WILLIAM J. HIGGINSON

I began pairing photographs with haiku perhaps 7 or 8 years ago, but became increasingly frustrated with the variance in translations of the same poems, my inability to arrange the combinations into a coherent order, and near-total ignorance of the cultural aspects and meanings of the verses.

I owned many of Bill Higginson’s books, most well thumbed and note-laden, and when his name appeared during one of my Internet searches, a bulb just went off. I emailed him in 2002, he graciously responded, and over the next 4 years, after journeys down many side canyons, we assembled the project that became Butterfly Dreams. It remains the single accomplishment in my life that I am most proud of, and it would simply not exist were it not for Bill.

Pity Bill!
I’m sure he will receive credits in his next life for his patience with me during this crafting.

Bill: “This combination simply doesn’t fit together—the haiku you quoted is incorrectly translated and when fixed, makes no sense with this image.”

Michael: “But the subject matter is such a good match…can’t we use the incorrect translation?”

Bill: “Groan” (reaching for Maalox).
And so on and so on.

Bill always won those discussions, and rightfully so. He was patient with my ignorance, but unyielding in his pursuit of accuracy and purity in his chosen genre. (And no, we did not use any “incorrect” translations…)

Bill passed away this afternoon. His wife, partner, and fellow-poet Penny Harter was at his side, singing to him as he left. May we all be so blessed.

White Balance

Copy and paste the link below or click on the post title "White Balance" to go to a short article about White Balance:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6455684/White-Balance

Bracketing in the digital age

Growth rarely seems to be one single epiphany, rarely a situation where one is suddenly faced with a new reality and yells, “AHA”!!! Archimedes notwithstanding, I think artistic growth is more often a series of small steps that delivers us to a new way of looking at our world.

When I was a beginning photographer, I would bracket (making multiple exposures at different camera settings) extensively, hoping desperately that at least one exposure would correctly translate my vision onto film. My wastebasket overflowed, but I learned eventually how to create a “good” exposure. (As long as I could remember which settings I had used for each image). As my skills increased, I found myself looking with disdain at the process of bracketing, seeing it as a sign of a shooter not really confident in his or her understanding of light and exposure. It was a great source of satisfaction to “nail” an exposure and having the confidence not to bracket. Seems pretty shallow in retrospect, eh?

Interesting that now as a digital photographer, I find myself bracketing probably more than ever. I no longer bracket for general exposure, the histogram having pretty much eliminated that worry. I do bracket for very specific exposure, such as the images I placed on the blog previously, in which the color range could not be captured with one exposure. I also bracket for dynamic range, where image contrast far exceeds what I can capture with one exposure. I also bracket for depth-of-field, using layer masks in Photoshop to blend images together in order to increase apparent depth-of-field. And of course, I bracket composition, often choosing my favorite image after the fact, on the computer screen.

“What goes around…”

P.S. The attached image has nothing to do with bracketing. I'm just having trouble letting go of summer. Sorry.

The End of Summer...

The second official day of autumn and I couldn't sleep, not ready for summer to end. In a futile attempt to hold it back, I share the above haiku/photograph combination, which is actually a late summer haiku, according to haiku master and friend Bill Higginson, who is responsible for the original translation of the Japanese poem as part of the Butterfly Dreams project.
The truth is, all things end. All we can do is hope for spring.

Butterfly House Photography:Tips and Techniques

Well, that last one worked so well, I thought I'd try it again.
Click on the title above to go to a pdf:

Enjoy!!

and thanks to Jeanine Leech (http://www.doubleplaydesigns.com/) for layout assistance!

Thought I would try something a bit different this time. Click on the link

Photography on the Peruvian Amazon

to go to a pdf about my favorite photographic place. Please let me know if it works.
Thanks.

End of...the Season

our garden,

long past prime...

bleeding hearts

Grasshopper--a Haiku Photograph

I don’t think of my photographs as being “minimalist” necessarily, but I can’t deny that I look for simplicity. Two of my earliest influences were Japanese ink block artists Hiroshige and Hokusai.

What I learned:

• Not every square millimeter of image space needs to be filled.

• Space that contains nothing may make a significant contribution to the impact of the image; it sets off the subject as a beautiful setting sets off a diamond. It gives the subject a space to move into, thus aiding in establishing a story— establishing potential for future movement.

• Negative space is not the same as empty space. Empty space is merely empty space--it contains nothing, contributes nothing. Negative space has no content but offers possibility, and contains potential.
  

Back to haiku:
While my son Ben was living in Washington D.C., we went to an exposition of prints by Hokusai at the Smithsonian. I recall an image which showed a meticulously drawn branch, leaves, and flowers, but nowhere to be seen were the birds after which the painting was named. Perhaps the birds were sitting on the branch when he began the painting; perhaps he could simply hear their songs as he was painting; perhaps he simply imagined that branch as an ideal roosting place for the birds; perhaps…
See what I mean? Haiku photographs are all about possibilities.

Color Problems: Part 3

I then take a second exposure, using values that bring the red histogram back within reasonable range. I say reasonable because there may be spikes of red and yellow which are simply NOT capture-able (is that a word?) by your sensor. This looks like a pretty under-exposed image on the LCD, but I take it anyway.

When both images are opened in Camera Raw (or whatever software you use), there is visible detail in the darker one within the areas of red that were blown out on the original exposure. When I blend those two together, I have one image which maintains detail throughout.

Color Problems: Part 2

So here is the original image. Again, the luminance histogram (the black-and-white one) tells me that the exposure is just fine. Experience tells me, however, that red is n easy color to overexpose, and I check the RGB histogram. Imagine my (lack of) surprise when it shows me that the red channel is way blown out!

I take my first exposure based on the luminance histogram, and you can see above the areas of red next to and in front of the Japanese beetle that have no detail whatsoever.