Steven Bourelle Digital Arts » Landscape

Lake Michigan Rainbow

Steven — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 18:53:34 +0000

Last Saturday, July 10, we had some thunderstorms roll through the area. We didn’t see any rain here at the house, but just to the north of us a decent sized storm went through in the evening. As sunset approached, I realized that the storm had made it’s way over Lake Michigan and was now directly east of us. Thinking that there might be some good rainbows around, I headed out to find them.

I didn’t have to go far. Just as I pulled out of the driveway a nice rainbow appeared over the lake. Unfortunately there aren’t any clear views of the lake near our house, so I headed south to the beach hoping that the rainbow would hold that long. As I drove I kept catching glimpses of the rainbow and realized it was a full one. I stepped on the gas a little harder and prayed that the rainbow would hang on and that there weren’t any cops in the area.

When I got to the beach, there was the full rainbow in all it’s glory. I jumped out of the truck, grabbed the camera, opened up the tripod and lined up my shot just as the rainbow began to fade. This image is the result. It’s the only good shot I got before the rainbow was gone. It’s not the completely full rainbow I had hoped for, but it’s the closest I’ve ever came to a full one.

The Tall Ship “Friends Good Will” in Port Washington, WI

Steven — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:33:46 +0000

The tall ship Friends Good Will sails out of South Haven Michigan. It’s a replica of the 19th century sloop that was originally built in Detroit MI in 1811 and served both the United States and the British in the War of 1812. During the war, it was captured by the British and then recaptured by the Americans. It then ran aground in Buffalo and was burnt to the waterline to keep it from being captured by the British again.

The Friends Good Will is owned by the Michigan Maritime Museum and is used as a floating classroom to help educate people about Lake Michigan’s maritime history.

This photo was taken at the 2010 Port Washington Pirate Festival in Port Washington WI. Also in the photo is Port Washington’s famous art deco lighthouse.

This was the second time I photographed this ship. The first time was at the 2009 Port Washington Maritime Heritage Festival. The light was horrible that day and I wasn’t at all happy with my photos. This second time the light was much nicer and I got some fine photos of this beautiful ship. This image is an artistic representation of one of those photos.

St. Mary’s Church, Port Washington WI

Steven — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:50:27 +0000

The Lake Michigan fishing village of Port Washington is one of my favorite towns in Wisconsin. It has a wonderful harbor and downtown area and holds many festivals there throughout the summer. Sitting on top of a hill, overlooking downtown Port Washington, is St Mary’s Catholic Church. This beautiful church was built in 1882 by Luxembourg emigrants.

On our first trip to Port Washington, we drove up to the church to photograph it. I took this picture at the time. I never really cared for the color version of this image, so I decided to try it as a black and white, I still didn’t care for it. Then I decided to try sepia and there was the look I wanted. I feel the sepia image captures the beauty and feeling of the church, it seems to radiate an aura that the color and BW image just didn’t have.

Eureka Sand Dunes in Black and White

Steven — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:00:13 +0000

Here’s the next image in my 35mm slide scan series. Before I put it on Flickr last night, it had never been seen online. It’s also my newest black and white, well sort of anyway.

This photo, taken at the Eureka Sand Dunes in Death Valley National Park, is actually the very first black and white that I made in Photoshop back in 1999. I don’t know if it’s still there, but there use to be a print of it hanging in Speed of Light Photo in Mammoth Lakes. I have no idea what happened to the original black and white file of this image, so I remade it last night.

Eureka Sand Dunes, Death Valley National Park, CA

My New Toy

Steven — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:03:15 +0000

Here’s the first image from my new toy.

Lone Pine Peak at Sunrise, Eastern Sierra Nevada, CA

What is my new toy? It’s a new scanner. To be precise it’s an Epson Perfection V500 Photo scanner that not only scans prints, but also negatives and slides. I’ve been playing with it all morning and it’s awesome. As you can see from the image above, a slide from Feb. of 2000, the scanner does an amazing job with slides.

That’s one of the main reasons I got this scanner. I want to get my best slides onto the computer and backed up for safety. It also let’s me share many of my earliest images with you guys. Some of these you’ve seen, but most you haven’t.

I’m looking forward to sharing these images with everyone. Some of my best stuff is on slides and has never been shown to the world. Keep your eyes out for them.

Photo of the Month: March 2010

Steven — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:20:00 +0000

March Photo of the Month: Fish Tug Entering Kenosha Harbor, Lake Michigan, Kenosha WI

This month’s photo comes from my first weekend visiting Kenosha back on the 3rd of March, 2008. This interesting boat is a fish tug, a boat that’s native to the Great Lakes. This fish tug was first created for the commercial fishing industry in the 1930′s. It was designed to stand up to the challenging conditions found on the Great Lakes year around. There are three fish tugs currently in Kenosha Harbor, this was my first encounter with one.

I was out photographing the ice and slush of the harbor when , to my surprise, I heard a boat horn from the lake. I thought I was hearing things. No way was there a boat out there amongst all that ice. Then I saw it. I quickly changed lenses and got four shots fired off before the boat was by me. This image is my favorite of the four.

At the time I had no idea what this boat was, but after some searching online I was able to learn more about the fish tugs and their importance to the fishing history of the Great Lakes. If you’d like to know more about fish tugs, here’s a great source: Fish Tugs of the Greatest Lake

Kenosha Pierhead Lighthouse

Steven — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:19:55 +0000

The Kenosha Pierhead Lighthouse is a 104 year old lighthouse that sits on the north pier at the entrance to Kenosha Harbor. It’s red color is typical of many lighthouses on Lake Michigan.

I shot this image on my first visit to Kenosha in March of 2008. Little did I know then how many photos I would eventually take of the lighthouse.

The lighting in this image is very typical of lighting found along Lake Michigan in the Winter months. The dark sky is a cloud bank that forms over the lake providing a wonderful contrast with the snowy foreground, (In fact, as I write this, these same lighting conditions are present).

One of the things I love about photographing this lighthouse is how it’s red color stands out so brightly in an otherwise monochrome scene.

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Don’t Ever Give Up

Steven — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:00:14 +0000

We’ve all been there, waiting for the sunset that never comes. We set up our awesome shot and wait, but it never happens, the sunset doesn’t show up. So, discouraged, we pack up our gear and start to drive away. Then just as we pull onto the highway it happens, the sky explodes with color. By the time we find a place to pull over and fish our camera out we maybe get one or two shots before the color fades. We then kick ourselves for the rest of the night for not being more patient.

That almost happened with this image of the sunset over the White Mountains in California. I went out that evening hoping to get sunset pictures of the Sierra Wave that had formed over the Owens Valley. I waited and waited, but the wave clouds never changed color. I finally decided to give up and began loading my gear into the truck. Just as I began to collapse my tripod I noticed a little bit of color hitting the top of White Mtn Peak and thought I might just get lucky. I quickly got my camera back out and within 60 seconds the sky exploded into some of the most amazing color I’ve ever seen. And it all happened away from the waves clouds I had went out to shoot.

Let this be a reminder to never give up on a sunset. You never know when something magical will happen, even if there’s only 5 minutes left in the day.

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The Minarets in Black and White

Steven — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:13:41 +0000

I find it very interesting that I can look at one of my images and never see it any other way than how it currently is, but then one day I’ll look at it and see something totally different.

Last night I was glancing through some older photos when this shot of the Minarets, in California’s Sierra Nevada, caught my attention. Now, I’ve had this image for 5 years and I’ve never imagined it as anything other than a color image, but when I looked at it last night, I immediately saw it as a black and white and knew exactly how I wanted it to look.

It’s moments of inspiration like this, that keep my love of photography so strong. With the modern digital dark room anything is possible, and it’s a wonderful feeling to know that at any time one of my older images can be reborn.

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Shooting Panos: Fanned Sunset Pano

Steven — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 04:46:58 +0000

This image was made when I still lived in California’s Eastern Sierra Nevada. I happened to see this sunset in the side mirror of my truck while I was driving. Luckily I had my camera with me, so I made a quick u-turn and sped to an area to photograph it. I had shot a lot of pictures of the sunset when I realized that this would make an awesome panoramic picture. I fired off the three shots that make up this image just before the colors began to fade. Two minutes later, the sunset was over.

I try to always keep the possibility of a pano in mind when I’m out shooting. Many times I’m so caught up in the moment that I forget about panos, that’s what almost happened in this image. Other times, I’ll see the scene and know right away that I’m shooting a pano, (The header image for this site is an example) .

When I shoot a pano, I like to keep the picture count down. I try to make the pano with less than 5 pictures. I feel 3 or 4 are the perfect number. The main reason for this, I don’t care for long, skinny panos. I like my images to have some width to them. 3-4 pictures creates a nice width to the pano.

It’s important to remember to overlap each picture and try to keep the horizon as level as possible. I actually find it easier to keep the horizon level if I hand hold the camera while shooting panos. Of course if your shooting at slow shutter speeds, this is impossible, so make sure your tripod is very level.

I use the free program AutoStitch to stitch together my panos. It does an amazing job of aligning the images and matching the colors and contrast. Of all the pano programs I’ve used, and there have been many, AutoStitch is the simplest and best. Unfortunately it’s only for Windows, sorry Mac folks. There is a program for Macs called AutoPano Pro, and it uses the AutoStich engine

So, the next time your out shooting, remember the panoramic image. Some amazing images can be made by combining a few pictures together.