Posts from the ‘Southwest’ Category
Like Old Times
FG7, HP5, Mamiya
Those of you who have been reading the blog since ’09 might remember the color version of this image. Taken on the Salt River north-east of Mesa, Arizona, the day I captured this image I was swapping the 10D back and forth on the tripod with the Mamiya. I developed the roll on November 29th, 2008, but finally scanned it tonight.
These images were processed using Ken Bello’s tip of opening the TIFF as a Camera Raw image in Bridge. I really like that workflow. Thanks, Ken!
Just like old times . . .
Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 Beta
Rummaging through my old images from the time when I lived 20 minutes from this beautiful Arizona landmark, played with some Nik tools to get this image. The JPEG has the shadows at thew bottom of the frame pretty blocked up, but the original file isn’t nearly as bad.
Captured with my wife’s 40D, a lovely camera.
Kodachrome
Got an email today from Dwayne’s, who informed me that the roll of kodachrome I shot during Christmas had been processed and was on its way to me in the mail. Maybe early next week!
What’s Old is New
Dreamy Tri-X
A while back (over a year, to be exact) I posted some color digital images I captured with my 10D when I visited a construction site in Phoenix where the architect had erected some tent-like structures as thematic accents. Veteran readers might remember those images. That same day I also had with me my trusty Ftb loaded with Tri-X. That roll sat undeveloped until mid-February of this year, and those negs sat unscanned until this weekend. Phew! Long time coming, but I’ll be posting some of them in the upcoming week or so.
Tomorrow I travel to Seattle for business and come the weekend, I’ll be visiting my friend Ray and his home city of Port Townsend, WA. Looking forward to that. I plan during that trip to run a digital/film experiment. We’ll see how that goes.
Saguaro Revisited with HP5
HP5 and Rodinal
On that roll of HP5, along with Macconnell’s Mill in February, were b&w images of Saguaro National Park near Tuscon captured last year. I posted color images from that trip here and never got around to developing that roll until December and never got around to scanning that roll until, um, yesterday. This park is famous for its Saguaro cactus fields, and it also has a mound of petroglyphs from the Native American residents. It might be fun to compare this b&w image with original color one. Just as reminder, I found this place really full of energy and had quite an interesting visit there.
From a craft POV, the image above was worked pretty extensively in Lightroom and Nik Silver Efex. Why in the heck would you manipulate a b&w image in a tool designed to translate a color digital image into b&w in the first place?
This may, in part, be due to ignorance on my part. Silver Efex has a multitude of settings, only one of which is to choose a ‘film’ emulation type (which adds a contrast curve from that original film as was as a grain pattern). BTW, just a note: I’m not in love with some of their film emulations; the one for FP4 just seems way off to me, and I never use that emulation even though FP4 is either my first favorite film or, at worst, my second. But I digress.
However, Silver Efex also has ‘presets’ where they make global changes to the image BEFORE you choose a film emulation (which you do not have to do). These presets affect three factors: Brightness, Contrast, and Structure. I would guess readers of this blog don’t need definitions of Brightness or Contrast, and I think the definition of Structure might be ‘micro-contrast’ or ‘local contrast.’ Anyhoo, the presets emulate things like ‘pushing one stop’ or ‘pulling’ the film, and I really like those presets as a starting place. I generally run through most of my favorite presets (two of which are ‘pull one stop’ and ‘underexpose one stop, which give quite different results). For those not film-savvy, ‘pulling’ a film means to rate the film at a slower ISO then expose normally at that ISO, which increases the detail in the shadows, and then compensate for that ‘over exposure’ by changes in development so the highlights don’t blow out. You get increased shadow detail but less contrast. The image looks softer.
Under exposing means what you’d think, it is like exposing the frame at EV -1. You would develop normally, but the negative would be thiner with deeper shadows.
The other setting it has is a vignette that, unlike a similar tool in Lightroom, allows you to choose the center of the vignette.
I used both a Nik preset on this image, along with a de-centered vignette, and then used a brush in Lightroom to increase the contrast and clarity on the swirl.
Slight Thaw with HP5
MacConnell's Mill, Pa, 2009
No, I wish this shot was taken this February, but it was taken last February on our first visit to MacConnell’s Mill about 35 minutes north of us. Today we received another four inches or so; this winter in Pittsburgh is now officially about to crack into 4th place on the all-time list for most snow in a winter since they’ve been keeping records.
The bright spot today was discovered as I scanned a roll of HP5 that clearly I had exposed last February on a trip back from Mesa. On the same roll were many wonderful images of the woods in winter on a cloudy day such as the one above. Nice tones and detail, exposed with my Ftb and 35mm f/2 FD lens, a lens whose virtues I have extolled in the past. Also on that roll were shots from a trip to Saguaro National Park, so pretty obviously I went there right after I returned to Arizona.
Developed in Rodinal, Mr. Paul
Dance Flick
Mill Ave, April 2009
So, on that last walk-about on Mill in April, still aiming for images and a concept for the SoFoBoMo 2009 book, I thought I had struck gold. A motion picture, about to make its debut called “Dance Flick,” had set up a group of street dancers on Mill that evening, trying to drum up interest. I approached their handler, gave her my business card, and asked her permission to take some pictures. As her job was to promote the film, she was overjoyed, because the PR firm hadn’t provided a photographer and thought I could actually help her out a little. She laughed and said “take all you want, but send me some JPEGs and maybe I’ll use some.”
I shot about a roll-and-a-half, and since I wasn’t trying to be invisible, I could get as close as I wanted. As I worked, all I thought about was how, if these images were good, I could, in theory, have the whole book right here. In addition, I might get them out ‘there’ (wherever ‘there might be). The conditions were ideal, they were on the shadow side of the street, I had another roll in my pocket, I had their permission. I might have a real opportunity on many levels, thought I.
They took a break, I put the rolls in my pocket, thanked their handler and the dancers. But then fate intervened, I didn’t develop the roll until last week, the film pretty much disappeared, and I moved away from the Tempe area to come home.
Two more rolls shot that evening to scan.
Me out of Focus
This is kind of a funny image, taken the same evening as the previous street image. As I was wandering Mill Ave that night, a guy sitting at a restaurant on the street called out to me and said “Hey, instead of you taking my picture, how about I take yours?” I was a little nervous just handing over the camera to this guy (as you can see, there was this little matter of the fence separating him and his buddies from me). I also figured he’d never handled a manual SLR in his life, so the odds of it coming out were slim. After the waitress had served them some drinks and witnessed the discussion, I figured if I had any trouble with the guy, I could come back and the waitress would back up my story. And, last but not least, if I humored this guy, maybe some of his buddies would allow me to capture them. I handed over the camera and smiled.
I stood there, he clicked, and then I got distracted by something else, wandered off, and by the time I returned, they had left. At least there is this record of me, in my Tempe street-shooting garb, wrist strap on, in need of a haircut, slightly out-of-focus, in April 2009.
Back on the Street
HP5, ISO 1600, Microphen
I developed three rolls I captured last April when I was working on the SoFoMoBo book (you know, the one I never finished). I was trying to find the ideal film/ISO speed combo, and these three rolls I exposed at ISO 1600,pushing the HP5 (as opposed to ‘pulling’ the Delta 3200 to 1600 — I have two of those rolls to develop yet). Then my plan was to compare the two methods, choose one, and then shoot the book.
Stuff at work happened, and I never finished. Since then, a few people have recommended Fuji Neopan 1600 as a good alternative in this arena.
I bought some Microphen to develop those rolls, and finally got around to mixing it and doing the work.
Result? Lots of grain (I certainly wouldn’t want to print these bigger than 8 x 10), a very ‘gritty’ look, but not too bad. I’ll post a few more images from these rolls in the next few days as I scan them.
Oh, the lens flare was an accident.
I heart Ken Burns
Grand Canyon August 2008
I’m a fan of Ken Burns’ documentaries. While I already knew of Shelby Foote and had read his Civil War Trilogy years prior to seeing Burns’ Civil War Documentary (and had indeed walked the battlefields of Gettysburg and Antietam without prompting from Mr. Burns), Burns’ work has influenced me a great deal, especially in the ways I think about the United States and its history and its people. Part of the reason why has to do with the fact that basically I’m a mush. I cry at movies quite often, have been known to walk the streets until the wee hours of the morning just to enjoy the afterglow of a particularly moving performance by a talented actor (Lynn Redgrave’s performance of Joan of Arc at the Circle in the Square being but the first one that comes to mind), and am proud of the fact that these emotions are so easily triggered by artistic endeavors. Burns’ work, at its best, aims squarely at trying to elicit exactly this kind of emotion, to imbue in topics that are sometimes treated too dryly a bit of soul and emotion, and I respond in kind. He makes me think and feel.
Over the past week, Peg and I Netflixed Burns’ National Parks DVD series. I had not been a particular fan of our National Parks. While battlefields such as I mentioned above are now administered by our National Parks system, and so I have enjoyed what the service takes care of (Peg and I visited Gettysburg just last weekend and I clambered around Devil’s Den once again) I didn’t do what many of my generation did as I kid and tour Yellowstone or Glacial National Park or any of those places. I think the first time I ever really became aware of Yosemite was when I looked at Ansel’s images or read one of Galen Rowell’s books. Yeah, yeah, national parks, Old Faithful, whatever. I sorta took them for granted.
No longer.
The six-part documentary left me yearning to visit Yosemite, wishing I had spent more time at the Grand Canyon when I was there, and scheming how I could finagle a visit to Bryce, Zion, et al. Yes, even Yellowstone. But, most especially, above all else, Yosemite. And, of course, take my tripod and camera.
Burns’ work once again had my heart in my throat and affected the way I look at things I had heretofore taken for granted. Thank you, Mr. Burns.
