Glyphs of Time :: a blog by jarvis grant

August 24, 2011

The Jazz Photography of Francis Wolff

John Coltrane by Francis Wolff

John Coltrane by Francis Wolff during the recording of "Blue Train", ©Mosaic Images

During the 1950’s and 60’s Francis Wolff was the “official” photographer of Blue Note Records.  He was at every recording session making photographs. So as it turns out Wolff became the visual archivist of Blue Note Records. These sessions took place in the living room studio of Rudy Van Gelder. A fact that I find absolutely incredible! In a shot of Miles Davis between takes you can see some of the living room furniture and television. Amazing! You can check out the book, Blue Note Jazz Photography by Francis Wolff. This link is to the soft cover edition on Amazon.

To find out more, but not all, check out this video over at Mosaic Records were Michael Cuscuna speaks to the and about the Jazz Photographs of Francis Wolff.

 
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August 22, 2011

Red River Paper Pro: Jarvis Grant

This past week I officially became a Red River Paper Pro. I have been using Red River Paper for about 10 years. It’s a great inkjet paper that comes in many varieties of surfaces, and sizes. I first started using the Premium 37lb Matte in 17×22 sheets and 17 in rolls for projects at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington DC. As a member of the Museum Studies department faculty, I choose this paper as an alliterative to Epson’s Enhanced Matte paper. First, because it was a lot cheaper than the epson stuff, and then I started to notice that the Red River paper didn’t turn yellow at the same rate that the Epson paper did. Then as papers were getting harder to obtain at local photography dealers, I decided to switch totally to Red River products.

OK back to me! When I saw that Red River had this pro section, I sent them an email to see how to be a member of the club. Drew Hendrix responded and gave me the details of the procedure. I sent the info and samples, and it was a go. I was then put in touch with  the editor, Arthur  Bleich. He made the final selection on the image to be used. He choose the image from the intro of the the Botanical Gallery of my web site. I offered another option, Three Black-eye Susans, but he wanted the image, Blowin’ Flower, because of its “elaborate” lighting and “action”. He was surprised that the dandelion picture wasn’t as elaborate a setup as he thought. I used a scanner to take this action shot!

So, please stop by the Jarvis Grant Red River Pro page and check it out. Thanks!

Three Black Eyed Susans

The image I waoffered as an option, "Three Black Eyed Susans", ©Jarvis Grant

 

Blowin Flower #4

The images used on my Red River Pro page, Blowin' Flower #4, ©Jarvis Grant

 
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August 16, 2011

Adobe: Contemplating the Muse

Adobe Muse web site homepage

Adobe Muse web site homepage

Adobe has released the beta of their new web design application, Muse. This new Adobe app is yet another in its line of web design sans-code tools. Muse is totted to be a tool to, “Create websites as easily as you create layouts for print. You can design and publish original HTML pages to the latest web standards without writing code”. Similar to Adobe Catalyst for designing interactive Flash design without using ActionScript, and Adobe Edge  for designing content & animation using HTML 5 , Javascript, and CSS.  Muse is definitely worth a look see. In fact the whole Adobe Muse site was created using Muse. One other interesting note is that Muse is built upon Adobe’s AIR platform.

With all of this techno wizardry, there is something different with Adobe Muse brings to the party. This little piece of Adobe real estate, while still in beta, presents on its web site a tab for Pricing. What the tab delivers to you is Adobe’s new software subscription model. Instead of the usual flat rate, it offers you the choice of the “Month to Month Plan” or the “Yearly Plan”.  Now this isn’t new that new. Adobe has been pushing this idea for several months. Actual since the “release” of Creative Suite CS5.5. So, you don’t want to shell out $600 for Photoshop? Okay, you can rent it for $30 a month, which puts you a little over the “upgrade” pricing. This idea is not going away, and for some users it does make since. You’re only using Photoshop, InDesign, and Acrobat Pro in the Creative Suite? That’s about $30 bucks a month on the Year Plan OR $50 bucks Month to Month. Only need AfterEffects for a few months? That’s about $70 per month.Still if you do the math you’re a little better off buying the box. Still, it is a option, and once more people buy into the idea of software subscription, the prices should drop.

So what Adobe Muse offers to designers is a way to design for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, without mucking around with code. The interesting thing is that tools like this are actually training platforms too. As you begin to troubleshoot problems with your designs (yes believe it or not things can go wrong with software!) you’ll start picking up a little code handling here and there. Not a lot, but enough to understand what happens on the developer side of the equation. Now if there was only a tool for developers so they could understand that design is easy only after a designer creates a design!

 

 
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August 2, 2011

New Cityscapes, 2011

This summer I’ve been going to the Kogod Courtyard at the National Museum of American Art, here in Washington, DC.. I’ve been using it as a “getaway” now that Borders Books & Music is no longer around. The thing I really enjoy about the NMAA is that it stays open until 7:00 PM everyday, so most of the tourist have gone by around 5:00. Since I’m usually leaving around what Jay Maisel calls the Golden Hour or Golden Time. This normally means the there’s a golden color cast from the late afternoon sun. I think of it as that time of day when the sun is low in the sky and cast long shadows. At any rate it’s a nice light.

For the last few weeks I’ve been doing some casual shooting in the courtyard and during my walk from the museum to my bus stop. After awhile you start to come up with a series of images. Now I haven’t consciously thought of shooting a series, but since I have a camera with me, I shoot. There’s also some new construction happening on the corner of10th & G Streets NW. This new architecture (new in terms of its presence at the location, not its style) captures my attention in the way the glass walls & corner catch the sky’s light.

I’ve pulled a few of these images and started to play with them.  I’ve also started experimenting with tonal mapping usinf Nik Software, HDR Efex Pro. for my own work, I’m not a big HDR fan. I guess I should really say I’m not a fan of the new classic” HDR look, but in terms of using the technique to dig a little deeper into the highlight and shadow detail of a scene and extending the tonal range, you can get some interesting results. While a can shoot multi exposure bracket with my Panasonic LX3, I can only make three exposures. When I do this I normally make the exposures that cover a range of  2 f/stops. The image from the Kogod Courtyard utilizes this technique. The rest are single exposure that have utilize HDR tone mapping.

So, okay, here are the photos.

 

Kogod Courtyard at the National Museum of American Art

Taking a little artistic license with the Kogod Courtyard at the National Museum of American Art! ©Jarvis Grant

 

The Coming Storm

A thunderstrom in the distance, from the corner of Conneticut Avenue and L Street NW. ©Jarvis Grant

Shapes, Colors, and Corners

Shapes, colors, and corners on the corner of G and 10th Streets NW. ©Jarvis Grant

 

Shapes, Colors, and Corners #2

Shapes, colors, and corners, a varation on the theme, ©Jarvis Grant

 

Granite, Glass, and Sky

The Martin Luther King library at the corner of 9th and G streets NW. ©Jarvis Grant

 

 
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