Christopher's PhotoSketchPad

Resolution and Wishful Thinking...

2012-02-12T16:32:00.000-08:00

I've been on conversations with fellow engineering colleagues where, over the years, we tend to note just how disconnected from reality some people are who make claims about resolution and it's effect on photographic image making. Typically, arguments arise in on-line forums where someone will claim that Zeiss lenses are "the best" and someone else says Leica "can't be beaten", and all parties claiming they can tell the difference in images made with different lenses. DP Review is pretty typical of this effect.

The claim that really takes the cake is the one Zeiss and other manufacturers use when they say a lens "writes" well. What the hell is that? Optics are optics and physics is still physics. It's all bunk. There's no truth to those kinds of claims, no matter what some folk would like to believe.

In optics, lens design, when well-executed in manufacturing, tends to not be the limiting factor in resolution. It's either the film or the sensor (depending on which technology you use).

The following is a chart of theoretic limits of resolution of a perfect lens at various apertures.

Resolving Power

This presents the theoretic resolving power of an ideal lens where the light's
wavelength is 589.3mu (green).

Tangential lines/mm
f-number Angular distance from axis (in degrees)
    0    10    25
1     1391 1329  1035
2     695  665   518
4     348  332   259
5.6   246  235   183
8     174  166   130
11    123  117   92  <--- approx. limits of film/sensor resolution
16    87   83    65
22    61   59    46
32    43   41    32
45    31   29    23
64    22   21    16

Radial lines/mm
f-number Angular distance from axis (in degrees)
    0    10    25
1     1391 1370  1260
2     695  685   630
4     348  343   315
5.6   246  243   223
8     174  171   158
11    123  121   111  <--- approx. limits of film/sensor resolution

16    87   86    79
22    61   61    56
32    43   43    39
45    31   30    28
64    22   21    20

Which means that diffraction limits really can't come into play in any meaningful manner until a lens is stopped way down to at least f/11. Even then, most modern digital sensors are resolution limited to around 70 lp/mm. So with those systems (such as with either Canon's, Nikon's, or Sony's full frame sensor'd wonder boxes), diffraction in the pure optical physical sense will not come into play until you're well beyond the limits of what a lens offers. ie: f/16

As sensor resolution rises, diffraction will still not come into play as many photographer shoot at apertures brighter than f/11.

Said another way, I've never met a lens I didn't like. Some, yes, I liked more than others. But seldom, if ever, were the issues of "liking" a lens related to it's ability to be sharp.

I've shot them all. Leica. Zeiss (small, medium, and large formats). Canon. Nikon. Pentax. Mamiya (medium format), Schneider (medium format, large format). Sigma (I know people claim to hate these lenses, but I can't find fault with them, they're wonderful optics, regardless of money). Dagor (large format). Kodak (small, medium, large formats - brilliant optics from WWII until the mid-1960's).

It's not a matter of the lens. It's the nut behind the eyepiece.

So there. Now go out and make some fine images. Forget about the blather on those forums. OK?

A funny thing happened...

2012-02-10T16:26:00.000-08:00

My wife and I have been going to the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge up in Ridgefield Washington for three or four years. I wanted to go because two of my then colleagues, Rick Cameron and Rob Sanford, would come back with wonderful images of a bird I've never seen before. They told me it was a Bittern.

Their images were to fun and interesting that we'd trek up there from time to time to see if we too could find that funny shaped bird.

We never found him.

I accused Rob of taking a stuffed Bittern and placing him by the road at RNWR just so he could take a "realistic" image. Rob and Rick both laughed and told me how easy it was to find them.

They didn't tell me how illusive the Bittern could be. No. They just continued to laugh at my predicament.

Once. Just once, we found a Bittern. I took his photo and was thrilled. But that was three years ago.

On recent a Sunday when our house was being shown (it was on the market for sale) and there was some silly National Holiday Sporting Event on TV, my wife suggested we go to RNWR to say goodbye to all our feathered friends. One last time.

All our bird friends were there. The Tundra Swans, the Shoveler Ducks, the small song birds, and the big Northern Harriers were all out giving us a winged farewell. Everyone but the Bittern.

We were cursing the Bittern for his illusive ways.

We came around the south edge of the loop, muttering all the way. "Where is that Bittern?" "Where, oh where is that Bittern?"

Coming around a corner, my wife asked again "Where is that Bittern?" I said "There he is!!!"

Not 20 feet from the car was our funny Bittern friend. He was so close that if I used all 400mm's of my Canon 7D/100-400L combo, I only caught the Bittern's head.

He'd come out to say goodbye too.

I'll miss them all up at RNWR. Such a beautiful place. Such a peaceful area.

It's time to go. April 11th is our pending departure date. The house is sold. Our things are packed. Paris awaits.

Did I really get to work with Rachel? Pinch me. I must be dreaming.

2011-12-16T16:05:00.001-08:00

So... what would you say if the world's finest bellydancer's agent contacted you and asked if you could make a few images? Would you A) Say, thank's but I'm booked? B) Scream and hollar, jump up and down, and run around like a chicken with it's head cut off? C) Suddenly get worried that the Muse, in all her loveliness has left you? D) B and C?

I've heard of Rachel for several years and made a rather terrible video of her during a local event. Imagine my surprise when, in spite of the video, I actually got to work with Rachel and Sol?

What I've come to realize is that creative people are creative through and through.

There was a photoshoot that I did for a Steampunk theme set where a model came in with her entourage and tried to "own" the place. Rather like they knew what they were doing. But, as you can likely already guess, they were just young and inexperienced. They'll get better with time and we came away with a few good images (which have since been published).

When I work with true creative people (professional or not), the essence of who they are, what their craft is, and how they live in the world comes through, loud and clear. The Baron Samedi photoshoot was just like that. Scream'n hot great images from the "get, go".

Such was the case with Rachel, too. Solid. Centered. Clear vision. Just perfect to work with from the outset.

I've since spoken with one of Portland's leading photographic lights, Ted Mishima. He is a great artistst and is staying true to his vision. And we get to live his dream. Ted and I spoke a number of years back and he mentioned how fun it would be to work photography in an atelier in Paris, France.

Little then did I realize that my wife and I would be moving there. Soon.

After working with such fine people in Portland, I'm a little worried about being able to find such high caliber folk in Paris. Funny, isn't it? Yet, there it is.

If I'm lucky, creative people will like what I do there and my wife and I will be able to work with them too. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for good luck.

In the mean time, I have a LOT of potentially fine images to work from in our shoot with Rachel, and Eyerish, and Danielle, and....

Something wicked this way comes...

2011-12-03T09:40:00.000-08:00

As a sometimes neurotic artist, I wonder if my work is "good enough". Every now and then, I take a look back and realize, to me, it's better than I could ever imagine I was capable of.

Perhaps it comes from working with such talented people?

HD version is found here. It looks good as 720p or 1080p, so check it out.

All Hallows Eve ~ Dark Themes

2011-11-30T09:36:00.000-08:00

Occasionally the Muse reaches out and swivels my head in a different direction.

Up to some point this Fall I had been working to express beauty in white on white images. All Hallows Eve loomed and my mind suddenly turned dark.

Working with one of my favorite expressive extremely creative models, Eyerish Heather Collins, we developed a couple ideas for a photoshoot where we would work black on black.

As the photoshoot approached I had difficulties "seeing" something useful and interesting.

The day before our shoot, Eyerish asked if she could bring two friends. Meghann Rose and Myrk Kauna were to join us for the three person event in front of my lens.

When my wife and I went to pick up our models, my chin dropped at the sight of them. What they expressed and how they dressed were beyond my wildest dreams. Suddenly my concern for what to capture flew out the window as I was presented with one of the best opportunities I've had for making fun and interesting images in a rather long time.

I asked Myrk what had represented. His reply was, "Baron Samedi". That was it! Our theme and our purpose.

I'm thrilled with the outcome of this shoot.

I worked to include Gothic elements from images I made earlier this Fall in Paris, France. Which reminds me. I need to start a blog on a Bohemian Moves to Paris. That aside, the images from Paris lent themselves very well to what I felt as I worked through the 1200+ images we made that day.

Up to this photoshoot, I was seriously considering selling my lighting gear just before our move and never working in the studio like this again.

I may have to reconsider that position.

While I'm at it, I need to publicly thank HamburgerSteaky for uncovering the seed of desire to move to Paris that was planted nearly 30 years ago. He brought up just how wonderful it would be to have an atelier in Paris to make images in. Thank you, HamburgerSteaky! You know who you are.

A little technology doesn't hurt...

2011-10-06T13:09:00.000-07:00

I'm about to cover a topic that makes me a little uncomfortable. Why the uncomfortableness? Well, as I've been preaching to my friends and colleagues ([laughing] sometimes it's a miracle I have either at this point), making a fine photographic image is not about the tools. It's about the fool behind the tools that makes or breaks an image.

Yet, there are some interesting changes taking place in the photographic industry that are having a direct impact on my "vision" and ability to "see" a final image. This entry explores one of the new tools that I've found particularly interesting.

I recently purchased a pair of Sony NEX5 to take with me to Europe this Fall. One had a 16mm f/2.8 lens and the other had Sony's fabulous 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 SEL superzoom. As you likely already know, Sony introduced the NEX series with the ability to perform in-camera image stitching. The function produces a jpg file from a series of images that the camera makes when the camera moved in a sweeping arc.

When the NEX firmware was capable of creating these kinds of in-camera stitched panoramic images, I knew I had to try it out. The reason is related to something I've been pursuing in one form or another for over 20 years. At the height of my large format film camera Madness, I owned an incredible Folmer and Schwing 12x20inch monster, complete with lenses (Fuji, Schneider, Zeiss). This camera was shortly followed with an equally incredible Korona 7x17inch mini-monster.

I never really made any images of value with either of these camera systems. Well, perhaps I did with the 7x17 Korona. I have a stack of negatives I've never printed of steam locomotives that I shot using a Kodak 250mm Wide Field Ektar. So the jury is still out. The fact I don't have anything to really show for those early efforts lends credence to the rumor that I'm completely mad about camera equipment and not image making.

A decade down the road, many gallery showings, magazine publications, and awards of all kinds later, I may finally be able to dis-spell those early evil but entirely likely true rumors of my insanity. It took me that long to finally believe what I said to my friends and colleagues. The image is all that matters. How you get there does not.

Moving along to the Digital Age and thinking about how I could get a large detail filled file and create a panorama, I have used several image stitching software packages. I found I like the wide narrow aspect of panoramas. Some of my better work included software stitched panoramas from inside steam engine cabins. These software applications were used outside of the camera and on a computer during post-processing. So when working in the field, I had to rely on my abilities to provide enough overlap between frames to ensure a decent panorama result.

Enter the Sony NEX5.

In-camera panorama creation is great! Now I can see panorama image results in the field. This allows me to make adjustments in exposure, field sweep, and composition from one image to the next. The number of, to me, interesting panoramas I come back with has suddenly increased.

When my wife and I recently visited Paris, France, I was keen to try my hand at in-camera panorama generation. The images here are some of the first results of this exercise. To say I'm thrilled would be an understatement.

Does in-camera panorama creation supplant my earlier software stitch processes? No. It only enhances what I can come away with.

The last image shared here is an example of a software stitched panorama that I took on the same Paris trip. I hand held the camera and shot off images one at a time in an upward sweeping motion. I did this because I wanted to see if I could keep the shadow area noise level to a minimum by shooting RAW images in place of jpgs.

It doesn't matter, actually. A good image is a good image, whether it's shot as RAW or in-camera processed jpg original files. As an academic exercise, I'm satisfied with both results.

It feels like I'm coming back with more and more images that please me. Which leads me to believe that new photographic image making tools are helping me create broader range of expressions.

Something gripped me...

2011-09-09T15:10:00.000-07:00

Yes, something gripped my imagination.

It started with looking at images from my favorite artists. I wanted to reverse engineer what I was looking at to see how certain effects and composition might be applied to my work.

As a line out of an old Mel Brooks movie goes, "Something funny happened on the way to the Coliseum."

I find it's true in nearly 100 percent of the cases where I reverse engineer something, work to implement changes in my own work and ways of seeing, only to come out the other end with something completely unexpected and nearly fully my own.

This is what happened on my way to shooting a series of white on white images.

One of my favorite models needed to get in front of my lens and we were kicking around ideas for what we might do. I like the very Portland style bohemian fashions that turn out in this city. So we talked about white on white, but heavily layered and heavily textured.

When Eyerish showed up at the studio both my wife and I were stunned and instantly appreciative. The level of effort that went into the costumes that Eyerish and Lulu created is nothing short of amazing.

We worked for three hours together and turned out some really fun work.

Not a month later, another model asked if I would photograph her dance troupe. She wanted to be photographed against a white backdrop too.

Taking liberties with the idea, I continued to deepen and expand the white on white theme that I started to develop with Eyerish. The results of the bellydance photoshoot are also, in my mind, outstanding. I find I really enjoy the high key lighting over textures and skin tones.

For all the liberties that I took with everyone, I need to thank them for allowing me to risk their publish printed "look" in allowing me to work in the processing manner that I did. Behind each image is the straight, normal photographic image.

As I've come to learn about myself, I can't leave straight, normal photographic images alone. Not when where is something glimmering and attracting way down the processing line.

Meanwhile...

2011-07-07T08:16:00.000-07:00

I have been preparing a few prints for a show I'll have starting later this month down at Bread and Ink. They're located around 37th and Hawthorn near-in SE. It's a great restaurant that's been around for years. They use locally sourced organic foods that are then cooked up into various tasty dishes. Well worth a visit.

Taking a quick look at the results, I have to say, I can't believe these images are my own work. The works are full of detail and show (to me) incredible resolution. They also have a quality of light that I never thought I'd ever achieve (see a prior blog entry on this very topic).

Looking at my work from a somewhat removed third person point of view is rather educational. I realize that I work differently than many of my friends and colleagues. This came after an email exchange with Pete Gomena, current President of the Portland Photographer's Forum (PPF). He p0inted out something that I hadn't fully considered nor appreciated before.

In very broad generalizations, I feel that there are two approaches used by photographers in making their images. The first are "found" image makers and the second are "idea" image makers. In "f0und" image making, a person wanders the world looking for something that attracts their eye. *Snap* goes the shutter and, with luck, a person has a pleasing image. When I follow DP Review, Fred Miranda, and many of the camera manufacturer's "expert" advice posts I see that a great many people work in this manner. Wander the world. Look for something interesting.

For "idea" image makers, it seems like we start from something we read or saw or felt. Then we work to re-create the reading, seeing, or feeling in the form of an image. I count myself as one of these kinds of image makers. I feel I can't make a decent landscape image, but, after looking at the prints for the upcoming show, I'm not half bad at taking ideas and transforming them into images.

It's a strange feeling to realize this about myself. I worked for years to follow in Saint Ansel's and Brother Weston's footsteps. The path to enlightenment lay in the world of cameras, lenses, and image making processes (careful film selection, film exposure and development, and printmaking). Or so I believed.

Perhaps seven years ago a huge shift in how I worked took place. I rented a studio from Ray Bidegain for a year or two and started to work with models. For me, to work with models, I needed an idea. Somewhere to begin. Otherwise all I would be left with was a model, perhaps attractively attired, standing in from of a viewer like a stiff sack of potatoes.

Over the next several years I read a lot of books by Terry Pratchett, a few by Niel Gaiman, Susanna Clarke and Ian Banks, and remembered how it felt to read Jules Verne. It was natural for me to then seek out scenes and settings that reminded me of what I read. It took time for me to work the lighting to the point where the images expressed the depth and perspective of what I saw in "my mind's eye" (hmmm... that's almost like St Ansel's "pre-visualization", only turned on it's head in oh so many ways...).

This morning I read a few threads on DP Review and Fred Miranda that reminded me of where I started, oh, forty some years ago. Folks yammering on about equipment and lenses and what's best and what's junk. It's almost as if they need to yackity-yack so they can avoid having to make an image they could be judged against. Then I considered my prints. These are sharper in all dimensions, particularly in the execution of ideas, than anything I ever made from an 8x10inch silver gelatine contact print.

At this point, the camera equipment nearly does not matter. For me, it is the development of ideas that matter most. All the rest doesn't really matter. Nearly. I would like to show my work in Paris, France. But that still has nothing to do with camera equipment, now does it?

The more things change...

2011-06-29T14:23:00.000-07:00

I spent some time studying the images of Joel Grimes. I also spent some time studying the Canadian photographer, Renaud Bergeron, and the European photographer, Eugenio Recuenco.

What attracts me to their work is the quality of light they have each achieved. There seems to be a sense of balance between the strong off camera lighting and their somewhat subdued shadow details. Eugenio Recuenco's work reminds me of film set lighting. Perhaps something from a colorized film noir feature. Renaud Bergeron's work is stunning for his mastery of his subject matter. I found Joel Grimes through his Flickr images.

My own work seemed flat and boring by comparison. Perhaps it's that competitive streak in me. Or perhaps it's my continual striving for "perfection". I don't know, but something needed to be done about my boring lighting.

After WWII certain fashion photographers working in Paris, France made wonderful use of north light. That's where a large bank of north facing windows spilled light onto a subject. It is gorgeous, this kind of light. But the three photographers who's work I admire did not seem to employ that kind of light.

William Mortensen (St Ansel's arch nemesis, for reasons I have never understood) wrote a series of wonderful books back in the 1930's. They helped photographers understand their craft as a means of improving their work. William encouraged the use of two kinds of lighting. One gave an iconic, Byzantine tile mosaic kind of light. The other gives a more "familiar" kind of lighting effect. I have followed William's ideas for the past four years. Perhaps it was my flat lighting approach which led to boring images?

In any event, I reviewed my lighting equipment along with my approach and came to feel additional controlled light sources were required. Alien Bees had a PLM parabolic umbrella light system that was back-ordered for many months. One day I saw that their new materials were arriving and I ordered a PLM64.

What I came to realize was that my shoot-thru umbrellas were spilling too much light onto the backdrop, and that my main light could not be controlled in the manner I wanted. I also realized I needed to begin varying the intensity of my various lights to enhance the textures of a subject's clothing as well as to gently spread the shadow areas in certain ways.

It took awhile and several shoots for me to gain confidence in the new approach. Yet the goal was attractive enough that I felt it was worth pursuing. By the time Ivy Slime of Wigslitters asked me to help photograph her wigs a second time, I felt I was ready. Quickly on the heals of that shoot, Tiare Tashnick asked if I could make a few images of her Bogville ~ Gypsy Dust cast.

The results are, hopefully, conveying the change in direction in a way that makes my work subtly more dramatic and approachable. It's only been two years since I submitted work for publication in "1000 Steampunk Creations." The book was very recently released and I am fortunate enough to have two pages of work printed as part of the large, beautiful compilation of Steampunk-themed work. While this is quite thrilling, I realize that I'd love to have another shot at it. I'm much more pleased with my latest images.

Perhaps this is what drives me, then. Not competition. Not "perfection". Rather, perhaps what I'm really involved in is a continual exploration of the craft and art of image making.

It's a real joy, photography.

Wigs!

2011-03-07T14:31:00.000-08:00

The longer I live in Portland the more I absolutely love it here. The creative energy is vibrant, accessible, and, well, it certainly helps me feel part of the whole "scene" when I can contribute to the image making fun.

Recently a nice young lady, whom we shall call Ivy Slime, contacted me to see if I would help her out. She runs an Etsy store-front under the name "WigSplitters". Ivy sells wigs and other Victorian style regalia.

I keep my eyes open for new photo-making opportunities, particularly when they involve image styles I'm attracted to. Noir Victorian Gothia, Tribal Fusion, Steampunk, Oilpunk, and Cyberpunk are themes that currently "turn my crank".

My model was stuck in another city. So I called Ivy to ask if we could/should still continue with the photoshoot. Miracle of miracles! She had someone already lined up and they were on their way to the studio.

Katarina was a complete novice in front of the camera. She was a little nervous I think. Yet she held it together very nicely for the duration of the shoot. In fact, I would never have known she was nervous unless Ivy had made the interpretation for me.

Have I ever said how much I enjoy this kind of work? Oh, maybe only a million or more times!

SilverShotz - model credits

2011-02-11T11:11:00.000-08:00

Fourteen images have been published in SilverShotz magazine. Since there wasn't room in the publication to credit the models, I want to do that here.

First, on the inside front cover is Eyerish Heather Collins.

Jay Lieber

Uxepi Ipexu

Ladyshade

This is bad form. I don't remember who this is.

Grayson White

Kris White

Rowan

Noah Mickens

Kate Badenoch

SilverShotz Magazine hits the stands...

2011-02-10T15:35:00.000-08:00

I can't wait to get home to see how the issue turned out and which images were chosen. The anticipation... the anticipation...

The Muses Steam and Hiss, Crackle and Fizz. The Muses scream of Irreversible Past and ponder Unknowable Future. The Muses close their ears to the Unfathomable and open their eyes to the Dreams of Squids and Red Herrings Daring. Laviathans of deep dark dank wriggle and slither between Coral Towers.

Cheating Death tears the spirit to render both matter and reality substantially modified. The costs of changing forever ones fate is impossibly high.

Into the vastness of time, come all ye whom dare dash the madness of life. Come all ye to whom life means little. Come all ye whom desire to taste and test the three ring circus of the fates.

... after Paris...

2011-01-14T14:26:00.000-08:00

I decided to take another look at the level of accomplishment in Portland's streetart. Paris, I have to admit, was pretty hard to top. But, I thought perhaps things were improving around here too.

The site for somewhat decent graff has been torn down. I'm sure other sites are developing, but I personally only know of one active site, and it is just down the street from where I live.

Working with saturation and tonal range, I hoped to capture some of the intensity of the original work.

Paris - City of Public Art

2010-12-20T12:33:00.000-08:00

My wife and I visited Paris, France for over two weeks in the Fall, 2010. We wanted to see what it was like to visit this famous "city of lights" and do several things. First, we vowed to see none of the Paris icon tourist spots. What could we see in them that we haven't already seen in prior trips? Second, we wanted to live in an apartment and not out of a hotel. The idea was to begin to experience living in Paris as Parisians do. Third, we wanted to see if the city and it's citizens were as vibrant and alive as during those well documented times of the early 1920's.

Crossing the high tourist sites off our list of things to do freed us up to become flâneurs. We could walk or metro to places where normal life and living takes place. We could stop and talk with people when the urge hit. We were free to discover some incredible places not usually highlighted in guide books.

In this way we found Saint Germain l'Auxerrois, Saint Julian le Pavre, the Hotel Sully, several fine bistros (including Fois de l'isle), Gallery Verto-Dodat, and an ancient church around the corner from Sacre Cour. We wedged through the crowds around the pet shops that line the river Seine. I got to walk through the grève of September 23rd and see how the French unions are alive and active in trying to protect the working class from excessive corporate greed.

Living in an apartment was a wonderful way to participate in life and living in Paris. We prepared many of our meals in the apartment. Buying food in Paris was really no more expensive than buying food in the States, and it tasted much better too (the European food system isn't broken like it is in the USA). Being centrally located on l'isle St. Louis allowed us easy access to anything our hearts desired.

When it came time to see if the Parisian culture was still alive, vibrant, and informed, I could think of no better measure than to find and appreciate Paris streetart. While this may seem odd to some, streetart can be a barometer used to measure the level and volume of art a culture has under development. Streetart, by its nature, is transitory and ephemeral. None of it will ever hang in an "official" gallery. None of it will ever be appreciated by the monied conservative class.

Yet, the form, style, and content of streetart can inform even the casual observer about the level of artistic activity. For me, when art spills out into the streets and onto the buildings and vehicles, it tells me that people are demanding to be heard because they feel they have something important to say. Without access to more formal, traditional art outlets, streetart becomes one of the few public sharings of ones work available.

We visited rue Denoyez. The entire street has been given (or taken?) over to street artists. New works are constantly under development. New ideas are continually being expressed. New visions appear to be explored.

What impressed me most about Paris streetart is its level of sophistication. Artists seem well informed and aware of cultural pressures. They seem to be using these pressures to drive their work. While it may be difficult for me to see outright, I felt a vibrancy, an aliveness about some of the work.

Next time we visit Paris, I want to again seek out a bit of street art. There are more places than just Belleville to visit, too.

The Proof...

2010-11-22T10:07:00.001-08:00

A couple posting ago I went on a rant about how people in the photo-forums have nothing better to do than squawk about something they know little to nothing about. Mainly, that lenses have properties that influence image quality that are obvious (to them). I'm thinking of the flame wars about Nikon vs Canon sharpness. I'm thinking about the Leica crowd who fervently believe their images are better than anyone else's because Leica lenses are (somehow) better. I'm thinking of the heavy Sigma lens bashing that goes on. I'm thinking of the folks who pick over potentially unobservable details between one Canon zoom over another. I'm thinking of the folks who "test" lenses and then pontificate over their findings.

OK. So I too am pontificating. Here's my proof. So maybe I'm not exactly pontificating, rather just sharing potentially useful information.

I have once again proven to myself (if no one else) that lenses, by and large, are not the limiting factor in image resolution. From my observations, the sensor is the limiting factor.

Look at the test of four lenses and look for the smallest group of lines that can be resolved. Compare results within specific focal lengths. Look at the influence (or, really, non-influence) of aperture on resolution. Then think about what these observations mean.

If you're being truthful with yourself, you'll realize, as I have, that lens resolution is really sensor resolution in the case of modern AF optical systems. There is no way of getting more resolution into a file than this.

So why do folks go on and on about which lens is better than another? They say "resolution" in many cases, but what people may really be referring to are other dimensions. Perhaps build quality? Perhaps how a lens "feels" in the hand? Or, what I really suspect is true in a large number of cases, is how people can impress complete strangers with their ability to spend large sums of money.

If you want to make wonderful images, buy a lens. Just about any lens. If you want to impress folks, I'm sure you can find a way to spend a lot of money to achieve you goals.

The following are 100% center crops from a 5D MkII Canon full frame DSLR. +1 EV CR2 originals were then converted using #3 Sharpness in DPP. The image style was set to "Standard". No other manipulations were made to the output.

Click on this image, mouse over the image, click again and you can observe the file at full resolution.

Autumn

2010-11-16T10:37:00.000-08:00

I love this time of year.

Everything seems to quiet down from the mad rush of Spring and the constant humming of Summer. Peace settles on nearly everything.

Maple leaves are one of my favorite expressions of Autumn. Their vibrant colors attract my eye.

The sensation of light emitting from fallen leaves is powerful. Walking through piles of them, kicking up a whiff or two.

Published!

2010-11-16T08:54:00.001-08:00

It is with very great pleasure that I am able to announce that my work will be published by Silvershotz Magazine, an international publication devoted to photography. A few of my Noir Victorian Gothic images will be published in an 8 page spread in the January 2011 issue.

Need I say? I'm very excited. It's thrilling. It's wonderful. It's way too much goodness. Like a dream realized. Like a life lived fully.

My many thanks extended to the Silvershotz editor, Clive, for selecting my work.

If you are not familiar with Silvershotz, you really should check it out. They are everything in quality and content that I wish the now moribund Aperture Magazine had become.

Going cheap... but who would know?

2010-11-04T13:37:00.000-07:00

The online discussion boards and forums sometimes make me laugh.

The first fit of laughter was started from a comment by the editor of canonrumors.com. He was talking about a future 5D MkIII at 28+ mpixel requiring new sharper lenses to take full advantage of the sensor resolution. If I weren't laughing so hard...

The problem with the editor's utterances is in the math. Or lack of understanding thereof.

Let's look at the physical dimension of the Canon 7D/60D/T2i 18 mpixel sensor. Divide the number of information nodes in an image file from these cameras by the size of the sensor in mm's for whichever file dimension you choose. Now look at the answer. It should be 236. Divide this number by two to calculate the number of line pairs per mm and read/note/remember the answer. It will 116 line pairs per mm.

Run a similar calculation on the current 5D MkII using it's sensor size in mm's divided into the file output node number in the same dimension as the sensor size you just used. Divide by two. The answer? It should be 79 line pairs per mm.

After extensive testing against a USAF Resolution Test Chart, I have confirmed that every single lens I own (including Sigma, Canon L, Canon non-L, Nikon, Pentax, and Zeiss) out-resolves my 7D's sensor from wide open. You read that correctly. Read 'um and weep if you need to.

Now think about this a moment. OK. Times up. If lenses were the limiting factor to image resolution, wouldn't it make sense that the Canon 18mpixel crop sensor cameras would require a sharper lens than the full frame 5D MkII? Seriously. Think about it until you see this is true.

So how on earth will new lenses be required due to some mysteriously wonderful resolution of a 28mpixel 5D MkIII? If my lenses are good enough for the 7D/60D/T2i, they will remain overkill for any new full frame sensor'd camera anyone on earth makes until the sensor size (use your math skills to confirm this again, please) cross beyond 60mpixels.

Not unrelatedly, Sigma lenses are derided in the online forums. If it's not image quality its AF noise. If it's not AF noise, it's about AF accuracy... well... OK... there may be something to this last item.

I recently picked up a Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8 lens for a whopping $200. Canon's own 28-70 f/2.8 L still fetch north of $700. So I thought I'd try something cheap. I could use the optical speed in darkly lit video situations like bellydance gigs for Nagasita, but I don't want to break the bank over a lens that I would seldom use.

Mounting the Sigma to a 5D MkII, I noticed the focus was consistently on the nearest item, regardless of where the AF nodes lit up in the viewfinder. I was irked. This seemed to confirm the blabbering masses nattering nuttiness of whackdom.

I thought about the problem and wondered how Sigma could make such a mess of the AF system. Couldn't they reverse engineer the Canon AF system any better than this?

Then I had an idea to see if selecting one AF point in the 5D MkII made any difference in how the Sigma focused. I had read somewhere that someone had tried this with limited success. I tried it anyway.

Guess what? the AF is spot on every single time I hit the shutter release. Independent of which AF point I select, as long as that AF point is placed over the desired focus location the image is sharp exactly there every single time.

This little discovery leads me to think that Sigma's engineering problem may be related to their electronics. Perhaps Sigma really did not correctly reverse engineer Canon's AF system. Maybe they got stuck confirming a single AF node? I can't believe that, but...

OK. Believe it or not, I can live with this defect. For many stills photo situations I select the AF point myself anyway.

Now I have a very cheap, and even though I haven't covered it here, the lens is VERY sharp from wide open!!! (something again about out-resolving the sensor), usable optic. Did I mention the Sigma was cheap? Need I mention the optic is sharp? It's cheap too.

Need I mention that viewers of my images cannot tell the difference between images made with this cheap usable merely competent optic and my $1200 L-glass?

Stars shining brighter than ever...

2010-10-15T13:43:00.000-07:00

I don't usually follow celebrity or well known photographers. For me it feels like their work is so well known that it would be difficult for them to say anything new or significant. I'm looking for new themes, new ideas, new mem-types.

Really now. I do know better than that. Still, it rests in the back of my mind this way.

Fred Miranda's website had this video. I found it charming, inspiring, and it asked me to reconsider how I view other's work.

It was good for me to see that not all famous photographers come across as laser eye'd type-A personality over-achievers.

More Obscure Ideas...

2010-09-10T09:35:00.000-07:00

Once I started down this path, I could see the ideas and realizations unfolding in front of me. There's no slowing me down at times like this.

The original idea came from looking at other people's work on Flickr. Over the past couple years I could see where the ideas and presentations were becoming ever more sophisticated.

In similar time, I read a few books by Neil Gaiman and Neil Stephenson. Some of the visuals scenes and descriptions of people in certain settings started me to thinking. Once the thoughts took hold I knew I needed to try my hand at photo-manipulation.

The visual genres that have appealed to me for some time now has been around Steampunk and Noir Victorian Gothic. All I need to do as I read various authors is to close my eyes and "see". After that, it's a simple matter of composing a series of images and working them to completion.

Can you tell how much I'm enjoying this new expression of my art?

Obsure ideas...

2010-08-20T14:20:00.000-07:00

Much of my work is guided by the books I read. Recently I stumbled upon Neil Stephenson's "Diamond Age". It's a pretty quirky book, and it has a few ideas that I find compelling. It's like reading Terry Pratchett or Neil Gaiman, but with a very nerdy twist.

The idea of a Matter Compiler gives me a lot of ideas. A MC is a device that takes atoms and builds them into things people need, use, or want. When you're done, you just put the things into a decompiler and the item is returned to it's constituent atomic bits.

The "Diamond Age" is a fairly dark text. Since I'm exploring ideas along the lines of dark Victorian and Gothic, I thought I'd try my hand at this concept to see what came up.

The images posted here are just a start. With a photoshoot coming this weekend, I hope to add substantially to my base materials that will allow me to explore these ideas more fully.

Working with textures...

2010-07-27T13:36:00.001-07:00

Back in the day, William Mortensen sold texture layers to photographic artists. They came (at least) in 8x10 inch sizes. A person selected the texture they wanted to print with and would head into the darkroom. Setting the enlargement size to 8x10 inches, focusing the negative, placing a red filter between the negative and the paper (so as to not expose the paper while setting the rest of this up and help control the exposure), putting the photographic paper into the easel, then laying the selected texture over the top of the paper would, many times, lead to magic.

Using similar principals, artists in the age of digital "lightrooms" can create some rather interesting images.

As many of my readers know, I use a Photoshop-like tool called the Gimp. It is the Open Source communities answer to Adobe's for sale products. The power of the tool allows me to create layers and masks, tints and crops, and all the color management/manipulation capabilities that I could ever desire. In fact, the tool is so powerful that I seldom use more than a fraction of it's overall capability. Much of the time I'm anxious when I launch the Gimp, particularly when I'm just doodling and have no strong idea of where I'd like to go. Stumbling around reaching for an idea while using this tool has many times lead me to disaster.

While some of the textures and tint layer are not obvious, I tend to use them to help create dimension in my work. Somewhere in my processed images will be metal, concrete, clouds, tiles, ceramics, or aged polishes. To support this work, I have created a library of tints and colors that I use in many different layers to achieve the kinds of blended effects that I'm after.

It's not hard to see what influences me. Old photos. Old photographic processes. Movie set lighting. Traditional poses. Jules Verne-like ideas. Increasingly, the more fantastic the idea, the more excited I am to try and express that idea. In fact, I'm thinking of a theme of Death in a Jar, a steam-era Mad Scientist of Biologist's Laboratory. Hmmmm... I wonder if I can pull it off...?

Flickr Explore...

2010-07-19T11:15:00.000-07:00

One of the more interesting features of Flickr is it's Explore function. This presents a collection of images rated by some mysterious algorithm that selects for something called "interestingness".

Having one's images "Explored" has become something of a contest between Flickr image contributors. There are even web pages devoted to describing how to make the "Explore" pages.

I have had many of my own photos "Explored". But it had been awhile since something of mine was picked up by the wee-minions of Flickr. So it was a bit of a surprise to see that one of my images made it up to #199 on July 19, 2010.

Published...

2010-07-07T08:57:00.000-07:00

The Traveler's Steampunk Blog has blogged me. Right kind of them, me thinks.

Sometimes...

2010-06-28T14:58:00.001-07:00

Every now and then I drop the heavy textured Noir Victorian Gothic image look and return to straight old fashioned image making.

My wife's roses (Jude the Obscure) are incredible this year. After sitting in a vase in our dining room, I saw them begin to droop. Before we recycled them I wanted to see if there was an interesting composition or two that could be made with them.

What I ended up with are incredibly large image files. They retain the kind of resolution only large format film photographers seem to be able to achieve. Printing these to extremely large print sizes shows bugs and pollen and other minutiae.

What camera was the rose image made with? Was it film? Was it digital? Or did I use a camera at all? Are these "real"? Or are these "Memorex" (as the commercial used to go)?

Published...

2010-06-27T10:43:00.000-07:00

David Burns Smith has published me. Again. It's quite a fine honor. David does a great job keeping up with artists around the US.

Oh what fun!

2010-06-23T14:40:00.000-07:00

I used to think that I needed to be creative entirely on my own for anything I did to be "valid". Once I started looking at the word "valid" and began asking what that could possibly mean, I saw that it is nothing more than a cultural perception perpetrated by folks who stand to make something off it.

Once I realized the word "valid" held little to no sway over me, I began to experience life, art, and image making differently.

What I presently see is that a collaboration can help bring together and create a sum much greater than it's individual parts.

My wife acts as my assistant and a valuable extra set of "eyes" and ideas. My subjects bring not only themselves and wardrobe, but a lifestyle and way of looking at the world that I dont' always have for myself.

When taken in total, my ideas blended through the aid and help of my wife, and amended and expanded through my subjects leads places I could never have otherwise envisioned.

One such case was when Irish Heather Collins asked if we could do a Pin-Up photo-shoot for a calendar she will be in next year, 2011.

I think the results speak for themselves.

Evolving...

2010-06-01T16:01:00.001-07:00

In 1984 I picked up a Guide Blue 1929 while visiting Paris for my first time. In 2006 my wife's Uncle's steam engine maintenance and mathematical calculations guide came into my hands.

As I worked some of my recent images on the various themes of steam, Noir Victorian Gothic, and tribal punk, the thought occurred to me that I could use text as a texture. Relevant to the period I was trying to depict. Subtle enough to not overpower the primary subject. Mixed with other textures to give the image a well "worked" surface.

Since I have plenty of material to work with already, I was able to avoid organizing another model shoot. While working with other artists is fun, I knew I needed to try my hand at the processing stage of image creation.

These images edge closer to expressing ideas of Steampunk, Oilpunk. There is still more to be gained. But for that, I think I need to head back into the studio and re-work my lighting. In fact, I have studied the light of Eugenio Recuenco, and am developing a few ideas. I hope they work out as I intend.

Interviewed

2010-05-14T10:58:00.001-07:00

David Burns Smith, from The Studio Chronicle, interviewed me this week. Here is the result.

Inspiration...

2010-05-03T16:16:00.000-07:00

If you've never seen a Roman Catholic Mass card, you might not know what I'm about to refer to.

Every now and then I stumble across my up-bringing.

Take, for instance, the photo in this post. As I worked it the images that appeared to me became more and more iconic in nature. Finally, it hit me. My sub-conscious was driving toward a prayer card look.

Brilliant! At least I knew where the inspiration was coming from. Then I could, with a little more awareness, create what it was I felt.

How fitting it was to create Saint Mermaid. Classic. Simple. Religious.

Opportunities abound...

2010-04-27T14:19:00.000-07:00

Riches pour in from all sides.

Collaborating with local artists is, for me, very energizing. Recently I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with Stephanie Lopes, Gemma Adams, Keph, Shelley Frederick, and Viola Rose. Some of the work we have done together is quite pleasing. The results are better than I could have imagined. Each collaboration brought new ideas as well as increasing visual challenges.

How to convey the sense of beauty and grace when working with aerialists and handstand artists? How to participate in the act of Butoh when called upon to do so? How to extend the visual themes and ideas that I find so compelling?

Out of the blue, a kind email was received from Irish Heather Collins. She asked if I would be interested in working a theme of Mermaid? Never one to turn down a request of this magnitude, I replied "yes".

We set a time and place. My trusty assistant, my wife, joined me in the studio. Irish painted and groomed herself in the manner of a Mermaid from the very great deep.

As we worked through the shoot, various ideas were raised and worked. We reached a point where the sea chest needed to be opened and it's contents revealed. All the while, tulle was attempting to make it's way out of the chest and into the open world.

It felt like a key point in the shoot when my wife suggested that the tulle needed to be set free. She asked "... why not have our Mermaid marry the Sea?" All at once something struck and held firm. An idea was born.

This is one of the most satisfying images I have made this year. Actually, since this was a collaboration, this is one of the most satisfying images I have had the opportunity to help create with help from other fine artists and assistants.

... or maybe not...

2010-04-21T09:25:00.001-07:00

I have to smile.

Again, I have changed direction.

This time it seems I need to explore simplicity against a white background. As with my other recent work, I try to let the subject and composition inspire the Muse. There just seemed no way around keeping these images clean and simple. The Muse allowed for nothing less and nothing more.

Working with Night Flight's Stephanie Lopes in her dance studio, my wife and I arrived one fine Saturday afternoon to set up the backdrop and lights. Stephanie worked to apply her makeup and adjusted her attire. After she'd warmed up, it was up onto the cloud swing and away we went.

I really enjoy working with creative people. They inspire me. They give me hope. They help make life engaging and interesting. Invariably, they have political and cultural views similar to mine.

... running into the unknown... [3]

2010-04-09T10:18:00.000-07:00

One of my creative modes seems to be drawing me into areas that may be difficult for viewers of my work to "connect" with, get, understand, and even enjoy. Yet I can't stop myself.

The idea that there are as many views of reality as there are viewers drove a concept of varying areas of an image. Each modified area represents a different aspect of reality.

My first implementations of this concept are rather graphic. Straight lines. Modified tones and textures. Varying colors.

Yet I can see the first images based on this concept are likely to be considered immature. That is, they don't quite say what I want them to say. Not yet, at least. Hence immaturity.

I used to be bothered by immature work. Not any more. Or not as much any longer. The roughness of immaturity has worn off enough that I can now post to view and consider works in transition. I find I can use this time to evaluate and ponder where to take a concept, which direction feels right.

... running into the unknown... [2]

2010-03-26T11:24:00.001-07:00

As my wife and I watched "Oregon Art Beat" last night something caught my eye. The things that seem to be attracting me these days have a strong graphic quality to them. It feels like a more complete blurring of the line between photography and graphic arts, in more traditional terms.

Coming into work this morning I completed processing an image of Shelley Frederick and thought I'd try to implement the kind of image that caught my eye last night. It feels like yet another direction to launch off into.

Very exciting times. Particularly after a friend reminded me yesterday that just a few months back I was complaining that my muse had wandered off.

... running into the unknown...

2010-03-19T13:58:00.000-07:00

I notice that as I work on photographic images how my awareness changes. It's almost as if my mind has taken leave and I'm left to respond to the work as it evolves. There seems to be no clear indication that a work is "completed" either. If I didn't force myself to pause and look back at a body of work or to see how an image has evolved, I might continue without end.

This is how my recent work has come into being. I start with a broad idea and then let each of the images take me where they will.

A couple groups contacted me about working with them to collaborate on small image collections. They got what they needed for various promotionals and such. I received the opportunity to expand my portfolio of ideas, expressions, and finished works.

When I started processing the image from the "Night Flight" shoot with Gemma Adams and Stephanie Lopes, I felt that the results would be heavily textured. I could almost "see" how the finished images would be. That is, they would continue a theme I first developed with the Tribal Fusion, Steampunk works.

However, the image refused to follow my formula for processing. Something didn't feel right. The images looked pressed to fit into an expression that was inappropriate for the subject. So I took a step back and cleared out my mind (allowed it to take it's leave?). Then I started anew and tried to listen to what the subject had to say.

It didn't take long to realize that my subject was sleek and athletic. It demanded a cleaner, crisper line than my heavily textured work did. I couldn't hide the beauty, rather I needed to reveal it.

Stephanie Lopes shared that she felt the images evolved into a fairy tale-like expression. I can see what she's saying. I'm thrilled with the results and hope they are too.

A month later I had the opportunity to work with a Butoh group called the Seraphic Society. They presented an entirely different set of challenges.

Here was a group that reveled in the extreme. Here was a group who could move in a very different manner from the beautiful Night Flight troupe. Here was a group who wanted to experiment.

To add to expectations, they had also seen my work and liked what I had done in the past.

Yet, when it came time to process their images, I found I was stuck. Every time I tried to use the heavy textures from the Alternative History sets, my images didn't work. So taking a recent lesson and applying it to the Seraphic Society, I took a step back and cleared my mind yet again.

What revealed itself at first was a very elegant, subtle, gorgeous light. The subject could still express something not commonly seen in culture and society. Yet it demanded an image expression that was very classic and pure.

After talking with Shelley Frederick and realizing they wouldn't mind my trying to go dark and scary, I tried a more subtle set of textures. Et voila! Another expression of the subject was quickly revealed.

Folks over on Facebook have been very responsive to both sets of images from the Seraphic Society shoot. For that matter, they were also very responsive to the fairy-tale like results from the Night Flight shoot too.

Fluidr

2010-02-18T09:22:00.000-08:00

Someone commented on one of my photos on Flickr from Fluidr. I am happy to see alternative interfaces like this being developed to access Flickr. These are turning into great tools for exploring the very best Flickr has to offer. I'm continually impressed with the level of talent found on Flickr. Very inspiring.

Published

2010-02-05T14:26:00.001-08:00

My work made the front cover of the Oregon Coutry Fair's Fair Family News. Fun stuff! THANK YOU OCF!!!

Published

2010-01-05T12:49:00.000-08:00

The photos of Rachel Brice are mine. Kind thanks to Marthyna for contacting me and selecting these two images from my collection. If you are in the Quebec area in March, consider attending their Tribal and Fusion bellydance event.

Now for the really difficult test...

2009-12-22T16:39:00.000-08:00

I have to laugh to myself every time I read somewhere on the 'net (like over on DPReview, or MF Forums, or Fred Mirdanda's forums) that anyone can tell the difference between images made using Zeiss lenses and those made with something else. To some folks it appears that the magic is obvious. The Leica crowd sometimes behaves the same way. "This is the best lens there is and you can see the quality in your final print" they seem to be saying.

I have been testing lenses and cameras systems for over 15 years and have learned a thing or two about how commercially available optical systems behave. People who tell you they can see the difference between lenses, between manufacturers, or between focal lengths are just blowing smoke.

Seriously.

Want to try something that should be easy for kinds of folk who "know" their Zeiss or Leica lenses are visibly superior to all other makes? Click here and take a very close look at these results.

Up front, I'll say that I used a Canon 7D camera. It has the highest density sensor of any DSLR currently made. The sensor can resolve 116 line pair per mm. You can calculate this from the number of image nodes in your file divided by the size of the sensor in mm's. To get line pairs per mm, divide the result by two. You will confirm that the Canon 7D is capable of resolving 116 lppmm. To me this says that if there are differences between lens resolution and/or recorded image contrast you should be able to see them quicker with the 7D than with other cameras, regardless of the number of pixels those cameras have. It's about the size of each sensor site, not the total number.

Up front, I'll also say that there are 9 lenses. The focal lengths go from 50mm's through to over 100mm's. There is a mix of Zeiss (oh ya, bring it on!, say's I), Nikon, Pentax, and Canon glass. Some of the lenses are very old indeed. Some are brand new. I guess I should say that there are three Nikkors, two Pentax, two Zeiss, and maybe a Leica lens or two, balanced out by Canon.

It will be impossible for folks to know, but did I start at f/1.2? f/1.4? or f/2? Did I end up at f/5.6 or f/8? Did I include zoom lenses or are these all primes? I did my best to achieve correct focus in all cases.

Each 300x300 pixel image is a 100 percent crop. I shot raw and used DPP to convert the result to jpg. To see differences between lenses I set the sharpness at 3 on the RAW tab of the Tools window in DPP. If I didn't do this, you would have an even harder time telling the differences between these lenses.

So... which lenses are which? Where are those Zeiss lenses? Did I throw in a Leica optic or two just to mix things up a bit? Did I really include a couple "ringers", including two or three or four lenses that cost less than $20 each?

You decide. And if you get it right, I'll buy you a beer.

I doubt anyone will come close, so let me take this opportunity to stress, once again, that it's better to have a lens than not, and that the sharpest lens in my kit is a tripod.

Said another way, I really do not believe that it matters what lens you use. If you are creative, then you are capable of making wonderful images, regardless of what equipment you own.

Testing the Sigmonster

2009-12-20T17:03:00.000-08:00

This Fall while visiting my favorite Ducking Hole to see if my favored Buffleheads were back from their Summer breeding ground, I spied a gent with a rather nice lens. He had a Canon 40D mounted on a Canon 500mm f/4L IS. He may have had a 1.4x teleconverter on it too, though I can't recall with certainty. He seemed to be having a very good time.

I looked down at my Canon 7D mounted on a lovely Canon 100-400 f/4.5-5.6L and was instantly overcome with lens envy. The gent with the 500mm lens was able to reach out a lot farther than I was able. And, there were birds out there that I really wanted to photograph. Of course. This is how addition works, right?

After selling off a stack of unused glass, I was able to find a nice Sigma 300-800mm EX HSM f/5.6 lens. It arrived in good shape and I wanted to test it.

So here is a wee test. I used images taken with a Canon 24-105L and Nikon 55mm f/3.5 Micro as control lenses. These are as sharp as sharp can be. I also shot the Canon 100-400L to see how good the Sigmonster stood up against my favorite bird lens.

By clicking here, you can see the full sized results. These are 100% crops from a Canon 7D. Since the 18mpixel sensor has such a strong anti-aliasing filter, I added 3 sharpen in the RAW tab in to DPP Tool menu. 3 seemed to be a nice balance between the very soft straight out of the camera thru DPP converted JPGs and obvious over-sharpening.

The Sigmonster is a very fine lens. However, focusing the Sigmonster at 800mm's was a real bear! I'm not convinced I have the test target in focus. Look at how the Nikon 55mm f/3.5 performed at f/5.6 with the same two dollar bill details. The Nikkor was MUCH easier to focus than the Sigmonster. Still, one lesson may be to stop the Sigma down at least one stop when shooting at 800mm. It might be unacceptably soft wide open at that focal length.

The Sigmonster appears to out-perform the Canon 100-400L at 300mm and 400mm, but just barely. The 100-400 is a nice lens and holds it's own against the Canon 24-105L and Nikon Micro Nikkor. Though the shorter Canon zoom and the Nikon prime appear ever so slightly sharper to me, it's nothing that a little sharping with DPP can't clean up.

Bottom line, for me the combination of the Canon 100-400L and Sigma 300-800mm EX HSM will be wonderful to chase birds with. Both are sharp. Both focus nice and quick. Both respond well to the 7D's speed of handling and the DPP conversions to jpg.

From the Age of Steam

2009-12-08T14:07:00.000-08:00

I would very much like to connect with folks in the Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Washington, or San Fransisco, California cities who are this deep into the scene. I want to make more images based on the theme of Noir Victorian Gothic, Steampunk, and Tribal Fusion and am looking for folks willing to model in their regalia of their genre.

Published

2009-12-07T16:23:00.001-08:00

I received a very nice email from Marthyna. She publishes a belly-dance magazine called Papyrus. Marthyna asked if she could publish one of two images in an upcoming issue. I had to say "yes", "please", and "merci beaucoup!"

It is an honor and a pleasure to have my images show up in print like this. One of the following images should be published shortly.

Flickr

2009-11-03T14:38:00.001-08:00

All Hallows Eve

2009-10-27T12:47:00.000-07:00

I love Fall. It's my favorite time of the year. The colors of the leaves can be intense. The weather is crisp with just a biting hint at the Winter to come. There is time to work on images made the previous Summer.

I have had it in mind to migrate into the boarder regions of the art with a new for me style. I wanted to create my own images, using people's work like Miss Aniela and Brooke Shaden as my inspiration. The base images would be a continuation of variations on a theme of Steampunk.

Using the Open Source Photoshop equivalent called the Gimp, I needed to learn how to hide and reveal, clip, crop, size, and skew small bits of images. I wanted to take this new knowledge and blend it with the approaches I'd taken in using texture layers to see where the art would lead me.

It didn't take long for me to get way in over my head and to begin to see the possibilities for a whole new approach to image making. In this new context, I really mean image making. With the stress on the word making.

Now that I see what is possible, I feel the pull to try and create a new body of work based on noir Victorian gothic, Tribal Fusion, and Steampunk themes. So stay tuned. The image found here may be just a stop-off point along my Muse's Path.

Twin Paradox Cafe' - show through October 2009

2009-09-25T08:53:00.000-07:00

My Alternative History - Images from the Age of Steam show hangs at Twin Paradox Cafe, 8609 SE 17th Ave, Portland, OR through October 2009.

Artist statement:

Philosophies et Images

Antique de l’autre cote’
du Multiverse Capture Photonique des Age
de Victoria,
de Vapeur,
de Tribal,
de Shamanism,
de Punk

I have stumbled upon something improbable, something astounding, something of incredible rarity and beauty which I would now like to share. Images from across a “Seam” that has suddenly opened between various Ages have, quite unexpectedly, become available to this our current Age. These photonic creations have withstood the incredible stresses of alternative reality Multiverse time sharing to be revealed here for perhaps the first time in this, the post-Modern Age.

To the contemporary mind, the best explanation of what can take place in parallel Ages of alternative reality goes something like this: Think about what might have happened if Victorian Age steam power was never supplanted by oil. Think of how a Victorian Age Steam culture might have evolved as new technologies and applications were made upon culture and society. Ponder a moment on how a Shamanic or Tribal Age might have grown as tribes and peoples lived and learned and applied their crafts and talents. Or consider the impact of a continuing vibrant and fully functional Noir Gothic society.

The tear in the fabric of the Multi-verse, the “Seam” between Ages which have allowed these photonic creations to pass this way appears to have weaved itself once again closed. As time passes, the portraits from other Ages have become ever more tattered and torn. A significant amount of information has been lost. These are amongst the last alternative reality photonic portraits to pass this way. However, if anything further comes my way, I will be quite joyed to share them.

Your Humble Servant – Christopher Mark Perez
~ Original Photographic Prints ~
$200 – matted, framed

Care has been taken to ensure the highest and most long lasting qualities in the preparation of photographic images and related materials. Prints are prepared using 200 year archival pigment on acid free cotton fiber papers.

smilingmonk2002@yahoo.com
www.hevanet.com/cperez
www.flickr.com/photos/christophersoddsandsods
photosketchpad.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/christophersoddsandsods

ProPhoto Supply - Gallery Show

2009-09-06T16:24:00.000-07:00

A portion of my In the Railyard is showing through the month of September, 2009 at ProPhoto Supply in downtown Portland.

So as you head down to order your new Canon 7D, take a moment and have a look in the entry way gallery before you talk to Dave Cleary about your new toy.

Great Oregon Steamup 2009

2009-08-28T13:56:00.000-07:00

As I work with the 1080p video capability of the Canon 5D MkII, I begin to see some interesting possibilities. The image quality is quite outstanding. A friend says that standard definition video (640x480) gives you a sense of how something is shaped. He says that 1080p gives you the texture of the thing. I couldn't agree more.

I have been editing videos using Sony's Movie Studio Platinum Plus. It's a nice application that allows me to create 1440x1080 digital cinema materials. The capabilities of the software suite is pretty good. The only thing I would like (without having to pay more for it, of course) would be additional blend options for merging video track 2 onto video track 1.

Each year in Brooks, Oregon a group of steam powered farmers haul out their great collections of equipment to share with the public. These events are held over two weekends; the last weekend in July and the first weekend in August.

This year I spent time with the steampowered tractors. They are awesome good fun. Next year I should spend a little time in the steampowered sawmill sheds. That thing is definitely not something a person should try to recreate at home. LOL!!!

Anyways, until then, here is a short video of one of the earlier tractor designed engines.

Photography

2009-08-18T08:24:00.001-07:00

Drama and $24 million

Photography

2009-08-14T09:49:00.000-07:00

Portland Photographers' Forum
Newsletter

...

This Month's Meeting: Wednesday, August 19, 7:00 p.m.

Guest Speaker: Christopher Perez
Alternative Histories

"Ideas for my large multi-year photographic image projects arrive when least expected," Chris Perez says."As I read various novels by Jules Verne, Tom Robbins, Ian Banks, Terry Pratchett, and Susanna Clark I could almost see what images from Alternative Histories might look like. In similar time, I worked with Tribal Fusion bellydancers to see where I might be able to take a related idea. Talking with NagaSita (one of my models) I learned that there are active communities of people engaged in the pursuit of Alternative History ideas of Tribal Fusion, Noir Victorian Gothic, and Steampunk. These styles are based on the idea that we live not in a uni-verse, but rather, in a vast multi-verse of time coincident Alternative Realities, just like the novels I was reading."

"My photographic project swiftly incorporated these ideas and extended them to include the thought of how image might look as they pass through a "seam" between the various multi-verses. There would be hints familiar to us, such as graphic design elements from 1880 Paris, France. Images would be stressed and somewhat distorted due to the pressures placed on them as they passed through a "seam". Clothing styles could be emblematic, in the case of Steampunk, of what might happen if oil never replaced steam."

"This is how my overly active, geeky, complex mind works. This is how my Steampunk, Tribal Fusion, and Noir Victorian Gothic series of images came into being."

Photography

2009-08-12T10:51:00.001-07:00

Someone provided a very nice calculation of the number of potential photographic art collectors about a decade before I ran a similar calculation. The difference between my calculation and this author is that I assumed all art and came up with a figure of a most 300,000 potential buyers in the USA. The author's calculation of 10,000 collectors of photographic art seems about right.

Without going into details, I feel the collector market for photography is indeed rather small. With a large number of artists vying for print sales, it puts pressure on photographers who work in the area of collectible photography.

No matter how you view it or what you believe, its important to understand the forces in play.

Flickr

2009-08-10T14:04:00.000-07:00

There is a rather unique way of finding images on Flickr. It is provided by FivePrime and is called Hive Mind.

I have started to use this as a means of finding the very best examples of a subject, style, or tool.

Here are links to semi-random subjects. Each page is sorted by Flickr's "Interstingness" property.

qtpfsgui - an Open Source HDR application

texture layers - a technique of image manipulation that I particularly like

Canon 5D MkII - a look at "interestingness" from the point of view of specific camera equipment

This is a brilliant way of swiftly reviewing the very best work to be found across the Flickr universe. If you ever wonder what the state of the art is, just take a look using this image filtering tool. You might be utterly and pleasantly shocked, just as I am.

News!!!

2009-07-31T10:53:00.000-07:00

I received the following email and am very excited by the opportunity.

Dear Christopher, Thank you for your interest in Photo Life. We would like to publish one of your images in our "Spotlight" column... Thanks Christopher... Kind regards, Xavier

Photo idea

2009-07-21T09:57:00.000-07:00

A fine proposal for how you get out and do some great work

Railroad

2009-07-17T09:50:00.000-07:00

My work through the Center for Fine Art Photography has been posted.

The Juror did not select me for any additional rewards. I feel inclusion of my work along side fourteen other artists is reward enough.

Flickr

2009-07-01T13:09:00.001-07:00

Here's a quick way to find one's own Flickr Images that made it to Explore.

It turns out that one of my images made it to #29!!! I'm amazed and, of course, quite happy.

Ideas and how my images tend to evolve...

2009-06-26T11:09:00.001-07:00

As I advance in years my photographic images are tending toward complexity. I used to feel that zen-like images of simplicity and austerity were a style I could explore for a very long time. Alas, after many trips to south India, I find that I love color, texture, line as well as detail. While not the only source of change, India has had a huge influence on me.

After reading a rather fun series of books about alternative histories, I thought it might be worth a photographic exploration of the topic. I started with Tribalism as expressed by bellydancers. Then I tried my hand at Steampunk. This video is of an image created out of one such photo-session.

The model is NagaSita. She is a local dancer and theatrical arts talent. The processing was performed in the PhotoShop Open Source equivalent called the Gimp. The evolution of the image clearly expresses the changes in how I felt as I worked the image to completion.

Paris, France

2009-06-21T19:10:00.001-07:00

Galerie Esther

Paris, France

2009-06-18T08:41:00.001-07:00

A nice list of places

Paris, France

2009-06-17T21:08:00.000-07:00

To dream... to wish... to desire... to wonder... could it be?... might it be?...

Galerie Baudoin

Galerie 1900-2000

Galerie Agathe Gaillard

Galerie Camera Obscura

Galerie Esther Woerdehoff

Galerie Francoise Paviot

Maison Europeenne de la photographie

A more complete list of international galleries...

Canon

2009-06-03T07:59:00.001-07:00

A most remarkable firmware update for the 5D MkII

India

2009-06-02T11:20:00.000-07:00

Such inspiration - if ever there was a body of work that I wanted to create, it would look like this

India

2009-06-02T11:08:00.000-07:00

Stunning use of a Canon 5D MkII and 1080p digital cinema

Wasteland from Bombay Flying Club on Vimeo.

News!!!

2009-05-18T15:18:00.001-07:00

The Center for Fine Art Photography
400 North College Avenue
Fort Collins, CO 80524
970.224.1010

May 18, 2009
Dear Christopher,

Congratulations! Your portfolio has been accepted for the Portfolio ShowCase Volume 3: Book and Online Exhibition at The Center for Fine Art Photography. Juror, Stella Kramer had the difficult task of selecting just 15 photographers from nearly 250 artists for this unique exhibition.

To view the portfolios that were selected, please visit the Center's website at www.c4fap.org. You will find the selected images and the information form under Jury Results in the bottom left corner of the Center's home page. Please complete and return the form provided.

Once again, congratulations on being selected for this exhibition.

Sincerely,

Azarie Furlong
Exhibitions Manager

Hamidah Glasgow
Executive Director

Bill Jay

2009-05-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

On Fame - a must read

Bill Jay

2009-05-15T13:26:00.001-07:00

RIP

Portland

2009-05-12T12:38:00.000-07:00

News Flash! My Steampunk work will be shown thru the month of October at Paradox Cafe in Sellwood. Yea!!

Open Source Tools

2009-04-10T14:29:00.000-07:00

Its quite strange, actually. I have a new high end HP laptop computer. It runs Vista64 with 4gig of RAM and am loading my favorite open source tools onto it.

When it came to the Gimp, I found v2.6 and v2.4 crash on a regular basis.

Gimp v2.2.17 is rock solid.

Oh well. So much for "eye candy". If the old version works? I shouldn't complain. There must be something in one of the libraries that isn't configured correctly for the systems I've tried to run v2.4 and v2.6 on.

Photography

2009-04-07T15:16:00.001-07:00

Stunning work

Digital Cinema

2009-04-07T12:33:00.001-07:00

Photography

2009-03-12T12:42:00.000-07:00

I have been exploring a whole new set of tools for going on two years now. The move from film to digital capture was the prime mover for me to learn about current tools capabilities.

My explorations included a deep look into multiple exposure high dynamic range with tone mapping. The results of that learning led to the LensWork publication of a 35 image portfolio title In The Rail Yard. I continue to be thrilled by the results.

Another exploration has been to capture waterfowl in flight. The latest tools offer capabilities I only dreamed of back when I shot film. So image capture has been much easier. This has freed me to work on lighting and location. Much of that work has been posted on my Flickr pages and continues to receive positive feedback from around the world.

Just below this posting you can see yet another exploration. I am now learning about digital cinema. The process of thinking through scenes and scripts and staging and lighting brings back experiences I had thirty years ago when I worked as a still photographer on a small number of AFI projects down in Los Angeles.

Imagine my surprise when I came upon an image that nearly knocked my eyeballs out of their sockets. I haven't dealt in straight image capture for years and yet here was something completely unexpected; a beautiful image coming very nearly straight out of the camera.

My daily life usually sees me carrying a small Canon G10 point and shoot camera. I use it to "sketch" ideas and to try and capture fleeting moments where a DSLR or film camera might be cumbersome. Recently my wife and I were walking up the street after buying a few loaves of bread. I happened to look down and spied a rather nice grouping of ivy leaves. Out came the camera and within seconds I had four or five images to work from.

Much later (like two weeks later) I browsed my image files to see if there might be something worth processing. I rendered a few images in color and then switched to applying a quad-tone tint. As I de-saturated the image my mouth dropped open. The effect impressed me beyond my imagination.

I watch the video linked to from this blog about James Ravilious. He liked uncoated pre-war optics for the way they opened the shadow areas and gave the highlight regions a beautiful creamy effect. That's one of the things about coming from 40+ years of tradition film photography. I'm able to take a moment and think about what actually happens when something like an un-coated optic is used to make an image. I can then attempt to re-create the effect using my current digital tools.

In the case of this image, I knew the shadow areas would've been open and quite details if shot with an uncoated Leica M39 lens. I also knew that the highlight areas would've either been "blown out" or rendered just on the edge of detail. Working the curves to achieve that effect on the file I was working with was quick, easy, and straight-forward.

There was a nice print in here just waiting for me to press the button.

Out came Hanemuhle's latest photo rag smooth (from their new factory in France).

Down came the special feed tray on the HP B9180 printer.

Press went the print button on the computer.

Out came what may very well be one of the finest prints I have ever made.

The highlights are perfectly placed. The shadow areas are gorgeous. The edges of the leaves returned an incredible micro-contrast in the way they overlay each other. The edges of the frame gave the effect that this was shot with an old Leica III-series film camera. The entire effect is one of incredible luminosity and brilliance.

This one is a "keeper".

Portland

2009-03-12T10:49:00.001-07:00

News FLASH! - My In the Railyard work will be shown at ProPhoto Supply's entryway gallery during the month of September 2009.

Yea!!!

Awakening

2009-03-12T10:44:00.000-07:00

Exploring the edges and limits of my new tools I continue to learn the craft of digital cinema.

England

2009-03-10T13:53:00.000-07:00

Spain

2009-03-05T15:57:00.000-08:00

This gives such inspiration, direction, ideas, and hope. Wow. This was shot in Seville.

Utilikilts

2009-03-04T14:58:00.000-08:00

Another video effort. This was shot in 2 hours. In some ways, I wish I had a different setting. But I think it works in spite of the tight quarters.

With all the poor comments over on DPReview and various forums and groups about the Canon 5D MkII's lack of video controls, I was expecting production to be a challenge. Its not. The 5D MkII is a brilliant tool for creative expression.

A New Beginning...

2009-02-25T15:02:00.000-08:00

An illustration of where I'm headed next? Only time will tell. Be sure to watch this in high quality too. I'm not sure how you get that without going to YouTube to see it thru their web engines.

How I did this...

2009-02-11T14:40:00.000-08:00

The last time I spoke with my father we talked a bit about the current state of photography and art.

My father is a traditionalist. He learned the basics of photography from his father. He still uses film for his more serious work and enjoyed tinkering with different ideas and styles as the mood hits him.

I sent along a DVD of my LensWork published work and interview. My father must've given it a listen and it might have left him somewhat bewildered.

In less than two years I have transitioned from large and medium format film systems and silver and palladium printing methods. Nowadays I use the latest generation digital tools and techniques. I have worked hard to leverage my knowledge of computer science to learn as much as I can about digital tools and techniques for image making. Until I spoke with my father I had no idea just how far and fast the movement has been.

I had to laugh when he started talking about Richard Feinman. My father heard a story about Richard and his father. It went something like this: In the early days, Richard and his dad would talk about science and physics. Richard obviously enjoyed the subject. After years of research, Richard tried to talk with his dad about his latest findings and his dad had to tell him he couldn't understand a word he'd said.

Now I'm no Richard Feinman, so I had to laugh when my father shared this story with me and then told me he'd not understood a word I'd said in the interview. After I stopped laughing at the ludicrous comparison I had to think a moment to realize what my father was saying. It wasn't that I was some genius. I'm not. But rather that I have applied myself to a new set of tools and techniques that my father has little to no knowledge of, let alone how to manipulate and use them.

Is this an example of the growing gulf between the new and old ways of image making?

Scotland

2009-02-09T08:46:00.000-08:00

Photographers group

USA

2009-01-28T09:11:00.000-08:00

A gorgeous collection of portraits from the Obama inauguration

Canon

2009-01-23T10:04:00.000-08:00

Another in the on-going series of why which camera you use matters not

Canon

2009-01-05T14:30:00.000-08:00

My new Super Toy arrived and what a 'beaut it is. Amazing how good a full frame DSLR can be and Canon has hit the target spot on with its new 5D MkII. This, in my NSHO.

I wanted to see what various lenses would resolve at on this big sensor'd camera. So I put a Canon 28mm f/2.8 EF, a 35mm f/2 EF, a Nikkor 28mm f/2.8 PC (perspective control), a Sigma 20mm f/1.8 EX and a Sigma 24mm f/1.8 EX before the torture chart and took a look at how the system of lenses and camera did, in USAF terms. I will post the results first and then provide a bit of commentary.

Canon 5D MkII + Canon 28mm f/2.8, measured in line pairs per mm (center/edge/f-stop)
missing data - f/2.8
68 34 - f/4
68 43 - f/5.6
68 54 - f/8

Canon 5D MkII + Canon 35mm f/2, measured in line pairs per mm (center/edge/f-stop)
62 20 - f/2
69 22 - f/2.8
69 30 - f/4
69 38 - f/5.6
69 55 - f/8

Canon 5D MkII + Nikkor 28mm f/3.5 PC, measured in line pairs per mm (center/edge/f-stop)
60 33 - f/3.5
67 38 - f/4
67 47 - f/5.6
67 47 - f/8

Canon 5D MkII + Sigma 20mm f/1.8, measured in line pairs per mm (center/edge/f-stop)
73 33 - f/1.8
73 33 - f/2
73 37 - f/2.8
73 46 - f/4
73 52 - f/5.6
73 57 - f/8

Canon 5D MkII + Sigma 24mm f/1.8, measured in line pairs per mm (center/edge/f-stop)
70 39 - f/1.8
70 39 - f/2
78 39 - f/2.8
78 44 - f/4
78 48 - f/5.6
78 57 - f/8

I found these results to be very interesting. First, the Canon and Nikon lenses are very fine. Every image I have ever shot with them have been sharp and contrasty. I was pleased with the Nikkor results as that lens provides enormous coverage that allows a full 11mm offset/rise/fall/shift. However, the real shock is the Sigma findings.

If you read DPReview and other forum sites devoted to slandering, slamming, and flaming everything and anything, one might be led to believe that Sigma could not build a fine lens to save their lives. Alas, nothing could be further from the truth.

Doing a little math, I found that the Canon 5D MkII's sensor is capable of giving 156 lines of information per millimeter. Switching the calculation around to line pairs per millimeter, the math says the sensor should give 78 line pair per millimeter. And that's just what the Sigma optics resolved at!!!

What's even more fun is that the 24mm Sig set me back less than 270USD as a demo unit picked up from Adorama. Better yet? The 20mm Sig set me back less than 260USD in LN condition from KEH. In short: SHOCKINGLY incredible optics for bargain prices!

Processing...

2008-12-19T14:29:00.001-08:00

On eeking the most out of an image - in the digital age

Lenswork Magazine

2008-12-02T13:09:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago LensWork Magazine issue #79 arrived. It sat nicely on the nightstand next to the bed waiting to be looked at.

There wasn't interest in it for me. I couldn't understand why since I've devoured every single issue up to this one.

So I let the issue rest.

Last weekend I started to wonder about my response to the unread magazine. At first I thought it might be that I didn't like the work in this issue. But how could I say that? I'd not even cracked open a page. So that had to be a rationalization on my part.

Whenever I catch myself in self deception, I try to stop and dig deeper. In this case I was looking for a better reason for not reading the latest issue.

As I let my awareness wander, I found that I was uncertain about the "success" that came from my In The Railyard work that had been published in LensWork Extended #78. What did it mean to be published by one of the finest photographic arts magazines in the world? What did it mean to me and my work that someone had found something I created to be nice enough to print? Why couldn't I understand what was going on?

Even as I write, I remain surprised at how strong the feeling is that somehow I wasn't good enough.

Where the h*ll did that feeling come from? Why don't I feel my work is good enough? Why can't my work be as good as the next guys? Or am I pushing... pushing... pushing...??? For what? ... Oh... watch the next step... here comes the drive to do something even better... even more marvelous... bigger... grander...

Yikes! I need to put on the brakes. I really like some of my own work. Or do I?

What motivates me? If I'm being truthful, it is the act of creating and the attention I receive afterward. I love the process of figuring out what to say and how to say it. I like it when people comment on my work and I get to share my feelings about an image. I like to listen to what other people have to say. I enjoy the exchange. I enjoy following on-line forums devoted to art critique. I love looking through some of the millions of photos others have created and posted on Flickr.

I am a complex beast with an insatiable urge to create, participate, engage, and share. I see that I am sensitive to the thoughts and comments of others. I am buffeted by a world I have little or no control over. I see that my mind can make up all kinds of stories meant to shape my view of the world.

I finally opened the LensWork magazine and found it was interesting. Brooks has yet another insightful editorial. Bill Joy has yet another fine closing piece. In between the editorials and scribblings I found some images were better than others to me. I even teased out a few ideas that might be worth exploring.

Being human is sometimes such a strange experience.

Making movies

2008-11-21T13:10:00.000-08:00

On Canon's new HD quality capabilities in the 5D MkII

Collodion

2008-11-20T15:16:00.000-08:00

Interesting work from a seemingly fine artist

Predictions

2008-11-12T09:32:00.001-08:00

Playing to a tough crowd - what will 2009 bring?

A Soap Opera

2008-11-03T10:45:00.000-08:00

It seems that photography has plenty of its own little dramas that help keep tongues wagging over nothing

Seeing

2008-10-24T13:39:00.000-07:00

My wife and I headed north on a rather rotten day. We were going to Vancouver, BC to visit a friend of mine who popped over from England for a convention. The day was doubly rotten. One of my wife's dear friend lost her battle with cancer. We didn't realize this until we were already in British Columbia. Sad. Very sad. Add to this that my friend has hit a patch of rotten luck, and it could have turned into a pity party. It ended up much better than that. Fortunately.

As we visited that fine city to the north of us, I learned something about the way I see the world. It starts with the acknowledgment that I love to travel. Moving about the globe seems to enable my photographic vision. In simple terms, everything is fresh and new to me. So taking fun images is like shooting fish in a barrel. Its easy.

I worked several themes during the trip. From our 24th floor hotel room we were able to over look much of Vancouver's West End high rise skyline. I took the opportunity to make a few images whenever the sky and lighting looked like it might be interesting.

Thinking back to St. Ansel and his body of work, people seem to remember his Yosemite Valley photos. Highly valued, St. Ansel had much to "say" about the valley. He photographed there for decades and came away with more than a few nice things. How on earth did the valley remain fresh and interesting to him?

After we returned home and I had the chance to process a few things I realized I just don't see my own city in the same way as I do other places. It seems that my own town is too familiar to me. So how do I awaken my photographic vision in a place where I get to see everything of "interest" nearly daily? How do I expand my ideas to include the familiar and, at the same time, seek out new and potentially good photographic ideas?

New Toys - II

2008-10-22T19:14:00.000-07:00

Well, someone seems to think the latest toys from Canon are something special

New Toys

2008-10-20T13:33:00.001-07:00

5D MkII unboxed - but not at my house

Photography

2008-09-29T16:27:00.000-07:00

Proof that it does NOT take thousands of dollars of camera gear to make wonderful images

Canon

2008-09-29T16:12:00.000-07:00

What if 77mpixel were available?

Photo idea

2008-09-25T09:11:00.000-07:00

Here is a video FILLED with really great ideas!!! Here's a link to what Jarvis has to say on the shoot.

Art

2008-09-18T13:34:00.001-07:00

I have been giving a lot of thought to art, what it means, and how I view it.

In this society the easy measure of success is financial. If you are selling photographs, then you are 1) good and 2) successful.

I have come to view success a little differently. In short, success to me will be if someone a few hundred years from now picks up a print I made and appreciates it. The only drawback with this definition is that I won't be there to witness the event.

There may be, however, a few key indicators to potential future appreciation.

My wife and I went to the Charles Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana recently. While waiting for my wife I spied an interesting painting. I stood before it and considered what it was that made it so interesting to me.

The first thing I noticed with the sense of "depth" the image had. The second thing I noticed was how it made me feel. There were trees in the foreground and a high snow-capped mountain behind. Everything in the image was carefully arranged and composed. Light spilled from the high right throughout the scene. Everything was as it "should" be. Classic traditional art.

I continued to look at it with deeper more careful observation. As I did this, I noticed that the bark on the trees that were in deep shadow contained beautiful "correctly" contrasted details. It was almost as if I could reach out and touch the bark and feel the coolness of the tree's shade. The dried grass field in the foreground was clearly and cleanly articulated. The straw colors reminded me of the dry late summer heat. Looking up onto the mountain, snow fields were beautifully painted, with just a hint of blue, just like glaciers I saw throughout the Rockies. It seemed there was a small bit of haze between the foreground features and the mountain, just like smoke or humidity found in late summer. Finally, I considered the cloud formations. They were delicately rendered, exactly as I remembered similar cloud groups I saw in the Grand Tetons.

Taken in total, the painting was a near perfect articulation of scenes I had grown up with. From a photographers perspective, this scene was precisely as a human eye and brain would see and experience a view like this in real life.

From a photographer's perspective I knew instantly how photographs fail to recreate similar scenes. Had a camera been used to make the image the shadows would have been dark and muddied. The snow-capped peaks would be been too bright and over-exposed to properly capture the hint of blue. The haze might have been removed or reduced with the use of a UV filter. The colors would have been "punched up" through the use of Fuji Velvia or a similar function on a digital camera. A photographer would have had to work incredibly hard to come close the revealing what the painting did. A photograph would have been "something else".

As a culture and society that has looked at photographs for over 150 years, we have become "educated" as to the hard stern limits of photographic technologies. We learned from the great English photographers who captured the light of India and from the wonderful French photographers who worked the tourist post card trade in Egypt. We learned from Life magazine and National Geographic. We learned from the Great Saint Ansel Adams. We have learned what is and what is not a photograph.

So, what happens when image making technologies evolve and change? What happens when an image capture device is able to retain the hint of blue in the high mountain ice field? What happens when the "micro-contrast" of deeply shadowed tree bark is not only retained, but nicely enhanced? What happens when a photograph looks more like what the eye perceives than not? Is it still a photograph? Or, just as importantly, is it art?

William Mortensen had a lot to say on the topic of what comprises long lasting art image making. One of the things he noted is that careful composition is essential. He also placed strong emphasis on the quality of light deployed in the making of an image. Mortensen talked about the differences between "notan" style and "chiaroscuro" style lighting. The most descriptive guidance he left us are his Camera Craft published books. From 1937 and into the 1950's, William Mortensen wrote about art, image structure, image control, and, where appropriate, how to position, cloth, and light a human subject.

It seems that certain images have stood the test of time. Whether viewing the ancesteral cave paintings in France, or the incredible tile work from Byzantium, or the awesome paintings of the pre-Rennaisance Italy, much of the work is "visibly" and "knowingly" considered by many to be true "art". That is to say, images created several thousand years ago still hold appeal to viewers all these years later.

In current times I see that some photographic artists are stuggling with what has become of their craft. In one dimension there is the emergance of digital creation tools. In another dimension there is the now wide open possibilities that new tools and processes allow image makers. In yet another dimension is the question of how blurred the lines between "truth" and "manipulation" has become. Simply put, some people are asking questions about photography as a stand alone art form in an age where anything and everything can be created, manipulated, and managed from concept through to execution.

These are tough times for photo-traditionalists. From my own observations, it has appeared that photo-"insiders" long understood how to "look" at a work and find it "acceptable" and "pleasing" to them. I also observed how viewers unfamiliar with photographic techniques and processes can often times become befuddled by what they are looking at. It seems as if they failed to "see" what photo-"insiders" "see".

Things change.

Its interesting to watch as other struggle and strive to find a place in this rapidly evolving growing field of expression. In my own work, I have come to recognize the power of a well executed, properly lit, neatly processed image. It took the adoption of new tools and techniques to realize this vision. I couldn't be more excited by the possibilities.

What I could have said - LensWork Extended #78

2008-09-08T15:23:00.000-07:00

I just received my print copy of LensWork Sept-Oct 2008. Quickly thumbing through the magazine to see what Brooks might have written as an intro to my work I was struck by the words "innocent" and "child like".

Well! Here I always viewed myself as a serious "artist". Child-like? That stopped my train of thought. Innocent? Not from a "man of the world", surely.

Yet, the more I thought about it the more I realized that was exactly the "feel" when I'm in the company of heavy railroad equipment. Let me see if I can articulate what this means to me.

Back in the day I lived in Southern California. I have no idea what its like now, but when I grew up there the cultural message was strong. The culture demanded "sophistication". Everything from the cars one drove to the house a person lived in to the places one went to eat.

Looking back I'm very much surprised I didn't see it before. There was a distinctly condescending look on anyone who prepared their own meals from scratch. There was the strong judgment of anyone living in slightly beach worn apartments. There were laws in some parts of Southern California that prohibited the hanging of clothing on lines to dry. It was as if the entire Los Angeles and Orange County area was continually "sanitizing" itself for their own protection.

Protection from what? With the distance of time and place I still don't know.

Moving to Portland, Oregon 22 years ago began a sometimes subtle and sometimes not so subtle transformation. I started by being very aware of my place in culture and society and trying to find a way to "scramble" up the ultra-conservative cultural dung heap of expectation and judgment. I have ended up realizing that who I am will not change, regardless of what the predominant culture "demands" of me.

In hindsight its funny to think of Southern California as being ultra-conservative. Yet, that's exactly what my childhood and young adulthood was; very conservative. Surfers were supposed to be the very cool laid back people one see's in Endless Summer. Restaurants by the beach were supposed to be the height of cuisine production. Rodeo Drive was supposed to be somehow better with fashion than what's found in Paris, France. The media told us time and again just how wonderful it was to live in paradise.

Its nearly impossible to just be when media, cinema, traffic, voices, technology, strip malls, palaces to ultra-conservative churchianity all shout "you're never ever going to be good enough" unless you are stinking filthy rich.

Paradise? Its taken far too long, but paradise to me is living fully within one's means and within one's self. Paradise is the silence that comes with turning off the TV and the stereo. Paradise is parking the car and riding the bike to catch public transportation the rest of the way into work. Paradise is drinking a chilled pint of locally grown and prepared organic brew.

Paradise is stopping the mind from thinking and just being.

In Ram Das' book The Miracle of Love a story is told about the great mystic Neem Karoli Baba. He is said to have had a child like curiosity of the world. When he'd go for a ride in a car he would sit and smile, giggle, and laugh all the while swiveling this way and that to take in all the great sights and scenes as they passed by.

I am no mystic. Trust me on this point. Yet I find the story of Neem Karoli Baba such a beautiful juxtaposition to my earlier experiences on this planet. Its very freeing to know that its OK to be child like.

When I walk into the Brooklyn Roundhouse to tempt fate by trying to make a few fine images I feel very much like a child. My eyes invariably grow wide in their sockets. My stream of thoughts slows down. My breath catches in the throat. My mind and heart open to allow the enormity of the power steam locomotives to sink in and work their magic. This is big! fun!! stuff!!!

It is from this perspective that I am very happy that my joy and happiness come across in print as described by Brooks Jensen in his beautiful LensWork Magazine.

Lighting

2008-09-02T15:30:00.000-07:00

Yikes! This is creative good stuff!!

Lenswork Magazine

2008-09-02T14:25:00.000-07:00

In the September-October issue of LensWork Magazine, Brooks Jensen presents his views on how "Power People" in photography are different than photography "Enthusiasts". The punch-line is that "Enthusiast" images no longer mean they are in any way less than images made by "Power People".

I loved it. Finally, someone explaining me to my self in a way that was completely believable.

I really like the idea that photographs produced by enthusiasts can be the equal to those produced by the anointed power elite. Beyond the obvious reason, and beyond what Brooks wrote, I have the strong sense that what drives the photographic power elite is commerce and narcissistic attention. Money. Me.

Money is not a bad thing. Don't get me wrong. Everyone needs to eat. Me? Well, didn't the Beatles sing about that once upon a time?

Money can change a person's point of view so radically as to lead them into managing "perceptions" of themselves (Me!Me!Me!) and their work. For the power elite, "perception" is more important than image content. "Perception" of the artist, however, can lead to stagnation. Again, as Brooks points out, few photographers ever produce better work after they have been "discovered".

About a year ago I was at a significant fork in the road of my own artistic endeavors. I needed to decide if I was going to don the cocktail party coat of "perception". I needed to decide if I was going to drag my wife around to cocktail parties and talk "high art". I needed to decide if I was going to put the time and effort into trying to become one of the photographic power elite.

After all, my wife and I can converse on a wide range of topics. We know our wines and food very well. We know our politics inside and out. We can speak to art and its place in culture and society. We can even dress up and look pretty darned good in the process. Alas, I knew that isn't truly me.

Through contrasts, Brooks Jensen makes a strong case for the photographic "enthusiast". Boy, am I ever glad he wrote on the topic so very strongly. I identify with what he says. I love taking and making images much more than I enjoy partying it up with groups of self proscribed photographic art "power elite". I enjoy finding ways of expressing my art more than I do worrying about how to pay the $50,000USD needed for the latest newfangled camera toy. I much prefer selling for a modest price my prints to folks who really enjoy the work than I would trying to convince anyone that a 30x40inch print of mine will help make them an acknowledged and well respected photographic art collector.

During my interview with Brooks for LensWork Extended #78 Sept-Oct In the RailYard he made two obvious points. These points are so quickly glossed over by the fast paced moneyed authoritative art power brokers that I feel too many folks don't even realize these p0ints exist. The Smoke and Mirror game has been very well played. Here's what I took from my conversation with Brooks.

First obvious point - In 200 years no one will care if you used film or digital to make an image.

Second obvious point - All that an artist can hope for is that their work stands the test of time.

In a society where money "speaks", in a culture where all that matter is how things are "perceived", in a country where all that people care about is how to get "there's", art is a nearly impossible thing to understand.

Its very useful to me to take a big step back and attempt to look at what I do and why I do it from the perspective of time.

I will never know, but I sincerely hope that some time, some where in the distant future some one will take a print I have made and find joy in looking at it.

China

2008-08-28T13:11:00.001-07:00

Do you think they had the Olympics "covered"?

Birds

2008-08-25T14:50:00.001-07:00

A fabulous use of simple light and backdrop. Another photo project on its way?

New Gallery Website

2008-08-25T08:41:00.000-07:00

CameraWork Gallery