Shooting Through Vintage Glass

This photograph of the shadow of a building was taken using vintage glass. No, not an old lens from a bygone era. What I mean is, although the camera and lens were both modern pieces of kit, I was looking and taking photographs through one of the old picture windows of our house. This window in particular is highly distorted, which can be further amplified if you shoot indirectly. The use of a telephoto focal length in combination with the distorted glass yielded a pleasant abstract image directly out of the camera. 

Rhubarby

The last time it rained around here I happened to be out in the yard with a camera. It happens. Sometimes I wonder what I would photograph if I were recovering from the likes of knee replacement surgery. But I digress. By now, I have come up with about a dozen or so go to 'shots' around the grounds of the estate that I use whenever I happen to be testing out a camera, lens, film stock, etc. I'm sure you're the same. Every once in a while, though, I'll end up pointing the camera in some new direction and end up with a fresh image. I forget what these plants are called, but the stems were wet from the rain, so I held the camera in the middle of the grouping and exposed a few photos. 

Good light to you this weekend, fellow traveler.

And So It Goes...

In the days before everything in our lives went online, displaying our vast collection of books was a convenient way for us to flex. You know, covering all of the available wall space in the house with those black aluminum bookshelves nearly toppling under the weight of the Derrida and Foucault? Later upgraded to Ikea shelving. Our friends most certainly must have been impressed! They kept coming over to our house after all. 

But wait, there's more to it... Let me explain. At some point pretty early on, I quit pretending I had much interest in French philosophy and converted from hoarding scholarly works to cookbooks. I don't really cook from them in the typical way, not wanting to get 'em dirty. But I've read through them all and in fact, that's how I learned to cook. What I'm saying is, I think that good food was important, too. 

Sadly, these days, with all the specialized eating, I tend to shy away from doing that much fancy cooking. Fortunately, our walls are now more or less completely covered with our art. And so it goes...

Fall-LOL

As I was untangling the garden hose to do a bit of watering, I noticed a little Fall color in the yard. That would be the little yellow patch of leaves toward the center of the photograph. It was 30 C (88 F) so you'll hopefully forgive the fact that I wasn't in a particularly autumnal frame of mind. I wiped the sweat from my brow and grabbed a camera. I told myself that the trees were responding to the light, not the ambient temperature.

Just Stop And Take Some Photos

Like the proverbial big game hunters from a few generations ago, we photographers all have stories about the ones that got away. The cat in the culvert, that was one I missed simply due to being too damn lazy to take my camera out of my backpack. It still smarts. Anyway, it can be especially hard to stop for pictures when one is driving, even casually, as a harried mindset seems to be par for the course. But you just gotta stop. I've passed this spot many times on the way to and from Atlanta, never actually taking the exit and grabbing a few photos. So, this one time, see, my wife, she just like gets off the highway, and we sneek in and make some photographs. That's the way it is done, son.

A Million Years Ago

It's true, our expectations for playgrounds has increased exponentially in recent years. These shitty chainlink monstrosities that were probably erected in the '70s just don't cut the mustard any longer. Not to pile on, but there isn't a proper playing surface, just red dirt. Anyway, they thankfully were bulldozed a few years ago and replaced with way better stuff. Still, I am glad I took the time to document these old relics. 

Walk On By

We grew up in a household bathed in Muzak, did my brother and I. How many folks can make a claim like that? That their parents preferred to play elevator music all day? We picked up the lyrics to a thousand songs by simple emersion, a skill with absolutely no practical value I can think of. But I digress. Most folks just walk on by interesting scenes, which is why some of us feel the need to photograph them, I suppose. 

Cuppa, Canna, Glassa...

For some, a cup of warm liquid is central to the morning experience. But, not for me. Nope. I am afraid that pour moi it revolves around the caffeine. I've explored all the alternatives, but what I am looking for is a jolt, a boost, a perceptible increase in brain activity. Sorry. The delivery system can be a warm cuppa black tea, a cold mugga leftover coffee, or a canna Celsius. There is nothing the least bit romantic about that, of course. So, while I enjoy fancy tea as much as the next person, I often have no choice but to chase it with a Red Bull.

The World's A Stage

I was sitting on stage trying to relax as the crew were getting everything ready for last evening's orchestra performance. To my eyes, it is a pretty complicated situation up there in the rafters. At the end of the day, all I can say is that it just an interesting composition, because I have no earthly idea about how it all works.

Good light to you this weekend, fellow traveler.

Contemporary Still Life

It is kind of amazing, and not in a good way, that almost every piece of fruit we encounter these days has a sticker attached to it. The satsumas came in a bag, which is the only thing that saved them from the same fate as the pomegranate. Why bother removing the stickers before taking the photograph? It would probably just lead to confusion. I *am* happy that the pom was grown in the States...

Frog, Lurking

 

While at the gardens, we ran into another photographer who pointed out the frog lurking in the background here. Took me a minute to be able yo see it, actually.

Sanding An Oil Painting

Film simulations, Lightroom/Photoshop plugins, in-camera RAW processing... Whatever you want to call it, whatever approach you want to take, this is a popular topic in the online photography community these days. Seems like it to me anyway. Don't get me wrong, I do absolutely get the attraction of these tools, techniques, filters, etc. In general, I like the aesthetic and I've gotten some results I am legit pleased with. But the thing is, if I'm being honest, the results don't really look all that much like film to my eyes. All these filters, skins, and presets are basically doing one main thing: taking the edge off of the rather clinical output produced by digital image sensors. Kind of like sanding your oil painting...

Monday Morning Musings

Funny, I've never noticed this particular shadow pattern before, and I thought I was pretty familiar with what goes on around the house. Unlike the cats, who notice literally everything. I have not yet reached the level of attention of a cat, and I guess I probably never will. 

That's why we keep cats around, I suppose. As ones who notice... Anyway, I'll go back and do some mental ray tracing to figure out exactly what I just photographed... I'd like to see a cat do that...

At least I feel that the end of summer doldrums are starting to pass. You know, those couple of weeks when the light is bad, or at least not good, the humidity is still high, and the leaves are turning yellow from the heat.

Behind Glass

A few years ago now, we took a spontaneous trip to Chicago for a long weekend. It was a very fun little excursion, but it was also pretty damn cold most of the time, especially for a couple of Southerners like me and my wife. My main camera on the trip was loaded with black-and-white film, so I took this photograph using my phone from the comfort of the Art Institute. Through a window, in other words. The original capture was marred by some nasty reflections of the interior lights bouncing off of the windows, but with a few clicks of the trackpad in Photoshop, I was able to get the image into presentable condition. 

Methinks It Is A Weasel...

Storms, with their strong winds, will often knock accumulated tree rot down to earth. You find it distributed over the yard the next morning after the storm. All that is left to do is collect the detritus and take a few images. I once met a person at an art opening whose artistic focus is pareidolia. Really. She talked my ear off about seeing faces in photographs. Several times during the conversation, I felt like mentioning the connection between pareidolia and dementia, but I held back. 

Look Closely

If you look closely, you will see that there is an arrow spray painted on the sidewalk in addition to the one printed on the No Parking sign. And those on the asphalt, of course. It was just a pointed moment, is all. Hehe.

Good light to you this weekend, fellow traveler. 

Wait, What?

Last night, I noticed that an update was available for Photoshop, so I downloaded it. Lo and behold, the generative fill functions are out of beta and available for everyone to use. So I took advantage of the new enhanced crop tool with generative fill to actually fix the image I showed the other day. I think Ps did a pretty convincing job of it, actually. Although I am not inclined to use such features very often, who would ever really know if I did? Ready or not, I am sure photographers are going to find interesting ways of using the new technology...

Insomniac Photography

At first, I thought it must be insomnia, but as it turned out, it was just that the bastard cat had pushed the hall door open, allowing the street light to blast into the bedroom with the brightness of a hundred suns, causing me to wake as I rolled over in bed. While I was up, I decided, what the hell, I might as well photograph the scene. I used my jpeg camera, an ancient Fuji X-Pro 1. I think it did a pretty decent job of recording the eerie light.

 

The Surprising Benefits Of Turd Polishing

There were two massive guy lines in this composition that totally marred the otherwise wonderful vista. Which lead me to frame sloppily. What I mean is, my subconscious awareness of the one explains the other. Yeah, and I'm sticking with that story. At any rate, the modern version of Photoshop lets one remove power lines and similar distractions with a couple of mouse clicks. I suppose I could use AI to fix the crop, but that is still somehow beyond the pale for me.

SETI

Looking for a couple of viewers to complete the experience. That's basically it, what we do., what it all boils down to. Right?

Fingers crossed.

Here's hoping you have a good week.

Seeing Things

The beautiful muted color palette of the rotting, decaying leaf were what first attracted me. It was only much later that I noticed the butterfly shape. Was that reading somehow operating at a subconscious level in my brainpan as I framed up and clicked the shutter? Some would say, yes. Moi, I tend to think it was just a happy accident? And I'm good with happy accidents.

BNLS SKNLS CHKN BRST

All artists tend to obsess about the appearance of their images, but sometimes it seems like photographers take things to an entirely new level. Presets, filters, skins, all applied to your images in an effort to give one's photographs that certain je ne sais quoi. A unique appearance, a signature style. The problem is many folks end up liking the same looks, compounding the problem of uniqueness... It's all a bit like drenching a boneless, skinless chicken breast with the same brand of sauce. 

Well, anyway I was smothering one of my own images with a 'film simulation' recipe. And to be honest, it doesn't really look very much like any film I ever shot. Yet it does kind of sort of look like one of the darkroom papers I used to use, provided I squint a little bit. Better stated, it looks like what I remember my darkroom prints looking like. 

Which is all fine by me. I'll happily eat the sauce and leave the dried up chicken on the plate. Yes sir.

Cheers

This was an easy enough photograph to pre-visualize, but in fact, it also turned out much more interesting to look at than I thought. 

Good light this weekend fellow traveler.

Stay Curious

He may be 14 years old, which is downright elderly in feline terms, but our Norwegian Forest cat is still curious about the world around him. I'd have to say, he is aging gracefully. He takes full advantage of the floor to ceiling picture windows.

Tasting notes: Pentax K-3 III Monochrome, ISO 12800.

Draped In Velvia

Due to the Labor Day holiday, the grounds keepers were all present and working on Tuesday morning at the botanical gardens. Someone was actually wading in the water and pruning the lilies, and I got a nice glimpse of the prickly underside of a mature Victoria leaf. I decided to give the photograph, taken with my ancient Fuji X-Pro 1, the Velvia treatment, which worked out pretty well in this case, I think. Green can be such a difficult color, expecially in digital photography...

Look Up

Sometimes all you have to do is just look up. And that's what I did here. You might say it's part of my process these days. Anyway, Labor Day tends to mark the end of summer, and I hope your day is a good one. 

That's My Scorpion

All of us have dreams of becoming famous, of being written into the history books. Famous writers, famous scientists, famous actors. Most of us fall short of those ambitions, cuz, you know, fame is a lil' bit like a Ponzi scheme. Some lucky few of us end up writing advertising jingles, formulating new and improved shampoos, modeling for catalogs. If I was an insect sculptor, I would be over the moon to have an enormous scorpion commissioned. Every time I went to the park I'd think, "That's my god damned scorpion".

Signifying Nothing

Quote of the day:

Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique. There is no mechanical way to get the writing done, no shortcut.

-- William Faulkner

Translate Slowly

I can still remember watching Steve Jobs make a big deal about Apple existing at the intersection of the Liberal Arts and Technology. It was a somewhat corny thing to say, for sure, but nevertheless I was always grateful that at least one technology company was trying to keep the engineers at arm's length. Photography is another discipline hanging out at the same intersection, and for a much longer time, too. Sometimes it seems like the art side is on a logarithmic trajectory while technology's path is exponential. Maybe I just need to rotate the image counterclockwise by ninety degrees...

Good light to you this weekend, fellow traveler.