Spring Daffodils

Posted on May 11, 2020May 11, 2020 by cleary

Daffodil Panorama Photographs

Daffodils are one of the first flowers that come up in the spring here in Ohio. I was asked by a client to create two photographs of the 100,000 + daffodils that are planted in their front yard. People stop their cars to look at the spring flowers. Neighbors out walking stop and take selfies; people bring their children over to take photographs with the daffodils in the background. For a few short weeks it is quite a show of color when we need it after the winter. This year more than most with all of us sheltered in place it was great to see that spring had come. My client wanted two 30” x 15” panorama photographs that he could hang in his office. I went over three times to create photographs. First, I went over to scout the location. I wanted to see when the best light was and what the good angles were. I decided that first light with the sun just hitting the house was when I wanted to first go over. I spent about an hour taking photographs but by 9:30 in the morning, the sun was already too high in the sky. I took a few wide shots that showed the landscape and they choose one of these early in the morning photographs. I also wanted to show the personality of the individual flowers. I created several closer up photographs, but the light wasn’t interesting for closeups on that first day. I went back a couple days later on a cloudy day. Clouds act like a large soft light source which render the flowers in fine detail. I created a series of panorama closeups by taking two horizontal photographs pivoted from the same point. Meaning I knew that these photographs would have to be stitched together in PhotoShop. They choose one of these two image panoramas for their second photograph to frame. I spent time working with the photograph of the house to create the morning light. I wanted the warm glow of the early morning lights. I also helped what mother nature hadn’t done by filling in a couple light flower spots. Every year there are a few spots that don’t flower and with a little PhotoShop help I was able to fill in those light spots. PhotoShop does a good job stitching photographs together, it actually does an amazing job, but there are always areas of the photograph that I have to manually create to make the photograph work. I won’t tell you what parts I put together myself, but the finished photograph turned out just the way I wanted. This was a very nice spring project. Especially this year with our stay at home, social distancing that we all have had to do.

PhotoShop Landscape Tutorial

Posted on April 27, 2020April 27, 2020 by cleary

Over the past five years I have created landscape photographs that are on display in Kettering Hospital Medical facilities between Troy and Middletown, Ohio. I created a video of my PhotoShop work to create one of my landscape photographs. This is called "Sunrise In Miami County" and was originally put up in a medical building in a rural town Tipp City, Ohio. I was commissioned to create 50 photographs to put up in this new construction building. Most of my photographs are not straight images right out of the camera. This video shows my post-production to go from the original image out of the camera to the final finished photograph. When I was creating my original photograph that the sky and foreground would be outside the range of what a camera can see. A camera can see 10 stops of light from white to black. The sky to foreground were more than 10 stops so I know that I would have to put together multiple photographs in PhotoShop to create an image that had a good exposure in the sky and the foreground. If the sky was the correct exposure the foreground would be black and if the foreground was the correct exposure, then the sky would be very light. This is how I work around this issue to create a beautiful landscape, sunrise photograph of a corn field in the fall in Ohio. To see more of these landscape photographs of rural Ohio go to http://clearyfineartphoto.com/landscape-photography/ The YouTube video is located at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJEzVAfB-jE. Enjoy!

Wright Brothers Then and Now photography series

Posted on April 21, 2020April 21, 2020 by cleary

Wright Brothers Then and Now photography series by Dan Cleary

After the Wright Brothers had secured contracts with European and American governments, they set up flight schools to start training pilots. The Army airplane trials had been held at Fort Myer, Maryland in 1908 because of its proximity to Washington, headquarters of the Army and its Aeronautical Division, but the commandant at Fort Myer refused to relinquish the parade ground for further flight training and the Wright Brothers expressed reluctance to teach beginners to fly on the small, enclosed area. Another site was found near College Park, Maryland, about eight miles northeast of Washington, D.C. The Signal Corps agreed to lease the site. However, the winter weather meant the College Park site could not be used for year-round training. Various sites in the south and west were used during the early 1910s at Fort Sam Houston, near San Antonio, Texas, North Island, San Diego, California, and Augusta, Georgia. However flying training in the Army remained on a small scale until the USA joined World War I in April 1917. In February 1913, the Aviation School contingent in Augusta, Georgia, along with two pilots who had been training in Palm Beach, Florida, transferred to Texas City, Texas, to join ground forces on duty along the border. This meant that the Army Aviation school was concentrated on North Island, San Diego.

The Wrights also set up a private pilot training school at Huffman Prairie in Dayton and called it Simms Station. Their brochure for the flying school read: “The Wright Company operates a permanent school of aviation at the historic grounds at Simms Station near Dayton, where the Wright Brothers carried on their experiments. The field is admirably adapted to training purposes, the ground being level and free from obstructions.” The Wright Brothers trained many individuals here at Simms Station like Hap Arnold who eventually became a five-star general and commanded the US Army Air Force during World War ll. Also, Albert Lambert from St Louis learned to fly at Simms Station. Lambert was a WW l pilot and later donated 170 acres of land outside of St Louis to create the first public municipal airport in the country.

Higher, Orville, Higher: My starting point for this series in many cases is with the historic photograph. On May 25, 1910 Orville and Wilbur made the only flight together in one of their airplanes. They had always agreed that they should never fly together incase tragedy happened that the other brother could continue with flight experiments. But this day was a perfect spring day. The only person in the immediate Wright family who hadn’t yet flown was Bishop Wright, their father. So, after the brothers landed Orville went over to his father and said “Next”. Bishop Wright who was 85 years of age said “yes” and they soared over Huffman Prairie at about 350 feet for about six minutes. I like to think that Wilbur took this photograph.

Test Flight On The Miami River is one of the historic photographs I know the Wrights didn’t take. The historic photograph is the Wright Model CH Flyer fitted with twin, multi-step pontoons. This photograph is attributed to William Preston Mayfield, Dayton Daily News, Dayton, Ohio and was taken on May 1, 1913. It is said he was the first person to take an aerial photograph flying with Orville in one of the Wright’s planes. There are two men sitting in the boat on the river observing the flight. I think one of them is Orville. This part of the Miami river flows east west and then makes a sharp turn going north south. It allowed them to make test flight into the wind in either direction. The location for my photograph is along the bike path from Carillon Park in downtown Dayton to West Carrollton, Ohio. I've ridden my bike on this path many times and stopped at this boat put in for a drink of water. I never realized the historic significance of this spot when I was taking a rest on my bike watching the water flow. The quote for this photograph is from Orville. "Isn't it astonishing that all these secrets have been preserved for so many years just so we could discover them!” To see the entire series go to ClearyFineArtPhoto.com/Wright-Brother-Fine-Art-Photographs/

Ohio Landscape Photography

Posted on April 20, 2020April 20, 2020 by cleary

Ohio Landscape Photographs On Permanent Display In Kettering Health Network Hospital

Over the past five years I have created upwards of 200 photographs that are on display in Kettering Health Network hospital buildings and offices from Troy to Middletown. Sunrise In Miami County was created on a fall morning in Bethel Township. I was searching for a sunrise photograph and came across these straw bales. I pulled over and walked out into the field and created this image. There was a limited amount of time because the sun was rising and after only a few minute the sun was too high for the effect I wanted. My clent asked if I had any covered bridge photographs, which I didn't. I found a few close to me and this was the photograph they liked. The Charleston Mill covered bridge is in Green County. The final photograph is on display in a medical facility in Middletown, Ohio. The farmer was finishing plowing his field right outside Tipp City and the photograph is one of 50 photographs on display in a medical building in Tipp City. Greenville Falls is close to Covington, Ohio also in Miami County. I photographed the little Miami River in John Bryan state park in October and was trying to create a quiet peaceful image. You can see more of these photographs at the landscape page of my website. http://clearyfineartphoto.com/landscape-photography/

Wright Brothers Photographs at Kitty Hawk, NC 1901 and 1902

Posted on March 26, 2020March 26, 2020 by cleary

Here are three images from my Wright Brothers – Then and Now series that are from the time period of 1901 - 1902 when they were flying kites and gliders to determine aerodynamics of wing shapes. Maria and I went to Kitty Hawk, NC in the summer if 2016 to visit the Wright Brothers National park and spend the week at the Outer Banks. Beautiful place, I would highly recommend going there if you’ve never visited. We spent the entire day July 21^st there. Thank you, Maria, for spending your whole birthday at the national park. I had many historic photographs for the Wright Brothers time at Kitty Hawk but didn’t know exactly which one’s I would be using. I created 500 – 600 image that day so I would have an inventory to use. When I got back to Dayton, I began editing my photographs and deciding how I could get them to work with the historic photographs I had. Here’s what I came up with.

Kite Flying: The historic photo taken was taken in 1901 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina when the Wrights were just working with kites. During the summer, in the afternoon the park rangers start passing out kites. I view this photograph as a form of street photography, and it’s meant to be fun. I like the little girl with her mother and especially the man in the right side of the image trying to get his kite in the air. I think the quote works well with this image. On the technical side there was quite a bit of moving people and kites around to make a good composition. I worked hard to make the historic photographs integrate with my photograph.

The quote is from Orville in a letter written to Katherine. I liked Orville’s sense of humor. “We tried it with the tail in the front, behind and every other way. When we got through Will was so mixed up he couldn’t even theorize. It has been with considerable effort that I succeeded in keeping him in the flying business at all.”

View From The Top Of Big Kill Devil Hill: My image was taken from the top of Big Kill Devil hill. This may be one of the images where I was almost exactly in the same spot where the historic photograph was taken. I lined up my horizon line with the horizon of the Wright Brothers photograph. The location of the Wright Brothers barn in the foreground was almost in the exact location in both photographs. Octave Chanute was an American civil engineer and aviation pioneer. He provided the Wright brothers, with help and advice, and helped to publicize their flying experiments. The Wright Brothers read Chanute's book, Progress in Flying Machines, and they wrote to him. He quickly saw the genius of those two quiet young men. So, he sent his own assistants to North Carolina to work with them. By 1902, the Wrights were making 600-foot flights in fully controllable gliders. The airplane was finally ready for an engine. The next year they took off and flew under power. The quote was from the first letter Wilbur wrote to Octave Chanute.

“For some years I have been afflicted with the belief that flight is possible to man. My disease has increased in severity and I feel that it will soon cost me an increased amount of money if not my life. I have been trying to arrange my affairs in such a way that I can devote my entire time for a few months to experiment in this field.” Wilbur Wright letter to Octave Chanute 1900

Gliding off the top of Big Kill Devil Hill: This is an image looking up at Big Kill Devil hill with the Wright Brothers monument at the top of the hill. The quote is from one of the numerous letters Wilbur and Octave wrote to each other. What I liked most is at the end of this letter, Octave wrote “Please take plenty of snapshots”, which they did.

“It has occurred to me that you would get still flatter glides by making sure that the center of gravity coincides exactly with the center of pressure, and possible by decreasing the angle of your rudder to 4 degrees. Please take plenty of snapshots.” Letter from Octave Chanute to Wilbur Wright, August 19, 1901

Wright Brothers – Then and Now photography exhibits

Posted on March 25, 2020March 25, 2020 by cleary

I have an art show up at Grace Methodist church gallery right now. Oh course no one can see it. I have another show scheduled for April 23rd at The Light Factory gallery, http://lightfactory.org/exhibitions-upcoming/, Charlotte, NC. The gallery is closed for now and we don't know when it will reopen. I am showing my Wight Brother - Then and Now series at both locations. Because no one can go see the show. I am going to bring the show to you. Here is my artist statement for the Light Factory show.

"On a tranquil and slightly snowy day in February 2016 I decided to go see Huffman Prairie in Dayton, Ohio where the Wright Brothers perfected flight. Dayton is my hometown and yet I had never visited. Standing there on that cold and snowy day transformed me. I could feel the fluctuation of past and present. The seeds for this body of work were planted in my heart. My series of photographs, Wright Brothers-Then and Now, is about the past mingling with the present. The Wright Brothers were accomplished photographers and used photography in their process of discovery. Through research I found many historic images taken by the Wright Brothers and others whose locations I could still access. I began traveling to many of these locations and creating my own images. The locations include areas of Dayton, Kitty Hawk, NC, Washington, DC, Detroit, MI, and LeMans and Pau, France. I digitally combine my images with the historic photographs blurring the divisions between then and now to create visual fluctuations. I decided to add a personal narrative taken from writings of the time to this series of photographs. The narratives are as much about the people behind the history as they are responses to the places and events, making each image more vibrant and meaningful."

I started this series in 2016. I'll post a few images each day from the series for the next week or so. I am editing my fine art website and am almost finished. That site is http://clearyfineartphoto.com/.

The first image is Wilbur working in their bike shop in 1897. The historic photo was probably taken by Orville. I went to the National Park off of west third street and created an interior photograph that would match the historic photo. I my photograph and the historic photograph there are matching machinery. I like the quote from their nephew "History was being in their bicycle shop and in their home, but the making was so obscured by the common place I did not recognize it until it until many years later."

Orville was interested in photography and I can imagine he took his camera outside his home to take a photo. A little kid in the neighborhood, Daniel Henderson, saw him with his camera and was curious. Orville included Daniel in his photograph which was taken in 1899. I took my photograph at 7 Hawthorn Street. This is one of the more complicated integrations of old and new photographs. The quote is from a speech Wilbur made in 1910. "If I were to give a young man advice as to how he might succeed in life. I would say to him, pick a good Father and Mother and begin life in Ohio."

United Rehabilitation Services Ambassador photographs

Posted on March 13, 2020March 13, 2020 by cleary

It’s always my please to help United Rehabilitation Services with photographs of their Ambassador for the Duck regatta every year. United Rehabilitation Services of Greater Dayton (URS) offers a wide-array of programs with a variety of person-centered activities, focused on enhancing the physical, social, and emotional needs of children, adults and seniors with developmental or acquired disabilities from throughout the Greater Dayton Region. The 17th Annual URS Rubber Duck Regatta, presented by Synchrony, will be Saturday, September 19, 2020! The event will be held in conjunction with the Hispanic Heritage Festival at RiverScape MetroPark. Go to their web site to find out about sponsorship opportunities https://ursdayton.org/ducks/.

Professional Business Headshots For Women

Posted on March 4, 2020March 4, 2020 by cleary

Professional Business Headshots For Women

2020 so far has been the year of the women. I have had several women who needed professional head shots this year. Nancy has written eight books and needed a new professional portrait for a book signing. Deadra is a local opera singer and needed a photograph that was a bit more glamorous for an upcoming performance. Traci recently sold her business of many years and is going into consulting. She wanted an updated professional image for the next phase of her career. Melinda is the new president of the north American division of a company based in Europe. She wanted a corporate look to her photograph, so I added an office to the background of the image. Ashley wanted a simple business portrait. Her only requirement was that it looked good because this will be her representation to the online world. Each person receives their own personal portrait session. I take 30 – 40 images at each session. Unlike many franchise studios who take 5 shots and make you pick out the “best” from a limited number. I take numerous poses and people often bring multiple outfits, so you look your best. Call 937-298-6776 to schedule your appointment or go to our website http://clearycreativephoto.com/corporate-photography/ to see examples of my work.