More from Co part 2

Here is a triptych I out together from some of my shots taken while hiking in the mountains surrounding Boulder, CO.  Not my usual images but I like the subtlety of colors, this captured the dreary weather that would roll in and out during the day.  Working on these images from Boulder really makes me wish I lived there, maybe someday I will be able to convince my work that I can telecommute from there :)

"Boulder Mountains"

Holga

Shooting local

I am sure I am not alone in often finding it difficult to find photographic inspiration where I live.  I have taken to heart the advice given by a good photographer friend many years ago, I almost always have a camera on me.  You can't take a picture if you don't have a camera.  So even if I am just going for a stroll in the neighborhood you will often see me with some sort of messenger bag and there is likely a camera or two tucked away inside.  I don't really have any specific images I am out to grab, but want to be ready if I see something.  And 9 times out of 10 I return home with out a single image snapped. 

The opposite is true if I am traveling and walking around a new place.  The cameras are out and my problem is putting them away.  This becomes a bit of a problem when traveling with someone else as I am always torn between wanting to grab the shot and not ignoring or making my traveling companion feel uncomfortable.  So why is it that I can't find the same inspiration where I live?

Part of the problem is where I live.  I live in Old Town Alexandria which is a very nice, touristy little part of Alexandria.  The streets are lined with crafty stores in 100 year old buildings.  The people who line the streets are mostly camera wielding tourists and Old ladies out to but the latest crafty decoration for their house.  In other words not what I like to shoot.  There is also the fact that because I live here I often feel like I can always come back another day when the light is better and grab the shot.

The usual challenge given to intro to photography students is to go out to where you live and try and find new ways of seeing the familiar.  It's a great exercise, but having lived here for almost 10 years now I think I have done all I can do.  But I still take my cameras with me and every once in a while I do snap a pic or two.

"Fishing on the Potomac"

Holga, Ilford HP5

New eyes...(NSFW)

One of the things you learn in any good beginning photography class is to try and judge your images for what they are not what you want them to be.  In other words to detach yourself from the emotions of why you took the image to see if it actually works as intended.  To often when first starting out we want every image to work and end up getting attached to the idea of the image rather than how successful it is.  You learn quickly that being dispassionate can help you get better by forcing you to go back and revisit a failed attempt.

Well sometimes apparently the reverse is true.  Last year I had what I thought was a brilliant idea for a shoot.  Most of the time in my photography I am out and about and shooting in the moment.  Street photography does not lend itself to planning in advance.  You can't decide on the image you want to capture and then go out and find it.  You have to think and feel on the fly and react to what is around you.  Even when I do studio portraits I approach the shoot much like I do my street photography.  I react to my subject and try and find something interesting.  I may have a few ideas going in, but I always end up either finding something totally different or making the original idea better.

Back to the point.  I had a great idea.  I hired a model.  And spent an evening shooting.  The results were not what I had in my head. FRACK! I have spent a lot of time trying to learn from what didn't work, but I have yet to go back and re-shoot.  I will one of these days once I know I have a good idea where to go.  So after review the results from that shoot and working a few images into the vision I originally had I ended up realizing that I didn't have what I wanted and left the images alone for about a year.

Recently I went back and looked at them with fresh eyes.  nope still not what I originally wanted, but since my original concept required the combining of two images to create two personalities in frame I never had looked at the individual images on their own.  I had always looked for the combinations that would convey the story I wanted to tell.  It turns out that there are many images that work quite well on their own.  Below is one such image.  Let me know what you think and tell me what story this image tells you.

The moral of the story is to periodically review your old images.  They may not have worked for what you originally intended, but maybe with distance you can find something you didn't see originally.

For those of you that care.  This image was originally shot using Polaroid Sepia film.  It was scanned, cleaned up and adjusted.  I also converted the image to B&W using Silver EFEX Pro and then allowed a hint of the sepia tone to blend back in.  I know I know to some of you altering a Polaroid (or any image) is sacrilege, but for me I will always see the image captured as the starting point not the end.

More from CO

Here is another image taken above the tree line in Boulder, CO.  And even more surprising yet another color image.  I probably should go to the doctor because something is obviously wrong with me these days.

"Rocks"

Holga

Above the tree line

Ok so yes I still have more images to edit and show from my trip to San Fransisco, but I have also started working on some of the images from the end of that trip where I sent a few days with good friends in Boulder, CO.  So here is the first.  This was taken on little tour my friend Brian took me on of the local parks.  We started the day by packing lunch and cameras and heading into the mountains.  This image was actually taken towards the end of our day.  We had driven up past the tree line and got out to hike a bit and take some pictures.  It was actually pretty cold so the hiking got cut short since we hadn't really planned for this weather.

And yes this is in color which is very rare for me, but I think you will agree it works much better in color than it would in B&W.

"Above the Tree Line"

Holga

That Red Bridge

Ok so here is my take on the required Golden Gate Bridge.  I'm still not 100% sure it doesn't need a crop, I left the bike on the left just because many of my images from this trip are about bike culture.  I think it is probably a little distracting so I am sure if I ever print this image the bike will be gone. I am also going back and forth on color vs B&W but since I pretty much always show my B&W I thought I'd go against my usual instincts and show the color.

"Golden Gate"

Holga

Walk your Fixie

As you can tell I love me some bike culture!  Here is yet another image near Delores park with some fixie's being walked.  In their defense they are walking on the side walk as they should be :)

Well I am coming to the end of the images I captured in San Fransisco, only a couple left and then I will start on some of the images I took in Boulder, Co.  After that I guess I will have to get off my butt and develop the 3 rolls of color film I've had sitting around now that I finally have everything I need to try my hand at color developing.

"Walking some Fixie's"

Holga

Bikes and Beers!

More from my "series" taken in Delores park during my visit to San Fransisco.  I am sure it is becoming obvious that I fell in love with this park.  If I lived there I would most likely spend most of my free time there.  As a photographer and avid people watcher this place is a gold mine for "street" style photography.  It's strange because I live in a great city (DC), yet there is no place I can go and find such a diverse street life.  In New York and San Fransisco you never know what you are going to find around the next corner but at the same time I never go a day without plenty of subjects and photo ops.  DC has good diversity and plenty of culture and counter culture, but I find it is much harder to just walk around and find great subjects for street photography.  Maybe it's because there is so many tourists, but I rarely try and shoot in the obvious tourist areas.  Maybe it's because this is my home town and everything seems more normal to my eye's.  Who knows.  My plan for this year involves getting into the city more this year with camera in tow to try and capture DC's culture.  I figure it is where I live, I should focus n shooting the people who live here more.  Hopefully I will succeed.

"Bikes and Beers!"

Holga, Kodak Porta, Converted to B&W and toned

Fixie Style

So while in San Fransisco I of course noticed all of the fixie's everywhere.  There is a thriving bike culture around every block.  As expected anytime something is considered cool you will see the posers.  I can't count how many high end track bikes I saw being walked by people who were obviously using the bikes as an accessory, I mean really when your hair and make-up match your bike who do you think you are fooling?  I am for all things bikes so while I find the idea of a bike as decoration I can't really get worked up about it.  It is still exercise walking your bike :)

"Fixie's at Delores Park"

Holga, Ilford HP5

More Haight

I don't have much to say today so I'll just add another image from my day in the Haight.  All I have to say is I love the backpack!  Hope everyone has a good weekend.

"Skull and Bones"

Holga, Ilford HP5

The Haight

Her is another image from last years trip to San Fran.  Another of my favorite neighborhoods to hang out in is the Haight.  Gone are the days of swarms of drugged out hippies roaming the street, and gone is the general grittiness and all around awesomeness that I am sure this part of town possessed. But you can still see glimpses of the past if you look closely enough.  Now there is much more high end boutique shops and tourists taking pictures of the Haight and Ashbury street signs.  But there are some great independent bike shops, some good vintage clothing shops, great places to eat and all around great people watching.  Definitely worth a visit.

"The Haight"

Holga, Ilford HP5

Rededication to Photography in 2012...

Well at least that is the plan.  For whatever reason I spent most of 2011 struggling with motivation and my photography suffered a great deal as a result.  At one point I was seriously considering just selling all of my equipment and finding a new passion, but even as I thought along those lines I knew I couldn't.  Rather than spend time analyzing why 2011 was a bust I have decided that I just needed a break.  So to start the new year I have developed the last rolls of B&W film I shot last year, ordered a few supplies to start developing my own color film.  Yes I plan on shooting more color and figure it is high time I process it myself.  I have started editing the last few rolls I shot last year and will start rolling them out on a weekly basis here and on Flickr.

I'll start with another from my trip to visit my sister in San Fransisco.  Those of you who know me, know that I love cities.  While I am equally at home camping or out in the country side, I will always live in or very near a major city.  I am drawn to the endless opportunities to see and meet new people from all walks of life and frankly you just never seem to get that outside of cities.  I love that around ever corner can be a completely new scene.  My favorite way to travel to new places is not to research all of the "must do" tourist sites but rather to get a good map and a feel for what types of neighborhoods there are.  Then I figure out the public transportation system and start walking around aimlessly.  Driven by hunger and a desire to find good food I will roam with a few cameras and pretend I just moved to the area and start looking for anything that catches my interest.  This method of visiting a new place does sometimes send me into random and dangerous place, it can result in an entire day of boredom.  But it also leads me to find some really great places that most tourists don't ever see.

Years ago when traveling to San Fransisco with a good friend, we meet up with my friends friend (follow that?) at a little cafe on Delores St.  right next to Delores Park.  I was immediately drawn to the park.  Nothing more than a grassy area on a hill with a few tennis courts on one end, it isn't anything special to look at.  What drew me to the park was the swarm of humanity that gathers there. From young to old, hippies to the reserved.  People enjoying a nice picnic to those selling "medicinal brownies".  They don't gather there for a specific reason on most days as far as I can tell.  I have visited the park many times on all of my trips to San Fransisco and have never seen an event going on.  But everyday week day when the weather is nice people gather after work.  Every weekend there is a mass of humanity.  Everyone is just hanging out.  It's simply brilliant.  I am not the most well traveled person, but thus far I have never found a public space like this.  Yes central park in NYC has tons of people hanging out, but it is so vast you can easily avoid everyone else if you want.  I am sure there are part and times when vast crowds gather, but not like at Delores park.  There is just something different going on and I like it!

"Delores Park"

Holga, Ilford HP5

A day in Southern MD!

So back in November I spent the day visiting some good friends and doing some family portraits for them.  They were great sports and their two little boys were so fun to shoot.  We didn't spend too much time shooting, but hey when there are little ones involved if you don't get it in the first hour it's best to take a break and start again another day.  This is why I enjoy shooting for friends, they know that I will gladly come back again and again to visit and shoot if their little ones just aren't feeling it that day.  For those photographers that make a living at this I can't imagine how stressful it can be when you have a set amount of time to make the magic happen.  Me shooting friends is just as much about spending a day visiting with them as it is taking pictures.  I am still working through the images but here is a sample.

 

Now as I was editing this image I stumbled across something.  Might as well add a bit about my post processing here.  So the image you see above was shot digitally and converted to B&W (I know shocker that I would do that).  Anyway as is often typical, the sky doesn't always cooperate on the days when you have a shoot.  So when I converted this to B&W I created a duplicate layer and worked with the contrast on the sky using a curves adjustment layer.  Essentially I darkened the sky and increased the contrast to make it more dramatic and also give the image the impression it was shot near sunset.  In fact it was shot mid afternoon.  So then I used a layer mask to allow the adjusted sky to show through.  So then I accidentally turned off the layer containing the family in B&W and let the original color image show through and ended up with this:

So now I have the original color image (adjusted a bit with a slight sepia tone) and the background is in B&W.  I know I know!  I am not the first person to have color in a B&W image.  And yes in the scope of my typical photography this is just a nice family portrait.  But since that is exactly what I was attempting to create I am happy with the results.  The all B&W image is exactly what I envisioned while shooting.  All that said for some reason I have been stuck looking at the image directly above and I can't quite figure out why.

For some reason having the color foreground and B&W background give the image an enhanced feeling a two dimensionality (is that even a word) that I find interesting.  The color also enhances the "All American" family vibe if you will (I can't quite figure out how to really explain what I mean by that).  The background fades as a strong part of the image, unlike in the all B&W image above where the viewer is drawn to the image as a whole. 

Anyway I am just shocked that I am drawn to any color at all and I should probably go see a Dr. ASAP.  That said does anyone have any thoughts on the color, love it, hate it, why?

Delores Park Pano

Since all my friends are lame and don't want to go out tonight I decided to work on some of the images I haven't gotten to.  Here is another one from Delores Park in San Fransisco.  I found myself spending a lot of time there just people watching and enjoying the weather during my visit.  I wish there was something similar where I live,  While there are tons of parks and during the summer they can be packed with people, they are always full of people with a purpose.  They are there to picnic, or for family gathering, or to participate in organized rec sports.  Whatever, they are there for a reason and focus on that.  Delores Park is different, people just go to be, to hang out.  They come from all walks of life and just co-exsist.  I enjoyed just observing, maybe that's the photographer in me, or maybe that is why I picked up the camera in the first place.  I just love people watching.

"Park Beers!"

Holga

Lion Love

Here is a peek at some of the images I took of my good friends Gary and Diana at Penn State where they first met.  They are recently engaged, congrats!!! So these are kind of engagement pics if you will.  We plan on doing some more images in the DC area, but I couldn't refuse and exchange of pics for tickets to a home game in Happy Valley.  As my previous post shows, game day was cold and snowy but that didn't stop us from getting out for some proper Big 10 tailgating!

After a cold day and a football game that came down to the last second (with my feet frozen solid I had hoped the Nittnay Lions could have run up the score so we might have left early...) we woke up early and made our way to join a Penn State tradition, taking your picture at the Nittnay Lion Statue!

Next we made out way around campus to take a few images at the stadium.

Obviously since these pictures were taken, Penn State has found it's self embroiled in a devastating scandal that has rocked the college football community and the nation.  I think it is important to remember that the vast majority of people associated with Penn State are great people and in no way involved.  They are devastated by the breach of trust and failing of those who represented the university that they love.  I hope everyone can see these images and see the love of a young couple that meet at this beautiful university.  They have many happy memories from their time here.  I feel lucky to have experienced a weekend at this place they love so much before all of this sadness befell them.  They are Penn State and I have complete faith that they will be strong and do what is right and necessary to make sure those responsible are punished and in time find a way to become even stronger.

Next we made our way on campus.

Finally we went to the Engineering building where they first met.

Thanks for a great weekend Gary and Diana!  I hope we can do it again next year!

Penn State Tailgaiting - grab your lion coats this is serious buisness!

So my recent posts have been all over the place, a little bit from my recent west coast trip, some from the Rebel Riders rides, some from some potential projects, and now some from a recent trip to Happy Valley to take some photographs of my good friends at the place they first met.  Little did I know that the football weekend was going to turn into a blizzard.  Here is a first taste from Saturday Morning's tailgating.  Please note at Penn state they take their tailgating seriously you still must have your magnetic beer coozy even in white out conditions.

Anyway at least with the many varying posts I can say I have a decent body of work still to sort through and it is looking like I am finding my groove again.

"Nittnay Snow Lion"

Canon 50D

Not a project!

Ok so as with most photographers I like to give myself projects to shoot, themes to explore, yada yada yada.  But most of the time the minute I label something a project I stop shooting for it or find myself unable to figure out how to proceed.  Or just as often I decide to shoot a project with someone who them moves away or something.  Sometimes the idea are great but just don't reflect my "vision" so I decide to let them go.  This image is representative of an idea I have been thinking about for some time, but I am hoping to just keep shooting it and see if it evolves into something.  Maybe if I don't define it publicly something will actually come from it.  Feel free to tell me what this image says to you, it may help me refine my idea.

Untitled

Holga, Kodak Porta 400

I fear color...

As the title suggests I do not generally shoot in color, even when I pick up a digital camera I usually end up converting the images to black&white at some point during post.  I've always just figured some photographers shoot color and some shoot B&W, no big deal.  After having been in a creative slump, one that I'm still not really out of, I decided to pack mostly color film on my recent vaccay to mix things up a bit.

I have managed to get all of the color film developed and scanned (I still have 3 rolls of B&W to develop).  So here is the first image I started working on.  The focus is softer than I usually like (even for a Holga).  I should note that I took a relatively new Holga and obviously had done a piss poor job of making it light leak proof...but hey embrace the blur and light leaks right?  That's what toy camera photography is all about right? Anyway, while this is not the best image I've ever made it's one of those that I like in spite of all it's flaws and I decided to work on it first.

So for shits and giggles I decided to convert it to B&W and see if I'd like it better and wouldn't you know it, I do....sigh.  The whole point of shooting with color film was to try and convince myself that I liked it.  I can't say I don't like the color version, it's actually makes for a much different image if you ask me.  Anyway if you have any opinions other than "that image sucks!" feel free to weigh in with which one you like better and why.

"Skater Chic, Delores Park, San Francisco 2011"

Holga, Kodak 160NC

Liberty and Fixie's for all!

Here is another image from Lindsay and my Rebel Riders weekend jaunt through DC.  For those of you reading this blog but who don't really know me, Rebel Riders is a bike club Lindsay and I started up for the hell of it.  Basically I floated the idea and she made it happen.  We are a small group of non-competitive cyclists who combine our love for bikes, beers, and service all into one fun group.

Back to the weekend ride, for some reason the fixie's wanted to demonstrate outside of the Supreme Court.  I have no idea either...

"Liberty and Fixie's for all!"

Polaroid 180, Polaroid Chocolate

I'll never let go, Jack. I promise.

So I have finally finished scanning a ton of images from my recent trips to San Fransisco and Boulder, as well as some images from the Rebel Riders weekly happy hour rides.  I still have 3 rolls of B&W to develop and scan, but at least I should have enough material to work on that I should be able to start showing new images more often around here.  At least that is the plan as long as I can find the time these days to work on the images.

So this latest image was from a Rebel Rider weekend ride.  Lindsay and I just got on our Fixie's one weekend and decided to pedal our way through DC with no specific destination in mind.  We found ourselves riding along the south Waterfront just past the Maine avenue fish market (which by the way is a great place to grab a bite to eat!).  We are on a pretty bumpy part of the path and I am concentrating on the surface when Lindsay rides up to me and says "I'll never let you go, Jack!"  Being oblivious I just assume she's gone mental.  She then points out this odd statue up ahead and tells me it reminded her of the movie Titanic.  I continue to look at her, now fully convinced she is mental.  She pedals off ahead and starts bawling, when I reach the statue I discover why....it happens to be a memorial for...wait for it...yup you guessed it, the Titanic.  What the hell a Titanic memorial is doing along the Potomac river in DC is beyond me, but it was obvious photo documentation would be required.

"I'll never let go, Jack!"

Polaroid 180, Polaroid Chocolate film