Way back in the last century, when I started taking pictures . . .
I began my study of photography in a black and white photography class where I processed my own film and developed my images in a chemical darkroom. I went through a lot of paper and chemicals to achieve the image that I was looking for – but I was forever captivated with the development of photographs. Not just in the darkroom – but in the camera where the process begins. I learned to create a photo with black and white in mind, to look for varying tones throughout the image, shapes, texture and light to give the feeling of depth. When a photo is created with black and white in mind, the lighting becomes apparent, softness or sharpness of features and details are more pronounced and composition is first and foremost in the image. What is it about a black and white photograph that sets it apart from color photographs? Black and white images are known to be more elegant and are considered by many to be "classic" photography. An image in color can be distracting, but an image in black and white focuses attention on your subject. Most cameras today give the operator the option to shoot their photos in black and white. While this may seem appealing, I would advise against this. Once you let the camera take control and shoot in black and white all of the color information is lost - never to be recovered. With post-processing it is a simple step to convert a color image to black and white. So shoot in color - and then convert to black and white. Tent Rocks 1 contains contrasting tones, texture and shape. Leading lines from the foreground and background draw your attention to the lone pine tree seemingly growing out of rock. Tent Rocks 1
I took this photo last year at Tent Rocks National Monument located southwest of Santa Fe, NM. Because of the unique rock formations I used a fairly wide angle lens – 40 mm – and remember my back being against another rock formation as I composed then shot this image. This national monument is unique – some call it the Slot Canyons of NM. I recommend a visit if you are in the area. This image is in my West of the Mississippi portfolio - click this link to go there http://www.colleensternberger.com/p1058933451/e20a65d44 Thank you for sharing your time with me - I truly appreciate it. Colleen
If you have time visit my fan page on Facebook. - you can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/colleensternbergerphotography You can also follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColleenPhotoKS If you like my blog be sure and share it with others. And feel free to leave a comment - I would love to hear from you. Listen to Me - What are your plans for this Saturday?Listen to Me is a heart-warming silhouette of a small child and a very large horse. To capture a silhouette you need a subject that has a recognizable shape. Then place your subject in front of a bright light and expose for the brightest part of your image - the background. You also need to keep your shapes distinct and uncluttered. Keep some space between the shapes. Here you see all four of the horse's legs, both ears and the tail. On the child you can make out the features of the face, cowboy hat, finger and the lead rope. All combine to tell a story.
Listen To Me
I have donated a 16 x 24 gallery wrap of this image to Spirit of the Plains, CASA for their fund-raising event Sweet Indulgence. This event is this Saturday - February 9, 2013 - at the Clarion Inn in Garden City, KS. Tickets may be purchased at the Clarion Inn. CASA - Court Appointed Special Advocates - provides a voice in court for abused and neglected children that are involved in the judicial system. Spirit of the Plains, CASA works with the children in the 25th Judicial District of Kansas. You can learn more about their program by following this link: http://www.orgsites.com/ks/25th-judicial-district/ To learn more about CASA on a national level follow this link: http://www.casaforchildren.org/site/c.mtJSJ7MPIsE/b.5301295/k.BE9A/Home.htm Listen To Me can be found in my Horses portfolio and is available for purchase. Thank you for sharing your time with me - I truly appreciate it. Colleen
If you have time visit my fan page on Facebook. I post quite a bit about my fine art photography as well and you will be able to see what comments are posted there. You can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/colleensternbergerphotography If you like my blog be sure and share it with others. And feel free to leave a comment - I would love to hear from you.
Power - comes in all formsI want to take this opportunity to tell you about my open house on Wednesday - January 30, 2013 in Greensburg, KS. It will be held at the 5.4.7 Arts Center located at 204 W. Wisconsin. It is scheduled for 4-8 pm - I will be there and would love to visit with anyone who stops by. I am honored to have been asked by the 5.4.7 Arts Center to display my work in their gallery. There are more than 25 of my images on display - some are beautifully framed by Starla McClain (Starla's Stitch 'n Frame in Greensburg) and there are some that are elegant gallery wraps. I also want to mention that they are all for sale - please tell your friends. The 5.4.7 Arts Center is a story of perseverance and regrowth located in a city that almost disappeared on May 4, 2007 after being hit by an EF5 tornado. If you would like to learn more about the Arts Center - the first building in Kansas to receive a LEED Platinum - rating follow this link http://www.547artscenter.org/. More information about the City of Greensburg can be found by following this link http://www.greensburgks.org/. The image below reminds me of Greensburg for two reasons. First, the stormy sky lends an ominous feel to the image - maybe the same as the residents of Greensburg felt on 5-4-07. Second, after the tornado, the city council passed a resolution stating that all city buildings would be built to LEED - platinum standards, making it the first city in the nation to do so. The city's power is supplied by ten 1.25 MW wind-turbines.
Power
I took this image Saturday when my part of the world actually had a chance to receive some moisture (we got a few sprinkles). In color the image was just blue with the white wind-turbines - a good image, but not good enough. I really wanted the clouds to "pop" so I made a few adjustments in Photoshop and added a sepia tone to the image. To me the image says Power with the stormy sky and the turbines - each telling their own story. What does it say to you? Thank you for sharing your time with me - I truly appreciate it. Colleen If you have time checkout my fan page on Facebook. I post quite a bit about my fine art photography as well and you will be able to see what comments are posted there. You can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/colleensternbergerphotography If you like my blog be sure and share it with others. And feel free to leave a comment - I would love to hear from you. RSS Subscribe - Google and Safari are not cooperating.Thank you for checking out my very first blog. With anything new there are always a few bugs to work out. One problem is that some web browsers do not support RSS feed and that means that some people have not been able to subscribe to my blog. Here is the answer that I received about why this happens: Chrome does not have a built in RSS reader, so it will just show the code, which is what you are seeing. Firefox can read RSS feeds, and also older versions of Safari. The latest version of Safari cannot display RSS feeds, but there are numerous apps for this. Google also has a RSS feed reader called Google Reader. I hope this might answer any questions anyone might have.
Now here's an image that will probably not make it to a gallery on my web site - but you never know. I would love to know what you think of it - leave a comment for me
Water Horses
This image was taken on a trip to Wyoming in October, 2012. Well, I have been really busy since then and haven't had much time to look back over the pictures I took until recently. I am always learning more about the craft of Fine Art Photography and this segment of Digital Art so I joined a group of exceptional digital artists on Facebook and have been learning from some of the best. Our challenge was to take a texture that was provided to us and see what we could do with it. These horses were in a larger group of horses and I cropped the picture tight. You can see some water splashing and just a hint of legs on the front horse. I applied the texture to the image and changed the blend mode in Photoshop. I really liked the color that the image took on, but I did not like the texture on the horses. I applied another technique from my digital toolbox and took the texture off of the horses while leaving the texture color. I then burned some in front of the lead horse because the area was too bright and I thought it drew the viewer's eye away from the horses. That's how I did it. Thank you for sharing your time with me - I truly appreciate it. Have a great weekend! Colleen
If you have time checkout my fan page on Facebook. I post quite a bit about my fine art photography as well and you will be able to see what comments are posted there. You can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/colleensternbergerphotography If you like my blog be sure and share it with others. And feel free to leave a comment - I would love to hear from you.
Welcome!Welcome to my fine art photography blog. Thank you for stopping by my web site - I hope you found a few images that you liked. This blog will allow me to tell a little bit about the art I create and also let you know when and where I am headed to capture the next great images! It may - from time to time - have some fun things that I am working on that will never make it to a gallery on my web site. And now . . . one of my favorites. I have this one hanging in my bedroom. Alley Dust
If you have time checkout my fan page on Facebook. I post quite a bit about my fine art photography as well and you will be able to see what comments are posted there. You can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/colleensternbergerphotography Thank you for sharing your time with me. If you like my blog be sure and share it with others. And feel free to leave a comment - I would love to hear from you.
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