Philippine Images

I did not do much processing yesterday. Instead I started Deke McClelland's Essential One-on-One Tutorial for Photoshop CS3. He has a brisk style of presentation that keeps me awake. I only finished the introductory chapter where Deke showed what the software can do with an image. It was impressive!

I won't do much processing either today. A carpenter is coming—if Mike finally makes it—at two this afternoon to lower my bedroom doors and make up for the floor sinking an inch or more. The weight of my books is probably the cause but the first contractor I called in said it was the construction of the building itself.
These are two images from my 2007 trip to the Philippines. Francisco wanted to see the foundry at Victorias Milling. My brother-in-law, Arthur, used to work there so offered to take us there. We crossed the water between the islands of Panay and Negros that morning, met some first cousins for lunch in Bacolod and while my sisters stayed behind in the city, Arthur, Francisco and I took a jeepney to Victorias, passing Silay City, famous for its Spanish-style houses, on the way.

I have never considered myself patriotic. My older sister probably even thinks I don't care for family. But as I've gotten older, images of the Philippines find a mysterious resonance in my psyche. There are links there between our identity and the soul of the place where we grew up, imbedded deep where words don't reach but images still convey the powerful connection.

Travel Photos Debut

Landscape, flower, and travel photos reportedly don't attract attention on photo websites. Everybody and his Chinese uncle now own a digital camera and posting photos on ever larger free Internet sites.

After successfully printing model photos on the Pixma Pro9000, I am rediscovering why I liked photography initially. Commercial value is not why I was drawn to photography. Even if this activity does not turn a dollar, there is no denying the pleasure it brings me. This is its more intrinsic value to me.
At lunch with Tony today I expounded on the two directions I want to explore in digital photography. The reason why digital and not film photography is not just that taking photographs is now affordable so amateurs like me learn the basic nuts and bolts of photography; it is also that digitized images allow the pixels to be manipulated.

Now I have never cared for overdone Photoshop-altered photographs. I don't even like the modern graphic layout styles of British magazines. I tend towards the severely traditional in art as in photography. Still I have found myself in places I never thought I'd go so I don't adhere too tightly to what I want. I'd like to see how altering hues and contrasts could do to either change the story an image is telling or enhance some feeling it evokes in the viewer. I have always loved color photographs but admit an almost religious awe of black-and-white and sepia photography. To me this is why reading a book is still often a more powerful experience than watching a movie. The paucity of stimuli allows my own imagination to paint the canvas in a way that seduces me into creative delight.

I also never wanted to print my images. I started out with a digital camera after I discovered the joy of film photography was in the snapping of the images. I liked composing the scenes or find some element of the 360° panorama that tells the story or tells its own story different even than the larger picture. But I am rediscovering how printing a photograph provides access to the beautiful on another level. The texture of the paper, the size and shape of it, adds a dimension to the image that I am just discovering can be powerful. A 5x7" photograph might be good as a memory aid to something we have viewed before but when the image is blown up to 16x 30 or the size of a wall in the room, it moves to a whole new way of appreciating the image.

For now, here two images from the trip to Southern Italy last May.

From Photoshop to Print

My one goal today was to try out the Canon Pixma Pro 9000 that I acquired along with the D5 camera ten days ago. I usually avoid reading manuals or doing the wealth of tutorials available both in purchased products as well as on the Internet but I am finding that to make the real progress I must now have I need to settle in my seat and do the homework.

After I found the documentation that was downloaded into the Canon utilities folder,  the task became easier. The printed Quick Start Guide was helpful to show what the printer parts are meant to do and how and where to load paper. The online guide which was in HTML was way better. It showed me what the several programs that came with the camera and the printer were supposed to do. 

Easy PhotoPrint Pro is an Adobe Photoshop plug-in (originally created for the CS version but works fine with the CS3) that printed better photos than I've ever printed. Photos printed with the built-in PhotoShop print command were inferior to those printed with the plug-in.
I stopped printing photos years ago because of the awful results I got with my Epson printers. Maybe I should have read the manuals. Tony told me he prints serviceable prints with his Epson inkjet five years old. These photos however on the Pixma look as good as any you would get at CVS or Wal-Mart. 

Before I closed shop to to go the gym at six this evening, I printed an 8 1/2 by 11 photo of this model, Lenny. The print command prints on this size photo that it calls "letter." Printing on this size showed the effect of the size crop tool I use on images in Photoshop. No problem though with irregular sizes. The Canon plug-in provided a way for me to re-crop the image inside the Print Command, even showing guide lines that divide the image into thirds! I did not want the image resized. Instead I wanted it to fill the borderless paper while including the parts of the image I wanted included. The plugin did just that.

I don't intend on printing a lot of photos with the Pixma printer. I will probably use Wal-Mart for the less critical printing I need to do and the print option on Smugmug.com for professional output. But I do want to experiment with various art papers. In addition to broadening my expertise with Photoshop technology, like using filters and layers and doing some image manipulation beyond creating a "normal photograph," I also want to experiment with print technology. 

My long-term goal is to create images for gallery and museum exhibits as well as for magazine editorials and, yes, books! I have a long way to go but taking the two hours I did this afternoon is heading in the right direction.

Where I end up is a toss-up. While driving to the gym at noon I listened to the interview with Tom Grant, an American cinematographer just back from China. He had gone there to film the demonstration of a group agitating to free Tibet. Chinese authorities identified him and threw him in jail the duration of the Olympic Games. He and other foreign prisoners were released an hour before the start of the closing program at the bird's nest. The Chinese confiscated over $10,000 worth of his equipment and sent him back on a plane charged to his own credit card. Asked if he would do this again, he replied, "In a heartbeat."

Right now I love photographing models and eagerly look forward to doing more model shoots. But I also want to get back to working on video and Final Cut Pro. Digital photography and videography open up possibilities one can only dream of. 

As I go through my day, especially when out of the house, I see people and think of events that with my camera I could document and share with other people through the Internet. Wielding a digital capture device is a huge responsibility because it gives one the power to share images and ideas. Art is awesome but it is sugar and spice if nothing more significant is communicated, if it does not touch people's hearts or ignite their minds that their lives change for the better.

Abby at Thirteen

I worked with Abby's mom, Linda, at my old Broad Ripple office. Through the years, Linda had spoken about her daughter whose photos were in frames in her office.

When I told Linda that I was doing model photography, she volunteered that her daughter was interested in modeling. 

Abby has never modeled before.

I suggested they come late in the afternoon so I could shoot Abby in the studio and then outdoors at the lake at Keystone at the Crossing. I walk weekend evenings at the lake and have noted sites along the route that I thought would make great backgrounds for photos.

Sunlight in high summer is very intense. Even at 6:30 when the two arrived at my studio, the light was still glaring. I had suggested that Abby not put on makeup but she had done this on her own. It was not  heavy so I thought it'd be okay. 

In the studio, after getting the hang of a shoot, Abby went into poses that made me think she indeed has had thoughts about modeling. Her young body was very malleable. This is probably why slim models are so popular in fashion modeling. The models can bend their bodies into romantic shapes that in most of us would appear more like painful contortions rather than beautiful.

Here are two photos from the studio shoot. For more photos and for the outdoor shoot, visit duendearts.smugmug.com.

Scott Allen, A Loss

I've processed a few solo images of Scott from his photo shoot with Chanté on June 7. 

Scott's friend, Arron, told me Scott was not interested any more in modeling. I think it's a shame. He is photogenic and his looks are classic. 

I felt silly having him pose with this package of spaghetti lunghi from Trader Joe's but the photo actually turned out fine. It goes to show sometimes silly is okay. Maybe I should say, silly is more than okay. I can stay within the comfort zone and turn out ho-hum images.

Anyway I'll post these images and email Scoot to view them. Let's see if he keeps to his decision not to pursue his modeling ambitions. Check out his gallery on duendearts.smugmug.com.

Duende Arts 1

I have created 12 galleries on the duendearts site at smugmumg.com. Here are two photos from the last gallery, Chanté Zimmers, I created.

I had done an earlier shoot with Scott with his buddy, Arron, on June 7.

Scott wanted to do another shoot by himself but persuaded his girlfriend, Chanté, to come. Shooting him with Chanté showed him in a different light. Photographed with a girlfriend, the model expresses him in ways he just does not show unless he has developed good actor skills.

Photographing models I like to capture the nuances of expressions in their faces and bodies. I think these expressions are precious. Life happens too fast for us to really pay attention. Photographs cut a quick slice from that progression that we may alert us to pay closer attention to what we are experiencing. In the end maybe we get the sense that what is really precious is life itself.

I am still working on several work-enhancing tools but I'm ready to shoot again. I am scheduling new shoots for the next two weeks.

To see my public galleries, click on http://www.duendearts.smugmug.com. To view my older portfolios and obtain information about modeling, check out www.duendearts.com.