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David Wilkins, the editor of the Lancaster Photography Association monthly newsletter decided that the member article for the October edition should be about me. Yippee! My favorite subject! Okay, seriously though, I’m thrilled about this. From what I can tell, this is a fairly new thing they’ve been doing with the newsletter. The only other two members who have been featured so far are Nola Zhang and Fred Griggs. I’m not sure I’d put myself in the same league with either of them, as they have much more extensive career and life experience than me. I just have an expensive degree. But anyway, I went to the LPA breakfast this morning and was interviewed by P. Dale Ware, who writes a number of articles for the newsletter. It was fun. When I got home, I sent off 4 of my images to Mr. Ware so that he would have some options on what images to pick depending on what parts of the interview he chooses to highlight. They also wanted a picture of me with one of my cameras. The only one I had until this evening was one Rachel took in San Francisco, but that was 2 years ago, and you can’t see my face. So, I’d been thinking about doing a self-portrait with one of my vehicles and the Hasselblad, and I decided to just do it today. Drove up Old Ridge Route Rd to National Forest Road 7n23 to get up around the oak trees and did some shots around 6:45. Now that is a pretty spectacular drive. I enjoy getting up into the mountains and tooling around. I loved exploring the roads that broke off of East Camino Cielo in Santa Barbara County, and NF-7n23 is just as fantastic. There are views of Castaic, Santa Clarita, and the Antelope Valley. When you get closer to the East Pine Rd. end, you drive through a forest of burned chaparral. It’s not an easy drive, though. I was okay in a two-wheel-drive truck, and I made the drive in a Dodge Diplomat a few years ago, but I don’t recommend trying to take your Honda Civic up there.

Anyway, an abridged version of the shot is the new background image for my “About” page. This is the full shot:

Of course, looking at this picture… I’m not sure if it’s the jacket and pants or the fact that I’ve put on 20 lbs. since returning from Boston, but I think I’m starting to chub out a little bit. The good news is that I will be getting back into assisting soon, which means carrying around other photographer’s heavy equipment all day. I lost 10 lbs. in about 6 weeks doing that in Boston. So really, I’ve only got a 10-lb. gain since I left Santa Barbara.

Automotive and architectural photography are a couple of interests that have started to develop since I graduated from college. Probably a good thing, as I’m sure I would have hated the classes. Not because I hated the subject matter, but because I hate classes. Anyway, ever since I took possession of my Aunt Janet’s 78 Chevy pickup, I’ve been wanting to do some decent shots of it, because it’s in great condition, and it’s a very unique vehicle. One of the shots I’d like to do would be a star trail shot with a full moon and some painting with light. There’s a location I have in mind, so today I went to go check it out to see if there were any private property signs and what-have-you. So, this is the basic test shot. I’m sure camera and car position will change when I make the final shot later this month.

While I was there, I decided to shoot a little more around the burned out church. Decay and entropy seem to be fairly constant thematic interests in my work. These have all been “dicked around with” in Photoshop.

Yeah, so… “dicked around with.” Aside from the phrase ending with a proposition, it’s got a nice flow and rhythm. When I was trying to wet print a 16×20 of the shot of the boy playing checkers in the lab at Antelope Valley College, I was stuck on a color enlarger, which if I recall, are diffusion enlargers, not condensors. The difference being that you’ll get a slightly sharper print out of a condensor. And at 16×20, you’ll notice the difference. Anyway, I was stuck with this because it was a 6×6 neg, and the condensors at the AVC lab can only handle 35mm. So anyway, it wasn’t coming out as sharp as I would have liked. And of course, one of Lee’s other former students had to comment on it. This is why I don’t like working on my stuff where other people can see it. I don’t want unsolicited critiques until it’s done. If I want a suggestion while I’m working on something, I’ll ask for it, thank you kindly. But anyway, this person felt it necessary to give me a quick lecture on how “you can’t pick up a medium format camera and expect to get good focus.” That was annoying, but kinda funny at the same time. There really isn’t a polite way to let someone know they don’t know as much about what they’re speaking of as they think they do. So, I really didn’t try to argue with her, but I did show her the version of the picture in my portrait gallery, which is quite sharp and properly exposed. This got the response, “Yeah, but you dicked around with this in Photoshop,” as if that’s not legitimate. Again, there really isn’t a polite way… maybe if I had felt like starting an argument. It irritated me to a small degree, but I really like the phrase. So… I dick around with things in Photoshop. That is what I do. That’s my workflow. I shoot a lot of medium format film, scan it, and dick around with it in Photoshop.

As for the print, it turned out that my 5-year-old 16×20 paper had developed some fungus issues, and I was only able to get 2 decent prints of “I Haight Television” out of it. So, I took the master scan, redicked around with it in Photoshop, and got an Epson print made at the digital labs at Brooks. Aside from the fungus issues with the paper, the wet prints were still pretty decent, and I was able to do a good compare-and-contrast of the two printing methods. The Epson print was a helluva lot sharper than the wet print (proving that I can, indeed, focus a medium format lens, because no amount of dicking around in Photoshop will focus something that’s not in focus), but the wet print had a kind of organic warmth that the digital print lacked. It’s kinda like how audiophiles will describe the difference between vinyl and CD. And just like vinyl hasn’t gone away completely, neither will film and wet-printing. No matter how much the commercial end moves towards digital, there will always be a niche for people who want to dick around in a darkroom.

Well, looks like I got a little regional recognition of my own:

Honorable Mention Division 164 - Professional Color Photography Class 13 - Portraits
Division 161 - Professional Black-and-White Photography Class 2 - Portraits	Division 161 - Professional Black-and-White Photography Class 2 - Portraits	Division 161 - Professional Black-and-White Photography Class 4 - Miscellaneous
Division 164 - Professional Color Photography Class 1 - Abstract	Division 164 - Professional Color Photography Class 1 - Abstract	Division 164 - Professional Color Photography Class 6 - Desert Scenes
Division 164 - Professional Color Photography Class 11 - Pictorial Land	Division 164 - Professional Color Photography Class 13 - Portraits	Division 164 - Professional Color Photography Class 15 - Structures
Division 164 - Professional Color Photography Class 15 - Structures