Go Forth and Multiply!

Annette and I went to the Graduation Ceremony at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania last Saturday (May 7, 2011).  We were there to witness the graduation of Kristi Kushnir, a very special girl to us.  You can see here getting her official graduation picture taken in the center foreground.  Woohoo!  Hip hip hooray!  Woot woot!  Congratulations, Kristi!!!

Kristi completed her Bachelor degree in four years!  From the statistics that I have read, this is becoming less and less the norm.  Congratulations, Kristi!

Like the rest of the graduates, Kristi is working hard and striving to find her place in the world and this picture symbolizes that.

How does this symobolize that?

First, a person's place in the world is in ever larger and larger contexts.

• The student is part of the class of 2011.  We can see in the image that each graduate is an individual, but together they make up that sea of blue in the image that is the Class of 2011.
• The Class of 2011 is part of the University.  We can see in the image that the Class of 2011 is on the football field in front of school buildings.
• The University is part of the educational system.
• The educational system is part of the US economy.
• The US economy is a part of the world.

Second, everything and everybody is inter-related.

• If you talk to the students, you will find that almost every class has at least one assignment that is to be completed with a team.  So, the students are inter-related.
• It's a little bit difficult to see, but that sea of blue in the image above is divided into sections.  Each section was for a different department within the university.  If I had to guess, I would guess that no degree can be completed totally within the department that controls the degree.  For example, Business majors have to take classes within the Humanities department.  Therefore, the departments within the university are inter-related.
• The university has relationships with the government, acreditation boards, and business.

My point here is this:  Each student is part of larger systems and is inter-related with other students and the larger systems.

You could say that makes each student and their work insignificant because they are such a small part of the entire system.  I say, NO, NO, NO!

Look at it as a force multiplier.  Each student can use those systems, of which they are a part, to multiply the impact of their efforts.  Each student can use the relationships to multiple the significance of what they do.

So to the Class of 2011 ( and earlier classes, too), I say, "Go forth and multiply!"  Use the relationships and systems to change the world for the better, in a big way!

Mistakes make great images

One of my favorite images from the photo workshop actually started as a mistake.

I was shooting this pier near the Nag's Head Fishing Pier trying to get deep rich sunrise colors.  Then I changed the composition and forgot to change the aperture and shutter speed settings.  The resulting mistake was an overexposed frame.

That overexposed frame got me thinking about how to get more pastel colors.  So I experimented withe the exposure and once I got that where I wanted it, I had to try to time the shot with the waves washing over the pier.

This is the one that I liked the best.  What do you think?

Sun rise. Sun set.

As you know by now, Annette and I attended a photo workshop last week in the Outer Banks.  It was a grueling workshop.  We went out to shoot sunsets and then had to be in the car at 5:30 a.m. the next morning to go to our photo shoot locations for sunrises!

But we did get a lot of great sunrise and sunset shots.  See what you think!

This is a shot of the Nag's Head Fishing Pier.  If you enlarge the picture you can see it says so on the sign on the side of the building!

 This was kind of funny.  There were six of us in a row making photographs of this sunrise.  Yet we all got different pictures.  Annette has an image that is almost the same.  She included almost exactly the same width.  But she did not like the straight cloud in the sky and tried to keep it out of the frame.  This made the silhouette at the bottom much bigger.

 There was an unusual astrological event during the workshop.  The moon rise was at sunset and the moon set was at sunrise!  So this picture is actually a moon rise near the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

This is a shot of the Nag's Head Fishing Pier before sunrise.  It is amazing how quickly the light changes.  About two minutes after I took this shot, the management of the pier deemed it light enough to turn out the lights.  That completely changed the shot!

Actually this shot is a mid-day image that was underexposed to look like a moonlit water shot.  What do you think?

Scale

So many times photographers are told to include something or somebody in the frame to give scale to the subject.  And it works!  The viewer gets a much better idea of the scale of a mountain if there is a person in the image.

When Annette and I were in the Badlands in South Dakota, we took some pictures both with and without people included.  With the people you get a real understanding of how large the Badlands are.  Without people included, the picture could be either a 3 inch deep rivulet washout after a summer shower or a raged canyon several hundred feet deep.

Last week when we attended the photo workshop in the Outer Banks, we were taken out on the dunes and asked to find aesthetic patterns in the sand.  It was a great exercise.  It got us thinking differently about the dunes and the beach.  Instead of going for the "postcard" vacation picture, we had to find something more artful (some would say more artsy fartsy!)  Both of us got some great shots.

On another seemingly unrelated topic, I have often said that the photo shoot is not complete until Annette is on the ground looking for images with her camera!  Well, during this workshop, I took a cue from Annette and forced myself to get down on the ground, flat on my belly (Actually my belly is not that flat, but the sand gave way for it!).

Being flat on my belly, out in the dunes, looking for patterns, I found some images that defy scale.  The viewer has a hard time deciding whether the image is of something that is 2" high or a vast landscape.  Let me show you what I mean.

Is the above picture an aerial shot of a vast delta or just a three foot long pattern in the sand?  Well, obviously you know the answer to that question because I just told you where I took the picture.  But, still, can you understand how this could be mistaken for an aerial picture, since there is nothing of a known size in the image to give it scale?

This is an abstract where the scale is also unknown.  Is that gash in the sand just two inches long or more like 6 feet?

I love this shot.  This is my alien landscape.  I see a high cliff just waiting for the cliff dwellers to come and build their adobe homes.  There is a huge plateau behind the cliff that is too high to climb.  Look at the large dust storm on the horizon!

I hope you like these images where I purposefully kept the scale ambiguous!

Springtime in the Outer Banks

Annette and I just finished a photo workshop in the Outer Banks.  Our fine art photography has grown so much this week.  I hope to put up several pictures over the next few days and tell you a little about them.

Here is the first one:

This is kind of backwards.  This picture is from the last day of the workshop.  We'll get to the earlier pictures later.  (hmmmmm?)

This morning, Annette and I crawled out of bed ( we sure didn't leap out of bed!) at 4:45 this morning so that we could meet our group and go out on the dunes and to the ocean  by sunrise.

While I was there it occurred to me to make an abstract.  We have watched one of our fellow camera club members do abstracts, but we never had a situation where it appealed to us to do it.

However, here in the workshop, we were far from the daily rat race and we had let go of some of the inhibitions, so both of us tried for abstracts.

I just took the camera in my hands and chose settings that would give me a relatively long shutter time.  In this case I think it was about 2 seconds.  I pointed the camera at the beautiful sunrise over the ocean.  Then with the shutter open I moved the camera back and forth, left to right.

The result is this gorgeously soft transition of sunrise colors.

I hope this is a picture that people stop and study and then just enjoy the mysterious emotions that they feel in response to the image.

Let me know what you think!

Look for more pictures from this workshop in the coming few days.

A Day at Eastern State Penitentiary

Wow! What a windy night!  The wind just howled all night long.  It was howling when we went to bed and it was howling when we woke up!

And then it was breezy all day long, which made for a cold day of shooting.

Yesterday we got up bright and early.  Same time as a work day.  No Sleeping in!

One of the guys from the camera club was going to the Eastern State Penitentiary (ESP) in Philadelphia and invited Annette and me to go along.  So we got up early, met Tom in Carlisle and headed off to Philly!

The Easter State Penitentiary has a 142 year history dealing with criminals.  Opened in 1829, the prison was a new design that was intended to make the criminal become remorseful or repentant of his crime.  The way this was supposed to happen was through silence and solitary confinement.  This meant a separate cell with no contact with other cells.  Can you imagine going for 2-6 years in solitude without speaking?

This did not last very long due to the growing prison population, which led to over-crowding.  No more solitude!

Eventually the prison became more like modern day prisons with group meals and activities.

The prison eventually closed in 1971 and was left abandoned from 1972 to 1994.  Over two decades of neglect.  There are pictures on display now that show that nature took over the grounds and had made good progress towards making the prison a forest!

Now there is an Historical Society that is trying to preserve the site.  Some areas will be restored to the original state.  Other areas will be left in decay to show what happens with neglect.

But.....In the state it is in now, ESP is a photographer's dream.
There are textures.
There are repeating patterns.
There are abandoned artifacts.
There is decay.
There are equipment passes available to allow tripods.
Such a visual feast!

Let me show you some of this.

The original building was meant to resemble a castle fortress and to intimidate prisoners.

Interestingly, there was only one way in and one way out; 

the Front Gate.

This cell was cleaned out to give a better idea of the size of the cell.

 I love to do detail shots.

The plaster on the walls just crumbled into dust.

 The long hall of the cell block.

Look at the repeating patterns!

 Another detail shot.

If you get a chance to go to ESP, grab it!

A Walk in the Neighborhood

Wow!  What a beautiful day!  She sun was shining.  The sky was blue.  The air was warm!

Annette and I took Piglet for a walk.  I carried my G11 with me just in case I came across a good picture.  But, by having it with me, I started looking for pictures.

That's what I need.  My photography has languished and I haven't posted anything here for 6 weeks!  I need an infusion of enthusiasm!  Have you ever felt that way?

The picture below is not a great picture, but it records the day.  It is a memory of the walk and the beauty of the day!