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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.
These are the last of the portraits from the 2008 event that I'll post. Soon, with luck, I'll be able to share some battle scenes.
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.
This series is the result of a failure to execute the original idea. I was rushed, what with the BBQ waiting on the dry rubbed pork, and the beers still in the 'fridge.
The intended setup was this - two off camera Vivitar 283 strobes, one with a peanut (which triggers nicely in full daylight) mounted on a light stand, the other mounted on a bracket near the camera plugged into the 40D. I wanted to blur the background so I set the 100 f/2 wide open. I let the AV figure out the shutter speed after applying a -2ev exposure reduction.
What I failed to remember was that the shutter only syncs at 1/200th or less. All the images were shuttered around 1/1000th sec. YIKES! I blew it!! Still, this image appears to have sync'd close enough that I got a bit of rim light on my subject. Pure luck, I say.
Still, I layered up a few things in the Gimp, applied a tint after messing with the levels, fiddled a WHOLE LOT with textures, added a border, and... well... here's what came out... in spite of my intentions...
There were so many wonderful machines to be seen flying, winging, wobbling down the road at this years Mt Tabor Adult Soapbox Derby event. Really gives me inspiration to build and run one of my own. Maybe something based on Victorian era themes. My fine wench and I, appropriately attired, holding forth with a faux-Brit upperclass accent. A wee-bit-o-bubbly. Handing out gifts as we make our way down the hill-side. Bubbles happily emitting from the back of the vehicle.
I have studied hand coating collodion, the making of tin-types, albumin, ferrotype and platinum prints. As they age they tend to deteriorate much more gracefully than the images I have re-created here. My work and "take" on the subject is unlike any of the originals you will ever see from the time period. Rather, I am attempting to touch at something a little different.
For the Bazaar project we created the Bazaar Pins: a set of pins with the Creative Commons pictograms and the logos for Bazaar and our podcast Sounds of the Bazaar. We came up with the idea to wear pins to Show that we Share to conferences, seminars, our Show-me days and every other (non-)Bazaar event. Pinning the ones we consider important on our rug sacks and jackets makes showing that we share an everyday thing.
When Greg and I went to ride the Speeders, we took a moment to walk through Oaks Park. I put the 8mm Peleng fisheye on the camera to see what kind of distortions I could get.
After passing the image through Qtpfsgui, I continued to modify them using the Gimp.
Qtpfsgui 1.8.12 tonemapping parameters:
Operator: Fattal
Parameters:
Alpha: 1
Beta: 0.8
Color Saturation: 1
Noise Reduction: 0.006
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PreGamma: 1
I was having trouble with my internets, I tracked the problem to this location about two or three hours east of my house.
Im sure some tape should fix it.
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.]
Story behind this shot told here
involves precarious heights and a nervous photographer blowing the chance to shoot one of the best and largest specimens of Tarantula Hawks I have ever seen.
Interesting film clip on this creature www.desertusa.com/video_pages/thawk1.html
I'm working through the images we made in the big old Portland home everyone first met at.
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.]
Taken with my 28-80 nikkor g lens.
This lens is soft and fringes around the edges, these days I almost never use it since getting my 24mm f2.8D.
I think the softness doesnt really hurt this image, still I wish I could shoot it over again with my prime.
Cropped my finger out of the shot, it was blocking the sun.
I figured I'd walk down to the next light rail station to pick up a train that might have an open seat. When I looked to my right, there stood the most amazing collection of circus clothing I'd seen in a very long time.
Maybe it's because I haven't been to the circus in person for more than 30 years. In any event, these clothes were striking. So I had to mess with them further.
This is EXACTLY how I felt about the scene. Maybe I'm sick and twisted, eh?
Qtpfsgui 1.8.12 tonemapping parameters:
Operator: Fattal
Parameters:
Alpha: 1.6
Beta: 0.72
Color Saturation: 0.88
Noise Reduction: 0.07
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PreGamma: 0.5
Sometimes I work and work and work an image and find I can't express nor reveal what I feel about a scene or subject. This was the case with this image. I knew what I felt. I knew what I wanted to say. But how to express it?
Finally, after 30 or 40 versions, it finally came to me. The Scottish Highlands, a Piper, and tin-types. But no just any tin-type. Rather, something that corroded and changed and oxidized with time.
A real tin-type would never do this. Yet this is what I sometimes feel tin-types _should_ do. Over time. If I were king.
Fortunately, there are tools to help me find the right voice. The right feeling. The right message.
I am re-processing earlier images as well as new work to see what might fit best into hand bound books.
Not much to look at, a small portion of wall was dug out and then sheltered with a roof and walls.
The surroundings however were very pleasing to the senses.
Bluff, Utah is a beautiful town.
After working inside with artificial lighting, we moved down the road to a favorite site. Working out of doors under natural light was a challenge. I needed to find somewhere that the sun could be controlled. So we worked predominantly in the shadow areas.
For this series, I am working in muted colors and layered mono-tones. I hope these strike the right balance between the typical styles that folks tend to shoot in, and something that bubbles up through the multitudinous layers of my artistic being.
I find I am very much enjoying making images in the style and idea we have of old photographs.
This series leans heavily on my own ideas of photographic history. Early images are typically much more stable than what I am presenting here. Yet, hand tinted, stressed and distressed photos are easy to find in antique shops around the country.
It is with this that I pay homage to all those wonderful photographers who helped capture images in the past. I hope to do them and our ideas of history justice.
It's difficult to imagine trees that stand so tall, are so big around at the base, and are still quite young. This is a second growth forest. The remains of the first growth are impressive. It's nearly enough to bring one to tears thinking about what must have been. Now, all removed so some Fat Cat somewhere long dead and gone could fill his greedy pockets with gold and silver...
These were processed using a HDR technique to ensure shadow detail and retention of information in the highlights. I added a green filter to bring up the foliage and then applied a sepia tint to add the "feeling" I was looking for.
Standing on a mostly yet to be excavated pueblo, facing west towards the San Francisco Peaks.
Leaving the optical "flaws" in rather then editing them out was inspired by this image from flickr user gr8sublime.
The day was, as you can see, quite overcast. The clouds above mirrored by the clouds painted below attracted me.
Back in the day, I worked as a photo-lab-rat in Hollyweird and Irvine, California. I used to do this kind of work, though I felt quite guilty. It seemed a sinful photographic pleasure, particularly given the fact that many of my friends and I were enamored with St. Ansel and his hyper-clear B&W work.
Wandering around an amusement park that's closed for Winter is really quite fun. You never know what you'll stumble upon, which way your head will turn, things the eye will find pleasing.
I gave these photos the treatment I did because I find amusement parks hyper-real in any event. This closely matches what my mind constructs whenever I visit.
There is a small shrine to the Madonna that is slowly evolving over the years. The bike shop that this is at is a great location for folks looking for rides and ride gear. So... for a bunch of non-religious bike freaks, this is an interesting homage to Our Lady. I think it's great!
A stitch of three images.
If I had this to do over again I would have lined all the vehicles up to the waters edge up front, for the reflections.
There is a hint of reflections of the roofs but it would have been nice to get a mirror image of the trucks.
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.
These may be a little difficult to look at when compared with the strong color saturated versions I recently posted. But hang in there with me. I'm attempting to illustrate how my mind works as it "processes" images and comes up with the "final results".
Last Fall someone grew this fabulously shaped squash. I tried looking at "straight" photos of these, and they just didn't excite or move me. So... I went back to the hyper-real technique I've been playing with.
These are tinted B&W images. I LOVE the way the light bends and twists through this plant. Soon I will post a few images that show the final results of my messing around with squash.
Qtpfsgui 1.8.12 tonemapping parameters:
Operator: Fattal
Parameters:
Alpha: 1.3
Beta: 0.78
Color Saturation: 1.3
Noise Reduction: 0
------
PreGamma: 1
I'm working through the images we made in the big old Portland home everyone first met at.
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.]
Napa has it's own brand of "quaint". This coffee bar was decorated to look old. I think the building was late 1800's. Well, that's old for the USofA.
This image was processed from a stack of three images (+/-2EV, 0EV), put through Qtpfsgui, and then further processed using the GIMP. I have left the Qtpfsgui parameters in place, but please remember; these were just the starting place and the Gimp further modified the original source images.
Qtpfsgui 1.8.12 tonemapping parameters:
Operator: Fattal
Parameters:
Alpha: 1
Beta: 0.7
Color Saturation: 0.8
Noise Reduction: 0.04
------
PreGamma: 0.5
Each time I work with the original images I find some new way to re-work them. Exploring possibilities is just too much fun! I'm hopeful that they'll look good in my hand bound books.
I'm coming down to the last of the images from my Oaks Park outing. It was a LOT of fun seeing what I could see, and the processing the results. Sometimes photography is just too much fun! Makes me smile a whole bunch.
A few uploads ago I posted an image titled "Chain the Monte" showing our old red montecarlo with chains we put on at this rest stop up in Mesa Verde six months prior to this image with the xterra. At that time we had no idea that the rock formation known as Knifes Edge was right over our heads as it just wasnt visible through the snow.
You dont need a 4X4 in Mesa Verde when the weather is nice like this but it would have come in handy back in the March of 2006.
After four days of Mesa Verde we head down to Chaco Canyon in New Mexico where the capabilities of this vehicle really came thru for us. Rains were coming in every afternoon in the four corners region that September and many of the dirt roads around Chaco were washed out or flooded. In order to visit some two of the outlier ruins we had to sort of make our own roads thru mud. Had we still been driving the Monte we would never been able to visit those sites on that trip. When we got back home the xterra was covered in mud. I have been very impressed with this vehicle and its abilities to get us places that were before out of our reach.
House made of petrified wood, partially reconstructed for our veiwing pleasure. Nearly a thousand years old.
Spray painted on the closest corner are the words "keep out", not sure if that would keep the type of person who would even think about going in from doing so.
I'm working through the images we made in the big old Portland home everyone first met at.
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!
The red was so violent against the plain background. I can't count how many times I've stopped to take this photo, only to continue on my way without the subject captured. This time I had a clear idea of what I was after. This nearly matches my expectations and hopes.
Qtpfsgui 1.8.12 tonemapping parameters:
Operator: Fattal
Parameters:
Alpha: 1.5
Beta: 0.8
Color Saturation: 0.6
Noise Reduction: 0.09
------
PreGamma: 1
In yet another Irish Pub. The food was OK. The waitress and my wife had a good conversation. It was blowing like h*ll outside. Petaluma this time of year can be fairly brisk. And the breeze this visit was particularly stiff.
This image was processed from a stack of three images (+/-2EV, 0EV), put through Qtpfsgui, and then further processed using the GIMP. I have left the Qtpfsgui parameters in place, but please remember; these were just the starting place and the Gimp further modified the original source images.
Qtpfsgui 1.8.12 tonemapping parameters:
Operator: Fattal
Parameters:
Alpha: 1
Beta: 0.8
Color Saturation: 0.7
Noise Reduction: 0.1
------
PreGamma: 0.5
On your way in to Chaco Canyon from the east side you might see this sign.
Shot taken with my little 1.2mp vivitar and I think its the perfect camera for such a sign.
Story behind this shot told here
involves precarious heights and a nervous photographer blowing the chance to shoot one of the best and largest specimens of Tarantula Hawks I have ever seen.
Interesting film clip on this creature www.desertusa.com/video_pages/thawk1.html
Somewhere off Butler's Wash in a canyon cutting into Comb Ridge is castle.
The moat doesnt excactly go all the way around.
After visiting my brother, we headed over to see my wife's daughter in Petaluma. The rail station there has been completely renovated. However, the old rail lines sit out back in an open field largely ignored. On this latest trip I noticed how a large construction company has put up a fence along the south side of the property. This made photography rather difficult of the old engine.
I have worked these with Qtpfsgui and the GIMP. Still, I wanted to include the Qtpfsgui parameters. They are only a vague starting point for where this image ended up.
Qtpfsgui 1.8.12 tonemapping parameters:
Operator: Mantiuk
Parameters:
Contrast Mapping factor: 0.001
Saturation Factor: 0.8
------
PreGamma: 1
The floor of the yellow parking garage is old and "charactered". The HDR tone-map technique enhances the micro-contrast in such a way as to reveal details that the minds eye can feel, but the camera rarely captures in one shot.
This, like my other Canon G7 AEB images, was created using the camera's +/- 2EV AEB function. This allows me to capture a lot of information about highlights and shadows, then map them into a pleasing 8 bit jpg space.
Qtpfsgui 1.8.12 tonemapping parameters:
Operator: Fattal
Parameters:
Alpha: 1
Beta: 0.72
Color Saturation: 0.9
Noise Reduction: 0.03
------
PreGamma: 0.7