Sean Duggan Blog

Owls Head Lighthouse, No. 1

Owls Head LIghthouse, No. 1, [pinhole photograph]
July 1, 2006  Maine
(click in the image for a larger version)

Photographed on medium format black and white film with a Pin-Holga camera (a regular Holga camera that I modified into a pinhole camera). Color tinting was added in Adobe Photoshop CS2.

This is another image from the same roll as the previous several pinhole shots. I had great luck with that roll...it was the only pinhole film I photographed with that camera all summer long and out of 12 frames, I have 7 that I like.

Another composition of this same subject is coming in the next post.

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Featured Workshop:

Real World Digital Photography II
at the Maine Photographic Workshops
Sept 24 – 30, 2006

Late September is a beautiful time of year to be on the coast of Maine. Come and spend a week by the ocean for a workshop on advanced techniques for both using your digital SLR and working with your images in Photoshop. This workshop is already filling up so if you're interested in participating, sign up soon (click the link above for a more detailed description and registration information).

It Came From the Sea

It Came From the Sea [Pinhole Photograph]
Maine, July 1, 2006
(click in the image for a larger version)

Photographed on medium format black and white film with a Pin-Holga camera (a regular Holga camera that I modified into a pinhole camera). Color tinting was added in Adobe Photoshop CS2.

I found this heavy rubber glove half buried in sand and seaweed and placed it on the rock for the photograph. I was quite pleased with it as a subject and I really like how this image turned out. When I left this location (driven away by the failing light and an invasion of ferocious mosquitos), I took the glove with me and left it in a garbage bin so that it's days of being ugly trash on the beach (however poetic or symbolic) were ended.

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Featured Workshop:

Real World Digital Photography II
at the Maine Photographic Workshops
Sept 24 – 30, 2006

Late September is a beautiful time of year to be on the coast of Maine. Come and spend a week by the ocean for a workshop on advanced techniques for both using your digital SLR and working with your images in Photoshop. This workshop is already filling up so if you're interested in participating, sign up soon (click the link above for a more detailed description and registration information).

Maine Coast, No. 2

Maine Coast, No. 2 [Pinhole Photograph]
July 1, 2006
(click in the image for a larger version)

Photographed on medium format black and white film with a Pin-Holga camera (a regular Holga camera that I modified into a pinhole camera). Color tinting was added in Adobe Photoshop CS2.

-------------------------------------
Featured Workshop:

Real World Digital Photography II
at the Maine Photographic Workshops
Sept 24 – 30, 2006

Late September is a beautiful time of year to be on the coast of Maine. Come and spend a week by the ocean for a workshop on advanced techniques for both using your digital SLR and working with your images in Photoshop. This workshop is already filling up so if you're interested in participating, sign up soon (click the link above for a more detailed description and registration information).

Where the Sea Comes In

Where the Sea Comes In [Pinhole Photograph]
July 1, 2006
(click in the image for a larger version)

Photographed on medium format black and white film with a Pin-Holga camera (a regular Holga camera that I modified into a pinhole camera). Color tinting was added in Adobe Photoshop CS2.

A version of this same scene, photographed with a digital SLR, was posted on July 4th. When I was taking the photos, in my head I was really considering this to be more of a pinhole image and now that I have seen and worked with both, I find that my original instincts were correct. I prefer this version to the other one.

-------------------------------------
Featured Workshop:

Real World Digital Photography II
at the Maine Photographic Workshops
Sept 24 – 30, 2006

Late September is a beautiful time of year to be on the coast of Maine. Come and spend a week by the ocean for a workshop on advanced techniques for both using your digital SLR and working with your images in Photoshop. This workshop is already filling up so if you're interested in participating, sign up soon (click the link above for a more detailed description and registration information).

Maine Coast, No. 1

Maine Coast, No. 1 [pinhole photograph]
July 1, 2006
(click in the image for a larger version)

Photographed on medium format black and white film with a Pin-Holga camera (a regular Holga camera that I modified into a pinhole camera). Color tinting was added in Adobe Photoshop CS2.

I had great luck with this roll from my trusty Pin-Holga. It's the only pinhole roll I shot in that camera all summer long and out of 12 frames, I have 7 that I like. Stay tuned in the days ahead, as I will be posting all of them here in the coming week.

Of course, the coast of Maine is a veritable photographer's paradise, so I had no shortage of interesting scenes and subjects to interpret with my camera. And, speaking of Maine, if you're interested in exploring this area in a photo workshop setting, then consider my
Real World Digital Photography II class at the Maine Photographic Workshops, Sept 24 – 30, 2006.

Late September is a beautiful time of year to be on the coast of Maine. Come and spend a week by the ocean for a workshop on advanced techniques for both using your digital SLR and working with your images in Photoshop. This workshop is already filling up so if you're interested in participating, sign up soon (click the link above for a more detailed description and registration information).

The Black Case

The Black Case [d-SLR]
(click in the image for a a larger version)

From the same photo session as the previous image: 4 seconds at f/16 with a 3-stop solid Neutral Density filter.

River of Words

River of Words [d-SLR]
(click in the image for a larger version)

I made this photograph last week near the river not far from my house. I had been envisioning this shot for several months and it felt good to actually go out and work with the idea. The actual reason for going out at 7am (had to be there before the sun got too high and ruined the wonderful even light in the river canyon) was to run the first roll of film through my new ZeroImage 6x9 pinhole camera. Stay tuned for those test shots in the near future.

**NOTE: The typewriter did not survive the process of resizing to web dimensions and sharpening as well as I would have liked. It is nice and sharp, however,  in the original 36mb Canon 5D file. (And yes, I really did lug the typewriter down to the river for these shots. No Photoshop compositing here). I used a 3-stop solid Neutral Density filter and an aperturte of f/16 to slow the shutter speed down to 2.5 seconds to create the blur in the rushing water.

Hot Off the Presses...

I recieved my advance copies of the new Photoshop Artistry book yesterday and they look great. I have co-authored sections of this book since the edition for Photoshop 5.5; this is the 5th version that I have worked on. For this, the 8th edition of the book, we used an entirely new,  roomier layout and design that is much easier to read than previous editions. We also rewrote much of the book with all new examples and tutorial chapters, and focused the content much closer to what photographers want and need to know. The book comes with a DVD containing the tutorial images used in the chapters, Photoshop Actions and other goodies. Here's a link if you're interested in ordering the book from Amazon.com.

-------------------------------------
Featured Workshop:

Real World Digital Photography II
at the Maine Photographic Workshops
Sept 24 – 30, 2006

Late September is a beautiful time of year to be on the coast of Maine. Come and spend a week by the ocean for a workshop on advanced techniques for both using your digital SLR and working with your images in Photoshop. This workshop is already filling up so if you're interested in participating, sign up soon (click the link above for a more detailed description and registration information).

Lighthouse and Thistles

Lighthouse and Thistles  [d-SLR]
Pigeon Point, California -- July 18, 2006
(click in the image for a larger version)

Evidence...

...of new life on the day my father died
July 27, 2006  [d-SLR]
(click in the image for a larger version)

When photography is an integral part of your life, as it is in my life, you make images all the time. On "normal" days (whatever that means), happy days and sad days. Not every image you make may be "good" or significant, but the act of looking through the viewfinder and seeing becomes a process that is part of the fabric of who you are. This is certainly the case with me. I make images to see and remember the world around me, and also to better understand myself. Some of my images are "finished" the moment my finger presses the shutter button, while others are more like the notes that a writer might make; upon revisiting those visual notes, they might become something more, a finished image or even a part of a series, or they may remain as stray notations of things seen and moments recorded.

This photograph shows an engine vent under the wing of a vintage DC-3 airplane. I had seen this old, slightly decrepit plane parked by the side of a hangar next to the freeway in California's dry central valley several times in the past two months as I drove back and forth to my brother's house to help care for my father, who was slowly dying of cancer. Every time I drove by I made a mental note of the location in the hope that I would be able to find the time to stop and photograph it one day. But there was never any time; I was always rushing back and forth between my house and my brother's house, or airports or other workshop locations where I was teaching.

I finally found the time to photograph it one afternoon in late July. My father had died early that morning in the still hours of the night, a blessfully peaceful and quiet passing that was a profound experience to witness. On my drive home that hot summer afternoon, I stopped here to lose myself in the camera and the viewfinder, sorrow pushed aside for a short while in the act of seeing and making images, that familiar ritual that is so much a part of my life. And there under the wing, in the vent of one of the engines of the old plane, I found this bird's nest with five little eggs.  On any day, it would have been a beautiful thing to find, but on that day, when I had watched my father take his last breath not 12 hours before, it was an especially welcome and poignant sight.