Roxbury Land Trust, Roxbury Connecticut © StevenWillard
This is my second effort at a blog site. I started at Posterous® because it was free and easy, and all I was looking for at the time was a place I could direct gallery managers where they could see my American Flag series. After a while it seemed wasteful to use it only for that, so I began including more of my images and they needed some sort of explanation, and what started as long captions got longer and longer. To my surprise I found I like to write…as long as there is no pressure. So here we are. I’m under no pressure to add new photographs or to write about them, and you are under no pressure to look or comment, although I hope you will.
A note: I will be experimenting on this site in ways I never did on the Posterous® site. Things may go up and come own as I try new layouts and try to learn how WordPress® works. I apologize if this is confusing. All photographs and text, except those specifically noted, are © Steven Willard.
stevenwillardimages 
This gorgeous photograph makes me jealous that I have not yet stopped to capture these glorious colors of spring;s first blossoming as you have, Steve. Thank you for sharing your vision, and for reminding me that, for the dedicated photographer, the moment is always now.
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a great shot as usual
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Thanks Marc. I’m always glad when you like one of my images.
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I wanted to check out your work after you left me that very nice comment. When this photo came up, I went wow – that’s nice. Welcome to WordPress. I have been very happy with the support I received as a new blogger. I look forward to seeing your experiments. 🙂
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Thank you Pat. I’ve enjoyed both your images and your words.
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Great shot. Love the strong black tones in this.
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Thanks for visiting the site, I hope you visit often. I value your comments.
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Great shot Steven.
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Hey Joe, thanks for your kind remarks and thanks for adding me to the sites you follow.
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Great Shot ~ thanks for stopping by and commenting on my blog! I look forward to seeing how your blog and photos develop! Welcome to the WordPress Community!
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Very nice shot Steven. I love B&W and look forward to seeing more from you. ~ Dave
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Thanks for visiting the site, and thanks for the kind words.
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Congratulations on First Prize at the Members Show at WAA! I love this image of the stone bench too.
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Thank you very much. It’s always nice to get a pat on the back.
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Very nice. How do I view more?
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Great work here, Steve !
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Thanks for your comment!
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May I just say what a comfort to find somebody that really knows what they’re talking about on the web.
You definitely know how to bring a problem to light and make it
important. More and more people need to check this out
and understand this side of your story. I can’t believe you
aren’t more popular since you certainly have the gift.
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Thank you for your kind words. Of course I would like it if more people dropped by, but from the beginning I wanted to grow my readers list from those who came by “naturally”, no hype on the the social sites. There are lots of places one can go to read about the technical side of photography, not so many that speak to the why. That’s what I’ve been trying to do. If you like it, pass it on. Thanks again for visiting.
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Happy Birthday! I thoroughly enjoyed ‘Reflections’. 🙂
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Thank you very much. Hope you have a Happy New Year!
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A fine opening statement Steven. Isn’t growth and experimentation what we all go through with this blogging thing? God knows I fiddle constantly. Look forward to watching your journey.
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When I read your intro comments, I smiled. How lovely to find that you like to write! I’m glad, too, because I often like to hear the story behind a photo. Not necessarily the camera settings, but the where, when, and what.
I hope you’ve enjoyed your time on WP. It’s become an incredible journey for me which has included the making of many new friends.
This image is wonderful, by the way.
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Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. I have never considered myself anything more than a journeyman photographer; capable of making a photograph that represents a scene to my satisfaction. But for all the ways able to move us, to inform us, I have found that, at least for me, there comes a time when I feel the urge to explain. Yes, I know there are those who maintain that an image, if successful, should be able to sustain itself on it’s own. But photography is a wide and varied thing, and no one answer suits all. Why limit yourself, your voice, because of someone else’s dictates? With my discovery of the blog I finally found the outlet I’d been missing; a way to show and tell. It has become the outlet for me to not only show what I saw, but to tell what I felt. To tell a more complete story. I hope you will take the time to drill back through the blog entries which now count to 170. I never imagined I would last this long, but whenever I think of stopping something else comes up.
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I hope some day you do a post explaining your workflow. I am fascinated by your use of both Ipad apps and heavier duty computer software.
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I have no plans to do a tell-all only because I don’t really have a workflow. But I’m happy to tell you what I can.
Until recently I opened all my images, almost always raw, into Photoshop CS4 Bridge and opened them in ACR where I make basic corrections before moving into Photoshop where I work in layers and masks. Most images that I convert to b&w I do in Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 which I find to be much better than PS. Color images I handle in PS and sometimes Nik Color Efex for some of the great filters such Glamour Glow. Don’t ask me to explain the look, just go to Nik Software for some samples.
Here’s the thing, I know next to nothing about output or the bet way to save files and stuff like that, I just muddle along. My friends are appalled.
When sending images to WP I used to always downsize the file and send it from my iMac as a jpeg. It was the only way I could, and then I bought an iPad, and that’s when things changed.
Now I frequently open my files with the SD card reader for iPad and save. When I tried using Nik Snapseed I fell in love with it. It is so simple to use, intuitive almost organic. You don’t have to understand it, or even remember how to use it. I later read about Stackables and have often used both APPS, moving back and forth from one to the other, saving to the camera roll whenever I feel I need a bailout point. None of this messes with the raw file. This is usually where I move the image to WP. But! Sometimes I’ll send the image back to the iMac and PS for further work if it needs something I can’t do in Snapseed, and then it’s sent to WP from there.
Now what I didn’t say is that there are times that I have moved the image from the iMac to WP but just not been satisfied, something just wasn’t right. At that point I’d open it in Snapseed on the iPad and tweak it there.
Now is the kicker. I am still trying to figure out how the files are altered and what resolutions they are, or can be, saved. So far I haven’t made any actual prints from the images worked in Snapseed. That bings up the next thing.
I have signed up for a one day class taught by Dan Burkholder, 1st Lord of iPhoneography and photo APPS (danburkholder.com). I hope to learn as much as I can about APPS and his workflow and methods. It’s a one day class at his home in February.
It’s amazing how all of this new stuff coincided with how my work was beginning to change. In the past I worked to create images that were too technically driven, too pure. Now I am actually introducing blur and grain, and sometimes even textures to come closer to the way I feel about an image even if it wasn’t what was recorded on the sensor. I never would have believed it, but I guess you are never too old to learn something if you keep an open mind.
I hope this helps. Let me know if you have questions and I’ll try to answer, I’ve never believed this stuff should be a secret. Even if it was in my power and I could tell you exactly how I made a photo, and place your tripod legs right where mine were, our images would still be different.
Keep in touch, Steve
Sent from my iPad
>
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Steven I can’t thank you enough for this explanation. I too am finding my work is changing from what I would call straight travel shots to more manipulated (and personal) ones. My guess is that we are all going to find that pretty soon the camera and apps we have in our ipads and iphones are so powerful that we will begin to use them more and more to the exclusion of what we are now carrying around.
So far I have been sticking to, almost exclusively, Lightroom because their library filing system is so good. I do use the Nik plugins too, but the range of powerful and simple artistic apps in the Apple arsenal is very very tempting. I will very much look forward to seeing how your work evolves.
Thanks again for your kindness…John
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My pleasure. Good luck.
Sent from my iPad
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…and your fingers don’t turn orange!
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Steve, I took a long look at your blog and images. Wonderful flow of concepts and exquisite images. Talk soon. Don
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Thank you very much. I’d be happy to continue our conversation. It’s one topic I do go on about:)
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moody and beautiful 🙂
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Thanks for visiting and your nice comment.
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I’ve been surfing online more than 3 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours.
It is pretty worth enough for me. In my view, if all
web owners and bloggers made good content as you did, the internet will be
a lot more useful than ever before. http://www.yahoo.net
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Very fine photograph! Love the tonality and the mood this picture shows.
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The Dolmen for buttocks is class … !!!
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http://portaleds.co/shell-duplica-ganancias-2016-gracias-la-reduccion-costos/
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Your black and white photograph has a feel of solitude. The seat standing alone and waiting for a person passing by to take a moment is the message I see …warm regards Karen
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What nice words! I hope you will find the time to visit my blog, over 500 entries. You don’t have to look at them all at one sitting!
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Steven, I noticed your blog here that have nice B&W Images. I will also shoot in B&W, but only when I think that the Image would look better. Old things or subjects that have been abandonded & forgotten over time are a primary conversion. I think that B&W Images have their place, depending on the subject. I am following, Sir.
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Thanks for following, Les. I find converting to black and white a mystery. Sometimes I know in advance when the image should be in black and white, yet some images that I hadn’t thought to convert at time of exposure turn out to be some of my favorites. Lucky for us we have the option to choose.
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Très joli !
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Merci !
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WordPress has a lot of good there’s that you can play with to look the way you want. Enjoy it. 😁
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Christian mathematics includes each the acknowledging
of God within the little issues and discerning of the cultural
occasions https://math-problem-solver.com/ . In a village far away from
Warsaw, Marie earned money by educating the youngsters of a
beet-sugar manufacturing unit owner.
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I’m sorry Macie, but I have no idea what you are talking about.
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Hi Steve,
George Hendricks here. I finally found you site and enjoyed your flag series. This is truly the tip of the iceberg of your body of photography work. Where can we see more ? You have a great eye.
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There are 600+ blog posts on this site.
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Very nice! 😀
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Dear Steve,
At 89 I am not the best tech person although I did just give in and am learning a bit of
Iphone useage with thanks to offspring and grandkids. I,ve lost your email so hope this
works. you are often in my thoughts and I hope that you are living well despite any
health issues.
I heard from Sandra at Christmas and was amazed at what they suffered in flood damages.
They had to evacuate and had something like 5 ft of water in their house. They had lots of help from friends and are fortunate to have the resources t0 put their lives back in order. Not true of
so many low income folks when these events occur.
All is well here with family all close by and so well connected. Grand kids except for two are not
in any hurry to make wedding plans. Just living their lives together for now seems satisfying and
works OK for me. My oldest, Kate, sold her Portland house and is having a little place built over
on the coast about an hour and a half away. She absolutely adores being out of the crowded and
expensive city and treasures her kayaking and beach walks. Three daughters and three
daughter-in-laws will join her along with me Thursday through the weekend. All six of my
offspring bought an old house there about 18 years ago and it has become a treasure to each of us.
Let me know if there are more recent photos. I’m not finding them on the only site I have.
Sending love and all good thoughts your way.
Vida Lee
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I responded via your email address.
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I see that it has been over a year since we were in touch. Alas my carelessness.
Now i can’t seem to get through via your blog and don’t have an email that I can locate. As I have said before, my computer skills are pretty limited. If I am lucky this will reach you. I had
word from Sandra which is unusual but appreciated. Hope all is well with you.
Much love, Vida Lee
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Well hello! Let me give you my email so that we can correspond a bit more privately. It’s stv.wllrd@gmail.com. If you will just send me a quick note I’ll be able to respond there. Great to hear from you.
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What a good text, I think the same. A blogg grov with you, both photographic and writings.
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Hellow, Nice to find you here. I am also trying to find myself at my second opportunity with wordpress photography. mjberistain.blog Hope to see you more often. Regards
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continue in this direction and above all have fun, listen to what you want to do.
This photograph makes me want to come and sit there and enjoy this calm and empty landscape
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Let me know when you are in the area and I’ll take you there.
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Thank you but it would be difficult, I live in a country other than yours: D
I wish you a good day
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I just found you today and here I am to stay and to chare and to learn all about giving sense and beauty to pictures. Thans Steven. Love your work.
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