Glyphs of Time :: a blog by jarvis grant

December 22, 2011

Pledge Your Support for Citizens We

Filed under: Innovation,Inspiration,Observations,Photography,Video — Tags: , — Jarvo @ 3:53 pm

The Citizens We Project is a photographic portrait of the people in the neighborhoods of Adams Morgan & Mt. Pleasant in Washington, DC. The project consist of a collection of twenty to thirty 24 x 36 inch Black & White prints. These photographs will be exhibited throughout the neighborhood in storefronts and public places. They will also be exhibited as a collection of images in a traditional and online galleries. My project proposal request is for $5000.00. These funds will be used to acquire a 24 inch, wide format ink jet photographic printer and the exhibition support materials

The project is being hosted at United States Artist Projects website:

http://bit.ly/Citizens-We

The Citizens We Project goal of $5000 must be reached by January 9, 2012
Go there to learn more about the project and support the project by pledging a tax deductible donation in any amount. Also, for your pledge of support there are several wonderful gifts. They are my way of saying Thank You for supporting me and helping to keep art alive in our community. Your tax deductible contribution in support of Citizens We will go a long way in affirming the powerful role multiculturalism plays in fostering a stronger and more beneficial society for all its citizens.

 
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December 20, 2011

Eddie Tapp: Image Rescue Webinar

This webinar is part of x-rite’s educational series of color management webinars. I found that this webinar was extremely informative, and clear approach to understanding how to correct image color problems. This video by Eddie Tapp is about one hour long, but moves quickly. Definitely worth a bookmark.

Webinar: Image Rescue for Problem Files with Eddie Tapp! from X-Rite Photo on Vimeo.

 
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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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July 10, 2011

A Gigapixel Portrait

When I first started this project it was to create a 360 degree panorama of an art installation at the Hillyer Art Space in Washington, DC. The work, Ass Against the Wall is the work of artist Martha Jackson Jarvis. The piece was inspired by her trip earlier that year to Tajikistan, a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia, as an Art & Cultural Ambassador.  This was also the first time I use my Gigapan EPIC for an assignment. The original idea was to create a 360 degree pano for a QuickTime VR movie. However the final image/movie was huge! Even when I reduced the pixel count by 50% it was still pretty big, but it wouldn’t choke a user’s system. This is what I came up with. Click & drag inside the frame to view the movie panorama.

 

The thing about 360 panos is that they’re 360 degrees! So as the Gigapan did it’s thing we were in the final images. I wasn’t sure if it had finished, so when I leaned forward to check its progress, my movement was recorded. One thing that I did discover was that Martha was watching the camera’s movement with great interest. So much so that the camera captured her as if posing for a portrait. It looked pretty good, so I now thought of the image as an environmental portrait. We decided to make a poster for her artist talk at the gallery.

Ass Against the Wall Exhibit Poster

Well neither the QTVR movie or the poster really show the detail of this gigapixel portrait. Even the poster had to be scaled down so it could be printed on a 36 inch by 17 in sheet of paper. After I had submitted the landscapes mentioned in my previous post, Revisiting the Gigapan, I decided to upload the original 360 panorama (cropping me out!) to show it in its full glory, so to speak. Interesting thing about this “final” image is that when I was processing it, I still cut it back by 50%, so it’s still not the true full gigapixel image. Use a navigation tool to pan & zoom through the image below. You can also use your mouse wheel as well as click & drag to pan through the pano.

 
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June 23, 2011

Coming Soon to Adobe Labs: Adobe Edge

Filed under: Digital Tech,Innovation,Video — Tags: , , — Jarvo @ 5:16 pm

Adobe is working on yet another tool designed to create content for mobile devices., Adobe Edge. Edge will be able to create Flash-like content or animations using javascript, HTML 5, and CSS. After Apple thumbed their noses at Adobe by not allowing iPhones and the iPads to support Flash content. I guess Apple thought that developers would drop Adobe & Microsoft tools and come running to Applescript because the iPad was so cool and popular. What were they thinking. Did they really think that Adobe would simply hang their head down, kick the dirt, and go home? Or, was this some evil ploy to get Adobe to build a tool that they were simply to lazy or incapable of building themselves?

At any rate Adobe is continuing to forge ahead with developing new tools for the creative pros to create interactive content for mobile devices. You can find out more about Adobe Edge at the Adobe Labs web site and the Adobe Edge Facebook page.

 
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June 11, 2011

Epson 4000 Series Printer Maintenance

I have an eight year old Epson Stylus Pro printer. This printer has served me well. I’ve never thought of upgrading because with my Epson 4000, I don’t have to swap out Black ink cartridges for matte or glossy papers. That’s a huge savings! Yet it is an eight year old printer, and I’m starting to notice a couple of issues with this series in general. First, this first series of UltraChrome printers are starting to reach their EOS (End of Service). Epson has upgraded their professional large format printers four times since the 4000/7600/9600/9600 series. So parts, and ink carts are starting to become less available. Second, these printer are simply wearing out. A colleague of mine just had their Epson 10000 44 inch printer “die”. So replacing that printer will be a big but worthwhile investment.

However, for me, I’m not ready to invest in another piece of equipment if I don’t have to! I’ve feel I’ve always done a pretty good job of maintaining my Epson 4000. I’ve kept its software updated, in particular its Maintenance Utility software. Still,  eight years of operation is also eight years of grime that the printer has produced. I’ve always been a little faint of heart when it comes to opening that sucker up and cleaning it out. But thanks to the Epson 4000 Yahoo Group, I ran across this great video on how to clean the Epson 4000/4800/4880/4900/3800 printers. The video comes courtesy of Condé Systems, Inc. This video shows in extremely clear terms the procedure of how to clean the most important parts of the Epson 4000 series printer inner workings. By adding this procedure to my maintenance regiment, I’ll be able to add a few more years to my trustworthy Epson 4000.

 
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June 16, 2010

The Life of a Photograph…

Filed under: Art History,Museum,Observations,Photography,Video — Tags: — Jarvo @ 1:14 am
The Cowboy by Sam Abell

The Cowboy by Sam Abell

There was once a time when photographers thought of themselves as members of a Brotherhood/Sisterhood. As a photographer, you were one with all other photographers. Whether you liked a photographer’s work or not, you respected that person for the energy they brought to it. Well in these days were “artists” (usually painters) now call themselves photographers.They know little to nothing about that brotherhood/sisterhood of like spirited folk feel. Yet, in an Andy Warholed way, they can appropriate the images of others. Not only appropriate/steal an image, but actually call it they own! When artists and Big Time arts institutions feel comfortable with this type of behavior, there’s a problem.

A few years ago I read about the artist, Richard Prince. He had put together a series of works at the Guggenheim Museum about the New Americana and some blah, blah, blah.  In his exhibit, he used an image of photographer, Sam Abell. So here’s an interview with Sam Abell about what he thinks about this guy stealing one of his images and is making crazy amounts of money from it. Sam is a class act, but there ought to be a law about things like this. I think they should call it Copyright Infringement! Yet it seems to be legal. Kinda like bringing the financial markets to their knees in 2008. It’s legal, but is it right or ethical?

But wait, there’s more! Well now it seems that someone else inspired by Prince, is selling the Abell image as micro stock for pennies in comparison in a project called 20×200! Photography, it’s a crazy business

 
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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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March 18, 2010

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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