Through The Viewfnder...The Art of Photography Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading my local newspaper's article titled "Through The Viewfinder - Exploring The Art Of Photography.  Every week my local newspaper publishes a small article titled "Through The Viewfinder."  It shows an image taken by one of the newspaper's photographers.  It may be an image that goes with one of the day's stories or might just be a special photograph that the photographer wanted to show to the newspaper's subscribers.  Each photo is explained as to how it was shot and what method was needed to take the photo.  The camera's ISO is given as are the shutter speed and f/stop.  The photographer's image is usually shown under the photo with any comments they might have for the reader.  Most times it is about a half-page in size.  This weeks "Through The Viewfinder" photograph goes to Suzette Wenger who has been on the staff for many years.  When I was still teaching photography at Manheim Township High School, I would invite Suzette, as well as many of the other great photographers, to visit my class and explain the reason for taking the photos and exactly how they determined the settings for the photograph.  I enjoyed the class as well as the students who were listening to the presentation.  Today's story tells of an Eastern black Swallowtail in its fifth instar phase stage.  I'm not so sure I can explain what that was, but at least I understood the settings on the camera that were used and why she used the settings that she did.  She also told how the image was processed,  Today's Image was processed withSkylim software.  She selected 20 each of saturation and vibrance, 20 accent AI and 15 structure from the filter packs that are available.  She then cleaned up some dust spots and performed dodging and burning, along with cropping the photo in Photoshop.  For those not familiar with photography terms...that's OK.  The nomenclature was given for those learning what everything is in the field of photography.  I always enjoyed when one of the newspaper photographers visited and spoke to my class.  I made sure to take notes, since at times they gave information that I hadn't known....believe it or not.  Today's photograph was a colorful image of an Eastern black swallowtail in its second instar stage.   Suzette told the class that she had been watching these critters for the last month or so as they try to annihilate her parsley plants.  She didn't have the heart to get rid of them, but they trashed my food last year, and I didn't want to lose my crop again. My classes always looked forward to visits from the photographer at the local newspaper, since they talked about just about anything and everything and tried to explain how you have to go about taking the photograph.  To be honest...I enjoyed the talks just as much.  A big "Thank You" to all the photographers at the newspaper who talked to my classes when I was still teaching.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

This image was made by Suzette with a Nikon D6 body and a 105 micro lens.  The ISO was set at 1600, the shutter speed was 1/125th of a second and the f/stop was set to f/16.  As much as I hate them, a tripod was used to enable a sharp image.  A speed light was employed via bouncing the light from a light gray shed that was behind the subject.  This helped to fill in the shadows.  If the image isn't real sharp, it is because I took the picture with my camera from the newspaper and not my own camera.  If what you are viewing on your computer isn't real sharp, it is because I had to go through so many steps to show you the image.