Wilson Prom is a peninsula, which is the southernmost point of the Australian mainland. Its coastline is about 130km in length and it is framed by granite headlands, mountains, forests and fern gullies.

During my visit there it was very windy. Winds reached speeds of 65 km/h, which made it pretty difficult to photograph the place, but the ever-changing clouds created a very moody atmosphere.

This photo was taken on the beach. I liked this small water canal and the ripples on it. If you look closely the rock on the left resembles head of a dolphin. Actually I didn’t notice that until my father saw this photo and pointed it out.

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The river in the next photos named Tidal River. It is the main river in Wilson Promontory. It runs into Norman Bay and swells with the tide (hence the name). The river has a very interesting color, a purple-yellow. This is due to the large amount of tea trees in the area, which stain the water with tannin giving it a tea-like appearance.

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Here I wanted to emphasize the texture of the boulders, and I also wanted a minimalist look. Lack of color achieved it in my opinion.

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This is the famous whale rock. As you can see it resembles whale’s head.

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In about 100 meters from here forward Tidal River meets the ocean. The next photo and the rest of them was made on my second day at Wilson Prom. The winds weakened, and the weather improved a little. As a result you can see people swimming in the river.

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The photo below was pretty heavy processed. I shot it into into the sun, which made the lower part very under exposed, and I had to increase fill light to a horrible 87 percent in Lightroom! I must really start thinking of purchasing ND Grads… Nevertheless I really like the composition and feel of this photograph.

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I always loved to photograph the ocean. As you can see Tidal River gives its color to the ocean making it look very unusual but also very beautiful to me. Clouds add the final touch, and below you can see the result.

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I’m convinced that photographers don’t give seagulls enough attention, and I’ve decided to fix that. In coastal Australia seagulls are everywhere, and they are not afraid of humans. On the contrary – they are always near, waiting for food. I found a nice location at one of the picnic areas, and took many shots of seagulls with the help of my 3 year old nephew who was throwing them food

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And last but not least two photos from the Squeaky Beach. The photo on the right is called “The Elephant Legs”. These rocks looked magnificent, and I want you, the viewers, to concentrate on their shapes and textures, hence the b&w.

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I used tripod for most of the photos you saw here. Just to give you an idea – I shot about 570 images in total, from them I deleted 520, and the photos you saw here were the chosen ten. If you liked these photos, you can see eight more on my Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/photopathway

As always any comments are appreciated!

Till the next time, take care

Greg.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Hello Everybody!

This is another photo-sharing post. Recently I had the time to revive my small home studio, so while I was at it, I took some photos… actually I took a lot of photos, most of which aren’t worthy of sharing.

Here’s the only two I liked:

This photo was taken inside light tent with two flashes (one from each side). I call it “Almost  Symmetrical”. Nothing much to it, just having fun

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And I also liked this abstract photo, which is really a closeup of glass filled with cold bubbling mineral water, with yellow light in background.

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As always your comments are highly appreciated.

See you next time!

Greg

Popularity: 3% [?]

Those of you who frequently visit my blog  probably know that I like shooting sunsets, so now I want to share some of my recent shots.

This one has strange colors, but I like it anyway.  I was shooting sunset from the pier and suddenly in the far distance I saw this ship. I quickly changed to my telephoto lens, and made a few clicks. But something was missing… the photo was empty. Then a bird appeared in my viewfinder, and I got this shot.

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Here is one pretty simple photo. I like its simplicity, and I also like colors and reflections in this photo.

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I wish the girl on the boat would come closer, but this is the best I could do under the circumstances

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This shot was also taken with my telephoto lens because I wanted to isolate a small part of the shoreline.

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I call the photo below “classic sea sunset photograph” – setting sun, orange water, two silhouettes…

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This collection wouldn’t be complete without a little humor. I was shooting standing under the pier (you can see photo from that location in this post), when two boys came and sat on it. I quickly turned and had time to take only one photograph. After a few moments one of the boys ran away, and it wasn’t that interesting anymore.

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I hope you liked the photos. Feel free to comment on them!

Till the next time, take care!

Greg.

Popularity: 2% [?]

In one of my previous articles I wrote about shooting with intention for B&W (tip number 6), and not merely looking at your photos and trying to convert them to B&W to see if that looks good. Now I would like to add the concept “seeing in black and white”. It comes to you when you shoot a lot of b&w images – you then gain the ability to look at your composition and in your mind see how it would look in b&w. Sometimes, the weather is such that you don’t need this ability – the colors are simply black (dark gray) and white (light gray), but on other occasions the sky may be blue with white clouds and everything around you so colorful that imagining how it would look in b&w would be difficult. This is when the “seeing in black and white” skill comes handy.

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Sometimes the scene itself calls for b&w, as it was with this garden statue. This woman was standing in this garden for a long time and her skin turned from pearl white to muddy gray, the same happened to the color of the fence, and in any case the emphasis here is not on the color.

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Black and white in photography often helps to convey mood, and emphasize shapes and textures.

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Here is another example of emphasizing shapes by shooting in black ans white.

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Did I mention mood already? I just love it when the sky looks like it is going to rain any minute, and light is dim. These minutes before the rain are great for capturing photos such as this one. I wish there would be a bird sitting on the hanger at the foreground though…

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I hope you liked the photographs, and I’ll see you next time!

As always your comments, thoughts, and experiences are highly appreciated.

Cheers,
Greg.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Ursula has very unique photographic style, and a lot of talent. I first saw her work on 1x.com and then followed to her own web site. I find it very fascinating how through abstract forms and colors Ursula manages to convey various moods, feelings, and emotions. I was very happy when Ursula agreed to this interview because I had so many questions to ask her!

Everybody please meet Ursula

Tell a little about yourself. Are you a full time photographer?

I was born in the north-eastern part of Argentina, not too far from Iguazu Falls.  I grew up in both Argentina and Chile.  I moved to the USA to attend university, and eventually moved permanently to Canada.  I now am Canadian, living in the interior of beautiful British Columbia.  British Columbia is a beautiful province.  It’s a mountainous area, with lots of trees, lakes and rivers, waterfalls, rocks, and wildlife.  For me, it’s a great place to live.

I am married.  My husband and I have five children.  I have a degree in Education with a major in Art and History. Currently I dedicate most of my time to photography.

Do you have other hobbies?

I don’t have any hobbies at this time, although I love beadwork, hiking, and reading mysteries.

Can you describe the “mental” process of creating a photograph? What I mean is how do you decide to take a photo? Do you see something that catches your attention and photograph it, or first the idea of a certain photo comes to you and then you execute it?

It’s a variety of things.
At times I set out very deliberately to make a certain kind of image.  For example, “bounce” is such an image.  I participate at DPChallenge occasionally.  One of the challenges last year was “Point of Color”, where the assignment was to capture an image where a point of color is the main subject.

Photo by Ursula Abresch. Click on the photo to enlarge.

I decided to photograph a group of paper strips taped together at one end for this challenge.  I entered a different photo into the challenge, but “bounce” was the result of this assignment.  The composition, the setup, everything was quite deliberate.  ”Coastal dawn” is a similar story.  I had been experimenting with waterscapes, closeups of reflections on water in a pan, and I deliberately set out to create a sunset/sunrise impression.  Most of my studio work is quite deliberate.

I prefer to work outdoors though, in natural light.  When working outdoors I usually have a theme for the day.  For example, “an autumn song” and “late fall” are both made on days when I set out to capture the mood and the spirit of Autumn.  One was made in October, the other in November of last year.

Photos by Ursula Abresch. Click on the photo to enlarge.

Sometimes I set out to work on a particular technique.  In those cases I am not so interested in the subject, but more in the potential of the subject for a particular technique.  Two examples are “bittersweet” and “burn”. The objective was to make photos that would be good for HDR processing techniques.  I think they worked well for that exercise.

Photos by Ursula Abresch. Click on the photo to enlarge.

Same with “needles”: the idea here was to practice using the Lensbaby.  The subject/final photo wasn’t planned, what was planned was the method.  I am happy with the result nevertheless.

Photo by Ursula Abresch. Click on the photo to enlarge.

Sometimes a photo just happens.  ”Hunter” is such a photo.  I was driving home to Canyon Village in Yellowstone National Park on a rainy evening, and this scene happened.  I am glad it did.

Photo by Ursula Abresch. Click on the photo to enlarge.

Finally there are the photos that are conceived over time and carried out mainly in Photoshop.  ”Revelation” and “my BC” are like that.  ”My BC” uses 2 pictures, one made in April of last year, the other in August.  They are combined in Photoshop for the final image.  The base photo for “revelation” was made in the Fall of 2009, the idea for the final image didn’t come to me until a year later, when I was experimenting with adding texture files to images to create more visual interest and intensify the story.  I think the process worked well in both instances.

Photos by Ursula Abresch. Click on the photo to enlarge.

What are your sources of inspiration?

The place where I live, British Columbia, has become an important source of inspiration in my photography.  It is a subject for some of my more representational images, and also for many of my more abstract images, where I try to reflect the essence of a subject, or where I use a subject to express emotion.  For example, many of my closeup images of the Columbia river are an attempt to reflect my own thoughts and feelings in pictures.

Painters from Canada, in particular Western Canada also influence my work.  We live in the same world, so I like to see if I can see what they saw the way they saw it.  The works of Emily Carr, especially her fantastic studies and paintings of trees, are a constant source of inspiration for my photos.  For a while, and even now, I was quite inspired by the works of Takao Tanabe, a more recent painter than Emily Carr, especially his waterscapes.  Lately I’ve been looking at works by the Group of Seven, in particular Lawren Harris and A.Y. Jackson – I find their work very inspiring!

Last, I’ve been trying to familiarize myself with at least some of the printmaking by First Nations people in British Columbia, trying to find ways to apply some of their concepts to my photography.

Do you try to learn from other photographers?

Yes.  I look at the work of other photographers all the time, and try to learn from them.  Some names that come to mind are Freeman Patterson, Dorothea Lange, Alfred Stieglitz, John Shaw, Galen Rowell, Tim Fitzharris, Irving Penn (especially his still-life work).

But as mentioned in the last question, more so than from photographers I learn from painters.

What makes great photograph to stand out from other good photographs?

Good technical skills are essential.  But photograph that stands out is a creative visual composition with one or more of the following: excellent light, captivating mood, compelling story, irresistible graphic appeal.  Not all are present in all great photographs, but some always are.  Some pictures draw you in because they tell such a good story.  Others because you can strongly feel the mood when you look at it.  Yet others simply overwhelm you with the beauty of their design.  In my view, the more characteristics combined into one photo, the stronger the overall appeal.

You have beautiful abstract photos, such as “Femininity”, “Firewater”, “Coastal Dawn”, “Drifting”. How do you create them? Is this made in camera or there is Photoshop involved?

There is Photoshop involved in all of my photos.  For me, and for any digital photographer, it wouldn’t be possible to make a final print without using Photoshop or some other photo-editing software at some stage.  Making the final print is the goal, and in the digital world you can’t do that without software.

Photos by Ursula Abresch. Click on the photo to enlarge.

The four photos you mentioned are all done in studio.  Three (“firewater”, “coastal dawn” and “drifting”) are closeups of reflections in a pan of water.  ”Femininity” is also a closeup of a reflection in a pan of water but with a glass vase partially submerged into the water as the point of focus.  Imagine being by a calm lake in Autumn, sun behind you shining on the beautiful trees at the other side of the lake.  What do you see on the surface of the lake?  A beautiful reflection of the Autumn colors.  That is essentially what I am doing here, using a pan of water and reflective materials on the far side to make closeups of these reflections on the surface of the water.  For added interest, the water in the pan is not still but moved around.  The setup is quite simple, and the results are somewhat predictable but not entirely, at least not yet, for me.  The variable is the water movement.

Photos by Ursula Abresch. Click on the photo to enlarge.

In “coastal dawn” I deliberately put a red dot on the blue reflective material with the intention of simulating a sunset or sunrise.  I think it worked.  In “femininity” I put the vase in the water and moved water over it while photographing because I wanted an interaction between the very hard edge of the glass and the soft movement of the water.  The other two, “firewater” and “drifting” are simply closeups of the colorful reflections on the surface of the moving water.
I have to add- this method is not my invention.  I learned to make this kind of pictures from Willy Marthinussen at 1x.com.

How did you learn to use Photoshop?

I started out editing my images in Paint Shop Pro.  I switched to Photoshop in 2007.  I learned mainly by trial and error, but also by asking questions of other photographers on the net at sites such as DPChallenge. I have worked my way through a few online tutorials, and that also was helpful.

I can’t help it, but I have to know technical details. What equipment do you use?

I started out with Nikon digital because I liked the name “Nikon” better than “Canon”.  I also liked the intuitive menus, the way the Nikon fit in my hands, and the slightly less creamy look of the photos.

Camera bodies:
Nikon D200 and Nikon D7000

Lenses:
Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8
Nikon MF Nikkor 200mm f/4 AIS
Nikon MF Zoom-Nikkor 75-150mm f/3.5 E
Lensbaby 2.0
Sigma 150mm f/2.8 EX APO Macro EX DG HSM
Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 APO DG Macro
Tokina AF 12-24mm f/4.0 AT-X Pro DX

Other:
Manfrotto 055PROB tripod with Manfrotto 486RC2 ball head

Processing:
PSCS4 and Photomatix on a MacBook Pro connected to a Cinema Screen
HP B9180 Photosmart Pro printer

Do you use  flashes and light modifiers ?

I use available light most of the time.  I do have a Nikon SB600 flash that I use occasionally, for example in the creation of waterscapes such as the four images you mentioned in your question about my abstracts.

And finally, my traditional question: If you had only one advice to give to beginner photographer, what would it be?

Always remember that technical skills are essential, but it is artistic perception that finally makes the photo.

Thank you Ursula for taking time to answer my questions and for your beautiful and inspiring work!

If you liked Ursula’s work and want to see more you can visit her page at 1x.com or her own website at www.ursulasphotos.com/

Popularity: 5% [?]