.

Click here to visit YesBut’s Images Gallery

Blairfoid, Fortrose, Scotland. ©Calvin Palmer 2013. All Rights Reserved.

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L ISO 100, 1/80 sec, f/8, EV-0.3, Canon 40D. Post processing in Color Efex Pro 4 and Silver Efex Pro 2.

Urban Spirals I

Urban Spirals II

Urban Spirals III

Dresden Neustadt, Dresden, Saxony, June 2013

Camera: Canon EOS600D

Urban Spirals I (& II)

Aperture: f/4

Focal Length: 28mm

ISO: 200 (250)

Urban Spirals III

Aperture: f/5

Focal Length: 40mm

ISO: 3200

Δεν μπορώ να υποθέσω ακριβώς τι είδος ομορφιάς εκπροσωπούσε στα νιάτα της-δεν ήξερα την εποχή της και η μάνα μου ήταν αρκετά νεώτερη της για να μπορέσω να κάνω την αναγωγή μέσα από φωτογραφίες και συγκρίσεις. Δεν με βοηθούσε και η απίστευτη κοκεταρία της να εντοπίσω την ηλικία της και η ηλικιακή γκάμα που οι υπολογισμοί οι δικοί μου και των γνωστών μου της δίναμε παραήταν μεγάλη-25 χρόνια διαφορά!-αν ήμασταν εταιρεία δημοσκοπήσεων, θα είχαμε φαλιρίσει από την επομένη μέρα λειτουργίας της!

Ένα ερώτημα που προκύπτει σχετικά μ’αυτή τη γυναίκα-εύχομαι να ζει και να έχει καλά γεράματα κοντά σε ανθρώπους που την αγαπάνε-είναι αν όλη αυτή η εικόνα που εμφάνιζε ήταν στυλ, ήταν δικό της προσωπικό στυλ και αν ήταν κάτι που άξιζε να προσεχτεί σαν τέτοιο. Θέλω να πω ήταν πόζα ή αληθινή έμφυτη επιλογή ενός ενστίκτου καθαρά και αυθεντικά θηλυκού; Η άποψη μου παλιότερα ήταν ότι τελικά όλο αυτό ήταν πόζα, κάτι επί της ουσίας αγοραίο και δανεικό. Σήμερα έχω αλλάξει γνώμη-αν και όχι όμως ριζικά. Θεωρώ ότι βιώνοντας κάθε μέρα την πόζα για την ανάγκη που την έφερνε σε προβεβλημένα δημόσια μέρη, κάποια στιγμή αυτό το βίωμα το εγκολπώθηκε όχι μόνο σωματικά αλλά και ψυχικά.

 Το εγκολπώθηκε αλλά δεν το τηρούσε με τη σχολαστικότητα κάποιου που το στυλ  του είναι ο ίδιος ο εαυτός του. Στην πραγματικότητα ήταν φτωχή και ζούσε πολύ στερημένα και το να διατηρήσεις με τρόπο άψογο ένα στυλ-ειδικά όταν αυτό διαμορφώνεται περισσότερο με το χρήμα-ήταν γι’αυτήν όσο μεγάλωνε ένας αγώνας σχεδόν υπαρξιακός. Η δεύτερη φωτογραφία της ανάρτησης είναι από φωτογράφιση που της έκανα μετά από παραγγελία περιοδικού-του Ταχυδρόμου, κάπου είκοσι χρόνια πριν-και σ’αυτή τη φωτογράφιση είχα την ευκαιρία να της μιλήσω-ποτέ κανείς δεν με κατηγόρησε για λιγόλογο -και μού έδωσε πολλά στοιχεία της προσωπικής της ζωής αλλά και συνεπέρανα κι εγώ αρκετά πράγματα, ζώντας την από κοντά έστω γι’αυτή τη μια, μιάμισυ ώρα που κράτησε η γνωριμία, η προσπάθεια μου να δεχτεί τη φωτογράφιση και η ίδια η φωτογράφιση καθεαυτή, που δεν είχε βέβαια την αύρα της πρώτης φωτογραφίας που προέκυψε φυσικά και ανυπόκριτα, χωρίς στησίματα και σκηνοθεσίες.

Κάθε άνθρωπος είναι έτσι κι αλλιώς μια συναρπαστική ιστορία. Δεν σε κάνουν οι φωτογραφίες και η διασημότητα συναρπαστικό αλλά τα φιλιά και πόσο καλά ξέρεις να τα δίνεις και να τα παίρνεις την ώρα που πρέπει. Απλά οι φωτογραφίες και οι απεικονιζόμενες πρώτες, δεύτερες ή τρίτης διαλογής διασημότητες σε κάνουν να συνειδητοποιείς ότι υπάρχει και κυκλοφορεί σ’αυτόν τον πλανήτη μια συναρπαστική ζωή στην οποία οφείλεις κι εσύ να συμμετέχεις. Απλά σε συμβουλεύω να μην βγεις στο προσκήνιο. Ζεις πιο συναρπαστικά στη σκιά και στην ασημότητα.

.

Click here to visit YesBut’s Images Gallery

Gore Park Fountain at Night

It’s not famous. It’s not even a major attraction for the City of Hamilton but it is still beautiful, and definitely one of the most recognizable symbols of Hamilton and the Beasley neighbourhood.

The original was erected in 1859, and then became a centre of Hamilton’s urban life. It was demolished in 1959, however, due to its deteriorating condition and the city’s plan to modernize the downtown core. In 1993, renewed interest by the city’s Head-of-the-Lake Historical society and its offshoot Fountain Foundation consisting of society members, local businesses, corporations and private citizens lead to the raising of $500,000 to build a new fountain. Installed in 1996, the new fountain is made with some pieces of the original fountain to enhance its heritage value, a near replica of the original and a true link between Hamilton’s past and future.

I first photographed this fountain on a summer day in 2005 but while it was technically and aesthetically nice to look at, I was never content with the results. In my mind, the image barely captured the spirit of the distant past and 21st century present of the fountain, park, neighbourhood and city. Even more of a problem for me was that many photographers had made countless beautiful images of this fountain that weren’t too dissimilar from mine. For a while, I thought that my only option was to abandon the idea of presenting an urban landscape/architectural/sculptural photograph of this fountain. That decision proved impossible for me to live with. I couldn’t shoot this city, and not include this icon in my collection. My final decision–which should have occurred to me much sooner, was to make an image of the fountain in a way that I had not seen done by any other photographer. It was just a simple concept of shooting the active fountain at night with a long exposure so that the ambient light would illuminate and transform the water streams into veils.

This is one of several low-light compositions I made of the Gore Park Fountain. Instead of shooting the old-style sculpture from the west as I did years before, I shot it from its eastern side and from very low to the ground. I ensured that I got some of the lit offices of the modern Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce headquarters and 100 King Street West building (formerly Stelco Tower) in the background to meld old-style elements with the new. In 2005, I composed the image in portrait. This time, I composed the image in field as I wanted to convey not just the tallness of the fountain but its breadth, include the scenery of the surrounding park, and convey dimensional depth of the scene from such a low to the ground angle. This time around, movement is conveyed by the jets and overflows of water, instead of giving just a static freeze frame impression. The tall buildings fade into a richly darkened sky which helps to make the street and shop lights dazzle without becoming overbearing. All of these elements have come together to make a much better and unique urban photograph of this Steeltown icon.

I shot these images last winter over New Years weekend.  Our family cabin, in Waters, Michigan, about 3.5 hours North of Detroit, is a nice A-Frame tucked into some woods a short walk from Guthrie Lakes.  Just upstream from the lakes is a pond encircled by a broken down, rarely used nature trail. Its boggy habitat, with a couple seemingly abandoned beaver dens, lots of dead trees caused by the expanding waters and meandering streams.  I have been walking this trail since 1985 and even after so many years, its still a place of great enchantment, of stillness, silence and solitude.  This winter day, the temps were hovering in the teens and outfitted in waterproof and warm winter gear, I traipsed around the lake for the afternoon, knee deep in snow in many places, pausing occasionally upon a fallen tree to roll a smoke and even, unabashedly,  assault warblers with my own.  I shot 24 frames.

These images were shot on a  Mamiya C330, a medium format film camera from the 1950′s. It shoots square, has amazing close up abilities because of its bellows and the lens, a wide angle, has superb sharpness. These were shot on a single roll of 220 B&W Kodak Plus X film.

.

Click here to visit YesBut’s Images Gallery

.

Click here to visit YesBut’s Images Gallery

Rosemarkie Beach, Moray Firth, Scotland. ©Calvin Palmer 2013. All Rights Reserved.

Ricoh GR Digital III, ISO 64, 1/1700 sec, f/5.0, EV -0.3. Post processing in Viveza 2, Color Efex Pro 4 and Silver Efex Pro 2.

Prießnitzgrund, Dresdner Heide, Dresden, Saxony, June 2013

Prießnitzgrund, Dresdner Heide, Dresden, Saxony, June 2013

Aperture: f/25

Focal length: 27mm
ISO: 1600
Camera: Canon EOS600D

Prießnitz floodwater

Dresdner Heide

Dresden, Saxony

June 2013

Picture I: Sepia effects applied

.

Click here to visit YesBut’s Images Gallery

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/05/31/weekly-photo-challenge-the-sign-says/

A Victorian mansion in Eureka, CA, clearly states that it is a private club. HDR made from a single RAW file.

NBC Copyright 2013 Bryan Moore

My Collection “Introuvable”  is a body of work  that I  shot  on Midnight walks through out New York, when I couldn’t sleep.  From the Moment I took the first picture in this collection I know  it was gonna be one of my best  works, but what to call it?

When ever I would go out to shoot at night  it was because I had this  built  up energy inside  or  feeling that I just couldn’t sleep.  so instead I would walk around the city until I literally couldn’t.  I never left  my house looking to end up any where, and I never knew  what i was looking for that I thought would ease my mind enough to sleep, and then one night I had a word  for it all.   I had come home really late from a walk one night and I was flipping around Tv to see if there was anything even remotely interesting on, when I got to a replaying of the national spelling bee.  I know many of you might not find that interesting Tv  but I love interesting companions and trivia or weird knowledge, and in the later rounds of the spelling bee they start asking words  that you didn’t even know existed. In one of the later round  of the contestants was asked to spell Introuvable,they asked for the definition:  ”Impossible to find”.  I wrote the word down as soon as they described it it was perfect.  I felt like every night i was walking out in to these barren street in search of  something, something I my never find  just a step forward in to  unseen darkness.

Prießnitzgrund, Dresdner Heide, Dresden, Saxony, June 2013

Aperture: f/20
Focal length: 18mm
ISO: 1000
Camera: Canon EOS600D

Prießnitz flood water

Dresdner Heide

Dresden, Saxony

June 2013