Category Archives: Photographs

Web sites for photographs

Photographs, Photography, Software

Keeping it simple is the best solution

In a spare moment the other day I was meandering through a selection of web sites using the remarkable Firefox browser plug-in Stumble Upon. Two things struck me. First, just how much work has been put into many of the photography web sites out there and the growing prevalence of Macromedia Flash animation effects.

Indeed, it sometimes seems that the author’s prowess in writing animation code takes pride of place over the photographic content. As site after site made me wait while all the animation code loaded – and that’s with a fast connection – I found myself simply clicking though Flash sites in serach of something simpler. The reality is that if you are forced to wait while all this digital noise ensues, your likely interest in looking at pictures fades away. And just imagine having to sit through this every time you go there. Hardly condusive to repeat visits.

Now I’m not saying that my web site avoids Flash simply because I don’t like it. In fact, I wouldn’t know how to write Flash code if you paid me. Heck, I just learned how to make clickable page references open in a new browser window! Rather, I have focused the design of my web site on simple, clean lines, with consistent presentation of all pages. I adopt a white ‘Apple look’ thanks to using the Better HTML plug-in for iPhoto ’05 or ’06 to generate the web pages (I use the DP Polaframe template) and have a very simple menu system to access these.

A while back I learned how to have all the choices in my web site menu reside in one file which is referenced by each page of thumbnails, so if changes are made, I need only make the change once in a central menu for it to appear everywhere.

I also try to constrain each pictorial to no more than three pages of thumbnails, eight to a page. In this way any photo can be accessed with just a couple of clicks. Further, the DP Polaframe template has a neat feature so that when you click anywhere on a full sized picture, you are automatically taken to the next picture.

When I first started my web site some five years ago, it suffered from ‘menu creep’. Selections were constantly being added and maintenance was not fun. I knew it was time to make a change when that most dreaded of choices – ‘Latest Work’ – made an appearance. You see this often on web sites. I never click on it. After all, as I don’t know the chronology of the ‘earlier’ work, what possible relevance could ‘latest’ have to my interest or enlightennment? No, ‘Latest Work’ had to go.

Then I agonised over the picture used on the home page. It has variously been clickable, static, many pictures or just one. I have settled for one static picture which I change every month or so, as the whim takes me. And clicking on it does nothing.

Picture size is another dilemma. First, large images have to be in files no more than 200kB in size to load quickly. Attention spans are short in the modern world, and rightly so. Secondly, make them much over 800 pixels wide or 600 pixels tall, and you will cause someone with a laptop viewing agony – the picture should not have to be scrolled to be completely visible. Obvious, but I got this one wrong a lot in the early days.

Finally, I decided to scrap all reference to equipment or technical information regarding the pictures. I may write lots about that sort of thing here, but it’s simply irrelevant when showing your work. If you want that sort of thing, there a link to this blog in the web site menu.

So that’s how, through trial and error, my web site came to look the way it does. I hope you like the pictures, but even if you do not, I trust you will enjoy clicking around.

Main stairway, Hearst Castle. Canon EOS 5D, 15mm Fisheye, Image Align, PS CS2, TLR Orange filter

Facades

Photographs, Photography

Behind each facade lies a story

My catalog seems to include more than its fair share of facades. Walls. Fronts. Facades. Each speaks of a time and place and brings back memories. Each has its own story behind the front.

I can still smell the bread baking in this one.


Cambria, CA. EOS 5D, 24-105mm.

A few more of this sort of thing, taken over the past year as I was transitioning from film to digital, can be found here. Exactly half were on film. No, you can’t tell which half….only big prints will disclose the superiority of the digital originals.

In the studio

Photographs, Photography

Controlled lighting makes things much simpler

Over the years I have consistently taken controlled pictures of friends in what, for lack of a better word, would be best described as a studio environment. That may take the guise of soft northern window light at one extreme, or strictly controlled studio flash with umbrella reflectors and drop backgrounds at the other. For the latter I have long owned a small three head Novatron electronic flash outfit which has been superbly reliable and is easily (OK, so you have to lift the heavy storage case) transported to any location. Add Photek’s compact ‘Background in a Bag’, a support system for a 6 foot by 7 foot backdrop, and you are set for most eventualities.


Ollie the Pug. Leica M3, 90mm Elmarit-M, Novatron.

You can see a few of these by clicking here.

The pictures span a thirty year time frame, mostly taken with a Leica rangefinder (ideal for critical focus) with 90mm lenses ranging from the economical Elmar, made some fifty years ago and discontinued long ago, to the exotic Apo Summicron Aspherical which is current and ridiculously expensive.

Looking at pictures

Book reviews, Photographers, Photographs

You can’t beat natural light

As we look forward to six dry months in central Caliornia, it’s nice to have a sheltered outdoor spot to look at pictures on those long, warm summer evenings.

This little walled patio on the north side of our home was a complete mess when we moved here a couple of years ago. As the US Government has yet to craft a method of taxing sweat equity, I set about fixing it up to make a pleasant enviroment to better enjoy the occasional book of pictures. The only taxes involved were iniquitous sales taxes which, wherever they may go rest assured it’s not to fix the local roads and freeways, which resemble those of a third world nation.

No matter. Get rid of the horrible hot tub that so spoiled this lovely spot, add a few rose bushes and magnolias, some mulch, a small fountain to set the tone and a few pieces of wicker furniture from the far east and you have the makings of a fine outdoor reading room. The tub was sold to a neighbor and the proceeds invested in what you see here. Throw in a Border Terrier and things are nigh perfect.

Yesterday evening I was leafing through Michael Kenna’s work in the beautifully printed ‘A Twenty Year Retrospective’ and couldn’t help but remark on how the prints looked so much better in the warm outdoor light. His photographs are reproduced in a gentle sepia which adds greatly to the overall feel. Kenna has a strong, consistent style and while the book credits him with works in many US public gallery collections, you would probably expect to find it on the wood panelled walls of classier business institutions like private banks and financial advisors.

Anyway, with all that sepia going on, I grabbed that little jewel, the Leica DP, and took a couple of snaps to illustrate this piece. A few seconds with Photoshop saw the RAW images converted to TIF files whence two more clicks saw monochrome conversion and sepia toning.

Not really luck

Panasonic, Photographs

You make your luck. It doesn’t just find you.

I pride myself on knowing the charming town of Burlingame in the South Bay of San Francisco pretty well, so imagine my surprise the other day when a passer-by asked her for directions to the ‘English Village’.

It turns out that this is a collection of fifteen or so homes just around the corner from where she was at the time. Small homes, some 1500 square feet each, but each with an impeccable garden and lots of mock Tudor style.

So it didn’t need much encouragement on my part to leash up that wild beast, Bertie the Border Terrrier, and ankle around to said location. And, it has to be admitted, the place oozed charm like a politician looking for campaign donations, albeit with a lot more class. Needless to say, that little gem the Leica DP was in my trouser pocket, so it was a moment’s work to catch some nice details:

Round the corner and there’s another one:

And a third:

The old admonition to Always Carry a Camera fell into disuse with this photographer as nothing this small was this good until now. Even the Leica rangefinder was not small enough to permit this cavalier attitude. Once you have one of these modern digital gems, however, there really is no excuse for not carrying it with you at all times.