A.D. Drumm Images, LLC – Landscape, Portrait, and Fine Art Photography in Rochester MN Photography

A particularly hot type of photography – really, a type of photography post-processing – these days is HDR, or High Dynamic Range. It’s sort of a misnomer. Let me explain…

Human vision is incredible. In a way, digital cameras are somewhat similar. There is the eye, or the sensor, and the brain, the processor. The sensor just gathers the light and the processor makes sense out of it. Our human vision uses a processor unlike any other. We take in the light around us, but we mix it with the input from our other senses plus our expectations and moving eyes and head and convert it all to what we call vision. We can see all sorts of images unrelated to our subject, and we can instantly tune it out. We see what’s important.

We see over a huge range of light and dark. Technically, this is known as dynamic range. It’s the same term used for audio – the range from the softest flute to the pounding drum of a symphony. In the visual realm, it’s the range of light we, or our cameras, can see and differentiate detail. Human vision has a large dynamic range, but our cameras do not. Not only our cameras, but our displays and printing technology are limited in the range from lightest to darkest.

For HDR imagery, we cheat. We take several exposures which allow us to capture detail from both highlights and shadows, then combine those images using a technique called tone mapping. Remember, we don’t really have a way to show or display the dynamic range our eyes can perceive. Instead, we map the highlights and shadows into this smaller range. Two parts of the image which should be different – one lighter than the other – are shown with the same intensity allowing us show all the detail we wish.

The images can look unreal because, well, they aren’t very real. But they can look very interesting and can be captivating. The term painterly is often used to describe these images.

When I was at Whitewater State Park last Saturday, I took the photograph above. At the time I shot it, the sun had disappeared below the bluffs. The light I was capturing was sunlight reflected by the sky. This light is very even, coming from everywhere in a way. The result is an image with a fairly low dynamic range. The camera is able to capture the entire range of lightness with no trouble. Without applying any postprocessing, the photo will be flat. Another word for flat is boring.

In Lightroom or another photo editor, we can punch up the image to add contrast and color. What we’re doing is sort of the opposite of HDR, but we’re tone mapping just the same. Rather than compressing the dynamic range, we’re expanding it. I nearly always do that with flat images, and the result is often very nice. I liked the photograph I made. (Ansel Adams said, he didn’t take photographs, he made them.)

But we have more options, more possibilities. We can push the limits and see what happens.

When I took this photograph, I saw strong vibrant golds that glowed. That’s what my brain told me. I knew this was a low dynamic range situation, and I knew I would punch it up in Lightroom. But the more I looked at it, the more I wanted. I wanted the colors to jump out at me. I wanted you to feel the golds. I wanted the other shades to work against the gold, providing color contrast, not just lightness contrast. I wanted the dark bark to push the viewer toward the golden leaves and frame them in.

Using mostly Lightroom with a bit of Photoshop help, I think I was able to capture my vision. This image, to me, screams to be printed and printed big. It might not be everyone’s favorite, but it speaks to me. It draws me back to Whitewater in Autumn, to the wonder and splendor of nature. Why do leaves change color if not just for us to see? And to make into a photograph.

After one of the wettest summers I can remember and a 7 inch rainfall over less than two days, we’ve been given a beautiful start to autumn. Last week was amazing, and the weekend was actually hot. I headed out to Whitewater State Park yesterday late afternoon to see what I could find for autumn colors in the fading light.

Many of the leaves were already gone. Some wildflowers are still hanging on.

I’m always amazed by the flowers that show up this late in the season. Bumble bees were out and about apparently also enjoying the flowers.

But there were still some nice leaf colors to enjoy, like those in the first photo above. Sometimes, there are just a few glowing in the fading sunshine.

Some are rich with color.

As I filled the frame with these oak leaves, I was struck by all the red. So much red, the leaves almost disappear into one another.

I found these leaves hanging out over the river which provided a wonderful dark background to help them pop.

It was a nice evening, and I worked up quite a sweat even with the temperature falling with the sun. I was hoping for more leaves, but I had already decided to mainly focus in tight. I find I really like these leaves-up-close shots. They tend to be less common than the grand colorful hillside photos, and they give you a sense of connection to the individual trees producing all that color. I like to fill the frame with a color.

I like to contrast that color with the darkness of  the trunk and the branches. That’s why my favorite of these shots is the first one I showed above. It feels a bit like a painting to me. A variety of muted colors and the golden leaves against the blacks of the bark. A successful hike.

I was asked to be a sponsor and official photographer for Rochester’s 2010 Pond and Garden Tour. The tour featured several gardens, rain gardens, and ponds mainly at residences throughout Rochester. It was an interesting day of driving and shooting. The sites ranged from very elaborate to simple but inspiring. There was a reception at Rochester Community and Technical College the evening before the tour for the sponsors and hosts.

There is a beautiful garden on the south side of the Heinz Center which includes the pond and gazebo above. Some delicious food and wine were served. I was shooting so trying to limit my wine intake! My friend, Deb Thompson, was one of the organizers and my connection to the tour. She had a busy day ahead of her.

This waterfall was at one of the first sites I visited. The water cascades down the sloping yard along side the house, ending in a small pond. I did some fairly long exposures at some of the locations to capture the water’s motion. Although I had a tripod in the car, I elected to stick with hand-held throughout the day. Mostly that worked. A tripod is always better, or at least safer. But it adds legs, so to speak, that slows you down and makes you less agile. Trade-offs.

One interesting site was essentially surrounding a city-owned parking lot. It was built to show how run-off can be controlled. It sure adds interest to an otherwise stark environment. And the butterflies (or is it a moth?) find something they like, too. You can make out a white parking lot line in the background of this shot. When I happened upon this critter, it struck me as symbolic of what this rain garden, and maybe the tour in general, is all about. I’m happy it cooperated and struck a nice pose.

This shot was taken at one of the more elaborate gardens on the tour. A large (40 foot) waterfall in back and a spring-fed fountain in front of the house. All quite beautiful.

This rather small and quaint garden with its little waterfall was actually one of my favorites because of the story behind it. It was constructed as a sanctuary during the wife’s battle with cancer. The calming sound of the waterfall was said to be heard even inside the home with closed windows. Unfortunately, cancer won this battle, but the garden remains living on. A stone is etched with an inscription that touched my heart.

Life can be cruel, and cancer takes many folks much too soon.

I found this fellow at a site which was out from the city. The featured pond was near him and used a man-made bog to help maintain the pond. It was one of the few with fish (at least, that I noticed). Nearby were other fountains and another much older pond.

A sign greets visitors to this labyrinth garden inviting them to take a worry pebble and carry it to the center of the labyrinth, where it and the worry it represents may be deposited. The thyme-lined trail was best traversed barefoot. It’s a pretty design, with many native flowers. Apparently, milkweed is among them and Monarch butterflies are a feature later in the summer.

Two of the sites were open late in the evening to enable visitors to see how lighting may be used to enhance the ambiance. This was the first I one I visited, and it had a nice waterfall into a creek running from the back of the house to a small pond in the front. I like the walking stones and the very natural look. In general, the ponds and waterfalls were all nicely done.

This was my final stop on the tour. Several of the sites had speakers to discuss various features, and here the visitors learned about lighting and the use of solar-powered lights. Lighting is melded into the landscape and water in a way that makes it blend in with the rocks and water and plants. Taking a shot like this is a similar balancing act. We want enough light to see the setting, but not enough to blast away the lighting design. Although the sky seems to show quite a bit of light, it was actually becoming fairly dark. A little bit of bounced flash along with fairly high ISO (thank you 5D MkII) and a touch of post-processing gave me the balance I wanted.

This sort of challenge is why I love photography.

Memorial Day 2010 in southeastern Minnesota was beautiful! Very low humidity and temperatures in the mid-70s. We rode our motorcycles out to Carley State Park to spend a few hours having a picnic lunch and wandering around some of the trails. The north branch of the Whitewater River flows through the park and our trail took us along the river’s edge. There was a stand of these flowers which resemble Queen Anne’s Lace vaguely, but are atop stalks seven or eight feet tall. I tried to find out what they really are online, but I’m still unsure. My best guess is cow parsnip. The other choice seems to be giant hogweed. Both are said to be rather poisonous.

In any case, they were all rather amazing. I can’t remember seeing flowers so large that weren’t sunflowers.

This guy appeared nearby. There were many of these caterpillars hanging by a thread, so to speak, in the woods. I normally have to fight with the speckled light of a bright sun coming through the leaves into the forest. It makes for exposure extremes that are difficult to cope with. But this day, I tried to work with that light, and our hanging friend above is an example. He was brightly lit by the sun, and I could move a bit to place him against a dark background making him pop.

I might have zoomed in a bit, but on this day, I was using my 50mm f/1.4 fixed length lens – no zoom. In that case, you “zoom with your feet,” but this is not a macro lens which limited how close I could be to the little guy and still be in focus. Nevertheless, I like the resulting image.

Being the end of May, there were still plenty of wildflowers around the forest floor. Here the wonderfully shallow depth of field of the 50mm lens made for a nice shot. I love the green of the woods; it makes for a terrific backdrop for the tiny flowers.

When we were preparing to leave the park, we had one more stop to make, of course. Lynne heard the shutter click and asked if I was taking a picture of the outhouse. Well, sort of. Actually, just the sign. I’m not sure why. Sometimes you find the shot and sometimes the shot finds you. In the latter case, you take the shot not knowing what it’s for or what you’ll do with it. It just needs to be taken. Maybe, you’ll just post it on your blog.

Thursday, we drove out to Nerstrand Big Woods State Park. It’s a relatively tiny remnant of what once was the Big Woods. I always wondered if this is the same Big Woods from the Little House series. Certainly, the Ingalls spent a lot of time in Minnesota, but a little web searching reveals that Big Woods was in Wisconsin.

But Nerstrand is a nice park. Never mind the trees of the Big Woods, the highlight was the wildflowers. Above are (I believe) sharp-lobed hepatica. They are abundant now. The dwarf trout lilies are nearing the end of their blooming season, it seems. I really never saw a good specimen to photograph. Too bad, since they are only found here. I’ve been unable to find the name of these flowers, but they are tiny and delicate, and a worthy subject, I think.

I love spring and the green that it brings. The floor of the woods was, in places, covered by wonderful ferns, and green was just everywhere. There is a small falls in the park, Hidden Falls. I have a few shots of the falls, but frankly, the light was not great with the sun high in the sky and shining off the water at the top of the falls. I have to settle for other lovely subjects.

It helps when you have a subject that can easily move into better lighting! Especially if she’s willing. I was traveling light, so I left my reflector and flash in the car. I’m growing fond of sculpting the light, adding to it, moving it to suite the subject. Natural light can be good, but it’s far from ideal no matter what you might think. If we’re going to just grab the camera and lens and go, though, we need to be able to cope with what nature gives us. Lynne’s smile, fortunately, makes up for imperfect lighting.

There is also post-production, where we can alter the reality and try some creative ideas. Some will work, others not so much. Lynne’s light skin and light colored top made me think about trying a high-key lighting effect. These tend to be flattering for women, although I’m not sure how well I like the technique. But art is about trying, exploring boundaries, finding new expressions. Here’s my version of a high-key shot. I think I like it.