A Winter Wonderland

One of my favorite locations within a reasonable driving distance is Schloss Lichtenstein. One of our first snow-days of the season proved to be the perfect time to revisit this castle. When we arrived, the location boasted a virtual 'winter wonderland' and completely blew our minds. The fresh, white-covered ground contrasting to the clean blue sky produced a vibrant and 'dreamy' view to this historic location.

(ISO 100, f/13 @ 1/100)

http://kroghstudios.blogspot.de/p/pic-of-week-archives.html

Revisiting Amazing Locations

A recap from a special camping spot... Loved it here in Monument Valley, Utah. The night shot below basically shows the view I had from my tent as the moon rose over the valley. The early morning image was shot at 5:30 AM somewhat farther down in the desert. This was a truly special spot to hang and I am anxiously awaiting the opportunity to return here again.

left:  ISO 100, f/5.6 @ 15 sec.

right: ISO 100, f/11 @ 8 sec.

Contrast yet Complimentary

Triberg Waterfalls-- tallest/largest falls in Germany. Here a favorite spot along the falls, boasting a beautiful perspective... now just to capture the same scene during winter, possibly frozen.
On the right, A jetty stretching out into the Atlantic Ocean in my former Home of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

I placed these images together as a contrast between two extremes. Both images using long-exposure to bring about a dynamic perspective to normal destinations often not captured in the right light. Also, both images use completely different color pallets-- however, as green and magenta are complimentary colors they fit well next to one another.

left: Triberg Waterfall,  Black Forest-- Germany

D90, ISO 100, f/20 @ 5 sec.
right: Rehoboth Beach, Delaware-- USA
D200, ISO 100, f/11 @ 30 sec.

'Individuals' Europe

After a month in Europe, I have had the opportunity to meet some really cool people. Here is a small sample from my ongoing campaign to take portraits of the people I meet along the way. We usually get to spend some time hanging out talking. This is so, once the images are published to my webpage, you can find out a little about them too. These make for some fun conversations as not everyone speaks the same language. Luckily, within most places my native German and English have been well enough understood.

This project, an extension of last years US cross-country drive (http://www.kroghstudios.com/index2.php#!/FEATURED) has been one amazing ongoing meet & greet with personalities and characters truly unique. Not all the images are perfectly executed, however each experience is something new and special and combined with the photograph becomes timeless in itself.

I hope you will enjoy the below preview and continue to check back while the project rolls on and I find more time to write the articles and post the images to my page (www.kroghstudios.com)

Niagara Falls

Looking into the United States at sunrise from my hotel room in Canada feels like a mouthful but turns out to be one of the most zen and relaxing sights ever. Niagara Falls was an amazing force of nature to behold. Nights, the are lit from the Canadian side with spot lights that color the falls. After a sunrise view this great the only thing left is to climb aboard the Maid of the Mist and get close and completely soaked.

Revisiting this location is a definite must and I recommend it to anyone and everyone... But beware, everything here has a 100% mark-up and falls into the 'tourist-trap' category. It's over commercialized and seems more like a little Reno or a beach resort, rather than a natural wounder.

Canada is a beautiful country with amazing contrasts to it's southern neighbor. Quebec feels more like France as Ottawa more like England. The people were all friendly and the food great-- I love Canada :)

'Pic Of The Week'

So, every week, I've been updating this page with pictures from previous projects or just files that I feel strongly about, yet are rarely ever seen. I began with just posting pictures every Sunday but felt a little explanation to where/why and what compelled me to shoot the image would be desirable. I have finally written some texts to accompany the photographs that should allow some insight to these works.

http://kroghstudios.blogspot.com/p/pic-of-week-archives.html

Location, Location, Location!

Here, one of my favorite spots in America. This is actually the view I had from my tent that night as the moon rose over the valley. Monument Valley, Utah has got to be one of the most amazing, breathtaking views ever-- other than maybe the Grand Canyon. If you'd like to see the actual view I had from inside my tent, please go to the 'Pic of the Week' archive. Can't wait to get back to this beautiful spot of American countryside!!!

Above, using an HDR teqnique and stitching 16 of said HDR images together, 

I was able to capture this beautiful moon-rising over the canyon.

High Dynamic Range (HDR)

When discussing HDRI (High Dynamic Range Imaging), it's probably best to start out with what the term 'Dynamic' means. 'Dynamic' - pertaining to or characterized by energy or effective action; vigorously active or forceful; energetic. So, you may translate this into the realm of photography by comparing the 'dynamic range' to how much the shadows and highlight areas of a given image can yield visible and quality information-- so the more shadow, mid-tone and highlight detail a photograph has, the more 'range' of information it shows, thus the higher 'dynamic range' it yields.

The common misconception most people have to HDR is they think, the only way to achieve such a shot is to take three or more separately exposed images and layer them. Once layered, you and your software can begin to decide how much from each exposure you choose to show, thus eventually bringing about a visual of extreme shadows and blown-out highlights with perfect detail and a more balanced exposure. The problem here is this: we as humans already see the world in HDR and 3D, so when a photograph is transferred to HDR, it usually is going to look fake and most people who try HDR always overdue it anyways. My problem with the layering style of HDR is, well, it is fake... In many cases it just seems like a cheat to not lighting your subject correctly or waiting for the right time of day.

When we speak of dynamic range in the realm of digital cameras we are talking about how much shadow to highlight information a digital sensor will capture. A 1.4crop Nikon sensor isn't a bad sensor, as it captures just as many megapixels as all the others. Were in comparison it lacks quality is the 'stops' of light it captures, where a full frame sensor would do a little better. A big reason why top-of-the-line photographers shoot with medium format digital camera isn't just because of the megapixels-- the sensors are much larger and thus can capture far better range of info between shadows and highlights.

So, to put everything into context: HDR can be a well-balanced-flash lit image, correctly balanced daylight (e.g. right time of day) for even lighting, multiple images layered together... or an extremely expensive and awesome medium/large format digital sensor. All these styles of photography yield a higher dynamic range of information than most standard snap-shots and thus constitute a HDRI (high-dynamic-range-image.)

Yellowstone National Park

6:10am-- September 28, 2011

Nikon D90, 100 ISO, f/16

3 layered images each 2stops apart using shutter-speeds

Beauty, Happiness, Love

As I am sure, everyone's aware that the wedding season and spring are now fast approaching. If it's your special day in the making, I know you have much to do and think about. From booking a band to picking your flowers and ordering a cake, there is so much to consider... If booking a photographer for your wedding day is still on that list of things to find, check out some of my work and give me a call ;-)

Still Shooting Analogue ;-)

Times have changed and with that, so has the industry. Most photographers shoot purely digital these days. Unfortunately, the industry demands it-- a month-long deadline has shortened to a week and a week dead-line has turned into 'next-day delivery.' With this extreme speed up in production time, there is no longer room for analogue processing.

Digital may have advantages of it's own, like speed and image fidelity (or even megapixels for those that think it matters.) The problem that digital photography has presented is "instant gratification." Many will argue that the little screen on the back of the camera was 'god send' and made a huge jump in the right direction. For some years, the digital technology seemed to make everything easier, more fun and exciting to use. After some time, I realized it really wasn't all good-- the overhead cost of working in digital is actually far higher than analogue. Other than that, the instant gratification of being able to see your image immediately led to laziness...

Watching people shoot, I realized that less and less photographers were calculating exposures, flash output or even planning out their compositions correctly-- one could always check the screen or fix/crop it in Photoshop. If I had a dollar for each time I heard someone say one of these phrases...well, you get the picture.

To attempt and remove myself from these bad habits, which I've caught myself doing as well, I began making it a point to shoot film again. The return of this medium into my work allowed me to take things slower, think everything through a bit better and re-connect with the 'art' and technical aspect of light, time and composition.

Here are a few recent images taken with my Diana which shoots square format and half-square on 35mm film-- they were scanned using an Epson V600 scanner. These photos were taking on various different types of film ranging from crisp and clean 100ISO Fujifilm to red-balanced film by Lomography. You gotta keep experimenting as you go-- that's what its all about (oh, and having some fun!)

(click images to view larger)

(click images to view larger)