justThorne, Noticing

new frontispiece: That Sinking Feeling

 

August 2010 at Signal Mountain, with 100mm Macro lens on the 400D. 1/500th at f/4 and ISO 400.  30" print.

It may look slightly off balance to the right at smaller sizes, but at print scale, it's as good as it would get. Any additional margin to the right would up-end the whole thing.  

 

Have pretty much lost my photo mojo in the last couple of years, but did one fruitful shoot last summer while visiting an old friend, and went browsing through the results on New Year's Eve for inspiration.  It was mostly finished around then, but then needed to fester for a while.  

The main development challenge was enhancing the depth and focal points without exaggerating the stripes. It really wanted to turn into a zebra.

Thanks for Sarah for all her help as a useful and inspiring assistant, and to Will for an objective eye after my first draft.

 

new frontispiece: Classic Motion Picture

  

December 2009 outside of Doha, with my 400D, MT24-EX Twin Lite, and 100mm Macro lens.   1/200th at f/11 and ISO 100.  30" print.  

 

If anyone sees this and thinks I've cracked, I'm cool with that.  ;-)

 

almost through...

Whoa, February just entirely snuck up on me!  And though several works are in various stages, included my planned new frontispiece Classic Motion Picture, nothing's ready to debut just yet.  (In particular, the last two weekends have been consumed by The World to Come, but it's going to take another solid day or two of work to wrap up.)   

So I'd already considered Debt to Society to be frontispiece-worthy, so I'll swap it out to the headline slot now.  It certainly deserves largest-possible display.  

Meanwhile, I've been buried under the home stretch of the semester, and fallen behind on virtually everything else (especially my email and correspondence).  But vacation is almost here!  No travel plans, because a) I'd rather stay put and really get a lot of art done, and b) my 24mm has finally crapped out, and I'd rather not spend the money to replace it just yet.  

So, The World to Come should come along this upcoming weekend, and followed shortly thereafter by Too Long Enough, my first serious manipulation since 2004!  And then basically I hope to mix up my vacation with brand new works and getting some old ones finally into print.  (Does anyone out there remember Mission From God ?  It was never polished off for print back in the day.  And a couple other "classics" have never quite run the final mile either.)

Ah, so much to work on.  I lack sometimes for easy ones to turn around, but almost never for ideas that should be at least painstakingly doable.  I was invigilating an exam the other day and scribbled out a list of every potential project to cross my mind, and easily exceeded sixty or seventy that I'd really like to get done.  

So it's about time to get doing!

  

New Year's status and plans

Didn't post anything new this weekend past, but will probably post two new prints this weekend coming.  Have got a gorgeous new print already finished (working title: Debt to Society), but it's landscape-oriented and only my second ever true black and white, so I want to put up an upright full color print beforehand, to better separate Debt and Hint of Salvation in the "latest" gallery. 

It's terribly anal to worry about such things, but I appreciate the motivation derived from it.  The last several days have been spent searching through the archives for the best shot to serve that purpose, until finally have settled on one working-titled Under the Spell.  Just started it last night, but it should be no problem to finish within a couple more days.  

  

new frontispiece: A Hint of Salvation

  

December 2007 in the desert, midway between al-Hassa and the Qatari border, 
with the 10D and 50mm f1.4 lens, 1/1200th at f/4 and ISO 100.  24" print.

  

I mentioned before that I wasn't at all proud of my last composition nor its focus, and an undiscriminating eye might think this one suffers from the same reservations.  But on the contrary, I would only have adjusted this focus very slightly, and am completely adrool over this composition.  (My spell checker doesn't like adrool ?!?)  In fact, this one feels (at the moment) like one of my most profound compositions ever (but my new ones usually do after I've been looking at them for days, lol).  

Very miscellaneous notes behind the fold, for anyone interested in such things.  Happy new year!, new decade!, to everyone else.  

  

new print: Rumors of My Demise

  

February 2009 in Doha, with my 400D and the 100mm Macro lens, 1/200th at f/4 and ISO 200.  20" print.  

  

Ladies and gentlemen!  Step right up and enjoy my worst composition ever!

I mean, yikes, I am almost really embarrassed to say that I shot this one.  The balance is awful and the focus is pretty ill-advised too.  And yet, I haven't been able to get it out of my mind, just hoping that the sum total is worth it.  (It did shape up better in development than I would ever thought possible, but it's still pretty yikes by my standards.)  

Worth noting:  I did go back to try shooting this dinosaur again, but both attempts were unsuccessful.  

And also worth noting:  this is probably my last new print of the year.  Not much of a Christmas person, but will try to cook up something special for the new year, besides the new frontispiece for January.

Enjoy your holidays!

new print: The Lie You Left Behind

  

October 2004 in Lexington, with my 10D and the 50mm f1.4, 1/20th at f/2.8 and ISO 200.  Above is detail from the 24" print.  

  

Am enjoying the challenge of trying to surprise you people.  Found this little treasure on my hard drive a few weeks ago, and its time has come.  This one kind of reminds me of my deviantART days for some reason, though I certainly never did anything like this at the time.

Had never seen seed pods like these until I moved to Lexington, and found them fascinating.  Thus, got in the habit of bringing them home, training a tripod on them, and shooting dozens of identically-framed shots gradually over weeks while they sprouted, wondering what I'd get.  (Notably, the camera could be removed, but the tripod had to stay put.  I had extra tripods, however.)  Think I did this with two or maybe three pods over two years, and this shot above seems the most creepy or unsettling of the results.  

Am a little embarrassed about the exposure - that black is plugged beneath him - but at least I got the damn focus right.  Not very happy with the way that the title hangs in this one.  It may be revised.  

Oh, and for anyone who's known me/been to my home in real life, that is the top of one of my KEF C45 loudspeakers, certainly among my proudest possessions, so it's fun that one of them is showing up in my work.  You would not believe their quality of sound.  

Anyway, hope you like the dementia of this one.  I'm quite proud of it, actually (other than the title formatting, which has vexed me).  Above is the print detail, and the full composition is in the Latest gallery.  

  

Cold and Wet?!?

No more new ones this weekend.  Worked hard last night on Rumors of My Demise, but going easy on myself tonight.  (It's really almost done, but I've got to go back and precision all my draft masks, and figure out how to border its awkward dimensions into a print ratio.  That latter task wasn't going well last night, probably served well by setting it aside for a couple of days.)  

Will tell you to tease you though:  Rumors will be the worst composition I've ever finished into a print!  But it's developing into better shape than I could ever have imagined, to overcome the worst of its terrible framing.  And the gestalt of title to image will be among the best ever - sort of fun and sort of creepy and sort of what-the-?!?  I'm so cranked about it.  But neither am I motivated to finish it tonight and leave it up as my latest work for several consecutive days - the composition is really embarrassingly faulty.  (And thus I'm compensating by depth-charging the hell out of it, and surprised by how well it's working.)    

In other news, it's been raining today!  A lot!  And even saw some lightning on the way home from work, which is even more rare around here.  (We seem to get rain about two days a year, on average, but I've only seen lightning once in over three years here.)  Went out a couple of hours ago to see if I could get a good angle on shooting any bolts (and then would have worried about how to keep my camera dry), but didn't find anything decent within walking distance.  Was very surprised to realize that I live smack in the center of the least fruitful view of the University.  It's more impressive from every other direction than this one.  

It is, however, a very strange sensation to walk back home cold and wet around here.  

Anyway, despite a lame November for art, and getting almost no new work done during vacation, I'm feeling fired up now and getting ahead of the curve again.  Feeling kind of wan on the animals lately, but very motivated for the models and especially for more scenery work.  Will probably start working on next month's frontispiece, Ringside Seats, this week, to see if it will shape up to expectation.  You guys wouldn't believe how many get drafted but never pan out, but I'm hopeful to sift out the apocalyptic feel that it deserves.  

Got a very sweet note from Robin this morning.  None of my models could probably guess how much their feedback encourages and inspires me.  Might do a "sweet and sexy" one of her as my Christmas image in a couple of weeks, one that stymied me years ago but that I've certainly got the chops to pull off now.  Still not sure what to call it though.  

But feeling fired up on all cylinders, so stay tuned.  

  

new print: Them a Lesson

  

  

Shot February 2009 in Doha, with the 400D and 100mm, 1/30th at f/5.6 and ISO 100.  30" print.

If you don't get the title, that's fine.  I'm not afraid to risk non sequitur, and like playing with its possibilities sometimes.  In this case, I figure about half of viewers will at least feel the right idea, even if they can't put it into words.  Which is more or less the target that I'm always shooting for.  (Not "half of viewers not getting it," but rather, "viewers feeling the right idea beneath a cognitive understanding.")

And if this just seems completely bizarre, keep in mind that I'm finding enormous motivation in trying to surprise you people.  ;-)

As a side note, this was from my first serious shoot with a 400D.  My first one was defective, so I ended up buying a used and reliable one off exactly the same friend that I frequently visit in Doha.  This shoot was its baptism of fire.  It did well.  

Some thoughts about shooting and the importance of peripheral vision behind the fold.

  

new print: Would Wait

  

March 2008 in Dhahran, with my 10D and a cohort's 70-200mm f4 IS L.  
200mm, 1/800th at f/4 and ISO 100.  24" print.  

  

I enjoyed borrowing the 70-200 L (and its Image Stabilization), but it (and some experience with Canon's 24-70mm f2.8 L) really reinforces for me that even Canon's best L zooms have trouble keeping up with my fine primes.  I got good clarity on this (and the gallery JPG looks better than this one above), but not as crystal clear as I'm used to.  (I currently shoot with the 24mm f2.8, my third 50mm f1.4, and the 100mm f2.8 Macro, which sum total cost about as much as the 70-200mm used above, Canon's 24-70 L, or their 24-105 IS L.)  

Less Photoshop than you'd think here, mostly just to saturate the sky smoothly and make the most of detail as possible, but it was shot as silhouette to begin with.  A different look from me, hope you like it.  

This is the one that's been vexing me for the right title.  It didn't have to be grand, but it needed to at least be sublime, and it finally unraveled for me this morning.  

Will be traveling down to Doha tomorrow, so probably won't post any more this weekend, but so glad to finally get this one resolved.  It's been holding up some other works coming along behind it.  

  

I am so lame (but this laptop is NOT!)

Two weekends in a row with no new posted work?!?  How lame am I?  

Working on lots of things, but have been more in a clerical mode - sorting through and sorting out pictures - than a fiendishly artistic one.  Perhaps a bit crapped out from the frenzy of October?  

There are a couple of great things waiting for my next big publicity push in December (and also some interesting news in tandem), and a couple that could fly now if their titles would just cooperate.  

Most of all, trying to find and maintain that mode where art is fun and not work.  

But I do not consider this lull acceptable.  

As this upcoming weekend approaches, I'll make sure there's at least surprises in the pipe, if not finished new prints/works of art.  Gotta keep you people interested and coming back!  

But then again, it would be useful and motivating if more visitors were speaking up.  Please do keep in mind.  I'm going to keep doing art regardless, but audience motivates me to finish it.  I'm getting some traffic, but next to no feedback at all?  (So special thanks! to those couple of people who do.)  

  

In other news, I'm typing this on my new (2007) MacBook.  Certainly the nicest laptop I've used since my old 300mHz G3 Series back in the late 90's (which, when I got it, was the fastest laptop on the face of the planet).  That earlier model had the most luxurious typing and trackpadding experience ever, and was like a soulmate for me (and a bitter pill to part with).  But this one might finally fill its shoes.  It just feels very right, even the new features that I'm not at all used to.  And 3 GB of RAM won't suck either.  

Notably, this MacBook has Firewire, while the new (non-Pro) models don't.  So just like when I bought my G5 iMac (after the Intel models had been released, but Photoshop hadn't been updated to run well on them), there's a real value in buying a used machine.  

To be clear, all my Photoshop and Aperture will still run on the Mini (with 4 GB of RAM and the 37" screen), and all my web and website activities (and iTunes) will still run on the 20" G5 iMac.  This new MacBook replaces a hagged out (from its previous owners) 12" G4 Powerbook that crapped out in June (right when I needed it for returning to America).  Ideally, it will serve as my primary long-form typing machine, and of course my photo dump when I'm on shooting trips.

But additional machines and compartmentalization are huge assets for me - the difference since the Mini took over all the photography work has already been huge.  In my Powerball fantasies, I've got tabletops lined with six or eight workstations for keeping numerous intensive projects in motion in tandem.  It's quite likely I'll get another Mini next year, to have Photoshop workstations running in tandem (one for longer more intensive projects, one for quicker turnarounds and experiments).  Yes, I'm a freak, but it's all about juggling varied priorities efficiently and effectively.  

So anyway, all for now, but be sure that great things are on the way.  Among other things, going on another trip to Doha this upcoming week, and I always get great photography from those trips (like this month's frontispiece).  But I'll make sure to get some stuff ready for uploading before I hit the road.  And then do it from right here on the new MacBook!

(I do hate the name "MacBook" though.  "Powerbook" was much cooler.)

  

new print: Yesteryear

  

  

December 2007 in the desert, midway between al-Hassa and the Qatari border,
with the 10D and 50mm f1.4 lens, 1/1600th at f/4 and ISO 100.  24" print.  

This looks a bit dark here?, but quite right in the gallery page on a dark background.  Take a look there too and let me know how it looks to you.  If the sky is too rich, I'll blame it on the conversion to sRGB and tweak it in the next day or two.  Oh Lord, how I despise sRGB.

But I really do like this image.  

  

There's a good story behind this one, one of my strangest stories from life in the Middle East.  If y'all are interested, I'll write it up sometime this week.  But for now, I've been chasing chromatic aberration too long and I've got to get some sleep!

Oh, but a shout out and thanks to Lance.  He looked at a draft of this last year and helped me figure out a major issue with it.  Fresh eyes do me a world of good.  (But then why is it that I always turn to musicians?)

  

just another day...

Off my routine this weekend.  And have worked on several things that won't pan out.  (Generally only finish-to-satisfaction about a fourth or a fifth of all the shots I start developing.)  

But if you're waiting for something new, I'll get Yesteryear up later on Sunday night.  Finally solved the worst of my 37"s calibration problem, so it shouldn't take but a couple of hours to polish off.  And it's a cool one (with a strange story behind it, which I'll write up too).  

Less than two weeks until a two-week vacation.  Should be able to fill up the backlog again then (and tackle a couple of really ambitious projects).  Besides that, admittedly, a couple of really cool things are done already, but waiting for more audience to accumulate around here.  

  

new frontispiece! "All You Birds 'n Bees Got Nothin' on Me"

This one has been planned at my second frontispiece for months, but it sure fought me on the home stretch.  Here's the full print, and you can see a detail version on the home page.  

  

  

Shot April 2008 in Doha, with the 10D and 100mm Macro lens, 1/500th at f/4 and ISO 100.  24" print.  

  

This was, incidentally, literally the first time in my life that I was manually focusing with any confidence.  I find it miserably difficult at 50mm or wider, but wonderfully easy with my 100.  

As for the print, have decided that my standard 24" 3x2 ratio is best, but not cheerfully. It was intended to be a 30"x15" fotoflot print throughout its process, but ultimately decided that the composition was too weak at that width (though not without merits). Making it available with some reservations, but what do you think?  You can get a look below.

arrrrghuh...

Finally had swept up my new frontispiece to my satisfaction.  Last night, it'd had one issue that I needed to back away to figure out. (Needed a Black channel, and I don't use them much anymore, so it didn't occur to me at first.) So tonight, I came home and fixed it.  Ah, looks so glorious on my huge 37" television screen, which, of course, I bought for Photoshop, not for television.  

The problem is that the LCD TVs play by different rules than LCD monitors, and completely defy all the monitor calibration utilities I've relied upon.  

But I've been managing to get the tone right on the big screen, and then tweak out some red-imbalance on my little iMac.  (Notably, I've only got one license for Photoshop, so firing it up on the iMac means quitting on the Mini.  And also notably, the Mini has 4GB of RAM, as opposed to the iMac's 1.5.  So any Photoshop on the iMac is a real hassle, especially since I have it tied up with other ongoing projects, like everything necessary for these web updates.)  

But for some reason, the last two images I've been working this week (Yesteryear and All You Birds and Bees...) have delivered absolute MUD to my iMac, not only in color, but also in tone.  Tweaking color on the iMac (and its limited RAM) is one thing - my color is usually only four or five layers thick, so I flatten the tone on the Mini and transfer it over with its color stack still broken out.  But my tone is usually about twenty layers thick.  

This is especially maddening because something seems to have changed, and I can't imagine what it was.  A week earlier, I developed Never Before (which you haven't seen yet because it is soooo special), and its tone came over to the iMac fabulously.  (And I developed that one from scratch too - there was no prior work from the iMac within it, unlike half of everything I've posted lately.)  

So pardon me for venting, but it is really upsetting.  I didn't buy that 37" screen not to use it for Photoshop.  (And the developer of my favorite calibration utility is buried under other projects for the time being.)  The worst thing is:  what changed in my set-up?  I can't damn imagine.  It wasn't ideal before, but it was quite workable.