Me and the cicadas

Now that I've been vaccinated, I'm starting to think about emerging from my 14 months of isolation. It's kind of amusing how avoiding humanity has become so ingrained as a habit. The experience has not been 100% negative, either, if I'm honest. Still, I'm keen to get back into the groove. Next weekend, we are going to a concert outdoors, and we'll be traveling some this summer, too. I am very happy about that, as well as the prospect of international travel at some point sooner rather than later. The Brood X cicadas are returning this summer, after being gone for 17 years. That emergence will occur north of here, but we will have our usual level of summer cicada activity, I'm sure.

As usual, I hope you have good light this weekend. 

Difficult images

Sometimes I think it is worthwhile to explore 'difficult' images -- non-standard compositions, viewpoints, scales -- that invite us to consider why we point the camera in a particular direction and when we choose to trip the shutter. Private moments, quotidian details, personal fascinations, these are all worthy of a photographer's attention. Spring is the season for contemplating clouds. Soon new leaves will obscure my view and I may look elsewhere. 

Color is hard

From casual snapshots posted online, to studio work, to images that aspire to be fine art, I tend to favor black and white over color. If the image seems to demand the use of color, then I tend to prefer a grade that reminds me of an old film stock or has an obvious 'look' (like the warm toned image of the hosta). That is one of the pleasures of working with good old fashioned film -- each emulsion is unique in its representation of the world. A split-toned B&W image is often a nice compromise. All are ways of abstracting the final photographic image from reality a little bit, I guess, which also helps to demonstrate the intention of an artist. In the early 2000s the famous chef Charlie Trotter published a cookbook titled, 'Raw', featuring complex and labor intensive recipes that highlighted uncooked foods. Raw is hard. Color is hard.

Bamboo ain't blue

If you look at photographs of the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest on Instagram, you might come away thinking that bamboo has a bluish hue. Nope. I don't have to travel to Kyoto to study the life cycle of bamboo, as I have a mini grove of the stuff growing behind my studio. This is the time of the year when the new bamboo is bright green and growing incredibly fast. Later, as the summer months drag on, brown hues tend to predominate. As the older bamboo dies in winter, the pigment fades and the wood splits open as it dries out. In this image of new growth, I did a little image doctoring of my own, converting to monochrome in order to highlight the stem of the vine corkscrewing up the bamboo.

Why throw them away?

We had a lovely bouquet of red roses, and after they started to die, we hung the entire bouquet in a dark storage room for a couple of months to dry out. Why throw them away? I set them up in the studio on a darkish day. I had to stop down a lot to get a decent depth of field and, after taking exposure reciprocity failure into account, had to leave the shutter open for a full minute. I did a couple of frames just to be sure I got something with no movement. I still have the roses in my studio on a shelf to this day. Rolleiflex SL66, and 150mm f/4 Zeiss lens.

The $10 Lazarus Film Camera - Pentax ZX-M

This simple snapshot is a keeper for my wife and me as it records a particular experience of a special place. Turns out that it really is important to record the 'times of our lives', as that old Kodak commercial reminds us. I really like the composition of this photograph, but the whole series of events leading up to making it began as nothing more than a silly little experiment. You see, about month or so ago, I purchased a Pentax KP when I saw them on sale for close out prices. Later, I learned about the so called 'Limited' series of lenses, older versions of which can be bought used for very little money. Together, they make a nice and compact kit, and frankly, that should have been enough. But at some point the silly idea of shooting these lenses -- designed for APS digital cameras -- on film popped into my head, and so I suddenly 'needed' a Pentax film camera to mount them on. 

I look and photograph, so it goes

Here is the last image from Italy for a little while. Once again, the photograph was taken on my trip to Bologna a couple of years ago. It is a calm view of the Italian countryside. One thing that is not conveyed very well by the photograph was how unbearably hot it was that September day. I was about ready to pass out after a longer than expected walk and was in a rotten frame of mind. So, I spent a few minutes sitting in the shade before firing off five vertical images that I stitched together later. I wonder if travel will soon return to the way it was before the pandemic, or whether it will take several more years for things to get fully sorted. In the meantime, I try to look and make photographs.

Missing the forest for the trees?

 

As I was framing up this shot taken on a visit to Bologna, I noticed the fellow in blue at the far end of the room. The microscopic blue dot, I mean. The vanishing point. Out of an abundance of cleverness, I was intent on getting him framed up in the far window, which I certainly succeeded in doing, but at the expense of my overall composition, which could have been better, I think. Of course, I could crop in a bit, or do some work in Photoshop. Or perhaps the image is fine as it is. But at the end of the day, I still have to laugh at myself a little, which is itself probably a good exercise to undertake from time to time.

I hope you have good light this weekend.

Preparing to garden

We had a little Spring 'disasterama' here, but everything worked out for the best in the end. My wife rightly decided to part ways with the landscaping service we'd used for a number of years, as their work was getting more than a little sloppy. In retrospect, early Spring is perhaps not the most convenient time to make a change like this. The last cold snap of the season has passed, and we are getting ready to garden in earnest. This photograph is a kind of material study. I really liked the relationship between the plywood, terra cotta, and concrete here. Rolleiflex SL66, Zeiss 120mm f/5.6 S-Planar Macro lens, Tri-X. Such a nice lens! I use a Maxwell bright screen in the Rollei, so focussing is very straightforward.

 

Remain curious

I was watching an interview with William Kentridge who was discussing the impulse to make a film. Here's a rough transcription of what was said:

The films don't have a meaning which then gets drawn... the films come out of a need to make an image, an impulse to make a film... and the meaning emerges over the months of making the film. The only meaning they have in advance is the need for the film to exist.

Sometimes you just click the shutter, it's the start of an experiment, a train of thought, an exploration. Sometimes a meaning emerges; sometimes things die out; sometimes its all a mystery. 

Remain curious.

Hopperesque

 

I was immediately attracted by the contrast between the cool light outdoors at the end of the day and the warm light radiating from within the structure. The flattened perspective resulting from the use of a telephoto lens accentuated the geometry of the scene, and is why the composition works. The ability to shoot at an ISO of 6400 was also super convenient. Pentax KP and 100 mm f/2.8 macro lens.

Mamiya Monday...

When I started collecting old film cameras a decade or so ago, they were literally as cheap as chips. These days, of course, this is absolutely no longer the case, with coveted film cameras going for multiple thousands of dollars. Especially, it seems, a very particular panoramic camera and certain medium format models. It's all a bit crazy. At any rate, the first medium format camera I added to my collection was the Mamiya 645 1000S, which set me back a whopping $50. To be clear, I mean fifty bucks for the entire set-up, including a lens. I still remember shooting my first roll, thinking to myself that this was the bargain of the century. And, it really is a very enjoyable camera to shoot with. Over time, I've added the 50mm shift lens and the rather unique 80mm f/1.9 lens to my kit. When shooting the 80mm wide open at f/1.9, the depth of field is vanishingly small (totally impractical, honestly) and the bokeh can be, shall we say, a bit disorienting. That said, many photographers (I know of at least one) are connoisseurs of unusual lens properties, including weird bokeh. And, with the 50mm shift lens, you can stitch together two or three frames for a very nice panoramic photograph.

One privileged cat

 

If you want to be taken seriously as a photographer, especially on social media, it is probably not a good idea to post too many, if any, photographs of your cat. Dog photos, although somewhat risky, can be fine if they are artfully done. There is a bit of a history of famous photographs of dogs. But cat photos are a bit taboo, the hallmark of a hack. Be that as it may, I could not resist taking a picture of this church cat I saw in Bologna. At heart, I am a cat man, and I was amazed this little guy felt comfortable snoozing in the open. Only in a church would something like that be possible, I think.

The importance of a little mystery

This is another image made in Bologna. Here, I responded to the mix of warm candle light and the cooler ambient lighting of the church, as well as the iconography, in particular, the contrast between the old and the new. The scene is somewhat mysterious, at least to me, which I like in a photograph. I sat on this photo for a long time because there was a distracting reflection of the candles in the glass that kind of ruined the impact of the image. Finally, I did the required work in Photoshop, as this really isn't intended to be a purely documentary photograph. I'm much happier with the result.

Reminiscing about travel...

Yesterday, I wrote about the pleasures of shooting local, which, predictably, got me reminiscing about recent trips abroad. A couple of years ago, I visited Bologna for a conference. It is a city I knew little about, but that I grew very fond of during my visit. I would go back in a heart beat! I think my wife felt similarly. Anyway, I was able to tuck both digital and film cameras into my carry-on bag, and got nice results using both. The digital camera I was using at the time was a Sony and the lens I enjoyed using on it was a Zeiss 35mm f/2.8. The lens was not perfect, but more than good enough, let's put it that way. And I didn't mind shooting the Sony at high ISOs either, so the aperture was not much of a limitation, even inside a church. With the passage of time, I see that the Sony sensor produced lovely results that hold up well. I did not love the user experience though, enough said about that. 

I hope you have a pleasant shooting experience this weekend.

Shoot local

While I certainly miss traveling to new locations to make photographs, I think there is also something to be said about really getting to know your local environment. For one thing, you almost certainly will come away with some unique images. For another, you never know when you might decide to relocate. Life can be funny that way, and you'll probably want a few photographs to remember your favorite old haunts by. Too, every once in a while, you get an image that really pleases you, that is just as good as anything you could have gotten in an exotic location. I shot this image the other day using the Fujifilm GA645Zi, which is a camera I've enjoyed using over many years. I find that I really enjoy the 4:3 aspect ratio. The autofocus is from the 90's so you always have to be mindful of that. The camera has a zoom lens with a very short range of 55-90 mm. The way I've come to think about this is that it is a slightly adjustable 70 mm lens, which is a 'standard' field of view for the 6x4.5 cm format. The ability to slightly change your framing can be a real godsend, but if you truly want a different perspective you're going to actually have to physically move your ass a little bit.

Brittle and crystalline

As I was climbing down from the hiking path to stand on a granite boulder, I reached out for something to stabilize myself and noticed this dead tree trunk. It looked brittle and I sensed it would be a bad idea to grab onto it because it would likely shatter under my weight. I also immediately knew that I wanted to photograph it. Not so much to create a work of art as to make a visual note to myself. A sketch if you will. At any rate, what I want to remember is how the wood looks petrified and crystalline, with an almost cubic structure. I was also pretty happy with the bokeh under these particular conditions.

Go figure

When I came upon this burl on my walk, I felt compelled to make a photograph. I was able to find a composition that reflected my experience that morning, the dappled light, the diversity of species, the action of time. The burl is significantly larger than the diameter of the trunk itself. At some point, this tree will fall to the woodland floor, where perhaps a woodcarver will find the old burl and turn it (quite literally) into a work of art. It sure would be interesting to see what the wood looks like on the inside. Highly figured burl wood is not something that can be mass produced and each example is unique. Kind of like a darkroom print or a polaroid in that regard.

Photography as therapy

Today was the day I had to face the music about our taxes. The bill was somewhat higher than I would have liked, so after picking up the paperwork, and bitterly making the payment, I drove over to one of our local woodlands for a casual hike. The weather was just about perfect, and I did not see another human being on my visit. I brought along the Pentax KP, the 35mm f/2.8 macro lens, a Fujifilm GA645Zi medium format point-and-shoot film camera, and a roll of Tri-X. These cameras are pretty different from each other, but they do both come equipped with a small, built-in flash. Fill flash is actually an incredibly useful feature to have on a walk in the forest, where the lighting can be quite tricky at times. If you set the flash exposure compensation to –2/3 stop, you'll get nice balance with the ambient light. And, you will be the only one who ever knows that the flash fired during the exposure.

Nostalgia -- to taste

 

I hit the wall yesterday after lunch and decided to make some French press coffee to get a little extra energy flowing. I can tell how strong it is by how much half and half I need to add. It was a bracing cup, let's put it that way. I enjoyed seeing the reflection of the trees in the surface of my favorite beverage as well as in the puddle on the table. I ended up having a reasonably productive afternoon. I had just watched a video presented by photographer Alec Soth who at one point mentioned that he enjoys shooting on both film and digital. He talked about how nostalgia can present a major challenge for photographers using film. And yet, many of us respond very strongly to the qualities of analogue processes for reasons other than just nostalgia. I think the color shifts, imperfections, and other properties of film can be used to artistic advantage without drawing undue attention to themselves. In some ways, the use of film simulations, filters and the like on digital images to make them appear analogue is a more egregious example of creeping nostalgia than using film for a given project. 

Fish face

The lighting set up here was pretty straightforward. It was an LED spotlight I had installed under the kitchen cabinet a few years ago. A successful DIY project. Not a photographic light, in other words. If this were a paid product shot, I would have done things differently (or maybe just used Photoshop) to avoid the harsh shadow. As it was, this was just going to be dinner and I didn't want to risk my camera smelling like fish for several weeks. During the pandemic, we've been able to source fresh seafood from a nearby restaurant, something I am really grateful for and want to remember. The fish was tasty, as were the files out of the Pentax KP. 

Years and years ago, my father went though this phase of calling my brother and me 'fish face'. I can still hear him saying, "Hey fish face!" 

Not random

I was photographing an entirely different scene when I looked down and noticed the beechnuts dotting the pavement. I decided to make the exposure even though the subject matter was pretty mundane. Glad I did, because, in the end, this image turned out nicer than the other shots. The arrangement of the beechnuts on the surface of the pavement is not perfectly random, which is what you might have expected. I guess individual beechnuts can get tangled up together, which could account for the observed odd groupings.

The light has been pretty terrible around here the past couple of days, but the flat illumination does suit certain subjects. You just have to go find them. 

Have a pleasant weekend making images.

Shoot and eat

Last year, we did not see many artichokes in the grocery store. Not a high demand item in the best of times, and of course the pandemic did not help. I hope that changes this year. Sometimes it is nice to have a whole artichoke for dinner. It can be enough on a hot and humid evening. I photographed these two beauties right before preparing them to eat. I do that often enough that perhaps I should put together a book of these images. The provisional title would be Shoot and Eat. Captured using the Rolleiflex SL66 and the 150mm f/4 lens. That was my favorite lens prior to getting my hands on the 120mm S-Planar. I used a boutique film, Washi S. It is a sound recording film that gives an interesting look to the image.

Funerary and joyous

You can see flowers in museums and in graveyards, but I prefer the ones we find in the garden and place on our dining table. I've always enjoyed having cut flowers in the house, and they are also interesting subjects to photograph. These delicate paperwhites really do resemble paper when they are dried out like this. The colors of the blossoms are interesting, but the stems, not so much. So I opted for a monochrome treatment here. I used to like to make my digital black and white look like film, but now I just shoot film when I want the film look. I've been exploring different digital monochrome looks without concerning myself too much with reproducing the tones and grain of film.

Bokeh ennui?

 

My father was stationed in Asia during his long stint in the U.S. Army. He brought home a large number of tchotchkes from his travels, and these objects became part of what my brother and I experienced every day growing up. In fact, we both still have a few of these items among our own possessions, like this old buddha from Thailand. I have an old Leitz 90mm f/2.5 Colorplan projector lens that I purchased to use with my 4x5 camera. I did not like the look this lens produced on large format film all that much, so now I am slowly but surely adapting it for use on a digital camera instead. In the meantime, I've tried capturing a few images by 'freelensing' with it. With a fixed f/2.5 aperture at 90mm, the blur is pretty intense, especially close up.

I keep thinking that photographers will grow bored with bokeh, but I have my doubts. The other day, I ordered some fresh salmon from a local merchant. He sent me a picture of a platter of whole fish taken using portrait mode on his phone. Damn fine looking fish against a blurry background. I definitely bought a couple filets. 

In plein sight

For as long as there have been construction sites, it seems that there have been fences and scrims erected to block our view of what is going on. The powers that be don't want us to see the big hole they're digging in the ground and how it fills up with water when it rains. On the up side, I've also long been fascinated with, and enjoy photographing, images that are projected on these opaque surfaces by the simple action of the sun. It's kind of a plein air camera of sorts. There just has to be a photographer around to record the scene. 

Happy Easter

 

My mom loved geraniums and they were always around the house when I was growing up, usually planted in small terra cotta pots that could be moved around the house to suit her mood and the light. Over the years, we've had a few around our house as well. These two leaves had recently fallen to the floor and I was attracted to their painterly qualities. This image was captured using Kodak Ektar film using the Rolleiflex SL66 and the 120 mm macro lens. Happy Easter.

I like it cuz U like it! 😃

 

I think sometimes it's easy to become infatuated with images made using a new lens, taken from a novel perspective, captured on an unusual film stock, that kind of thing. Maybe these images won't stand the test of time all that well, but we sure get amped about them in the moment. I was taking a new lens for a test drive the other day -- the Pentax 15mm f/4. I had it mounted on the KP digital camera. Now, 15mm is a wide field of view, even on a crop sensor camera. I was having a good time walking around and filling the frame with the tree canopy in different configurations. I was also shooting at f/22 to get a nice sunstar, not something that is normally part of my aesthetic. But, hey, it's Spring. I offered up the image to my wife for consideration, and she said, "I like it because you like it". Fair enough, and the thing is, I still kinda like it. I'm hoping it grows on her a little bit over time.

Super simple digital Aerochrome with the Sigma sdQuattro

I first read about the use of Foveon sensors for digital color infrared when I encountered an open access publication a couple of years ago (Fent and Meldrum, “A Foveon Sensor/Green-Pass Filter Technique for Direct Exposure of Traditional False Color Images”, Journal of Imaging, 2016, 2, 14.). What interested me about the authors's method was the fact that it was dead simple, at least for pictorial (artistic) applications, and reversible. With lovely Spring weather and bright sunshine the other day, I was in the mood to give this method a try for myself. I followed the steps described in the paper without modification: (1) remove the IR cut filter on the camera (easy on the Quattro), (2) set the ISO to 400 and the white balance to 4100 K, and (3) shoot through a green filter (Hoya X1). I decided to slightly modify the color balance of the out of camera images to suit my taste. Overall, I was delighted with the results. They are close enough to color IR film for my purposes, and a good use for my old green filters.

Hope your weekend is filled with good light.

Eye of the storm

 

I enjoy going out for an early stroll, before the dog walkers and the runners hit the trails. You never know what you will see in the wee hours. I am particularly happy to have had a camera with me this morning to record my observations.

Note added later: Not sure how well Surrealism and April Fool's pair, but there we have it.