Prepping for Cyanotypes

I ordered some pre-treated paper to make some cyanotypes.  Can’t wait for it to arrive.  In the meantime, I made these images and their negatives.

Walkin’ The Dog; Feeling Nostalgic

For our Street Photography assignment, we had to pick a place we could visit frequently.  I’m living at mom’s house right now – my childhood home – and my daily walk takes me along a road that parallels the lake shore, then down the main street of the village, and back another lake shore parallel one block further from the lake itself.

These are the same sidewalks I walked and biked as a kid.  Things are so different now.  I took the above picture on the block where the elementary school once sat.  It was torn down in 2005 and chopped up into lots.  Ten years later, only two of those lots have houses – new and fancy – so out of place next to the more modest homes that were first built in this neighborhood.

The developers named the block “Schoolhouse Square” or something like that. Silly. There is no hint whatsoever that a school ever stood here. That name will mean nothing to potential homeowners, unless perhaps they attended the elementary school and still feel nostalgic.

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I took this photo in 2005 when the building was being gutted before final demolition.  I learned how to read behind that bottom right window:

Mr. Weiss, the high school chemistry teacher used to take all the class photos. Here is my first grade class:

Exercise: Second Curtain Sync

Normally, the flash fires at the beginning of the the exposure time.  But if you go into the camera’s menu, you can change the setting so that it fires at the end of the exposure.  If a person or object moves through the frame, ambient light on the moving subject will create “smoke”.  The flash at the end of the exposure freezes the motion of the subject.

These were 1.5 second exposures at f11. I used a speedlite flash unit that I borrowed (thank you Dave Cooney!) with the flash compensation dialed down and the built in diffuser in place.

Many thanks to Daman Holland and Destiny Gates for being my models, and to Scott Barton for setting up the stage and ambient light for me!!

Here’s a great photo I found on the Internet that shows the difference between using the flash in the default “first curtain” mode (top) and changing the setting to second or rear curtain (bottom).

In the top photo, the flash stopped action as the car entered the frame, and then ambient light captured the drag so that it appears in front of the car. In the bottom photo, the camera captured the drag in ambient light first, then the flash stopped action as the car was leaving the frame.

Duality

  

Ethical Dilemma

I took my camera for a walk along my selected location for my “Street Photography” assignment. There were no people out and about on this bright but very cold Sunday morning. But I kept the phrase “portray the human condition” in my mind as I walked.

The sign in this storefront caught my eye:

I also photographed the sign which is taped to the window and the shut off notice laying on the sidewalk next to the door. The sign explains why the shop is not open and how to contact the owner if you want to purchase anything. The shut off notice clearly shows the owner’s name, address, amount due.

I feel the three photographs together make a comment on “the human condition.” But should I post pictures of the sign and notice, or is that a violation of the individual’s privacy?

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UPDATE: I’ve decided to remove the name from the shut off notice and post the photos:

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I was surprised at the range of opinions on this matter. In the end, it was Kim Turners comment that while there would be nothing illegal about me showing the photos, I should listen to my gut… and my gut said to erase the name. The truth is, anyone really interested in finding out who this is could. I’m sure there are public records that could be searched to find the property owner’s name.

Trees

I’m just messing around with the Nik Collection… Eventual goal is to make some negatives on acetate to use for cyanotype and solar paint prints for a workshop we’re doing at Audubon on June 20th. Here are some early experiments:

That second one will probably need to be lightened up quite a bit so the whites are whites. I just seem to love that yellowed antique look…

On the Street Again

Love the reflections in this window. It’s hard to be sure what is inside the shop and what is out. And if you look really closely, you can see me in the window reflection!

After I took the window shot, I turned around and noticed several patrons outside the restaurant. I asked, “May I take your picture?” Their response was delightful: “Well, I think you BETTER!” It was hard to find a way of editing to make sense of all the crazy colors and the bright sunshine that cast such harsh shadows… But I’m fairly pleased with this.

Black & White Re-Do

I created my own custom pre-set in Nik’s Silver Efex Pro and applied it to my street photos from the other day.

I like the way the pre-set gives all the photos a consistent look.

Sunset Circles

I saw this image by Kylie Niemand in Photographer’s Forum magazine:

I like map overlay and the over-turned circle. It inspired me to play in Photoshop to see what I could come up with. I also added some features from the NikCollection plug-in, just for fun.

I Bought NikCollection!

I bought the NikCollection.  Fun, Wow!

The negative is comparable to the composer’s score and the print to its performance. Each performance differs in subtle ways. ~ Ansel Adams

This will be fun.