Something Beautiful I Saw Today

Elliptical

2010-03-12T00:54:00.005-05:00

It's been a while since I looked at sculpture. Several years ago, the Katzen Art Center opened just up Massachusetts Avenue from me. It's about a quarter mile away. Have I been inside yet? NO. (Muttering. Shame. Embarrrassment.)

Finally, I went by and gave the exterior, complete with staircases, fountains, and sculpture garden, a thorough going-over. And I actually liked quite a bit of what I saw.

Can the interior be far behind?

After The Flood

2010-03-11T00:01:00.004-05:00

I like to think this shows the aftermath of high water as Dürer might have portrayed it. If he'd had a camera. Okay, and a computer. WHATEVER.

Please make sure to look at the larger version of this, because it's all about the details.

A Natural Mess

2010-03-10T00:29:00.003-05:00

Sometimes a walk in the woods doesn't reveal any pattern of orderliness. Nature is frequently just plain messy, disorganized, and chaotic. My footfalls through the forrest caused large, extremely healthy-looking deer to bolt springily away through the underbrush. There was little classically photogenic to be found in the grey and brown trees of winter.

Yet this patch of water, with its tangle of downed branches and dead leaves floating, brought me to a standstill. This too is beautiful. We are meant to spend time in environments like these: our senses are tuned to the patterns of light and dark made by tree trunks in afternoon light, and mirror reflections sooth our minds.

In Memoriam

2010-03-09T04:26:00.004-05:00

To See What They Look Like

2010-03-08T23:59:00.002-05:00

I believe it was Gary Winogrand who said "I photograph things to see what they look like photographed."

Even today, with the near-instant gratification provided by digital cameras, it is often a surprise to discover that the exposure you made winds up capturing something quite different from what your eyes and brain registered on the scene.

We don't look at one thing. Our eyes jump around in a series of saccades, changing focus and aperture on the fly, with our brains helpfully filling in the blanks with interpolated detail so that we won't see a bunch of mush. Cameras and lenses are much less creative, despite tremendous advances in technology.

I thus consider it something of a triumph when a photograph I take "comes out" as I envisioned it would. But I am always open to surprise: every now and then what appears is not what I expected, but something much more interesting.

Shattered

2010-03-07T23:59:00.003-05:00

Life leaves scars.

Some Photographic Challenges

2010-03-07T00:27:00.002-05:00

It wasn't all blue skies in New Mexico, alas. Heavy overcast and ultra-flat lighting made it hard to do justice to the magnificent landscape at Tent Rock. These two pictures barely hint at the sheer presence of this landscape.

Standing in the Gap

Tent Rock 'Village'

What Winter Should Look Like

2010-03-06T23:17:00.003-05:00

If we must have winter, it should look like this: sunny blue skies, bright white snow, large vistas. If I lived in Albuquerque, I would take up skiing again (or snowboarding, maybe). I haven't thrown myself down a mountain since I was teenager, but the chance to do it in weather like this would tempt me mightily. I don't mind a little nip in the air if the sun is shining. Of course, the bonus here at Sandia is that the temperature improves by 15 degrees at the bottom of the hill, and there are no snowdrifts to dig your car out of.

This image is a single exposure tone-mapped HDR. You might find it interesting to compare it to the version in the previous post.

Quick (Not!) and Dirty Comparison

2010-03-05T16:07:00.008-05:00

I thought I'd throw together a little compare & contrast exercise for y'all between Lightroom 3 Beta and Aperture 3. The problem, of course, is that I'm working on my severely underpowered MacBook Air. It will run both programs, but everything is much slower than one would hope… and in the case of Aperture, it quickly becomes damn near unusable. LR3 does a MUCH better job of supporting my feeble little laptop. With this hardware, the fine points of image quality are really irrelevant; I simply can't get work done in a timely fashion using Aperture on this machine.

Nevertheless, I've prepared some comparison images for your amusement.

First up, an unremarkable image opened from RAW with no adjustments:

Aperture

Lightroom

Now with typical adjustments:

Aperture

Lightroom

A few other examples:

Aperture

Lightroom

Aperture

Lightroom

And, lastly, a comparison with a previously-posted image:

Aperture

Lightroom

If you're not seeing big differences between these images (or if you're not seeing them at all on Facebook, please click through to the post on my blog), well, that's because there aren't a lot of big differences. I would say, on average, images coming out of Aperture tend to wind up a little more contrasty and a little more vibrant/saturated. Some of that is probably because, on my gimpy machine, I can't really do adjustments in real time, which probably means I'm over-correcting.

Still, the upshot of this comparison is that while I LOVE the many other features Aperture offers (ease of keywording, Places, and Faces), it is currently way more frustrating than I'm prepared to tolerate for actually making image adjustments. And I think Lightroom 3 Beta currently has the edge in terms of brushed-in adjustments.

My Aperture trial will expire in 9 days. Lightroom 3 Beta will expire in mid-April. I will revisit the comparison when I have hardware that can handle the burden that Aperture places on it, and make a purchasing decision shortly thereafter. It's possible I'll wind up using LR3 for RAW editing and iPhoto (the latest version of which will be free on my theoretically-forthcoming new hardware) for cataloging and other higher-level tasks.

Ancestor, Waiting

2010-03-04T23:59:00.002-05:00

Suddenly, in the negative space of this image, I saw a standing figure wrapped in desert-striped weavings, patient and watchful. And, once seen, it became impossible to not see.

Heart of Stone

2010-03-03T06:56:00.003-05:00

It is hard to make a photograph that really captures what it was I saw in this constellation of rocks. The bigger version (click on photo) does a better job of it than the small one.

Monumental

2010-03-02T23:59:00.000-05:00

Despite overcast skies, we spent a wonderful hour and a half exploring Tent Rock park, located either inside or just adjacent to Cochiti Pueblo, not far from Los Alamos. If you're in the neighborhood, I highly recommend a visit. I hope to go back one day, when conditions are more favorable. It offers one fabulous photographic opportunity after another.

Home Again

2010-03-01T23:59:00.001-05:00

My return from Albuquerque presents me with several hundred photographs to pick through, a slew of email to answer, and *oh frabjous day!* an update from Apple that brings RAW support to my Lumix DMC-GF!. Of course what that really means is that I'm processing the same files twice now, once in Lightroom 3 Beta and now in Aperture 3 too. You lucky readers: can a compare & contrast post be far behind? (To be fair, I'm currently much more familiar with LR than Aperture; I really should learn how to use the latter a bit better before doing a comparison.)

If only I had a computer with enough oomph to handle these tasks without slowing to a mind-bendingly annoying crawl.

Steampunk Vines

2010-02-24T21:04:00.004-05:00

I'm not sure whether I'll be able to post while I'm away in Albuquerque. Please enjoy the nature-artifice combo of this image in the meantime.

What February Feels Like

2010-02-23T23:59:00.002-05:00

I'm going to Albuquerque on Thursday evening (assuming the next snowstorm doesn't shut down DCA). I'm looking foward to seeing my sister and her husband, and Bob who will be joining me from Las Vegas. I'm hoping for sunshine, too.

Strange Light

2010-02-22T21:31:00.006-05:00

Here's another example of reflected light illuminating the mundane in an unexpected way. Where is the sun in this picture? It's to the left and behind a building.

Felicitous Error

2010-02-21T16:01:00.004-05:00

I had set my camera to its highest available ISO the other night, thinking I was going to try to photograph in a darkened room. I didn't. But I forget to set the ISO to something more normal.

So when I took the picture above, the 1600 ISO shot in normal daylight resulted in something I hadn't seen in quite a while: grain. Grain looks different from typical pixels. And I actually think THIS grain is beautiful. Have a look at the big version, which I've made bigger-than-usual.

Beautiful Trash

2010-02-20T23:58:00.006-05:00

Some of us live among the stars, but I'm looking at the gutter.

Hydrant in Chains

2010-02-19T23:59:00.000-05:00

I spent 45 blustery minutes wandering around outside this afternoon.

Have Mercy

2010-02-18T22:05:00.004-05:00

Submitted without comment, because ~ really ~ what is there to say at this point?

I promise I will try to get somewhere and take pictures of something different and more interesting tomorrow.

Wonderful Photo Essay

2010-02-17T22:42:00.004-05:00

I am utterly fed up with a) the snow and b) pictures of the snow.

I recommend you have a look at Days With My Father by photographer/artist Phillip Toledano, one of the most beautiful photo essays I've ever seen.

To those of us with either aging parents, or ones who have already died, this essay speaks especially eloquently. Toledano's other work is worth a look as well.

The Lion in Winter

2010-02-16T23:42:00.001-05:00

…giving new meaning to the term "snowy mane."

Undaunted

2010-02-15T20:23:00.004-05:00

There are some serious advantages to living across the street from a fabulous piece of art.

Thaw

2010-02-14T23:46:00.003-05:00

I got out into the wide world, in my car even, twice in two days. I feel almost like a citizen of the universe again!

Just in time for more snow tomorrow.

Vine Gothic

2010-02-13T21:41:00.003-05:00