Month: November 2007

I Should be in Bed…

November 28, 2007 / Rick / 0 Comments

… But I’m not. I tried to take a few pictures of the Thanksgiving feast, but all I got was a picture of the turkey and a very poor one at that. I did get a decent picture of green beans in a colander after being washed, but that’s the only decent food picture I got. The centerpiece, most expertly created by my wife, did come out good.

So the other night I got a wild hair and decided to shoot some night pictures from my front door. I got one picture that came out presentable. I took these pics at around 3 am. The shot is of 2 trees in front of my neighbor’s home. I’m not sure why, but I exposed for the highlights but the sky kept coming out lighter than it actually was. I live in Houston so the sky is never black, but this made it look almost like dusk. All in all, however, I am learning lots about available light exposure.

As always, feedback is welcome and encouraged.

Crunch Time

November 24, 2007 / Rick / 1 Comment

First of all, I just want to say that I hope everyone who celebrates Thanksgiving had a good holiday. For those of you who don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, I still hope you had a good day :).

At this point we are getting down to crunch time on the semester. I’ve been going through my scans and I’ve decided on the 12 photos that I’m going to submit for the final exam. The requirements for the final are as follows:

12 high-quality prints, spot toned where necessary,
contact sheets for the rolls of film from which the print was made,
each print is to be matted on 11×14 mat board,
a self-critique, and,
all prints should have an overall theme.

The theme I decided to go with is the design and architecture of structures in Houston. It could be a park bench, a pool, or a skyscraper. The unifying theme here is that the main elements in the photo are designed and built by men and women to help make the city beautiful. Without further ado, here are the photos I will be submitting for the final. The photos are in order from oldest to newest… I think I can see a progression here :).

Houston Icons 1 – From left: JPMorgan Chase Tower, Penzoil Plaza, and Bank of America Tower

The water wall at Williams Tower – this thing pumps 11,000 gallons of water per hour. It is truly a sight to behold close up.

Williams Tower – At 901 feet this is the third tallest building in Houston (22nd in US) but probably one of the first recognizable skyscrapers in the city.

A Houston Metro bus stop in the Uptown/Galleria area of Houston. This interesting design is only found on the bus stops in this area of town.

Houston Icons 2 – From left: Continental Airlines corporate headquarters, the old Enron corporate headquarters, and a building that I am currently unable to identify.

The Ring – This skyway is a complete circle around the intersection of Smith St. and Bell St. in downtown Houston. The attached building here is the old Enron building.

General Sam Houston sculpture in Miller Park, just south of downtown Houston.

A shot looking north from the side of the reflecting pool in Miller Park.

Halliburton Center(?) just outside Minute Maid Park. Halliburton Center is part of the Minute Maid Park grounds and is located on the Crawford St. side of the stadium. These are the unusual benches that are in this little park.

I forget the name of this Roman Catholic Church, but it is one of the few left in Houston that hasn’t been torn down in favor of a more modern design. This church is located just across Texas Ave from Minute Maid Park.

Another angle of the old Roman Catholic Church. This church was built in 1839.

Bank of America Tower as seen from the veranda of Jones Hall.

Here is my final exam. Let me know what you think as your comments help me grow.

Still Going

November 14, 2007 / Rick / 0 Comments

It’s coming to that time of year when the semester is winding down. I have to start seriously thinking about my portfolio for my final exam. I have an idea in mind, but at this point I’m going through my scans and looking at photos on a virtual light table to see how things look together. Hopefully I’ll have a concrete idea next week and can start printing and matting in earnest. Wish me luck on that.

Aside from that, I shot another roll of 220 and a roll of 35mm. I think I’m becoming more discriminating as with these 2 rolls, I didn’t find many that were up to my own standards. This definitely isn’t a bad thing. I also am finding myself considering more factors when looking at photographs. That’s a good thing, too, but I need to be careful about becoming a snob, especially when I myself am at a low level within the art.

At any rate, here some off the new rolls I thought to share with you. Let me know what you think as the comments help me grow.

This is my college in my first fairly successful night shot. I’m going to have to ask my professor about the flare from the light on the left hand side. I’m sure it’s not lens flare, but it does take away from the overall picture.

Another silhouette of this plant. I have another one showing on my Flickr account. This plant actually makes for some good lens testing. This shot as well as the night shot were both taken on my Canon Rebel Ti 35mm SLR.

I also have another photo of this on my Flickr page. This one, however, was taken with my Pentax 645 medium format camera. The ball here is a perfectly balance sphere weighing around 6 tons. Carved into the sphere is a map of the world. The globe rests on a 1/4″ film of water that is constantly pumped in to hold it up. Because of this, a person can spin this globe in any direction with just a little push. This has always been one of my favorite works of art in the city of Houston.

This statue has become a symbol of the city. I myself have quite a few photographs (mostly digital) of this statue. This is one of my favorite film photos, though. Creating silhouettes is good for learning how light works and how to meter for the shot you want. This was taken with my Pentax 645 medium format camera.

There were a few more photos from these 2 rolls that I can use, but they won’t be shown here. Once I get my final portfolio settled, I’ll let you know. At any rate, let me know what you think of these photos.

New Toys

November 9, 2007 / Rick / 0 Comments

I made the leap from 35mm film to medium format film with the purchase of a Pentax 645 Medium Format Camera. There was a little bit of a learning curve as the controls were different from my digital and film Canon SLR cameras. This camera is a bit older so the ranges on the shutter speeds aren’t as great as on my newer Canon’s as well. Also, the shutter button is a little touchy, which makes metering a little bit tricky. I may start carrying my film SLR to help with metering until I figure out a way to stop the camera from snapping the picture every time I think about pressing the shutter release.

Let’s not forget the film. The film I have to use with it is 220 film, which takes 6cm by Xcm pictures. In my particular case, the pictures will be 6cm x 4.5cm. Even though this is a smaller medium format, it’s still much bigger than 35mm. With 220 film I get about 30 exposures on the roll, which isn’t bad. The problem with 220 film is that it is starting to become hard to find locally. I can find some at the bigger online camera stores, but in an emergency, online isn’t going to help much.

The lens I have is a 75mm f/2.8 leaf shutter. Basically it’s a manual lens. I can set the shutter speed on the lens itself. Of course, doing this would require a handheld light meter, which I can’t afford and don’t want to carry. The good thing is that I can set the shutter speed to be controlled by the camera body, which allows the oh-so-tricky metering. The aperture and focus, however, are both set on the lens, which I have absolutely no problem doing.

Now for the fun part… the pictures. The following pictures are among the first taken with the camera in my possession:

This would have made a very nice portrait of the water wall at Williams Tower. The problem, however, is the right side. The dark area is a result of the film not being developed properly, which was my fault. During processing of 35mm film, I use 10 oz of a 1:4 solution, which completely covers the roll. In this case I failed to take into account the physical size of the 35mm film versus the 220 film, which is much bigger. The 10 oz of developer solution did not cover the whole width of the roll and, well, you see the result. Even though this picture failed, we can use this dark space to our advantage as seen on the next picture:

This is the headwater into the reflecting pool at my college. The underdeveloped right side looks like a shadow. Did you know that to just to the right there is a very large building that could have possibly cast a shadow into the water? You probably didn’t, but there is a large building just to the right of the headwater of the reflecting pool. I’ll just leave out the fact that a shadow cast on this water will never happen unless the planet develops develops a deeper tilt.

Sometimes nature covers your mistakes for you. The darkness of the tree makes it hard to perceive the dark underdeveloped area to the right. If you look close, you can see the water to the right of the tree trunk is a little darker, but off-hand I don’t think one would notice it.

Every roll has to have at least one usable picture and I feel this one is it. There is nice contrast and tonality here. Also, the shadows hide the underdeveloped area really well. Some may not care for the subject matter, but at this point I’m getting used to my new toy.

At this point I haven’t scanned the whole roll. My negative carriage can only scan two medium format negatives at the same time and it got a little late.

I hope you all enjoyed the pictures. Feel free to comment at will because I need the feedback to grow.

Stress Relief

November 3, 2007 / Rick / 0 Comments

Anyone who knows me knows what kind of music I prefer. To those who don’t, that music is metal. I’ve been listening to it for a little over 20 years and it has never gotten old to me. Between the day job stress and school, I got to go see one of my favorite new bands last night (All That Remains) along with a serious up and comer (Through The Eyes Of The Dead) and a rising established act (As I Lay Dying). The best part – I got a photo pass to shoot all three bands. Here are some photos for you look at.

Click on the picture to see the whole thing if it is cut off. Comment at will.