Glyphs of Time :: a blog by jarvis grant

April 29, 2010

ATLAS Gallery, London – Faces of Our Times

Filed under: Art History,Gallery,Observations,Photography — Jarvo @ 1:20 pm
Faces of Our Times

Meet The Beatles, by Robert Freeman ©1963

 The Atlas Gallery was founded in 1994 by Director and owner Ben Burdett. 

In 2005 The Atlas Gallery became the official gallery agent of Magnum Photos for all print sales in the United Kingdom and represents all Magnum photographers in the UK and its world-wide territories. 

One of the great things about being on the Photography Now mailing list is all of the wonderful announcements you receieve about international photography exhibitions. I’m amazed by the number of photography shows that occur around the world everyday. As a photographer, the thing I enjoy and learn from Photograph-Now’s newsletters,  is all of the subjects, objects, and approaches that are presented as “legit” . Now, by legitimate I’m talking about what photography dealers are willing to and can sell! I must admit, when I’m creating photographs, in the back of my head is the thought, “I love this, but who cares?!” Then when I see something of a similar vein in Photography-Now, I see that all is well and I’m on the right track. However, in a small town like Washington, DC, it can be hard to read just where dealers and collectors are coming from. But that is a whole other story. 

OK, back to the ATLAS Gallery’s exhibit. When I visited the Gallery’s web site there were so fimilar and unfamilar ‘Iconic” images there. Not that I know evry grand portrait image, but it is always interesting to see something new and have my imagebank grow a little bit more. As I look at the faces of these famous people, I also see/feel myself passing through history. All those faces of people who were alive during my life time, and now they are gone. I’ve got that alblum, Meet the Beatles. I think back when I 9and they) were kids, with our whole live ahead of us. Now, only two are left. Who’d thought! I expected them to make music together forever, and it all ended in 1970. Photography is an amazing time machine. 

Check out the photos.     ATLAS GALLERY – FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY

 
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April 26, 2010

A Voice of Light in the Darkness

Filed under: Innovation,Inspiration,Observations,Photography — Jarvo @ 1:33 pm

A couple of weeks ago I commented on an article that was in the NY Times about the Death of Photography as a Career Path. I’ve just read an article by Selina Maitreya on the same topic. Man what a difference! In Selina’s post, she speaks to the Life of Assignment Phototgraphy. In it she cites certain Truths, from her perspective. One Truths is, Negative loud voices are ever present.

I think that no matter who you are or what you are doing these days, you must work very hard to rally against the every present clutter and clamerings of these Negative Voices. The message of “Abandon All Hope” or that “Greed is Never Going Away, so Get Your Share” or that “There is only one Group that the Voice of  Truth Belongs To”. So in that we folks how are Creative People must not lose sight of this, and be prepared to provide a message of Hope for everyone. So, get out there and show that portfolio!

 
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April 18, 2010

New Scans :: Dogwood Sprig Scans

Filed under: Digital Tech,Gallery,Media,Observations,Photography — Tags: — Jarvo @ 12:24 am

The other day, as I was walking back to my hobbit hole I noticed that the dogwood tree in front of my building had come into full bloom. It was a rainy evening, but I walked over to the tree to see just what was what. Long story short, I took a small sprig from the tree to make some scans of it. When I started these scans I decided to go with 14 bit color depth. Here are those basic scans. I’ll be doing more with them soon.

Click the Slideshow link at the lower left to check them out.

Slideshow:
Fullscreen:

 
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April 15, 2010

NAPP and Photoshop CS5

Filed under: Digital Tech,Media,Photoshop,Video — Jarvo @ 2:14 pm

As a member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals I have a tendency to take All things Photoshop for granted. As a pre-release tester I’ve been looking at CS5 for a few months now, but have been using it as I would normally. The only difference is trying to break it, by going over the top with my workflow. So, I’ve missed several of the more magical features, and now I’m a kid in Toys-R-Us! I forget that the majority of people out there will have to wait another month before they can get their hands on even a download to play with. So, with that in mind I want to draw your attention to a couple of really cool NAPP web sites.

The NAPP CS5 Learning Center and the CS5 Live Webinars. These web casts are at 1:30 and 4:00 daily from April 12 to April 16, 2010. If you miss the live webcasts, they are all being archived so you be able to catch them all later. For example the following this link is the New Features page put together by RC Concepcion.

NAPP Adobe Photoshop CS5 Learning Center from Kelby Media Group on Vimeo.

 
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April 13, 2010

The New CS5 Photoshop is here…almost!

Filed under: Digital Tech,Photography,Photoshop,Video — Jarvo @ 10:00 am

On April 12, Adobe made their official announcement of the new CS5 Creative Suite. And sweet it is! In this video, Johnny L (John Loiacono is Adobe’s SVP of the Creative Solutions Business Unit) introduces Adobe Evangelist Julieanne Kost, who gives an overview of some of the new features. Now, I’ve been testing the new CS5 since January and I’m still amazed at what the new CS5 Photoshop can do. This is the Photographer’s Episode from the Adobe CS5 Launch Show over at Adobe TV. Check out the whole show.

We’re still testing pre-release builds, so it ain’t ready for Prime Time yet, even though the boxes and product designs look fabulous! Maybe late May or June.

 
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April 5, 2010

Adobe Labs – Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3

Filed under: Digital Tech,Innovation,Photography,Photoshop — Jarvo @ 8:48 pm

Get the latest release of Lightroom 3 Beta 2
Lightroom 3 Beta 2
 Hey folks, Adobe is really up to something! Get this new release and checkout the resources over at Photoshop News, here

 
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April 4, 2010

The Gigapan Pano Portrait

Filed under: Digital Tech,Photography,Photoshop — Jarvo @ 8:06 pm

A few days ago, in my “Couple of New Portraits” post, I spoke briefly about using my Gigapan Epic to shot my self portrait. One of the things I’m working on with this piece of equipment is intimate panoramas, instead of the usual “Grand Vista” panos. It’s coming along, but still needs some work. The idea of the intimate Pano is using the Gigapan rig as “large format” digital capture device. Hey, don’t ya just love techno speak! Digital capture device instead of camera! OK, I mentioned that the original self portrait was a 54 megapixel shot. That means, the dimensions of the final stitched file is 9341 x 5798 pixels.  

In the post I must reduce the file size down so to put the image on the web. The dimension on the long side is about 600 pixels. That;s quite a drop! So, you’re not really seeing the detail that is in the file. So, I’s thought I’d give you an idea of what this actual looks like, relatively speaking. Relatively because I still must reduce the file down to a 600 pixel width. I shot the files as RAW captures, and converted them to JPEGs for the Gigapan software. I’d rather control the JPEG conversation in Photoshop, than have the camera process the files.  

First, I would like to show you what the 12 images file look like in the Gigapan Stitcher image.  

Gigapan Screen Shot

Gigapan Screen Shot, with the 12 photos

 

 The next image is the full panorama with its Photoshop retouch.  

Self-Portrait Pano

Full panoramic image

 

Now, here is a detail that’s taken from the full panorama. The original selection that this image represents was about 1100 pixels wide.  

Pano-Self-Portrait Detail

This detail is a selection from the full panorama.

 

And finally, here’s one a little closer.  

Pano-Self-Portrait Detail #2

An even closer detail. Since this is a photo of me, I don't want to get too close!

 

The people over at Gigapan have just announced a new rig for DSLR cameras, the Gigapan PRO. I use a Panasonic LX3 10 megapixel point & shoot on my Gigapan Epic. I can wait for the bugs to be worked out. The also have released an upgrade for the Stitcher software. The program I was using was still in beta. I’m looking to see what improvements they’ve made. While the Gigapan can’t take quick snaps of moving objects, for what it can do, it’s around $2500 less that even the least expensive medium format digital camera out there. I’m gonna work it all I can.

 
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April 2, 2010

Death of Professional Photography Announced…Again

Filed under: Observations,Photography — Jarvo @ 10:57 am

A couple of days ago, over at the NYTimes.com, there’s an interesting article about professional photography as a career path, For Photographers, the Image of a Shrinking Path. What they are talking about is selling pictures, which is not the same thing as making a living or creating a life with photography. In these days of micro stock, and photography sites like Flickr and Photobucket, major outlets that use photographers are now scanning these sites to find images. If you’re a photographer you know why, because it’s CHEAPER! Why pay $3000 for a unique image, if you will probably be able to find something usable for $30? This is an issue that photographers are having a difficult time dealing with. Yet as creative visual professionals, photographers are the best organized. Their professional organizations lead the way in artist’s advocacy for all visual artist, only second to the film industry. But the film industry is also unionized. Does this make a difference? Probably so.

This whole thing about the slow death of photography, has been on the minds of photographers for a while now. It has come up at my local APA chapter gatherings, though not quite phrased in that manner. I sit in these meetings, and a guest speaker will comment on stuff like differentiate your self. I’m thinking, “Damn, all these people are really GOOD! They’re all great photographers and good people. How can I differentiate myself?” When I do get back to my Hobbit Hole, I think, But you’re pretty good too! How am I different than those other folks?” But ya know, I do come up with an answer. And that answer is the skills that I have that go beyond photography. I think that’s the secret ingredient. Professional photographers bring more to the table than a camera, talent, and knowledge. It may even be more than their unique personal vision wrapped in their passion of expressing themselves. It’s something so very simple that we can see past it or through it. But the secret ingredient must be discovered by the individual, because it’s different for each of us.

Last year I came across a guy by the name of Marty Neumeier, a designer, art director, and Branding guru. Check him out. He speaks about the clutter individuals face as they go through their daily existence in modern industrialized cultures. As photographers we’re part of the group that adds to that clutter! On thinking about this idea of clutter, I start to ask myself, how can I help de-clutterize things?  I don’t mean stand apart of the clutter, that just creates another mass of clutter that will eventually be absorbed by the larger mass of clutter. I mean de-clutter. Right now it’s just a feeling. I’m working on a clear definition, but for now working with a feeling works OK.

So when I hear about the “Death of Photography as a Career Path”, I feel those who speak it are talking about all that wonderful visual clutter that exist, created by amateur picture takers. I’m actually glad there’s are places they can express themselves to the world with. More voices can make a wonderful chorus. But, more voices can also just create  louder noise. So to me the future is bright and interesting. As a creative individual I will, if nothing else, create my own destiny.

PS: Also check out Seth Godin blog on this issue of creative courage.

 
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