Tag Archives: florida

The Longest Season

Folks, please wake me on September 23rd. Its not that I don’t like summer, it’s just that…well, okay, I don’t like summer. Is there something inherently wrong with that? Oppressive heat, humidity, wilting foliage, dried up waterfalls and streams, hazy skies, extended hours of idle light, and unattractive people wearing too little clothing are just some of my photographic and personal banes.

And here in South Carolina, the agony is protracted well beyond its traditional boundary of the autumnal equinox. Summer, at this this latitude, is the longest season. By the time it gasps its last stale breath, it needs a not-so-polite shove out the door, like a guest whose welcome has been overstayed.

It’s little surprise, then, that I have planned back-to-back photo trips this summer to Iceland (July) and Alaska (August) to beat back the summer blues. These escapes don’t occupy all of the sweaty dog days, but they do offer a couple of refreshing respites from the hellish climate here.

And with that, Happy Summer Solstice to all!

The sunrise image above was  taken last week on Jupiter Island, Florida at approximately 6:30 am.

Technical details:

Canon EOS 5D Mk2, Canon 17-40L @ 17mm, 1.3 seconds at f13, ISO 100. Polarizing filter.

June 21, 2011 | 8 Comments
Posted in Images | Tagged , , , ,

Color Casts: What’s Wrong with Magenta Anyhow?

Coral Cove State Park, Jupiter Island Florida

Technical details:

Coral Cove, Jupiter Island Florida; Canon EOS 5D mk2, Canon 17-40L @23mm, 0.6 second @ f18 ISO 320

(RANDOM THOUGHTS ALERT)

When I take a spin through any of the Internet image forums these days, I will soon encounter an image comment or critique imploring the removal of a color cast of some type. Magenta, for some reason, seems to be a popular target. Blues too. What’s with all the magenta hating anyway? The last I looked, magenta was a real color and it’s revealed in nature all the time during the diurnal hours of the day.

The same goes for images being “too dark.” Is there a threshold of brightness that must be attained before it escapes the slings and arrows of the offended? Maybe it actually WAS dark…….and magenta!

Then again, maybe it wasn’t dark. Maybe the artist (yes, photographers are artists) wanted to portray the scene as dark on purpose.

Photography is  about extracting and sharing feelings – and a little bit of yourself – not just faithfully reproducing the scene in front of the camera. Darkness has been a visual metaphor for sadness for ages – just to throw out one example. The image should represent how the scene makes you feel, not necessarily how it actually looks! So, don’t let the tyranny of the status quo strip your image of its perilous soul. Embrace darkness, lightness, color casts, and other subjective tools to actually say something.

February 8, 2011 | 10 Comments
Posted in Essays, Images | Tagged , , , , , ,