Visualization - The way Ansel Adams achieved great success

I would assume that all readers know who Ansel Adams was. If not, read a little about him here.

Ansel Adams is probably the most influential photographer of all time.

There is this continuing debate about post-processing images being sort of cheating as the final results are not exactly what the original photograph looked like. Ansel Adams modified his negatives in the darkroom to where the final results weren't exactly like the original shot. He called that "Visualization" and as he said himself in the following video clip; "I come across something that excites me, I see the picture of my mind's eye, and I make the photograph. Now I give it to you as equivalent to what I saw and felt. The whole key lies very specifically in seeing in the mind's eye, which we call visualization".

Ansel Adams post-processed his negatives in his darkroom to where the pictures weren't necessarilly reality as he had seen them, but the way he had visualized the photographs in his mind's eye. It is very much the equivalent of today's digital photographs, post-processed in a digital darkroom. If it was okay for him, it must be okay for me.

I use Adobe Lightroom in my workflow and I always tweak my pictures to what my mind's eye saw. We are so lucky to live in a time where we have so much latitude in our creativity.

See the video and interview of Michael Adams, son of Ansel Adams, and Ansel Adams himself toward the end of the video.

http://www.fastcompany.tv/video/michael-adams-yosemite

I saw the above link on Photo.net, posted by "Fredrik Rygge" and I thought it was very interesting and worthy of sharing it with all of you. I hope you enjoy it.

P.S. I am taking a week vacation starting on July 3rd, and I will be spending the week in Yosemite National Park, actually in Tuolumme Meadows which is on the East side of Yosemite. I am bringing all my Pentax gear but, specifically, I will be trying the K20D and the K200D and the new DA*200mm and 300mm lenses. I will post photographs and a photographer's review of the cameras and lenses upon my return. Thank you for reading,

Yvon Bourque

If you don't like charts, and do not need to have precise dimension of what the front or back focus are, there is an even simpler solution, pointed out this week. It's the batteries test. Put batteries (at least 3 of them) in a 45 degree position. If your lens is a telephoto and cannot focus close enough, use coke cans or bigger similar objects. Aim the center focus at the center battery and see what is in focus. That's as simple as it gets.

I know it's not very scientific, but it can work.

Best Regards and thank you for reading,

Yvon Bourque

PART-2. Autofocus Adjustment charts for fron and back focusing problems.

Auto-Focus * Front and back focusing charts updated. The good news is that it's still free.

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com

 Hi Photographer friends,

Do you have front or back focusing problems with some of your lenses or DSLR? You could spent in excess of One hundred dollars to get a manufactured lens aligning devices, or get mine for free. It does the same job and it cost nothing.

Why would I give it away? I love photography and I made some great cyber friends through my blogsite.  It's my way to contribute a little, and help up and coming photographers. It can help Advanced and Pro Photographers as well. 

For almost six years, my AF charts have been downloaded all over the world. The charts are downloaded on an average of five hundred times everyday. It was originally designed for the Pentax K20D, but I updated the charts by deleting any camera specific instructions, and by revising images and some of the instructions. I believe it is more user friendly than before. You be the judge. The charts (3) are now all inclusive in one downloadable package and are for every brands of DSLR cameras such as Pentax, Nikon, Canon, Sony, Olympus, and all other brands that have the capability of adjusting the AF settings of each of your lenses. Let your friends, that use other brand of camera than yours, know about the charts.

Download the Charts here right now.

Thank you for following my blogsite for the last six years.

Yvon Bourque

 

PART-1. Autofocus Adjustment charts for front and back focusing problems. Good for Pentax, Canon and Nikon.

Auto-Focus * Front and back focusing charts updated. The good news is that it's still free.

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com

 Hi Photographer friends,

Do you have front or back focusing problems with some of your lenses or DSLR? You could spent in excess of One hundred dollars to get a manufactured lens aligning devices, or get mine for free. It does the same job and it cost nothing.

Why would I give it away? I love photography and I made some great cyber friends through my blogsite.  It's my way to contribute a little, and help up and coming photographers. It can help Advanced and Pro Photographers as well. 

For almost six years, my AF charts have been downloaded all over the world. The charts are downloaded on an average of five hundred times everyday. It was originally designed for the Pentax K20D, but I updated the charts by deleting any camera specific instructions, and by revising images and some of the instructions. I believe it is more user friendly than before. You be the judge. The charts (3) are now all inclusive in one downloadable package and are for every brands of DSLR cameras such as Pentax, Nikon, Canon, Sony, Olympus, and all other brands that have the capability of adjusting the AF settings of each of your lenses. Let your friends, that use other brand of camera than yours, know about the charts.

Download the Charts here right now.

Thank you for following my blogsite for the last six years.

Yvon Bourque

My K20D book is now available in e-book form.

I am pleased to announce that my K20D book is now available in PDF format. It is downloadable for only $15.00 (no shipping costs). It is readable on your monitor and printable. The printed version has a very light Copyright notice so that I can protect my intellectual rights. The notice is much smaller than the K10D e-book version. It will not be in the way of your reading. What's more, all the pictures are in color with the PDF file. It is available at:

http://www.pentaxdslrs.com/

Download excerpts for free (About 1/3 of the book) and judge for yourself before buying.

http://pentaxdslrs.com/k20dsample.pdf

You can also download excerpts of the book at the same location for free.

Thank you,

Yvon Bourque

My Stepson is hicking the Pacific Crest Trail. Too bad he doesn't have a Pentax DSLR.

Donovan and his Mother, in Tehachapi, where we met him for a weekend.

Newly found trail friends.

I am posting a little outside my usual Pentax blog Today. I love photography and try to take advantage of every chance I get to photograph nature at its best. My stepson "Donavan" is currently hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, which is around 2800 miles long. It starts at the Mexican Border and goes all the way to the Canadian Border. Every year, a handful of nature and hiker enthusiasts embark on this long journey. Most of the trail is at altitudes above 5000 feet and more. Not too many succeed to hike the entire trail. They usually start at the Mexican Border in April and get to the Canadian Border early fall. This is the only way to minimize the danger caused by the treacherous snow covered mountains on the North end of the trail.

I would like to hike that way and take nature pictures along the trail, but I am not in good enough physical shape to take on such an endeavor. We communicate with Donovan when he is able to call us. We send him food supplies that he picks up in various pre-determined Post Offices in small Towns along the way. He sends us back memory cards of video and still shots that he takes along the trail. Unfortunately, he uses A Sony digital camcorder and the "still” files are not as good quality as they would be if he was using a K20D or even a K100D. Weight is paramount to his success and he keeps all supplies and life saving items to the minimum weight. Therefore, I took some of his "Sony Digicam" best still pictures and enhanced them a little for posting here. I hope you enjoy them. Maybe some of you have hiked the PCT!

As for me, I use my Jeep Wrangler to go to hard-to-reach places. If the Jeep can't go, it means I can't go.

I only go as far as my Jeep will take me.

You can visit Donovan's blogsite at:

http://pctdreamitseeitdoit.blogspot.com/

My wife and I keep news and post pictures as he progresses on his trip, for friends, family, newly found trail friends, anyone interested in hiking, and you. My wife was raised around nature near Yosemite and Kings Canyon when she was a child. Check here for her stories about nature and wild bears.
http://pctdreamitseeitdoit.blogspot.com/2008/06/people-pictures-from-pacific-crest.html

Hope you enjoy it all,

Thank you for reading,

Yvon Bourque

Is it just me?

Once a week or more, I can be seen in Barnes & Nobles, looking at what's new on the shelves in the photography section and the magazines section. I usually find all of the new photography magazines on the rack and bring them with me in the coffee section. I sit at a table, order myself a Starbuck coffee, and I scan through all the magazines.

The first thing I do is look if there are any reviews of any of the Pentax equipment. I then put those magazines aside. Here in California, or at least where I live, you can get all of the American published magazines, one from Canada and most of the magazines published in the United Kingdom. The American magazines are priced from about $5.00 to $8.00. The Canadian Magazine "Photo Life" is priced at $5.95 and the United Kingdom magazines are very expensive at $10.00 to $12.00 and more. (It's understandable because of the shipping costs, I guess).

The magazines from the U.K. usually have a lot more detailed "How to" sections about photography in general. The advertisements are not very useful to me as equipment prices are generally higher than here in the United States. So, most of the times, I read the U.K. magazines at the book store and put them back on the shelves except when they have very informative Pentax material. They simply cost too much for what you get out of them. If they were priced about the same as the U.S. magazines, I probably would buy them all.

Next, I go through all the U.S. magazines that have no special review or article about Pentax. I'm looking for articles that can help me be a better photographer. I have been reading or buying photography magazines since I was about fifteen years old. It is amazing to see the same subjects coming back over and over again through the years. They are brought back by new authors, with a few twists for the Digital SLR cameras, but Aperture, Shutter Speeds, Rule-of-Third, Depth of Field, etc, are still meaning the same as before. It is useful for folks that are just getting into photography and want to learn as much as they can. Frankly, Photography Books are a better resource for entry-level photographers. They have a lot more to offer in terms of learning the trade. They are a little more costly than magazines, but you usually get all what you need in one book, instead of many magazines. That said, magazines do sell a lot, otherwise there wouldn't be so many on the stands every Month. I buy at least $50.00 of magazines myself every Month and occasionally, I buy a new book. I tend to buy books about the computer side of photography, such as Lightroom, Photoshop, etc.

Books for the Pentax DSLRs are rare and I believe that here in the USA, the Magic Lantern publishing company and I are the only two resources for Pentax DSLRs cameras. Although I write books for the Pentax cameras, I have purchased the Magic Lantern K10D and K20D books. If there were more Pentax books, I would buy them all.

I always purchase the Canadian magazine "Photo Life". I like their approach to photography and it always remind me of where I'm from, being a Canadian expatriated to California.

When I visit my family in Montreal, which is not very often, I always purchase every magazine available in French. I do like "Chasseur D'images" which is published in France but available in Canada. I tried to subscribe to it but it seems that they do not ship their magazine to the United States. Oh well...

Now, back to the magazines with Pentax reviews that I have set aside, I'm usually done with my coffee by then, and I just proceed to the check out and purchase them all. I put myself to sleep every night reading my magazines. It sometimes takes me a week to read a magazine because I fall asleep in the middle of an article and try to get back to it the next night, or the night after that, all depending on how tired I am. I read every article, every ad of all the magazines I purchase. I clip everything Pentax so that I can refer to them when I write a new book about Pentax DSLRs or just for reference.

I would say that I might be a little obsessed with my Pentax equipment, but isn't it what all Pentaxians do?

Thank you for reading, and I hope you didn't fall asleep at the keyboard. That's best done with magazines. Let me know what your approach to magazines is.

Yvon Bourque

Some suggestions on photographing local car shows with your Pentax DSLR

I am not sure about all Countries in the world, but here in America, it seems like every town has regular car shows. I'm not talking about a three day event, inside a coliseum, with a steep admission fee. I'm talking about local shows, involving local car enthusiasts and usually held in a parking lot of a restaurant or along the Main street, and free for all. It's a place where everyone can go and look at all the work some guys have done to their car, antique car, roadster, Pick-up truck, etc.

We have several of these shows each week where I live and since we are along the path of the old "Route 66", it even more prominent around this region. Every Thursday night, in the parking of "Farmer Boys" restaurant, people gather to look at the restored old cars and customized cars and trucks. Often, music is supplied by local talents. It's a place for owners to show their beloved machine and a place for everyone to admire them.

There is something about the love of automobiles in the heart of all Americans. It seems that most like to photograph cars. One problem I found in these car shows is that it is difficult to photograph the cars without having someone in your way, or having a cluttered background, or the cars being too close together. About two or three weeks ago, I went to the show with my K20D and brought two lenses with me; the DA 10-17mm lens and the DA 16-45mm lens. Most of the pictures I took were with the DA 10-17mm lens. It allowed me to get very close to each car, and by getting very low to the ground, I was able to isolate the cars successfully. Some of the pictures were just a portion of a car, but easily recognizable.

I think that one of the biggest mistakes that photographers do, including me, is that we don't get close enough to our subjects. Sometimes, we are so far from our subjects that it becomes hard for someone else to look at our pictures and recognize what is the actual main subject.When I take my time and really think what the picture I'm about to take should be entitled, or what message or story it should convey to the viewers, I find that I am more successful. So, for this kind of events, get close, think about what the picture should be entitled, ask yourself if the image in your viewfinder will convey the intended message or story to the viewers, and if the answer is yes… click! If the answer is uncertain, move to a different location or angle. If you just shoot at random, you may still get good pictures. However, you might even surprise yourself at what message the pictures convey, and it might not be even close to what you intended it to be.Simplicity is also a key to good photographs.

This is just my way to photograph. Some like my pictures, and some don't. The important thing is...go out there and take some pictures.

Thank you for reading,

Yvon Bourque