Guadalupe River Park, San Jose

Park Bench, Guadalupe River Park, San Jose

Often we have story telling attached to our images. There's more than "I went for a walk and found 'this' and took a picture." 

Four favored images come to mind, from San Jose's Guadalupe River Park. Overall, the parkway runs for a number of miles, from upstream of the 280/87 freeway interchange through the city's heart, then further northward toward the airport, and ultimately to Alviso and the Bay. Anyone finding themselves in downtown San Jose can easily wander the trails alongside, crossing, or connecting outwardly from the refurbished waterway. Where once it was something better to overlook and avoid, it now attracts the worker, the visitor, the local, to go for a walk or ride a bike, whether for a few minutes or for an hour or longer.

The particular setting here is a bit further north. Taylor Street crossing is nearby. The "Heritage Rose Garden" is equally close to the west, adjacent to the riparian landscape.

The reason for the images begins with number 3, from a warm spring day in 2008.

March 21, 2008.

This would have been my mother's 96th birthday, had she not passed away in May the previous year, just ahead of Mothers Day weekend. In strolling the pathways, this park bench scene caught my attention. And, yes, I paused awhile in quiet sitting. I believed my mother would have liked this scene. The "big picture' of the setting, maybe not. It's directly under the flight path for San Jose International Airport. It's easily within range of the traffic on the well-traveled triangle that surrounds this area - highway 87 freeway, and busy Taylor and Coleman Ave. To the southeast, the high rises of the downtown "heart of Silicon Valley" rise above the nearby trees.

The original color version was found on Flickr a little over two years ago by an assistant to an author writing a book at the University of Pennsylvania on Hargreaves Associates, a major landscape architecture company involved with projects across the country as well as worldwide. Alas, the original full res copy they needed for publication was lost when an external hard drive it was on failed, taking a multitude of images from 2008 and '09 with it. So, the offer was made by me to revisit the location and reshoot the image and location.

The initial reshoot image is easily my favorite of this park bench scene, because of the inclusion of that couple walking hand-in-hand in the distance.

I watched as they had walked the trail directly next to the bench, then simply waited until I liked their position within the frame with respect to the bench, pathways, and landscape, keeping the f/stop wide for an intentionally shallow depth of field. For maybe 20 seconds I had my finger poised on the shutter release, getting a handful of frames in very quick succession. This is another of those "sniper" moments I tell my photo students about, where you see something developing, react with the foresight to ready your settings and position, set the focus, then await the magic moment to complete the capture.

  Another view of the bench from the other direction was also captured.

The final scene was captured maybe 40 feet away, visible in the background of the image above.
 

This was the one chosen for inclusion in "Unearthed: The Landscapes of Hargreaves Associates" by Karen M'Closkey (pages 24 and 34), which was published earlier this year.

If you find yourself in San Jose, with a willingness to take a relaxing stroll, maybe you’ll find this scene. Maybe that park bench will call to you… “come, sit for a minute.”

Tech Notes:

- 11-26-2011 - f/4.5 x 1/350 @ ISO 200, +1 EV, 120mm

- 11-26-2011 - f/6.7 x 1/180 @ ISO 200, +1 EV, 190mm

  

- 03-21-2008 - f/11 x 1/90 @ ISO 100, +/- 0 EV, 50mm

- 11-26-2011 – f/4.5 x 1/750 @ ISO 200 +1 EV, 98mm

"Including The Human Element"

As I've freely noted many times, my interest and background in photographic expression crosses many styles. Probably because my visual interests in the world around me fail to be confined...where my eyes will go, the camera is going to follow.

As often as I pause to wait for an unknown "someone" to slowly wander out of a scene I've framed to capture as a quiet landscape, I'll reconsider and look to include the otherwise offending individuals as elements to be included in the composition rather than be excluded.

Viewers can have a better time placing themselves within a photograph if they can more easily relate to being in the shoes of someone there in the scene. The setting may be along an alpine lake, or in Yosemite's famed Valley, along a sandy beach, or "elsewhere."

That human doesn't need to dominate the photo in size to have a strong role in affecting the overall impression.


This was captured in San Jose, California's Guadalupe River Parkway, autumn 2012. I was after a nice "human interest" impression with it, and settled for maybe 10 minutes with the bench, path, and trees alone. When this couple came along, hand-in-hand, I was visually attracted, but waited until they were unique background elements, still easily recognizable as fellow human beings, but carrying an "anyone and everyone" feeling by holding them out of focus.


The scene below is Ellery Lake, 9,600 feet high in the Sierra Nevada, just east of the Tioga Pass entrance to Yosemite Park. Winter 2011-2012 found the pass still open in December into January because of a lack of snowfall. That wasn't accompanied by a lack of sub-freezing cold, however, and Ellery was frozen with a layer of ice about 10-12" thick, making walking across the surface quite safe. We're seriously not used to this in California. (Wintertime will find our Sierra lakes under a blanket of snow, which actually insulates the lake surface from freezing more solidly than with direct exposure to the cold air...it's hard to trust what you can't directly see, and thin ice claims several victims falling through every winter.) So, a like this is really special...

 

...and easily catches our attention. He's taking in this cold alpine scene and lake, while standing on the lake rather than looking across it.

In other parts of the country and world, this is more commonplace during the cold of winter, with a frozen lake an opportunity for outdoor activities like ice skating or playing hockey.


The image to the right has my wife studying an abstract pattern within the ice, making her appearing even smaller within this large mountain setting.

Anyone ever go camping, and decide to take an evening stroll down a quiet back road after the evening meal? This couple did as Debbie and I were stopped to capture the aspen tree lined road in Lee Vining Canyon. I was otherwise happy with things. Upon seeing this couple from Santa Barbara, I initially paused the camera... ...then reconsidered and snapped a few frames as they walked, hand-in-hand. As much as I like those "empty" road images, I like the ones with the couple better. The made the scene more "fun" simply with their presence.

Is there a difference between these two - "walking into" the scene (toward the camera, here) vs. "walking out of" the scene below, strolling away from my point of view, below? Which can you better relate to; which is more "comfortable"?

One image I've long enjoyed was during the one and only cruise my wife and I have taken: from San Francisco to SE Alaska and back. One of the side trips we took was the historic narrow gauge White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad. At one point, our train had to stop on a siding because of an issue where some small rocks fallen on the track ahead of the train ahead to so a crew could come past and clear them.

The conductor walked back to yet another train stopped behind ours. Being that he's walking alongside the image's strongest "leading line," he may occupy only a small part of the overall image, but plays an important role in the impression.

I was simply standing on the rear platform, watching... I think this was one of a handful, as he moved along that curving line toward the background. Com positionally, he's near one of those "3rd's rule" points, but just to the outside of it. That leading line keeps the viewers' eyes captured to carry past the close proximity of that frame edge.





One of the impressions I actually had in mind when I started typing this entry is from along the Santa Cruz County coastline in the Bay Area, summer 2010...

...I can certainly relate to walking along the beach sands late in the day. Can you find yourself walking in their shoes in the sand?


For the record, I don't follow up on every photo op I encounter to include this human element.
Many? Yes. Most? maybe. Sometimes, I'm still happier just pausing to take the scene in with eyes only until the humans have cleared the frame. (I'd probably claim the age-old photographer's excuse that I was "waiting for the light to change" so as not to offend anyone.)

Portrait Workshop, Grand Theatre, Tracy, California

Portrait Workshop
Grand Theatre Center for the Arts, Tracy, California
10am - 2pm, Saturday, July 27.

Link = http://stareg.ci.tracy.ca.us/stareg/Activities/ActivitiesCourseDetails.asp?aid=1603&cid=39887

I'm one of those photographers who doesn't specialize in one genre. Too many times has something gained or learned in one style carried over into at least one other. There's too much "interconnection" and "cross pollination" of lighting, of composing and placement, and a host of other ideas and concepts.

On July 27th, I'm again offering a workshop on dealing with portrait lighting. It's low key and informal, while presenting a good deal of worthwhile information, plus ample hands-on time working with the Grand's "real world" settings.

We look not at studio lighting or more "formal" lighting styles that in exploring and studying the "found" available lighting, and finding effective ways to work with it or gently manipulate it. If everyone had access to a studio light set up in their garage, living room, or spare bedroom, the focus could be on this, since everyone could go home and practice whatever was learned. Alas...few do, and the gained skills would wither away. But, every photographer does come with a camera and a working set of eyes, so things learned within the world of "natural" light can easily be carried forth into many other environments, settings, and situations.

The four-hour workshop includes a general run through of different lighting aspects - like its color, light and shadow contrast, intensity, quality - as well as how it affects a subject or setting - various terms like "front-" or "side-" lighting, or "soft" lighting, etc. Again, carryover from one style works - side lighting is the same concept, whether the subject is a landscape, a flower, or a human. All dSLR cameras can control and adjust aspects of the lighting for better... or, worse. We'll deal with some of how the controls - mode, f/stop, shutter speed, ISO - can be brought to use.

   We'll explore how to directly adjust exposure issues in the camera's Manual mode, but also how to work, maybe more effectively, in "Av" Aperture-Priority, which will allow the camera to respond as we move within a space or change rooms, without having to manually readjust the Manual settings all over again...just because we decided to move locations.

I've been teaching in Tracy's Grand Theatre for four years, and been contributing imagery for the venue's class catalog for most of this time, too. Whether by day or night, in a classroom or the open air loggia, during summer or winter, I've gained some experience in working with the building's varied spaces.

If you would have the interest in being introduced to some working concepts of portrait photography, I'd appreciate having you along for the session.

It will be fun and an informative photo opportunity.

 The class enrollment description and registration is in the link at the top of the page.

The individuals along as "subjects" will be genuine characters to engage in conversation and interact with with the cameras, and will bring backgrounds in music, dance, and/or theater.

Their unique personalities will make life behind the camera easier and a bit more fun, too.



I hope to see you here...

Richard D. Beebe
...photographer -
......N. California
...photography instructor -
......Grand Theatre Center for the Arts,
......Tracy, Calif.