Open Window

Light Painting

Photograph by: The collective efforts of Claudia Ward, Peter Tooker & Sarah Ward

Most of you know that I've been taking an eClass on Night Photography. This week's assignment has been Light Painting. Quite honestly, it's not the easiest form of photography to explain, but I encourage everyone to explore the subject in detail with Kent Weakley in his classes.

For the purpose of this post, let me simply say that light painting is done in a completely dark environment, with sources of light like flashlights, pen lights, and small LEDs. For this kind of photography, shutter speed is almost a "none-event" ... you can open the shutter, paint a still-life scene with various colored lights and when you're done simply close the shutter. It's a very different way of thinking ... at least for this photographer. The results are unpredictable at the start, happy accidents as you practice and improve, and thrillingly dramatic and artistic as you give yourself to the process, and the freedom and creativity it affords.

Now picture this: my little sister, my husband, and me, all in a roughly 8x8 bathroom, in the dark with the windows covered to blacken the room. We are all dressed in black and bent over a small bench which is draped with a black cloth, holding a sometimes empty and sometimes full martini glass. One of us is holding multiple flashlights covered with colored gels, one of us is operating small battery operated LED lights, and the last of us is counting out seconds .... in the dark. This environment is electrified with anticipation but also dangerous, because who in their right mind would put three grown adults in a small, dark room, with expensive camera equipment, a tripod, and fine glass ... no one I know!

The images in this slide show are the results of our very first foray into Light Painting. We had fun and can see the potential, we hope you do too. PLEASE, let us know what you think and if you have suggestions, we'll gladly receive them too. 

BTW, Happy New Year to One and All! "see you on the flip side!"

 

Photos & slide show: the collective efforts of Claudia Ward, Peter Tooker and Sarah Ward 
Music: West End Blues by Bob Barnard on Jazz Giants - the album 

Roquefort Soufflé

 

I can't decide which of Ina Garten's cookbooks is my favorite, but I can say I'm predisposed toward Barefoot in Paris - no surprises there. My favorite all time lunch is a slice of Leek Tart (made from Patricia Wells's recipe in her Bistro Cooking cookbook) with a green salad dressed in a mustard vinaigrette, but a very close second is a serving of this incredible soufflé with a salad. Light and airy and full of that wonderful cheese flavor - this is divine, and so much easier to make than you'd think. Don't be intimidated, it's never failed yet. My husband is the world's number one cheese lover and when I serve him this soufflé ... well let's just say he's in heaven.

Roquefort Soufflé
(Serves 2-4)

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus some for greasing the soufflé dish
¼ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for dusting greased soufflé dish
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup scalded milk
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Pinch cayenne pepper
Pinch nutmeg
4 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature
3 ounces good Roquefort cheese, chopped
5 extra-large egg whites, at room temperature
⅛ teaspoon cream of tarter
====================================

Preheat the oven to 400℉. Butter the inside of an 8-cup soufflé dish 7½ inches in diameter x 3¼ inches deep) and sprinkle evenly with Parmesan.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat. With a wooden spoon, stir in flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Off the heat, whisk in the hot milk, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon black pepper, the cayenne, and nutmeg. Cook over low heat, whisking constantly, for 1 minute, until smooth and thick.

Off the heat, while still hot, whisk in the egg yolks, one at a time. Stir in the Roquefort and the ¼ cup of Parmesan and transfer to a large mixing bowl.

Put the egg whites, cream of tarter, and a pinch of salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on low speed for 1 minute, on medium speed for 1 minute, then finally on high speed until they form firm, glossy peaks.

Whisk one quarter of the egg whites into the cheese sauce to lighten and then fold in the rest. Pour into the soufflé dish, then smooth the top. Draw a large circle on the top with the spatula to help the soufflé rise evenly, and place in the middle of the oven. Turn the temperature down to 375℉. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes (don't peek!) until puffed and brown. Serve immediately.

 

      

Montauk Lighthouse at Christmas

Montauk Lighthouse at Christmas © 2011 Claudia Ward

Night photography and Christmas are a marriage made in heaven. Peter and I never knew that one of our favorite landmarks here on the east end of Long Island gets all decked out for the holidays until his cousin told us three days ago. So on Christmas Eve, my sister, nephew, husband and I drove out to eastern-most point on the island to see what kind of subject this would make for our nighttime photography class. 

The Montauk Lighthouse was trimmed from head-to-toe in white lights and looked stunning in the blue hour atop it's small hillside overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

  

Photos and Slide Show ©2011 Claudia Danforth Ward
Music: "A Telegram" by Thomas Newman from the Soundtrack of Little Women 

To see the highest quality slide show, click on the HD and then the words "watch this video in high def" and you'll be taken to Vimeo to see the slide show.

Happy holidays everyone!

Bokeh

Christmas Tree Bokeh?

In photography, bokeh is the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image. Bokeh is not how far something is out-of-focus, bokeh is the character of whatever blur is there. The word bokeh comes from the Japanese word "boke" (pronounced bo-keh) which means blur or haze. 

Rocking Santa with Christmas Bokeh

In our night photography eClass, we're now focusing on man-made light and what better time of year for that than Christmas. Streets are lined with colorfully lit holiday decorations, homes have candles in their windows, and Christmas trees are trimmed with bright lights and shiny bulbs. I love creating images with the bokeh of these lights as a background for nearly anything else - another tree, a rocking Santa, and even a a reindeer. Recently, we even brought out our best crystal for Peter's shot. 

Christmas Crystal and Bokeh

I hope you enjoy these.

 

 

Shooting Stars

Shooting Stars © 2011 Claudia Ward
Nikon D90 55mm, ISO 200, f/5.6 at 5 minutes 33 seconds taken at 11:57 p.m.

Photographing the stars requires planning and patience but the rewards are striking and slightly magical images. Besides planning and patience, this photography requires a steady tripod, a remote release for the camera, and a flashlight. To be the most successful shooting the stars, it should be as dark as possible, meaning there needs to be little to no light from streets or towns, or even the moon ... thus the need for a flashlight. You can't check your settings without one.

Streaming Stars ©2011 Claudia Ward
Nikon D90 55mm, ISO 200, f/5.6 for 10 minutes 55 seconds taken at 12:11 a.m. 

Shooting the stars in a long exposure results in the star looking like streams of color in the sky, some blue, some white, some pale yellow and they can form an arc or circle - evidence of the earth's rotation on its axis. I've just begun shooting the stars and can say it's quite exciting. These were my first two attempts, on an evening when the moon shone brightly. Kent Weakley, in the Night Photography class I'm taking, pointed out that the North Star, which is directly above the earth's north axis never appears to spin unlike all of the other stars in the galaxy. Our mission in the next several weeks is to see if we can get a great time exposure of the north star with other stars spinning around it. Wish us luck!

 

SmugMug

Mallard Duck ©2009 Peter Tooker All Rights Reserved

What is SmugMug? Only the best digital photo sharing website on the internet (in my opinion). Established in 2002, SmugMug prides itself on its independence and service to photographers of all kinds, amateur and professional. It's a relatively small company focused on featuring and securing my photographs the way I want and need them to, not on growing big enough to be acquired and garnering lots of advertising revenue in the meantime. Over the years, I've worked with Picasa, Shutterfly, Snapfish, Kodak and even Flickr, but hands down, my preference is SmugMug. Why?

Thunderbird © Claudia Ward

First, the photo-sharing site you can create for yourself is "way cool" and easy to build. It's a cinch to get answers for any questions through their user-friendly help and fantastic DGrin forums. (DGrin stands for Digital Grin which is their distinctive logo!) You can protect your photos in several different ways and you can even store your 1,000s of photos in the SmugVault. It's all about me and my photos, not them.

Purple Flower © 2009 Claudia Ward

As a photographer with a fledgling business, I also love the Pro features of SmugMug, most of which I won't elaborate on here and now, but I do love the ease with which I could set up my Pro account to offer print images on paper, canvas and even metal, or mouse pads, coffee cups, aprons, and note cards adorned with any photo in my galleries.

Stormy Beach © 2010 Claudia Ward

So this is the official launch of my SmugMug store and I encourage you to visit and browse. If you see something you like, add it to your cart, and I promise you the watermark will disappear before your selection arrives on your doorstep. I'll be updating the galleries frequently so return often to see what's new. Feed back and suggestions for the sight are also welcomed.

Zucchini Blossoms © 2010 Claudia Ward

So Happy Holidays one and all, and thank you for your support throughout the year.

Barn in the Snow © 2011 Claudia Ward

P.S. The images displayed on the post are all available in my SmugMug Store and are indicative of the types of photos you'll find there. There's still time before Christmas.

P.P.S. Just in case you are wondering, SmugMug isn't giving me anything to say these nice things, this is just my candid opinion of their company and products.

 

Morning Moon Photography

Setting Moon in the Wishbone Tree © Claudia Ward
Nikon D60, 55-200mm zoom at 62mm, ISO 100, f/11 for 1/100 second taken at 7:07 a.m.

The day before a full moon, the moon does everything "before" the sun - it rises before the sun sets and it sets before the sun rises. On the day of a full moon, the moon and the sun rise and set very close to the same time, and the day after a full moon, the moon will rise and set nearly an hour after the sun. Thus it was on December 11th, as the sun was getting ready to appear on the eastern horizon, the moon was still quite high over the western horizon.

Setting Moon in the Arms of the Wishbone Tree © Claudia Ward
Nikon D 60 55-200mm at 55mm, ISO 100, f/11 for 1/100 second taken at 7:06 a.m.

We live on a tree-lined street on the east end of Long Island and directly across the street is a tree I have dubbed "the wishbone tree", for what I hope are obvious reasons. Over the years, I have enjoyed watching brilliant sunsets offset this tree in dark silhouette, and sometimes during the summer the sun even sets directly between its arms. Well, the moon is now nearly as far north as it's going to be and the morning after the full moon, it set directly between those arms.

Moon Setting During Early Morning Blue Hour © Claudia Ward
Nikon D90, 18-55mm at 22mm, ISO 200, f/14 for 10 seconds taken at 6:44 a.m. 

These are the images I was able to capture, and one was even  in the final moments of the blue hour! Let me know what you think.

 

Shooting the Rising Moon

Moon Rising over the Beach © Claudia Ward
Nikon D60, 200mm: ISO 200, f/11 for 1/100 second, taken at 4:05 p.m. EST

Once a month, the day before the full moon, the moon rises before the sun sets. Did you know that? I didn't consciously know it until this Night Photography eClass I've been taking with Kent Weakley. Sure I've seen the moon still in the sky early some mornings and thought "that's a little odd" but never did I focus on it as I have over the past week.

The full moon here was on Saturday Dec 10th, so to capture a sunlit landscape image with a nearly full moon in it, we packed up our tripods and gear and headed to the beach on Friday afternoon, to a wooden deck that straddles the sand dunes and provides a perfect panorama of the dunes, beach, ocean and hopefully, the moon. 

Rising December Moon in the Hamptons © Claudia Ward
Nikon D60, 80mm: ISO 200, f/11 for 1/30 second, taken at 4:09 p.m. EST 

The moon was scheduled to rise at 3:42 p.m. and the sun was scheduled to set at 4:21 p.m. so there was a 39 minute window in which we might be able to get a photograph of the rising moon in a well lit landscape. Well, 3:42 p.m. came and went; we saw nothing. There were a few cumulus clouds along the horizon but nothing anyone would consider cloud cover, so hope persevered. By 3:52 p.m., I was walking the beach, peering around dunes, to see what could be hiding our precious moon - to no avail. We checked our iPhone apps to reconfirm exactly where the moon should appear, and we knew it should be there. 

Moon over the Hamptons © Claudia Ward
Nikon D90, 55mm: ISO 320, f/9.0 for 1/15 second, taken at 4:29 p.m. EST 

It was nearly 4:00 p.m. before the moon made its appearance, just above the clouds, as a large pale white disk rising slowly in the sky. We were thrilled.

Rising Moon at Sundown © Claudia Ward
Nikon D60, 135mm: ISO 200, f/11 for 1/30 second, taken at 4:16 p.m. EST 

The winds were brisk, off the ocean, and it was mighty cold on top of that platform, but Peter and I had a ball and kept shooting until the sky to the west was nothing but fiery orange and black. It was a challenge to firmly anchor the tripods but I think we got some good shots and hope you agree. This is the first post on "Shooting the Rising Moon", more to come.

Full Moon in December © Claudia Ward
Nikon D60, 200mm: ISO 200, f/5.6 for 1/100 second, taken at 4:20 p.m. EST 

Let us know what you think and if you have any tips on shooting the moon, feel free to pass them along.

 

Shooting the Moon

Shooting the moon at the beach on a cold winter's night.

That's me!

Sent from my iPhone

Beach Weekend

Beach Weekend  painted by Barbara Andolsek

I get such pleasure out of seeing Barbara Andolsek's paintings of my photographs, and if I were to be quite candid, I often prefer the painting to the photo. I truly believe there's a frustrated painter inside of me and her only means of expression is through photography - thank goodness! - but this painterly side of me gets immense satisfaction from seeing Barbara's paintings. 

Thank you so very much Barbara, I'm so glad we met.

 

Night Photography - Blue Hour II

Water Mill Windmill: f/14 for 15 seconds at ISO 100 taken at 4:47 p.m. EST

Night Photography in the Blue Hour is a lot of fun and the results can be incredibly beautiful with a deep cobalt blue sky starkly offsetting a well lit skyline, bridge, or monument. No extra fancy camera equipment is required. No super expensive lens, remote control, or high tech tripod need to be purchased to get good to great results. Although, I should add, you do need each of those pieces of equipment. My kit includes a Nikon D60 with a Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens that came with it, a Nikon remote control and an aluminum Manfrotto tripod, none of which would be considered very "high-end" and I find that it serves me very well. What is required, in my estimation is an investment on the part of the photographer.

Water Mill Windmill: f/14 for 30 seconds at ISO 100 taken at 4:54 p.m. EST

First and foremost, the photographer must know her equipment, how it operates in automatic AND manual modes, and the wonderful marriage of trade-offs between ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed. Armed with that knowledge, there are just a few other things required for Night Photography - Planning, Patience and Tenacity.

As Kent Weakley has taught in his Night Photography class, most blue hour night photography requires sky and artificial lights. On the east end of Long Island it takes some real planning to find places that might be good at l'heure bleue. This is flat farm country, with an emphasis on country, where we don't have a lot of artificial lights and we definitely don't have any skylines or bridges, so I've been focusing on our monuments - things like churches and windmills. Patience comes into play, after you set up, and is needed to endure the trials of anticipation and, at this time of year, falling temperatures. Tenacity is required to keep you on location despite a desire to return to your warm, bright home wafting the wonderful aromas of a well-deserved dinner. You must be steadfast to stay in place until the Blue Hour has come and gone, and headlights are required for your trip home. Pack all of this when you head out to shoot something at the Blue Hour, and you're, more than likely, going to be quite pleased with your results.

Water Mill Windmill: f/4.5 for 30 seconds at ISO 100 taken at 5:10 p.m. EST

 

Dungeness Crab Cakes

Dungeness crab inhabits the waters on the west coast of North America and every time we pass through Seattle, Peter and I always pick up a couple of crabs at Pike Place Market to bring home. The fish markets all pack the crabs, or fish for that matter, in traveling boxes that are acceptable to the airlines, so we can savor the flavors from the Pacific Northwest even after we return home.

Pike Place Seafood Market - Seattle, WA

It's amazing how much wonderful crab meat Peter can extract from two Dungeness crabs. This time Peter made a crab meat dip that we enjoyed as appetizers and snacks several days in a row. We also made a delicious crab salad but our particular favorite was these crab cakes, the recipe for which was derived from the one posted earlier this year for Trout and Crab Cakes. What we especially like about this recipe is that the crab meat is the center of attention with little else holding them together. We did serve them with a chipotle sauce but found that it was just too overpowering for the this delicate Dungeness crab, a squeeze of lemon was all that we wanted.

Dungeness Crab Cakes
(Makes 4 servings of 2 Crab Cakes Each)  

2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 egg, lightly beaten
½ teaspoon dry mustard
½ teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
2 green onions (scallions), white part only, finely chopped
1 tablespoon minced fresh cilantro
10 ounces fresh Dungeness crab meat, picked over for shell
Flour for dredging
2 tablespoons olive oil
====================================

• In a medium bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, egg. mustard, Old Bay seasoning, onion, cilantro, and bread crumbs. Gently mix in the trout and crab. Shape the mixture into 8 patties, each about 2½ inches in diameter. They will barely hold together. Spread the flour on a plate and lightly dredge the patties, coating evenly. Place the patties on a plate, cover, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
• In a large frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat and cook half the trout cakes until golden, about 3 minutes on each side. Repeat for the remaining cakes. Arrange 2 trout cakes and a wedge of lemon on each of 4 plates and serve immediately.