The Wayward Celt

While I continue to work on being less negative, I’ll spare you with words and instead ply you with images during this past Sunday’s dusting of snow:

This time around I opted to play some more with texture, pattern, and chaos. This series lacks the rhythm, clean lines, and simplicity in the shots from the Chinese Garden previously posted, but seems to make up for the chaotic nature by capturing some of the drama in wintertime.  The sun came out about halfway through shooting, so you can see a shift in contrast and reflection. Seeing as the weather was very monochromatic, black and white imagery stood out as most suitable when I was post processing these, though you will see tiny hints of colour in some.

The last shot above, of course, being a “special” extra: a bad self portrait. You’re welcome.

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In lieu of more interesting topics which require proper words, I thought this week would be a good time to show a few images which I captured over the holidays; specifically when we visited the Lan Su Chinese Gardens in downtown Portland:

These were all taken with my Canon EOS 60d using the 18-135mm kit lens. All images have undergone some relatively heavy post-processing using Snapseed on an iPad2. I’m actually quite pleased with Snapseed as an image editing tool, as it is fairly intuitive and easy to learn. The only downside is no way to add a watermark directly, so I have had to import into Google Picasa, and then export with the appropriate watermark set.

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… but…

I WILL be back to blogging once per week in 2012. The latter three months in 2011 became a bit hectic for me which resulted in an emotional depletion of energy, which in turn meant I had no energy left to write. This became overly evident to me in my vain failed attempt to do NaNoWriMo this year. I’d thought that forcing myself to write would jump start me back into the habit, but alas, it just proved too much this time round and I ran out of gas by day 15 without hopes of completion, nor inspiration to continue.

Odd, though, since I HAVE been inspired to blog and write… the muse has been working in my head, just the time and energy seem to have found other venues. Wouldn’t it be nice for the muse to bring her own energy reserves along for the ride, so that when inspiration hits you also have the energy to put the words to paper? Ah, to be so lucky.

That all said, my 2011 goal was to blog once per week, and in general I almost accomplished that… here… If you add in the 3 Drunken Celts blog, and my work blog (in which I posted on average about 3.75 times per week), then I think I actually blew my goal out of the water. But I can’t, in good conscience, claim my work blog as part of the goal since the spirit of it was to blog personally and flex a more creative muscle than I am able to at work. So, I’m maintaining that goal for 2012 as well: one personal blog of some substance, per week, all year, no exceptions, no excuses. If 2012 shapes out to be as interesting as it seems from my present viewpoint, I shouldn’t be worrying about a lack of topics to discuss or experiences to relay.

I am hoping that with some added focus I can make this coming year the year of “Very BIG THINGS” for me, see some of my efforts start to pay off, and possibly become one of those few critical pivotal years in my life…. we shall see.

I’ll leave you with this: one of my recent photographs taken from within my home office on a rather chilly day, the ice had built up a bit overnight on the roof below my window, and then the sun peaked out… perhaps this will also be the year in which I take my photography to a new level as well…

A study in texture:

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For most people a spontaneous trip on the weekend may occur within hours of the idea… us? Well, sitting at dinner on Friday night we checked some internet sites as we began talking and researching a weekend trip out to the coast. Knowing that this was also 75% of the rest of Oregon’s plan, we figured a jaunt out on Saturday and back on Monday to a lesser frequented area would likely get us the best rate with the fewest people… and we were right!

We ended up at the Salishan Golf & Spa resort a few miles north of Depoe Bay and a few south of Lincoln City. With the full intent of ‘doing nothing’ on our agenda, the smaller towns didn’t matter much, as the resort’s restaurants offered just what we’d need between a Saturday mid day arrival and Monday midday departure. I have to say, the chef and service staff in the Steak House, the Attic Lounge, and the Clubhouse Grill were outstanding and the food was of impeccable quality. In all honesty, I was a bit surprised at the high quality, being a ‘resort’ destination I expected the typical banquet type kitchen fare and quality. Not so. The kitchen for the Steak house and Attic was putting out some standard dishes with decidedly non-standard exceptional quality. And with a 40 page wine list, how can you go wrong?

So, plus one for great food… and plus two for the other part of our plan: get out of a 90 degree weekend in-land. The coast is THE place to be when Portland just into the 90′s, and this past weekend it didn’t disappoint. Saturday treated us to a comfortable 71, then Sunday was bobbing around the mid 60′s, and Monday didn’t top 57 degrees by the time we left around 1pm. Ah, climate bliss. Which actually scores a third point for us as well: avoiding painting the hallway/guest bath/pantry/loft in 95 degrees. Avoidance achieved!

The only real down side to the whole trip was the unavoidable traffic to and from. What should have been an easy 2 hour drive stretched into 3 going out and 3.5 coming back. Of course I DID expect it, so it wasn’t too rough. Still traffic isn’t exactly fun, so it wasn’t a nice drive either.
And, because our whole intent was to do nothing this weekend, I didn’t get many photos of the area or sights. I’d had hoped to get some good shots of Depoe Bay entrenched in fog as it normally is, but by the time we got there Monday on our way home, the fog had already dissipated to just a gray pall. Not really the dramatic effect I’d been looking for. On the upside, however, we stumbled across another covered bridge sign on our way out to the coast, and made a point to swing by it on our way back. We can now cross off Drift Falls covered bridge from our list of covered bridges to see in Oregon…

In any case, I leave you with some shots from the weekend:

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Finally had time to get my head above water after the past few weeks here and took some time this weekend to download photos, do some editing, and write a brief post….

As you likely have seen in my other various social site postings, my sister-in-law and mom-in-law visited for ten days between Aug. 13 and 22nd. We had a wonderful visit and ran ourselves (as well as them) ragged. We headed out to Timberline Lodge one day (noted in the prior post here), out to the coast for a nice day driving from Tillamook to Astoria then home via the Columbia, and capped off the trip with a jaunt out to Maryhill winery through the Columbia Gorge and a stop off at Multnomah falls since it was such a gorgeous day. In between, mom and sis took a side trip out to Culver, Or. to visit a friend on the east side of the Cascades. With all that driving I am sure they are both sick to death of cars! That said, we all had a great time seeing so much of what Oregon has to offer!

We saw them off back home Monday morning the 22nd, and since then I’ve been busy at work preempting any sort of post here. Thankfully this weekend we had no plans, allowing me some nice downtime to recharge the batteries and get some pictures posted for you all… so without further ado, here’s a few shots from the past three weeks:

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This past weekend my sister-in-law and mother-in-law arrived for a ten day vacation.  Saturday was spent relaxing around the house, but Sunday we decided to take a quick day trip up to Timberline Loge on Mount Hood for lunch and a trip up the mountain on the chairlift.

I don’t recall much of the chairlift as my eyes were closed for the larger part of the ride up, and even more so on the ride back down… still I was able ot get a few good pictures on the trip:

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I received my Mpix.com print and framing order yesterday. For those playing at home, I ordered at 2:10pm Thursday April 28th, and received the delivery in full at 2:20pm on May 3rd. All in all, a total of 3 business days from order to delivery. Not too shabby for a standard order of 9 prints and 2 frames.

Ordering was a breeze: I uploaded my final copies, selected the images and chose print size, paper type, cropping, and for two of them the framing options. All told (including upload time and pondering framing choices) it took me 30 minutes from account creation to checkout for 9 prints. I was honestly shocked at how quickly I was able to nail down all the options, sizes, and finalize the order. It was so easy, in fact, that I was a bit suspicious that the final quality might be as simple as the ordering was. After all, you get what you pay for… and I have no qualms telling you that for $130 (including next-day FedEx shipping) I got the following:

• One 6×9 on E-Surface paper
• Two 10×15 on Metallic paper
• One 10×15 on True Black & White paper
• One 10×15 on E-Surface
• One 8.5×11 on E-Surface
• One 8×12 on E-Surface
• One 8.5×11 on True Black & White
  Black Rounded Frame with white mat and non-glare glass
• One 10×10 on E-Surface
  Black Flat Frame with single weight matboard and non-glare glass

The box my order was delivered in was well protected, and the two frames placed next to each other rather than on top of each other to ensure neither would crush the other or suffer any damage during transport. Liberal application of bubble wrap also helped ensure the safety of the contents.

Digging into the wrapping I started to pull out the frames and prints and study the quality of each. The first one I opened also happened to be the one I was most concerned about when ordering. You see, it was a print made from a highly adjusted image taken with my Canon PowerShot SD1000, not my new 60D. As I tore off the bubble wrap, I could see my concerns were unnecessary, as the print and frame around it were far better than I’d expected. In fact, I can only see ever-so-slight pixelation in certain parts of the print, and only during very close inspection. Framed and on my wall, I doubt anyone but the most particular would even notice.

The remaining 8 prints were all generated from my Canon 60D, and had varying levels of adjustments made. Most were small light level tweaks, while a few were more heavily adjusted with colour saturation to bring out more drama and vibrance to the images. In each case the final products I hold in my hand match the image I had in my head an on my monitors when I was tweaking them. While I wholly admit to not being a colour expert, even the Black and White prints match what I’d expect a proper B&W print to look like; and I have far more experience with making my own B&W prints.

From a paper perspective, all three papers I tested performed beautifully. As you note above, of the 9 prints, two were on True B&W, two on Metallic, and the remaining five on the standard E-Surface. More info on the paper types can be found here: http://www.mpix.com/Papers.aspx

The E-Surface paper is a typical matte finish photo paper with a thickness I’ve come to expect from good 8×10 sheets of Ilford in my darkroom days. Nothing of this paper makes me think “digital print”, and that is how it should be, From my early days of seeing home printed photos, even those on “photo” quality papers, well, I was left feeling as though I’d never see the quality in a digital print to rival that of an analog SLR/35mm negative printed to proper photo paper. I am here to say I no longer fear that. All the prints I received on the E-Surface have satisfied my demand for higher quality prints.

Likewise the True B&W didn’t disappoint either; with its more glossy finish, and light card-stock thickness, I felt as though I’d processed it myself. And I LIKE that feeling. After all, when it comes down to it, I want to feel that connection to any photos I hang on my walls. The two black and white images both fall right in line with the other B&W prints I have hanging in my home, printed more than 20 years ago… the only difference is these two new ones don’t yet have that slight yellowing of time as it takes its toll on darkroom processed paper which I may or may not have processed perfectly    (Side note on the image below, it looks a bit off due to reflection from afternoon sun through my office window, it really is much more crisp and without any tint of colour.)

The Metallic paper was the odd-man out for me, as I had no experience with this type of paper. It has a slight pearlescense which lends to a more vibrant colour image. I was particular about the images I chose for this paper, and I am glad I was. The paper has the potential to detract from the image if not used correctly. Happily I think the two images I chose were well suited for this paper and have made good use of the qualities to enhance the images and make the ‘pop’ just a little more, rather than detract.

Framing… I said above, you get what you pay for… but this may be the case that stands as an exception. These are not the high quality, high cost custom frame jobs you’d get if you walked in to your local shop, but that in no way implies the framing is shoddy either. While the two frames I received don’t have the weight of a high quality frame, they also don’t carry the sticker price either. For about $40 per frame, I really can’t do any better myself, and hanging on the wall, no one would likely see them as anything less than professionally framed.  Really, I’m just being a tad nit-picky here because I have to find something to couch my otherwise glowing review. I’ve seen better framing jobs, but those always came with a price upwards of five times what I paid for these. You can rest assured I’ll be using Mpix for framing again.

Final conclusion: I am -very- happy with Mpix as a vendor for both  printing and framing of digital photographs to a professional quality and standard that I would expect from such a shop. Of course, the fact that I am finally getting my own photography printed and hung on my walls may be playing a small part in how pleased I am with the quality and service Mpix.com has provided. But, casting my own giddiness aside, I still have high standards for quality and Mpix has delivered that for me.

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A whirlwind trip to Vancouver BC was in the cards for last weekend. Not having more than a vague idea of where we were staying we embarked on the 6 hour drive up with no itinerary and no commitments. I packed my camera, of course, as I knew there would be some great photo opportunities.

We tackled BC like we tackle Portland and any other city we visit: we ate and drank our way through with reckless abandon. Ok, maybe “through” is a bit of a misnomer, as we seemed to gravitate to the Gastown district for 3 of our 6 meals in the city. We dined at L’Abbatoir, Irish Heather, and Salty Tongue… and drank at Shebeen Whisk(e)y House (which had Compass Box’ first bottlings of the Oak Cross and Peat Monster, so naturally I had to imbibe in the Oak Cross). All places stellar in their own right, even if the latter three of the four share a common kitchen.

In between our dining excursions on Saturday we ran about the Vancouver Aquarium, and found our way to three lighthouses: Port Atkinson, Brockton Point, and Prospect Point. The latter two light houses are found on the sea wall of Stanley Park which is also home to the Aquarium.

Out of 461 photos I shot over the course of our trip between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning, only 17 were really worth sharing. I’ll admit, however, that I am surprised there were even 17, as I was having lighting issues: either too little with too much motion, or far too much back-light from mid-afternoon sun. In either case, I hope you enjoy some of the following colour and light-corrected images I captured… as always, click the thumbnail to get to the larger attachment page, and again for an even larger version:

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Since I began shooting with my new DSLR, I’ve been focused on moving my photography from the snapshot realm over to what I  (or others) could consider art. But that is far easier said than done. Subtle shifts in all variables can make such a dramatic impact in the final shot. Dialing the in finer points to perfection, has thus far eluded me.

While I’ve been making progress, I’m still finding that my shots are closer to what I  would consider snapshots than what I would frame and hang on my wall (bear in mind I may have a high standard since most of the art in my house are original watercolours done by my father and he is the one who taught me how to appreciate art with a critical eye).  I’ve changed subject matter, adjusted my aperture and shutter speeds, and jockeyed my ISO. I’ve shifted focal points, cropped tall and wide to short and tight, and become a contortionist to get a different angle… all to the same result: medium colour tones, over exposed sky or under exposed landscapes….. nothing has popped.

So I’ve changed my tactic a bit. Now, while I play with getting the images i want out of my camera, I’m taking the images I actually get and playing with some post-processing edits. I’m a bit more pleased with the resulting after-edit images, but still feel like I am a ways away from something I’d be proud to hang on my walls. I admit, I am no fan of post-process editing. I (shockingly I know) have a bit of a purist attitude to photography: if I can’t get it out of my camera, then it is not photography but computer art instead. Yes, I know most will disagree with me and point out that I am not using film so I am being a bit of a hypocrite, and you would have valid points. Yet I will stand my ground, but not to the point of never editing… just to the point where I will continue to push and challenge myself to get as close as possible from the camera itself without the need for editing after the fact.

That all said, I began playing with some edits in Google’s Picasa tool. Very basic, which is fine by me. All I want to do with editing right now is to mimic the capabilities I’d have in a darkroom if I were working with film. So I’ve limited myself to only cropping and adjusting light levels, nothing more. No fancy effects or gausian blurs. Just darkroom tools so I can pretend I am doing what I’d have done anyway….

So here you go, my first foray into post-process images. All the following were taken Sunday April 17th, 2011approximately 3:30-4pm, at Hill Cemetery just outside of Laurelwood, Oregon:

Any and all feedback welcomed. I’d appreciate a 3rd party perspective on what I may be missing to help be bridge that gap from snapshot to art.

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Warrior Rock Light (technically not a lighthouse as there are no attached quarters) is on the Columbia River, just north of Portland and east of Saint Helens on Sauvie Island. While the lighthouse is not visible from any roads, it is easily viewed from the water, and a little less easily viewed from land by way of a 7 mile round trip hike.

On Sunday Jean and I decided to go on the hunt for the lighthouse. Armed with my camera, we made the 3.5 mile trek to the North tip of Sauvie Island and shot a number of photos of the structures (now updated and automated, and the burned out husk of the keeper’s bungalow), as well as some photos on our return hike back to the car…

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