“Antelope Island and Clouds”

“Antelope Island and Clouds” Utah. © JoelAddams.com

ANTELOPE ISLAND, UTAH

While shooting with a friend of mine in the west part of the Salt Lake Valley, we noticed what the clouds were doing to the north of us around Antelope Island, one of the state parks that harbor all the bison in a protected sanctuary.  The sun was brilliantly hot, but as the clouds moved overhead, they illuminated parts of the scene, including the island itself.  Multiple images are put together to make this high resolution panorama. I felt like the X-PRO 1 sensor did a fantastic job at both the dynamic range and the detail of this scene.

Camera: Fujifilm X-PRO 1
Lens: Fujifilm 35 mm f/1.4
Settings: ISO400, f/5.6, 1/2000 of a second
Filters:  None

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“Pediatric ICU, Port-au-Prince, Haiti”

"Pediatric ICU, Port-au-Prince, Haiti" by Joel Addams

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI

One of good friends appreciated this photograph as his favorite from the few weeks I spent in Haiti after the earthquake of 2010.  He didn’t fancy himself as an expert of images or photography, but he found this picture to be the most interesting because he saw a connection with his child, one that he had had for several years.  The photograph was taken on the morning the day before I left as I wandered the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince.  As I entered the Pediatric Intensive Care tent, this child was in mild distress.  I talked to her parents and asked permission to take a photograph, which they agreed to.  Something about the obvious emotion mixed with a different composition made this work best as a black-and-white photograph.

Camera: Canon 5DMarkII
Lens: Canon 70-200 mm f/2.8 at 200 mm
Settings: ISO100, f/2.8, 1/80th of a second
Filters:  B + W UV Filter
Other: Handheld

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“Half Dome in Clouds” Yosemite National Park, California

"Half Dome in Clouds" Yosemite National Park © Joel Addams

There’s nothing quite like a black and white photograph, especially when it’s of an area that we are used to seeing in black and white, thanks to film photographer masters such as Ansel Adams.  The granite walls of Yosemite Valley get a lot of attention by local and international tourists as well as the photographers.   There are a few great things about winter in Yosemite: fewer crowds, a tasty helping of snow, and the atmospherics.  For black and white photography, I prefer some “extra” elements such as clouds or fog that give the image extra points of interest.

This photograph was one of my buried treasure images that I often bury in my archives, thinking I will come across it at the time of first editing.  Then I forget all about them until the time I dredge up the old (and what I thought was broken) traveling hard drive.  Ah yes, the old Jobo 80 GB hard drive that has made it to Peru twice, Nepal, and Egypt.  I thought you had died, you little piece of faux metal.  She revived the other day, quite miraculously, to say her goodbyes, and during those few minutes, I managed to retrieve the first Yosemite photographs that I had ever taken…complete with a few of Half Dome from the Ansel Adams bridge.  After having adjusted the exposure a bit and tweaking the curves and burning the edges (I like the way Michael Kenna does this in the darkroom), “Half Dome in Clouds” is now out.

I’ll just say it.  I’ll take a black and white image with good contrast any day.

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New Portfolio: “International Portraits” in Black and White

"Man at Screening Camp" Kathmandu, Nepal. © Joel Addams

Even though there are many, many countries left to visit, I began putting together a portfolio of black and white portraits that I have taken since 2006 from Peru, Nepal, Egypt, Morocco, and a few other countries.

When I first showed in an exhibit or two in 2006, one fellow participant looked at a framed 16 x 24″ print of a Hindu man reading in the Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal, and said, “Who’s gonna buy that?”  I thought the person missed the point entirely and quite obviously.  While this subject should be dedicated to a blog of its own, not all photographs are made for commercial purposes.  I firmly believe that the photographs that you need to take and like to take will find ways of doing things that you have not imagined.  Perhaps for some, they are the grounding in their lives that remind them that not all that glitters is gold and that their integrity as a photographer can be preserved in the images that they know resonates with them.

I feel that this is what black and white photography is for me and this is what international portraits do for me.  I hope you enjoy a new portfolio of black images of people from around the world.

"A Kiterunner" Kathmandu, Nepal. © Joel Addams

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Buried Treasure: Editing Discipline in Workflow

"Patiently Waiting" Copper pots wait for use in a Sherpa home in the Everest Region. ©Joel Addams

Many of you know the feeling. You’ve taken too many pictures on your trip, you’ve remembered a few spectacular ones, and you’ve quickly downloaded them, worked on them, saved them, and posted them. Aaaaaaaaaahhhhh…mission accomplished.

Only one problem remains, and we shove it to the back of our minds like a nagging social injustice we can do nothing about. The “other” files.

What do we do with the ones that we just didn’t have time to review carefully? Or maybe there were some hidden gems that could have been easily cropped into a masterpiece? We hesitate to hit the delete button but simultaneously refuse to spend the time to really make a decision on the remainders, the “B” sides.

I found myself scanning the hard drive in my brain of all my images the other night. I needed a second black and white fine art image for a submission, and my hippocampal neurons fired as soon as they reviewed the “2006 Nepal” folder. There was something in there. I connected my 80-gig card reader combo and started visually searching.

"Sunaj" The Buddha lines buildings and fountains in Swayambunath, Kathmandu, Nepal. ©Joel Addams

Yes.

And yes!

Multiple files remained from three years ago that I had simply forgotten about, becoming busy with other projects and photographic travels. How could I have done this? It was a black and white festival. I proceeded to make adjustments on at least eight photographs which have now been added to my fine art collection.

"The Flower Girl" Two friends sell flowers in Kathmandu, Nepal. ©Joel Addams

So, the question really is, “How do I organize my workflow after a trip?” Let me offer a few simple suggestions:

1) Discipline yourself to erase. This will save you the most time on the backend. Sit down and scrutinize your images in camera. Enlarge them, and if they are not sharp (and others are), delete. Under or over-exposed (and others are not), delete. Lame expressions on faces (and you have one good one), delete. Believe me, two files of one good thing are not twice as good. They are twice as time-consuming and take up twice as much space.

2) Erase your cards completely. Try to backup your images on two sources when you are back in the hotel room or at home. Then erase the entire card. Saving a few images of the best ones is not necessary if you can back up the image properly on other sources. Otherwise, you will end up saving the image 8 times in three locations and causing havoc and frustration in your workflow.

3) Second edit at home. Immediately edit your images again, discarding ones that you simply won’t use. Do this immediately because as time passes, you will have less and less motivation. Get a cup of coffee, your diet Coke, whatever makes you happy in sitting down and forcing yourself to edit.

4) Third edit at home. After a month or even six months, review your files again! You’ll realize that you still have unused images from the trip that you simply won’t use again. Be strong. Delete. Your hard drives will love you.

5) Save the gems. Surprise! You have found a gem. Publish it. Print it. Love it like a $20 bill that you hid in your coat pocket for a rainy day.

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