Singular Images

January 8, 2019

Curator – Water & Ice exhibition

Filed under: Art, Path to Somewhere, Photography, Projects/Series, Trabuco Flats Mystery — Tags: , , , , — Douglas Stockdale @ 9:20 pm

stockdale-douglas_03-13-18_trabuco_creek_101629-01

untitled, (Trabuco Flats), 2018 copyright Douglas Stockdale

I just curated an on-line exhibition, “Water & Ice“, for the Photographers Exchange, a group of photographers who meet monthly at the Irvine Fine Arts Center, Irvine, California. I strived to have a broad and interesting mix of contemporary and modern images for this rather broad genre of photography. As I stated in the exhibition introduction; water is one of the classic subjects for creating metaphors, i.e. as one of the basics for life.

While making preparations to promote this on-line exhibition, it occurred to me that I have just curated the fourth in this series of exhibitions for this group, the others being Connections, Survey of Contemporary Landscape and Fall Season, with the earlier three on-line exhibitions in 2018. I am planning continue curating these exhibitions thru 2019 and potentially beyond.

I guess this is helping to establish me as independent curator! Okay, a capability that I have backed into and I had not been working on by design. My first curatorial project was in 2012 for FotoGrafia Festival Internazionale di Roma, which in retrospect was a pretty interesting curatorial start as this is an International known photographic event in Italy. Nevertheless, I have not really pursued these curatorial opportunities and in retrospect, these curatorial projects are similar in process for the book judging I did for Photo Independent and the related books talks during the Photo Independent events. Which I suspect led to my 2017 guest curator spot for LA Photo Curator, creating another on-line exhibition based on my theme.

I think looking back that working on the LA Photo Curator project really laid the ground work for this series that Gerry Clausing and I are curating with the Photographers Exchange (we take turns curating every other exhibit). It is a similar in process to editing a photobook; you have a large amount of work that needs to be reduced to create a meaningful and interesting show. In my case I also want to ensure that the exhibition theme is broadly investigated and the work is diverse in how artists/photographers explore the subject. A challenge in its own right.

For the Photographic Exchange exhibitions I have also been granted the option to include my own work in what I curate (I am also a member of the Photographers Exchange), which in my case I think about what might be missing or could make the exhibit more diverse and then find something that could help fill in a potential visual gap.

So for this exhibition I selected the photograph above, an image that contained very small elements of transitional water (dew) that is present for a short time in the morning. Later in the morning with the rising sun, the dew will soon be gone and the spider’s web will be fully functional, perhaps in time to catch lunch. Perhaps there are some abstract visual qualities to this composition that I wanted to investigate as well.

Cheers,

Doug

October 27, 2018

The path to Trabuco Flats

Filed under: Path to Somewhere, Projects/Series, Trabuco Flats Mystery — Tags: , , , — Douglas Stockdale @ 12:03 am

10-03-18_KI6A9730-02

Untitled, Trabuco Flats 2018 copyright Douglas Stockdale

Although I am spending more time with working on “straight” photographs for my Trabuco Flats project I continue to experimental/play with some of the images. Not entirely giving up on how I might incorporate some of these abstract images into this project, but exactly how I do it is not something that I need to decide today.

The earlier feedback I received about these images related to a more purist issue with the non-traditional sky, something pretty evident in the photograph of this post. My take is rather than consider this landscape image from an emotional viewpoint, that all of the various marks and lines in the sky as representing angst and discord, the viewers were reacting from a traditional viewpoint that this did not look like a classic landscape. I will admit that this landscape image is non-traditional.

Thus as an experiment, I made some modification to the landscape that I subsequently published a few days ago, here. I modified the sky by cleaning up some of the radical marks and lines, still an overall abstract landscape, perhaps with what one would call the sky’s tonality was more homogenized and perhaps leaning into appealing like something more traditional.

All of the feedback is fine and interesting to consider. Nevertheless, what do I think of these potential changes to my images? As an artist I am creating somewhat radical landscape photographs that does not meet the norms. So the question is; do the changes being suggested improve my photographs or do the changes being suggested attempt to make my photographs conform to their expectations of what is acceptable?

I suspect that part of this conservative image advice is due to my audience; they do not experiment with images that often and for the most part chase the modernist landscapes imagery of Ansel Adams. I have shown some of this work to a group of abstract painters/artist, and they encouraged me to push the effects I am using even further. Such as bury the photographs I made for a couple of weeks out in the field and see what results.

And yes, I am also sensitive and aware of the comments that I need to be sure that I am not leaning on some image app trickery as a crutch to making “good” images.

So more experimentation as I play with my options.

Cheers!

February 8, 2018

My Path to Somewhere

Filed under: Gardening for Ordnance, Path to Somewhere — Tags: — Douglas Stockdale @ 5:16 pm

02-02-18_GfO_76850010_RSM_6x6_300dpi_ProPhoto_Scan

Untitled (Gardening for Ordnance) 2018 copyright Douglas Stockdale

First the good news; I have the Hasselblad back and I am resuming my photographic adventures with film again. The image with this post, untitled at the moment, is from the first roll for a camera/lens check as my first opportunity to test my used 120 mm f/4 Zeiss Makro-Planar lens that I just acquired. Btw, I did photograph this same composition with my 19% gray card stuck to the sign, but that does not make for an interesting photograph (yuk, yuk).

As I posted a couple of weeks ago that for at least the short term, my morning walks have a little more purpose to it in addition to getting some exercise. I will be working on my project Gardening for Ordnance while out and about as I am finding some more evidence of the decommissioned WWII bombing area that we live on.

I am also exploring potential compositions that do not tell the whole story, that perhaps have a little ambiguity and mystery. Such as this photograph above in which the front of the sign with it’s corresponding warning is concealed. That this posted sign can be obviously be seen from the neighboring houses might add a little more visual tension due to the proximity of these two diverse conditions.

All in all I think my test roll is a wonderful success; the lens provides crisp and sharp images, that the shutter and aperture appear to functioning very well and I walked away with an great image for my project portfolio.

Tech notes: Fijicolor 100 roll film (just a bit expired since this film is no longer available) with the Hasselblad 503cx and 120 mm Zeiss Makor-Planar lens, camera hand-held, exposure not recorded but recall lens aperture was wide open at f/4 for a shallow depth of field.

Cheers!

January 27, 2018

Late January 2018 photo updates

Filed under: Middle Ground, Path to Somewhere, Photography, Projects/Series — Tags: , — Douglas Stockdale @ 7:57 pm

12-20-17_Arroyo_Trabuco_trail_092919-01_RSM

Arroyo Trabuco trail, December* 2017 copyright Douglas Stockdale

In addition to my new routine of morning walks during which I venture into the adjacent arroyo, back in the studio I have continued to work on my Middle Ground project. At the moment the Middle Ground project is not going include any black & white images so I did not include any updated images during my seven day black & white challenge this month.

Nevertheless, I continued to edit, tweak and evaluate the Middle Ground images for this project and have started printing these at 16 x 20″ on Photo Rag as part of my final evaluation. Looking ahead at the photobook for this project I have asked for a quote from a public relations person that I frequently interact with in my role as Editor for the The PhotoBook Journal, so I appreciate the quality of work she does. To help her understand this body of work, I have also uploaded to my web site a small selection of images that a part of the final edit. I have also continued to work on the Middle Ground book dummy. I expect to have some updates on that very, very soon.

I have been asked to join a new art mentoring program for an LA art organization and should have some details as this gets sorted out, guessing that this is going to launch sometime next month. Also received a request to provide a photobook presentation next month to an art group in the greater LA area and likewise I hope to get this worked out in the next week or so.

Meanwhile, I have just transferred the ownership of the SoCal PhotoExchange to my Editor, and now publisher, Gerhard Clausing. So that blog is in really good hands. I will continue as Associate Editor and I plan to write a weekly “tech” column for this photo-blog for the next couple of months (just posted a user report on the Gitzo carbon fiber tripod and next will be the Really Right Stuff medium size ball-head) and see how that goes.

I think a good start for the new year. Now if I can only lose a couple more of those pesky pounds that seem to linger; suspect that these are attached with super-glue ;- )

btw, noted that there is a small flock (at least six) of green parrots down in the arroyo this morning; noisy birds!

Please join me on Tumblr: @douglasstockdale & Twitter: @Doug_Stockdale, and of course, Instagram @douglasstockdale

* Limited time print offer: a 7 x 7″ color print is available for 24 hours after this post for a special price of $150 USD plus shipping. This color print size regularly sells for $300 USD. Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Matte (305 gsm), paper size is 8-1/2 x 11″, Edition size of 10 and the print will be signed and numbered in pencil. email me: doug@douglasstockdale.com for details.

Cheers!

January 26, 2018

Morning walk to the double arches

Filed under: Path to Somewhere, Photography — Tags: — Douglas Stockdale @ 11:23 pm

12-16-17_Tijeras_Creek_trail_110633-01_RSM

Tijeras Creek trail, December* 2017 copyright Douglas Stockdale

First off, I hope you were not thinking that I was including in my morning walks a visit to McDonald’s, as I have enough troubles with shedding the last few pounds, least I indulge in a quarter-pounder with cheese. Sorry, although I don’t want to offend any Micky-D fans, but for the time being I need to avoid that place like the plague.

So having finished my seven day black & white challenge, back to my normal day time photographic programming.

Visually my challenge for this composition was to simulate the three dimensional space of these progressive arches along this trail. During the walk, the progressive arches were easy to see but then capturing that three dimensional space in a print seemed a bit harder. I hope that the combination of how I tweaked the shadows, both on the ground as well as the foliage, in conjunction with keeping the foreground darker and slightly raising the values of the foliage at the second arch created the necessary visual depth. In this case, I was trying to create this visual effect without masking the second arch and softening the details to simulate a shallow dept of field.

Meanwhile yesterday at the conclusion of my walk I realized that I had worn out my Merrill hiking books. Nevertheless this pair of books has held up for about twenty years, the leather was still relatively waterproof and a decent tread to give me traction on ice and snow. So now I need a new pair for our pending ski trip to Colorado mountains. Any suggestions??

Please join me on Tumblr: @douglasstockdale & Twitter: @Doug_Stockdale, and of course, Instagram @douglasstockdale

* Limited time print offer: a 7 x 7″ black & white print is available for 24 hours after this post for a special price of $150 USD plus shipping. This black & white print size regularly sells for $300 USD. Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Matte (305 gsm), paper size is 8-1/2 x 11″, Edition size of 10 and the print will be signed and numbered in pencil. email me: doug@douglasstockdale.com for details.

Cheers!

January 25, 2018

Day seven of Black & White Challenge

Filed under: Path to Somewhere — Tags: — Douglas Stockdale @ 4:46 pm

12-20-17_Arroyo_Trabuco_Trail_093909-01_RSM

Arroyo Trabuco trail, Orange County, December 2017 copyright Douglas Stockdale

This is the last day for the Seven Day Black & White Challenge, as if I was not going to create anymore black and white photographs again. yuk, yuk. I think that it was an opportunity to experiment a bit with some images that perhaps I might not have. So even if someone has not been formally challenged, they could challenge themselves.

As a reminder, this is part of my urban landscape project Path to Somewhere, potentially investigating a life journey. The Arroyo Trabuco trail runs parallel to Oso creek, which is downstream from Saddleback Mountain. So there is usually some water running through here, from a tiny, tiny stream during the summer to a huge flow when we get some rain. This day there was some high, thin clouds that provided a nice light that shaped this landscape that did not blow out the highlights when trying to coax some detail out of the shadows.

Please join me on Tumblr: @douglasstockdale & Twitter: @Doug_Stockdale, and of course, Instagram @douglasstockdale

* Limited time print offer: a 7 x 7″ black & white print is available for 24 hours after this post for a special price of $150 USD plus shipping. This black & white print size regularly sells for $300 USD. Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Matte (305 gsm), paper size is 8-1/2 x 11″, Edition size of 10 and the print will be signed and numbered in pencil. email me: doug@douglasstockdale.com for details.

Cheers!

January 24, 2018

Black & White Challenge: Day six abstraction

Filed under: Path to Somewhere, Photography — Tags: , — Douglas Stockdale @ 8:09 pm

12-20-17_Untitled_100650-04_Arroyo_Trabuco_trail_RSM

Untitled (Arroyo Trabuco Trail) December* 2017 copyright Douglas Stockdale

Today I am posting the sixth day of my current Black & White Challenge. This image was created more in line with my experimentation/fun paradigm. First part is the photograph I made on the trail during my walk (hint, the still water was providing too accurate of a reflection of the tree), then some immediate black & white conversion with Snapseed and the final tweaking of the image later in the studio, which included a 180 degree inversion of the image.

For me the resulting image is a combination of surrealism with a dash of reality that might be considered semi-abstract. One of my more ambiguous images for this challenge.  I am also enjoying the darker tonal range of this image, also a bit out of my norm. So now see what I might cook-up for the final challenge image for tomorrow’s post.

Please join me on Tumblr: @douglasstockdale & Twitter: @Doug_Stockdale, and of course, Instagram @douglasstockdale

* Limited time print offer: a 7 x 7″ black & white print is available for 24 hours after this post for a special price of $150 USD plus shipping. This black & white print size regularly sells for $300 USD. Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Matte (305 gsm), paper size is 8-1/2 x 11″, Edition size of 10 and the print will be signed and numbered in pencil. email me: doug@douglasstockdale.com for details.

Cheers!

 

January 23, 2018

Black & White Challenge; Day five

Filed under: Path to Somewhere, Photography — Tags: — Douglas Stockdale @ 4:29 pm

12-16-17_Tijeras_Creek_trail_105353-01_RSM

Tijeras Creek trail, December 2017* copyright Douglas Stockdale

Captured on a day at the end of December last year as I began to experiment and play with the walks I was starting to embark on. Thought this might make a nice transition in my seven day Black & White Challenge from the beach back onto the trails.

I will be heading out the door in a few minutes for the morning walk as my Hasselblad fix was completed and back in my hands again late yesterday afternoon. So I have some color film to use this morning! Wohooo! I won’t have results to share for a while as the film will need processing and scanning. Still, I am back in action with film again.

This day in December was slightly overcast, high clouds and best described as having open shade which allowed some light shadows to create form and shape, but the light was not so bright as to block the shadow details. A little work in the Photoshop black & white conversion layer to tease out the sky and cloud details while still providing some texture in the path way.

Please join me on Tumblr: @douglasstockdale & Twitter: @Doug_Stockdale, and of course, Instagram @douglasstockdale

* Limited time print offer: a 7 x 7″ black & white print is available for 24 hours after this post for a special price of $150 USD plus shipping. This black & white print size regularly sells for $300 USD. Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Matte (305 gsm), paper size is 8-1/2 x 11″, Edition size of 10 and the print will be signed and numbered in pencil. email me: doug@douglasstockdale.com for details.

Cheers!

January 18, 2018

Rainy day puddle reflections

Filed under: Path to Somewhere, Photography, Projects/Series — Tags: — Douglas Stockdale @ 4:30 pm

01-10-17_Puddle_100623-01_RSM

Rain Puddle, Rancho Santa Margarita, January* 2018 copyright Douglas Stockdale

Puddle reflections, like window reflections, can be fascinating. The viewer is both looking in as well as looking beyond, a bit of found surrealism. With window reflections, the overlaying image is usually behind the photographer, thus a interesting potential metaphor about the “past”. In this case, the the viewer is looking at the ground, but can still see into the heavens, a different kind of potential metaphor.

With some careful framing, as I tried to do with this image, it is possible to capture something just out of the frame that can modify the surrealism of the moment; in this case capturing part of the reflected trees in addition to the sky. So a bit more “grounding” of the image, as one would assume that the reflected tree was just out side of the frame.

Both window and puddle reflections are also potential cliche’s, done over and over again, so the challenge is to first determine what attributes I want to include and of course the bigger question; why. To be frank, for me, this was just part of the experience of my morning walk and I enjoy the potential metaphoric and surrealistic qualities, and hope others do as well.

Please join me on Tumblr: @douglasstockdale

* Limited time print offer: a 7 x 7″ color print is available for 24 hours after this post for a special price of $150 USD plus shipping. This color print size regularly sells for $300 USD. Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Matte (305 gsm), paper size is 8-1/2 x 11″, Edition size of 10 and the print will be signed and numbered in pencil. email me: doug@douglasstockdale.com

Cheers!

January 17, 2018

Morning walk & near first weight goal

Filed under: Path to Somewhere, Projects/Series — Tags: — Douglas Stockdale @ 10:35 pm

12-16-17_Tijeras_Creek_Trail_111844-01_RSM

Tijeras Creek trail, December* 2017 copyright Douglas Stockdale

As I posted earlier this month about my change of life style, one of the reasons I have started walking was to lose a little weight in order to be a bit more responsive when we go skiing next month. My first weight loss goal was 15 pounds, which I am hovering around at the moment (I can make goal if I lean back a little on my rickety old scale). I think I will be there in the next three weeks or so when we drive to Vail.

Since there is still a bit extra of me around the belt line, I am already thinking that I will need to a second goal to lose at least another extra five pounds. The good news is that for my height, I am already in the idea weight range; actually very good news because I was not there this summer. (okay, maybe at the top end of the range, but still within the range!) Egads, I just checked another weight chart and now I am a bit overweight. Crap! Probably similar to the recent blood pressure recommendations; one day I am borderline and the next I am one step closer to the grave. I am going back to the earlier chart until I lose a little bit more ;- )

As to my walking, I think that I use two basic options; first is my photographic walk which has frequent stops and the second is my brisk walk in which I am clocking my time and a bit of hustle to my step. I seem to cover the same distance for both options, but the duration is at least double while photographing. So I am going to alternate these two options for the next couple of weeks to see if that might help me hit my first goal.

For some reason, these last couple of pounds are just sticking to me like super-glue. My favorite rationale: muscle is denser than flab, so as I convert to muscle, then the weight change maybe slooower. yuk, yuk.

Please join me on Instagram: @douglasstockdale

* Limited time print offer: a 7 x 7″ black & white print is available for 24 hours after this post for a special price of $150 USD plus shipping. This print size regularly sells for $300 USD. Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Matte (305 gsm), paper size is 8-1/2 x 11″, Edition size of 10 and the print will be signed and numbered in pencil. email me: doug@douglasstockdale.com

Cheers!

 

Older Posts »

Blog at WordPress.com.