military
Monochrome Is Back!
The monochrome gallery is back. I took it off the website and replaced it with Natural FX earlier this month, but I got more hits on the monochrome gallery in two weeks than I did with the new one. I spend a fair amount of time studying monochrome photographs on the web, so it just makes sense to include a monochrome gallery on Visions of Vocation.
Monochrome processing is easy to do without a lot equipment. It produces images with more natural character than color film or digital photographs. Monochrome images have shape, tone, and grain without a lot of computer post-processing. After scanning the negatives, I simply adjust the contrast, remove the dust spots, and post.
From the cheap and grainy Chinese films to the fine grain and high resolution of Ilford Pan F, each kind has its own character. In combination with different developers, developer dilutions, processing time, and temperature, a photographer has many different options without the distractions of color or the buttons and menu selections found on the camera itself. All you need is a solid 35 mm or medium format camera, a good light meter, a few prime lenses, maybe a red or yellow filter, and an understanding of the zone system. ‘Rolling your own’ with bulk film loader helps keep the costs down.
Monochrome processing is easy to do without a lot equipment. It produces images with more natural character than color film or digital photographs. Monochrome images have shape, tone, and grain without a lot of computer post-processing. After scanning the negatives, I simply adjust the contrast, remove the dust spots, and post.
From the cheap and grainy Chinese films to the fine grain and high resolution of Ilford Pan F, each kind has its own character. In combination with different developers, developer dilutions, processing time, and temperature, a photographer has many different options without the distractions of color or the buttons and menu selections found on the camera itself. All you need is a solid 35 mm or medium format camera, a good light meter, a few prime lenses, maybe a red or yellow filter, and an understanding of the zone system. ‘Rolling your own’ with bulk film loader helps keep the costs down.
Infrared Anyone?
Following a good suggestion, I decided to add a new gallery to VoV. The images come from a Fuji Finepix S2 Pro digital SLR. I bought this camera a few years ago thinking that I would instantly fall in love with digital photography. Although it is more convenient and much faster than traditional film photography, I seem to revert to the older, yet more familiar, technology. By attaching an R72 filter to the lens, I found that I can get surreal false color images from light recorded in the near infrared spectrum, that is from wavelengths of 720 nanometers or longer. The composition of these images is not my best, but I like how the camera’s CCD sensor interprets the color of full foliage and non-living subjects. Trees and grass appear as snowy masses tinted blue or light purple while steel and concrete appear in copper or blue-grey tones. Of course the images can also be monochrome, but sometimes the unusual colors of digital infrared images are more intriguing.
Aircraft Carrier
You may notice several photographs of ships and aircraft carriers in the ‘Military’ gallery. Bremerton hosts part of the Navy’s ‘mothball fleet’, also known as the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. It is home to the aircraft carriers USS Ranger (CV 61), USS Independence (CV 62), USS Constellation (CV 64) and, most recently, USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63). These ships have been decommissioned until they are needed again, dismantled for parts, or scrapped. Some ships are fortunate enough be at least aesthetically restored to become floating museums, like the USS Turner Joy in Bremerton or the USS Missouri in Pearl Harbor.
Over the years I have served on three of these majestic warships, the exception being the Hawk, which are moored only a few miles from my home. The light changes often in the Pacific Northwest. It can be raining one moment and sunny the next. The color and quality of this light striking the hulls of these magnificent vessels keeps bringing me back. Each time I visit, I imagine myself back on the 04 level as a ‘shooter watching aircraft streak away as they are catapulted into the dark night sky. I also remember a tragic early morning fire in November 1983 as one of Ranger’s main machinery rooms exploded into violent chaos. That morning was the first time that I had ever seen the interior of a ship’s main space, or what I could see of it. Filled with thick black smoke and backlit by the dull orange glow of burning fuel, the canvas jacket of a two and a half inch fire hose was my hand rail. I followed it down into the belly of a ship in agony to swing a brass fire nozzle at a raging fiery beast.
Color slides bring out the hues of grey and blue reflected on the water against the lights on the pier or the colors of the sun settling over Sinclair Inlet. In ‘Modern Maidenhead’, rain wears paint into long blue-grey streaks down the faded grey hull of Indy. ‘Connie’ contrasts a faded grey anchor with rusty highlights nestled into the contour of her bow against the equally worn hull of the Ranger. The red hues of the rusty anchor would have been lost in a monochrome image. Likewise, the red band of an oil boom stretched against Indy’s bow in ‘Tip of The Spear’ would have been nearly invisible in black and white.
Monochrome prints bring out the curvaceous lines that come together at the bow of a ship or the menacing rows of hooks in the concertina wire that deter unwelcome entry to the pier. The curve of an oil boom pushing against the bow of Indy gives angular contrast to the curve of the bow reflected against the water. Grey tones provide structure to an image that is less obvious in a color image. The radar domes, the square and angular protrusions that transition the Hawk’s wide flight deck to the slender curve of its hull at the water line, and the chains and power lines that traverse the ships and pier give ‘Islands’ an obvious industrial feel.
Over the years I have served on three of these majestic warships, the exception being the Hawk, which are moored only a few miles from my home. The light changes often in the Pacific Northwest. It can be raining one moment and sunny the next. The color and quality of this light striking the hulls of these magnificent vessels keeps bringing me back. Each time I visit, I imagine myself back on the 04 level as a ‘shooter watching aircraft streak away as they are catapulted into the dark night sky. I also remember a tragic early morning fire in November 1983 as one of Ranger’s main machinery rooms exploded into violent chaos. That morning was the first time that I had ever seen the interior of a ship’s main space, or what I could see of it. Filled with thick black smoke and backlit by the dull orange glow of burning fuel, the canvas jacket of a two and a half inch fire hose was my hand rail. I followed it down into the belly of a ship in agony to swing a brass fire nozzle at a raging fiery beast.
Color slides bring out the hues of grey and blue reflected on the water against the lights on the pier or the colors of the sun settling over Sinclair Inlet. In ‘Modern Maidenhead’, rain wears paint into long blue-grey streaks down the faded grey hull of Indy. ‘Connie’ contrasts a faded grey anchor with rusty highlights nestled into the contour of her bow against the equally worn hull of the Ranger. The red hues of the rusty anchor would have been lost in a monochrome image. Likewise, the red band of an oil boom stretched against Indy’s bow in ‘Tip of The Spear’ would have been nearly invisible in black and white.
Monochrome prints bring out the curvaceous lines that come together at the bow of a ship or the menacing rows of hooks in the concertina wire that deter unwelcome entry to the pier. The curve of an oil boom pushing against the bow of Indy gives angular contrast to the curve of the bow reflected against the water. Grey tones provide structure to an image that is less obvious in a color image. The radar domes, the square and angular protrusions that transition the Hawk’s wide flight deck to the slender curve of its hull at the water line, and the chains and power lines that traverse the ships and pier give ‘Islands’ an obvious industrial feel.
Aberdeen Proving Ground
January 10, 2010 - 15:49 Filed in: Assignments | Military
I spent five months on the east coast of the United States last year, and I have finally started to process the film that I have had to keep in the freezer. I am pleased with a few frames that I took at the Army Ordnance Museum at the Aberdeen Proving Ground. You can find “Grim Messenger”,” Leopard Skin”, and ”Study In Grey” in the military gallery. More to come as time permits.
