Colorful saris are draped in a courtyard in preparation for a wedding in India.

Music from what sounded like a drunken high school marching band reverberated down the street full cows, hucksters, potholes and people.  I knew the cacophonous sound meant one thing – a celebration.  Walking toward the rowdy music, I turn into a courtyard regaled in reds, oranges and the many colors of the rainbow as the misty morning light began to harden.  A wedding was at hand!  My visual love affair with India is renewed.  She never ceases to surprise and delight in a visual feast for the eyes.

I found out earlier this week that One Kings Lane wished to bring me back for another of their famous sales events – which is live NOW and ends Sunday December 10.  They are featuring three of my photographs including the  Venezuelan Village print HERE, Saris, India print HERE, and my Surf Beetle, Hawaii print HERE.  There is no better deal on my artwork anywhere in the market at the moment – so if you have been considering a purchase, this is a great opportunity to do so!

Jonathan Kingston featured on One Kings Lane "Artists We Love" Sale, December 2011

Gecko eating a green bug, Molokai, Hawaii.

Point And Shoot

My wife and I had just walked back to our cabin at the Hui when I saw the gecko on the window. It was perched on the outside of the window glass with a bug over half its size in its mouth. Having tried numerous times to get a good shot of geckos as they walk on windows – I knew they were easily spooked by the slightest detectable movement in their field of vision – so in a hushed scream of photographic desperation I whispered “Sweetie DONT MOVE!”. At which my lovely wife smiled, looked at me, then promptly picked up her iphone and began snapping photos – flash on.

Spooked by the light, the gecko began beating a rapid retreat to the safety of the off glass area to digest its delectable meal as I scrambled to get my macro lens and strobe on my camera. I saw the shot dissolving before my eyes like the poor green insect dissolving in the gecko’s digestive track.

I’m not sure what, but something stopped the lizard in its tracks less than an inch from the edge of photographic oblivion. Perhaps he sensed he was about to be made famous, or perhaps he simply was thinking ‘Man the green ones always cause acid reflux!”. Whatever it was that stopped the little guy it was the micro seconds I needed to quickly and stealthily sneak up on the bugger and snap a couple frames.

Dewitt often says that as photographers we are responsible for only two things. What you put in your camera frame and when you press the shutter. What you put in your camera frame – point. When you press the shutter – shoot. Point and shoot. So simple. Why do we make it so complex?

Kapuaiwa Palm Grove at sunset, Molokai, Hawaii.

What is the story?

Many people ask me how many good photographs I get when I go out shooting.  Back in the film days this question was framed ‘Jonathan, how many good photos do you get per roll of 36 images?’ Now, with the 36 image roll of film irrelevant, they simply reframe the question to ‘What’s your ratio of good photographs to bad?’

It took me a long time before I could articulate an answer to that question that didn’t leave me feeling strangely drained and awkward.  Not because I didn’t have an answer – at that time in my life I knew exactly how many good frames I was averaging per roll of film, and could return that figure as accurately as a cash register printing a receipt.  I just never liked the connotations of my answer – whatever the number was.  I never liked the idea that one of the metrics of how good or bad a photographer I was could somehow be measured by how many good or bad frames I captured on a roll of 36.

A number of years ago I was talking to Dewitt, and, probably feeling competitive that afternoon, asked him what his ratio was of good photographs to bad.  He returned my question with a knowing smile and just let enough silence fill the space after my last words fell quiet to make me feel like I had just asked a police officer pulling me over for doing 90 in a 45 if I had done something wrong.

When Dewitt broke the silence he said “You know if your asking that… you’re asking the wrong question.” Feeling a little like young Luke Skywalker learning the force from master Yoda I said, “Well what is the question I should be asking?” And Dewitt answered, ‘The question you should be asking is not how many good shots I got, the question you should be asking is ‘did I get THE shot’?” He then went on to say, “You either get the shot or you don’t get the shot – it’s as simple as that.”  The light dawned in my mind and I swear I saw Dewitt’s camera levitating ever so slightly on the table behind his chair. “It’s not how many good shots I got, the question is, ‘did I get the shot?’”

I find that every time the answer to that question is NO, every time I fail to get THE SHOT,  it is because  I couldn’t see clearly – even if the shot was right there in front of me.  There are many names for this.  Cartier Bresson described it as the decisive moment.  Rikki Cooke describes it as what turns his head.  Chris Rainier describes it as a feeling in the solar plexes.  All words describing the same thing – excitement.

So what do I do when I have that feeling in the solar plexes?  When my head is turned to pink light gracing palms in the sky?

My process can be summed up in three words.  Ask, See, Do.

Asking – What is the story here?  Or as Rikki says, What is turns my head? What matters in this scene and what doesn’t? And do I have permission?

Seeing – Seeing the story in my mind’s eye. Seeing the shot at my core level.

Doing – Seeing the story in my camera.  Not letting the technology and the technique cloud my vision – but rather, augment my vision as an extension of the excitement I feel for the scene in front of me.

Perhaps it is because I am the youngest sibling in my family, or perhaps it was a habit developed later in life – but I must confess that I like to compete and I like to win. I thrive under pressure. It clarifies my mind better than any cup of coffee could by eliminating the unimportant. Whether it was climbing the Nose on El Capitan when I was 19 or being top of my class at Brooks, I always felt I had something to prove to myself, my family and my friends.

This week at the Hui, Dewitt has forwarded the following thought on competition “don’t prove, improve”. Don’t prove, improve – such a small shift of words, such a large shift of intent.

Yesterday afternoon I and 18 other photographers were shooting a hula halau on Molokai and I began to watch my process as I photographed. I know how to make a great picture of this scene. The competitive proving side of me begins to rise. But proving means I do what I always do – improving means I have permission to take a risk and potentially fail. I pause. Don’t prove Jonathan – improve. A weight is lifted off my shoulders. Permission to play, permission to experiment – granted…

Hula dancer, Molokai, Hawaii. (slow shutter)

Photographing on the west end of Molokai I was astonished to see bodyboarders riding a wave that I have never seen anybody surf before. Yet there the bodyboarders were charging a gnarly right that threatened to spit them onto a rocky lava shelf. Risking life and limb they took off with great smiles of glee whooping down the face and pulling back just before being thrown unceremoniously on the sand.

As I panned my camera, following their bodies skimming down the surface, I smiled to myself at the similarity of the reasons we were both there. Rikki Cooke often says to ‘follow your excitement’ and that is what led me and 18 other photographers to the beach on the promise of a high surf warning. The reward is wave after beautiful wave backlit blue by the setting sun, intermittently interrupted by the whoops of gleeful surfers skimming down the face. May I follow my photographic excitement with the same reckless abandonment and pure glee that as these bodyboarders.

Bodyboarder surfing on the west end of Molokai, Hawaii.

Day 1 of See The Light on Molokai, Hawaii.  Participants arrive from as far away as Canada.  Molokai greets them with a spectacular sunset and show of stars.  Below is the Veitchi palm off the front porch of my cabin at the Hui Hoolana.

Night sky with star trails behind a Veitchi palm on Molokai.

Night sky with star trails behind a Veitchi palm on Molokai.

Its been a big honor to be a featured emerging artist this week on One Kings Lane.  For those of you that missed it you can still see a cool short video by Bill Powers owner of Half Gallery and Exhibition A.  A quote from the site and screen shot below:

EMERGING ARTISTS
Talent Acquisition - We love the energy of a gallery walk—the thrill of discovery, the joy of finding an emerging superstar, the excitement of fresh possibilities. It’s like falling in love all over again. This time, One Kings Lane has done the legwork for you. Come take a peek at some of our art team’s favorite finds.

Jonathan Kingston Experiencing a new artist is like embarking on a new voyage—both figuratively and, as in this case, literally. Bend, Oregon-based photographer Kingston creates evocative, colorful tableaux that really do take you places.

It was a beautiful spring day hiking with my bride-to-be  (although I didn’t know that at the time), on Eagle Creek trail outside of Portland, Oregon.  Moments after I snapped this frame a giant dead tree careened over the falls and almost took out my future wife!  Fortunately the fates had a different plan for the image and it has made it’s way into National Geographic online HERE.

A woman looks in wonder at the beautiful Tunnel Falls on Eagle Creek trail in the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, USA.

A time exposure at Mauna Loa Observatory, lasting a little over an hour, produced star trails as Earth rotated. (Jonathan Kingston/Aurora Select for the New York Times)

What are Star Trails?

Simply stated, star trails are the streaks in a photograph left by stars during a time exposure as the Earth rotates.  Objects in the foreground of the photograph remain sharp as they are not moving relative to the camera, while the stars, depending on which cardinal direction the camera is facing, will form concentric circles or streaks in the sky.

Why does Photographing Star Trails require a different technique with a Digital SLR?

In order to capture star trails, one must leave the shutter open on the camera for a long amount of time, often for more than an hour.  This allows time for the earth to rotate and form the streaks associated with star trails.  With film one simply set the camera to the “bulb” setting, locked open the shutter with a cable release, and returned a few hours later to close the shutter.  This method unfortunately does not work well digitally as one of the drawbacks of digital SLR photography circa 2011 is the longer the shutter remains open, the more the image degrades with visual grain, otherwise known as digital noise.

The solution is to slice the single long exposure one would have used for a film capture, into many small separate time slice exposures and then combine them back together into a single frame with a technique known as “Stacking”.  Dan Newton of Liquid In Plastic has written an excellent post HERE on how to photograph star trails using the stacking technique.  I suggest you read it before proceeding.

How to stack your star trail time slices into a single image in Photoshop:

I recommend using Dan Newton’s ”Method 2″ to stack your star trail image slices into a single image in Photoshop.  For a large part of this year the page that Mr. Newton linked to in Method 2 (Chris and Dawn Schur’s photoshop action) was broken, so I have taken the liberty to re-record their action verbatim and make it available for download on this website.

Downloading and loading the star trail stack action into Photoshop

1) Click here to download the Star Trails Photoshop Action.
2) UnZip the file.
3) Copy the action into the Photoshop>Presets>Actions folder.  On the Macintosh the pathway is as follows:  Applications>Adobe Photoshop CS5>Presets>Actions.
4) Open Photoshop and click on the Actions Palette (Window Menu>Actions).
5) In the upper right hand corner of the Actions Palette click the icon with four small horizontal lines.  A drop down menu will appear.  Scroll down and click “Load Actions…”.
6) A finder (explorer) window will open.  Navigate back to your Photoshop>Presets>Actions folder, highlight the “Kingston Startrails Stacker.atn” and click “Open”.
7) In your actions palette you should now see a action called “Kingston Startrails Stacker”.

Running the Startrails Stacker Action in Photoshop

1) Open the dark frame that Mr. Newton talks about in his blog post in Photoshop.
2) Go to the File>Automate>Batch menu in Photoshop:

• Under the “Play” box select the Set: “Kingston-Startrails-Stacker” and the Action: “Star Trails Stacker”
• Under the “Source” set the drop down menu to “Folder” then click the “Choose…” button and select the folder that contains all of your star trail image slices.
• Be sure that “Suppress File Open Options Dialogs” is checked
• Be sure that “Suppress Color Profile Warnings” is checked

3) Click “OK”.
4) Wait while Photoshop assembles the stack.  You will see a bunch of images opening and closing in rapid succession.
5) When Photoshop is finished go to File>Save and give the resulting file a relevant title.

Dan Newton has some excellent suggestions on modifying the  action under his “Method 2″ section here that I suggest you experiment with.

That’s it – Star Trails 101!

Watch how to create startrails using the stacking method the in the following video:

In the following video I demonstrate the above steps as well as show you how to use a Star Trails Photoshop Droplet that you can download HERE to further automate the stacking process.

How to create a Star Trail image using a Photoshop Action from Jonathan Kingston on Vimeo.

How to load and use a star trails Photoshop action to stack multiple, consecutive exposures into a single frame to create a star trails image.