Sometimes you just have to step outside the box

Every once in a while you need to shake things up a bit; step outside the box so to speak. Anyone who knows me knows that I shoot landscape and very rarely anything else; and all my landscape is done using medium format digital. Yes, I will occasionally shoot wildlife but that's shot using an older digital 35mm. And even rarer still is the occasional person; so rare is the person or family shot that I call then human or family landscapes.

What am I leading up to? How about restoring (or attempting to) a 95 year old image that has seen better days. I was asked a couple days ago if I could "do anything" with a wedding photography of a friends grandparents that was taken around 1910. The image was torn, faded, missing pieces, dirt, dusty, and scratched. I said sure I'll give it a try....

Warning: Technical Information:

The image was too large for my Epson scanner to I decided to set it up in the studio and copy it using my Phase 645 medium format camera and digital P30+ back and a 75-150 lens. What you see was taken at 1/7 at f/4.5 at a focal length of 90mm. The image was processed using Adobe Photoshop CS3; the finished image was printed on Hahnemuhle Fineart Baryta paper on an Epson 9800.

Bottom line? I liked the finished result and Jim the grandson loved it.

Don

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"Billy"

We haven't been posting as much as we had in the past simply because we've been a little busy (still) working the Alaska images as well as getting ready for a trip to the North Rim of Grand Canyon next month where we hope to catch great fall colors.

Billy is a buffalo that we found while in we in Yellowstone National Park in March 2006. We just revisited the images of that day and decided to do a little reworking on Billy (don't ask where the name comes from as neither of us could tell you). Billy has been added to our wildlife gallery where it's for sale. The image size is 11x14 and will be shipped matted.

Just a note regarding next month's trip to the North Rim. Don's camera dealer, Capture Integration of Atlanta GA has offered a totally different camera system for testing; while this kit is still a medium format the lens quality and Phase One digital back is promised to have much better resolution that what he'd currently using which is stunning so stay tuned for developments.

Hope you enjoy Billy and don't forget to visit our website and galleries.


Sandy & Don

Happy 18th Wedding Anniversary!

Sandy & I went to good friends of ours to celebrate Claire and Steve’s 18th wedding anniversary last night. Anyone familiar with the Southwestern United States will know we are in the mist of our monsoon season; bringing with it much needed rain and lightning.

We’d like to send a very special thank you to Paula & Deb for opening their home last night both for the celebration and allowing me to do my lightning photography.

Sandy & Don