Wallace Koopmans Artlog

Not much remains from the old mine site of Allenby BC, all the buildings are gone and the concrete is crumbling away, but these barrels still lay where they were dumped.  I don’t know what they once held but by the sheer number it must have been something for the processing of the ore.

Most of the images I took at Highland Valley Copper were source images for paintings but I did take some shots that I think are fine as photographs.  The scale is very difficult to convey especially with web sized images but I’ve tried my best by selecting both wide and medium telephoto focal lengths.

This is my second generation of smart phone and I am enjoying using it every bit as much as any of my other cameras.  The ultimate image quality isn’t at the same level as a dedicated digital camera but it satisfies my need to create images.  The HTC Evo 3D has one single feature that makes it very photo friendly and that is a dedicated shutter button.  It means that when you get a composition you like you can just press the button rather than taking one hand to touch the screen and in the process cause shake and disturb the framing.

Mostly I post my images in bunches because quite frankly I take a lot of pictures.  Every once and a while though there is one image that stands out to me.  This picture of the three chairs falls into that category.  I like the composition but also the sense of place it has for me, it reminds me of many hotel laundry rooms with the sound of buttons hitting enamel.  I moved the chairs to match the perspective lines of the flooring but otherwise this is where you sit to wait for your clothes to dry.

I wanted to share this process I use to create Faux-laroid images using the in camera filters of the Pentax K-7.  Most of the information is contained in the images but I will add words as required.

While in playback mode the filters can be accessed by pressing the down arrow key of the four way controller.  This reveals this screen

Select the Digital Filter and press the OK button of the four way controller.  The next screen allows you to select a filter effect.  Here I have applied the custom filter with these settings.  Soft Focus 1, Tone Break Yellow, Shading -2

Once you set the filter parameters and select OK you will be presented with the option to save the file or continue applying filters, select the option to continue.

The next filter that I apply is the colour filter set to yellow with the strength set to 2 out of 3

This is followed by adding a frame

After this filter is selected it’s time to save the results.

And the comparison with a real Polaroid Spectra image

While the result isn’t exact and there is room for more experimentation the result is nearly as good as what can be done on a computer and is quite fast.  In fact now that you have one done like this you can use it as a preset for processing other files the same way.  By selecting Digital Filter when reviewing this already processed image you are presented with the option of recreating the effect.

After selecting this option you then scroll through and select the file you would like to process.

This takes the file from this….

To this

As you can see combining the filter effects provides quite a bit of flexibility and if you leave those processed images on your memory card you can use them as presets for applying to other images,  information about that can be found in a previous post. K-7 Filter Presets

While driving past this location in the afternoon I noticed a lot of people fishing so I decided to return later to see if I could get some sunset images with figures.  While showing so many similar images together makes them seem somewhat repetitive, as they were all shot in a similar manor, it does give an indication of the variety too.  Within a small area you can usually create many different images by looking for different angles and by moving around.  I tried to convey the relationships between the people in these images, either fisherman respectfully giving each other space, or the implied familial connection between the figures.  If you are taking pictures that work as silhouettes you need to be cognisant of the relationship of the shapes.  What I mean by this is that if there are overlaps you need move to eliminate them or at least ensure that they don’t create an unintelligible mess.  If not you may look at your images later only to find that they don’t work as well as you might have hoped.  This can occur because your brain is able to ignore these inconsistencies and fill in the missing information at the time but that tends not to translate into clear two dimensional images.  Amongst these images I think the ones that work the best have clear space between the figures.

I was graciously given this lens, a Vivitar 35mm in m42 mount.  It might be one of those things where someone can’t quite bring themselves to throw it out so they go “Hey I know give it to Wallace, he’ll use anything”  Thank you for understanding me.  It would appear that if this lens has any coatings they are minimal and non effective and that’s the “feature” I decided to exploit.  I’ve actually been looking for a lens that will flare this badly for a while without much luck.  Modern lens makers go to great lengths depositing rare elements using complex processes to improve the performance of lens elements by reducing internal reflections.  The result is that with a modern multi coated lens very little flare occurs even with a very bright light source in the field of view, this lens is the opposite of that.  So why would I want a lens that does something people work so hard to eliminate?  It’s just a fun way of evoking a nostalgic look. 

This image may be the glint that stared it for me some 23 years ago.   (Kodachrome 64 shot with a Minolta X-370, lens unknown, well I just don’t remember.)