5/08/2006
infrared flash
I'm cobbling together an infrared flash. There are a lot of ways to do this, but after shooting in the bat house and some other glass enclosed areas in the zoo - I can see that for sure you need to boost the infrared light levels. The basic technique is to put infrared #87 gel over the flash. Weegee from what I've read used flash bulbs that were coated to absorb everything but infrared light. I've also been studying the infrared shots of Minor White (which are wonderful). What I'm seeing is that you want to minimize as much as possible the elements in the image to somewhat known IR entities. A good example is a shot of Poplar Trees, New York State. Maybe that's true for any shot, I don't know.
The flash should be ready tomorrow. I guess Buddy will be my first subject. He works for scale.
The flash should be ready tomorrow. I guess Buddy will be my first subject. He works for scale.
5/07/2006
5/06/2006
Central Park Reservoir
This began as another palindrome but I decided to just leave a slight trace of the reversed skyline.
5/05/2006
Visual Palindromes
Taxi!!!
Something Happened
Woman with Dog
These are from a visual palindrome series I've been toying with.
5/04/2006
First Mac Virus?
Welcome to our world.
Here's the first article I ever read about a Mac virus. Macs are moving or have moved to the intel chip. The question I have is how difficult would it be for virus makers to port their code to the new OS.
Here's the first article I ever read about a Mac virus. Macs are moving or have moved to the intel chip. The question I have is how difficult would it be for virus makers to port their code to the new OS.
Tech Notes
I thought I'd just jot down a couple of things about the infrared photography that intrigue me:
Meter readings are with the Gossen Luna Pro. If I'm shooting in sunlight it's set to 100 ASA. If I am going to bracket - I'll do one at what the meter reads and one a stop more open.
For street and urban shots that were printed in the darkroom, this film would be difficult to use. There may be numerous blown out areas that might be important to the shot. But with Photoshop (using things like multiply layers, gradient masks etc.) if the effect has gone too far - it can usually be tamed. Jim S. mentioned this to me. I've been doing applying various correction layers since the first test roll. The man in the spiral is an example where I used a multiply layer and a gradient map. Without that the entire shot is blown out.
The shot below this - towards 110th street has been dodged and burned in a way that I couldn't do in the traditional darkroom without resorting to film masking techniques that were once used to adjust contrast in color prints.
I find that just trying to think in infrared gives my imagination a jolt that it needs. Brain is going: how is this going to show up. Where are the lines? In other words, all the things you should be doing normally - get a bit of a push.
Black and white is already an abstraction and gives you a chance to accentuate the design elements. With infrared the design of the shot can become more minimal. For me - there is a similarity to city snow shots, or night shots - where all of a sudden the crap of the city becomes invisible, the trees and roads and rivers are simplified to a few lines.
There are a few avenues I'm interested in exploring: shooting with tungsten light for example where my tests actually show a higher ASA for the film. I had one crazy idea - using an infrared flash in a movie theater to do audience reactions. Don't know if I'll get to that but I've not seen it done before for pictorial purposes. I think a horror film would be best.
And now I realize I'm procrastinating getting to some matting and packaging by writing this so I'd better get on with it.
THE RIG
Same old M3 usually with the 35mm or 28mm lens stopped down. Light red filter (#25). Kodak HIE film. The Leica lens doesn't have infrared marking for focus, though that could be easily determined with a couple of tests and a little bit of tape or something on the lens to mark the spot. So far I haven't worried about the focus shift because I've been shooting with wide angle lenses and I'm usually at F8 or F11. The film is developed in Ilfotec DD-X with the same times I use for Tri-x (- 30 seconds). I load and unload the film in a changing bag which I bring with me. It's a pretty crappy one which I bought from Adorama. Somewhere in the house I have a good one which I once used for loading large format holders but I can't seem to find it.Meter readings are with the Gossen Luna Pro. If I'm shooting in sunlight it's set to 100 ASA. If I am going to bracket - I'll do one at what the meter reads and one a stop more open.
For street and urban shots that were printed in the darkroom, this film would be difficult to use. There may be numerous blown out areas that might be important to the shot. But with Photoshop (using things like multiply layers, gradient masks etc.) if the effect has gone too far - it can usually be tamed. Jim S. mentioned this to me. I've been doing applying various correction layers since the first test roll. The man in the spiral is an example where I used a multiply layer and a gradient map. Without that the entire shot is blown out.
The shot below this - towards 110th street has been dodged and burned in a way that I couldn't do in the traditional darkroom without resorting to film masking techniques that were once used to adjust contrast in color prints.
THE IMAGINATION
I find that just trying to think in infrared gives my imagination a jolt that it needs. Brain is going: how is this going to show up. Where are the lines? In other words, all the things you should be doing normally - get a bit of a push.
Black and white is already an abstraction and gives you a chance to accentuate the design elements. With infrared the design of the shot can become more minimal. For me - there is a similarity to city snow shots, or night shots - where all of a sudden the crap of the city becomes invisible, the trees and roads and rivers are simplified to a few lines.
There are a few avenues I'm interested in exploring: shooting with tungsten light for example where my tests actually show a higher ASA for the film. I had one crazy idea - using an infrared flash in a movie theater to do audience reactions. Don't know if I'll get to that but I've not seen it done before for pictorial purposes. I think a horror film would be best.
And now I realize I'm procrastinating getting to some matting and packaging by writing this so I'd better get on with it.
5/03/2006
Even More IR
Woman in Garden, Central Park
Sitting in Sun (Schurz Park)
I'm still in IR mode. I might be there for a while. More to follow...
Energy Caeser
I've decided to apply for the new post of Energy Caeser. My major plank is going to be that gas prices in our empire should be controlled so that they are steady - and most importantly as high as gas prices in Europe. My theory is that this is the best way to encourage alternative sources of energy and will force what are already global car manufacturing companies to sell the cars they sell in Europe to America.
True - these cars don't have room for DVD players, or even cup holders - but we are an adaptive people and will learn to hang our coffee from flasks around our necks if we need to. And don't forget - we invented miniature golf!
Now my campaign advisor believes this is idiotic because the car is the American symbol and has roots going back to the cowboy era. Americans want big, fast and powerful machines that say who they are. Not these cracker boxes.
Oh that's good. He's just arrived with a flak jacket for my first news conference. It has a couple of holes in it. He says he got it at Walmart. No - don't worry, he says. The holes are from the last politician that took this stance.
Who was that, I ask?
Someone you never heard of, he says smiling. But if you look beneath the Meadowlands you might find him.
True - these cars don't have room for DVD players, or even cup holders - but we are an adaptive people and will learn to hang our coffee from flasks around our necks if we need to. And don't forget - we invented miniature golf!
Now my campaign advisor believes this is idiotic because the car is the American symbol and has roots going back to the cowboy era. Americans want big, fast and powerful machines that say who they are. Not these cracker boxes.
Oh that's good. He's just arrived with a flak jacket for my first news conference. It has a couple of holes in it. He says he got it at Walmart. No - don't worry, he says. The holes are from the last politician that took this stance.
Who was that, I ask?
Someone you never heard of, he says smiling. But if you look beneath the Meadowlands you might find him.
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