Category Archives: FolioA

Playing chess, big chess

by Paul Shay

Does the blur signify motion and dynamism in 3D like it can in 2D, or is it a problem? Do we have less tolerance for movement in 3D? If yes, is it just a convention or do we need to be able to see the entire image clearly for the illusion to work well? I have another shot of this scene without the chess players that is clear but static.

Original slide shot August 24, 2010 at the Hariot Bay Inn on Quadra Island in British Columbia with a tripod-mounted Heidoscop with Provia 100P at 1/100th at f25.

Reaching for the ray of sun

by Paul Shay

Certain species of trees, such as the Western hemlock in the foreground, tolerate shade and remain small for years in the undergrowth waiting for an opening in the canopy to initiate rapid growth.

Original slide shot August 23, 2010 off the Lupin Falls Trail in Strathcona Provincial Park on Vancouver Island in British Columbia with a tripod-mounted Heidoscop with Provia 100P at 1 second at f25.

Lifeguards, Long Beach NY

by Paul Shay

There is something contradictory about lifeguards. They represent authority and serious responsibility but also good times, youth and summer. There are long periods of idleness interspersed with action and occasionally crisis. The serious gaze of the lifeguard in the foreground is echoed by the people behind him, while the lifeguard on the chair faces the other way as she blows a warning on her fluorescent orange whistle.

Original slide shot during the summer of 2002 with a tripod-mounted Sputnik with Provia 100P, exposure unrecorded.

Tours!

by John Thurston

Down on the docks, the cruise ships tie up and the passengers disembark. Those who bought package tours on the ship need to find the right person with the sign for their tour. Those who didn’t buy their tickets on the ship, can talk to one of the tour representatives in the kiosks. The cruise lines would rather sell the ticket on-board (as they pocket a large commission on each sale), and make a point of warning their passengers of unscrupulous dealings elsewhere. I’d rather deal with these guys who are here rain or shine, every day of the week.

This was a fun image to make. I was framing the image and chatting with the barkers in their kiosks.  All day long, they see the tourists clicking away with cameras, but my TL120-55 on a tripod was a bit different and caught their attention. I tried framing this with the TL120-1, but I really think the 55mm lenses let me better capture the scene.

Tripod mounted TL120-55, April 2010.

Cranberry Crush (with crabapples)

by John Thurston

The back of the mount says “TL120”, but it lies. This dates from 2005 and I didn’t have a TL120 until 2006. I found another unmounted image from this same roll and it is obviously from my Rolleidoscop.

The girls are working on crushing Crabapples (which they have just picked off the tree in the yard). They had a recipe for “Cranberry Crush”, and lacking any cranberries, decided to see what they got using local ingredients.

I am working on framing an image, and trying to figure out how to drive the flash. My flash technique is terrible and this marginal success I can attribute only to luck. I have no idea how I managed to get the exposure this close with a Vivitar 285 bounced off the ceiling.

Wall

by John Thurston

In some earlier folio offerings, I’ve shown the raining ceilings and the smooth rocks. This image is all about the ice.

Up close and personal with the face of the glacier, you can see the facets and scallops created as it melts. The sand and rock in the ice has possibly been there for thousands of years. Its journey is nearly over and it will soon melt out and fall to the ground.

I’ve been trying some different methods of duplicating slides. This is a Gammatech duplicate made from a flat-bed scan on my Epson 4990. While it isn’t bad, it can’t compare with the original. But, for $10, it certainly isn’t bad.

August, 2010. Tripod mounted TL120-1.

Glare From the Noon Light

by John Thurston

Yes, this is the noon light, not the moon light. Early in January, the sun doesn’t get very high in our sky. It rakes in very low, and there are often shadows mid-day caused by the sun being obscured by some mountains. In earlier folios, you have seen where the ice meets the land. This is where the ice meets the lake.

Catching the dawn light on the glacier is a tricky business. By definition, it involves starting the mile and quarter trek across the lake (either by skate or by ski) before dawn. It requires a bit of nerve to lace up my skates and set out across the lake in the dark with a pack loaded with camera gear. Once there, in the pre-dawn light, the challenge is to find the image that will be there when the sun arrives.

In this case, I caught the light on the extreme face of the glacier.  There is nothing for scale, but the hummock to the right is probably only four feet high. That makes the face about 30 feet high. The lake ice in front of it (as well as where I’m standing) is a mass of re-frozen crumble. At any time, the glacier may slide forward and wrinkled the ice for many yards. The lake is also littered with bergs which have fallen off the face. If that should happen, the resulting waves will leave broken ice for half a mile. I have never been there when it happens, but the evidence that it does happen is recorded in the ice at my feet.

This was shot with my TL120-55 on a tripod in January, 2010.

Liz 303

by Boris Starosta

Fuji RAP 100F, f22, 1/2sec exposure, studio flash and some ambient light, using twin Hasselblads with 80mm lenses, 4.5″ stereo separation.  Original slide.

Liz was a wonderful model that I worked with in 2005.  Aside being a beauty, she was really smart, funny, and very creative.  She had visited the studio several times for the purpose of artmaking, and had each time remarked how much she loved this transparent vinyl chair that I had.  Well, one day I took her up on this, and asked her to show me how much she loved the chair.  I told her the chair had worked up the nerve to get naked with her.  Thus we produced some interesting images.  After making love to the chair via some traditional positions, I suggested the chair might enjoy receiving oral satisfaction from her.  She seemed game for anything.  Liz was a big flirt, and I had to control myself carefully…

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Williamsburg Bridge

by Boris Starosta

Fuji RAP, f11 (?), 1 sec. exposure in available light, using Sputnik on loan from Chuck Holzner. Camera stabilized on walkway/surface of bridge.   Slide in folio is original film.

Cycling over the Williamsburg bridge to visit someplace in Brooklyn, I took interest in the elaborate riveted steel trusswork along the way.  It was very cold, and I had no tripod.  I placed the camera on ground and tried to stabilize it with a pocket knife acting as a shim to get the angle.  Aim and thus composition was guesswork.  I would have wanted a longer exposure/smaller aperture, but the rig was shaky, so I dared not.  Luckily, it was wintertime, so the traffic was light, and I was not reported to the TSA or other anti-terrorist authorities as a person of suspicion – it’s sad what one has to be afraid of these days.

Coiner’s scrap yard

by Boris Starosta

Tech: Available light exposure of 1/50sec. on FUJI RVP Velvia 100F film with Sam Smith’s (I think) siamesed Ricohflex on loan from Paul Talbot. This is the original slide.

This is some of the first MF3d photography I have done.  Seeking abstract and textured subject matter, I went to the local scrap metals yard.  Not only was it very cold out, but the picture I found was of some scrap (in foreground of this view) very close to where a crane was working, making loud clanking and thudding noises.  I needed to face away from the crane, could not monitor it, and so made my exposures with some apprehension for my safety.