This week Photoshelter’s Photography 2.0 came to San Francisco as part of their City Tour campaign. With the momentum of four previous events, an all-star collection of participating speakers, a well orchestrated video log of previous speakers & panels on the Photoshelter blog and a variety photographers blogging about the event the attendees were primed and ready to experience everything Photoshelter.
Three components of this event were notable… Read more… »
San Francisco summers are known for their fog, but when things clear the view is unrivaled. San Francisco has some amazing landscape and seascapes to take in. The overall terrain of the region is dramatic unto itself, but combined with the variety of weather every day is unique. As warm weather settles into the area, as it has this week, sunsets become quite dramatic. For this particular photo I set up on the northern edge of Ocean Beach to capture this great scene of pelicans and seagulls resting on Seal Rock.
Technorati Tags: seascape, landscape, photo, photography, San Francisco, seal rock
Last night was a beautiful evening here in San Francisco. The sunset was amazing. Driving home I could not pass up photographing the skyline of the city, particularly this view of Pacific Heights, with the amazing lighting that was painting the landscape.
Technorati Tags: Pacific Heights, San Francisco, landscape, cityscape, skyline, sunset, dusk, stock, photo
25
Sep
Posted in Philosophy, Photography by Jim |
One day while driving home I noticed someone rocking out in their car to a song on the radio. This got me thinking about the different ways people react to art that they connect to on a deeper level. Most of us, whether we’d like to admit it or not, at some point in our lives have “rocked out” to a song we really liked. Yet a similar reaction to a photograph would have those around you thinking you’re insane.
While music elicits extroverted physical movement, being moved by a photograph results in a more contemplative absorbed pose and/or perhaps a low-key conversation. An exception might be a raised hand to point a friend or acquaintance to the image being admired. Funny how different senses being fulfilled yield different reactions.
As a photographer having an image resonate with a viewer is the ultimate. Photographers don’t get the opportunity to fill stadiums and hear the roar of the crowd as an image is displayed… yet 
Photography, being a more intimate art form, requires the viewer to internalize that which is being viewed. If a photographer is lucky what he/she has captured will resonate with the viewer and that brief pause or facial expression of awe is all the photographer will see or hear to let him/her know he/she’s impacted the viewer.
It’s an interesting relationship between photographer and viewer, one in which the applause is silent.
Serendipitously I happened to view the Photoshelter blog seconds after various videos of presentations at Photography 2.0 NY were added. I only got a chance to watch Chase Jarvis Turning Frowns Upside Down, but will be back to watch the others. Chase’s presentation was great. I highly recommend viewing it. On the note of Chase… I’ve recently been reading Chase Jarvis’ blog and have found it really inspiring. I have several new ideas that I’ll be incorporating into some of my future work as a direct result of reading his blog. If you haven’t seen the Photoshelter Photography 2.0 NY videos (likely not since they were just posted an hour ago) or Chase’s blog be sure to do so.
Technorati Tags: Photoshelter, Photography 2.0, NY, New York, Chase Jarvis, presentation, video
Earlier in the month I decided it would be a good idea to wake up early to catch the sunrise over San Francisco. I thought it would be fun to take my wife and show her my favorite lookout. She was a little reluctant when I told her about it as we’d have to wake up at 5AM, drive to the trailhead and then start hiking at 5:30AM in the dark. With a little coaxing she decided to join me and for fun we took along our German Shepherd, Zoe. All went to plan in getting to the trailhead, but when she saw I was taking my camera with me she wasn’t too happy. The big variable on our hike was whether the fog would clear for us to see the view once we got to the lookout point. Unfortunately the view of San Francisco was fogged in, but I did get a few photos to commemorate the outing. This was one of my favorites from the morning.
Later in the day I called my best friend to catch up. Discussing our weekend I told him about the hike to watch sunrise with my wife. When I told him how my wife was mildly upset that I was taking my camera on the hike he noted “you’re an idiot!”. I didn’t really think at the time bringing my camera would put a damper on the romantic element of watching the sunrise. Some might say I wasn’t really thinking. Fortunately my wife is quite forgiving and has put up with far worse from me. She’s the best and even if the moment wasn’t as romantic as it could have been, it was still romantic.
Technorati Tags: San Francisco, sunrise, photo, photography, minimalism, romance
23
Sep
Posted in California, Locations, Photography by Jim |
Brian Auer has challenged some of his blog readers to edit one of his photos and the blog project was aptly titled “Edit My Photo“. I thought this was interesting enough that I’d throw my hat in the ring with my very own post-processing interpretation of his image. Below is an animated GIF of his image and my adjustments.
Note: If you want to see the animated GIF repeat refresh the page to get it going again.
Photo by Brian Auer
A summary of steps follows… Read more… »
One of the more interesting things I encountered when first starting out with landscape photography, back in the days of film, was staunch resistance by many photographers to take double exposure photographs. These photographers felt that a photograph should represent the scene as the eye saw it with no manipulation. This type of attitude instantly put photographers in one of two camps, pro-double exposure or anti-double exposure. The times have changed, but the philosophical debate on double exposures has yet to subside. Some might say the debate on double exposures has intensified with the advent of digital photography and the ease of editing images in Photoshop.
Mastering the art of film double exposures was and is quite a challenge. To get a double exposure to work and look proper it required a good amount of vision, memory and technical skill. First you’d compose your image leaving room for the subject of your next exposure, evaluate exposure, set your exposure, take the picture, recompose to your next subject, adjust your exposure and take the picture. For additional exposures you’d repeat this cycle. Some cameras would enable photographers to take very elaborate multiple-exposure shots making the process that much more complex. None-the-less in the eyes of purists double exposure photos were just plain blasphemy.
A good old fashioned film double exposure The ironic thing about purists disregarding double exposures is that the assumption was made that what you get with your camera in the first place is what you might see with your naked eye. Various lenses can introduce a variety of optical distortions. Some might go so far as to then point out that filters don’t exactly keep in line with the purist philosophy as they distort a natural scene. In the end though in-camera manipulation was pretty much limited to double exposures and the use of filters in the days of film.
Enter digital photography and digital editing…
As digital has become more mainstream, more and more scrutiny is given to photographs. Photography viewers are a little wiser to the ways of the world and often don’t take what they’re viewing at face value. Much of this viewer skepticism can be attributed to the expanded use of photo editing applications such as Photoshop. Given that the viewing audience is more skeptical the art of double exposures, although technically easier to accomplish digitally, is far more difficult to get past viewers.
Digital double exposures are quite straight forward. You take two separate photos, extract one element from one photo and add it to another. The challenge comes in scaling and blending the added element. Now that this process is so much easier those employing it face additional scrutiny from purists, moderates, even old school film users and as mentioned photo viewers.
Having started off as a photographic purist I’ve since developed into a pragmatist. Why? As a photographer I’ve come to learn that you should never let yourself become preoccupied or handcuffed by such philosophical debates. Photography is not a clinical occupation, it is an art form. As such knowing when, not just how, to bring more to an image is what will always set apart average photographers from great photographers.
That being said I first strive to capture a scene with out any manipulation and for the most part 98+% of my photos are straight shots. The remaining photos sometimes benefit from a little artistic license such as “Coit Tower at Dusk” being digitally transformed into “Coit Tower Moonrise”. (Note that all elements of this shot were taken with in the span of a few minutes.) As with most things in the world of art how often and to what degree you apply particular techniques is subjective. Each photographer has their own philosophical outlook and comfort zone. For myself a realistic double exposure, digital or film, is as attractive as a straight shot.
Technorati Tags: digital, double exposure, photo, photography
