In Memoriam

To See What They Look Like

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

Life leaves scars.

Some Photographic Challenges

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Steampunk Vines

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

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

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

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

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

Have Mercy

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

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

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

Undaunted

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

Thaw

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

Ghosts of Shopping Past

You know I like the old, the decayed, the abandoned. This photo essay from The Morning News tickles all my fancies. Photographer Brian Ulrich has done some splendid work.

Why nothing new from me? Because I spent a giant hunk of my afternoon on the ongoing project: Dig Out My Car. I did enough so that ~ if tomorrow is sufficiently sunny ~ meltage should make it possible for me to escape the back alley for the first time in two weeks.

Naturally, snow squalls are predicted for tonight. I believe the expression I'm looking for is FML.

Built for Speed…

…and going nowhere fast.

Bonus points if you can name the model from the snow outline!

Yeah. More Snow.

Enough already!

Even Sasquatch Is Tired of the Snow

Yup, it's snowing again. Supposedly all night tonight and all day tomorrow. I am trying to see the beautiful side in all this, but it's a struggle.

How I Feel

Snow: Awww, so pretty! Such fun, with the sledding and snowball fights and skiing and snow angels! A winter wonderland! An excuse to revisit childhood, since getting to work is impossible. What's not to love about snow!

Well, let's see.

How about: I just spent 3.5 hours digging out my car. I estimate I shifted over a ton of snow. By hand, people! Every muscle in my body is screaming bloody murder, and I know from grim experience that means tomorrow I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO HOLD SO MUCH AS A PEN IN MY HAND WITHOUT AGONY. Typing is already unpleasant.

And we are forecast to receive between 10 and 20 inches more snow beginning tomorrow afternoon.

See the expression on that kid in the picture? That's me, except times 1000.

Pan-Child Playing in the Snow

I love that this thoroughly heathen image is placed just outside the former baptistry (now a garden shop) at the National Cathedral.

Snowmaggedon 2010

Feeling lucky to have heat and power, but kicking myself for not getting some more groceries into the joint. I have enough pasta for a day or two, and milk for coffee, but that's about it.

Wish I'd bought those snowboots I couldn't be bothered with.

A Bend in the River

It's snowing here. A lot. The first blizzard was dubbed "Snowpocalypse." I'm calling this one "Snowmaggedon."

Since I wasn't able to set foot out of my place today (and tomorrow's not looking so good either), you'll have to make do with another picture from my last visit to Great Falls.

Quod Severis Metes

Blogger informed me that they are ceasing to support FTP publishing to my webserver in the next month or so. So now I'm scrambling to find an alternative. Looks like it's going to be WordPress.

Y'all don't need to do anything except keep coming back, and maybe update your RSS feed information when the change happens.

They Flee From Me

Most of the time, to be honest, the deer in these parts just stand around and look at you as if to say, "Yeah, and then what?" But these were gals, and a couple of them looked to be young, so they were a little less inclined to hold still and pose properly. Hence the less-than-stellar image quality (well, that, and the light was disappearing).

River Ice

I went back to Great Falls, this time on the Maryland side. The river was roaring, even higher than my last visit. There were fantastic turned-lathe banisters of icicles everywhere. I've never seen anything like them before.

One of the great things about shooting digital, is that you can take as many images as your SD card will hold.

One of the problems with shooting digital, is that you can shoot as many pictures as your SD card will hold.

I came home with over 200 images, and have barely begun the process of sorting through them and applying post-processing. But here's one that just stuns me.

Waiting

I stood there for a minute or two taking pictures. The dog never came down off the porch to check me out, never barked. He or she did look my way with momentary interest when I exclaimed "What a good puppy!"

Because it SNOWED today...

...we're going to have a little reader poll here at Something Beautiful.

I photographed these tree roots at Dumbarton Oaks the other day. One of these images was rendered in grayscale directly from the RAW file in Lightroom and then adjusted. The other was tweaked in Silver EFX.

Can you guess which is which?
And, in any case, which do you prefer?
(As always, please look at large versions rather than thumbnails to decide.)

A:


or

B:


I find that preferences in black & white vary tremendously, and that people are quite passionate about how they like their monochrome images structured. I await your responses with great interest!

Vine Growth Chart

This vine is ready for spring and another growth spurt.

Suddenly, A Crowd Had Formed...

...at Everard's in Georgetown.

A Winter Garden

Dumbarton Oaks garden is one of my favorite places in Washington. To be more accurate, it's one of my favorite places anywhere. For awhile, when I first moved to DC, I went there every fair-weather Sunday to sit on a bench and read the paper in beautiful surroundings.

I thought I remembered that the garden was off-limits to visitors from November to April. I either misrecalled or the policy has changed. I went waltzing in this afternoon; not only was it open, but nobody was taking admission fees either.

I intend to renew a more intimate acquaintance with this glorious spot.

An Old Love

Back in the day, all I ever shot was black and white. I developed it myself. I printed it myself. In a darkroom. With all the stinky chemicals. Yes, I dodged and burned. I toned. My darkroom had no ventilation and no running water and was at the opposite end of my apartment from the bathroom (and the tub in which I washed the prints). Big, beautiful, 16" x 20" prints they were.

I was, if I may so, a very good printer. I had mad skillz. But after a few hours in the darkroom, my pee smelled like fixer for days. It's a wonder I still have my original liver.

So I don't really miss the darkroom, except for a vague, wistful nostalgia. And now, with the advent of shooting RAW and "developing" through post-processing in Lightroom, I feel that I'm returning to my roots albeit in a modern, digital way. But I'm nowhere near having mad skillz.

Yet.