Ronalyn Irle Photography

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April 2022, Ronalyn Irle

1/200 @ f8 ISO 100

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“Weekend Farmer” by Ronalyn Irle,  April 2022

1/400 @ f6.3 ISO 100

I decided to capture my husband in the role of farmer.  In executive leadership in the corporate world by day, it was interesting to see him loading straw bales into the back of a truck. The aging barn with weathered paint in the background and the dried, honey colored wheat in the foreground lend an authenticity to the scene, as does the focused expression of hard work on his face. His muscles are engaged in tying the bales down for transport.

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“Thinking About Tomorrow,” by Ronalyn Irle, March 2022

1/30 @ f5.6 ISO 400

While my stepdaughter Emma is usually gregarious and playful, I wanted to photograph her with a more serious expression. We found these sculptures in downtown Rochester on a visit there and I wanted to capture her in a pensive pose. I got down low to her level to capture the framing of the surrounding buildings that seem to encircle her.  I prompted her to think of something she might have concerns about.  I like how the setting sun is reflected in the glass window in the corner, supporting the feeling that perhaps tomorrow is in her thoughts.

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1/15 @ f22, ISO 100

During a recent photo shoot in a local preserve, I took four shots by stepping a couple steps to the right in between shots to create this panorama of the scene.  

In Lightroom, I merged four photographs, filling in the edges, which created the panorama. I then edited the composite to bring out some of the highlights of the plants in foreground that had been illuminated by the golden light of the sunset.

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“This One’s Mine,” by Ronalyn Irle, March 2022

1/500 @ f10, ISO 1600

I chose to take photos at Whalon Lake shortly after sunrise on a cold, late-winter day in March. The water and preserve provide a frenzy of early morning wildlife activity and also provide ample opportunity to capture the glow of early morning light.  

This Red-Winged Blackbird was particularly active and kept flying back and forth from the water’s edge to the stand of tall grasses behind me.  I was able to capture him in this expressive moment mid-trill, with raised shoulders, as if to say, “get your own seat, this one’s mine”.  

I was able to get down low, almost to his level, to get this shot.  I love the way he is just slightly backlit, creating a golden lining around his orange shoulders. The horizontal, smooth ripples in the blue water behind him contrasts with the dimpled, rough, grey stone of his perch and adds interest, putting the photo in context.

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“Love Uncovered,” by Ronalyn Irle

1/13 @ f13, ISO 200

This photo was taken just after sunrise on a late winter morning in March.  I decided to create a heart in the mulch that was surrounding a tree in a local preserve and was delighted to see how the hilled wood chips collected the warm light of sunrise and gave it a a special glow.  It also added an inviting,  anthropomorphic feeling to the impersonal and perfunctory landscape mulch. 

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“Nothing Gold Can Stay...,” by Ronalyn Irle, March 2022

ISO 200, 1/15 @ f20

What Robert Frost observed in New England holds true in the Midwest as well.  Time stands still while nature pauses in awe at the bittersweet moment of this glorious but retreating beauty. Sunset over the prairie in Northeastern Illinois can create dramatic colors in the sky, as on this evening.  

Some scattered clouds were available to capture the wide-ranging, electric colors of the fleeting day.  Brilliant and burnt oranges, reds and yellows merge into magentas, purples and pinks at the outer linear edges of the display. Color reflections highlight the snaking creek that winds its way through the mid ground towards the setting sun and the trees seem to line up to catch the view as well.  

A perched heron takes a moment to stretch his wings and watch the end of the show.  

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“Morning Envelope” by Ronalyn Irle, March 2022.

ISO 800, 1/20 @ f 16

Perched precariously on rocks in this predawn scene overlooking Dalco passage and Vashon Island in Washington State, I was able to catch this moody moment at Sunrise Beach.  

The overcast, pale blue-grey sky blends monochromatically with the darker, charcoal green of the ocean, the overall color creating a peaceful, watery, embryonic enclosure. 

The emerging light, reflected in the water movements, helps to evoke the sounds of gently lapping waves against the craggy rocks and saturated, decaying driftwood. Downed forest trees line up in a path, helping to move the viewer’s eye into the scene.  

The space is further defined by the tight quarters, as it appears the viewer is all but standing in the water and the eye is led along a narrow waterway through the image, ducking under an arching tree in the middle ground, to the background. There, you come upon a small, darkened shed (or is is a small home?) lurking behind the winter-bare tree, and the viewer is transported from feeling safe and alone to the realization that they may not be the only witness to this scene of rebirth, discovery, the dawn of a new day.

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“Bread Line,” by Ronalyn Irle, February 2022, 1/100, f8. I baked several loaves of bread in descending sizes and placed them on a curved, seemingly endless line into the distance. I like how the line of bread mimics the lines on the stone countertop as it undulates in a similar direction. This is a good type of bread line where it never runs out, happily. The warm, rough-textured crust of the bread stands out against the cool, smooth, muted shades of the background making it easy to follow the subject direction. I used depth of field to gently blur the bread in the distance, making it seem eternal.

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“Taking The Heat,” by Ronalyn Irle, February 2022

1/100, f8 I wanted to take a more creative approach to this subject by photographing it in the oven, which you don’t typically see. The way the fire at the back lights up against the bread and the dark oven cavern makes you feel you are in the scene and somewhere you don’t get to go ordinarily. I learned how using ISO and a larger aperture help to capture subjects in dark spaces. 

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“Sewer at Sunset”, by Ronalyn Irle, February 2022.  1/20 @ f 22, ISO 800.

In this sewer assignment photo, I decided to capture the entrance in the natural surroundings with beautiful golden light in the sky just after sunset.  It gave me an unusual context, as sewers aren’t frequently thought of as beautiful or located in beautiful surroundings.  I also like the contrast of the bright green pole as an exclamation point,  pronouncing a “Warning” in such a serene and peaceful location where nothing seems to be amiss.

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“What Lies Beneath,” by Ronalyn Irle, February 2022.  1/250 @ f4, ISO 400.

This photograph was taken for Introduction to Digital Photography as part of a an assignment to photograph a sewer in creative and different ways.  I decided to bring our family dog to this shoot, who is part hound, and was able to capture him tracking something (probably mice) below the snow.  I thought it was an interesting photo because his face is below the snow, as is the sewer.  It appears that he could be investigating what is inside the sewer out of sight, that there is much going on underground that we cannot see, which creates all kinds of interesting imaginings.

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“Autumn Circus,” Oregon by Christopher Burkett. 

I imagine the title comes from the burst or color of the changing leaves, so bright and cheerful and full of light and life that it evokes the excitement of a circus, the celebration of a child entering into the giant tent filled with lively hues of early fall. I also love the heart-shaped leaves, some backlit, like little messages of love, beckoning the viewer to enter in. 

https://shop.anseladams.com/collections/christopher-burkett/products/autumn-circus-oregon

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“Raindrop Wonder,” 1985.  This photograph by Christopher Burkett was taken just outside his doorstep in Vernonia, Oregon just as the sun was coming up.  

The photo was taken with a Hasselblad camera and tripod, using a 55mm extension tube on an 80mm lens in order to focus this close and printed on Cibachrome paper.  

This picture is an invitation to look closely at the wonder of nature right outside our doorstep, the perfect raindrops like orbs of light suspended on the glistening filament of the spider web.

https://christopherburkett.com/print/raindrop-wonder

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Christopher Burkett (born 1951) is an American photographer from the Pacific Northwest, renowned for his color photographs of the American wilderness.   He makes each photograph by hand, using 6x6 or 8x10 format sheet film and uses the now discontinued Swiss Cibachrome photographic paper.  The colors in his work are extraordinary as are the details of the subjects he highlights, and it is not uncommon for him to spend five years or more in the development of his photographs, which he does himself.  After spending 10 years in a monastery, he decided that photography was his calling, yet his works seem to evoke the spiritual, etherial qualities of the created world.  This portrait was taken by his wife, Ruth Burkett.

http://www.photographywest.com/pages/burkett_bio.html

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There is way too much light in the foreground which bleaches out the skin. The background however, is much too dark. You may not even notice our dog is behind me because I am blocking him! 

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Who says you need an ocean to surf?  Catching a wave off the back of a boat in Wisconsin.  

This photo was taken just before sunset and creates soft light that highlights the white water contrasted with the wave and just enough light to capture the surfer’s focused expression. Just a bit of pink remains on the horizon, hinting at day’s end.