Dear visitor,
Welcome on my website, focused on Outdoor Photography.
The latest post is about my Springtime project: The heart of the Dutch Tulip.
Please join me on Google+.
Best regards,
Richard van der Graaf
Welcome
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Posted in General
Dutch Tulips (up close)
SPRINGTIME 2012
Spring time! However the weather is not that well. If we cannot go outside, we stay in and focus an some typical Dutch flowers: the Tulip. But lets get closer and explore the heart of the Tulip. See below an example. You can find more images under my portfolio -> Flowers and Plants.
All images were taken with the Sigma 150mm f/2.8 Macro.
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Posted in Flower and Plants, Small things
Cold
WINTER 2012
By the end of January we finally got a visit from King Winter. The wind turned and cold air from the east arrived. Temperatures dropped to -15 degrees celcius. We even got -22! So what do we Dutch folks do? Ice skating on our canals and lakes. Lots of people on the ice and skating tours.
From the photographic side, I focussed on the more detailed winter scenes. Feel free to take a look in my portfolio. I created a Winter 2012 album under the Landscape category.
This image of ice crystals was taken with my 150mm Macro.
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Posted in Landscapes, Small things
Mushrooms in Autumn
AUTUMN
What is Autumn without visiting the woods in search for fine mushrooms?
So I headed to our National Park Veluwezoom, location Posbank. Parked the car and went for a hike with camera, macrolens and tripod.
I used the Sigma 150mm f/2.8 all the time.
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Posted in Small things
Using the iPad in the field
TECHNOLOGY
The iPad as a photographers tool? Last year I didn’t thought so. But now….
This summer I started to use my iPad for more than just surfing the web, watch some video’s and listen to music. I explored the possibilities for using the iPad as a photographers tool in the field. More and more I read about photographers who are using the iPad as a true tool. Also the available photo Apps are getting better.
The first thing I needed was the Camera Connection Kit (€29.99). For there is no support for the CF cards of my D300 I have to use the USB connector to connect the D300 to the iPad. The SD card of my wifes D5100 however is read via the SD connector. Both options work fine and you can select the pictures that you want to import. The question that comes up then is whether you can use the iPad as a backup device? It all depends on how much you shoot. From my last visit to Scotland I came back with 12GB on images. So the 16GB iPad will do if you don’t have any music or video’s on it. But using the iPad to it’s fullest, you should go for the 32 or 64 GB.
Next we need editing tools, not to be compared with the full blown Lightroom 3.0 or PS CS5 stuff on the workstation back home. You just need some tools to see if the photo is worth keeping and doing the basic thinks like exposure settings, straighten, sharpening, noise reduction, some filters and borders. I selected two Apps from the App Store. First was Snapseed from Nik Software. A very nice and easy app to get great results. You can even use the famous Control Points. The only feature that I miss is the export setting to my Dropbox. Highly recommended app for only €3.99. For more information on this app, please visit the Niksoftware website: Snapseed
The second editing app I selected is the best editing app at this moment: Filterstorm Pro. As Scott Kelby said: “this is Photoshop for the iPad”. Everything you need for doing the editing in the field is in this app. The strong point of this app lies in using all the filters and brushes. Also good features like adding IPTC information and exporting to Dropbox. It takes more time to learn the app, but once get the flow it is a killer app. Filterstorm Pro is not cheap, €11.99 but worth every Euro. For more information on this app, please visit the website: Filterstorm Pro
But what is a photo when you cannot share or show it! That’s right, you need functions to export the photos to your website or place them in a solid portfolio. First the export function. Filterstorm Pro can export/upload your edited photos to your Dropbox. Dropbox is a free document/photo sharing application making use of cloud technology. When installing the Dropbox application on all your computers and iPad, you can sync all your documents and Photos. A must have app.
Second the portfolio. The standard photo app that comes with you iPad is not the greatest. Just basic photoviewing. We need something more fancy and professional. So I selected the Xtrafolio portfolio app. With this app you can create professional looking portfolios and email the photos with a watermark in it. Easy to use and very powerful. The app costs €13.99. For more information on Xtrafolio, please visit their website: Xtrafolio
So recap. When I’m in the field and want to work on my photos right away I use:
- iPad with the Camera Connection Kit
- Snapseed and Filterstorm Pro for editing
- Dropbox for exporting and sharing
- Xtrafolio for the portfolio
I hope this article is useful for you and will help you explore the possibilities of using the iPad as a photo tool. Enjoy!
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Posted in Technical
First steps in HDR
BUACHAILLE ETIVE MOR
HDR has been around for quite a while. I haven’t paid that much attention to it because I found the images looking unrealistic. Not natural. However, sometimes it shifts to the artistic side and I even like it.
Where do we need the HDR technique for? Well for me with landscape photographs, to balance to exposure and contrast between the sky and the ground. I usually use natural graduation (ND) filters. Just like the old fashion way as we did before the digital era. Unfortunately sometimes the ND filters can’t be used to the max. Simple because the sky also holds parts of a mountain or other subject.
So the ND filter will balance the sky but also darken the mountain. This is not what we want. To accomplish the right balance we can use two techniques.
- Dynamic Range Increase: by selecting parts of an image (usually the sky) and layer it on top of the second image and then blend the image into one.
- High Dynamic Range (HDR): Blending multiple images with different exposures into one. This requires special HDR software.
Last year with my second visit to Glen Coe (Scotland) I encountered the river before Buachaille Etive Mor. The sky was pretty dramatic and dynamic. With normal exposure settings I could not balance the foreground (river and boulders) with the sky and mountain in the background. So I started off with my ND filters. Now the balance came back between the ground and the sky. However, the mountain was also darkened. This was not what I wanted. So I gave it a try with 3 images all with different exposure settings: 0, -1, -2 stops. Back home I loaded the images in PS CS4 with the HDR processor. I did not like the results, so I let it to rest for that time.
Last month I read an article on HDR with PS CS5 and the big improvements. So I grabbed my PS CS5 for digital photographer’s book (by Scott Kelby) and started the work again with the 3 images. This time the results were must better and more natural looking.
HDR - Buachaille Etive Mor
So for me HDR is no longer banded. If you pay attention to the scenery and the subjects you want in your image, HDR can work pretty well. Just give it a try and experience with it like I did. It will not disappoint you. And for those who say that they don’t want to spend the extra time behind the computer I say: “Agreed. But we are doing digital now and the computer is now the digital darkroom. How much time did we spend in the dark room to get that perfect image?” With the modern software like PS CS5 you can make HDR images with a natural look in just a short time.
The image was processed with HDR software and the natural setting. To put more drama into the image, I converted it to black and white. The lens I used was the Tokina 12-24 mm f/4.0
So, a new experience for me working with HDR. But the biggest experience was of course standing there in the river and observing the scenery, enjoying it. Scotland is an awesome country.
Best regards,
Richard.
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Posted in Landscapes, Technical
Carpet of Bluebells
HALLERBOS
The Bluebell (Hyacinth) is a lovely small plant. They can be found together in groups. But what if that group becomes a carpet of Bluebells. This landscape is to be found in the Haller forest (Hallerbos) in Belgium. The Bluebells are growing from April till May but reach their most beautiful colors at the end of April.
So on the 23th of April Peet Hesseling and I drove down to Belgium at 04:30AM in the morning to get there before sunrise. It was a sunny day with not much wind. The carpet was very beautiful. One of the best places to see the Bluebells is in the valley of tears (Tranendal).
As usual, we were not the only photographers that day. To preserve the Bluebells from getting crushed by the photographers, the forest rangers closed all small paths between the fields. All photographers are friends of nature but sometimes when it comes to getting that picture…..
The Forest ranger was patrolling around with his bike, warning everyone who stepped off the main path. A friendly man doing is job. An important job.
The landscape (scenary) images were taken with my Nikkor AFD 80-200mm f/2.8 and the Macro images with my Sigma APO 150mm f/2.8.
I posted my images of the Haller forest in my portfolio under the category ‘Landscapes’. Please take a look!
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Posted in Landscapes, Small things
Flock of Starlings
AIRSHOW
On a cold sunday, late afternoon, my buddy Peet and I went out to an open field in our town to watch the acrobatic airshow of many many Starlings. It all started around 18:00 hours and ended at 19:00 when they all hit the trees for the night.
This flock of Starlings really created some amazing figures in the evening sky. I have never seen so many birds all together and performing like that! A beauty to see. Ofcourse we brought our camera’s with us to capture this amazing airshow. We used slow shutterspeeds and followed the flock to get dynamic and abstract images.
My images were taken with the Nikkor 24-85mm f/2.8-4.0.
For all the images, please take a look under the Portfolio section, category Birds.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the images just as I.
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Posted in Birds
Austrian Alps
NIEDERTHAI
Last february we visited the Austrian Alps for our winter holiday. We stayed in a small village named Niederthai at 1.550 meters above sealevel. Niederthai is located in the Otztal. Our hotel was ‘der Veitenhof’ above Niederthai. Beautiful located, excellent bio food and very friendly people. Besides the skiing and snowboarding, we also went for hiking, relaxing and enjoying the beautiful scenery. And beautiful it was!
During the first couple of days we got fresh snow. Lot’s of clouds and mist. We couldn’t even see the mountains. But then on those blue sunny days… whow!
Below Niederthai lies one of Austria’s tallest waterfalls. The Stubenfall. It is 150 meters in height and during the winter parts of this waterfall are frozen. There are several platforms near the waterfall to get a good view. You can get pretty close to it.
I also enjoyed taking pictures of rocks covered with ice in the river at the beginning of the waterfall. The rapids and the fast flowing water make it a photographers paradise.
The images were taken with my 12-24mm f/4.0 and 80-200mm f/2.8
I used a polarization filter to darken the blue sky, reducing water/sun reflection and to slow down the shutterspeed to get blurry water. To further slow down the shutterspeed I used a neutral density filter. To frame the image and to get sharp images, I used a tripod.
So what is the ‘Outdoor Experience’ here? Wandering around in a winterworld all by yourself. Feel the cold fresh air on your face and on the same time the warmth of the sun. No cars, no sounds. Just the snow beneath your feet. Last but not least, the spectaculair view of those mountains all around you.
Please take a look in the Portfolio section: Landscapes -> Austria 2011.
Dipper in the snow
Dipper in the snow
Mid-December my buddy Peet and I had a nice encounter with a Dipper. Wandering through the Amsterdam Waterleiding Duinen (AWD) looking for wildlife and white landscape images, some fellow photographers told us about the Dipper. It was just around the corner, on the bank of a creek. The Dipper is a pretty unique bird so we were thrilled. Let me say, we were not the only photographers on scene. And the Dipper, it was posing for us as a model.
Photoshop CS5 book
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Looking for a great book on Photoshop CS5, check out Scott Kelby’s Adobe Photoshop CS5 for digital photographers. Scott explains step-by-step how to create professional images. All with clear screenshots.
For the Dutch readers, the ISBN number is: 9789043020992
