Glyphs of Time :: a blog by jarvis grant

March 30, 2010

A Couple of New Portraits

Filed under: Digital Tech,Photography,Photoshop — Jarvo @ 3:04 pm

For the last week I’ve been working on a project sponsored by the DC Commission of the Arts & Humanities and FotoWeek DC. It is the, DC Counts Census 2010 Photography Contest. I’d been thinking about this for awhile. Coming up with a couple of ideas I thought would work just great. Well, I should have followed my own council when it come to preparing for a competition. That’s , “Read the prospectus carefully!” Ha! I was putting my package together, and now  decided to give the prospectus a thorough once over to insure all would be well. I guess I should have read the thing thoroughly last month! On the second page on the second line it stated that only headshots would be accepted. Headshots!?  What the hell is that all about? It’s about leveling the playing field AND having a consistent exhibition presentation, you jerk. Oh…, i see. OK man, move on to the next project.

I was experimenting with using my Gigapan as a “Large Format” camera, not just a panoramic camera. The resulting images,based on the scene, are creating 50 megapixel or higher images. Shooting portraits with this thing is a challenge, because the subject must remain still during the exposure. So with this high tech imaging equipment, I’m going back to the 19th century. But more on that later. So, all the best laid plans of mice & men were cast to the wind with that headshot deal. Oh well.

But… these shots look pretty good. One pano portrait and one standard approach done portrait.

Portrait of Martha Jackson Jarviis and her dog Ming Martha Jackson Jarvis and her dog Ming

I had originally shot Martha in her studio with the Gigapan. Earlier that afternoon I had shot some of her new works on paper and some shots for Panasonic’s Digital Photo Academy using the Lensbaby system. When I got around to doing the Pano Portrait we were spent., and it looked like it. So a few days later I shot the photograph above at her home office. No fuss,  just a bounced flash as a kicker. Her buddy Ming  jumped into the scene, not wanting to be left out.

For this pano portrait, I was able to find a very cooperative subject, who really didn’t mind several takes and a battery change, to help me get the photograph I wanted.

 A self Portrait of photographer, Jarvis GrantLaundry Room Blues: Pano Self-Portrait of photographer, Jarvis Grant

I’ve been thinking about this self portrait for awhile, and I’m fairly pleased with it. I learned a lot from the session I did with Martha in her studio. This image was made by stitching twelve images. The actual image is 9341 x 5798 pixels. Still some bugs to work out. But all in all, I pleased with the results. The visual effect was made using the Highlight & Shadow command in Photoshop CS4..

 
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March 29, 2010

A Few New Nocturnes

Filed under: Gallery,Media,Observations,Photography — Tags: , — Jarvo @ 10:46 am

Here are twelve new photographs from my Nocturne series. These images were made during the past Autumn and Winter. I’ll be updating my web site in a few weeks and some of these images will be a part of that update. Click on an image to enlarge.

Get this widget at roytanck.com

These images reside over at Flickr until I find the time to understand the code for this little widget and post them on my server. For the best viewer experience, I recommend that once you’re over at Flickr, to use the Slideshow function.

 
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March 25, 2010

Aipad attracts crowds with lower prices and contemporary editions | The Art Newspaper

Filed under: Art History,Museum,Observations,Photography — Jarvo @ 12:05 pm

The annual international photography fair celebrated its 30th anniversary with dealers reporting brisk sales
By Brook S. Mason

Airan Kang’s LED illuminated books were a hit with Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery

NEW YORK. Hard on the heels of the Armory Show, the 30th instalment of the Aipad Photography Show 18-21 March, organised by the Association of International Photography Art Dealers, opened at the Park Avenue Armory with record crowds.

Seventy-three dealers took part—only up by one exhibitor from the year before—but as a sign of the event’s strong retention rate, only a handful of galleries were new participants. These included Gallery 339 of Philadelphia, Monroe Gallery of Santa Fe, M+B from Los Angeles and private dealer L. Parker Stephenson of Manhattan.

Read more,  here

 
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March 24, 2010

Adobe Creative Suite 5 Launch

Filed under: Design,Digital Tech,Media,Observations,Photoshop — Jarvo @ 12:00 pm

Adobe CS5 Launch

Ok, what more is there to say! Just go over there and check it out!
http://cs5launch.adobe.com/

 
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March 21, 2010

Assistant to Photographer…

Filed under: Education,Inspiration,Observations,Photography — Jarvo @ 1:46 am

I was drifting off to the Land of Nod, when a saw a photograph of Jerry Uelsmann by John Paul Caponigro, two of my favorite photographers. I noticed the shot was at PDN (Photo District News). So, I moseyed on over there to check it out. I figured it would be a good blog post. Well as I was looking though the multimedia section, my jaw just dropped! I saw one of my former Howard University students being highlighted, Piper Carter. As a student Piper was one of those students you love to have in your Photography I class. Full of energy and ready to go!

Now mind you Piper was taking this class as an elective, and her work wasn’t super strong, but I saw that spark. She was always in the darkroom picking my brain and shooting, shooting, shooting. I told her this seems like more than a passing thing, and if she ever considered being a photographer. She looked at me and said; “ME! ME be a photographer? What would I have to do?” I said, ” Get better and study seriously.” Well, later she came to my office and announced she was going to be a photographer! She was leaving Howard University and going back to NYC. She had that serious look on her face that students get when you know they’re about to meet the world head on. I gave her some professorial words of encouragement, that boiled down to “Don’t Give Up!”, responded that she wouldn’t, and  marched out my door for the last time.

Well, here she is!

As an art/photography educator, it makes me proud to see this transformation. From a kid amazed by their first roll of Tri-X or DMAX 400 to a mature professional sporting an impressive client list.  IN New York City no less! Well done, Ms. Carter. And to think this is just the start of her career. Well done, indeed.

PS: PDN was being such a Pain in the Ass about the license right for “publishing that photo of Jerry Ulesmann by JP Caponigro it wasn’t woth putting it up here, but click here for the link to  the link,  20 Most Influential Photographers.

 
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March 19, 2010

The New Zone System…

Brooks JensenBrooks Jensen is probably one of the most progressive, innovative photography communicator/educators out there. Back in the last century (!) Brooks was telling photographer not to fall prey to the gallery system. He has set up his own publishing house, that creates “Folios” of photographers work for sell. Not only has he done that, he actually instructs photographers & artists how to do the same. There are no secrets with this guy! I have passed along his ‘white papers” and podcasts to fellow artist. When ever I had a question, I could send him an email, and he would answer.

I was just at his website, Lenswork,  & one of his three blogs. For photographers, this article on the “New Zone Systems” is definitely worth a read. Click here to check it out.

 
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March 18, 2010

Protecting Your Images on the Web: A Look at Embedded Digital Watermarking vs. Digital Fingerprinting

Filed under: Digital Tech,How-To,Photography — Jarvo @ 12:31 am

By Laura Evenson and Kyle Gundersen, ImageSpan/LicenseStream
So you’re trolling the Web late one night and up pops an image of snowboarder that looks disturbingly familiar. It’s disturbing because you’re the only who could have shot that image of that snowboarder boosting 10 feet out of that halfpipe. What’s more, while it’s clearly your image, it is appearing on the wrong site, at the wrong time, and for an unauthorized use.
Read More, here

 
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An Excerpt from From Still to Motion, A new book of DSLR video

Filed under: Digital Tech,Media,Photography,Video — Jarvo @ 12:20 am

From Still to Motion: A photographer's guide to creating video with your DSLRWith the arrival of high-definition video-enabled DSLR cameras, photographers are faced with an opportunity for creativity and a competitive edge in their field unlike anything they’ve experienced before. Add to that the expanding demands from a video-hungry audience and it’s no longer a matter of if you are going to add video to your repertoire of skills, it’s when. Excerpted from From Still to Motion: A photographer’s guide to creating video with your DSLR by James Ball, Robbie Carman, Matt Gottshalk and Richard Harrington. Copyright © 2010. Used with permission of Pearson Education, Inc. and New Riders.
Get a copy of the excerpted PDF, here.

 
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March 16, 2010

John Knoll Recreates the Photoshop Demo to Adobe

Filed under: Art History,Digital Tech,Innovation,Photoshop — Jarvo @ 4:31 pm

This video, an episode from Adobe TV, celebrates the 20th Anniversary of the Photoshop. Here John Knoll re-creates his demo of the application given to Adobe.

 
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Laptop Prototype Design

Filed under: Design,Digital Tech,Photography,Video — Jarvo @ 9:23 am

This ain’t nothin’ but a dream right now, but it sure is cool! With all of the innovation blah, blah, blah hype from Steve Jobs, I’m pretty sure folks were expecting something like this with the iPad. It’s a reminder that innovation isn’t designed with dollars in mind. As the Buddha states; “Excellent work cannot be done thinking about the reward”.


From, Schlagheck-Design – “The device of the flexible display allows a new concept in notebook design growing out of the traditional bookformed laptop into unfurling and convolving portable computer.
By virtue of the OLED-Display technology and a multi touch screen the utility of a laptop computer with its weight of a mini-notebook and screen size of 13 inch easily transforms into the graphics tablet, which with its 17-inch flat screen can be also used as a primary monitor.
On top of everything else all computer utilities from power supply through the holding belt to an interactive pen are integrated in Rolltop. This is really an all-in-one gadget.”

 
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