Sean Duggan Blog

Desert Highway

 
Desert Highway  [Canon 5D]
Valley of Fire, Nevada - March 5, 2009
(click in the image for a larger version)

I was in Las Vegas this past week at the PMA convention and trade show, leading a half-day hands-on Photoshop class on The Creative Digital Darkroom. On Thursday morning I headed out early to explore the Valley of Fire State Park, where the image above was taken (for the technically curious, this has had only minimal adjustments applied to it in Lightroom). More from the Valley of Fire and another very interesting nearby location in the days ahead.

Upcoming Workshops
And speaking of the days ahead, my next workshop in sunny South Florida is fast approaching and will start on Monday, March 16. There's still room if you want to sign up.  I'll be in another tropical location teaching three short classes in early April in Hawaii, and a third will be offered near Morro Bay, California in mid-April.  The beautiful and incredibly scenic Santa Fe, New Mexico will be the site of a digital photography and digital darkroom workshop in late April and early May. See below for dates, details and links to more information:

Selections, Masking and Creative Collage
Palm Beach Photographic Centre
March 16 - 19, 2009

**Early April Workshops in Hawaii:
Adobe Photoshop CS4: Restoration & Retouching Essentials
Adobe Photoshop CS4: Creative Digital Black & White
The Creative Collage with Adobe Photoshop CS4
More Info

Secrets of the Mask: Selections & Masking in Photoshop CS4
Lepp Institute of Digital Imaging
April 18 - 19, 2009

The Creative Eye: Digital Photography & Digital Darkrom Essentials
Santa Fe Photographic Workshops
April 27 - May 1

 

Makapu Point

Makapu Point, O'ahu, Hawai'i [Canon 5D]
April 16, 2008
(click in the image for a larger version)

It's been almost two weeks since my last blog update and that's pretty scandalous. But also reflective that sometimes life just gets very busy, which is what happened to me recently.

I spent a week in Hawai'i and that's bound to get in the way of regular blogging! Four days were spent teaching workshops at the University of Hawai'i and then I had three days to catch up on other work that needed my attention, deal with a computer crisis, and actually get out and enjoy the island a bit.

This shot is from a hike I took up to the top of Makapu Point. Nothing special went into processing this. Just some basic Camera Raw adjustments. And yes, as those of you who have been to Hawai'i know, the water really is that blue. More photos from this trip coming in the days ahead.

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2-Day Creative Collage Workshop

This weekend, April 26 - 27, I will be teaching a 2-day class on Creative Collage with Adobe Photoshop in Monterey, California. This was one of the classes I taught in Hawai'i last week. The price is only $200! This is a really great deal because most 2-day hands-on classes like this are more expensive. Seating is limited, however, so if you want to attend, call 831-373-4600 during business hours this week to register. More about this class.

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5-Day Creative Collage Workshop

If you want a more in-depth collage workshop experience, I'll be teaching a 5-day version 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.

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New Web Site

A few weeks ago I launched a re-designed web site, but hadn't gotten around to mentioning it here. There is also a new gallery section that features three different bodies of work that have been percolating for the past couple of years. A Techniques page will feature digital darkroom tips and tutorials, as well as essays and musings on the creative aspect of being a photographer.

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Newsletter

If you're interested in additional tips, techniques and tutorials, then consider signing up for my free newsletter. The May issue of Creative Digital Darkroom News was sent out this morning. If you'd like to subscribe, there's a sign-up form at the top of this page in the left column, or you can also find one on the page that the link will take you to. Although the first round of Photoshop tips are the ones currently posted on the Techniques page of my web site, future issues will contain links to content that is only available to newsletter subscribers.

Postcard from Las Vegas

Somerset Motel, Las Vegas  [Canon 5D]
March 10, 2007
(click in the image for a larger version)

I was in Vegas for a couple of days last week to give a presentation at the PMA (Photo Marketing Association) convention and trade show. This was taken on my last day there when I decided to skip a taxi ride and walk from my hotel to the convention center. It was warm, but not too hot, and there was a comfortable breeze blowing.

Although the cab ride would have been faster (the walk took about 45 minutes), weather, time and distance permitting, I think that walking is always better. Not only for the health aspects of getting out and moving around, but also for the photographic opportunities you find that you would miss if you were in a car. This place was discovered on that walk: a 1950's era motel in the midst of the current mega hotels and casinos that populate the strip. This was actually located just off the strip on Convention Center Drive, but it was still an anachronism in its current surroundings.

Train Car

Train Car, Santa Fe
July, 2005
(click in the image for a larger version)

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I'll be teaching a weeklong workshop the first week of August in Santa Fe at the Santa Fe Workshops. The class is Real World Digital Photography and as of this week there are only 4 spaces left. This workshop, which I taught in Santa Fe last summer, is a hybrid between a digital photography class with an emphasis on digital SLRs and shooting RAW, and a Photoshop class in their excellent digital lab facilities. The breakdown is approximately 35–40% photography in the field and 60–65% Photoshop technique for getting the most out of your digital images. And for a location to explore digital photography (or any photography for that matter), Santa Fe, New Mexico is an excellent place. For more information, click on the title of the class above to view a description of the workshop on the Santa Fe Workshops web site.

Cockpit

Cockpit [d-SLR]
Santa Fe, New Mexico  July, 2005
(Click in the image for a larger version)

This is not really a cockpit, but it does have a vague resemblance to the cockpit of some retro vehicle, hence the title. It is actualy the top observation window of an old rail car in Santa Fe.

I heard from the good folks at the Santa Fe Workshops the other day that my Real World Digital Photography workshop the first week of August has only 4 spaces left. This weeklong workshop, which I taught in Santa Fe last summer, is a hybrid between a digital photography class with an emphasis on digital SLRs and shooting RAW, and a Photoshop class in their excellent digital lab facilities. The breakdown is approximately 35–40% photography in the field and 60–65% Photoshop technique for getting the most out of your digital images. And for a location to explore digital photography (or any photography for that matter), Santa Fe, New Mexico is an excellent place. For more information, click on the title of the class above to view a description of the workshop on the Santa Fe Workshops web site.

Farewell Zeppelin

Farewell Zeppelin [d-SLR]
...at the Lake of Constance, Germany
August 2005
(click in the image for a larger version)

For a fan of zeppelins and airships, staying at the Lake of Constance for two weeks was great since this airship flew over the lake two or three times a day. You can see other images of the zeppelin taken on different days here, and here.

Bayside Boat

Bayside Boat, Bayside, Maine
(click in the image to see a larger version)

Taken on one of the photo excursions our class took for the Real World Digital Photography workshop I am teaching this week.

Zeppelin Museum

Hindenburg Reconstruction, Zeppelin Museum, Friedrichshafen, Germany
(click in the image to see a larger version)

Continuing with the Zeppelin theme from the previous two posts, this image is from the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen, Germany. It shows a reconstruction of a 108 foot section of the legendary LZ 129, better known to the world as the ill-fated "Hindenburg" that erupted in a spectacular fireball as it was approaching the mooring mast at Lakehurst, New Jersey on May 3,1937. The mysterious destruction of the largest airship ever built in less than a minute abruptly ended the commercial development of this technology as trans-Atlantic passenger transport (though they were still used by the U.S for military purposes for another 25 years; the final flight of a U.S. Navy Airship took place at Lakehurst in August of 1962).

The reconstruction at the museum in Friedrichshafen is very well done and includes an interior section that you enter just as you would if you had been a passenger on the "Hindenburg", through a metal staircase leading up into the promenade deck and passenger cabins. The windows seen in the image above are the observation windows that passengers could look out of (in the exhibit, you can look down on video screens that show views of the ground as filmed from the same vantage point of the actual zeppelin). The reconstruction also includes several passenger cabins and the lounge area. In the background you can see several people in the museum and I have included them to show the scale of the exhibit and also to suggest the scale of the original ship. You can also see a photo at this link which shows the Hindenburg emerging from a hangar at Lakehurst, NJ. The observation windows shown in my photo of the reconstruction can be seen diagonally below the name "Hindenburg" towards the lower center of the zeppelin.

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I am finally back in the States after 5 weeks in Germany. Still recovering from jet lag and catching up on the pile of mail that accumulated while I was away. I have nearly 30 rolls of Holga and Holga pinhole film from Santa Fe and Germany to have processed. The Santa Fe images made in late July are so far back that I can only remember a few of the scenes I actually photographed, so it will be an interesting surprise to finally see the negatives. On top of that are 15 rolls of Holga film that I shot in Peru in early July that I have only barely glanced at.  So, once I get back into a more regular schedule next week, I will be firing up the scanner and beginning to digitize the prodigious number of Holga negs that await me (and posting those pixels to this space, but of course!).

Wedding Display

Wedding Display, Queen Mary, Long Beach, CA

I also photographed this scene with my Holga pinhole camera. According to my meter calculations, it should have been an 8-minute exposure, but I only had time to give it about five. The neg still turned out to be very useable, however, and I will probably use that version when I make a print of this. Sadly, the 7 rolls of 120 film from that trip, as well as the 7 rolls from Peru and Germany last summer, still have not had serious scanning time devoted to them.

***sigh***

Once I do start scanning the pinhole negs, I will begin posting them here.

Now, it is time to go and buy some more 120 film for a rendezvous with Hoover Dam on Monday.

About the Journey

Queen Mary, port side, Long Beach, CA

Hello, and welcome to my blog. So happy you could drop by. Allow me to give you an introduction to what you can expect to find here:

After nearly a year of pondering it, I finally began this venture for several reasons. Although I already have a primary web site where some of my photographs are displayed, it is not as easy to update as one that is powered by such useful blogging software as that provided by TypePad (ease of use is a key factor; there are not enough hours in the day). And the images there tend to be grouped together in series or distinct bodies of work. The ability to quickly and easily update the blog from any computer was a compelling reason to delve into the "blogoshpere", as was the fact that I could post images that were not necessarily related to each other, or even images that exist quite nicely on their own and might never be a part of a larger series.

Another reason I was interested in starting a blog was to have a way to communicate with my readers and students and share my thoughts about photography, the digital darkroom, and the creative process. I have been a photographer for 25 years and I am keenly interested in the intent, motivation, influences, and serendipitous chance that drive the act of creative image making. These thoughts and musings may take the form of short essays on the creative process, posts sharing my own experiences in art making (both the triumphs and the failures; sometimes we learn more from the failures), comments on the direction of digital imaging technology, Photoshop tips and techniques, as well as the occasional stream-of-consciousness ramble or surreal Haiku.

You can also keep up to date about my current book projects, workshops and travels (that is, if you're not buried in your own projects, work and travel). What you will not find here are technical reviews of products. I may mention a product or technique related to a certain product now and then, but I am far too busy to try and keep up to date with every new innovation in the world of digital photography. There are other web sites that do that very well. This is not one of those sites. This is a blog about my photography and my thoughts on making images. It is as much a place for me to discuss new ideas as it is to share fully formed concepts.

Why f/1.4?

I love to photograph with my lens aperture wide open in order to create very shallow depth of field. One of my favorite lenses for this purpose has a maximum aperture of f/1.4. While not all of the photographs you see here will have shallow depth of field, I feel the name conveys one of the qualities that I like in my own and other people's images. I also like the idea that it suggests focusing closely on a given subject and not letting the clutter of the rest of the world distract you too much.  I think artists, no matter what their chosen medium, need more time filled moments like this, to focus on their art making and let the distractions fade away into a soft, quiet blur.

Odds and Ends

The frequency of my posts will vary depending on my schedule. There will be times when new material may appear on a daily basis, and there will be other times when my updates will be less frequent. I don't plan on becoming a slave to the blog.

In terms of the images featured here, it will probably be a combination of  straight photography (i.e., not overly manipulated in Photoshop), images that bear more obvious traces of digital enhancing (hey, I am a Photoshop author, after all...)  as well as  some of my pinhole images taken on 120 film with a modified Holga camera. My explorations with the photographic process may take me in many directions, however, so new formats and image flavors are not out of the question.