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Looking Beyond Photography

you talk about some of my work, and, um, I don't want oh, bore you with it, but, uh well, let me let me go back to grid view for a second here. This all this work, let me just crank up the thumbnails so we can kind of feel, uh, all this work was done. I did all this work at based years ago, there wasn't any such thing as Photoshopped or digital cameras. It was a dream. And, um so at the very beginning of my career, I was looking for ways to go beyond photography. Go beyond just a single image. So I'm doing some crazy things. You know, I'm actually have a picture of this dart, and I'm using a four by five camera, and I'm using, um, projected light pattern with an in camera mask. I have shot four or five image of a texture process that put it into a mask, shot the picture of the dark move did a second exposure with the background light through diffusion with the in camera mask in front of the film. All right, you'll probably get some questions of up, but my point is Is that I was always...

experimenting with ways to combine images to great things, just going from multiple sets. I mean, there's, you know, 45 different images in here combined. Eventually, on one sheet of for about five film, I would do multiple exposures on, um, a Polaroid and then expose the Polaroid in the How did I do this? I don't even remember how I did it, but a lot of different layers. Lot of texture before photo shop before, you know, this was crazy. I took an eight by 10 camera, projected an image in the dark room of a whole big crowd scene onto eight by 10. Polaroid floated the Polaroid emotion off, glued them down to a piece of watercolor paper. Re photograph that on a sheet of for about five, um shot the hand in front of it and eventually got this little globe thing in front of it, too. So I wanted to give you guys just like a history of where I come from. This this is actually a real early shot. This is 25 years ago. I think I got this old projector back this back in the day of light painting I've got, like a flashlight that I'm lighting this thing with, and then I'm using on image of texture that I slide into the four by five camera. I actually then do another exposure after turning the projector on and drag a sheet of paper in the beam of light, exposing just the beam. So So that's that's early work. And I show you that by way of saying that's what um, you know my history. That's where I'm coming from. This is early work, digital. It's got a lot of that same feeling, but the this is I said, uh, the photo Expo in New York and walking back to my hotel and the moon was out. So I did this whole composite and actually sort of pays homage to the Polaroid peels by digitally layering that in Okay, um, real real simple composites. This was down edible fight in Sami, Ellie Lunde. And so it's just a It's a shudder, drag motion blur image composited with an old wall from that same area probably shot the same day, so just the two of them blended together. So it, like, you know, I mentioned earlier. It doesn't have to be 100 Meg, you know, 100 gigabyte file with 100 layers. Something really simple, like this is it's very effective. It's still one of my favorite images, you know? And, uh, this is also pretty early on, but I and I show you this, and I'm playing with textures and you can't be afraid to experiment to the max. I mean, this is never this has never made it out of light room catalog. It's I don't think it's ever been printed, but yeah, maybe it's not really my flavor, but I want to show it to you because this can take you in all kinds of new directions. Okay, um, it also, you know, then I had a guy, a friend give me a case one of these clear cases with all these beetles mounted in because he knew I like strange and interesting things. And, you know, it was a wonderful gift. And I looked at him for two seconds. It took two seconds before asked, Can I bust it open? He says, I figured you would. So I started photographing these insects and creating the backgrounds, and, you know, I have photographed their name. I photographed a piece of Scotch tape I photographed untold Book a ruler. Some you know, there's probably 15 different images that I've blended together to create this, and it leads to, you know, at least to a Siri's of images. And they're just they're just fun. I'll just show you a few of these and then then there's the whole butterfly Serious. This is the, I mean similar to the image that was posted on the greed of life site, The Blue Butterfly. And so there's a lot. There's a lot of masking. There's a lot of ah, lot of imagery, a lot of blending, a lot of feathering that goes into these, and you can get some really fun stuff. I mean, I love this. No, I He gave me that case of beetles and I started photographing these insects. And then, you know, I started going on eBay and ordering bugs from all over the world. It's like, Oh, God, I got to get that one. You know, that was crazy. This this large print behind me has become the signature image for photo Morpheus, which is the a company that David Volkmar, my partner over here, monitoring me is, um, way have formed a corporation, have foot amorphous. And And we are putting up some video tutorials on, you know, some of the techniques. You know, we're trying to form a community of like minded, you know, enthusiasts for photoshopped and textures and this kind of thing. But this was I don't know who the kid is that has to go into the cage to get the next one of the used to be mounted up and sent out these things air. Probably that big. But, you know, I, uh, but interesting. I had I had a, um, at an art fair. I had this in a large print for sale, and this guy comes up and says that he wanted to buy this print for Hiss wife for their anniversary. And I went I'm not a marriage counselor, but have you thought this through? And he goes No, no, she saw it online. Absolutely loved it. I got some questions about it, but she loved it, so you never know. And here, sir, signature space. Doug, are you saying you have a large insect? Are you saying you have ah, large insect collection at your house? not in the house. In my studio. How many bugs do you have? Well, not a huge amount. I've probably got maybe or 40 that I've ordered and collected. And I mean a lot of march still waiting for me. But, you know, then you get Then you get sidetracked, you know? Then it became flowers and making these interesting more. We're graphic. Um, flower portray. It's, um So this this is a whole Siris, Both the bugs. And this is their examples of where you can take a knob Jek too, and create a whole piece based on an object and not a scene. Okay, this was an interesting one, because it say, Atticus Atlas moth. And if you look at the wing tips, they look like snakeheads, which is nature's way of, you know, warding off predators. And this one fascinated me so much because the whole idea of the decoration on this insect was the camouflage. And so, you know, I sort of built bad into the piece. You know, the It's hard to tell, really, where the background and the bug, You know, they sort of blend together and camouflage one another. Dr. Use a macro lens for the insects. All these world shot on like a, uh, I think it's a face one digital back on a like a four or five. And so it was very macro, and I actually had to. This was back even before focus stacking was I thought of, but I would shoot thes insects three times, one of the very top level one in the medium level and one down where the feet were and then blend the parts that were in focus. And you could do this now in photo shop. But you can blend the parts they were in focus and then no outlying the whole thing and assemble the background out of a dozen or two images. Okay. All right. So, um, I'm gonna race through here. You know, each of each one of these has war stories, and now I can get pretty bogged down, but this is from the coast of Maine, and some of these can And I want to talk about my creative thoughts when I'm shooting this. This was this. Lived in my library for five years before I did anything with it because I work, you know it. It spoke to me often, but I didn't know what to say. Back it. Um And I woke up one morning, and I don't know if I had just seen a show on old Dutch master Landscape painters or what, but, um, I knew then and there that that was the place I wanted to take it. So and, um Well, yeah. So, uh, action, um, and selection of textures, textures, and the way that you treat the image is often dictated by the image. And, I mean, that is the case. It's like your job is to be the detective to find out what that image sort of means to you And this whole the whole action with the bull and the bullfighter. And this this course course texture really spoke to me about you know what? That was what that was all about. This this pan Blur shot of this horse in a rodeo in Mexico again. A simple composition with some textural elements added and color and tone. Okay, Um uh, you know the thing about what we do as artists is people go. Gosh, you know, your work doesn't really just focus on one thing. You're you know you're all over the map and it's so much interests you and it's so it's your job. You know, something is going to say, Hey, take my picture And it's your job to kind of uncover the reasoning. And you know what it is that the colonel what it is about it that made to respond to it and then display that for everybody to see. Okay, Industrial. I love industrial stuff. There's and I think that relates to the patina as well travels. Um um, you know, creating stories, you know, this is stitched together from a number of things. A rodeo down to Mexico. So park in France. Okay, I'm glad I just blew this up because this this sort of lived in my library. And I love the architecture of Paris, the regal, you know, orderly thing. And the only thing that's not in a way, orderly in here. These kids there. There's three kids in there. There's the boy down in this corner. He's wearing a green T shirt. This boy over here is going in another direction. He's wearing a blue T shirt. This guy over here is going in a different direction. He's wearing a red T shirt red, green and blue. I love that nobody else sees that, but it means a lot to me. It was like, That's what we work in, Aren't you? Beat? And it was right there. I went, Um, there thing, huh? At five. In the morning, you own any place you go, you know, you don't see Notre Dom and in the Plaza in Vernon Odom empty unless Europe at five in the morning to see it. So that's that's one thing. And then, you know, it's just looked like an old postcard, which is Thea whole idea. Okay, Where else do I want to take you telling stories? And it harks back to the influence of N. C. Wyeth and other art and our capabilities now is digital artists to be able to do it, you know it. For instance, I was up in this sea of Finland outside of filling. They have this archipelago with all these little red homes on there. This is about a dozen different images put together. It's it's my memory of the place doesn't exist. The lighthouses from one spot the homes from another the the ocean from another the Siegel's from another, the cloud from another and then textures laid in. So I'm able to show people how I felt about this place. What I remember about this place, Um what's uh yeah, yeah, there's something I mean, even, you know, yet you have fun at Christmas. I mean, this this house I shot in summer. And you know this I've added the snow in the smoke and the lights and the whole scene and dressed it out and send it out as a Christmas card one year. You know, there's so I love that about the toolkit that we have now. And, um, for you guys that shoot people, Um, this is something that you know where I go. I mean, a lot of these are shot long lens far away, you know, in a crowd. And then the images are composited together to create. I call them cinematic narratives because they're my kind of movie poster memory of the place and the people that I met. So this is really this is the same bullfight and San Miguel so very fun. Um, no. All right. That's me holding the rope and my brothers and a good friend and we did a horse backpack trip up in the flat top wilderness in the Rockies, and I wanted to get a picture of all of us together. Up there we were chased off the mountain top by a blizzard, and I just There's a scene out of Snowy River, something like that. It was amazing, but there was no opportunity to get this shot and way got down. It was a little bit spooky, but before anybody could change or shower or anything like that, I lined everybody up against my brother's brown garage door with low light low skylight coming from the side, because I knew that the color tone that I was going to be working with and the scenic backdrop where is going to be in those tones, make a note. Hint. You know, if you're going to do some compositing and you have an idea about what you're going to do in advance, choose a background for your subject that similar to the background that you want to place in him or her on. There's a lot of sophisticated masking techniques that we're gonna talk about and get into tomorrow, but your life will be a whole lot easier if you're able to match tones with the background that you're going to be placing them on. Okay, Doctor, I saw a tweet that came through that said, Please put me on your Christmas card list. That's from Theresa to know, huh? That was from Theresa and the Twitter. That's also can I be on that list to please? Yeah, it's getting to be bigger and bigger. OK, so this is cool. I talked to you about shooting elements before and being open. Eso One of things is we train ourselves to really look for the perfect picture through the camera, and you you need to know your camera, and you need to know that the you need to know, take proper exposure. Everything. You have to be a craftsman with the camera so that when you shoot a picture, you have material. But here's a couple of things that I shot. This is, um let me just select these two and get rid of this window. So it's kind of ah, you know, outline version of Before this was some plant that my wife brought home or something like that, and she put it in this little glance, boss moment. Wow. I really love the little tendrils on that plant. I want to do a picture of it. I set it out on the backcourt patio shot a picture of it, and it stayed in the library, you know, eventually ended up being this. And so, with your expanded toolkit, you're gonna be able to be thinking in terms of, you know, this is how I can think about shooting elements. My wife is from Hawaii. I'm over in a way, um, a lot. And I wanted to create an image with easy grits and yeah, we were getting ready to leave. I think maybe even were on their way to the airport and hadn't gotten my Igric picture. I got in some of the other background images that I wanted to use in this composite, but hadn't gotten my eager picture. And we went through a traffic roundabout. And so this is shot out of the window of ah, around about with long lens and then, you know, dropped into here. This is where it came to live. So gather elements, harvest elements. Okay, Um, also this last one and this is where some of the masking techniques can be handy to know I loved the the hammock. Can everybody see this? Do any zoom in here. Let me do this. So I love the hammock in here. Let me do men even further. And the little chairs outside this little house. It just evoked this. Really? Hawaii Anna, old fashioned, were there, too. Hang out. Relax. But what's behind here is very cluttered. And, you know, it's not the message that I want to descend. It's got the mountains. It's got this other home and everything I got. I only wanted to keep these elements. So I mean, this is a labor of love because all these palm fronds against this busy background here outline many of them individually. So watching TV wake him tablet in my lap, laptop on the armchair, and I'm cutting out leaves on every palm frond so that I can put the background that I want, um, behind it. Okay. How much do you love? CS five. New refining mask future. You know, it's great, and it's the best tool that they've had a while from asking, um, and I also use software called on one masked pro, and we have a relationship with on one through four, amorphous and actually anybody that is watching. Can we have a link? Right? David, We've got a link on photo Morphosis. If they go to www photo amorphous dot com, anybody in the creative live audience can click in there and get a copy of their program perfectly. I'm not perfectly or sorry. It's photo tools. So there's what about 200 different? Um oh, um, effects and layers that you can apply in a layer way and until your image and you can access it through photo shop or light room. So that's what you know. It's valued at 100 to $150 or something like that. So that's a that's a bonus for everybody. Okay, um, and then if you begin to think in Siris kind like the insects and so forth. And I wanted to show these to because, um, the only photo shopping there's photo shop in here to isolate the elements and to do some color rising and so forth east or still life shot in my studio. I've done some work, and Photoshopped created a print, um, coated the print with several different coatings, some some these air long ago, 10 years ago with some French cracking glaze. Rubbed it with oil paint, rub the oil paint off, re photographed it so it all doesn't have to be in photo shop. You know, you're there are no limits, so experiment, experiment, experiment. Um, let Oops, I did not want to set that is rejected. So let me unmarked that I want to get back to the grid. I'll show you This is, Well, there's a serious that I did so I mean, if we're talking color, this is going through my computer to the Internet and over the cameras and routed this way, and we'll talk about color calibration. But and everybody who's watching live on the Internet there monitors our whole you know, their own story, whether they're calibrate or not. So your colors that you're looking at may not actually be the image colors unless you're looking on my calibrated monitor, and I won't say anything more about that. But some of these high key things in some feeds are gaining contrast, and so you're not going to see the delicacy of it. Let me see if I can help that out here just a little bit. I'm going, Teoh. Yeah, okay. There. So you can see some of the background detail. So playing with texture, playing with layering doesn't all have to occur digitally. I shot this image of a calla lily in my studio. I hung up a sheet of old parchment paper behind the calla lily. I put the glass vase and the other calla lilies on behind this calla lily and put a light source backlighting that so that what you're seeing is the calla lily in front of the parchment and the shadow of the other calla lilies and vase in behind. And so you get a nice you know, you get a nice play on the texture as well. Um, and I can actually take and select all three of these and go in here and sink thumb. And let's just check all and we can go back and look at them all there so you can see a little bit better. That's all three and then one more so