Going Poster

I visited the Graegle area of Plumas County in Northern California this weekend. The excuse for this adventure was the great weather, an opportunity to photograph fall color, and mainly an assignment to photograph a fly fisherman for a possible cover of the 2012 edition of the Plumas County Visitor's Guide. I've had some great adventures doing covers for previous years issues.

After the morning shoot I stopped by at the Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola. Besides being fun for anyone who gets excited about trains (and who doesn't), there is lots to photograph. There is color, texture and pattern to exercise the photographic vision, and it is so wild that one is tempted to let go and simply have fun with it all. Which is what I did, both while photographing, then afterwards at the computer

What's more fun than a colorful caboose? The photo below is pretty much right out of the camera. Well, it is a stitched panorama. Since I was too lazy to change to my super wide lens I took a photo of the top half and merged it in Photoshop with the bottom half photo.  

Not a bad image, and with a fair amount of impact. But wait, there's more . . .
The fun begins with some over-the-top High Dynamic Range (HDR) processing. This was possible because I had taken three images at one-stop exposure intervals, keeping the aperture constant and varying the shutter speed. My camera, a Nikon D300, shoots bursts at about 6 frames a second, allowing this to be done handheld maintaining the images in good enough alignment that the software can merge them.

 I have two options for HDR processing. An old standard is Photomatix Pro. It has lots of control options, which if applied carelessly can lead to an exaggerated, I.e., unreal look. Kind of like a Thomas Kinkade painting, light reaches deep into shadows while still magically revealing texture detail. The other option is the HDR tool in Photoshop, where a more acceptably photographic look results from the default options. I went the Photomatix Kinkade route.

Then back into Lightroom for more fun, where the Vibrance and Clarity sliders got cranked all the way up to "11" - and beyond. Lastly into Photoshop CS5, for a strong dose of Filter>Artistic>Poster Edges.

 

You'll find more of the results of my railyard and post-processing adventure (including the reputed world's largest diesel locomotive, The Centennial, on my web site, Tony's Vision . 

Not satiated with color at the railroad museum, I headed north into the pines, aspens, oaks, and big leaf maples along the Beckworth-Genesee Road. You'll find some fall foliage shots in the Awesome Autumn section of the Plumas County web site.

Framed - The Print

I've found it easy lately to procrastinate making prints, matting, and framing them. After all, photos look pretty good on a computer monitor. Sharing them via email, Facebook, photo sharing sites like Phanfare is quick and easy. Sometimes people even "Like" them. And then there is the cost of printing them. A fine ink-jet printer makes really great prints. But they don't leave much change out of $1,000, and that's just the start what with replenishing the inks. Then, finally, my printer head had become clogged, likely from idleness.

But a well made print, matted and framed and displayed with good light, is really the ultimate expression of a photograph. It becomes a piece of art to enjoy living with. So when a lab (Aspen Creek Photo) offered a sale on 20X30 prints and I did the math comparing the cost of a new printer and inks versus lab prints, I sent one off. I also dug out a print of a Galen Rowell photograph that we had purchased years ago, but never managed to mat and frame because of its large size, and a beautiful print of a pair of elephants photographed in Botswana by Gabriel Suarez.

Aaron Brothers had a sale last week on very nicely made 27X40 frames. A bit of effort in mat-cutting and voila - a new look for our living room and a set of fine photographs we will enjoy living with for a while.

• 20X30 Print from Aspen Creek: $30
• 27X40 solid wood frame with glass (Aaron Bros. two-for-one sale: $30
• Acid-free mat board: $14 

A Photographic Haiku

A sweet warm rain brought out that neat smell of wet pavement as I picked up some ribs at the local grocery this evening. Back home in the garden my little Canon G12 did what I asked to help express a bit of how it felt. It ain't the quickest camera in the closet, but I think the only one with both macro and gentle enough flash to capture this image.

Sometimes the only thing that will do the job is the big, fast, DSLR with its range of lenses. But more and more, I'm finding that a high-end little camera, in my case the Canon G9 and lately the G12, does the job of the "diary" shots, as well as the occasional artful image. Because its handy and ready to go, images happen that would not otherwise.

Stereo

Here I am with an old camera crammed against my face again. Except this one, instead of squashing my nose, gets plastered against my forehead when in shooting position, the viewfinder being near the bottom of the camera instead of the conventional location on top. And that's not all that is different about this 1940's camera. As you can see, there are three lenses staring out of the front. The middle one is the other end of the viewfinder. The other two are what put the pair of images on the film. A pair? Yep. When those images are viewed together, the slightly different perspective produced by each is merged by the brain to produce a three-dimensional effect. We've all seen 3D - whether one's first experience was the movie Avatar, or perhaps a few decades earlier when you picked up a Viewmaster for the first time, it is a "Wow!" experience.

Somewhere along the line I've acquired a vintage stereoscope, a viewer for 3-1/2-inch by 7-inch stereo cards, and a couple of boxes of stereocards, or stereograms. The cards were made by the Underwood and underwood and Keystone View photography companies in the late 1800's and early 1900's, and show postcard views of landmarks and landscapes, as well as interesting views of agricultural and industrial activities, including silk spinning, hide tanning, plantation farming, and mining. These, as well as a big collection of Viewmaster reels, are a delight to view for their vintage and historical charm and interest, as well as the stereo depth.

I've fiddled with stereo photography from early on, with a single camera mounted on a homemade slide. Using a tripod, two photos were taken, using the slide to keep the camera parallel and to precisely measure the lateral distance between the shots. Somewhere i had read that the separation between the two camera positions should be 1/40 of the distance to the subject, so I made a scale on the oak slide rail i'd constructed in my grandfather's workshop. Later on I mounted two 35 mm cameras - Nikkormats - on a platform and managed to construct a cable release adapter I am still quite proud of that would fire both shutters simultaneously. The resulting pairs of images I processed and printed in my darkroom, and mounted on cardboard or mattboard to view with a stereoscope.

These periodic episodes were short-lasting, and in retrospect it seems I was most interested in solving a problem, and construction the equipment needed for the solution, than in actually carrying out any long term stereo photo project. But some fine shots did result. The early ones show views of the town of Novato, California, as it looked in the 1950's. Later my efforts resulted in some fun snapshots of my family in the late 1960's and early 1970's. But in the end the photographic tools I had then were too cumbersome and fiddly to sustain enthusiasm for long.

Ha - so what now - here I have a cumbersone and fiddly stereo camera, the Stereo Realist, this one probably manufactured in the late 1940's Fiddly? Well, here is how the process goes for taking a photograph.. Compare to your current nifty digital point-and-shoot:

It is quite a trip to use. Wind the film with one of the knobs, after first pressing the release button. Cock the shutter with that lever under the center (viewfinder) lens, set the shutter speed (1 sec to 1/300 sec) with the dial around the center lens (no built-in exposure meter, so I use the "sunny 16" rule, and it's various corollaries or one of my collection of vintage meters), set the synchronized aperture (max f3.5) with the dial around the lens on the left, focus using the split-image rangefinder by turning the knob on the hidden under my right index finger. (it works, but it is best to simply use a small aperture and the hyperfocal distance scale handily printed under the flip-up lens cover), then frame thru the viewfinder, the window of which is on the bottom of the back of the camera, so you press the camera against your forehead to steady it. Snap the shutter. 

Here is a sample stereo card made with images photographed with the camera:

There is an opportunity with this camera is to produce some stereo cards showing local landmarks and scenes, and while emulating the photographic style of the vintage cards, at the same time provide a record of what common scenes in our local towns, cities, parks, etc., look at this time. We'll see.

It's All About The Journey

Collecting vintage camera gear is a great way to re-trace your own photographic history. It helps to be at least 50 years old. This puts your experience at least back in the day of some fine film cameras. Even better if you are 70. In that case, your first experience with a 35mm might have been when your Dad handed over his Argus C-3, like mine did, when I was a sophomore in high school.

Yes, I know it's all about the image, but you have to admit that tools have their influence. The Argus, like all 35mm camera's at that time, was a rangefinder camera. To frame and compose, you peered through a viewfinder that presented you with a view of that part of the world that would be captured on the film. A couple of other windows on the front of the camera, with the help of a couple of mirrors, superimposed a bit of two views. Lining up the two images (in the case of the C-3, by turning that big wheel with the distance markings on it) focused the lens at the proper distance. As you learned to use the camera, you realized that getting the focus right on was important, especially when up fairly close, as for a head-and-shoulders portrait, and especially when using a large aperture (small f-number).

But since you didn't actually see a real representation of the image that would land on the film, you couldn't visualize through the viewfinder what was going to be in focus versus what was not, i.e., the depth-of-field. So when, thanks to my high school camera club advisor, I got my hands on the Exakta series of cameras, the first single-lens-reflexes (SLRs), I was enthralled with the ground-glass image transmitted right through the lens via a mirror and prism. Seeing those shimmering, out-of-focus highlights had a great effect on my photographic vision.

So, yes, I know that the image is what counts, but the tools have a large influence on it. Perhaps that is why I am enjoying this current obsession of collecting some of the hardware milestones from my photographic journey. Or perhaps, as my wife explains her love of jewelry, which had heretofore been incomprehensible to me; "It just makes me feel happy". OK - I get it.

A Note on Kodachrome

This belongs here because the camera above arrived with an exposed roll of Kodachrome just a few days after the last photo lab stopped processing that film. The images on the roll, which might have told a bit about the history of this camera and its owner, will thus remain never to be seen. (note to self - are the digital images I am making now be visible to my family in 30 years? Ten?).

When I first photographed with Kodachrome, that would be about 1955, the film speed was 12. There's technology that will affect your realized vision!

Links:

http://www.tonysvision.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodachrome

http://tonymindling.blogspot.com/2010/09/not-just-for-display.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argus_C3

Some fun with maple leaves

Heading out on an errand, I had my Canon G9 with me, and was stopped by these maple leaves stuck to the car by raindrops . . .

. . . from inside they looked like this . . .

. . . and this one was stuck to the windshield. I had to record them before they were scattered on the freeway.

Thanksgiving Portraits

I love heading out for a ramble into the hills with a tripod and camera to compose some landscapes. I love the textures and colors of old weathered stuff. I consider that my "serious" photography. Family pictures? Those are mostly snapshots of daily life, get-togethers, and outings. But when I look back into the archives of three and four decades, it turns out the ones that have the most meaning are those of friends and family. So every once in a while I will grab myself by the scruff of the neck and get into the project of portraits, with all of the hassle of gathering up the subject and listening to complaints of how, "I look so bad today, my hair's a mess", etc.

The family Thanksgiving gathering is a great time for that project. Folks are cleaned up and spiffed up. And they really will be appreciative of your efforts. So put down your glass of wine for a bit, and get after it. Here are a couple of tips.

For head-and-shoulders portraits I like a focal length of somewhere between 80 and 200 mm. This produces a nice perspective, and also gives the subject some breathing room. Except for my pop-up for an occasional flash of fill-in, I prefer to use ambient light. This photo of one of my grandaughters was taken by the indirect light of a large window. At 170mm my zoom had a maximum aperture of about f5.6, so even at a film speed of 800 the shutter speed was a slow 1/30 sec. But by bracing my elbows on a piece of furniture, and with the help of image stabilization, the image remained sharp. In post-processing (Lightroom) I probably lightened up the shadow side of her face a bit and added a bit of vignetting.

The soft light of a fall afternoon is also nice to work with. Here, although we are in some open shade, there is enough light from the background to provide a nice bit of glint on the hair, and an overall feeling of warmth. A focal length of about 100mm was used, at an aperture of f8, thus softening the background a bit. Fill in light was provided by the pop-up flash, with it's output adjusted downward by about a stop. I try to keep the fill-in in balance with the background, which cameras do pretty well on their own, or with some exposure adjustment.

So leave the snacks for a bit and get out your camera this Thanksgiving. Then follow through and have some prints made and framed. The chances are you will come up with some photos that will make good Christmas presents, and perhaps cherished images that will be passed through generations.

A couple of final tips - Be aware of ambient lighting character. You are looking for semi-directional light for modeling features which is also fairly soft. Avoid using flash by taking advantage of your camera's ability to get decent results at fairly high ISO values. And before gathering your subjects, take some test shots to get your exposure down. This will save fiddling while your subjects are impatient to get back to the party.