Greg Molyneux Photography

Tag: cross processing

  • Lookout Landing

    Lookout Landing

    HDR cross processed photograph of a lone man watching sunset
    Lookout Landing — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures

    Does this count as self portraiture? I’m not certain but this may count for salvaging a sunset shoot. How salvaged? Only you can be the judge of that. Sunset sits the saddle of boom or bust. For a moment yesterday seemed headed for boom town, but instead just kinda petered out into grey-blue darkness. But that’s all good.

    Eager to make something out of nothing I thought why not hop into my own picture for a change? Could be cool, right? Simply set the timer to 10-seconds and find a spot that seems to be on one of the outer thirds of the frame. Hard to go wrong with the rule of thirds. Once in position I remained as still as possible knowing I was popping off 7 brackets. Total excess I’m sure, but hip-hip-hooray for digital storage.

    The last bit of the workflow brought some cross processing in post production. A final effort to complete a different look that seemed fitting for what was a different kind of shoot. It seemed fitting to layer over a washed out veil of mood. With a new year fast approaching it only makes sense to look ahead to the future with equal parts trepidation and wonder. I’m trying to collect my own thoughts to figure out where my photography should head in 2016. Do I try something completely new? Like portraiture? Revisit some kind of photo project like the one that got all this started in 2012? Identify an area of weakness for focus and improvement? Or maybe try deeper forays into shameless self-promotion? Of course I could follow the Greg Molyneux as water M.O. and seek out the path of least resistance to keep doing what I’m doing? Or some kind of mash-up combination? That said there are two things I do know: 1) I want to do more black and white, and 2) in the very near term I need to get cracking on my best of 2015 post so it’s ready to go come Christmas Eve.

  • Life Hangs On

    Low key cross processed macro photograph of an insect atop a daisy
    Life Hangs On — 100 mm | f/3.5 | ISO 400 | EXP 1/800

    I didn’t expect to see this today. Despite progress well into Fall I somehow have a path of thriving daisies in my backyard. I spied them unexpectedly today while making a quick pass through back there—about ten blossoms in all. More surprising was the amount of insect life teeming about the blossoms. Bees, flies, and some kind of beetle/yellow ladybug type thing; there must have been a dozen or so creepy-crawlies getting in a late season feed. Or maybe they’re just in calendar denial like me? I’m still wearing flip-slops after all. We’ve already dipped below freezing a couple times so this patch of my yard is demonstrating some unusual tenacity. Or maybe I’ve just never noticed the late season prowess of daisies and the requisite wildlife they sustain?

    Update: Hat tip to Jeff Ruemeli for being googler du jour and identifying this little flying fellow as a hoverfly.

  • Live alone in a paradise

    Vertical orientated shallow depth of field purple coneflower macro
    Live alone in a paradise — 100mm | f/3.5 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/1600

    . . . that makes me think of two.

    Here’s a flower for your Friday. I hope you enjoy it.

    This is one of my purple coneflowers that I have potted (sloppily) in my backyard. With strong light overhead, a little to my back, I fixed bayonets macro lens and popped off a few shutters. It was five minutes of awesomesauce. You should have been there. OK. Maybe not.

    Regardless, and I’ve said it before, purple coneflower are some of the best floral muses out there. A real go-to for this guy.

    Have a great weekend, everyone. Happy shutters.

    Interested in buying? Purchase

  • Touchpoints

    Square format photograph of cross processed purple coneflowers with rich bokeh and shallow depth of field
    Touchpoints — 50mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/8000

    It was just this past Sunday I dropped such deep knowledge on the Twitters. Insert very strong sarcasm. Flippancy aside I really do like the shallow depth of field. Recognizing its existence was for me revelatory. As someone who spent the better part of 30 years willfully ignorant toward anything photographic, seeing exposures for the first time elevated composition to a new plane of understanding in my sometime left dominant brain. More so, it shed light into why, despite being rather skilled with any kind of fine art pencil work, I could never grasp the nuance and subtleties of painting—I’m especially looking at you, oils. I never understood depth of field. I never saw it. It’s as simple as that. I never understood you could just blur out elements, whether in the fore, mid or back grounds, with purpose to better move the eye across your subject and through its story.

    Art, man. It sounds so simple in retrospect. But I really do like the shallow depth of field.

  • You got a Piece of Heart!

    Cross processed macro photograph of bleeding heart flowers
    You got a Piece of Heart! — 100mm | f/2.8 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/500

    I’ve been sitting on this photograph for just over two weeks now. It’s been processed up and ready to go and everything, I’ve just been slacking. Anyway, here’s one of my backyard bleeding heart flowers just after it hit full bloom this past May 1st. Later that very day I scored this fine sunset at Stafford Forge; always a bonus when you walk away with two keepers in one day.

    Even before my macro days began—and all the way back to my time as a youngster—I always enjoyed the company of these early season plants. Harbingers of good times, and a fun reminder of my all-time favorite video game franchise. Yes, that’s a hint toward the title I chose.

  • Cross Process the Forge

    Square format HDR photograph cross processed for a moody look of Stafford Forge Wildlife Management Area.
    Cross Process the Forge — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures

    I hate to say but picture making just hasn’t been much fun lately; and while it’s hard to puzzle out whether it’s for lack of inspiration, poor mood, shoddy shooting conditions, a plateauing of skills or something else entirely. Either way it’s been a grind. Last night was just another blip on the here comes another busted sunset radar. Almost just hasn’t been almost enough for what feels like months now.

    So what’s to be done when natural light doesn’t live up to its end of the bargain? We play with sliders and presets in post processing—or at least that’s what I do. Some might say this works to flex the creative muscles. I would say it’s more like pressing a bunch of buttons hoping something interesting happens that will help bail out another ho-hum photograph.

    Ironically enough I actually like this picture. I just wish I had more control of the process and felt a little better doing it.

  • Around that bend is Kewe

    Moody light seeps in deep with this brooding low key photograph of a leafy footpath in the Pinelands leading around a bend to here unseen Kewe campsite at the Joseph A. Citta Scout Reservation
    Around that bend is Kewe — 40mm | f/8 | ISO 800 | EXP 1/13

    I took this photograph tonight at scare school. That’s right. Scare school. My awesome friends are getting ready to put on the third annual Zombie Outbreak at the Joseph A. Citta Scout Reservation in Brookville, New Jersey, tomorrow (10/24) and Saturday (10/25). We set up a wicked zombie village walkthrough deep in the pines and all proceeds go to charity.

    Tonight we met up with some volunteers to go over the basics. Ergo scare school. I took this shot just after sunset making way through the trails to the backside of where it’s all going down: the Kewe Campsite. This weekend is going to be great, and hopefully I have a picture or two to share.

  • The winds of change

    An early Fall HDR cross processed photograph taken at sunset over the south marsh of Cedar Run Dock Road.
    The winds of change — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures

    Few things reinvigorate the spirit like a change in weather. The clouds break, the winds turn and cold, fresh air pours down clean and clear from the northwest. Like a steam roller of inevitability it reminds us winter is coming.

    Today was one of those all kind of weather days. Morning took us into early afternoon with clouds, rain, and a dank humid warmth. The afternoon gave way to glow of sunshine and a flash of warmth; a feint reminder of summer gone by. But come sunset the winds had changed and the cold began its lurch across the state. We’re heading down into the low 40s for the the overnight and by morning we’ll all be hugging our loved ones a bit little tighter.

  • Making my way

    A cross processed street level photograph of a lone car approaching, headlights on. Power lines and clouds mark the background
    Making my way — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/8

    Tonight I had solid clouds to work with but no color. Not exactly sure what to shoot I knelt down roadside, hands cupping my camera no more than an inch above the asphalt. The first test shot showed a promising composition. A second later I heard a car approaching, roughly a half a mile out.

    Knowing the photograph I hoped to produce, car approaching, camera aimed blind in nothing more than a general direction, I depressed the shutter. A quick glance down at the viewfinder showed luck was on my side. Success.

    Fun fact: This is post number 100 since the January launch. Woohoo!