Sean Duggan Blog

Looking Into the New Year

Looking Into the New Year  [Canon 5D; 17 seconds]
December 31, 2009
(click in the image for a larger version)

Happy New Year to You!

This is my last image of 2009. It was taken on New Year's Eve, just past 11pm. The subject is my favorite old oak tree on our property. I had gone out to take photos of the Blue Moon, but in the time between deciding to take the photos and getting the camera and tripod set up, the scattered cloud cover had become pretty much constant cloud cover (though it did move through the sky is a very atmospheric manner).

With the moon taken off the menu as a reliable subject, I concentrated instead on the silhouettes of the oak trees around our property. For some shots the upward camera angle was so pronounced that the 24-105mm zoom lens would not stay zoomed in. So after taking a few standard shots holding it in place, I began playing around with slowly zooming from 105 to 24 during the exposure and I liked those interpretations much better. Although it looks like the moon is behind this tree, it is not. It was actually behind me. The "light beam" effect is created by the zooming of the lens during the shot. This exposure is 17 seconds.

The Recent Blog Hiatus

My last update here was back on November 22nd. I think that must be a record in terms of my own blog inactivity, or close to it. An incredibly busy, deadline-heavy schedule is the reason, as well as the fact that I just felt like it was a good time to take a break. Of course, since we have just passed into the New Year, one resolution is to bring that hiatus to a close and resume more regular posting. My schedule is still slammed for the next several weeks, so I won’t be making daily posts, but at least two or three per week is my goal at the moment.

Newsletter News

The Creative Digital Darkroom Newsletter has also been on hiatus since late September and that break will also be coming to an end sometime this month. So, if you have signed up since last September and are wondering when the newsletter would show up, it will be back in action soon.

Upcoming Appearances

I will be giving a presentation, doing some portfolio reviews and teaching a couple of hands-on computer sessions at FOTOfusion in West Palm Beach, Florida coming up January 19th through the 23rd . My sessions are as follows:

Wednesday Jan 20 10:30am – 12pm– Lightworks & Shadowplay (Presentation)
Thursday Jan 21 10:20am – 12:45pm– Portfolio Reviews
Friday Jan 22  4:30pm – 6:00pm – Creative Collage with Adobe Photoshop (computer lab)
Saturday Jan 23 2:30pm – 4pm – Painting with Light, Shadow & Color (computer lab)

April Hawaii Workshops

I’ll be in Honolulu teaching 4 short workshops April 22nd through the 25th. Here’s a link for more info on those classes.

2010 Artifacts of an Uncertain Origin Calendar

My 2010 calendar featuring 12 selectively sepia toned pinhole photographs from my Artifacts of an Uncertain Origin series will be on sale through mid March. Follow the link to preview the images and get more information.

Breakwater

Breakwater [Canon 5D]
Honolulu, Hawai'i
April 13, 2008
(click in the image to see a  larger view)

This is a blend of two 30-second exposures of one of the breakwaters at Waikiki Beach. The waves sloshed over my feet and the bottom of my tripod a couple of times while making this image.

The reason I took two shots is that even with 30 seconds and all the ambient light of the hotels behind me, the rocks on the breakwater were much darker than I wanted them to be. I didn't do a longer exposure because I didn't want the sky to wash out. So I used my Canon 580EX speedlite to flash the foreground three or four times during one of the 30-second exposures and then combined the two shots in Photoshop using a layer mask. There were also some adjustment layers added that further darkened the sky and lightened the water and modified the color balance a bit.You can see the Layers palette for the finished image below.

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5-Day Creative Collage Workshop

I'll be teaching a 5-day version of my Creative Collage class at the excellent Lepp Institute of Digital Imaging in Los Osos, California June 2 - 6, 2008. The extended time frame of this class allows for more time to explore personal collage projects, not to mention enjoying the beautiful natural surroundings on the coast near Morro Bay. More about this class.

At the Edge of Understanding

2 Seconds on a Fogbound Shore [Canon 5D]
Oct 3, 2007 -- Acadia National Park, Maine
(click in the image for a larger and foggier version)

As the title suggests, this is a 2-second exposure taken in heavy fog. Most of the processing was done in Photoshop Lightroom with some minimal tonal and contrast tweaking in Photoshop. The original raw exposure with no processing is below:

*Upcoming Workshops *

My next workshop will be a 5-day class called  Digital Black and White at the Lepp Institute along the beautiful central California coast February 18-22. Click the link for a course description.

Lighthouse & Fog

Bass Harbor Head Light  [Canon 5D]
Acadia National Park, Maine
October 2, 2007
(click in the image for a larger version)

This is a blend of two horizontal exposures to expand  the number of pixels used to capture the scene. The Photomerge feature in Photoshop CS3 was used to stitch the two shots together. I wanted to go for a real long exposure for this to cause the ocean to be a silky smooth blur so I used a 5-stop solid Neutral Density filter and an aperture of f/20 to come up with a 30-second exposure time.

This was taken shortly after the creeping tendrils of evening fog had reached my location. I also have some sunset shots of this lighthouse and while they came out great and it looks lovely, I feel that the shots in the thick fog have much more atmosphere and interest.

Conversing with the Incoming Tide

Seascape, Maine  [Canon 5D]
June 28, 2007
(click in the image to see it larger)

Another from the same series as yesterday's photo. 1.6 seconds

10 Seconds at the Continent's Edge

Seascape, Maine  [Canon 5D]
June 28, 2007
(click in the image to see a larger version)

This is a 10-second exposure taken in the full light of mid morning. I used two solid neutral density filters that cut back 8 stops of light, combined with an ISO setting of 100 and an aperture of f/16 to achieve the long daylight exposure that was needed in order to blur the water. The split-toning effect was applied in Photoshop Lightroom.

This image was taken on one of the class photo excursions during my Real World Digital Photography workshop last week at the Maine Photo Workshops. It was such a full week that I never was able to find the time to make daily posts as I had intended. I'll make up for that by posting Maine images all this week. I was fortunate to have a great group of people in my class who were really enthusiastic about learning more about digital photography and processing their images in the digital darkroom. So, thanks to all of you who took the class! I had a great time last week and all of your enthusiasm, boundless curiosity, energy and fine sense of humor really helped to make it another wonderful experience at the Maine Workshops.

Now I have a month to take a breather from travel before heading off to the equally magical Santa Fe Workshops to teach The Creative Digital Darkroom. That class is filling up, so if you're interested, be sure to click on the link to find out more about the workshop.

Santa Fe Trail

Santa Fe Trail  [Canon 5D]
Santa Fe, New Mexico  July, 2006
(click in the image to see it larger)

This is a life size bronze sculpture depicting a wagon train that is at the entrance to Museum Hill in Santa Fe. The exposure time is 2.5 minutes at f/8, 100 ISO. In addition to the light from a nearly full moon and the lightning in the distance,  I used a flashlight to paint in some illumination in the foreground and also placed a small penlight in the cowboy's raised hand. The photo was taken last year during my week long workshop in Santa Fe.

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Featured Workshop

The Creative Digital Darkroom
July 29 – August 4, 2007 Santa Fe Workshops

This week's featured workshop is still a ways off, but if you're interested in a week of creative Photoshop and digital photography (including panoramas, HDR, multiple image composites, diptychs, triptychs and more), then consider joining me in Santa Fe, New Mexico this summer for my Creative Digital Darkroom workshop.The workshop is based on concepts, philosophies and techniques that are covered the book I am currently finishing up with Katrin Eismann, The Creative Digital Darkroom, due out this fall from O'Reilly Media, Inc. The digital darkroom lab at the Santa Fe Workshops is one of the best I have ever taught in. Each student has a G5 Mac with a cinema display with access to an HP Designjet pigment printer. We'll be exploring all the cool new features in Adobe Photoshop CS3 as well as Photoshop Lightroom. We'll also have some photo excursions during the week for practicing creative camera and exposure techniques, including a foray into the magic of night photography.

One Year Ago Today

Deer Creek  [Canon 10D]
March 16, 2006
(click in the image for a larger version)

Another from the "Anniversary Series"...where I look in the archives for photographs taken on the same day one, two, three (or more) years ago. I find that this is a good way to re-visit images that I have not yet worked on (and there are way too many of those!).

I stopped to take this one morning after dropping my daughter off at kindergarten. It was cold and raining lightly. Both the camera and I had to be dried off afterwards. We had had a lot of rain and snow in the previous couple of weeks, so Deer Creek, normally a sleepy little stream, was more rushing than usual. These are the foundations of the original one-lane bridge that has not been used for many years

The camera was on a tripod for this shot: 0.3 seconds at f/16, ISO 100. Photoshop CS2 was used to create the black and white conversion and hand painted split toning.

She Waited at the Gate...

She Waited at the Gate  [Canon 5D]
Jan 3, 2007
(click in the image for a larger version)

5.0 seconds.
San Francisco...9:36pm
She was waiting, I was walking
Sharpness is overrated, Part III.

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As the old saying goes...It never rains but it pours.

A chapter deadline rush for my current book project, as well as an unexpected, work-stopping computer coma last night (all is well now after applying some technical voodoo), and preparations for an out-of-town workshop next week, have interrupted my plans for a lengthier discussion on the beauty of the blur and the limitations of sharpness. {my, that was a long sentence!}

I wanted to get the last image from this series posted so things did not get too stale around here.  But I will return to those themes in the near future when I have a little more time. Besides, I have plenty of beautifully blurry images to use for illustrative examples!

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Upcoming Workshops:

Digital Black & White
Jan 29 – Feb 2, 2007 (next week!)
The Lepp Institue for Digital Imaging, Los Osos, California
Click here for a class description and more info
(last I heard there's still 2 or 3 spaces left...)

Her Shawl, Like a Rose Cascade...

Her Shawl, Like a Rose Cascade... [Canon 5D]
January 3, 2007
(click in the image for a larger version)

San Francisco...9:35pm
4.0 seconds.
They were walking,
I was walking;
Sharpness is overrated...(part II)

As Susan Burnstine reminds me in her comment on the previous image, the incomparable Keith Carter coined the aphorism on sharpness being overrated (thanks, Susan!). If you have not seen either Keith's or Susan's images, click on over and give them a look. There's some very fine work to be seen.

I have one more image from this series, which will be posted in a couple of days. By then I should have time to gather some thoughts for this space on the issue of sharpness and the beauty of the blur. Stay tuned!

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Upcoming Workshops:

Digital Black & White
Jan 29 – Feb 2, 2007
The Lepp Institue for Digital Imaging, Los Osos, California
Click here for a class description and more info