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train graffiti

Originally uploaded by kaiyen

I have been doing a lot of photography of graffiti lately. A lot of it is for my alleyways project, but sometimes there is just something about it that draws me in.

This 5×7 negative is so detailed you can see the texture of the metal on the side of the train freight car right on the negative. I increased the contrast quite a bit in an attempt to put some more punch to it, but hopefully it works out.

I also enjoy that this is a formal sign, saying that the car is leased to the Union train line, yet is also tagged with a particular graffiti artist’s work.

train tracks

Originally uploaded by kaiyen

I have finally been able to scan some of my large format – 5×7 – negatives of late, as whole, single-pass scans, rather than trying to merge two partials together. This is of course a crop, as there was a lot of useless dirt material in the foreground. And I went with a very heavy hand on contrast. But I really like the two lines converging together and the detail in the 100% image – which is 2GB, btw – is incredible. 5×7 truly is a great format, and I fully intend to put together a show at some point where it’s all contact prints of 5×7’s and/or straight slides. I just got a box of 5×7 slides and I intend to go out tomorrow for some shooting. I am very excited.

Photography has become fun for me again, and that means a lot.

the birds

Originally uploaded by kaiyen

A couple of interesting things in this photo. First, the birds…it was like The Birds, the movie. These crows kept landing on the tree, flying off the tree, circling the tree, squawking all the time. It was actually kind of disconcerting.

The second thing…this is a digital infrared photo. Infrared photography takes in near-infrared light (it doesn’t see through things like x-rays or anything – it’s just past red). Unlike visible-spectrum film where things that are brighter show up as brighter in the final result, infrared responds to things that reflect specifically IR more efficiently. Chlorophyll – that which makes leaves and grass green – is especially reflective, and much IR photography is done in the spring.

This was taken yesterday, in very December. The leaves are actually all kinds of colors – red, yellow, brown. None of them green. The leaves are dying, and falling with each wind gust. Yet here you can see that all of the leaves come out the same “color” in IR.

I was quite surprised by this, actually.

This is a false color image – IR doesn’t have color (since color is just a mental mapping and interpretation of various wavelengths, and since our eyes can’t pick up IR wavelengths, we have no interpretation of them). But the camera and processing method creates these false colors which have an interesting and hopefully aesthetically-pleasing effect.

along the trail

Originally uploaded by kaiyen

This was taken towards the first third of what was probably a 4 mile hike in Alamaden-Quicksilver Park in San Jose, from the McAbee Road trail head.

The camera, a Yashica Mat 124, has been giving me flare problems. Even with a hood, if there is sun coming into the camera at all, it will flare you get these ugly little circles on the sides that look like light just leaked in and decreased contrast, etc. They are impossible to get rid of, since they just kind of bleed in.

So on a lark, I glued some felt into the camera.

There is a printing technique when doing darkroom work where one files away bits of the negative carrier to produce “sloppy borders.” The edges are not nice and crisp. You have probably seen this at some point with photographic prints.

Well, while I did crop most of it out on this photo, you’ll notice on the left edge a bit of the felt blocking the light, but in an uneven way, creating essentially a sloppy border.

I think I will take advantage of this from now on. I’m actually quite happy with it.

And considering I was guessing with exposure on expired film of a type that is not usually amenable to wrong exposures…I’m pretty happy with this.

soft towards the light

Originally uploaded by kaiyen

One of the standard guidelines for composition is the “rule of thirds.” Basically, you divide the frame into thirds, both vertically and horizontally. You then place the subject at one of the intersecting points. This helps you to think about composition other than the middle of the frame, and to fill it more with the subject.

I often go with like a rule of fifths, where I put something even closer to an edge. Another composition method I’ve been using is to have more empty space than not. This one is actually closer to the rule of thirds but I used the big, empty sky which has this subtle yet smooth and rich blue to offset the foliage in the foreground.

Sometimes I don’t think I have a style. That I’m just a mishmash “snapper” that just snaps often enough to get a good photo now and then. And maybe I am. But maybe I do put at least some thought into it. Sometimes.

Curbside

Originally uploaded by kaiyen

Not only is this a truly amazing photo :-), but it’s also the first one I’ve posted since I put together my GPS system for my D300. This is my mini review to accompany the photo. If you go to the flickr page, on the lower right there is a link to “where this photo was taken.” It takes you right to a satellite map of the spot.

There are a lot of options out there for getting GPS coordinates embedded into cameras that support such a feature. Nikon even came out with one of their own. One of the least expensive, other than building one yourself, is to get a hiking GPS unit and plug it into an adapter. The hiking GPS’s – I use a Garmin eTrex Legend – are pretty cheap. Mine cost $40 used on craigslist (which is actually cheap for the model anyway – the Legend usually goes for more like $80-100). The cheapest eTrex models can be as little as $20 even on ebay.

Just about all hiking GPS units will transmit the data in a format compatible with at least Nikon’s system, and the little “GPS” icon pops right up. Acquisition of GPS signal was about 30 seconds, and stayed locked on even while in my bag.

The adapter I used, gotten off of ebay, is from “Stellar Designs” and was an affordable $30 (this link indicates the price has gone up). Plug that into the big serial cable that came with my eTrex and I’m good to go for $70. Not bad.

Perhaps a better adapter option is the ones offered by PC-Mobile, where the options for Nikon DSLR cameras would have cost about $70 or so. Importantly, the adapter they use includes the ability to add a cable release. I am now without the ability to do so on mine.

FWIW, the reason I went with a wired solution was that the other ones, such as that from Solmeta, are more like $300. Big price difference.