It was great to be in Boston again. I have always loved Boston. A number of years ago, I sent a few days here at my best friend’s graduation from Harvard. It is such a beautiful city. One of the things I find most alluring about the city is the crew and sailing culture. Out west, we like to boat, but it is a different kind of boating. We drag skiers behind power boats. Here it is a much more refined activity. It’s like the difference between playing Hungry Hippos and Chess. Both are fun, but one is just a lot more elegant.
Anyway, it was a pleasure to visit. I am so grateful to Calumet Photographic for allowing us to hold the workshop there. It is a fantastic store with a great sales staff. Thanks so much Calumet.
This visit, I had a few minutes to walk along the river and found a big sailing school. It looked like a lot of fun, but alas, I had to leave for New York City for my next PUG Lecture and Lightroom Workflow Workshop. Someday, I think I would like to learn how to sail.
I have an iPhone. Have had one for many years. I was an early adopter and have suffered at the hand of the contraption for the entire time. It is a great little device, but it is a terrible phone. If you call and catch me on my iPhone and I am out on the road or even in my office, you will most likely get dropped. I am told by AT&T that it is due to the fact that too many people are on the 3G network so it gets overloaded and apparently randomly chooses who get’s thrown off the network. But anymore, I am certain that it is not random. It drops me first, then my brother Rex, and then everyone else gets in line for the privilege of being the next dropped call.
But I must admit, the iPhone (which should be called the iGadget) is amazing at everything else it does. And one of those things is a cool little phone with all sorts of cool photo applications. My hats off to all the programers of the applications. I bring this up because I went to lunch with some photographer friends (Melissa Jill, Rebecca Bouck, Isaac Bailey and Kimberly Jarman) a while ago and was introduced to an photo app called ShakeitPhoto, which takes a photo in the form of a Polaroid. It is a fun little app and even makes you wait for the photo to develop. How fun is that?
Anyway, here is a photo taken with that app on the iGadget.
It really is quite true that the best camera is the one in your hands.
Living in the desert is a unique experience. Forget about the 120 degree summer days and the horribly unfriendly plant life. To me, the weather is quite fascinating. I love the monsoon rainstorms and the lightning is fantastic. Other places in the world have their own challenging weather situations, many much more dangerous. There are tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, blizzards, etc… and none of these options are very appealing to me, which is why I prefer my native state of Arizona. But we do have our own unique weather effect: the dust storm.
I was traveling back from a job in Tucson and took a back road route home (rather than the freeway). I enjoy doing this because everything goes by so quickly on the freeway and there is no inclination to stop and look at anything (and of course, it would be illegal to do so). So the back roads are much more enjoyable as road trips go. On my way home, I saw an approaching dust storm and immediately pulled off the road and pulled out the camera and went hiking. The Arizona dust storm has a beautiful effect on our world. It creates a ghost of anything in the distance if not, it completely obscures it. Like a blizzard, it creates a thin sketch of the landscape with little to no contrast. I am generally haunted by vacancy in an image. I am not sure why, but of all the photographs I would select to hang in my home, it is those filled with quiet and solitude that appeal most to me. That doesn’t mean that I choose to photograph this way all the time, but it has the deepest emotional affect on my soul. I think it is because that is who I am at my core.
If you are drawn to a particular style of photography, or art, and looking at that work brings you home, you can be sure that that attraction says a lot about you as a person. In fact, weather you like a photograph or don’t, says less about the photographer or the photograph and more about you as a person. Which is why, I think, that I get along so well with my clients. They have selected me as their photographer based on their emotional and intellectual response to my work. Which means that they, in some way, deep down at some root level, are like me. We agree on what gives us peace and brings us home.
When I got home and started working with this image, I asked my wife about this image. ”Am I off base, or is this image extremely haunting and beautiful?”
“I can see what you are attracted to in the image,” she replied, “but it’s not all that great!”
No, I wasn’t devastated by her comment. I just decided she was wrong. It is great, but perhaps only to me and people like me. Remember, her reaction to the photograph says more about her, than it does about the photo. In contrast, I think my friend Isaac Bailey would like it. But I think we share a common love for solitude (or perhaps it is a sullen longing for sleep). My wife grew up in the city with all of its distractions and noise, I grew up on the prairies of Northern Arizona where the only noise is the constant wind. So, my wife’s take on this photo was an instructive reminder to me. My wife is a good judge of a photograph, which tells me that this image is different, my attraction to it isn’t just about some other brilliantly employed compositional strategy, I didn’t make this picture to sell something or even to make a statement. I made it because something inside me wanted to go home for a little while and relax there in the shadow of the Zuni Mountains and look over the endless flat land, smell the dust, swap stories with my brothers and wait until dark for a ride back into town. This was a free ticket back to Bitter Springs after the long climb through The Gap to witness the brilliant view from the tops of the Vermilion Cliffs. Sometimes photography isn’t about the subject in front of us at all. The subject is just a catalyst for memory, a sort of psychiatrist’s couch for introspection and self discovery. And sometimes, a photography session reminds you of who you are.
These introspective moments almost never happen while the camera is in your hands. They come in the quiet times in the darkroom, or the Lightroom as you study the results. And while my mantra is always about efficiency in post production. When I feel that prompting, I do my best to slow down, and examine my work closely without distractions or deadlines and find out what it is, I have been trying to say to myself.
A few more images from the series that I think you might enjoy.
Tech Talk: All of the images in this post were completely processed in Lightroom. They were never opened in Photoshop. Tones, grain and vignettes were all added in Lightroom without the use of any additional plugins etc. Below is a video about creating custom vignettes in Lightroom like those you see above. This video is also on iTunes and on the Pictage Blog. Check out more of my podcasts at iTunes and more blog posts at Pictage Blog.
I just received my copy of Professional Photographer Magazine where I wrote an article on burning and dodging in Photoshop. It is a great article with a great photograph. The reason the photograph is so perfect for the article is that it didn’t need a lot of retouching or manipulation, but still opening it in Photoshop was worthwhile. There are so many subtle shadows and tones that can be enhanced by the process of burning and dodging, a photograph is just better once it has been burned and dodged. My philosophy is very simple: I do not burn and dodge to change the photograph, but rather to enhance the natural shades and highlights that are already there. You can see the final enhanced photograph below and on my portfolio web site at PlattPhotography.com.
Look for the magazine on the racks now. If you don’t know how to burn and dodge your images in Photoshop, or if you are currently burning the actual image layer, you need to read the article. If you are not a photographer and don’t know what I am talking about, it might get a little technical, so let’s just say, Jared wrote a cool how-to-article in Professional Photographer Magazine and his photographs are really great!
The photograph I chose to use for the article was one of my favorite images I shot on a wedding in Rome, Italy. We woke up very early in the morning to get out before all the tourists. This was the first image of the day, the Spanish Steps. The Spanish Steps are so crowded with tourists and locals during the day that there is no way to take a great photo. So we hit the them just as the sun was rising, as the vendors were preparing for the day, and the carriage operators were preparing their horses. I couldn’t have asked for a better situation to take a beautiful photograph. And let’s face it, who wouldn’t want a wedding portrait on the Spanish Steps in Rome, Italy?
When looking at this photograph, pay close attention to the incredible detail on the walls and the shutters. All of these details, the stains and the cracks exist on the buildings naturally, but it was the process of burning and dodging that brought them out and made them so vivid. This is the kind of detailed attention that every one of my “Art Prints” receives as I prepare them for my clients. I personal work on every “Art Print” myself and each one is printed under my careful supervision.
Just a quick shot from last week in San Francisco. I was doing a workshop there at the liveBooks offices and was staying near by. I went out to explore the streets after dinner and found an interesting store, in front of which people were passing. I set up my G10 camera on a newspaper box and started photographing waiting for the right person to walk by. This is an example of contextual honesty. No matter who passed in front of the camera, this homeless man was the perfect representative of the people who populate the streets around my hotel. After all, I am a documentary photographer. I attempt to tell the truth.
The streets of San Francisco late at night, when I should be sleeping.
Well, I’m back on another plane and on my way to teach another Lightroom Workflow Workshop. This time, I’ll be in Seattle and Vancouver. Should be fun.
I received an email from Thomas Lee in Hong Kong who posted a review of my lecture in Hong Kong with a number of photographs of me lecturing there. He has given me permission to post them here, but just for fun, click through and see the review of my photography lecture on this Chinese website. It will be much more interesting to those who can read Chinese.
Jared Platt Lecturing at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
It was such a pleasure to do the lecture and they even gave me an award. I was kind of hoping for an honorary degree in Astrophysics from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. That would have been an impressive thing to hang on the wall. Plus that’s the only way I will ever get a degree in Astrophysics. So my hopes for honors and achievement in that field of study, for the time being, have been dashed, but I will preserver.
Jared Platt receiving an award from the Alumni Association of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
We shot a wedding there in Hong Kong the day after the lecture. Thomas Lee was there with his camera on me and the wedding. It was an interesting experiecne bacause there were at least five people professional camera equipment, shooting along side me at the wedding. All of them were friends of the Bride. I’ll be posting the wedding images soon. Come back tomorrow for an interesting discussion on that.
Jared Platt Photographing a Wedding in China
Thomas Lee does not have a web site to which I can direct you, but I would like to thank him and all the other fun photo enthusiasts I met while in Hong Kong. I look forward to seeing you all again in the near future.
An actor, musician, writer, comedian... what do you expect. Watch out for the pitchforks!
My good friend, Kevin Burdick, lives in Los Angeles. I was out in LA to shoot a baby portrait and stopped in to see him. Kevin is a musician and lives with a bunch of talented people. Tim Nichols (another friend from my college days) is a screen writer and Dale Spollett (who I met that day) is a comedian. So, you can imagine that this group of guys will do anything to ham it up in front of a camera. I had my camera, so what else would a photographer and three attention grabbing performers do…
Writer - Tim Nichols, Comedian - Dale Spollett and Musician - Kevin Burdick pose for a photo outside the workshop at their Los Angeles estate.
Always looking for textures, lines, frames and interesting settings, this workshop in the Tim’s back yard caught my eye. Everywhere you look there is something interesting. Tim is framed nicely in the door, notice a saw blade hanging above his head, just for a little added interest. I love the white paint that has been tested on the left, but never finished. And the rakes, ladders and barrels leaning against the wall are very useful in adding angles, leading lines and additional frame edges. It is also worth noting the way the frame interacts closely, but not too closely to all of these objects in the photograph. You can make this set up! Truth is better than fiction…
Kevin Burdick and Dale Spollett in a loose tribute to American Gothic...
Dale Spollett in the moment. Dale is, himself, and interesting set of textures.
I love the way the barn fades as it recesses into the background. Who would think we are in LA?
Photographing a group of creative performers is an a completely different animal all together. No longer, are you attempting to pull expressions out of your subject, but rather you gear up and hang on for the ride. They move through ideas, expressions and moments pretty fast. Some of it works, some of it doesn’t, but you just have to be ready to capture it all.
Dave Spollett waits for his food at the California Chicken Company. It was a crowded place. "They'll find us," he says.
The streets in Hong Kong are littered with signs and crowded with people. It was like nothing I have ever seen.
This is my first Blog on the new and improved Jared Platt Photo Blog. I am thrilled to have it launched and will be adding to it regularly, so put it in your reader because I am going to be adding some great stuff here.
The city of Hong Kong at Night from Victoria Peek is breath taking. Especially if you try to hike there.
I just got back from China where we shot a wedding, from which I will post some images soon. The wedding was in Hong Kong, which is a very interesting city. I have never seen anything like it in my life. It is very tall and very big. The city is built on a series of islands which are full of hills and mountains, so the city feels a bit like a mix of New York in San Francisco. It is full of very tall buildings that spill down the hills and to the edge of the water and in many cases, they have reclaimed land from the ocean to expand the city. The entire airport is a man-made island.
The entire city is marked in Chinese and English, including the traffic directions. This was fortunate, since neither of us can read any thing Chinese. Although I was taught the symbol for the numbers 1, 2 and 3. That's it. That is the extent of my knowledge of Chinese characters.
The subway system in Hong Kong is the cleanest I have ever seen.
An open air market butcher in Hong Kong prepares his meat.
An old man walks his bicycle through the streets of Hong Kong.
The city is very safe and very clean. It has the cleanest subway system I have ever seen and everything is high tech. And yet, as you walk through the packed streets of the city, there is a distinct look and feel that is unquestionably China. Chinese characters adorn the hanging signs that litter the sky between the buildings and the city markets are full of open air stalls with raw fish and beef and smells that can only be Asian foods and spices.
A fisherman returns home to the small fishing village of Tung Chung with his catch. When he tied off at the dock, I saw that he was very old, most likely older than my grandfather was before he died. As I helped him pull in to the shore and onto the dock, I realized he had caught only four fish. Perhaps it was simply dinner for the family. But I spoke no Chinese and he spoke no English, so I am left to speculation as to his story.
The small fishing village in Tung Chung sleeps in the shadow of over 20 sky-rise apartments buildings. The clash between the two is quite an extreme.
Because real estate is so expensive, clusters of sky-rise apartment buildings are placed wherever there is space. Here the fishing village of Tung Chung in the bottom left of the photograph is overshadowed by this set of newer apartment buildings.
A boat docked at someone's home in Tung Chung village.
I was fascinated by the textures throughout the fishing village. Even a simple canvas draped over the rails of a fishing boat were worth a photograph.
As I walked through Hong Kong, I could not help but enjoy the disparity between the buildings and the streets, the distinctly Eastern and Western influences and cultures, and between the two classes of people (the business class and the worker class). Everything I saw was a contradiction and yet, as I talked to the bride and her family, I was struck that this clash of culture, to a native of the city (reading and speaking Chinese and English simultaneously, eating with chop sticks at McDonald’s), was simply a unique culture called Hong Kong. I still can not get over the extreme visual contrasts I saw there, it was fascinating to say the least.
The view from The L'Hotel was a beautiful scene of ships moving in and our of the harbor.
The colors on the buildings were rich and what photographer doesn't love textures like these.
I'm not sure what I would have done without our native Hong Kong bride who ordered on our behalf. Eve (our bride) did a fantastic job of introducing us to a wide variety of food while we were in Hong Kong. Thanks Eve!
I enjoyed our time there. I expected something very different. I suppose I expected a bit more China and was surprised at the size and scope of the modern city. It was a great experience.
Check back again to see photos from the wedding we shot there in Hong Kong.
