Exploring the wonders of creation through a 50mm lens...and other lenses too.

Longtime Weekly Fifty readers know that one of my favorite locations for taking photos is Theta Pond at the OSU campus. There’s always something new and interesting going on around various parts of campus, but nothing quite like just sitting by the pond to collect your thoughts or taking a stroll among the geese, squirrels, and turtles that inhabit the area. Even on the most un-photogenic days in the dead of Winter with nary a speck of color to be found, there’s always something worth photographing. You just have to look a bit harder for it.

While dead leaves laying flat on the ground aren’t always the most photogenic subjects (though they certainly can be, with a little bit of creativity) I thought this maple leaf floating just barely beneath the surface of Theta Pond looked particularly compelling. It feels delicate, almost precarious, as if a single breath or slight breeze would disrupt the entire scene. The leaf looks as though it’s trapped under ice which wasn’t actually the case since the temps were in the mid 60’s, but it’s a cool effect nonetheless. I think it’s the stillness of this composition that I like the most–a sense of calm and serenity that mirrors the general sense of being on campus at the end of the school year, as if the physical environment feels the same sense of exhaustion that many of the students do as they prepare for final exams.

To get this picture I held my D750 + 105mm macro lens pointed straight downwards and moved my viewpoint until the leaf filled the frame with just a bit of empty space around it. I liked the multiple layers at work: dead cypress needles on top of the water, the brown maple leaf just underneath, and a green magnolia leaf a bit farther down. I normally think of images in terms of foreground/subject/background, but this shot is three-dimensional in a different way with the layers being clearly distinct and discernible yet still lending that same sense of first/middle/last to the composition. I did remove some bits of dirt, dust, and other assorted flotsam and jetsam with the healing tool in Lightroom but nothing super egregious in my opinion. I also had to correct, just a bit, for the green coloration of the water which, as anyone who has visited this location will know, is an ever-present reminder of the artificial nature of the pond and the human intervention required to maintain it. All in all though, I really like how this captures a feeling that is difficult to put into words but is often shared by many people at OSU when they wander around the pond.

This image is kind of a companion to last week’s shot because I took it in roughly the same setting, but used some different techniques that I just could do before I purchased my Nanlite Pavotubes. Much of the composition mirrors the previous image: a single subject (a bear, which I promise was not intentional. I did not do that on purpose!) against a backdrop of blurred-out Christmas lights. Also, just like the other image, I used off-camera lighting to carefully control the appearance of the subject. So what’s the deal–why use this as its own separate Weekly Fifty shot? What’s different about it, and what did I learn this time that I didn’t already learn last time?

For me, it’s partly about the subtleties. The small elements of the composition that end up making a big difference and, ultimately, set aside this shot as distinct and unique when put against its counterpart from last week. First of all, the lights in the background serve a different purpose. In the previous image they were used to frame the subject–that is, to provide something of a border around the subject and draw your eye to the center of the image. Here the background lights are used for a different purpose entirely, which is to accentuate the subject. Notice how there is a cluster of lights right behind the bear with a ring of darkness as you go out to the edge of the image, and a few spots of light at the farthest borders. It’s the opposite of how I used the Christmas tree lights in the earlier shot, and an example of how much this kind of compositional element really matters and how it can transform an image entirely.

The other big difference here is how the subject itself is lit. I used just a bit of backlighting but placed much more emphasis on getting the bear, especially its face and eyes, to be as bright as possible. I could have used an external flash but the Pavotubes are just so much better for this sort of thing, in my opinion, because you can place them precisely where you want while also adjusting the strength and color of the lighting at the same time.

I remember when I first started playing around with these Pavotubes, and the revelation I had about controlling off-camera lighting to create compelling compositions. What I’m learning the more I use them, though, is how to use them in more subtle ways that I never considered and, in doing so, create photos that go way beyond just cool product-style shots of video game controllers on my washing machine :)

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year for taking pictures. There’s so many unique opportunities that you just don’t get at other times: lights, decorations, fun outfits, and incidental environmental bits like snow and ice all combine to make for some super fun and highly creative ways to create fun photos that you just don’t see the other 11 or so months out of the year. Case in point: this week’s photo, a simple composition elevated far beyond what it would look like any other time of year and it’s all because of the lighting–what you can see in the background, but other lighting as well that I’ll get to in just a moment.

What you’re looking at is one of the Christmas ornaments I have had for years, probably decades even, hanging by its ribbon against a backdrop of lights from our tree. I shot this with my D750 and 105mm macro lens, and initially the only thing I was considering was the multicolored lights about two meters behind the ornament. I spent a while carefully positioning the little purple bear in such a way that it would be framed, essentially, by an array of reds, greens, and blues but when I started taking pictures something just seemed off. The image felt dull and lifeless, and I couldn’t really put my finger on the problem or nail down what I could do to fix it. Then I realized, of course, that the problem was right in front of me the whole time: it’s all about the lighting. The background was great, but I needed to fix the lighting on the subject. Enter the pavotubes!

The solution was simple: put some light on the front of the subject, and also get a bit of backlighting going for an added bit of pizzaz. (Do people still say pizzaz?) You can see the solution I ended up with in the shot below.

Those three lights completely changed the entire shot, and gave me exactly what I was looking for. The background was alive and vibrant, and now the bear was too. Moreso, its ring of colored beads was one step away from positively glowing. I didn’t have these Pavotubes last Christmas and it’s been, oh what’s the technical term…super awesome to be able to use them to sculpt and shape the light for my shots, particularly shots like this, that I never could before.

Recently one of my friends gave me the honor of taking a few photos of him and his new fiancée to announce their engagement. It wasn’t a formal session like the family portraits I do for clients in the area, but just a quick trip down to the OSU campus just to get some nicer-than-iPhone photos that they could share with friends and family. I had an idea in mind involving some shots with the campus Christmas in the background, but that would only work if the lights were turned on–which I had really no way of knowing until we got there. I was prepared with some backup though, in the form of a half dozen Nanlite Pavotubes, two tripods, and the metal light holders my brother Tom welded for me earlier in the year. I also brought a couple of external flashes just to be safe, and of course my D750 and a handful of lenses all stuffed into a large backpack.

It’s a good thing I brought my lighting gear. I got to campus before the couple, and quickly realized that the whole location was nearly unusable. Nothing I thought about in advance would work because none of the Christmas lights were turned on, and the only other sources of light were basically just some street lights and a couple bulbs on the exterior of a few buildings. No matter though: the show, or the session, as it were, must go on! I set up the five-point star pattern on one tripod, a single light on another tripod, and got to work planning out what I would do for their portraits. In the end it worked out pretty well all things considered, and the Pavotubes were more than capable for the task at hand. Once we got plenty of portrait shots I asked if I could take some close-ups of the ring, and they gladly agreed.

What you’re seeing here, then, is the woman’s hand resting on a metal table lit almost entirely with the five-star pattern courtesy of Tom. (Thanks Tom!) If you look closely at some of the metal, um, sticking-up things (I have no idea what they’re called) surrounding the diamond you can actually see the reflection of the light, and overall I was quite pleased with the even luminance they provided for her hand and the jewelry. I shot this handheld with my 105mm macro lens and the result, which you see here, is actually a composite of eight individual photos stacked together in Photoshop and then cleaned up a bit more in Lightroom. In the end I’m pretty happy with it, though it does make me want to study jewelry photography more to see what I could do to improve any similar shots in the future.

All in all this was a really fun experience and I’m so pleased to have had the opportunity to have done it. My friend and his fiancée were thrilled with the results, I got some photo practice, and I got a fun new image to add to my collection :)

One of my favorite places in Oklahoma is the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. My wife and I have been there several times over the years and every time we go, even though the geographic area remains constant, we have an entirely unique set of experiences. Our kids always like climbing around the top of Mount Scott, and we have a few trails we like to hit up (as well as new ones to explore) and there’s also interesting animals like bison, prairie dogs, and longhorn cattle to see that all adds up to a fun, interesting, and often exciting time for everyone. Recently we spent a few days in the area with some friends, and the big difference on this particular trip was the time of year. While of course it would seem obvious that traveling to a wildlife refuge in November would produce different scenery and experiences compared to, say, spring or summer, it was amazing to see the differences firsthand over the course of the weekend.

One of the most striking changes my wife and I noticed was the bright colors all throughout the wildlife refuge: mountains, trees, grass…everything took on rich hues of orange, yellow, and even green that we just don’t normally see at other times of the year. The mix of clouds and sun amplified everything as well, and this week’s photo is a good encapsulation of everything all in one image. I took this at, or very near, the top Little Baldy which is the end point of one of our favorite hiking trails. I’m looking north and way in the distance you can see the mountain range positively glowing with light from the afternoon sun, though just a few minutes later they were shrouded in gray after the clouds moved in. The changing colors of the leaves on the trees almost felt like something out of a Bob Ross painting, and Lake Quanah Parker poking in from the right adds a splash of blue as well as a bit of context that really helps you get a sense of the scale of everything. I have a couple of images from this same location without the lake and they just aren’t as interesting, mostly because all of the trees end up blending together and you, the viewer, are left without a real anchor point to make sense of the image.

I shot this with my trusty little Fuji X100F, which I have now had for almost six years and was the only camera (aside from my iPhone) that I brought on the trip. As usual, it performed admirably :) It’s mostly just a coincidence that I’m starting the new year with this image here on Weekly Fifty, but I suppose it’s fitting as well. This is meant to be a hopeful image, a look at the possibilities and opportunities that lie ahead and a reminder to see the familiar in, quite literally, a new light. And I hope to approach 2024 with the same mindset as well.