Pro scans while Gardening for Ordinance

Gardening for Ordinance Copyright 2013 Douglas Stockdale

Odd title for a post, but hopefully it will soon be self evident as to the reason for this narrative.

Perhaps until very recently, I have been doing my own film scans after processing. First, I have the film scanning equipment and second, I am cheap. Very cheap. Opps, I mean very frugal. Meanwhile, I realized that my scans of the various films were not always giving me what appears as the best starting material as it appeared that I was getting some kind of color drift in the process. I eventually changed my scanning process to first create a JEPG file, then in Photoshop open that scan file in RAW and make some of the color temperature and contrast adjustments before really working on the image. Much better.

I had also been advising a couple of folks that have been working in film that they might want to consider getting some film scans to work out some details in photoshop before making a print by a photo lab. So last week at my photo lab while getting the latest roll of film processed, I checked on their scanning prices, as I recall spending $45 for one high-resolution scan. I found out that they have incorporated a film scanner in line with their film processing and that for $5 I could obtain a low resolution film scan of each image at the time of processing. Wow, even for a cheap guy (frugal guy!), that sounded like a good deal. Especially when you consider their film scanner was some 50 times more expensive than mine. So I added the film scanning to the Fuji transparency film processing.

And so this is the results show. The photograph above is part of my ongoing photographic project Gardening for Ordinance. To save you some reading, the bottom line is that this looks great, and very little required by me opening the scan in Photoshop RAW to adjust color temperature and contrast range. What I don’t like is that they do an ever slight crop to eliminate the film edge, which I prefer to keep in at this stage of my evaluations.

First thing that I really like is the clean film scan, no spotting required. With my studio film scanning, I had all sorts of major dust to eliminate after scanning just to have a low res print to evaluate. I could probably not spend the time on spotting, but sometimes the stuff in the scan was a bit distracting, especially as I intended to print each image to obtain some project feedback. So with these scans, saving this time.

As to the batch scan process, I now have a low resolution scan to evaluate for each and every image of the film roll, no need to spend time on the light box trying to decide which transparency to scan. So that step is eliminated!

The low resolution film scan is a great size, providing a file size that is an 8 x 8″ image at 240 pixels/inch, which works fine for me as my evaluation prints are 5 x 5″ on 8-1/2 x 11″. Also a small enough file size that does not bog my old computer down to process each step and only slightly smaller than with my own scanning process, which I was scanning to a 10 x 10″ image at 300 pixels/inch.

Also what is nice is that as soon as I am back in the studio with the freshly processed film, I am ready to go. Just tuck the CD into the drive and open the folder up to decide what image to evaluate first. cool.

So bottom line, I like it, and this lab processing option only adds about $0.50 per image, which I think is a pretty good deal for all of the upsides. So this is now my new photo lab film process.

Cheers!

Adjusting to the Fujichrome change

copyright 2013 Douglas Stockdale

With the demise of Kodak 120 Ektachrome, I have made the required change to the 120 Fujichrome, in my case the Fujichrome Provia 100F, considered a Super Fine Grain film. This also means that I might need to make some changes in my overall workflow, including the film scanning on the Nikon 8000 in conjunction with the Photoshop toolbox.

So far, I will have to say that I am impressed with this film. At the advice of John at my photo-lab, I did not change my image capturing processes. Ever hour or so (more often in the early morning and late afternoon), I do an exposure check with a Kodak gray card and my spot meter. At the moment for this film, I am using an Exposure Index (EI) that is the same as the manufacturers 100 ASA in conjunction with the labs standard E-6 film processing.

First indications are that the Fuji film appears more color saturated and the blues of the sky appear more as I remember them. In retrospect, the Ektachrome (E100, daylight transparency) seemed almost desaturated and I continually had issues with the colors of the sky.

Additionally, the scans of the Fujichrome film with my Nikon film scanner appear to require less correction and a lot closer to what I remember than the Ektachrome scans (maybe I have a Fujichrome memory??). I will not go as far as to say that the Japanese film and scanner companies are in cohorts together, but it does appear that the film scanner seems to be better calibrated for the Fujichrome film and not as well for the Kodak films (scanning both color negatives and transparencies).

So at the moment, I am enjoying the film change and having no regrets.

As to this photograph, I created this just before I was the bunny hero last week, as a part of my investigation project “Gardening for Ordinance”. I think that this bush is in the midst of its Spring bloom, but regretfully I do not recall seeing it until now. Another one of the beneficial aspects of working on conceptual projects like this is that it does increase my awareness of those things around me. Very cool. As to the composition, in the view finder the sky was not evident in the upper left corner when I made this composition. I had purposely tried to fill the top of the frame with this flaming bush. In retrospect, I think that this bit of sky adds some mystery and creates a more interesting photograph. So at the moment, a keeper.

Cheers!

Missing palm

copyright 2008 Douglas Stockdale.

Late February I was working on the scanned image of the palm that I photographed as a part of a new project. In a post about this image, I had concluded that I needed to photograph this composition again in the early afternoon sunlight. Which I thought today was a good day to do just that. I had four exposures left on the roll of film in my camera back, which I suspected would be just the right quantity to complete this composition and then head over to the photo lab for processing.

When I arrived at the location, something looked very odd as I was having difficulty getting my bearing when it dawned on me what the issue was. Somebody had cut this palm down! All there remained was a flat stump at ground level. Egads, there went that idea. Of course I have no clue as to when this event occurred as my original exposure was in 2008. What’s that old saying about you can’t go home again?

So in the meanwhile, this image above may be included within the current project, as it ties to the concept that I am exploring. This photographic also highlights my current issue with film scanning, as the color shifts are proving difficult to correct.

Cheers!

Milan Fashion Week – blog-photobook update

Walking the Red Carpet copyright 2009 Douglas Stockdale

In September of 2009 I developed a photographic concept that I thought might be well suited as part photobook, part performance, what I am calling a blog-photobook. Recall that this was about the time of the first iPad launch, some two and a half years ago. So rather than trying to develop a iPad app, which was pretty rough in those days, I decided to go a little more public with an open book and available to all who had an interest to read it.

The project itself, Milan Fashion Week, was borne out of two consecutive years of attending Fashion Week in Milan, Italy. Well kinda. I actually was in Milan in September at the same time as Fashion Week was occurring. So I decided that since I was in Milan during Fashion Week and I did not have a fashion portfolio, why not develop one? I have noted that some artist are being commissioned to do some edgy contemporary fashion layouts, so why not do a self-assignment of my own? My portfolio should show all of those photo editors and creative types that I do editorial fashion photographs.  And this portfolio should lead to a ton of assignments and big bucks that would end up paying for all of those artistic concept projects that I want to publish. Can you say win-win?

Okay, maybe I did appropriate a couple of fashion shots, but I did it in a very creative way! If you look at each photograph, I hope you will eventually find a little irony. I did contact a couple of real fashion photographers and editors to write an essay about the juxtaposition of my project and the fashion world and for some reason they did not want to come within a ten-foot pole of this project. hmmmmm. So lately I have been tweaking it a bit and making some trade-outs of some of the photographs. Perhaps a work in progress.

As part of the performance aspect, I designed a blog so that all 36 posts would show up in consecutive order, starting on the top and working sequentially down, without having to click between pages. Which meant that I did all 36 posts on the same day and posted them in reverse order, as the last post (start of the blog-book) is on the top of the stack. Not a difficult photobook layout task. And taadaa, the blog does function just as intended. Now go look at it here.

So in the last 2-1/2 years, no fashion commissions have been flooding my in-box. hmmmmm. odd.

I am now thinking that after the final tweaks, one option is to continue to allow the blog to stay public until the 3rd anniversary date, then poof! eliminate it. Sort of like Cristo’s “running fence” performance project. Now it is here, but soon gone.

Another option is to actually publish this project as a real book. I have already poked a few publishers, but no interest yet. Maybe after I make the final tweaks the interest may grow. Or not.

Interesting to see what comes of this.

Cheers!

Photographing with a purpose

Copyright 2008 Douglas Stockdale

I have been looking at the photographs that I made in 2008 for my project Places in Between, which in retrospect was not all that well thought out. It was part of SoFoBoMo, so I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to photograph, but the concept was not as well-defined. Thus like the Cheshire Cat admonished Alice, if you do not know where you want to go, any pathway (photograph) will do.

Nevertheless, this composition is actually well in line with my current project requirements, except now I understand what kind of light I want. In this case above I made the image during a dull overcast sky, but I now want this specific image made in glorious sunshine, which thankfully here in Southern California is rather common. This location is not far, either a long walk or a very short drive away. I have been monitoring the sunlight to anticipate photographing a similar composition, which appears that I need to work on it in the afternoon. I have not been there recently, so I am not sure if the background flowers are blooming  (but yet to decide if this makes a difference). Also, may not have the flying flag in the background of the composition either as the photograph above was made just before the 4th of July.

So a nice study that I can now refine during the next set of exposures.

Cheers!

Rancho Santa Margarita – work in progress

copyright 2013 Douglas Stockdale

I just realized that it has been a few years since I last scanned one of my film transparencies with the Nikon L8000 film scanner. Rusty skills, but thank goodness, it is quickly coming back. Perhaps much like riding a bicycle. This is a 1x scan resolution and I am not sure about the color cast. If this photograph makes the final selection, I will rescan it again at 16x.

I will be doing much more of this scanning for a while as I work on my current project. One of the nice things about working local, fewer worries about transporting film through the airport and the security systems.

Cheers!

Allowing a concept to develop

untitled (Riverside) copyright 2007  Douglas Stockdale

Always interesting to me as to if you allow an idea or concept to develop, what might become of it. A case in point was the project I was working on in China at the end of 2007 then became a means to a process that I continued to employ elsewhere.

In China, they do not allow non-locals to drive, thus you can not obtain an Avis or Hertz rental, but rely on either a taxi or obtain a car & driver. Maybe obvious, but in China if you are unable to read the Chinese characters (no English alternatives), you will become total lost, like in a New York minute. So I joined a car pool with my client and finally started taking photographs from through the windows at the back of the van. Nice thing about digital, immediate feedback! And although at times the resulting photographs appeared kinda abstract, the results were interesting. So I continued experimenting, adding a 2x and 3x neutral density filter to extend the exposure durations.

I then decided to continue this experimentation on another project that I was working on in the Inland Empire of SoCal, specifically along the I-15 in Riverside and the adjacent small towns.

Cheers!

Open to Serendipity

America, My Way copyright 2012 Matej Sitar

Perhaps without seeming too glib, but being open to chance and serendipity may as easy as keeping an open mind. I wish it were that easy.

This past weekend, there was a convergence of serendipity that it was even hard for me to miss. As I wrote yesterday, I have been working on one of projects that examine memory and its preservation, while this particular project seemed to expanding on how memory may be linked to dreams. Just as I was to depart for PhotoLA for the day, Matej Sitar’s America, My Way arrived. The quick essence is that Sitar is investigating a journey, but with three possibilities in three books that can also be mashed up to create additional narratives. Very cool and I immediately knew that this publication would require more time.

Then arriving at PhotoLA, I spend time with John Jenkins, publisher of Decode Books and one of his new books was an investigation that was in three phases, similar to chapters without the obvious markings and text that asserted this. Although this book was interesting and presented me with another option, it also gave me pause to think more about Sitar’s book as a more elegant and conceptual solution.

Right after my discussion with Jenkins, I ran into Chris Pritcher at his Nazraeli Press booth who was pretty excited about his new book series: 6×6. Essentially six boxes of books with 6 books per box, each box of books encased in a slip cover, each book by a different photographer.

hmmmm. So here I was with two, if not three, different ways I was investigating memory based on my time in China. It was becoming obvious to me that rather than one book with a really odd mash-up, breaking my concept into two or three books similar to Sitar’s was a plausible solution. So I am now re-editing this body of work to how this might look. And so far, so good. nice.

Cheers

Memories & Dreams – #3079

Untitled (XiTang) copyright 2008 Douglas Stockdale

My photographs are my memories. At the time of exposure, this is not what I actually saw but much closer to what I was feeling in the moment. Over time this blurred image has become more closely aligned with my indistinct memory of this time and place.

It appears real to me.

Cheers

Memories & Dreams #1731

Untitled (PingHu) copyright 2008 Douglas Stockdale

As a photographer, I sometimes wonder that if in the process of capturing images, I sear these images into my cranium, creating a memory and subsequent dreams?

The photograph above, although I can’t associate it with any specific dream, is an image that I can easily recall. This was a city sculpture that announced that you had arrived at PingHu (China), which was in the late stages of construction. When we earlier drove past this location late in the morning, there would be a fascinating array of workers climbing this structure, reminding me of an image that Hiroshi Watanabe had published in his book “Findings”. Nevertheless, the following morning it was early enough that the workers were not yet crawling on the scaffolds and we passed close enough for me to create this relatively distorted and ambigious composition.

Now I am unsure of which project to associate it with, but I do feel confident that it will find a nice home.

Cheers