thoughts on de-commodification

Last week I was on the phone to an old friend of mine, a guy in his late for­ties, who was born and bred in Michi­gan, and is living there now. He was telling me about his uncle, who, about four deca­des ago, got his highschool sweetheart preg­nant. So ins­tead of going off to college, he found him­self with a new wife, a child on the way, and an assembly-line job at Gene­ral Motors. But even though this situa­tion clip­ped his wings con­si­de­rably, he still ended up having a nice life in the end, with a home, a big yard, two cars, a steady paycheck, wee­kends fishing or hun­ting deer, and vaca­tions in Hawaii every year or so. “The days where a blue collar guy like my uncle could have a nice life without doing much,” my friend said, “those days are gone. Gone fore­ver.”

And in the back of my mind, I’m thin­king the same is star­ting to hap­pen to white collar guys more and more, as well. But it’s not quite out in the open yet. Society’s not quite ready to have that conversation.

Interesting Read over at Gaping Void.

Time Lapse Cover Design For Macworld

Photographer Peter Belanger captured his work for a Macworld cover design by using time lapse and the finished video is remarkable. The amount of camera equipment used to get what appears to be a fairly simply shot is surprising.

VIA Derek Cooper's well done blog. I shall read up on some of his lighting now. And yes, getting the right table top shot takes a TON of gear and time.

Nike Football goes live

[gallery link="file" columns="2"]The Project we did for Nike Football went live. The Nike Combat Overview image can be seem here. Multiple composites upon composites. The background plate had to be usable on it's own for wall murals. The uniforms are based upon illustrator files. Had to line up not only the lit and unlit shots but also a baselayer shot. The lit and unlit shots are all done with toning too.

By clicking on the player you can Explore the Uniform and see the individual images up close. I can not go into all the details here of the work, but I am quite proud of the texture of the pants.

This was a very fast turnaround of under a week for this whole project with the individual files being 80 megs when flattened and the group shots being 150 megs. So this was not done at web resolutions, this was done at painful 5 gig psd file sizes. Very fun and challenging project which we were very happy to be a part of.

OH MAN!

Combine multiple audio inputs for use in GarageBand - Mac OS X Hints

I was looking for a way to have multiple audio inputs into GarageBand, say using my Digital Line in, two iMics, and anything else that will get audio, but GarageBand only lets you choose one input at a time. But with a tip from the guys at Rogue Amoeba, there is a way!

Using the Audio MIDI Setup application (in Utilities), choose "Open Aggregate Device Editor" in the Audio menu. Here you can create a virtual device that combines all your other inputs. Click the + sign to create a new device, then check "Use" off on the devices in the list that you want in your virtual device. If you like, double-click "Aggregate Device" to change the name to something of your choosing.

In GarageBand, choose your new device from the input list and there you go! Theoretically, you can buy four iMics and an USB hub and you can have eight inputs -- but I don't know the maximum number of audio streams that can be used simultaneously over one USB channel. But, this is a lot cheaper than buying an eight-input device which can run up to $800. Enjoy!

This made my day!

Still life study with Grapes.

Still life with Grapes Still life study with grapes shot yesterday in the studio. Went to a wine shop for a tasting last Friday and it got me to thinking. Looking to get a triptych out of this series. It's heavily influenced by Joel-Peter Witkin, Zeke Berman and Pieter Claesz.

Here is the lighting setup: Grapes still life light set up.

Zeke Berman

zeke berman One of my college hero's seems to have finally got a good web presence and I am stoked to see that he is successfully playing with color. His 1985-94 series really made a impact on me as a young photographer. The tonal values on the glue gun strands in a real life black and white print is something to see. I remember spending hours in the studio / darkroom trying to get a tonal range close to his. The one time I got close and pulled the prints out of the fixer so happy only to have dry down kill it.

Major bummer......

Reason number 102937464538 why I hate the chem process. Dry motherfucking down.

3 Trees in Spring on Mt Tabor

3 Trees in Spring on Mt Tabor. Just going through the archive and I found some outtakes from a HDR study which failed horribly, but the images on there own are quite nice. So I took it to B&W as is my thing right now.

On a side note, HDR looks great on the web but generally looks horrible printed. Just a FYI to all the Flickr folk out there.

Dutch still-life painter Pieter Claesz, 1597-1661

[gallery link="file" columns="4"] So I have been into Baroque painters as of late.  The quality of light I find amazing, the attention to the details and great composition makes this a great time to study up on and learn. The use of everyday objects also have a way of  taking one back to that time and place. It reminds me to shoot current items so that they will be grounded in time.

Today I have been looking at Pieter Claesz. (web gallery link)

"Pieter Claesz (wiki link)(c. 1597-1 January 1660) was a Dutch still life painter, born in Burgsteinfurt, Westphalia (now Germany) and active in Haarlem, where he settled in 1621. He and Willem Claeszoon Heda, who also worked in Haarlem, were the most important exponents of the "ontbijt" or breakfast piece. They painted with subdued, virtually monochromatic palettes, the subtle handling of light and texture being the prime means of expression. Claesz generally chose objects of a more homely kind than Heda, although his later work became more colourful and decorative. The two men founded a distinguished tradition of still life painting in Haarlem, but Claesz's son, Nicolaes Berchem, became famous as a landscape painter and was also know for his talent in music. Claesz's still lifes often suggest allegorical purpose, with skulls serving as reminders of human mortality."

Eagle Creek Trees

Eagle Creek in Oct. Here is a pic from this weekend up in Eagle Creek. Not quite a full B&W but I thought the hint of color is adding a lot of interest. It was also shot at high ISO which is adding some nice texture.

This also is the first post where I am consolidating the blogs to here. So no more Photoblog on it's own. I think having both of them in one should make it more interesting.

35 Tips for a creative life.

Ignore Everybody.

11. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props. Meeting a person who wrote a masterpiece on the back of a deli menu would not surprise me. Meeting a person who wrote a masterpiece with a silver Cartier fountain pen on an antique writing table in an airy SoHo loft would seriously surprise me. A fancy tool just gives the second-rater one more pillar to hide behind. Which is why there are so many second-rate art directors with state-of-the-art Macintosh computers. Successful people, artists and nonartists alike, are very good at spotting pillars. They’re very good at doing without them. Even more important, once they’ve spotted a pillar, they’re very good at quickly getting rid of it. Good pillar management is one of the most valuable talents you can have on the planet. Keep asking the question, “Is this a pillar?” about every aspect of our business, our craft, our reason for being alive, and go from there. The more we ask, the better we get at spotting pillars, the more quickly the pillars vanish. 12. Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.

Good stuff here.

Friday thoughts

Voids Found this on the internets today and I like it. It got me thinking about being creative and how I have been bogged down with thought and concepts instead of just creating for the sheer joy of creating.