Calm Photos

I haven’t been posting in a while because I’ve been incredibly busy moving. I had a three-day garage sale that started last Thursday. That can be a tiring process when you try to do it yourself.

On Saturday the mailman delivered a package from the Outdoor Writers of Ohio. For some reason they always use my home address. Anyway the package contained an award plaque for 1st Place, The Karl Maslowski Award: Best Color Nature Photo for 2007.

The image was a vertical, spring-time shot of Blue Hen Falls in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. This photograph was published on the cover of the Trail Guide - Cuyahoga Valley National Park, 3rd Edition.

This was award was my second from the OWO since joining back in 2004.

Many of my recent HDR photographs are being represented and marketed by Trigger Image - a not-so-typical stock photo agency based in England that places much more emphasis on unique styles of photography versus the usual and mundane. The contributing photographers chosen by Trigger are definitely more leading-edge on the creative scale of image making. I would venture to say that my work is more conservative as compared to the other contributors, however, it is still an honor to be selected considering the quality and originality of photographic work displayed on the Trigger Image web site.

This past March, during a weekend trip to the Inn at Cedar Falls. My daughter Chloe exploring the art of the self-portrait via the built-in iSight camera on my MacBook Pro -

Yes, I miss my kids. I can’t wait to get to Texas.

Photo Competition-Shoot The Hills Home Page

Attention all Ohio photographer enthusiasts ! This coming weekend - April 18-20 - is the time to be in Hocking Hills for the 8th Annual Shoot the Hills Photography Competition. With all the rain and recent mild weather I can almost guarantee perfect shooting conditions - from flowing waterfalls to new spring green on the hemlocks and beech trees to blooming patches of Virginia Bluebells to all kinds of Ohio wildlife - April is what I consider to be the second best month for nature photography in Ohio’s Hocking Hills (October being #1).

I will be serving on the panel of judges for this year’s event. Photographers compete in several nature subject categories in both adult and youth divisions as well as film and digital. New for this year is a print competition. Participants have a 24-hour period of time to photograph in Hocking Hills, followed by a submission deadline on Saturday and an awards ceremony on Sunday. When I served as a judge in 2006 there were close to 150 participants. This year the number of photographers will probably be double that, many of whom now come from other areas outside of Ohio. Recently NANPA (North American Nature Photography Association) sent out an email alert to all members announcing the 2008 Shoot the Hills Competition. The secret is out regarding my favorite location in Ohio for nature and landscape photography.

Best of all the proceeds collected through the modest entry fee goes directly back to supporting, preserving and protecting Hocking Hills State Park.

It is a true thrill for me to see the visual treasures that all of the participants come back with after being set loose in the gorges, hollows and valleys of Ohio’s “Little Smokies.”

Even if you are not a photographer this is a great event to visit and view the amazing photographic talent that is on display, as well as support other local artists and craftsman, many of whom will have tables displaying their works at the Hocking Hills State Park Lodge building - the center of activity for Shoot the Hills.

I hope to see you there !

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Originally uploaded by jimcrotty.com.

One of my favorite features in Aperture 2.1 is the flexibility and ease-of-use provided for monochrome conversions - taking original color digital files to fine art quality black and whites. The ability to apply custom filters and then adjust tonal ranges in each filter is designed with the professional photographer in mind.

Applying the monochrome conversion feature to already processed HDR images produces awe-inspiring results.

Yes, I still use Photoshop CS3 and Adobe Bridge for my HDR work (there’s already talk of a soon-to-be-released HDR plug-in for Aperture), but nearly all of my digital editing, organizing and post-processing work is now completed in Aperture.

My issue with Photoshop is that it tries to be too many things for too many people. Adobe somewhat addressed this issue, as well as answer the competitive challenge issued by Apple’s release of Aperture, with the release of Ligthroom, but by then I was already hooked on both the Mac platform and software. Apple’s software developers just seem more attuned to the shooting professional and quicker to adapt to the needs of these picky and demanding customers.

Another fun photo shoot that I completed recently was for Housetrends Magazine, a local publication here in the Dayton area that features fine homes, decorating and landscaping trends. I’ve always been impressed with quality of the printing and editorial content of Housetrends, which is comparable to many regional and national magazines. The photo shoot was the interior of an upscale condominium on one of the upper floors of Dayton’s Schuster Center. The focus of the article was the owner’s unique and impressive display of artwork. Photographing the condo and the art was a real treat for me to do. One of the images was even selected for the cover of the March/April 2008 issue. I will be having some more photographs from other interior and exterior architectural assignments completed for Housetrends appearing in some upcoming issues.

Over the last year I’ve had the rewarding experience of working with Dayton-area poet Stephen Emerick on creating prints and books that effectively merge my visual discoveries of the nature and landscape of Ohio’s Hocking Hills with his words of quiet reflection and soulful interpretation.

One of the many personal rewards I receive from pursuing my avocation in fine art nature photography is experiencing each viewer’s unique reaction to my photographs and hearing from them how a particular image moved them in a certain way, elicited a thought or feeling or revived a long dormant memory. My photographs have served me well in reaching out and connecting with other creative and artistic souls, and in ways where words fail me.

But for some words are paintbrushes (or cameras). This is more than true for the poetry of Stephen Emerick. When those words are partnered with photographs that visually reinforce the poetic message being shared, then something even greater than each of the elements results, especially when both images and words originate from two similar artistic impressions of a “sacred place” known as Hocking Hills.

Poems from the Inn at Cedar Falls Welcome represents our first book. It can be purchased online at Blurb or in the gift shop at the Inn at Cedar Falls. Due to the success of that project we’ve created a series of what I like to call Poem Prints - fine art photographic images that combine two nature photographs with a poem. These can be purchased in print sizes starting at 8″x10″ at http://jimcrotty.imagekind.com/PoemPrints.