an underexposed effect that brought more gray into the image and emphasized the reflections in the cups.  I also darkened the background so that it would not distract from the main focus of the image.  I was really happy with the way that reflections give life to the image; reflections in the cups in the stainless steel bar that cuts across the cup and in the bright line that runs across the bottom of the frame.

For my other photos from this coffee shop shoot check here and here.​

-Russell Berg

www.seeingberg.com

The Pour

A little while back my son asked if I would photograph a coffee shop for a website that he was designing for them.  It was an interesting challenge and I enjoyed the work, the next three blog entries are going to be from that project.  I love to be able to tell a story in a photograph and for me this image goes a long way to telling the story of The Buzz.  There is motion in the image as the coffee is being poured (1).  The lighting is warm and soft and through the steam there is a couple of friends talking in the background (2).  As I was shifting around trying not to appear in reflection in the coffee pot I noticed that I could achieve a position where the stream of coffee appeared to reverse itself and flow up into the cup that is reflected in the pot (3).  I love it that we can see both the outside of the cup and the inside in the reflection.  If you would like to see the website check out The Buzz.

-Russell Berg

www.seeingberg.com

Watch The Artist

The streets of downtown Vancouver, well any city really, are a wonderful source of some very interesting photographs.  This gentleman was doing chalk/pastel art on the sidewalk.  At first I was so enamoured with what he was doing that I was mainly taking photographs of his art work.  But yesterday as I was going through my edits of this shoot I realized that the better, the more compelling, human photograph was one that focused directly on the artist.  There was an intensity in his face and a light touch in his fingers as he worked his art.  Editing, selecting your best pictures out of your good pictures is a huge part of the becoming a good photographer.  The picture at left is the picture I chose first and eventually rejected as the best in this lot.  Let me know if you think I’ve made a mistake.  I really like the fact that this image is at eye level with the artist, I had to watch for traffic, get out in the street, squat down low and grab the image.  The only thing I am unhappy with in this frame is the over-exposed skin of the woman to the artist’s right.  It is too bright and distracting.

-Russell Berg