The David, Florence, Italy

Always happy to be back in beautiful Italy, prepping for the Intimate Tuscany Workshop and Tuscany Village Tour with Drake Busath.  I thought I would warm up a little bit in a city that cradles its art.  Of late, I have had an interest in not necessarily photographing works of art for their own beauty, but photographing the interactions of people with them.  I had envisioned this image for sometime, as I wanted to show the absolute madness of our society for this particular statue.

Granted, it is quite breath-taking.  It is massive in its own right, but combined with the aesthetics of the sculpture, The David by Michelangelo evokes a grandeur and beauty of the human spirit.  I sat for awhile sketching out his other, unfinished statues in the hallway leading to the David and also watched people’s reactions as they turned the corner and could see the statue centrally placed in the rotunda of the Gallerie dell’Accademia.  Many people were visibly taken aback, and many tour groups who were forced to listen to the didactics of their guides on other works of art simply could not look away from it and anticipated moving closer.

My goal was produce a black and white image which emphasized the statue as subject, but which clearly showed the immensity of the crowd that is often thronging the statue.  I often wonder if art would be as popular if not institutionalized, brought into the museums and charged large fees for it.  If The David were still standing outside in the rain, would we give it as much attention, make it a destination spot from all over the world.  It seems hard to think otherwise, as the sculpture seems to speak for itself.

www.joeladdams.com

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New York Images

New York has not historically been my favorite place to visit.  Heresy, you say.  I had a hard time in Paris, let’s be honest, and the all the buildings (most of the buildings) are five stories high.  The two previous times I had been there consisted of a few days staying at Times Squares and visiting a brother’s friend in Queens (or was it Brooklyn?).  Anyway, neither one left me stoked on the place, but times have changed.  And I have changed.  A little.

The series of images that I kept from the trip represent a mishmash of new things I’m seeing:  shapes and color sometime predominant with the reflection and luminance of bright shiny things made of metal still captivate me.  I’ve always had a fascination with people in spaces such as museums and train stations and have historically kept those people fairly small in relationship to their surrounds.  Art museums are particularly good for this.  I’ve include a series of some of my favorite images from New York, all in runs of 45 prints.

“Enlightenment” New York, 2012. Print, limited edition of 45, © Joel Addams

“Wall, New York” New York, 2012. Print, limited edition of 45, © Joel Addams

“We Will Judge You” New York, 2012. Print, limited edition of 45, © Joel Addams

“Grand Central Lights” New York, 2012. Print, limited edition of 45, © Joel Addams

“Flat Iron, Midday” New York, 2012. Print, limited edition of 45, © Joel Addams

“Surface to Steel” New York, 2012. Print, limited edition of 45, © Joel Addams

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Day for Night – Hot Springs

A day for night shot in central Utah. By Joel Addams

CENTRAL UTAH

Think of this as a sketch in the ol’ sketchbook.  There is a lot of cleaning up to do in a post-processing sense, but this is what I was envisioning when passing through the beloved hot springs in Central Utah.

Central Utah Camping + Hot Springs

Camping – Central Utah

Camping – Central Utah

Central Utah Camping

Camping Central Utah

Hot Springs – Central Utah

CENTRAL UTAH – CAMPING

This was a great weekend in central Utah with good company.  Awesome trip, good exploring, good campfires, and good hot springs.  Nothing better.

 

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Pottery Making in Baktapur, Nepal

Pottery making in Baktapur, Nepal by Joel Addams

Pottery making in Baktapur, Nepal by Joel Addams

Pottery making in Baktapur, Nepal by Joel Addams

Pottery making in Baktapur, Nepal by Joel Addams

Pottery making in Baktapur, Nepal by Joel Addams

BAKTAPUR, NEPAL

Pottery making seems to me to be one of those fundamental projects in life that is still used out of necessity in many parts of the world and for art in others.  The funny thing is that for whatever reason people do it, it still seems to be art.  The craftsmanship of making something useful and artistic provides that double functionality that seems to make the sum total more than the parts.  Mud + hand spinning a wheel + molding + drying = something really cool.  I photographed this gentleman in the clay capital of Nepal, Baktapur.  He “threw” all day, probably everyday…and for long hours.  He cranked through pots that, visibly inspected, did not seem to have flaws.  Maybe he hit his 10,000 hours about five years ago.  I enjoyed the forms of the pots and the motion, yet again frozen in a single still image. (I’ll post the video soon)

Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon 50 mm f/1.2 on the blurred backgrounds, Canon 17-40 mm L on wide shots, Canon 100 mm f/2.8 Macro
Settings: Variable, but you gotta slow the shutter speed on the spinning wheel down…
Filters:  B + W UV filter
Other: Postprocessing, Black and White Conversion, some curves/levels adjustments

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Favorite Portrait – Nepal

A sadhu or holy man of HIndu participates in rituals in Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal by Joel Addams

KATHMANDU, NEPAL

I have finished editing all of the still images from the recent trip to Nepal, mainly because I was shooting video 95% of the time.  I found the favorite portrait that I took of one of the sadhus, the holy men of the Hindu temples.  Working on the edge of the light has always been my favorite since it naturally isolates the subject.  I love Richard Avedon’s work, but the whiteness would kill me eventually.  Also, this picture represents a different placement of the subject for me, as the focus is farther away than the closest point, which destabilizes the image slightly.  Overall, it’s one of my favorites.

Camera:  Canon 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon 50 mm f/1.2
Settings: ISO 200, f/1.2, 1.250th of a second
Filters: B+W UV filter
Other: Handheld

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The Nepal Eye Bank – Kathmandu

An odd title, I agree.  Yet three gentlemen make up a small history of an institution that is fascinating on so many levels.  The Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology is itself quite a feat, founded by Nepali doctor Sanduk Ruit and supported to an extent by USAID, Australia’s Fred Hollows Foundation, and the Himalayan Cataract Project (US).  The Nepal Eye Bank manager, Sankha Twyana and later the technician Bhola Khitri, were trained both in Nepal and in the Czech Republic, thanks to extra help by the international tissue non-profit, Tissue Banks International (Maryland, USA).  These two gentleman spent years working on both an individual level and a larger social level in Nepal (accompanied by Ruit and corneal surgeons such as Dr. Reeta Gurung) to overcome the barriers of tissue donation in Nepal.

Shankha Twyana is the Nepal Eye Bank’s manager and first technician by Joel Addams

While it has been an uphill battle, many Nepalis now believe that donating one’s corneas (the thin, clear front portion of the eye) can be much more beneficial to them in the next life, an idea that was not always in vogue in Nepal.  With a country that is 80% Hindu and about 20% Buddhist, many in previous generations were not interested in donating their corneas, believing that they would be blind in the next life.  This has changed somewhat as corneal extractions by these eye bank technicians have moved from the hospitals to the sites where families bring their loved ones for cremation:  the Buddhist Temples and the Hindu Temples.  There is the intersection of medicine and religion, when families are met by these three men to discuss — in the middle of the funeral — if they would consider making the donation of their loved one’s corneas.  It can be a tense and intense time, where some families are willing and understanding, others can be rude and quite angry.

Bhola Khitri was the second technician at the Nepal Eye Bank (and still loves his green tea) by Joel Addams

It doesn’t help, either, if you look too young when approaching families about such a major donation.  The young Bala, the newest of the technicians, is in his mid-twenties and as most Nepalis do, he looks a bit younger.  There’s no scorekeeping when it comes to successful approaches to families, but Bala and I were turned down many, many times when approaching families.  The authority of the more elderly and therefore wiser (?) individual may be what is preventing a higher success rate for the technician, but he pushes ahead, knowing that he is doing a good thing.  So many people are waiting for corneal transplants in Nepal and the tissue is never enough to meet the demand currently.

The Nepal Eye Bank technician Bala by Joel Addams

I’ve provided a few images of these three gentlemen.  May they continue well on their way!

If you’d like to support any of these great institutions, I can think of none better who run more efficiently and effectively as they do:

TBI (Tissue Banks International, Baltimore, Maryland)
Himalayan Cataract Project (Burlington, Vermont)

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“Grand Mosque” in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

The Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque is the kingpin mosque of the United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi by Joel Addams

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

While on a layover in Abu Dhabi, my friend Josh was kind enough to drive over from Dubai, pick me up, take me to see this great mosque and crash at his pad before my next flight into Nepal.  We photographed the night side of this fantastically large mosque honoring the father of the nation (if my memory serves me correctly).  Immediately, I noticed the mix of warm and cool colors that were intentionally in place by the designers.  The lights gave a very fascinating hue to the building, with a very pure white light mixed somewhere in the middle.  Exposure can be a little tricky on these night shots, so it is important to check your LCD/histogram and see what’s happening.  Depending on how much light is in the frame (as opposed to dark sky), the camera will want to do a lot of different things.  I usually try to get the midtones right, and let the extremely highlights blow out a little bit, giving a bit more of a dramatic effect.  In post, I usually have to add back some of the color, as it is lost trying to get the correct exposure.  In this case, I fixed the blues back to where they were in the scene.

Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon 17-40 mm @ 17 mm
Settings: ISO400, f/4, 1/25th of a second
Filters:  None
Other: Cable Release

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What’s Selling: June 2012

So the mystery with using a stock agency or distributor is that sometimes they don’t have time to tell you where your images are being used. That’s where you come in. As before, those who want to spend a few moments searching the country they’re in or even the web should be entitled to a reward. Can you find these?

“Walk of the Faithful” Kathmandu, Nepal. This is on the cover of a magazine in Japan currently or in the next month.

“Dinner in Marrakesh, Morocco” by Joel Addams. This is on a cover of a book in France and in the interior of magazine in Russia.

“On the Camino” by Joel Addams. This is on the cover of a magazine in Germany. Help a brother out.

Can you find a copy of any of these things?  We can definitely work something out, since I would love to have a copy (even digital) of any of these images in print.

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New iPhone Photos #2 – New Software

Horses through Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah by Joel Addams/Aurora Photos

Bryce Canyon Hoodoos by Joel Addams/Aurora Photos

Purple flowers (taken with the iPhone and fisheye lens). By Joel Addams/Aurora Photos

BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK, UTAH

So most of the images in the interval between the last iPhone photographs and these have to do with upgrades in software and in lens capability.  First, my dear friend offered me some Photo JoJo lenses as a birthday present.  Awesome!!  Seriously, this was a great idea for enhancing what was truly an enhanced photographic experience with the step up to the iPhone 4/4S.  She gifted me a macro lens, a “long lens” 2X, and a fisheye lens.  They come with a little sticky circle that attaches harmlessly to your phone and then magnetically attaches ones of your lenses.  The quality of the lenses is pretty good, and I have been surprised at the result, for such a tiny little camera.  Many of my images have continued to be accepted into Aurora Photo’s MyPhone collection (here are the first few up), though I realize I’m a little late in getting into that game.

The second addition was some enhanced software.  I have played around with a few now.  I’ve enjoyed the Hipstamatic application, but the compressibility was a little much for me…all the way down to 1.7MB from 14MB.  Iris Photo Suite has been doing a better job and the ability to go in and out of the images and continually post process them has been pretty invaluable.  The app is $1.99 or something, so no, it won’t break the bank.  Instagram is of course one of the premier.  It seems to be a bit easier to use than Hipstamatic, and I’m not sure if I’m sold on the sharing aspect of it yet….Postprocessing is a bit of a must with these iPhone images, as they rarely meet any qualifications of good contrast, saturation, etc. with just the capture.  Give’em a try.  Have fun!

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