Two out of One

You can drive yourself to drink by sitting with Lightroom and seeing how many variations you can get from one image. On the bright side however, that drink can be a celebration one, when you can re-interpret that image into the "feel" of what you see and the rescue
of what you got.

This is the original on the right,in raw,he stepped out quick and my response was more to the scene than to my settings. Had this been in the film era or 7BD , I would have sadly trashed it but it isn't.




It is 5 AD and I was able to rescue it. I always shoot raw and as a result was able to translate it , on the right ,to my preset color palate that I use for this series...

The question now becomes which one captures the "feel" better. More drinks!

A Tale of Two Lenses

Here are two sets of images from two different lenses.

One of the most asked questions photographers hear is.."What kind of equipment is he using" As though the equipment itself is why the image is good or great and not the content, never mind all the other factors that weigh in.

I'm sure Picasso himself was asked what kind of paint he had or what weight hammer did Michelangelo use...it never ends... BUT..does the kind of equipment help to translate what you see into how you want others to see?

I've been working on a series,"DreamStates" shot on Miami's South Beach, over the last year. The idea is, visons at sunrise through dream filled eyes..or at least that's how it started. Like everything, it evolved and its now taking another turn(more later). Today was not a great morning for light, subject, or maybe my eyes were just too sleepy who knows, but it lead me to do a comparison just to challenge the old question.

This image on the left, done with a LensBaby and unless you haven't seen one, it does a floppy or as the new one does,a swivel thing to put a portion of the image out of focus...good for art, not so good for most editors, why? , it scares them.

The one on the right is with Canon's 24mm F1.4. The difference..focus of course and roughly $1000.00 but that's not the point. The real point is, which one is best capturing what I am trying to achieve or does what "he is using" really matter?

37th Frame..

In the good old film days, often you were able to squeak out one last frame that always seemd to surprise you and often got selected by the editor..."the 37th frame"

Sometimes you held back on it because it was always an afterthought...you turned and fired or said..hang on one more.. or maybe you had no choice because it had to appear on your contact sheet..(remember those??) you tried to rub over it but it magically got selected none the less..

Well this is digital and here this is not the 37th but the first of 4gigs...anyone with a name for it please post.. I, working on a series, " DreamStates" went to a spot I wanted. I took out the camera and a torrent of rain came down..in a haste I fired one anyway and took cover..back in bed,under the cover that is..dissapointed with the weather the following day I went to refromat the card BUT before I wanted to see what was there...and poof..my 37th frame or whatever it can be called is here...Moral: don't think, just shoot..somewhere inside your experience lies someone you buried with a host of bills,obligations,things I should do...a mountain that stands before you and why you are doing this in the first place...The 37th frame is still around,it just has another name.