SEEING THE POSITIVE OF THE NEGATIVE

A Negative View of a Retired Railcar, c. 1995

I took this photo with my four by five sometime around 1995 at the Western Railway Museum near Fairfield. I always enjoyed looking at my negatives, and this is the view that I had while I was making prints in my enlarger. I became adapt at making judgements as to how the image would look as a positive after the processing.

If you look closely you can see the black dot of the setting sun in the left edge of the photo.

WORKING WITH PEOPLE

Five Ladies Waiting Black and White, Arcata, 2012

I have several variations of this image, and I am trying to figure out which one has the most impact. On top of that, I want to know how each variation creates or fuels its unique impact. So for today, I will compare the color image with the black and white.

Waiting for the Solar Eclipse in Color, Arcata, 2012

Products of the Scanner

Safety First, Ely, Nevada, c. 1995

I am still scanning my collection of four-by-five negatives. This is one of them from a trip I made over highway 50 in 1995. 

MORE PRETENDING TO BE A STREET PHOTOGRAPHER

Star Struck, 2012

I like all the elements of this composition. That the subjects are  looking in other directions adds some tension. This photograph just begged to be black and white.

THE LINE BECOMES BLURRED

In the Community Forest When Nobody is Looking, 2012

The more that I play with these images - the more I like doing so. To me these have a strange and welcoming mixture of representative values mixed with the abstract. 

PLAYING WITH THE BLUR

My Copycat Attempt at What Rick Gustafson Creates, 2012

This is out-and-out copying Rick's process as best I can. I was out photographing awhile back, and was having to use slow shutter speeds, and I thought to myself, "why not go with the blur". So I made a few attempts, and this was the best of the lot.

PATRICK'S POINT ONE YEAR AGO

My Way of Saying "Good Morning", Patrick's Point, 2012

SHADOWS ON THE WALL

Baggage Cart at Lamy Station, 2010

I worked on two variations of this image, and ultimately settled on this the full-frame image. The camera I used for this image was my all time favorite - my old Sony R1.

I shared my thoughts about that camera a couple of years back. The main issue that I had with it was its extremely slow write speeds. Once I started shooting in the "raw" format, the camera became very slow. I read recently that if one took two images in rapid succession that the buffer would be full, and the camera unusable for about nine seconds. So if I were shooting a landscape in HDR and needing three shots in rapid succession, this camera could not deliver. I tried over and over. What would happen is that the clouds would move so much between the three shots that it became a problem later when I was working to assemble them as an HDR image. Nowadays, there are software solutions to at least part of the problem.

I did not have that problem with this image because it was a single shot, and I had shot it in the raw format so that there is plenty of information available for me to work with. I think this photograph shows that.

CONTINUING WITH CAUTION

Caution at Big Lagoon, March 2012

I oftentimes think that I should come up with something profound to say about the art of an image, and if not, at least say something about the craft involved. This image, like most of my work, was shot in "Raw", processed in Light Room, and presented here. I almost always work in that particular workflow. I often do my spot removal in Photoshop, and I usually save that step until the end of my workflow. I always print from LR.

CAUTION!

Warning Signs and Budding Alders, Big Lagoon, March 2012

This is another photograph that I allowed to "ripen". I always thought that this stand of alder was a good example of what I hoped to capture with my  camera. The issue was always the intruding signs into my scene. I decided to no longer fight the elements of this composition, and to go with what was   already there. 

MORE WWII AIRCRAFT AT THE ACV TOWER

A BT-13 at ACV (I think), c. 1990

This is a scan from a 2.25 by 1.75 negative. I am starting to think that I have the process of using the Epson software somewhat understood. This is a poor copy because of file size limitations for the Blogspot, and because this is a grainy photograph.

I do have numerous photographs of the old WWII buildings at the airport, and I am happy with the knowledge that I can now digitize them.

STILL LEARNING THE SCANNING PROCESS

P 51 Mustang at ACV, c. 1994 (4" by 5" color slide converted to black and white).

Happy New Year! May it be a really good one for you.