Tag: Nature Photography

Honorable Mention in 2015 Black & White Spider Awards!

The Power of Water & Ice, Niagara Falls
December 3, 2015
B&W Spider AwardsBlack & White PhotographsFine Art Photography AwardNiagara FallsPhotography MastersRichard MackRichard Mack PhotographyRichard Mack's BlogWinter Landscape PhotographyWinter photography
The Power of Water & Ice, Niagara Falls

The Power of Water & Ice, Niagara Falls

I am honored to share the news that an image I did as part of The Sweetwater Seas Documentary has been awarded an Honorable Mention in the 2015 B&W Spider Awards in the Nature Photography – Professional’s Category! Here is the press release from the B&W Spider Awards:

10TH ANNUAL BLACK AND WHITE SPIDER AWARDS HONORS PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD MACK FROM USA

LOS ANGELES 11/21/2105 – Professional photographer Richard Mack of Evanston, Illinois was presented with the 10th Annual Black and White Spider Awards Honorable Mention in the category of Nature Photography at a prestigious Nomination & Winners PhotoShow webcast Saturday, November 21, 2015.

The live online gala was attended by over 10,000 photography fans around the globe who logged on to watch the climax of the industry’s most important event for black and white photography.

10th Annual Jury members included captains of the industry from Bonhams, Random House, Aeroplastics Contemporary, Stockholm City Museum, Annenberg Foundation, Leo Burnett, FTM Art Advisory and Fratelli Alinari who honored Spider Fellows with 505 coveted title awards in 31 categories.

“It is an incredible achievement to be selected among the best from the 7,686 entries we received this year,” said Basil O’Brien, the awards Creative Director. “Richard Mack’s “The Power of Water and Ice, Niagara Falls” is an exceptional image entered in the Nature category, represents black and white photography at its finest, and we’re pleased to present Mack with the title of Honorable Mention – Professional in Nature Category.” Jury member Diane Ruggie from Velocebella agency added, “The gallery of winners and runners up has true stopping power.”

BLACK AND WHITE SPIDER AWARDS is the leading international award honoring excellence in black and white photography. This celebrated event shines a spotlight on the best professional and amateur photographers worldwide and honors the finest images with the highest achievements in black and white photography. www.thespiderawards.com

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Anytime you are honored with an award it is both humbling and exciting to know folks like your work. We did put a small video together from this shoot for The Sweetwater Seas documentary. You can view it on vimeo

Niagara Falls Winter from Richard Mack Photography, Ltd on Vimeo.

You can also see more about the documentary on our website The Sweetwater Seas.

Cheers!

Richard Mack

Full Moon Rise – First of 2 this Month

August 2, 2012
Great Lakes ProjectLake MichiganLake MichiganLighthouse BeachLighthouse Beach PierMoonriseRichard Mack
1 Comment

This August we have two full moons we can all shoot. I went on down to my favorite location which is about a mile from my house and shot the full moon coming up. I have been trying to get the perfect shot of the moon rise over this old pier. So far to no avail the way I first envisioned it. And because the rock wall blocks how far away you can get it is not possible to back off and use a long lens the way I want to. So you adjust.

There was another person who has read this blog who showed up and recognized me. I gave her some tips on equipment she might want to purchase. For me a key ingredient is the polarizing filter. And for shots like these more important are the graduated neutral density filters. A most worthy thing to have in your bag. It will bring down the exposure in the sky to make images without a blown out sky. I use the .9 neutral density filter which takes off 3 stops of light. And the later you shoot – and I go way past most folks – you really need it in order to try and keep the moon without having it just burn out. You also have to keep your exposures to less than 1 second or the moon will move during the exposure and therefore not be sharp. Some of the last images from last night were 8 seconds, and I knew the moon would just be a small white circle – well a bit oblong though but also blown out. Acceptable since I wanted the glow on the water.

Now in all honesty I was not really into making images on this night. And there was a cloud layer, as usual, out over the lake, so once I got there I had to wait. A photographer doesn’t like just sitting so I made a few images before the moon popped out of the clouds. I tried to do something a bit different than anything done before. Sometimes you have to reach back and look at things in a very different perspective especially when the location is very familiar.

Not sure how successful these were, I will need to ruminate on them a while longer before deciding whether they might be worthy for inclusion in the book I am currently working on Twenty / Ninety-Five: The Great Lakes Landscapes. It covers all five of the Great Lakes. You can see more about it at Quiet Light Publishing. www.quietlightpublishing.com/GLP.php

You can also see more of the images from this shoot here: Moon Rise

The second full moon is on August 29 – known as the Blue Moon – a semi rare occurrence. And where the phrase “Once in a blue moon” came from. Wonder if I shoot that one as well. And where?

Cheers,

Richard

 

Underwater Shots with a New Camera

July 6, 2010
ExpectationsNew Work

 Gold Fish Big Thoughts Pond

Last week I sat in my backyard by Big Thoughts Pond talking with fellow photographer Julie Crawford about the whole experience of being stuck in a rut when it comes to making images. We talked about things we shoot just to make money versus those we shoot because we want to shoot it – and it’s a great job when the two come together in one project. It also started me thinking about the fact that often we get bogged down in our equipment and loose that freedom of just making images. I have wanted a small point and shoot camera I could use just to make some “fun” shots with and to make me think a bit more outside the box since no longer would I have a lens selection or a polarizing filter or even RAW files to work with and without having to haul out the big Canon 1Ds-III and lenses I usually use. It seemed to me it would also be a very freeing experience. So with a deadline within our family I set out to research what I would buy.

I wanted one soon because my daughter is getting married in 14 months and there will be a lot of things going on between now and then that I want to document for the family. I had one requirement – I wanted it to be able to shoot underwater as well as being nice and small, and an added plus would be if it shot HD video as well. I have the aforementioned pond we built in the backyard and I’ve often sat their wondering what it would look like from under the water looking at the 50 or so gold fish in their own environment. So an underwater camera was a must. Besides I could also justify it by telling myself I just may use it on my next book project – on the Great Lakes. I found it in the Sony DSC-TX5.

These are the first shots underwater I’ve made. And only by leaning over the edge and pointing the camera towards the fish. I could only see shapes moving in the 3” LCD screen on the back – nothing more – and often less. I think for a first attempt they aren’t bad and have a bit of promise for more fun with them in the future.

Here’s a link to more shots online: http://www.mackphoto.com/blog/Fish/

Oh, and the engagement party was fun too! And it was great to be able to just pull a small camera out of my pocket when I wanted to grab a shot quickly. Yes, it is freeing to be able to just point it and shoot…now where is that color balance menu again?

Cheers,
Richard Mack