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Posts published in “Galleries”

Windy Hill and Burritos, 06/15/2009

October 9, 2009 |

Galleries and Photography

Clearing out more of my backlog, here’s a small set from the last time I was in California. I think these were all taken with my beloved 85mm. I just love the texture it imparts, the beautiful edge blurring, the extremely shallow depth of field, and the way it distorts things when used wide open on subjects that have lots of depth, a field of thistles, for example.

Here’s the whole set. I couldn’t be bothered setting up a page for only 14 photos.

[flickrset id=”72157622551668604″ thumbnail=”square” overlay=”true” size=”large”]

Yum. Burritos.

> Continue reading...Windy Hill and Burritos, 06/15/2009

Christina’s Graduation from University of Oregon, 6/13/2009

October 9, 2009 |

Galleries and Photography

Here are a few of the photos I took while in Oregon. They are mostly uninspired I think, but some of them are nice. I don’t know, I guess I just wasn’t on those days. I really just wanted to get these up since they’ve been sitting on my computer since June.

Here’s the whole gallery.

Christina’s Graduation, Eugene, OR Gallery – 6/13/2009

> Continue reading...Christina’s Graduation from University of Oregon, 6/13/2009

The North Country, Minnesota – 9/12/2009

September 24, 2009 |

Galleries and Photography

I few weeks ago I went up to Minnesota with my friend Mikey W for a week in the woods of uninterrupted, extreme relaxing. The goal was to get some work done, which happened to a lesser extent than desired, but we also trekked through the Minnesota State Fair, accomplished a whole lot of drinking beer, made some fires much too large for the tiny little fire pit we had, fished for tiny little guys not worth eating, and rocked the hell out of the Indian Casino in Walker, MN. Not bad at all. And, of course, I made a bunch of photos. I have some thoughts on the development of these afterward.

Here are a handful of my very favorites.

Check out the whole gallery here:

The North Country, Minnesota Gallery – 9/12/2009

On this set of photos I really spent a lot time making local adjustments within Lightroom. The light during the week was very difficult with lots of hard shadows, reflections, areas of wide dynamic range. It made getting good exposures right off the cuff fairly difficult. Add severe haze to the mix for the few days we were at Lake Superior just north of Duluth and you’ll understand the conditions. While shooting I aimed to get a balanced exposure, not too hot in the highlights, not to dark in the shadow, so that I could extract as much detail as possible back at the computer. I think I did a pretty good job on these, especially at making my local adjustments fairly seamless. What do you think? Is there anything glaring here that you notice? Do you notice at all? Thoughts?

> Continue reading...The North Country, Minnesota – 9/12/2009

The Finger Lakes 8/27/2009

September 3, 2009 |

Galleries and Photography

Last week, as I mentioned previously here on The Black Laser, Juli and I took a much needed vacation up to the Finger Lakes which are in the western part of New York State. We stayed at a fantastic bed and breakfast called The Fox & The Grapes in Lodi, NY, which, as it turns out, is right smack in the middle of New York’s wine country. Who knew? And being relatively close to Ithaca, there were the expected, yet utterly exceptional, gorges to experience. It was a lovely trip, one I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to a couple wanting to get the hell out of the city for a few days. Check out The Fox & The Grapes. We were easily the youngest people staying there by two generations, but don’t let that deter you. The owner, Jim, is fantastic and will give you a discount if you stay for more than three nights. Go! Now!

Anyway, while up there we hiked around a couple of state parks, Taughannock and Watkins Glen Gorge, went to a weird military museum in another, played tennis with rain threatening, kayaked, ate buffalo wings so hot that I had an endorphin reaction and got high, and then liberally sprinkled wine tasting throughout. Since only two of those outings were picture friendly and dry, my photos are quite hike-centric. Here are a few of my favorites. Thoughts on the photos afterward.

Here’s the whole gallery—Finger Lakes, NY Gallery 8/27/2009

Yeah yeah, so photos of waterfalls are cliché. Whatever. Fuck you. I like them. I think they’re nice. What’s wrong with nice? Nothing. I’ve come to grips with the fact that I am not, nor shall I ever be, one of those totally edgy photographers that makes even the most mundane things look super intense. I just don’t see the world that way. I appreciate that type of photography and sometimes think, “Man, I’m going to try and shoot some, like, really edgy, intense photos or something,” and then they just end up coming out pretty. Even when I want to shoot that way, I can’t help but just making things look nice. Oh well. Fuck it.

On the topic of the way I see, I was playing with shooting things on this trip to match my eye sight. I’ve noticed that I see at about 73mm equivalent—probably why I like the 85mm prime so much, it’s close to the way I see normally—by opening both eyes while zooming until what I see matches. Of course, not everything in this set was shot at 73mm, but it was something I was cognizant of as I composed my shots. It was an interesting exercise to crop such a limited rectangle out of my normal field of vision. For example, the first shot of the four above was one of the 73mm-same-as-Joe’s-eyeball photos. Feel free to dig through the gallery on Flickr to see if you can find more 73mm photos.

> Continue reading...The Finger Lakes 8/27/2009

Alma Matter 8/22/2009

August 24, 2009 |

Galleries and Photography

I cannot believe that it’s been 3 months since I last posted photos here. What the hell have I been doing with myself? I’ve been taking photos—that much, at least, is certain—but I have no idea why I haven’t posted any here. I have a serious back log to tend to which is only going to be set back further by the trip I am taking with Juli tomorrow to the Finger Lakes. Sounds dirty.

This last Saturday, The Metric System threw a fund-raising show we called “Alma Matter”. Get it? Like “Alma Mater,” but, like, different or something? Anyway, it was super deep and emotional, and, as usual, I documented it.

Overall I’m quite pleased with the photographs I made that night. Here are a few of my better ones.

The whole gallery can be found here: Alma Matter Gallery

> Continue reading...Alma Matter 8/22/2009

The Metric System Naïveté Second Party – 5/08/2009

May 15, 2009 |

Galleries and Photography

The second Metric System party went off last Friday the 8th like gangbusters. It was a good time, maybe not as crazy as the first, but it felt more cohesive. So, good job, us. We kicked ass. Look for another party in 6 months!

Here’s the gallery! The Metric System Naïveté Second Party Gallery – 5/08/2009

Here is a selection of my favorites

I think this set of photos, overall, is pretty good, but not as good as my first one. I don’t know what the difference was. I guess sometimes I’m just not as on as others. Oh well. There are some definite keepers in this which is the whole point. I’ve really got to work on using my flash to better effect when there’s absolutely no other ambient light around, as was the case during this party. I’m not entirely sure what I could be doing better while maintaining the look. I’d like to have better control of the light in general and be faster at adjusting the flash output without resorting to bullshit auto-mode. E-TTL II my balls. What I need, I suppose, is practice. These events are good for learning, but I’ve got to figure out some better shit for next time. I also think it would be helpful to have another photographer JUST to cover the performances, someone equipped with a fast, long lens who could focus on the stage, while I wandered the crowd, telling people not to smile, with a fast, wide lens taking photos of people. I want this one, but I think it’s a little too expensive for my soon to be jobless situation.

Anyway, enjoy the photos. I have a backlog of stuff I’m still working through, so keep your RSS readers peeled for more.

> Continue reading...The Metric System Naïveté Second Party – 5/08/2009

Portola Valley – 02/26/2009

May 7, 2009 |

Galleries and Photography

While at home this past February, Juli and I spent a couple afternoons wandering through the woods surrounding my folks’s house, since, sans auto, we were a little stranded in the cultural island that is Portola Valley. But, shit, what do you need to have a good time but a camera and a sunny day? Not much, I think.

I’ve made a gallery of the first and second sets. I will add a third set to it as soon as I get around to tidying it up.

Portola Valley Gallery – February, 2009

Here are some of my favorites.

I’ve been playing around with extracting as much texture and color from these sorts of photos without making them look like you would expect. I tend to err on the dark side, if indeed I am erring at all. I am interested in coaxing unearthly colors and feelings from totally earthly subject matter. I don’t know if I am being successful or not. Maybe I’m not taking these things far enough. I don’t know. Regardless, I’ve never been opposed to just making pretty pictures. That’s really all I do with my photography. I’m not exploring the human condition or documenting news or shooting edgy fashion spreads. I just want to capture the world in front of me and present it to people the way I see it, the way it makes me feel. I definitely feel like I’m getting better at doing just that, but that I have a long way to go.

My development experiments continue. I feel good about this slightly-off, slightly-too-dark thing I’ve been doing for the last few sets. I feel good about my progress with the local adjustment tools. Next up is making convincing black and whites. I always feel like making black and whites from my color photos is kind of cheating, in a way. Maybe I’m just so afflicted with demo love for the colors I see in the original RAW files (which are actually black and white) that I can’t bring myself to throw them out and work only in gray. I played with the black and white thing a little on the Richmond photos, but that was a cop out since the photos I made black and white were of the underside of a concrete overpass—essentially black and white already. Lame. I need to learn to see in black and white, what to bring from a color negative into a black and white world, and how to compose for a monochromatic universe. I think it will help my photography overall, color or black and white. Look for that, probably in the set after the next Metric System party.

> Continue reading...Portola Valley – 02/26/2009