Photography
We are putting the finishing touches on the new student Photo/Media Program photo gallery at Lake Area Technical Institute. This is one of two walls of student photos. Tomorrow, the Governor of South Dakota comes to LATI to help dedicate the new wing of our campus and we are hoping he comes to admire the student photos.If you live in Watertown, you might consider coming to the LATI open house, which starts at 2:00 and ends at 6.
While I was waiting for a few of my students to take photographs of the amazing Cathedral of St. Paul, I stepped outside and took a few shots of the exterior. I had my 70-200 telephoto with me and so I focused on details.It occurs to me that what you see in this photo and how you see it are totally dependent on the photographer. And that's an interesting power to have. . .
Lately, I have become very conscious of the role that texture plays in my photography and that what attracts my eye is often the textures in a scene, not the scene itself. And because textures are enhanced (or even caused) by light, photography is all about light. The word photography literally means "writing with light." Study this photo and if you can see the textures, you can see the light.Having said that, it's hard not to see all of the textures in this photo, which is of the south facade of the Minnesota State Capitol building in St. Paul. I liked the color version but when I turned it into black and white, the textures became more important than the color.For those who care, these columns are Corinthian in style, which is characterized by the elaborate design at the top, known in architecture as the capital.
My aunt Betty left South Dakota for California when she was 18. That had to have been a huge leap for a petite girl from the midwest. She went with her oldest sister (my aunt) Phyllis. Phyllis moved back to South Dakota after a few months but Betty stayed for the rest of her life.As close as we can tell, this portrait was taken in 1943 in California when Betty was about 22. That's close to 70 years ago.This photo has powerful personal and family meaning to me but as an occasional portrait photographer and as a photography teacher, it is a good example of what I have said more than once to my young students: a well-posed, well-lit portrait will never go completely out of style.Of course, the hair and clothing fashions of the 1940s have faded. And while a white vignette isn't something you see much of these days, everything else about this portrait still "works," especially the Rembrandt lighting. This photo has a sepia tone to it, though the color would have been applied by hand, since color film was a novelty in the 40s.Finally, as I look at this "analog" picture, I think of the billions of digital files (mine included) that never make their way to paper. If Betty's portrait had been done with a digital camera and if it had only been seen and published on a computer, we wouldn't be looking at it today. What will exist 70 years from now that will decode this and millions of other blogs - and the pictures that illustrate them?
I don't think sunlight actually has texture nor can you actually see it - sunlight texturizes the things it illuminates. Right?But, instead of talking philosophy and physics I would rather talk about this photo, which wouldn't exist if my mother-in-law hadn't pointed out the look of the sunlight streaming through open Venetian blinds onto the curtains in Evelyn's nursery at Alecia and Derek's house.Thanks, Glenyce. It's always good to have others help me see things. . .
Many of the photos I have posted recently have been resurrected from a fairly large collection of old digital files that have been languishing in a virtual closet. They are a little like old, worn t-shirts that have great sentimental value but should really be turned into rags. My wife even tells me that if I get a new t-shirt, I need to throw an old one away. Imagine that! What if I had to throw one old picture away for every new one I took?Well, that's not in my genes - I blame my parents for being a packrat. And the good thing is that my photos are pretty well organized and that programs like Aperture, iPhoto and Adobe Bridge make it easy to view collections of old pictures.So today's photo was just waiting to see the light of day. It was taken in Venice, Italy, in 2006 and though it looks fairly simple and straight forward, I put about 30 minutes of processing into this to get it the way I wanted it.I'm sure if I had been listening to our tour guide that day, I could tell you more about this man. But I'm afraid I was caught up in my photography. . . .
This is a shot of the front of the Terry Redlin Center in Watertown, South Dakota. And I think it is a good example of the power of the photographer to direct the viewer's attention to details and views that he or she wouldn't or couldn't get independently. Most people see the Redlin center like this.I chose to focus on a very small section of columns just under the triangular pediment. I also chose an oblique angle. Finally, I used a telephoto lens to compress the focal plane, something the human eye can't do.Am I manipulating you? Youbetcha!And, as if you don't already feel used enough, how about my black and white treatment compared to "real" color? I don't know about you, but I like the b&w version better because the photo seems more unified. The colored version tends to allow you look at features in this scene in a way I don't want you to.This is all in a day's work and these are the kind of things true photographers think about. And my goal in life is to keep getting closer to being a "true photographer."
Yes, this is a repeat - and I'm not even on vacation. Why the repeat? Because I've been learning some new things about photo editing. In fact, I've made a video:
In my search for photos from my early days of digital portraiture, I came across this photo of Joelle that I took almost 9 years ago. I had a great subject but the the photo also represents the power of Aperture by Apple as an editing tool in that in a minute or two I was able to retouch and then enhance the photo. All of this was done in preparation for my Advanced Digital Photography class at Lake Area Technical Institute.One of the nice things about teaching photography is that I learn at every step along the way and today was no exception.
This photo was a "shoebox" experience about 30 minutes ago. In a quest to find photos I have been ignoring, I started at the chronological beginning of a library of digital photos that has close to 50,000 pictures. About 300 pictures into my search, I found this. I don't remember taking the photo, but I do remember the class with great fondness.The light source was a single 150 watt bulb and the camera was my Canon 1D, which represented the state of the art in DSLR photography in 2002. The camera cost $5500 and do I dare say that it was worth every penny? It had a whopping 4.4 megapixel sensor!The "shoebox experience" is what many of us have encountered when we are searching for something in our closet and we come across a box of forgotten photos. I am sad to say that decades from now, no one will have a clue about all of the digital media that we put into boxes. If the 8-track tape and the floppy disk are evidence of the ephemeral nature of electronic media, imagine what will happened to hard drives and compact flash cards we are using today.If you want to enjoy your favorite digital photos years from now, you need to get them printed. And then put them in a shoebox.
For the first time in two years, I have updated my blog's look. I've been contemplating a change for a while but fear of the unknown kept me at bay. When you change themes in blogs, all of the photos have to be resized, hopefully by an automated process. And who knows what you'll get?But it looks like things are working, though if you aren't using a 21st century web browser, you may have problems. Let me know if you do.Here are a few of the changes:
Those who have been reading my blog for years will probably hate what I've done. But I'm not going back. . . .