Reminder of my Childhood

This toy tractor and trailer truck is a fond reminder of my childhood.  Not so much for playing with the truck, which I did, but more about how I acquired it and what it meant to me then and now. 

My twin brother and I were raised for the majority of our childhood by our single mother.  While my mother worked hard to provide for us we still didn't have a lot of money which meant that new toys were mostly received at Christmas or on birthdays. 

As I recall, when I was about six or seven years old  I received 25 cents a week allowance.  I saved all my allowance money and any other money I received for months until I had about $6.00 in my piggy bank.  I don't recall if my brother and I asked our mother or she offered, but we went to the near by five and dime TG&Y store which had the best toy department in town so we could spend the money we had saved up for so long. 

I can still remember the feeling of standing in the aisle of the toy department and looking at all the shelves filled with toys and knowing I had enough money to buy just about any toy I wanted. The feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment that I felt at that moment has stayed with me my entire life.  That simple and seemingly uneventful moment in my youth taught me that saving for future needs or wants is a good thing and I have my mother to thank for that.

As I grew older and found other interests I naturally played less and less with the truck but I could never bring myself to part with it.  My mother suggested that I put it away and one day, in the future when I had children they could play with it.  The truck has sat packed away in a cardboard box at my mother's house for over 30 years.  Recently while visiting her I asked about the truck and she pulled it from the closet and we unpacked it and I brought it home for my children to play with it as I did so many years ago.  Today my children play with it and I've told them this story in hopes that they understand what this toy represents to me and maybe some day their children will play with it as well.

All images copyright Daniel Ray Photography.

San Leon

Along with several other local photography enthusiast from the League City Photography Meetup Group, my wife, children and I visited the small community of San Leon, Texas in hopes of getting some sunset photos and possibly catching the full moon rising over Galveston bay. 

We started off with an early dinner at the Topwater Grill (the stuffed flounder is AMAZING!) and we talked photography and whatever else came to mind while waiting for the sun to fade and the 100+ temperatures of the sweltering south Texas summer to subside. The record setting drought that has impacted Texas for the last six months has provided us with near cloudless skies, but not today.  We instead were greeting with an overcast sky, and a much needed light rain for most of the day and continuing into the evening.  As dinner wound down the light rain stopped and the temperature dropped allowing us to enjoy the end of the day and capture some amazing photographs.

All images copyright Daniel Ray Photography.

Chinatown Musicians

While walking through San Francisco's Chinatown I heard music playing and though it was coming from one of the many small shops that lined the street. As I rounded a corner I came upon this group of five men playing authentic Chinese instruments.  A small crown was gathered around them listening to them and taking videos.

Creative License

When I first started on my journey into digital photography I had a purist mentality where I thought the image should be created in the camera with little to no post processing using the computer.  Through research I came to realize that even the legendary photographer Ansel Adams didn't capture the final image in the camera, he too used some sort of post processing in the darkroom to create his final images, so why can't I?

So, with the purist mindset pushed aside I set out to create the image that was in my minds eye but didn't actually exist at the moment I captured the original image.  I used Adobe Lightroom to convert the image to black and white and used a bit of dodging and burring (old darkroom terms for darken and lightening and image) to get just the right look.

Below is the original image straight out of the camera with no post processing.
 



What's Your Second Most Important Tool?

Other than your camera and lenses what is the second most important tool when it comes to producing great looking digital images?  In my opinion it is your computer's video display monitor.

I'm currently using an HP ZR24w 24-inch S-IPS LCD Monitor as my primary display for using Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop for post processing images.  When I first installed the HP ZR24w I noticed that the images looked very different than they did with my previous monitor, a ViewSonic VX2240W 22" wide screen LCD.

After running just the HP ZR24w for a few weeks I decided to reconnect the ViewSonic VX2240W as my secondary display.  After getting both monitors connected I used a Spyder2Express color calibrator and calibrated each monitor. 

After calibrating both monitors and displaying the same image on each monitor the difference in the display quality between these two monitors is absolutely astonishing. The more expensive HP monitor has a much clearer and brighter display that allows me to see the details in images that can't be seen on the much cheaper Viewsonic monitor. 

I'm so impressed with the HP ZR24w 24-inch S-IPS LCD Monitor that I've ordered a second one to replace the ViewSonic VX2240W which will find a new home on my wife's or children's PC.

One Stop Photography Website Hosting

 As a photography it is important to have a web presence where potential clients can find you and see your work.  Other important functions that a photographer's web site can offer is a place for clients to review images from their photo sessions and even order prints.  A few years ago you would have to have your website custom developed by a web designer and then hosted by a hosting company.  For a photographer all of that could get very expensive and require your time to maintain which results in less time for you to do what produces income, making photographs.

 In the past few years the phorography website hosting niche has been filled by several company's such as Smug Mug, PBase, Photoshelter and others.  Bac in 2007 when I was looking for a hosting site for my gallery I chose Zenfolio because I prefered their gallery layout and the price was right, but Zenfolio fell short in many features such as slide shows, a home or splash page and it didn't allow for much customization beyound the prebuilt layout and color templates.

 Well that has all changed. In January 2010 Zenfolio's latest release has greatly enhanced their site by now offering new functionality that allows photographers to use Zenfolio to host 100% of their web site for gallery presentations, client reviews, print fullfillment services and much more.

 If  you are looking for a photographer's web site hosting service I would strongly recommend Zenfolio.

 

All images copyright Daniel Ray Photography.

Visual Inspiration

As a visual artist A.K.A. photographer I often look to other photographers for inspiration that I can use to push the envelope and develop my skills and creativity to produce better works. I wanted to share some of my favorite artists with you.

Sianp
Location Unknown

Rarindra Prakarsa
Jakarta, Indonesia
What inspires me about this image is the use of back lighting of the
subjects which almost throughs the cat into a silouette. I can't say for certain
but I'm sure there is a good deal of Photoshop work (dodging and burning) that
was performed on the image to create this result.

Copyright Daniel Ray Photography.

What inspires me about this image is the use of contrast and saturation to gove
the image a surreal quality that you can't find in a lifelike image.

Photography Quotes

Some of my favorite photography quotes...

• "There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer." ~Ansel Adams
  
  
• "You don't take a photograph, you make it." ~Ansel Adams
  
  
• “Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.” ~Dorothea Lange
  
  
• "It's weird that photographers spend years or even a whole lifetime, trying to capture moments that added together, don't even amount to a couple of hours." ~James Lalropui Keivom
  
  
• “Whether he is an artist or not, the photographer is a joyous sensualist, for the simple reason that the eye traffics in feelings, not in thoughts.” ~Walker Evans

All images copyright Daniel Ray Photography.

What Makes a Great Photograph

A great photograph normally doesn't just happen. Anyone with a camera can sometimes get lucky and everything just falls into place and we look at a photograph we've created and say "Wow, I wish I could do that every time". So what is it that must come together to create that "wow" factor in a photograph?

I recently attended a photography seminar titled Taking It To The Next Level by Bill Fortney. In his seminar Bill laid out four criteria that are required for a great photo. If a photograph is missing even one of these four elements it more than likely is not going to be a great photograph.

1. Definable Subject
   You should be able to describe the subject of the photograph in one or two words or in a single short sentence.
2. Appropriate Lighting Conditions
   The lighting must work to call attention to the subject.
3. Workable Elements and Conditions
   The environmental elements must be concussive to allow you to make the photograph of the subject you envision.
4. Control of the Foreground and Background
   You must be in control of the Depth of Field (DOF), sharpness, and brightness of the subject and avoid background or foreground items that detract attention from the subject.

The photographer is in control of most of the key elements that make up the photograph he sees in his mind and wishes to create. When creating a photograph you should have an idea of what you are trying to create and how you want the viewer to see it. It is the photographers job to guide the viewer through the image and direct attention to the subject. All of this is done by controlling the camera, lighting and other elements to produce the desired photograph. Sometimes that cannot be done due to conditions that are outside of your control. At those times you have two choices; either alter your plan and produce a different image or walk away and try again at a later time.

The human eye will seek out the sharpest (in focus), brightest and warmest part of the photography, so if the sharpest, brightest and warmest part of the photograph is not your subject them you may have a problem. Of course there are always exceptions to the rule. For the most part these are rules I use when trying to create a photograph.

Copyright Daniel Ray Photography.

The Secret to Success?

Many of us are looking for guidence or possibly the magic bullet that will make our career or business a success. For me, I've been looking for ways to turn my passion for digital photography into my profession. I've read many books, magazines, and blogs trying to learn from others who have succeeded in this business but I still don't feel the ready to strike out on my own and leave my current career in pursuit of my dream.

Today I read the photography blog from Chase Jarvis which was about how he answered aspiring photographers who asked him a professional photographer how to succeed. After reading his answer to the qeustion I became discourgaed after I did the math based on his answer and discovered it would take me about 20 years of study in the field before I could succeed. The calcaulation was based on my current pace of practicing or studying photogtaphy about ten hours per week.

So here was the secret to success from the Chase Jarvis blog...

1. Be Undeniably Good. Last year, in an interview with Charlie Rose, the famous comedian Steve Martin gave this advice to anyone trying to make it in any field:
   
   Be undeniably good. When people ask me how do you make it in show business or whatever, what I always tell them and nobody ever takes note of it 'cuz it's not the answer they wanted to hear -- what they want to hear is here's how you get an agent, here's how you write a script, here's how you do this -- but I always say, "Be so good they can't ignore you." If somebody's thinking, "How can I be really good?", people are going to come to you. It's much easier doing it that way than going to cocktail parties.
   
2. Dedicate at least 10,000 hours to whatever it is you're looking to master. In his enlightening talk at the 2008 AIGA Business Design Conference, about innovation and misconceptions regarding what it takes to become a success, Gladwell discussed this concept from his new book Outliers: The Story of Success. "Genius and creativity don’t necessarily spring forth unbidden, they require time and support to experiment, try and even fail." I found his talk really entertaining, and I'd imagine you might too.
   
   What's fun about photography, of course, is that anyone can pick up a camera these days and make great pictures, straight outta the gate. No brainer, really accessible, relatively little effort, nice pictures. I love that about photography - it's why everyone has a camera these days. The technology is really wonderful.
   
   But, if you want to "make it", whatever that means, I think you need to start by being undeniably good. And if you can't intuit how to be undeniably good, then start by dedicating 10,000 hours to it. That will get you where you want to be.

Since I didn't start out being "undeniably good" then that means I have 10,000 hours (minus the past year) of work in front of me before I'm ready. So in 2026 when I'm hopefully retired I'll be ready for another journey.


Now where did I put those photography books?