One of Those Days

I think this photo describes how I feel today. My computer started having the hiccups and the sound in the receiver of my phone land line got so scratchy, I couldn't hear anyone who called.

Of course I called Ma Bell (Verizon in this world where there are just too many mother bells), and I got that lady who wouldn't be inturrupted, not under any circumstances, because she's not a she nor is she a he, its not even a real person at the other end.

At any rate, I hung up before she finished because I was in no mood to talk to a robot, and I made my appointment for a service man to come on the Internet. He'll arrive to fix my phone in a week.

I don't have a cell phone because if I started to drive with one, I wouldn't be here to write and submit photographs to this blog. I don't believe in doing anything other than drive when I'm behind the wheel (though I have to admit, I eat while I drive).

On to my computer, which also got sick. Lucky for me that I still had my OS X disk to start up from (press the C while I rebooted). I reinstalled the nifty operating system and, viola, my computer was healed and runs like a top.

The above shot, by the way, is my favorite kind of trailer hooked up to my second favorite kind of car. I caught this rustic, maybe-I'll-go-and-eat-fried-things setting last year in Desert Hot Springs, CA.

This picture would be perfect for someone opening a restaurant that fries everything with wooden walls and a diner theme.

Civil War in Iraq and A Date with the Army

DATELINE: INDIO, CALIFORNIA
POPULATION: 49,116
MALES BETWEEN THE AGES OF 15-44: 23%
PERCENT OF RESIDENTS WHO ARE HISPANIC:75%




Perhaps, Indio, CA could be the poster child city for army recruitment. There's a good chance noone here is related to anyone in Congress. The city is alive with strip malls and chain stores--almost perfect Americana.

Last, it's full of young Hispanic males.

What better way to attract them then to have some really cool tanks from World War II displayed all around the army recuritment booth at the Date Festival (Indio's Date Palm trees give the city lots of dates). And why not throw in an old car or two, just to soften your image. You've got everything else here, including people dressed as Arabs (the city has many spots named after places in Arabia, because Indio is smack in the middle of the Southern California desert and its landscape is very similar to that of Iraq).


If you're 18-44, male and Hispanic, you too can have a date with the army.

Tip: If you see photos that can make a political statement, put them on your blog so that you can rant and rave just like everyone else.

That said and done, write what you can do to make your message heard about Iraq's upcoming civil war.

Riverside County Fair

Just another Saturday afternoon at the county fair.

Part Sun; Part Shade--Photographing Flowers

Tip--Consider photographing a flower so part of it is in the sun and part of it is in the shade.

This will increase the shades of colors you are using and provide more areas of differing contrast to make the photo more appealing.

Staging Photos and an Item from the Trastevere in Rome

Nice, hugh. The background is just a sheet of high-cotton-count linen crumpled up a bit.

The fruit? Some of it's real and some not. The artifical fruit is made of stone.

The stone pieces were bought in the "Trastevere in Rome, one of many great quarters there.

For more ideas about how to stage great photos check out my book.

Usage

Need I say more?

Art=Text+Image+Photoshop

Architecture and Popular Culture--Hello John; Goodbye Bob

Bob Hope created an act that was, at one time, a landmark of quintessential American culture.

Many don't know that he was also a real estate mongol, and still more don't know that the real estate he had built is becoming more popular than the act the actor had created himself.

It does make sense that this would happen, though, because the real estate he left behind is still here and Bob is not (he died in 2003). Much of what Bob created in terms of entertainment would bore today's American teenager, and perhaps even a person of middle age.

But that's not the case with the homes he had built with the growing tresure chest of dough he made while he was in his prime.

It was architect John Lautner who built the Bob Hope house, high on a hill in Palm Springs, a man who's more revered in Palm Springs in many culture circles than the entertainer who created one of the greatest Vaudeville acts in America.

Hello John, Goodbye Bob--Happy Modernism Week in Palm Springs

High Brow and Low Brow Art/Language

Photo taken in Arles, France Copyright 2006 Matthew Bamberg

What if someone gave a party and noone came? That's exactly how you would feel if someone screamed something in "low language" or said something in "high language" that you didn't understand.

Today's entry ponders this question, both in a "low langauge" tongue-and-cheek sense and a more "high language" lingusitics sense. In Europe the formal languages have long been Latin and Greek, but in India the formal language is Sanskrit, a "high" language used for science and religion.

On this note, I want to welcome the students from my linguistics class at National University. We're studying "high" and "low" language.

I bring them to my blog for two reasons:
1. To demonstrate the variety of "high" and "low" language the world over.
2. To show the parallel of this concept with that of "high brow" and "low brow" art.

Consider the following conversation here, of students being trained as peer educators, discussing what they should tell an audience during a skit about marijuana use.

Teacher: Remember, you're role models.
Student 1: You want us to lie?
Teacher: Since you're not coming to school stoned--
(students laugh)
Student 2:(mockingly) Stoned?
Teacher: What do you say?
Student 2: I say high. Bombed. Blitzed.
Student 3: Weeded.
Student 4: Justified.
Student 3: That's kinda tig

Obviously, they used "low" language or slang to connect with their young audience and to illustrate the terms of this language as they connect to the use of the drug.

Now terms such as this (and others connected with drug use) are ubiquitous (a high brow term, and one that I had to look up the spelling for on Google). Here's an example of low language turned into a kind of "low brow" art found on the street. It is connected to (can you guess?) LSD use.

And what about high language?

Here's an example. "Brevity is the soul of wit." Can you guess where it came from?

Check out the parallel in art.

Okay, so I get the hint from the quote, and I'll conclude with a tip for both linguistic students and artists studying the highs and lows of language and the arts.

Tip: Language is an artist's greatest tool.

"I Love Lucy" Browsing and Bridge

We all come to a moment one day or another to look to see what photography work we've created in the past. Whether it's rotating through Photoshop CS2's great new browse feature, Bridge, or using your old standbys, the built in software that brings up your photos for viewing on your desktop.

About 4 years ago when I had my Canon film camera (another Rebel), I shot a bronze statue of Lucy that sits in front of the Coffee Beanery in downtown Palm Springs.

I colorized the beast in Photoshop 4 and skewed it up a bit (who knows why I did this?)--but the result, I think, is okay, but others have laughed at it.

Much to my surprise the picture made the cover of the Desert Post Weekly, our alternative paper.

Go figure?

The 80th Anniversary of Route 66 Celebration

Yes, folks, I'm stoked as I received this email yesterday:
Check out www.2006route66festival.com


Matt--

This is our upcoming major Route 66
event and YOU should be there displaying and selling your photos. Call me or
e-mail if you have any questions.
Thanks

James M Conkle
Preservationist-Speaker-Marketer-Spokesperson-Public Relations-Event Planner
Route 66 Preservation Foundation


Don't forget you heard about it on the "Digital Art Photography for Dummies" blog.

Great Review for "Digital Art Photography for Dummies"

"The fourth chapter covers something that I don't think any photography book I've read has detailed yet, and that's figuring out what kind of photographer you want to be."

"I normally hate Photoshop tutorials within books, but within this book, because it's more of a general overview rather than giving detailed step by step instructions by example (he does do this, but it is in manageable amounts for things that matter). I wish other authors would follow this example of how to do a Photoshop chapter. Major kudos for finally getting a Photoshop chapter done right."

Check out the rest of the review at Mike Hauang's Weblog.

Mid-Century Modern Design Photography

Tonight I work the Modernism Show in Palm Springs. I'll write and take pictures for a local magazine.

Over the years I've written about this show, and while I do, I record the offerings--an eclectic assortment of mid-century modern furnishings--displayed in the exhibit hall at the Palm Springs Convention Center

The furnishings take well to the lens and make great art photos. The photo here is of the Ribbon Chair, a very expensive piece of furniture. I have a large collection of furniture (and appliances, typewriters, radios, televisions and phones) that I've photographed over the years. I picked this one because the orignal psychedelic fabric that covers it is rare.

My job today was to get this image of the chair from the computer and into a frame from Ikea for one of the displays at the show, a framing challenge if you will.

I put my printed photo in a square shadowbox frame (white) and need an image of approx 5X5 inches. I usually store my images as 8X10 (or 10X8, landscape) at 300 dpi, so resizing an image to be a square can be a bit tricky, like fitting a square peg into a round hole. At any rate it is possible as you can see from the picture above.

Layer Via Copy Fixes and Photoshop

Here's what I did to fix the ear and nearby negative damage in young Matt photo from Friday (all cutting and pasting was done with a 3 px feather)--Select right ear; create a new layer via copy and flip it horizontally; adjust Shadows and Highlights so the right ear layer matches the left ear (background layer); select yellow stuff by ear then move selection over matching part of fence; create a new layer via copy; move fence piece next to right ear; flatten image.

If you're a beginner, it's better just to buy my book (click on the link in the upper left hand corner of my blog). I go over all this stuff step-by-step.

If you're not; let me know what you think...

On Monday, I'll tweak tones.

And...thanks for your ideas on Friday. There are so many ways you can do this.

Slides and Light Tables and Digital Cameras

Now here's a lucky find. I happen to walk into an Italian restaurant in a nearby community and see a fabulous collections of old 35 mm slides inside light boxes hanging all over the walls.

I ask for the owner and tell him first that I love his picture collection. He lets me know where he got them (he was a collector). I ask if I can photograph them. He says "absolutely, make yourself at home."

I go to town. Not only do I love the mid-century modern style, but I also think the turn-of-the-last-century is a killer.

Tip: Slides on a light table make excellent subjects for photographing as a digital camera's sensor will pick up every detail cause the lighting ends up being near perfect.

Cheney and My Photo Submission to the NRA

Found this photo today and realized I had something in common with Vice President Dick Cheney (we both liked guns at one time or another in our lives).

Now that I'm submitting my photos to various places, hoping to make some extra $$, I'm considering submitting this to the NRA. I'm hoping they'll put it on their Web site, Kooky Kidz Corner.

But before I submit this Quick Draw McGraw I gotta tweak it. Please write some some ideas about how you would fix this sharp shooter in Photoshop. I'll post my ideas on Friday.

I'm also wondering if Dick Cheney had one of these when he was a kid in Wyoming. My bet is he had the real thing.

Photoshop Levels, Curves and Shadows and Highlights

This is a pic I grabbed while moving in my car in Palm Desert, California.

Warning: Do not attempt to do this as it's stupid and you may hurt your eyes, looking directly into the sun. (I did it anyway.)

When I got home, I couldn't help but play with it.

Tip: When you get the urge to play in Photoshop, don't overdue it, otherwise you'll have a work that looks tweaked because the colors will become artifically tinted and you will get noise.

First I slid the Levels (Image>Adjustments>Levels) sliders a bit.
Then I moved the Curves (Image>Adjustments>Curves) diagonal line to make it look like a slight S.
Last, I tweaked the Shadows and Highlights (Image>Adjustments>Shadows and Highlights) to add contrast. I played with all of the sliders to get as much contrast as I could without any type of artifical color (whiting out of white, areas with one-tone tonies, etc...)

For more Art and Photoshop fun go here.

The State of the American Downtown

Today, I'm in Phoenix, AZ. I'm staying downtown and after having traveled here and to many other downtown areas across the United States, I've come to a couple of conclusions as to what you might find--

1. Vivid reflections from the the mirrored glass exteriors of many newer buildings.



2. Some sort of visual element--a poster, billboard, or framed prints inside of a hotel--that lets you know what the area looked like decades ago.



3. Some sort of historic church.



4. Brightly colored buildings that contain a business run by some immigrant group or other.



5. A building that looks like it could house the offices of the Daily Planet.

Cruel Shoes

One of my favorite books, Cruel Shoes, was by a younger Steve Martin. I was happy to find the entire book online!





On the cover was a pair of lady's high heels.

My recollection is that lady's pumps get all the attention.

But men think about shoes too.

Personally, I never do. My friend Carl does though. He has lots of shoes.

I just don't understand it.

I never buy shoes.

Tip: Try photographing your shoes by staging them in front of an interesting background.

Camera Minimalism

While this might not be the best picture technically, it still has sold in stores in Southern California.

Why?

Well, because of--

1. The baby blue (robin's egg blue, if you will)

2. The retro dial.

3. The pop art look when it's blown up bigger than its ordinary size.

4. The minimalism, simple and people in SoCal, many who lean modern, want simplicity (hey, life is complicated).

5. The fact that it will go up on a wall in a frame, collecting a minimal amount of dust.

Yes, number 5 is the most important. While you could buy an item like this for around $50, it's bulky and a big dirt attracter.

Go figure...

And the Winner Is...

The winner of the Pastel Day Challenge is Marie.

Congrats, Marie, and thank you everyone. All of your images were fantastic!

Goldfish

Tip: Any animal that comes to check you out needs its picture taken.

A Raw Day in LA

Yesterday I drove from Palm Springs to LA, a day in LA it was--first, the Getty, then Santa Monica Place in downtown Santa Monica.


I alternated taking pictures with my Canon Digital Rebel XT between the automatic mode and the creative mode. If I had my camera set to the creative mode in the Raw picture-taking setting, I would have only fifty some odd photographs that I could fit in my 512 meg chip. So for less important photos, I switch to the auto mode, which uses jpeg format, a format that uses up less memory than Raw photos do. That way I can get two more dozen photos to fit into the chip. Sure, I could set it back to the jpeg setting after I photograph in Raw and stay in the creative mode, but that would be a pain in the rear each time--trying to locate it on the LCD screen and then remembering to set it back to Raw.


First I went to the Getty, where people were walking around outside. Next, I took in a couple of double expressos and photographed the views (see the smoggy LA pic on top).

There were lots of cacti.


Then I went inside and looked at paintings, there were lots of them.

I ended the day with a beautiful shots of flowers from the Getty garden. Here is one.




Santa Monica Place is great for shopping. It's also great for watching performance artists of every stripe, including monkeys. This one took my money and shook my hand.

Tip: As a candid photographer, have your camera preset whenever possible, and check your ISO before you begin.

You don't want to shoot daytime photos with a nighttime ISO.

Betty Friedan and Hijacked Freedoms

You probably wouldn't see Betty Friedan wearing an American flag on her lapel or use the eagle as symbolic imagery for freedom

In her book, The Feminine Mystique, she writes, "If a woman who was denied the freedom, the status, and the pleasures that men enjoyed wished secretly that she could have these things, in the shorthand of the dream, she might wish herself a man and see herself with that one thing which made men unequivocally different - the penis."

An invigorating thought to say the least.

On the other side of the fence you have the eagle--the adopted symbol of many who delve into such wholesome objects such as the great bird and the flag not to mention family (but whose)?

What would women's rights look like today if the other side had their way? What would they look like if the ERA had passed Betty Friedan's way?

Why don't those of us on the left take the eagle back and the word "family" and the word "freedom"?

Could this be the solution for a Democrat to win an election?

Tip: Symbols are powerful art, photograph them often.

The photo of the eagle was shot at the Singapore Bird Park.

Snapshot Art Photo

Just got a new cat, which is reminding me of all the great animals that I've seen in my travels.

This camel lives in Cappadocia, which is in Turkey.

This photo was scanned from a snapshot.

When I travel, I usually don't shoot friends and families, not because I don't like them, but more because they make awful subjects for art photos.

Clone Stamp Tool

Today I find myself scanning negatives. I have an HP scanjet 5470p . I bought mine several years ago so that it only reads 35 mm negatives, but sometimes I gerry-rig it to read larger ones.




You can get some great scanners with negative readers. Here's one.

When I find some money to fork up for this device, I'll buy it.

At any rate, after I scan I get rid of the scratches and dust bunnies and worms using Photoshop's clone stamp tool.

To use the clone stamp tool:

1. Find an area similar to the one that you want to fix (usually right next to it).
2. Click on that area (called the source) while holding the Alt/Option key.
3. Move the stamp over the area you want to fix.
4. Right click on the stamp to change its size.
5. Click on the area to fix, repeat steps if you don't get the result you want.

Now I'll repeat for the rest of the picture that I've scanned, and viola, I've got a beautiful photograph.

Happy Pastels Day

The winner's photos will be posted next Wed, Feb. 8th.

Thanks for being a part of another great day filled with color!