MILWAUKEE RIVER REFLECTIONS

When our night photography class made its first field trip, I got some interesting images of reflections in the Milwaukee River in downtown Milwaukee.  The other night I decided to go back to see if I could improve on the shots I got the first time.

Not as easy as I thought.

I ran into a few problems.  First, this was June 21, the sun did not set until nearly 8:30 pm, and it wasn't really dark enough for good shots until close to 9 pm.  Second, it was extremely windy, which created major choppiness on the river.  That was not a good thing, as it tended to spread out and diffuse the reflections.  Third, it was a warm evening and there was a considerable amount of traffic on the river, further disturbing the river's surface.  I wound up taking over 90 shots, keeping only about 15, as I experimented with a number of variables to get the best results that I could under the circumstances.

Here is one of the early shots that I kept.

I liked the rich colors in this shot, and it was a plus that there were some deep blue reflections from the sky on the right.  Here is a closeup of a portion of this shot, which shows the interesting texture in the reflections.  I have not been able to figure out yet what was creating the patterns in the reflections.

This shot had an exposure of 0.4 seconds, and exposure time proved to be an important factor.  Any shot with an exposure of a second or longer was simply too diffused to be interesting.  On the other hand, in shots shorter than about 1/4 second the reflections tended to consist of small, disjointed patterns that I thought also generally lacked interest.  To keep exposures in the "sweet spot," I had to juggle apertures and ISOs, the other two components that determine the overall amount of light.  I also found myself setting the camera to underexpose by one or two f-stops what the camera's light meter was telling me was the proper exposure.

Here is another shot that came out well.  This had an exposure time of 1/4th second and was set for a 2 f-stop underexposure.  I was able to bring out the dark blue reflection in post processing.

In the following shot I intentionally included more of the reflected sky.

This was taken at an aperture of f/10 with an underexposure of 2 f-stops.  The shutter was set at 0.4 seconds.  Here is a close-up detail from this shot.

Although most of the lights on the river were yellow-orange, there were some red lights.  However, I found it difficult to capture those reflections under the circumstances.  Here is one of the shots that did work OK.

And here is an atypical photo from the shoot that featured waves that were reflecting off a support pier of one of the bridges.  This shot covered more territory than the others.  The pier was round, which I think was responsible for the circular waves.

And here is another "different" shot that reflects a somewhat shorter exposure time of 1/5th second and that included a smaller surface area that I was able to shoot more directly down on.  The reflections are less "connected," but I liked the effect quite a bit anyway.

Here is one of the final shots I took.  I think the sky had gotten sufficiently dark that there was no remaining blue to reflect.

I think my favorite shot of this series is the one I placed at the top of this post.  I felt it had the most interesting combination of colors and patterns.  Here is a closeup detail from that shot.

Although I didn't get the shots I had hoped for, I am pretty happy with what I did get.  I will definitely do this again.  However, when I do I will want to make sure of the following:  First, I will wait for later in the summer when sundown comes at a more reasonable hour (for me, at least).  Second, I will make sure the winds are light.  And finally I will make sure the sky is clear so I can capture those deep blue reflections.

CLASSIC CARS--MINNESOTA

We visited with Geri's dad last weekend at his retirement community in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota.  It happened to be the weekend when the facility was celebrating its 10th anniversary.  As part of the celebration, the facility had arranged for a display of about a dozen classic cars in the parking area at the front of the facility.  I virtually always bring my camera on our excursions, so i decided to take some shots of the cars.  I did not have my tripod with me.  However, it was a very bright day, and most of the shots were taken at a very fast shutter speed.

Here is a shot of a 1953 Buick.

In those days each make of car seemed to have one defining style element, and Buick's was a series of three or four "portholes" on either side of the engine.  Theoretically, the portholes functioned to provide air for the engine, but these are obviously ornamental rather than functional.  I liked how I was able to show the reflection of a powder blue 1957 Chevy in each of the chrome medallions.

One of the first cars to arrive was a 1955 Chevy.

I had some affection for this car, which had been very nicely restored, because my first car was a 1955 Chevy.  That was in 1963, and the car was in much worse shape, even though it was almost 50 years younger than this car.  Here is the car's identifying logo.

Another attractive car was a 1955 Studebaker, also nicely restored.  Here is a portion of the car's hood, showing its distinctive jet/rocket hood ornament.

I think the Studebaker was gone by the early 1960s.

Here is the front end of what I think was a 1950 Ford.

And here is what I think is a portion of the car's trunk lid.

The shot is perhaps a bit simple, but I did like the clear line of the trunk lid.  Here is a similar shot of the back quarter section of another car.

One of the things I was attempting was to get shots that would show other cars being reflected in the polished chrome or sheet metal of the cars.  Here are a couple of my successes.

Finally, the oldest car in the collection was a 1930 Ford Model A.  I believe all Model As were black, as was this, and I worked hard to capture the reflections in the car's highly polished sheet metal, but nothing seemed to work out.  I did, however, get a good shot of the car's radiator.

REFLECTIONS IN THE RIVER

I am taking a class on night photography.  This is something that I have not had much experience in, so I am hopeful that the class will get me started in this area.  In any event, last week we took a "field trip" along the Milwaukee River as it runs through downtown Milwaukee.  My attempts to capture time exposures of headlights were not very successful--pretty pathetic, rally.  However, as the evening progressed, I started taking shots of the city lights reflected in the river, where my luck was better.

Some of my earlier shots were of larger expanses of the river.  The photo below includes some of the city scene, including a bridge across the river, providing context for the shot.

This was taken at a shutter speed of 1.6 seconds.  I have a strong penchant for abstracts, so most of my river shots wound up being confined to the reflections, as the following photos.

In some ways the second shot is "unbalanced, as there is a bright area on the right but not on the left.  However, I decided I liked it that way.  I also liked the little section of green in the lower right of the shot.  There photos were taken at an exposure of 0.6 seconds.  I also underexposed these (and most of my other reflection) shots by one f-stop because I thought that the dark aspects of the water were fooling the camera's light meter.

 I soon found myself focusing in on smaller pools of reflective light, as in the following shots.

Again, these were underexposed by one f-stop, and each had an exposure of 1/3 second.

Eventually, I found the following shots.  I'm not sure what was creating the reflective lines, but the effect was, I thought, quite striking.

These shots were taken at a wide-open aperture of f/4 coupled with a one f-stop underexposure to get the length of exposure I was looking for (a relatively short 0.6 seconds).  This seemed to be long enough to create the "lines" of light but not too long to "blur" out the effect.  I liked that there was a reflection of red light that was an an angle to the predominant yellow light.  Also, I liked the blue haze on the right of this last shot.  These shots are lacking a bit in depth of field because of the wide open aperture.  My alternative would have been to increase the ISO, and maybe next time I will try that.

One of the last shots I took was of a broader scene that was reflecting the blue lighting that was prevalent in that area of the river..

And finally, here is another broad shot that combines a variety of reflections.

The additional turbulence in the lower portion of this photo was created by a passing boat.

CALATRAVA IN THE EVENING

I had gone downtown on Tuesday evening because telescopes had been set up at the central branch of the Milwaukee public library to offer those interested a chance to view the transit of Venus, an event that will not occur again until the year 2117.  I did get to see the transit and then stayed down to do a little evening photography.  I headed to the Milwaukee Art Museum and as the light started to decline I took a number of shots of the Calatrava addition to the museum.

I have photographed the Calatrava a number of times and close up I have trouble coming up with fresh images.  The lines are dramatic and I find myself converting the shots to B&Ws to take advantage of those lines.  Here are a few of the B&W images.

These somehow brought to mind the story about the blind men trying to figure out what an elephant looks like by only feeling separate parts of it.  In other words, these are essentially abstracts, and one would be hard pressed to figure out what the overall structure looks like based on these shots.  I am OK with this.  I have taken more interesting B&Ws, but at least these are a bit different.

The remainder of the shots were more comprehensive of the overall structure, which I have photographed dozens of times.  So to create something different, I was looking to add elements beyond the structure itself.  In this case I was looking to the colors of the sky in the diminishing light.  Here is one of the shots illustrating the evening light.  In the past I have taken similar shots from this point precisely in line with the center of the walkway leading to the addition.  In this shot I moved the camera a little to the right to show off the cable structure.  Not a cloud in the sky, and in the evening with the museum closed I had the whole scene all to myself.

My favorite shots were those I took just a little later in the evening, when the sky had turned a mellow golden color.  These include the shot I placed at the top of this post, as well as the following two shots. In these shots the cables of the "mast" occupy a large portion of the image and the brise soleil is sort of tucked into the lower portion of the shot.  However, I am OK with the use of the sky as an element of "negative space"--even though the museum is the primary subject, the sky plays a strong supporting role here.

Although the Calatrava is in excellent focus in these shots, the light has created a soft feeling.  Another nice aspect of these shots is that I was able to isolate the Calatrava without any other objects in the image, other than the sky and the lake (except for a sailboat in the photo at the top of the post).

And here is a final shot from later in the evening when the light in the sky was failing and the lights in the structure had been turned on.

The sailing masts of the Denis Sullivan are visible in the lower right.  I do not mind that the top of the "mast" of the Calatrava is cut off, but I do wish that I had not cut off the corner of the brise soleil in the lower left corner of the image.  It would have been great if the shot had also included a rising full moon.

BROMELIAD

I got Geri a bromeliad for Mother's Day.  There are numerous varieties of this tropical plant (which I discovered is pronounced "broh-MEE-lee-ad").  The one I got is about 18 inches tall and consists of bright orange and green leaves that are waxy and stiff.  It appears that the leaves start out as yellow-orange and turn to orange before ultimately turning green.  Here is the how the plant looks.

I was attracted by the plant's bright colors and thought it might make an interesting photographic subject.  Not as easy as I thought.  The plant is very three-dimensional, with leaves extending in all directions from a central "column."  That creates a substantial depth of field issue, as it is virtually impossible at close range to retain good focus on leaves that are extending toward the camera as well as those extending away.  I thought it might work to shoot the plant from directly overhead.

There is some interest in this shot, but it is essentially monochromatic and looks a bit "flat."  Alternatively, because the top leaves are more yellow, I thought it might work to limit the shot to that top portion.

I thought this shot was pretty flat also and generally not very interesting.

However, the other day I noticed that a shaft of late afternoon sun was backlighting the orange leaves, creating a lot more "pop" in the colors of the leaves.  By the time I got my camera out, the sun was gone, so I decided to create my own backlighting, using a lamp.  I really liked the results, even though they technically were "staged."

One of the best shots, I thought, was the one I placed at the top of this post.  My goal was to capture the backlighting at the base of the orange leaves and, hopefully, to juxtapose that against one of the green leaves in the background.  By focusing on just the base of the leaves, I was able to avoid many of the problems with depth of field, as I did not have to concern myself with the portions of the leaves significantly further from or closer to the lens.

I probably took 30-35 shots in all, featuring different areas of the plant and at various apertures.  I feel most of the shots I kept (10-12) are interesting as intelligible abstracts.  In general, the shots that seemed to work best were those with more wide open apertures, which served to soften the areas not in focus.  However, I also felt it was important that there be one or more lines in the image that were in sharp focus to keep a point of reference for the viewer.

Here is another shot that I thought worked fairly well.

This was taken at a wide open aperture of f/4.5.  Note that at least a portion of the diagonal line is in sharp focus that serves to draw the viewer's eye and to provide a reference point.  I also felt that the dark portion running up the left side of the shot, as well as the dark portion in the lower right, served to provide balance.

Here are some shots that were not quite as successful.

This shot is just a bit too simple, I think.  I debated cropping out the dark area in the upper left corner, but decided it would make the shot even more simple and have kept it in.  This shot was taken at an aperture of f/11, but even at this relatively narrow aperture, there is very little texture outside of the line of the central diagonal.

Here is another shot of the same general area of the plant.  Here the central diagonal is darker, and there is a bit of a dark area in the lower left that creates some balance.  However, in fact I had to crop this shot more narrowly because I felt the diagonal as originally positioned was too far to the left.

In the shot below, the backlighting on the leaf has created a lighter yellow-orange, introducing another color.  Note also that I was able to maintain a sharp focus on at least a portion of the central line, even though this was taken at an aperture of f/5.6.  I liked that the point of sharpest focus was also the point of greatest contrast in color.  However, I think the shot lacks some balance, as all of the green is on one side.

The shot below has better overall compositional balance.  I think the dark leaf on the left and the open wedge in the upper left help.  However, I think the shot would have been better if the green portion on the right had extended further down. This was taken at f/5.

As a comparison, here is a similar shot taken at an extremely narrow aperture of f/57, creating much greater depth of field.  Although I generally liked the shots taken with less depth of field, I thought this shot worked quite well, in part because of the strength of the "V" lines and of dark leaf in the left of the image.

Here is more of a horizontal shot.  Although this works OK as an abstract, it seems to raise questions about the darker object extending across the upper left portion of the image.

Here is one more shot, taken at an aperture of f/20.  The oval of light in the upper center of the shot is a little strange.  Otherwise, I thought the shot worked well from a compositional point of view.

These photos did a lot to revive my interest in looking for intelligible abstracts.  I also think I learned something about the use of shallow depth of field.  It is OK so long as the viewer is provided a point of focus that makes sense in the shot and so long as there are no elements out of focus that distract from that point of focus.  I think those principles worked well in this series of photos.

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Since publishing this post a couple of days ago, I have taken a few more photos of the Bromeliad.  Here is one of them, shot at an aperture of f/51.

This has a bit more complexity than previous shots, but is still suitably abstract for my tastes.

And here are two more, one taken at a very narrow aperture of f/57 and the other at an aperture of f/11.

There is a line of sharp focus in this last shot (more or less in the center as the main line of the plant curves slightly to the left), in keeping with my prior comments/analysis to the effect that there needs to be at least one such line.  However, the overall effect of this shot is quite soft.  Nevertheless, I think it still works as an abstract.