Photoblog 2.0

Golden Gate Sunset, photo by Harold Davis.

Meta information: Nikon D70 Raw capture, AF-S VR-Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED at 78mm (117mm 35mm equivalence); tripod mounted and VR (vibration reduction) turned off.
Exif: ISO 200, 1/5 second, f/2.8.
Focus: Manual, at infinity.
Post: Raw file processed twice (once for sky and once for foreground) and combined using a layer mask and gradient, minor cropping, routine level adjustments and sharpening, a dark blue gradient overlay used to enhance the sky.

I took this picture last night with my camera mounted on a tripod on top of Indian Rock, one of a sequence of photos taken as sunset faded into dusk, and then dusk into night.

Taking these photos somehow led me to muse about reciprocity failure and analog photography.

Here’s the connection: Many serious film photographers bemoan the loss of analog (film) photography, just as some serious audiophiles miss analog high fidelity sound.

In the realm of photography, my opinion is certainly that the gains in the digital toolset more than make up for the loss of the delicious quirks of analog film–but it is fair to recognize that there have been losses. One of these is the bizarre (and sometimes beautiful) effect of reciprocity failure: when making really long time exposures, the color balance of film can shift to create unreal looking effects because a given film stock (such as Kodachrome, or whatever) was only rated within specified time exposures to provide accurate color renditions.

This “reciprocity failure” could be a royal headache when precise results were called for, but it could also produce (unpredictable) spectral and dreamlike effects, particularly in night time photography with light sources of varied color temperatures.

Well, it is goodbye to all that for reciprocity failure and other analog effects. A digital camera sensor is essentially a scanner, and to this scanner a pixel is a pixel. If the pixel is there to be recorded, it will be recorded, using whatever color balance the camera thinks is right (or that you’ve told the camera to use). You can always adjust the color balance later.

The photograph I’ve illustrated this story was taken at too brief an exposure for reciprocity failure to kick in even in the bad old days of film, but a couple of implications do come to mind:

• If you want an old-fashioned analog effect in your digital camera, you need to meticulously recreate it using post-processing
• There’s no longer any evading responsibility for the way a photo looks by saying “I just took the picture, and here’s how it came out.”

A digital photographer is responsible for all aspects of the way the final image looks.

Shadow in the Sand, photo by Harold Davis.

Meta data: Nikon D70 Raw capture, AF-S VR-Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED at 200mm (300mm 35mm equivalence).
Exif: ISO 200, 1/200 second, f/9.
Focus: Automatic
Post: Routine level adjustments and sharpening.

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach.
Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed shadows in the sand.
Sometimes there were two sets of shadows,
other times there were one set of shadows.

This bothered me because I noticed
that during the low periods of my life,
when I was suffering from
anguish, sorrow or defeat,
I could see only one set of shadows.

And what really bothered me when I noticed it was…that I was a seagull. With homage to Mary Stevenson and the Official Footprints in the Sand page.

Bloomin Bromeliad, photo by Harold Davis.

Meta data: Nikon D70 Raw capture, AF Micro Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 (157mm 35mm equivalence).
Exif: ISO 200, 0.8 second, f/36.
Focus: Manual, about 0.33 meter (around one foot).
Post: Routine level adjustments and sharpening.

Phyllis and I went for a walk in Blake Garden this afternoon. Sarah had charge of the kids, so we took a little time off because the weather is so wonderful.

For once, I didn’t take my photo gear with me, so we just got to spend a little time together.

Then I saw these flowering bromeliad, hidden under an overgrown bank of plants. There were two blooms, the one above and this one:

I figured the light was perfect in the afternoon, and made plans (with myself) to come back the next day (tomorrow) to photograph them.

Then I said “nyet.” If I’ve learned anything in all these years taking pictures, it is to take the good ones when you see them. Things change. The weather is not as perfect the next day. A bird makes its home on the flower. The gardeners think it is a weed, and mow it down. Whatever.

Phyllis dropped me off at home and went grocery shopping. I hopped back in the car with my kit, and had just enough time to take these pictures before the Blake Garden gates closed at 4:30.

In photography, as in life, carpe diem.

Moon Caucus, photo by Harold Davis.

I’ve been working on photographing the wonderful full moon we’ve had the last few evenings, and you’ll see some of the results in this photo-collage.

While out on our roof with a long lens pointed at the moon, I turned and saw the city–and started fooling around. During long exposures, I tried zooming slowly, and moving the camera slowly. The results in the LCD seemed kind of interesting. Perhaps the vibration reduction feature in the lens made the lines of light seem more steady than they would have otherwise.

Back in Photoshop, I sandwiched the moon together with the light show, using a layer mask and a circular gradient.

This one reminds me of a bunch of weird aliens (the caucus of the title) gathered together to perform some ritual under the light of a baleful moon.

In contrast, this one seems more to me like a benign (but still alien) creature dancing under the moon:

Mint Choc Chip, photo by Harold Davis.

For miles I struggled, slipping on the icey green fields of mint chocolate chip ice cream. When the temperature warmed, my snow shoes got clogged by the chocolate clots. When everything froze again, the sharp edges of the chasms and crevasses tore my hands. But at least I wasn’t hungry!

Then again, if it was lettuce and not ice cream I’d be better off as a bunny…

Oreo, photo by Harold Davis.

Photography is a way to eat one’s cookie and have it, too!

Sunset Clouds, photo by Harold Davis.

Photographer Alfred Steiglitz called his famous series of cloud photos “equivalents”–meaning, as far as I can tell, that the cloud subject material was not as relevant to the experience of viewing the photograph as the emotional response, or equivalence, of the person looking at the photo. There’s something in this.

I took this photo of a wondeful (and brief) sunset sky this evening while I was out with Julian. This incredibly colorful, staturated stretch of sky and cloudscape lasted for only a couple of minutes–although the entire “show” this evening from about 4PM to 5:30 or so was wonderful.

People were seated and sprawled all over Indian Rock watching, as Julian and I agreed, just like at a campfire presentation in Yosemite.

Except for routine level adjustments, balancing, and sharpening, this photo of clouds has not been Photoshopped. The colors were this fantastic!

Note to the reader who called my fig photos “disgusting and disturbing”: You’ll be glad to see that I have moved on!

Jolly Pirates, photo by Harold Davis.

Happy halloween 2005, jolly pirates, bumble bee and all other revellers!

Halloween is a pretty quiet, family event in our neighborhood. The teenagers mostly go off to private parties or to the Castro in the city. So it’s trick-or-treat for the under ten set.

Even so, the whole thing was overwhelming for our bumble bee Mathew.

I promised the rogue pirates that I’d take them around collecting candy until they’d had enough. “Really, Daddy, really?”

As I was counting on, fatigue kicked in pretty early. By 7PM Nicky wanted to be dropped off at home. About an hour later I stumbled home with a weary and somewhat sticky Julian pirate.

The M.O. here is for the little kids with one or more parent to trick-or-treat in small packs. One of our neighbors, a dentist, was handing out tooth brushes in lieu of candy. I heard a kid saying, “That’s illegal!”

All in all, a good time was had by all!

Of course, we had our much-admired-in-the-’hood fiberoptic pumpkin lit!

Arrr mateys! Thars a Bumble Bee buzzing around me gang plank!” Pirates are always the best costumes for boys because pirates just dressed and talked so strange. It’s just so fun for kids to pretend they are pirates on the high seas! For your little Bumble Bee our boys costumes will give parents great ideas for many Halloweens to come. Halloween costumes are so much fun for kids of all ages, so please drop by our online store and pick your favorite costume today!

Digital Fisheye Universe, photo by Harold Davis.

I often get questions from readers about what digital cameras they should buy.

There’s no one answer, of course. It depends on many factors, and is a personal decision. You should consider these issues when you think about buying a digital camera:

• How much money you have to spend
• What you are going to use the camera for
• How serious you are about photography
• The camera size, shape, and weight that works for you

As you get interested in digital photography, you may want to “move up” from a point-and-shoot style digital camera to a digital Single Lens Reflex (”dSLR”). For example, a reader writes:

I can’t seem to get the macro shots I want with my current camera, and want to buy a dSLR. Should I buy a Canon or a Nikon?

My answer: I’m really agnostic about camera brands. I think Canon and Nikon are both great brands, although I happen to use Nikon. Canon always seems to be a little ahead in digital technology, while Nikon lenses may be just a little bit better. You won’t go wrong with either, although if possible get your hands on the equipment in advance. In other words, try before you buy.

For macro shots, I use a 105mm macro lens, with the camera always on a tripod, and a set of 1X, 2X, and 3X extension tubes.

You should know that LCD equipped non-SLR digital cameras actually have some advantages over heavier (and apparently more professional) dSLRs. Many of these cameras, like Canon Powershots and Nikon Coolpix actually have macro modes that bring you closer than most lenses for the dSLRs–and LCD viewing screens can give you a better idea of the final result tham through the lens viewing on a dSLR.

It’s worth considering the issue of 35mm focal-length equivalence. Nikon lens on a Nikon dSLR have an equivalent focal ange of 1.5X the same lens put on a 35mm camera. For example, a 70mm lens on a Nikon D70 digital SLR will show you the same angle of view as a 105mm lens on a 35mm camera.

This is great for telephoto lenses, essentially a free ride with greater magnification. But it is not so cool for wide angle lenses, and makes it hard to get true extreme wide angle shots with your dSLR. For this reason, the Nikon 10.5mm digital fisheye, shown in the photo at the top of this story, actually reduces the image optically inside the lens. This photo shows what you can do with this extreme wide angle:

The magnification and 35mm focal-length equivalence of Canon models vary, with some models having a 1:1.6 equivalence and some being 1:1. The 1:1 ratio makes wide angles photography much easier (although you lose the telephoto free-ride kicker).

Whatver camera you use, if possible you should set it to save images in RAW format. Once you learn to process these in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, you’ll get far better results than with photos saved as JPEG files.

Devil Truck, photo by Harold Davis.

This truck was apparently delivering bottles of Coca Cola when it was hijacked by the devil along with assorted cronies, ghouls, and demons.

Very appropriate for Halloween and the Los Dias De Los Muertos. (The truck is from Mexico where the Days of the Dead on November 1 and 2 are a big deal.) And it is not an Iris photo! I want here to add a special thanks to everyone who has written me in support of the Iris photos.

Also perhaps a warning for my household, which has been running on fumes and caffiend-ated beverages since the kids started coming–eight years now!

I like saying that digital photography is a cyborg: one part photography and one part computer. To be a good digital photographer, you should be skilled at both parts of the cyborg’s personality.

Photography, of course, is performed with a digital camera–and to a great extent (at least until camera manufacturers stop copying film cameras when they design their digital cameras) the principles are the same as film photography. See The Evolution of Photography for my thoughts on how digital cameras could become, well, more like computers, and less like cyborgs with split personalities.

The computer is used for post-processing the photograph, usually in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. See related posts: Processing a Photo for Flickr and Processing a Digital Photo.

In the hands of a master, most people won’t even know the photograph has been manipulated. By the way, there’s nothing wrong with post-processing, and it is truly analogous to manipulating a conventional photo in the print making process. There’s no evil to image manipulation, there’s only good taste and bad taste. Taste is always debatable, and the subject of a different story.

As opposed to photos that don’t show that they’ve been manipulated, anyone can tell that my picture of a dreamy vase that accompanies this story was largely made in Photoshop. It is an obvious. A true cyborg.

Related post: Would Ansel Like Digital?

Road Trip, photo by Harold Davis.

If you’ve been reading my blog, you know that lately I’ve been to some lonely and lovely places that are surprisingly near to where I live in Berkeley. Here are links to the stories that tell in pictures and words about my autumn trip to Yosemite, the eastern Sierra, and Death Valley. In other words, the Table of Contents…or click here for the whole story (in reverse chronologic order).

	There and Back Again!	Yosemite Valley in the autumn and a map of my trip
	Dark is the Valley in the Morning	Wandering feet in Yosemite
	A Rainbow of Light!	Well, what other kind is there?
	Sunset from Sentinal Dome	High above Yosemite Valley
	Processing a Photo for Flickr	…and Lake Tenaya reflections
	The Hitchhiking Millionaire	Reflections in Lake Tenaya and on wealth
	Risk Management	Sharing Hot Creek with a volcano and a risk expert
	The Deepest Valley	Owens Valley
	Beyond Westgard Pass	Gateway to the desert and Nevada
	Seeking Methuselah	The Oldest Living Things
	Rhyolite and Ozymandias	Ghost Town at Sunset
	Death Valley Sunrise	Desert sunrise from Hells Gate
	Zabriskie Quilt	Patterns in the desert
	Lonely Road	Stovepipe Wells to Lone Pine
	Mount Whitney Sunrise	Dawn on the eastern Sierra crest
	Crossroads of the Cowboy Universe	Alabama Hills
	Homeward Bound	Autumn in the eastern Sierra

Death Valley Sunrise 2, photo by Harold Davis.

After photographing sunset at Rhyolite, I spent the night in a motel-casino in Beatty, Nevada. This motel-casino was truly a disturbing place, with the constant clink of gambling machines invading the air made fetid and stale by old tobacco smoke. Here’s more about my feelings regarding Nevada culture (an oxymoron). View a map of the area towards the bottom of my first story in this series.

Before the sun was up the next morning I was on my way west on Nevade Highway 374. At the Hells Gate entrance to Death Valley National Park, I took a cutoff past the Wonder Mine. A little above the Wonder Mine, I pulled off by the side of the road to photograph the sunrise.

Stop squinting in the sun with polarized sunglasses. Not only do shades look great but read how sunglasses can protect you from aging prematurely.  Get that tough look with aviator sunglasses. You can still look stylish while being safe with designer replica sunglasses.

Rhyolite Under Moon, photo by Harold Davis.

Rhyolite is a ghost town at the eastern entrance to Death Valley. (View a map of the area towards the bottom of my first story in this series.)

Once Rhyolite was a bustling metropolis with a three-story shopping district, carriages, and fashionably dressed people.

Today there’s nothing but the whistling wind, and dusty signs warning tourists about rattle snakes.

When I visit places like Rhyolite, I am inevitably reminded of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Ozymandias:

I MET a Traveler from an antique land,
Who said, “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desart. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is OZYMANDIAS, King of Kings.”
Look on my works ye Mighty, and despair!
No thing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that Colossal Wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Will our civilization–so grand and impressive to us–vanish like Rhyolite and Ozymandias?

Julian, my eight-year old, and I visited Bodie, another famous ghost town, earlier in the year. Here’s the story.

Endurance, photo by Harold Davis.

Bristlecone Pines are the oldest living things in the world, and the largest group of Bristlcone Pines are high in the White Mountains on the eastern side of Owens Valley. (View a map of the area towards the bottom of my first story in this series.)

These trees grow best in harsh conditions where it’s hard for other species to compete with them:

A hike around the Methuselah Grove, where the oldest of the old trees lives, is like a visit to God. If ever there were a real temple or church, this is it.

Methuselah itself is not identified by the Forest Service (the ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest is part of Inyo National Forest). This lack of specific identification is intended to protect Methuselah, the oldest of all living things, from vandalism and souvenir hunters.

But hiking on the trail around the Methuselah Grove, I felt sentience — ancient, sleepy, wise — and that the eyes of the old ones were upon me: