04/01/2013


The Getty Center in Los Angeles is one of the great museums of the world. It is located in the hills above Santa Monica and has a view that extends from the city center to the ocean.  The museum allow's photography so I thought it would be a fun challenge to make some pictures there.

Museums are typically not lit well for photography but with the right gear and the right frame of mind there are fun things to make photo's of.

Im using a Nikon D700 and for this trip I equipped it with a Zeiss ZF 50mm f1.4. I set the ISO sensitivity to 1250 aperture at f4 shutter at 1/25, and WB 3200. I know my shutter was a little slow hand holding the 50 and it did at times effect what I was trying to do but generally speaking I have a pretty steady hand so I was able to pull it off for the most part.  Naturally for the exteriors I changed my setting to daylight and 200 ISO.

Photo's are processed with Aperture and Nik Silver FX Pro.

So if your bored and just don't know what to photograph come to LA and go to the Getty!

03/26/2013


The Angeles-Rosedale Cemetery was founded in Los Angeles in 1884 and in 1887 became the second cemetery in the United States to open a crematory. It was also the first cemetery in Los Angeles open to all races and creeds.

I am interested in burial rituals and death iconography so I spent some free time making pictures at the Angeles -Rosedale.

The cemetery is pretty run down and many of the gravesides are somewhat neglected. I chose to use the Zeiss 25mm f2.8 and leave it pretty much wide open so I could take advantage of its natural vignette. For the most part this worked out well and I was able to make a few pictures I really liked.

The Zeiss 25mm f2.8 wide open gives very nice contrast and sharpness. Here are the results.

Ok now its time to go a little dark.

I used NIK Silver FX Pro for the black and white conversions.

03/25/2013


The Social and Public Art Resource Center or SPARC are a group in Los Angeles that funds, produces, and protects public art mainly murals. I was walking by the office of SPARC when I was hanging out with a friend who lives in Venice. We stopped in and had a very nice chat with archivist Pillar Castillo. I didn't have any pressing commitments at the time and our talk with Pillar got my creative project juices flowing. I announced that I wanted to do a photographic survey of the murals and please give me a map to all of them!

I spent a little time with the murals and produced some 11x17 archival prints for SPARC but alas had to move on before doing anything comprehensive with the subject. The experience did allow me to have an interesting photo assignment and challenge myself a bit.

HOME - We are SPARC: Art | Education | Social Justice | Community

The first mural I attempted to photograph is titled "La Ofrenda" by artist Yreina Cervantes. The mural depicts Delores Huerata one of the founders of UFW or United Farm Workers Union.

The mural is under an overpass so I decided to use HDRI in order to combat the problems presented by the tremendous dynamic range of the scene I wished to photograph. I used NIK software's HDRfx Pro.
I wanted to create an image that looked natural especially the color so therein lies the challenge. I used nine exposures with one stop between each. I am happy for the most part by what I was able to achieve. The prints looked near three dimensional with loads of fine detail.

The murals are often "tagged" by the very folks these works of art are supposed to inform and inspire, the public. An interesting bit of irony. SPARC when they have the funds clean an repair the murals.

The next one is titled "Genocidal Tendencies by artist Ian White. The goal was to show the mural in its immediate environment  and then provide a detail or study image.

The next one is titled "Love Is for Everyone" by artist's Mary-Linn Hughes and Reginald Zachary.

Here are two highlights from the Great Wall mural.
Great Wall of Los Angeles - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

HDRI is an interesting emerging technology that may become very useful in a wider range of photographic situations. I know it will for me.

03/20/2013


Macau is a short ferry ride from Hong Kong. It is an "independent" state that is lightly administered by China. It was a Portuguese colony and the culture of Macau is still heavily influenced by a long "relationship" with Portugal. I had about 11 hours to make some pictures there.

Most of the wide high cityscapes were made through the window of my hotel and introduced optical artifacts that were pleasing to me for the most part in some instances. I used both a Zeiss ZF 25mm f2.8, ZF 18mm f3.5, and the Nikkor 180mm f2.8. The image of the Kiosk on a rainy night was made with the Nikon 55mm f2.8 micro Nikkor.

Warning: HDRI ahead.

One thing I learned while doing this short essay is the importance of having a tripod with me at all times when seriously practicing photography. And thank goodness for these Zeiss ZF lenses!

03/19/2013


I work in the motion picture and television industry in Los Angeles or Hollywood if you will. You would think I would be making pictures of all the Movie and TV sets I have worked on over the years but instead I would be doing stuff like this.

I was using a Canon 40D here along with canon's immaculate 100mm f2.8 macro lens. I used a Mole Richardson Baby Junior or BJ in industry parlance. I opened up the fresnel door hooked the light up to a 2k Variac reduced the intensity by 90% and clicked away until the next lighting set up when we needed the Junior.

This one is my favorite, I love the way the light traces a molten canal around the outside of the reflector.

Even though I have moved on from Canon equipment I do look back fondly on the 100mm Macro as well as the excellent if grossly underused 135mm F2. That being said I love my Zeiss and Nikkor lenses just fine!

03/16/2013




 Testing out a lens just purchased, the Nikon 55mm f3.5 micro Nikkor along with the Nikon PK-13 extension tube.

I enjoy making pictures of dead plants, we've all got our thing's right? But what a serendipitous collision, lens arrives in the mail and I just happened to have a bunch of dead plants lying around. What to do?

I have to say the macro tube takes some practice to master. Focus and sharpness are a real challenge especially if your tripod is sitting on thick carpet and your set with a very slow shutter. There is going to be some fun had with this combo though!