J. Glenn Bauer Photography

An Autumn to Remember - A collection of autumn photographs

2011-10-04T07:24:00.000+01:00

October, 2011: Summer is fading fast now and despite predictions of a warm October the inexoriable march of the seasons continues. It’s a beautiful time of the year in the North Hemisphere. The misty mornings, dew and cobwebs and the vibrant colours in the leaves of everything from brambles to the mighty Oak.

Over the past years I have taken my share of photographs of all of the above aspects of this season. This year I have added to these shots and although it is still early in the season I am happy to be able to make a collection of 36 autumn shots available now already. The advantage of a collection of this size is that collectors of photography and interior designers have a choice and can really pick what suits them.

“An Autumn To Remember” can be viewed as a slide show at Bauer Photography and Media and individual images are available in all the regular formats here on Redbubble including a 2012 calendar.

Four hints on photographing autumn scenes;

1. Use a Polarising Filter

“Great for you eyes and great for your photos”

To achieve deep blue skies and cut reflection of dew, leaves and other surfaces use a polarising filter on your lens.
To use this filter correct attach to your lens and then point you camera at a nice patch of blue sky. Now rotate the lens until the sky visibly darkens through the lens. Remember if you adjust to portrait or visa versa after adjusting the filter you’ll need to re-adjust the filter.

2. Use Colour
“Shooting in black and white in autumn is like making up a model’s face and then shooting her toes”

While black and white landscapes may be the epitome of fine art photography, in autumn you may want to capture the colours.
Of course you could compromise and ‘colour pop’ a subject within the frame. To do this shoot in colour then after downloading duplicate your file and convert the duplicate to black and white. Copy and past the duplicate file over the colour file and then erase the part of the black and white file you want to ‘pop’.

3. Use the light.
“First or last and little in between”

Sunrise through autumn is at a much more comfortable time to get out of bed then say high summer. Use this opportunity to get out early in the morning to capture the autumn world just as the sun rises and illuminates all the rich colours. The hour after sunrise and before sunset provides a much more flattering light for landscapes. The light is softer and warmer.

4. Exposure Settings
“You don’t put your headlights on bright in fog”

Typically depends on the light at the time, but if you want to catch the hazy mornings or there is mist about try underexposing by about one stop. Mist really plays havoc with a digital metering and invariably the camera will under-expose such scenes.

Finally I won something!

2011-02-26T13:26:00.001Z

Some people seem to win stuff everytime they blink. The work raffles, a tenner on the Lotto etc. I won a raffle once. It was the booby prize. Seriously, who still has booby prizes? People who I considered my friends laughed themselves sick at least twice a year recounting the tale. You don't need the details, but I'm sure you'd sympathise!

Well in December 2010 I saw an interesting challenge competition on Redbubble. I've had quite a bit of my photography featured on the site even on the prestigious homepage, but I'd never won a photography competition. The idea was to drip ink into water and photograph the resulting patterns. I liked this as I'd read about and tried it before. In no time I had a dozen shots and had to decide which one to enter. That done I became engrossed in another project and soon forgot about my entry until an email pinged my inbox. Four winners had been selected, my submission, Silk Scarf, was one of them!

Silk Scarf

Nightglow Montage

2010-08-15T14:13:00.001+01:00

Nightglow, Bristol Balloon Fiesta, 2010

2010-08-11T12:25:00.000+01:00

Cotswold Water by Stockboy
Browse more artwork on zazzle

Photoshoot - Hippie

2010-08-01T21:58:00.000+01:00

This is one of my images from a location TFCD group photoshoot. The theme was 'hippie'. To compliment the beautiful model, I used a number of props. A guitar, two placards; LOVE & of course the circular peace symbol. Also a bunch of white and pink flowers.
Lighting was supplied by speedlights, one natural light, the other with orange gel to add light to her hair in some of the shots.

Scouting Lambourn, Berkshire

2010-08-01T21:32:00.000+01:00

Scouting Lambourn, Berkshire

Prom Queen 2010

2010-07-04T15:03:00.001+01:00

"PSYCH"

2009-05-17T18:15:00.005+01:00

I've just completed a very different kind of picture. I've entitled it "PSYCH". This new picture is a lot more about post production and image manipulation to convey the intended concepts.

The raw ingredients of the image are a bicycle valve cap shaped as a human skull of all things and a wine glass (empty). Added to this was a single droplet of water which I dripped from my right finger. I like to keep it simple!

The resulting splash was shot in RAW 1/400(TV) and 5.6(AV) ISO 400 on a Canon 40D under a tungsten light.

I processed the RAW image on the Canon software Zoombrowser. The special effects were worked in with Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0.

I like the graphic novel quality of the picture and am considering adapting it so that it can be printed to T Shirts.

Please by all means let me know what you think of "PSYCH" . The finished product is available to view and buy on Redbubble at the following link,

http://www.redbubble.com/people/glennb/art/3084065-3-psych

Area 51, Roswell's UFO conspiracy

2008-08-28T06:06:00.005+01:00

While I keep an open mind about extra terrestrial life in general, I cannot imagine that the US Airforce recovered any aliens dead or alive. Neither did they or any other government agency recover Alien wreckage back in 1947 at Roswell or anywhere else.

What makes me so certain? First let's look at the theories associated with the discovery and recovery of ET in 1947.

Area 51 is/was the site to which the bodies & wreckage were removed. That, as depicted in the movie, Independence Day, human scientists were repairing the wrecked UFO and or using it as a basis for development of our very own ultra advanced vehicles and technology.

Some of the alien crew, passenger or stowaways survived said crash. They were no working alongside our boys in the development of above technology. Even of technology for weather control, time travel, teleportation etc.

So, is the scenario beyond the realms of reality? Perhaps not in general, but in this instance most certainly. Apart from there being not a single conclusively alien scrap of evidence, there is also not an iota of alien technology in use in our society, military or civilian.

Prior to the Roswell stunt, humankind had already invented and developed electricity & nuclear power. We were building cars, airplanes and submarines. Helicopters proper had been invented in 1907. Our technology was already growing at a rampant rate before 1947.

An infusion of alien technology into ours even allowing for 5 years for integration would have catapulted us into space by now. We are in space, we've been to the moon and we have telescopes all over the galaxy I hear you shouting. If our aliens were smart enough to build some kind of fantastic UFO that could get them from their world to ours they certainly didn't impart much to us then. The US Pioneer programme to orbit earth were all failures. Next came the Ranger Programme which failed on their primary missions until finally achieving success in 1964! 17 years after the US apparently came into possession of a UFO and possibly some very experienced UFO pilots. By contrast the Russians had their first success with Sputnik 1 in 1957, 7 years before the US.

The list of technological advancements from nations other than the USA is prodigious. I doubt that ET falls from the sky uniformly over Earth's various nations like technological manna from the heavens. No, their inventions are inspired by need and human creativeness. Let's not sell ourselves short.

The absence of obviously alien assisted technological development pretty much means one of two things. One, that US scientists are utterly inept at analysing the technology they recovered and building on it or ET did not crash land into the USAF's lap.

EARNING FROM WRITING

2008-08-25T12:53:00.005+01:00

My greatest struggle in building a revenue generating blog has been creating valuable content around one specific theme. For instance a magazine dedicated say to digital photography will have on board a number of professional writers and probably also publish articles written by freelancers. Obviously I don't have such resources as a lone content producer and therefore struggle to offer an ongoing theme. Yet.

While struggling with this I happened across a website for content producers to showcase their work. http://www.associatedcontent.com/

This site offers content producers the opportunity to write articles on a variety of topics as well as answering requests for particular content. Content producers receive payment based on the number of hits they generate or performance payments. Additionally if they are resident in the USA they are able to submit articles for an upfront payment. This is effectively an advance payment offered by Associated Content for your article.

Initially content producers in the USA will earn more through the upfront payment method because they would probably just not have the necessary network in place to generate large amounts of page views or hits. With the correct development though the page views should grow over time until these are producing an ongoing income from articles.

For the month of August 2008 I have submitted 5 articles and answered one call for content on my content producer page at http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/271539/glennb.html. With currently less than 20 page views it is clear that the next stage of development must be to create a network! Happily I could retain my GlennB pseudonym.

Fortunately Associated Content also has a well developed forum of helpful fellow producers and wide range of topics under FAQ.

Muscled Luxury

2008-01-11T20:32:00.000Z

Got to take a ride in the Audi S8 today. Impressive. This beast comes with fingerprint technology - in other words you start the car by letting it scan your finger. Remember watching old flicks of guys crank starting a car with a big old handle? Realisation is we've come a long, long way. I've never owned a new car so I'm always a bit overwhelmed when taking one for a drive. This car did that and more. I particularly enjoyed the prodigious power which enables you to turn a fairly large car in your mirror into a distant dinky car in seconds.

Well what would you expect from a 450bhp 5.2L V10 engine derived from the Lamborghini Gallardo.

Santa Mutt

2007-12-26T19:50:00.000Z

Here is Santa Mutt, aka Balto.

He doesn't look half-bad decked out for Xmas does he?

I'm not sure he'd make much of a polar inhabitant though as he really can't handle the cold. Not sure if this is peculiar to him the Daschund breed as a whole.

"I am Legend"

2007-12-26T18:35:00.000Z

Josh & I have just returned from watching Francis Lawrence' sci-fi/horror, "I Am Legend".

We really enjoyed the movie - good escapism with buckets of suspense. I knew the audience was engrossed because during those quiet moments I couldn't even hear the usual rustle of food being munched.

Lots of great footage of a deserted and overgrown New York along with a bit a multi-million dollar golf driving range i.e. an aircraft carrier. Even some good Reggae music thrown in to boot.

It's unfortunate that there is just one survivor as that pretty much precludes any dialogue for most of the length of the movie.

Keep your eyes peeled for clues as to how the plague played out in newspaper cuttings and magazine covers liberally scattered about.

The ending is a bit blah, but that aside the movie is exciting. Josh is already keenly anticipating the sure to follow computer console game.

YouTube Funnies

2007-12-20T22:56:00.000Z

Like dance music and watching people do dumb stuff then try "Very Funny Animated Gifs Part 510" by pro100ksu. Despite to provocative looking thumbnail there really isn't much by way of nudity.

"Vegemite Spoon Prank" by smpfilms is an hilarious practical joke. Good quality footage and sound. That's what friends are for hey.

"Jessica Sierra, Nicole Richie and Jennifer Hewitt - Crunched" by popcrunchshow blasts celebs with a barrage of snide remarks. Thank god I'm not a celeb!

"In the Moment"

2007-12-19T22:18:00.000Z

Remember back in school how teacher would put a few part-sentences up on the blackboard. You'd then pick one and use it to begin and write a composition.
Well that's what the latest RedBubble contest reminds me of.
The theme is "In the moment".
What's that then? How would I portray the concept photographically?
Mostly I think of enjoyment, entrancement, enthralment.
Hmmm, I'm gonna need a subject, not my strong point this. Alternatively I'm going to have to portray the above in some sort of abstract way.
At last count I have "In the moment" on post-it notes on both my workstations, on my steering wheel, as a subject in my inbox and in my calender. Just so that I keep thinking about the concept. Sooner or later I've gotta come up with something substantial.
It feels good to be challenged creatively like this. Too often I take my camera to a location and just shoot as as I see things. That's more journalistic than creative isn't it.

Closing date for this contest is Jan 13th.
Keep checking back here to see what I come up with.

Supersonic dishwasher

2007-12-05T21:50:00.000Z

Hey, here's a view of a supersonic dishwasher in action.

Plates, mugs and cutlery. Yup it rocks! Just add milk...apparently?

Don't know how that got in the shot, see it there. The blue & red box.

Can't believe the things that are debated about. Like washing by dishwash vs. washing by hand. Here are some of the arguments used: DWs are more hygenic (water is hotter), Wastage (water & energy I guess?).

Mandy & I don't have a dishwasher. We've recently started to wash & dry (by hand) together in the evenings after dinner. And while we are chatting

Josh sits at the dinning table (open plan kitchen) and goes over his homework and participates in our conversation. It's a chore that we've turned into a little added quality time together.

Bring on the braai

2007-12-04T13:39:00.000Z

It's only December and I'm already looking forward to summer and a good braai (barbecue)!

Turkey sosaties are quick to prepare and apparently more healthy than red meat.

Plus with red peppers, mushrooms, onions and pineapple you're getting plenty of fruit & veg too!

From Dusk till Dawn

2007-12-04T13:26:00.000Z

This shot was taken about 15 minutes before the clouds closed in and the rain came pummelling down.

I bracketed by 2 stops three shots of this old Palladian style home. Of course a tripod was necessary.

The benefit of photographing popular public spaces in lousy weather is the lack of the public!!

I'm new to this bracketing method, but it is a tried and tested method of exposing shodow detail and highlight detail and gettinga pic closer to what the human eye sees.

Bring it indoors

2007-12-04T13:02:00.000Z

Winter time by default is the time to play around indoors with studio type shots.
I've pilfered a carnation from Mandy's vase of flowers for this project.
I've secured the bloom using a clothes peg well away from any background.
Setting the shutter speed to 4 on AE mode I've then lit the carnation with a bicycle torch and for good measure swirled the light about behind the flower.

Your Input

2007-11-23T04:51:00.000Z

For those that are new to this blog (pretty much everyone so far!) a couple of tips:
You can just click on "comments" below each entry if you have any views to express re.
Especially welcome are subjects you'd like to see photographed or enjoy photographing, criticism of photos shown on 4photos or those shown on my web page (link in "my profile") and really any relevant observations & comments.

Do it now - a lesson learned (again?)

2007-11-23T03:48:00.000Z

Rats! I had this great shot all lined up. The buss. park I work on is named Windmill Hill. Not without reason . . there's a great big old windmill on it. You know those windmills you'd see on oupa's plaas back in the RSA? Well nothing like that.

I noticed that the tree-lined path leading up to the WM was fairly covered in autumn leaves. The net result a photo with a great lead-in to the WM rising over the trees. Only I was late, didn't stop would do it later. & so on for 3 days. I finally get my act together, get up earlier and shoot off to get my shot before work. Only now there is a great big stack of scaffolding up the side of the subject and a very un-autumn, un-windmill like piece of blue plastic tarp draped over the tail-fins.

Pictured above is the same windmill during the summer of 07. Take a close look and whata ya know! It's besieged by scaffolding. Don from La Mancha, come tip your lance at this windmill anytime you want buddy.

Moral of the story: "Do what needs doing without further preambulation". lol! I mean "Do whats gotta be done & do it now".

2007-11-20T16:45:00.000Z

Mandy and I were fortunate on this trip into Wiltshire as the weather held up nicely.

We found a fine farmstall on th A4, Highclose, at which we bought some bread, cheese and ginger beer.

Place we visited were, Froxfield, Great Bedwyn & the five floor, Wilton Windmill, pictured here.

Vale of Pewsey

2007-11-05T07:41:00.000Z

Vale of Pewsey (East) from Milk Hill

I used my standard AA roadmap of Wiltshire to identify all the highest peaks in Wiltshire. Denoted by a small, solid black triangle with the height in meters just below it. Then having heard of the picturesque Vale of Pewsey, I located it on Google Earth. From there it was a cinch to quickly locate the roads running closest to the two "peaks" overlooking the Vale and subsequently the small car park available for ramblers (hikers in the UK).

Great Landscape Photo Locations

2007-10-28T19:46:00.000Z

How difficult is it to drive out into the countryside and find great locations for scenic photos!

Originally from Southern Africa, I am used to wide open spaces and scenic views are easily taken advantage of.

Just pull over onto the shoulder and walla!

The UK differs in this respect in that many country roads are lined by towering hedges and thickets obscuring a lot of the surrounding countryside. That aside, when I do come across a possible location it is highly unlikely there is anywhere to pull the car over as the roads are extremley narrow and twisting.

Enter Google Earth. I subscribe to the freebie version, but just this weekend effectivly used it to plan a photography trip into the heart of the Wiltshire countryside.