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California's Gold Country
18 April 2010, Sunday

16    17    18    19    20    21  April 2010           Tech Story

Today we arose in Grass Valley, and drove over to Nevada City.

Bonanza Market, Nevada City, California.

Bonanza Market, Nevada City, California.

This is a shot about a circle and some lines. It is deliberately off-center.

There's a weird diagonal line running across the bottom to shake things up a bit, which is the ground: we're on a hill.

I shot this on Fuji Velvia 50 through a B+W MRC 39mm 81A filter on a LEICA SUMMICRON-M 50mm f/2 on a LEICA M6 TTL, f/5.6 at 1/125, hand-held, NCPS process and scan.

This was on lucky frame 37.

 

Nevada City, California.

Nevada City, California.

This shot is a picture of the light. I forget how I metered this, probably off to the side on something mid-toned, or else I added a half-stop or a stop to the regular reading of the bright storefronts.

My slide was too contrasty, making everything go black or white. I used a curves adjustment layer in Photoshop to lower the contrast and try to restore some sense of tone.

For this shot, I used the large LEICA ELMARIT 135mm f/2.8 super-telephoto with a 55mm Hoya 81A filter, as usual on Fuji Velvia 50, in a LEICA M6 TTL, f/4 at 1/250 with NCPS process and scan. The 135/2.8 is a super-telephoto on the LEICA; of course on any SLR it's just a $50 lens. Luckily for LEICA, these lenses are so big that LEICA Men won't bother with them, so you can get these excellent long, fast lenses for only about $250 used. Yes, this is a 135mm f/2.8, which is a very common tele lens for SLRs.

With f/4, all the storefronts are in focus, and soften the undesired trees in the upper left.

If I had more time to fiddle in Photoshop, I would have flipped the image from left-to-right, and replaced the Harmony Books sign with something childish.

 

Tin Wall, Nevada City, California.

Tin Wall, Nevada City, California.

AHA!!! When I saw this, I turned and fired instinctively.

After I shot on instinct, I FARTed and thought about SEX to try to simplify things into a stronger image.

Fuji Velvia 50 through a Hoya Series VII 81A filter on a LEICA SUMMILUX 35mm f/1.4 on a LEICA M6 TTL, f/6.7 at 1/250, hand-held, NCPS process and scan.

 

Tin Wall, Nevada City, California.

Tin Wall, Nevada City, California.

I popped on my 50mm and made it simpler, but I lost the door on the side that I liked. I still have the garbage on the right, which is taking away from the image.

Fuji Velvia 50 through a B+W MRC 39mm 81A filter on a LEICA SUMMICRON-M 50mm f/2 on a LEICA M6 TTL, NCPS process and scan.

 

Window, Tin Wall, Nevada City, California.

Window, Tin Wall, Nevada City, California.

Aha!

Here's my picture.

This is what was catching my eye: the red and the corrugated, galvanized steel. Somehow I also got the red to glow, so this is the shot that said Pick Me! while sitting on the light table.

Fuji Velvia 50 through a B+W MRC 39mm 81A filter on a LEICA SUMMICRON-M 50mm f/2 on a LEICA M6 TTL, f/11 at 1/60, NCPS process and scan.

From Nevada City, off to the Empire Mine in Grass Valley.

Not only are these areas in the heart of California's richest gold country, it's also the heart of the world's television and video production equipment manufacturing industry. If you watch TV, every program has unquestionably been through some piece of GVG or other gear at some point in its production, and that gear is designed and crafted right here in Gold Country.

 

Empire Mine, Grass Valley, California.

Empire Mine, Grass Valley, California.

This shot is about lines, shapes and angles.

It's not about color, so if I wasn't so lazy, I would have shot this in black-and-white.

This would have removed the colors which aren't adding to the image, and would have strengthened the image because the underlying shapes would stand out better.

Fuji Velvia 50, B+W MRC 39mm 81A filter, LEICA MACRO-ELMAR-M 90mm f/4, LEICA M6 TTL, NCPS process and scan.

 

Empire Mine, Grass Valley, California.

Empire Mine, Grass Valley, California.

I shot this with a Canon S90. I played with curves in Photoshop to get it to look right. Curves lets you adjust everything about light, dark and contrast, exactly.

 

Roof, Empire Mine, Grass Valley, California.

Roof, Empire Mine, Grass Valley, California.

This isn't a shot of a roof.

It's a shot of orange lines heading towards a vanishing point, with a blue line across the top.

Fuji Velvia 50, B+W MRC 39mm 81A filter, LEICA MACRO-ELMAR-M 90mm f/4, LEICA M6 TTL, f/8 at 1/125, NCPS process and scan.

Lucky frame 37.

 

Empire Mine, Grass Valley, California.

Empire Mine, Grass Valley, California.

This is a careless shot with the Canon S90. I was attracted to the business, but I was too lazy to 'shop out the white columns — or to have been paying enough attention at the time to move a foot closer to make them go away in-camera.

This shot is too blue. Let's warm it up using an RGB curves layer, and play with the tones a bit there, too:

Empire Mine, Grass Valley, California.

Empire Mine, Grass Valley, California.

Ah, still a meaningless snap, but at least it looks better after adjusting the S90's JPG file with Photoshop's curves.

 

Pipes, Empire Mine, Grass Valley, California.

Pipes, Empire Mine, Grass Valley, California.

This is a great example of a bad shot.

This is a bad shot because it's confused: it's trying to say two things at once.

Is it a photo of pipes, which by themselves would have been great, or a photo of a green-framed window on a corrugated wall?

This awful shot shows both at the same time, so the viewer's mind is flipping back and fourth between seeing the nice clockwise flow of the pipes, or trying to explore the textures of the wall behind.

This shot would be a lot better if I would have isolated the pipes by moving (or blurring the background beyond all recognition), or just getting closer to the window and avoiding the pipes.

Because I forgot to FART, I wasted the shot. If I had paid attention to the A in FART, to ask myself what I was thinking, and then R, Refined that, I would have seen this and fixed it before I wasted the shot.

If it was of only pipes, then it's about their textures and shapes, and thus B&W would have shown that more clearly.

If the window was the picture, it would have been OK in color, because the green stands apart from the gray wall. In B&W, a green filter may have lightened the window to stand out, but not likely against the bright wall. Color would be the best way to let in stand out, since in B&W, the wall is probably going to take precedence, and we want the wall to be the negative (background) space, not the positive (subject) space.

This unlucky shot was made on lucky frame 38 of a roll of Fuji Velvia 50 with a B+W MRC 39mm 81A filter, LEICA MACRO-ELMAR-M 90mm f/4, LEICA M6 TTL, f/5.6 at 1/125 at 4.7 meters, NCPS process and scan.

Lucky frame 38.

 

Triangles, Empire Mine, Grass Valley, California.

Triangles, Empire Mine, Grass Valley, California.

This is all about shapes. It's about the triangle in the middle.

I made this on my Canon S90, zoomed all the way to Kingdom come with about 12x digital zoom.

Now that I've told you that maybe you'll notice that it's not that sharp, but so what: the shot is about triangles, and they are perfectly clear.

 

Gardner 2-1/2 Governor, Empire Mine, Grass Valley, California.

Gardner 2-1/2 Governor, Empire Mine, Grass Valley, California.

This shot is about the circle on the right balancing with the rectangle on the left.

I also got off on the 2-1/2, and should have got even closer to show just that.

I used a half-stop less than my meter indicated, to keep the old iron as dark as it is supposed to look.

The brown and yellow-green work with each other, especially with the green background. If I was showing only iron, then B&W would have been better.

The white at the bottom is distracting. I should paint it green.

Fuji Velvia 50, B+W MRC 39mm 81A filter, LEICA MACRO-ELMAR-M 90mm f/4, LEICA M6 TTL, f/4 at 1/125, 0.8 meters, NCPS process and scan.

Shot on lucky frame 39. Try that on an electronic film camera!

 

Rockwell Furnace, Empire Mine, Grass Valley, California.

Rockwell Furnace, Empire Mine, Grass Valley, California.

What the heck is Rockwell Furnace? Apparently it's used in rendering metals out of things.

Canon S90 snapshot.

 

Tin Wall, Empire Mine, Grass Valley, California.

Tin Wall, Empire Mine, Grass Valley, California.

OK, more photos of corrugated walls.

This composition seems reasonably simple, but the key is to make the simplest shot possible, not simply a simple one. Remember, SEX is all about a continuous process of Simplification and EXclusion, not just doing it once.

Fuji Velvia 50, B+W MRC 39mm 81A filter, LEICA MACRO-ELMAR-M 90mm f/4, LEICA M6 TTL, f/5.6 at 1/250, NCPS process and scan.

 

Tin Wall, Empire Mine, Grass Valley, California.

Same Wall, Closer, Empire Mine, Grass Valley, California.

Ahhh! Much better. Closer is always better.

The two bolt heads aren't doing anything; I should have removed them with dykes and bondo.

Better, I should have gotten even closer into the lower left, which is where all the action is happening.

For this shot, since it's all gray, I removed my 81A filter. I should have shot it in black-and-white, since it's all about shapes and textures.

Remember, if color isn't a strong part of the design of the image, then don't shoot it in color.

Fuji Velvia 50, no filter, LEICA MACRO-ELMAR-M 90mm f/4, LEICA M6 TTL, f/8 at 1/125, NCPS process and scan.

 

Firefall, Empire Mine, Grass Valley, California.

Firefall, Empire Mine, Grass Valley, California.

I think you're starting to get it: this isn't a shot of a roof. It isn't a shot of light glinting off a roof, either.

It's a shot that leads your eye to slide down from the top left to the bottom right. It's all about sliding.

Since color isn't doing anything here, it would be better in black-and-white, although the warm color of the roof does help it pop forward from the dark blue sky background.

Fuji Velvia 50, B+W MRC 39mm 81A filter, LEICA MACRO-ELMAR-M 90mm f/4, LEICA M6 TTL, NCPS process and scan.

From Grass Valley we headed over the Yuba River.

 

Jesus, California.

Jesus, California.

This would have been cleaner without the Texas-style embellishment of the sign.

It could have been better by showing less of the arrow below, so the arrow's head was shown larger.

As it stands, the viewer's subconscious is asking itself if this is an arrow on yellow, or if it's supposed to be looking at the shot patterns. Ideally, the image shouldn't confuse the viewer.

This would be much stronger if it showed only a shot pattern, or only a clean arrow. With this sign, it's all about yellow and blue — or about shot patterns.

With the shot, it's all about texture, so B&W would be stronger.

Fuji Velvia 50, B+W MRC 39mm 81A filter, LEICA MACRO-ELMAR-M 90mm f/4, LEICA M6 TTL,f/6.3 at 1/250, NCPS process and scan. I added 2/3 of a stop extra exposure to keep bright yellow looking like bright yellow.

 

Boardwalk in Sun, Malakoff Diggins, California.

Boardwalk in Sun, Malakoff Diggins, California.

Yes! This rendered on film exactly as I had intended.

As I saw this shot, all I saw was a bleak boardwalk lit in harsh sun against a very dark green background.

I added 1-2/3 of a stop (1.7 stops) extra exposure to the boardwalk to place the boardwalk at Zone VI+2/3, or in English, to make it almost, but not quite, white. This way it showed what I was seeing: a brilliantly lit path.

Fuji Velvia 50, B+W MRC 39mm 81A filter, LEICA M6 TTL, NCPS process and scan.

We head to Downieville. We checked into our lodging, and walked across the bridge into town, which is all of about 500 feet away.

 

49 Sign, Downieville, California.

49 Sign, Downieville, California.

Cool! I wasn't sure quite how this would render. The sign was called out by the light against St. Charles Place, which was in shadow from a tin roof over the walkway.

I hadn't expected the green roof over it to turn into some sort of weird green sky, and I like it.

Since the weird green sky is important, I now realize that I should crop-out or paint-over the irrelevant red at the top.

I deliberately put the sign on the left, since American eyes start reading on the left, and then follow the arrow to the right. My apologies to your subconscious, since there isn't anything on the right for your to find. If I was a great photographer, there would have been something to serve as a punch line on the right of the photo.

Fuji Velvia 50, B+W MRC 39mm 81A filter, LEICA MACRO-ELMAR-M 90mm f/4, LEICA M6 TTL, NCPS process and scan.

 

Church, Downieville, California.

Church, Downieville, California.

Snapped with the Canon S90. The light was getting good.

 

Fence, Downieville, California.

Fence, Downieville, California.

A fence in nice light.

It's really a photo about light, and the way that your eye is lead from the top left down to the center right, where sits the NO PARKING sign.

Nice, but let's get closer.

Fuji Velvia 50, B+W MRC 39mm 81A filter, LEICA MACRO-ELMAR-M 90mm f/4, LEICA M6 TTL, f/9.5 at 1/60, NCPS process and scan.

 

No Parking, Downieville, California.

No Parking, Downieville, California.

If a shot is about the light and a sign, show it.

In this case, I had to balance the sign (positive space) against its shadow (negative space). That's why it doesn't look like it's in the center to our analytical minds, but this is how how this shot balances to our more important subconscious.

if I got closer and tried to cut off the shadow, that cuts off half the image: its negative space. That's about as useful as cutting the negative terminal off a battery: don't do it.

Fuji Velvia 50, B+W MRC 39mm 81A filter, LEICA MACRO-ELMAR-M 90mm f/4, LEICA M6 TTL, f/6.7 at 1/60, NCPS process and scan.

The sun quickly set behind the mountains this Sunday night, and the nearest grub was in Sierra City, so we walked back over the bridge and motored off to the next town on Route 49.

 

Old Sierra City Hotel, Sierra City, California.

Old Sierra City Hotel, Sierra City, California.

Snapped with the Canon S90. I played in curves in Photoshop to get the look I wanted, otherwise it was too cool and too dull.

 

Old Sierra City Hotel, Sierra City, California.

Old Sierra City Hotel, Sierra City, California.

As-shot with the Canon S90 in the dark, hand-held as every other shot this week, except for the one of the California State Capitol.

We headed back to Downieville, and most of us packed it in for the night.

 

NEXT DAY > >

 

16    17    18    19    20    21  April 2010           Tech Story

 

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