The Art of Chris Froelich

Do you like flowers? I like flowers, or more accurately, I like imaginative photos of flowers. I wanted to make such pictures, so today I dragged poor Polly all over town while I searched for the "perfect" flower. Incidentally, I had bought one the day before that I was very pleased with. I brought it home and stuck it in a vase with a bunch of old wilted flowers on our dining room table.  I had to get to work and didn't want to take the time to put them in a new vase.  Sadly, when I came home for work, my new little flower was gone. It wasn't noticed amongst the old ones and it got "cleaned up". (This might be a powerful allegory about human relationships, but the caffeine is wearing off and I'm not willing to explore this possibility right now.)  You wouldn't believe how upset I got over this.  It was way, way out of proportion to the incident. Not because of the $6.00 I had spent, but because I had scoured all the local floral shops and I was sur

Today I am playing around with black and white conversions. The mountain scene was taken in Glacier by Tim or Rohan. I'm still up in the air about NIK Silver Efex Pro. It is a lot of moola for doing what I could do anyway in photoshop. However, since they let you download a complete working demo for free, you might as well give it a try. I guess when I don't have as much time as I do right now, the time savings would be worth the cash.   Mountain and Clouds in Glacier National Park I did a nice black and white conversion of a macro shot of an orchid, but for some reason blogger will not let me upload it. I have used up all my free Flickr space for the month, so I have to upload directly to blogger from my computer. Slow and crappy. Kathryn at Lolo Pass After a Double Hand Amputation Smiling is my favorite. This is my new favorite.  The pictures I posted on Flicker of the family were taken with the Canon 100mm Macro. This is not the IS version, but what is the point

Does anyone know who might make a backpack with all the external needs of backcountry skiing, but also is well designed to carry a decent amount of camera equipment, tent, food, and dry clothes?

I have been super busy at school this semester, nonetheless, I have allowed myself to be sucked into the endless photoshop universe. It is my latest shiny button, the most recent loose thread on my sweater (Malcome in the Middle). What I find amazing is that every day people discover hundreds of new things photoshop can do. The people who made it don't know everything it can do, nonetheless, the manual is more like an encyclopedia than a book. In fact, I've been reading a huge book about LAB color control in photoshop. This is a minuscule subsection of one tab that most people don't know about. There are books that cover the best way to select the object in your photograph. As I understand it, many of the most common and interesting effects that people do with Photoshop weren't explicitly designed into the program; they were discovered by users.  If you take the number of filters, effects, plugins, etc and consider the different choices each of those give, then run t

Some more work with my HDR skills. These are much better as they don't look as "fake"  I shall have to cut down my photoshop time the next few weeks with midterms, papers, and presentations (OH MY) due. This whole pharmacy school thing is starting to be a pain in my rear. Looking forward to going to HP7 with Jack tonight. Maybe I'll bring the camera along incase there are any over-the-top fans to record. The pine tree overlooks the yellowstone River canyon just below the lower falls. It was taken at Inspiration Point. Both these were taken with my Canon Rebel and it's cheapo kit lens. I really like playing  around with these photos in photoshop, but some plain old landscapes will be coming soon for those of you who don't like the extra processing.

I took the kids out hiking a little today. It was windy and cold enough for down jackets, but the sky was looking good and I have been looking for some areas to try grunge photography. What is grunge photography? Well, some examples below should give you an idea, but I haven't run across anything that gives a learned definition. Basically, think abandoned and run down. Then take photos that use an expanded dynamic range, and then.... I ran out of rules. Is it commercial? I don't know, but when a close my eyes to compose a shot, it looks like this in my head. I've found a way to get it out of my head and in front of your eyes.  This is more like art to me. This is making a photo as opposed to capturing a photo. Capturing a photo is being in the right place at the right time; which, by the way, is what I spend a lot of my time trying to accomplish. Get up before dawn, drive to someplace that will show off the golden hour while hoping I have the right equipment and that Moth

This is not a photography post, so it doesn't get it's own title. Kathryn and I love Phineas and Ferb. It is our favorite show to watch together. Here are a couple reasons why. Mexican-Jewish Cultural Festival There's a Platypus Controlling Me! The platypus is a metaphor for whatever is holding you down. MY TEACHER IS A PLATYPUS!

Sunrise and Thunderstorms at Artist Point Morning thunderstorms were rolling in from the west and the sun was getting ready to rise in the pale and clear eastern sky. My alarm had gone off at 4:00 am in our tent. I was camping in Yellowstone with my family and those of two of my brothers visiting from the Midwest. The night before, I had told everyone I was going to get up and go to Artist Point and do some photography if anyone wanted to join me. I had no takers. Quietly as I could, I snuck out of camp and started driving in the dark toward the valley. As is so easy to do in the summer at northern latitude, I had misjudged how quickly the morning comes. As the road emerged from the tall Jackson and Lodgepole pines and into a bison strewn meadow, I saw clearly for the first time what was going on in the sky. Layers of cold front thunderheads were marching from out of the west, and the light from the rising sun would fully hit them as it cleared the horizon. I knew the spot I had scoute

Had to try out the new Canon 300mm F4/L lens and found some sheep ready to oblige just a short way out of town. Buck Toothed Ram Following the herd Big Ram Strikes a Pose Average distance was about 50 to 150 yards away. Handheld at ISO 200 with the image stabilizer on and manual focus. Not bad for a rookie long lens jockey. Camera set to Aperture Priority F4 and the shutter speeds averaged about 1/60th second (1/80-1/50)

Purple Mountains and an Emerald Lake I am just now starting to go back through the photos from my backpacking trip through Glacier from a year ago. When I first got back, I was too miserable and sore to even think about it, then I got busy. Then I forgot. Now I'm procrastinating school work. This was such an amazing trip. I wonder how people used to do it, slogging along with some external frame, canvas pack that weighed a ton and absorbed  water and if I had to guess, it probably didn't even hold every thing you needed. I used an Arcteryx Bora 90 which kept my stuff dry, organized and on my back. In fact, the only thing wrong with my pack was it was too big. You never want to be the guy with a 90 liter pack when everyone else has a 60 liter pack.

Glacier Reflection This was taken as the sun came up in Glacier National Park. I don't remember the name of the peak or the lake. I just remember that it was the first day that we woke up to the sun after blizzards and rain. You just gotta love Glacier in mid-August. I used Flickr to publish this post, and I think the picture looks much better, but now it is small. I wish the rocks were sharper, but this pushed the boundary of performance of my digital Rebel. (note: not Rebel XT or XS or anything else, just my 6mp Rebel with the kit lens)

I took the family up to Lolo Pass rest area to play in the first snowfall of the season. When we got up there it was raining and only the higher peaks were getting snow. But, since we were there we went in and had some hot chocolate and relaxed. I should add that the Lolo Pass rest stop may be the coolest rest stop in America. As we sat inside watching a movie about grizzlies, the rain turned over to big flat flakes. I bet they get pounded overnight! I decided to post some non-reflection pics tonight. Blue Green Pines I had my G10 with, which takes pictures with great image quality. The shots come out with lots of contrast and almost feel like HDR pictures. The shot above is cropped with no post-processing other than using Adobe RAW to convert the file to jpeg. The first picture below was cropped but had very little PP done on it, just a little bump in saturation and sharpening when I converted from RAW. First Snow on Pines I decided to try some more extreme processing and ended u

Usually I eat out a lot, or just eat a bunch of crud when I go camping by myself. But when I went to Teton, I grilled a little lunch on the shores of the lake and then took a little nap on the beach. It was very peaceful. Steak, mushrooms, butternut squash, and onions. I didn't get a picture of myself sleeping, but this little boat represents how nice it was. Jackson Lake Sailboat

ICON ALERT! Dawn at Oxbow Bend, Grand Teton National Park I had to do it!

Photography travel can be frustrating. I've made two dedicated photography trips so far. Both of them were within driving distance from where we live. The first was to Glacier in the fall. It was a steady drizzle with overcast sky the whole trip. Not interestingly cloudy. Just a dull grey blanket that was coupled with 50 mph winds two of the three days. I had a lot of ideas about shots I wanted, (ie. mountain/lake refection shots, sunrise alpenglow, fall colors, maybe a grizzly or two), but those all went out the window. Lakes aren't that interesting when they have a chop, sunrises in the rain haven't really inspired anyone in the art world for the last few thousand years. I didn't know what to do and I didn't get many shots I because I had these preconceived notions of what my photos should be. I hadn't left room for creativity or spontaneity. I don't really have enough experience to be creative or spontaneous, anyway. I just went to the iconic locations

I haven't been to the Tetons since I was a little kid and I just loved it there. These tremendous spires just skewer the sky without any warning. There aren't any foothills that roll up the plains, just 7000 feet of in-your-face incline. When I was driving into town, I got there after dark and there was no moon, but it seemed I could feel the mountains to my West, so I pulled the truck off the road, shut off my lights, and stood outside. As my eyes adjusted to the starlight I started to make out the light grey peaks by the light of the Milky Way. I stood there in the cold watching satellites cross the sky and listening to elk bugle until the shivering took over. Milky Way over the Tetons I really wanted to get a shot of the Milky Way rising above the peaks, but alas, a Rebel and kit lens just aren't capable without an objectionable amount of noise. I guess I need that 5D II with a 14mm F2.8 after all. Its funny how the light pollution from Driggs is visible with the camera,

So, this is the first post for this photo blog. Hopefully we will all be able to document my skill development as I post here. I originally set this blog up to be a place where I could "rant" about pharmacy and pharmacy school, but I decided the name of the blog wouldn't be anonymous enough and I've got a lot of inflammatory ranting to do. So, I have some of the best photos that I've had this summer to roll out, some of which have been posted before elsewhere. Beaver Pond I am pleased with this picture because it looks like I wanted it to without a bunch of bruhaha in Photoshop. All I did is crop it to a 4x5 and convert it from RAW format. I took this with my Canon Rebel and kit lens. The water is about 4 or 5 feet deep and crystal clear. The green cast on the bottom is from the pines.  I don't know how to prepare a photo for displaying on a blog. When I look at other photographer's blogs, they have such vivid and clear photos, but when I resize mine (us