Week of 07/15/2013: The Feline Gaze

Location: Near 28^th and Grays Ferry

Camera: Panasonic Lumix G2

Lens: Olympus: 14-42 ED.

Image size: 11.5” x 17”

Proof: Epson 3880/ Piezography K7 Selenium inks/ Moab Lasal paper

Recently I closed a sale on a print because I related some interesting details about the subject.  I don’t want my photos to need a back-story to be engaging and for the work I view, I often don’t want to know the particulars. I want to suspend my disbelief and enjoy the idea of photographer as metaphysical magician; however, this capture has an anecdote.

It was past dinner time on a Friday night.  There was a knock at my door but I didn't answer.  I wasn't expecting anyone and I figured it was a solicitation of some sort.  I was curious if someone was going door to door, so I peeked out and saw nobody, but there lying limp and wet on my threshold was a USPS   delivery notice. “Damn, I missed the mail carrier!” I thought.

Saturday, early, I hiked out to 29^th and Grays Ferry, only to have the postal clerk tell me the package was returned to the sender a month ago. Although some force of the universe had led me on a wild goose chase to a desolate part of town, I didn't look at it as a bad omen.  I took my time on the way back, capturing a number of interesting tableaux, including this one which seemed to just materialize before me. I fired off two shots: one “from the hip,” the second making sure the auto-focus had locked on and double checking speed and aperture. I stealthily approached to get closer, but I held out little hope that this feline would stay put, and I was right. As soon as I started to sneak up, she bolted.

The maximum focal length on the micro 4/3 zoom lens I was using is equivalent to an 85mm on a full frame camera, so the image required a fair amount of cropping and enlargement of the file, about 200%. The original composition was a horizontal.  I used a free program called “Smilla,” a digital enlarger that uses a fractal algorithm to prevent pixilation and saw-toothed edges when you stretch an image. I ended up making two files, the second being a special softer one for the cat since the dark tones had too much digital noise due to over sharpening.  I also dodged (digitally) one large black area on the cat’s body to make the transition from gray to black smoother and less chunky.  Though the image is not tack sharp and I always want more detail, it holds up well at the 11.5 x 17 size I've been printing at and is at least as good as the home brew 35mm flatbed scans from which I've been working.

The spalled, powdery brick behind the cat was a problem area. I needed to get the wall to feel “brick-like” but not become dominant.   Printmaking is always that kind of dance between a myriad of details the overall statement and the graphic quality of the print itself. While capturing an image is almost a reflex, printmaking is a kind of alchemy and where the difficult work often lies.  I managed to get to the final print in fourteen proofs. 

Week of 07/08/2013

Location: Approx. 10^th and Wood St.

Camera: Panasonic Lumix G2

Lens: Olympus 14-42 ED

ISO: 200

Proof Print: Epson 3880/ Piezography K7 Selenium inks/ Cone #5 PBaryta paper

I was just about to wrap up an afternoon of perambulations in the area that has come to be known as “The Eraserhood” since David Lynch once lived there and the area does have a distinctively surreal quality. Something told me to keep going a bit longer---to travel west along a narrow and fairly ugly strip that abuts a parking lot; it was near closing time and the sun was getting low. My perseverance was rewarded.

I’m often on the fence about which paper I prefer, the more cold-toned Lasal or the warmer, creamier, Cone 5 paper, that has a slight gloss as opposed to the Moab, which is flat matte.  I usually print on Lasal, since it’s ¼ the price of the Cone and I’m used to the way it behaves. The Cone is also a two step printing process, requiring the print to dry and then receive a clear overcoat. This print seemed to call out for the richer, warmer tone of the Cone 5, plus the better detail and separation in the dark tones that the Cone paper offers.

07 01 13 Intersections

Location: Woodland Cemetery, Phila.

Image Size: 11.5” x 15”

Camera: Panasonic Lumix G2

Lens: 14-42 ED

ISO: 200

Print: Epson 3880/ Quadtone

Rip/Piezographic Inks/Moab Lasal

I arrived about twenty minutes prior to the five PM closing time, so I really had to move on this one. Luckily, this was my second attempt at this shot, so I went right to it. I took a medium format capture as well on T-Max using a Rolleiflex which I will post when the film is developed.

The first go round the sky was fairly dull and blank and I also had too much going on in the frame. I needed to get closer. Cemeteries are difficult to photograph since statuary seductive subject matter and it’s very easy to go astray in the visual splendor, but ultimately come up short.   

Although the tract where the cemetery stands dates to the 1800’s, the march of technology exhales its hot breathe nearby. The bucolic funerary park abuts the train tracks and the smoke/vapor you see rising in the background is the Dupont plant on upper Grays Ferry Avenue; a plethora of overhead wires cuts the sky.  

Week of 06/24/2013

“I Expect Nothing…”

Location: 2^nd near Chestnut

File Size: 11 x 16 @300 dpi

Camera: Nikon Ftn

Lens: Nikkor 105 f2.8

Film: Tri-X, ISO 200

Develop: HC110 1:49 6.5 mins @68F

Scan Epson V500

Printer: Epson 3880/ Piezographic Inks

Proof: Cone #5 Baryta Paper

This shot was taken back in April. I guess it’s my theatre background; the wall and the poster felt like an excellent backdrop. I waited across the street, camera to my eye, set and ready.    

I didn’t realize that the person captured had a camera until I printed it. BTW, you should never carry your camera casually hanging down by your feet as if you prepared to hurl it at Goliath. Better to keep it in your bag or with the strap wrapped around your wrist while gripping the camera and letting your arm extend naturally by your side.  That way the instrument is easily brought up to your eye and you’re not likely to let it slam into anything. The other advantage is the camera is not nearly as noticeable as it is hanging it around your neck.

Week of 06/17/2013: The Road Less Traveled

Camera: Lumix G2

Lens: 14-42 Olympus ED

ISO: 200

Conversion to b&w: Photoshop via channel mixer and gradient mapping

Print Size: 11.5” x 15” @270 dpi

Print: Epson 3880/ Pieozography K7 Inks/ Moab Lasal Paper

 I originally had another photo prepared for this week, since I tried to get a jump on things before the Jazz Age Lawn Party that was this past weekend on Governors Island. I’ll save that shot for next week.

The photos from the vintage photo booth are here on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tsirkus-Fotografika/102587023588?sk=photos_albums

These were done using a special camera I designed and then had built by sculptor Christopher Smith. The rig allows a digital camera to capture the ground glass image from a 1950’s era press/view camera. It’s a little tricky to use, but one soon becomes accustomed to its idiosyncrasies. 

I had wanted to do some shoot walks in the Big Apple for some months now, but the timing and psychological space never seemed to work out. Surprising myself at my efficiency in getting the party images post-processed, I determined to seize the moment and spend some time in NYC photographing. The walk went from Jay Street, Brooklyn in DUMBO to Pier 6 at Atlantic Avenue, to Henry Street, across the Manhattan Bridge, into lower Manhattan and uptown and west to Varick Street, where I again caught the subway.

One thing I’ve learned is to simply go for the jaunt and see what happens; forget about bagging the great photo and enjoy the landscape and what unfolds. Let the mind wander along with the body. Luckily, I love to walk and simply take in what’s there, the only destination being to arrive at a state of being fully present. Alfred Stieglitz talked about the creative photograph aiming to be “an equivalent;” that is, a formal expression of what the photographer was feeling at the time the shutter was pressed. This is all well and good, but on the practical end, there are other convergences that have to take place. In fact, there are too many to discuss here, both internal and external, and traveling the road that courts serendipitous moments is the real work. While not the whole answer, a large part of getting the muse of chance more on one’s side rests in getting behind the camera as often as possible.

The Brooklyn Bridge is too much a tangle of tourists and bikes for my taste, unless it’s very early in the morning. The pedestrian walk of the Manhattan Bridge (bikes travel on the opposite side), near lunchtime was practically deserted. I could stop and take a shot as it pleased me. There is a wire mesh fence to contend with, but the Lumix, because it is not a full-sized dslr, but a micro 4/3, can stick its zoom lens right through with no problem and leave a little maneuvering room to boot. The only problem to contend with was the bouncing of the bridge from the Q Train that goes by. You don’t notice it when simply walking, but look through the camera’s magnified spot for focusing by eye, and the vibration becomes quite evident. Luckily, the weather pattern was very stable, the Sun very bright and I could use a high shutter speed to arrest any telltale motion plus a small f-stop for a deep field of sharp focus.  I patiently waited for the wave phenomenon to damp down, using the time to frame a stronger composition. 

The print was reasonably straightforward to make and could be printed full frame. Being evenly lit, brightly but with a reasonable dynamic range, it required minimal masking other than a special channel mixer layer mask for the sky to make the clouds show. I used it to pull back the blue prior to conversion to b&w. I applied a slight gradient to deepen the right side slightly and improve the symmetry. The left foreground had some fairly dusky areas and some planes that I lightened to make the overall image better tonally balanced. It only took 19 small proofs and about a morning of work to arrive at version with which I was tentatively satisfied.

Week of 06/10/2013: Two for One

Print Size: 11.5 x 17

Camera: Panasonic Lumix G2

Lens: Olympus Zoom ED 14-42

ISO: 200

Print: Epson 3880/ Piezographic Inks/ Moab Lasal

Please step down…

Philadelphia is a city that is constantly in motion. The open sites, the digging in the earth, the structural skeletons of buildings going up and the ruins of old construction coming down, are often in my viewfinder. (I wish there was more re-purposing and restoration.) The building collapse last Wednesday at 22^nd and Market Streets in addition to being a terrible tragedy had a further chilling dimension for me as I had been in front of the site a scant two days previously photographing it. I’ve been documenting that row of buildings in its various stages of demolition from the very beginning when the salvage company removed the ornamental façade from 2132 Market, a fantastic structure with a carved stone façade that ended its days as a pornography emporium. 

This shot is from a different spot. It was taken the previous week at 20th and Race. The building was so undistinguished I barely even noticed it in my travels. Apparently the front had been redone at some point in a glass and tile, industrial fashion, popular in the 50’s/60’s. The interior was clearly much older, likely from the turn of the century.

The combination of the white wall, the contrast-y shadows, the abundant details and textures, and the dark rubble in the foreground made this a difficult print to get right. I was close to finishing up when I just kept on looking at the print and feeling it was off, unbalanced, so I rebuilt the file, changing the cropping slightly.

A print remade and a lesson learned...

For last week’s image, I suspected I could make a stronger print and I wanted to test the limits of the image-making chain.  Even after fiddling with the existing file yet again, I was not satisfied. There was tonal separation in the dark areas of the print, which was visible in the 13 x 19 version. This is usually the result of overdoing the adjustments in Photoshop, such as radically changing the lightness/darkness or contrast of an area. You lose intermediate tones and end up with patches. Was the problem in the camera, or the software, or the way I was working? It’s easy to point the finger at the tools but my experience is that the biggest fly-in-the-ointment is often the guy behind the camera or the editing desk. I’d much rather turn deficiency into a “Eureka!” moment than blindly invest in more gear.

The original source file looked fine, but I could tell I had really bumped up the contrast in certain areas when making the black and white print. It’s very easy to overdo in Photoshop and radically changing brightness or contrast often leads to mid-tones dropping out and a non-photographic, unpleasant look.

I did an end-run around the problem by making multiple .tif files from the .raw data the camera creates, one for each problem area of the print, doing my best to get each as close to the envisioned final result as possible. The goal was to make the tonal and contrast adjustments in Photoshop as mild as possible. I then employed one aspect of a technique I often use called “layer masking.” Layer masks allow certain areas of images aligned and stacked one on top of the other, to either show or not show. The fusing of the visible areas from different layers to make a unity is often the tricky part. There are ways to automate the masking process, but each image is unique. Invariably it seems I have to zoom into the image at high magnification and “paint” the masking in for certain delicate areas. The pay-off is it allows a lot of control in manipulating the print when the ambient lighting is not quite ideal. 

06 03 13: In The Wilds of Center City

Camera: Lumix G2

Lens: Olympus 14-42 zoom at 33mm, f5.6

ISO: 200

Print: Epson 3880/ Piezography K7 Inks/ Moab Lasal

This image showed up in my neighborhood late in an afternoon of unplanned shooting. Printing and editing over a long morning that had started very early, I had walked up to Penn to use their Internet and found them closed.  I decided I needed a break and went to see what my lens might find.

The white flower caused the most problems since it needed to be both bright and show detail. It had to be as perfect as possible within the limitations of the original capture. Tonal control had to be employed on four different areas: the petals, the underside of the flower, the large leaf, and the background. This meant three areas that had to be carefully masked. I worked with a color base image and even though I could use the color to select various areas, there still was a lot of manual labor involved filling in areas and cleaning up edges. Dodged and burned in the darkroom, a result like this would probably be nigh impossible even for a virtuoso printer, which I never was. A good print often took a whole day and a garbage can full of tests.

On the twenty-first iteration (shown here), I felt I had a print that worked.  I backtracked slightly, to version sixteen, deciding that somewhat less illumination and contrasting detail around the base of the leafy plant made for a stronger print. Since I can’t resist experimenting, I continue on, and have hit iteration twenty-six as of the time of this writing. In the course of making different versions, I had used two different color-to- black and white conversion methods on the leafy part of the image, but it wasn’t a “one size fits all” proposition. One was better for the top, the other for the bottom. So, I’m in the process of merging both into one file. Obsessive? Perhaps, but why compromise?