Bluerock

Jura Canyon 2015

I started the day with my 25 mm. lens on the Pentax 645Z - but noticed exposures weren't right - and I hadn't screwed up the settings. Checked the lens to see if I'd taken it off of auto aperture - and notice the lens seemed a tad loose, and on further inspection, very loose - between the base section and the middle section - and it wasn't quite square either. Odd, as I'd used it not long before. It will have to go in for repair.

Spent the day using the 35 mm. lens - smaller, lighter, sharper at the edges, but obviously not as wide - so did a lot of backing up, and much more stitching than I'd normally do with this camera. Where I needed both great depth of field as well as stitching, I shot at f22 and got pretty decent coverage from front to back of the images, as well as decent sharpness. On this oversized sensor camera, f22 is eminently useable, which it never was on 35 mm. cameras.

Britannia Mine

Really pushing the boundaries of acceptable sharpness, yet I like the effect. The exposure is .6 seconds, f4, ISO 1600, shot as the mine train bounced it's way along the tunnel. The goggle 'eyes' are ear defenders, the hanging yellow can, the bell.

 

 

These three images are from the main building, where the ore was crushed.

Centre Street Bridge

 

Ken and I went out 'snapping' after dark last night. Though the Centre Street Bridge has been done many times, we still felt it worth tackling. The top image is a homage to Lewis Baltz, the bottom a rather ordinary image except for catching the rays from a passing vehicle headlights.

 

The Whole Shot -- Theatre Chairs

I was asked to show the whole shot and here it is. OK, but not as good as cropping to the right side only.

Turntable II

Reminds me of a Japanese painting. I did wonder about increasing the contrast but I like the subtlety here so backed off on pushing it further. The other question would be whether I should have trimmed off the rivets and brackets but I didn't want to lose the material at the bottom and think the framing by this material works. As usual, click on the image to see it 1000 pixels wide.

Chair

 

I did something radical here - I cropped the left half of the picture - there was a second chair, with weathered wood and some white stuffing sticking out in a nice arc, but it detracted from all this - which is what really attracted me to the chairs in the first place. So it had to go.

The obvious question is why didn't I shoot it this way in the first place - all I can say is 'wish I had'.

Hanna Turntable

From the north side of the turntable, with the remains of a snowdrift next to it reflecting in the shiny metal. Two images, stitched, minor cropping (I'd originally included rivets at top and bottom but prefer this look.

Widowmaker Continued

This is a two image stitch, then cropped a bit off the top and bottom, and slightly at the sides. The light rocks have been tamed, the shadowed rock opened a bit, some 50/100/0 unsharp mask applied, and then the image toned using my add a solid layer, set blend to colour.

Kananaskis River - Widowmaker II

I photographed here last summer, and today Ken and I went back out. Forecast was for freezing rain so we were not sure the trip would fly, but as we left town, there was even a little sun breaking through on the horizon.

As we went west the clouds built up and they reached down to the ground and had those streaks in them that tell you it's wet somewhere. We actually hit snow as we pulled onto Highway 40 for Kananaskis Park, but with winter tires and a bit of care, we pulled off for the river.

I put on some studded overshoes and had no issues climbing around on sloped rocks, while Ken stepped gingerly without, but neither of us fell.

We had a good three hours photographing - my endurance is improving leaps and bounds compared to a few weeks ago when after an hour I had to sit down or fall down - so nice. I could have done a variation on the shot made last summer but instead concentrated on the rock formations across the river, and also behind and above me as I stood on river's edge.

Both images are stitches. The first is with the 300 mm. lens at f22 (and the foreground isn't sharp) but I figured it wouldn't really matter given the water was moving anyway. The second image is with the 120. By the time the stitching is completed, the irregular edges are trimmed and then there is some compositional cropping (very modest), we're looking at about 120 megapixels.  Interestingly, the first image looks better small, while the second is best full screen. You can click on either to see them larger (1000 pixels wide).

Stand by for some more images from the shoot in the next couple of days, and I think there is more to be made of the location in a future trip. I must sometime post an image of the white water when the dam is open and the kayakers find it lives up to its name - whole n'other setup!

Banff

We had four days in Banff before I started back at work last week, half time for now. I took the gondola to the top of Sulphur mountain and photographed with the Pentax, aware that with such a well known location and limited chance to move I wasn't going to shoot anything original, but it was fun, and my first day shooting outdoors since the surgery - I even hiked (slowly) over to the weather station and back to find some other views.

I don't know what peak this is. I made the photograph with the Pentax mounted vertically, and three images swung horizontally. It was an interesting shooting situation. Except for right next to the gondola building where there is a concrete pad, all of the boardwalk is very bouncy and the tripod shakes with every footstep, even ones 40 feet way in some situations.

I also found that there was a great deal of atmospheric disturbance - the image literally swam on the lcd - so I cranked up the iso to 400 (remember it was very bright) to give me a shutter speed of 1/1600 af f10, the lens my 300 FA f 5.6.

This was a high enough shutter speed to deal with shutter shake (exc. when people were nearby) and also to 'stop' the air movement. The result is an image that is reasonably sharp, considering. Below is a 100% crop. The full size print is 62 inches wide at 300 dpi.

Post Hip Replacement

It's five weeks tomorrow and 8 days till I can drive again - what a relief. Recovery has been going well - fatigue being a bigger issue than pain, but even that is improving. Haven't felt the need for pain medication in the last week and am just back from a six block walk, albeit with one crutch. Don't use an aid in the house but better safe outside in the winter. Fortunately it's a really mild January with temps above freezing so walking is very pleasant.

Did go photographing on Saturday but it was exhausting after about 90 minutes and I sat and waited for my friend, and even wandering around The Camera Store after was tiring. But today's walk was much faster than the one only two days ago and the more active I get the better I sleep.

I return to work part time Feb. 2, with mixed feelings.

Went to the 4mp movie yesterday, no crowd. Saw Imitation Game - great movie!

Hip Replacement

Got a call Thursday before last, surgeon had a cancellation, did I want to move up my surgery? This news in the middle of a busy day seeing patients. Well, there were issues with the previously scheduled date in Jan. like no locum and a lot of missed office during the recovery - so yes, 4 days ago on the 17th I had my left hip replaced - interesting process, lying there awake while they bang and saw and drill, fortunately with something to relax you so you don't freak.

Went for a walk outside today, barely a block in total but after my hip really stiffened up. Otherwise I'm pottering round the house with one or two crutches (turns out crutches don't have cup holders. I've learned that if I bend my operated leg backwards, I can bend forward and touch the ground without breaking the rule about not bending my hip more than 90 degrees.
Stairs are interesting - going up, lead with the good leg, down with the bad. For the most part I don't have pain just lying back on a recliner or lying on the sofa, minor discomfort sitting upright - actually better than I'd hoped for this stage.

With luck, some weight loss and a fitness programme, by spring I'll be ready to go out photographing.

Planetary Body?

Actually, a stainless steel pot sitting on a black ceramic stove top.

Rephotographing Negatives

A recent Luminous Landscape article discussed both the merits and the process for photographing negatives and slides, bypassing the exageration of grain and dust that tends to come with flatbed scanning of film.

It seemed both easy and practical. I happened to have a macro lens. One photographer used flash to back light the film, the other a small 4X5 inch light table. It was no longer available from Vistek but B&H sell the same thing made by Logan, for about $80 - very reasonable.

I ordered one and when the table arrived, set up my tripod at the corner of the dining room table, the light table sitting on the dining table, and the camera aimed straight down at such a height as to capture the entire 4X5 inch negative.

I grabbed a pile of negatives in their paper sleeves and started going through them - any that seemed to have strong composition, I'd photograph them.

At this point, some film comes out of the sleeve dead flat, no sweat. Others have a distinct curve and I'm going to build  some metal guides for the negatives so they end up near flat. Experiments have shown it doesn't take a huge curve at f 11 and only a foot away from the negative to blur the edges of the film.

This is very much a work in progress. Resolution - better than my 4870 flatbed scanner, grain dramatically less, dust - wow - so much less hassle.

The bad news, this image wasn't sharp when printed in the wet darkroom, now at least I can see why - the focus is on the centre lighter tree and there just isn't enough depth of field  - it makes an 8X10 but not a 13X19 of quality.

Tonality - excellent - detail - nice throughout the negative, nothing lost in rephotographing - I think we're really onto something here.

My 120 macro for the Pentax 645z goes to 1:1 so I can get full resolution on my old 6X6 negatives and adequate resolution for 35 mm.

Expect to see some old work - this from the early 80's, shot with a wooden lightweight field camera and 210 mm. lens.

Scrambled Eggs

Did I say I was a good cook, no I didn't. Actually, with my wife recovering from a total knee replacement, I've been scrambling in more than just cooking and burned the pot. An attempt to clean left it like this, so I figured... Time to get some steel wool.

A Sober Look At The Work Done

I want to do a book of my black and white photography.  I know that I'm unlikely to find a commercial publisher because I simply am not known enough to sell thousands of books of fine art photographs. The market is quite tiny anyway and compared to technical photography books, those sell at a rate that is probably 100:1

So I've been thinking, I need to get my work out there. An email arrived announcing the latest portfolio contest for B&W magazine. I've been in it a few times, but not in several years. A check of my hard drives shows submissions in 2008 and 2010 but frankly I can't even remember if I sent those in.

The contest rules state it can be a 'best of' collection, but I decided I'd limit myself to seeing how many strong black and white images I could find that I have made in the last three years, 2012 - 2014.

Well, much of my work in the last few years has been in colour, and with one thing and another, I have not been shooting as much as I used to, so finding some 8-12 strong images in monochrome from a three year period has not surprisingly been, shall we say, interesting.

Do I include the cowboy images - I think they are strong, but they sure don't fit when sitting next to a bunch of landscape and semi abstract industrial images. It's the usual question, that applies whether cropping or selecting a series of images for presentation - do the extra images or extra pieces of image add more than they take away.

My thinking right now is the cowboy images just don't fit, even though the rest of the images are a hodge podge.

I tried flipping a number of colour images to b&w and some certainly worked, but weren't better for the conversion and didn't stand out - so much for that idea. A couple of images did look good though in black and white and with further editing might just serve. Below are five that have survived the road to black and white. and I'm open to thoughts.

I'm fairly sure I'm not finished editing all the images. For example I did the first image last night, and made a print, but felt today that while it had potential, it was weak and so worked on the image further, adding some subtle highlights and shadows to the rubber bumper on the left, and darkening the wall on the right, while lightening the base of the wall, and then bringing back some highlights by using a straight curve, white point moved to the left and carefully painting into the masked layer in Photoshop.

But I need 8-12 images so on goes the selection process. Stay tunes for further iterations.

Back Out Shooting

Still a long way back to normal but oh, it was nice to be out shooting today.

I printed the image above on metallic paper and it works very nicely. Shot with the 120 mm. lens, wide open.

Atlas Coal Tipple, Wash Shed, Pentax 645Z

I can't speak highly enough of the Pentax 645Z files - there's just so much to work with - so much resolution, dynamic range, shadow detail that can be edited, and robustness of files when manipulated - probably too far in this image, but I saved it as a colour version before adding the extras so can blend that back for a more mellow effect.

Ah, that's better.