Untitled (#2895)
(c)2009 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.
(click image for larger version)
Details: April 26, 2009; Canon 20D; f/8 @ 1/20 sec; -2/3 EV; ISO 400; 44mm.
__________
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Seeing 2009 (#17)
It's just a rose, as a friend pointed out, yet it was one of several which conveyed some much needed gentle and healing beauty during my brief Sunday afternoon search for mindful distractions. Los Gatos, CA.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Seeing 2009 (#16)
During a silent, cold walk through a neighborhood bereft of visible warm neighbors.
A lonely scene: lots of room to play, with no signs of interest.
A lonely scene: lots of room to play, with no signs of interest.
Winter (Isolation), East Henrietta, NY #1893
(c)2009 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.
(click image for larger version)
Details: November 29, 2008; Canon 20D, f/9 @ 1/40 sec, +1/3 EV, ISO 400, 47mm.
__________
Monday, April 27, 2009
Seeing 2009 (#15)
A (thankfully rare) extremely difficult day. The details have no place here. Spent most of it attempting to be sedate in advance of tomorrow's foray back into the World Of Work - conservation of energy was the goal. Even so, copious amounts of emotional capital were consumed.
Among my most powerful of antidotes is being alone outdoors with my camera. So, in advance of my weekly Sunday evening men's gathering, I took thirty minutes to focus on the beauty and peace of roses, again practicing with my tripod as the subjects were in the deep shade of buildings and, at 7.30pm, the light was evaporating.
Ahhhhhh. After some time behind the lens my soul felt a bit refreshed.
A meeting with my fellows, followed by a quick snack (somehow dinner was skipped), and I found myself suddenly knackered. Yet, on my screen when I got home was the raw, untreated version of the image I offer here (not a rose, you'll quickly note). I felt compelled . . . The reward for diverting my mind from tribulation to art was this: I managed to get a handle on one of the niftier tools in Lr, the adjustment brush. It saved the day here: in the original image the sky was completely washed out; fixing this with the brush took seconds, once I figured it out. I effectively decreased the exposure of the sky by 1 f/stop. To provide a correspondingly correct effect -- a better reflection of reality -- a similar fix was required in the glassed space . . . by experimentation I found the a nudge of -0.5 f/stop was better there. Finally, a twist on the same Lr brush allowed me to apply the equivalent of Photoshop CS3's Unsharp Mask to the scene.
Voilà!
Among my most powerful of antidotes is being alone outdoors with my camera. So, in advance of my weekly Sunday evening men's gathering, I took thirty minutes to focus on the beauty and peace of roses, again practicing with my tripod as the subjects were in the deep shade of buildings and, at 7.30pm, the light was evaporating.
Ahhhhhh. After some time behind the lens my soul felt a bit refreshed.
A meeting with my fellows, followed by a quick snack (somehow dinner was skipped), and I found myself suddenly knackered. Yet, on my screen when I got home was the raw, untreated version of the image I offer here (not a rose, you'll quickly note). I felt compelled . . . The reward for diverting my mind from tribulation to art was this: I managed to get a handle on one of the niftier tools in Lr, the adjustment brush. It saved the day here: in the original image the sky was completely washed out; fixing this with the brush took seconds, once I figured it out. I effectively decreased the exposure of the sky by 1 f/stop. To provide a correspondingly correct effect -- a better reflection of reality -- a similar fix was required in the glassed space . . . by experimentation I found the a nudge of -0.5 f/stop was better there. Finally, a twist on the same Lr brush allowed me to apply the equivalent of Photoshop CS3's Unsharp Mask to the scene.
Voilà!
Shriner Leanings, NYC, #1799
(c)2009 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.
(click image for larger version)
Details: November 24, 2008; Canon 20D, f/9, 1/250 sec, ISO 200, 85mm.
__________
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Seeing 2009 (#14)
Encumbered by a nasty cold the last few days. Most of this time I've spent sleeping, watching NBA playoffs, and wading my way through Photoshop Lightroom 2 Adventure, by Mikkel Aaland (O'Reilly, 2009). The theory has been to shorten the learning curve (and lessen frustration) by arming myself with as much education as possible, followed with applying what I've learned by actually using the software. The reality has been different: the reading - slow going, with both retention and patience gradually diminishing as the chapters were studied - and so about an hour ago I'd reach the tipping point where I felt I'd learn more by sitting down with an image on screen, book in front of me, and trying out some of what I've struggled to retain in my brain.
Below is the 2nd Lightroom (hereafter, "Lr") offering.
The scene was in St. Patrick's cathedral in New York City, last winter. My wife, stepdaughter and I were visiting Manhattan; we took in this beautiful edifice as a part of our extensive walking tour and arrived at the tail end of a wedding in progress. The lighting was quite dim, and I had no good views of the bride & groom even as they passed near us on their way to exiting the church and eternal marital bliss . . . However, I was inspired by the exquisite beauty of the interior of the doors, accentuated by the cold wintry exterior beyond.
(Update: I wrote the text above [and the summary below] last night, and deferred posting this at that time because there remained some adjustments I wanted to try: I wanted to make warmer the lighting of the lower outside window. Unfortunately, due to the complex tangle of branches I could find no non-trivial method. I attempted some painstaking work with the CS3 selection/deselection wands, and excessive effort arrived at with only a barely acceptable mask . . . then after jiggering with the Curves tool - not a skill of mine, yet - I got a result half-way there . . . so long as one didn't look too very closely at the unmasked inconsistencies. Thus, in the end, I've decided to leave it as it was at the end of my Lr processing last night, which involved only some rather minor tweaking. A lesson in the angst of being a perfectionist was learned yet again.)
There is more than meets the eye to this offering. The scene at hand presents several levels of both conformity and contrast: a high degree of symmetry and repetitious geometry, juxtaposed with a mosaic of humanity; symbols of eternal stability inhabited by a myriad of visitors; a suggested promise of warmth and protection against the inhospitable world beyond.
Below is the 2nd Lightroom (hereafter, "Lr") offering.
The scene was in St. Patrick's cathedral in New York City, last winter. My wife, stepdaughter and I were visiting Manhattan; we took in this beautiful edifice as a part of our extensive walking tour and arrived at the tail end of a wedding in progress. The lighting was quite dim, and I had no good views of the bride & groom even as they passed near us on their way to exiting the church and eternal marital bliss . . . However, I was inspired by the exquisite beauty of the interior of the doors, accentuated by the cold wintry exterior beyond.
(Update: I wrote the text above [and the summary below] last night, and deferred posting this at that time because there remained some adjustments I wanted to try: I wanted to make warmer the lighting of the lower outside window. Unfortunately, due to the complex tangle of branches I could find no non-trivial method. I attempted some painstaking work with the CS3 selection/deselection wands, and excessive effort arrived at with only a barely acceptable mask . . . then after jiggering with the Curves tool - not a skill of mine, yet - I got a result half-way there . . . so long as one didn't look too very closely at the unmasked inconsistencies. Thus, in the end, I've decided to leave it as it was at the end of my Lr processing last night, which involved only some rather minor tweaking. A lesson in the angst of being a perfectionist was learned yet again.)
There is more than meets the eye to this offering. The scene at hand presents several levels of both conformity and contrast: a high degree of symmetry and repetitious geometry, juxtaposed with a mosaic of humanity; symbols of eternal stability inhabited by a myriad of visitors; a suggested promise of warmth and protection against the inhospitable world beyond.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Seeing 2009 (#13)
Fascinating day: my employeer not only indulged me, but encouraged me to take a one-day class, on paid work time, in Photoshop CS4 & Lightroom 2. Amazing what can be done . . . and oh, so much learning ahead of me.
I've been toying with it, and - especially since I've been sick the past two days - it is far too late to be getting to bed . . . but here's the first Lightroom-processed attempt for your consideration:
Ceiling (NY Sunrise) #1857
(c)2009 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.
(click image for larger version)
Details: November 26, 2008; Canon 20D, f/13, 1/400 sec, -2/3 EV, ISO 400, 59mm.
__________
Friday, April 17, 2009
Seeing 2009 (#12)
High intensity day at work -- a considerable bit of new technical knowledge needed to be promptly applied to a situation visible (directly) at the rarefied summit of the management chain. From time to time a low-grade sense of chaos crept in; in recent days I've had the grace and luxury to seclude myself in small study rooms in the office's upper floors where I undertake silent meditations of 30 minutes or so . . . no chance of that today.
In fact, I left work in time to make a weekly 6:00pm Thursday commitment, went home for a quiet dinner (and some wrestling with security issues on my home PC -- who do you call when you are IT Guy?), and then returned to work in order to move this project as far along as possible before the doors open Friday morning. I don't mind this so much: I'm naturally nocturnal, and I thoroughly enjoyed the solitude which allowed me to crank up my workstation speakers' performance of some excellent Blues offered on Pandora.com last night and into this morning's wee hours. In fact I was able to pull of attending to both the major work project whilst also monitoring the status of my home machine simultaneously, via the marvels of VPN connections.
Nonetheless I'm exhausted and in some need of simple calmness and quiet time above and beyond that which will doubtless be a feature of the comatose-like sleep which is moments away.
In this spirit today I offer the image below, one of my favorite efforts in the past year; it nicely captures those elements and concepts which increasingly matter to me: grace, simplicity, and especially the tenuous, beautiful and fleeting nature of existence. This photograph demonstrates a paradox: the illusion of solidity existing simultaneously with an evanescent sense of reality, carried away by mere wisps, of a breath just past and its coexistent consequences . . .
Bonsoir, mes amis.
In fact, I left work in time to make a weekly 6:00pm Thursday commitment, went home for a quiet dinner (and some wrestling with security issues on my home PC -- who do you call when you are IT Guy?), and then returned to work in order to move this project as far along as possible before the doors open Friday morning. I don't mind this so much: I'm naturally nocturnal, and I thoroughly enjoyed the solitude which allowed me to crank up my workstation speakers' performance of some excellent Blues offered on Pandora.com last night and into this morning's wee hours. In fact I was able to pull of attending to both the major work project whilst also monitoring the status of my home machine simultaneously, via the marvels of VPN connections.
Nonetheless I'm exhausted and in some need of simple calmness and quiet time above and beyond that which will doubtless be a feature of the comatose-like sleep which is moments away.
In this spirit today I offer the image below, one of my favorite efforts in the past year; it nicely captures those elements and concepts which increasingly matter to me: grace, simplicity, and especially the tenuous, beautiful and fleeting nature of existence. This photograph demonstrates a paradox: the illusion of solidity existing simultaneously with an evanescent sense of reality, carried away by mere wisps, of a breath just past and its coexistent consequences . . .
Bonsoir, mes amis.
Candle #2151
(c)2009 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.
(click image for larger version)
Details: December 30, 2008; Canon 20D, f/11, 1/320 sec, ISO 400, 85mm.
__________
Monday, April 13, 2009
Seeing 2009 (#11)
An incredibly busy week has passed, which featured a rare and thus all-the-more discomforting depression midway through. Willingness to persist in trudging the path helped, along with frequent, perfectly timed (of course) nuggets of support from friends and loved ones.
Emerged from the fog in time to thoroughly enjoy a deliriously healing and entertaining evening of celebration, attended by more than eighty members of my family, both consanguineous as well as spiritual brother and sisters. Thus, thanks to the extended and persistent and loving efforts of my beautiful and wonderful wife Saturday afternoon and evening became of the three greatest experiences of my life (along with my wedding day and the installation of my Considered Images exhibit).
Emerged from the fog in time to thoroughly enjoy a deliriously healing and entertaining evening of celebration, attended by more than eighty members of my family, both consanguineous as well as spiritual brother and sisters. Thus, thanks to the extended and persistent and loving efforts of my beautiful and wonderful wife Saturday afternoon and evening became of the three greatest experiences of my life (along with my wedding day and the installation of my Considered Images exhibit).
* * *
Below is a scene from a rather hot, humid and generally oppressive summer(!) visit to Houston. The sky was at most times a nearly homogeneous cloak of muggy smog. It was challenging both to weather the atmosphere and to mine photographic visions, of which this is one. The only alteration to this image was to brighten the sky, so as to yield a bit more abstractness. This pretty much encapsulates my views and feelings about Texas' largest city.
(Houston) Intruder, #8080
(c)2009 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.
(click image for larger version)
Details: July 27, 2007; Canon 20D, f/16, 1/400 sec, ISO 400, 35mm.
__________
(Houston) Intruder, #8080
(c)2009 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.
(click image for larger version)
Details: July 27, 2007; Canon 20D, f/16, 1/400 sec, ISO 400, 35mm.
__________
Friday, April 3, 2009
Seeing 2009 (#10)
Having rediscovered the joy and positive energy of late evening loud music delivered by means of headphones, there's considerably more adrenaline than normal in the veins tonight (made possible by my wife and step-daughter's joint beautifully loving gift of an iPod Nano few months back).
Thus a few offerings . . . two images taken under unsettled dark skies separated by virtually exactly three years, another beneath a heavenly bit of widely scattered lightfall.
The first, an extraction from the particularly enjoyable night work I undertook with my buddy Jerry a few weekends ago. (Another effort from this shoot appears in #7 of this Seeing 2009 series). This bit of the universe is an upward-looking view of a significant local landmark, recorded between rain showers just before one o'clock in the morning.
Neon Spectrograph (Jaws' Arch), #2594
(c)2009 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.
(click image for larger version)
Details: March 21, 2009; Canon 20D, f/11, 1.3 sec, -2/3 EV, ISO 200, 85mm.
__________
For your further consideration: a revisitation - another stormy evening, another site. The effort here was premeditated for at least a year, a desire to conquer the disappointment of an earlier nocturnal visit (nearly three years to the night, on 28-Mar-2006) . . . that first evening I lacked a tripod and so captured what became a tentative, blurry sketch of sorts for what you see below.
This version is a rare composite of several exposures blended, done in order to capture an extreme range of contrasts between the comparatively faint, ethereal clouds and the shimmering metal. A considerable amount of time went into developing this particular vision, entailing more than a few discarded prototypes . . .
I am particularly pleased with the outcome, in no small part due to this image's resistance to being rendered in a fashion substantially reflecting the power, the atmosphere and the challenges it presented me in this excursion and extraction. Here my art truly demanded digging deeply to create a canvas worthy of public exposure.
Enmeshment
(c)2009 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.
(click image for larger version)
Details: November 8, 200; Canon 20D, f/9, 15 & 30 sec, ISO 400, 41mm.
__________
Last, but not least: a moment in time at my beloved holy ground, that of the St. Francis Retreat Center in the hills above San Juan Bautista. Presented here in natural lighting, without significant color manipulation save for slight adjustments to overall image brightness and contrast.
The Suspension of Timelessness #8007
(c)2009 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.
(click image for larger version)
Details: June 2, 2007; Canon 20D, f/7.1, 1/100 sec, -1/3 EV, ISO 800, 38mm.
__________
Thus a few offerings . . . two images taken under unsettled dark skies separated by virtually exactly three years, another beneath a heavenly bit of widely scattered lightfall.
The first, an extraction from the particularly enjoyable night work I undertook with my buddy Jerry a few weekends ago. (Another effort from this shoot appears in #7 of this Seeing 2009 series). This bit of the universe is an upward-looking view of a significant local landmark, recorded between rain showers just before one o'clock in the morning.
Neon Spectrograph (Jaws' Arch), #2594
(c)2009 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.
(click image for larger version)
Details: March 21, 2009; Canon 20D, f/11, 1.3 sec, -2/3 EV, ISO 200, 85mm.
__________
For your further consideration: a revisitation - another stormy evening, another site. The effort here was premeditated for at least a year, a desire to conquer the disappointment of an earlier nocturnal visit (nearly three years to the night, on 28-Mar-2006) . . . that first evening I lacked a tripod and so captured what became a tentative, blurry sketch of sorts for what you see below.
This version is a rare composite of several exposures blended, done in order to capture an extreme range of contrasts between the comparatively faint, ethereal clouds and the shimmering metal. A considerable amount of time went into developing this particular vision, entailing more than a few discarded prototypes . . .
I am particularly pleased with the outcome, in no small part due to this image's resistance to being rendered in a fashion substantially reflecting the power, the atmosphere and the challenges it presented me in this excursion and extraction. Here my art truly demanded digging deeply to create a canvas worthy of public exposure.
Enmeshment
(c)2009 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.
(click image for larger version)
Details: November 8, 200; Canon 20D, f/9, 15 & 30 sec, ISO 400, 41mm.
__________
Last, but not least: a moment in time at my beloved holy ground, that of the St. Francis Retreat Center in the hills above San Juan Bautista. Presented here in natural lighting, without significant color manipulation save for slight adjustments to overall image brightness and contrast.
The Suspension of Timelessness #8007
(c)2009 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.
(click image for larger version)
Details: June 2, 2007; Canon 20D, f/7.1, 1/100 sec, -1/3 EV, ISO 800, 38mm.
__________
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Seeing 2009 (#9)
(Note: the following entry was intended to be posted late in the evening on 1-April-09, but the attempt was thwarted due to an increasingly balky cable modem . . .)
Survived visits to the dentist (9.00am) and the Taxman (7.00pm). In between treated myself to a 30-minute visit to my favorite meditation spot: next to an artificial (but nonetheless soothing) babbling brook in the midst of a quiet, small gem of a public park near my home.
This image, taken in another place and time (last weekend, Spirit Rock Meditation Center), epitomizes my desire for each day.
Contemplation #2685
(c)2009 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.
(click image for larger version)
Details: March 29, 2009, Canon 20D, f/11, 1/10 sec, -1/3 EV, ISO 200, 33mm.
Survived visits to the dentist (9.00am) and the Taxman (7.00pm). In between treated myself to a 30-minute visit to my favorite meditation spot: next to an artificial (but nonetheless soothing) babbling brook in the midst of a quiet, small gem of a public park near my home.
This image, taken in another place and time (last weekend, Spirit Rock Meditation Center), epitomizes my desire for each day.
Contemplation #2685
(c)2009 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.
(click image for larger version)
Details: March 29, 2009, Canon 20D, f/11, 1/10 sec, -1/3 EV, ISO 200, 33mm.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Seeing 2009 (#8)
April 1st, 2009, and it's been 20 years today . . . and I know less than ever.
The image below was taken during a weekend sponsor/sponsee getaway two years ago (on my 48th birthday), the purpose of which was to go through some intensive step work. Should do these more often.
Spiritual Toolkit Tableau #7467
(c)2009 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.
(click image for larger version)
Details: February 24, 2007; Canon 20D, f/8, 1/125 sec, 0 EV, ISO 400, 24mm.
The image below was taken during a weekend sponsor/sponsee getaway two years ago (on my 48th birthday), the purpose of which was to go through some intensive step work. Should do these more often.
Spiritual Toolkit Tableau #7467
(c)2009 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.
(click image for larger version)
Details: February 24, 2007; Canon 20D, f/8, 1/125 sec, 0 EV, ISO 400, 24mm.
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