CAPTU

KERI GUTEN COHEN

STORY DEVELOPMENT EDITOR

Laurel Stuart-Fink
with her trusty

Canon

hat started out as a hobby became a passion
and is now an obsession," Laurel Stuart-Fink
of West Bloomfield says of photographing
landscapes and gardens.
Recently, she was able to combine
her obsession with her vocation when
a photograph she took of a sunrise over
Kensington Metropark replaced the tired
"Good Morning" image on eJournal, the
daily e-mail legal update from the State Bar
of Michigan.
"I sent the photograph on a whim," said
Stuart-Fink, a family law attorney in solo
practice. "I've been getting good feedback.
It's amazing how much people enjoy looking
at landscape photography"
Stuart-Fink was interested in landscape
photography before becoming a mother, but
when her son was born, she put away her
cameras and darkroom and concentrated on
raising her child and going to law school.
That was more than 20 years ago. With her
son out of college and on his own, Stuart-
Fink went back to photography, this time
investing early in digital equipment and
growing with the technology.
"I've never looked back; you can do much
more with digital than with traditional film:'
said Stuart-Fink, who learned photography
on her own through books, online courses
and other resources.
Her focus on nature blends well with her
innate spirituality. Stuart-Fink and her hus-
band, Steven Fink, are longtime members of
the Sara Tugman Bais Chabad Torah Center.
"To me, the natural world is so beautiful;
it's God's gift to us to treasure and protect:'
she said. "I see God in all of it. With my
photographs, I want to share that awe and
inspire respect for the landscape so people
will want to protect it."
Recently, as a side business, Stuart-Fink
launched Gardenscapes Studio, which pro-
vides photographic services to commercial
landscaping and gardening firms, but also
provides fine-art images of private gardens

on commission. These works can be dis-
played as wall art or turned into custom
note cards and calendars.
"One of my inspirations for Gardenscapes
is that I do my own gardening:' she said. "I
work so hard to develop my perennial beds,
then only have them for four to five months.
I thought,'Wouldn't it be nice to enjoy them
all the year?'
Though she shoots with a Canon 4D, a
single-lens reflex digital camera with 8.2
megapixels and interchangeable lenses, she
says anyone with a point-and-shoot camera
can take photos of their own garden.
Here are some of her tips:
• Take a photography class or join a cam-
era club to gain more knowledge.
• Read books and information on the
Internet specifically about garden photog-
raphy.
• Remember: The camera lens does not
see as the eye sees. The camera only cap-
tures two dimensions. People take a photo
and think it will look like what they saw in
three dimensions. Our mind adds so much
information. As photographers, we apply
those things with technique (with a program
on the computer).
• Use a tripod to hold the camera steady

A ; walkway In a *

;print; oarden in

full bloom

for close-ups.
• Lighting is everything. Bright, sunny,
cloudless afternoons are not the time to
shoot because shadows are harsh and high-
lights get washed out. The best times are
early morning and late afternoon when the
softer light adds shape and form. Overcast
days are great because the clouds act like
giant diffusers and let you capture much
more detail.
• Composition is very important. Pay
attention to what you are capturing in your
frame. The photographer makes the good
picture, not the camera. Anyone can go and
take photos.
• Wide-angle lens are really nice; close-up
lenses are helpful.
• If you are posting photos to a Web site,
sending e-mail or creating a slide show, the
low- to moderate-resolution setting on the
camera is fine. If you want to enlarge or
print your images, set the camera at high-
resolution or try the raw setting, which
means there is no in-camera processing
and you'll have to use a digital darkroom
program, like Adobe Photoshop Elements, to
boost the color saturation, correct the expo-
sure and crop.

❑