Colleen De Neve

Editorial Photography and Visual Communications

Colleen De Neve

Bugging out over Macro Photography

Photography

As I continue my experimenting with Macro Photography, there a bunch of subjects I want to photography. Bugs are on the list.

I generally do not like bugs. I find them creepy and crawly. But there are exceptions to this including the lovely little lady, the Ladybug. I have always been drawn to these cute red bugs. I love seeing them in the Spring when they wake and love seeing them through the summer.

Recently, there has been a bad aphid outbreak locally and the other day while walking into our house I noticed a bunch of plants covered in them. As I looked closer, I saw many more.

Let the hunt begin!

I grabbed my camera, equipped it with the proper lens and macro extension, checked my settings and settled in to see what I could capture.

At one point in my photojournalism training, one professor would just the phrase – “Crawl on your belly like a reptile”. He would tell us that to remind us that we have to look at life from a different vantage point. This was one of those such times.

Settling into the grass, I gradually creeped towards my subjects, trying not to drive them off. First target in sight… get close… focus… damn, too slow. Find another subject… creep towards it … focus… damn, too slow again. Locate another subject, repeat.

This time, a little more luck.

Shooting Macro, you have to make sure your focus is correct. You also need to make sure you have enough depth of field. As I experiment with this, I keep repeating my process until full success. Depth of field is substantially less when doing macro, so you need to ensure you have enough.

This time, the lady bug sat still long enough for me to capture this image. It is shot late afternoon with natural sunlight. There is little cropping done to the image so you can see how the macro lens allows you to get up close.

I was able to get about 4 images done when she moved on to search for more aphids to eat.

Looking for my next subject, I took that journalism profs advise and got even lower. I was able to find another little one, making her way through the grass.

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As she crawled up and down through the tall grasses, I was able to keep an eye on her for a couple of minutes. Framed in the tall grass, a little bit of backlighting and some soft light on her made the red of her shell stand out against the green surroundings.

I have to admit this image looks a lot better after having a little bit of correction done in Photoshop and Aurora HDR (a HDR and filter program I have been using lately to make my images pop a little more). Adding a little contrast, a little bit of burning and dodging and adding a little vignette helps draw you into this magical mystical world.

I kept the hunt up for a little while longer looking for one more cooperative subject. I finally found her, sitting sunning herself on the leaf of a sucker from our cherry tree. Photographed in the natural light of the late summer, she sat still and allowed me to get up close to her (with the lens 2-3 cm from the front of the lens).

I am going to keep looking for more things we do not usually see as I continue to experiment with Macro.

Experimenting with Macro Photography

Inspiration, Photography


In my latest effort to push my photography style, I have decided to work on understanding a technique which has alluded my bag of tricks for most of my career – Macro Photography.

DISCLAIMER – For most of my career I have not understood the process of Macro Photography. I understood Close Up Photography and knew there was a difference and knew that I could not achieve that true Macro look. In all honesty though, true Macro was not really needed in my day to day photography at the newspaper. Yes, we had a 100 mm Macro lens, but I did not fully understand how to work with it. I knew I could get closer to my subject than my regular lenses but did not fully utilize it to its full potential. While I have been proficient in utilizing various techniques, I have to admit the realm of Macro photography both boggled my mind while at the same time scared the pants off me.

In my life after the newspaper, I have enjoyed taking close up photos of things I did not always photograph while being a journalist – colourful leaves, super close up flowers, frost and things I generally walked past. I have worked to look at things differently and through that, my eyes have been opened with the world around us.

I am working to still understand this technique but from the experimentation I have done so far, I like it and want to improve and understand the techniques more. Here is an early glimpse into this realm of photography.

Life before Macro

Close Up of Leaves in the Fall. Photographed with a 24-105 mm f:4 Canon lens on a Canon 5D Mark III body. Focusing distance was about 12 inches.

Despite the effort I put into it, I could only get so close. Why? We have to remember that every lens has a minimum focusing distance. Macro lenses allow you to physically get closer to the subject than regular lenses do and without a dedicated Macro lens, I could only get so close. In fact Macro lenses often allow you to have a 1:1 ratio and you are able to have magnification of your subject. This is ultimately how Macro photos look different than close up photos.

Then at Christmas and I got my first set of Macro extension tubes. What these special attachments do is to extend or lengthen the distance of the front element from the sensor. By doing this, it allows you to get closer, actually make that a lot closer, to your subject. It means as well that you can take any lens you might have and make it a Macro lens. And I started playing.

A Whole New World

The first series of images I photographed were some miniature flowers that were the size of baby’s breath. I first took a photo to show how the image would look without the extension tubes.

Without the extension tube.

The flower get lost amidst the other foliage. So I added the tube and was able to place my camera lens right up to the flower, which created a completely different look and allowed me to focus on the miniature flowers instead.

With the extension tube, the distance to the subject became not an issue.

With the extension tube

As you can see, my first real attempt was not a complete failure. In fact, for me, this was a major win. Why? Ultimately because I had finally succeeded in being able to capture something minute and make it appear larger than it is.

After a brief step back (more out of lack of time and honestly a bit of lack of motivation), today I pulled out the extension tubes again. This sudden desire to begin experimenting again came after an inspiring night talk this past weekend by one of Canada’s top Macro Photographers put on by the Camera Store. Watching his presentation was truly inspiring and I could not wait to start pushing myself again. What did I learn from him. I learnt a number of things including to always look around us, to take time to think about colour and composition and that Macro Photography needs lots of light.

But what to photograph? I was surprised while driving home to see a bunch of Goat’s Beard weeds were still in seed after the unexpected mass snowfall last week. There it was, my subject was sitting in the mud beside the road home. So I plucked a couple of heads of fluffy weeds (that looked like oversized dandelions and each seed being about the size of a thumb tack at the most) and took them home where I put them against my grey backdrop. I jerry-rigged a light tube with my flash out of a potato chip tube and threw a number of different colour gels on the flash to play with colour as well as some without the gels.

So here is the results of me trying the lighting set up mentioned above, with shots from both my 50mm and 24-105mm lenses with the extension tubes on them.

Goat’s Beard

The same Goat’s Beard with the addition of coloured gels on my flash

Goat’s Beard Seed pods photographed with a Macro Extension tube

In the photography classes I teach at Mount Royal University, I advocate to the students to try new things and push the way they see the world around them with photography. These are words I have to practice myself. There is no better way to learn than to push your normal boundaries and try to see things in a different way. For anyone who knows me, you know I do not consider myself an abstract photographer. I like in focus identifiable subjects. And I do not generally gravitate towards abstract imagery, but I find sometimes, pushing those personal boundaries yields surprising results.

One final shot – my attempt at Abstract Photography…

So ultimately what does this all mean? I am going to keep experimenting to see what kind of interesting images I can capture, while trying to see details we do not always notice.

Who knows what kind of evolution might happen when we just decide to try new things?

Stepping back onto the CFL sidelines

Journal, Photography, Sports

When the email came in last week about the possibility of returning to the sidelines to photograph the Calgary Stampeders game against the Toronto Argos, I jumped at the chance to return to one of my favourite things to photograph – sports and people. (Click on the Calgary Stampeders name above to take you to the gallery which included images of mine – about halfway through the gallery).

My assignment was to capture the action in the stands, in the parking lot before and when time permitted me a few extra minutes, I could shoot some action too. I was part of the photo team covering the game for the Marketing team of the Stamps.

Stepping back onto the turf – the sights, the sounds, the action and the familiar faces – I have to admit – I was nervous. Even though I have shot sports for over the 25 years and I have covered many CFL games including Western Finals and Grey Cups the butterflies in my stomach were going. I was nervous about missing the requested photos. I was nervous about messing up documenting the activities. I was nervous about my exposures. Here I am, a pro of almost a quarter of a century, nervous like a rookie. But once the opening kickoff was punted down the field, my nerves calmed and I settled into what I know I have missed for too long.

Through the game, I took my fair share of crowd photos, marketing requested images of sponsorship and a little bit of the action of the field. This was all so natural, and it felt good to be back where I belong, on the sideline not watching from the stands. Was my timing a little off, yes. Was my action a little off, no. I was pretty happy since I was using a new camera (one I had not previously shot football with) and also not having done it for a while.

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My lesson I learned from this? Its like riding a bike, once you learn, its hard to forget. I have to trust myself, my years of experience and my skills as they have rarely failed me. My hopes are that I will get another phone call and that I will be able to work with the Stampeders again soon.

(All images ©2017 Calgary Stampeders and Colleen De Neve)

Pressing the “refresh button” on my photography

Daily, Inspiration, Journal, Photography

My whole photojournalism career has been about capturing people, places and events. You go into an assignment, assess the situations, the lighting, your subjects, what the message or tone is you want to capture. Set up your equipment, interact with your subject then capture the images.

But one problem I think all photographers face is settling into the routine as our careers develop and the years pass. We become too comfortable with the photos we take and thus, our photography becomes predictable and at times boring, Please do not misunderstand me, the photos are still great, they just lack sometimes in originality and are somewhat formulaic.

It is quite normal for photographers to go through a bit of a funk or to get stuck in a rut. I confess, after 24 years of shooting professionally, this is true for myself as well.

Lately though (really since starting to teach Cont. Ed. photography at Mount Royal University), I have tried to see things differently and to also work images differently too. At times, I have even *gasp* used just my iPhone to capture photos to post on Instagram rather than my bigger professional camera. And through this all, I have found at times the process quite liberating with the end result that my creative photo juices have started to flow again.

First, learning to see things different.

It can be a simple as opening your eyes and just watching the world. For example, the other morning while we were walking the dog (not ours, a friend who we are visiting), my kids saw her sniffing in some taller grass. I stopped to take a closer look and behold, there were a bunch of snails in shells sitting in the tall grass. The swirls, the lines, the colours – all caught my attention. I chose to take the image very close up and slightly off centre. Then I worked the image with a high contrast filter in photoshop. This is not something I would normally have photographed three or four years back. Too abstract for my normal style of years past (people/places/events). But by opening my eyes, I was able to capture a visually interesting image of  something so small but so interesting.


Second, playing with different techniques has been a fun challenge to embrace.
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Previously, I posted another blog about taking photos with a neutral density filter. This time I was able to photograph a water fall with a very slow shutter speed (0.8 seconds) while not on a tripod and no on camera filter. I rested my camera on a rock and supported it to make it somewhat level. Again, this time I tried a built in vivid filter in photoshop ( playing with preset filters is not my comfort zone as traditionally in journalism, corrections are kept simple). I also added a tilt shift filter in Instagram to create a more selective focus. Seeing that this image is not for print, more drastic changes are okay.

Finally, making the occasional return to my humble beginnings with simplicity.

When I first started taking photos, there were no digital cameras. Yes, there was colour film but I started my career with black and white photography. In fact, one of the earliest experiences I had was with a homemade pinhole camera with black and white paper in it.

I have always found something pure in black and white images. When I want to keep it simple, black and white it is. I am shooting on a digital camera these but have been tempted to buy some good old Ilfotech HC and Ilford film, break out the steel reels and do some darkroom work, but I haven’t quite ventured that retro yet. In the meantime, I’m happy shooting digital and converting to black and white. I push myself to see the world in greyscale. This happened while shooting a small Japanese garden I was wandering through. The image for me beckoned for simplicity, so I kept it simple. Again the image also had a tilt shift filter in Instagram added to bring the attention to the shrine.

I keep trying to experiment and push my personal photo boundaries as I work to reset my style and my photography. I will always have a photojournalism style but I think it’s good to also push my visual, more artist side to emerge.

Photographing Elbow Falls before the thaw using a Neutral Density Filter

Daily, Journal, Photography

Secret confession time… today was the first time in my 17 years of living in Alberta that I took the quick trip out of Calgary to Elbow Falls in Kananaskis. When we got there, we found that many of the trails and viewing points were still closed for the winter so I ended up sticking to the main area to take a couple of photos. A few months ago I bought my first ever neutral density filter (a ND16 from Photo Repbulik) and I have been wanting to give it a try. What better day to do it that a nice pre-spring day when the kids were off school.

So what is a neutral density filter? It’s a photo filter which you put onto your lens which has a degree of tinting to it. The numbers on the filters start out giving a full stop of underexposure and as the number increases, the darkness increases meaning the image and exposure requires a longer time to achieve a good exposure.

The purpose of an ND filter is to allow you to take photographs on slower shutter speeds in bright light conditions. Often when we set our cameras, if it is bright and sunny, we max out our settings – you are on the lowest ISO, the highest aperture and the slowest shutter speed you can get for the amount of light. If you are wanting to blur motion (like in the case of moving water) and your shutter speed is not slow enough, you will not get blur. Adding an ND filter allows you to slow down your shutter speed, thus giving you the blur.

By adding the ND16 filter at Elbow Falls, I was able to get good exposures of ISO 50, shutter speed of a 1/2 second and aperture of f:22 on my Canon 5D Mark III with the 24-105mm f:4 lens on a tripod. For a few photos I did push my exposures a bit by dropping it to about a full 1 second exposure, but the downside was the snow became too blown out and over exposed. Now that I have tried the filter, I actually want a darker one to allow for an even longer exposure in the future.
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I did convert and lightly work the image to a black and white image using the programs Aurora HDR and Photoshop CC2017.

I can’t wait to go back to photograph the falls more in the future when I can access more viewing points when they open from their winter closures and when the water flow will be a little higher. By then I might look at adding another ND filter and stacking them together or maybe a darker one by itself.

Seeing the light while photographing at the National Music Centre

Journal, Photography, Web

This past weekend, I took my Mount Royal Photography class to the National Music Centre. After studying light in the classroom earlier in the week, our goal was to capture it. Once of the challenges I gave my students was to capture an image which was compelling or interesting because of the light. I also took the challenge myself.

Since visiting for the first time in the fall, I have fallen in love with the architecture of the newly opened music museum in Calgary, Alberta. In particular, light plays a huge part in how the building looks and is ultimately photographed. The curved walls, the angled lines of staircases and the natural window light creates a visually stunning setting.

Each time I have visited the museum, I have looked for that certain angle and this time around, I was able to capture what I had wanted. The day was slightly overcast but that helped to make the light more even and made the stairwell visually more appealing. Even though there are lots of shadows and ample highlights, there is enough difference in the dynamic range between the two to see details in the setting.

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Light plays a huge impact in the images we take. We always have to be conscious of the direction of light? The amount of light? And is it hard or soft light? When we stop and think about these things, it can help create more compelling images.

This image was photographed in Sepia on a Canon 5D Mark III, with a 105 mm lens, Shutter: 1/160th, Aperture: f:4. The image was worked in Photoshop and final edit was done with Aurora HDR.

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