Would you Care for Some Sugar?

Pour Some Sugar on Me!

Would you Care for Some Sugar?

Sugar Anyone?

I learned a wonderful technique on 1x.com written by a photographer named Pascal Muller.  I have always wondered how to get those great shots of individual sugar or salt crystals pouring down against a black background, and this tutorial explained it perfectly.  I tried Pascal's setup and easily achieved these three shots in a short amount of time.  I'm really happy with them and having yet another studio lighting technique under my belt.  Hope you enjoy them.  Look for more to come in the following weeks!  Best wishes, Cindy

The Cover of Farnsworth Summer 2011 Magazine

Alvaro's Hayrack Room Detail, Cynthia Farr-Weinfeld 2011

Well, I've been extremely busy for the last month or so--I can't believe it's been so long since I've made a post, but summer is often like that.  Make hay while the sun shines, and all that, right?
I'm excited to announce that Farnsworth: The magazine of the Farnsworth Art Museum chose my image: Alvaro's Hayrack Room Detail taken at Olson House last month for their Summer 2011 Magazine cover.  This is one of my favorite images taken that day.

I felt very lucky to be able to spend so much time all by myself in the house, photographing each room.  You can see all of the images on my website I suggest that you click the slideshow button on the top right hand corner to view the pictures in a really pleasant way and just sit back and relax.

We just spent a week in far Eastern Maine at Rideouts Lodge in Weston, Maine on Grand Lake with my mother and her Standard Poodle, Max.  We had a great time, listening to the loons and Hermit and Swainson's Thrushes calling, fishing for Small Mouth Bass, canoeing, reading and swimming off the dock, which was right outside our cabin.  It's a long drive from Portland at 4.5 hours (ulp!) but it was worth every second on the road.  I took so many pictures that I can't wait to share, including a couple of new panoramas of Grand Lake at sunset.  So, look for another post in the next week or so!

Hope you're all having a great summer!  Best wishes, Cindy

Help me out with your votes for my image in the Macallan Photo Competition!

Please vote for my image--I need all the help I can get in this competition!

If you click on this link for the Macallan Masters of Photography Photo Competition I would really appreciate all of the help you can give me with your votes and your sharing of this site with your friends and relatives and ask them to vote too!  Thanks so much, Cindy

Definitive date and time for the Borealis Bistro Art Opening

Support Local Art!

June 1st Art Opening!

Portland Harbor Skies is just one of the images that will be shown and sold at Borealis!

Beginning June 1st and ending August 1st, I am going to have an art show of my work at Borealis Bistro on 182 Ocean Avenue in Portland!  It's a really nice space with plenty of parking, and of course great breads, food and drinks.

I'm not sure if I'll be having a true opening or not, but if I do, I will announce it here before too long and I hope whoever is in the area or close by will come and support me by showing up. 

I'm going to have between 10 and 12 large framed pieces on the walls, mostly land and seascapes, a couple of panoramas, and a bunch of matted prints, both large and small in a basket or bin nearby for sale. 

I'd like to ask everyone to forward this post to all of their friends and relatives in the hopes that people will put my show on their calendar and make a point to stop by and see it either on opening day or throughout the next two months that it will be up.  Thanks for your help in advance! 

Best wishes, Cindy

Portland Skate Park

Zach Thibault takes a jump at Portland Skate Park--a 6 image composite.

Single image of Zach Thibault taking a jump at Portland Skate Park--an HDR.

Portland Skate Park rider on a BMX style bike, taking a jump.  A 4 image composite.

Another single shot of Zach Thibault taking a jump at Portland Skate Park.  HDR processing.

Josh Champagne at Westbrook Skate Park, taking a jump.  A four image composite.

Bryan Kilburn, skateboards at Portland Skate Park.  HDR.

Westbrook Skaters, Josh Champagne, Josh Sinclair, John Cobb & Kristian Gallagher

Well, I've been kind of sad thinking that the ski and snowboard season is obviously over for a few months until I discovered the Portland and Westbrook Skate Parks last weekend.  I had a lot of fun shooting high speed compositions of these guys skating and BMX biking and they are all okay with me pointing my camera at them over and over, which is always a plus!  Thanks guys! 

Look for more images to come as I'm planning on going back as I learn more about both BMX biking and skating tricks and moves.  Thanks for looking as always, Cindy

Spring Flowers: What's not to love?

Tulips in my garden yesterday. . .

Alone in the garden. . .

Sherwood Gardens, Baltimore, MD on a sunny afternoon.

Cherry Blossom Festival, Portland, Maine!

Another lone tulip. . .

Tulips with a background of the deep blue sky. . .

Beautiful Cinquefoil I discovered on a walk in the woods in Maryland recently. . .

Sherwood Gardens, Baltimore, MD--Magnolia, Magnolia, Magnolia!

What Mainer doesn't long for the sight of Spring flowers throughout the long, long winters?  I know I always do, and as a result, once the Spring flowers start showing their beautiful heads, I take advantage of it, beginning with crocuses and snowdrops, cherry blossoms, tulips, magnolias and continuing all the way to the last hardy New England Asters and Cosmos in the Fall.  Nothing is quite so pretty as Spring flowers though. 

Over the last couple of weeks, since we visited my in-laws in Baltimore, MD, I have had quite a few opportunities to photograph flowers, starting with Baltimore's beautiful Sherwood Gardens which is filled with magnolia trees, beds full of multi-colored tulips, daffodils, flowering crab apples and cherry trees.  It was a gorgeous, sunny day and I had a great time wandering all over the gardens, taking shots. 

And just in my neighborhood, up the street, are two brilliantly pink cherry trees that are simply laden with blossoms (image 4) and scads of pink tulips blooming right in my garden. 

I was very happy to discover that in all the construction work on the Capisic Pond area last summer, the Lupine field that had just started to bloom well last summer had been left intact!  There are loads of Lupine plants growing, so be prepared for some more flower posts in June (or maybe even before!)

This shot was taken at the Capisic Pond Estuary last year during "Lupine Time." 

You can always see more of my flower images on my website of course. 
Happy Spring everyone!

To post-process or not to process. . . That is the question.

Kiwi Macro. . .Taken yesterday in my studio--a three image HDR composition. 

This article was published today in England's PhotographyBLOG:
I recently read a thread on one of my favorite photo forums:  "Does anyone else dislike Post Processing for photos?"  

Great topic and conversation starter, really. . .  I think a lot of people are confused by just what defines "Photoshopping" a photograph.  Some landscapes that one comes across, my own included, often provoke such exclamations as, "That is so beautiful, it can't be real!"  

Old Orchard Beach at sunrise in November.  My husband was taking pictures that looked like this with his iPhone!  It truly WAS this beautiful. . .

 I think the goal I always have in mind when I take any photograph is to take the right photo the first time.  I never set out to take a picture thinking, "Now what I really want to do is spend a few good hours at my computer with this one!" 

But the reality is, the digital camera/photography process itself adds some noise or "grain", both color and luminance to most photos, especially the dark areas. It doesn't look naturally "pretty", as film "noise" or grain does. . . In fact, if the noise is pronounced enough, it can look like squiggly little worms when you zoom in on it.

Just plain ugly. . .

Both film and the digital process also don't seem to allow (at least in RAW format) for taking the contrasty, colorful images my eyes see.

I have read multiple sources which suggest that such film greats as Ansel Adams spent a great deal of time in his own "Photoshop" (read: the darkroom) dodging, burning and otherwise contrasting up and tweaking his lovely photographs that hang in museums and private collections all over the world to this day. So "Post Processing" or "Photoshopping" has been around for a loooong time now. Even the artsy pictorialists spent a lot of time getting their delicate, soft-focus compositions to look the way they did after the fact. . .

This photo, taken at Portland's Downtown Showdown, had a lot of noise.  If I hadn't de-noised it, it would have been unusable.  After the fact, it is one of my favorite shots of the night. 

 So, while I strive to take the right image in camera, and often come extremely close to the mark I set, I also have to de-noise my pictures and add a bit more contrast, saturation, and even brighten things up before they can be shown to anyone. And if I am turning an image into a monochrome/black & white, I obviously have to spend some time doing that. . .

Birches in new snowfall.  Taken in color and converted to monochrome in Photoshop.

 So, I guess I would say that while I won't waste my time on an image that was a piece of excrement to begin with, I will spend a little time making it look extra special after the fact, as all of the film greats and now digital greats continue to do with their own images. . .

  Yesterday morning, I was reading an interview with pro Cycling photographer, Seb Rogers in the book Sport & Action: The World's Top Photographers' Workshops by Andy Steel and there was a wonderfully explanatory quote from Seb: 

Andy Steel asks: "How much of your work is manipulated using imaging software?"

Seb Rogers responds: "It depends what you mean by manipulated. I only shoot in RAW format--never JPEG--so every single shot that goes to a client has been individually tweaked for white balance, curves, contrast, saturation, and so on. I like my images to have a fairly film-like look, with plenty of punch, so that's the way I process them. But heavy Photoshop work, such as the occasional insertion of a blue sky into a cover shot, for example, is up to the client."

I hope you've learned a little bit about the behind the scenes work that goes into many (read: most) photographers' photographs and workflow.  Please feel free to write in with questions you might have and as always, feel free to share my blog posts and website with any of your friends and relatives.

Best wishes and Happy Spring!  Cindy

The Tribe Has Spoken!

Okay--the tribe has spoken!  You have universally either avoided the subject of my tacky new logo or out and out called it for what it was!  I feel honored that so many people are reading and caring enough about my blog and work to comment!

Sometimes I get tired of the same old thing. . .  I designed a new logo just for the blog, possibly just for today, even, as I know branding is so important.  But I had fun learning how to place images within text today, and thought I would show off the probably overly-elaborate header I made in the process.  It certainly FITS well, but that doesn't necessarily mean it fits my image or my blog. . .  Anyone have any thoughts on this?  If no one likes it, I can certainly go back to ye olde logo, which was doing quite well. . . 

Let's just stick with today's pictures!  Thanks so much everyone for all of your commentary, even if it was to say how much you disliked my tacky new header!  LOL!  I appreciate all the comments and shout-outs! 

Willoughby, my friend Gloria's beautiful horse, and a friend at Photo Finish Farm.

I know, I know. . .  You can't have a photo blog post without some new photos. . .  So, in that vein: a couple of weeks ago, a longtime friend of mine, Gloria, invited me to photograph a horse-riding clinic out in Buxton at Photo Finish Farm. 

Not a particularly special photo, but sweet to me--as this is my daughter, Maya, "racing" Rio, the 1.5 year old horse who was barely moving as Maya ran at top speeds to keep up with him!  :-)

What are you doing with that thing, Lady? 

Rio, out of focus, but it captures his crazy energy very well.  He was so excited every time another horse trotted by him!

This is Rio again, looking contemplative, but I'm sure it was actually that he was contemplating his next race around the field.  This horse had boundless energy!  The other horses paid no attention him as they trotted up and down the driveway.

It was really fun to see what Gloria has been doing in regards to learning how to ride horses over the last few years, and to see how the teacher helped the riders to improve their technique and get the most from their horses.

Thanks for looking, Cindy

Learning some new portrait techniques. . .

Whimsy

Monochrome conversion of Whimsy

Contemplation

Wistful?

A little more traditional, but she didn't like this shot. . .

Got a picture of a silly smile. . . 

Our favorite from the other night's twilight shoot. . .

I have been doing a LOT of reading about portraiture lately.  I started out last month by finally sitting down and poring over Joe McNally's wonderful book, The Hot Shoe Diaries.  I ended up reading it completely TWICE, because as he explains: it really isn't so much a manual as things that have worked for him in his life as a photographer.  So he doesn't really detail each technique exactly, but after reading the book and my favorite tutorials a few times, it began to sink in.  

I purchased a small softbox (16"x16") and a light stand that I can use with my hot shoe flash, to get it off the camera and be able to have light come from other directions than simply the top of my camera, which can give a photographer more professional results.  

The technique, or Strobist information, a la David Hobby's wonderfully informative blog on off-camera flash photography, Strobist, is fairly simple once one gets the hang of it.  I know there are far more complicated lighting setups and I will definitely try those out as I learn more, but I was thrilled with the simple results I received over the last two days.  

The first set of pictures with the black background was taken yesterday afternoon, in a makeshift studio set up in my office.  The last picture was taken two nights ago at twilight, and was directly from a technique Joe McNally talks about in which one sets the camera in Tungsten White Balance to retain the deep, jewel-toned blue of the twilight sky behind the subject, and places a colored piece of plastic (in this case a Rosco Strobist Collection 1/4 CTO/Orange gel) over the flash to bring some warmth to the skin tones of the subject.  

I was very happy with the results and am interested to do more experimentation!  However, my "model" only gives me about 5-10 minutes of her time at this point, in between homework and playtime, so I don't get an awful lot of practice time.  

Hope you like the pictures!  Best wishes, Cindy