The Art of Chris Froelich

USA Pro Cycling XC Mountain Bike Championship, Missoula MT On July 23, 2011 Missoula hosted is first ever US Professional XC mountain bike championship at Marshall Mountain.  The course was grueling, but the day was perfect. I had to work until 5:30 and the race started at 6:00 so I was a little late in getting the the race and had to "run" up the mountain to get to a good location. After my heart exploded and my lungs popped like a walleye's that's been brought up from the deep too fast, the oxygen delivery to my brain suffered the equivalent of a mild stroke. I just set the ol' Rebel to auto, and jockeyed spots that gave me good comps.  The race leaders. It was close through the first 4 laps. They are coming up about a 5-10% grade here and going faster than I can go on flat ground. I don't normally take pictures of moving people or things but this was an opportunity to get really close to world class athletes. Winner and Local favorite Sam Schulz. ...

Ruby Beach part 2 Here are some more pictures of Ruby Beach, WA.  As per request, I put shooting information in the caption of the photos and how they were processed. These were from the second night I was at this beach and I had a pretty good idea of the picture I wanted to make, but didn't know if I knew how to pull it off technically. I was pretty happy with what I got, it looks just like I wanted it to within the limitations of my equipment, with the most notable limitation being my ultra-wide lens doesn't seem to be tack sharp - ever. It is an off brand, but I expected it to be better at its reported sweetspot. Maybe I have a bad copy. I should send it in and have it looked at. Ruby Beach Sunset - Canon Rebel T1. Tamron 10-24mm lens.  17mm  f/11 2.5 second exposure. Circular polarizer. 2 stop hard grad filter. Raw conversion with IPhoto and cropped to 8x10 ratio. This picture rocks for me for a number of reasons. First - its cool. Second - it is what I tried t...

Ruby Beach, WA  Some more photos from my trip back in May. I spent two nights in Olympic National Park along the coast. I hadn't planned on going that far North along the coast, but I got rained out of the Gorge and I just didn't fall in love with Cannon Beach like I thought I was going to. Since I didn't know where I was going, and I don't have a tourist guide for the Olympic Peninsula, and none of the ranger stations or campgrounds were "open", AND the entire area seemed like it was deserted, I was pretty much flying blind on where to get good photos.  I was basically driving down HWY 101 pulling over every few miles and walking out to the beach to see if there was anything cool going on. It was actually pretty relaxing and the weather was finally nice (cool but sunny).   I was intrigued by a roadside sign that read "Large Cedar Tree - 1 Mile" I thought, "Wow, that must be some tree if they have a sign out by the road. I better go check tha...

I took a trip down the Bitterroot looking for old barns. Barnwood is loved by photographers because of its pleasing tones and its ability to look great in any conversion. I especially like the way it turns out in HDR treatments. The seed-heads of the grass take on a glow when photographed in diffuse but strong light and that effect is enhanced from the HDR process. The sky looks menacing and the truth is that it has been raining for months. As sick of it as I am, I count my blessings that I am not one of the unfortunate families forced out by the floods in Missoula.  Bitterroot Barn With all that rain has come the most incredible spring wildflowers since we've been here. I've got a few photos of the flowers before, but I took some more thinking about Michael Orton. MO developed a technique of photography using slide film. He would take two photographs, both overexposed but one would be sharp and the other would be intentionally out of focus. He would then combine the t...

As I have done photography over the years, I've come to the realization that I like to do landscapes because I control everything. I like methodical, slow, and measured. For those of you who know me best, that may be surprising since that is not how I really go about my life day-to-day. Maybe it is therapeutic so I can avoid Focusyn. Additionally, no flowers have ever had their special day ruined by my bad pictures, so I don't ever feel any pressure. This is one of the reasons I don't really want to do wedding photos for money. Yesterday though, I got to take pictures of one of our friend's wedding. It was nice because I really had no pressure and it was easy because they are gorgeous. It is easy to take nice looking pictures of beautiful people. I wonder why digital cameras all shoot in the 4 x 6 aspect ratio. The more I shoot, the more 4 x 5 appeals to me. The composition is more pleasing to my eye. I need to start keeping that in mind when I shoot on a more con...

Haystack T&S Study Haystack After Sunset Normally when I shoot photos, everything is sharp, saturated, and uses the entire dynamic range of the camera. I don't want to pigeonhole my creativity, so I went for something different on my last night in Cannon Beach. It was a full moon, or maybe one day before, so I waited around after the sun set for another hour until the moon came up behind me. With the twilight and the moonlight, I had a really flat light that worked well. Not a lot of color, and I slightly desaturated even further. The grainy look is because I shot this at 800 ISO and my Rebel is no 5D. I hope you like this because I froze my buns of to get it. It was 40 degrees and very windy and I was soaked.

Portland's Japanese Garden While driving through Portland, I saw signs that read "zoo" and I thought "eh, that could be o.k. but I'm on my way to the beach." The zoo isn't worth losing valuable wave staring time so I was going to pass on through. Then when I was nearly to the exit for the zoo, the signs got more specific. Now when I arboretum on the sign, I nearly ran others into the ditch so I could make the turn in time.  As I started driving around the zoo grounds looking for the arboretum, there was a sign for the Japanese Garden. I got very excited. This little 2 hour detour was one of the highlights of my trips and I could have spent a whole weekend there learning how to photograph plants, garden vignettes, and take macro shots. As you look at these, your going to say "photoshop". Well, I don't even have photoshop on this computer. I did run one through an HDR processor and I have before and after pictures for that one. Foot Br...