Getting to the Gallery

A Few New Ones

2011-05-03T19:13:00.000-07:00

Hello! Just a quick post to show a few shots from the darkroom.

Indianapolis Art Museum

Milwaukee Art Museum

Hopper, Calumet River, South Chicago, Illinois

Overdue Update

2011-04-16T08:02:00.001-07:00

Hello all! It has been quite a while since my last post, but nevertheless here I am. A lot has been happening with me in terms of photography. I started with my darkroom class in June and have continued to sign up and go ever since. My weekly time in the darkroom my vary in terms of productivity, but I always seem to learn something and it's always rather therapeutic. I have managed to get some great prints in the ensuing months, one of which was selected for the 67th Annual South Shore Arts Salon Show. While I didn't with a prize, I was thrilled to be selected on my first time out, and with something I did in the darkroom to boot!

So anyway, let's get some photos going, shall we? Bear with me, I'm going to attempt what is basically a highlight reel of the last year of my photographic life (or something vaguely approaching that).

Town Theater
My first print from the darkroom

Crown Hall, Illinois Institute of Technology
This print was a very intensive one for me to do. It took a total of 6 hours (or two full classes) to get this single print.

Johnsen's Blue Top Drive-In
This is the print that was accepted into the Salon Show.

Jason at Shades
This was the first print I did from my new old (over 50 years old to be precise) camera. I'm still exceedingly proud of it.

Point Sur, California
I have recently learned that it is possible to print on black and white paper from colors negatives, something I have really begun to experiment with, with some interesting results.

My first, and thus far only, truly great star trail photo. This was taken in my friend's backyard in Parke County, Indiana this past October during the Covered Bridge Festival.

The next two were taken with my iPod using the Hipstamatic app. I had known about it for a while and it was one of the first apps that I downloaded upon getting it. The first photo was taken at the Milwaukee Art Museum and the second was taken while walking on Belmont in Chicago. I look forward to even better results with Hipstamatic now that I have an iPhone 4 with it's higher quality camera.

Finally, I leave you with this HDR panorama of Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. This photo is made from a grand total of 21 images, seven to create each of the three that were ultimately stitched together.

I hope all of you enjoyed these (whoever you are...) and I will try to be better about keeping this thing up to date and getting out there and shooting! Now if only spring would get here so I could...

Darkroom

2010-06-27T21:19:00.000-07:00

My first day in the darkroom was great! Photos to come soon. Stay tuned!

Lake Michigan Nocturne

2010-05-26T08:47:00.000-07:00

I was finally able to get out and experiment with creating a star trail photo by stacking multiple images. This one is composed of 113 images, with one more frame as the "dark frame," and a final foreground exposure for a grand total of 115. This star trail image is about an hour long. It was taken from the municipal beach at Beverly Shores.

Kudos to Dan Newton's blog that proved to be an invaluable (and easy!) guide on how to do this. Find the entry here.

Eine Kleine Nachtphotography

2010-05-14T17:34:00.000-07:00

My apologies to Mozart for the title.

I recently went on a trip to Frankenmuth, also known as "Michigan's Little Bavaria." While the weather sucked for the first day and a half, it cleared up nicely our second night, so I set out with camera and tripod in hand. Here are a couple of favorites:

I was pretty happy with how these came out. For the middle image I used the "Exposure Fusion" feature on the updated version of the Photomatix HDR software. Love it! Definitely plan to use that feature much more in future noctural adventures. As for the others, the top photo is an HDR and the bottom just a straight single exposure night shot.

Hello!

2010-05-02T18:42:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Getting to the Gallery. This is my photoblog where I will be posting some photos as I go out and take photos. In a few weeks I will be starting a class to learn how to work with black and white film in a darkroom, but in the mean time I try to get out as much as possible with my DSLR. My efforts have recently been more focused on refining my night photography, though it's by far not my only area of interest.

Eventually, I plan on entering juried competitions or maybe even getting the chance to participate in a gallery show (hence the title of this blog), but one step at a time! So sit back, relax, wish me luck, and let's hope I will have much to share!

Here's a somewhat recent shot to get things started: