Dear readers,
I would like to begin
with many thanks for all your compliments, sharing, and support
of all my endeavors.
The night of December 31st, as I
bid farewell to an extreme 2014, I was spent setting
up a traditional public showing of my Dog Beach imagery. A long time
in the making and driven by my continuous urge of artistic pursuits (like why I
keep going to Burning Man, not because I like eating dust… ), what started out as time to clear my head finally received some recognition. And it all
started with the walks on the beach that I would take when spending time in Del Mar, walks that brought forth countless photo opportunities with my old iPhone4.
My first
capture (Magenta Sunset 2011) started it all. It lead me to download the
ProCamera App and Filterstorm App as recommended by another photographer in
Dubai. This app was game changing for me as it started capturing what I saw, even better. I have to admit, I was
also taunted by a couple of pro photographers, who described their smartphone
cameras as crappy or no good. I set out to prove them wrong. Maybe it ain’t the
camera buddy...
The basic “secret” to ProCamera
App is the separation of the focus and exposure button, into two separate
settings. The Filterstorm App merely provided me a simple way to straighten
(Yes-I cannot always hold my camera level), then crop, (not always, I crop when
I am shooting, its called get up out of the sand and move your position), fine
tune the exposure, (but not a lot, as Del Mar sunsets can be spectacular) and
add a watermark (important these days-maybe). I do no photoshop re-illustration
or cheap/dorky/dumb/outdated “filters” like Instagram allows amateurs to step
into.
The light is the light, and if you don’t get the right light, then maybe "don’t post a bad
photo…kid". Go back the next day….eh. Can you tell I don’t like that 70’s
look filter? We will look back at this decade and do facepalms, realizing
amateurs wrecked a lot of their great photos.
All of this is done at the beach
on an image, while my subject is standing there with their wet dog, before they
head back to their car.
This process did take time to
perfect, but I wanted to see the reactions of people when I showed them my
iPhone screen, once they walked over to see “what I got”. It did even lead to aTV interview last January, that aired on Feb 13th in the San Diego area. Ironically
the same day I was in Quill Lake Saskatchewan, giving a difficult eulogy at my
dear cousin Vern’s funeral. Like I blogged earlier, "A year of extremes….”
So, encouraged by Del Mar friends
Sandy and Kevin, I started asking a few local galleries if they would consider
displaying my work. Pannikin Coffee and Tea, located in Encinitas on the PCH,
offered me the month of January 2015. I approached my “local” photo lab, Photo
Shack in Las Vegas, run by a great guy called Lel, to do some testing with
large prints from my old iPhone 4. www.psprolab.com For those photographers
reading this (I know you are….) the biggest issue we found was “over sharpening
by the iPhone 4 and some digital noise”, however the fact that it does not
capture well in low light, actually makes for a better silhouette. Lel printed
some of my images 44 inches (1.2meters) wide and then laminated them. His care
and attention deserves a huge shout out, and to the aforementioned
photographers, I suggest you go with him if you need something custom inkjet
printed, personally supervised and then shipped with care.
The show looks great in this
unique and busy setting, that used to be a former Santa Fe train station. The
large laminated prints are holding up well, as the large wooden freight room
doors they are pinned on, are always open because it is always nice in
California, so they are exposed to a lot of humidity, a few birdys, alota
people, and the ocean is close. Elements that obviously would make many of my
readers jealous. I apologize in advance, as I am trying to get this posting done quickly today so I can head to the beach...
So that is the basics of my show,
please drop in if you are in the area, or perhaps I could give a personal tour
at Pannikin if you buy me a coffee. Please let me know if there is some snowbound place
in North Dakota or even north of that, that might be interested in displaying
my iPhone beach captures.
Warm Regards from CA
MM
