(Olympus E-500, 14-54mm at 54mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, exposure 1/180 sec @ f/4.5)

Here’s an image that is a bit different than what I’ve been working with recently. This is actually an older image that I took at a friend’s house a couple of years ago. The image shows a Le Klint 172 pendant lamp, tinted to give it a little color. I took the shot by first turning the light on. I focused in on various parts of the lamp until I got a composition that I liked. For this image, I took the raw image, added some contrast and then played with the hue/saturation slider until I got a result that I liked. I have a couple other versions of this lamp, including a black and white image that I really like. I recently found a group on Flickr which is devoted to Le Klint. Check it out here.

Comments and feedback welcome.

Image and text Copyright © 2007, 2009 James W. Howe – All rights reserved

(Olympus E-3,70-300mm at 300mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, exposure 1/500 sec @ f/10)

This image is a close up shot of the State Theatre marquee in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The theatre is located in the heart of the campus area of the University of Michigan. The theater itself was designed by famed theater architect C. Howard Crane, who also designed the Fox Theater in Detroit. Built in 1942, the State Theater was the last commercial building to be completed in Ann Arbor after the start of World War II.

This image comes from a collection of signage photography that I have been working on. One day I just decided to wander around Ann Arbor with my telephoto lens trying to capture details of things that I might not normally look at so closely. While this sign is in pretty good shape, you can still see that it has some age to it. When I was working with this image, I wanted to give it a more graphic look so I tweaked the image somewhat. The color is slightly more saturated than the original image, and I used the cutout filter in Photoshop to abstract some of the features away. I didn’t want to go too far, because I still wanted to convey the age and slightly faded nature of the sign.

Comments and feedback welcome.

Image and text Copyright © 2008 James W. Howe – All rights reserved

This image can be purchased.

(Olympus E-3, Zuiko 7-14mm at 7mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, exposure 1/160 @ f/5.6)

This Farmall tractor is located at the edge of a local golf course. It was a nice, sunny indian summer kind of day and I decided to take a short drive out in the country at lunch time. I have taken pictures of this tractor before at different times of the year but not in the fall. I was trying out my new Zuiko 7-14 ultra wide angle lens on various subjects just to get a feel for the lens. I’m not entirely happy with the lighting on the back of the tractor. The sun was coming from the left side and it placed the rear of the tractor in shadow. If I would have had a flash or a reflector, I would have tried to direct some light in to the back area. Still, I liked the angle of the shot.

As for processing, I have been experimenting with the Cutout filter in Photoshop. In this image, the Cutout filter softens the image a bit and does a nice abstraction of the scenery in the distance. In the upper left, there is a barn in the distance. I really liked how the Cutout filter made the barn look more like a drawing than a photograph. Another thing I like about the Cutout filter is what it does with metallic objects. I think it creates some interesting color patterns which you can see on various places on the tractor.

Comments and feedback welcome

Image and text Copyright © 2008 James W. Howe – All rights reserved