When in Rome, Don’t Do As The Romans Do

We spent the holidays traveling around Arizona and New Mexico, fitting in a few hikes and sightseeing excursions as we went. One hike was Red Rock Crossing - Crescent Moon in Sedona, which ends in a view of the west face of Cathedral Rock. As Laurent Martrés notes in his very useful Photographing the Southwest books, “this classic photograph has become just as cliché as, say, Delicate Arch”. Adding to the feeling of “what can I do here that hasn’t already been done?”, trip timing required that we visit in the morning, rather than the preferred late afternoon.

Beauty in Decay

In a post-industrial world, scenes of urban and industrial decay is the new wabi sabi: “nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect” (Richard Powell). And perhaps nowhere in the US is decay more evident than areas of Detroit. As a result, Detroit has become a rich source of inspiration for photojournalists.

Timelapse Motion Control

Having made the move recently from California to New Mexico, loving to shoot both states (and points in between), and having recently bought a Canon 5D Mark II, I was happy to have recently encountered Timescapes.org, who is currently working on a film about the area - Southwest Light - which is being shot timelapse with DSLRs such as the 5D. What makes some of these scenes particularly interesting is the motion control dolly they are using: A stepper motor is incrementing the camera’s position between shots along a slide rail, combining the sensation of panning (a “dolly shot”) with timelapse - nice work.

Deconstruction 1.1

Although I have spent a fair amount of money to buy camera equipment and digital printers which can produce a more-perfect image, the truth is that my personal aesthetic is more along the lines of wabi-sabi: an appreciation for the aged, weathered, and decayed. So what happens when I take a clean photo of the San Diego Museum of Modern History, a fine modern architectural example of a glass, metal, and stone? I have to distress it. The irony is, the result won a prize - and few realized it was a digital print of a photograph. Here’s one photograph’s journey into the realm of accelerated aging:

Let It Snow

We had our first good snow in the mountains today. At one point when the flakes got particularly large, my wife Trish asked if I could get a photo that showed off the individual flakes, as her PowerShot SD870 IS was insisting on too long of a shutter time. So I picked up the Canon 5D mkII, slapped on its stock 24-105mm L IS lens, opened it up all the way to f=4.0 with a 1/2000 shutter speed at ISO 500, and fired a few pics through the office window (I know - a real man would have went outside).

Project Icarus: Near-Space Photography for Under $150

For those who have made the move to digital cameras, an inevitable consequence of the relentless march of technology is that we end up with cameras that are “obsolete” (because the new model has more pixels, less compression, video capabilities, etc.).

So what do we do with those old cameras? How about using them to get a shot we otherwise wouldn’t consider going for, because we might lose the camera in the process?

Extended Shutter Fun

The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is on right now, and it is truly one of the more joyous man-made phenomenon to shoot: hundreds of balloons of all shapes and colors from over 50 countries over a 200-acre area.

But as much fun as they are flying, even more fun for an experimental photographer is seeing them at night during a “balloon glow.” After the sun sets, the pilots inflate the balloons (but keep them on the ground); the flames that generate the hot air also illuminate the balloons from inside.

And, even more fun than a balloon glow, is setting your camera to very long exposure times and experimenting with different camera movements.

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