San Gabriel River and San Gabriel Mountains

Today I hiked the river. Intent was to concentrate on just shades of gray and contrast. I dialed in slowest relative ISO for minimum noise and maximum detail. Whilst I was at it I selected the "red" photo-filter option so the jpegs would have the appearance of a black and white film shot through a red filter.

Back in the day of Black and White silver based photography one would slap on a real "RED" filter, deep red no less for a variety of reasons. For landscape photography it lightened the yellows and reds of flowers while making the blue sky and green foliage darker. You did this in particular when you wanted to accentuate the sky and get better cloud detail. With portraiture it tended to help lighten the skin and even out the complexion. Obviously I went for cloud detail today.

Of course, I shot with RAW/Jpeg combo. The RAW images have all the detail and colors there just in case I get a wild hair and want to do something with them one of these days.

Rosebud and the promise of spring.

Shot bracketed. Love the detail in the texture of the stem and the bud itself. It was shot bracketed and the one 1 stop over average worked out the best for shadow detail. Post processed from RAW and minimal jpeg compression in final image.

Not a day out with a camera, with reason though.

Today my youngest who plays competitive basketball had a tournament. So when everyone else was huddled in their home avoiding the rain storm I was out and about with another tournament. We had one great win...62-23.

This should count as a daily photo even though I took it with the trusty cell phone.

Misty Skies...an exploration in Black and White

Hmmm...the little meander this morning made me think in terms of shades of gray as much as muted color on a rainy day. Looking back at what I shot this grabbed my attention and begged me to work into a B&W image. Am glad I did, its fun to meander down that path that is so close to my roots.

Its raining today...

To call it rain is a bit of a stretch. More like spitting misty stuff but I'll take it as it is good for the gardens. It also makes for a nice meander once one is all bundled up.

Today's images were worked from HDR files created from 3 RAW exposures representing normal, 2 stops over and 2 stops under-exposure. I used both Photomatix and CS2 for generating the HDR files. Photomatix did the tone mapping as I like the controls available in it better than CS2. (Someone wanna get me CS4 as I hear it really rocks for HDR work?).

I also meandered down the black and white path with one of the images. I liked the composition of the hard edged bridge against the natural slope of the mountains in the back ground. The framing accentuates the more flowing slopes of the hills in contrast to the sharp curvilinear edges of the arch on the bridge. I think I like the B&W version better as its lack of color accentuates the contrast better.

What I did today instead of shooting...

I actually entered a piece in this show. I actually was busy with the arts and blogging in general which kept me from the camera. The full post can be found over at LA Metblogs. Tomorrow is another day n'est ce pas?

Another walk...and an icme

It caught my eye. A truck crossing sign posted in a ditch. The bike path I was on had one right on the edge of the roadway where you would expect it. But a ditch? Why oh why begs to be asked.

Mile Marker 37...a new personal best

Today I set out to fulfill one of my goals towards a healtier me and went for a walk. Along the San Gabriel River trail as its an easy walk with plenty to keep me visually entertained. Easy to get a quick pace going to help with the cardio and simple calorie burning, its all good.

One of the first things I spotted was the orange hazard cone in the midst of some plants and rocks. Why? Beats me but someone must know the answer, just to lazy to start making calls to the city of Duarte to find out why its there.

Along the way there was a brief icme moment where I spotted something green among all the grayed over concrete that lines the river edges. Closer inspection revealed it to be a survey marker from 1960. All these years and still undisturbed.

Mile marker 37 was a new personal best for me. Fast paced walk that was supposed to be 2 miles turned into 3 when I decided to push it a bit. Just keep moving forward to live in a healthier direction, one day at a time.

Happy February 1st.

It was an artsy fartsy kind of day. Brought out the trusty che-ez snap and grabbed a few shots of the hibiscus in bloom on the patio. Love that crazy little camera, no focus control, no color control, no contrast control...but the images it yields are totally artistic in nature...very impressionistic. I like it that way.

(This would have been posted yesterday but the day was pretty hectic so my apologies for making you wait).

No pic today...spent the day on the road

Today it was up early (4:45 on a Sunday no less) and off to the Antelope Valley for a basketball tournament. My daily stroll with a camera was usurped, unless you count this pic of the temp up there at 7:20AM today. It didn't count for me which is why I feel oddly empty today, or is it just exhaustion from game cheering and windshield time?

Geranium. One done, more to come.

The writer Raymond Chandler said "The more we reason the less we create". He was right, you know.

Sun boxes on the wall

I like the way sunlight enters a room through a window casting its warm glow about. Today I was hard pressed to find something of interest to shoot. Saw plenty. Just, meh was the response I had and couldn't force myself to shoot something that was just meh.

Lemon Bars or Limoncello?

Lemons. I have a bumper crop. Some will go to lemon bars, others to limoncello. Ratio not yet determined.

ICME*...blue square on the path

*It Caught My Eye

I went for a walk.

I spotted the spot.

Yikes...3 months passed

Nope. Didn't forget this blog. Actually it has weighed heavily on my mind. Why? I've got a block just like a "writers block". I am in a quandary as to what I want to explore next and nothing seems to grab my attention. Arghhh....I may just force myself to do an image a day until I break through to the next area of exploration.

Today would have been the start date but I hit a snag. I committed the cardinal sin of digital photography. I didn't install the freshly charged battery in the camera and arrived at the river with no functioning good camera. Just the trusty cell phone camera which I used to grab a couple of quick pics including the one here. More tomorrow providing it isn't raining, or should I venture out in the rain?

In show news I've been invited to be a showing artist at the Sierra Madre Art Festival in May. I think I'll do that.

HDR and the OC Auto Show...'nuff said

Love them cars. Enough to start an auto blog. Naming it is the question. "FrazGOES" is used over at metblogs and already has a snazzy logo. I considered "auto meanderings" and decided that wasn't quite right. Suggestions from facebook friends suggested "frazgo-agogo", and "frazgo goes". Ideas from you?

Cars and HDR are a good combo

I like HDR work and cars. It lets you tame the demons of highlight and shadow so you see the whole car and nothing but the car, turn it surreal or who knows what via the simple magic of a PC, and an HDR/tonemapping program.

I still prefer Photomatix as the program of choice for both HDR Generation and tone mapping. In particular the HDR files are much better aligned and easier to work with than those done in Photoshop using the "merge to HDR" function.

The car you see isn't available for sale in the US yet. Give it another 6-8 months and you will see it. It is the 2011 Ford Fiesta slated to fill the sub-compact gap in the Ford line up. It will be a premium small car, IE High content, good quality materials and workmanship. The prototype I drove is near production ready so I think if the driving feel transfers with the great design of this car they will have a hit on their hands. I'll reserve final judgement for when I get my hands on the real deal next year.

How did I come about this chance to photo and blog the car. I've got connections at Ford's Premier Auto Group based in the OC. I contact them and when they have a free car they will let either deliver it or I will pick it up. I get free acess to cars and share my images with them for internal publications only. A win in terms of portfolio building and networking that I hope to parlay into photo for money of automobiles somewhere along the line.

In the interest of integrity I do have to acknowledge that for this shoot the Ford rep did pay for lunch as the shoot went into the lunch hour. (Great conversation, learned a lot about Ford and the direction it is moving).

More from the Atomic Flash series

I'm still working on the series. I love the nonchalant character on the mobile while the others are busy building what would appear to be a wall of some sort.

This was purposefully shot bracketed with HDR generation in mind. The HDR file was generated within Photoshop CS2 and then tone mapped in Photomatix. The color was left as is from the diorama which only adds to the bizarreness of the final image.

Not all images work being Autochromed

This one did. I think getting into the burn area may just yield some interesting images. Maybe.

As close as I've gotten so far with the Autochroming

I like these images, you will need to click them to make them bigger to get full effect of the images. Of course the originals were done on either 4X5 inch or in extremely rare cases 8X10 inch glass plates you do get a good feel for the originals. What I can't duplicate so far is the black outlines around the individual color grains that the originals had, but even without these are fairly close to what the Autochromes did with the subject they were recording.

I've been working on this pretty non-stop the last few days from stock images as it has been so nasty smokey and sooty outside because of the fires. Can't really go out and shoot anything in these conditions.

A lot of the steps taken in getting the image to the final for presentation come from personal taste and knowledge of what an original autochrome looks like. (I've seen them only a few times in exhibitions). The process and steps I have been using to get the results in CS2:

1. Open and duplicate the image file you wish to use. Close the original and work from the copy only to protect the integrity of the original file.
2. Go to adjusments->saturation/hue and reduce saturation by a factor of -25 to -40.
3. Go to Layer->new adjustment layer ->channel mixer->ok dialogue box -> click monochrome in the final dialogue box.
4. In layer box click on background box. Hit CTRL+Alt+J. The new layer dialogue box that comes up label it "noise" and in mode drop down chose "Color".
5. Go to Filter-> noise ->add noise-> check gaussian blur ->chose factor of 20%
6. Go to Filter->blur-> gaussian blur and chose factor of 7 to 10 pixels
7. Go to Filter->pixelate->mossaic-> chose cell size of 7-10.
8. Go to Filter->pixelate->pointillize->chose cell size of 7-10
9. Go to Layers bar, click on channel and go to the blending bar. I typically use "Soft light" or "Pin light" for the blending that produces the most accurate feel of an Autochrome, but others can work well too. Both of these images I used "soft light".

No I hope with this set of instructions I've helped prevent someone from reinventing the wheel. Should I figure out how to outline the individual "grain" cells in black I'll post it here.

Autochrome duplication closer thanks to google

This weekends Art Walk gave me a bit of a surprise. What sold was the few new pieces done ala Autochrome. This energized me to keep digging and hope that I get closer to duplicating the look and feel of them in the digital realm.

I don't know why I didn't check google first for a "recipe" to duplicate the Autochrome in photoshop, but I could have saved myself some time. A quick search yielded a nifty for CS4 version on how I can duplicate the look. You can find the linkHERE. It works pretty well and got me closer to what I wanted than before.

What they did that I hadn't been doing was adding a few layers with noise before adding in the changes to a color layer. In all am very satisfied with the results. It still doesn't give the dark black spots and splotches of the original, but it is overall a very acceptable result. To get maximum effect you can click on the pictures here for larger versions.

I am pleased with the progress. The debate on how I want to proceed still rages in my head. Do I shoot with classic images such as used here that are "timeless" in their nature and look like the subject matter of the originals or should I move forward and shoot what I see now and document it in the look of an Autochrome. Until the smoke and haze of the current fires go away I won't be out shooting so I have time to solve that debate.

One Step closer to the Autochrome look.

I hate to say it, but if they still made the Autochrome plates I'd be first in line to a) buy them and b) buy a large format camera so I could use them. The more I research them the more I fall in love with the impressionistic renditions of the subject they produced. Amazing that even war torn France in WWI yielded stunning images for its day.

So I am torn with how to shoot, I don't want a whole lot of modern references in the images to keep that old timey look and feel. Part of me says run out and shoot the new and give it the same treatment. The debate will range internal for a bit as the next few days are pretty with stuff.

How I got to this image for those of you wanting the technical details.

First I opened a stock image I had from Bodie CA shot a couple of summers ago. I duplicated the image and closed the original. (Never work from an original unless you want to risk accidentally saving a manipulation and losing it forever).

Next create a duplicate layer. Go to adjustments, saturation and reduce the saturation on that layer by about 1/2.

While in that layer you will visit the "Filters" section a few times.

First go to Artistic and chose "paint daubs".

Second go to Artistic and chose "film grain" and chose a medium sized grain.

Third go to "Brush strokes" and chose "Ink Outline" and chose a smallish brush stroke.

Go to blending tool and scroll through options to get to "lighten". Adjust opacity and voila a pretty close rendition of an Autochrome is ready for sharing and printing.

BTW...shameless self promotion. If you don't have anything to do Saturday evening August 29, pop in to see me in Old Town Monrovia for the Monrovia Association of Fine Arts final Art Walk of the summer. Details on LA Metblogs.

I clunkered out the "Dad Car"

Nope, I didn't get a snazzy sports car. We actually got a nice responsible mid-size that fits our needs better. Its sad to see the old girl go as we had a lot of adventures in that car. Perfect vacation car. Could seat 6 which we often needed and best of all it wasn't an SUV. I probably won't miss the v8 as the Centurion, that lovely classic I have has a monster v8 and those moments I want raw power and speed I'll just take its cover off, dust it a bit and let the wind rushing over its curves finish the clean up.

Thanks to all you tax payers that helped us get the new car with the "cash for clunkers" program. Seriously, thanks.

Continuing the Autochrome exploration

First of all, pardon me for not giving you all a reference point for the Autochromes. What lit my fire was discovery of the site "Les Autochromes Lumiere' " which has a few hundred wonderful images from early in the last century. Those images should give you an idea of what I am trying to replicate with photoshop. The pages within the site that would best serve as a jumping point if all you want to see is the images is titled "The Revelation of Colour".

I continued to work and discard a lot of images today. Mostly because I just wasn't happy with how I was getting the effect done. Lots of notes scribbled about what worked and what did not.

An order I have come across that seems to work pretty good. Start with a duplicated layer. Start by going to the pixelate filter and chose pointillism. Next go to artistic filters, brush stroked and use the paint daub tool. Next in the multistep process is to go to artistic filters, brushstrokes again and opt for "outline in black".

Next you go to artistic again and pick film grain tool. Finally the last step is in artistic where you pic poster edges and adjust until you have some delineation and gradation within the various colors. The final step is to use the blending tool and adjust how the layers interact until you get a sharp/unsharp image that fits the profile of an autochrome. Whew...a lot of steps but am liking the results so far.

This batch the color is a bit stronger than I did yesterday, but the original files were very deeply saturated to start with. What I am doing now is desaturating the color some, I *think* future explorations with flowers and other deeply saturated images I will desaturate the duplicate layer before I do the other manipulations.

Enjoy today's explorations on the topic of preplicating Autochromes.

Replicating Autohromes in Adobe Photoshop

Today I wax poetic for another trip to Paris, of course that is all enhanced by my rediscovery of the "Autochrome" postcard collection I have. Working from some old images I've been attempting to recreated the romantic look and impressionistic feel of the old Autochromes. These are close, and worth posting for comments. They do get bigger with a click.

The Autochromes themselves were the first commercially successful color "film" process from approx 1905-1930. Auguste Lumiere was among the inventors on this process. What they did in short is come up with a process where fine potato starch grains were died, combined with lamp black (ultra fine coal dust) on a glass plate. The plate was then varnished to hold those elements then a photographic emulsion was applied. It yielded very impressionistic, not quite accurate color, but very romantic images. The images themselves up close one could see the black dots surrounding the color grains. Even viewed full frame you could still pick out the black around the color but not always pronounced in the mid-highlighted areas of the image.

In photoshop I started by working from a RAW image that I duplicated (never work from the original file) unsharpened a bit and started running through filters. Specifically after the unsharpen layer, a new layer was duplicated and a watercolor filter was applied. Another duplicate image was done and it was given the brushstroke "sumi". Then I'd use the blending tool until I got the right combination of saturation (subtle) with a combo of blurred outlines and sharp elements. That was then flattened and a final "poster" filter was applied to separate blocks of color in the sky and insert some black outlined elements in the shadows.

Not a perfect "autochrome" replication but close. Now to work on specific shooting with the process in mind and see what I can come up with while further experimenting with filters and layers to get the look even closer.

I love to experiment.

Blog with Integrity

I joined. It makes sense. In short it means that what I write, I write out of passion for the topic, its my words, not someones press release. It means I am doing it for free, not on the take from anyone in exchange for blogging it here.

When I talk about programs I use in the production of my images it is because I own them and believe in them. Not that they were given to me nor have I been paid to review them.

As a member of the media I get invited to press events from a variety of entities. I seek out specific invites such as from the auto manufacturers because I love cars and shooting them. I'm not paid to attend these events nor am I told what opinion or review to give them. What you read are my own thoughts on the subject and more often than not will go to explaining how I got to the final image rather than a specific review of a car. (The specific reviews usually show up over at Metblogs if I have a specific link to Los Angeles that would warrant the post there).

I don't plan on ever taking a "free" program offer in exchange for a review. Of course I can't say never, but in the event that it would happen I'd divulge that information in the opening paragraph. There is a difference between editorial, advertising, advermonials and I owe it to the reader to explain should I ever go on the take. I won't, but at least you know if I do go to the dark side I'll warn you in advance.

Part of the pledge I signed to blog with integrity also includes treating others with civility. That means never attack someone for their ideas, rather disagree with the idea with facts and own opinion on the topic.

I'm a free speech advocate. I do have to mention comments here. If you don't stay on topic or try to spam me with your own site or business opportunity stuff I will delete the comments. Comment policy here is it stays on topic and is civil. End of story.

The words you see here will always be my own. Typos and all. I'll stand behind them and eat them if needed.

HDR and cars are a good combo

2010 Mazda 3 Grand Touring

2010 Volvo XC60

2010 Ford Taurus SHO

2011 Ford Fiesta (Pre-production prototype)

I'm not quite sure why, but the auto manufacturers tend to love to give you either red or silver cars for their ride/drives at press events. Arrest me red, perfect for a performance car especially when a member of the press is trying to get a feel for its potential while running it through its paces. Especially on marked routes where you can't deviate cops love to sit and wait. No, I didn't get nabbed but is a concern when in a red car with MI MFG plates on it.

The other color they like to give is silver. Looks great, but it is hard as hell to photo without completely blown out highlights on large expanses of the car. IT also picks up the "blue sky" too well in the shadows which makes color balancing a bugger. The latter you can only do so much with a photofilter in CS2. The former, you can actually do a lot with by bracketing your shots and generating HDR images. At that point you can get shadow detail back, but more importantly control the white clipping and keep the all white highlights smaller and more natural in apprearance.

Of course being able to control the contrast and micro contrast makes it possible to highlight the cars much more differently than a straight image. Gives you the chance to drift into the surreal too which I like to do to make the car stand out more in an illustrative manner.

All of these images were shot with low ISO (200) for minimal noise and maximum detail. They were bracketed +/- two stops from average. The RAW files were run through photomatix for the HDR file generation as well as tonemapping. The final image was put through virtual photographer to clean up the cyan hue (some were shot on an overcast morning) and give them the punch of the old uber saturated contrasty Cibachrome print material.

'Nuf said, enjoy the images from a day with Ford/Mazda and Volvo and their LA 2010 Model Reveal.

I curated my first show...

Titled "The Body Electric" and runs through September 5 at the Route 66 Gallery here in Monrovia's Historic Aztec Hotel.

Curated by me. What a concept, but curating a show isn't that much different than merchandising. Similar styles grouped by artist gives each a lot of impact and a cohesive show. Judging by the comments I succeeded.

The Body Electric celebrates the form and movement of the human form. The art I had to chose from was really excellent so editing wasn't so much a function of weeding out the less proficient from the proficient which helped. The themes run from the realistic to the impressionistic. A little abstract. Some fully clothed, others nude (tastefully done not pron folks). I was happy with the final result.

I look forward to curating again someday. Until then I'll be content with merchandising the Paint n Play 2 Art Studio and Gallery.

Details: Route 66 Gallery, 301 W Foothill Blvd, Monrovia CA 91016 626-239-3153 (Call for daily hours of operation).

I broke 200,000 flickr views

Stats are nice, and this is a big number but it doesn't mean squat as I don't make a direct dime off of it.

What I do know is that my viewers fall into 3 categories. Celebutard followers, car nuts and English Rose fans. Also people like to look at the films from my MRI a lot - go figure.

What I do learn comes from comments and favoriting of images in my sets. That information becomes invaluable in helping me determine which images are framed and sorted for shows and which are simply sleeved for future sales from the files.

I know I can count on 200 views a day more or less. I am found from a variety of sources. Most are google searches, some are from bookmarks, others are from my flickr friends who watch my stuff on an RSS Feed.

Nice to know that some of my images can stop people in their tracks and go hmmmm...

A little stroll along a running river

The San Gabriel River is running again. The powers that be in the Army Corp of Engineers that control the flow of the river opened up the spigot upstream and we have a river again. With this week being the hottest of the summer it is welcome relief to be able to just hear the rushing water while walking about and taking pictures.

This image was shot bracketed for hdr post processing to allow some of the waters movement to create off register portions to accentuate the movement in the final image. OF course being able to fine tune micro-contrast and your white/black levels helps with the final image. You'll note I still like a nice clean black in an image even when I'm working with hdr which in theory would have it a dark gray and details. That stark black for me creates an more anchor point for the brain as it processes the image. The final image was washed in Virtual Photographer to give it the look of the soon to be defunct old-timey Kodachrome.

Am strung up and hung again...Monrovia Coffee Company

Just a quick cell phone cam grab of the wall I chose to display at for the next 3 months. Nice selection of HDR, Orton, digital art and straight imagery will be up through September 30, 2009.

Stop in and check out my art as well enjoy a cup of coffee while taking advantage of their free wi-fi.

Monrovia Coffee Company, 425 S Myrtle Avenue, Monrovia CA 91016.

Las Vegas and verga

Tis what I did this last weekend, ran off to Las Vegas for some travel basketball with the youngest and just soak in some sights like a summer storm pass over the city.

The images were shot purposely with HDR post processing in mind to capture all of the sky detail, and of course let me take it down into the painterly surreal world.

Gallery Showing through 6/30/09

My run at California Wine and Cheese continues. To keep it all fresh I swapped in a couple of new pictures. Both you've seen here already but at least one is worth repeating just because I like it.

Artist Meet and Greet Reception is set for 6/19/2009 5:30PM - 8:30PM. Of course since this is at California Wine and Cheese there will be specially priced "Artist Red" and "Artist White" for the event. IF you are really adventurous and want to learn about wine and wine tasting purchase one of their flights and let the staff teach you all about wine appreciation.

California Wine and Cheese is located at 115 W Foothill Blvd, Monrovia CA 91016