Monday, December 6, 2010

Captured Through a "LensBaby"

     Creative minds are never at rest.  I believe it was someone like Newton or Einstein that said something to the effect of: "An object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an equal or opposite force".
     There are seasons in my photographic life that I "tend to stay in motion" following the same direction in my creative path.  I suppose this is what is referred to as being stuck in a rut.  And, according to the laws of physics, I stay in that rut until something comes along and bumps me in another direction.  Just such a thing came along in my path a little while ago.
     A product called a Lensbaby came on the market that brought the tilt-shift lens to the public at a more affordable price.  My local camera shop had one in their rental fleet.  I paid their $10.00 fee and changed my direction of travel.
     My kids are sick and tired of being my stand-ins whenever I want to try something new in the studio.  This time I called my good friend Todd who willingly came and offered himself as a sacrifice to my creative muses.
     I posed Todd against a dark backdrop with a single softbox at the 45/45 position creating a Rembrandt lighting effect.  I had Todd square his shoulders to the softbox and his face to the camera.  With my subject in position, I then went to work on the lens.
     This thing was NOT easy to use!  It took me 15-20 shots to get the focus right.  There's no aperture, no auto focus, nothing to let you know what you're working with!  I felt like I was back working with my first non-metered, non-auto focus camera that I was learning on when I was fifteen.  Ultimately I worked out the kinks and found out just how cool this little $250.00 piece if magic really was.
     After my studio time I was eager to take this lens out into the field.  At midnight on a Saturday I found myself standing in 35 degree cold and fog in front of the State Capitol building in downtown Salt Lake City.  Below are the results of my excursions both in the studio and the field.




     Todd is a great model to work with as he is both patient and easy to direct.  The effect of the Lensbaby is great for dramatic portraits.  In this image the only area of focus is Todd's left eye.





     This next shot was NOT done with a Lensbaby, but rather my 18-70 mm lens at f16 for 15 seconds at 100 ISO.  This building was the scene for the rest of the shots that follow it... all done with the Lensbaby.









     Overall, I enjoyed using this lens.  The blur and distortion it created in these images offered a different way to look at these subjects which was exactly what I was looking for.  Lensbaby offers a variety of attachments for this lens that would add to the creative process and artistic interpretation of any subject.  Would I buy this product?  Maybe.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Share the Dream

     I have a pretty good instinct.  I use my intuition all of the time.  You might say it's rather muscular from all of the exercise it gets.  And something tells me that there are a few of you out there that are hiding something.  You have a little secret that you're hiding from the rest of us.  
     You know who you are.  You're the people who stand in the conversation circles listening to everyone else's bantering about this and that, not saying anything, and knowing full well that what you're hiding would immediately draw the spotlight to your little corner of the circle.  Perhaps you're uncomfortable with attention.  Maybe you would be embarrassed if your secret got out - or maybe not.  Maybe you're just being selfish!
     What am I talking about, you ask?  CARS!  Rare cars to be specific!  You are hiding these mechanical wonders in various locations, tucked away from prying eyes and curious minds.  Squirreled away from the rest of the world, you have selfishly hidden your passions from the rest of us who share that same passion but are otherwise financially stifled preventing us from sharing in your love of ownership of some of the greatest wonders to come out of the Industrial Revolution.
     Some of us cut our teeth on stories recounted by our fathers about automobiles that came from previous eras.  The colorful memories they shared with us fueled our dreams that someday we might just be fortunate enough to merely stand in the presence of such glorious machines.
     I know you have them too.  Because every once in a while as I'm wallowing in the misery of driving my '98 Honda Accord and nursing its failing transmission down the freeway, one of you blows past me in a flurry of bright chrome and perfectly polished six-layer deep metallic flake paint.  I swear that I can almost smell coach leather with its contrasting stitching in the air wafting behind your car's low drag coefficient bodywork as you pass me with your windows down and your face bearing that ridiculously satisfied grin.
     So to all of you who fit into this caste I present a challenge.  SHARE!  Yes, that old principle that your mother screamed at you from the time you first came in contact with another child who wanted to play with your toys still has effect in your lives today.  Share those magnificent wonders that you're hiding away with the rest of us who have only heard of them in fairy-tale like stories.
     If you have a rare Cadillac, Ford, Ferrari, Lotus, Mercedes-Benz, or whatever the case may be, bring it out into the sunlight and let it breathe for a while so the rest of us can fulfill our dreams of actually claiming that we've "seen one" when we recap the event to our posterity.  Give the rest of us the opportunity to soak in the ethereal bliss that you've enjoyed each time you sneak into the driver's seat and fire up those petrol-guzzling trophies.  I can assure you you'll feel better about yourselves!

Monday, October 11, 2010

180 356's

     Whose idea was this?  Somebody actually convinced the owners of approximately 180 vintage Porsche 356's to bring them to Park City on a rainy, cold weekend in October.  What were they thinking?!  What they were thinking is: "This is gonna be so cool!"  And right they were!
     Standing in the parking lot at Olympic Park at 9:00a.m. a slight drizzle was giving way to a full on downpour.  Between the stripes on the pavement sat a number of the most well maintained specimens of the Porsche 356 model in existence, and more were pulling into the lot by the second.  License plates from all over the country adorned the curvaceous rear ends of these squatty beauties.  One had actually driven from a Pittsburgh suburb, zig-zagging all the way across the country.  They were here for the "Wag Your Tail" hill climb, part of the 356 Register's West Coast Holiday.




     I was invited to be the official event photographer by the organizers, an honor that I wouldn't fully appreciate until later in the weekend.  As I looked around at my surroundings I was beginning to understand just how special this weekend would be.




     At this event would be a large variety of 356's including Speedsters, Outlaws, Pre-A, A open and closed, B open and closed, C open and closed, and one completely salvaged job whose roof was totally caved in during a roll-over, then rebuilt and clear coated over unpainted metal.  This collection was the creme-de-le-creme of 356's!
     The event organizers were now deliberating on wether or not to go ahead with the timed hill climb event.  In question was the safety of the course for the drivers.  After all, nobody wanted to take the chance of wrapping one of these sweethearts around a metal pole or careening off an embankment because they lost control on a wet road.  That probably wouldn't go over so well with the insurance companies.
     A pre-run of the course would determine if the event would go on or not.  The cars roared to life as they began to line up at the gate.  The road course would take the curved steep road that swaggers up the mountain following the luge course at the park.  I drove up ahead of the pack and claimed a spot where the road made a sharp bend under the track, then turned uphill.  A bridge over this part of the road would afford me an eagle-eye view.  I quickly set up.
     Car after car screamed by and flung water trails into the air as they ripped their way skyward toward the top of the mountain.  All different colors and types conjured nostalgic images in my mind of a previous era of Porsche, one that doubtlessly shaped the future of this dominant company.





     In the pack was a super-rare supercar, a Porsche Glockler (umlaut over the "o") reportedly valued at anywhere from $750,000 to over $1,000,000! How often would you get to see this car out for a Saturday morning hill climb --- IN THE RAIN?!  This was a one-off car!  What a privilege!
      Glockler and Porsche came together in the 1950's to create only six of these cars, and (as I understand) there are only three known left in existence.  None of the six looked alike, thus making each car a one of a kind.  This one was from 1952; chassis #3.  This noble beast made quick work of the mountain road as Herb and Rose Wysard, its owners, piloted it through the twisties.



    After two runs up the course the cars made their way back down to the start line where a determination would be made to wait until later in the day to hold the hill climb.  The weather was supposed to break and conditions would be more suitable for the event to occur.  We would try again at high noon.








     By noon the weather hadn't changed significantly and the course for the hill climb was still too wet and slippery to allow the cars to race.  There was, however, the road tour to Mirror Lake in the high Uinta mountains, east of Park City.
     Keep in mind that the Uintas are home to the tallest mountain in Utah, Kings Peak at 13,528'.  The drive for the tour went along the Mirror Lake Highway and reached a pass at Bald Mountain near an elevation of 11,000'.  If it's raining in Park City, it's most assuredly going to be snowing like the devil in the Uintas.
     The road trip to the lake was supposed to begin at 1:00p.m. and be over two hours later.  I hopped into my SUV and had in mind to literally "head them off at the pass".  As I reached higher and higher along the mountain road the snow got heavier and heavier.  I thought to myself there was no way they would continue past the weather to make the lake in those beautiful cars.  I couldn't have been more wrong!


     Off in the distance was the familiar rumbling of the 356's carbureted motors sucking as much of the thin mountain air as they could to power up that pass.  That sound was warmth to my frozen fingers!  Another gentleman was there to capture the event in live images with his video equipment.  He saw my frigid state and took pity on me, loaning me his rain gear to at least stop the wind from cutting through my clothing.  For that I will ever be grateful.  The cold mountain road made for a spectacular photographic backdrop.  The sun broke through the clouds illuminating the mountains and the cars.  My shutter was flying once again!  It turned out these owners really understood that these cars were meant to be driven regardless of atmospheric conditions.  What a great drive!









     The next morning back in Park City was the Concours.  At 7:30a.m. Main Street was shut down to make way for this fabulous event.  Despite the weather conditions of the previous day the cars were glistening in the morning light.  The owners must have spent the night in the parking garage of the hotel cleaning every last inch of their vehicles.  That, or some car wash in town made a KILLING!!
     As I walked along the street I couldn't help but feel that I had time traveled back to a bygone era.  From the post office to the top of Main Street was gathered a collection of 356's unsurpassed anywhere that I had ever seen.  Mirror finished greens, reds, slate-grays, silvers, blacks and various other colors covered the bodywork which was nestled atop the most perfectly chromed hubcaps imaginable.  This was a car photographer's paradise indeed.


























      Later that evening at the awards banquet, after a punishing photo editing session in the hotel ballroom (I would later equate this session to doing six days of work in six hours), I would learn of just how significant this event was.  Porsche AG had sent a representative over from Germany to speak on behalf of the manufacturer!  Somehow in my naivete, I had mistakenly assumed that this was just a collection of well networked friends that had gotten together to hang out for the weekend.  Once again I couldn't have been more wrong!
     I must say that it was an honor to have been asked to be a part of such a well organized program.  These people were not just owners of rare and vintage Porsche 356's, they were people of character and integrity first who had a love of preserving a part of the past.  They had a passion for making sure that the details were eradicated of the devils that might lie in wait to spoil such classic cars, instead, sealing the legacy that Dr. Porsche had begun so many years ago into the bodies of their period correct classics like they were rolling time capsules.
     As the day wrapped, I left Park City feeling a bit saddened that the weekend was over.  Images of these cars burned in my imagination and I dreamed of them during the following nights.  There's something captivating about being around them.  They're part of an era that I can only read about or listen to in stories told by those who had lived during that time.  Having these cars in front of me brought the past to the present, and will carry over to the future as these enthusiasts work to maintain the soul of these wonderful fire breathing contraptions.






Monday, August 16, 2010

Breathing Through Boulders

     Recent hikes have proven to me that I'm out of cardiovascular shape.  My pulmonary stamina has dropped through the floor in recent years.  It used to be that I could go for miles without feeling fatigued or winded.  About ten or so years ago I went on a trip down the entire 16 mile length of the narrows in Zion Canyon over two days with a 25 pound pack and wearing Teva sandals for footwear.  That trip was AWESOME!  Yeah, I was tired at the end.  But I could have gone back and done it again.


     Two years ago this month I was in Grand Teton National Park on my way with a couple of good friends to ascend the upper Exum Ridge on the 13,770' Grand Teton.  I got altitude sickness at 10,000' and spent an awful night suffering it out in the Petzolt Caves before literally dragging myself down the trail the next morning.  Oh, did I mention that I had WAY over packed and this time I was carrying a 50 pound pack?  I thought I was strong enough.  What a difference a decade makes!


     The point of all of this is that I need to get back to the shape I was in before I acquired three kids and a bad eating habit.  Not that I'm fat, I just don't eat things that would contribute to my body's ability to function properly.  So lately my focus has been better nutrition and exercise (except for the nightly cookies and milk as I'm laying in bed watching TV).


     On Saturday of last week I decided to push things a bit.  It was time to test out my progress physically.  I had always wanted to see the lakes in Maybird Gulch in Little Cottonwood Canyon.  But this hike would be different.  Instead of lugging my camera equipment in a backpack with a 3 liter hydration bladder and an assortment of other non-essential crap, I would try to go as light as possible carrying only the absolutely essential items.


     I picked up my old, but highly reliable, Mountainsmith lumbar pack that I bought in high school and loaded it with my wife's point-and-shoot camera, a first aid kit, a 1 liter Nalgene water bottle, an MSR water filter, my Marmot rain jacket, a lighter (just in case), and a Cliff Bar and two packs of powdered Gatorade that I had bought that morning at REI.


     I made the trail head by 12:00 and hurriedly put on my mountaineering boots as I had anticipated making a rocky traverse under the Pfeifferhorn and dropping into Red Pine Lake.  I started on the trail with great enthusiasm.


     About 1-1/2 miles in I was feeling great.  My heart-rate was good, breathing was relaxed, and feet were doing fine.  I had purchased a Spenco 2nd Skin blister prevention kit and applied it to the backs of my heels where my boots have a tendency to destroy my skin.  No problems thus far!


     At the 2-1/2 mile mark I came to the diversion in the trail between Maybird and Red Pine.  I stopped for a quick hydration break and to check my vitals to see how I was feeling.  I couldn't believe the energy I had!




     After pausing, I crossed a small foot bridge, headed west, and disappeared into the forest along a not so obvious trail.  This is where I love to be.  I love when the trail becomes less traveled and you have to pay close attention to the lay of the land and keep your bearings constantly in mind.  As I walked along hopping over fallen trees and passing through the most beautifully carpeted meadows of wild flowers, I couldn't help but notice how good I was feeling (except for the now present and familiar sting on the backs of my heels).


     A little over a mile later I reached the Maybird Lakes and stopped to filter some water.  I met a couple that had also recently arrived and we sat on the lake shore in the shade and chatted about cars and our kids for about a half hour.  What a pleasant setting.  People pay millions of dollars to landscape their yards in hopes that the end result will look like this!




     After taking the customary "I was here" shot with my wife's camera, I made my way up into the boulder field to the south of the lakes (just to the left of my head in the above photo).  I had debated whether or not to continue up the mountain, but was satisfied to know there were plenty of opportunities for gathering water.


     After a half mile or so of boulder scrambling, I reached an apex on a ridge that revealed the most spectacular views of the Pfeifferhorn, the ridge line into Hogum Fork, and the serrated ridge line eastward into Red Pine Gulch.  I sat in awe for a few minutes taking it all in.






     Across the canyon, to the north, stood Broads Fork Twin Peaks.  I have wanted to summit that peak since I was in high school, but have never made the attempt.  Soon my friend... very soon.


     Looking to find a passage to Red Pine Lake, I continued my boulder scramble along the vast field of scree that lay before me.  I picked out a point on the east ridge and made my way quickly, but cautiously.


   As I reached the crest of the ridge, I was caught off guard at the scene before me.  There was Red Pine Lake, the trail down the gulch from the lake, and a 1,000' couloir with an 80 degree slope between me and the lake!!  For a moment I contemplated turning back.  But as I calculated the route I would have to take to descend this slope it became more and more doable in my mind.  There was an ample amount of hand and foot holds along the parallel cliff band that I could employ my 26 years of rock climbing experience in tackling.  So off I went!




     I reached the bottom faster and easier than anticipated.  As I looked back up the slope, the thought came to mind of just how fun that was!  I had a Bear Grylls moment and believed I could conquer anything in these hills!




     Red Pine Lake was beautiful with deep, mineral rich aqua colors and crystal clear water.  I rested again before making my way down the trail back to the car.  I was feeling great!  I had so much energy, in fact, that I found myself running down the trail.  This after I had just blazed through some pretty unforgiving country and descended the "couloir of death".  




     I reached the car after 8 miles and 5-1/2 hours.  I knew my heels weren't happy, but the rest of my body could have gone 8 miles and 5-1/2 hours in reverse!  I had gone further than I thought possible and felt energetic and strong at the end.  Maybe it's coming back.  Maybe I'm not as out of shape as I thought.  Maybe, just maybe, I need to stop carrying so much non-essential gear with me when I go into the mountains!


     Next on my tick-list:  Broads Fork Twin Peaks!!



Sunday, August 15, 2010

My Review of Spenco 2nd Skin

Originally submitted at REI

Spenco® 2nd Skin® soothes, cools and protects against rubbing and blisters.


Needs better adhesive pads!!!

By BoulderBouncer from Taylorsville, UT on 8/15/2010

 

2out of 5

Gift: No

Pros: Soothing, Easy To Use

Cons: Needs stronger adhesive

Describe Yourself: Avid Adventurer

I picked this up after suffering through several blister bouts from my mountaineering boots (including one particularly painful one in the Tetons where the ENTIRE back of my heels peeled off). I had already changed out the insoles but still had blistered heels. The package says that it helps prevent and treat blisters. I bought it for the prevention end. Instantly, after application, my boots felt better. I spent an 8 hour day in the Wasatch making a spectacular loop below the Pfeifferhorn through Maybird and Red Pine gulches. After returning to the car I discovered the adhesive pads had sluffed off my heels, leaving my skin unprotected resulting in more blisters. The moist pads are great, but the adhesive pads would gain a great deal with stronger glues to keep them in place. Next time I'll use the Moist pads in conjunction with Band Aid Tough Strips!

(legalese)

Friday, August 6, 2010

A Fall Through a Donut

     I am inspired by great outdoor photography.  I spend more than my share of time perusing through images of far off lands and many a local oasis in search of an image that sparks my creative process into action.  I often return to shots by the likes of Jack Brauer, a Colorado photographer who travels all over the world photographing breathtaking mountain scenes.  I emailed him once asking him about his processes in creating such visually stunning works.


     Mr. Brauer uses a 4X5 field camera, drum scans the transparency, and creates a digital image file that he (I assume) edits and then prints.  I have sat in awe in front of my computer screen analyzing every aspect and detail of his work finding it both compelling and inspiring.  His 4X5 scanned images result in a digital file of somewhere in the neighborhood of an equivalent 200 megapixels of resolution at 300dpi!!


     In my email I asked if doing the same process with my medium format Mamiya 645 would yield better resolution and clarity that my 10.2 megapixel Nikon D200.  He responded that it likely would since the effective "capture" area of the transparency was nearly four times that of my camera's sensor.  He also noted that my Mamiya's lenses were probably better optically speaking than those of my Nikon.  I was a little stunned by this thought as my Mamiya cost me no more than $250.00 from a friend, and just ONE of my Nikon lenses was around $2,000.00.  I had to put this to the test.


     I picked a spot up Big Cottonwood Canyon in the Wasatch Mountains, just east of the Salt Lake Valley.  Donut Falls was my destination.  During the short hike in to the falls I walked slower than I normally would, the whole time scanning the scene for something worthwhile to shoot.  Eventually I made it to the falls after nothing lower on the trail struck me as noteworthy.  The falls weren't much better.


     I set up my Mamiya with an 80mm Mamiya Sekor lens atop my Manfrotto tripod and searched through the viewfinder for something to shoot, all the while forgetting that what I was really here for was to experiment with film versus digital image resolution and clarity.  I could have just stayed home and photographed the dog doing its business on the lawn.  What I mean is, the subject really made no difference!  But why not try to make it something pretty while I was at it right?


     I shot the whole role of film and dropped it off at the processor the next morning.  An hour and a half (and one mowed lawn) later I picked up the film and was excited to see just how good things turned out.  As I sat at the light table looking through the loop at my film, a brief urge to sell all of my digital equipment surged through me.  I excitedly cut out one of the images and handed it to the girl at the counter and asked her to scan it at their highest resolution possible.  She dutifully took my order and charged me for the work.


     Today I got the link from them and downloaded the resulting 116mb TIFF file.  I loaded the image into Adobe's RAW tool and read the image info.  I was shocked to see that this scanned image was the equivalent of a 40 megapixel digital file!  So, it would seem, I have a film camera in my arsenal that shoots an equivalent 40 megapixel file when scanned using their process!  I am jazzed!


     There is a drawback though.  Film costs about $2.50 a roll, processing is $5.50 a roll, and scanning at this resolution is $11.50 per scan.  $19.50 (before tax) per image just to create a digital file from film isn't very cost effective at all.  And this doesn't include any printing, mounting, or framing.


     I read somewhere that shooting with medium or large format film requires a lot more intuitive creation of an image.  What I read implied that the intuitive process really meant "make sure your shooting something important because this is gonna be expensive".


     Below is the image created from my medium format Mamiya 645.  Its transparency size is 6cm X 4.5cm (hence the 645).  After scanning, I edited first in Adobe RAW correcting some color and sharpening a bit, then brought it into Photoshop where I added an edge burn.  Hope you enjoy this one.  I will surely do this again, but on a more important or visually interesting subject.



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