Open Window

Open Window's Second Year

It's official, Open-Window is now two years old. I can hardly believe I began this blog on a cold January day, sitting at the island in my kitchen, 730 days ago. In the past two years, Open-Window has focused my days on creating stories, snippits, and photographs that I hoped you would find entertaining, sometimes informative, and maybe even amusing. We've covered a lot of ground and many diverse topics over this time ranging from Hawaii to Paris, Hamburger Relish to Caviar, Horse Racing to Airshow Acrobatics. As time has passed, we increasingly focused on the images and slide shows that would accompany a post, and have worked diligently to improve the quality of all that we delivered. Peter has continued to emphasize wide-angle HDR (high dynamic range) photography whether on his DSLR (digital single lens reflex-camera) or his, ever-handy, iPhone, and I have continued with my love of all-things-macro, although we each dabbled in the other's specialty just to keep it interesting.

Mexican Train Tiles and Turtles
Photo © 2011 Claudia Ward 

Over the past twenty four months, we've made 388 postings to Open-Window which is an average of almost 4 per week, nearly every one containing at least one photograph and 60 of which included a slide show with music. When we embarked on this endeavor, we expected to focus on travel, food and photography. As it's turned out, the focus has been just that ... but in reverse - photography, food and travel. See, we'll photograph nearly anything - food that we eat, games that we play, children at the beach, machines of any sort, flowers and their residents, landmarks and landscapes, moon-rises and sunsets, and even light itself. 

The Outer Banks of North Caroline
Photo © 2011 Claudia Ward taken with the iPhone using the Pro HDR App

This year has been quite a journey photographically as well as geographically. Peter and I traveled over 14, 500 miles. We drove the entire east coast from the east end of Long Island to Orlando, Florida, traversing Florida, and turning north to reach Memphis Tennessee. We crossed the states of Tennessee and North Carolina end-to-end (west to east), photographing some of this country's most beautiful scenery in the Great Smoky Mountains. When we reached the Atlantic Ocean, it felt like we'd returned home, for tidal waters are in our veins, and the days on the Outer Banks are now cherished memories. Early morning sunrises over the ocean, wild horses on the beaches, hang gliding from the dunes, and fish tacos are just a few of the things we captured in-frame. With tornadoes nipping at our heels from western Florida, to Memphis and eventually to eastern North Carolina, we headed home just hours before their destruction hit the locales we'd come to know and love. Atlantic City was our refuge from the storms, before returning to the calm, untouched East End.

Spanish Mustang on the Outer Banks
Photo © 2011 Claudia Ward

Thirty days and thirty nights, and 4,000 miles on the road gave us a tremendous, renewed appreciation for the beauty and diversity of this country we live in. A couple of hundred more miles were covered seeking out horses at Saratoga Springs in August. For one who isn't known as an animal lover, I do love photographing them. Whether in their stance or stride, they speak volumes to me and hopefully that is being captured by the lens. Finally, the balance of those miles (nearly 10,000) were accomplished by a trip to The Big Island of Hawaii, where we were able to photograph the incredible diversity of this island's landscape and all of its beauty from a helicopter. 

Antique Hood Ornament
Photo © 2011 Claudia Ward 

More locally, we visited Belmont Park just a week before the Stakes were run and attended the Hampton Classic Horse Show every single day it was held over Labor Day weekend. There were at least three Antique Auto Shows, one Road Rallye and a Mini Cooper Scavenger Hunt that we shot as well. Our beaches on the east end of Long Island are some of the most breathtaking in the country (right up there with North Carolina's) and we spent many happy hours either hip deep in snow in January or ankle deep in sand in August, capturing the undulating shapes of their dunes draped in snow or the power of their seas after a storm.

Light Painting for New Year's
Photo © 2011 Peter Tooker 

The holidays that dot our calendars were also not ignored. Memorial Day is always an homage to the "Opening" of the Hamptons season. Flag Day, the 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and the Christmas season were all duly noted and celebrated with photographs too.   

Meaty Tomato painted by Barbara Andolsek

Let me also add, ever so humbly, that I have once again been thrilled that Barbara Andolsek continues to make paintings based on some of my photographs. Barbara and I have yet to meet but feel a friendship beyond pen-pals. Nearly 3,000 miles apart but with a shared appreciation for the beauty of the world around us, Barbara and I have forged a friendship that could only occur in this wonderful 21st century. It still astounds me at how incredibly open and selfless so many people are using the internet to connect, communicate, and share. I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to be a part of it.

The word "blog" is derived from the expression "web log", which originally was an online journal of sorts and has morphed, over time, into a platform for communicating and exchanging information and ideas. I want to thank you all for your enthusiasm and support over the last two years but more importantly for your participation - "communication and exchange" are exactly what has occurred when you've left comments for us, and you've made it just that much more fun and interesting.

So here is a slide show which represents a snapshot of Open-Window's second year. It's shorter than last year's and yet still longer than most at just under 10 minutes. Perhaps you can set aside a little time next Sunday morning. We've made this for you, to enjoy and remember a year that we shared, and for that I want to say with great sincerity "Thanks for the memories". 

  

Photos & Slide Show by Claudia Ward & Peter Tooker © 2011
Music: Concerto in E-flat Major for Trumpet & Orchestra: 1. Allegro Con Spirito by Wynton Marsalis, National Philharmonic Orchestra & Raymond Leppard 

 

P.S. Please feel free to leave a comment and let us know what you thought of year two and if there is something you'd like to see more of in the coming months.

 

 

Whimsical Moon Photographs

 "Playing with the Moon" is what this photographer calls this whimsical series of photographs that I found thoroughly enchanting and ever so clever. I don't often feature other photographers' images on Open-Window, especially ones I don't know, but these are so much fun and so original, I just had to; I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

To see the photographs, double click on the words "Moon Photographs" and then scroll down through the collection. I think these are so imaginative and original. A friend sent me the link and it was entitled "Vorsicht! Monsuchtgefahr", I say this in the spirit of full disclosure and giving credit to the creator - I hope.

Moon Photographs

 

Happy New Year!

Peter and I spent New Year's Eve afternoon Light Painting - having an absolute ball. We have and are learning so much and are having so much fun together! These are but a few of the images we created yesterday - and are our close to 2011.

Bonne Année!

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 

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!

 

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

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

 

Night Photography - Blue Hour

ISO 400 / f/5.6 / 30 SECONDS - TAKEN AT 5:17 P.M.

Did you know "the blue hour" comes from the French expression l'heure bleue, no wonder I'm falling in love with it. It refers to the period of twilight when there is neither full daylight nor complete darkness. A "blue hour" happens twice each day - once in the morning and once in the evening, and is a brief period of time (not an hour) when the quality of ambient light for photography is superb. 

Without going in to too much detail, I should mention that there are three widely accepted subcategories of twilight and the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) defines them as follows:

• Civil Twilight: the time at which the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon. At this time, there is enough light for objects to be clearly distinguishable and that outdoor activities can commence (dawn) or end (dusk) without artificial illumination. Civil twilight is the definition of twilight most widely used by the general public.
• Nautical Twilight: the time when the center of the sun is 12 degrees below the horizon, and only general or vague outlines of objects are visible. During the evening this is when it becomes too difficult to perceive the horizon, and in the morning this is the point when the horizon becomes distinguishable. This term goes back to the days when sailing ships navigated by using the stars.
• Astronomical Twilight: the time at which the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon. It is that point in time at which the sun starts lightening the sky. Prior to this time during the morning, the sky is completely dark. During the evening, this is the point where the sky completely turns dark.

The "blue hour" straddles the end of civil twilight and most of nautical twilight. To us lay-people, it's after sunset and usually when we would pack up our gear and go home, but we shouldn't for the best is yet to come.

I'm learning so much in this Night Photography eClass I'm taking with Kent Weakley. First I've learned that the "blue hour":

1. does exist
2. is incredibly beautiful
3. can't necessarily be seen by the naked eye, and
4. happens "come rain or shine".

To get the best results shooting at this hour, you have to have a tripod, and a remote control or timer on your camera because your exposures can be very long. Some of mine went a full half minute, and many wanted to be even longer, and I could never have stayed still handheld for that long.

It's also a big help to have an app or two to help you pinpoint exactly when l'heure bleue will be. I've been using an app called "Daylight" for the last couple of years which shows exactly when the three twilights are on a twenty-four hour clock. (An added benefit is that it also shows the phase of the moon.) Kent introduced me to another app called The Photographer's Ephemeris (TPE) which is available for free for a computer and for a charge for handheld devices. Ephemeris, according to my very good friend Merriam-Webster, is "a tabular statement of the assigned places of a celestial body for regular intervals" which means it shows you where the sun and moon are or will be. Both are helpful tools if you want to capture l'heure bleue.

These are my first attempts at Blue Hour photography? What do you think? 

ISO 200 / f/10 / 15 SECONDS - TAKEN AT 4:54 P.M.

ISO 100 / f/18 / 30 SECONDS - TAKEN AT 6:24 A.M.

ISO 100 / f/20 / 3 SECONDS - TAKEN AT 6:36 A.M.

You'll rightly note that the evening and morning shots were taken quite late. I'll get out much earlier the next time.

 

 

Night Photography

I love learning and for the past two and half years I've been "teaching myself" how to become a better photographer through books, online tutorials, and following other photographers online. The journey has been rich and rewarding but every once in a while it feels a bit too solitary. I've been following one photographer for a while now named Kent Weakley and recently learned that he offers eClasses online. When I saw his night shots and then saw that a 6-week long class on Night Photography would be starting on the day after Thanksgiving, I had to sign up. So I did and I signed up my little sister too. I thought it could be great fun to be doing this together.

So for the next six weeks I'll be sharing with you all some of the results of this class. We'll be covering the Blue Hour, the Moon, Stars, Fireworks, Nighttime Motion Photography and something called Light Painting. I expect to learn a lot and hope you'll find the results interesting too.