frazgo meanders

Just to brush off this blog a bit...

2012-01-11T10:12:00.000-08:00

Wow, its been busy around here since the LA Auto Show...keeping up with it all has been a challenge.

This weeks adventures took me to Detroit for the North American International Auto Show. What a show it was. This was all courtesy of Acura who sees the value in bloggers and like what I do here and at So Cal Auto Blog.

The panoramas here were done with the help of Adobe's CS5. This program does a pretty admirable job of blending multiple images into one giant shot. It isn't perfect and for reasons I don't understand it will blend some like these examples then completely is thrown off with others that it can't blend. Anyone have an idea why it is so inconsistent with the combining of series shot into panoramas and not with others?

The Auto Show is made for HDR images

2011-11-17T16:14:00.001-08:00

I've made mention in the past that HDR, High Dynamic Imaging is one way to control contrast and get details in the highlights and shadows beyond what a normal DSLR can capture.

Since it is a bracketed exposure set to capture highlights, mid-range and shadow as "perfectly exposed" when you get around to generating the HDR file you have complete detail across a much broader EV scale than what you can get with just one image.

Both of these are HDR images that I post processed with the help of Adobe's CS5. The Top image, that of a Cadillac ELR that is set for production in the next few years was done more with a surreal touch whereas the Mustang GT500 was done with a more realistic blending. Both work for their own reasons. Both will show up in publications around the web.

I have on flickr an entire set devoted to the 2011 L.A. Auto Show HERE.

What I did Friday night...

2011-11-06T05:33:00.000-08:00

Yup we saw Cyndi Lauper on her "Memphis Blues Tour". Great concert, amazing energy and songs by Cyndi Lauper.

A little panorama action...

2011-11-05T12:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to Torrance to the American Honda HQ for an Acura event. While there they opened up their museum for a luncheon and a tour. IT was quite impressive to see their collection of historically significant Honda's and concept cars from over the years.

This image was done with the photomerge too in Adobe's CS5. The program does a pretty slick job of matching frame content to create a single large image. Enjoy the sneak peak into the American Honda Museum that is not open to the public, rather is a by invitation only.

Very Foggy Morning

2011-11-01T08:20:00.000-07:00

Its not the tool used that makes the difference, its the photogs eye. This little gem was grabbed this morning with my cell phone as just an example of using a low res tool to its advantage.

Sierra Sunset ala Autochrome

2011-10-25T08:57:00.000-07:00

I do love the Sierra's. I find them a great respite from the rigors of day to day stuff. I shot this a couple of summers ago while on a trip to June Lake. This was actually a trail off the main road to Mono Lake. I loved the suns final ray shooting through the mountains before dusk settled into night.

I decided to do this one in the Autochrome look as I felt the painterly impressionistic results fit the image better than the simple RAW image would have given.

This took several steps, most of which I've outlined here in the past. I do love the simplicity and WYSWYG preview results you get with Adobe's CS5.

I've got a show this spring and am debating what to do. Should I present all "ala autochrome" or should I go with all "scanned hand painted negatives". Hell, I can't even decide what one image I should submit to the LA Center of Digital Art for their "Unjuried" Show, which I just adore, in December. What to do? Create more is the answer and let the most powerful series be the choice.

Freeway Daisy from a scanned negative

2011-10-23T10:20:00.000-07:00

Just a splash of color in a scanned negative. This time around used CS5 and just painted a layer. I don't like the effect as well as a marking pen...lacks that neonish glow and depth one gets when you paint on a negative directly. Experimentation is half the fun of photography. I used CS5 to create a layer to color then blended with multiply at 75% strength to get this image.

They strung me up at First City Credit Union

2011-10-14T16:52:00.000-07:00

Yup, one artist flaked and I got to go into the First City Credit Union Gallery today. 6 Pieces all hung, and information tags all done now its there for the public to enjoy until January. The First City Credit Union Gallery is a joint effort with the Monrovia Association of Fine Arts exhibiting works of its members.

The 6 pieces:
Bodie Blue Window
English Rose Bud
Abandoned Church, Paris
La Tour Eiffel
Wild Flower
Lily

Its a nice selection of photographs, digital art and hand colored negatives.

You can see them Monday through Saturday in the First City Credit Union main lobby. First City Credit Union,404 E. Huntington Drive, Monrovia, CA 91016

Another adventure into the old bucket...Blondie Live at Club Nokia

2011-10-06T08:44:00.000-07:00

Last night I took a break from the Celebrate the Arts prep and devoted the evening to an adventure. I've always wanted to see Blondie live and last night it happened. Worth the effort. Check out the YouTube vids I shot at the concert. Love these little diversions from the daily routines.

Art for a cause...raising funds for art education in the schools

2011-10-05T09:20:00.000-07:00

This weekends Celebrate the Arts that I'm participating in is more than just an Fine Art Event. ITS about raising money to bring Art to the community. ITS about raising money to help bring art education to the schools via the Village After School program in the MUSD elementary and middle schools. ITS about Pallete Grants, mini-grants to SGV area schools for in class art education projects. You can learn more about what the Monrovia Association of Fine Arts does on their website HERE.

At the Celebrate the Arts we have a few things going on that are dedicated to funding our various art programs in the city. The biggy is the Silent Auction of donated pieces where 100% of the proceeds go directly into the grant funds. All of the artists (well most of them) in the Celebrate the Arts donate a piece for inclusion in this auction. Monrovia High School done in the Orton style is my piece being donated to the cause.

Celebrate the Arts will be held in Monrovia's Library Park the weekend of October 8 &9 2011. The library address is 321 S Myrtle Ave, Monrovia CA to help you find it via google maps. Celebrate the Arts will be open 10AM - 6PM both days. Come enjoy the art and of course bid on the Silent Auction Items that strike a spot in your soul.

Handcolored negatives to debut at Celebrate the Arts

2011-09-30T09:50:00.000-07:00

Varying degrees of success getting the saturation I want with neutral black and white surrounds. With the exception of the yellow rose...that was purely an exercise in color contrasts and pen point vs broad side coloring to build texture. I think it all worked, 'cept the first. Am slowly learning that it isn't exact opposites on the color wheel when scanning hand colored black and white negatives to make them into positives.

A bit on scanner settings. I do scan max DPI with the Epson Perfection V600. I scan from the profession mode where I can get the best control of the final output. The max DPI is 12800 which even from a small negative yields huge files...along the order of 50-70 megs depending on the detail in the image. I chose the scan in 48 bit color to capture all the subtleties of the color I apply to the negatives. I still use the Black and White film as type as opting for "color negative" gives it all a ghastly orange tint that simply can't be corrected out.

File resizing for image size and usable dpi for images is done with the help of Adobe CS5. While we are on the topic of CS5, have I mentioned recently how much I love the "spot healing brush tool"? Its simply magic and is the most useful tool in working with scanned negatives and "spotting" out rough spots in the color or removing dust particles. No matter how clean I keep things there still is dust that makes it into the scan...microscopic stuff that I can't really see until the scan is blown up, yet the tool removes it and blends in the scene perfectly.

These images will be appearing in the trusty satchel of images and possibly framed for the coming Monrovia Association of Fine Arts "Celebrate the Arts" to be held on October 8/9 in the heart of Old Town Monrovia in Library Park. (Monrovia, California, not Libya).

Hand colored negatives for the Celebrate the Arts

2011-09-27T10:03:00.000-07:00

I love the impressionistic look of these images. Color that is translucent overlayed on a sharp crisp image below. Adds a dreamy quality to them. Agree?

You can see them at Celebrate the Arts, dry mounted and all set to go in my satchel of goodies to dig through.

Celebrate the Arts is in its 48th year. It is hosted by the Monrovia Association of Fine Arts and will take place October 8&9. More details HERE. Come see me and all the terrific artists that will be there.

The joy of hand color negatives

2011-09-25T12:26:00.000-07:00

In theory using the opposite color on the color wheel will get you the color you want. In this case for reasons unknown that theory didn't work. I used a nice shade of green expecting red and got purple. I still like the result, note how the bleed beyond the signpost seems to make it glow.

This is part of the experimental hand coloring of negatives to add artificial color to a monochromatic scene that I have been working on over the last few months.

The scene was shot on Tri-X pan, developed in 1:1 D76 for max details and contrast range. The finished negative was hand colored with a Crayola brand "super tip" marker then scanned with an Epson Perfection V600 Photo scanner at max dpi. Adobe's photoshop was used to resize the file for printing and publication (like this web sized image).

It will be one of several hand colored negatives printed for the satchel of loose prints at the coming Celebrate the Arts. I'll be in a space right on the sidewalk near the corner of Lime and Myrtle in Library Park here in Monrovia CA 10/8-9. Come see me and my work in person that weekend.

See me at Celebrate the Arts in 2 short weeks

2011-09-24T11:36:00.000-07:00

Its coming and coming fast. Much to do to be ready for the Celebrate the Arts hosted by the Monrovia Association of Fine Arts. It will be held in the heart of Old Town Monrovia in Library park located at 321 S Myrtle Avenue here in good ole Monrovia, CA. It will be on October 8 and 9 from 10AM until 6PM.

The image "Spring Bouquet" will be one of my featured images at the show. It started life as a high resolution digital file that I reworked in the Orton Style. This involved numerous steps creating masks and such to creat the off color, partially out of focus view of the world that only a Lomograph can do. Of course if you are using a real toy camera such as a Diana and good old silver based films you can create such an image with only a quick click of the shutter button and scan in the resulting image. I have to do things the hard way.

Regardless, enjoy the quick sneak peak at what I will be showing at Celebrate the Arts.

A little time at the LA County Fair

2011-09-23T11:10:00.000-07:00

I spent a little time at the LA County Fair the other day. They had a great little history of neon signs exhibit up. Some cool stuff, of course this one wound up being my favorite. Have an older folding camera similar to that in the sign, problem being is that I just can't get film for it anymore. :(

Right now its all about getting prepared for the Celebrate the Arts fair being hosted by the Monrovia Association of Fine Arts here in Monrovia CA. Its a great little fine art event that is well attended and everyone seems to do well...or as well as anyone can do given the current state of the economy. More on it HERE.

I'll have quite a bit of new stuff to add to the hamper of loose items as well as newly framed for this show. That is what I'm doing now...printing stuff for mounting and framing.

Hope to see you all there on October 8-9.

A little low light action photos

2011-09-19T07:59:00.000-07:00

I have a bit of a dilemma here. I love low light and abhor flash. Making matters more difficult at the Ventura Raceway this past Saturday is the protective fence that keeps cars from flying into the stands also buggers up the auto-focus on the camera as the camera wants to focus on that stationary fence rather than the action. Do you have any idea how hard it is to focus on fast moving cars manually in low light? Buggers I tell you.

Regardless, I did get some images that were usable from the races. The highest ISO (1600) my camera can go to is also a bit noisy, most noticeable in the shadows when viewed at maximum size. That ISO isn't as high as some of the newer DSLR's can achieve but does yield satisfactory handheld images. The ISO limits speeds to under 1/100 second which yields blurred images of the fast moving cars...not a bad thing when you are trying to convey their speed on the track.

More pics in my flickr set.

Thanks to all who voted for me.

2011-09-15T08:31:00.000-07:00

Color me humbled and tickled pink. This little art blog, all about what I do and how I get there made it into the semifinals for voting in the Most Valuable Blogger Awards 2011 run by KCBS here in LA.

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I'll be updating with more images very soon now that the dust is beginning to settle with a bunch of projects I have had up in the air of late. (Look for more examples of hand colored Black and White work in particular).

Its been all about cars the last few days.

2011-09-10T15:59:00.000-07:00

I've been shooting, some B&W but need to finish the roll so it will be a short bit before I get to that part. Funny how it works, not like the digital realm where you just offload immediately and not have to worry about "finishing" the roll.

This week has been busy over at SoCalAutoBlog. So much so that its been at the expense of everything else I need to be doing. Its a good thing to be busy, just would like a little balance in the deal. Today was the 21st Annual Street Rods Forever car show here in Monrovia and spent my morning there.

The three images here are HDR images. Today was just a crappy day for car shooting...overcast and dull shadows. It may be an even overhead light but it still sets you up to lose shadow detail. This saved the day. The HDR post processing was done with Adobe's CS5 and is a stupid easy process. Pick the frames, the blending (I chose photo realistic) and voila you are done.

Art Walk Saturday 8/27 7-10PM

2011-08-26T15:07:00.000-07:00

I'll be there with this new image all framed and ready to go. It is a hand colored black and white negative that is scanned and printed with the help of a PC on archival quality matte paper. The shadow detail is stunning if I say so myself...this is a big part of the reason why I am doing my own B&W work rather than simply converting a digital image to monochromatic.

Silver based materials really do have a depth of gray that you can't match by simply removing color or desaturating a digital image. For the few extra steps needed to bring an image about and get it ready for show the image quality is in another world. Definitely worth the effort.

Enjoy "Wet Lily" and see it in person this weekend at the Monrovia Association of Fine Arts last Summer Art Walk to be held in Old Town Monrovia. I will be near the Paint n Play Art Studio and Gallery and will be available to talk to you about what I do as well as show you what I have both at the Art Walk and in the Paint n Play Art Studio and Gallery. Look for me on the 400 Block of South Myrtle in Monrovia.

HDR to the rescue in an airplane hangar

2011-08-14T10:03:00.000-07:00

The Palm Springs Air Museum is pretty much lit by massive skylights. Makes for bright tops and very dark bottoms of the planes you try to shoot. Also it leaves for dark corners and ceilings. HDR fixes that by blending frames set to expose the highlights and shadows in with that done for the middle tones.

To get these shots I shot "RAW" and bracketed +/- 2 stops...or EV in todays DSLR lingo. I used Adobe's CS5 to do the HDR file generation and tone mapping for "photorealism". If you look close at the images areas that were completely dark such as inside the engine cowl you now have detail. Ditto the tops of the planes that were blown out because of the direct light from the skylights above have detail too. It even helped bring out details from a black plane that was in the shadows. Its all good.

A little travel R&R

2011-08-13T09:53:00.000-07:00

This last week was spent in the Palm Springs Area. We love going out there to just hang in the pool and enjoy the desert heat. Yes, August can be beastly but all is right with the world as long as you have a pool to cool off in.

On our radar for a while has been the Palm Springs Air Museum on the airport property. This year we finally made it too there and wish we had done so much earlier. What a great place to spend an afternoon. It is two huge hangar just stuffed with old airplanes from WWII along with a ton of dioramas giving you a terrific snapshot of that era. The docents wound up being extremely engaging and probably the best I have ever seen for bringing history to life...some of them are actually old enough to have served in the war and have their stories to share.

This image was shot with an ultra wide angle lens and stitched together with Adobe's CS5. The photomerge tool there does an amazing job of combining images into one panorama. If you haven't played with it you should.

The Palm Springs Air Museum is located at 745 Gene Autry Trail in Palm Springs. Their web site has a ton more details as to when they are open and any special exhibits going on.

There are quite a few images also in my Palm Springs Air Museum set on flickr HERE.

A "duh" moment, playing with masks

2011-08-04T09:28:00.000-07:00

I don't know why I never thought of it and its stupid easy to do. Using either the magic lasso or quick selection tool in CS5 you can outline an object, select inverse and turn the area outside your subject into a black and white or whatever type of image.

These are just fooling around with tool images, nothing spectacular but they do illustrate the ease and potential of the tool.

For the graffiti trash can I opted to add in an extra layer, one that I used the lens blur filter in to throw everything but the trash can out of focus. Blending that layer and then cutting out the trash can in a mask again I could then turn the background black and white making the trash can stand out more. Fun stuff now to do something practical with it all. Or not.

Autumn Walk, CS5 cleans up a negative scan

2011-08-03T11:38:00.000-07:00

Although my scanner, an Epson Perfection v600 Photo, does a very good job of scanning images not losing detail etc., the resulting files do need some help bumping contrast without losing too much detail in the process.

To achieve this image I took the scanned negative and rather than using "auto contrast" that simply reduces your curves I opted to apply a gradient map. Yes, another layer of black and white then applied as overlay. Gave be much better blacks while maintaining some detail in the shadows, ditto better detail in the highlights. When done I just merged the visible and sized it for here...the resizing does eliminate a lot of detail but you still get a good feel for the final image.

Love me my scanner and adobe's photoshop CS5.

A little artistic diversion for a Saturday night

2011-07-31T10:41:00.001-07:00

Saturday 7/30 was one of the Monrovia Association of Fine Arts' Art Walks. As part of the infotainment fellow artist member Heather Shaw and I teamed up for a painting swap-a-thon. A Swap-a-thon is a team painting where we take turns adding layers upon layers of paint to a canvas until we come to a final painting. The process takes a couple of hours and is fun for us as artists as well as entertaining and educational for those watching us on the sidewalk as we do our painting.

We don't work from a picture or a scene in the street. It is purely an exercise in painting from imagination. The final painting is always a surprise to us as one never knows what twists will take place when the swap takes place. Eventually you hit the zone where you are putting in final details and you are done.

A little before and after Autochromed

2011-07-29T08:03:00.001-07:00

Before image in HDR

After ala Autochrome

This morning I was going through images I wanted to autochrome and decided to put together a before and after example for you to be able to compare. I wanted to show how much the process does alter the image and how close I do get to recreating the look and feel of an Autochrome.

The full steps I took here for those who want to geek out with me HERE. There is quite a bit of artistic license involved in the process to get to the final image, particularly in the masks to put parts of the image and edges out of focus as well as the darkening of the edges. I'm getting better control of those two variables than I had been when I first started this exploration.

Enjoy the two versions of "Vanishing Trail".

Just a little more geeking out ala autochrome.

2011-07-28T09:54:00.000-07:00

This image works better for a lot of reasons. To start it was done with a low-res (2Megapixel) point and squirt from that I had shortly after the turn of the century. (Doesn't that make things sound realllly old). Anyway, its easier to dumb down and lower resolution etc., with an image that was already that way than from an ultra-high-resolution that you get from a DSLR.

Enjoy Jalama Beach from the archives of course now in its low res grainy autochrome effect.

Still geeking out on the Autochromes

2011-07-27T09:59:00.000-07:00

"Foggy Morning" started out as a high res, beautifully saturated Kodachrome from years gone by. A quick scan-a-roo and its digital and ready for some magic. Magic in the form of Adobe CS5 and a few layers of manipulations to get it to an old timey low res Autochrome wannabe. Steps HERE to replicate with your own images.

Autochromes explained, the video

2011-07-24T11:22:00.000-07:00

A short little video explaining Autochromes from idea to final product with some interesting examples. Don't ya just love the educational value to YouTube too?

Autochrome 3 ways

2011-07-24T10:02:00.001-07:00

White Roses

Mt Rushmore

Mary At Santa Inez Mission

A few more worked in the Autochrome style from some hi-res digital files. Details to replicate yourself HERE. All do get bigger with a click.

I believe Mt Rushmore is the least successful of the trio. Why? Well there is too much rich grays, I could have reduced the contrast a bit I suppose but when doing so things fell just too flat. Included it just as an example of a sky that worked well enough.

Enough of this for one morning, its off to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in a bit.

Closer still...wish I had a real one to share with you.

2011-07-23T11:14:00.000-07:00

Love the autochromes, been obsessed with them actually since I first learned of them in Popular Photography magazine WAAAAAY back in my college years. There aren't any images I can find easily with a "Creative Commons" license, but can share this link to the gallery of images at the American Photography Museum of Photography's show from a few years back. Maybe that will help inspire others to understand the passion I have for those old images.

In looking back at the collection in that gallery one thing that jumps out is the saturation level of colors varied quite dramatically. Some lost all blues, others had them very saturated. Gives me leeway in my exploration of the process in CS5.

As discussed the other day I've discovered that a sky without a lot of detail works better in creating the feel of the originals. I'm happier with this image than with some of the other landscapes.

The steps I took to get this image HERE.

Angeles Forest Bridge ala autochrome

2011-07-22T12:02:00.000-07:00

I'm having fun with this process. Now to figure out how to "shoot" for maximum effect when I do go out next. Less sky seems to be the important part of the equation as one doesn't get as much of the effect in sky as one does in the mid-tone ranges. Plus the blue skies are still too blue for the autochrome look to be successful...in real life autochromes the skies tended to white out more than I can do in CS5. Ah, the foolery one must do to make an authentic image.

I like this image still even if it does have too much sky detail in it.

The complete range of steps HERE.

Cactus ala autochrome

2011-07-21T10:56:00.000-07:00

Using the steps I outlined the other day I created this low res grainy "autochrome" for a hi-res digital image. Am glad I took some tutorials as they have opened up some new doors for me to explore in the world of impressionism.

Down the Autochrome path today.

2011-07-14T08:54:00.000-07:00

It would appear I suffer from Adult ADHD, but I really don't. I've loved Autochromes since I first saw them many years ago. Why? Because of their wonderful impressionistic, almost pointillism images they produced. Its a recurring theme with me, impressionism whether I do it in orton, lomo or autochrome style its all about recapturing that movement from over 100 years ago in the art scene in my images today.

The tutorials I've taken in recent days for Lomo gave me new ideas for recreating Autochromes in all their low res glory from high res, beautifully saturated digital images. These two images I am happiest with as they are much closer in look and feel of an Autochrome than I have been able to recreate in the past.

To break it down into steps for Adobe's CS5 you need to analyse closely what the images were all about. Interestingly their range of image topic was wide, but most focused on tablescapes or grand scale landscapes. There were plenty of portraits done too...but that isn't my bailiwick so we'll move right past that.

First the photographers of the Autochrome era worked with large format cameras with questionable optics. IE narrow depth of field and lenses that created vignetting in terms of edge sharpness and lower light transmission. Secondly the Autochrome was a contrasty film with lost detail in both highlights and shadow leaving a narrow range of grays it can capture. Saturation was low, but the vibrancy of the range of color it could capture was a bit exaggerated. Color shifts were pronounced with blues and red getting more dominance and accuracy than the greens. Blues overtook the shadows more so than any other color. Grain was an issue for them that they used to their advantage in my not so humble, those large dyed grains of potato starch were perfect for creating that pointillist capture adding to the impressionistic view mirroring what was going on in the fine art world of the time.

So here are the steps one must look at doing to create these images. Of course each step will be explained in detail after the list.

1. reduce saturation while increasing some vibrancy in the mid ranges

2. Reduce highlight/shadow detail

3. vignetting with slightly darker and out of focus edges

4. grain

First area to recreate. Open RAW file and adjust the exposure downward, increase clarity and vibrance moderately. Drop black detail to zero. Click OK and open file. Go to adjustment bar and click add gradient map, select Black&White by clicking on the slider bar that appears at top. Chose overlay and adjust to approx 50% opacity. Merge levels.

For the second area in the process go to to the adjustments bar and click levels. Adjust black slider to right to darken shadows more. Adjust highlight tab to left to brighten whites losing some detail. Return to adjustment bar and chose curves. Adjust Red and Green to increase in highlights and decrease in shadow slightly. Adjust blue to increase shadow and decrease slightly in highlights. Go to adjustment bar and click on Vibrancy, significantly increase your vibrancy by moving slider to right. Merge levels. You now have a reduced saturation slighty off color version of the original.

The third area to look at needs a couple of steps. Adding vignette of darker edges and out of focus will take a couple of steps to recreate. First to create the darker edges you use your polygonal lasso tool and draw out a rough oval shape in the image. Right click and chose "inverse selection. Go to adjustment bar and chose levels. Move the shadow slider slightly to the right to darken the edges. Merge layers.

Right click on the image and create duplicate layer. Go to the upper tool bar and chose filters, Blur - lens blur and move slider to right until you are moderately all out of focus but can still identify rough shapes. Click OK. Go to adjustment bar and click on mask. Using paintbrush tool set at 75% opacity and a large brush size, "paint" in your mask over central portion of the image in several strokes, building up to maximum masking at the center and none in corners. (You will notice that your center will increase in sharpness as you build up strokes while edges remain blurry). Merge layers. You now have an image that has darkened out of focus corners with a sharp focused center, center of attention.

The fourth and final area to manipulate is to add grain. Right click on your file and create a new layer. Chose a medium gray and using paint bucket add to the layer. Go to the upper tool bar, Filters, Noise, add noise. Move slider to right to an order of somewhere around 30-50% "noise". Select Overlay and adjust opacity percentage downwards to between 30-60% depending on your personal taste. Merge levels.

A lot of steps, but certainly much better results than the last process I was using. Better as in closer to resembling a true Autochrome. Now if I can just figure out how to recreate the "dots" surrounded in black like the originals I'd really be in business.

Enjoy "Tulips" and "Desert Storm"...Tulips I think is the closest to a true Autochrome in look.

cars cars cars and a little lomo to make them stand out more

2011-07-13T12:27:00.000-07:00

Its no secret I love cars. Since I got on the Lomography wagon and experimenting I decided to grab a couple of car shots and use the process to highlight the cars and create a little excitement around them. The 2008 Mustang Bullitt and 2011BMW 6 series were the car shots I worked with.

A little more lomography for the morning

2011-07-13T08:11:00.001-07:00

Still in the lomography frame of mind. Have just about got the process down where I can do the steps without thinking about it too hard. Soon enough I'll be able to just do it and focus on creating impressionistic images from a hi-fi digital with no effort at all. Still will be a bit time consuming but it won't be brain wracking.

Enjoy "Forgotten Path" and "Woodland Spring". The latter I like the image regardless if its impressionistic or realism...well worth the poison oak exposure to capture the image.

playing in the Lomo sandbox a bit...

2011-07-12T09:50:00.001-07:00

A few things I'm slowly discovering. My love of dramatic cloud filled skies don't work so well in the Lomo world unless you are willing to give up on some of the vignetting in the sky. What does work best is when you have a solid sky, or a pretty much uniform background.

These three images were done today. Still have the tutorial playing in the back to guide me through the steps as they just aren't down to memory and automatic. I don't have to pause any longer while I do the steps, its just a matter of committing them all to memory. To save you the scroll the link to the tutorial is HERE.

Personally for me the Spring Bouquet worked the best of the series I worked today. The Palms loses some of the vignette in the upper right corner because of the clouds and isn't quite as effective. Similar problem with Santa Ynez Valley...edge vignetting isn't as strong in the sky as I would like.

Much to learn still but am glad I took the tutorial as it helps me better understand CS5's potential better than I had before I took it.

still on the lomo path

2011-07-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

I love learning new things. Since stumbling upon a tutorial on Lomo have been just a bit energized with the tidbits I am learning on CS5 as well as producing Lomo style images.

In this case the Lomo process really makes it possible to allow the center to better highlight the single tree and bridge while blowing out details in the fringe. Makes it possible to give a sense of space via the negative energy on the perimeter.

I still need to learn to take a deft hand at the sharpening and unsharpening part of the process to better transition between the two. This is just a start.

Of course the learning to better control masks and adding grain has me thinking again about what I can do to make "autochrome" style images better in CS5 as well. Stay tuned for more on both counts as I meander down the impressionists path a little stronger in the coming weeks.

A meander into the world of Lomo

2011-07-10T09:17:00.000-07:00

Where to start. The last month or so has been spent looking into "lomography" or "lomo" for short, which produces some pretty startling impressionistic images. Many elements go into the images. First the cameras are bests described as "toy cameras" for film, yes that silver based stuff I adore still after all these years. Second they take the old outdated film for the most part that has inherent color shifts built into it. Then they cross process it...IE negative film developed in slide film chemicals or vice versa.

The end result is multi-fold shifts in the image compared to what would have happened if you were using quality optics, optimal age film and correct processing. In short its nothing like you shot and its image quality is adorable. The edges are out of focus and the light transmitted drops noticeably. The colors shift with a pronounced blue/green shift. Highlights get blown out and darks just lose all detail. Sharpness suffers at the edges with grain appearing all over adding to the impressionistic feel.

Since I'm not about to shift all of my work to film for the odd lomo image I would want to create I looked to Adobe's photoshop to help me create the look and feel of a lomo image. After fooling around with it I just couldn't get the right result on my own. I wound up starting to google search ways to create it via tutorial so I don't have to reinvent the world. I stumbled upon this excellent tutorial that takes you through the multitude of steps needed to create a lomo style image in photoshop. It is on YouTube and its possible to pause the video between steps so you can work out an image of your own.

The image here is one I purposely shot to try to lomoize. It was successful to a great degree. In the future I need to keep in mind that high contrast scenes will work best with the process. The potential for this process to work with a variety of images is pretty terrific. Of course you need to have a strong image to start with as no amount of photoshop trickery will solve bad composition and exposure.

Its me, my art and my cooking.

2011-05-13T11:18:00.000-07:00

Little else I can add to this. Snacky Shack is a YouTube channel done by Monrovia (Surburban LA) artist Joseph R Davis and musician Tommy "Mac" MacCarthy. Check them out as they are interesting and have some fun guests. Recipe over at frazgo feasting HERE.

It sold...at silent auction

2011-05-09T10:50:00.000-07:00

Monrovia Association of Fine Arts had its annual Acknowledge the Arts awards ceremony on this past Saturday evening. This image was among those I donated to the cause and was sold at silent auction. It certainly is a good cause, one I devote lots of time and energy too as its mission is to bring art to the community and foster the creation and appreciation of art. We (I'm the Veep and on the board of MAFA) bring art to the schools in the form of art classes in the Village After School Program.

This image was a digital image. It shot on my Canon DSLR and the subsequent RAW file was converted to Black and White with the help of Adobe's CS5. The image was printed on glossy stock just because I love the quality of contrast on glossy vs matte finish paper.

Art Bears set to invade Monrovia

2011-05-04T10:30:00.000-07:00

My little corner of LA is about to turn 125 and the stuff for the festivities next week is gearing up. Among the things going on in the "art city" is that we are going to be adding more public art in the form of "Art Bears".

Why bears may you ask? Because in the mid-90's Monrovia had a bear that visited the hot tubs of residents and its antics captured the hearts of the community and nation once the national news picked up on it. He was named "Samson" by the community. As he was a wild animal he did need to be restrained. Rather than euthanize him the CA Game and Wildlife folks opted to capture him before he actually hurt someone. Samson was sent off to live out the remainder of his life in a zoo in Orange County.

This bear was done by my friend Rick Kess. He is just cute as hell. After the parade next week he will be put out on display somewhere in Old Town Monrovia.

As far as my art goes...been busy sorting and uploading some choice bits onto Fine Art America the last few days.

New online gallery for me

2011-04-30T09:26:00.001-07:00

A friend of mine, Joseph R Davis turned me on to a new online gallery site for artists to showcase their work. Its pretty slick in that it gives an art lover and potential collector access to your work in the form of everything from note cards all the way up to ginormous stretched canvas prints. They do all the mark-up math, and prep for mailing and collect the money. The site is "Fine Art America and you can find me HERE. I've got a few images up but have a ton of stuff to do before it is all done, profiles, image details, gallery's events etc.,.

The image used in the post is done by post processing a RAW file in the orton style. I chronicled it here in the past, but it is an Adobe CS5 intensive process when one works in the digital world.

To achieve this image do your color correction from the RAW file and open. Create a new layer and label it background copy (usually the default name anyway). With that layer increase the exposure by a factor of between 1-2 stops where you still have dark areas showing. Then use the saturation tool and increase saturation by a factor of 10-20% just so you aren't as washed out due to the exposure correction. Use the blending tool at "multiply" to allow both layers to show together. I use the merge visible tool to put the two layers together, then save as a jpeg for easier up/downloading. (I also save the PSD file as it is larger and more detailed for my printing for show work).

I've been so busy with other stuff

2011-04-18T08:49:00.000-07:00

I haven't stopped photographing nor my art. The art has taken a side burner while I focused on a few other projects. Most with SoCalAutoBlog, but also busy with documenting the creation of an Art Bear for the 125th anniversary of Monrovia CA where I happen to live. To see the raw images from these projects do stop in at my flickr sets.

Monrovia Art Bear

Drivers Edge

Chevy Cruze Eco

The image here was that of a 2011 Chevy Cruze Eco that GM lent me for a few days to enjoy and review for SoCalAutoBlog. I took it up into the San Gabriel Mountains near Crystal Lake as part of its test drive and of course for his photo shoot...great locations all over the place up there for just that.

This image was shot with HDR post processing in mind. I knew there would be harsh shadows and steep contrast and I knew bracketing and using HDR would calm those evils and give me details across the board. I used Adobe's CS5 to generate the HDR files from the 3 bracketed images and do the tone mapping as well.

Down and out of City Hall

2011-04-08T14:20:00.000-07:00

Its over, twas a nice little run at the "City Lights" gallery aka wall in the lobby of City Hall here in Monrovia. The stuff was liked...which is always a good start.

Now to find a gallery or two to show in again, other than the Paint n Play 2 Art Studio and Gallery here in Monrovia.

keep it simple silly

2011-04-07T18:39:00.000-07:00

Its so hard for me to stay in the lines let alone keep things simple. However subtlety is something I'm working on in my art. Not so much the slap your face with this is different, rather stops you for a second to go "huh!?" while you ponder what you are looking at trying to figure out what got your attention.

So...I took some Black and White negatives from a shoot the other day and hand colored them quite subtly. Well, kept it to simple elements rather than an entire frame. I think "LOS" was a bit more successful than the wild flowers.

A little stroll with the camera

2011-04-07T11:37:00.000-07:00

A lot going on as usual all over the place and finding time for myself to just shoot becomes a challenge. Fortunately it all came together the other day and I got to go for a walk along the San Gabriel River.

I stumbled across some new urban art under the Encanto Park Bridge in Duarte. There's a new group in town, not the usual "DESG". They call themselves "Los Asult" and have started a mural under one of the bridge pilings. How can I tell the difference between urban art and graffiti and simple tagging? Easy...one has a lot more to it other than a quick scrawl to mark territory. Compare the piling with the simply tagged chair. Says it all.

The one thing I've noticed about doing my own B&W work again is that I do miss the instantaneous thumbnail at the back of the camera that tells you if you got your exposure and composition right. Require much more focus rather than spontaneity when shooting. Not that the latter is a bad thing, as its not. I've discovered, or re-discovered that I like the forced concentration that working in film requires with a manual camera. A lot of thought goes into the process for exposure etc., than with a DSLR. I like it. A lot.

Of course the lack of spontaneity has its draw backs too. The process of doing ones own film and then getting it scanned is time consuming and finding a morning free to devote to it is difficult. But I'll still take it as the rewards at the end make it worth it.

Being subtle is hard for me

2011-03-29T13:05:00.000-07:00

Those of you who know me, know too well that subtle is rarely something one thinks of when they think of me. I like bold and in your face stuff with my art. Though subtlety does have its moments for me.

Since I've reverted back to film I've been shooting each frame twice, once to be pristine for eternity, the other to be colored in with magic markers to change the look and feel of the image. I'm not bracketing, rather just shooting the same image twice. Maybe 3 times if I really want to be brave and work an image up to the max or save room for a flub.

Purple makes yellow in the negative world and that is all it took to had the splash of yellow to these two images. A few quick strokes of a purple pen (hmmm...Harold and the Purple Crayon?) and I now have a splash of color that changed up the original images. I like it. I may be doing more so with subtle than with bold in this series. Just maybe.

testing the waters today

2011-03-28T15:04:00.000-07:00

Well I finally did it. With a little procrastination and a lot of trepidation I pulled out the negatives from the other day that I intended to color on and did it. Interesting results.

I did a test strip of colored squares to see how they'd convert on a blank negative. Pretty much as expected emerald green yielded a red, blues gave me shades of yellow and vice versa. The pens I am using have a broad side as well as fine point, I really experimented most with the broad side as I really wanted to see how it would translate to color before I broke out the fine tip points.

In a word, the results have been kinda van gogh-ish when one tries to color an entire negative. For reasons only Epson would know the scanner does freak out on full frame colors opting to take only a portion. Hence the more or less square one here. Hmmm...I do need to figure out the cause if I am going to make a go of this hand coloring experiment, kind of pointless to shoot full frame and lose nearly half during the scan. Getting a crop where one isn't intended isn't really the way I want to go with this.

Not sure exactly where I want to go with this. I don't want real color but do want to learn to stay in the lines a bit better. The interesting thing about full frame color that I have discovered so far is the resulting image looks to be more of a double exposure than simply colored. I do kind of like the effect so I may well do more of it and work with the scanner freaking out during the part of the process it does.

Who says you can't add color where none ever existed before on a B&W negative.

Georgia O'keeffe was a hero of mine...

2011-03-27T15:50:00.000-07:00

Can you see her influence on my work? I love the erotic feel to flowers when shot up close and personal. Of course the water drops are just icing on the cake, call it floral porn.

I shot these on Tri-X at its normal speed after a rain storm the other day. The resulting negatives were scanned, low res versions for publication here for easier loading, but still high enough quality to get a sense of the real image.

fooling around with photoshop while the scanner does its thingy

2011-03-27T15:28:00.000-07:00

Scanning negatives is a long process, well it is if you do extremely high res, which I do for the sake of clarity when it comes to doing prints later. It takes several minutes per frame to scan and the 'puter to process the image to something useable.

What to do in that time? Play in photoshop and see what you can do new or different. I liked the resulting image and it took enough steps to kill some time while scanning in a roll of film.

To get this image I took a cropped down the negative some and using "mode" changed it from 16bit grayscale to RGB. I then created a new layer that was automatically and aptly named background by Adobe's CS5.

I then broke out the eyedropper and picked a shade of red I wanted to "paint with". I used the brush tool, set at a very high pixel count (something silly like 475 pixels) and a textured brush. From there I followed the directions of the petals gradations and "painted" on that new color. Once the areas were colored in I used the blending tool at "multiply" to bring the two layers back together again allowing the original layer to allow the colored layer to show through and giving some detail back to the picture. I merged the layers, dumbed them down to 72 dpi for faster downloading here and voila...geraniums selectively colored.

Of course am busy scanning negatives for use in real handcoloring of negatives in the next day or so when I have time to experiment with that process again.

A day of play...camera in hand.

2011-03-27T09:57:00.000-07:00

Saturday 3/26 was another adventure added to my bucket. This time around it was pit passes to the NASCAR Sprint Series "Royal Purple 300" held here in So Cal. Those pit passes were courtesy of my friend Dave, whom I co-own the "SoCalAutoBlog" with, father-in-law who manages the Pastrana/Waltrip Racing.

It certainly is an interesting experience that will eventually get chronicled elsewhere. For here its just about the images I captured of the event. Of all that I shot the choicest ones are in a set over on flickr. Link HERE.

Probably the most difficult thing about shooting on an active raceway is keeping your own safety in mind. Never turn your back on the cars is a good rule of thumb as the noise levels are muffled with the pretty much mandatory ear plugs.muffs one must wear. That is particularly difficult in the garage area where cars can come from anywhere.

The image here is one of my favs. The bright red and repeating shapes of the gas cans caught my eye.

back in the silver saddle again

2011-03-25T16:44:00.000-07:00

Did it. Yesterday I loaded up on film and the stuff to process it myself.

Until they were gone I didn't realize how much I had become dependent upon things like auto-metering, exposure and focus. Silly me it took me a few times to get back into remembering to meter each spot, decide what will be a "neutral" 18% gray (recall am a zone system kinda guy) then proceed to frame and focus.

Yes, focus what a chore that turned out to be given my aging up close vision and slight breeze moving things up close in and out of range. I may check focus points in my DSLR and even switch to manual focus often to zone in on one particular spot but its not often I have to resort to that. When I do the DSLR has built in diopters that correct my vision so its not even a major problem.

Doing my own lab work came back very quickly. Funny how one never forgets the agitation routine nor smell of things. I must admit I love the heady aroma of a freshly cracked open can of film, I think I can pass however on the odors from the chemicals themselves.

Enjoy a few from yesterdays test run. Note the water drops on the rose, that pure floral porn! It was shot on Tri-X, iso 400, developed in D-76. I must admit I do love the shades of gray it can record much better than what digital does. Doesn't appear to lose much if anything in the process of scanning to digitize them.

Mixing chems like a mad scientist and a poem

2011-03-24T11:25:00.000-07:00

OK, I finally did it. I found the chemicals I needed in a store in Pasadena. They don't carry the biggest selection and a lot is non-Kodak but they at least they carried my favorite "D-76" developer still. I was mixing like a mad scientist in my kitchen all I needed to do my first roll of B&W in I don't know how many years.

While mixing the chemicals I was rousting through my box of tanks and stuff and found a recipe box full of interesting stuff for developing film as well as this nifty poem that I had copied from somewhere along the line of my meanders. It is as follows:

I take to my darkroom out of affection for others.

There I make friends with the world again.

There I learn to look away, to focus on infinity.

There I play god with film, paper, chemicals and lenses.

There, in the dark, I begin to see.

Not sure why it moved me enough to type up on a 3X5 index card all those years ago when I started the reference kit in a recipe box. Its still appropriate for the digital age to a degree though we likely can remove the part about seeing in the dark, and change it up to somehow include the PC.

All that aside I got myself set up to start shooting and doing my own B&W film again. Opted for the ever faithful Tri-X Professional because I've always loved its visible grain structure and ability to capture stuff in low lighting. I even drug out my ancient, and I do mean ancient 35MM camera that is absent any form of a bell or whistle, even the built in meter died while in storage. No loss as I rarely used it and more heavily relied upon a spot meter which I still have that works quite well.

Man the torpedoes and launch the "Zone System" film photography here I come. Again.

So maybe hell froze over?

2011-03-23T11:33:00.000-07:00

I knew that digital photo has taken over to the point it killed off my beloved Kodachrome and I even took partial blame.

But I never would have dreamed that it has nearly killed off the Black and White darkroom. But it has, hell has nearly frozen over as it is next impossible find Black and White chemicals in LA. None exist in the SGV area where I live and only a couple remain in LA proper. I'd ask "wahappened" but I already know. Sheesh just as I'm about to return to film it becomes hard to do so.

Pic is of my first car, crusted in ice after a winter storm. Thank gawd above Sunny LA has never frozen over like that or I'd need to find a warmer place to winter. (This was scanned from a negative from back in the day and now serves as me desktop to remind me why I hate winter).

What should I call it?

2011-03-16T09:33:00.001-07:00

I see people using old school photography, you know the kind that uses real film, referring to it two different ways. One is silver based, another calls it analog.

With my reborn interest in doing film and scanning negatives I do need to come to a decision. What say you in the great debate on giving it a name, should I refer to it as "silver based", which it is or "analog" which isn't technically correct and more appropriately applied to old school TV and record recording which took information and converted it to a wave form that an appliance would covert back into visual or audio stimuli for the old nervous system. What say you in this great debate?

Today's image really underscores my Ansel Adam phase which shall be reborn shortly with negatives I scan. This is from an original negative that is well preserved from its original shooting date, dare I admit it was nearly 30 years ago? I love the detail from the shadows to the clearing sky...shot it zone system and developed for the shadows if notes serve correctly. Great testament to the longevity of the old silver based films from back in the day.

How people find me makes me laugh

2011-03-15T12:43:00.000-07:00

Todays number one viewed flickr image isn't arty or about cars. It involves two ceramic sculptures a kid chose for her room and painted over at the Paint N Play art studio a while back. It made me laugh and I just posted in flickr and forgot about it. Until now.

Turns out the number one viewed image today got to be that way from a google search "penguin and pumps". Seriously, no views in the couple of years its been up and suddenly today that goofy google search lead to 14 views of the image.

Silliness abounds. Thats a good thing.

Adobe can only do so much...

2011-03-14T10:04:00.000-07:00

Playing around with Adobe's photoshop CS5 again for a bit this morning. Playing=experimentation in my book.

Similar to yesterdays selective coloring, I did the same today. I worked on adding selective color to change the mood and feel of a scanned black and white negative. I worked with the "paintbrush" tool that adds color and blends in the existing details together. Not quite what I want, I really miss the old spray can tool that applied color over the image without muddying in the existing image. In the end when you use the blending tool you do get some of the details back so all is not completely lost, but I'd still rather not have that mushing up of details with the color chosen so you get a little more purity of color.

Of course all of this will be very moot in the next few days when I go retro silver and start using real negatives for my exploration in added color.

A little play with selective color....

2011-03-13T09:51:00.000-07:00

Playing in photoshop today simply because I don't have my "darkroom" stuff put together yet to revert back to old silver based black and white for my next manic round of experimentation. This image is a hint of things to come. Selective coloring where I will actually use felt tip markers to paint in color on a black and white negative. Yes, am going retro with traditional silver based films for the next big thing in my little artistic world.

This image started as a black and white negative. To get where it is now it took a few steps. I started with a scanned negative. Next I created a layer in Adobe CS5. With that layer changed its mode from black and white to RGB color.

Next step in the process was to select a color, I chose a medium blue. I took the brush tool and use the diffused edge in the largest pixel count I could get. I then painted in the sky towards the horizon line, but not covering the line to allow some areas at that line not to have color. Blending as a painter would. Once that was done I used the blending tool, "Multiply" to allow the two layers to show through each other. I ran through the gamut of blending options and found "Multiply" gave me the sort of mood I was looking for compared to the original image.

The final was then flattened for a smaller file, which was re-sized and made smaller via jpeg compression so it would easily be transferred and viewed on this blog. (The image will get bigger with a click).

Of course no amount of photoshoppery will make a bad image good. In this case I did like the composition highlighting the mound of the chat dump at an old glass factory near Flat River, MO. I just couldn't bring myself to take perfectly good old negatives and take magic markers to them for the sake of experimentation hence the use of photoshop today.

Another thing I didn't do was clean up the scan but getting rid of scratches, dust and other imperfections. I felt that it lends a certain amount of authenticity and age to final image. Whether I allow the same imperfections to show through in the future works purposely shot on silver remain to be seen. Never know what sort of mood I'll be in when I start selectively hand coloring in areas.

Talk about stepping outside the box

2011-03-09T07:31:00.000-08:00

I got the wild idea while in college to color in black and white negatives with felt tip markers for printing on color paper. I used opposite colors, cyan for red, blue for yellow etc., on the emulsion side of the negative and would print on color paper. It was a total pain in the butt trying to get the grays to print neutral without the orange cast of a traditional color negative but I persevered and got them to work.

Flash forward more years than I care to admit and I discovered these negatives while I was digitizing and archiving some of the early work that was important enough to keep in this realm. Imagine my surprise and outright glee when I found them and remembered the process. Of course now with our new technology scanning them in "48 bit color" instead of trying to print on paper that needed the orange cast of a kodacolor negative its all done automatically. Love it.

I just may have to break out the darkroom equipment and start shooting in black and white again to continue this experiment. Of course I will be scanning the negatives, not printing them as I don't have a place to set up a darkroom.

Dramatic skies in black and white

2011-03-08T08:14:00.001-08:00

So my love of a dramatic sky, whether it be deep deep blue in hue or cloud filled and angry can be date quite a ways back.

Somewhere along the line in my Black and White work I wanted more than what the film could do on its own.

First I tried polarizing filters and that helped to a degree to darken the sky on a cloudless day, but it wasn't quite enough.

I opted to purchase a deep red filter for the camera. This accomplishes many things with a panchromatic film...one that is sensitive to all colors equally. First darkens things opposite of red on the color wheel like greens and blues, secondly it lightens reds and its neighbors like yellows all of which contribute to a more dramatic image than simply shot without a filter.

These were shot at and near the Split Rock Lighthouse on Minnesota's shore of Lake Superior for an "general magazine" assignment for my "C&P 408" class back at SIU-C.

An interesting trend I noted in my images from the beginning of college to the end is that I relied less on cropping and shot with full frame in mind more in my senior end. Blame it on my fine art photo friends and their "full frame society" that they had than anything else.

College was for experimentation...

2011-03-07T08:48:00.000-08:00

When I was in college I opted to go a different route in my shooting as well as in the labs. Instead of "subtractive" color printing where one used filters of like colors to subtract out colors in the final print for one that was balanced I opted for "additive". In additive one exposed each layer of the paper by using a deep colored red, yellow or blue filter between the enlarger and paper. A bit more time consuming, but in my opinion yielded much richer color from the old kodacolor or ektacolor pro films I was using at the time.

I even took the "additive" filters out into the real world with me shooting. I'd take a big honking 4X5 view camera out and with those same filters shoot black and white images through them one at a time yielding 3 negatives, one for each filter. Then I'd print them, on color paper one negative at a time through the corresponding filter I shot it with, often frustrated as hell with getting registration right, until I got a final image.

This image was done with the additive filters as well. Instead of shooting black and white I had shot with kodacolor. It was a long time exposure and I inserted the additive filters, one at a time in front of the lens with the shutter held open for several minutes total. As each color was inserted I'd use a light to "draw" outlines around the model and "flash" them with a strobe. It yielded 3 different colors of light drawing on one film, yet the total scene was in approximate accurate color, or as accurate as one could get given the multiple color of light sources illuminating the scene. Of course I had some wild color shifts until I learned how to meter and gauge how much time was needed in order to expose each layer of film and yield a fairly accurate image. Crazy the things we think of and experiment with while in college...but that is what those years are for, right?

What we don't do to get through college

2011-03-06T12:49:00.000-08:00

Its seems like a million years ago sometimes, other like it was yesterday. This image was one I shot to for a portfolio to get me into more advanced classes at SIU-C. But to get that education I had to do hard labor in the summers at the taconite plants in northern Minnesota.

I remember this place and taking this shot well. This is what greeted us each day as we walked into the pellet plant on our way to our designated work areas. Safety was always a concern as with all the conveyor belts, open walk ways and furnaces there were ample ways one could be injured if you didn't keep your wits about you.

This image was shot in the National Steel Pellet Plant in Keewatin, Minnesota the summer I had worked there. I had gotten permission to do a little shooting after my shift from a friend of the family who just happened to be the plant manager. I shot this after I had finished my graveyard shift and was too tired to shoot much...but I did have my locations scouted in advance and this was one I had really wanted to shoot.

I shot it on Kodak's Tri-X pan at normal ISO for better contrast and tonal control developing it in Kodak D-76 developer. This image is from a scan of the original negative done with the help of an Epson V600 photo scanner.

A little Black and White work from the Soulard Market

2011-03-05T08:16:00.000-08:00

I remember this shoot quite well. The assignment was for a publications class I took at SIU-C. We were to take documentary type portraits for a "Sunday" type publication. Rather than opt for local to the school photo ops I decided to have a little road trip and go to the Soulard Farmers Market in St Louis.

The Soulard Market is the oldest continuously operating farmers market west of the Mississippi River. It was set up near the banks of the river in 1838 and has operated on that spot since its inception. A little more history HERE.

I kept pretty detailed records back in the day so I know a bit about these images. They were shot on Kodak's Tri-X pan film at its normal ISO of 400 and developed in D-76. I've kept them sleeved in archival pages since they were processed so they are nearly as good as the day I developed them. Even the "contact sheets" that were for each page are attached still after all these years so my life is so much easier picking which strip to scan.

A little fog in the morning

2011-03-04T08:56:00.000-08:00

This old "chrome" as in Kodachrome is actually an ortonized image. You know what I mean, one sharp focused and perfectly exposed with one that is over-exposed and out of focus overlayed and printed together. Except this time instead of printing it was simply scanned and the two were married that way.

Call it old school orton but it still works. Interesting to me at least to see how the divergence from purley commercial photo dove into the fine art stuff even when I was in college.

Did I tell you how much I love my new Epson V600 scanner? It can scan up to 12800 dpi from a 35mm film yielding files in the 35-50meg range or higher depending on the detail in the neg or chrome one scans.

Arrested Decay...the early years

2011-03-03T13:20:00.000-08:00

Even back when, I was a fan of arrested decay and interiors by existing light. Near my childhood home was an abandoned airport. It was left to simply rot and decay and I was able to sneak in for a few shots. Lucky the floors didn't give in while I was in there.

These are scans of the final prints...the negatives were lost somewhere along the line among my many moves.

A little in the foreground gives you depth to perspective

2011-03-02T09:07:00.000-08:00

Its an old trick, but if you have items in the foreground your perspective as to depth and sense of place increases. I used this technique in these two images shot from the year I lived in Death Valley's Furnace Creek.

Dantes View was just a short drive, under half hour from Furnace Creek. I loved to go up there to just watch the sunset and the color of light change during that event. It was so enjoyable I made that trip many times, it certainly was relaxing to sit and watch the shadows of the Panamint Range slowly creep across the valley floor.

If you look closely the richness of color has not faded after all these years. Why? I shot mostly in Kodachrome back in the day and you just couldn't match the capability of that film with any other, at least in my not so humble opinion.

Enjoy....

Some things never change...like the love of a dramatic sky

2011-03-01T13:48:00.000-08:00

I shot these while living in Death Valley in 1981. Even then the love of a dramatic sky ala the old Dutch Masters was there.

Painting with light

2011-03-01T10:46:00.001-08:00

Back when I was in college I did an independent study program my senior year in a fine art vein instead of following the commercial path I had been on. A lot of reasons for it, chief of which was I wanted to explore my creative artistic side beyond what a commercial studio would do.

I had stumbled upon the idea of painting with light during my intro to color class and fooled with it a bit. What I did to achieve the effect was to place the camera on a tripod and leave the shutter open several minutes with a small "f" stop for max depth of field as well as allowing maximum time to "paint" with the light. The light source that I painted with varied from flash lights to sparklers. I often times lit the model with a quick flash from a strobe so that part would be properly lit so I could focus on the time to paint with the light source.

Here are just a few examples, more can be found in my flickr set called "Early color work"

Its all about a true black....and good mid tones

2011-02-27T19:34:00.000-08:00

Talk about a hard shot to get right, but I did. This pic of the bridge and mill in Burfordville MO was taken fall of 1977 for my Black and White photography class. It was exercise in the "zone system" as formulated by Ansel Adams...one of my long time hero's for so many reasons.

Just a little taste of spring

2011-02-26T09:40:00.000-08:00

Shot this in March 1976 could be dogwood. Could be forsythe. Both were the first to bloom in MO once winter was done and before the rest of the stuff was ready to go.

This is from a scan of the original negative done with an Epson V600 Photo scanner, set the dpi for a max 12800 (extrapolated) that picks up every little piece of grain. I dumbed down the images just a couple of notches so it loads faster here.

Funny how my love of things up close was there in the early work. I like how the depth of field is so shallow that only a couple of blossoms are in focus.

A few more from the archives

2011-02-25T14:15:00.000-08:00

This is sort of fun digging into the archives and digitizing things for posterity...or at least until the next big thing comes along.

I've always loved isolating trees and showing off their individual beauty in a forest. I particularly like this set of images. They were shot in Northern Minnesota on my grandparents property on Bear Island Lake outside of the town of Ely where they lived. Can you tell from these images that Ansel Adams had an affect on me even in my early years?

Some trends go back ages...

2011-02-25T10:01:00.001-08:00

I have a new scanner and among the tasks I have for it is to take my old B&W and archive them all digitally.

One of the things I've noticed in my early work was an affinity for natural lighting, even low level for all the drama one can get from the images shot under such conditions. Also noted that I did a lot of very moody black and white work both indoors and outdoors.

These images are of some family members that cooperated with me and my experimentation back in the day. Both are very natural portraits that I am still very pleased with many years after the fact.

Interesting for me also was my propensity to not only store them for safe keeping back then, but I also noted the basics such as film used. In this case these were shot in good old Tri-X Pan at ASA (we call it iso now) 400, no pushing was done.

Praise be...the new scanner arrived

2011-02-24T20:00:00.000-08:00

Can't wait to find in storage all of my negatives,not just those stashed in with the trusty High School yearbooks. This gem came from the first set I shot with my first brand new, spanking way cool 35mm camera that I bought with all my graduation gift money.

Best I could find to celebrate the arrival of my new scanner, an Epson V600 that is comes set to scan both negatives and transparencies. Should be interesting to see how it does with the old Kodachromes...will it reproduce the same rich color? Right now am pretty amazed at what it does with old color negatives like this July 4th shot done summer of 1975.

test...just a test of a new tool in my arsenal

2011-02-14T14:47:00.000-08:00

I bought a flip cam...mostly for use over at So Cal Auto Blog the possibilities are endless. Maybe do some tutorials on stuff I do with CS5? HDR? Just random stuff like this test video that I put together fooling around with the simple tool earlier today? I don't know, what would you like to see?

Camellia...orton style

2011-02-12T12:19:00.000-08:00

I just love how a pretty blossom becomes oh so romanticized with the simple addition of a couple of steps in Adobe CS5.

I've done the steps numerous times in other posts this time around will skip the details on how I got there and just let you enjoy the image.

Interesting Online Gallery for me...Gallerish

2011-02-07T10:41:00.001-08:00

So as part of my near daily quest to find new venues to show case my art work I stumbled upon Gallerish, an online gallery for Los Angeles.

Its pretty nifty, certainly is a no risk venture to show case ones art. The nice thing is that they permit linking to your own website at no extra fee. Pretty slick way for new/emerging artists trying to build a following of collectors to get some exposure. Their home page link HERE.

Of course I set up my own brief online gallery with them. You can find me HERE.

A little diversion and play time with Polaroin

2011-02-04T08:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday a friend turned me on to a web site called Polaroin. Link HERE. It creates Polaroid style images out of your digital photographs regardless if shot with a cell phone or DSLR.

I played around with it a bit yesterday and am having fun with it. Though I do mourn the day Polaroid dissolved itself and quit making film its nice to see it replicated with a fun online app. (I have ample Polaroid images from over the years, loved the look and feel of the images and have quite a collection of their cameras so my mourning is twofold....can't use the cameras I have and can't play with the process again in the future).

Of course it got my wheels turning and wonder if there is a point to duplicating it in Adobe's Photoshop CS5. Art for the sake of art has its purpose and I just may do so. Stay tuned....

HDR to the rescue

2011-02-03T17:22:00.000-08:00

This image would have been nearly impossible to capture without the aid of HDR post processing? Why you ask? Well the "wall" behind was actually a bank of white plexi that was back lit and several stops brighter than even the spot lit car. Shooting it bracketed +/- 2EV solved the problem when I used those files to generate an HDR image.

The final image was then tone mapped with Photomatix. After that it needed no other post processing 'cept for some minor color correction work.

The car is the Mistubishi i-MiEV (electric car) due on sale later this coming year. More about the car on So Cal Auto Blog.

A new Focus and a photo op

2011-01-28T09:54:00.001-08:00

Last night I attended an event at the Petersen Museum. Ford and Jay Leno donated the Ford Focus Electric Vehicle he had used in his show last season. Link to the post about the event itself HERE.

It should be no secret by now that I love to shoot cars about as much as I love to drive them. These events are terrific for shooting cars but the lighting isn't always ideal, and I dislike the harsh look of flash preferring the available lighting any day.

The problem with last nights shoot was multiple. First the car I wanted to feature was white, under spotlights that created too harsh a contrast and zero highlight detail. That was fixed by shooting with HDR post processing in mind. Second was that because of the different light sources there was different colors of light coming into play that makes accurate color balancing by the camera difficult...shooting RAW and using Adobe's CS5 helps with the color correcting.

Of course Photoshop helps with the final processing, in this case using some filters to make the 2012 Focus Electric the center of attention by using some spotlight action to darken other areas of the frame so the key car pops out from the back ground.

In terms of HDR processing I shot this bracked +/- 2 EV. The HDR file generation used those 3 files to create the file I worked from for color correcting and filter application. Tone mapping was done via Adobe's CS5. The final image used here was then dumbed down in size and dpi so it would be fast loading without sacrifice of detail .

The final image gets bigger with a click.

Just a new little adventure...

2011-01-26T11:07:00.001-08:00

I was asking for a new adventure. I got one, well made it happen. My friend Dave Share from metblogs/blogging.la have been talking for a while about doing a car blog. We made it happen over the last few weeks.

You can visit So Cal Auto Blog and leave comments or whatever. I'd really like it if you'd click on the ads from time to time as it helps us build credibility with them beyond content.

The banner was made by me from an image of a Mustang Bullitt I shot a while back. Cropped it down and added text with Photoshop...and then sized to fit within the spot allotted in word press. Stupid easy and nice results.

Stuff

2011-01-16T14:36:00.000-08:00

I worked this image from 3 bracketed images into an HDR file then took it a step further and ortonized it. In short I needed a dreamy looking image for a post I was working on for blogging.la that ran today. I was pleased with the outcome.

I'm hanging in Monrovia City Hall through March 31st. I was hung (figuratively, not literally but am sure there are a few that would like to blur that line) this past Wednesday. I need to get a shot in of my work hanging in the "City Lights" gallery as it is called in city hall. When that has been accomplished will post it here too. A little bragging, but what good is a blog if you can't do your own self serving post every now and then.

Just a little break in the rain

2010-12-21T14:25:00.000-08:00

I've found through trial and error that a low res camera is just as good as a high res when it comes to producing orton style images. This quick image was grabbed with a cell phone of all things and worked in the orton style.

Love the impressionistic view of the world an orton style image produces.

To get there you make a duplicate layer, increase the exposure, slight increase to the saturation, and finally give it a little blur via the gaussian blur filter in Adobe Photoshop CS5. Then you take the layers and give them a multiply blend and voila you have your own orton style image.

Sold to a collector...has such a nice ring to it.

2010-12-01T11:58:00.000-08:00

It has an even nicer ring to it when its a repeat customer and is more than 2 pieces, especially in this tough economy. Funny how the same person takes unrelated pieces.

Roses

Before Electricity

Cars, Cars, Cars....love 'em to drive and shoot

2010-11-23T15:46:00.000-08:00

I love cars. Without a doubt many of those machines are just beautifully engineered and sexy to the eye as well. Getting a press pass gives one uninterrupted access to cars during the LA Auto Show and I wear myself ragged during the show.

To get this shot I did a few things, including a departure from normal...added in some elements. The car is the Mercedes Benz CLS 63 AMG which is drop dead gorgeous. I bracketed the shot to get the exposure right, then added in some spotlight and lens flare effects to frame the car better from its surroundings.

To save you the google searches my primary posts on blogging.la are HERE and HERE. My entire set of raw images from the LA Auto Show are in a set in flickr, appropriately titled 2010 LA Auto Show.

Desert Heather...ala Orton

2010-10-12T14:54:00.001-07:00

I still am always amazed how much easier and faster it is to create with a pc vs silver based material. Orton wasn't that hard of a process, but it was time consuming getting the color balanced and exposures down when trying to print through doubled up slide film. Adobe's CS5 makes it all the easier.

As a refresher Orton was a guy back in the 70 who would do two shots of the same subject on slide film. One was razor sharp and perfectly exposed, the other was out of focus and over-exposed. The two were sandwiched together and printed resulting in a very surreal in focus/out of focus with artifically saturated colors.

To achieve this in Adobe the process is similar in theory. You take one sharply focused and exposed file. You open it and duplicate a layer labeling it "Background copy".

With that copy you go to Image>Adjustments>Exposure and increase your exposure by a factor of 1-2.0 so you "blow out" or lose all highlight detail. Got to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation and increase the saturation by a factor of 10-30 depending on how the changes look to you.

The next step is go to Filters>Blur>Gaussian Blur and chose pixel range of 10-25 depending on the amount of blur you need. Less if you have an already blurred background, more if you don't.

The final step is go to the adjustments box on the side margin and select "Multiply" as your blending option.

There you go a few simple steps for recreating the look and feel of the old silver based "Orton effect" images.

Piled Higher and Deeper in Venice Beach

2010-10-11T16:53:00.001-07:00

I love the insanity of this camper. So much stuff they had to bring along a mini-van to hold the extra. I have no idea what the story is behind this is, but that festive banner flying on the main camper tells me this is a fun crowd not some down and out of luck scenario.

The image was shot purposefully with HDR file generation in mind by bracketing the exposures 2 stops +/- from average. The HDR file generation was completed with the help of Adobe's CS5 that I also used for the tone mapping. Tone mapped for max saturation and definition between the various shapes so it took on a lot of blocks of color emphasizing the surreal nature of the setting itself.

IT will be in the satchel of goodies for you to peruse at this coming Thursday (10/14) Artists Reception at Bolt Barber's in Los Angeles. For those that forgot the details it is set for 7-9:30PM at Bolt Barbers, 460 S Spring Street (5th and Spring) Los Angeles CA.

Shooting in low light doesn't always need HDR or a Flash to work

2010-10-09T14:12:00.000-07:00

Shooting with just the existing natural light is a challenge. First you have to decide how much detail and noise you are willing to accept for a higher ISO. Why the higher ISO need...you don't always have the benefit, or permission even, to use a tripod let alone "brace" yourself on something if you are in a museum or similar setting. The higher ISO allows for a faster shutter to eliminate camera shake, but it does so at the expense of image quality as the ISO climbs.

Bracketing is the salvation of shooting with a window providing the light.

Thank goodness for tone mapping being able to be applied to an image to bring all tones captured into range that can be displayed on your screen or printed image material.

For this image of the captain's desk on the Queen Mary I didn't have the benefit of being able to use a tripod or brace myself on something. I knew I was good for relatively slow shutter speeds (1/10 second) so I set my ISO at a moderate 800 and bracketed 1 stop each way from metered.

The final image was cleaned up for color balance, a bugger when you have sunlight streaming in from a window coupled with regular incandescent lighting through the use of Adobe's CS5 color tone and color filters. After that was done the image was tone mapped to bring down the bright window to a more acceptable level and bring in some more of the shadow details. Low light image rescue completed.

This won't be among the images at Thursdays Bolt Barbers Gallery Reception. There will be ample images on the wall and in my trusty satchel for you to peruse. The gallery is located within Bolt Barbers, 460 S Spring Street, Los Angeles CA. The reception is 10/14/2010, 7-9:30PM.

One more for the show....

2010-10-04T12:58:00.000-07:00

Dang it all. Both printers decided to die on me in the middle of yesterdays effort to get some oldies but goodies added back to the satchel for the October 14, 2010 Bolt Barbers' Gallery reception. Alas the 'puter and art gawds aren't playing well together.

Before it died I did get one last print done. Always loved the haunting look of this image...

More of me@ Bolt Barbers Gallery

2010-10-01T08:56:00.000-07:00

Bolt Barbers' updated their web to include some thumbnails of a few of the pieces in the show. The reception is going to be big. BIG I tell you. Why you may ask? Bolt will host Hot on Yelp's "Beauty & The Hairy Beast Event from 5P-10P. Live DJ on hand and all services will be free with suggested donation for each service to benefit The Midnight Mission.

The Bolt Barbers' Gallery link on me is HERE.

As a reminder...the reception is set for Thursday October 14, 2010 7-9:30PM. Bolt Barbers 460 S Spring Street, Los Angeles CA.

Just one final Autochrome....

2010-09-28T15:13:00.000-07:00

I finally figured out the blending as noted in yesterdays post. I opted to dig out one more little image from the Che-ez Snap and autochromed it. I liked the image to start with, the graining of it all via the various layers and steps only adds to the old timey feel of the image.

Revisiting the Autochrome...

2010-09-27T09:24:00.000-07:00

I don't know what I was thinking but I completely forgot about this treasure trove of images done with the digital camera I had called the Che-ez snap. I found the DVD's from my old Textamerica account and started sifting through them.

I've blogged about that little camera numerous times, what I never thought about was how those low res images might be the key to perfecting the Autochrome look that I wanted. Until yesterday.

These images all started as small low resolution jpegs from that camera. I went and created a few layers until I got the saturation lowered and wider grain of the Autochrome sorta duplicated with the help of Adobe CS5. What I still can't figure out how to do is outline these "grains" with black like the Autochromes themselves had. Until then I can only partially duplicate the look and feel of those old 'chromes.

To get there here is the steps I use.

Create new adjustment later>black & white. Leave blending to "normal" but set opacity to 25%.

Click on the original image and use control+alt+J to create a new layer and label it noise. desaturate the image by about 25% using the adjustment too. Go to Filters>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set the adjustment to "5" pixels. Next go to Filters>Noise>Add dust and scratches and move slider until you just have some visible dust and scratches. Final stop is to go to Filters>Pixelate>Pointillize and adjust towards smaller dots.

Click on the "noise layer" and adjust your mixing to either "soft light" or "hard light" until you get the image that you like.

Merge layers and voila your final image is now set to be saved as a pds file for further use or jpeg for publishing on flickr or similar.

Real Toy Camera...

2010-09-26T10:31:00.000-07:00

I had a toy camera called the Che-ez Snap. It was tiny, hardly bigger than a postage stamp. Its optics was fixed focus, with the edges being really sketchy. Color was off and over saturated. Contrast was off as well...on the contrasty side rather than flat so I liked the results, most of the time. It was all of .2, yes POINT 2 mega pixels and I loved its low Res images to pieces.

These are a few select few that are being printed up for inclusion in my goodies satchel for things to dig through (and purchase if so inclined) at my Artists Reception at Bolt Barbers' Gallery on October 14, 2010. (Details in a prior post).

More with the toy camera...

2010-09-25T15:47:00.000-07:00

Years ago, 2003 to be precise, before I switched from silver to a DSLR we had a little digital point and squirt for just snapshots of the kids and stuff. In retrospect that little 2.0 megapixel camera had a lot of the qualities of a toy camera, or at least a cell phone camera.

I snapped this image up on Jalama Beach on CA's Central Coast October of 2003 and found it while rummaging around for other stuff. The composition is good, the basic image is grainy to start with, pixelated colors that look like traditional film grain when viewed large and was already for a little run through CS5 to finish off the "toy camera" look that I am so enamored with at the moment.

I took the basic image and used "filters">"Lens distortion" and cranked up the vignetting, added a little chromic aberration then adjusted the curves to darken the blacks a bit and lighten up the center ranges.

Flamed and vignetted...

2010-09-25T11:55:00.000-07:00

I love the look of the old school toy camera. I'm also a big fan of super saturated color, and to get there today I used the vignetting tools in Adobe's CS5 to get the corners adequately darkened and still keep the center light and focused. I didn't opt for the off color registrations you could get by switching up your color chemicals like you could in old school silver based media. Rather I went for the contrasty overly saturated colors and contrast one got from the old Cibachrome print material.

To get this image I opened the RAW file and used the lens correction tool. Instead of minimizing the distortion I went the other direction and maximized the vignetting and upped the barrel distortion some to further the "fish eye" look. Once done I went into the saturation levels and upped the saturation for orange and yellow a bit to make the flames "flamier". Then I hit the ok button and opened the file and continued to work it in the 8 bit mode it was converted to for PSD files.

I used the adjustments to alter the hue and color to compensate for this being shot in the early morning in the shade. Then I made one last attack on the vignetting by going to "filter">"lens correction" and bumped up the vignette to further darken the corners. I did this to put the background elements more into the shadows making the old Flamed Woody the center of attention. Then I upped the center lighting value some to brighten up the car. Once done I flattened it all with the layers tool and converted to a smaller 72dpi jpeg file for publication here.

The real image is much larger and detailed than this compressed jpeg portrays, but you still get a sense of what the printed image is like.

Open invitation to my Artists Reception 10/14/2010

2010-09-21T18:54:00.000-07:00

Mark your calenders, October 14, 2010, 7PM to 9:30PM for my artists reception at Bolt Barbers in Los Angeles. The addy...460 S Spring Street (corner of 5th and Spring) Los Angeles CA. The reception will include a hosted "Candy bar"...perfect to kick off Halloween. There is no need to RSVP as this is open to the public.

It will be held in conjunction with the Downtown LA Art Walk that runs 5-10PM on that day. Be prepared for tight parking. The Hotel Alexandria at 501 S Spring Street has underground valet parking and you can buy discounted parking from the Bolt good at the hotel. Worth every penny to avoid the other more known public lots in the area.

As soon as Bolt has their artists page updated.

The curator of the exhibit, Betsy Matz designed the post cards and chose one of my favorite images to use on the card. "Abandoned Church, Paris" is one of my favorites for many reasons. Chief of which is that its proof that the greatest rewards are when we stray from the beaten path.

We were on a walking tour of the old Jewish quarter when the guide had us change directions and pointed out there was "nothing to see" down this one small street as the church there was being gutted to turn into retail shops etc.,. Fine I kept walking. We rounded a couple more corners and he pointed out again "nothing to see...." and gave the same reason pointing down the general direction we had been. I broke ranks and jogged down the half block and look what I found, this terrific old church, built in the 1500's being gutted. What a wonderful patina to the walls, the rough hewn beams and on the other side of the wall, the church's old courtyard in full spring bloom with Victorian era apartments on the other side.

I had the camera set in seconds for bracketed exposures and shot it with HDR post processing in mind. I used Photomatix for the post processing in to the HDR file and kept it adjusted for photo-realism with maximum detail in the shadows to highlights. Had I not used HDR file generation I would have had either a beautifully exposed courtyard with a blacked out church, or church detail with blown out highlights for the courtyard. Classic win/win that you can get with HDR and keeping it real instead of surreal.

See you at the reception!

Making it look like a toy camera...

2010-09-19T14:07:00.001-07:00

Ah, the Diana, that old school "toy camera" that launched a photo revolution for its artsy out of focus and lost edge detail was one I too played with. Not as much as the "art photographers" I hung out with at dear old SIU, I was a commercial photo guy after all and our disciplines were supposed to be at cross purposes. Supposed to be but then again I've always had a hard time staying in the lines.

I stumbled across a tutorial for recreating a "Lomo" style toy camera image today and got to thinking about my long lost Diana and the images it could create. Especially if you shot slide film and had it processed in "negative" film chemicals. The changes in saturation, contrast and a host of other things created images that took advantage of the toy cameras basic "flaws". I got the urge to start recreating those images from razor sharp digital images and see what happened.

See what happened? I took a stock shot from Elephant Rocks I shot while back in MO over the summer. I am pleased with the result.

To get this image I opened a RAW file in CS5 and used the lens correction tools. I ignored the simple corrections for axis and depth of field correction and went straight to the vignetting tool to darken the corners. From there I opened the image and did a save as jpeg so I would have a standard image to work with while experimented.

The next step was to adjust the hue and color to the most natural state I could get and saved.

Next was the "duplicate layer" and let it be labled "background layer" automatically. I adjusted the saturation to more and increased the brightness by a factor of 10, playing around a bit so I kept the corners noticeably darker without blowing out the center as too bright.

Next step was to go to blur and chose lens blur. There I made several changes. I increased the blade curvature and rotation until I got the level of blur that enabled most details to remain, just pick up an overall out of focus, softness to the layer. Specular Highlights was also adjusted, to a factor of 17 for brightness and threshold moved all the way over to 255. Noise remained at 0, distribution was kept as "uniform". From there I hit OK and the PC applied the changes.

The next step was to go to the layers histogram and chose "soft light" as the blending option. This enabled to the softness of the overall background to show through keeping the feel of a toy camera in place.

Of course the easier solution to all of this is to simply find another toy digital camera that has the same "problems" IE poor optics, cheap sensors etc., that by their nature create toy camera images with all their inherent lovable flaws. May have to do that again, imagine the fun of manipulating those images down further!

Sistine Culvert

2010-09-18T11:14:00.001-07:00

This started out as a decent piece of urban art. Then the taggers arrived and tagged it over so many times that it no longer was art, just a tagging piece. Interesting that they opted to work under a culvert slowly filling it up towards the ceiling almost like the Sistine Chapel. Our little renaissance artists at work?

This is an image shot bracketed with HDR post processing in mind. The HDR File was generated with Photomatix (I keep going back to it as I like it, comfort zone issue likely, but I like the fine tuning tools better still). The HDR file was then processed into 8bit and tone, color adjusted and resized for publication in Adobe's CS5.

Couple of more from the Orton path...

2010-09-11T15:59:00.000-07:00

So the romanticism of the orton style got to me today. It got me thinking about some of my older images and how they could be reworked in the Orton style to change the look and feel of the images. So I started digging through the archives and redid these too.

To get there I duplicated the image using Adobe's CS5. The duplicate layer was labeled "background" copy. With that layer I then proceeded to increase the exposure the equivalent of 2 f stops and then through it out of focus with the blur function. The resulting image was then blended with "multiply" to allow both layers to show through. The resulting image was then merged and dumbed down (smaller lower dpi) for easy upload and viewing.

Enjoy "Cemetary Sunset" and "Silent Yard".

Ala Orton : 1960 Oldsmobile Low Rider

2010-09-11T12:48:00.001-07:00

I love orton and the way it gives such a soft romantic look to an image. In this case it adds to the old timey romanticism of the antique car that I spotted at a car show this morning. I loved this car and wanted to do more than just document it, I wanted impart some emotion while maintaining its sense of power. Orton to the rescue.

Enjoy 1920 Oldsmobile Lowrider. It does click for a larger image.

Installed at Bolt Barber's Gallery in Downtown LA

2010-09-09T15:09:00.001-07:00

Its as official as it will ever be. I've been installed and have 15 Pieces hanging at the Bolt Barber's Gallery in Downtown LA.

The show runs through October 30, 2010. The opening reception should be tied to the Downtown LA Art Walk set for the second Thursday in October. As soon as I have the details will be posted here for you. (Just in case you want to come see me).

This show was curated by Betsy Matz and she did a great job grouping my work and putting it up for display in the Gallery portion of Bolt Barbers.

Deets: Bolt Barbers 460 South Spring Street, Los Angeles CA (5th and Spring for your cross streets). Parking can get pricey and is scarce downtown. However....if you park in the lot under the Hotel Alexandria (501 Spring Street) and purchase a validation at Bolt for $3.00.