Pure Photo Beauty

I will never have a darkroom in my house, yet the idea that I could is still magical. My computer and color printer are my darkroom and it makes me just a little sad when I think about processing in the "soup."

A Little Photographer Amusement

I received this in an e-mail... a few years ago and found it again while cleaning out my inbox. Despite the questionable validity of this it needs to be shared! Enjoy.

This is a case of a photographer photographing another photographer. The following pictures were taken by Hans van de Vorst from the Netherlands at the Grand Canyon, Arizona. The descriptions are his own. The identity of the photographer in the photos in unknown.

I was simply stunned seeing this guy standing on this solitary rock in the Grand Canyon. The canyon's depth is 900 meters here. The rock on the right is next to the canyon and safe. Watching this guy on his thong sandals, with a camera and a tripod I asked myself 3 questions:

1. How did he climb that rock?

2. Why not take that sunset picture from that rock to the right, which is perfectly safe?

3. How will he get back?

After the sun set behind the canyon's horizon he packed his things (having only one hand avaiable) and prepared himself for the jump.

This took about 2 minutes. At that point he had the full attention of the crowd.

This is the point of no return.

After that, he jumped wearing his thong sandals...

Now you can see that the adjacent rock is higher so he tried to land lower, which is quite steep and tried to use his one hand to grab the rock.

We've come to the end of the story. Look carefully at the photographer. He has a camera, a tripod, and also a plastic bag, all on his shoulder or in his left hand. Only his right hand is available to grab the rock and the weight of his stuff is a problem. He lands low on his flip flops, both his right hand and the right foot slip away... At that moment I take this shot. He pushes his body against the rock. He waits for a few seconds, throws his stuff on the rock, climbs and walks away... presumable to a bathroom to change his shorts.

Discovered Treasures

One year ago I purchased a house, a little bungalow in south Minneapolis. Me, with the help of my friends and family have done a lot of work on it. One of the improvements was creating access to the attic above the eaves, which, for at least the last 7 years was completely walled off.

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours in the attic putting some good old R38 insulation up there. Hopefully my house will now heat more efficiently... but while I was up there I discovered a pile of old linoleum that was discarded up there. Of course warning bells went off, is it full of asbestos or other harmful materials... but at the same time it was beautiful... under the years of dirt and whatever else went on in the attic.

I appreciated the beauty and was ready to throw it away when my mother, who was helping me, made a suggestion. She is a big fan of HGTV and the other design shows and suggested I hang a piece up. I ran downstairs and grabbed an assortment of frames I had made years back that were just lying around, and brought them back up to the attic to see what would fit in them. After some sizing and cutting (all done by a flood light in the attic, might-I-add) I had a new piece of art to hang on my wall.

I have to say the historical concept is more exciting than the artistic concept, but it still does have a certain beauty to it.

78 Photography Rules for Complete Idiots

Taken from: 78 Photography Rules for Complete Idiots

Perhaps I should incorporate some of these into my curriculum!

Some of my favorites:


I have a student who does this ALL THE TIME, she's great, don't get me wrong. I think I've shown her the light though!



But what if I don't have a 4x5 camera? Just kidding, OF COURSE I have a 4x5 camera!



Oh come on now, everyone likes pictures when they have funky looks on their faces!



How very true... and deep...



KITTY!



There's almost ALWAYS that problem with digital... better stick with film! ;-)



Well, if it's about the Henry Cartier-Bresson and the Decisive Moment it's gotta be good!



Remember, the reflective meter reads 18% gray! Over expose by 2 stops and you'll be fine! My students groan every time I say this, but at least they remember!



I keep saying, "Vantage, vantage, vantage!"



As one of my students said while I was in grad school,"The meter shows you the way."



...or let's just stay away from flowers all together...



Oh come on! Now they are just taking the fun out of editing images!



With my photographer's eye and my extensive experience with color balance I would have to call that color Magenta, NOT Purple!


For all 78: 78 Photography Rules for Complete Idiots

Film: The Real RAW

Taken from a link a former photo student of mine sent me! Need I say more!
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/real-raw.htm

He brings up some good points, I don't agree with everything he is saying, but I couldn't resist from posting it!

Yeh for Film! (Which is what I write on my envelopes every time I drop film off at the professional lab for processing - yes, I am a photo geek, I know).


A digital raw file is not an original image.

A digital camera's raw file has already sampled and quantized the image, which loses information, while film retains the original image to be retrieved at any time in the future.

I'm consistently amused by innocent hobbyists who go through the aggravation of shooting digital camera raw files just to get what they think is marginally better technical quality, or the ability to go back and do it right a second time, but who completely forget that if you're willing to shell out this extra effort, you could shoot film and get better results today, and even better results tomorrow.

Film is the original raw, and holds far more information than any digital file from a camera sensor.

20 years from now we can re-scan our film and get 2029-level image quality.

The Wizard of Oz was shot on film in 1939. Today it looks great on Blu-Ray High-Definition DVD.

All we had was radio in in 1939, so how did they know how to make High-Definition DVDs back then? They didn't, but by having the forethought to shoot on film, they knew they always could scan the original raw film images with better equipment in the future. This way we always get results which are to modern standards, regardless of when something was shot.

With film, we always have our original images.

With digital raw files, your images are forever locked into technology that was probably already obsolete as you shot them.

Digital raw files are not the original image. Digital camera raw files are merely approximations of the image before it hit the sensor.

At best, digital raw files are a close approximation of what came out of a sensor, not what went in. Digital raw files have already folded, spindled and mutilated the original image with the limitations of that era's technology. Digital camera raw files have already limited the original image in at least three different ways.

Film capture gives you at least three more degrees of freedom in extracting your image than digital camera raw files do.

Archiving film always allows you direct access to your original living, breathing live images at any time in the future.

If you demand the best quality for serious subjects, and don't mind investing a lot of time to get it, then step all the way up to film.

Maybe the Best Cake Ever!

Compliments of a photographer friend!

Photographing with Film

Sad but true...

And to give credit where credit is due I stole this image from Steve Stenzel's Triatholon blog.
http://iwannagetphysical.blogspot.com/
He said he wouldn't mind... really!

Mr. Picassohead

Just like Mr. Potatohead, but better...

http://www.mrpicassohead.com/create.html

The First of April

There are several inches of heavy wet snow on the ground and I just put in motion my first real April Fools Joke! It involved an altered photograph from 2001 that was scanned on a flat bed scanner...



and twenty-one computers.

It is the "Crazy Steve Dodging Tool" from the CVA darkroom. It was made long ago when Steve was still a student and of course his photo is at the end of a wire so it is an actual dodging tool! Steve, a college professor now, teaches a class in the same computer lab right before I do. I put that picture on the desktop of every single computer in his classroom.

I will never have a chance like this again! And based what he puts on his athletic blog, and that he knows his students read it, I think the results will be well taken. This is also a good test to see if he reads my blog! Hi Steve!

Winning Small Battles

It is cold outside, and there is a lot of snow, and it came early this year, at least earlier than we're used to with global warming and all. Anyway, because I go to school at the U and commute parking is always a big deal. I was lazy last week and paid to park in the lot across the street from the art building, but this week I was bound and determined to get close parking for free. Today I wedged my little Focus into this spot.


Yes, I parallel parked my car in that spot. I'm good, but I didn't know I was that good. If it's bigger than my car, and close to the building I'll get in it. It was a small battle won for me anyway.


and I'm proud of it!

Little Green Positivity

Once upon a time there was a bunch of tiny frogs.... who arranged a running competition.The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower.A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on the contestants....

The race began....

Honestly,no one in crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach
the top of the tower.You heard statements such as:

"Oh, WAY too difficult!!"
"They will NEVER make it to the top."
or:
"Not a chance that they will succeed. The tower is too high!"


The tiny frogs began collapsing. One by one....Except for those, who in a fresh tempo, were climbing higher and higher....The crowd continued to yell, "It is too difficult!!! No one will make it!"

More tiny frogs got tired and gave up....

But ONE continued higher and higher and higher.... This one wouldn't give up!

At the end everyone else had given up climbing the tower. Except for the one tiny frog who, after a big effort, was the only one who reached the top!

THEN all of the other tiny frogs naturally wanted to know how this one frog managed to do it?

A contestant asked the tiny frog how he had found the strength to succeed and reach the goal?

It turned out....

That the winner was DEAF!!!!

The wisdom of this story is:
Never listen to other people's tendencies to be negative or pessimistic.... because they take your most wonderful dreams and wishes away from you -- the ones you have in your heart!

Always think of the power words have. Because everything you hear and read will affect your actions!

Therefore:

ALWAYS be POSITIVE!

And above all:
Be DEAF when people tell YOU that you cannot fulfill your dreams!



And if you're wondering, yes this is a cheezy forward I transplanted in my blog, it's just so good. Especially around finals time, for those who are in school or work for the institution, people need to remember this.

World Traveler

There are the peach rings, solid coated, processed, artificially flavored sugar. Sometime during my travels they became my official traveling food. So, since I've recently become the world traveler I thought it appropriate.


In October I went to China with the other wonderful photo grads/friends from the art department here at the University. There we all are on Nanjing road in Shanghai above. It was fabulous. We all had photographs showing in AnJi (as small town about a 4-hour drive away from Shanghai) at their Bamboo Photo Festival. Then we made our way to Beijing where we presented our work at the Beijing Film Academy. It was good fun and a priceless experience.

My next travel, 2 weeks after returning from China was to Flint, Michigan. A bit less exotic.... well much less exotic. I went with two other fabulous grads/friends (Sarah and Andrew) from the department to go to the Society for Photographic Education (SPE) Midewst Conference. I was speaking as well as well as Sarah, and we got to see Edward Burtynsky speak which was fabulous! We met up with some other photographers from the cities and had a good time, despite the fact that we were in Flint

Now, soon I'm off to Tuscon to visit some friends.

And all during my graduate thesis year... I've been busy!

Excessive?

I recently acquired 2 new e-mail addresses in the last few weeks bringing up my total of e-mails to six. Why do I need so may? Well I have one for work, choudk@cva.edu; one for the U, houd0015@umn.edu; 2 hotmail addresses, one personal, one for business; then I recently set up, caroline@carolinehoudek.com; then someone suggested I get a gmail address because then I can have all my carolinehoudek.com mail forwarded to it and I can reply to it as if from carolinehoudek.com.

So much, so complicated!

And, if you’re wondering I do have a placeholder up at www.carolinehoudek.com. If you’d like to comment you can see the under construction site that the U is hosting. I’d love feedback before it’s published for real. And beware, all the links do not work yet, yet being the key word!

Bananas and Cheese

I had final critique in my class at the U a few weeks ago. We all brought food and had dinner before talking about art. At the beginning of every class I take attendance by asking a silly question that we go around the room and answer. One day the question was, “What is your favorite exotic fruit?”

There were a variety of answers, I remember star fruit was a popular one, and then someone said bananas. I asked if he ever wrapped cheese around his banana when he ate it. The whole class looked at me like I was crazy, so for the final critique I brought bananas and cheese.

No one touched the bananas or cheese until I ate one in front of everyone. You know, just wrap the slice of cheese around the banana as you eat it. It’s good… really! I think I picked it up from “Mr. Rogers” years and years ago. After I demonstrated a few people tried it, but no one seemed to really like it. Am I crazy?

How strange is it...

Earlier this week, in the beginning photography class I teach at the U, I had individual conferences with each of my students about their final projects. One of the students came ready to go with sketches and ideas galore! I was impressed. Anyway, one of the sketches involved an idea that he started in an earlier assignment with a shadow on the wall of someone holding their hands as if it was a bird. Then he was going to have a dead bird on a table underneath that shadow. Along with the idea he mentioned that he had no idea where he would get a dead bird. Me, well I said that my parents happen to have a dead bird in their freezer that I could possibly aquire for him if he wanted it. He was actually pretty interested, but a little weirded out at the same time.

Is that strange? That someone would have a dead bird in their freezer that is?

My mom found it outside about a week ago and put it in the freezer hoping to give it to the nature center near by so they could study it, dissect it, stuff it, or do whatever with it. Otherwise, someday it will get buried in the woods, or used for a photo project. We'll see what happens...

Isis, etc.

Isis Lula Winnifred Elph seems to be the new name of my camera (if I have 2 middle names so can she). She is a great camera although I'm still getting to know her. I made this photograph with her this weekensd as prep before I came back with my 4x5 (Victoria Jean). As I was going for my big camera a park worker was driving around moving picnic tables. I got back before he moved these though!

A new Winny?

My dear little digital Elph, (my only digital camera) who went by the name Winnifred Beatrice, who posed with me for the photo I have with this blog ( just to the right) has retired. She is too old and her poor parts do not work the way they used to, so I retired her... sigh. We had some good times though and she came everywhere with me. A moment of silence...


I now have a new 7.1 mega pixel Elph (3.1 mega pixels more than Winny had and cost the same as she did 2 years ago). Anyway she's pretty slick, but is she Winifred Beatrice II or someone completely new? She does have some trendy eye makeup going on (as they did not have the all silver version). I'm not sure I can name her Winny, although it would be a shame for the name to die with the camera, alas.

Any name suggestions?

Words of Wisdom from Menards

I got a Menards several-page add in the mail the other day. It's strange as I do shop there but do not hold a Menards credit card or anything else that would prompt me to be on their mailing list, but that's okay. So I read the add, not looking at the products but rather reading the strange little quotes they have printed in super small type at the bottom of every page. Has anyone noticed that before or is it just me? Anyway one of the quotes was:

"No place is boring, if you’ve had a good night's sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film."

It warms my heart to hear film rather than digital camera, but that's a ramble for another time.

Blue Streak...

I got a hair cut today, had about six inches cut off. When I get a haircut I like to go drastic so I actually look different. I went in at 9 in the morning and asked for something short and flippy with a blue highlight on the side. I ended up with short, straight with warm brown and light blonde highlights.

The hairdresser basically said she wouldn’t put blue in my hair because it will look awful and she doesn’t want me telling people that she did that to my hair! Etc. I haven’t been getting a lot of sleep lately (too many consecutive late nights at the studio) so my exhaustion allowed me to be easily persuaded (and the fact that I was getting a little nervous about the blue). Also the lack of me wanting to actually maintain the cut with product dissuaded against me from the flippy part.

In the period of 3 hours I got my hair washed twice, cut, so much tinfoil put in my hair that I thought I would start attracting radio waves, the hairdresser trying to set me up with her 22 year-old son (until she found out how old I was), and the discovery that I have one gray hair growing out of my head. I also left with a big lock of hair that will go to good use in an art project or 2!

My hair is shorter, but not drastic enough to attract the kind of attention I was looking for (why I’m trying to attract attention, I’m not quite sure), and the color… not drastic enough for me to be completely happy that I paid all that money to have it colored. Oh well, perhaps next month I’ll go in and get a $7 blue extension… now that would be cool and affordable!

What Time is it?

I've always been fascinated by daylight savings time. Why change the time and what happens in that magical hour when the clocks change and it's either the same hour all over again or an hour is gone. Perhaps it's like flying over the international date line, but I've never done that so can't say for sure. Anyway, today, for the first time I experienced it first hand. I was working away on the computer the clock skipped the 2:00 hour and went right to 3:00! Strange, and makes me feel bad because that means I'm still at the studio at 3 in the morning rather than just 2!