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Contents LETTER FROM KEN
INCLUDING MOTION IN YOUR PICTURES
PROCESSING TIP OF THE MONTH Pushing Blues Into the Shadows Using Photoshop
WIDE-ANGLE PORTRAITS
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p7
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THE STORY BEHIND THE PICTURE
p 11
PHOTO TOUR & WORKSHOP ANNOUNCEMENT
p 12
BACKING UP YOUR IMAGES
p 13
FOCUS ON GUILIN, CHINA
p 14
FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE MONTH Mirko Vecernik
p 16
THE MAKING OF AN IMAGE Smoke Composite
p 17
BIG IMPACT WITH SMALL SUBJECTS
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p3
p 18
Letter From Ken Cohesion or Variety? There are a lot of things out there to photograph. Photographers trying to build an audience are faced with the important choice of creating a variety of compelling images OR a focused, cohesive portfolio. The latter implies that you refrain from shooting, or at least publishing, images that fall outside of your style or particular genre of photography. Personally, I’ve wrestled with this choice for several years. In fact, when I’m out photographing with friends, I almost always raise this question to get their perspective. The range of answers I’ve gotten indicates that there is really no right answer. However, here are a few thoughts: First, most of the photographers I like, and that have large followings, are quite focused on a fairly narrow style and/or subject matter. If building an audience is a high priority for you, then having a theme that holds everything together is pretty important in my opinion. Second, how constraining of a theme you choose is your call. Even though I favor cohesive portfolios, my own photography leans towards variety. This is because I build around the broad theme of “compelling people and places around the world”. Other photographers build around much narrower themes, such as “black and white images of homeless people” and “environmental portraits of children in Asia”. Lastly, if you have just started taking pictures, then shooting a variety is a good way to discover what type of photography you like most. In fact, when I first started, I shot quite a variety. Over time, I began to delete images and galleries that were less important to me in an attempt to build more cohesion into my portfolio. I’m not suggesting you start deleting your galleries, but having a longer term strategy around the development of your portfolio is a good idea. You can opt for cohesion or variety or somewhere in between. Thanks for reading! Ken Koskela http://www.kenkoskela.com 3
Including Motion in Your Pictures Photographers constantly face the challenge of bringing life to a static, two-dimensional image. There are multiple strategies for doing this, but one is capturing moving elements in your composition.
long shutter speed. So, let’s ignore that basic scenario and focus on some real life examples where there were other considerations or complicating factors that came into play.
In addition to your shutter speed, the actual amount of motion captured is determined by several factors, including:
The London Eye: City at Night Combined With Cloud Blur
• your lens’ focal length; • the distance between the camera and the moving object(s); • how fast that object is moving; and, • the angle of movement relative to the camera. You can also add blur during post-processing, but let’s set that option aside for purposes of this article. Capturing motion blur of a bright moving object at night is easily accomplished with a tripod and a 4
The above image looks like the London Eye on steroids. The reality is that the Eye (the Ferris wheel) moves quite slowly. Getting a blurred shot of the Eye at night is pretty easy. You are dealing with a low light situation and (assuming you keep a low ISO) longer shutter speeds. In this case, I wanted to capture a lot of motion, so I kept my ISO at 100, set my shutter speed to 30 seconds, and used the resulting aperture of f/10 which works well for this shot.
However, what really makes this picture work is the added element of the blurred, orange clouds. The shutter speed necessary for cloud blur is often in the range of 2-5 minutes, depending on the height of the clouds and speed at which they are moving. The key to getting this image in one 30-second shot was to choose a windy evening when low clouds were racing across the city. This allowed the clouds to blur nicely during a 30-second exposure. The clouds being close to the city allowed them to be lit by London’s sodium vapor lights, which gave them their orange glow. Because the exposure was only 30 seconds, there is still some detail in the spinning wheel that would have been lost in a longer exposure.
and shutter speed (targeting 0.5 to 1 second). This particular shot was 0.4 seconds and captured the right amount of motion in my opinion. By the way, you get better results by tripping the shutter when the water is starting to retreat back across the beach (into the sea), rather than shooting when the wave is coming towards you. Pacific Northwest: Wave Splash Wave splashes can lead to cool images because of the motion they add to the scene. You can either completely freeze the splashing wave using a high shutter speed or leave some blur in the water through a somewhat slower shutter speed.
Icelandic Coast: Blurring Waves on the Beach Although there are many ways to incorporate water into an image, I especially like combining blurred streaks of water bubbles on the shore with an inter-
esting subject in the distance. These images are best shot around sunrise or sunset, so the light is already somewhat low. I find that shutter speeds of 0.5 to 1 second often work well. My typical strategy is to set my ISO to 50 or 100 and put on a 4-stop neutral density filter (if necessary). For those of you unfamiliar with neutral density filters, ND filters are tinted (and often expensive) pieces of glass or plastic that go in front of your lens to restrict the light reaching the sensor. These filters are the key to shooting at long shutter speeds during the day. I then balance my aperture (targeting around f/16)
In this case, I tried a variety of speeds and settled on 1/4 second because I liked the balance of having some blur in the water while also capturing the shape of the splashing wave. 5
Golden Trees: Zooming the Lens During the Capture You can move or shake the camera during a relatively slow shutter speed to get a blurred, abstract look. I’ve never been a big fan of this technique, although I have seen some cool shots done this way. A similar technique, which I have tried on occasion, is to rotate the barrel of a zoom lens during the capture. The image below is of a New England forest during Autumn. I set my camera on my tripod, then selected a narrow aperture and a shutter speed of 0.5 seconds. Using the camera’s self-timer, I rotated the lens barrel during the capture to get the effect below. Notice that, even though the image is a blur, the tree trunks are visibly sharp. This is because I focused on the trees before shooting. The narrow aperture (f/22 in this case) also meant that I had extensive depth of field, so multiple trees were sharp. So, it is still important to focus while using this technique.
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Venice Models: Adding Camera Shake In the image above from Venice, I hand-held the camera at 1/13 while also spinning the lens barrel. This combined some camera shake with the zoom effect. I made sure to turn my lens’ image stabilization feature off and also to use the self-timer so that I did not have to also think about tripping the shutter. You have to experiment when using these techniques to get the effect you want.
Processing Tip of the Month Pushing Blue Into the Shadows Using Photoshop
Incorporating transition into your individual photographs can enhance your portfolio. There are different types of transitions that you can use, but one that works well is to have warm tones (orange, yellow) transitioning to cool tones (blue).
Next, click on the curve around 1/4 to 1/3 from the bottom to place an anchor point. The idea here is to limit the adjustment to the darks.
The above image of Iceland’s glacier beach has a decent sunrise in the distance that creates warm tones in the upper part of the image. These warm tones give us half of what we need to create a warm to cool transition. However, the sand in the foreground is black, not blue. So, in order to incorporate a warm to cool transition, I pushed some blue into the shadows. So, how did I do this in Photoshop? This is quite an easy adjustment, but I’m assuming here that you do have some background in Photoshop, including working with layers. First, add a Curves adjustment layer.
Lastly, click on the bottom-leftmost point on the curve to select it. Click the up arrow on your keyboard perhaps 5-7 times. You will notice blue moving into your shadows as the anchor point moves upward. The blue will be subtle. For some images, this can improve the transitional qualities slightly.
Then, click on the layer so that the curve becomes visible and change the RGB pull-down box to “Blue”. The blue tone curve is now showing, as seen in the next image.
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Wide-Angle Portraits Most portrait photographers reach for their 85mm or 105mm lens when heading out on a shoot. These focal lengths give a nice, pleasing, realistic look to the subjects. Personally, I rarely use them. I prefer creating wide-angle portraits that have a surreal look to them. My basic formula for capturing portraits is to choose a compelling subject, complementary (or at least non-distracting) background, shoot wide, get close, get the hands in the frame, and use a mix of natural light with some minimal diffused flash lighting. Once I have the image captured, I use a variety of post-processing techniques to create a “stylized” final product. Although my post-processing techniques are beyond the scope of this article, here is how I capture my wide-angle portraits: Find a compelling subject Obviously, everyone is unique and has some compelling qualities about them. With that said, I look for exceptional subjects that have a particularly interesting quality and look like they have “expe8
rienced life”. I like photographing older people for that reason. I also enjoy photographing children. Looking at the portrait of the Indonesian dockworker at the top of this page, notice what an incredible subject he is. In fact, this guy is so good that you really have to be talented to get a bad picture of him. On the contrary, it is pretty easy to take a bad picture of me. You could spend all day taking pictures of me in front of old wooden ships and you will not get as good of a picture as I did spending 20 minutes photographing this guy. In this type of portraiture, your choice of subject is critically important.
Shoot in front of a complementary, non-distracting background
villages have incredible opportunities for backgrounds that you just don’t get in Naperville, Illinois.
Part of capturing emotion in my subjects is avoiding having elements in the picture that distract from them. When shooting wide-angle, you need to pay extra attention to this. When I am looking through the camera at the beginning of the session, it is typically with the background in mind.
One important note that also ties into the next section... the lighting you are shooting in is critical for creating a non-distracting background. Nothing is more distracting than hot spots and shadows all over your scene. Shoot either early or late in the day (when the sun is low in the sky) or in overcast conditions. For my portraits, I actually prefer overcast conditions. This is because I like to be in a good landscape location for sunrise and sunset and often shoot my portraits during the day.
The usual suspects for distracting elements include trees behind the head, straight lines or shapes that capture attention, bright lights, colorful objects and garbage on the ground. If the sky is bright and cloudless, then I generally keep the sky out of the image.
Use lighting that flatters your subject
The picture of the gentleman in front of the red shipping container (to the left) falls into the non-distracting background category. He is essentially standing in front of a wall.
I use flash for 90% of my portraits. I find that using artificial lighting is often one of the final frontiers for photographers, because it can be intimidating and confusing. If you have been holding off on learning it, you’ll find that it is easier than you think.
The image above, however, is a great example of a complementary background. This is why I love shooting in places like rural Asia. Some of these
Because I carry everything with me, I go pretty basic on lighting‌ just a single flash with an umbrella or softbox in most cases. I try to get a decent balance 9
of natural and artificial light and avoid putting too much flash on the subject. Putting too much flash on a person is the easiest way to ruin the shot. My method is pretty simple. I’ll discuss more in the next section, but I first get an exposure for the background, leaving the flash off and underexposing the background slightly. I then turn on the flash and concentrate on getting the right amount of flash on the subject. You want to make it look like no flash was used, but you want your subject to be brighter than the underexposed background. Most of these images were shot using just one off-camera flash at a 45-degree angle to the subject, about 2 feet (slightly over ½ a meter) away and higher than their heads and angled down.
make the necessary adjustments to get a slightly underexposed background, generally around 0.5 stop, but 1 stop at most. For indoors, I start with a higher ISO.
Camera and flash settings
I also shoot with my off-camera flash on manual mode. You will want to overpower the existing lighting conditions a bit. On my Canon flash(es), I’ll often start with settings of 1/16 when outdoors, or much less if I’ve increased my ISO considerably. If the subject looks like they are being hit with flash too hard (they would look like they have been copied and
I always shoot portrait sessions in manual mode. As mentioned, I first get my exposure correct for the background, without adding flash. If the session is outdoors, I usually start with my camera set to ISO 100, f/7.1 and a shutter speed of around 1/160. I then
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pasted in), then I back off until the subject stands out, but you can’t easily tell that I’ve used flash.
the subjects during the session. This helps put them at ease and results in a natural expression.
Shoot wide, get close
I generally ask the subject to look directly at the camera and not to smile, although not always. I then start moving slightly left or right, asking them to keep their head still and just follow the camera with their eyes. I find that this often results in a more interesting look. I usually shoot from slightly below eye level. If the subject is standing at an angle, I have them put their weight on the back foot.
I should say shoot “somewhat” wide because I generally shoot at around 24 mm and usually no wider. I find that focal length is a good balance of the reality you get at 50mm and the distortion you get with an ultra wide-angle lens. Because I am shooting wide, I get quite close to my subjects and warn them ahead of time about this. For me, the eyes are a critically important part of the picture and must be very sharp. I focus on the closest eye and re-focus frequently as I move around the subject. Posing and positioning I often begin sessions by showing my volunteer subjects some final, processed images I have taken of other people. This almost always peaks their interest and gives them an understanding of what I am looking for. If I am in a foreign country and I am being translated, I ask my local guide to chat with
I like to include the subject’s hands in the composition. With a wide-angle lens, their hands in the foreground will look large, so I try to strike a balance with the hands being prominent but not too large. Or, the arms can be folded (with one or both hands visible) and the arms used to form a nice frame around the bottom of the subject. Post-processing As mentioned, my post-processing techniques are beyond the scope of this article. However, getting things right in the camera is the critical first step.
The Story Behind the Picture Icelandic Horse
I’ve always enjoyed hearing what was going on while a picture was being taken. Hearing about how a dog kept coming up to the photographer to play fetch while he was trying to take the picture. Stuff like that. So, each month I will include a story behind the picture, starting with this Icelandic horse shot. This picture is of a beautiful Icelandic horse. These are amazing animals that actually seem to pose for you for long periods of time. It must have been wonderful taking this picture, right? What a peaceful scene. How beautiful it must have been to have an emotional connection with this animal. Well, the truth is, I was behind a barbed wire fence shooting this picture. I wanted to get as close as possible, but I didn’t want to get stuck by a barb.
I carefully placed my hand and camera on the fence, avoiding the barbs, and then moved in close and rested my head against the top wire to take the shot. Which was all fine. Except for the fact that the fence was electric. It sent a pretty major jolt right into my head and practically knocked me over. For those of you who are wondering, YES, I did say a bad word and, YES, I did say it three times and, YES, loud enough to scare all the horses away. 11
Photo Tour and Workshop Announcement For me, there is nothing better than packing up the camera gear and heading off to an amazing destination to photograph with others who also share a passion for photography. It is no exaggeration to say that I am thrilled to be announcing a series of photography tours and workshops over the coming months to some incredible destinations. Learn more at http://www.kenkoskela.com/product/photo-tours-workshops/ Watch for more 2017 tour announcements soon, including New Zealand; Tuscany & Cinque Terre, Italy; Iceland; Romania; Namibia; and Provence, France (during lavender season).
GUILIN, CHINA
September 19-27, 2016
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Guilin is a photographer’s paradise. We will photograph the beautiful karst mountains, Li River, cormorant fisherman at sunrise and sunset, the incredible Longji rice terraces, the XiangGongShan overlook, Cuipinghsan Hill, and many other locations. We will drop into rural villages for portrait opportunities, including some of the same villages where I have gotten several of my best portraits.
VENICE CARNIVAL February 18-24, 2017
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Venice comes alive during Carnival as amazing models in ornate masks and incredible costumes descend upon the city. I an co-leading this tour with Renee Doyle. Renee and I have some great connections with many of the best models which will allow our group to have opportunities for private shoots in some locations away from the crowds and not accessible to the general public.
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Backing Up Your Images Losing all of my photos from a trip or, worse yet, ALL of my images is completely unthinkable. In fact, I better just stop thinking about that now and move on to the steps I take to prevent it from happening. Here is my strategy for back-up while traveling and long-term. First, while traveling: I buy decent memory cards. I don’t buy the fastest and most expensive, but try to stay with a recognizable brand name. I also make sure I have enough card capacity for the trip. I shoot a lot of pictures and in RAW format, so I travel with about 170 gigs of card space. I don’t have extremely high capacity cards because I wouldn’t want to lose half my pictures if one of the cards went bad... and they are known to get corrupted sometimes. In fact, I did have a corrupt card on a recent Iceland trip, but was able to retrieve my files. At the end of every shooting day, I import them onto the portable hard drive that I use for my Adobe Lightroom library and, at the same time, create an extra copy on my laptop’s internal hard drive. I do not erase the images off the cards, which leaves me with three copies: 1) the originals on the cards; 2) the files on the laptop; 3) the imported files on the portable drive. The imported files become my working files, which I can start key-wording and processing. During the entire trip, I NEVER leave all three of these copies together alone. If I leave the hotel and head to dinner, I take either my cards or my computer with me and leave the others locked up in the safe in my room and/or hidden. When I arrive home after the trip, I delete the back-up files off my laptop’s hard drive and then immediately back up my computer and external drive with the imported images to my two long-term backup drives. I generally leave the copies on my cards until I need the cards again. Next, my long-term back-up strategy: Even when not traveling, I am not at all comfortable having just two copies of my images. As mentioned, I use a portable hard drive as my main (Lightroom) drive. Some people don’t advocate the portable drive, but I do a lot of processing away from home and prefer a portable drive for my original images. I have a good quality external hard drive as my main backup drive. This is a full back-up of my laptop and external drive. I have one more identical backup drive in a location outside of my home and far enough away that the same tornado could not hit both locations. I update the off-premise backup whenever I have new files that are important. Doing all of this allows me to get good sleep at night.
Beware of F/22 Your lens is not equally sharp at all apertures. Generally, 2-3 stops above the widest aperture is the sharpest… often in the f/5.6 to f/8 range, depending upon your lens. There are good reasons to use very small apertures, such as f/22. This includes when you need extensive depth of field to keep closer foreground elements and background elements both sharp. But keep in mind that f/22 is a trade-off. You are losing some sharpness in exchange for the greater depth of field. Some photographers have turned to focus blending, where they shoot multiple identical images at a sharp aperture (like f/8), using different focal points in each image to cover the entire scene. Then, they blend the sharpest part of each image together in post-processing. 13
Focus on Guilin, China For me, Guilin, China is one of the best places in the world to photograph. I’ve had the privilege of shooting there twice so far and am excited to be leading a photo tour to Guilin in September, 2016. So, what makes this area so special? First, it is a world-class location for environmental portraits. The area has ancient rural villages that are literally from another time and make perfect backgrounds. Add to that the rural villagers themselves, which make outstanding subjects. Many of my best portraits were shot in these villages. Having a local person to help you set up the ses-
sions is critical. During my 2015 trip there, my guide often walked right into homes, calling out to alert the homeowners we were there. This would not have gone over well in the United States and would have landed us both in jail or even worse. Second, the area has some incredible locations for landscape photography, the highlights being the unique karst mountains, Li River and incredible Longji Rice Terraces. The terraces were carved out by hand over a 700-year period and have to be seen to be believed. The area is also excellent for what I like to call “hu-
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China is not for the faint of heart. Getting these images takes hiking up and down hills to get to the right vantage points. Additionally, some of the rural villages are located up in the hills. Due to the relatively short nights during this time of year, you will get a little behind on sleep. Additionally, in some places, the options for restaurants and accommodations are more limited. But, for me, the pictures I’ve been able to bring back far outweigh the challenges. man element” images, which combine people in their larger surroundings. Workers on the terraces and the cormorant fisherman on the Li River with the surrounding mountains top the list.
Of course, one of the biggest highlights for me has been the opportunity to interact with the Chinese people. Coming from the suburbs of Chicago, it is a great privilege to be welcomed into the home of a rural villager on the other side of the world.
The best time to visit is in May and mid-to-late September. You will likely have to battle some rain during these periods, but the opportunities for good light and shooting conditions are much better than in the Summer months. In May, the rice terraces are filled with water, which makes for great reflections of the sky in the terraces. In September, the terraces are a beautiful yellow just prior to harvest.
Along with that, it is fun meeting the Chinese photographers. There are a lot of them… and, for those that speak English, they’re interested in comparing photography gear and just having a short conversation with a photographer from another part of the world.
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FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER:
Mirko Vecernik http://www.mirkovecernik.com I’ve photographed in the Pacific Northwest and, more recently, Iceland with German photographer and good friend Mirko Vecernik. As you can see by his images, Mirko is an outstanding landscape photographer with a good eye for composition and excellent post-processing skills. Mirko is also an all-around great guy. I like traveling and photographing with him because we share the same dedication to doing whatever it takes to get a good picture, including driving for endless hours through Iceland in search of some good light. The story of how we accidentally bought the cheapest gas in Iceland will show up in a future “Story Behind the Picture” feature. Mirko is inspired by US-based photographers Marc Adamus and Ted Gore. Mirko’s love for the outdoors was fueled by reading Jon Krakauer’s novel “Into the Wild”, which tells the story of Christopher McCandless’ search for individuality in the wilderness of Alaska.
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The Making of an Image Smoke Composite
Pretty spooky, eh? I shot around 40 or so pictures and came out with two or three that had odd looking characters like this. So, I’d recommend shooting a lot of pictures to see what you get.
I deleted the above image off my website some time ago. If you are one of the few that actually read the “Letter from Ken” at the beginning of this magazine, you’ll know why. A number of people have asked me how I created this one. This is obviously a composite, but there is actually much less Photoshop work involved than you might think. First, I had no plans of creating a picture of a skeletal figure. I was just playing around taking pictures of smoke. However, the next image is the primary shot exactly as it came out of the camera. If you zoom in, you can see that the “skeletal figure” (a.k.a. creepy looking guy) appeared naturally in the smoke.
In terms of the set-up, here is what I did: • As you can see, I used an incense stick for the smoke. • I kept the room dark, except for a desktop lamp pointing at the smoke from one side. This was to create enough light for the camera to focus. • I used a black background. • I set my camera to manual and used F11 at 1/200. • I used one off-camera flash from the other side (pointing at the lamp, with the incense in between the flash and lamp). I set the flash to manual and zoomed the flash in a bit to narrow the light beam. • I also blocked the light from hitting the background and entering the camera using some makeshift “barn doors” on each side of the flash (I used a couple of pieces of black construction paper). • I left the white balance on auto (resulting in the blue tone), but you can adjust this however you want in the camera and/or in post-processing. • You will want to wave your hand to stir up the smoke now and then to create interesting shapes. In Photoshop, I pieced together parts from other images taken during the shoot to create the torch and the footpath. I re-sized the flame and torch and then colored the torch pieces using a Hue/Saturation layer. These are fun images to create, especially when you end up with something completely unexpected like I did. The key is to take a lot of pictures and you will hopefully find something interesting to start with in at least one of them. 17
Big Impact With Small Subjects
If you regularly read photography articles, you’ve probably gotten the message by now that it is important to make sure the viewer knows what your subject is and is drawn to it. In many cases, this means a simple composition with the subject being a pretty prominent part of the image. However, you can also create successful images when the subject is proportionally very small by guiding your viewer to the subject. Here are four ways to do that: 1. Use Leading Lines Even though the distant hikers are small in the above picture, you can still identify them quickly as the subject of the photograph. This is because the sidewalk forms a leading line that brings the viewer right up to the hikers. 18
2. Frame Your Subject A second way to make a small subject stand out is by framing it within the image, such as I’ve done with this picture from Namibia’s dead tree forest. The tree in the foreground forms a perfect frame around the distant tree, directing your attention
right to it.
small or distant subject.
Even though the distant tree is much less prominent than the others, your eyes are immediately drawn to it because the larger tree framing it signals to the viewer that it is an important part of the image.
For this black and white picture of the fire dancers in Jakarta, I had literally no control over the lighting during the shot. So, I used dodging and burning in post-processing to brighten the subject and darken the rest of the dancers. Also, the raised hands of the group puts a frame around the main subject. So, this image uses a couple of techniques to direct the viewer’s attention. 4. Use Color and/or Contrast
3. Make Your Subject Brighter You can also draw attention to a small subject by controlling light and shadow. Because our eyes are naturally drawn to the brightest part of an image, you can use brightness to bring attention to your
A fourth way to make a small subject stand out in a big space is through color and/or contrast. Your eyes are easily drawn to the hiker below because of the red coat and because he is darker than the immediate area he is walking in. The color and contrast differences work together to easily identify him as the subject of the photograph. If the hiker had been in a darker toned area of the image (such as up on the hill), he would have been lost as the subject.
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Ken Koskela Photography LLC http://www.kenkoskela.com Questions? You can reach me at: kenkoskela@hotmail.com 20