Photography as Art

Z&I

I do keep my car clean - however, you may find me in all manner of locations that reek of rust and grunge.
Color and Texture, Worn out and Rusted Relics ...
My Favorites !!!
Found this in a row of garages that hadn't been opened in years.
Had to fight the spiders off just to get enough room to back up and photograph this now derelect electric panel.
It is in fact a DC motor control switch and had been encrusted with rust and sediment.
The light level was very low and this took about a 30 second exposure.
But this time I had my tripod and didn't have to wrap myself around a pole!

"Dis-Continued DC"

Attached Images

small_DisContinued DC .jpg (768.3 KB, 11 views)

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TreeSemdyZee

You might like this guy's site. I really like this kind if subject/look also.
http://www.beautifullydecayed.com

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Z&I

Thanks to 'TreeSemdyZee' ~~~ 'axmea?' ~~~ and 'Masterbeatty'
Appreciate your replies !

And, No, this isn't my first rodeo :-) though I may fallen off the horse a few times !

Got started doing art early - I remember daydreaming and doodling in grade school.
My favorite subjects even back then were Fast Custom cars, Military Airplanes [of the Prop Driven variety], Spanish Galleons, British Frigates, and also Portraits.

Guess I'm still doodling - tho' now its in PhotoShop - I still like cars, planes, ships, and people... and now, old rusty things.

Don't have a website anymore [too much time to keep it up] but might dive back in one of these days.

Thanks again,

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Z&I

Checked out his site ... now thats a LOT of Grunge !!!
Will have to go back and look at the site a few more times to take it all in.
Love that grunge but too much of it and you start to get hardened looking at it.
I see that Todd Shaak is from St Louis ... I am a member of the St Louis Camera Club there and compete regularly.

Here's a few links to other photographers works that you may find interesting:

Vivian Maier can be described as an original fine art street photographer in the photojournalistic style [read her bio] she has made some amazing photos tin her time.
Unfortunatley she has passed away and her work was undiscovered until a few years ago.
You can enter each of her galleries by clicking on the individual images of the patchwork home page.
Vivian Maier Photographer | Official website of Vivian Maier | Vivian Maier Portfolios, Prints, Exhibitions, Books and documentary film

Michael Massaia is a local photographer in my area of New Jersey.
He is an incredible self taught photographer/artist and has come up with his own unique photo and print making process;
He primarily shoots larger format cameras in black and white.
Scans the sheet film image and cleans and works the digital file to perfection.
Next he creates another film negative to the size of the print he wants to make.
Next he makes a contact print [sandwhiching the negative to the paper] in a contact print frame.
The resulting prints are amazing - so much detail - and with a tonal range that is off the charts.
Michael Massaia Photography

George Tice ...
He's another Fine Art / Street / PJ photographer.
He roamed the streets of Paterson N.J. [where I grew up] through the '50's ~ '70's and beyond.
He shot with a view camera and tripod, and captured the essence of a blue collar town in transition to poverty.
He doesn't have a website but you can google his name and find galleries that are presenting his work.

Now back to Todd Shaak and I'll pick out an image or 2 that I really like !

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osbornsm

Why is everybody HDR-ing the crap out of their photos?

Can do just "standard" level adjustment and get good results. Maybe i'm not one of the "cool kids."

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Z&I

Hi osbornsm ... Thanks for your input!

Yes, you are right. You can get pretty good results most of the time with the basic adjustments : Levels or Curves, Brightness and Contrast, and Saturation to your liking if needed.

And I also agree, you don't need HDR for every situation and it can easily be overdone ... I've seen a ton of busy and garish HDR images that are too unreal and actually irritating to look at.

However, there are times when HDR comes in very handy, especially when there is a huge dynamic range that needs to be tamed.

HDR programs [and Topaz effect] can give you the options of really going radical with your images.
Not to everybody's taste including mine.

Personally, I use HDR sparingly and then only to flatten the tonal range to include detail in the highlights and shadows.
It can be a technical asset and allow for better technical/creative images when done right.

Ansel Adams used his zone system to 'Push' and 'Pull' his negatives and prints to retain detail and contrast in situations that exceeded the limits of film and paper.
He was doing with film what we can now do with HDR.

Out of all the images I've posted so far there are only 2 that have been in HDR [and then out of absolute necessity] The DC Motor Switch was a single shot using a Hasselblad Digital Back - which does have the capabliltity to record a greater dynamic range in a single capture]

'Eastern State Penitentiary Barber Shop'
This was an extremely dark area - with only the soft light from the overhead skylight entering the area.
There was almost no detail to be had as seen by the naked eye.
HDR came to the rescue, but even though the HDR brought the detials in it was still a long way from being a finished image.

'Madam Toussads Wax Museum NYC'
Another image that was a tremendous technical challenge to record detail in both the shadows and the highlights.
So I bracketed the shot and used HDR to bring it to life.
Without HDR there wouldn't have been much detail either in the shadows or the highlights depending on the choice of exposure.
Either the highlights would have been blown out, or the shadows would have gone blank.


I've worked on these 2 images these last few days - both taken in difficult [but different] lighting situations in the fall season in Maine last year.

'Up the Tree without a Paddle' very low light level, flat and overcast, almost no dynamic range.
This needed to be 'toned up'.

'Tuna Chasers at Perkins Cove' very bright scene with extremely high dynamic range and contrast.
This needed to be 'toned down' to include detail in both the shadows and highlights while still retaining proper mid tones.
I was able to recover detail and balance the image using only Photoshop tools.
'Tuna Chasers' refers to the type of boat used to chase tuna ... notice the extended bowsprits ... imagine a ride at high speed standing out over the ocean with the safety of the boat way behind you !!!

Neither was shot in HDR and both were shot as Jpg's.

Your thoughts ?

'Up a Tree without a Paddle' & 'Tuna Chasers'

Attached Images

	small_Up a Tree without a Paddle.jpg (649.8 KB, 8 views)
	small_Tuna Chasers.jpg (577.8 KB, 9 views)

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