Wallace Koopmans Artlog

Here are three recent additions to my growing  impromptu photo series of boarded up windows and decaying structures.  Why impromptu?  I haven’t been seeking these images purposefully but do seem to be attracted to the look and mood they create.

I distinctly like this last image which to me is like a minimalist painting, with the small patch of what is presumably whitewash,  protected from erosion by some unknown sign that is no longer there.  What did it say and for how long?

These were all shot with a Yashica T AF which has a Carl Zeiss Tessar 3.5/35 T* lens. I am very impressed with the sharpness and clarity of this lens but will need to do some more testing as the camera appears to not focus properly at infinity.  However, considering I bought it and shot with it without even taking the price sticker off I will give it the benefit of doubt and shoot another roll.

What is this?  If you said a canvas or a blank canvas you are partially correct.  If you said a blank canvas with a wide aspect ratio then we’re on the same page, so to speak.  I bought several canvas’ with 2:1 aspect rations and need to get myself thinking outside the 4:3’ish box.  So what better way than to do a little photography exercise.   Fortunately I seem to have a camera for any occasion and so from my shelf I pulled what can only be described as a photographic anachronism, the Minolta Vectis S-1.  What is it? It is an APS (advanced photo system) SLR camera with interchangeable lenses.  If you recall APS  is the small negative format film that digital has made effectively obsolete.  What is unique about this camera and film though is that it provides for panoramic pictures.  While not a true panoramic in the sense that the panoramic image is just the central area of  the larger image it does mask the viewfinder giving you a 3:1 view.  Now for the narrower thinking, you can’t walk around looking through a camera viewfinder, unless you want to fall and hurt yourself,  so it becomes necessary to  try and envision how the world around you looks in this “narrow” view.  Here is where the expanded vision begins, as you look around you will see new compositions and inter relations between objects that don’t work in the normal smaller box we are accustomed to.  Lines that enter the frame in unfamiliar ways, new points of interest, it is an opportunity to explore and see things in a different way.

If you want to see the images in their original aspect ratio, you will need to click on them individually. An interesting side effect of the square thumbnails is that it’s apparent that several of these images work well as squares, possibly even better.  But I will let you be the judge of that.

I’m having a bit of an internal debate about what to say about these pictures….  Ok I lost, the pictures have to speak for themselves.  Two things however, both these pictures are of the same location and I didn’t have to wait long for a plane to come into frame.

Well I found an image of a waterfall that would work for the idea I have (one third of the image under water) however I don’t remember exactly where I took the picture 🙂  I have a vague idea that it is in the Chehalis river area and that I used my Rollieflex.  So I believe a hike will be in order soon.

We often have an idea when photographing of what an image should look like.  And If we understand our equipment and photography technique we can create an image that approaches our expectations.  I often leave to go take pictures with an idea of what I want an image of,  say a barn or of people interacting.  A further step is to actually visualize the image that you intend to create.  This would be a relatively normal exercise in a studio with a model, or when painting, but can you mold the physical view of nature to your imagined viewpoint.  For obvious reasons I can not show you what the actual image I see in my mind is but that is what a sketch is for even if it is crudely done.  So this is what I hope to create and when I have I will post it here, perhaps even if I fail.  So what is unique about this image you may ask?  At the bottom you can see that part of the image will be under water, and there will be a transition between the water and air.