Figure 1 – The smiling cat, (c) DE Wolf 2015.

I have been corresponding with a reader about the difficulty of photographing black (or black-faced) cats. It is indeed a challenge, although solvable.  The complexity is getting the cat to sit still Oh, of course, cats will readily sit quite still when they are fast asleep and that is most of the time. However, try to get them to open their eyes for the photograph and they give you this “get that camera out of my face” glare. And if you try to use flash, well after the first attempt they can shut their eyes faster than your camera can flash.

But if you are looking for a true feline challenge, try to get your cat to smile. There is, of course, the Chesire Cat of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, who is known for his distinctive mischievous grin. Chesire has the distinguishing ability to make his body disappear. The last thing to go is his iconic grin.  But Chesire is unfortunately purely fictional.  The closest we ever came to a true Chesire cat was Theodore Roosevelt. But I offer up Figure 1, which I took with my IPhone, to show that the thing can be done.

Figure 1 – Soap-dish on granite, Concord, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

Figure 1 is not the kind of photograph that I usually do.  But last weekend I was at a local farm-stand and came upon a display of unique garden ornaments.  I was intrigued by this antique soap-dish and by the texture of the piece of granite that it was mounted upon.  The piece of soap is actually a granite pebble.  The grain size in igneous rocks are define by their rate of cooling.

There was never any question about whether it should be in color or black and white.  This was a monochrome abstraction from the get-go. I played briefly with toning but the image demanded pure blacks and whites. And I enjoyed having the option to switch from my usual ISO 1600 for bird photography to a more thoughtful, compose carefully ISO 100.  Indeed, I am always intrigued by the process of composition.  You take your first image and then you progressively see details.  I suppose that there are others who thoughtfully always get it right the first time, and I’ve always tipped my hat to large format photographers, who are ever thoughtful and skilled.

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens at 78 mm, ISO 100, Aperture priority AE mode 1/1250 th sec at f/5.6 with -1 exposure compensation.

Figure 1 -Female red-winged blackbird, Fresh Pond Reserve, Cambridge, MA, May 2015. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

Last week I made several attempts to get a decent photograph of a red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus).  When the background lighting is harsh this become like photographing a black cat.  It is hard to see the eyes or any kind of facial feature.  So this is still an act in progress – a photographic learning experience.  I have been experimenting with using fill-flask for these kinds of situations.

But in the meantime I discovered this beautiful female red-wing.  The females look nothing like the males. Indeed they look noting like their names no red wings. I happily and greedily snapped away as she nibbled on the cattails, in search I suspect of nesting materials, although maybe lunch.

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens at 145 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture AE priority mode,1/4000th sec at f/7.1 with no exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – Portrait of Donna, (c) DE Wolf 2015.

Hati and Skoll Gallery is pleased to announce that David and his friend and fellow photographer Donna Griffiths are featured on this week’s “The Swap.”
“The Swap” is an ongoing portrait project with a simple concept. Two photographers pair together and take portraits of one another. The portraits are currently on the home page of “The Swap” and the accompanying write-up is to be found on the “The Swap’s” blog page.

David and Donna decided to take a formal head shot approach to their portraits and to make them complementary in the sense that they are both sepia toned black and whites and have a similar but not identical pose to them.  They used classic Vermeer side lighting, as much as a gray February day in New England would allow, and then filled with a frontal diffuse flash.  The whole process was an exciting learning experience.  You can learn a lot from another photographer when you collaborate in this manner.  That, after all, is the whole point of “The Swap.”

Since they decided to use black and white images, we include here, as Figure 1, a portrait from the project by David of Donna in color. More of Donna’s work can be found at her website.

Figure 1 – tree stump on the water, Fresh Pond Reserve, Cambridge, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

A magical aspect of modern digital photography is that you may start with a preconceived notion of a photograph: is it a black and white or a color image for instance, only to see that transformed when you go to process the picture.  There is a kind of leap of faith when you commit to grey-scale from color. Of course, you can still recover it.  I took Figure 1 with the an intense motivation towards black and white.  It was to be a study in contrast, form, and dynamic range. And, indeed, in the first attempt I took it over to black and white.  But i quickly fell in love with the intensity of warm light on the log, with the blueness of the water, and the reflections of sky light in the little waves that I had  preserved by choosing a shutter speed of 1/2500th sec.  I suspect that it has another life in black and white, but will leave that for another day.

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM at 70 mm (through a chain-link fence I may add), ISO 1600, Aperture-Priority AE Mode 1/2500th sec at F/7.1 with no exposure compensation.