Fine Art Print – 'Dancing Flames'

As with the previous print, this is also one of those lovely peonies flowers but from a closer view.

For this image, which I kept B&W, I wanted the soft petals to appear to be like dancing flames in a fire.

The image is low contrast and there is not a lot of fine detail. Therefore I wanted the paper to add tones in the soft areas. This paper, which I can no longer get, is very close to the water paper I use for my paintings

Ilford Smooth Fine Art Paper
weight: 190gsm
Paper size:13”x19”
Image Size 9” x 14″
Print Series No. 1,
Prints made 5

Price: $135.00
Availability 5 

Special price only for readers of My camera World   $100.
 
This price  is only available until 5:00pm EST Tuesday, 25 September, 2012
Shipping world wide $20.00 via regular mail. Contact for price request if faster delivery is required.

Send email request to  Niels Henriksen Artworks

Niels Henriksen 

Fine Art Print - 'Fire Within'

Peonies provide wonderful opportunities for close-up photography with their delicate streamer like petals. Almost like flags waving in the breeze.

There was a soft warm glow within the centre of the flowers which may either be due pollen tinting or the stronger blue sky light on the outer petal tips when adjusted to more neutral whiter of the petal, causing the inner parts to become warmer with temperature adjustments.

Either way, I focused on this yellowish-orange color cast as the dominante part of the image, with its strong contrast found here. Since one primary color is the yellowish-orange I then ensured that the darker greyer background petal had a slight blue hue to act as a compliment with the yellow.
The Sugar Cane paper has a warm tone to further enhance the yellowish-orange tones.

Print Details

Hahnemuhle ‘Sugar Cane’ Fine Art Paper
Weight: 300 gsm
Paper size:13”x19”
Image Size 11” x 14″
Print Series No. 1,
Prints made 5

Availability  5

Special price only for readers of My camera World   $100.

This price  is only available until 5:00pm EST Friday, 21 September, 2012

Shipping world wide $20.00 via regular mail. Contact for price request if faster delivery is required.

Send email request to Niels Henriksen Artworks


 Niels Henriksen

Close Up Photography with Great DOF

Exploring objects closeup allows me to pursue my fondness for abstractness in trying to see the world around us in a new way. Shallow Depth of Field (DOF) is great for isolating specific parts in a scene and having the remainder fade softly into the background. But there are times, especially if the background is soft or non-existent like the photo below, where full sharpness seems to bring greater clarity (a bit of a pun) to the subject.  I have seen other photographers use the software Helicon Focus to take multiple images at different points of sharpness as you progress further back. The software determines which parts of the image is sharp and then combines your images with only those parts, like layer masks.

5 images combined with settings at f/9, 0.4 sec  @iso 200 with Tamron 90mm macro lens

On some of the images and even the version above, I found slight fringing (light lines) that followed the shape. This was really noticeable with black backgrounds as even a little colour shows up.

In the next image I used a little Photoshop processing to bring out some of the hidden colors in the black cloth as I wanted analogous color, here reddish blue, to support the magenta (blueish red) in the image.

11 images combined at f/8, 1/5 sec, iso 200 with Tamron 90mm macro lens.

In a close up below you can better see those ring lines.

The software does have 3 settings: Methods A &B; smoothing; and radius, which at this time I don't know their functions.  I think this will be a useful tool and therefore I should learn more about this program to better understand its limitations and how to use it correctly.

I believe those lines are caused when the software shrinks some of the further back images, as changing focus further back makes the images larger and software needs to align all parts so they overlap perfectly. This may leave residual edge not fully covered with its mask. Just a guess.

5 images combined at f/8, 1/5 sec @iso 200 with Tamron 90mm lens

This is one of my favourites as intense yellow and purples work well with little darkened and de-saturated green in the stems.

This was a home studio setup with window side-lighting using a tripod and set to time delay to ensure no shake. While I didn't notice any overexposed shots, the software told me the variance (sometimes 20-30%) in lightness for each run. This brightness variance was caused by slight changes, not really noticeable, as the intensity of the clouds changed.

There is a 30 day trial usage and I do suggest that you try this out.
In a future article I will perform an in depth review of this software and even try those full DOF landscape photographs.


Niels Henriksen

De-Cluttering to Make room for Creativity

Clutter, it hangs off me like Christmas tree ornaments. Each is different and pretty in their own right. Some are old and a bit tarnished like my parent's words.  Not actually their words but my attempt to follow  their advice. Some are newer and seem better built, like the advice of photographic and artistic experts, but you don't want all of it hanging around 24/7. Except for the choice moral items.

The gist of all this is that we all have a lot of people, some we know others that we never met, telling us which way is the right path to follow. It may be good advice but sometimes we do need to break free.

I don't have a perfect map for my life and there's no way I would know where you should go. I do believe though that if you do what feels right for you and let your own voice guide, you great improvements will happen.

Below are some photographs that for some reason have compelled me to look longer. They might break some composition rules but we all have our own tastes.

While you're supposed to watch out for things at the edges, for me here this adds some intrigue to a well textured wall and canal edge in Paris.


You may ask 'What is the next photo' and I don't have an answer.  It came about because I was playing around with Helicon focus and the photo with a black background didn't stand out well enough.

 11 images in stack with Tamron 90mm in macro mode at F/8 @ 1/5sec

With some judicious use of Photoshop layers, various blend modes and even a little LAB mode, I found one version that intrigued me. It's still a bit crude but I see how I could take this further.

Original version with black background below

Therefore, silence some of these voices. Use them only when needed in order to make time for things that you enjoy and this includes doing photos that only interest you.  After all it your creativity.

Niels Henriksen

Improved Method of High Pass Filter Sharpening

It's those little problem areas that upon closer inspection, especially if image is to be printed large, are occurring throughout the image in less intensity. But they are still there.

I have many times used the blur tool in sharpening layers to reduce some of the inherent noise that the process of sharpening brings by its very nature of operation.

I normally don't use the High-pass method in many larger prints I make because of this increased noise, especially in soft areas like clouds or flower petals.

The leaf cluster on bottom left was added from another version to give this photograph a standard triangular view with focal points

To alleviate these noise problems I decided to first blur the high pass filter layer  and then apply a curves adjustment layer to the high pass layer only, to improve contrast with some of the softness created by blurring.

Detailed PDF Document Available

I experimented with 5 other combinations including using the luminance filter (noise reduction) in ACR

for input to High Pass Filter Sharpening.  This document contains numerous photos clearly detailing the process and results from 6 versions. One being the camera default.

It is available on Niels Henriksen Artworks site at the following link.

Improved Method of High Pass Filter Sharpening

The reason for creating it in a book format is it allows me greater control over layout and by shifting to a landscape format should filter better with our horizontal monitors.

Let me know what you think about the PDF version.

The above photo shows results for using the high pass filter only and then repeating with a curves adjustment layer applied.  You can see how the veins are crisper and if you look carefully there is less noise on the smooth stamens. The PDF article shows a close up of stamens.

A setting of 2.1 was used for both Gaussian blur and high pass filter. It's always going to be a trade-off between reducing noise when sharpening and still having good edges.

This process will make it easy to create an action in Photoshop, whether modifiable or a straight run.

This is original version. I cropped the details on the  right and also removed some of the leaf tips near flower cluster.  Leaves from another image at wider angle wear to balance the composition.

I always try and take a few extra photos at a wider angle for that just in case you need it.

Niels Henriksen

Artist or Photographer?

 I was thinking, obviously too much, about how we see or label ourselves and how this might influence our choices or approaches to subjects, compositions, etc. Am I a photographer, artist or just some crazy guy behind the camera. The last probably being more to the truth.

One thing I know I'm not is a 'commercial' or 'professional' photographer. Even these labels have many interpretations. By these terms I mean a person who can consistently deliver quality materiel under stressful and changing environments. Its not too hard to achieve success under great conditions. The good photographers deliver no matter what happens, every time  and I know I would run into trouble pretty quickly.

For me photography is first and foremost about pure enjoyment. Like exploring with a microscope or telescope but with less magnification. Being able to capture a fleeting moment in time which was 3D and render into 2D flat image.  By use of selective focus, DOF, time and digital enhancements I can try to reveal a unique charm, even though they are not always pleasant, or character to that moment in space. I am creating an interpretation of a real event, like  portrait painting of a person.

I therefore tend to think of myself as an artist who uses the camera-tool, as opposed to the brush-tool, to create images maybe even art work. I tend to shun the label photographer because for many people this has certain connotations, like above, which could lead to think that I have more abilities than I really have. Like delivering a wedding shoot or family portrait.

I tend to photograph subjects I like and the way I want, but then again I'm not making a living from that approach. But there are people who do enjoy my art work.

I'm in the process of printing 3 images in sets of 5 for future prints. I will test a bunch of fine-art or rag papers to see which one works best. Since these images are shown here, in this blog, are somewhat the same it will make it easier to fine-tune the ink adjustments for them all.






Note to Regular Readers:

As I mentioned in the previous article, this summer has provided me with a great opportunity with time to explore and to just look and think and to not spend so much time at the computer. Unfortunately this has also led to a dearth of articles recently and I want to thank all for still dropping by to check up.

In my articles I many times discuss how to stimulate and increase your creativity and now I find myself  with some self-doubt about where I am going with my photographic art. But this is common for most of us from time to time, but I still don't like it.

I have been thinking that I need to change my approach to selecting scenes and subjects. Up until now, I have been photographing any image when it made a good composition but when I look over my portfolio, I now realize that there is not much tying the images together. Maybe the odd few but most are stand-alone photographs and most are not focused on people. If there are some they are more ancillary to the image.

I therefore need to find some new and story-telling types of images where they could form a theme base portfolio.

I will keep you informed about my progress to stimulate myself with some new ideas.





Photo Tip

If it's bright sunny day and scene to be photographed is sunlit then automatically shift to bracketing.
Even with today's modern cameras and post editing tools the dynamic range captured has never been greater but I have on times been lazy and only realized later the information was either missing in the highlights or too dark to really bring out the tones.

Learn how to change to this mode in a few seconds. Once it becomes instinct in programming your DSLR you will turn it on when needed. If you have to think about how then it just doesn't happen.

Niels Henriksen

10 Great Photography Projects – The Assortment or Grab Bag List

This is the last article in the series of 10 great photography projects. This final article is not so much a project but a list of challenges that can be project-like if approached with the intent of learning about photography, skills and the art of seeing.

Photography should be a life long passion of constant learning and exploration. If you are continually doing the same types if photo styles such just walking around and capturing interesting images then your learning opportunities quickly diminish.

With the previous articles I hope that you may have found a challenge or interest that you might choose in the hopes of pursuing something new. If not I hope this list may find more interest with you.

The key to growth is just to keep doing what you are doing and at the same time to always have opportunity (challenges) for growth.

I have several photography projects underway this year, first and foremost is SoFoMoBo that kicks off in June. Challenging but definitely rewarding.

Next, and this project derives itself from sitting too long in a spot (backyard patio) and getting strange ideas, is about the scenery around you. Just over the hedge are 4 birch trees that always seem to get my attention. I have decided to do a year long study of those 4 birch trees in all light, seasonal weather and other climatic changes. All the same in framing but each at a different time. Then select 12, not necessarily monthly, photos to convey a time story of these trees.

Taken with the setting sun hitting the left face only

This image, viewed on the computer, may not seem more than a bunch of fine squiggly lines. The final image (12,000x9,000 pixels) is a composite of many more detailed images such as the photo below shows. The section is from the birch tree just right of centre and going up the left wavy branch to where the branches start. When printed full size, if I ever decide to make this set, they would be approx 4 ft by 3 ft'. This is a very good size to observe all the fine details.

I will also be looking into a collaborative photo book production, not with photos but the written word. This one may slip into next year.

A List of Ideas

Tell a Story in 10 or 'X' number of photos

If its true that a photo is worth a 1,000 words then 10 photos should make a story, at the very least a short story.

With only 10 or any number photos, but ideally the number should be decided before you start, develop a story that viewers can take away by just observing the set of images. No titles or any descriptions to give the thread away. Ask viewers to describe, in a sentence or two, their thoughts or feelings they have about the set of photos.

Web – Blog Project Contests

The web is full of many interesting nooks and crannies and in some of these corners there are great opportunities to challenge yourself and even measure your skills against others. They are not prefect but each site seems to have its own preferred tastes.

DPChallenge has about a dozen challenges a month. Some are free and some are closed to paying members.

Fred Miranda runs both weekly and monthly challenges.

Digital Photography School (DPS) while not only being a great provider of photography related information also runs numerous challenges and weekend projects.

Epic Edits by Brian Auer is another wonderful resource blog has run challenges.

Life and Learning through the Lens by Darwin Wiggett has run several photo contests and takes the time to display daily on blog the entries with a photographer's description.

PhotographyBB runs monthly assignments as well as providing and in-depth monthly e-magazine.

PhotoChallenge.org has 4-week themes and monthly challenges.

I spent an hour photographing a potted Hydrangea plant with a zoom and a macro lens. In this image, I like the full range of tones from blue through to magenta and how they seem to be gently floating.

Several Images of macro Hydrangea plants were combined into Photoshop and by adjusting the blend mode of layers and sometimes inverting the colours...very unique patterns emerge.

Collage and overlays

If you have the use of digital photo-editing tools with layer capabilities, such as Photoshop or GIMP, then try combining or blending the layers together to create new composite or collages. You can blend texture into areas or even add new sections from other images. It's easy and fun with no preset rules. Just the imagination and time to play.

Slide Show to Music

In some ways, this is similar to the "tell a story in 10 photos" but with this version, the goal is to link a series of images to a musical score or song. There should be some harmony (a pun) between the photos chosen and the music.

Video

Why not try some video compilations. As a photographer we, through many techniques, try to convey a sense of motion, action or drama from a still image. Not always easy.

Find a video recording device, preferably portable and create video sequences. Intersperse stills with video clips.

B&W

If you are primarily a colour photographer, then for a period of time only shoot Black and White images. This is not the same as taking a colour image and converting to B&W but where you choose a scene or subject beforehand because of its B&W characteristics.

B&W, because there is no colour information being presented to the viewer, is even more about the compositional elements such as lines, curves, tones, negative spaces and all those other good design decisions.

Purposely photographing in this manner will help you better focus and compose images with those design decisions in mind. Colours, while wonderful in their own right, can bias your views on what makes a good subject and can cause you to miss those other important elements.

One again I hope that some of you will have found and idea or variation on a theme in this series that you want to pursue. I find that when it comes to learning projects at least artistic ones that there is really no right and wrong with outcomes. It should be more like you have a sandbox (a frame) and a rake (texture) and just playtime. Who cares how it looks.

Niels Henriksen

For about a month I have been without Photoshop program. The older CS3 version was not migrateble to Windows 7 and I didn't want to buy CS4 since CS5 was due to be out in a short while. I was able to confirm that the CS4 64-bit version worked well but the trial period has been over for a while and I just sit and wait patiently. Since all files are in NEF, its a problem to get a converter. I did try Ufraw that is supposed to integrate with GIMP. But had driver problems.

Are the Photographic Print Dead?

The free print contest is still open for the month of September. Please leave a comment with the words ‘free print’ included in your comment. I have included some sample images to give an idea of the range of images available.

The title may be a little tongue-in-cheek, as I know there are still a few places where they are in demand and in some ways this topic seems to go against my desire to give away prints.


The reason I ask this is that I wanted to thank my regular readers of ‘My Camera World’ blog, for consistently dropping by to read my articles and view my images, by giving away 2 professional produced prints as a contest. The threshold was when I first reached the 1,000-subscriber mark.


I was completely bewildered when there were very few regular readers that wanted to take a chance at receiving a print for free.


This goes against my other world (not online) where I do sell a few prints at Art fairs and galleries. 11”x14” prints normally sell from $120-$160. I have even had a few sales on the web-based art sites. I have a set of 10 greeting cards printed on 5x7 stock that are in reasonable demand. I know of 2 people who framed some of these cards as the image goes edge to edge.


So far, if I am correct, most of these sales have been to non-photographers.

So I wonder about the following thoughts I have about my readers:

• Do photographers not like to hang prints by other photographers?
• Are prints only wanted from big name photographers?
• Do photographers not have extra room to hang an image?
• Do my blog readers not like to enter contests?
• Is the cost of framing an image prohibitive?
• Do photographers not like to collect other photographer’s prints?
• Do blog readers not trust free give-aways?

I know many of my readers are photographers and most, if not all, I believe would also like to sell their prints.

I would really like to hear your thoughts, as this is something I just don’t understand and with this discussion we could all help each other better understand the photo print market.

I display and collect other photographer’s photos. Its just plain fun to see the work produced by them. Maybe my kids or grandchildren will benefit the appreciation of value with these photographers.


To have an 11’’ x 14’’ image printed on Epson Ultrafine art paper costs me $51.00 by the professional printmaker I use. I estimate that shipping will run about $15.00. So, as you can see, I was willing to spend up to $130 out of my own pocket just to say thanks. There was really no other motive.


In the article on Pixsylated blog Sly Arena in an article ‘Digital Photographers, Welcome Back to 1999 ’, it discusses the demise of still photography with the greater emergence of video.


If video does become the new dominate form, and I think there is a tendency to go that way especially now that large screen TVs or should we call them integrated home entertainment systems, there will be a greater reliance on this item as the preferred display medium. Being it rotating photos, slideshows or videos the wall screen will slowly replace paper.

Video has been around for a long time but it is only in the last few years that we have the real freedom to choose content, type and time. Before, it was limited to mainstream TV and home film movie buffs.


As always there will be collectors of the old ways. Even today there are a few who still prepare glass negatives, but this is such a small set of individuals. Almost like a lost language or tribe to be studied by others.

In the meantime I still produce images of photo paper and cotton rag for those who appreciate the printed form and I hope there are more who still do and will even take a chance on one of mine.

Thanks for your interest.


Niels Henriksen

Sun, Earth and Moon Composite

First I want to mention and support a fellow photographic blogger Damien Franco of ‘Your Photo Tips Blog with the launch recently of his endeavour to open a new sharing forum for photographers called Exposure . Not only is this a great place to learn and share from others but also there will be 8 prizes given away with this launch.

I have become a member and I encourage you to join so we can all learn and enjoy photography from each other.

My Giveaway of 2 Signed Prints

Well it’s now September and as I stated in a previous articles, I will be giving away 2 signed prints of your choice by random selection. All that you have to do is leave a comment in any article published in the month of September that lets me know you want a free print. You do need to mention the word ‘print’ so that I don’t confuse a comment with a spam comment. If you don’t feel comfortable with a public comment then please contact me via email.

I will be collecting the requests during the entire month and at the end of September I will, with the aid of a random number generator, select the 2 winners. These will be shipped for free to anywhere in the world (I hope you are not in an Antarctic station right now) in a tube container.

The images will be your choice and up to a size of approximately 13in x 19in on archival paper. The prints will be signed but un-numbered as they will not be from my limited edition series of which there are only a few now.

You can either view the images I have on various sites and select one or if you wish, I will ask if you have any preferences and select sample images for your review.

Back to Sun, Earth and Moon Composite



In the fields I saw these flowers in several stages of opening to the full flower and one particular set reminded me of the planets with the Sun Earth and its Moon. I decided to take an image of each flower against a black backdrop and combine them as a composite.

I tried to do a similar image with the original flowers in situ but because of their short stature (8 inches high) and their various lengths of growth I was not successful in sufficiently blurring the grass and having all flower tops crisp and in focus. The image below shows these plants as found.


With this tripod setup I did take an image with each flower in focus and then another set progressively blurring the grass below. I thought I might be able to create a semi-real image with sharp flowers and blurred grass but when working on the images I soon realized just how much work it would be to finalize an image. The main problem was trying to blend in the different stalk DOF blurs into a realistic image.

Even the black background version took 2 hours with a Photoshop file of 250Mb and containing 16 layers.

I have a drop cloth that I use while painting and I tried a few with this as the background instead of the black as shown below.


While there is interesting texture I don’t think it was going to work as well in a 3-image composite. As I am accumulating more and more paint on this drop cloth I realize that this will form a very interesting abstract background that I can use for photography.

If you know a professional painter, you may buy him or her a drop cloth to use and wait a few months to collect your new background photographic cloth.

Blog Subscriptions

If you are not already a Blog subscriber but like to know when a new post is available then please subscribe in one of the blog readers or with the convenient method of receiving these articles via email. Just click on one of the subscription modes in the top of the screen and it will take you through the process effortlessly.

Niels Henriksen

Be Thankful for our Modern Cameras

Today I feel grateful that our modern cameras work so well that from a technical camera point-of-view it is quite simple to take very good images. I am also thankful that I have over the past few years taken a lot of photographs.

You may wonder as to why I am being so thankful. With my artistic endeavours some things work well like photography. With others like the exploration of oil painting, the paint does come out of the tube and when you mix 2 colours you get a new colour but that is as far as those parts that are doing well.

On the weekend I was trying to paint a street scene from one of my photographs and why do I always pick the hard to paint scenes. I hate being a raw beginner again but as far as I know there is no other way to start the journey.


The images in this article were all taken at the Jespherhus Gardens near Nykobing Mors, Denmark.

I darkened some of the green foliage on the top and bottom right to give a bit more emphasis to the lighter branch near the middle.

I have done some watercolour paintings and after awhile some were good enough to frame and sell. With watercolours it is very difficult to correct mistakes and I thought, well with oil paint I just paint over. What could be easier?

Well a lot of things. I was encountering difficulties between the vision of a great painting in my head and what was actually rendered in front of me. I had started this a while ago and wasn’t sure how to proceed next.

This image was fun to play with in Adobe Camera Raw as I adjusted the luminance and saturation sliders to bring out more of the colours.

So I mentally said to myself, “Stop beating yourself up.” Just paint and have fun. Learn from what happened even if it isn’t better than a kindergarten painter. Hey some of those children are good.

That’s what I did. In different parts of the painting I tried different t techniques. Not that these techniques support each other but to experiment and push the colours around.

Close-up of a very large cactus plant leaf.


That’s the fun part loading paint on the brush and pushing the colours around. Almost therapeutic but not great art.

The same learning approach can be applied to the camera. Don’t stress over the fact that your images aren’t hanging in some great gallery.


Have fun. Do try different approaches such as depth of field (DOF), slow or fast motion, various or strange angles. Then when looking at each image try to determine what parts you like best.

For other sections of the image try and figure out why its not working for you as this will give you insight for future shots for those things to avoid.

The back-lit leaf provides a very striking graphic pattern with the light and dark veins.

Once again the reason I am thankful for camera technology and a huge file base is that at times like this, when I don’t have enough time, I can go over some previous photographic events and with reasonable probability find some images that you find interesting.


I liked the Cyan colour tinge on some of the central leaves.

During one afternoon in a flower garden I was able to take a range of different plant compositions and because our cameras are so great now, it was relatively easy to have a few turn out well.

The plant has a very strong golden colour to the leaves and central flower cluster but I just couldn’t seem make it pop. When I converted to B&W the curly stamens now became more interesting.

All that is needed is an eye to see more or deeper than the grand vista. A mind that is inquisitive and willing to examine our perceptions of the everyday world and now just an off-the-counter camera that for the most part will take the great images that you see before you.

There are a few skills and techniques that will help you in modifying a scene through the camera settings when some parts need to be de-emphasised.

I hope that you found at least one image interesting.

Niels Henriksen

Your Body of Work or Life Long Project

How many of you are aware that you might be creating a Photo legacy, a Body of Work or Life Long Project(s) by documenting what may appear to be ordinary and commonplace today?

There are several reasons I ask this.

The first is what got the idea going when I was reading one of the photography book reviews on the blog The Online Photographer , I came across a sentence “

His elegiac black-and-white images of America's heartland railroads, bridges, small towns and farms quietly document a world that is passing out of sight.


These people were documenting the places and moments frozen in time, that they love and most likely did not envision at the time that the life they were depicting would disappear in the future.

I suppose maybe some were visionaries and did foresee the disappearance of certain qualities of our everyday life.

With the images of trains I took in Norway I came to the realization that I was collecting images that maybe in the future, many years form now, would form an extensive collection on a specific mode of transportation. The Train. Not that this was original, but for my own pleasure, I was collecting a body of work.


The 2 train engines above are the same model as the 2 that sank in the bottom of this deep lake. The ferry was blown up in WWII by commandos as the Germans were transporting their heavy water back to Germany for nuclear research. At each end of the lake were ferries and at this end there was also a collection of old train cars from the same time period.


It did not start out this way. My first goal was to create a sixptych (3 over 3 images) of trains. I haven’t yet exactly determined the final composition. It will mostly be whole cars and sections of trains. The final mix is not there yet as I still need more to choose from.

It occurred to me since I was compiling and collecting train images that if I were to continue for many more years that one day I might have a good assortment of images that would form a good gallery collection or a photo book on the subject.




There are many things around us today that in 20, 30 years from now, maybe even sooner will disappear or not be in the same mode that we presently enjoy.

I think the traditional gas station might be such an entity. If we continue with the development of alternative source of fuel and if one day we all plug in our electric cars at home, then why the need for gas stations.

What about the music record stores? Especially the old media formats with the LPs, tapes and now CDs?

Do you have any ideas for such candidates for life long photo projects?

Please share your ideas. It might help inspire you to discover a hidden interest.



Take the time to look at the images you have already been collecting and see if there are any subjects and trends that might be a possible theme.

If you’re just starting out compiling images and no project identified, I don’t think that trying to second-guess our technology landscape should be a primary driver in your choice of theme. It should be just plain old curiosity about the common nooks and crannies that we see around us. It should be the need to explore how you or others interface, communicate, ignore, or adapt to the ever-changing society we find ourselves in.






Niels Henriksen

Spring Tune-up Time

Keeping things in proper working order means, that from time to time, looking under the hood, or in my case examining the inner workings of my mind to see how well it’s working and if I need a tune up.

By trying to explain a bit about why I like to write these articles and illustrate some of my images, it forces me to examine more about myself, and that may lead to new understandings and most importantly a clearer vision of where I need to go in the future.
Feedback from you would be greatly appreciated, as I don’t have all the answers.

I’ll throw in a few pictures to help those of you who aren’t big on self-awareness sessions like this.



A Milestone – at least a small one

I have been posting ‘My Camera World’ photography blog for a year now and for me that’s an achievement. A fair number of you have been along for the journey and that may be a bigger achievement.

I want to give a big thanks to all of you for hanging in and also to those who have joined along the way.


Why do I blog?

The 2 main reasons why I started to blog where;

- To get exposure as an artist and to help with print sales, and
- To give back to the photographic community.

While I like to think that the first part was the most important, it really wasn’t that strong a drive, as I should also have been updating my web sites and portfolio.

Giving back or sharing knowledge was the most important as I, in my learning journey, receive a lot of help from many photographers and artists in developing my skills. I still get and need help today and hopefully will forever. If you are not exploring and learning then you may be stagnating.

Along the way I found other motivations to continue blogging.

One is that it forces me, in a positive sense, to take more photos and to challenge myself and improve my artistic capabilities.

The best part is that I have connected with some wonderful people and should we eventually meet in person I am sure we would have a wonderful time together either chatting or going about and taking photos.



Blog Format

I decided to only publish once a week, as I wanted articles to have a little depth, a story and to include more than one reasonable picture.

With a day job that pays for the fun I have with photography and a lovely wife that I enjoy spending time with and maybe being a little lazy I find that I don’t have the time to publish more than once a week. Part of the problem is that I am a consummate tinker and I will for the pure pleasure spend at least an hour on each photograph to bring out the best qualities and to give a bit of vision to each image.

Writing does not come naturally to me. I have to work hard to structure my thoughts into coherent and readable text that you might be able to understand. Sometimes I think my mind is a big round-about with too many off ramps for divergence. I am also lucky to have my wife as my chief editor.

I have been planning to do two part series on Sharpening techniques and White Balance and these would probably be a mid week post. It takes time, as I need to create every image I plan to use as examples.



My Photography Career

My interest is art. Almost all forms and from a previous articles you saw some of these examples.

I would never make it as a professional photographer as I have a habit of wanting to do things my way and to my standards. This means spending whatever time it takes to get it perfect or whatever that means as an artist. With this model, productivity would be low and I would have to work many hours to make some reasonable income.

I abhor failure in myself and rather than fail I’ll just keep some images as unfinished works. This is why I don’t do Weddings. The client’s expectations for the single event, with no way to redo it, would be too much stress for me.

I have taken some pictures at a few friends weddings for fun and the couples, on a few occasions, liked my work better than the photographer they hired. It was great to give them images of their special day for free.

I try to develop and print a few images that people would be willing to hang on their walls. I don’t need to make a lot of money this way, but I try and charge an amount that is reasonable and at the same time is not a give-away price. I want people to appreciate these works and be willing to invest a little to get a signed and numbered piece of art. I do print images in smaller sizes, 8x10 or less, that I don’t sign and sell for less.

I will be retiring soon from a career type job (IT project management) and that will give all the time I need to pursue and chase the things I love and to finally to have more time for painting.



Where do I go with the Blog?

Just like it never hurts and only helps to reflect on your artistic vision, the same is true when you blog. In some ways blogging is an artistic outlet and here I am at the very beginning of learning.

The lame name I originally picked (My Camera World) was just a quick thought about discussing my photography and the equipment I use. I have not really discussed much about equipment, as there are so many good sites already and therefore I am not sure that I can add much.

I have been trying to focus on creativity ideas as an artistic expression related to composing and enhancing photographic images. It seems to be working as the readership (feedburner count) slowly increases and there have been other web sites or blogs that have referenced a few my articles.

I have been planning to move to the Wordpress platform as it will provide for tab pages where I can now incorporate my print images, FAQ and other material into one software package.

My web site (so out of date now) is called ‘ Light and Colour on Canvas ’ since I paint and print photos on canvas, so it seemed an appropriate title. I will probably call the new site ‘Light and Colour’ and would keep both sites running until I feel that it has fully transferred onto the new site, not just users, but reasonable search finds.

I am a little unsure about the content for future articles, but for the most part I would still like to describe how I approach my creating and editing. My technique is not necessarily the right way or best way. Just one person’s approach to art and hopefully it might help some people with their creative ideas.

I currently only show my images, because I feel that I should be able to demonstrate any techniques myself. This does make it a little harder as I have to plan and then shoot the photos for articles. There are so many good images available it would be easier to ask to use these, but somehow I feel it is better if you see my struggles.

I definitely would like to hear about any ideas you might have with articles I should write or any comments on these thoughts in this article.






Reader Interaction

This blog does not get a lot of reader interaction. I am not really sure why. The obvious conclusion is that the writing style does not lend itself well to comments.

I am just an ordinary person on a continuous and life long learning journey. I don’t know everything, but what I do know is that when we get together we learn more by sharing with each other. There is not a photographer that I could not learn something new from.





Summer Holidays and Postings

This August I will be going to Denmark to visit my family, which as I mentioned last week, I only discovered existed in 2005. This is so cool as I always wanted to be from a large family and now its come true. I will try to have a few posts pre-created to publish every second week. I am not sure of my ability to post in Denmark plus all my images are in RAW format. If I try and save in JPEG format also - wow! Where do I get terabyte memory cards?


If any of you would like to write an article in a similar approach, please contact me.





Your thoughts?

Please fill in the blank space here, as I would like to hear from you. Not just the Good, but the Bad and Ugly. (I did enjoy that old western movie)



Thanks again,


Niels Henriksen







A “Photographer’s Showcase”

This highlight does come with a bit of a warning as once I saw the utterly stunning images, I started to doubt that I would ever be able to get near this point of photographic greatness.

A recent article at the Luminous Landscape made reference to a photo book 'Landscapes of The Spirit' created by William Neill that was out of print but the photographer had decided to publish in an eBook (pdf) format.

A few sample images convinced me to purchase the ebook for $15 and it was well worth the price. The author has decided to restrict printing, which is fine by me. I may explore this approach for some books I would like to create.

He does have a few hardcover books left that he will sign and sell for $80.