Sean Duggan Blog

The Perfect Wall

The Perfect Wall  [Holga]
Machu Picchu, Peru  •  July 12, 2005
(click in the image for a larger version)

This appearance of this image here is a result of poking through the archives and cleaning up some image folders. I was searching for another Holga image and found this one instead. The scan had been made over a year ago, but I had never done anything with it. Actually, I found quite a lot of Holga scans that I haven't ever worked with. Too many images, too little time...

If memory serves, this wall is from the same structure (the Temple of the Sun) that was featured in a night shot that I posted here quite some time ago. If you crept out to the edge just beyond the window, you would look down on my camera position for the night image. This wall is famous for having some of the most intricate and perfectly fitted stonework at Machu Picchu...all without any mortar.

If you like this type of Holga/toy camera photography, check out my new calendar for 2008, Scenes from a Plastic Lens. This photograph is included in the calendar.

2008 Holga/Diana Calendar

(click the image for a larger view)  •  Ordering Info / Preview Images

Well, I didn't quite make it for Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving shopping extravaganza, but internet orders peak a couple of weeks later, don't they?

In any case, here is the latest incarnation of my Limited Edition calendar featuring twelve months of vignetted, fuzzy-on-the-edges, plastic lens goodness in the form of selectively sepia toned black & white photographs created with Diana and Holga toy cameras. It's my homage to the joy of cheap cameras and low-tech photography, which is actually a bit ironic since I make my living teaching people and writing about digital photography and making the most of your images in the digital darkroom. Buy hey, a little well-placed irony is always welcome!

Click here for all the details, a link to the order page and larger versions of all of the twelve plastic fantastic photographs.

The Guardhouse

The Guardhouse  [Canon 10D]
Machu Picchu, Peru
July 12, 2005
(click in the image for a larger version)

I was rummaging around in the archive this past weekend and came across this shot from Peru taken a little over two years ago. The couple is consulting a map of the site before heading out to explore the ruins. The trippy lens flare and blur is from shooting into the rays of the early morning sun using a Lensbaby. This was my second visit to Peru and my second time at Machu Picchu. For more Peru images, see the "Peru" link in the Categories section in the right column.

*Upcoming Workshops *

My next workshop will be a 5-day class called  Digital Black and White at the Lepp Institute along the beautiful central California coast February 18-22. Click the link for a course description.

The Road to Bodie

The Road to Bodie [Canon 5D]
September, 2006
(click in the image for a slightly larger version)

For the past eight image posts going back almost a month, I have been showing photos taken in early October at Acadia National Park in Maine. While I still have more from that trip to show, I'll take a break from that location with this post and head to the other side of the country, leaving the rocky Atlantic shore for the mountains of California's eastern Sierras.

This is a photograph I took a little over a year ago as I was driving out from the remote site of the ghost town of Bodie. I was preparing it for use in my upcoming book, The Creative Digital Darkroom (due out in mid December) and thought I would share it here on the blog. The original color version was nothing spectacular due to harsh, mid day lighting that was less than optimal (see below).

By interpreting it in black and white, however, and distilling it down to the basic components of the scene, I arrived at an image that I felt was a good visual metaphor for the concept of the journey, one of the classic themes throughout art and literature.

Have a good Thanksgiving!

*Upcoming Workshops *

My next workshop will be a 5-day class called  Digital Black and White at the Lepp Institute along the beautiful central California coast February 18-22. Click the link for a course description.

Rocky Cove

Rocky Cove  [Canon 5D]
Acadia National Park, Maine
October 2, 2007
(click in the image for a larger view)

This photo was taken at the same rocky cove as the previous image. In fact, the rock at lower right in this photo is the rock as in the previous image. Most of the image adjustments were made to the raw file in Lightroom with some minor fine-tuning in Photoshop.

******** Workshop News *********

I finished up my last workshop of the year this past weekend and now I am looking forward to a month and a half of family time, welcoming the finished printed version of the The Creative Digital Darkroom book (which should be out by Dec. 15-18), and spending some quality creative time with my scanner and my inkjet printer.

My next workshop will be a 5-day class called  Digital Black and White at the Lepp Institute along the beautiful central California coast February 18-22. Click the link for a course description.

Calendar: For those of you who have inquired about a new Holga or Pinhole calendar for 2008, the images have been selected and the calendar should be available by the end of this week (Nov. 25). Info on the new calendar will be posted in the left-hand column.

The Visible Arc of 1.6 Seconds

Arc  [Canon 5D]
Acadia National Park, Maine  October 2, 2007
(click in the image for a larger version)

The last seven posts (including this one) have all been from the span of two days in early October when I visited Acadia National Park. There was a lot to see and be inspired by there and I have only begun to work with my images from that trip (not to mention other trips earlier in the summer). My new book (written with Katrin Eismann), The Creative Digital Darkroom, is in the final prep stages before going to press (the cover you see on the Amazon site is an early mock-up and is not the final cover art). It should be out by mid-December. Once that project is out of the way I am looking forward to some quality time with my image collection.

******** Workshop News *********

This Weekend, November 17 and 18, I'll be teaching a weekend class at UCSC Extension in Cupertino, California called Photoshop for Photographers II: Beyond the Basics. Two days of exploration of some of the most vital techniques for photographers working with Photoshop, including:

• Adobe Camera Raw in depth;
• The power of adjustment layers and layer masks;
• Advanced selection and masking techniques;
• Combining multiple exposures of a scene to control contrast;
• Color correction for "normal" and problem images;
• Advanced black & white techniques;
• High Dynamic Range compositing with Merge to HDR;
• Actions and batch processing;
• Portrait retouching techniques.

There's still some room in this class, so if you're interested, click the name of the class to go to the UCSC Extension site to register for the workshop. The class will be taught in their very nice Macintosh Lab. This is my last workshop of the year.

My next workshop will be a 5-day class called The Creative Digital Darkroom at the Palm Beach Photographic Centre in Delrey Beach, Florida January 7 - 11 (see the Featured Workshop section above in the left column). Following that I'll be speaking and presenting at FOTOfusion, also in Delrey Beach.

If the Black and White image is where your interest lies, I'll be teaching a 5-day class on Digital Black and White at the Lepp Institute in Los Osos, California February 18-22.

Tidal Flow

Tidal Flow  [Canon 5D]
Acadia National Park, Maine
October 3, 2007
(click in the image for a larger version)

A companion image to the one I posted yesterday. In fact, there is even a sliver of overlap on the left edge of this shot with the far right edge of the bridge image. Eight seconds at f/16, ISO 100.

The Sea Flows In

The Sea Flows In  [Canon 5D]
Acadia National Park, Maine
October 3, 2007
(click in the image for a larger version)

This image is the other side of the bridge seen in the previous post. I was amazed at just how fast the ocean was flowing in under the arches and I wanted to make a photograph that would show some of that speed in the moving water (it was not at all apparent when seen from the ocean side of the bridge). This is an 8-second exposure at f/16, ISO 100. I used a solid 5-stop Neutral Density filter to enable such a long shutter speed. I'm also playing around with a black and white version of this, but for now I decided to post the color one since I was so captivated by those greens in the water. Apart from some very minor burning in of a highlight on the water, I haven't done much to this image.

The thick fog on this day produced a wonderful soft light that was a joy to work with...no hard contrast, lush, saturated colors. I could imagine that many park visitors that day were disappointed that there were no sunny blue skies, but I love light like this. Even though the "magic hour" is celebrated for it's so-called "sweet light", shooting under overcast or foggy skies is some of my favorite conditions. As I went back to my car with the tripod over my shoulder, a man who had stopped so his wife could take some snapshots, looked in my direction, gestured to the gray, misty skies in disgust and said, "Well, I guess you really have to want to take pictures of fog!" I smiled and said, "Actually, this is really very good light". He seemed unconvinced.

******** Workshop News *********

Next Weekend, November 17 and 18, I'll be teaching a weekend class at UCSC Extension in Cupertino, California called Photoshop for Photographers: Beyond the Basics. There's still some room in this class, so if you're interested, click the name of the class to go to the UCSC Extension site to register for the class. The class will be taught in their brand new Macintosh Lab.

This weekend (Nov. 10 and 11) I'll be in the same place teaching Photoshop for Photographers: Basics, but there is only two spots left, so if you're interested in that one, you'll have to be fast.

Acadia Bridge

Bridge, Incoming Tide  [Canon 5D]
Acadia National Park, Maine
October 3, 2007
(click in the image for a a larger version)

A 2 second exposure at f/20 in heavy fog. I could have gotten by with a much faster exposure but I wanted to use a slower shutter speed to blur the water. The initial adjustments and the split tone effect were applied in Lightroom. A final dose of partial sepia seasoning was added in Photoshop.

Islands

Islands [Canon 5D]
Acadia National Park, Maine
October 2, 2007
(click in the image for a larger version)

The day after I took this photo I returned to the same location. Fog had cloaked the park all morning long  and I was hoping for some interesting views of the island in the mist but the fog was so thick you could not see any trace of this island from the shore.

**Remember to set your clocks back an hour on Saturday night!**