AC Johnson Photography Education » Great Lakes

Throwing a Hail Mary

Alec — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:42:14 +0000

This set of images was taken on the night of Dec. 23 and during the day, Dec. 24, 2009. Our epic snowstorm blowing in, my friend Chet and I decide to head to Duluth and take what comes our way. We arrived in the harbor at night, but in reasonable conditions. The winds were blowing at 20 mph or higher and the temps were in the mid 20’s. Not bad by Duluth winter standards. We drove in to the Blatnick Bridge area and then the Harbor proper to catch an ore ship arriving. On the 24th traveled from Ilgen Falls back down to Split Rock Lighthouse in the snow and wind. A great two days.

All these images are experiments in post processing with Lab Color and Gradient Maps. Many of you don’t know what these are and don’t care. I hope you enjoy the images regardless. Some of you will understand these terms and are curious about how to work with them. If so, post a comment and ask. For those well versed in these, please feel free let the rest of us know how you use them.

A selection of these images and other landscape work of mine is available for purchase at my new gallery site. http://acjphoto.zenfolio.com Here you can order prints and framing. Its wonderfully easy to use and the product quality is excellent. Even better, with this service I was able to dramatically lower my prices!

Happy New Year to all!

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Landscape Photography: Concepts Create Opportunities

Alec — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:58:20 +0000

click image

Hi Gang,

Today’s image is a re-post from quite a long time ago. Its also one of my personal favorites for many reasons.

I want to use today’s image to talk about concepts in photography and using visual design elements to work with those concepts. I don’t always go out and shoot with clear concepts in mind. Sometimes I go out to shoot just to be out shooting. Sometimes I go out to shoot and I don’t shoot anything. There are no rules you must follow, but there are always opportunities. Having concepts in mind that you enjoy working with will allow you:

1) To recognize new opportunities where you might not have seen them previously;

2) Permission to begin shooting if you get stuck or feel uninspired;

3) To develop a style, or look, to your images that is all your own.

CALM; a concept I work with often on Lake Superior - Shooting a subject with multiple personalities, like Lake Superior, can take a long time to get to know. It has a reputation for being surly, but I’ve spent the last few years photographing it in very different moods. The mood I like the best is when its dead calm, which happens QUITE OFTEN. I have really grown to enjoy this quiet, gentle yet powerful personality of the lake and work with that personality as a CONCEPT for many of my shots.

The visual design elements I used in this image (and many I shoot) were: super-slow shutter speeds combined with BIG WAVE ACTION of Lake Superior, shooting FOR black and white conversion in Photoshop, and a very simple, dramatic line/subject.

Sit down, make a list of adjectives that describe subjects you enjoy shooting, then build on those “concepts” using visual design elements, lighting, etc. to bring the concept (s) forward in your image. Then the next time you’re out shooting and feel unsure about what it is you’re trying to accomplish, come back to the concepts that draw you to the subject matter in the first place.

I’d love to hear from others in the comment section about what subjects they enjoy shooting and what concepts they work with when shooting that subject.

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Landscape Photography: Going Back in Time

Alec — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:27:08 +0000

Hi Gang,

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be posting exclusively landscapes. I’m going through some “throw-away” images, reworking some previously posted images and just re-posting some of my personal favorites.

I’d like to remind everyone that there are still openings available in my North Shore workshops, so please contact me directly at alec@acjohnsonphoto.com if you’re interested. Also please pass this workshop information on to anyone that might be interested.

You can view my gallery of North Shore images directly by click here, just in case you’re search for a bit of inspiration.

click image

Today’s image is a “throw-away” image, one I never intended on posting for a variety of reasons. It does represent some of the amazing characteristics of Lake Superior. For example, the lake is well known for its around the clock fog during the summer months. When warm, humid air runs up from the south and hits the notoriously cold water of the lake, bam…fog anytime of the day. I shot this image late in the day on a warm July afternoon two years ago. Fog can be a great landscape subject and Lake Superior often presents this opportunity. This particular image is of a “1000 footer” in harbor, Two Harbors, MN.

Landscape Photography: Giving Up #1

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