Archive for November, 2003

11/18/03

Published on November 18, 2003 in Text. 0 Comments .

Wow… 2 weeks without so much as a journal entry on the site. That’s what happens when your computer system dies. It’s actually not even fixed yet, I’m doing this from Lan’s system, I just needed to upload some pics and write some crap here, before the site goes into hibernation again, which I really don’t want.

Anyhow, I’ve done quite a bit in the past couple weeks. First, I went to San Jacinto with Lan, Jarr and Bonny. We attempted the peak from the Palm Springs Aerial Tram Mountain Station, but failed. I think I’ll write up a little story on that in the Adventures section soon. Then, this past weekend, I went with Jarr, Tony and Kevin to attempt the same damn thing, and again failed. This time it was snowy. I won’t go into a story here, I’ll leave that for the write up. I did, however, take some pics since I last updated the site, at both trips of course, and also one day at Peters Canyon. Guess I’ll show a few here, even though there is nothing all that great…

First, the initial San Jacinto trip… didn’t come up with much of interest:

It was a fun trip, but I didn’t do much, photographically speaking. Then, one day coming home from work, as I was passing Peters Canyon, I saw this:

This past weekend, on the second SJac trip, I took even less pics than on the first trip, but I think the few I shot came out a bit more decent. The first one was obviously just from goofing around, but it was interesting to me… the last one was done through an Oakley VR28 lens, though I undid a bit of the effect with PS Levels:

The second and third shots are basically of the same view, taken about 2.5 hours apart. One on the way up the mountain, one on the way back. Even without the filter, the 2 shots would be very different, just from how much the clouds and light had changed.

I really wished I had done more with the camera on these 2 trips, but what with the cold and the pain and the lack of oxygen, I don’t think I was really all there. As if to prove this point, I shot these when we stopped at the highest point of our hike… at 10,200′ above sea level. I feel that at that elevation, and higher, we truly become ourselves (ie. stupid), so I have posted this collection of images in the bio section for anyone who happens upon the site and wonders who I am. I really want to rewrite that bio, guess I’ll get to it eventually…

11/2/03

Published on November 2, 2003 in Text. 0 Comments .

Shooting with Josh down at Camp Pendleton was a lot of fun today. We hit up only 2 spots… some lake, the name of which I have already forgotten, and some dilapidated old building with some really cool looking peeling paint. Unfortunately, the peeling paint didn’t come out well in my shots, but I got a couple shots from the lake I liked and a shot of a rat trap at the old building that I really like. I was hoping to do more with the reflection of the clouds in the lake, especially because the clouds in SoCal this week have been particularly fluffy and solid, unlike the usual clouds around here. They are more reminiscent, to me, of the clouds back in New York. Anyhow, here are the pics, my favorite being the rat trap:

The one of the leaf and sludge is also pretty cool, now that I look at it. I don’t usually take such cluttered or colorful photos, I usually try for a more simple composition, but I like this one. For some reason, I really enjoy the rat trap one, though, something about it works for me. I am not usually one to really like anything of my own, so it’s strange that I would like this one, but oh well. I wonder if it is actually a well composed shot and I have finally done something decent. Or, there is a good chance that I just like it for some unknown reason and no one else will share my enthusiasm for it. Either way is ok with me I guess.

Which brings me to a question… what makes a good photographer? To me it seems like really good photographs are made with about 50% art and 50% technical skill. Maybe more art, I guess, maybe more of a 60/40 relationship… but technical skill still makes up a big part of that. When I say art, I guess I really mean creativity, or whatever… Anyhow, what if someone is really good at the technical aspects of making a good black and white print. They have contrast, tonality, etc… down to a T, and can make any well exposed photograph come to life in terms of its appearance. If a person like this had no real creative skill, no compositional ability, wouldn’t they still be able to go out and shoot like crazy and finally end up with photos that will work, then they print them using their technical magic and have masterpieces? I guess that would make the reverse harder, though… for someone to have great compositional skill, someone who could really choose their subjects and shoot at just the right moment, but who was an ass in the darkroom. I think you could have the most wonderfully framed shot and it would still look like crap if it were not printed well.

When I see a really well done photograph… and I haven’t seen all that many in person… but when I do, it is always printed really well. That, to me, is one of the biggest factors in making a print look like it was done by a “professional” rather than an “amateur”. Even online, when viewing photos on websites… the ones that were scanned well and edited in PS really well are the ones that look great and professional. I think that some of the photos that you don’t even give a second glance to on photo.net or whatever could look great if only they were presented better.

So, what skills do I have, if any? Am I technically proficient? I don’t think so. I know some stuff, but I certainly have no idea how to bring out rich tones in a print. I still use “auto contrast” and “auto levels” sometimes in PS, because it usually does a decent job for web display. I haven’t spent all that much time in a darkroom, but when I did, I remember not knowing what to do at all… just trying to get the contrast right was pain enough.

So do I have great artistic creative ability? I’m pretty sure that is a no. One look at my “New Photos” section will tell you that. I know I am getting better each time I go out and snap some pics but do I really have what is so often referred to a the “eye”? If I do, it must be turned off.

I guess I’m trying to help myself realize that I will probably never be the photographer that I want to be, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be able to have fun while I’m trying. I’d love to make a living doing photography, but not mainly as a portrait photographer and definitely not as a wedding photographer. So are my dreams even realistic? I dunno. Maybe I’ll have to try thinking about this again in a year or so, and see if I even stick with photo for more than a few months this time. I have already killed off any dreams of doing anything with music… what was I thinking? I have no musical talent… I guess I am just afraid that the same is true for photography for me. Maybe I will never really know…

11/1/03

Published on November 1, 2003 in Text. 0 Comments .

Last night was a lot of fun. Scaring the crap out of kids is a pleasure that can be enjoyed only on rare and special occasions… Halloween being one of them. For the first time I really tried to use the G3 for non-flash nighttime people photography, and it did… ok. The problems are the max ISO of 400 and the max aperture of 2.0. Last night I really really really missed my M6, but oh well. It would have been nice to be able to shoot at exposures shorter than a second, but that’s what I get for shooting digi. Thanks to motion blur, most of the shots from the night came out pretty crappy… but I liked a few:

The show we put on was quite a hit with both kida and parents. You know you have a good show when the kids come back, but not for the candy, but just to check things out again. In the second photo above you can kinda see the setup we had. Scarecrow man was on the left, coffin with monster inside was on the right, the wicked witch was handing out candy in the middle. We also had the tombstones and Christian played the little dead kid. All in all we had a great time, and so did the kids who came by. Some were too scared to come in, some weren’t scared at all. It was the skeptical kids that were the most fun. While I was the scarecrow it was most fun when the kids would debate with one another whether I was real or not. Somehow that was even more satisfying than when I’d yell out and jump at people. Being in the coffin was a lot of fun though, nothing like a scary monster jumping out of a coffin to make kids drop loads in their Spiderman pants.

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Tomorrow morning Josh and I will be going on a little photo excursion. Hopefully much inspiration will be found and amazing photographs will be created. Either that, or at least we should do something so entirely stupid that it will be memorable enough to look back on and laugh, but not so stupid that we have to look back on and cry about. “Boo hoo, remember when I lost my leg because you said it would be safe to jump over the croc infested waters to get a better angle of them feeding on that other guy who fell in?”