Happy Holidays

May you relax  by a crackling fire on a cold night with a nice glass of wine and love in your heart.

This unique wine glass is from a wonderful store in Tiburon called Junella’s Hidden Treasures. The glass was indeed a treasure that I couldn’t live without!  For days it was on my mind, I was constantly thinking about ways to photograph it and do it justice. During a  meditation the vision of the image came to me. The creative process is so stimulating, it’s a huge part of my life. But, one of the hardest things in the whole process is to actually produce the images that come to mind. On the other hand, it can be one of the most rewarding aspects of the creative process. The image you see here is exactly what came to me in my meditation.

The first step was to cut a round hole in black paper.

The second step was to hang the black paper behind the setup with the glass.The white square was placed there to bounce light into the glass.

The orange sun is made by aiming a strobe at the cutout hole from behind. The color was created with the use of colored gels in front of the strobe.

 PHOTOGRAPHY SERVICES:

Advertising Photography for Business, Products, People, including Families in the Environment, Real Estate, Events, and Fine Art Images, such as the Butterfly in the Vineyard in Signed Limited Edition Giclee’ Prints on Canvas.

Call Will Chubb for your unique photographic needs.

707 579-9995  Web site: www.willchubbphotography.com

rwc@sonic.net

Final Composite Image

Image #1 Train with smoke generator

Image #2 Depot with smoke generator

We raised our two boys in Kenwood, and I’ve always been fascinated by the old train depot there. Trains haven’t  been in Kenwood for decades. Some “old timers” thought the train was preserved somewhere in the Bay Area. After making inquires about the train, rumors started to fly about my new photo project. I was approached by the managers of the 4^th of July planning committee to come up with a new image to promote the festivities. I decided that if I could locate the train, I’d create an image using the actual Kenwood train in front of the depot. After some research the train turned up across the Bay in Richmond. With permission I was able to use a smoke generating machine under the train to simulate steam, see image #1 above. Then, the smoke generator was used in front of the old depot to produce a cloud of steam there, see image #2.

Combining the two images in photoshop produced the final composite image. To add the finishing touch, photoshop was again used to change the Black & White image to sepia tone for the old time feel of the era. The image was used on Tee shirts and publicity purposes for the 4^th of July Pillow Fights in Kenwood.

PHOTOGRAPHY SERVICES:

Advertising Photography for Business, Products, Web Site Images, People, including Families in the Environment, Real Estate, Events, and Fine Art Images, such as the Butterfly in the Vineyard in Signed Limited Edition Giclee’ Prints on Canvas.

Call Will Chubb for your unique photographic needs.

707 579-9995  Web site: www.willchubbphotography.com

rwc@sonic.net

Final Photo

Before Photo

Uncle Bud

My favorite uncle was a Lepidopterist or butterfly collector. When I was nine years old Uncle Bud gave me this particular Swallowtail Butterfly. Not long after this he passed away. The Butterfly became even more precious to me. I had it preserved in a box for 51 years! I knew I would someday come up with a way of capturing it with the camera to do it justice. I enjoy photographing things in unique ways.

One day the idea hit me. The image had to be unusual. I decided to do the photograph from a different perspective, from underneath the leaf, primarily showing the butterfly’s shadow, with only a little of it’s wings showing.

I got permission from a grape grower in Sebastopol to use his vineyard.

I needed to use photo light stands and clamps to hold the leaves and grapes in just the right position so that I could get the sun shining from behind. I wanted the grapes to have the right luminosity.

It took about an hour to set up the shot, and about 30 minutes to capture it with my digital camera. Digital is so great to use because you can see exactly what you’ve got. Just as I got the last and final shot a gust of wind came up and the fragile butterfly blew apart, the pieces scattered everywhere. The wind could have just as easily come up five minutes earlier. Maybe Uncle Bud was looking over my shoulder, because at least now his Swallowtail Butterfly will be preserved forever in this photo.

PHOTOGRAPHY SERVICES: Advertising Photography for Business, Products, People, including Families in the Environment, Real Estate, Events, and Fine Art Images, such as the Butterfly in the Vineyard in Signed Limited Edition Giclee’ Prints on Canvas.

Call Will Chubb for your unique photographic needs.

707 579-9995  Web site: www.willchubbphotography.com

Laguna Morning After

This image was photographed at the Laguna de Santa Rosa Wetlands. Although it looks like a sunrise image, the photo was actually taken at midnight on a full August moon!  The exposure was 30 seconds at f6.3. Exposing for such a long time turned a dark night into a tranquil morning at the Laguna.

The “before” image shows what the scene actually looked like at midnight. The moon was incredibly bright. The fragrance of new mown hay filled the air. It was a magical evening. If I wasn’t involved so passionately with my craft, I never would have experienced standing alone in the middle of this remote area at midnight!  When I got home I was too excited to sleep. I loaded the images into the computer to see what I had.

The results were exceptional but not to my standard; something was missing. I decided to let it simmer overnight and tackle it again in the morning.

In the Spring I had photographed a series of egrets flying to their nesting trees on West Ninth Street in Santa Rosa. I went through my files and found the perfect egret. The challenge was matching the sun illuminating the wings. They had to have a back lighted glow to look authentic.

The next step was to photoshop it into the  Laguna scene. It didn’t look natural without a reflection in the water. By duplicating the image and then flipping it over and putting it in the water, a lifelike reflection was created. To further add realism, a ripple was added in the water to suggest the Egret had just taken flight. See the finished poster.

Sunrise on the Pond

The light is everything. The right light can mask a variety of unpleasant things. Cropping out telephone lines and old tires can also help.
This scene is off to the side of Guerneville Road in Santa Rosa, California, towards Sebastopol. Ordinarily it’s very uninviting to see, with the garbage and old tires spread along its banks.

Without the Magical Light

BUT, given the right light it can be magic. (We all look better in the right light!) It had rained the night before and it was expected to be clear the next day. This combination can make for some extraordinary sights. I’m usually out in nature with my camera at times like this, because as the sun comes up it causes steam to rise over moist land or bodies of water forming low laying fog. This morning I was treated to this magnificent scene.

Harvest Sunrise - a light painted photograph

The actual vine was originally used without grapes for Seghesio Winery. It was produced as a poster to celebrate their 100 year old vines. Seghesio was going to dig up a small section of the vineyard and I was able to get one of the vines and brought it into the studio, along with the soil. The photo was done in winter and the set was too wonderful to throw out.  So, the set was rolled into a corner of the studio for a future creative endeavor. Eight months later, during the harvest, I came up with the idea for the photo you see here. This version of the vine is called Harvest Sunrise. Because of the lighting technique that was used, it looks like a Maxfield Parrish painting.

Seghesio Winery Poster – the same vine without leaves and grapes

The technique used to create Harvest Sunrise is called “LIGHT PAINTING”. First you turn all the lights off in the studio. Then, while the camera is on a tripod, you open the shutter and leave it open for the entire process.

There are several types of devices one can use, I use the Hosemaster system. It is a very bright light source with a fiber optic hose. You use this to”Paint” the subject with light in the darkened room. As you paint with the light, the exposure builds up in the camera. The whole process takes a fair amount of time but the result is a rather “painterly” look.

Will Chubb “Lightpainting” another subject

The small photo here (lighting a different subject) shows how I paint with the light. This would normally be done in total darkness if I was actually taking the photograph. The exposure can take anywhere from a few minutes to as long as thirty minutes. It takes a lot of trial and error until you get the feel for moving the light over the subject to bring out the effect you want.

If you have a comment or question about this process or other photographic techniques drop me a note and we can address it in another edition of

“Behind the Scenes”

rwc@sonic.net

Photography Is A Passion

Welcome to Behind The Scenes where I will share some of the technical aspects of how I create unique pictures that evoke an emotion to excite, sway or sell an idea, thought or product.

We will look at lighting schemes and how they affect images along with composing composite images to create seamless, integrated photographs. You can add comments and ask questions and get a sneak peak behind the scenes.

Cheers, Will