The 8 minute view from Joyce Tenneson’s porch at night.
I’m up at the Maine Media Workshops taking an amazing Black and White Digital Printing Class with George Schaub. Somehow they let me take out the Marshall’s Inks on this image! I highly recommend taking the trek to Maine and immersing yourself in one of their workshops, it really is a special place.
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Would you consider photographing a junkyard? What if it was during a weekend workshop by the light of the full moon? Does it sound dirty, fun, or both? What if I told you that master lightpainter, Troy Paiva, teamed up with ghost-making Joe Riefer to lead the expedition to the classic car filled Pearsonville Junkyard? Does that peak your interest? Both of these guys are on the forefront of capturing long exposures at night in surreal and abandoned urban areas. They both have huge followings – Troy with his vibrant light paintings of desolate planes, trains, and automobiles has practically all of Flickr following his every post. His recent book Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration is an inspirational look at forgotten America. Joe Riefer’s blog on Night Photography is probably the best out there and if you don’t have it in your feedreader, mark it now. Joe is the Ying to Troy’s Yang, his subtle CTO light painting finesses (opens) the shadows and his digital post processing information is one of the best in that deals with the night light.
So when they invited me to join them on a 7 hour drive to the Mojave desert to take their Pearsonville Night Photography/Light Painting Workshop, I cleared my schedule. This was their second workshop they’ve offered at this truly unique place, the last one took place during October 08’s full moon. The class is limited to 11 students and a bargain at $500 for two nights! We had total access into the Pearsonville Junkyard – a virtual wasteland of decaying classic cars and trucks mainly from 50’s -70’s’.
Pearsonville, population 24, has definitely seen better days. Troy and Joe have been shooting this place for years, and have built an excellent relationship with the owners, which is literally the “key” element to shooting a semi-abandoned place like this.
The lucky 11 met with Joe and Troy on Saturday at 1pm. They showed us their Pearsonville pictures and went over several night lighting techniques before we made the 20 minute commute to stock up on the food and enter the graveyard of cars.
The 40′ tall Uni-Royal lady surrealy beckoned us to the gate, we had a little over an hour before sunset to scope out the 1/2 mile by 1/2 mile junkyard looking for possible night shot set ups. Joe and Troy warned us not to get lost in just a few cars or a small area as there was an amazing shot every step you took. And with exposures averaging 6-8 minutes, you really didn’t want to spend more than two set ups for each car. I walked half the back lot of the car graveyard during the sinking sunlight, getting quick digital grab shots to see what angles worked. I’m not really a car guy but 3 steps in and I was captivated by these dying engineering beauties. I worked quickly in the sinking sunlight getting grab shots of these hulking metal beasts I’d only heard rumors of, familiar wide 70’s chryslers to the famous rare Edsels.
My gear list consisted of 3 camera rigs:
Gerber 22-80016 Recon Light, White / Red / Blue / Green LED - Black Body
, and finally one of the students, Dave Abrams, kindly brought a bunch low level flashlights for the class he got off ebay for $2 each! I covered mine with a cto gel and this became my main light close up work. Thanks Dave!Wide or Super-wide are really the way to go. The two modes of thought when capturing the cars were what accentuating angle (usually wide) do you interpret the vehicle with as well as sharp detail shots. Of course on the first night I got lost in a small area of old and modern trucks in the back, but finally met up with Joe at the racetrack. Yes, they used to race cars here as well back in the day! In the middle of the track was a firetruck from the 20’s that I spent a lot time trying to figure out. In between exposures Joe asked me to become one of his classic ghosts. The image, ironically called, Towing from Beyond came out great and you can see it here.
The second day we brought our top 5 shots from the night, got feedback from Joe and Troy and then went over several digital post processing tips on how to get the most out of your image. Joe has been posting several of these techniques on his website, check out A Warm Car on a Cool Night.
After mainly working alone the first night, I made it a point to spend a couple hours with Troy and Joe each night and improve my light painting techniques. You can see Troy’s collaboration with me on the red chained trailer, candycane 18 wheeler, and of course the famous D’oh! shot! Joe taught me the cool and ever useful steering wheel shadow technique and how to get the most of my gelled color temperature controlled flashlights by gently remove shadows and adding highlights to certian areas of the vehicles.
For and extra $100 Joe and Troy offered a bonus 3rd day of night shooting that 3/4 of the class participated in. You could see flashes popping and colors flashing in the distance as we worked well into the final night of Pearsonville. As we drove away late that last night, I knew I had only scratched at the surface of the secrets of Pearsonville, and that I would hopefully, be making this trip again before it disappears.
Check out a few more of my shots as well as the rest of the amazing work from the rest of the students on the Pearsonville flickr page. Troy is still creating Pearsonville gems on his 5+ visit, check out his new shots here. And finally Joe’s blogs on shooting and post-processing techniques can be found here and here and here! Oh just check out his whole blog!
Rumor has it that Joe and Troy will be offering this again in October, so stay tuned if you are interested in capturing the rides of your night-time!
2009 is turning out to be a creatively successful year so far and March is packed with some great group shows as well as my first solo exhibit in NYC!
First up, the 11 th Annual International Krappy Kamera Show, which features one of my previously unseen images, opens on Tuesday March 3rd at the Soho Gallery. This is always a fun exhibit featuring images made from creative artists and their toy cameras. The Opening is from 6-8pm, with voting on the People’s Choice Award ending at 7:30pm, so get their early, drink some wine, enjoy the images, and vote!
Jill Waterman and Daryl-Ann Saunders curated and brought together some of the best modern nocturnal photographers for two exhibits featuring the fine art of Night Photography that will open on Thursday March 5th at the Farmani and Safe-T-Gallery. These Galleries are right across from each other in DUMBO Brooklyn, and the opening will be from 6-8pm. Several of these photographers will also be speaking at B&H’s Event Space on Monday March 9th.
On Friday March 6th a couple more openings:
First, my dear friend and fellow blogger and photoartist, Angelia Lane, will have several of her paintings featured at ArtSlant’s Group Show, World of Imagination. The opening is from 6-8pm and will run to the end of the month at the APW Gallery’s new location at 48-18 Van Dam Street, Long Island City, NYC.
If you are heading upstate that week, one of my photos will be in a Group show titled Festival of the Visual Arts, at the Morton Library in Rhinecliff. The Amtrak train drops you off within 3 blocks of the Library and the show is curated by the newly engaged Sandy Bartlett.
Now mark your calendars and plan your trip to NYC accordingly; I’ll be having my first solo show titled “The New York Years” at John Allan’s in Tribeca on Friday March 20th from 8:30-10:30pm! This exhibit will be touring the four NYC John Allan’s locations throughout the year but you’ll definitely want to come celebrate with me on March 20th!
And finally, on the last day of the month come and test drive the newest Lensbabies at B&H’s Event Space. David Brommer, Jennifer Diamond, and I will be giving a slideshow presentation on how to get the most out of these creative lenses and then take you on a photo safari as we Lensbabify Times Square!
So shake the winter blahs off and I hope to see you out there this March!
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The Lensbaby Composer lens has a unique optical swap system in which you can own one lens yet have 5 different capture methods. Think of the ball and socket Composer as a chassis to hold multiple visions. In my last two posts I have shown you images taken with the Zoneplate/Pinhole optic as well as the Plastic uncoated optic. Both are fun and unusual ways of seeing the world in a whole new way. Each one of the optics is a bargain for $35 each or I recommend purchasing the whole set for $95. The set includes the Plastic, Pinhole/Zone plate, and the Single Glass optics. All the optics are the equivalent to a 50mm lens, or what we would call normal vision. The Composer and Control Freak lenses come with the Double Glass optic. Because the double glass optic has multiple coatings it makes it the sharpest lens in Lensbaby Family. If you want to buy The Muse Lensbaby you have the option of Plastic or Double Glass optic.
I’ve really enjoyed using the plastic and zone/pin optics but last week I made it a point to only shoot with the Double Glass lens and see how sharp it really was. Let me preface this by saying that all the images I’ve taken in the last 2+ months have been with an APS-C sized digital camera sensor and are usually shot at f/4 or f/2. If you shoot much beyond f/5.6 you start to lose the vignetting affect. Also, if I were to shoot with a full frame digital or film camera the vignetting or out of focus area would be even greater.
I arrived Friday, in San Francisco on a night of the full moon. My resolution this year was to do a night shoot each month during the full moon, so without wasting any time, I set up my camera and tripod on my brother’s second story deck in Glen Park. I’ve wanted to do a Lensbaby night shoot and the rolling hills of SF lit up by the moon, the rare starry sky and the millions of twinkling lights were just taunting me.
The top image was taken facing the San Bruno Mountains and with a slight bend of the Composer, I focused on the distant radio towers and defocused the house-lit hills. With the second image, I screwed on the wide-angle adapter to provide a more expansive point of view. You can click on them to view them larger – which one do you like better?
A lot of people ask me, “Why do I want to use a Lensbaby? I can do that effect in Photoshop.” I always tell them that it is way more fun to control the effect while shooting and really interact with your subject in a brand new way; plus the pebbles of light that nightlights turn into is truly UnPhotoshopable!
Our last evening in Brooklyn, before we left for SF, we saw a great concert at a fantastical new venue, Galapagos. The Galapagos Art Space in Williamsburg recently located to DUMBO. I feel this new space is more successful visually and spatially. Each banquette is it’s own island amidst a body of welcoming water. The orchestra level also provides more pleasurable viewing (and photo) opportunities. Performing that night were two bands from North Carolina and our hometown favorite Balthrop, Alabama. The Never kicked things off with a pop/blues grass vibe. I was really impressed with the 11 piece folk orchestra tunes of Lost in the Trees. In fact, I was so impressed with them that we bought their album – Yes Vinyl! The three concert shots to the left showcase the creative inspiration that a Lensbaby can add to musical venues. I was bending the composer pretty extremely to limit the area of focus and add movement to the vibe of the photo.
Back to San Francisco, the main reason for my visit was to see my family. My nephew Oliver, who has had his Lensbaby portrait taken on this blog previously, was of course the subject to probably 250 of the 300 shots that were taken on this trip. Lensbaby babies and portraits are just guaranteed fun! Imagine a world in which the person doesn’t know and is fascinated with this camera-tool that you are using. I don’t know if that world exists, however with a Lensbaby mounted on your camera the 4th wall is broken and new eyes wait to be captured. What is that bendable almost posable funky lens doing? It even makes your camera quite retro! 9 times out of 10 it also makes you shoot in manual mode so it makes you think about your image-capturing even more. Shooting Oliver on the swing took some practice and there was more misses then hits but when I got it, it was certainly a home run!
California has been a destination for many a lost soul looking for meaning. And one of the most wonderful things you can do in your life, whether your soul is lost or found, is to witness a sunset along the California coast. The unusually warm day brought a stellar sunset to the many people who had ventured out to Ocean Beach. And there we stood, at the end of the world, watching the colors slowly fade to night.
Click.