When I saw the first announcement of the next e-book in Print and Process series, “Iceland- a monograph” by David DuChemin, I have to admit I had some presumptions on how it is going to look like. As I also download David DuChemin wallpapers, September image gave me an idea on Iceland portfolio, and I expected photographs kept in the same, cool tones. Also, at first sight, the wallpaper image showed a single electrical pole on the border of sky and water. But only after I looked at it more closely, I noticed blurred sides, and I thought about tilt-shift which David DuChemin bought recently and was exploring. So my expectations were to find selectively focused images in toned blues. After keeping same, creative coloring in “Venice” and “Safari” monograph, and including a Lightroom preset in the “Safari”, I expected to see the blue split tone preset in this e-book, too. With all of this, I was ready to open and read a new release. And, kudos to author, I was only partially right!
First, the images presented in “Iceland” are single, concise body of work, which is a bit different then his previous e-books in the series. The photographs are strongly connected by geographical place, wide angle tilt-shift lens (with its shallow depth of field and selective focus) and post-processing. Even though two different tonalities of images were used (and there are two Lightroom presets available for download!), they all go together very well. There is 39 images, exploring the vastness of Iceland landscape and barely any people with exception of photographers. The abandoned buildings only add to the feeling of solitude- and it is quite hard to find places like that Europe. But on the other hand, David DuChemin was already able to portray the most touristic place – Venice, an a lonely, deserted city.
Starting from saying that “teaching keeps me learning” the author gets into the lessons on photography prepared for this volume. And there is quite a few here. There are some thoughts on organization of this type of a trip and what gear to pack, the convincing lecture on the need of the tripod, and some great tips and advice on creative use of tilt-shift lens and especially neutral grad filters. In fact, he was the first to mention the color cast on so called “neutral” filters, something which frustrated me the first time I started to use them. And the way David DuChemin plays with sandwiching grad filters- it is worth reading and exploring.
The e-book ends with a image by image description of why and how they were taken, and what were the particular challenges with any of them. It is a great learning source for every photographer.
Those 65 pages of “Iceland- a monograph” is not only yet another occasion to take a look on David DuChemin photography, which he keeps always fresh, not repeating same ideas and compositions. It is also a great source on creative ideas and techniques to improve your photography. I would say- 5$ well spend.

Here what Craft and Vision says about this e-book:
ICELAND, A Monograph – The Print & The Process is the latest eBook by David duChemin. The Print & The Process series is the perfect format to show David’s photographic vision and creative process behind his recent trip to one of the world’s most stunning places. Moved by the incredible landscapes, the vastness of the open spaces, and the extreme weather, David created photographs that first and foremost inspired him.
ICELAND, A Monograph, is a showcase of exceptional photographs and it holds nothing back with respect to how the images were created. 

This eBook is the first look at 39 of the images David created in Iceland. The curtain is pulled back on technique – like how he used three different ND filters to work through an exposure problem, as well as the more internal processes related to creation – like finding inspiration and working through the frustrations of finding one’s vision. The process and thinking behind those photographs are explained from a technical angle and the discussion of post-processing includes two free downloadable Adobe Lightroom Presets. For you travelers, David also briefly discusses logistics involved in the travel and supporting the digital workflow while tenting his way through Iceland.
ICELAND, A Monograph – The Print & The Process is larger than usual – a full 65 spreads of photographs and insights that will inspire as you develop your own craft. This is easily one of the books about which we are the proudest! The downloadable PDF is just $5USD.


And, as always with a new e-book release, there are some sweet discounts available. Use the promotional code ICE4 when you checkout, and you can have the PDF version of “ICELAND, A Monograph” for only $4 OR use the code ICE20 to get 20% off when you buy 5 or more PDF ebooks from the Craft & Vision collection. And there is some good stuff there to choose from.
These codes expire at 11:59pm PST September 12, 2010.

Disclosure- some of the links in this post are affiliate links.

We were sitting in a Chineese restaurant in Glogow, Poland, waiting and waiting for our meal to arrive. I was watching my surroundings, looking for something to photograph to kill time. I noticed the bamboo sticks in a vase on every table and liked the curvy shape of it and leaves at the end. I picked it as my subject. Added shallow depth of field from fast lens which blurred another vase in the background, and the result is quite interesting.

Simple graphical photo on blog today. I took it while at family party couple of weekends ago. I took the camera and went to catch some air between lunch and 4 o’clock tea. I was just watching Jasmine Star workshop a day before on CreativeLIVE and I still couldn’t believe that she can shoot wedding details, handholding at f/1.4. I wanted to give it a try. These flowers were blooming in a really dense bunch, so it was just a yellow spots and dark green leaves as a background. I had my equivalent of “nifty fifty” which is 30 mm f/1.4, so I opened it up to its limit and tried to keep one flower in focus. I like how the rest went blurry.

There is something special at 7am in the morning in Oshkosh. Fresh air, no noise, no people. Just calm and quite time. All the airplanes parked in nice rows with canopy covers looking like sleeping horses waiting for new days activities…

There was an interesting discussion recently on Lightroom Killer Tips blog about ethic of photographing church interiors. It was a particular situation where the tripods were not allowed in the full of tourists NY church and a funny story of deceiving the guard. But the truth be told, churches are perfect for HDR shots. Especially with those colorful stained glass windows, which give incredible patterns of lights. Well, not the case with the church on today’s blog post. It is a fairly old church, about 150 years, but the old windows were renovated (or replaced) less then 50 years ago. Our luck, the doors of the church were open, like in many cases around Poland. It was also completely empty, so nobody was bothered by setting up the tripod or repeated shutter releases. The resulting image has the incredible architectural detail, you can see every single brick making up the columns along main isle. The height of the ceiling was always stunning to me in churches like it, and I couldn’t (and still cannot ) resist staring at the very top, looking at whatever is painted there. And I was always disappointed that they do not read any more sermons from the gallery in the middle on the left.

Presets in Lightroom are a great way to turn a mundane image into something different. Like the image below. I took it as a stock shot. A good idea apparently, as I made a series of still lives recently and images were approved on Shutterstock yesterday in the morning, and I already sold three. But although seamless white works great for stock, the image is visually boring. So after I submitted my batch, I went back to the picks, and started going though my ever growing preset collection looking for a look. I settled for this 300 v1 look, coming from a movie I haven’t seen and never heard of. But I like the result. I added some color to the white background, accentuated the purple color of flowers, making yellow and white a bit less visible, and some vignette which draws the eye to the composition. The colors are less intesive, and the finished image has a vintage look.
(Scroll down to see the rest of the post ).

Back to presets. What I find the most exciting about them is that you can go through your list and try different ones and see which you like most on a particular image. And then tweak it, to make it work even better.
You can also try stacking presets, but the way they work, if two presets use the same slider, you will see the effect only of the last applied preset. What is saved in presets are values for a slider, not “add to” or “subtract from” amount.

There are few sources of presets I typically use:
1) Lightroom Killer Tips blog – I guess the name says it all, and Matt Kloskowski offers not only free presets, but video tutorials and short tips and advice.
2) X-equals
3) Presets heaven

Where are you getting your favorite Lightroom presets? Leave the link in the comments below.

Sleeping in a tent on the one of Airventure campings offers one huge advantage over staying in the hotel (usually at least an hour away). The chance to take images like it, in the first morning light, with warm glow and those long shadows. And without those crowds, at this time of the day there are not too many people around. It is a rare opportunity to take cleaner shots of the exhibit displays. Like those Diamond aircrafts. I still cannot decide what is drawing me to the image more- the repeating pattern of planes or those squares of fabric above them.

This was a surprisingly challenging image to prepare for blog. I love the composition, with the cobble stone lied space leading up to the restaurants and cafes filled Old Town Market in Warsaw. And the light star (or two stars) on the right add some interest to the cityscape as well.
But back to problems. It was a wide angle, fisheye shot, so first I wanted to correct the lens distortion a little bit. It usually results in loss of image corners, and the direction of correction this time, it was impossible just to add some space to the canvass to retain it (Photoshop work, for this one). Secondly, the city lights seems to have two different casts- yellow and green. I like the warm light color, but the green cast is driving me nuts. I really wish I used X-Rite passport on those night photos to solve the problem instantly. Lesson learned for next time. Meantime, no White Balance choice looked good enough. I settled for Daylight, and because the image has no whole bunch of different colors, I adjusted the single tones saturation selectively (lowered yellow, and took down aqua and green).

I know, I heard about it. Photographs of kittens are cliches. Well, I am not sure there is anything new about this shot of kittens. But I still like it. They are not trying to look cute. They are absolutely in their own world, busy, playing. I do not know what interested both kittens, what they are looking at- there was nothing there as far as I could tell. But they first found it scary enough to hide in the bushes, and then cautiously observed what was going on before emerging and continuing their way. Or maybe it was just a game to them.

Seabase in Oshskosh is probably my favorite spot to visit at the Airventure. It is a landing spot for all the float planes and sea planes. Located deep in the woods from the land, it has Lake Winnebago as a water runway. It is in a certain distance from the main events area, but well worth the trip. Although it is not as crazy busy, as the airport, there is still something going on there, and enough crowds are present at all times. Take a look at the midday activities recorded this year in all the detail in this panorama.