Alexander Safonov's TOP Google+ Photos for Feb 10 - Feb 24

straight out of camera week #4

Here is pure SOOC split image of oceanic blacktip shark - taken at the famous Alwal Shoal of KwaZulu Natal province, South Africa.

It's pretty funny how often people whom rely on cheap tricks in post-processing like "HDR" and other dismiss people pursuing relative purity in their photos as "old-skool". Implying that themselves are "new-skool", advanced and high-tech people worth of recognition and respect for their vision. For instance - I read several pieces of +Jay Patel, about his self-proclaimed "iHDR" (LOL !) thing and smelly claims that they are on the edge of technology and everything. And Jay is by far not worst example.

Silly and naive they are. Who is the better user of gun technology - sniper, capable of hitting target with single shot from big distance, or guy with machine gun, firing randomly thousands rounds and still missing a lot ? Answer is obvious.

Good photographers building images in camera have huge edge over people relying on post-processing - because they create something good initially, which can be always improved even further, if absolutely required in Photoshop or other packages.

Trust me - good wildlife photographers are high-tech much far beyond concept of taking three exposures and running them through tone mapping or other blending technique. We use much more complex equipment and techniques than tripods, with dozens of parameters, failure points and relevant for image quality physical characteristics. Some of us, like Bence Mate for example, use automated and robotic equipment to get shot. This is million miles away in sophistication from fake "high-tech" world of Photomatix or other exposure blending.

Would you prefer CG movie which looks fake and obvious in it's artificiality or something which is CG but melts with real world ? Same us, we do use post-processing here and there, using same sophisticated software as self-proclaimed "new-skool" photogs, but when we do, you will not notice it. Because we use it for valid idea, which is normally reduces gap between image and reality, don't increase it.

Anybody who is claiming that he is "high-tech and new-skool" because he is using software to make images look incoherent and bad - just silly. They are more of naive, beginner technology users whom did not achieve any level of sophistication yet.

More on subject to follow !

Previous "straight out of camera week" post - https://plus.google.com/u/0/111095045247360522931/posts/DUCi78MBxN5

sperm whales encounters week #1

I was dreaming about meeting sperm whales for many years. Combination of incredible intelligence and reputation of world's biggest predator these animals possess always fascinated me.

I finally got my chance in October 2010, when I joined +Tony Wu on his trip to the remote Ogasawara Archipelago in Japan. I usually get lucky closer to the end of the trip, but this time I got my best encounter on the very first day.

This image literally depicts my very first underwater sighting of the sperm whale. This is what I saw after entering water and this is how it all started ^_^

straight out of camera week #3

Here are some happy SOOC dolphins for you captured in South African ocean. This image was not cropped, not color corrected - this is what camera recorded into JPEG while I was taking it.

Software engineering is big part of my life, I was involved a lot with computer graphics and image processing, and I came to photography via this domain. Many years ago I started to take images underwater with compact cameras which looked low contrast and dull in color. I quickly found way to enhance them in Photoshop to look better. I was fascinated by this for some time, extending my reach to top-side HDRs and other techniques.

It did not last. I quickly realized that in photography nothing will substitute actual physical light revealing what I want to reveal. Any algorithm, does not matter how sophisticated, operates on 2D projection of space, and hence has no chance to fix/improve light accurately. It felt fake and stupid for me to spend a lot of time sitting next to the computer trying to generate some "art" from mediocre looking "raw material". It felt that it would be much more rewarding both satisfaction wise and result-wise to spend more time studying subjects, gaining deeper insight and knowledge of them in addition to good images, instead of scratching surface and retreating to the computer desk again.

And I never looked back. Any post-processing I use must be based on valid concept - examples are fixing shortcomings of optics, harmonizing colors, removing accidental unwanted dust. Anything beyond that, even if it makes image more "colorful" is not acceptable for me, since my intelligence, intelligence of developed human being, requires understanding context of that I'm seeing in the image. Admiring things bright and colorful for the sake of being bright and colorful is something I leave to kids and those with underdeveloped taste.

Pushing knobs to extreme positions is cheap and lacking any depth. People may reiterate beaten formula "this is how I see world" - but in majority of cases it is pure demagogy, since it implies that almost anything is worthy piece of art and common sense tells me it's not true.

More on the subject to follow ! ^_^

Previous "straight out of camera week" post - https://plus.google.com/u/0/111095045247360522931/posts/SrNHrfaYXQs

sperm whale encounters week #3

It's pity I can't publish high-res images here - as well as multiple photos in the same post. So this is attempt to overcome this limitation - I just want to show high-res details of previous sperm whale photo - https://plus.google.com/u/0/111095045247360522931/posts/3GiAzscfH4o.

From this fragment you can see that this friendly and curious juvenile I encountered is experienced fighter - his body is covered by scars from giant squid tentacles. Giant squids are primary diet of sperm whales - they dive to the depths of ~1000 meters to find them, and fights which unleash between two gigantic animals must be one of the most dramatic duels in animalia kingdom. Pity we can't see it with our own eyes - but looking at asteroid-like surface of the sperm whale body we can play this event in imagination - I do all the time.

Still despite wearing all these scars his eye gives us happy and curious look - this contrast amazes me about these creatures !

Previous "sperm whale encounter week* post - https://plus.google.com/u/0/111095045247360522931/posts/3GiAzscfH4o

straight out of camera week #2

Pure SOOC bull shark portrait taken at the famous Shark Reef in Fiji in 25m viz conditions. It takes forever to get conditions like this, but patience along with preparedness is capable of producing good results.

Constraints of SOOC are good for creativity. They encourage photographer to study intrinsic beauty of nature, acquiring depth of insight in the process, and it is easy to appreciate good SOOC shots through the prism of intelligence, knowing that it is result of substantial effort. Best landscape shots I've seen in my life for instance involved a lot of travel and hardship for photographers, reaching unique view points during unique lighting and climatic circumstances.

On other hand "HDR" and other lazy techniques involving over-processing of photos lack this depth. They are like syrupy candy - very unsophisticated in it's primitive systematic nature, they don't appeal to intelligence due to easiness of replication and obviousness of the procedure involved, and as implication they are admired by people with underdeveloped artistic taste. Same as syrupy candy appeals mostly to the very young kids...

More on virtues of SOOC and real photography to follow !

Previous "straight out of camera week" post - https://plus.google.com/u/0/111095045247360522931/posts/QHSWFUcaU6c

straight out of camera week #5

This shot of tiny goby sitting on the coral fan is example of 100% SOOC macro photography. Notice black background effect - while this exposure trick is well known it gives you insight on potential of creative solutions which you can extract from the environment - just using your imagination. As I said before - constraints are good for creativity, and help your photography to become more sophisticated, more art-like.

What about notion of "computer art" ? Does shuffling colors and applying tonemapping automatically sends photography into that department ?

Problem is that many claim so and many viewers appreciate it - but in reality state of the art in "computer art" is miles away from shuffling several exposures around in Photoshop.

Modern "computer art", many examples of which you can see on wonderful http://behance.net is very sophisticated mixture of 3D modeling, photography, painting and post-processing effects. Something like my friend Vitaly Sokol does - http://vitaly-sokol.livejournal.com/355942.html - even if his visual style is not exactly my cup of tea I can appreciate a lot technical side of it.

It is easy to see that in the case like this amount of skill and effort is very substantial, making claims about "computer artistry" based on some simple and systematic manipulations on photos look like joke. If you want to achieve depth in this department - you have to catch up with some state of the art which is quite sophisticated and requires long time to master. It's not cheap at all.

Or of course you can always have your own original concept, even simple one - it's always best. Original ideas are more rare than big diamonds though, and obviously where are none in "HDR" and other popular tricks exploited by many people these days.

So photography is still photography, and for photography it is essential to capture physical light with the camera. All fixes you apply after that have limited reach, since once scene is frozen in 2D you can't go back to the 3D world to extract volume data.

If you choose to do photography - my advice try to constrain yourself for better results and try not to rely much on post-processing. You will find it very rewarding, very deep experience. And also remember - sitting long extra hours before screen doing Photoshop manipulations is bad for your eyes and health in general ! ^_^ So choose style which is healthy from multiple point of views ! ^_^

By this I'm concluding "straight out of camera week". Next week will be "sperm whale encounters week". Stay tuned and enjoy ! ^_^

Previous "straight out of camera week" post - https://plus.google.com/u/0/111095045247360522931/posts/G38aRKpezHT

cape gannets week #4

During busy times gannets activity reminds non-stop aerial assault. Birds enter water by dozens every few seconds, and divers find themselves surrounded by many bubbly trails. In the midst of such attack it's better not to move too much - birds see pretty well were they are aiming, and best tactics for photography is to keep making 360 degrees turns with camera in extended hands, looking for bird being sufficiently close - less than one meter away - for good picture ^_^

Previous "cape gannet week" post -
https://plus.google.com/u/0/111095045247360522931/posts/Yp199WUmFuT

cape gannets week #5

Monday is lucky day for the gannet. Finally - gotcha ! It took a while to make this photo showing successful attempt of gannet on the sardine. In the end everybody was happy and safe - gannet, school of sardines, photographer - everyone except one small unlucky fish ! ^_^

This shot was taken during early morning with beautiful directed sunlight - this is why it's possible to see sun-rays bursting through the water column. When shooting images underwater we always try to have sun in front either on the left or right side - very different from top-side photography where direct sun exposure must be avoided for the most of shots !

This is final image of the "cape gannets" week. Next week theme is "straight out of camera" week ! ^_^

Previous "cape gannets week" post -
https://plus.google.com/u/0/111095045247360522931/posts/Yp199WUmFuT

straight out of camera week #1

While maturing as wildlife photographer I'm starting to become exceptionally picky about image post-processing. Being influenced by many great names I'm believing more and more that art of shooting nature implies very limited usage of Photoshop. It is obvious that techniques like contrast and color correction are valid at some extent due to ambiguity of interpretation of sensor data, I don't think that it is ethical to go far beyond that. Wildlife photo is a document, something which must give viewer fair representation of reality.

Image below and all images which are to be published as part of this week are untouched - in the sense they are re-sized equivalents of in-camera created JPEG. Enjoy ! ^_^

sperm whale encounters week #2

Majority of attempts to join sperm whales underwater end in vain. Animals start swimming away from people, trying to avoid interaction. I observed that more mature, older whales are more likely to reject your "friendship request".

Juvenile ones are more easy going. This one for instance instead of swimming away started to approach us, grabbing air from the surface en route, simultaneously giving curious look.

Even being juvenile he was easily bigger than 10 meters in length ^_^

Previous "sperm whale encounters week" post - https://plus.google.com/u/0/111095045247360522931/posts/Uw9pBZ6Zxph