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[2009-06-26 Explore #29]
I continue to revisit my earlier image sets to see if there is something I should work a little further. This is one such image. Using new techniques developed for the Bogville series, I'm finding I can further express the Steampunk idea with ever richer levels of details.
After seeing the results of my first work with the Japanese Anemones, I felt there might be a little more to say.
During the processing of this image I found nearly twenty different renditions of this scene that expressed some aspect of how I feel. These are two that I responded well to this morning. I probably would make a different choice of my "favorites" another time.
This work really excites me with the sense of art, drawing, light, and composition. I love it!
All day people stopped and threw their kids and other loved ones into these flowers to pose for peopled shots.
Looks better to me without Uncle Joe.
Ever since taking this shot my dreams have been haunted by golems made of eggplants and pocupine quills coming at me with their banana bunch hands.
Taken at Pecos National Monument.
Atop this rock is an ancient calender utilzing sunlight thru large slabs of rock and a serpentine carving.
I would like to thank all the Bogvillians who were able to make the photoshoot. I want to thank them for their time and fun preparation. Their efforts helped make the photoshoot a success (well, at least from this perspective).
All the recent work posted here was done in support of Bogville's Sub Lunar Servitude show that's coming up soon.
[Strobist Info: AB800 with shoot-thru umbrella close high camera left, AB1600 with reflected large umbrella level with camera far right, white cloth backdrop, wee-bit-o-processing to taste.]
As the last portal into the Multiverse sealed shut I began a search for other passages between time and space.
Not so distant from the first openings that revealed Steampunk, Tribal, and the related Ages I recently uncovered yet another series of gaps in the Multiverse.
What is strange about these portals (there in all) is that the information streaming across them appear to be closely related to an Age of Avian influence. The images are stressed and warped, just like the Steampunk and Tribal work. Yet, even as exciting as these are, it is unclear just what purpose the image have on the other side of the gap.
When I look at the micro-contrast and the subtle details in this, my heart skips a beat. I have been trying to get these qualities in my images for decades!
Well, this is it for now. Off to save a turkey and fete the potential future in-laws.
More images have crossed the vast divide between the Ages in our incredible Multiverse. These just arrived.
I have stumbled upon something of incredible rarity. Images from across the gap between various Ages have, unexpected, become available to me. They have withstood the incredible stresses of Multiverse time sharing to be revealed here for perhaps the first time in this Post Modern Age. The scroll work looks to be mid-1800's French, perhaps from Paris.
Obligatory Strobist Info: AB800 in SoftBox to the right, white fill card nearly in the frame to the left. Photonic creation and heavy processing to taste.
I said no uploads until the last image reached 100 views to avoid bloat but i just dont have the will power. The new anti-bloat measure is 2 images a week, but that too is probably bound to fail.
Not raining, but that day bands of dark clouds rolled in over Lake Roosevelt letting through slivers of sunlight.
If you waited you could catch a band of light but this is not one of those where it was caught, this is actually in between light which made this one underexposed just a bit.
I think it made the colors richer.
Looking for opening credit images for a recent work in digital cinema, I reached back a year to the 2008 Brooks Steamup event and found this.
Using tools, processes, and techniques that I developed over the past 12 months, I think I came away with something new and hopefully interesting.
Trying my hand at images a little less distorted. I believe this role lends itself to a more formal approach.
Please see the Bogville Creature Show.
[Strobist Info: AB800 with shoot-thru umbrella close high camera left, AB1600 with reflected large umbrella level with camera far right, white cloth backdrop, wee-bit-o-processing to taste.]
I'm coming down to the last of my reprocessed Brooklyn Yard images. I love the rich details and the modulated contrast ranges. I also love the level of control I now have over the micro-contrast - which was something I spent 40 years in traditional film photography to try and achieve.
This is great fun!
After carefully reviewing some of my earlier HDR work, I realized I had missed a couple images that pleased me. So... here they are.
This has been a very fun series of images for me. They were made under somewhat trying emotional circumstances. A close friend of my wife died just as we left town. Rather than return, we decided to stay in Vancouver to visit with Dave. My friend Dave was going through some challenging times of his own. Yet, we made a rather merrier trio of visitors. Life and living. It must go one. With or without us.
Having liked what I saw earlier, I processed the rest of the images from my trip to the Brooklyn Roundhouse.
These were taken +/-2EV, three layers, through HDR, into Tone Maps, then sepia tones (sample colorized).
Canon 40D, either 10-22 EF-S or 17-40 L, Qtfsgui, Gimp, OSP, etc...
When I wandered into the basement to try my hand at a few more still life images, I had in mind old hand coated glass plate, slightly deteriorated, Gothic, Victorian, mid-1880's style work.
These continue to express nearly completely what I was looking for. I really enjoyed making the sequence of images. Photography is just too much fun!
Strobist info -
Alien Bees B800 with 3x4foot soft box set to it's lowest power setting, 5 or more feet from the subject at a rather oblique angle, and a single large white reflector opposite the flash to fill the shadows.
Camera info -
Lens set to wide open for selective focus. I wanted to emulate early optical needs for gathering as much light as possible at the widest aperture available at the time. With these wee-DSLR's, depth of field tends to be too great. So this was something of an experiment to see what might be possible. The 50 f/1.8 II comes very close to meeting the need. If I had more room to move, I think the 100 f/2 would be outstanding wide open. I'm also exploring the use of Sigma's 20 and 28mm f/1.8 lenses wide open. Their design MTF data leads me to believe the center contrast should be quite good at f/1.8.
Processing info -
Heavy use of vignetting and texture layers in most cases. Also heavy use of different BW tints. Some from gum over palladium, others from platinum, and yet other tints taken from old early 1900's portraiture photos. All these were balanced and blended to taste.
As I round the final bend and enter the home stretch I found an interested technique. What I like about this approach is the layered black and white tones with textures that remind me of aging etchings.
The work was done in support of Bogville's Sub Lunar Servitude show that's coming up soon.
As I continue with my hand-bound book project, I get excited about the possibilities. Here, for the first time, I have the ability to collect a few images, print them to 100 percent cotton rag (dual sided), stitch, and then bind into attractive books some of my photographic art. The results are looking good, thusfar.
As I watched Rachel Brice and her Indigo Bellydance Company I was struck by the primal timeless tribal - ness of their performance. To express that feeling in image I knew what I wanted.
I am seeking to explore the outer edges of the visual experience. To convey something we know culturally.
As I worked through the images from the Indigo dances I sought to dig deeper and deeper into the image, and to end up with work that shows these great dancers rising up from the earth and into being.
... onward... into the middle stages of the process of creation... I uncover for myself a creative expression that... gives itself over... nearly totally... to what my mind's eye saw... and what my heart's heart experienced...
This reminds me of an early Autochrome from the time of William Henry Jackson.
I can't get enough of this kind of thing. I LOVE these old steam tractors. This is from my 2008 visit, reprocessed using techniques I've been working on over the past 12 months.
I created a video of an interesting machine that's up on YouTube as well. Check it out.
When I wandered into the basement to try my hand at a few more still life images, I had in mind old hand coated glass plate, slightly deteriorated, Gothic, Victorian, mid-1880's style work.
These continue to express nearly completely what I was looking for. I really enjoyed making the sequence of images. Photography is just too much fun!
Strobist info -
Alien Bees B800 with 3x4foot soft box set to it's lowest power setting, 5 or more feet from the subject at a rather oblique angle, and a single large white reflector opposite the flash to fill the shadows.
Camera info -
Lens set to wide open for selective focus. I wanted to emulate early optical needs for gathering as much light as possible at the widest aperture available at the time. With these wee-DSLR's, depth of field tends to be too great. So this was something of an experiment to see what might be possible. The 50 f/1.8 II comes very close to meeting the need. If I had more room to move, I think the 100 f/2 would be outstanding wide open. I'm also exploring the use of Sigma's 20 and 28mm f/1.8 lenses wide open. Their design MTF data leads me to believe the center contrast should be quite good at f/1.8.
Processing info -
Heavy use of vignetting and texture layers in most cases. Also heavy use of different BW tints. Some from gum over palladium, others from platinum, and yet other tints taken from old early 1900's portraiture photos. All these were balanced and blended to taste.
As I watched Rachel Brice and her Indigo Bellydance Company I was struck by the primal timeless tribal - ness of their performance. To express that feeling in image I knew what I wanted.
I am seeking to explore the outer edges of the visual experience. To convey something we know culturally.
As I worked through the images from the Indigo dances I sought to dig deeper and deeper into the image, and to end up with work that shows these great dancers rising up from the earth and into being.
The Portland Highland Games have come and gone for 2009. It was good, but I contracted a virus and felt pretty awful. I surprised my wife by suggesting we leave early. Didn't even get to see the opening ceremonies! Oh well.
But before leaving I spied this gent. He re-enacts medieval events. The timing was perfect. In working to acquire additional textures to work with I came across a gold mine of images that are perfect for helping create a "painterly" look.
I can't wait to see what I can do at the Knights of the Realm event up at the Clark County Fairgrounds. This gent asked if I could make a few images of he, his son, and their castle. Another fun project...
... and if anyone is paying attention, this chiaroscuro light is the _last_ light I thought I'd ever find attractive or useful in image making. Too dramatic, or so I used to think. Old dogs can learn new tricks... LOL!
Just got my new vinyl LPs from Germany's Oi! band #1, KRAWALLBRÜDER - "Heute Morgen, Für Immer" is an awesome mix of new songs and old, re-recorded stuff. Fan-fuckin'-tastic!
© Markus Wetzlmayr / @wetphoto / www.wet-photo.at
NO USE WITHOUT PRIOR WRITTEN PERMISSION // KEINE VERWENDUNG OHNE VORHERIGE SCHRIFTLICHE ERLAUBNIS.
This is the final act for the series of bellydance images from the Oregon Country Fair 2008. It was a great time. We got to sit and watch some of the finest dancers in the world, and they weren't more than 10 feet away.
I hope everyone likes the treatment. Texture layers has opened up yet another avenue for creative expression. I love the effect.
This is the final act for the series of bellydance images from the Oregon Country Fair 2008.
Archival prints available for $20USD upon request.
... still... in... the middle stages... of the process of creation... I uncover a creative expression that... gives itself over... nearly totally... to what my mind... and eye saw... and what my heart's heart experienced...
This reminds of a collodion plate tin-type.
(Calonectris diomedea)
This bird makes some strange noises: youtu.be/st0S8-Ea4hM
Taken at a whale watching tour starting in Valle Gran Rey.
I was a little concerned about how simple, clean textures would render in this technique. I shouldn't have worried. Even the early diesel electrics that sit outside came out beautifully.
I feel funny saying this, but it seems as if I'm on the edge of finally having something to show for my 40+ years of effort. These more closely express what and how I feel about old heavy machinery than any photographic approach I've ever taken up to this point.
After thinking about this for awhile, the analog traditional photographic approach to creating the images in this series would be some thing like... light controlled solarization... micro contrast masks... unsharp masks... cold tone paper... sepia toning... followed by a dash of selenium toning. All this would have taken me a month working on a single image.
Now? Well... you see the results here...
Note: This was published in LensWork Extended #78. If you would like an archival print for $25USD, please drop me a line. I would love to share this image with you. The prints are gorgeous, if I may say so myself.
I am not a landscape artist. Nor have I been able to render plant life very well. When the muse struck over Labor Day weekend, I was my usual un-motivated artist self as I approach the subject.
Yet I knew if I stuck with it, my mind would slip aside and the very thing itself might be revealed. After a few minutes of working in the garden a rather interesting manifestation of being opened up.
Before the big beautiful steam locomotive starts, they clear the cylinders of water. To do this, they blow steam through the system. In fact, the volunteers who were helping with the event strongly urged all of us (particularly we photographers who have little to no sense) to stand back. The farther back we stood, the stronger the blow the engineer could make. Well, it looks like we stood back far enough, eh? :-)
Like the previous weekend, the day I photographed this part of the series was very gray with flat lighting. I like using tone-mapping to bring out the various micro-contrast tones that would otherwise be hidden from view.
One last HDR tone map before I return to the usual, boring, but ever so sharp traditional images. If only for a moment.
Why is it that I never have a full tripod when I need it? I rested the wee-point-n-shoot on the ground and took 3 +/-2EV images.
This was out in front of People's Food Coop in near-in SE. We love shopping here. Come Spring, we'll more than likely be joining the throngs of bike riding veg-eating shoppers here.
After shooting a short video for LensWork Magazine I stayed in the Brooklyn Roundhouse to work a few more images.
It is a VERY thrilling thing to be published by what I feel to be the very finest photographic arts magazine. My portfolio of over 30 images "In the Railyard" will be shared with LensWork Extended subscribers in their #78 Sept-Oct 2008 issue