Uploads from Jeff Engelhardt, tagged jeffengelhardt, with geodata

Power

nobody@flickr.com (Jeff Engelhardt) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:11:41 -0700

It's pretty hard to summarize my last few days. As most of you know, I was in Los Angeles for a work conference and flew down a couple days early to shoot with some fellow flickrites.

I guess this is an appropriate image to start with, because the original purpose of my trip was related to green power and the growth of the energy industry. This is a wind farm off of I-10 just north of Palm Springs, CA that I caught Sunday evening while returning to LA from a lengthy day on the road.

What was much more profound than the conference though was my experience meeting and shooting with some inspiring people and witnessing some very unusual scenery. While I'll try to pepper my stream with some profiles and inspiration related to the talented people I got to share a day with, much of what to come over the next few days will be a little dark (and largely monochrome) as I step through the history, sad mystery, and fascinating landscape that is The Salton Sea.

Palouse Falls - the never seen angle

nobody@flickr.com (Jeff Engelhardt) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 09:32:29 -0700

Jeff Engelhardt posted a photo:

Nobody ever shoots this side. Why?

Dawn, Going to the Sun Road

nobody@flickr.com (Jeff Engelhardt) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:14:26 -0700

Jeff Engelhardt posted a photo:

Air. Earth. Fire. Water. Elementary, Watson!

Franklin Falls in Black and White

nobody@flickr.com (Jeff Engelhardt) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 10:13:46 -0700

Jeff Engelhardt posted a photo:

From last week's trip with Doug

Avalanche Creek Canyon

nobody@flickr.com (Jeff Engelhardt) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:37:15 -0700

Jeff Engelhardt posted a photo:

Update: Sorry for bumping this back up to the front (I normally hate when others do that). But, as so often happens, I had some second thoughts when I posted it. I was recently told to evaluate pictures a little differently and to keep zooming in on what's really important - everything has to earn its way into the frame . . based on that, I recropped this and feel it's much more effective.

Avalanche Creek is - bar none - one of the most beautiful places in the world. I did not at all do it justice here. The canyon is a narrow slot canyon, ranging from 10 to about 40 feet deep and running for over half a mile, carved out of bright red rock. The corners, angles, and lines can amuse an entrance for hours - even if you're not a photographer.

If you're a photographer, you could spend a lifetime there finding endless little details and compositions. Unfortunately, there were roughly 7 people waiting for me as I raced around trying to find angles to just capture the grandeur of the place. And this is where I got into chaybert-like trouble. The short version of the story is that I went somewhere I shouldn't have - somewhere that you know is going to be harder to get out of than it was to get in. I came pretty darn close to sliding down one of the smooth walls and right into the water - only saved by some lucky balance and a quick hop, skip, jump, and throw that resulted in a pulled abdominal and rough impact on the ol' camera bag.

But everything survived, and now all I want to do is go back . .

Going To The Sun

nobody@flickr.com (Jeff Engelhardt) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:00:26 -0700

Jeff Engelhardt posted a photo:

This is one of the classic views - of Mt. Oberlin and Bird Woman falls - that greets those lucky enough to drive the Going to the Sun highway. We were running behind time, as the sun was just starting to peak over the edge of the Garden Wall (cliff above and camera left, outside of the frame) and catch the tops of the clouds.

A good friend asked me today whether you should only post your 'best' shots to flickr (as it's said a great photographer only posts his best stuff, and if I want to be great . . ), or whether you can be free to post what you want here.

I answered with a resounding: We're here because we're passionate about photography, and if you're not posting the shots you love and having a good time - regardless of a known defect in a picture - then you'll never be a great photographer because you're not allowing yourself to truly enjoy it"

Except it didn't sound that eloquent at the time. Anyway, and that's why i decided to post this one today - there's an obvious, big defect that I just noticed (often happens when I look at it on a different monitor) and I could fix it quickly - which I will when I get home. But I'm uploading it now anyway, because I want to.

Besides, very few of us here are anywhere close to great - and this is a great place to learn. Speaking of which - a quick shout out to a couple of my favorite landscape photographers here on flickr who've been helping me out lately (tips, responding to critique requests, etc) - I appreciate the time, guys!

Chaybert
Jim Patterson

And I'll be catching up on comments throughout the day (I know I'm behind!).

Oh yeah - Glacier Size!

The Lone Pine Supply Company

nobody@flickr.com (Jeff Engelhardt) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 07:54:46 -0700

Jeff Engelhardt posted a photo:

This quaint little shop was in the middle of . . . nowhere. Not far from Hot Springs, Montana off of Highway 28. I'm not sure most people in Montana even know there's a Highway 28. When I passed this remarkable place, only one thing went through my mind.

Evan Leavitt.

And that's why I made a point a couple days later to drive back here when the skies were dramatic and there weren't three other people in the car. I made a point to shoot what I figured was an "Evan" perspective, then shared the file with him . . . which he's posting simultaneously here. We thought it would be fun to try our two different styles on a favorite topic we have in common. It was fun to try to see through his eyes while "in camera" as well.

I should note - it's amazingly much harder to process a picture if it's captured in a way that's not natural to you . . . I struggled a lot with how to process this, mainly because it's not normally how I'd shoot. So, great creativity exercise.

Below is a more complete comparison/contrast between us - since the above is more Evan's style of composition, at least how I would have expected him to shoot it - below is more my typical composition (up close with wide angle).

Dance of Lights

nobody@flickr.com (Jeff Engelhardt) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 07:56:14 -0700

Jeff Engelhardt posted a photo:

So, the first of many HDRs from here. As I noted yesterday, there was a huge discrepancy in light . . this shot is an example - it was shot with at least 1 3-stop GND filter and bracketed for HDR - yet there are almost some true whites and true blacks in it. Took a lot of work to straighten the colors off, as I find the GND filters do still throw things out of whack a little.

The lake you see way in the background is St. Mary's Lake, famous for a little scene of a tiny little island with a couple of trees, out in the middle of a large expanse of mountain and lake. Might post a mediocre shot from there later.

In the mean time - yes, those sunrays are natural. And while they were moving and changing all the time, they lasted almost an hour. it was amazing.

Bigger is Better

Reynolds Mountain

nobody@flickr.com (Jeff Engelhardt) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 08:36:38 -0700

Jeff Engelhardt posted a photo:

This 9125-foot-tall peak is one of the crown jewels of Logan Pass, the 6600-foot culmination of the Going To The Sun Road - one of the most famous highways in the United States. This was near the end of my morning shoot . . roughly 2 hours after the sun had come up . . and the light was dancing as quickly as ever.

Through our whole vacation, I had only one day in Glacier Park, so I made the best of it by rolling out of bed at 4:10am and hitting the road as quickly as I could. This morning turned out to be simultaneously the most interesting and most difficult shoot I've ever done. With only one day, the pressure was on to make sure I got something worthwhile.

But the clouds were low and the wind was a steady 15 mph, with gusts over 30mph. The clouds the whole day were brushing (and often obscuring) the tops of the mountains. Rays of sunlight were bursting through the clouds at random, but lasted only seconds as the sky was in constant motion. With the dramatic light and shadow, even multiple GND filters still left many exposures with blown out skies and dark ground . . . there must have been 20+ stops of light to contend with. For long exposures I had to put my full body weight on the tripod and camera - not to keep it steady, but to keep it from getting airborne. Seriously.

Combine this with the fact that the views were fully 360 degrees . . so much to shoot it's hard to choose. I felt sorely outclassed and under-prepared. But hopefully the shots I post over the next week or two will show that I managed to capture a few moments from that beautiful morning.

There's a lot of detail here . . pleeeeeease view Glacier Size

Happy Smiling Child Friday (6/52)

nobody@flickr.com (Jeff Engelhardt) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:14:29 -0700

Jeff Engelhardt posted a photo:

Had an incredibly awesome dinner picnic with Elena last night out at the water by Emma Schmitz Park in West Seattle. Mom was off at beach volleyball - too late of a game for Elena to attend . . but likely we'll see sand shots next Friday - summertime Thursday nights are almost always spend at Alki beach.

Technical notes: shot with a ring flash I got for Christmas. I love the look. I was actually laying (almost crawling) backwards on the grass to get enough of her in the frame of my 50mm sigma, the only lens my ringflash will fit. Notes on using fill flash outdoors - I've been reading a lot of Joe McNalley lately and his idea of setting your exposure compensation 1-2 stops low, and your flash ev compensation 0-2 steps high produces wonderful results - no blown out sky, but properly exposed subject.

Grain. Elevated.

nobody@flickr.com (Jeff Engelhardt) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:48:06 -0700

Jeff Engelhardt posted a photo:

From the road trip with Doug a couple months ago - this is an old General Mills grain elevator . . . and despite its disrepair, is still in use. Despite spending 4 years at a college near here, in Washington's Palouse country, I still don't understand the concept of a grain elevator. But, well, it was an interesting subject nonetheless . . . especially considering the weeds growing through the train tracks leading here . . . still used, but not so often these days . .

L-A-R-G-E

River Valley Sunset

nobody@flickr.com (Jeff Engelhardt) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:27:48 -0700

Jeff Engelhardt posted a photo:

The best landscape photographer I've found on flickr is G Dan Mitchell. He has a better eye for the subtle than almost anyone else I know. I continually look at his stuff and wonder how he can take what often seem like very normal looking scenes and make them very interesting.

One of his inspiring projects has been taking abstract shots of the folds and crevices in the hills at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley. Most people know I'm a big fan of strong lines in pictures, and I've been trying to get something like Dan's shots for a while. Finally stumbled on something worthwhile a couple weeks ago. Dan was nice enough to help me out on the image and provide some help on where I could improve the photo. So here's the final, my abstract monochrome dabbling for the week.

Hopefully it's worthwhile to look at large

You Want the truth? You Can't Handle the Truth!

nobody@flickr.com (Jeff Engelhardt) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:11:59 -0700

Jeff Engelhardt posted a photo:

You Want the HDR? You Can't Handle the HDR!

I gotta admit I was a tad disappointed yesterday - a *lot* of people commented on the "painting-ish" HDR-y look of the bridge . . . but believe it or not, that's just the way the bridge looked! The processing brought out the sky and stuff, but largely it was a pretty natural HDR, even for me. Sometimes it's just the character of the subject.

HOWEVER, don't mistake this for me being mad at anyone in particular - I really value those opinions on what you like and don't like . . because I really enjoy making "likable" images.

HOWEVER (I'm just full of contrarianism today, thanks to my boss), for me it's half about what the "audience" likes and half about what I like. There's got to be a balance . . and today, just to be obnoxious and have fun, I'm posting one of my favorite over-the-top HDRs that's been sitting in the queue for a while. Besides, with happy smiling child Friday coming up, tomorrow's post will be a relatively unprocessed one anyway.

The little building is known as the Dot Schoolhouse. The "town" of Dot now consists of about 5 mobile homes about 2 miles away from here. This schoolhouse, built in the late 1800s saw less than 50 years of use and now sits in an open field next to a shiny new wind farm. Go figure.

Lynn Canyon Descent

nobody@flickr.com (Jeff Engelhardt) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:39:44 -0700

Jeff Engelhardt posted a photo:

It actually would take you less time to walk up and down these stairs than to read my description! Sorry . .

It has occurred to me recently that I should be very thankful for the people who comment on my stream. I see a lot of people out there playing the game of putting brief comments on pics from hundreds of people they don't know – and they get a bunch of meaningless entries back of “nice pic” and “great dof.” Even if those help you get in explore (they do) and you get 50 comments on a shot instead of the 5 you’d otherwise get, those are virtually meaningless to me.

I’m here to learn, share, teach (what I can), and appreciate photography. Those friends I have on here that comment regularly know that though I may miss their stream for a couple days, or may not comment on every shot – when I do take the time to comment, I really look at the image, read the description, and some of the other comments and tags, and put in a heartfelt and often lengthy comment.

These same people don’t put “nice pic” on my shot – even if they’re not big on writing, they always put a genuine or unique thought (often very funny ones), and it’s more than 2 or 3 words. For that reason, I really thank you . . . your comments that let me know you bothered to *look* at the picture and/or read my lengthy descriptions (I know . . trying to get better), and didn’t just scroll down to the comment box, type 'nice pic', hit “post” and move on. And that really means a lot to me.

I know there are a lot of people following my stream that just like to look, that’s their style. That’s cool, too. But hey, feel free to interact. I can almost guarantee (I do make mistakes sometimes) that I’ll respond to a person that writes a single 2-3 line comment much faster than someone who leaves 5 “nice pic” comments.

---
About the pic - HDR of a stairway down to a waterfall viewing point in Lynn Canyon Park outside of Vancouver, BC. It's a must-see destination. Unfortunately, it's nearly impossible to get a shot of the waterfall though.

This is not going in any groups. This is the people who come to my stream of their own volition. Thanks!

Take a stroll down the stairs

Poetic, in a nerdy sort of way

nobody@flickr.com (Jeff Engelhardt) — Tue, 26 May 2009 10:50:56 -0700

Jeff Engelhardt posted a photo:

Row, row, row your boat
Don't go very far
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
This is HDR

Hello everybody! I hope you all had a great weekend (an extended one for us Americans with Memorial day). I've been completely flickr absent for 3 days so please pardon me while I catch up on comments. Wanted to drop one of my favorite shots from the weekend though - taken Friday morning at the Wooden Boat Center, Lake Union, Seattle.

Happy Smiling Child Friday (14/52)

nobody@flickr.com (Jeff Engelhardt) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:32:07 -0700

Jeff Engelhardt posted a photo:

Well, it's not exactly a "smile" but more like a "Hooray" (as in, hooray that I'm out of the car, if only for a few minutes). It's impressive that she was able to manage even this much - considering this was hour number 8 in the car on our return from Montana. This is the stop at Wild Horses monument by Vantage, WA, overlooking the Columbia River.

And hey, look at that - my beautiful wife Hilary made an appearance in the stream! I think she's opening up a little :)

Invitation - since I made a big stink about people posting pix in other people's streams over the last week, let's have some fun today. Also, to thank those who are also posting 'happy smiling child' pictures - please post your own happy smiling child in the comments! (any pics not of smiling children will be deleted - sorry!)

other stuff - thanks to everyone for the good reception to the experiment yesterday. more along those lines - one person requested processing the "my style" capture with Evan's style processing - I'll be trying that next week. Also, will be reprocessing the original pic after one of my other favorite contacts (some of you probably have a good guess as to who that is) and it'll look totally different.

Happy Friday everyone!

Geeeetar Man

nobody@flickr.com (Jeff Engelhardt) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 21:26:29 -0700

Jeff Engelhardt posted a photo:

Spent a lot of time out and about this weekend and somehow kept managing to find musicians who looked better in monochrome. So, I think I'm actually going to have something of a theme this week - monochrome music.

So for the first in the series is this gentleman, whose name I didn't get unfortunately because Elena was dragging me to the car, anxious to get home. I got to fire off only about 6 pix of this guy (shot w/ the Haminex at 135mm f/2.8, for those who like exif data) as we were walking away. I did at least get to tell him I loved what he was playing, which was a mix of old tunes with a distinct Hendrix-blues twist. Smooth.

Check out that Fender Stratocaster full size

Happy Smiling Child Friday (11/52)

nobody@flickr.com (Jeff Engelhardt) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 09:30:56 -0700

Jeff Engelhardt posted a photo:

Hilary was out of town last weekend and I wanted to do something special with Elena - so I took her on her first-ever trip up to the top of the Space Needle. We had a parfait together at 520' feet off the ground.

Couple outtakes from that day below, and a couple shots from our weekly excursion to Alki Beach for volleyball.

Downtown Seattle From the Space Needle

nobody@flickr.com (Jeff Engelhardt) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:27:26 -0700

Jeff Engelhardt posted a photo:

Twilight Glow

nobody@flickr.com (Jeff Engelhardt) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:25:00 -0700

Jeff Engelhardt posted a photo:

A little while ago Joel Tjintjelaar left me a wonderful testimonial and I've been negligent in saying "thank you."

Joel is an inspirational shooter and an expert in many different aspects of photography. Most of you are probably familiar with his stream - in particular his incredible monochrome and long exposures. But I've received tips from him on portraits, lighting, and numerous other topics. Joel is truly one of my heroes when it comes to photography, he's a fantastic contact, and I'm just touched to have received a testimonial from him.

So, my way of saying thank you is to try to do a shot in the style of the individual - and it took me a long time to get one with which I was satisfied enough to post as a dedication to him. So here it is - monochrome, long-exposure, with that little dash of selenium. Joel has also taught me subtlety . . a lesson which I use on occasion.

Taken on last weeks walk with Nathan and Doug - I didn't have a tripod with me, so I ended up propping up the lens with another lens laid sideways and I set the camera on a concrete pedestal. Who says it's all about the equipment? :)

Technical Notes - why is there such a quick (harsh) gradient from light to dark in the sky? One of the keys to good black and white photography is the use of filters (digital or otherwise). Colored filters, applied in this case digitally through Silver Efex pro, applied to a color photo to during the b&w conversion process helps drive out different contrasts. A red filter drives reddish tones towards white and bluish tones towards black. There was a reddish orange haze in the sky that night and the sky turned a rich blue - at roughly the same darkness (lightness, luminosity, choose your term) as the orange, but there was just a quick transition where the layer of haze ended. Putting this through a red filter turned what was basically a layer of smog into white, and the deep blue sky into black. I wish I could tell you how to apply a colored filter this way in photo in photoshop rather than silver efex, but I don't know how yet.

screen names - yes, I'm compiling a list. everyone here is much more creative than me. I might have to have a vote