Window on Lago Maggiore

Window on Lago Maggiore

This is an image I’ve been trying to make for a long time. For a long time I was caught in a semi-abstract mode of image making that I always felt was not quite true to the medium. What I wanted to create were images that were both formal compositions and had three dimensional reality.

I started by avoiding these flat compositions and working in the 3D landscape. Now, returning to these formal compositions with better tools, I find that I can make things work in a way I couldn’t before.

Thanks to a tip from Janet at Tech Ronin , I upgraded my Mac Book Pro to 4 GB for $98 from OWC. The installation took 15 minutes and I have enough RAM in the computer to move through the workflow without memory thrashing.

I have a demanding workflow now. I import, grade and select in Aperture. If I want to post-process, the RAW file is exported out into a work folder on the disk and opened in Nikon Capture NX.

In Capture NX I tend to set white balance, black and white points first. Then I adjust values across the image since the combination of working on the RAW file and the U-Point technology is my best tool kit. The changes are saved in the working NEF file and a TIFF saved of the final image.

The TIFF is opened in Photoshop where I use a growing set of tools to get light, sharpness and local contrast right. The NIK Color Efex filters, NIK Sharpener and curves are the major Photoshop Tools at this point, guided by Vincent Versace’s approach as outlined in Welcome to Oz.

I save a full PSD file with Layers intact from Photoshop along with a flattened version. The flat version gets dragged back into Aperture, completing the round trip manually. I print out of Aperture and use FlickrExport to upload to Flickr.

With 4 GB on board, I can have Aperture, Capture NX and Photoshop all open at the same time with a small RAM cushion still left. The bottleneck is processor speed, especially since NIK Sharpener requires Photoshop to be run in Rosetta emulation mode as it is not Intel native yet.

The Clothes Phantom at the Wall



The Clothes Phantom at the Wall, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

I was relieved to browse the Aperture library and see that the vast majority of images that I’ve captured fit into the SIgma DP1 parameters: ISO 800 or less and F/4 or smaller apertures. With the D300 and its Auto ISO, I’ve captures quite a few outside of it- ISO 1600 at f/2.8. So while I’d rather have the D300 sensor and 24mm 2.8 in a compact package, I’ll give up 2 stops and continue to consider the DP1 sensor with an f/4 lens.

On the other hand, I suspect that the DP1 doesn’t beat a Leica plus Summicron. My f/2.0 lenses give me 2 stops over the f/4 of a Sigma DP1 and my ISO film is just a stop slower than the ISO 800 of the DP1.

Consultation on Rue Huber

Consultation on Rue Huber, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

This is a reworking of one of my favorite street photos. Here’s the previous version from last Febuary posted to Flickr

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It’s almost embarassing to put these two version up against each other, but I’m very pleased to see the progress I’ve made in creating memorable images. Importantly to me, I can see the same idea working in the previous version, I’ve just done a much better job of correcting the color and performing local brightness and contrast to tell a story and guide the reading of the image.

There are two factors at work. One is better tools. Thanks to my internet and book instructors like Thom Hogan and Vincent Versace,  I’m using Capture NX and Nik Color Efex in PS to post process. The improved white balance is due to the NX RAW conversion and neutral point tools. The enhanced lighting is from Nik Efex.

The second factor is a more conscious approach to bringing out the light in the photo. The buildings and sky in the background all share the same tone level now with the figures being emphasized in relation. The maps are now at full white with the faces brought up to a similar level, placing the figures in the darker background.

And I thought I used to be pretty good at this. I hope that in a year I’ll have the chance to rework this image again and once again be embarrassed by past efforts.

Does the Tool Matter?



Glow Plug, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

As I work through some of these Tri-X images from San Francisco, I find that the tools used deeply affect the images captured. These are simple, graphic somewhat grainy and low resolution images. I like these simple, almost mysterious black and white images, but their scale and ambition seems smaller than the clean, high resolution DSLR images which seem, by comparison, to be like medium format captures.

To the extent that I want to range widely over my visual vocabulary, it would seem I need to mix up the tools. Film, digital, rangefinder, DSLR.

Technical note on the image: The right side of the hydrant was blown out, or at least the negative was too dense to pick up texture with the Minolta Scan Dual III that I use. I recovered by adding texture lifted from another area of the image. It’s nice to be able to so simply save an area with “real pixels”.

Two



Two, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

I finally retrieved three rolls of Tri-X from a local lab which were shot back in December on a buisness trip to San Francisco. I had the lab (Techlab) here in Baltimore scan them, but the scans are unusable. Many blown out and most full of dust. My usual lab for film, National Photo does a vastly superior job on develop and scan, but they don’t run Tri-X, so I needed an alternative.

The scanning wouldn’t be so bad, but my VueScan/Minolta Dimage III set up is being cranky, with random crashes of VueScan and one crash of the entire system.

Given my experience of traveling with the D300 last month, I’m not eager to keep on trying to use film and scan as much as I like the look of the images. I’d rather drag the D300 and convert from color.

Now that the Sigma DP1 is getting close to release and some images are being posted to the web, there’s the possibility of a larger sensor digital camera for travel to replace the Leica/film setup.

Beyond 8 Second Sprints

In the last two months, I’ve added two workouts to my menu. Both are well suited to the winter weather and the extensive travel I’ve been doing.

First, I’ve been doing a 20 minute body-weight circuit in which I do 10 reps consisting of 30 seconds each of squats, pushups, lunges and jumping jacks. Each circuit then is 2 minutes. It’s a continuous, high intensity effort that pushes both strength and cardiovascular fitness.

Second, I’ve been doing 20 minutes of 8 second all out sprint with 12 seconds of rest on my indoor bicycle trainer. Using a high level of resistance, it’s similar in effect, but cycling specific.

I’m convinced, based on the work specificity that these efforts will push VO2 max and power. I can’t help but wonder how effective endurance builders they will be based on the specificity principle. While with warm up and cool down, a high intensity workout lasts nearly an hour.

As adaptation to a 20 minute workout is achieved, the question becomes whether to push intensity within the 20 minutes or to keep intensity constant and increase duration.

20 minutes is a convenient and achievable duration for high intensity workouts. By using intervals that allow rest (either as a circuit that rotates muscles or as intermittent sprints) sustaining a high level of cardiovascular effort can be combined with high power output. But I think that continuous power output, what Joe Friel calls “muscular endurance” is different from the VO2 max related abilities to clear lactate during short, high intensity efforts.

Yesterday I tried adding another workout on the bicycle trainer- a steady effort for 20 minutes at highest sustainable heart rate, about 90% of my 12 minute maximum effort on the Cooper Test. It felt about as hard as the 8 second sprint workout. I’m going to try to extend that effort from 20 out to 40 minutes for a full 60 minute workout.

Dutch Portrait 2



Dutch Portrait, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

With the release of Aperture 2.0, I can finally put Aperture back into my workflow. In it’s absence, I’ve gotten used to the RAW -> Capture NX -> TIFF -> Photoshop -> PSD -> JPEG -> Flickr workflow. I’ve put Aperture back in at the front (receiving and cataloging the RAWs) and at the back (importing back the final, flat PSD from Photoshop). That leaves me with an external folder set of work files from Capture NX and Photoshop. It should actually help keep things orderly and the Aperture library file size down.

Moving Still Bicycles



Moving Still Bicycles, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

It’s nice to be back with a few hundred images to work through. I need to remind myself to get out and continue to get the Suburban images when the light is right. Tomorrow looks like a good bet, with relatively warm temperatures and sun in the afternoon.

In the mean time, I’m developing this theme of motion in the black and white urban travel series. I’m working on gesture here mostly.

My way of working has been to load images into Aperture for scanning, rating and cataloging, then going to the rated photos to choose one for post processing. It gets exported, opened in Capture NX and optimized as a Color NEF. Then exported as a TIFF and opened in Photoshop.

In Photoshop, I try a few approaches, but leave it full screen on the big monitor unmanipulated until the next day. By then I generally have picked a firm direction to take the image.

iPhone Europe

I used my iPhone pretty extensively in Europe during the last trip. The reaction was interesting.It’s viewed as a great phone, but the limitation to high priced, long term contracts is a huge barrier to everyone I talked to. These folks are used to buying unlocked phones and switching plans or carriers as needed. Avoiding the iPhone seems more of a protest against changing the current adventageous system than a real economic decision for them.Here in the US, we’re used to carrier lock-in and contracts. 

The Needs of the Photograph



Vicolo del Mol?, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

After assessing a solid year’s work of building a portfolio, I decided that I was evolving two bodies of work: a color series documenting the Suburban Landscape and a black and white series documenting my urban travel. It was clear that some photography didn’t fit, as it was to document family or vacation.

When I brought the D300 on my long business trip I knew that I was inviting crossover images by switching tools. When the Leica M6 with C41 process black and white film came on a trip, I had no option for doing color studies. But since I’ve been so happy with the utility of the Nikon D300, I brought it and just the 24mm and 50mm lenses, as if I had the minimal Leica kit.

When I shot this image, I recall thinking “red scooter, red trashbag”. I was creating a color study, something I would not have done with the usual travel setup. It turned out to be a striking image, fitting in more with the light and color aspects of the Suburban Landscape project.

I’ll call it a travel photo in the style of my Suburban Studies and continue to create monochrome conversions from the bulk of the urban images where form, not color, is dominant.