Black & White Thread Volume VIII
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Yes thanks, and a happy new thread day! I look forward for those skies you captured Alec. Over here we have already for some weeks these featureless grey clouded skies dominated by left and right passing low pressure areas. No complaints about clouds themselves, but some adventure in them is missing.
From the archives.
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A former note by Alec about a suspect optogram on a B&W post triggered me to do some research. For my own safety I will not explain how, but spelunking in old phorensic archives I could lay my hands on historic and unducumented materials gathered after the murder on H.P. Lovecraft. At the days of the investigations the unrecognizably maimed body of the famous writer was no easy piece of cake for the optographic forensic team, nevertheless a great scientific result was dug up from what was left over of one of the eyeballs hanging from its former housing. I had the luck (let’s call it luck) to lay hands on this material. Yes, it is the original optogram from the retina of the mistreated writer. Too long this material has been held secret for whatever reason there might have been. Now the time has come this must be shared. The obtained optogram clearly proofs the guilt of the vicious Eleanor Visyak, for her physionomy was burned beyond doubt on the retina of HPL. No denial possible. Was she a complete fraud? Yes! A luvvy? Certainly not!
Witch On The Run With Unknown Partner In Crime
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Lovecraft murdered? Mmmm, perhaps the 4096 qubit D-Wave quantum annealing computer presently running at CERN has opened up a portal to the wider multiverse. Perhaps there has been an irrevocable bifurcation, a rupture, a breach. It reminds me somewhat of Borges and his ‘Garden of Forking Paths’. Lovecraftian superposition!
Optograms are utterly fascinating. The one that captivates and intrigues me the most are the images of Juan Diego and others that have been discovered and verified by many solid authorities in the eyes of the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Modern, ‘enlightened’, liberal progressive types may scoff and mock, but I consider them to contain real truth and beauty.
On a more mundane level, I think that forensic optography should immediately be re-introduced into the armoury of police forces world-wide. One might not be aware of this but optography was standard practice amongst many early police forces in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. With modern, high resolution digital equipment readily available, such a re-introduction would surely see a massive decrease in the homicide rate and potentially solve many outstanding cold cases.
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I will follow the witch to the color thread Keelin. She must have taken the Night Flight.
Michael makes a turn and Alec shows some impressive celestial bubbling. Love it.
Found in my archive: the moon and Mars on the 22th of March 2015.
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Thanks Keelin. It could have been in the series of textures of the former volume of this thread. I love your Early Bird for its curly gentle waves. The series of Overhead and Duplicatus by Michael is also wonderful.
Coincidentally I captured one that follows well the ‘shades of light and dark to run your eyes over’ you mentioned. The same aspect must have made us spot it.
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Hans, pareidolia glasses might be needed, but did you happen to see what was on the menu for The Early Bird? What could be a more fitting reward for rising at dawn than a worm-topped pancake with mud syrup?
And how funny and amazing is your response to the comment about feeling textures in cloud photos. I almost missed the curious character in your image reaching to touch a bit of cloud!
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Thanks Hans, The industry is always pushing for faster lens, wider f stop, but as a cloud photographer I prefer depth of field ,not more light. A tripod takes care of lack of light especially around sunrise/set. I rarely shoot at less than f22 . F22 is where I like to Start at just for depth of field in the clouds. And yes, I’ve adjusted my normal ASA 100 to 250 over the years so shutter speed issues are kept to a minimum. Its realizing you may want good focus over miles instead of feet or yards that brings an appreciation for good ole pin hole diaphragm openings.
Another.. Monsoon #50
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It is a good advise to choose the right diaphragm, Michael. Sometimes I am trusting too much the automatic functions. Thinking about the right diaphragm beforehand prevents disappointment afterwards. I am keen on the diaphragm when doing macro, but not yet when I photograph clouds.
Detail: I suppose your camera goes far beyond the 250 ASA you mentioned. The camera can choose the ASA value automatically if you want to, but I am sure you know that too. The really high values makes photographing with little light possible. The price to pay is some granularity (noise).
Next is one that looks unsharp, but isn’t. I assume it is the subject itself. Taken at f/14, 1/100, ISO-100, 117 mm.
X-ray, Nothing Broken
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No Fly Zone? I guess that could mean You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere, but lyrics by Joan Baez say something a little different…
Clouds so swift, rain won’t lift
Gate won’t close, the railings froze
Get your mind off wintertime
You ain’t goin’ nowhere
Ooh wee, ride me high
Tomorrow’s the day, my man’s gonna come
Ohh, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chairThe Easy Chair -
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George, yes,you think correctly. I am currently posting pictures in all the Forum’s photographic threads ,,from 2015, 2016, 2017. Only the Jan 01 thread has a pic taken in 2018.
So,,not repeating myself makes me take a few steps before posting a shot here. I have a folder on desk top of all my shots posted. I check that before I post here. That folder also becomes sort of a ” best of”. So it gets saved to DVD/Flash whatever ,on a timely basis as well.
Un-posted shots from 2015 are getting scarce. But I have a flaw in my process. I may take say 50 pics in one session. I may process 5 or 10 of them before another session presents its self. So even when I think I’ve posted all the decent shots of a year or month,,I check the raw photo catalogue before I save them to DVD and remove from computer storage. Thats when I find some gems I have forgotten about.
Mindset effects my ability or want to process pics. I like being of a good state of mind when processing pics. I tend not to miss things and overall be more creative when I am in the right mood. Adobe Lightroom is a fantastic processing package but it takes abit of ability to get the best out of pics taken. So I don’t usually process pics for a week or so after I take them. If sooner, its usually for just one pic that has me thinking. The rest may not be looked at again until I ” feel ” like it. Now that i am retired,,that is slowly changing. I have the time to process much sooner but being in the creative state of mind still is necessary.
Therefore,,yea,,I have a large ,by some standards, backlog of processed pics nobody else has seen, and about 2 to 3 months of pics not fully processed. The sunset shots are more recent because I reached a point some time ago, that i felt the Arizona sunset/ sunrise shot had become cliche’..and were just too gawdy. So I stopped taking them. But I’m back to taking them . I’ve been surprised and enjoy the ” new” exploration of the sunset/sunrise. B&W is an endless pursuit but even those I have to manage how much time and energy I give them. I’m currently showing shots from July 2015/2016/ 2017 in B&W so hence all the monsoon. And of course, monsoon months a lot heavier with photos than non monsoon months.Color Is more challenging so I have less backlog but I’m getting better at photographing in color so Im getting a balance between B&W and Color during a session. On a good cloudy day i get on average 150 to 200 pics taken,,sunrise to sunset. I’ve been known to take over 400 shots in a day when unencumbered and weather is offering everything in the book plus some.
Maybe its what gets me out of bed every morning, but knowing there are photographs, just waiting for me to post or process ,that I think are good, lets me experience patience and the karma of everything in its own time. Maybe within a year or two I’ll be caught up. Its not necessary tho. The idea that anybody can look up and see themselves or express themselves thru the clouds is at the foundation of what and why I do this. For myself and anybody else..I hope there is always a backlog of Cloud Photographs to be seen.
hhmm..obviously today was a blue sky day..
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Michael, Arizona Monsoon #44 absolutely vibrates!
And Hans, love the view of your Balcony shot. What a capture (and release? as opposed to the one that didn’t get away, but delivered instead a delicate Fishbone).
So much richness to see in waking life — and then to inspire dreams. Which leads me to wonder: What does he see, this Sleeping Man?
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Michael, I would add my thanks to those of George for your thoughts of 24JAN2018 – very interesting; your dry last line observation reminds me of the east coast NCIS TV show where when an agent looks askance at being ordered to go to Arizona another agent observes ‘it’s a dry heat’.
Your Pointy Pileus shows you have some brilliant Cu shots, so I hope you will be contributing to my new Silver Lining thread….
‘H’
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Ramona, Welcome! Digital SLR Cameras can have programmable B&W. There can be choice of a Yellow, Orange or Red Filter Effect. As with film from yellow filter to red filter there is increase in contrast. I like to use Orange filter effect for general B&W Cloud Photography. Clouds tend to Pop out from the background. I’ll use red when contrast is low as in overcast stratus. Yellow filter effect is nice on sunsets imho.
Below is a shot that plays with the positive and negative space.
Crumb Cake
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Nice to have this Crumb Cake with my morning coffee Michael.
And the Sunlit Salmon is exactly the kind of picture that really surprises in B&W, Keelin.
Hope to see more of your black and whites Ramona.
Hiding Viking
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Hans, I first read your words above on the email notification of your posting (which doesn’t include images), and having come to know your sense of humor, had to smile at the title. I couldn’t imagine what you’d found, then burst into laughter when I clicked the link and saw the photo. This is really one of your funniest ever. And I wonder… will he cross the pond?
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This must be new thread day…
Night Flight
The Early Bird…
The Chase
The Easy Chair
Dreamscape In Transition
Spilt Milk
Oh My, Cloud Berry Pie!
This is the black and white twin to the sun halo photo. I love all of these black and white images! The contrast of black and white really brings out the elements of the clouds.
Sunlit Salmon
Overbite
Shredded
Swept Away
Feather Duster
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