Beautiful Morning

Folks, I know that you are tired of the snow. I am tired of the snow. But as nature chugs along towards spring, I am inclined to get in a few last snow photos before the end of winter.

We were supposed to have another "snow event." Instead we had a bunch of rain, followed by maybe two inches of heavy warm snowfall. It was pretty awesome though, waking up to the white stuff covering all the trees and branches, leaves, bushes and everything else.

I knew the snow covered branches wouldn't last, as the sun was coming up and the temps were already warming up, so I struck out early this morning to capture the "snow event" before it was gone. Here are a few from my walk today:

The flooded tree area (left) was my favorite stop, and the last find on the way back to the van today. There were birds flying in and amongst the trees- their calls were echoing off the trunks and water. It was pretty amazing.

I've added these and more to my galleries, which can be found at my photography site Steve Ingram Photographic Artist

or my Facebook page found here

Enjoy!

steve

A perfect dusting of snow

When I rolled out of bed on Tuesday I noticed it was snowing, again! The snow was barely clinging to the branches, scattered in the grass and covering the roads. It was one of those powdered sugar snows, changing from sleet to small flakes as the temperatures would rise and fall a few degrees here and there. To be honest I am about done with snow this winter, but I knew this snow would be fleeting memory by the afternoon because of the rising temperatures.

I love being outdoors, so a hike was in order to capture some of this winter beauty before it faded away.

If you haven't noticed by now, I am a detail oriented photographer. Some photographers are great at capturing the grand vistas that surround us; I am more interested in the fine details that we have around us all the time, but never stop to see on a daily basis. I have this same thought process when photographing people... it is the details that make things interesting.

The hike started out on your normal snow covered pathway- full of dirt, matted grasses ice and puddles. As I approached a copse of trees I started looking around for something to photograph. For some reason I looked down at the ground and then realized I was walking on these amazingly complex modern art paintings!

The whole time I was taking these photographs, all I could think about was Jackson Pollock. 

What I have been enjoying with my digital camera, is the ability to choose either color or black and white. This is part of yet another direction for me in my work, the ability to shoot color or black and white in the same setting.

The photo below was the final image of the day. I was amongst a small grove of pines, and this little oak leaf was holding onto just a little bit of snow. It was a great moment for all the senses as I was making this photograph. I jotted down these words:

"Pine needles, warming earth, the ping of perfect snowflakes as they hit my jacket. Cardinals chirping, the wind whispers as it lightly blows through the branches of awakening trees. Lake ice is melting, soon it will be spring. "

 enjoy,
steve


























j

More Landscapes

I am adding some of my past landscape work to my portfolio. These images came from a burst of energy I had just before and after my daughter was born in 2000. They were taken with my 4x5 cameras, either my wood field camera or my Crown Graphic.

I love working with 4x5 and hope to revisit working in this format again this year. There is a certain calmness to taking the time to set up the camera and make the exposure. It makes the whole process almost Zen like. A complete change from working with either 35mm or digital.

Plus there is a certain mystery to shooting with sheet film, as you usually only shoot one holder (two exposures) per setup.

I am building different portfolios of my work on my website as I work through some of my old work, as well as add new work each week.

Take care, I hope you enjoy the images.

steve

In a portrait state of mind

I have been recharged and focused on my photography since the beginning of the year. It feels great to be making images! The most challenging and rewarding type of photography - for me - is making portraits. In a short amount of time a trust forms between you and the sitter. Artistic vision, posing, location and the electricity in the air combine to create images that capture the essence of the person in front of the camera.

Portrait work can be as easy as a snapshot, or as complex as a studio setup with props and lights. I enjoy direct and simple portraits, especially those made with natural light. I like to keep my backgrounds and props simple, and bring the focus back to the subject.

I had the opportunity to photograph Krissy and her boyfriend Robert this week. What a great couple to work with. I've know Krissy for a few years, but just met Robert the day of the shoot. 

These images were made almost entirely with natural light. To camera right is a large sliding glass window diffused with a white sheet. To left is a large gold reflector to bring light back into the subject on the shadow side of the face. A few times I used my speedlight to pop in a very small amount of fill flash to make up for what the reflector wasn't giving me.

It was a great photo session, and was over before we knew it. I am usually full of energy when I shoot, and like to keep working and posing, but not too quickly. I also like to let the subjects pose themselves, and then tweak their posing with a head lift or moving an arm slightly. This the first few photos usually lead to some great artistic opportunities that come both by working towards a style or angle, and by happenstance. It is a lot of fun to have these magic moments happen.  Here are a few photos from the session, I hope you enjoy them.

years of practice pays off

I've spent many a day or night in arenas or on sports fields in Illinois. As a photojournalist I traveled all over the state taking photographs of high school athletes. Lots of hospitality rooms or school concession stand food, standing in the pouring rain or white knuckle driving in a blizzard to get to a basketball tournament in BFE. I often said "If I had a nickel for every time I've heard the National Anthem I'd be rich." Really....

Even though I have been out of the news biz for awhile, I still have the timing and the patience to get some nice photographs. Years of shooting in dimly lit gymnasiums with manual focus cameras, makes capturing images with autofocus digital cameras even that much better.

My son Logan is very gifted at sports. Currently he plays baseball in the spring, soccer in the fall and basketball in the winter. Playing well comes naturally for him, and he loves each and every game he plays. I don't know where he got those skills, they sure didn't come from his dad :)

Sometimes I often wonder about how my past may influence my future. I know for sure that all those years of high school sports have prepared me well for taking pictures of my son.

Here is a sample of his basketball prowess as played for the SJO Youth Basketball team today. The lighting in the gym was phenomenal, with a bank of windows across the top of each end of the gym, bright white walls and modern sodium vapor lights. These were all shot at ISO 800, 320th of a second at f 2.8 for all those that wanna know the details. All were taken with my ancient 80-200 2.8 Nikon lens from a couple of decades past and my Nikon D200.

Looking to pass the ball after crossing the half court stripe.

Putting up a shot.

Driving up the court past a defender.

Eying up the hoop.

Loose ball while on defense.

Getting banged around in the paint.

Embrace the present, work towards the future

I have been warming up slowly to digital photography.  I guess I resisted change because I was comfortable shooting film. I have binders full of negatives and boxes full of prints to show for my work in the wet darkroom.

Lately though I am starting to embrace digital cameras as a part of my workflow. It hasn't been easy. For years I was a photojournalist working for newspapers on a daily basis. When we started shooting with digital cameras in 2000, I used my Nikon digital cameras for taking news photos, and still used my 4x5 camera and 35mm film cameras for taking my "fine art" work. This was a self imposed mental block I guess. And it has stuck with me for a long time.

I decided that this year would be the year to change my thinking, and give digital a try. I took my digital SLR out with me on two different photography walks so far this year. I can say that I am pleased with the results. I coupled my D-SLR with one of my favorite lenses, my 30+ year old Nikon 80mm f2 manual focus lens. This lens has taken many many photographs for me over the years, and is one of my favorite lenses.

I also shoot with a couple of auto focus zooms, and a two other fixed focus lenses. To be honest I love fixed focus lenses. They make you work completely differently than using a zoom lens. Instead of racking the lens in and out, you physically have to move around to get the best vantage point, and you pay more attention to your surroundings and the subject matter. At least I do.

This image was taken with my Canon pocket camera. I actually shot this image at the same time as I was photographing with my film cameras, and liked it better! There is gorgeous detail in the blacks as well as nice unblown highlights. I was actually amazed by this image, and it is what got me thinking that I could shoot with digital more often.

 These three images were taken on two different nature walks. I love shooting on overcast days, because it allows me to shoot the lenses wide open with very little depth of field. All images were captured in RAW format and then converted to black and white in Photoshop.

 I had the whole digital vs. film idea hung up in my head for a long time, but honestly all cameras are just dark boxes that capture light through a hole made in one end of the box. So who really cares about what was used to make the image, for me it is all about how the image effects me in the end that matters. 

steve

Movin to Blogger

I have been with another company for a while. I find their templates a bit wonky and find myself not doing any blogging. I thought I would give blogger a chance and see if I would actually do some blogging!

Stay tuned for more insightful information.

steve