Friday Foto: It's ME!

Yep, so this is the first Friday Foto to ever feature another photographer.... my wife. I stumbled upon this photo last night while looking for something and decided to show this photo to go along with something I've been wanting to talk about for awhile.

What makes a good photographer? A lot of people will have different things to say about this, and I, by no means, expect to answer that question in a single post. Some of it's the eye... being able to see a moment that wields a good photograph. Some of it's the skill... being able to know how to capture that moment to best represent the feeling and portray it correctly to a viewer. Some of it's the luck... having both of the aforementioned traits line up and thus, magic happens. Of course, there is also equipment, composition, experience (which I believe is slightly different than just talent/knowledge). See, one can know the ins and outs of the f-stop/shutter speed continuum, but knowing what works best in a split second is more than just knowledge.

So why this picture? I like it. Always have. Maybe a little bit because it's me. But it reflects a time in my life that I can look back on and really grab to. There I sat, on the rocks in Cinque Terre, on the coast of Italy drinking a beer in the afternoon. I was tired, hot, and hadn't showered in two days. I was traveling with six girls and was just about fed up. Kelly snapped this photo, not really knowing what she was doing, but saw the moment... and that is key. Some photographs need just the moment, nothing more.

Now, I'm gonna step on my soap box for a second. I, being a lover of photography, see loads of photos. What bothers me the MOST in the photographic world is the self-proclaimed photographer who claims to be an artist, yet doesn't understand the previously mentioned points. No, I am not saying I am better and there is no room for our "point and shooters". Point and shoot away, I do often as well. I guess what I am lamenting is the poor quality of "art" that swarms the masses and dirties the blood of the true profession.

And finally, saying all that, is there no place for photos like the above? Of course there is, it's a great shot, I love it, like I said. But it's a great shot to me for sentimental reasons. I guess my point of view is this: I'm striving to produce more work that I can proudly say and feel that is true art. This means I will, no doubt, produce less quantities, but hopefully higher quality. Of course there will always be a place and need for photographs of the non-art quality, ie: day to day work, etc. But for now, I'm focusing on honing my skill I reckon.

That's all I got. I'm heading to the mountains this weekend for the labor day break. I'll be up at my cabin, and of course, will shoot some... pics to come. Happy Friday.

Scramblin' avec Hardtop

Saturday morning I set out bright and early with a buddy down to Daytona Beach, FL to pick up a half-hard top for my Jeep. It was in surprisingly good shape for a used top. One of the previous owners installed a sunroof, that can either be vented in the back, or completely removed. I washed it out, and painted the interior white and rolled on a bedliner material on the outside. It looks great! I'm really happy with it. It will be easy enough to remove, but not something I would do just for the day. With no doors and the sunroof off, it's surprising ventilated inside as well. I really enjoy it. I love the look. Enjoy the photos!

Friday Foto: IR begginings

IR stands for Infra-Red. Back in the ole film days, photographers used to experiment with IR film. It was film sensitive to IR rays, not just light (in a sense). Things that are 'cool' (radiating little light reflection) are portrayed as darks (like the dark blue sky at the top, it's black). Things that are 'hot', reflecting lots of light (including photosynthesis) show up as light... the marsh in this scene is close to white. Now, acheiving this is best done in camera (versus post process), with either a film camera and IR film or a digital camera that has been converted to shoot in IR. Once you convert a digital camera to IR (a manual procedure that requires hacking into your camera) you can't undo it. This shot was done in photoshop, originally taken in color. It's a semi-accurate portrayal of an IR shot, however it is not exact. The clouds should be brighter and I bet the marsh would be whiter. However, it's a start. I love IR photography, it's like B&W on steroids... super-charged. More to come, I'm experimenting with this.

Anyway, I still love the iPhone, so nothing is new. I'm heading down to Florida tomorrow to go pick up a hardtop for my Scrambler. Yeah, it's been awhile since I mentioned Margaret on here. Don't worry, I'll post some pics with Margaret with her top on and off soon (hehehe... couldn't resist). I'm pretty excited.

That's it. Hope everyone has a great weekend. I know I will!!!

posting from my iPhone

This is my first post via my iPhone. Just giving if a shot. Pretty easy to do actually. Tune in tomorrow for the new installment of "The Friday Foto".

I heart Apple (and my wife)

I have an iPhone. Yes, sooner than expected, I am the proud owner of a 4GB model. My birthday (the big 25, half way to 30 as my wife would say) is next week. Kelly and I already decided that I was going to wait until Christmas to get an iPhone. After all, I've waited for Apple to come out with a cell phone for close to six years now, what's another couple of months right? Well, she did some conspiring and twisting of the system (in a style that she could have only learned from moi!) and low and behold, I have an iPhone. She got it in and couldn't wait to the 29th to give it to me. I'm thrilled. It's amazing, and I know you expect to hear that from me, being an Apple fanboy, but as a consumer, it's a piece of work... really sleek.

My love for Apple doesn't stop there though... Sunday evening I also helped setup my father-in-law's new PC. He just got an HP laptop, wasn't even out of the box. I unpacked it, having to put all the pieces together, turned it on, went through 38 minutes of startup in which it asked me several questions and tried to get me to try several programs and softwares. Finally, after the setup was complete, I was on the desktop for all of 45 seconds when a bubble popped up and told me my computer was seriously at risk and I should do such-in-such! How do you people STAND PCs? On a Mac, you open it up, plug it in, start it up, put your name in and within 3 minutes the computer is up and running sans crash alerts.... No annoying little bubbles popping up all over the bottom right-hand corner of the screen telling me to wipe my butt.

Anyway, that's all I got. I can blog and post photos from my iPhone... so be on the lookout for some moblogging. Adios!

Friday Foto: Starry, Starry night...

The first line from Don McLean's lesser know song Vincent (his best known being American Pie). I always have this song stuck in my head when I shoot the night sky. I like shooting at night. Nothing is certain. I love digital; it enables you to see almost immediately what you have and how to correct. However, I have a setting on my camera that reduces digital noise (graininess and specks) when taking long exposures. With this setting switched on, I have found that it takes twice as long to write the image, meaning twice as long until you see it. So, for the first image, taken last night on the dock at the end of German Village, I exposed the night sky for 12 minutes at f4.5, meaning I didn't get to see the photo (to see if it was good) until 24 minutes later. This was my last shot of the night and I was half way home before I could review it. I like it. It's a point-of-view shot; a picture taken from the point of view of a person. Imagine laying down on this dock gazing up at the stars. This is the view you see. No, those are not shooting stars. When the shutter is left open on a camera for a length of time, you get start trails. The earth spins, causing the starts to appear to streak across the night sky in the picture.

The second image is looking the other way. You can see shorter star trails, exposed for only 3.5 minutes. I used a maglite to "paint" in the the dock, an interesting technique in which you use a auxiliary source of light to color in what you want to show up in the photo.

I'm going to get back into black and white film photography. It's been awhile and I feel like I could learn a good bit from it. Plus, it's very cathartic to me, being in the darkroom. I have almost everything I need to finish my darkroom.

Anyway, I hope you like the photos. Y'all have a great weekend. I'm so glad it's Friday. I have no major plans, hope to get some R&R in (maybe a beer or two).

Friday Foto: turning pages...

I think I'm beginning to turn a page in my photographic thinking. I watched a very interesting documentary the other night on PBS that outlined the life of five Cuban photographers. Their photos felt raw, unscathed, well thought out, simply beautiful. I envy, sometimes, the nostalgic and aesthetic feeling that I get from looking at really good analog (non-digitally captured) prints, both black and white and color. There is something about it, not necessarily the film, but the talent (maybe) or something... I can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe it's just because I saw it on the boob tube.

Anyway, I'm using this wave of emotion, along with a series of thoughts and feelings I've been having, to migrate my photography to the next level. We'll see where it takes me.

Today's foto doesn't necessarily represent the aforementioned feelings, it's just the one I had lined up for this week (However, I will let you know when I have something born from this new ideology, in hope of your input). It's a row boat at the marina in Captiva. I saw it when I first arrived and knew I wanted to get this photo. I like it OK.

This should be a good weekend. I'm going to a lake house on Lake Sinclair in Milledgville this weekend, just for Saturday night. I'm excited. If you didn't catch earlier, I'm starting to post more, so check out the last post (for all those who got accustomed to me posting once a week and not reading any further than this post). Hope y'all have a great weekend! Thanks for reading.

I'm posting, and it's not Friday!

I've been feeling blogger's neglect. I started this blog a little over two years ago now in an attempt to enlighten you, the reader and me, the writer in matters that I find interesting. I love writing and usually have plenty to say (read: ramble), it's just that I get caught up in work flow, etc and wind up only blogging on Friday Morning for the weekly installment of The Friday Foto (my favorite part of the week really). So, without further ado, I present this resolution to you: I will blog more, so you can enjoy, I can purge and we both can procrastinate.


It's been hot. Hot is an understatement. When you can see that heat outside, in the form of foggy haze that makes me start questioning my recent LASIK surgery, you know it's hot. Not everywhere though. I spoke to my cousin last night in beautiful San Diego who was wearing pants in the 72 degree weather. Looser.

If you are in the market for a new computer, now is better than ever to make the switch to a Mac. They just released newer and cheaper iMacs, their flagship personal, do-everything computer. I would buy one in a heartbeat. Macs are great. The new iPhone is amazing. I'm working on a way to get one, hopefully by Christmas.

A'ight, quick shout-out to my friend Sarah (aka 'Goat' on this blog). She is now engaged. Congratulations Goat... we are all excited for you.

Have a great day.

I'm back!

Did you miss me? Sorry I didn't post last week. Friday morning Kelly and I woke up at 4:30 a.m. to get in the car and drive 7.5 hours to Captiva (an Island on the Gulf Coast of Florida) where we had a little vacation. It was great. We went out in the boat everyday, fished, ate and drank. Couldn't ask for more out of a vacation huh? Today's two fotos show a little bit of the area. We stayed at a Jensens, a little place tucked in between two high rises. It's like how Captiva probably was back in the 60s; untouched and unmauled by ever-changing society. It's a nice place. Anyway, the first foto is of their marina at night. I like taking long night shots and this is one of my favorites from my time there, clocking in at 170 seconds.

The second photo is kind of funny. I was walking on the beach one night watching the sun set. I walked up ankle deep into the water to get some photos of the waves crashing against the sand. I saw a family playing in the distance and went to compose my shot... not paying attention to the waves anymore. Well a nice swell came right up and soaked me causing me to fall over in mid shot... I thought the shot was ruined. But after processing it and reviewing it further, I kind of like it. Let me hear what you think.

So, I've been working on my people photography, as you may or may not know. I've been working on "airbrushing", all though I don't like to call it that. I prefer, photo enhancing or something along that line... I don't really believe in doing a ton of work to a photo, like a cover shot for Cosmo, it's sooooo worked on and fake. We wonder why so many woman are unhappy with their body... look at the media. Anyway, despite my dislike for what it has done, I like the skill and have been working on it in hopes to be able to use it (to a certain extent) for certain portraits and brides. My latest is linked here. You see the after photo and by rolling your mouse over the photo, you will see the before. Let me know what you think.

Anyway, that's all I got. I have a wedding to shoot this weekend and we are also throwing Kelly and our friend Jennifer a joint birthday party... should be LOADS of fun. I'm pretty excited. Hope you guys have a great weekend!