Best Camera [is the one you have with you] | iphoneography in Denver

My mind is expanding in SO many ways right now, taking an incredible creativeLIVE three day course on women's portraiture (I have so many new photographer crushes! Sue Bryce, how funny, sexy AND inspiring can one woman be?!)

But I had to take a moment on our lunch break to share this composite of iphone shots from my commute this morning in Denver. Incredible light, lovely spring snow. Textures were incredible everywhere. Just beautiful!

Scene on Site | Take 2

On a recent, whirlwind trip through Telluride, I found a few moments between photographing weddings to capture some moments of the gorgeous autumn up there.  I feel so lucky to have lived in such a spectacular place!

Enjoy!

 

 

Painting with Light

Warning: These photographs aren't for everyone.
But if you're among the curious... I'd like to share!  There's something I find enormously compelling and peaceful about leaving the exposure open just long enough to "paint" the sensor with a swath of light dotted foliage.  Resulting streaks of color appear painterly, but are completely the result of photographic processes.  I'm going to include a few sets here from my favorite experiments with this method.  Enjoy!

Scene on Site

Having a personal history with landscape photography, I love it when a commissioned shoot brings me a chance to also capture a great sky or a unique perspective on a familiar landscape.  Here are a few such images I wanted to share from two recent photo shoots in the Telluride area.

Snow Falling on Spring Buds

There's a saying in Colorado, "If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes."

Yesterday I wore flip flops and walked (in short sleeves) to the Denver Botanic Gardens in 80 degrees of warm sunshine... even took off my shoes to enjoy the feel of warm soil between my toes for the first time this season.

Today... I photographed snow from my living room window.

Now, I did LOVE the sunshine and warmth of yesterday, but I'm not going to complain.  The smell of moisture in the air is a treasured gift in the wake of early season forest fires.  And on a more, perhaps, frivolous note, I can't deny loving a whirling snowfall such as this, and the backdrop of spring buds made for some fun, almost painterly compositions.

Capture Philosophy | PHOTO TIP 02: Creative use of Foreground

Dynamic photos draw us in and give our eye the space and reason to move around inside the frame.  Layering a composition with simple foreground, middle and background elements can add a great deal of interest to an otherwise flat photo.  As such, many photos can be dramatically improved through the implementation of some simple but creative compositional choices.

While this may sound like a simple concept, finding the right foreground element can have a profound impact on a finished photo - from grounding the image with a sense of scale to framing and/or highlighting a subject.  In fact, often in the search for a great foreground element, you can discover a whole new subject for a photograph you hadn’t previously envisioned.  It’s a great exercise to explore your surroundings and find new inspiration.

Here are a few examples using a variety of different subjects:

01 | Draw your viewer into the photo with a compelling foreground element which directly leads into the photo:

Great Sand Dunes National Monument + Denver Art Museum © Jennifer Koskinen

02 | Find foreground elements with which to frame your subject:

Bridal Veil Falls, Telluride, CO + Denver Art Museum © Jennifer Koskinen 

03 | Ground the photo by highlighting a strong foreground element in a composition that might originally have been about the background (these "discovered" opportunities often make for more personal photos of iconic locations):

Bridge Railing to Town Park, Telluride CO + Maroon Bells Wilderness, Aspen CO © Jennifer Koskinen 

04 | Relate the foreground to subject matter, highlighting, echoing or strengthening the subject itself:

Sculpture outside Denver Art Museum + Chalk Street Drawing at Telluride July 4th Celebration © Jennifer Koskinen

05 | Create symmetry, layering and balance:

Driftwood at Maroon Bells, Aspen CO + Private Residence, Telluride CO © Jennifer Koskinen

06 | "Work hard and you’ll get lucky"
Often great foreground material will present itself when you are open to seeing it; the audience member who pops up right in front of you with a perfect hat and hand gesture; a butterfly on a flower when you're already on your belly in the grass; a handful of autumn photographers so perfectly set they could have been staged; and lastly of course, drifting fog makes for a lovely and precious foreground that can only be discovered when in the right place at the right time:

Mountainfilm Symposium + Butterfly on Valley Floor
Photographers in the Sneffles Wilderness + Wilson Peak Above the clouds
Telluride CO © Jennifer Koskinen

SUGGESTION:

The next time you are out shooting, take some extra time and move around to find interesting foreground elements with which to frame or draw the attention towards your subject.  Play with your aperture as well (last month’s tip), and see what kind of results are yielded when you focus selectively and/or blur your foreground or background elements... experiment with color and composition, and most of all, have fun!

Happy Shooting :)

Favorite Photos from 2010 | Part 1: Scenic + Macro

(click and zoom in to see images larger)

Newsletter: Happy New Year!! | Issue 02

Celebrating Autumn's End in the Mountains...

Fall in the mountains carries quite a weight for us crazy photo types.   My eyes often suffer an exhaustion of consumption after a gorgeous day of shooting.  I remember some autumns past, when upon the last leaf's falling I would breath a sad but honest sigh of relief... the pressure to capture dramatic light on fleeting color was gone.

This autumn I have been so busy shooting real jobs (for which I am hugely grateful!) that I have not had as much time for fun landscape outings, but I did manage one trip up to the Maroon Bells, and thought I'd share just a few of my favorites.  Hope you are all having a lovely fall '10!

McClure Pass Panorama

(click image to see larger)

My wide angle lens was recently rendered temporarily out of commission in a job-related tripod incident...

I might have normally pulled out that wide lens for a shot such as the above, encompassing such a vast expanse of scenery.  However, on the heals of my 16-35mm being sent to the shop, Outdoor Photographer's George Lepp inspired me (at this past week's first annual Telluride Photo Festival - I'm already excited for next year's festival!) to take out the 70-200mm and create a panorama from 7 different vertical shots (something I haven't done for a while).  Check out the above image by clicking to see it larger (although this is still a low res version).  What a satisfying experience to make a crisp, high resolution image with an older Canon 5D that would print over 4 feet wide!

The patterns up there were truly gorgeous... what an interesting fall, with some patches still green, and others completely bare already.  Here are some of the details that are in the panorama:

Photoshop Magic

It's hard not to love the San Juan Mountains in a blanket of fall color!

This panoramic photo was created for a client in Telluride desiring a photograph which would show the view from their property.  The panoramic was created by shooting 5 different vertical shots... (the high res image is 44" wide).

Did I mention the big RED CRANE that was in the way??  Would have been nice to shoot from in front of the crane, but alas, such a view is not possible.  Here are the raw files loosely placed together:

Needless to say, photoshop skills came in quite handy in merging the photos, evening out the sky and erasing all evidence of that big red crane!