Sean Duggan Blog

The Nature of Your Own Lens

The Lens  [pinhole photograph]
January, 2011 
(click in the image to see a larger version)

This is one of the new images I have been working on for my Artifacts of an Uncertain Origin series. I photographed it last January in the Florida Keys, but only began to work with the negative a few days ago. It will be included in the Artifacts of an Uncertain Origin 2012 calendar, which should be ready to order in a couple of days. This and one other one from the Florida Keys, are the most recent images I have photographed for this long running series. After an 11-month hiatus, it feels really good to be working with it again. I have several ideas for new images and am eager to follow those paths to see where they lead.

I am often asked what this series is about, which is not an easy question to answer, since there is more than one answer. Each image is different and can lead in a a variety of directions, just as different doors will open into different rooms and passages. These photographs are a bit like doorways. What you find once you enter them depends on who you are and what you see. Apropos that thought, and the concept of seeing, here are some musings on The Lens...

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As photographers, lenses are important to us. We see the world through the lenses of our eyes and we create our images with the lens on our camera (the irony in this photograph is that it was made with a wooden pinhole camera that does not have a lens!).

But the idea of a lens is significant beyond the purely photographic associations. A lens focuses light, bringing our attention to specific areas, magnifying some parts while blurring others. Lenses help us see better, farther, and more clearly. A lens can reveal to us that which is hidden beyond the horizon of natural vision, showing us things we cannot see with our own eyes. Our perception of the world and our journey through it is shaped by the lens of our past experiences, deeply held beliefs, future hopes, dreams, and the river of emotions that courses through us.

One of the most significant concepts that influences my experience with photography, both in creating and viewing images, was expressed perfectly by the photographer and philosopher MInor White when he wrote that "One should not only photograph things for what they are, but for what else they are".

At the most basic level, this image is both a still life and a landscape, a photograph of a lens at the edge of the sea. But beyond that there are other levels. What you see, in this photograph or in any photograph, will depend upon who you are and the nature of your own lens.

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See more of the Artifacts of an Uncertain Origin

 

Mountains on my Mind

Matterhorn Peak and the Sawtooth Ridge  [Canon 5D]
August 29, 2010  •  Eastern Sierras, California
(click in the image for a larger version)

Lately I've had mountains on my mind, and my thoughts have been drawn to a location that is less than a four hour drive from where I live: the jagged peaks of the Sawtooth Ridge on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. I took this photo a little over a year ago, as I was driving down to Death Valley, another of my favorite photo destinations .  It shows the Sawtooth Ridge as seen from Highway 395 near Bridgeport, California. The ridge line is the northeast border of Yosemite National Park. The peak on the far left is Matterhorn Peak, which at 12,279 feet (3,743m) is the tallest peak in that ridge and the most northerly 12,000' peak in the Sierras. Jack Kerouac incorporated a fictionalized account of his attempted ascent of the peak in his 1958 novel, "The Dharma Bums". Some of the other peaks in the ridge are Dragtooth, Doodad, the Three Teeth, and Blacksmith Peak. Below Blacksmith is the ominously named Avalanche Lake.

Sawtooth Ridge from the Northeast, from A Climber's Guide to the High Sierra, edited by Hervey H. Voge (click in the image for a larger version).

The reason this particular group of peaks has been on my mind is that I've been thinking of a photograph I'd like to make that requires high, jagged mountain peaks and this area would be perfect. Actually, there are several images I can see making in this location, but one in particular has been driving this train of thought; a new addition to my Artifacts of an Uncertain Origin series of pinhole photographs.

Since the wooden camera I use for that series has no lens, just a tiny pinhole (the approximate  aperture is f/235) with a wide-angle field of view, things that are far away tend to look even farther away in the photographs it makes. So if I want to have a jagged mountain peak in the shot and have it look good, it means getting up close and personal with the peak. The mountain I'm thinking of focusing on (pun intended) is Matterhorn Peak, the one on the far left. I'm not really interested in summiting this peak as I am in having it figure prominently in the background of the photograph (though apparently you can reach the summit without special equipment).

 

Photographing with the ZeroImage pinhole camera on the western side of the Sierras in April of 2010. (click in the image for a larger version). You can see the image I made at this location here.

This excursion will likely last several days, to accommodate backpacking the roughly five miles up to the ridge and having plenty of time for scouting the best locations, waiting for good weather and light and also just enjoying being in such an amazing place. I feel very fortunate to live in a place where such locations are only a short drive away, and sInce the area is relatively close, I may even make more than one trip. In the image I am planning, I would like to have a fair amount of snow on the peaks and good cloud action is a must. In terms of summer or fall, I'm still pondering the best time to go and more research will help answer that question, but it's definitely on my photo destination list for next year.

Finding the time for such creative projects can sometimes be challenging and it's easy to get distracted and caught up in all of the other aspects of our busy lives. I am continually battling those forces of distraction! But planning ahead and visualizing making certain images, or traveling to specific places,  make it much more likely to realize those visions. Writing about it (as I have done here), is another way to make something seem more real and attainable. To that end I also made a print of this image this morning and am hanging it in my studio so I can see it every day and be inspired by the idea of that future trip. 

Speaking of inspiration, I was reminded of this location by an excellent photo of Matterhorn Peak that Gary Crabbe posted to his Google+ stream a few days ago. Seeing his image prompted me to look in my Lightroom archive where I found the photo you see above. Thanks Gary!
  

Channeling Fitzcarraldo

My Version of Fitzcarraldo  [Canon 5D]  • Photo by John Timmer
March 7, 2010 •  Somewhere in the Sierras
(click in the image for a larger version)

For this edition of Time Machine Tuesday we look back to a year ago and a series of photo expeditions I made attempting to create a pinhole photograph for my Artifacts of an Uncertain Origin series. The idea for this particular image had come to me nearly two years before. Once I had the idea, the next step was to find an old ship's wheel (I found this one in Maine). Then, since I purchased the wheel in early summer, I had to wait until winter cloaked the nearby mountains in snow.

The photo above was taken on my first outing with the ship's wheel. This shot was taken by my nieghbor who came along for the adventure (and who loaned me an extra pair of snow shoes). Carrying it up the steep slopes where I wanted to photograph it was more of a chore than I had imagined. The 28-pound wheel seemed to get heavier and heavier the higher I went. Fortunately I could just spike it into the snow whenever I needed to rest.  A friend who saw this image remarked that the scene looked like something out of a Jules Vernes story of an airship crash high in the Alps!

But that first day didn't yield any useable shots. Though there were cool clouds, it was much too bright and sunny for the long exposures required by the wooden pinhole camera. Three weeks later I ventured out again. This time I went higher and snowshoed up into Castle Valley, which is right near Donner Summit. The forecast predicted light snow in the morning and a clearing at mid day. I was hoping to get a view of Castle Peak in the background behind the wheel, but it never cleared. Instead it snowed most of the day. I did make some interesting images, but not the one that I set out to make. I towed the ship's wheel along behind me on a snow saucer, but the altitude, the uphill grade of the trek, and deep snow made for a very exhausting day. I began to think that this was my own small version of the story that Werner Herzog told in the film Fitzcarraldo; instead of trying to get an entire ship over a mountain, I just had the ship's wheel. But that came with more challenges than I had expected.

The trail into Castle Valley, April 1, 2010
Castle Peak is somewhere on the right, obscured by clouds.
(click in the image for a larger version)

Another two weeks passed before I set out again with the ship's wheel. I returned to the location of the first attempt and began to slowly make my way up the steep side of the mountain. When I reached a spot that had a good view of another mountian in the background, I set up the wheel by some snow covered rocks and then got the pinhole camera on the tripod. Just as I was about to make the first exposure, the peak in the background disappeared behind the lowering clouds. The sudden micro storm quickly made it to my position and it began snowing heavily. I found myself sitting on a rock for 30 minutes, with a mantle of snow building up on my parka as I waited for the far mountain to reappear,.

But I enjoyed the wait. Though it was snowing, it was not bitterly cold, and I had a great view of the surrounding landscape. Some of my most enjoyable moments as a photographer have come in the times in between the photographs, when I was hiking to a location, or waiting for the conditions to get just right. It's a good time to think and just enjoy being out in nature.

Finally the snow stopped and the mountain reappeared beneath a roiling, swirling bank of clouds. I had time for three quick shots before the clouds lowered again. But that was the shot that I was looking for.

Check back tomorrow for some exciting workshop news!

The Ship's Wheel  [pinhole photograph]
April 14, 2010  (click in the image for a larger version)

 

New "Artifacts" Calendar for 2011

(click in the image for a larger version)

The pinhole elves stopped by and delivered my new calendar for 2011. It's a bit later than I was hoping for, but it's a busy time of year for those elves. This is the third year that I have offered a calendar featuring images from my "Artifacts of an Uncertain Origin" series. These photographs were made with a wooden pinhole camera and medium format black & white film (the selective sepia toning in the finished version was added in Photoshop). These scenes are not multi-image composites but actual views of the artifacts in the landscape. The twelve images in the 2011 calendar are all new and have not been featured in any of the previous Artifacts calendars. They were photographed in 2010 and 2009 and most of the ones shot in 2009 were not scanned and finished until the past couple of months.

Click here for ordering information and to see a slideshow of the twelve calendar images.

FOTOfusion in South Florida

In mid January I'll be presenting some hands-on classes and giving a presentation on the Artifacts series at FOTOfusion, the photography and imaging festival hosted by the Palm Beach Photographic Center. The dates are Jan 11 — 15. You can find out more about FOTOfusion here.

More details about my hands-on computer lab sessions will be posted here in a few days.

Workshops in Maine

I've also scheduled two workshops in Rockport, Maine at the Maine Media Workshops and more information will be posted soon about those classes.

Across the Sea

The Music  [ZeroImage 6x9 pinhole camera]
March 22, 2010 • Weston Beach, Point Lobos, California
(please click in the image for a larger, sharper version)

Interview

It's been a while since I posted any pinhole shots for the "Artifacts of an Uncertain Origin" series, so here's one to start the week off. Before I get into the particulars of this photograph, I wanted to mention that Brian Krummel, the author of The Pinhole Camera book has posted an interview with me over at the blog for his book. Here's the link. You can also find many other interesting interviews with pinhole photographers there, too.

Photographing "The Music"

The image above was taken last March and, like many photos in the Artifacts series, I came up with the concept long before I managed to create the photo. In this case, the idea to place the old sheet music in the waters of a tide pool occurred to me a month or so after I had purchased several old and falling apart collections of music at a junk shop in Maine. Coincidentally, it wasn't until after I had the idea to put the music in a tide pool that I discovered that one of the songs was called "My Boy Across the Sea". I was delighted to find a song title that so perfectly matched the location where I wanted photograph it.

Although my consulting and one-on-one training takes me to the San Francisco Bay Area on a regular basis, several coastal scouting trips turned up no locations in that vicinity that were suitable for this shot. I needed a tide pool that would be as still as possible, and also one where there was a good chance of finding starfish. Fortunately, I taught a workshop at the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, California in the Spring of this year and I knew that this area would provide plenty of likely locations.

I had made photos for this series at the ocean's edge many times before, but this was the first time that I had tried placing a very fragile object in the water of a tide pool. I am constantly trying to find new ways of working different aspects of the landscape into these shots and this represents another attempt at pushing the boundaries of where I can place the objects that I photograph. The sheet music was especially delicate since the paper was about 100 years old. My first attempts to make the image on the Monterey Peninsula took place at a few different locations in Pacific Grove and while they were picturesque enough, even the quietest pools were too turbulent and the paper would not stay still enough for the long exposure times required by the pinhole camera (about 10 seconds).  I also couldn't find a suitable pool (not too deep, not too shallow, with still waters, and reachable without getting too wet) that had any starfish I could include in the shot.

After my workshop was over, I finally settled on Weston Beach (named for photographer Edward Weston) at Point Lobos State Park. At low tide I found the perfect pool that was fairly still and also home to two starfish and a small abalone shell. Even though the pool was more or less cut off from the waves, there were still times when traces of a surge would filter in and create a current in the water, causing the sheet of paper to move around. This was the third tide pool photo session with this piece of sheet music and I knew from it's fragile condition that it would be the last; there's only so much abuse that a 100-year old piece of paper can take!

I am very pleased with the final image. The obviously distressed and disintegrating sheet music is very fitting, since the paper really would break apart after an extended period in the seawater (it finally did fall apart into four pieces when I removed it from the water a few minutes after this shot was taken). The star-point reflection of the sun is an unplanned element that concerned me when I was making the photo; since I had no viewfinder, I was not sure how much of it would actually be in the image on film, or if it would be too much of a distraction. But the way it turned out works quite well for this photograph and it creates an interesting visual echo of the starfish in the pool. You can see a setup shot of the tide pool "studio" below; the water movement has caused the music to drift over the closest starfish (click in the image to see a larger version).

Next Workshop: Maine in October

My next scheduled workshop is Real World Digital Photography II at the Maine Media Workshops Oct 3 - 9. This is a follow-up to my Real World Digital Photography I class that took place in Maine in mid June of this year. We pick up where we left off with more in-depth explorations of digital photography and digital darkroom techniques. Mid-coast Maine is really beautiful in early October and it's a great place to explore creative photography. Join me for Fall in New England at the Maine Media Workshops! More Info.

Article in Photo Technique

Photo Technique Article  — July/August Issue, 2010
(click in the image to see a larger version)

My series of pinhole photographs "Artifacts of an Uncertain Origin" is one of the featured portfolios in the current issue (July/August 2010) of Photo Technique magazine. The article is accompanied by five images from the series. You can find Photo Technique at most Borders and Barnes & Noble bookstores. Here's a look at the rest of the article (click in the images to see larger versions):

 

The Artifacts of an Uncertain Origin gallery at my website was recently updated to include all of the series so far. That gallery had not been updated for awhile so this amounts to 12 new images that were not there before. I have 5 or 6 more that have been photographed but still need either scanning or final creative work in the digital darkroom. I am buried in finishing a book project right now so I won't have the time to work on these images until later in the summer.

July Workshop in Santa Fe

There's still room in my Creative Eye: Photography & Digital Darkroom Essentials workshop at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops, July 25 — 31, but the registration deadline is almost upon us. Sign up soon if you are interested! Santa Fe and northern New Mexico is a great place for photography!

Creative Collage Workshop Coming in September!

A 4-day version of my popular compositing and collage class, The Creative Collage with Adobe Photoshop is returning September 16 — 19 to the Mesilla Digital Imaging Workshops at the wonderful Preston Contemporary Art Center in southern New Mexico.

The Creative Pleasures of a Slower Pace

The Gauges  [ZeroImage Pinhole Camera]
Jan 24, 2010  Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida
(please click in the image for a larger version...the small version is a bit soft)

One thing about the pinhole process is that in addition to being a slower form of photography in terms of exposure times, the entire process, even after the images have been exposed, is often slower, as well. Of course, I cannot speak for everyone who chooses to entertain the creative muse via this medium, but it is certainly true for me.

As the above date indicates, this image was taken nearly 5 months ago (I wrote about my swamp adventures when creating this image, including the alligator lurking nearby, in a previous post). The negatives have been developed for awhile, but more pressing deadline-driven matters have occupied the front burners of my creative stove for the past several months. And while the demands of my teaching and writing schedules are the main reason I have not spent much time on the post-exposure part of this series, the slower pace of the overall process suits both me and the images themselves. It also reflects the average time line arc for most of the images, from coming up with a concept, to finding an object or objects that work well for that concept, to pondering the various landscape possibilities, finding a landscape (which often involves location scouting ahead of time), making the image, choosing the one shot, and then working on the final master image.

In some cases, the desire to work with a specific landscape is the driving force for an image. I first visited the cypress swamps of Florida nearly a year before I made the above photograph. But the fact that it was the end of the dry season combined with a severe drought left no water in the swamps. Even though I went to several locations and made several photographs (with different artifacts), I never used any of those images.  Fortunately, there was plenty of water ten months later and I was able to work with this particular landscape as I had envisioned it. And during the ten months of waiting for another opportunity to visit the cypress swamps, I discovered the gauges, which ended up being a much better match for this landscape than what I was originally photographing.

The slower, more meditative pace is a welcome counterpoint to the other type of photography that I do, which is to say, most of my photography, that is made with a digital SLR. I think that the much slower pace of the pinhole process, from exposure times to the overall process, exercises a different part of my creative brain and any type of creative exercise can only be a benefit to your artistic process.

Upcoming Workshops

Speaking of exercising the creative brain, I'll be heading to Rockport, Maine later this week to teach Real World Digital Photography at the Maine Media Workshops (June 13 — 19). There is still some space left if you are interested, or know someone who might be.

Two other upcoming classes in late June and late July will be offered in Los Angeles and Santa Fe, New Mexico:

The Creative Digital Darkroom
June 28 — July 1
Marlborough School • Los Angeles, CA
Info & Registration Link

The Creative Eye: Photography & Digital Darkroom Essentials
July 25 — 31
Santa Fe Photographic Workshops • Santa Fe, New Mexico
Info & Registration Link

And coming up September 16 — 19 will be a 4-day version of my popular compositing and collage class, The Creative Collage with Adobe Photoshop at the Mesilla Digital Imaging Workshops in southern New Mexico

A Gradual Ascent

Castle Valley, Donner Summit  [Canon 5D]
April 1, 2010
(click in the image for a larger version)

About a week and a half ago I spent the day snowshoeing up Castle Valley at Donner Summit on a pinhole photo expedition for my Artifacts of Uncertain Origin project. The goal was to get to a good location where the rocky ramparts of Castle Peak would be in the background. The photo above was taken as I trudged up towards Castle Pass. As it turned out, I never even saw Castle Peak, or made it to the pass, as is was snowing most of the six hours I was out. And although I did not get to make the photograph I had in mind, I was able to make other images in response to the amazing winter landscape I was exploring.

For the first day of April, there was still an impressive amount of snow. The view of the trail head map sign below gives some idea of the snow depth since those signs are normally viewed at eye level. The forecast today and tomorrow calls for another 2 feet of new snow at that elevation (7200 to 7600 feet) and I am looking forward to another visit to this area in a few days. All in all it was a grand day out.

Coming in 11 Days!
3 Photoshop Workshops in Hawaii
April 22 — 25, 2010
More Information & Registration Links

In The Cypress Swamp

Swamp Studio [Canon 5D]
January 24, 2010   Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida
(click in the image for a larger version)

I was in south Florida last week giving some presentations and digital darkroom sessions at FOTOfusion, the festival of photography and digital imaging that is hosted every year by the Palm Beach Photographic Centre. This was the first FOTOfusion to take place in the Centre's wonderful new home in downtown West Palm Beach. It was great to link up with old friends and also meet some new ones. All in all, it was a very fun and inspiring week (not to mention missing the torrential rains and some snow that doused my area of California all week while I was away).

Whenever I travel I always try take advantage of the possibilities for making new images in different landscapes and this time was no exception. Although my schedule did not allow for as much free photo time as I would have liked, I did manage to spend one extra day in the cypress swamps of Big Cypress National Preserve, which borders on the northern side of the Everglades National Park. I had a specific pinhole photograph that I wanted to make for my Artifacts of an Uncertain Origin series.

My first visit here was last March,  but the fact that it was the end of the dry season, combined with the effects of a long and serious drought, meant that there was no water in the cypress swamps. This put a definite crimp in the plans for the photograph that I wanted to make.

A couple of weeks before I went to Florida this time, I called the visitor center and found out that there was plenty of water in the swamp this time around. The weather and lighting were perfect when I arrived. Since I was heading into unfamiliar terrain that might be populated by large carnivorous reptiles, I did the responsible thing and filled out a back-country permit and told the rangers that I expected to check back in before the end of the day. Then I donned my grubby swamp clothes, grabbed my gear and hiked south along the Florida trail and headed for a nearby stand of cypress trees. It was wet and muddy in the grasslands right from the start, but once the trail ("and "trail" is an approximation...it's hard to call it a trail when it's underwater and hard to see!) entered the stand of cypress trees, the water became clean and clear and there was no more squishy mud. As I continued into the trees, the water got deeper. The average depth was ankle to knee-deep, though in some places it was waist-deep.

At work in the swamp studio (click the image for a larger version)

I finally found an area that would work well for my "swamp studio". There were many beautiful trees, festooned with bromeliads (an "air plant" that uses other plants for support), an area of deeper open water and plenty of places that were not too deep for me to set up my small tripod and the artifacts I was photographing (three industrial gauges). One challenge was the fact that since water covered all of the ground, there was no easy place to set down my camera bag and backpack. Fortunately, I found a tree that had fallen across some other trees and a portion of it formed a perfect level platform where I could stash my gear.

After I had been in the "studio" for about an hour, I noticed an alligator on a log in the middle of a deep pool that was adjacent to the shallower water where I was working. It was not there when I arrived. But he was probably at least 100 feet away and didn't seem too interested in leaving his log. So I kept an eye on him while I continued to make photos. I made a fair amount of noise sloshing through the water taking a few self-timer shots and at that point the gator slipped back into the deep pool and I did not see him again, though I did keep a close watch on the edges of the area where I was working.

My swamp "neighbor" (click the image for a larger version)

In all I spent about three hours in my swamp studio. It was a very beautiful and peaceful place; a biologically and visually rich environment that was fascinating to experience. It is always exciting to explore a new landscape for the first time. And while this was not the first time I had been here, the presence of water made it a very different place from the one I had seen the previous Spring.  I will definitely return for another visit to Big Cypress Preserve the next time my travels take me to south Florida and I look forward to wading into the cypress swamp again one day.

Keep an eye on this space. The pinhole photograph I made that day will eventually be posted here.

New Calendar for 2010

(click for a larger view)

Introducing my Limited Edition Calendar for 2010...

A brand new collection of twelve pinhole photographs from the ongoing Artifacts of an Uncertain Origin series. If you purchased one of the 2009 Artifacts calendars, the images in this edition are all different. Eight were taken in the past year.

Follow this link to find out more about ordering the calendar, as well as view a gallery and slide show of the twelve images.