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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.]
There are so many things to learn and experience. Each step I take seems to go deeper into the kinds of images I was only in my wildest dreams ever hoping to create.
Has anyone mentioned that image making can be fun? LOL!
I realize that the concept of Alternative History might be a bit difficult to grasp if you're not familiar with the works of Susanne Clark, Ian Banks, Terry Pratchett, and others.
The concept is this - consider what might have happened had something like oil not come into wide use. Then consider what the world might look like, instead, if Victorian era steam continued to provide power we used.
Adding the ideas of Victorian age with steam, I had in my minds eye a clear idea of what the modern age might look like. I also added the idea of what the world might be like if we lived in a multi-verse, instead of a universe.
The final result is one that combines modern images with Victorian age graphics to create a sense of what might happen if information were to transfer between worlds in a living multiverse.
OK. Its a little weird. But I'm an engineering manager and love to build ideas upon other ideas...
Not far from Painted Hand Ruins, one of the outliers of Hovenweep/Canyon of the Ancients in Colorado just the other side of the Utah border.
I realize that the concept of Alternative History might be a bit difficult to grasp if you're not familiar with the works of Susanne Clark, Ian Banks, Terry Pratchett, and others.
The concept is this - consider what might have happened had something like oil not come into wide use. Then consider what the world might look like, instead, if Victorian era steam continued to provide power we used.
Adding the ideas of Victorian age with steam, I had in my minds eye a clear idea of what the modern age might look like. I also added the idea of what the world might be like if we lived in a multi-verse, instead of a universe.
The final result is one that combines modern images with Victorian age graphics to create a sense of what might happen if information were to transfer between worlds in a living multiverse.
OK. Its a little weird. But I'm an engineering manager and love to build ideas upon other ideas...
I realize that the concept of Alternative History might be a bit difficult to grasp if you're not familiar with the works of Susanne Clark, Ian Banks, Terry Pratchett, and others.
The concept is this - consider what might have happened had something like oil not come into wide use. Then consider what the world might look like, instead, if Victorian era steam continued to provide power we used.
Adding the ideas of Victorian age with steam, I had in my minds eye a clear idea of what the modern age might look like. I also added the idea of what the world might be like if we lived in a multi-verse, instead of a universe.
The final result is one that combines modern images with Victorian age graphics to create a sense of what might happen if information were to transfer between worlds in a living multiverse.
OK. Its a little weird. But I'm an engineering manager and love to build ideas upon other ideas...
I needed to clean up my light/darkroom. Boxes and storage junk was piling high. To motivate myself to the task of cleanup I decided to work a bit more on on skulls and still life.
Strobist Info -
Light Setup - Alien Bees B800 with 3x4foot softbox, a large sheet of glass, and 6 sheets of variously sized white rag board (for light control). Resting one edge of the softbox on the floor and using a very short AB light stand to point the light toward a 4x5foot 1/2 white foam core reflector. I used this to knock the light intensity down, even after setting the AB800 at it's lowest power setting.
Over the foam core reflector I built a three sided white reflector box (rag board laying against two tables). Then I suspended a glass sheet between the tables so the light would come up from below.
Lastly, I rested three sheets of variously sized rag board against each other to form a three sided reflector cavity above the glass to spill just a bit of light around the edges of the subject.
Camera setup - Canon 40D set to manual. Chimped the light curves in camera to find that 1/200th sec at f/11 was just about right. Used a very sweet Canon 28mm f/2.8 optic to minimize the number of glass elements bouncing the softboxes intense light.
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...
With each step that delves deeper into the possibilities presented by modern tools and processes, I know with greater and greater certainty that there is no going back. Each lesson brings new teachings and new visions and new possibilities.
When I photographed these skulls, I hoped that I would have the strength of vision to reveal what lay seemingly deep and buried in the creative mind. As I work through the photos from the Sunday morning shoot I behave more and more like a child who is thrilled with something new. Something exciting.
Strobist Info -
Light Setup - Alien Bees B800 with 3x4foot softbox, a large sheet of glass, and 6 sheets of variously sized white rag board (for light control). Resting one edge of the softbox on the floor and using a very short AB light stand to point the light toward a 4x5foot 1/2 white foam core reflector. I used this to knock the light intensity down, even after setting the AB800 at it's lowest power setting.
Over the foam core reflector I built a three sided white reflector box (rag board laying against two tables). Then I suspended a glass sheet between the tables so the light would come up from below.
Lastly, I rested three sheets of variously sized rag board against each other to form a three sided reflector cavity above the glass to spill just a bit of light around the edges of the subject.
Camera setup - Canon 40D set to manual. Chimped the light curves in camera to find that 1/200th sec at f/11 was just about right. Used a very sweet Canon 28mm f/2.8 optic to minimize the number of glass elements bouncing the softboxes intense light.
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.
Walking back from lunch this week I spied some rather interesting leaf configurations. It's been very wet around here, and being this late in the Fall season, the leaves are loosing their definition.
For this series, I treated the leaves to a little qtpfsgui, further modifications in the Gimp (including tone sampling and contrast controls), and made sure these "said" what I wanted them to "say".
For some reason, I just love working with life in miniature like this. Everything isn't a huge steam locomotive, is it? :-)
Qtpfsgui 1.8.12 tonemapping parameters:
Operator: Fattal
Parameters:
Alpha: 1.3
Beta: 0.8
Color Saturation: 0
Noise Reduction: 0
------
PreGamma: 1
Borrowing from several themes, I thought it was time for me to delve deeper into a favorite subject; still life images from the late 1800's.
The themes that appeal to me include dark hand coated glass plate, Gothic, window light, distressed time worn materials, and a hint of Italian romanticism.
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.
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.
I'm rounding the corner and am onto the final stretch with processing images from the Bogvillian photo shoot. Its been an amazing process and I hope everyone gets what they need out of the effort.
I can see where a whole new body of work has emerged. Its really exciting to see. Now I need to find the right outlet.
Just outside Winslow we camped at a site called Homolovi.
There are two active ravens nest at the site not far from the ruins themselves.
This one you can get pretty close to.
Only four of the five chicks in the nest were visible in this shot.
They all froze as soon as I came too close for their comfort, like statues they stayed just as you see them in this photo until i backed off a bit. I believe at the command of one of the parents as they froze just as one of parents cawed out.
Both parents were active, one watching and one gathering food and feeding.
The ruins at this site are mostly unexcavated but what you can see on this site is interesting none the less.
Huge pueblo with thousands of rooms.
The outlier sites were closed, kind of a drag.
For Desmo_Dave, here is another Suave Zouave. :-)
I have been giving a bit of thought around justifying this kind of treatment of "period" reenactment images. In reviewing the genuine works from the time I realize that they are beautiful. Truly. I also realize that I want to express something unique so as to not confuse the real items with the way I see things.
For me, I wonder if one of the dimensions of this kind of image expression is a kind of "autochrome" hand painted deteriorated alternative history. Hmmm... I may have to write more about these thoughts on my photo-blog...
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...
Its been very interesting to work through the sequence of images for the Bogvillians. They have the "look" that I have been dying to photograph and work with artistically. Alas, it takes more than just good subject matter to express the kinds of things I am after. Watching from a third person position, I see that I need to take the technology, learn it, understand it, and apply it. However, its so easy to get stuck there thinking that technology will "save" an image. It doesn't work that way for me. I find that I also need to let the mind's worrying and fretting over technology find another place to "be" while I'm actually working an image. I see that I must also work to allow my whole being to participate. I can't really explain it, except that I feel more "open" and connected on more levels when I work to stay in the body and to share "space" with my mind. Oh, and I find I get the best results when I let the mind "do its thing", but not to let it take over the process.
After seeing the results of my first work with the Japanese Anemones, I felt there might be a little more to say.
This work really excites me with the sense of art, drawing, light, and composition. I love it!
When a morning finally dawned clear and sunny, I knew I had an opportunity to explore a little HDR tone-mapped panorama work.
This image consists of five exposures. The five exposures were stitched using Hugin. The resulting tif was processed through Qtpfsgui using Fattal and Drago. Gimp was then used to adjust the contrast/saturation and then combine the two images.
Those who follow my work must at time feel I can't be "trusted" to work in just one style or one mode. All I can say is Guilty As Charged.
I enjoy working in so many different styles and on so many different subjects. People. Vehicles. Trains. Monuments. Abstracts. Wherever my eye turns it seems there's something to be explored.
Recently I saw three photogravure by one of the photo secession pictorialists. "Click" went the mind and suddenly I was creating yet another body of work in a different mode.
In my defense the best I can say is that I'm having one hell of a good time.
We were driving toward downtown when my wife suddenly remembered that a new mural had gone up. Quickly reversing direction we headed back up the street. Sure enough, someone had put up some new art.
I was glad to have the 10-22EF-S ultra-wide zoom. These are handheld HDRs and I used the alignmenht function to get things to map correctly in the file.
Qtpfsgui 1.8.12 tonemapping parameters:
Operator: Fattal
Parameters:
Alpha: 1.5
Beta: 0.7
Color Saturation: 1
Noise Reduction: 0.01
------
PreGamma: 1
What an amazing GREAT time the Mt Tabor Adult Soapbox Derby 2009 event was! Too much fun, that's all I can say.
Since there are so many good straight photographs, I decided to try something a little different. Heavy texture layers. Super ultra holy cow fantastic wide angle lens. Emphasizing the machines. I rather like the effect.
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.
I have to smile. A friend who I ran into at the Antique Powerland Steamup said the light was too bright and there were no photos to be taken. At the time I felt that maybe something good could still come from the event, bright sunshine and all.
After applying the ever evolving processes to the original images, I remain stunned! This stuff is so much fun to me. Its whimsy and innocence and art and raw beauty all rolled into the kinds of images that thrill me.
I wish I could "see" my own city and living place as well as I "see" other places. There must be equally beautiful scenes in my area. This exercise has given me "juice" to explore something I'm very familiar with.
I checked the resolution of these images against the files straight out of the camera. I was concerned that my processing was somehow softening the edges and delivering less resolution. Good new! My processes retain all the resolution I could ever want. This is fun stuff.
With each step that delves deeper into the possibilities presented by modern tools and processes, I know with greater and greater certainty that there is no going back. Each lesson brings new teachings and new visions and new possibilities.
When I photographed these skulls, I hoped that I would have the strength of vision to reveal what lay seemingly deep and buried in the creative mind. As I work through the photos from the Sunday morning shoot I behave more and more like a child who is thrilled with something new. Something exciting.
Strobist Info -
Light Setup - Alien Bees B800 with 3x4foot softbox, a large sheet of glass, and 6 sheets of variously sized white rag board (for light control). Resting one edge of the softbox on the floor and using a very short AB light stand to point the light toward a 4x5foot 1/2 white foam core reflector. I used this to knock the light intensity down, even after setting the AB800 at it's lowest power setting.
Over the foam core reflector I built a three sided white reflector box (rag board laying against two tables). Then I suspended a glass sheet between the tables so the light would come up from below.
Lastly, I rested three sheets of variously sized rag board against each other to form a three sided reflector cavity above the glass to spill just a bit of light around the edges of the subject.
Camera setup - Canon 40D set to manual. Chimped the light curves in camera to find that 1/200th sec at f/11 was just about right. Used a very sweet Canon 28mm f/2.8 optic to minimize the number of glass elements bouncing the softboxes intense light.
Walking around Vancouver, BC was a real joy. I have come to like that city. Even with its intensely dense high rise living population, these folks are fun to be around. Strolls down the street after dark in the West End areas are a real blast! The lights. The throngs of night beings. The conspicuous consumption (Ferrari F1 parked on the street???). The atmosphere. Wow...
The Brooklyn Roundhouse is a very magic place. It holds three wonderful steam locomotives and numerous early diesel electric engines.
I revisited the roundhouse recently to make a video. The video will hopefully be included in the LensWork Extended #78 DVD magazine. 35+ images in my "In the Railyard" portfolio will be published. Check out www.lenswork.com/ for further information. This is perhaps the finest photographic arts magazine currently in circulation.
This image was taken using a cheap point and shoot. I did this to specifically illustrate and underscore a point - you do not need ultra-expensive image capture equipment to make fun images.
Archival prints available for $25
Heritage is a difficult thing to reclaim. This, particularly after culture is decimated in a giant whirling blender of US trans-national corporate inculturation.
This lad descends from Campbell through the Thompson line. He is kilted in neo-modern Utilikilt. Silver snaps where a Sporran used to go. Pockets where tailored kilts could hide them. Completely useful and comfortable to wear.
Using texture layers, masks, and a whole lot of manipulation in the Gimp, I felt the need to reinterpret some of the images from my failed lighting shoot.
I am re-processing earlier images as well as new work to see what might fit best into hand bound books.
I realize that the concept of Alternative History might be a bit difficult to grasp if you're not familiar with the works of Susanne Clark, Ian Banks, Terry Pratchett, and others.
The concept is this - consider what might have happened had something like oil not come into wide use. Then consider what the world might look like, instead, if Victorian era steam continued to provide power we used.
Adding the ideas of Victorian age with steam, I had in my minds eye a clear idea of what the modern age might look like. I also added the idea of what the world might be like if we lived in a multi-verse, instead of a universe.
The final result is one that combines modern images with Victorian age graphics to create a sense of what might happen if information were to transfer between worlds in a living multiverse.
OK. Its a little weird. But I'm an engineering manager and love to build ideas upon other ideas...
Its been very interesting to work through the sequence of images for the Bogvillians. They have the "look" that I have been dying to photograph and work with artistically. Alas, it takes more than just good subject matter to express the kinds of things I am after. Watching from a third person position, I see that I need to take the technology, learn it, understand it, and apply it. However, its so easy to get stuck there thinking that technology will "save" an image. It doesn't work that way for me. I find that I also need to let the mind's worrying and fretting over technology find another place to "be" while I'm actually working an image. I see that I must also work to allow my whole being to participate. I can't really explain it, except that I feel more "open" and connected on more levels when I work to stay in the body and to share "space" with my mind. Oh, and I find I get the best results when I let the mind "do its thing", but not to let it take over the process.
[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.]
This series of images has several inspirations. I like the wood cut or engraved feel of these. We see these kinds of images around so many of the Paris flea markets. Alas, I can't afford them and all too often they're not of a subject I'm interested in.
My many thanks to the G'Mic developer, David Tschumperle and to David Patrick for providing a kewl new tool and for sharing what's possible.
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...
I wanted to share a little visual journey. This is how I work. This is how my art comes into being. Its a very iterative process. I work and see something I like. Then I work some more and find something I like more. And so it goes. Sometimes I may have many samples that I like and I work with them all.
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.
I needed to clean up my light/darkroom. Boxes and storage junk was piling high. To motivate myself to the task of cleanup I decided to work a bit more on on skulls and still life.
Strobist Info -
Light Setup - Alien Bees B800 with 3x4foot softbox, a large sheet of glass, and 6 sheets of variously sized white rag board (for light control). Resting one edge of the softbox on the floor and using a very short AB light stand to point the light toward a 4x5foot 1/2 white foam core reflector. I used this to knock the light intensity down, even after setting the AB800 at it's lowest power setting.
Over the foam core reflector I built a three sided white reflector box (rag board laying against two tables). Then I suspended a glass sheet between the tables so the light would come up from below.
Lastly, I rested three sheets of variously sized rag board against each other to form a three sided reflector cavity above the glass to spill just a bit of light around the edges of the subject.
Camera setup - Canon 40D set to manual. Chimped the light curves in camera to find that 1/200th sec at f/11 was just about right. Used a very sweet Canon 28mm f/2.8 optic to minimize the number of glass elements bouncing the softboxes intense light.