New Impressionist Photo: "Fall Four Ward"

This new image is an impressionist composition of mine entitled "Fall Four Ward"... this is a composite of two images and I created this image to compliment the green aspen, "Moody" series of images of mine created the same way. "Moody Three" in that series is currently on display at the San Diego Natural History Museum:

Anyway, this new fall scene composition, "Fall Four Ward" is actually a composite of two images taken back-to-back. A pan-head tripod mount is need for this technique. The first image is shot at f/8 and is as sharp in focus as I can get the camera to go; the second image begins at the same identical framed scene, but it is blurred by panning the camera upward (with moderate consistent speed) directly along the y-axis enough to cover the entire scene.

Next, the two images are layered together in a Adobe Photoshop document with the blurred layer on top with a layer mask. Using the dark brush, I bring through visible only the sharp points of the image that I want from the bottom layer. In the case with this image, only the four trees in the foreground were brought through...

This same effect can be achieved with some success by using the motion blur filter in Photoshop, but the problem with that is the entire program is linear and will not adjust for curves. Whereas my in-camera method will blur over curved shapes very nicely.

This composition was captured about two weeks ago during my trip to Portland. I drove out about three hours east  of Portland to a massive poplar tree farm near Boardman, Oregon and was able to catch a few nice shots.

The image title is another play-on-words around the term "Fall Forward" which is often wrongly confused as the saying for what we do with our clocks in the fall when practicing daylight savings time (we "Fall Back" of course). Anyway, is is an image of fall trees, four of them in clear focus, all forward in the foreground, all in a big ward of trees.

Camera settings: ISO-1250, 64mm at f/8 for 1/25th sec with both images taken back-to-back about 10 mins before the sunset under a canopy of orange glowing poplar back-lit by the setting sun

I hope you enjoy this unique photograph of mine.

peace,
D. "Bodhi"

New Release, "The Poplar Clique"

This is my newest image entitled, "The Poplar Clique."

This group of poplar trees is located about 3 hours east of Portland in Boardman, Oregon. This is an enormous tree farm spread over thousands of acres located just a few miles south of the I-84 freeway at the junction of US 730. If you find yourself visiting Portland, Oregon, then this place is WELL worth the drive. I just cranked up loud and jammed to some old late 80's tunes in my 2015 Nissan Altima rental car, sang along to U2, INXS, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Yes, the Scorpions, Van Halen, etc. as loud as I could to the steering wheel, and before I knew it, I was there...

I have been wanting to visit this place for the better part of 6 months now, and during my visit this last weekend, I only barely begun to scratch the surface of all the photo opps for this vast forest. So, you can bet this will be a spot I will be returning to many times over the course of the next couple of years...

I spent most of the late afternoon until about 1/2 hour past sunset roaming around scouting, making notes, and taking test shots. But at about 1 hour before sunset, the trees facing into the sun (backlit by the low angle of the sun) we just glowing yellow-orange-red under their canopy of fall colored foliage. I cannot really accurately describe how overwhelming this glow was for as far as my eyes could literally see...the best I can do is present this picture to give a bit of a semblance of what my eyes actually witnessed. And I hope you enjoy my efforts to try...

The title is another play-on-words using the similarity of the words "Popular" and this tree type of "Poplar" and the word "Clique" (meaning a tight group who hang out together) to create meaning paralleling the idiom, "The Popular Crowd."

Camera settings: ISO-75, 16mm at f/2.8 for 1/60sec

Peace,
D."Bodhi"

Fall Image entitled, "Monet Aspens"

This image is entitled, "Monet Aspens" and is one of my many images currently hanging on display at Lorimar Winery and Vineyards in Temecula Wine Country...it is also my favorite fall composition of my own to date, and I hope to capture a few better than this over this weekend in Portland, OR.

This image was captured early in the morning in October 2012 beside a small fishing lake a few miles east of Bishop, CA just before the tiny berg of Aspendell, CA up in the Buttermilk Range of the Eastern Sierra. This picturesque scene of colorful aspens mixed with evergreen pines is just a few feet away from the main highway, and it is ironic that most people obliviously drive right by this spot on their way up to Lake Sabrina and/or North Lake to go check out their beauty and actually miss something more exquisite in the process...

Anyway, I leave for Portland here in a few hours at 6pm this early evening...and the good news for me is that it appears so far from the weather forecasts as if ma-nature is going to cooperate with me for the most part to help me create some visions I have in my mind that I want to capture with my camera. Wish me luck...This weekend's focus is going to be on waterfalls and trees wearing their fall foliage...

Peace,
D. "Bodhi"