Sean Duggan Blog

Man with an Axe

Man with an Axe [Diana camera]
September, 2008
(click in the image for a larger version)

This was taken earlier in the fall at the Draft Horse Classic in Grass Valley, California. One of the parallel attractions there was the Lumberjack Contest. The scene above shows one of the contestants standing on a board that he has inserted into a notch he has cut into the tree trunk. After notching the tree and inserting the board, he climbs on it and carefully balances while swinging away at the top section. This is repeated a couple of times as he moves ever higher on the trunk. You can see the first board he inserted a bit lower down on the tree trunk.

I have a few frames that I shot of this scene, but this one is the best. The strong foreground/background relationship between the spectator in the hat and the lumberjack creates was the most satisfying composition of the three frames.

Sacramento Workshop in January:

Photoshop for Photographers: The Basics
January 17 – 18, 2009
Click Here for More Info

Solar Assist

Big Hat  [Diana camera]

A scan from a slightly underexposed toy camera negative livened up with some fundamental tone and contrast modification, uneven sepia toning and a solar assist for special flare effects. The original scan is below.

New Workshop in February

On Feb 14 & 15 I'll be in Monterey, California teaching Photoshop Essentials for Photographers. More details coming soon!

Lightroom 2 and Camera Raw 4.5

The Speaker  [Diana Camera]
October, 2007
(click in the image for a larger version)

Camera Raw 4.5 Update & Lightroom 2

Along with the release of Lightroom 2 this week, there is also a free update to the Camera Raw plug-in, version 4.5. If you are upgrading to Lightroom 2 you should also update Camera Raw for any other programs that use that technology. This includes Photoshop CS3, Photoshop Elements 6 (Mac & Win) and Premiere Elements 4.0 for Windows. This is the first step to ensure that any edits you make to images in Lightroom 2 will be visible in those other applications. There is also one other thing to do, which I'll cover below.

Here's a link to the Mac version of Camera Raw 4.5
And here's a link to the Windows version of Camera Raw 4.5

Making Lightroom edits Visible in Camera Raw 4.5

Any edits you make to images in Lightroom are stored in the Lightroom database and will not be immediately visible to Camera Raw. In order to share these edits so that Camera Raw sees them, you have to save them to an XMP sidecar file that is stored in the same folder as the images, or directly to the DNG file if you are using that format for your raw files (this is the case no matter what version of Lightroom you are using). Fortunately this is a very quick and easy step of using the keyboard shortcut of Command-S on Mac or Control-S on PC (the menu path for this is found in the Library module and is Metadata > Save Metadata to File).

Leaping Into Digital & Real World Digital Photography

There's still a few spots left in my two upcoming classes at the Maine Media Workshops:

Leaping into Digital  Aug 10 – 16

Real World Digital Photography  Aug 17 – 23

You can see my complete Workshop Schedule here.

Andes Explorer

Andes Explorer [Holga]
Machu Picchu, Peru  • July 12, 2005

*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 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.

Reading at the Cafe

Reading at the Cafe  [Diana Camera]
July 23, 2007 -- San Francisco
(click in the image for a larger version)

Radiator Books

Radiator Books  [Diana Camera]
Early August, 2007 -- New Mexico
(Click in the image for a larger version)

Family Portrait

Family Portrait  [Diana Camera]
August 4, 2007 -- New Mexico
(click in the image for a larger version)

Workshop News: I've added two new workshops to the Featured Workshops column on the left side of this page. These are coming up in January and February of 2008. If you live in a colder part of the nation and want to escape to somewhere warmer to concentrate on your photography and digital darkroom skills, both workshops are being held in areas that are very pleasant that time of year...South Florida and the central California coast near San Luis Obispo.

Calendar News: I will also be offering at least one new calendar for 2008 coming up in the next couple of weeks. It may be another Holgavision calendar and there may also be a Days with Diana version, too. I also have ideas about doing a pinhole calendar but am not sure if I'll get that off the ground in time. We'll see.

Waiting for the Tram

Waiting for the Tram  [Diana Camera]
Sandia Peak, Albuquerque, New Mexico
August 6, 2007
(click in the image to see a larger version)

One of the qualities that I find so exciting and intriguing about photography is the unexpected convergence of people, places and lighting that can result in a good image. Seeing and acting upon these ephemeral apparitions of photographic serendipity is one of the things I love most about being a photographer. And the more you are aware of these instances, the more you will look for them, the more attuned you will become to the possibility that such a convergence may occur. The more you look for these transitory events as you pass through the world, the more likely you are to see them and be ready with your camera to record them.

This photo is evidence of just such an occurrence. I could not have imagined this scene in this exact configuration (well, perhaps I could have imagined something like it, but I didn't). But when I saw it coalescing on the tram platform overlooking Albuquerque, I was prepared, camera in hand. And it doesn't require the latest hi-tech camera to etch such a scene onto something more lasting than memory. This image was taken with a plastic Diana camera, circa 1964.

In addition to being open to the possibilities of such ephemeral convergences, it goes without saying, of course, that you do need to have a camera with you and easily accessible so you can act fast if the situation requires it. I am not one of those people who take the camera with me everywhere I go, but I do have it with me a good deal of the time. And if I know that I may be in photographically fertile territory, then is almost always with me, especially when I am traveling, as I was when I made this photograph.

I have pages and pages of Diana, Holga and pinhole negatives that were taken this summer (and even earlier) that I have not yet had time to scan. With two major projects entering their final stages, I am hoping to be able to spend some quality time with my scanner in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned!