Category: Art

Fine art, painting, photography, mixed media, sculpture

Photo proof you don’t get it right the first time

Below shows that the best shot isn’t the first one you take. Iteratively and progressively, you build on what worked, and use your knowledge to make it better. Also, stuff happens in post-processing of images. As an aside, I prefer to shoot in aperture priority mode to control my depth of field, and I’ll comment on settings for folks, if they’re into that sort of thing.

This is with a bare flash (Vivitar 285HV wide zoom, 1/16th power and camera at f 8, aperture priority). The flash is too bright, nuking the army dude with light. Need to soften the light a bit.

A few shots later, I put a Wescott mini-Apollo softbox over the flash. The softbox is about 10″x6″ and fits on the head of the flash well. The light is softer and direct, but the image needs something more than an army guy on a table.

They defend stuff, right? So I grabbed the salt and pepper shakers, letting the title of “defending the shakers” float in my mind. Ok, it’s somewhat interesting, but white light seems a bit much.

I took the softbox off the flash and added a warming gel and reattached the softbox. I really like this…

…and let’s punch it up a bit in post-processing, changing the levels, tweaking the curves and upping the saturation.

Continuing on, I added a machine gunner buddy. Cool, but what if I added some light behind them?

I placed a LumoPro 160 (1/8th power, zoomed to 85mm, placed a foot from the army guys). I should have known it would have been too hard (it’s like a flash grenade went off).

I moved the LumoPro to a counter top, so now that flash is about 6 feet away with the Vivitar still sitting pretty. Like earlier, the white light isn’t doing it for me.

I placed a warming gel on the LumoPro, took a few shots, and this is the one I like. Sharp and warm and with a good angle.

…and now punched up in post-processing like above.

2011-07-08
Bloom like an artist

An illustrated parable to growing as an artist by IdaEva.

So true, and applies all the same to any ability to create something.

2011-05-22
To cull or to surrender

In an insightful piece of enjoying and consuming art (of all kinds), Linda Holmes discusses the sad, beautiful fact that we’re all going to miss almost everything.

Culling is easy; it implies a huge amount of control and mastery. Surrender, on the other hand, is a little sad. That’s the moment you realize you’re separated from so much. That’s your moment of understanding that you’ll miss most of the music and the dancing and the art and the books and the films that there have ever been and ever will be, and right now, there’s something being performed somewhere in the world that you’re not seeing that you would love.

I’ve learned to stop reading books that I don’t like, skip songs on cds that aren’t interesting me, to stop watching tv shows that aren’t engaging. I’ve also learned to take risks with movies and music and books in order to discover something wonderful.

2011-04-20
How to steal like an artist

I nodded my head all the way through Austin Kleon’s “How to steal like an artist.”

Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of previous ideas.

If there’s one takeaway for self-described non-creative people, it is that. Synthesize, combine, mash up what you already know, and then you’ll come away with something unique.

2011-04-11
Framing pixels

A member of Chase Jarvis’ team writes up how they mounted iPads for an art installation:

The challenges: iPads are designed to be interactive, to move between apps. How do you keep people from messing with them, checking their email, pointing them at un-savory sites, or worse yet walking away with them entirely?

2011-04-03
Vanishing America – Michael Eastman

Michael Eastman’s book,
Vanishing America, is a warm, visual elegy to small town America and vintage pop culture. Theaters, signs, stores and other everyday interactions are shown in rich detail with saturated colors. The collection is curated across 10 sections: theaters, churches, hangouts, doors, signs, stores, services, automobiles, hotels and restaurants.

Each section is reverent to its subject matter. Where some photographers would show decay and the end of life, Eastman focuses on bringing the subjects to life, preserving them as a visual time capsule. Even those subjects that appear derelict, such as the doors and signs, they don’t feel cynical. Theaters, hangouts, signs and automobiles receive the most in depth portraits. From section to section, the subject matter transitions well. From the secular to the things that lead us there and back to the places where we converge, Eastman sees where socialization and relating to others occurred.

Brinkely’s introduction is poetic, describing how Eastman found beauty in decay.

Of note, as reverent as Eastman is towards his subject matter, his book was printed in China. Perhaps this bit of irony escaped the process or the publisher had no choice, or market forces determined the outcome much like the small towns have fallen to.

2011-04-02
Movie Bar Codes

Slice a frame from a movie, stitch ’em together, you’d get something that resembles a bar code. A bar code that illustrates the color palate of the film. Here’s Singin’ in The Rain.

Prints are for sale, too.

2011-03-26
100 days – a design challenge

Michael Bierut has challenged students at Yale to perform a “design operation” for 100 days.

The only restrictions on the operation you choose is that it must be repeated in some form every day, and that every iteration must be documented for eventual presentation. The medium is open, as is the final form of the presentation on the 100th day.

An additional challenge I see, beyond solving the design problem of the day is having the perseverance, especially through the traditional Hanukkah, Christmas, New Years’ holidays. Being creative and getting something done are two separate things. Doing both, together, for 100 days is a feat. And these exercises are more than a picture a day or a self portrait a day. They have purpose, utility or function.

2011-02-23
The Tao of Photography –

Tao of Photography: Seeing Beyond Seeing by Philippe L. Gross, S.I. Shapiro applies Zen concepts to photography, interspersed with quotes and anecdotes from photographers that were well known for their visionary approach to what they took pictures of. Each section contains principles, applications of the principles and suggested assignments one can do to apply the principles.

The biggest takeaways from the book are the principles of Great Understanding and Little Understanding. The former refers to the unconscious and receptive nature of self. In photography this applies to composition and feeling of the subject. Little Understanding focuses on the small and immediate, this being tools and equipment available to a photographer. You need both in photography. Often, photographers focus solely on gear and techniques that they forget to seek out something larger in their work.

One way to seek something larger, to filter out unnecessary details, is to constantly discriminate to see the most basic, essential aspects of a photographic vision. Discriminating is not the same as being critical. You actively choose what is needed, not why it’s not needed.

I’d definitely recommend this book to understand a different creative approach. The quotes from famous photographers and personal stories are insightful.

2011-02-05
Growing is Forever

A gorgeously shot, deftly narrated and appropriately soundtracked video, Growing is Forever.

Growing is Forever from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

2011-02-03