frazgo meanders

Am strung up and hung again...Monrovia Coffee Company

2009-07-05T09:31:00.000-07:00

Just a quick cell phone cam grab of the wall I chose to display at for the next 3 months. Nice selection of HDR, Orton, digital art and straight imagery will be up through September 30, 2009.

Stop in and check out my art as well enjoy a cup of coffee while taking advantage of their free wi-fi.

Monrovia Coffee Company, 425 S Myrtle Avenue, Monrovia CA 91016.

Las Vegas and verga

2009-06-29T14:46:00.000-07:00

Tis what I did this last weekend, ran off to Las Vegas for some travel basketball with the youngest and just soak in some sights like a summer storm pass over the city.

The images were shot purposely with HDR post processing in mind to capture all of the sky detail, and of course let me take it down into the painterly surreal world.

Gallery Showing through 6/30/09

2009-06-05T08:39:00.001-07:00

My run at California Wine and Cheese continues. To keep it all fresh I swapped in a couple of new pictures. Both you've seen here already but at least one is worth repeating just because I like it.

Artist Meet and Greet Reception is set for 6/19/2009 5:30PM - 8:30PM. Of course since this is at California Wine and Cheese there will be specially priced "Artist Red" and "Artist White" for the event. IF you are really adventurous and want to learn about wine and wine tasting purchase one of their flights and let the staff teach you all about wine appreciation.

California Wine and Cheese is located at 115 W Foothill Blvd, Monrovia CA 91016

J'adore Paris - or at least the romantic memory of it

2009-05-16T10:58:00.000-07:00

I loved my time in Paris. Beautiful city, charming people and the sights were truly beautiful. Small wonder it has the reputation of being one of the most romantic cities on the planet.

In working some of the images from Paris in an impressionists style I opted for the soft romantic feel of the Orton Style rather than going back to the HDR more surreal feel. Am glad I did.

What I am beginning to discover in working into the Orton style is that if you start with a slightly over exposed original you will keep some shadow detail. This is important as many of the Orton style works I have seen of late kept the standard formula of mating together a regular exposed and a 1 stop over-exposed image which unfortunately yields "bullet proof blacks". Or areas of shadow so devoid of detail they are just big blobs of black that no light penetrates.

Since I like a full tonal range opting to go my route of overexposing the frame by 1 stop and work from the resulting RAW file alter it to just 1/2 to 3/4 of normal with the RAW Processor in CS. I do lose a little highlight detail but gladly exchange that for huge gains in shadow detail. Both of these images were worked that way and am pleased with the detail in the shadows while still keeping the highlights saturated with color and nominal loss of detail. IT adds to the romance of the scene when you have that detail instead of the big black blob.

A little meander in my garden

2009-05-15T08:50:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a strange day, misty in the am then it cleared up fast. I spotted a few of the Fortnight Lily aka African Iris all covered in droplets that the sun hadn't dried up and HAD to get a quick pic. While I was at it I shot a few more of Shropshire Lass.

All of these were post processed from the RAW image data file into the Orton style. The final images were given the look and feel of the old Cibrachrome print material from back in my dip and dunk days.

Enjoy the pics and the coming weekend!

Shropshire Lass the most fleeting of English Roses

2009-05-13T07:06:00.001-07:00

It is no secret that I am a fan of the English Roses, especially those from David Austin. This particular rose, "Shropshire Lass" is one of the few single roses that make the category. Barely.

Whereas most of the other English Roses will bloom repeatedly this blooms only once. Just one fleeting day I get the most perfectly pink fading to nearly white blossoms. Given the size of the bush (nearly5 diameter and over 6 foot tall) one would expect it to be a hardy bloomer, but its wild rose parentage in the mix interceded and allows it to bloom only once a year. I'll take it for its fleeting beauty is so special.

Been busy week or so - new web is up!

2009-05-05T08:28:00.000-07:00

My new website is up. Its been a long time coming, but I needed to work it out with the gallery's I show in where I didn't compete with them as well as directed sales to them when they have the piece on their walls. Everyone is happy, now to the business at hand, producing more images which is always the fun part for me.

This image was shot in the early morning hours far up Azusa and San Gabriel Canyons along the San Gabriel River. Early spring here means lots of green and blossoms all over the place for a short period of time.

The image is post processed from RAW in the Orton style. The final image was washed through virtual photographer to give the look and clarity of the older Kodachrome films.

I love HDR on a Cloudy Day

2009-05-02T06:14:00.000-07:00

Add a little doo-wop and you could have the chorus line to some old song with that title. The reality is that shooting on a cloudy day when you expose for subject detail you lose your sky detail. If you shoot for sky detail, most of your shadow areas are just too dark to have any detail. (The lede photo is the example of what happens to a "T").

The other downfall to shooting on a cloudy day can leave you with flat contrast and subdued colors. Not necessarily a bad thing, but if you want contrast and colors that pop for some particular reason this is not the best day for shooting with straight film or single image digital.

Shooting bracketed and using a program like Photomatix to generate an HDR File allows you to capture all the subject detail as well as the drama in the sky. It also allows you to bring in contrast and colors with depth that otherwise is lost on a cloudy day.

Pair of English Roses

2009-04-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

Nature has a way of giving us little gifts when we least expect it. This bouquet was a gift from nature, two rose canes, different roses intertwined and opened almost at the same time giving me this little present next to where I park my car.

The image was shot in open shade, IE in the shade with a bright blue sky above which shifted colors. In the old days you'd have to compensate by adding more "yellow" to your print, but with the magic of PC and great RAW processors you can just use a pull down menu to compensate. I'm liking this whole automation thing.

The final image was post processed in the Orton style as I love the romantic impressionistic image you get at the end. I post processed all with CS2 and Virtual Photographer.

Enjoy, "Pair of Roses".

"Peach Blossom" ala orton

2009-04-18T10:32:00.000-07:00

A little stroll in my garden yielded this English Rose "Peach Blossom" fully blown and ready to drop its petals. Post processed in the Orton style from the raw file and dumbed down for ease of uploading and downloading. Final image to be hung large format style at Paint n Play 2 Art Studio and Gallery soon. Enjoy this teaser, see the real deal next month.

My rose got a "sport"

2009-04-17T16:03:00.000-07:00

A sport is a new rose off an existing bush. All hybrids are susceptible to the phenom, but it is pretty rare. I got one on an English Rose "Golden Celebration" and it bloomed this week for the first time.

I knew something was up when the bud unfurled into this evil red multi pointed star. Eventually each of those points opened into hundreds of feathery petals. Very unusual as Golden Celebration is a fully cupped and doubled traditional rose. Here it looks like a chrysanthemum or daisy on crack. IT still SMELLS like Golden Celebration, just took on a new form.

Regardless, it is interesting and I may just contact the Huntington Library. They have a large collection of English Roses including one called "Huntington's Hero" that was a sport from the English Rose "Hero". Never know, maybe they'd want to propagate. We could call it "fraz's celebration" since it sported of my plant. Maybe, or the ego just needs to be reeled in.

Its not the size of the tool...its how its used

2009-04-08T13:35:00.000-07:00

Just like the bad old saying goes, its how you use the tool. In this case the only camera I had handy was the trusty cell phone and I used it to grab a quick pic of Monrovia High School when I was by earlier today. The play of shadow and highlights is what caught my eye the way it all framed the old Bell Tower at MHS. I had to take the pic.

Of course the images are just passable but post processing in the orton style and using virtual photographer to clean up the color and contrast and voila I have an image I like. Hope you do too.

Twas a nice spring afternoon to play with orton

2009-04-06T06:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after a basketball tournament wound up at the Y I had a bit of time to just enjoy Recreation Park here in Monrovia. Just soaking in the late afternoon sun and enjoying all the brilliant green of spring was enough.

I grabbed this pic with the trusty "fam cam" a casio EXilim 10.1 megapixel point and squirt then gave it the orton treatment. Enjoy "Rec Park Afternoon".

Bearded Iris ala Orton

2009-04-01T12:47:00.000-07:00

Among the garden flowers I think the Bearded Iris, sometimes called the "Siberian Iris" is the most attractive if not outright sultry and sensual. I love the deep rich blues and purples contrasting with the yellow "beard". All told its pretty risky business for a "g-rated" blog.

This lovely was done in the Orton style. I'll give you the steps I used to get to the final image.

The image was shot bracketed to allow for the dark backgrounds and sunlit petals. Turns out the 1 stop over was the better exposure to work with from RAW so there was the starting point.

In photoshop open your RAW file and do what you need to do IE exposure fine tuning, color and light temp balancing and contrast. When you have an image you like create the new file. From that file "Duplicate image" and give it a name. Close the original file to prevent accidentally working it and losing the original data.

From the newly named file go to "Layer" and create a duplicate layer. That is automatically labeled background which you can leave as is.

With the new layer go to Image, adjustments and chose the exposure tab. Increase the exposure by a factor of 1.

The next step is to go to Image, adjustments, saturation and adjust your saturation upwards.

The next step is to add the blur to the layer. To do this go to Filter, Blur and chose Gaussian blur. Blur by a factor of 10-25 pixels to get to a blur that suits your eye. I generally am in the 15-18 range and this one was 15 pixel blur.

From this point use the blending tool to determine how the final blending will look. I used Multiply and typically do. However, others such as saturation and linear burn turn up some pretty interesting results, in short experiment until you get the one you want.

Save the entire file as a PSD file at this point.

Now take this file, go to layer and hit merge visible. Fine tune your levels manually by going to image, adjustment, levels.

At this final point you "save as" with some sort of notation like v2 after the name as a jpeg file that you can publish or use to work with in other files.

This image had one additional step to give it the old 'chrome look printed on cibachrome by running it through Virtual Photographer.

Enjoy the image, use the steps at will to create your own "Orton style" images.

I got one in! "SGV BIKERS" to show at UCR/California Museum of Photography

2009-03-31T19:04:00.000-07:00

I sat on pin & needles for 2 days but I finally got word. Am image of mine will show all of April at the "California Museum of Photography" at the UC Riverside Campus. Am so jazzed one was chosen. Now to clear out time to make it to the reception on Thursday. The official notice:

Thank you!

For your work to EXTREME PLACES 2009. Judging was extended due to the sheer beauty, wit, and richness of the images received. It was very difficult to choose.

A reception will take place on Thursday April 2nd, 6:00-7:30 to open the exhibition. Thirty-three works were chosen to exhibit in our Digital Studio Gallery here at UCR/CMP throughout the month.

During the reception there will be a slide presentation where one work by each artist submitting will be shown -- along with a complimentary DVD featuring each artist given out. We hope to see you on Thursday!

Reggie Woolery
Director of Digital Studio
& Education Outreach, UCR ARTSblock
UCR/California Museum of Photography
http://www.cmp.ucr.edu

Totally. F'ing Jazzed - all three are finalists!

2009-03-28T07:25:00.000-07:00

All three of these images were submitted to the UC Riverside's Gallery for consideration in their "Extreme Places 2009" show set to run for 3 weeks starting 4/2/09. All three are finalists. Now to impatiently sit out the judging and wait for the announcement of the winners on March 30. Enjoy "Snow Squall", "Lario Trail Bicyclists" and "Abandoned Church Paris".

Just a little reminder its spring in the desert

2009-03-27T08:58:00.001-07:00

The fraz has been so busy with stuff and a trip to the desert he's hardly had time to blog anywhere. But...I did get some shooting in.

The images is of a Mojave wild flower, "Prickly Poppy". The image was post processed from RAW in the Orton Style and run through Virtual Photographer to just give it a little touch of Cibachrome style contrast and saturation. Enjoy!

Arrested Decay and Orton are a good match.

2009-03-14T12:30:00.001-07:00

A little discovery I made by chance today. Arrested Decay, or things in the midst of decay frozen in time and place work well with the impressionists flavor of Orton.

The other thing I discovered is if I start with the over-exposed raw file when I start the layering I still manage to preserve shadow detail and still get the feel of an orton work. I like it. Hope you do too.

spring is showing up in my gardens

2009-03-07T15:00:00.001-08:00

This is among the early blossoms on my perennials that are intermixed with the roses. I can't remember the name of the flower but it is purple and looks like a daisy.

Spring has come earlier than usual this year to LA. I suspect its the very warm January and wet February that prompted it all to come to life so early. Now if we can get some serious rain in the Sierra's and end our long drought we will be in good shape.

The image was post processed in the Orton style. Enjoy. The final merged layers were run through virtual photographer to remove the cyan cast from the parts in the shade and give it that old timey 'chrome film printed on cibachrome look.

Red door and vents.

2009-03-07T08:50:00.001-08:00

I had sometime between games at Hawthorne High last week and opted to grab the camera and do some shooting. This door and weathered vents caught my eye. The not quite symetrical strong horizontal vs vertical lines were attention getting.

I shot it with HDR processing in mind and glad I did. The fine detail in the various sections that it preserved certainly helped with the impact of the final image you see here. Sometimes I like to use HDR for the very real instead of completely surreal. That day was one of them.

The shot itself was bracketed +/- 2 stops from average with the resulting raw files merged into an HDR file via Photomatix. The same program was used for the tone-mapping and detail preservation. The final image was post processed through Virtual Photographer to remove the cyan cast (it was shot in shadows picking up a lot of the sky tint in the process) and give it the look of a traditional silver based 'chrome film printed on good old cibachrome paper.

face staring right at ya

2009-03-06T14:27:00.000-08:00

A stencil artist went a bit nuts down at the old Monrovia RR station. (Someday to be the new RR station once urban light rail is up and running in the LA area and the bigger priorities are met). I can't get to upset with stencils being put on temporary shutters like plywood and the like. Its a classic no harm no foul situation. If it were in the side of someones business or fence around their home I'd have issues, but here its all temporary and adds just a wee bit of character to the otherwise barren plywood.

I shot this image with the thought of HDR post processing. I shot it bracketed 2 stops either side of average and used photomatix for the hdr file generation from the initial raw files. That was then tone mapped and run through virtual photographer to remove the blue cast since it was all shaded.

Night Moves and cruising

2009-03-01T10:04:00.000-08:00

Last night I was too tired home to drive home from Hawthorne so I opted to pass the keys and sit on the passenger side for a change. Interestingly I wasn't so tired that I couldn't fool around with the camera a bit.

I've always loved night photo and capturing the wiggles and squiggles of light as cars drove by leaving tracers with their lights. I've wanted to for a while to see what would happen bracketing and HDR processing when I shot from a moving car. Now I know. I have to admit that I like the jagged edges and range of tones available.

Now I have to jerry-rig a tripod and remote release to do this while driving myself as I do like the results.

The image was bracketed 2 stops +/- from normal with the HDR processing in mind. The HDR file generation was done with Photomatix as was the tone mapping. The final image was run through virtual photographer to give it that contrasty cibachrome edge.

And finally...just for those of you who thought of the Seger and "Night Moves" based on the title enjoy the youtube clip as well.

Bullwinkle and his Daffodil Poem

2009-02-23T15:13:00.000-08:00

Meet Rocky and Bullwinkle. While meandering around my garden I thought of that silly cartoon show and named these two in their honor. Of course the poem "Daffodils" that Bullwinkle would recite was running rampant through my grey matter at the time.

The poem itself is by Dorothy Wordsworth and appeared in The Grasmere Journal if the wiki is correct:

I never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy stones about and about them,

some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness and the rest tossed and reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake,

they looked so gay ever dancing ever changing.

The image is post processed from RAW in the orton style. The final image was post processed in Virtual Photographer to remove the cyan cast since this was largely shot in the shade. Enjoy.

Nothing screams spring like a Daffodil

2009-02-21T07:17:00.001-08:00

Since I was a little kid in the UP of Michigan nothing has screamed spring like the arrival of the daffodils, sometimes even popping up through the remnants of the winters snow. That bright yellow blossom with its trumpet wide open seemed to just scream spring and alert us to the coming warm days.

Of course in LA we get our spring way earlier than the rest of the country. Even better daffodils are completely low maintenance and naturalize to our climate. All we need to do is plant bulbs once, cut off the dead blossoms and just let them sit. I like that kind of gardening.

This shot was done in the Orton style. I did shoot bracketed in RAW. I post processed the raw file adjusting the color depth and temperature. The final image when dumbed down to jpeg was run through virtual photographer to bring about the look and feel of a Kodachrome and to remove the cyan cast since most of the image was in "open shade".

Has anyone else noticed that digital recording media seems to lend much more "blue" to the shadows than traditional silver based media?

Regardless of the question or how I got here, enjoy Daffodil and think of the warm spring days to come~

forced journaling...and my wife liked this one

2009-02-20T06:49:00.000-08:00

I'm in a class that has some forced journaling requirements. Not that I'm a great writer or even a poet, but I' took the easy way out on the random thought process. I came up with this ditty that my wife and daughter liked. Its funny but the idea came from the fact these old "K-Swiss" classic wear like iron, look like hell but they are still so comfortable. The all want me to get rid of them. The bit after the jump. Call it a classic meandering...

These shoes

They're old - Dec 07

The've taken me on adventures

I slipped off a cliff -

hit a cacti before going over the edge.

They took me to London,

they took me to Paris.

I walked the path of kings,

At the Louve I saw the mark of the common man.

They took me on hikes at Rushmore and Yellowstone.

Hundreds of walks.

Now they have a bigger journey.

to find me a happy place.

I need it for my wife

I need it for my kids

I need it for me.

I needed these old shoes.