Gallery Part 2, And The "Clouds" Confession

Now that everyone has finished putting their stuff up, here's a look at the layout that gives you an idea of the shabby room and low-tech lighting that's within any group's budget.
I used my phone's camera because it has an ultra-wide-angle lens and my main camera doesn't.

Since I was playing with my phone's camera, I kept at it.
I also played around with Photoshop, stretching and distorting the image.


Anyone who cruises around looking at pictures on Flickr will have seen the photographers who upload photos of clouds. No main subject that benefits from a pretty sky as a background, no planes or birds or lightning or water towers or people or even a sunset....just clouds.
I never understood it, especially since these photos are usually bland and pretty lame instead of just pretty.
My recent cloud photo was intended as a joke or a dig at their expense, but it didn't work out that way. As the screen-grab below shows, my clouds are now the third most popular photo I have put on my Flickr pages, and in record time.



The popularity of my katydid picture still confuses me--it's good but it's still just a bug. "Waiting To Cross Over" makes sense. I'm happy that the waterwheel photo climbed rapidly to #6--I really like it. The sunset is striking and unusual.
But clouds at #3? Sure, I Photoshopped the hell out of it to get a wide range of tones that makes them just about the prettiest clouds I've ever seen, but it's still only clouds.
I may not 'get it', but whatever the people want I'll be sure to give them.
Expect more clouds from me, but to really tip the scales I think I'll add cats.
With funny misspelled captions.


Part 2: Sept. 5 Confession
Here's what my clouds actually looked like straight from the camera--I only re-sized it to be the same as the posted version so you can save them both and compare details. I recognized a nice formation in bad light, and tried a few camera techniques that didn't help at all under prevailing conditions then gave up until I got bored at home while Photoshop was running.
I thought the result was funny until people started loving it.

Anyone can do this with Photoshop when only clouds and sky are in the frame, just like anyone who has a crappy point and shoot camera can capture a beautiful sky when the light is just exactly right.
Here, the light wasn't 'right' at all--I just knew what to do with it after I got home. The narrow dynamic range of the original lends itself well to dramatic processing. By expanding what's there I can push the highs and lows further without anything blowing-out or blocking-up--the detail is all there in the original even though it looks like crap. This is also why IR shooters like me can get some awesome B&W results.
Under- and over-exposing by just 1/3rd stop didn't help the Photoshop work, it made it worse. There's a tip you can use. Trust your camera's exposure meter when capturing bland clouds.
Also, I was shooting through a dirty car windshield with an inexpensive polarizing filter on my lens--two more huge sins according to the multitude of "photographers" who spend way more time on the internet bragging about their expensive camera equipment (and slagging whomever admits to owning anything but their choice) than they do taking and processing actual pictures that don't suck.

The Gallery Is Open

We set-up the gallery show today and it was fun hard work.
The cooperation and sharing of supplies and tools among club members was nice to see--mostly I shared with other people but Jim came through with some nice screws when mine proved to be a bad choice.
I remembered windex, and loaned my cordless drill and nicer light bulbs.

Many thanks to the family and friends who came to my first show.
I was touched, and almost shed a tear.
And huge hugs for Selma and Holly, who bought prints and didn't even haggle on the price.
I guess I'm officially "pro" now, having sold my art and vision for $$$.
When I'm famous I'll sign your prints, and mark them as the first two ever sold.

(They were "Waiting To Cross Over" and one of my South Padre Island shots from 2006.)

It's been hectic and there's a little more work to do, but at last I can relax and maybe get some better sleep.

Clouds

This is what the sky looks like most afternoons through my eyes and lens.

MSJ: Daylight Long Exposure

The wheel is driven by water flowing through the original aquecia, and powers a grinding stone in the room above.
I felt that a long exposure better conveys the movement so added some ND filters to my lens and set-up the tripod.

Mission San Jose In Infrared

I was constantly thinking about how I could manage to get inside the gates after dark, but all plans ended with jail time.
Rather than drive myself nuts I just kept pulling different tools out of my bag so I could take advantage of every other advanced camera technique at my disposal.
This one ended up being kinda bland, but the IR filters came in handy later.

There's a lot I like about this, although had it been less hot out there I would have waited for better cloud placement.
Cropped for an 8x10" the annoying sign on the right is gone (I cloned it out of the color version) and I'm thinking this might make it into the show in a few weeks.

Mission In 3D

In addition to color photos I was also shooting stereo pairs to make 3D images.

Click on the thumbnails to bring up full-size versions.
Sit squarely in front of your monitor at arm's length and cross your eyes until the 3D image appears in the center.
It takes practice, but is well worth it.
And don't worry: Despite what your mother may have told you crossing your eyes won't make them stay that way, it just gives mom the old 'buttpucker' to see their kids like that.
In fact, it makes your eye muscles stronger.
And gives you a headache if overdone.