Sulfer Works, Mt Lassen, California
July 31, 2010
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Steam rises from boiling mudpots in Mt Lassen Volcanic National Park, California. This is a fascinating park with a lot to offer. I was only able to spend an afternoon here on the return journey of a family trip to see some plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festical in Ashland. I'm hoping for a chance to go back this summer and spend a bit more time there.
Titanic Bouncey House • Canon 5D
October 30, 2010
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There's no escaping the Titanic this week. Certainly not today, April 15, 2012, one hundred years to the day since the world's most celebrated ocean liner sank in the icy waters of the North Atlantic two hours and twenty minutes after striking an iceberg. I'm sure the TV channels have been awash with specials and documentaries on the disaster. And of course, there's also no escaping the media blitz in support of the re-issued 3D version of James Cameron's blockbuster film about the ship. The Titanic has become a part of our collective imagination like few other disasters have. It is a story, like the ship itself, of epic proportions.
I suppose that with enough time and distance from an event, it becomes easier to shrug it off, or trivialize it. But when I first saw a kid's bouncy house in the shape of the sinking Titanic a couple of years ago, I was both fascinated and just a little appalled. After all, over 1,500 people died when the ship sank. The idea of turning such a horrible tragedy into an inflatable bouncy house for little kids to jump about in just seemed more than a little surreal to me.
In the corporate board rooms where new bouncy house designs are considered and decided upon, was it a difficult pitch, or was it embraced right away? And what other ideas were put forward that never made the cut? Perhaps other tragedies or grim circumstances were considered as good thematic material for bouncy houses. The Lusitania (complete with inflatable torpedo sticking out of the bouncy hull)? The Hindenburg (a disaster involving an actual inflatable object...warning, do not inflate with hydrogen!)? The wreck of the Andrea Doria? What conditions need to be in place, and how much time must elapse before a tragedy becomes a bouncey house?
Arthur Tress talks about his photo exhibit San Francisco 1964
at the DeYoung Museum March 9, 2012, San Francisco
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I was at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco the other day to see the exhibit Arthur Tress: San Francisco 1964. Adobe hosted a private opening with Tress as well as the curator of the show. Arthur was very engaging as he talked about his images and remembered his time in San Francisco at that eventful time. This is the first time that this collection of photographs has been shown and it is well worth a look if your orbit takes you anywhere near San Francisco. The images are gorgeous new silver gelatin prints made from the medium format negatives Tress shot with his Rolleiflex camera in the spring and summer of 1964. They are a mix of street photography and social documentary that combines traces of the sensibilties of both Robert Frank's The Americans, with some of the quirkier and more surreal aspects of the work of Diane Arbus.
Many thanks to Adobe for inviting me to this excellent event! Here's a link to more info about the exhibit, which is on view through June 3, 2012.
Eight images from Arthur Tress: San Francisco 1964
One of Tress' still life series, Fish Tank Sonata had a big impact on me when I was younger and it was great to be able to meet him and share that with him. As a photographer of staged and slightly surreal still lifes myself, the inspirational connection between that work and my own is a strong one.
Here's a very interesting interview with Arthur Tress from 2002 that covers his extensive and wide-ranging body of work and also some of his philosphy on image-making and the creative process.
One of the photographs from Fish Tank Sonata by Arthur Tress
Someone at my Chamber Door [iPhone 4]
January 26, 2012
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I opened wide the door...
Darkness there, and nothing more.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token...
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I took this photo after my daughter's 5th grade class performed a play about ancient Egypt. The silhouette is their teacher (in long Egyptian robes) saying goodnight from the door to the school auditorium. After playing with the image in a variety of apps, I pondered what the title should be. A good title is often an important part of the creative process for me. It can add to the image and suggest a context or further meaning for a scene.
After wandering down several different conceptual paths searching for a title, for some reason I was reminded of the lines from Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven, where the narrator opens wide the door and peers into the darkness, after hearing "a tapping, as of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door."
One of the things I enjoy most about making images with the iPhone is that it offers a very immediate and compact creative experience that is not weighed down by the considerations or extended time commitments that are often a part of images made with more "serious" cameras. In the case of this image, while I am very pleased with the end result, one of the most satisfying parts of the process was exploring the different idea paths in search of a title and finding the thread that led to the poem The Raven, which I had not thought of for a long time.
For some insight into the fairly simple processing "app journey" of this image, see below:
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Here is the original exposure (cropped slightly to the final proportions). Backlighting is always a situation that has the potential for interesting results, so don't shy away from having your iPhone ready to take pictures at night just because you think it's too dark. It may, indeed, be too dark, but you never know when a door will open or a light will come on to create the backlighting that will lead to an intrigueing image.
I started out by using LensLight and added the light beams with the White Rays preset. The great thing about this app is that you have full control over the size, rotation, placement and brightness of the effect you choose (the same developer also has a very cool companion app called LensFlare).
Adding the light rays with LensLight (click in the image for a larger version)
The next stop on the app journey was Filterstorm, which is one of my bread and butter "go-to" apps. Don't let the name Filterstorm fool you. This is not really a filter app, but more of a Photoshop-type app. You can apply a wide range of color and tonal effects that function much like those in Photoshop. Plus you can use masks to apply the effects to specific areas of the image. That is what I did for this photo. The light rays from Lens Light were showing up on top of the silhouetted figure of the man. I used the Curves feature in Filterstorm to darken down the shadow areas and remove those light rays on the figure. Then I used the masking tools to paint in the adjustments only where I wanted them. I also applied another Curves adjustment and painted in a lightening effect only on the light rays and backlit parts of the image, as well as added some noise to the entire photo.
Applying local adjustments in Filterstorm (click in the image for a larger version)
The final stop was Nik Snapseed, which is an incredibly well-designed and very fun app to use. In Snapseed I made the image black & white, added grain, tweaked with the brightness and contrast some more, applied a sepia-flavored grunge look, and the final rough-edged frame effect.
Final "flavoring" applied in Nik Snapseed (click in the image for a larger version)
If you're interestd in this type of creative transformations for your iPhone images, I will be teaching a half day iPhoneography Creative Processing workshop in Sacramento, California in early June. Be sure to Like my Facebook page, add me to your Google circles (links for both are above left) or sign up for my free newsletter (above right) to keep up to date on the details of that class, which will be posted soon.
The Creative Digital Darkroom on the Monterey Peninsula!
Only two weeks left until my next workshop in beautiful Carmel, California. I'll be teaching a weekend class on The Creative Digital Darkroom: Photoshop Beyond the Basics at the Center for Photographic Art on Feb. 11 & 12. The class is filling up but there are still spaces available so sign up soon if your are interested! Click the class title to find out more about this workshop.
Bear River Rocks [Canon 5D]
January 2, 2010
(click in the image for a larger view)
It's been awhile since I've posted an image for Time Machine Tuesday, so here's one from two years ago (well, two years and one week ago, to be exact). This was taken along one of my favorite trails that is quite close to my house. An 8-minute drive gets you to the river and then after a 10 to 15-minute hike you will arrive at this spot. I've always liked the arrangement of these two rocks. There's a good balance between them. Finding balance, arrangments and designs in the landscape is one of the pleasures of photographing the natural world.
Real World Digital Photography eBook on Sale!
The eBook version of my book Real World Digital Photography is the official eBook Deal of the Week at Peachpit Press and you can snag a copy for only $9.99! This is a really good price, so if you're interested, head on over to Peachpit Press and place your order before the end of day Saturday (PST) January 14th.
Lightroom 4 Public Beta
Adobe announced the Public Beta for Lightroom 4 late last night (download the beta here). This has been all over the blogosphere and social media landscape, shared and re-shared by seemingly everyone, but on the slim chance that you may have missed it, I am mentioning it here.The 4th version of Lightroom has some exciting new features and improvements. There are good overviews and short demo videos posted at a number of places. Here are a few of them:
Lightroom 4 Videos from Adobe's Julieanne Kost
NAPP Lightroom 4 Launch Center
Photoshop Cafe Lightroom 4 Learning Site
Terry White's "What's New in Lightroom 4 (Public Beta)?"
Upcoming Workshops
I am still in the process of scheduling workshops for 2012 but I wanted to mention three that I am really looking forward to:
The Creative Digital Darkroom: Photoshop Beyond the Basics
February 11 — 12, Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA
Creative Transformations with Photoshop
June 18 — 22, Madeline Island School of the Arts
Madeline Island, Wisconsin
True North: Photographing the Interpretive Landscape in Iceland
August 12 — 18, with Focus on Nature in Iceland
I also have a half-day iPhoneography workshop coming up in northern California on June 9th. More details coming soon!
Parking Lot Christmas Tree [iPhone 4]
December 29, 2011
(click in the image for a larger version)
Time for the Next Act
I went to the store yesterday evening, just as dusk was falling across the land. The Christmas decorations were still up in all of the shopping center parking lots. As I returned to my car I looked up and saw this tree decoration on the light pole.
It's an odd time, that span of days between Christmas and New Years. The memory of Christmas is still fresh, but so is the feeling that it's time to get on with it and move on. A new year is just offstage, waiting in the wings, but the decorations and holiday sets linger, until the seasonal stage hands arrive to take them down and pack them away for another 11 months. This week is an intermission of sorts, between the year that is ending and the one that is about to begin. It's time for the next act.
Creative Digital Darkroom Workshop, Feb 11 -12
And, speaking of the next act, my next workshop is coming up soon on February 11 -12 at the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, California. I'll be teaching The Creative Digital Darkroom: Photoshop Beyond the Basics. For a full description of the class, click the title to learn more. There is a discounted price for members of CPA.
