Sean Duggan Blog

Finding Images in the Familiar

Blue Fountain Ice  [Canon 10D]
December 28, 2003
(click in the image for a larger version)

For this edition of Time Machine Tuesday, we travel back exactly seven years ago today for a simple close-up shot of the frozen fountain in our garden.

One of the great joys of photography is searching for, and finding, images in the spaces that surround us everday. Because we are so familiar with these locations, it's easy to overlook them as places to turn to for photographic inspiration. But sometimes, all it takes is a new frame of mind (or a change in the weather) to see things that transform the familair into the new, the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Although the big photo project in my life for the past several years has involved conceptualizing, pre-visualizing, detailed planning, gathering props, and travel to specifc landscapes, I still enjoy the surprise of finding the unexpected image and I make a point of engaging in regular photo walkabouts in my backyard, or the area immediatly surrounding where I live. It's good exercise for the eyes and the mind's eye.

FOTOfusion in South Florida

In mid January I'll be teaching some hands-on classes and giving a presentation at FOTOfusion, the photography and imaging festival hosted by the Palm Beach Photographic Center. The dates are Jan 11 — 15. Here's a list of my sessions:

• Crafting the Multiple Image Composite
  (3-hour computer lab)  /  Thursday Jan 13,  8:30 – 11:30am
  
  
• Creative Interpretations with Camera Raw  
  (90-minute computer lab)  / Saturday Jan 15  2:30 – 4:00pm
  
  
• Artifacts of an Uncertain Origin
  Lecture/Presentation
  
  

Artifacts of an Uncertain Origin 2011 Calendar

My 2011 calendar featuring 12 new pinhole photographs from the surreal and enigmatic Artifacts of an Uncertain Origin series is now available. Click here to see a preview of all of the images in the calendar or to place an order.

 

Look Beyond the Obvious

Water Fountain [Canon 5D]
Chimayo, New Mexico  April 30, 2009
(click in the image for a larger version)

On the fourth day of the New Mexico Creative Eye class, after spending the first half of the day in the digital lab working on our images, the class took an afternoon trip to Chimayo. This is a town that is famous for it's small church, the Santurario de Chimayo. The church is renowned for the healing properties of the soil at the site.

Though the church itself is very picturesque in the classic Southwestern New Mexico style, as is the small graveyard nearby, the most interesting image I made that day was of a simple water fountain and its shadow on the wall of the church courtyard. This may be due to the fact that I have visited Chimayo several times in the past and was already primed to look beyond the obvious, but it brings to mind something I have noticed about how we relate photographically to the places we visit.

When we travel to scenic and well known locations, a common expectation is that the most significant images we will make there will be of the "main attractions" (for want of a better word). But I have found that images of simple details, or unexpected ordinary scenes, are more likely to be the visually meaningful and significant photographs made at such locations. The key is to be open to this idea and to practice looking beyond the obvious. By all means go ahead and take the shot of The Church. or The Ruins, or whatever happens to be the primary draw of a given location. You'll see more clearly once you have that out of your system and be more open to finding new and different images where you least expect them.

Coming up June 7 — 13 is my Real World Digital Photography 1 Workshop at the Maine Media Workshops. There's still some room in this class. Click the title for more info.

After that I have a Creative Digital Darkoom Workshop in Connecticut (early July), A Real World Digital Photography II class in Maine (early October), and a Photoshop Creative Collage class in southern New Mexico (early November).

Red Curtain

Red Curtain  [Canon 5D]
San Francisco - Jan 15, 2009
(click in the image for a larger version)

I was in San Francisco last week and found this image while enjoying an evening stroll. A shopkeeper was putting up a new window display and making final adjustments to this red curtain. I was intrigued that just her hand was visible, and the bright red paired with the yellow wall in the background made for a pleasing color scheme. This is a good example that night photography can also include tight detail-oriented compositions such as this, as well as those that take in the larger scene. For the technically curious, this was shot using an ISO of 1250 hand held at 1/40th of a second (with an image-stabilized lens).

Best Photo Book of the Year Nominee
My co-author Katrin Eismann and I were honored that our book The Creative Digital Darkroom was included as one of the nominees for Best Photo Book of the Year for 2008 over at The Online Photographer (ours is the 3rd down from the top).

Workshops
My next workshop will be in Sacramento on February 7 & 8th. Other upcoming workshops will be offered in Monterey, California, South Florida, Hawaii, Morro Bay, California and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Check out my workshops page for a full listing of 2009 workshops.

Red Boot

Red Boot  [Canon 5D]
January 11, 2009
(click in the image for a slightly larger version)

My daughter went horseback riding yesterday and her red boots next to the horse's side made for an interesting study in color, shadow and texture.

Workshop in Sacramento This Weekend:

Photoshop for Photographers I: The Basics
Jan. 17 – 18, Viewpoint Photographic Art Center - Sacramento, California 
$285 (members) or $335 (non-members)  |  More Info
(requires that you bring your own laptop with Photoshop)

And, a follow-up class will be offered three weeks later:

Photoshop for Photographers II: Beyond the Basics
Feb. 7 – 8, Viewpoint Photographic Art Center - Sacramento, California
$285 (members) or $335 (non-members)   |  More Info
(requires that you bring your own laptop with Photoshop)

Water on Leaves

Water on Leaves  [Canon 5D]
November 12, 2008
(click in the image for a larger version)

Another exploration of the morning droplets on the field of leaves behind our house.
Ah, the glories of autumn!

Coming this January in Sacramento:

Photoshop for Photographers: The Basics
January 17 - 18, 2009
More information about this class

Small Silver Worlds

Silver Droplets  [Canon 5D]
November 12, 2008
(click in the image for a larger version)

I've been really enjoying our land this autumn. Until a few days ago, we had a fine multi-layered carpet of leaves covering most of the back garden area. Rather than jump right in with with raking, we decided to leave it for a while. Our motivation in this decision was no doubt influenced by the fact that finding time to devote to raking up prodigious piles of leaves was difficult to do. But the decision to leave the leaves was also influenced, at least on my part, by the fact that they looked so beautiful.

Upon looking closer one day (something that photographers should always do!) I saw a field of perfect dew drops scattered over many of the leaves on the autumn carpet. Seeing this close-up through the lens was like being tempted with delicious candy. One was just not enough! And so, over the course of several days, when the morning light was low and bright and golden, I found myself kneeling on the wet leaves in an old pair of knock-about blue jeans, and having a wonderful time exploring the close-up landscapes of leafland.

And while these images are wonderful in color, the traditional palette for autumn photography, and I may post some of those in the coming week, they are also quite interesting in black and white. I am always intrigued by interpreting a subject in black and white that would normally seem to be a perfect fit for color. There's a creative challenge there and exploring alternative ways to see the image is very satisfying.

Technical Notes: Although these are close-up views I did not use a macro lens, but instead relied on my Canon 24—105mm image-stablized zoom on a Canon 5D. All of the the processing was done in Lightroom,including some localized work with the adjustment brush to darken the background a bit.

Between the Lines

Lines  [Canon 5D]
November 6, 2008 -- Morro Bay, California

I recently returned from a week down in Los Osos, California where I was teaching a workshop on Creative Digital Black & White at the Lepp Institute of Digital Imaging. If you've never taken a class there I encourage you to consider it! It has one of the best classroom/computer lab facilities that I have ever taught in and the owners Victoria and Hal Schmitt do a wonderful job at making sure that everyone has a good workshop experience.

This image was taken on board the Niña, a historically accurate replica of one of the ships that Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492. I was surprised at how small it was. The original crew would have been only about 26 men, and even with that number it would have been a crowded voyage. As I was photographing this and talking with one of the students from the class, I referred to the subject matter in this image as "ropes". A zealous nautical type (a visitor to the ship, not one of the crew) overheard me and interrupted to correct my land-lubber terminology faux pas: "They're called lines on a ship!"

Newsletter News

The next issue of Creative Digital Darkroom News will be sent out this week. I thought that I would have the time to finish it while down in Los Osos, but it was not to be.

New Workshops for 2009

My 2009 workshop schedule is beginning to take shape and I am excited at some of the new classes that I will be offering. Forthcoming classes include the return of two popular weekend classes, Photoshop for Photographers I: The Basics and Photoshop for Photographers II:Beyond the Basics. These will be offered at the Viewpoint Photographic Art Center in Sacramento, California. Dates are still pending but it's looking like they will be offered in mid-January and early February.

Other upcoming classes include...

The Art of the Photographic Collage
February 19 – 22  Mesilla Digital Imaging Workshops
Mesilla, New Mexico 
>>Click here for More Info

Hawaii Workshops
April 2 – 5  Pacific New Media
University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii 
>>Click here for More Info

The Creative Eye:
Digital Photography & Digital Darkroom Essentials
April 27 – May 1  Santa Fe Photographic Workshops
Santa Fe, New Mexico
>>Click here for More Info

Wide Angle Skull

 
Skull [Canon 5D]
Coopers Union, Maine  August 12, 2008
(click in the image for a larger version)

This shot was made with a very cool 14mm lens that was loaned to me by Steve Inglima of Canon (thanks, Steve!). Canon is a major sponsor of the Maine Media Workshops and Steve was a guest when I was teaching there last month. He brought several items of Canon gear that he loaned to students. On this day my class went to the abundant and eclectic Elmer's Barn, the mother of all antique, junk & collectible emporiums. I knew that such a location would be the perfect place to test drive a super wide lens and I had a lot of fun shooting with it that day.

This shot was processed exclusively in the new Camera Raw 5 that is a part of Photoshop CS4 (Adobe announced CS4 a couple of days ago and it is expected to start shipping in the next month). I made use of the new Adjustment Brush to selectively darken the top part of the skull and the areas around it. There is also a trace of sepia applied to the highlights. (the original image with no edits is below). See my previous post for more information on some of the new features in Photoshop CS4.

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Workshop This Weekend

Secrets of the Mask:
Selections and Masking in Adobe Photoshop CS3
September 27 - 28, Santa Cruz, California

There are still spaces left in my Secrets of the Mask workshop coming up next weekend in the beautiful seaside town of Santa Cruz, California.

NAPP members and subscribers to my newsletter receive a special discount for this workshop.
Click here for a description of this class and registration info.

Side Show

Side Show [Canon 5D]
Union, Maine  August 19, 2008
(click in the image for a larger version)

This was taken at the county fair in Union, Maine during my Real World Digital Photography class last month. This carny was very proud of his tattoo, which refers not only to his line of work, but also to his nickname.

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Workshop Discount!

Secrets of the Mask:
Selections and Masking in Adobe Photoshop CS3
September 27 - 28, Santa Cruz, California

There are still spaces left in my Secrets of the Mask workshop coming up in a little less than 2 weeks in the beautiful seaside town of Santa Cruz, California.

NAPP members and subscribers to my newsletter receive a special discount for this workshop.
Click here for a description of this class and registration info.

Upstairs

 
Stairs  [Canon 5D]
June 9 2008  Pescadero, California
(click in the image for a larger view)

If the Black & White image is your favorite means of photographic expression, or if you want to improve your black and white imagery, I'll be teaching a workshop November 3 – 7 at the Lepp Institute of Digital Imaging in Los Osos, California called Creative Digital Black & White:

This five day workshop is a celebration of the black and white photograph. It is a combination of creative seeing, camera technique and leveraging the power and control of the digital darkroom. We will practice our photographic technique during the week on location shoots with the aim of visualizing and creating images in black and white. Back in the digital lab, we will explore a wide range of essential Photoshop and Lightroom techniques as we work at perfecting our color digital captures into finely honed black and white prints.

NAPP and NANPA members receive a 15% discount on this workshop.
For a more detailed description of this class, as well as registration info, click here.

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Upcoming Maine Workshops

There's still a few spots left in my two August digital photography classes at the Maine Media Workshops. Click the class titles for more information:

Leaping into Digital
August 10 – 16  • Maine Media Workshops

Real World Digital Photography I
August 17 – 23  • Maine Media Workshops

Real World Digital Photography II
October 5 – 11 • Maine Media Workshops

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Upcoming California Workshops

In addition to the previously mentioned Creative Digital Black & White workshop in November, I also have two weekend workshops in California coming up in September. Click the class titles for more information:

Creative Camera Raw in Photoshop CS3
September 20 – 21  • Berkeley, California

Secrets of the Mask: Selections & Masking in Photoshop CS3
September 27 – 28  •  Santa Cruz, California

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Newsletter News

The July/August issue of my free newsletter Creative Digital Darkroom News was mailed on July 26th. The next issue will be sent out in late August. Be sure to sign up for Photoshop and digital darkroom tips and tutorials, workshop updates, special discounts on workshops and prints, and musings on photography and the creative process.