Creating an environmental portrait

        So I was wondering which picture I should blog about next: since my lovely wife posted this as her profile picture, I decided this would be the one!  Katie is currently an optometrist in the Frisco, Texas area (which is north of Dallas). This photo was taken in April, 2014, at the University of Houston College of Optometry, shortly before her graduation.

       My goal was to take an environmental portrait: to show her in an exam room, where she examines patients' eyes. I wanted to show the room, and any instruments that an optometrist would use. I scouted the exam room prior to setting up and I looked for the best way to achieve those goals. My next task was to figure out the best way to illuminate her and the room. I wanted to make sure I did this before Katie arrived. It's important to scout and test a location before the subject of an environmental portrait arrives, because they may be short on time.

      I planned to use a flash attached to the top of the camera to illuminate Katie. I quickly identified and decided to use an instrument commonly used in optometry called a phoropter, with the idea that Katie would stand next to it. I took some practice photos to figure out which settings for the flash would work the best. I had the flash pointed at the ceiling, and a dome-shaped diffuser on top of it. I rarely use direct flash: it washes out skin tones too much, and causes too much glare. It also casts harsh shadows. Pointing the flash upwards, along with using the diffuser, would help the light bounce off the walls and low ceiling and soften the light on her skin and the phoropter. I would have preferred to use a couple of studio lights with larger diffusers on them to help illuminate her face even better (create a more 3-dimensional look), but there wasn't enough space for that. I was backed up against the wall for this photo!

      Sometimes, I like to throw the background way out of focus so as to draw more attention to the main subject. Since this was an environmental portrait, I wanted to keep the background slightly in focus-- enough to show the details of the exam room, but not so much in focus that it was a distraction to the main subject. I chose an aperture on my camera that was appropriate for this. This caused a small problem that, fortunately, I was prepared to handle.

      First, I needed to have the shutter speed on the camera on a fast enough setting that I could hold the camera in my hand while taking the picture (the space was too tight to use a tripod effectively). I also wanted to use a relatively low ISO setting on my camera. The ISO setting on a camera is one of the ways that the camera lets in light: higher ISO settings let in more light, but the image is noticeably more grainy (called "noise" with digital cameras). An on-camera flash can only illuminate out to a certain distance, especially considering that the power of the light falls very rapidly with distance. (see:  http://petapixel.com/2014/07/01/inverse-square-law-light-explained-simple-terms-photographers/ ) If I used a fairly low ISO setting, a shutter speed that would minimize camera shake, and an aperture that would keep the background only slightly out of focus, then the background would have gone dark-- since the flash would not have illuminated the back of the room, and the camera itself would not have let in enough light with those settings. I could have used a higher ISO setting to bring out the background more, but that would have made the image much too grainy. I could have chosen an aperture on my camera to throw the background more out of focus. This would have let more light into the camera, and the background would have shown up better. However, as mentioned, I did not want the background too much out of focus.

      The solution? Illuminate the room behind Katie with a studio light with an umbrella attached. The light would illuminate the room, while the umbrella would soften the light and make the illumination more even. (The flash would trigger a sensor on the light, causing it to flash). I took some test pictures to figure out how bright I needed the flash from the studio light to be.

      I had my solution. I would illuminate Katie and the phoropter with my flash, and illuminate the rest of the room with the studio light and umbrella. This would allow me to achieve good illumination on Katie's face, have the background only slightly out of focus, and allow me to use an ISO setting on the camera that would not cause too much digital noise. I did some final test photos to see which settings on the camera, flash and studio light would work the best. Note that I did all of this before Katie arrived!

      When Katie arrived, I led her into the room. Since I had prepared my lighting in advance, the only thing to do with her was to take several photographs using different facial expressions and angles on her face and body.

      I did take some extra photographs using other instruments used by optometrists (and I had planned and did lighting tests for each while Katie was out of the room) but this one was the best of the photo session. I edited it for brightness, contrast and color balance. I took out some of the digital noise (there wasn't much to remove since I had used a fairly low ISO setting).

      Many thanks to my wife, Katie, for being patient with me as I tested my lights and posed her at different angles to achieve the best picture of her.

The Dance of the Dark Sky

       A truly dark night sky - one similar to what our ancestors saw - is an incredible sight. An amazing number of stars can be seen all across the sky. At certain times of the year, the Milky Way can be seen as a beautiful, silvery arch stretching from horizon to horizon. I hope that everyone takes the opportunity to experience this at least once in his or her lives.

       In May of 2012, a friend of mine and I went to southern Utah and northern Arizona area to see the beautiful scenery there and to chase an annular solar eclipse. (See my previous blog post for more on this trip.) The night skies there are among the darkest in the world. I wanted to photograph the stars above an interesting foreground in the area.

       I needed to decide: what would I choose for a foreground object? I wanted to make that decision prior to departing on the trip so that I could spend my time there enjoying and photographing the scenery instead of looking for objects. The foreground object needed to be something that was less than 50 feet away from my camera so that I could use my camera flash to illuminate it. Unfortunately, this meant that I could not use any of the well-known canyons or rock formations that are in the area as they would be too far away. Isolated trees make good foreground subjects for night sky photos, and I could possibly get close enough to one, but I was not sure if one existed in the areas where my friend and I were headed.

       I really enjoy photographing ghost towns, so I thought that an old building would make for a suitable subject with the stars in the background. I researched which ghost towns are in the area, and I found several. Some were in areas where the night sky wouldn't be especially dark. Others had fully restored buildings. I preferred to use something that had been allowed to age, as it would provide an artistic contrast to the beautiful starscape. Using an online maps program, I found a ghost town that matched my needs: Widtsoe, Utah. It is in a very dark area, and the recent photographs of the buildings showed that they had not been restored. I had finally found my foreground object, and could start making my plans to visit there.

       Widtsoe is located north of Bryce Canyon National Park, so we planned to head there after visiting the park. After photographing the sunset at Bryce Canyon, we drove on a two-lane highway for about 20 miles, and then took a county road to arrive at the town. I turned my headlights off, stepped outside, and looked up. The sky was clear, and full of stars. But this was not the right time to take my photo. Why? At that time of year, in the evening, the band of the Milky Way is below the horizon for the northern hemisphere and not visible yet. I actually planned to come back in the predawn hours, when the Milky Way would be above the horizon. We were scouting the location for the next morning. I wanted to make sure that there were no lights in the immediate area and found none. I also was planning to face south when I took the photograph, because that is where the brightest section of the Milky Way would be. I looked at the buildings in the area to pick which one would provide the most interesting view as I faced that direction. After a while, I found the building that would be perfect.

       After that, my friend and I drove about 30 miles to our campground and slept for a few hours. The alarm clock woke us up at 3 a.m. and we drove back to Widtsoe. I stepped out the car, and looked up. Thankfully, the weather had remained clear. The sky was beautiful. There were thousands of stars visible all across the sky. The Milky Way had risen, and it stretched as a glowing cloud of stars from the southern horizon to the northeastern horizon. I could easily see dark bands of gas and dust tracing lines between the glowing star clouds. I wondered how the people who lived there about 100 years ago would have felt to be able to look up and see a sky like that every clear, moonless night.

       I found the building that I had scouted earlier, and set up my camera with a wide-angle lens on a tripod and faced the building. I took 2 separate photos: one to expose for the stars, and another to expose for the building (which I illuminated with my camera flash). (I took several test photos to see how bright I needed to make my camera flash.) When I loaded them on my computer, I edited the sharpness, color balance, and contrast for each photo. I also took out some of the noise (seen as digital "grain") in each photo. I then merged both photos together. Though it is technically a composite photo, this is how the Milky Way was oriented over this house. I wanted to stay as true as possible to the actual scene.

       A little more about what you are seeing here: All of the stars that you see are part of the Milky Way. The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, so it has arms like a pinwheel. The Earth is located in a spiral arm of the galaxy that is about 2/3 of the way from the center. The glowing clouds in the center of the photo are the next spiral arm in towards the center. You can also see the dark lanes that block starlight from greater distances. The orange glow in the lower right is actually the glow from the small town of Tropic, Utah, which is about 15 miles away from Widtsoe. I could not see the colors that are shown here in the sky, and I could not see as many stars. It took a long exposure from my camera to show these features. But it was still an amazing experience to be in a wide-open space away from cities and towns, and to look up at our home galaxy.

       By the way, how can you experience this for yourself? Go to the following websites: http://djlorenz.github.io/astronomy/lp2006/overlay/dark.html and http://www.blue-marble.de/nightlights/2012 . On the first map, you should try to go to an area that is in the gray or black zones. On the second link, just try to avoid the blobs of light (these are the glows from cities, towns, and things like oil fields and electrical powerplants). You can also go to www.sunrisesunset.com to figure out when the moon will be out of the way (the days close to New Moon is best). I hope you take the chance to do this, and if you do (or have) leave your comments below! Thanks for looking!

(Thanks to Mike Mallory (my friend) for being patient with me while I drove on our late-night adventures! Also thanks go to www.ghosttowns.com and www.ghosttowngallery.com for information on Widtsoe.)

Waterholes Canyon, Arizona

       The first photo I'm posting here is of Waterholes Canyon, a slot canyon near Page, Arizona. A friend of mine and I had planned a trip to southern Utah and northern Arizona to see the beautiful landscapes there and to see an annular eclipse of the sun (the sun would form a ring around the disc of the moon) in May of 2012. While researching for the trip, I discovered that there were numerous slot canyons in the area. Slot canyons are very narrow gorges formed by water eroding through rock. These canyons can be very beautiful, as sunlight can strike the walls and bring out exquisite details and sublime shades of color. After seeing numerous photos of the slot canyons in the area, my friend and I made it a goal to visit one when we were there.

       Additional research showed that most slot canyons in the area required a 4x4 vehicle or a long hike to reach-- usually both. Due to our time constraints and budget, we needed a slot canyon that could be reached using a standard vehicle and a fairly easy hike. One of the most popular ones in the area is Antelope Canyon. Visiting Antelope Canyon would require signing up with a tour group. Not only did we not want to spend the money for a tour group, but we were concerned that going on a tour would limit us because of time allowances and other people possibly standing in our photos. I did some further research and discovered that Waterholes Canyon would match our needs.

       But the visit to the canyon almost didn't happen! We had planned to see the canyon in the afternoon of May 20, a few hours before the eclipse. But that was assuming that we had found a location suitable for viewing and photographing the eclipse by noon. By the afternoon of the eclipse, we had not found a location that matched our needs-- even though we had visited several places! So we had to skip the canyon. We eventually found a great location to view and photograph the eclipse. After the celestial show, we drove to our campground near the north rim of the Grand Canyon and got some sleep. The next day, after seeing the sunrise from the Grand Canyon, we had a decision to make: drive the 3 hours to the northwest that it would take to reach Zion National Park (where we had reservations for that night) or drive 3 hours in the opposite direction to the Page area to visit the canyon, then drive an additional 2 hours back to the west to reach Zion park. We weren't even sure that we would make it to the canyon, because it would require getting a pass from a Navajo Indian field office that we weren't certain would be open!

       The photos that I had seen of slot canyons proved too tempting: we would take the gamble. We drove to Page, ate lunch, and went to obtain the passes from the field office. Fortunately, we arrived at the office to find it open! We paid the fee, got directions to the canyon, and were on our way. We drove south on the highway to the parking lot at the head of the trail for the canyon. We started walking the trail, which led over flat desert and past rock formations. After hiking for a little over a mile, we reached the mouth of the canyon. The space between the canyon walls narrowed as we explored further. At some points, I could stretch my arms out and touch both sides of the canyon! The walls reached dozens of feet into the air above us. It was a surreal location-- made for exploring. I took photos and video at several locations in the canyon.

       This photo is my favorite from that series. I like how the path leads the viewer into the canyon, encouraging further exploration. I also like the striations in the rock walls- it's fascinating to imagine the power that fast-flowing water can have to be able to carve through solid Earth like that. I also like the subtle shades of color. Red and orange dominate in this photo, but there are subtle shades of blue and purple to be seen as well. I'm very glad that I took the time to step away from my camera in this fascinating place to notice the subtle beauty there.

Welcome to my blog!

Hi! Welcome to the blog for my photography site. I'll be posting the stories behind my photos here. While some photographs may happen simply by chance, many involve careful planning. I hope to share some of the amazing experiences I've had while taking these pictures. I encourage you to come back to this blog, as I will try to update it as often as possible.

Thanks for visiting!

Mark Egan