Tony Seeley Photography

Today’s image was taken again in Mount Vernon.  This time it’s a shot of a field of tulips (I really needed to point that out didn’t I).  Hopefully you get a sense of the scenery here which is truly spectacular.  I have other shots that have Mount Baker in the background topped with snow (you’ll see those ones soon I’m sure).  It was such a lovely day and the back drop of the top of the Cascades behind the fields just looked great.

Now I know that my photography and image processing is not to everyone’s taste.  What’s that you ask, “people don’t like your pictures Tony?”  Well some don’t.  There are a couple of different schools of thought in photography, one school see’s it as an art form, where you do what you need to do to get the end result you wanted.  This involves modifying images in Photoshop, removing distractions from the primary subject or enhancing tones, contrast or colors etc., even re-composing the image after the fact (that means cropping), well, this is obviously the camp I’m in.  But then there are the “purists”, the people who believe that you take a photograph, and whatever you get out of the camera is the final image – no messing about.  Interestingly these people are a bit of a dieing breed as everything is post processed these days (as even if you don’t do it, your camera does it for you!)  This is kind-a sad, as there is something to their argument.  As with most things in life photography is about balance, so I try to get the best composition I can in camera, try to get the lighting right etc., and then only modify what I need in Photoshop after the fact.

So why on earth am I rambling on about this?  Well this shot is pretty much right out of the camera.  “Pretty much you say?”, Well yeah, if you remember I told you that there were loads of tourists there tramping all over the fields and this shot was no exception.  So I removed them in Photoshop – can you see where?  But that was it.  I didn’t change any colors, I didn’t crop or modify the images contrast or add any filters.  Once the annoying people were removed, this is what I saw.

See I can be “old school” too.

Now I know that when people say “he was wired” they sometimes mean the person was tense with excitement and enthusiasm as from a rush of adrenaline, but when Master Chief got wired it was different, he literally got caught up in a load of wires!  Bit embarrassing but it happens to us all (when you’re 3″ tall anyway).

Back to tulips – well I did warn you yesterday.  Tonight’s posting is a great example of what to do when there are hundreds of people all around you and you want a picture of flowers (with no people).  GET IN CLOSE.

Ironically this image was taken with quite a long lens from a distance, but the “get in close” approach is the same.  I liked the fact that not all the flowers had bloomed here and the fact that they aren’t pointing straight up, I also was aiming for a narrow depth of field (for those of you who don’t talk camera – this means that the front of the picture and the back of the picture are out of focus and the middle is sharp – well that’s the idea anyway).

Expect to see more tulips for the next few days, but I have a long weekend coming up and am planning a day out to get some new stellar shots (that you won’t see until Monday) so hang in there.

While walking around the office at work Carter and Master Chief found a load of enslaved “dudes”, they are currently planning their escape.

If you read this blog you will remember that I went back to Mount Vernon on Saturday to finally shoot some tulips.  So it shouldn’t be a surprise that I’m going to post LOTS of pictures of tulips.  Having said that I’ll try and intersperse non-tulip images so you don’t get too bored.

You kind of have to imagine a huge field (and I mean huge) full of different colored flowers.  Then imagine hundreds of people walking all around the flowers and periodically running into the flowers for a picture.

Then you have to ask yourself how can you photograph great pictures without loads of strangers in shot?  Well there are a few approaches (and I used them all).  One way is to shoot deep into the field with a long lens, to do this I just stand at the edge and focus way out into the middle of the field.  Another approach is just to have patience and when a small number of people are in view (you never have no people) take the shot, then remove them in post processing.  The last approach (and the mechanism used in today’s picture) is to get a large black bin bag out of your camera case and lay it on the floor.  Then you lay on the bag under the flowers and shoot up.   This is what I did.  Of course there are people walking round my feet looking at me like I’m a loony, but that’s OK, the results are worth it.

One of the benefits of this approach (other than no people) is that you get the blue sky as a background and it can set off the flowers.  In this image I also had the sun, which I tried to hide behind a flower bulb.

Cater and Master Chief decided today to play a game of soccer.  So they jumped on a Foosball table and took over.

Lisa was on the internet last night and visited the facebook site of the tour company that took me to Mount Vernon a couple of weeks ago.  It appeared that the tulips were now out in full bloom and they were posting pictures.  So as I now had proof that the fields were full of color I decided that today I would head back – this time on my own – and get the pictures I wanted.

Initially I thought I’d leave really early and get there as the place opened, but then I remembered that I got up every day this week at 6:30 and it was Saturday and I was totally knackered.  So I convinced myself late last night that I’d either go later in the day or Sunday instead.

So this morning I got up at 10am (how fab is that) made the kids egg and bacon and asked everyone what they were planning on doing today.  Abi had a Girl Scout trip to the movies planned, James was going Skateboarding and Lisa wasn’t doing anything.  I asked them all if they wanted to go to Mount Vernon with me and thankfully they all said “No”.  Now it’s not that I don’t want my family with me, it’s just that when I have a camera in my hand I can become a little, what does Lisa call it?  Oh yeah – BORING.  And they all start to nag me after about 10 shots!  So after breakfast I grabbed the camera and tripod and headed of to Skagit Valley.

It’s only about 70 miles away and it’s pretty much freeway the whole trip, but it still took around 90 minutes.  I went straight to Tulip Town, found a parking place and paid my $5 entrance fee to get in.  It was about now that I remembered why the “get up early and get there as they open” idea was such as good one.  The place was packed!  Literally hundreds of people were there with cameras either stamping over the flowers or walking out into the tulip fields so their partners could take a picture of them surrounded by tulips – you get the idea.

While this was definitely a pain, it didn’t stop me getting some great shots.  I’ve found that if you don’t have patience photography is not the hobby for you.  By taking my time and waiting for people to move, oh and giving the odd person a really nasty stare, I managed to get my pictures.

Today’s posting is of some red tulips which is actually the most popular color – see you learn stuff by coming here too.  The challenge I had here was that they were VERY VERY red, almost too red and dark but they looked fantastic and I wanted to capture that “lost in a sea of red” look.

I took over 380 pictures in all over around 2 hours and then headed home.  Got in with enough time to mow the lawn and post this before going out with Lisa on a date.

Hope you like the first one, there will be more tulips over the coming week (trust me by next week you will be sick of them).

At work we have these really nice coffee machines that grind and brew fresh Starbucks coffee.  But that are quite hard to use when you’re only 4 inches high.  But having found the stationary room Carter get some tape and overcame the challenge.