Thursday, October 16, 2008

The Punkin' Patch

Have you seen this place? Head toward Mt. Pisgah and you'll pass right by it.

More images of the U of O Campus in the fall

Selected images from a set taken over the weekend.





Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Just for fun

Well, since I'm in the posting mood, here's a few more in case anyone is interested. These were all taken with my 4X5 on Velvia 100. The first one is Clear Lake at Dawn this past summer. The one in the middle is a bunch of callas from my garden and shot with a single light source in my studio. The one on the bottom was the first photograph I took with my 4X5 camera. You'll probably recognize the location: Pioneer Cemetery behind Gerlinger Hall. What's that fuzzy spot on the left in front of the tree, you ask? Well, I don't know. It's not a light leak in the camera, the film was new and all the other shots came out just fine. So, maybe it's a...ghost?

Happy Halloween everyone!


Monday, October 13, 2008

Singular Image: Portrait of the Campus



Here it is: the final product. This is the interior court of Willamette Hall. Shot at 18mm, the perspective has been corrected and the HDR treatment pumps up the colors. I also retouched some of the highlights that were completely blown out using the clone stamp, healing brush and a few other blending tools.

Below is the camera's "correct" exposure of the original shot. I modified the back lighting a little to bring out the detail in some of the darker areas of the image. This interior is probably a good example of where HDR can be used to its advantage. In the absence of artificial lighting equipment, it's pretty tough to get a good shot in this type of cavernous location. The sunlight in the high windows wants to blow out before the low lights gain detail.


Below is one of the shots I took for this assignment. I thought I'd post it just because I thought it was cool. BTW, I've noticed (on my laptop, at least) that these images are best viewed in Preview, Safari or anything other than Firefox. For some reason, Firefox washes out a lot of the color.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Ownership




"Ownership"
[oh-ner-ship]

dictionary.com:
1.the state or fact of being an owner.
2.legal right of possession; proprietorship.

American Heritage Dictionary:
1. The state or fact of being an owner.
2. Legal right to the possession of a thing.

Wordnet:
1. the relation of an owner to the thing possessed; possession with the right to transfer possession to others
2. the act of having and controlling property [syn: possession]
3. the state or fact of being an owner

Webster's Revised Unabridged:
Own"er*ship\, n. The state of being an owner; the right to own; exclusive right of possession; legal or just claim or title; proprietorship.

George W. Bush spoke fondly of the great "Ownership Society." So, let's meet the owners.


We like to think of ourselves as a free people. But the truth is, we have owners. If we are in debt, our labor is owned by the bank until we pay them off.

China now has the largest economy on the planet. Walmart is China's 8th largest trading partner. In fact, Walmart is so large, they have their own State Department. As a single financial empire, Walmart is as large as the state of California. Whether you shop at Walmart or not, they have a direct impact on your daily life. Walmart controls such a large part of the US economy they, and energy companies, own it and by extension, us.

US oil companies earned a combined total of $464 billion from January 2001 to March 2007. Source: (http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/articles.cfm?ID=13912). Their financial power gives them ownership of politicians. The oil and gas industry spent a combined $55 million on lobbying efforts in 2008. They were outspent only by drug companies ($113 million), insurance ($73 million), electric utilities ($65 million), and the computer industry ($60 million). Source: (http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/19/news/economy/oil_money/).

As the late George Carlin one said, "Forget about politicians. Politicians are irrelevant. Politicians are there to give you the idea that you have choice. You don't. You have owners. They own you."

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Another contest!

National Geographic is also holding a contest and I think you can still get in if you hurry. This one is free and you can submit up to 6 images. A win here could be huge.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/photo-contest/photo-contest

Student Photography Contest

Photographer's Forum, a magazine that features student work (copies can often be found around the lab in Millrace 3) is taking submissions for it's annual contest. Grand prize is a bunch of new Nikon gear. The cost is $3.95 per image. If you win, it's a pretty nice feather in your cap.

Here's a link to the website:

http://pfmagazine.com/Contest.aspx