Sean Duggan Blog

Bayside Boat

Bayside Boat, Bayside, Maine
(click in the image to see a larger version)

Taken on one of the photo excursions our class took for the Real World Digital Photography workshop I am teaching this week.

Cusco Riot Police, #2

Riot Police, Cuzco, Peru [pinhole photograph]

How to Have Interesting Experiences as a Photographer, TIP# 42: Go to a foreign country where you don't speak the language and take pinhole photographs of the riot police on a turbulent day of civil unrest.

Actually, although they eyed me and my tripod-mounted Holga pinhole camera with professional scrutiny, I was not taken into custody and hustled off to a dank interrogation room, there to reveal all manner of pinhole, toy camera and Photoshop secrets.

Later in the day I took a portrait of another group of police and they were quite cooperative and flattered. Hey, I guess that sort of attention is much better than the threat of being pelted with rocks and pieces of concrete (which did take place in other parts of the city that day).

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I am off to New England this morning to teach a week long class at the Maine Photographic Workshops. Sunday will be a blogging day off and new posts will resume on Monday or Tuesday.

Circle of Rocks

Circle of Rocks, Bridgeport, California [pinhole photograph]

Another scene from the same river location as the previous post.

Covered Bridge

Covered Bridge, Bridgeport, California [pinhole photograph]

Here's an image from my pinhole river series. This was taken on the only river day I managed to fit in during my crazy summer travel schedule. The river in question is the South Fork of the Yuba in Nevada County. The camera was my modified Holga pinhole and the exposure time was about 12 seconds (it was getting late in the afternoon). The tripod was in the water for this shot. Selective sepia and blue toning have been applied in Photoshop CS2.

This is one of only 10 covered bridges left in California. It was built in 1862 and it is the longest single span wooden covered bridge in the United States (251 feet). You can read more about it here.

26 Rolls

26 Rolls

Here's an image showing what's on my scanning dance card for the next three or four months: 10 rolls from Santa Fe, New Mexico and 16 rolls from Germany. Mostly Holga, but also a few pinhole rolls.

I will also be reviewing the 15 rolls from Peru taken in early July and some of my earlier Holga negs from 1995 to 1999 when I first began using that camera.

A full plate of imaging activities for the cold winter months.

In light of the name of this photo blog, I will also note that the aperture on this image was the celebrated f/1.4

Lions in the Sandbox

Lions in the Sandbox, Frankfurt, Germany
(click in the image to see a larger version)

Zeppelin Museum

Hindenburg Reconstruction, Zeppelin Museum, Friedrichshafen, Germany
(click in the image to see a larger version)

Continuing with the Zeppelin theme from the previous two posts, this image is from the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen, Germany. It shows a reconstruction of a 108 foot section of the legendary LZ 129, better known to the world as the ill-fated "Hindenburg" that erupted in a spectacular fireball as it was approaching the mooring mast at Lakehurst, New Jersey on May 3,1937. The mysterious destruction of the largest airship ever built in less than a minute abruptly ended the commercial development of this technology as trans-Atlantic passenger transport (though they were still used by the U.S for military purposes for another 25 years; the final flight of a U.S. Navy Airship took place at Lakehurst in August of 1962).

The reconstruction at the museum in Friedrichshafen is very well done and includes an interior section that you enter just as you would if you had been a passenger on the "Hindenburg", through a metal staircase leading up into the promenade deck and passenger cabins. The windows seen in the image above are the observation windows that passengers could look out of (in the exhibit, you can look down on video screens that show views of the ground as filmed from the same vantage point of the actual zeppelin). The reconstruction also includes several passenger cabins and the lounge area. In the background you can see several people in the museum and I have included them to show the scale of the exhibit and also to suggest the scale of the original ship. You can also see a photo at this link which shows the Hindenburg emerging from a hangar at Lakehurst, NJ. The observation windows shown in my photo of the reconstruction can be seen diagonally below the name "Hindenburg" towards the lower center of the zeppelin.

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I am finally back in the States after 5 weeks in Germany. Still recovering from jet lag and catching up on the pile of mail that accumulated while I was away. I have nearly 30 rolls of Holga and Holga pinhole film from Santa Fe and Germany to have processed. The Santa Fe images made in late July are so far back that I can only remember a few of the scenes I actually photographed, so it will be an interesting surprise to finally see the negatives. On top of that are 15 rolls of Holga film that I shot in Peru in early July that I have only barely glanced at.  So, once I get back into a more regular schedule next week, I will be firing up the scanner and beginning to digitize the prodigious number of Holga negs that await me (and posting those pixels to this space, but of course!).

Jumping Off the Dock

Jumping Off the Dock, Kressbronn, Germany

(click in the image for a larger version)

Another lakeside scene from a couple of weeks ago.

Zeppelin and Sailboat

Zeppelin and Sailboat, Lake of Constance, Germany

Another image from earlier in our trip. We were staying near the city of Friedrichshafen, which is the birthplace of the zeppelin. On days with good weather, the Zeppelin NT (for new technology) could often be seen sailing around the lake. In the U.S. we would call this a blimp, but in Germany they are still called zeppelins (after Graf Zeppelin, the German count who was instrumental in their development).

The primary difference between the two (as far as purists are concerned) is that a zeppelin was a dirigible with a rigid metal framework inside the envelope, whereas a blimp does not have a rigid framework. In either case, both can be considered airships. I feel that the terms "Zeppelin" and "Airship" are much more interesting and appropriate, both historically and poetically, than "blimp".

Nymphalidae in Motion

Nymphalidae in Motion; Mylau, Germany

(clickin the image for a larger version)

The same subject as yesterday with the same exposure (f/5 at 1/6th of a second, ISO 400). The difference is that the lens was zoomed towards the subject during the exposure.

This technique is typically not something you do alot, since, as with all such techniques,it can become old and gimicky after a while. A colleague of mine refers to this type of technique as being very "Pop Photo" (as in Popular Photography, the photo magazine). Still, for some subjects,it can create an interesting effect and I was pleased with how it turned out in this instance. I sometimes use this approach, as well as rotating the camera while taking the shot, to deal with interior situations where the light levels are very low and I do not have a tripod or other means to stabilize the camera. I figure if the light is so dim that I cannot expect a decent shot with sharp focus, I might as well have some fun with the situation.