More photos of the frozen Housatonic River

Here are some more views from the frozen Housatonic River in Stratford, Connecticut shot earlier this week. The show above was taken from the shore looking town the marshes in the town of Milford. The river at this point is probably at least a quarter mile wide and that thin sliver of water you see in the center is the channel--just barely wide enough for a single fishing boat to get through the ice.

This is the view from Bond's Dock, the local fishing dock. It's about 100 yards (just a guess) back to the shore and it's frozen solid. Normally it's water right up to that bank of rocks you see in the center top of the shot. 

And this is the view looking from shore back to the dock where the shot above was taken from.

I've learned something very interesting through this very harsh and brutal winter and this is that getting out and shooting it, just tossing the camera's in the van and being a part of it makes it a lot more tolerable than simply hiding from it. My temptation is always to turn up the heat, make tea and hide indoors, but I'm actually enjoying this winter a lot more because I'm out there photographing it. Also, the birding has been phenomenal on the river this winter because so much of New England is frozen solid that the birds are heading to areas of open water (like the mouth of this river) to find food and company (and yes, birds do seek out the company of other birds, especially in harsh weather).

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When rivers freeze...the mighty Housatonic River

We've been having a very brutal winter here in New England as you probably know if you're been watching the news and certainly know if you live here. I live near the Housatonic River, a major New England river that starts in western Massachusetts and flows about 150 miles to Long Island Sound. I've lived here most of my life and I have never seen it this frozen before. The channel that you see in the middle photo (immediately above) was cut early this morning by a fishing boat heading to work in the Sound (I shot these later in the day). In order to get out of the river, it was using a crane to bang a large metal cage on the ice and break a path.

In the top photo, everything you see that is frozen is normally river--and a tidal river at that. If you look carefully to the right, you can see the bank and the frozen marsh grass. The shot below is a field of broken ice (probably created by the fishing boats) and some of those shards are big enough to stand on. I don't like cold weather much, but I have to admit that getting out there and being in it and photographing it is a lot more fun (and encouraging) that hiding from it. I used plus-1 stops of exposure compensation to keep the snow from underexposing and I shot all of these without a tripod, which is unusual for me--there simply was no safe place to plant a tripod.

Officially sick of winter!

I've lived in New England all of my life, I know what winter is and what enduring a long one can be like. But this winter is one to beat the band: too much snow, too cold (with wind chills going to -35F in parts of Connecticut tonight) and just never-ending. Every one here is officially sick of winter. That's my street, by the way, and the guy in red is a neighbor who actually seems to enjoy the snow. I've been busy covering almost every window in my house with towels and blankets just to try to keep in some of the heat! Thirty-four days to spring! Can't wait!!!

Oh, by the way, this is supposed to be about photography, so here's the tip, lol: See if you can find a nice primary color, like red, to shoot against all of that white stuff. As you can see, the red really pops when it's surrounded by snow. And keep your camera in a ziplock when you're not shooting--mine got covered in snow while I was shooting these!

Simple Steps for Creating Bold Silhouettes

Silhouettes are very striking because they reduce your subject to a bold shape set against a plain (and hopefully attractive) background and they leave no doubt about your creative intentions. Creating silhouettes is simple and in most cases your auto-expsoure system will create good silhouettes for you if you just set up the right conditions for the shot. Here are some tips for creating interesting silhouettes:

• Silhouettes are created by placing an opaque (non-transparent) subject in front of a bright background, so look for bold solid subjects set against a bright surface--water in the case of the shot shown here.
• Look for colorful backgrounds. To make the shot here, I was stalking the shores of a river at dawn while the golden light of the rising sun turned the surface of the river a pretty pastel yellow. Sunset and sunrise skies also work well, but so do brightly colored walls, a sunlit field of grass (picture a rusting tractor against a field of yellow hay) or even a sandy beach (a palm tree against bright white sand, for example).
• Keep the background as simple as possible. If you're photographing a boat in silhouette against the sunset, for example, try to keep the background completely plain--just the sky. 
• Avoid "merges" where the primary subject might merge into a dark part of the background. Again, in the shot above, while I used some rocks as secondary shapes, the heron is positioned against a plain colorful background--you can easily trace the contour of the heron and even some of its feathers.
• Set the exposure for the background. That's the big secret of shooting silhouettes: placing a dark subject against a bright background and exposing for the bright area. Just let your camera set the exposure and don't try to compensate in any way for the foreground and you'll get a crisp silhouette without any effort. You can always enhance the contrast a bit using simple editing software. 

Exposure info: The heron was shot with a Nikon D90 body mounted with a Nikkor 70-300mm zoom lens and exposure (in the RAW format) was: 1/60 second at f/8 at ISO 640. The camera was mounted on a Manfrotto tripod. Scroll down to some other recent postings to see more examples of silhouettes.

Please take a few minutes to look at my main site--you'll find info about my latest books and other projects.

Joseph Linaschke: The Panasonic "Master Series" Interview on Pro Photo Daily

My latest interview for the Pro Photo Daily "Master Series," an interview with photographer Joseph Linaschke, has gone live. While most photographers today tend to specialize in just a few subjects, Linaschke loves shooting just one primary subject: the next one. He photographs an incredibly broad range of subjects that includes portraits, live music, sports, journalism--you name it, he's shot it. Among his more fascinating projects is a series of portraits of women battling breast cancer.  If you've ever wondered how a photographer earns a living photographing a very wide range of subjects, this is a very fun and informative interview. This ongoing series is sponsored by Panasonic and Linaschke is a Lumix Luminary. 

The Facebook Black-and-White Challenge

I was recently fingered to take part in the Facebook black-and-white challenge where you are supposed to post a new black-and-white image a day for five days. At first I resisted the challenge (I have enough to keep me busy without looking for new distractions--however fun they might be), but then the daughter of a friend of mine nominated me and it was an offer I couldn't refuse, so I accepted. It has actually turned out to be quite a fun experience and I'm enjoying going through my photo library and picking out shots that I think might convert well to monotone. The two photos above are the first two that I posted for the challenge.

There are a number of really simple ways to convert images to black-and-white in Photoshop (and probably any other editing program), including the Hue and Saturation tool (simply desaturate the image down to 0% and you'll drain all the color out) and the Black-and-White tool (it's in the menu at the bottom of the layers palette). I used the latter for the two images above. Basically all you do it open that tool and then adjust each color (now a monotone channel) in the image. If you slide the blue slider to the right, for example, the blues will get lighter, slide it to the left they get darker. Very easy.

So, if you are an old timer like me and you used to work with black-and-white films (I lived in a Tri-X world for probably 20 years) or if you'd just like to try on a new look, pick out a few images and convert them to black-and-white, you'll have a lot of fun. Thanks Melissa!

Dawn at the Mouth of the Housatonic River

I've spent a lot of time this summer shooting the sunrises at the Housatonic River in Connecticut. I've found that being out before sunrise in the darkness and then watching the day come alive with light is very inspiring--it's worth the effort. (See the previous post for some tips on shooting sunrises and sunsets.) There's a gallery of shots of the river on my main site.