Spiral in fall – Three years of patience

I don’t know why…but I like leaves change more than flower season in spring. Maybe because of my personality? It is like after excitements of the short summer, trees set up climax with the perfect stage effect of yellow leaves. After the drama, long enduring winter is waiting. That’s is the reason I visit Lake O’Hara every year.

I tried this idea of flowing needles for 3 years, and eventually, I got a successful image. I used Lee big stopper neutral density filter and achieved 160 sec of shutter speed.

Autumn landscape in Lake O’Hara – Large format slide film

Another photo from film, but this time is 4×5 color slide. This image was taken at my last autumn trip. When I visisted lake O’Hara, peak of larch trees was a little passed. But I still got some good… actually, some great shots. I will post them in future posts. For this post, I respect the media so I kept the digital processing minimum and only global adjustments were applied. It is nature of slide film. I heard large format sizes of Fuji Velvia had been discountinued in Europe. I hope the supply of the such a legendary film will last longer in Canada.

Lake McArthur area in Autumn by Hiroaki Kobayashi

More large format stuff here:

• Evening with Large Format Cameras (1)
• Evening with Large Format Cameras (2)
• Panorama by 4×5 camera
• A Socky Sock – Worth it!
• Gallery show at Mount Royal University – Size matters, but be gentle (man)

 

Stampede Wstern Gallery show – need a little help from my friends

Since I have to stay in town for this long weekend in Canada, I am (re)- post processing images for the exhibition at the Western Photo Gallery at the Stampede. These images were taken in Lake O’Hara area last year at the same time, and each image is stitched with 5 images by Photoshop CS5.  The first one shows reflection of mountain in the pond. The 2^nd one does not show such a static reflection due to wind and wavy surface of the water. But reflection of trees has a more painterly charactor and impressionism kind of feeling. Interestingly, I did not notice this, until comparing the two images side by side, that the top image is more contrasty and more saturated. The top image, itself has a kind of strong character so it may lead me to add more contrast and saturation unconsciously. On the other hand, the bottom image a little more subtle so it may have made me process the image toward more soft side. What does this tell ya? Although we use many techniques to control conditions of light at a scene, the images opened on a computer monitor first time is kind dull. So we take a lot of time to make photos more attractive. To me, it is not different from wet dark room. My point is this process is strongly affected by mood of image as well as one of a photographer at the location and on a computer. It can be consciously or unconsciously. Don’t you think this is really artistic process?

Actually, I am supposed to submit the 2^nd image since it is the one accepted by the gallery. I do not know which image I like, more precisely to say I do not know which one appeal to viewers. If you were me, which would you pick? Any comments are appreciated.

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Impact of Photography, and Tone – Lisa Mercer

Women have better eyes?

I like backcountry camping or staying at a youth hostel because I can meet new people and excellent photographer from all over the places. On my last Canadian Rockies trip, I met a very dedicated photographer from Colorado, Sarah, in Lake O’hara. One evening, I was watching her taking pictures on the lakeshore in the dusk. I found she did not extend her tripod, kept short for most of her shots. I was wondering what she was taking. Later the evening, she showed me the images which she was taking on the lake shore, and I was impressed by her way to compose images. She told me she was looking for lines found in the rock formations, and composed as these lines extended to the mountain. So the rocks will be paid attention first, then the lines in the rock formation lead your eyes to the main subject, which is the mountain in this case. I like this 3D effect and this type of composition is the one, I think, I tend to look for on locations. Here is my photo I took on the lake O’hara trip. 

If you find a Japanese guy carrying camera gear, looking down and walking around a lake shore, it can be me. I myself tend to look for rocks lining up to a main subject.

You should check out her blog site, Sarah Fischler – nature photography. I even felt jealous of her outstanding works. Don’t you think female artists often have better eyes?

Autumn color – Lake O’hara

The best season for photographers has come. I mean autumn season! Trees along streets have already changes to yellow in Calgary so Rocky mountains must be really beautiful now. Another good thing of this season is camping sites are not as busy as summer. Last year, I traveled to Lake O’hara. I met many photographers over there and many of them carried Canon or Nikon DSLRs. But also, interestingly, I could see more unique formats of cameras, such as old film Hasselblad, Infrared film, Kodachrome, and pin hall camera. I brought my 4×5 view camera as well as my regular camera sets. The photo bellow is the one of the images I took with 4×5 in lake O’hara.

Also this is the photo I could sell at the last gallery exhibition. PLease click the photo for the larger image.