Author: James Vornov

I'm an MD, PhD Neurologist who left a successful academic career on the Faculty of The Johns Hopkins Medical School to develop new treatments in Biotech and Pharma. I became fascinated with how people actually make decisions based on the science of decision theory and emerging understanding of how the brain works to make decisions. My passion now is this deep explanation of what has been the realm of philosophy, psychology and self help but is now understood as brain function. By understanding our brains, I believe we can become happier, more successful people.

Recovery

Wilting Behind the Glass, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

With a group of nice images from Geneva in Aperture, I can recover a bit. I probably should be out taking pictures every day, but the light has not been very cooperative back here in Baltimore.

I should learn though, that even though I was disappointed with Geneva’s weather during my visit, my yield of interesting images with the DP1 was higher than I expected while I was shooting.

This image was a difficult capture, with these wilting plants in an old storefront. It was only after I was back that I was able to pick the best of the attempts and create this.

Sigma DP1 at DP Review

I’m back from another trip to Geneva. I had a little more time to photograph this time. Again, I brought just the Sigma DP1. I failed to bring great weather for photography however, with one shooting session in the afternoon made difficult by high contrast sunshine followed by overcast and the second session marked by alternating rain and drizzle. Fortunately, right at the end of the day, the clouds cleared out and I had a few minutes of really nice light. Here’s one happy result.

DP Review has reviewed the DP1. As these reviews run, it’s a fair assessment. However, I don’t look at it as a flawed camera, but rather a specialist’s tool. Every time I get back and start looking through the images, I forget about how I have to adapt to the camera, happy that I can use a compact to get what are consistently some of my best images. I can put up with waiting a few seconds for the buffer to clear before adjusting for the next image. The f/4.0 and ISO 400 settings are good enough for my work.

It’s a great picture taking tool for me.

A New Medium

Deep In the Light, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

I was listening to an inteview with Joel Meyerowitz posted on the net at The Candid Frame that got me thinking again about this medium of digital photography. At the very end, Meyerowitz recommends looking at the work of early American photographers William Henry Jackson and Timothy O’Sullivan because they were inventing the new medium as they went along.

We’re inventing a new medium once again and these are very exciting times. The tools are changing quickly, allowing creation of images that could never before be created. It inspired me to take the D300 and my SB800 flash out into the yard and create some images that depend on two new innovations: wireless off camera flash and the rapid review of digital images. Together they allow a rapid experimentation where natural and artificial light are mixed.

In this image, I would have shot the grass and foliage against the light, but the tree would have been dark, a looming silhouette. By using the wireless flash, I was able to create an entirely impossible counter-illumination of the tree, picking out the detail in the bark very dramatically.

I’ve been pushing images in this direction in post processing, but using real light starts the image much closer to where I wanted it to finish. by taking the exposure of the ambient light way down, I was able to get the drama of the light coming toward the camera. I then independently lit the tree.

There are lots of digital photographers experimenting with these off camera flash approaches, mostly in portraiture. I like the idea that the tree here is my main character, the subject of the landscape.

iPhone Camera

Wagon Handle, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

I’ve had my iPhone now for about 8 or 9 months. It’s been my first camera phone and for most of that time, I tend to forget that I always have a camera with me. Mostly I’ve used the camera either to record information (snapping an image of a parking space number rather than writing it down) or very informal family shots.

I happened to be walking out of my front door the other day and liked the light on the plastic. My phone was in my hand, so I grabbed a quick shot.

Photographic Intimacy

Angle of Repose, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

The weather is warmer and I have the Sigma DP1 to carry everywhere. The Nikon D300 sits on my desk like a brick. It waits.

I’m finding it easier and easier to use the DP1 to capture images, knowing what I’ll be able to do in post processing. The sharpness of the lens and film-like qualit of the images is leading me to a more intimate portrayal of the Suburban Landscape than I was pursuing through the Fall and Winter.

I can get these glowingly lit shots easily with the DP1, so I imagine I’ll be mining this vein for a few weeks at least.

Changing Light

Hidden in the Woodpile, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

I’ve been capturing images over the past few days with the Sigma DP1. No very long sessions as the light seems to be disappearing on me. It must have to do with being post spring equinox and creeping up on the summer solstice. We have have harsher and less inviting Suburban Landscape now.

Or it could be that the look I was chasing has run it’s course. I seem to be producing these more intimate images now, pushing more subtle texture and illumination into the images.

Carmichael Field Test Result

This week was an R&R training week, so today I did the first CTS Field Test of the year. While the idea of period all out testing to track progress isn’t a Chris Carmichael invention, his test is very well suited to cyclists. I’ve written previously about the Cooper 12 minute run which is well established and even normed for age groups against VO2Max.

The CTS test for cyclists consists of a warm up, a three mile all out effort, a rest (returning to the start) and a second all out effort. The average heart rate that’s the higher of the two efforts is used to estimate Lactate Threshold Heart Rate and Anaerobic rate to construct training ranges. One of the nice aspects of the two trial test is that it gives one a chance to repeat if the first effort isn’t really maximal and it also provides insight into muscular endurance if the second effort falls short of the first. According to Carmichael, they should be pretty similar.

Subjectively it was interesting. On the first effort, my heart rate rose to about 167 BPM and just stayed there. I was breathing regularly and loudly but in a well controlled manner. My legs just didn’t seem capable of pushing the heart rate higher toward the end. My average HR 164 at an average speed of 17.7.

The second effort was much harder. My heart rate was pegged lower at about 164 and my legs just wouldn’t work hard enough to push my heart rate up any higher. I did get my breathing ragged toward the end, but overall I was breathing just a notch easier. My conclusion was that I didn’t have the muscular endurance to push as hard a second time. My speed on the second dropped to 17.4 and average heart rate was 161.

It’s interesting that the numbers- speed and heart rate seem relatively small compared to the big subjective difference I felt. It’s an indicator though that I probably can improve by working on muscular endurance.

And am I more fit than last year? Last year I tested a bit earlier- April 2. I only felt comfortable with a single effort. My average heart rate was 154.7- substantially below the first test this year. Average speed was 16.5 mph.

So training over a year allows me to work for longer periods at higher heart rates. I’m faster over the measured course. It’s nice that I’m actually better than I was at the last test which was Sept 18 last year, showing that I should be on track to be fitter than last year even looking out 6 months.

Fitness Update

Illuminated Leaf, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

It’s now the end of April and I haven’t written here in the fitness category for some time.

Having the Garmin 305 creating a diary of time, distance and heart rate allows for easy tracking of training volume. SInce I started in Feb 2007, I now have 3 months of overlap. No surprise I guess that my monthly times are hovering around the same 16 to 20 hours per month. With work, travel and family obligations, I’m time constrained. I don’t expect that I’ll really be able to push the hours much higher than my current 200 or so hours a year.

I’m working harder than I was last year, in general. Those 20 minute intervals of 8 sec hard, 12 sec spin have now become on bicycle intervals. I did one 20 minute period, building to a similar intensity which was embedded in a ride of an hour and 20 minutes. I did two rides the next week with 3 x 10 minute intervals. I thought the latter was a better way to provide training load, so expect to resume next week, pushing time and possibly number of intervals. The indoor training was good preparation.

Am I more fit? I certainly am riding faster consistently compared to last April. It’s not a huge difference though, probably less than one mph. And working at higher intensity, one would expect some higher speeds. Matching ride to ride at similar average heartrates seems to show about the same speed difference.

Subjectively, I feel like I’m producing more power for a given heart rate. I’m pushing up hills in lower heart rate zones than I recall previously. My expectations are modest now that I understand where my VO2 max stands relative to the population. It will be interesting to see whether I can continuous build on this and be yet more fit next year.

Tomorrow or Friday, I’ll be doing the Carmichael Field Test. I haven’t done one since the fall, so I’ll get a direct comparison of whether I’m holding steady or doing any better.

The Flickr Effect?

Wilted on the Rail, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

Flickr has been been a great inspiration for me over the last year and a half- the time I’ve been photographing consistently. I have a venue to show my work, getting it in front of dozens of viewers daily- more than I would if I had a gallery, more perhaps than if my work were in a museum. Of course I’m giving the views away for free and am not selling the work, but then the purpose of the art is to help myself and others see the world more acutely, not to supplement my income. If I weren’t a highly paid professional, my attitude and thus my approach might be different.

I certainly am insulated from the art world as a Flickr exhibitor. My feedback is not sales or critical assessment but rather image views. Early on I realized that for some reason my images attract many more views than comments, but I hope that’s because they’re a notch more visually challenging that the average image. My subjects, as here, are generally unimportant.

The New York Times Magazine has an article on the elements of the Flickr style: “While pretty and even cute, these images are also often surreal and prurient, evoking the unsettling paintings of de Chirico and Balthus, in which individual parts are beautiful and formally rendered, but something is not quite right over all. “

I agree that we often don’t get it “right over all”. And I think the phrase “forcibly manipulated” captures well what is not quite right. As digital cameras have reached maturity in the last few years, the digital darkroom is being explored vigorously. Some of the efforts are pleasing, but are fantastic and for me, ultimately unrewarding. But there’s a middle ground where the darkroom effects illuminate vision rather than obscure it.

Last year I wasn’t quite satisfied with my high contrast, saturated renderings of the suburban landscape. This year, with better set of tools and more sensitivity to the rules of the visual world, I’m happier with where I’m working in that zone between the real, banal visual world and the elevated language we can achieve in art.

Experiment at ISO 6400

Gardening At Night, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

I was leaving my house a few nights ago and noticed how the white edges of these leaves seemed to be faintly glowing in the low light. I set the DP1 to ISO 800 with the aperture wide open at f/4.0 The indicated shutter speed was about 4 seconds, impossible to handhold and leading to a daylight looking shot even if I did put the camera on a tripod. So I cranked down the shutter speed until I could hand hold at about 1/2 a second. So maximal ISO, but 3 stops underexposed.

Converted to black and white, I was able to render what inspired me that night.