01-09-14 Altered States (HDR)

This photo is demonstrably "unreal." As I've said before, humans don't see out of focus light as soft, overlapping balls. And we certainly don't see the world upside down, as it is shown here in a crystal ball I inherited from my grandma Ida.

But wait a minute. . . Our eyes are lenses somewhat similar to a crystal ball. And, in fact, all that we see is upside down, too. But our brains, for some reason, turn it "right side up." So do I dare ask, "What is reality?"

Canon 5DIII f/5.0 ISO320 100mm

01-01-14 Circle of Light

I had mentioned yesterday that I had another photo that showed a drastic difference between what the human eye sees and what the camera "sees." Yesterday, the difference had to do with focus, depth of field and bokeh. What today's photo demonstrates may not be so obvious unless you understand the concept of "dynamic range."

Dynamic range is the term used by digital photographers to describe a camera's ability to show the range of shades in a scene from very bright to very dark. And, generally speaking, cameras don't do such as good job compared to the human eye, which is brilliant.

When I saw this palm leaf, singled out by the relatively bright sky above, I didn't see what you see in the photo. I saw the highlights as bright green and the shadows as dull green. And when I took the photo and looked at it on the built-in screen, I thought, "Wow! I didn't see that." And I liked it.

I'll admit that I did use a few fancy software processes to boost the dynamic range of the photo a bit. But I didn't want to kill the highlights you see here. Is is a good photo? I can't say. But, as I've already said, I like it.

Canon 5DIII 1/60s f/4.0 ISO640 102mm

And for detail junkies, Here's the raw, unprocessed file

2014 01-02 Bright Palm by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard

01-01-14 What We Never See

My title for this post isn't so much about the fact that we don't see rain, or rain-drenched leaves in our normal experiences. Though most people rarely stop to study a leaf as closely as I'm asking you to do it here.

What I mean is that the camera "sees" things very differently than humans do, including color, contrast and focus. And for sure the human eye can't see unfocused areas* as the lens does because when we look at another point in a scene, our eyes automatically focus there.

And discovering the unexpected is one of the reasons I find so much joy in making a photo.

And speaking of joy, welcome to 2014! I will be celebrating five years of "A Photo A Day" soon and I do appreciate you, the viewers, who certainly provide another source of joy for me.

*The unfocused areas are called bokeh. In this photo, the blurred circles in the background are other rain drops hanging on other leaves like the one you see in focus here.

Canon 5DIII 1/100s f/4.0 ISO400 102mm

12-12-13 Countless Unseen Details

Someone once suggested that "Countless unseen details are often the difference between the mediocre and the magnificent." When I teach photography, this is one of my many mantras: what helps our work rise above all of the billions of photos being taken is our close attention to details and our true understanding of what those details are.

This photo is not presented as an example of the "magnificence" but this detail of the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City is. If you look at a broader view (click), you will will find that while the figure of Jesus is the centerpiece of the this facade of the cathedral, it is only one small part.

And I can assure you that the architects and sculptors did not intend for this statue to be seen with a telephoto lens attached to a high resolution camera as you are seeing it.

So why are the edges of the pages of the book so carefully rendered? And why is there so much detail in the face and hands of Christ that would not be seen from a distance?

The answer is simple: these were all done in a quest to create something that was truly magnificent.