A Quick Look at My Motion Project

The Motion Project is another ongoing project I plan on working on for some time.  What I was doing yesterday with this image creation was trying to make interesting compositions on the fly.  I was using my 6D Mark II on shutter priority (Tv) making the aperture set to auto.  I had also set my ISO to auto as well.  I normally set my ISO to 100 for this Motion Project but I was experimenting with the ISO.  Nonetheless, for this image, the ISO went to 100 and the aperture went to F/8.  My predetermined shutter speed was 1/640 second (my proven shutter speed for this project).  Also, my focal length was 200mm and my exposure bias was -1 step.  That exposure bias is a favorite of mine for everything I photograph, really.  And in that instant, I created this image.  Of course, there is my postproduction secret sauce that brings about this final rendering.  So, as you can see, this really wasn’t outside of my comfort zone, but it was a little experimentation with the ISO being set to auto.  I’m a little obsessed with control when I create images but I’m starting to loosen up, a little – a very little.

(Designation, Motion Project 40452 – not named at this time.)

Abandoned Places as Contemporary Fine Art

I created some new images this past Saturday (3/9/2019).  It always feels good working with my camera in hand.  I did a few different things but the major focus were a couple of abandoned places.  They were not really that far off the beaten path but abandoned just the same.  The thing that is intriguing for me is how this type of work can be fine art.  It’s tough wrapping my head around how we package our work and discuss it will impact how well received it may be in the world.  Or not even noticed.  If I were wealthy, would I still do this work?  Of course, I would!  It would take up a big chunk of my day unlike now where I try to squeeze it in where ever possible.  I’m a photographist, after all and this is what I live to do.

I find a peculiar strength of character in those places long abandoned – I want to know the story of these humble structures.  But most I will never know.  And there is a certain disjointed charm in that knowledge.  I think it motivates my approach to the subject and directs my composition to some extent.  That must be the source of the contemporary fine art in these abandoned places.  But I didn’t show you any of those here today.  You can see one on my Instagram but today I am showing you the view of the regal San Gabriel Mountains as seen from the Victor Valley.  Why this image and not one of the abandoned places?  I haven’t edited that crop sufficiently enough for blogging yet – I just wanted to talk about it.  But this one, taken on the same day, is ready. 

When I’m done with the image creation for the day and packing up my gear, I have a since of euneirophrenia that swarms through my thoughts – that feeling of, “I know I have a winner somewhere in that group”.  I think this one is a winner.

H&A International

Downtown Victorville, on 7^th Street, is where H&A International used to be.  The building is still there but a new business has moved in.  That’s a good thing.  Change in the way of the community coming back.  It’s a long way to go but it’s the right direction.  But this is not about that.  I like this #image – its symmetry, its balance that is really asymmetrical, the colors, the over saturation of the colors, the use of the negative space – I like this image because I’m not finished with it.  I thought I was but realize that I’m not.  Truth be told, I want to see more than what we see at the moment because more is going on that what is seen.  And this is #California – so very much California but not the California known by most.  There is so much to see.

Train Depots

Back in 2011 when I was an early photography student at California State University, San Bernardino, (I love saying the whole name like that – go Coyotes!) one of the projects we had for our documentary #photography class was photographing some Inland Empire train stations.  We could capture others but some were on our “have to photograph” list.  I thought it was a good challenging #project that made you think how you would do it different since you knew others would be photographing the same structure.  I have since gone back to some of these train depots to use them as back drops or as the subject of the shoot themselves.  But these images are some of those from Prof. McGovern’s class (he is an incredible teacher and photographer in his own right).  I should make some full size prints of these images.

 Colton

 Pomona

 Redlands

 San Bernardino

 Union Station, Los Angeles

Union Station, Los Angeles