Sean Duggan Blog

Pool Girls

Pool Girls [Canon 5D]
Nov. 22, 2006
(click in the image for a larger version)

For Thanksgiving we spent a few days in California's central valley and stayed with some friends. Their new swimming pool had just been finished and Fiona and Monika decided to check it out before it was filled. It took close to 30 hours to fill up.

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NEWS FLASH!  The Holgavision 2007 wall calendar (see link on the upper left side) is currently on sale at CafePress for only $14.39 (normally $17.99). This sale runs through 11:59pm (PST) on Dec. 3rd. Such a deal!

Three Windows

Three Windows [Holga]
July 27, 2006
(click in the image for a larger version)

The last photo from the DC-3 series. I am considering using three of these as a triptych, but am still deciding on which three to use.

Tail

Tail [Holga]
July 27, 2006
(Click in the image for a larger version)

This is an old DC-3 along Highway 99 in California's central valley. Judging by its appearence, it hasn't been aloft in many years. A final image of this plane will be posted tomorrow.

If you’re interested in Holga and toy camera photography there’s a new book out called Plastic Cameras: Toying with Creativity by Michelle Bates. It provides a good overview of working with these often eccentric cameras, as well as including a wonderful selection of images by many photographers who have been making photographs with toy cameras for the past 30 years.

Tail Wheel

Tail Wheel [Holga]
July 27, 2006
(click in the image for a larger version)

This is an old DC-3 along Highway 99 in California's central valley. Judging by its appearence, it hasn't been aloft in many years. Another image of this plane is coming tomorrow.

Into the Skies

Into the Skies [Holga]
July 27, 2006
(click in the image for a larger version)

This is an old DC-3 along Highway 99 in California's central valley. Judging by its appearence, it hasn't been aloft in many years. Another image of this plane is coming on Monday Nov. 20.

Cockpit

Cockpit [Holga]
July 27, 2006
(click in the image for a larger version)

This is an old DC-3 along Highway 99 in California's central valley. Judging by its appearence, it hasn't been aloft in many years. Another image of this plane is coming tomorrow.

Remove Before Flight

Remove Before Flight [Holga]
July 27, 2006
(click in the image for a larger version)

This is an old DC-3 along Highway 99 in California's central valley. Judging by its appearence, it hasn't been aloft in many years. This is the same plane as in this image that was posted back in early August. The bird's nest in that image was in the vent that you can see just behind the word "Before".

I have a total of six images from this location (it was a very good roll...6 out of 12 were keepers!) that I will set up to post on a daily basis for the next week. All of them were shot on black and white negative film and the irregular sepia toning was added in Photoshop CS2.

If you’re interested in Holga and toy camera photography there’s a new book out called Plastic Cameras: Toying with Creativity by Michelle Bates. It provides a good overview of working with these often eccentric cameras, as well as including a wonderful selection of images by many photographers who have been making photographs with toy cameras for the past 30 years.

Searching for a 6-Leaf Clover

Searching for a 6-Leaf Clover [Canon 5D]
(click in the image for a larger version)

Current bedtime reading for my daughter Fiona is "The Patchwork Girl of Oz". As in many of the Oz books, the central structure of the book is that of a journey and a quest. In this book, one of the specific items that needs to be located (for a magic potion that will free a character from being a marble statue) is a 6-leaf clover. As we were getting the yard cleaned up last week Fiona decided to search for one in the grass.

Backyard Autumn Glory

Backyard Autumn Glory [Canon 5D w/ Lensbaby 2.0]
(click in the image for a larger version)

This photograph is a product of the phenomenon of "Autumn Colors and Light So Beautiful You Just Can't Resist", a common occurrence at this time of the year in places where the trees put on their annual display of fall colors. These two shots were taken in my backyard earlier today. My studio/office window looks out on this and it was just so wondrous in the morning light that I was pulled outside with my camera as if led by a powerful unseen force.

I took some regular shots, but all those intense colors and bright points of light were just begging for a little Lensbaby love. I have found that if you position the Lensbaby (this is version 2.0) just right you can get these wild spherical effects such as these photos have, where the center is spherized and the outer areas are transformed into a "starburst" of blurry goodness. There is a new version of the Lensbaby out, the 3G, that allows you to lock the lens into specific postions so that blur effects can be repeated, but I haven't tried it yet. If you like the beauty of the blur and feel that sharpness is not everything in an image, then you might have fun with a Lensbaby.

Holgavision

The HolgaVision 2007 Calendar

I've been interested in doing a print-on-demand calendar for about a year now but I didn't get my act together in time for last year's prime calendar season. This year I barely made it. Originally I had been planning to do one with some of my pinhole camera photos, but the Holga collection came together much quicker so that one is first out of the gate. I still may do a pinhole calendar if I find the time (which is doubtful).

I am using CafePress to print these and handle all the transaction details. The first Holgavision calendar that I ordered arrived today and I am very pleased with how it came out. In terms of color matching it's pretty good, considering that CafePress didn't have any profiles that I could download and use with the images. I just submitted everything as sRGB, figuring that was the most common target to shoot for. This is really just a project for fun and to test out the print-on-demand waters; I'm not expecting to make much money off of this (any proceeds will go to my Holga film and processing  "superfund").

The one drawback to print-on-demand is that the product is not as cheap as what you can buy in the store (these are listing for $US 17.99), but then again there is no minimum order, no cash up front and no worries about distribution or remainders that never sell. It allows artists a way to offer calendars and other products featuring their artwork that they might not be able to do otherwise. If you're interested in making your own calendar to give away as gifts the base price (what it will cost you) is $14.99. That's not bad, considering all the work it is if you have to make all the prints and assemble it yourself. And if you want to offer them for sale, you determine the markup (i.e., my markup is $3). It doesn't cost you anything to do this at CafePress if you use one of their "basic shops"; it only costs if you want to upgrade to a "premium shop", which allows you more flexibility in terms of the number of products you can sell, the features in your shop, and a more customized appearance. Right now I'm using the freebie basic shop since I only have this one product.