The driftwood beach has tons of old tree trunks to explore for abstract patterns. After I shot these two beach scenes, my little Canon point and shoot died, so now I have to go buy another one.

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Here my camera is set up to shoot, and I use a 12″ diffuser to cut the harsh sunlight. I’m using my Tamron 90mm macro.

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Two images from my shoot, processed with Nik Software, I used the Low Key filter on the first image and the second image I used the Solarization filter.

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Recently I have been starting to work with the Topaz processing program, and they are going to be a nice addition to my Nik Software program.  I can see already that I will sometimes combine the two programs on an image.

Here is an image that I had done some earlier processing on, but wasn’t happy with the look, so gave up on it for a while.

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I started to work with some of the Topaz programs and and really liking the Topaz Simplify 4. This program can transform your photo into a variety artistic styles including paintings, sketches and cartoon line drawings.  I especially like the variety oil painting filters.  I used one of the oil painting filter to give this image a soft painted look on the needles, which I liked.

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Next step I went into my Nik Software’s Color Efex Pro and used the Detail Extractor with the Fine selection.  This would have been way to detailed had it been applied to the original image, but with the softened details from the Topaz Oil Painting, the Detail Extractor work very well at adding some details back in. I then softened down the saturation a little in Nik Software’s Viveza program.

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You may have seen my posts a couple days ago with the Mayapple plants, well here they are again with a different look, courtesy of a rainy night. I applied the Beach Bypass filter in Nik’s Color Efex Pro, which made the rain drops pop.

Here is the original and has a lot less pop then with the Color Efex Bleach Bypass filter.

Here are a few other shots, same processing. Used my Tamron 90mm highest f/stops on all images.

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The Before

The After

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Heading back home from my weekend in the boonies of Central Minnesota.  Last year I received an email from Lisa Faber Haste from the Brainerd Camera Club.  She asked if I could come to this area to do a Macro Boot Camp, and I was a little unsure that their club in this rural area could get enough people to make this work.  She was able to get the local Central Lakes College in Staples, Minnesota to host the workshop in their building.  I told Lisa, you bring in at least 20 photogs and I believe I can pull in some from the outside areas to fill it.  To my surprise this small community of photographers came up with  twenty plus, and we picked up a few more from South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin for a total group of 28.  I really didn’t realize just how small town this area was till I showed up at the Eastwood Inn where I was staying in Motley, which has a population of a whopping 671 people.  Nothing but  woods, water, and farmland, my kind of country to have a Macro Boot Camp.  Had a fantastic group of photographers, and very glad that this worked out. Thanks a ton to Lisa and Mike from the photography dept at the college, and the Brainerd Camera Club for supporting this workshop.

Here’s our group shot.

I shot these two images on Friday afternoon before the workshop started.

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I did a little crop and cloned out the extra stem and a few dust spots. Then went into Nik Software’s Viveza and dropped a control point on the background and slide the Structure slider to the left which took out most of the details of the texture from the fabric background. I also played a little with the brightness darkening it just a little.

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Last I took the image into Nik Software’s Color Efex Pro 4 and click on the Low Key filter. It added a nice dramatic look darkening down the background and pulling out the highlights on the stem and flowers.

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I’m always talking about looking for subjects with character in nature. Subjects that set themselves apart from the normal. I bought tons of flowers for a Macro Boot Camp and when setting them up for the shoot I had found this unusual Gerbera Daisy with two heads. The stem is also interesting as it was fused together. This is the kind of character that I look for, the unique.

I shot this in the morning on Saturday before the MBC started. Here is the original out of the camera shot of the two headed Gerbera. The background was a image of green grass, and I shot it with the f/stop at f/3.5. I place the point of focus on the stem and sepal and let the shallow depth of field soften the petals. The cameras white balance was off a bit but not a problem that Nik Software programs can’t easily fix.

In the first adjustment in Nik Software Color Efex Pro, I applied the Bleach Bypass filter which muted the color.

Second step was to go into Nik Software Viveza2 and do some smoothing out in the background a little, and adjusted the stem and sepal with a more natural green color. I worked the Structure slider to bring out the textures in the stem and sepal and define the lines more in the petals.

If you noticed the little gap between the two heads you see a stray red petal, so I cloned out that and cloned out some of the little debris on the sepal. Here is the final results.

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I walk towards the sun studying the leaves with the best looking backlighting.

The sun needs to be at a low angle to get the backlighting on the leaves. Processing was done first with the Solarization filter in Nik Color Efex Pro, and then some fine tuning in Nik Viveza 2.

The more deeply furrowed the leaf is the more highlights and shadows you get. I shot this at f/32 for full depth of field. Here is a horizontal version.

This is a Mayapple leave and they typically are not at an angle that catches the sun for backlighting, but this one had the right tilt that offered this view.

Backlighting really makes the veins pop in these leaves, so give it a try next time you’re out in the early morning or late evening sunlight.

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I mentioned the other day that I was going to visit and shoot at the Mitchell Park Domes located in Milwaukee, WI.  There are three domes, one has a rain forest, one has desert plants, and the third dome has flora.

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Here is my favorite from the Rain Forest Dome.

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Here is my favorite from the Desert Dome.

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Here is the favorite from the Flora Dome.

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Yesterday morning I went back to the Morton Arboretum hoping for less wind than the day before, but it was even worst than the day before.  So I wasn’t able to shoot most subjects, but the Hostas plants where the only thing that wasn’t effect by the wind, so got some shots.  This one was cropped then processed using the Dark Contrast and a Vignette filters in Nik Softwares’s, Color Efex Pro 4.

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Here is the original.

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Thank you to all who came out to my presentation last night at the Morton Arboretum Photographic Society, located west of Chicago.  I was happy to learn that they set a new club attendance record, and at last count they were at 115 people, and more coming in.  The Morton Arboretum is 3,000 acres of excellent habitats, full of all kinds of wildflowers, and if you are ever in the Chicago area make sure you stop in and check it out.  I went there in the afternoon with Steve and Ken, who are club members, and got a nice tour of the grounds. We were hoping to do a little shooting, but it was to windy.   Going back this morning hoping for better conditions.

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Finished my Macro Boot Camp in Milwaukee, WI yesterday and shot this tulip.  Been playing with the Topaz programs and liked the Oil Painting filter in the Simplify 4 for this image.

A couple ladies in my workshop told me about an interesting places called the Mitchell Park Domes in Milwaukee, WI.  It has three domes,  one has desert plants, one has rain forest plants, and the last is a floral dome.  Looking forward to checking it out this morning, and I’ll report back this week sometime with the info and images about this place.

I’ll be presenting a macro program tonight at the Morton Arboretum west of Chicago in the city of Lisle, IL., and spend some time shooting there after I shoot at the Mitchell domes.

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The title is Chasing Dragonflies, but I have to confess I quit chasing after them a long time ago. It’s much simpler to just go out at daybreak and find them cold and covered in dew and unable to fly. When their body temps drop down after a cool night or the wings are covered in dew, they stay still until they warm up and dry out. This makes it much easier to set up your tripod and search for the right camera angle to get the best background. The tough part is finding a field where they settle for the night and finding them. I found an area that they seem to like a particular plant that they land on for the night. Every time I go to this spot they are there. So check the local fields where you see lots of d-flies flying around and go there in the morning and go slow and look carefully.

Here is a shot of one on their favorite plant to land for the night.

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Contact Keith at  781-462-2340

ACRATECH ULTIMATE HEAD

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Acratech Ultimate Ballhead w/ Quick Release w/ Detent Pin 1115 | $259.00

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Spring has finally arrived here in Michigan, and it’s nice to ba able to get outside and shoot some live subjects.  The woods and fields still have a ways to go before we are in full swing with plants but at least there are a few things to shoot.  Here’s a few from yesterday.

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Tamron Lenses

Tamron 18-270 f/3.5-6.3 Di II PZD Lens – 346.99 Final Price after Savings and Mail-in-Rebate.

Tamron 90mm  f/2.8 SP Di Macro Autofocus Lens  – 407.84  Final Price after Savings and Mail-in-Rebate.

Tamron 90mm  f/2.8 SP Di MACRO 1:1 VC USD Lens – 657.94  Final Price after Savings and Mail-in-Rebate.

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Posting a little late today.  Got out early to a local park to shoot.  It’s was perfect as the leaves from the buds were starting to emerge.

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with Ibarionex Perello.

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Here is my set up shooting the newly emerging May Apples.

Here’s a few of the May Apple leaves. I processed them all with the Solarization Filter in Color Efex Pro. Then went into Nik’s Viveza 2 and used the Structure slider to make the details really pop.

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