Month: January 2010

Live Bait

Posted by Chris Klug – January 24, 2010

HP5, Rodinal

Taken while Kevin Allen and I walked down West 23rd street in September, just before I captured the image of the two women on their cell phones.

I remember distinctly glancing across the street as we walked along the north side of the block and thinking ‘Live Bait, what an odd name,’ framing the shot, clicking the shutter and moving on. After I developed the roll, I kept staring at the image, wondering why it called out to me, if anything, louder after the image had been developed than on the day I grabbed it. Today, as I was working on the image, it hit me.

My first job in the game business in 1980 was at a company called SPI (Simulations Publications, Incorporated), whose original offices were located at 20 East 23rd Street. If you look at the image above, that building is not actually in the frame, but it is just to the left of the frame — you can see 16 East 23rd street right there, however.

I never worked in the 20 E. 23rd Street building, I did work at the next address they inhabited, which was Park Avenue South, about three blocks South of this building. The one year that I worked for them, they held their Christmas party at a bar near their old haunts which was, you guessed it, at a bar called ‘Live Bait.’ That’s why I knew that building so well, we used to hang out at this bar and drink quite a bit of Jameson’s.

New York, for me, is like that. Having worked there for eight years in the game business, and having done off-broadway theater there for years prior to that, there probably aren’t many restaurants or bars south of 23rd street I haven’t been in at least once, whether I remember them or not

Somehow, to me, having a company Christmas party as a bar called Live Bait is something that could only happen in NYC. Not quite the same as Mesa or Gilbert Arizona, where the last company I worked for wouldn’t have considered dumping their garbage in a place that looked or felt like this place did (does). But for those of us who worked at SPI, there couldn’t have been a better place to celebrate that holiday.

Glad I snapped this one, for sure.

Pathways

Posted by Chris Klug – January 23, 2010

5D and Silver Efex yet again

Earl on his blog talked about how he captures images of pathways. That comment really resonated with me as I tend to do the same; I know for me it’s because I am fascinated with the road we walk. How I got here, which direction I am walking; where I am going. It’s not a strength so much, as I think that distracts me from being ‘here now.’ But, especially after Earl made his comment, I understood how much that fascinates me as well.

This is important insofar as I endeavor over time to find my ‘style’ or ‘voice’ as a photographer. Maybe (laugh) it’s capturing images of breakfast condiments, and maybe it’s roads/pathways. I don’t know, but I am aware that discovering that is one of my goals.

I have desired to do a blurb book, and it seems like I ought to gather together my pathways images into one volume and see how that feels.

Regarding the image above, I continue to be very happy with the 5D + Nik Silver Efex combo. This image was in a place near Seattle called Carkeek Park. There was a sign near this stream that the Salmon had returned here, and visitors were warned to take care not to disturb them (by doing things like throwing stones in the water as that might dislodge the eggs, etc.). This really caught my attention because I had no idea that Salmon would spawn in creeks this small and shallow, but there you go.

One last quick note: the replacement 645e arrived today from KEH, and so I’ll be heading out later today to see what’s up. I hope it works, I really do.

Tonality in Bothell

Posted by Chris Klug – January 22, 2010

5D & Silver Efex

This week I’ve been on a business trip in Ray Country visiting Microsoft. Looks like I might be coming back here again a couple times later this year. Got out today to do some capturing of images and liked the tones in this little still-life. Post more after I return tomorrow. I really like the Pacific Northwest.

This image above deserves some explanation. I have about a dozen of these images in my collection, from restaurants all over the UA. Every time I see this setup (table, sugars, creams, condiments) I want to shoot it. Don’t know, but I do. Today, as I was doing the b&w conversion in Silver Efex, I may have stumbled on some of the why. There is a nice little operetta of tones in the image. Partially, at least, I think it’s the balance of tones that attracts me.

Maybe I should just embrace this little quirk and do a book with these images. Then, perhaps, I could move on.

Like this . . .

Posted by Chris Klug – January 18, 2010

Canon FTb, HP5

For a change of pace, an image on film shot from a trip to NYC in September, 2009.

Also, came across this gent on APUG, went to look at his work. Wow.

http://www.jonshiu.com/

Now, that’s a target to aim at (for me, anyway).

Going to Seattle on a business trip tomorrow, we’ll see what I get there. Maybe I’ll see Ray.

One Year Later

Posted by Chris Klug – January 17, 2010

It's a little bit weird, I admit

One year ago I began blogging. One year and 176 posts later, this is where I am.

Thanks to all the friends I’ve made and the people who have posted as well as the people who lurk.

Whether my images are good or bad or in-between, I hope at least I’m not boring.

And yeah, for the pixel peepers, this image  contains noise in the shadows I couldn’t get rid of. But there’s something about this image for me I just had to post it.

Enjoy

Gesture Revisited

Posted by Chris Klug – January 16, 2010

5D and Nik Silver Efex

One of my favorite photographic pastimes is to read posts on APUG and, well, learn more about my craft. For anyone interested in film photography (heck, interested in ANY KIND of photography) the discussions there are amazingly illuminating. Sometimes I even have been known to participate (grin). But I think there is hardly any area of my photographic journey that hasn’t benefitted from my time spent there.

Here we had a discussion a few posts back where I talked about Jay Meisel’s use of the word ‘gesture’ when talking about photography. Ray, who, in case anyone didn’t know, is a very accomplished sculptor (sorry for calling you out, my friend) and has a strong background in the fine arts, mentioned that since Jay comes out of that training, the word made sense.

This morning, while enjoying a rare day of sunshine and balmy temperatures here in Western PA (it might actually hit 50 today) I was reading this post about the intersection of drawing and photography, and how learning to draw a little can make your photography better (hey, Paul L, there’s yet another activity you can pick up! — grin). There, right smack dab in the middle of the discussion, was a post by a photographer who had a background in the arts. The poster’s forum name is ‘bowzart’ and he says:

Your exploring drawing/painting can be nothing but really good, as far as I’m concerned. Nowhere near enough photographers have the spirit to do that, and I think they don’t know what they are missing. There is an added dimension that comes of working with the hands in service to the eye. Photographers can become rather parochial; it often does not serve them well. Experience in other media tends to open the mind; the world gets bigger.

If I can suggest one thing, it would be drawing from the figure in a managed drawing group using models and varied timed poses. Short poses (you use a lot of newsprint fast) help train the eye to discern the important formal/gestural elements quickly. The longer ones enable one to develop a vision that perceives how forms work together and acquire a more subtle understanding of the relationship of surface and form, as well as detail.

The italics and boldface are mine, btw. This gent was trained in drawing/painting and also taught photography on the university level. Needless to say, I really agree with this thought. I think if there is any single area of photography that fascinates me, it would be this connection of photography and drawing, which, while I was in school, I never considered. I viewed them as two separate areas. Very short-sighted of me.

On my last trip, I had dinner with a friend while in SF and mentioned this to him. He is an accomplished filmmaker and worked for a while with David Lynch. When I off-handedly mentioned this connection to him as an area of interest to me, he kinda dismissed its importance (mind, he is a BIG fan of b&w photography and has asked me, when I visit again, to take portraits of his family, which, given his eye, was a great compliment). I was kind of stunned that he wouldn’t see/appreciate that connection, so stunned in fact that when the conversation moved on, I didn’t pursue the topic because I wanted to think this through before I went back to the topic. I still wonder why he hadn’t considered this.

BTW, I am proceeding in my exploration of the DeWolfe book, and some of my b&w images of late have ben consciously trying to apply some of this thought processes. The image above was worked with DeWolfe’s suggestions in mind. Any failures in the image are my, of course.

A little color

Posted by Chris Klug – January 16, 2010

a change of pace

I’ve been posting a lot of black and white, which I love, but I knew I was heading towards this image. At the end of the day last Saturday, Colin and I ended up on the beach at Pacific Grove, capturing the sunset. There are a few images I like from this shoot, but this is one of my favorites, owing to the soft color.

Morning Ice

Posted by Chris Klug – January 15, 2010

Ice.jpg

With all the snow here (we’ve had 17 straight days where we’ve gotten at least a little snow) the house has long elegant icicles hanging from the roof. The forecast was that we would start to get warming temperatures, so I wanted to capture the look of some of them in the morning light before they disappeared.

Weston Beach

Posted by Chris Klug – January 14, 2010

Sea, spray, fog, clouds

Further north, Colin and I came across Weston Beach. I’m assuming it’s THAT Weston. At least, I think this was Weston beach. Regardless, I could have stayed here the whole day. There were so many different textures and tones. If I go back, I’m just going to park right near this beach and capture all day long. However, as I reviewed the images from this stop, I was a little disappointed. My memory is that I exposed more images here than I have on my card, and I remember getting closer to things than the images I captured. But, especially here, I was also shooting Acros 100 with my FTb quite a bit, so maybe those images are on film, not on the card.

We’ll see.

Hidden Cove

Posted by Chris Klug – January 13, 2010

A little bit further up the coast from that ‘first’ image, Colin and I wandered down to a place called ‘Hidden Cove.’ I set up on the left-hand side of this beach and tried to work with this wonderful rock. The weird thing (to me) about this beach were the stones. Having grown up at the Jersey Shore, I know of two kinds of beach: a) sand and b) rock. Both of those kinds of beach stay under your feet when you stand someplace. This beach was thousands of small pebbles. Wet, slimy pebbles that, when you stepped someplace, acted a lot like soft sand and squished out from under your foot. But, being bigger than bits of sand, the MOVED a lot more. Footing was almost slippery, and the going was much harder than I had anticipated. I’m not a slight, small guy, so I kinda trudged (swam?) along to set up the tripod. And, when the tide started to, um, come IN a little, I packed up and Colin and I moved on.