222. Fade -September 17-23, 2017
Paul-
As this was my week to select the theme, I felt like I better make a pretty damn good picture. (Don’t you when you’re up to bat? Fess up, fellas.) Personally, I think I succeeded. But then you’re always safe and cozy kicking back in the shade of your own subjectivity.
This is also not the picture I had intended to take. That one was already in the camera from 15 minutes earlier. This tableau caught my eye as I was scoping out a nearby alley. It’s the “backyard” of a small warehouse hideaway someone lives in downtown.
I’ll try not to get too get all highbrow here, but as I was gazing at the skull that was (obviously) not staring back, I started thinking about aspect of “fade” I hadn’t given much thought to. To be brief (as I always am), the fading away of an ethos--the receding relics and artifacts and cultural memories of past centuries.
The bleached and desiccated wood is considerably faded. Drained grain. There are some pigmented hints near the top of the boards as to what the color and stain might have once looked like, but that’s it. The brickwork triggered faded memories of seeing people lay bricks when I was younger. Sure, this is still done, but when’s the last time you saw laborers going at it with mortar and trowel amid the sterile gleam of glass and metal buildings.
And the skull is both faded artifact and story in itself. Time, sun and calcium has left this ossified skull looking like countless others pegged up on enumerable other planks…but generally in another time. A somewhat faded time we’re more accustomed to experiencing in museums, books, and out-of-the-way stopping points on secondary roads.
Fortunately, fade away can take a very long time before fade to black
Fade to…: (6.27PM) Nikon D5200; aperture priority; 55-200mm lens focused at 130mm; ISO 800; 1/500 sec. at f/9.5; matrix metered; WB Sun; the camera was hand-held. When through tweaking the image in Lightroom, I exported it to PhotoScape and decolored it by about 35%: I wanted the picture to look a little less vibrant (slightly faded and time-worn) while not having to resort to B&W.
As this was my week to select the theme, I felt like I better make a pretty damn good picture. (Don’t you when you’re up to bat? Fess up, fellas.) Personally, I think I succeeded. But then you’re always safe and cozy kicking back in the shade of your own subjectivity.
This is also not the picture I had intended to take. That one was already in the camera from 15 minutes earlier. This tableau caught my eye as I was scoping out a nearby alley. It’s the “backyard” of a small warehouse hideaway someone lives in downtown.
I’ll try not to get too get all highbrow here, but as I was gazing at the skull that was (obviously) not staring back, I started thinking about aspect of “fade” I hadn’t given much thought to. To be brief (as I always am), the fading away of an ethos--the receding relics and artifacts and cultural memories of past centuries.
The bleached and desiccated wood is considerably faded. Drained grain. There are some pigmented hints near the top of the boards as to what the color and stain might have once looked like, but that’s it. The brickwork triggered faded memories of seeing people lay bricks when I was younger. Sure, this is still done, but when’s the last time you saw laborers going at it with mortar and trowel amid the sterile gleam of glass and metal buildings.
And the skull is both faded artifact and story in itself. Time, sun and calcium has left this ossified skull looking like countless others pegged up on enumerable other planks…but generally in another time. A somewhat faded time we’re more accustomed to experiencing in museums, books, and out-of-the-way stopping points on secondary roads.
Fortunately, fade away can take a very long time before fade to black
Fade to…: (6.27PM) Nikon D5200; aperture priority; 55-200mm lens focused at 130mm; ISO 800; 1/500 sec. at f/9.5; matrix metered; WB Sun; the camera was hand-held. When through tweaking the image in Lightroom, I exported it to PhotoScape and decolored it by about 35%: I wanted the picture to look a little less vibrant (slightly faded and time-worn) while not having to resort to B&W.
Jerry-
“Old soldiers never die, they only fade away.” This is a line from a song popular among soldiers in Britain in World War I. It became famous when General Douglas MacArthur quoted it after being relieved of his command in the Korean War.
So, okay. While my wife was cleaning out our son's bedroom (he is away in the Navy and we are repurposing his old room) she found a bucket full of green army men - which also had in the bottom some old lead soldiers I had made back in the 1960's. I used to collect old tire weights from the local car repair joints, melt them down, and pour them into a set of molds my folks had gotten for my brothers and I. Where the molds are now I have no idea, but I wish I still had them.
I put some of the soldiers in the ash collector thingy at the bottom of the charcoal grill and created this shot. So be it.
I took the photo with the Sony 6300, 16-50 zoomed to 30 mm. Exposure was 1/30 at f22, ISO 3200.
“Old soldiers never die, they only fade away.” This is a line from a song popular among soldiers in Britain in World War I. It became famous when General Douglas MacArthur quoted it after being relieved of his command in the Korean War.
So, okay. While my wife was cleaning out our son's bedroom (he is away in the Navy and we are repurposing his old room) she found a bucket full of green army men - which also had in the bottom some old lead soldiers I had made back in the 1960's. I used to collect old tire weights from the local car repair joints, melt them down, and pour them into a set of molds my folks had gotten for my brothers and I. Where the molds are now I have no idea, but I wish I still had them.
I put some of the soldiers in the ash collector thingy at the bottom of the charcoal grill and created this shot. So be it.
I took the photo with the Sony 6300, 16-50 zoomed to 30 mm. Exposure was 1/30 at f22, ISO 3200.
Don-
I wanted to get this out because Life on the planet Earth will be eliminated sometime tomorrow or
so I'm told.
Here is my thinking for the theme Fade, the sunset shows the light fading in the background. The
graveyard in the foreground shows life that has faded.
Focal was a 24 to 70 mm lens set at 24 mm.
Exposure was 1/400 sec; f/8; ISO 1400; Aperture Priority and Pattern Metering. The D810 was
hand held.
I wanted to get this out because Life on the planet Earth will be eliminated sometime tomorrow or
so I'm told.
Here is my thinking for the theme Fade, the sunset shows the light fading in the background. The
graveyard in the foreground shows life that has faded.
Focal was a 24 to 70 mm lens set at 24 mm.
Exposure was 1/400 sec; f/8; ISO 1400; Aperture Priority and Pattern Metering. The D810 was
hand held.
Byron-
This photo shows the moss roses that are at the base of my mail box. Throughout the summer they are healthy, green and robust. This time of year they begin to fade. There are still blossoms but the stems are very sad looking.
ISO 200, f4, 1/1600 sec, 23mm
This photo shows the moss roses that are at the base of my mail box. Throughout the summer they are healthy, green and robust. This time of year they begin to fade. There are still blossoms but the stems are very sad looking.
ISO 200, f4, 1/1600 sec, 23mm
Darin-
Ok, so I went a little dark on this one.
I wanted it to kind of have that look of my favorite painting, 'Grace' by Rhoda Nyberg. Interestingly, it was originally a photograph, taken in 1918, by Rhoda's father Eric Enstrom of Bovey, Minnesota and became Minnesota's State Photograph in 2002.
Ok, so I went a little dark on this one.
I wanted it to kind of have that look of my favorite painting, 'Grace' by Rhoda Nyberg. Interestingly, it was originally a photograph, taken in 1918, by Rhoda's father Eric Enstrom of Bovey, Minnesota and became Minnesota's State Photograph in 2002.
Kevin-
Fade was, for me, a difficult WPOTM challenge. I think of fade as an action, but a slow moving action, Not like hit (perhaps the crack of a bat on a ball) or bang (a bullet exiting a gun), instead fade is an action happens over long durations, at least in my feeble mind.
But then I spent a lot of years of my career doing film related projects, where fading to black was a common theme in a editing process. Fading to black, fade to black. Hold that thought in your mind for a moment…
It was a hectic week for me, having to suddenly fly California to inspect the house there after a very localized weather disaster. Fortunately everything looked okay and I flew home on Tuesday. Plus this weekend is the Minnesota Congenital Heart Walk, so most of my days have been filled. And I knew that Wednesday I would be tied up photographing a model with old friends Chris Grayczyk and Steve Rouch. The model was young, beautiful and was born in Somalia. Sensibly very few models go by their birth name, as by choosing a made-up model name they at least retain a bit of privacy. So whatever her actual name is (which I likely couldn’t pronounce), her model name is Sara Wednesday.
We each photographed Sara under different lighting schemes. Much of the work I did was trying to photographer her in a “high-key” way. Unfortunately those efforts were nothing more than a noble experiment (meaning relative failure), which perhaps I will endeavor to improve in a subsequent attempt.
But I also wanted to photograph Sara against black. Very little, fading light, illuminating the bare (no pun intended) minimum of her black skin, black background, hopefully created a fade to black feeling, even though it is only a still frame. And I had a spritzer bottle of warm water to give a wet look to Sara’s skin.
Nikon D4s, handheld, 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor lens. One studio strobe and one 4’x8’ bounce card, ISO 100, f/8 at 1/250th of a second (flash sync).
Fade was, for me, a difficult WPOTM challenge. I think of fade as an action, but a slow moving action, Not like hit (perhaps the crack of a bat on a ball) or bang (a bullet exiting a gun), instead fade is an action happens over long durations, at least in my feeble mind.
But then I spent a lot of years of my career doing film related projects, where fading to black was a common theme in a editing process. Fading to black, fade to black. Hold that thought in your mind for a moment…
It was a hectic week for me, having to suddenly fly California to inspect the house there after a very localized weather disaster. Fortunately everything looked okay and I flew home on Tuesday. Plus this weekend is the Minnesota Congenital Heart Walk, so most of my days have been filled. And I knew that Wednesday I would be tied up photographing a model with old friends Chris Grayczyk and Steve Rouch. The model was young, beautiful and was born in Somalia. Sensibly very few models go by their birth name, as by choosing a made-up model name they at least retain a bit of privacy. So whatever her actual name is (which I likely couldn’t pronounce), her model name is Sara Wednesday.
We each photographed Sara under different lighting schemes. Much of the work I did was trying to photographer her in a “high-key” way. Unfortunately those efforts were nothing more than a noble experiment (meaning relative failure), which perhaps I will endeavor to improve in a subsequent attempt.
But I also wanted to photograph Sara against black. Very little, fading light, illuminating the bare (no pun intended) minimum of her black skin, black background, hopefully created a fade to black feeling, even though it is only a still frame. And I had a spritzer bottle of warm water to give a wet look to Sara’s skin.
Nikon D4s, handheld, 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor lens. One studio strobe and one 4’x8’ bounce card, ISO 100, f/8 at 1/250th of a second (flash sync).