JAN CANNON PHOTOGRAPHY BLOG

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Welcome to my photography blog.  Here I'll be sharing what's on my mind and reporting on my forays into the field.  Please visit my website for more information about my work and go here for information about how to purchase photographs.

Spring!

I think this picture really conveys a sense of a flower's emergence.  The obstacles that a flower has to overcome to express its beauty is truly inspirational.  There must be lessons in that process that would be beneficial for humans to understand.  In any case we can just delight in their loveliness.

Digital Processing

I love the control that I have with digital processing.  The two leaves in the upper part of the frame were a bit overexposed compared with the rest of the picture.  As a result they were washed out and uninteresting.  In Adobe Lightroom I was able to mask the two leaves and bring down the exposure and highlights and add a bit of saturation to bring the picture back in line with what I had seen.

Unrelated to digital processing the woods are still pretty quiet flower wise, hence this picture of a vernal pool.

Wildflower Alarm

The snowdrops are my wildflower wake up alarm.   It seems though that maybe my clock is broken!  This picture was taken a week ago and the flowers haven't developed a whole lot since then.  Compared to last year, which was admittedly weirdly warm, they are probably a few weeks behind.  There is hope though, and I can't wait!

Another Composite Image

When I was recently straightening up my wood pile I found a large chunk of ice where some water had collected on the tarp and embedded in the ice were some twigs and leaves.  I thought it would make a great platform to photograph birds on.  I put it up on a few foot high work table and scattered some sunflower seeds over it and was able to get a good angle.  This image is made of three different shots.  Shooting against the pure white background allows me to assemble these pictures in this manner. 

Composite Image

This image is comprised of five different photographs of one tree.  I loved the look of all the lichen all over the tree but since the diameter of the tree was so small I couldn't capture what I was experiencing and wanted to convey in a single shot.   I proceeded to photograph the tree in segments from the ground up.  The shot is lit by a flash through Plexiglas from the rear and a diffused flash from the front, a bit to the side.

Context

I have been thinking a lot about context lately since my new approach completely eliminates it or reimagines it.  I was completely into context last spring when I was photographing wildflowers.  I was shooting as much for the out-of-focus background color and texture as I was for the flower itself.  Here is a link to some selections from last years spring wildflower series.

The picture above though is an example of a reimagined context.  The moon background, to which I added some texture and color enhancement, was photographed a year ago, almost to the date, and the hemlock needles were photographed just last Sunday.  The hemlock needles were shot against a solid white, rear illumined background.  I was trying out the new technique that I want to employ this spring photographing wildflowers, but I didn't care for the results.  I think the lack of color and subtle differences of form, such as in the tulip photograph below, rendered it unsatisfying.  So, creating this composite image (can I call it a photograph?) gave me a picture that I liked.  One friend commented on the photograph and suggested that I had "captured the essence of the evening's moon."  That was my intention and I was lucky to have stumbled across the moon background to add to the hemlock needles to make this image.

New Technique

I thought I had worked through my wildflower photography last year but am am now really excited again at the prospect of employing this (new for me) rear illumination photography technique.  The picture above is my first attempt and I think it is very promising.  I have been studying my wildflower pictures from last year and am thinking about how I'll be able to employ this new technique.  Fun times!

Memory

When I was developing this picture last night I was very unconsciously thinking of Childe Hassam's "Boston Common at Twilight" painting.  I have seen the painting many times at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, but it's been a very long time since I last saw it.  I was stunned though when I Googled the painting today and saw that what I had developed in my photograph was almost exactly the same quality that was in Hassam's painting.  It could have almost been a detail or a different view.  I was obviously very influenced by "Boston Common at Twilight" and am amazed that, after it having laid dormant in my mind for so long, it finally reappeared in such a specific way.

 

 

 

Catching Up

 Happy New Year!  I'm a little behind with posts.  Here is a picture that I like a lot.  I hope to get others up soon.

In the Right Place at the Right Time

I was standing outside of a shop in Montreal, waiting for my family to come out, and looking for some shots to pass the time when this scene presented itself.  The scene is so untypical of what I usually shoot, trees, skys, fields, flowers, etc., so I am really excited by it, it being so different.  It alsmost makes me want to go to the city again soon!