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Newsletter
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Upcoming Workshops
My next major workshop takes place in mid-August along the New England coast at the world renown Maine Photographic Workshops. Real World Digital Photography I is the perfect class if you want to get a jump start on truly understanding the controls on your digital SLR, learning good exposure technique, shooting in raw, special exposure situations and making the most of your exposures back in the digital darkroom using Lightroom and Photoshop CS3. Click the class title to learn more about this class. A second level version of this class will be offered at the Maine Photographic Workshops Oct 5-11.
I checked the enrollment for the August RWDP 1 class yesterday and it already has several people signed up, which is a good sign this early on. So, if you're interested in taking this class, don't wait until the last minute to sign up!
Also coming up this September in northern California:
Creative Camera Raw
Sept 20, 21 Berkeley, California
Secrets of the Mask: Selections & Masking in Photoshop CS3
Sept. 26, 27 Santa Cruz, California
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Upcoming Workshops
My next major workshop takes place in mid-August along the New England coast at the world renown Maine Photographic Workshops. Real World Digital Photography I is the perfect class if you want to get a jump start on truly understanding the controls on your digital SLR, learning good exposure technique, shooting in raw, special exposure situations and making the most of your exposures back in the digital darkroom using Lightroom and Photoshop CS3. Click the class title to learn more about this class. A second level version of this class will be offered at the Maine Photographic Workshops Oct 5-11.
I checked the enrollment for the August RWDP 1 class yesterday and it already has several people signed up, which is a good sign this early on. So, if you're interested in taking this class, don't wait until the last minute to sign up!
Also coming up this September in northern California:
Creative Camera Raw
Sept 20, 21 Berkeley, California
Secrets of the Mask: Selections & Masking in Photoshop CS3
Sept. 26, 27 Santa Cruz, California
Waikiki 19 [ZeroImage Pinhole Camera]
Honolulu, Hawai'i April 16, 2008
(click in the image for a larger version)
Last year I traded some expired film with photographer Brett Harrington. Although most of my images are created with a digital SLR, I still use medium format film in a variety of pinhole cameras, as well as plastic "toy cameras" such as the Diana and the Holga.
So, I sent Brett three rolls of medium format black and white infrared film that had expired in the early 1990s and he sent me three rolls of medium format Kodacolor II that had expired in early 1983, making them 25 years out of date!
I hung onto these three rolls for over a year. Most of the time they stayed in my film cabinet, but they also accompanied me on trips to Hawaii, Maine (twice), New Mexico, San Francisco, and other locations in California. It was not until a second trip to Hawaii a month ago, however, that I finally used the film. I chose to expose it in my ZeroImage pinhole camera since that wonderfully low-tech, low-fidelity method of image making seemed a good fit for film that was a quarter century past its sell by date. When film is long expired, it tends to "slow" down quite a bit, meaning it loses some of its sensitivity to light. Plus, I had no idea how it had been stored during the passing years. To compensate for this expected loss in sensitivity, I rated the normally 100 ISO film at 25. This loss of film speed was another factor that made me shoot the rolls in Hawaii: lots of bright daylight. But even with plenty of light, my shortest exposure times in the bright sun were still 30 seconds. Under overcast skies, or for images of darker subjects, the exposure times stretched out to 45 seconds to over a minute.
There was a 1-hour photo lab a couple of blocks from the beach, so I was able to shoot one roll and then inspect the negatives to see how my exposure calculations were faring. I was pleased to see that they were right on and I was getting good density in the negs. This freed me up to use the remaining two rolls with confidence that my exposure times were good. Given the dominance of digital in the consumer photography market today, I was somewhat surprised to find that 1-hour lab, but I'm glad it was there!
Over the course of three days I shot the three rolls of 25 year old film on and around Waikiki Beach and I've been very pleased with the results. As you can see from the image above, the "ancient" film yielded very good photographs. The shots taken in the shade or under overcast skies had a distinct cyan/blue color cast, but the ones taken in full, bright sunlight required remarkably little in the way of Photoshop color correction. And there are some images where the slight color cast is actually an interesting part of the photo. I will be posting a few of the shots here in the next several days and the entire short series of about twenty images will appear in the Galleries section of my web site sometime time in the next few weeks.
Now, these images may raise the question of why I shoot with pinhole cameras, or why I would even waste my time on long expired film that many people would just toss out. Both fair questions, which I will address here in the near future. But the (very) short answer is...the Possibilities.
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Upcoming Workshops
My next major workshop takes place in mid-August along the New England coast at the world renown Maine Photographic Workshops. Real World Digital Photography I is the perfect class if you want to get a jump start on truly understanding the controls on your digital SLR, learning good exposure technique, shooting in raw, special exposure situations and making the most of your exposures back in the digital darkroom using Lightroom and Photoshop CS3. Click the class title to learn more about this class. A second level version of this class will be offered at the Maine Photographic Workshops Oct 5-11.
Also coming up this September in northern California:
Creative Camera Raw
Sept 20, 21 Berkeley, California
Secrets of the Mask: Selections & Masking in Photoshop CS3
Sept. 26, 27 Santa Cruz, California
Graffiti Banyan Mirror [Canon 5D]
Honolulu, Hawai'i April 17, 2008
(click in the image to see a larger version)
Today's source image is the same as the previous post: the Graffiti Banyan tree in Honolulu. I cropped it slightly and then created a mirror image.
In the next issue of my newsletter, Creative Digital Darkroom News (due out towards the end of May), I will include a more detailed tutorial on creating image mirrors, as well as thoughts on the kindling they can provide for your creative kiln, so be sure to subscribe if you want to receive that. You can either use the form in the left column, or click on the newsletter title.
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Workshop News
My next major workshop takes place in mid-August along the New England coast at the world renown Maine Photographic Workshops. Real World Digital Photography I is the perfect class if you want to get a jump start on truly understanding the controls on your digital SLR, learning good exposure technique, shooting in raw, special exposure situations and making the most of your exposures back in the digital darkroom using Lightroom and Photoshop CS3. Click the class title to learn more about this class. A second level version of this class will be offered at the Maine Photographic Workshops Oct 5-11.
Graffiti Banyan [Canon 5D]
Honolulu, Hawai'i April 17, 2008
(Click in the image for a larger version)
Between the 'Iolani Palace and the Hawai'i State Capitol building are several banyan trees, their expeditionary tendrils trailing down from the upper branches to burrow back into the earth. The tangle creates a visually compelling scene. On closer inspection, you can see graffiti carved into the bark.
This shot was taken using a tripod. After touring the palace I made a special trip back to the car to get it out of the trunk. The shaded late afternoon light was such that I doubted the ability to get a sharp shot hand holding the camera, especially since I wanted to use a smaller aperture. The conversion to black and white and the slight sepia tone were handled in Lightroom.
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Workshop News
My next major workshop takes place in mid-August along the New England coast at the world renown Maine Photographic Workshops. Real World Digital Photography I is the perfect class if you want to get a jump start on truly understanding the controls on your digital SLR, learning good exposure technique, shooting in raw, special exposure situations and making the most of your exposures back in the digital darkroom using Lightroom and Photoshop CS3. Click the class title to learn more about this class. A second level version of this class will be offered at the Maine Photographic Workshops Oct 5-11.
Window and Trees [Canon 5D]
Honolulu, Hawai'i
April 17, 2008
(click in the image for a larger version)
Another study in simplicity from Hawai'i, though this one is in the architectural vein, rather than the natural landscape seen in the previous post. This is the post office/federal building in downtown Honolulu. In Lightroom I made minimal adjustments to the contrast, converted to grayscale and added a slight split tone.
Ocean Cliff Abstract [Canon 5D]
Makapu Point, O'ahu, Hawai'i
April 16, 2008
(click in the image for a larger version)
A simple image today. I was intrigued by the ever-changing designs and forms created by the surf at the base of this cliff. The blues in Hawaiian waters are quite irresistible.
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5-Day Creative Collage Workshop
In a month I'll be teaching a 5-day version of my Creative Collage class at the excellent Lepp Institute of Digital Imaging in Los Osos, California June 2 - 6, 2008. The extended time frame of this class allows for more time to explore personal collage projects, not to mention enjoying the beautiful natural surroundings on the coast near Morro Bay. More about this class.
