Wolf, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

A itty-bitty wolf carving my wife bought me today. We do a bit of Feng Shui in our house and offices and this little guy is to help me gain clarity and focus in my photography business.

Technical Ramblings: Shot in a light tent with 3 AlienBee B800s used to enlighten the wolf. Placed on a sheet of clear plexi-glass on top of white foam core.

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 31 Jul 09, 8.52PM MDT.

Betty, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

The final of the series of people important in the lives of my wife and I from Iowa. This is Betty my wife’s aunt. She has a hard time seeing and hearing. Ah, the joy of getting older.

Technical Ramblings: Again all natural light for this image. Another hugh picture window over Betty’s shoulder. Lots o pixel tweaking in Lightroom to recover the highlights in her hair. I’m noticing Nikon’s have a tendency to blow out the highlights. However, the data is there in the RAW file and just takes a bit of encouragement to come back.

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 28 Jul 09, 5.01PM MDT.

Johnnie, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

Johnnie is my wife’s aunt. She is about the nicest person I’ve ever met. Johnnie’s husband Larry passed away a couple years ago and is greatly missed by the family. When my wife’s Dad died when she was 10 Larry stepped in and was like a Dad to her growing up.

Technical Ramblings: Natural light by a hugh picture window camera left. I tried to light with a strobe and umbrella but it just didn’t look right. The light was not as soft and wrapping around the face. So I just cranked up the ISO in order to capture the images.

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 27 Jul 09, 9.34PM MDT.

Joyce, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

During my stay in Iowa this past week I photographed some important people in the life of my wife and I. This is Joyce, my wife’s mom. Over the next couple of days I’ll be posting the other two people I photographed. For each photo I tried to capture the essence of each person. This photo of Joyce is how I typically remember her. Taken in her favorite spot on her sun porch of her early 1900’s farm house in Iowa.

Technical Ramblings: All natural light coming in from behind and camera left. Only Lightroom pixel tweaks to the highlights and saturation.

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 26 Jul 09, 10.40PM MDT.

Roseman Bridge (HDR), originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

Got back from a couple of days of shooting the bridges in Madison County Iowa. This image is from the interior of Roseman Bridge (famous from the movie The Bridges of Madison County). Lots of bats in this bridge and the next morning after I took this image I had to walk through them to do a sunrise shoot. What fun as the smell and them flying around was a bit creepy in near darkness.

Fun Facts: Built in 1883 by Benton Jones, it is 107 feet in length and sits in its original location. Roseman was renovated in 1992 at a cost of $152,515. In Robert James Waller’s novel The Bridges of Madison County and the movie of the same name, Roseman is the bridge Robert Kincaid seeks when he stops at Francesca Johnson’s for directions; it is also where Francesca leaves her note inviting him to dinner.

Also known as the “haunted” bridge, Roseman is where two sheriff’s posses trapped a county jail escapee in 1892. Uttering a wild cry, it is said the man rose up straight through the roof of the bridge and disappeared. He was never found, and it was decided that anyone capable of such a feat must be innocent.

Technical Ramblings: There are about 7 stops of light difference between the inside and outside as this image was taken mid day. I ended up using 5 images from a 9 image series and put it through the Photomatix tone mapper-atic. My intent was to make an HDR that looked real and not all paintery. I also tacked on just a tad of some Totally Rad Action of Oh Snap! for good measure.

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 24 Jul 09, 8.53PM MDT.

King Chapel, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

Spent the evening at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa. King Chapel is one of the most interesting buildings on campus. It was finished in 1876 and named in honor of William Fletcher King who served as President of Cornell College from 1863 – 1908. My wife attended this college.

Technical Ramblings: Taken with my rented Nikkor 45mm PC-E to make all the verticals not converge. I took 5 exposures of a 9 exposure series and tone mapped with Photomatix. Did my standard Totally Rad Actions with Oh Snap! and then a custom curves and brightness bump.

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 23 Jul 09, 8.51AM MDT.

Delaware Hotel, Leadville, Colorado, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

I’ve been trying to shoot with my lensbaby composer more now that I have the mount swapped out to fit my Nikon. A couple weekends ago my wife and I went up into the mountains and stopped at Leadville Colorado. This is the Delaware Hotel that I pixel punished to get a moody photo. The comments has the original image from camera. Do you like this processing?

Technical Ramblings: Hand held from across the street with an approaching thunderstorm. Photoshop and the Totally Rad Actions recipe; Boutwell Magic Glass, Super Fun Happy (Desat Red layer removed, added Cool as cucumber w/mask for sky, masked warming layer to just the building), Troy and Dirty Diana for the texture (with masks to not have texture on the building) opacity 30%.

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 20 Jul 09, 9.35PM MDT.

Original Image out of camera from Lensbaby Composer:

Tilt-n-Shift!, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

In Iowa (North English) for the week and not working. Thus I get to play around with photography all week (unless I’m being hauled off to see my wife’s relatives). I rented a Nikkor 45mm PC-E (aka Tilt and Shift lens) from www.lensrentals.com for the week. I’ve never used one of these specialty pieces of glass and thought I’d go shoot the bridges of Madison county with it. This old Iowa farmhouse is where I’m staying so used it as a model to create one of those diorama looking photos. Comments have the original non tilted image. Also spent most of the evening reading this awesome post from CAMBRIDGE IN COLOUR on how the tilt and shift lens work.

Technical Ramblings: The lens is tilted down 8 degrees and I’m across the street and up on a hill. Had always read that helps with creating the diorama look to be up above the subject. Post work in Photoshop with Totally Rad Actions; Oh Snap! twice to super duper saturate the image colors.

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 20 Jul 09, 8.53PM MDT.

Original image with no tilt:

Beetle!, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

At least I think it’s a beetle as it seemed more like something not of this world. This past weekend my wife and I went to a bed and breakfast in Nathrop Colorado (La Roca de Tiza). This strange little guy was climbing on the Christmas lights hung on the deck next to the hot tub.

Technical Ramblings: This turned out to be my first real shooting with the Nikon creative lighting system in the Nikon D700. I put my SB900 flash with a Lumiquest Softbox III attached into my wife’s hands. She held the flash above and I got down on the deck at beetle level and used the D700 in commander mode with its built in flash. The D700 worked like a charm wirelessly controlling the SB900. I turned off the D700’s flash as being part of the exposure and just used the SB900.

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 15 Jul 09, 7.34PM MDT.

Chicken (Alice), originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

A few weeks back my co-worker, Steve, wanted a tutorial on shooting with strobes. He provided the chicks, I provided the light. Alice was a poser. Wonder if you need a model release?

Technical Ramblings: Three AlienBee B800s shot into a large light tent. One camera right, one camera left and one behind. Using a white shiny board I picked up at Home Depot for floor. Post work in Lightroom; crop, white balance and some chicken dust on the white board. Post work in Photoshop CS3 and and the Totally Rad Actions; Good vs Evil and Ying/Yang to whiten the whites and then some Oh Snap!.  Couldn’t find a shot of the setup.

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 7 Jul 09, 9.09PM MDT.

Before shot: