The Inner Light

I've put together a retrospective of my photography in 2009 and 2010. The main motivation is a Christmas gift for members of my family. You can browse the book below... I hope you like.

THE INNER LIGHT by JAMES MICHAEL CALDERONE | Make Your Own Book

Andre

[28-135mm lens at 85mm, f/11 for 1/30 sec. at ISO 100]

There are always possibilities

[28-135mm lens at 56mm, f/6.4 for 1/400 sec. at ISO 200]
[28-135mm lens at 135mm, f/6.3 for 1/160 sec. at ISO 100]

Turn to Stone

Was in Oslo for the 4th of July and stayed just off of Vigeland Park. I wanted to capture some of the statues in a the park in a unique way. The first two combine 2 images to the finished photo. All are scenes from the park. The last one is an image that stayed with me... Though this shot was taken in the morning, I first noticed this statue in very hard light a few days before.

[28-135mm lens at 80mm, f/13 for 1/60 sec. at ISO 200]
[28-135mm lens at 65mm, f/11 for 1/60 sec. at ISO 800]
[28-135mm lens at 135mm, f/8 for 1/50 sec. at ISO 200]

Duotone Study

An exercise in split toning a black and white image. I liked the contrast of the very light sunflower and the dark background. In the first image, i loved the refraction of the clouds through the lamp glass just as the sun was about to scoot behind the hills.

[28-135mm lens at 135mm, f/20 for 1/400 sec. at ISO 100]
[28-135mm lens at 95mm, f/5.6 for 1/800 sec. at ISO 100]

For Amy

[28-135mm lens at 85mm, f/29 for 1/15 sec. at ISO 3200]

Being Green

Took a walk in the woods the other day and saw a brilliant sun raining light through tops of this densely populated area of trees. I enhanced the composition with some surreal shadowing. A stones throw from this scene, I found a lonely board. I liked the pattern of the leaves and the odd black shadow that creeps through the composition.

[28-135mm lens at 53mm, f/9 for 1/30 sec. at ISO 3200]
[28-135mm lens at 28mm, f/20 for 1/160 sec. at ISO 3200]

A shot I couldn't refuse

I was inspired by an article I read in Black & White photography by an artist whose name escapes me at the moment. He loved photographing horses. His images inspired me and I thought i'd try a few myself.

[28-135mm lens at 28mm, f/4.5 for 1/60 sec. at ISO 800]
[28-135mm lens at 28mm, f/4.5 for 1/125 sec. at ISO 800]

Midsummer

Last evening I went out for my first midnight excursion with my 7D. I had a lot of trouble focusing manually as I couldn't see a thing. I did get a few shots that I liked, and this one in particular was fun to edit. I increased the brightness and contrast in a way that made it look more like a painting. Then I added a wave affect to the reflection. Lastly I added a blended a rather neutral looking angel into the image to create my midsummer photo. This is a work in process.

[28-135mm lens at 33mm, f/7.1 for 8 sec. at ISO 1600]

ORINGALS

Summer Green

I took a walk around my friends new home to photograph the various plants in her garden. I particularly liked the depths of this one (bottom), as well as the color balance. Later I stopped by a pond near my house to photgraph the lilly pads that are there. I was greeted by a gaggle of ducks sitting on a picnic bench, and though fun, the shot that captured my interest most combined the ducks and the pads (above). Patience paid off.

[28-135mm lens at 70mm, f/9 for 1/400 sec. at ISO 200]
[28-135mm lens at 130mm, f/5.6 for 1/50 sec. at ISO 200]

Invasion of the Jellyfish

The end of the fjord was infested with jellyfish the other day. I got a call from my sister in law who suggested I come down for a shoot. The sun was perfectly positioned, and the jellyfish just glowed in the water. There were a few nasty but beautiful red jellyfish among the "normal" "harmless" ones. Its amazing how different the species are from one another.

[28-135mm lens at 28mm, f/10 for 1/400 sec. at ISO 1600]
[28-135mm lens at 135mm, f/10 for 1/160 sec. at ISO 800]

Still Life #1

[28-135mm lens at 60mm, f/22 for 1/60 sec. at ISO 1600]

Evil House

Here I'm just goofing around. I was playing around with some sunset reflections at one of my favorite photo spots. I thought this house looked like something out of Stephen King. This is obviously heavy on the post editing. Not a bad fake movie poster I'd say. Oh and the title Evil House is an homage to the Marsten House from Salem's Lot.

[28-135mm lens at 30mm, f/8 for 1/1600 sec. at ISO 3200]

ORIGINAL

Sunset

Continuing my experimentation with backlighting... This abstract shows a back lit dandelion against the setting sun. I got the idea from a book I'm reading.. "Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera" by Byran Peterson.

[28-135mm lens at 125mm, f/5.6 for 1/1000 sec. at ISO 100]

Avaldsnes

I saw the possibility of this shot immediately. I wasn't sure exactly how to shoot it though as the sun was blazing in front of me. I lightened the image slightly in postediting and feathered the sky a bit for dramatic flare. I wondered if I should have included the full boat on the far right, but after thinking about it for a day, I think it adds some movement to the image the way it is. It compliments the larger cloud directly above it. A pretty decent composition all in all.

[28-135mm lens at 60mm, f/13 for 1/1600 sec. at ISO 400]

Passing on a tradition

I went to the Viking Festival for the 2nd time this weekend. I saw this woman on the website and wanted to get a photograph of her. I got a number of head and shoulder shots, but during the day, she started to teach a young woman some sort of knitting technique. I combined two shots I took to get my preferred version. I felt this combination captured the enthusiasm of the moment.

[28-135mm lens at 109mm, f/5.6 for 1/2500 sec. at ISO 800]

ORIGINALS

Abstract #1

I've been playing a bit more with abstract photography as well as overlapping and combining images. In this shot, i've combined a sunset taken near my home, with a reflective abstract I took in Oslo moments before getting robbed. The jogger fits in nicely with the water scene. This of course was not a planned combination. Part of my experimentation is finding these connections in my own work.

#1 [28-135mm lens at 135mm, f/13 for 1/320 sec. at ISO 1600]
#2 [28-135mm lens at 28mm, f/14 for 1/200 sec. at ISO 12800]

ORIGINALS

Viking blacksmith

On an otherwise overcast day, the sun popped out while I watched this blacksmith working. I like the way the sun lit up this guys smile. It made for an unique lighting opportunity. He called this his Mickey Mouse.

#1 [28-135mm lens at 35mm, f/4.6 for 1/3200 sec. at ISO 3200]
#2 [28-135mm lens at 135mm, f/5.6 for 1/800 sec. at ISO 1600]
#3 [28-135mm lens at 117mm, f/5.6 for 1/3200 sec. at ISO 3200]

Evening swim

Walking to the Viking Festival, I came upon this scene. The three boys modestly got undressed, maybe on a dare from their friend, and prepared to make a splash. Perhaps they thought I was with the papers??? Shortly after the picture, the three had a dive into the, judging from the screams, very cold water. I've washed the colors out somewhat here. I think it makes for a timeless mood.

[28-135mm lens at 95mm, f/13 for 1/800 sec. at ISO 3200]

Rockport

I took 3 trips to rockport this visit, and though I took, the obligatory picks of motif #1 and all that other stuff you usually see, this pic landed as one of my favorites. I'm trying to take more abstract shots. This was taken at one of the classic spots where people snap motif #1. I looked the other way. This image is upside down. Its a reflection of a person walking down the road on the edge of the water.

[28-135mm lens at 132mm, f/11 for 1/250 sec. at ISO 800]


ORIGINALS



I prepared and timed for this shot. I saw this person walking towards the main road so I set up for a multiple shot. I timed the person walking for 3 shots, 1 between the two central objects, 1 with the post in the middle, and that last with the walker in the last 3rd of the frame.