PixelatedImage Blog

When Eli Reinholdtsen traveled with me for the Italy Within The Frame workshop this spring, she very quickly endeared herself to me not only as a wildly creative and fun individual but also a fantastic photographer. I had profiled some of her work last year in the Within The Frame podcast series and was introduced to her work then, but when she put a self-published book called “Folk” into my hands at the breakfast table at Monterosso al Mare, I was captivated. And spent the rest of the day thinking about the images she’d created.

Eli has this thing for reflections and capturing moments in shop windows and broken glass, but what makes it remarkable, in much the same way I marvel at some of Elliott Erwitt or Cartier-Bresson’s work, is her choice of moments and juxtapositions. She creates wildly different photographs using a small handful of honed techniques and a knack for timing the moment and creating contrasts that do more than just pull the eye; they allude to a story. It’s that deeper suggestion of story that I most enjoy in her work and for that reason I asked her to share some of her work and her thoughts about technique and process as it relates to how and why she photographs as she does.

It gives me a tremendous amount of personal pleasure to release today the newest publication from Craft & Vision – Eli Reinholdtsen’s Chasing Reflections, the 3rd in the Print & The Process series. I know this is going to be one of my favourite books and hope you get as much pleasure and inspiration looking at these as I did for the first time this spring.

Chasing Reflections is a available now for $5 but if you purchase it before August 2nd you can get your virtual hands on it for $4 using this coupon code: REFLECT4 or save 20% on 5 or more eBooks with this code: REFLECT20. Sorry, these discounts apply only to the PDF downloads, the iPad apps are still $5.

Today (July 28th) my friend Dave Delnea and I are jumping a plane for Iceland. When we hit Reykjavik we load our tent, sleeping bags, and way too much fleece and goretex into the SUV, along with a few too many peli-cases full of gear, and hit the open road. This is easily the most ad hoc trip I’ve ever done; our planning is limited to: A. Having plane tickets and B. Having a rental car reservation. Other that we’ve not a clue which direction we’re heading, where we’re setting up camp each night, or what we’re pointing our lenses towards. I couldn’t be more excited! Also, they have puffins and fjords, so who wouldn’t be pumped about that?

Tomorrow (July 29th) we launch a new eBook on the Craft & Vision site, so details, along with the usual discounts because we’re suckers and we love you, will be posted here. There’s an August desktop wallpaper coming, but it’ll be a day late, and there’s a post scheduled for the middle of the first week of August too. So don’t disappear on me. If I can get a postcard off to you, I will, but don’t be holding your breath. I’ve got glaciers and volcanoes and puffins and stuff to explore.

The map above shows you my travels for the coming months as well as this trip. Click it to embiggen it. See you soon!

This weekend’s free online CreativeLIVE class on Vision Driven Photography was a lot of fun. And exhausting. And a real stretch for me. I find events like that, and teaching that kind of subject matter, very challenging. Which is why I did it (instead of staying at home and watching endless DVDs of HOUSE M.D. or something). I mentioned in the class that those things you are most scared of doing are usually the very things you most need to do, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t go into this weekend with a mix of excitement and fear. Anyways, it’s done now – huge thanks to all who sat in, who participated, and who came in person to be part of things.

I hope those of you that took the time to watch, and overcame some of the troubling technical issues, got some bang for your buck in terms of time invested. I hope you came out seeing something a little differently, or a little more free to embrace the frustrations, fears, doubts, and chaos of the artistic process. Remember there is nothing wrong with a messy process, that a sterile process most often results in sterile art, and the world doesn’t need more of that.

I’m about to hit the road, so I’ll be on the blog a couple more times this week and then mostly absent until I get home from Iceland on the 10th.

Again, thank you so much for being part of things this weekend. You can still get the course as a download HERE, though the early-bird discount is over.

Good morning, folks. It’s 9:50am on Friday the 23rd here in Seattle. We’re almost an hour away from going live on the CreativeLIVE VisionDriven Photography weekend. I’d tell you I’m excited – which I am – but I think the overriding emotion right now is something more like terror. Lots of deep yogic breathing going on over here.

Anyways, this is going to be a blast and I’d love to have you there. So – find us HERE at the CreativeLIVE site. You can join us there, sign up to be part of the course, pre-purchase the downloads, even get in on the twitter contest/giveaways for some Think Tank Photo gear, copies of the Vision Trilogy, OnOne Software Plug In suites, and a GIGANTIC canvas of your work from Artistic Photo Canvas.

For those joining us, you can post images to the Flickr group HERE.

You can tweet your questions on Twitter with #AskDavid

The Craft & Vision eBooks discount is 20% off a purchase of 5 or more PDF eBooks at the Craft & Vision site HERE with the discount code: VISIONDRIVEN – This discount is valid until midnight on Sunday the 25th.

OK, I gotta run, but join us! Because #1 It’s free to watch and participate and if it’s a great workshop, then HEY! FREE WORKSHOP! And if it all falls apart, then HEY! FREE TRAINWRECK!   See you soon!

I’m really – REALLY – excited to announce that the new Craft & Vision website just went up. There will be a tweak here and there in the coming days but it’s live and functional and I think it’s going to make the process of buying and enjoying the Craft & Vision eBooks that much better. What does it mean to you?

A cleaner site with a little more ease of use, as well as a home for comments and reviews – In the past the only way to leave a review has been on my blog. You can now leave your reviews where they belong, and to encourage you to do so we’re giving away an iPad! Whether you read the PDFs or buy the Apps, Craft & Vision eBooks and the Apple iPad go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly, so we’re giving one away.

What we’re hoping for are some honest (hopefully honestly enthusiastic ) reviews for the individual books. We aren’t looking for empty praise and we aren’t looking for anyone to pad the site with fluff. If you’ve bought the books, read them and love them, we welcome you to write a short review for the book. If you’ve read’em all, feel free to pick a couple favourites. If you’ve already left those comments on the blog here, feel free to copy and paste them onto the new site. We could do that but it kind of feels like it lacks integrity and would rather leave that up to you. Leave a review and you’ll have a chance to win. Leave a couple reviews, and you’ll have a couple chances to win. Note: This is something we’re doing as a service to future buyers, not to pad our egos, so if we feel you’re just dropping lame comments in order to win, we’ll pull the comments. Be enthusiastic, be honest, and don’t even think about being anonymous if you hope to win the iPad.

You’ll notice a couple other things too. We’ve added a link to buy all the books at once, and there will be a permanent 20% discount for those that do. Makes life easier, especially if you’re an affiliate referring people to the site for the first time. We’ve also added links to buy the iPad apps. Same price, same content, different format. And while we’re talking Apps, there is a free App coming that will function as a one-stop iPad shop for the books – download it once and you’ll be able to access the books easily, get some free wallpapers, and stay up to date on all things Craft & Vision.

When I began Craft & Vision a year ago I had no idea it would become what it has. And we’re only just beginning. It’s been an incredible ride. All along we’ve been grateful for your support and your feedback. Thank you so much. I do this, and now the rest of my team – Corwin, Justin, Sabrina, Susanna – do this, because we share your passion for photography and we believe we can create amazing resources to help you improve your craft without buying gear. And at $5 each they cost less than a Starbucks latte, last longer, and won’t make you gassy and bloated. They’ll also get you into great education resources with less ads, and leave you budget left over for that new piece of gear you’re going to buy anyways.

Thank you so much for being part of this. We’re releasing Eli Reinholdtsen’s book, Chasing Reflections, next week. I’ll be in Iceland at the time but the launch will go ahead as it always does, with discounts, on Thursday the 29th.

In the meantime, leave a review or two on the new Craft & Vision site, each book has a spot for reviews so put’em there. Be sure to leave your name and email. On August 31st we’ll randomly draw from all the reviews and send a 16GB WiFi iPad to one lucky winner. This is open to everyone, so international readers can finally get some loving!

See the new Craft&Vision website at it’s usual address on the internet – www.CraftAndVision.com- Special thanks to Stuart Sipahigil (@digitalstew) and his team at Outside Source Design for working with us on this.

I’m limiting my workshops this year to these four, my Kenyan Safari (keep reading for details), the annual Lumen Dei trip to Northern India, and one we’re still planning, to Mexico for Day of the Dead. And maybe Kathmandu again. If you’d like to spend time with me in a small group setting working on your vision and your craft, these are hard to beat and some of the best values out there.

ITALY & CROATIA WITHIN THE FRAME

My partner in crime, Jeffrey Chapman, has just posted an announcement about the Spring 2011 photographic expeditions we’re leading. I’m stoked about this Spring! Last year was amazing. Small groups of incredible people who became fast friends, amazing photography, the kind of learning that only happens when talented people all rub off on each other, and the food! Oh my gosh the food! I’d be willing to bet no photography tour eats and drinks as well as we do.

This year we’re doing 4 very different locations, so you can do one of them, two of them, or 4 of them should you feel inclined. We’ll go from Liguria to Tuscany to Venice, and then 5 lucky people will join us on a 50-ft yacht to sail and photograph (and eat!) our way down the Croatian coast!

Here’s Jeffrey Chapman’s announcement about the Spring tours:

I’m thrilled to finally announce the Within The Frame photo expeditions that David duChemin and I will co-lead next spring. There are four exciting back-to-back week-long tours. The first three are in Italy, including a tweaked repeat of this year’s tour in Liguria, and one, the final week, is in Croatia. You can participate in one of these photo expeditions, or two, or three or come and enjoy the entire four weeks with us. However, please note the space is limited (to just eight participants for each of the weeks in Italy and then to just five participants for the sailing adventure – yes, sailing adventure! – in Croatia).

These photo expeditions won’t be rushed tours in which we tell you to plant your tripod here and point your lens there. We’re going to linger and absorb the places we visit. We’ll take our time. We’ll photograph. We’ll talk, discuss and work to develop our vision and our craft for the duration of each of these photo expeditions.

Clicking on any of the tour graphics below will open each photo expedition’s mini-site in a new window (or tab) where you’ll find full itineraries and details. For additional information or questions email David and me by clicking here.

You can read what participants of this spring’s Italy Within The Frame had to say about their experiences by clicking here.

I can’t wait for these trips! So who’s coming with us? And if Italy or Croatia is not your thing and you’re feeling the need to have the warm African sun on your face as you photograph the animals, landscapes, and people of East Africa, you can join me in Kenya this February instead.

KENYA SAFARI – January 2011

From January 22 to February 01 I will be partnering with Safari Guide Ryan Snider for another photographic safari in Kenya. Last year’s trip changed my life and I am literally counting the days until I am back on the Serengeti. You can join me. I won’t repost all the details here. Follow the link HERE for more information on this extraordinary trip. If you’re looking to do an amazing safari, this one is among the least expensive I’ve seen, though we don’t skimp and returning to a luxury tented camp at the end of a day of shooting to look at photographs and have a cold drink is one of the rare pure pleasures in life I’d love to see you there with me!

These trips sell-out faster and faster each year, so if you’re thinking about one of them – or all of them! – don’t delay in getting the info and an application. If you have questions feel free to leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them but the best bet is to follow the links, or get the info from Jeffrey Chapman or Ryan Snider themselves through the websites.

Good news for all my friends and students who have been eagerly chomping at the bit to get their hands on the Singh-Ray Gold-N-Blue Polarizing filter: they’re back in stock. Now I know y’all don’t like these things, and I’m as guilty as anyone of struggling to learn to use this filter a little more judiciously. I also know not everyone is on board with the use of filters at all – last time I posted about this kind of thing someone accused me of lacking integrity – oddly not something I’ve been indicted for when using a 17mm lens or duo-tone treatment on the print. I know, Galen Rowell wouldn’t have done it this way, but then I’m not Galen Rowell. So I’m putting my armour on and cutting/pasting an article that Singh-Ray just released on their blog that has some of my thoughts on the creative use of filters in digital photography. Feel free to disagree if this is one of your weird little hobby horses, but let’s keep the ethical assertions to a minimum. This is art and if you can’t be an anarchist as an artist, you may as well get a job making motivational posters. You do things your way, I’ll do things mine

From his home in Vancouver, Canada, international assignment photographer David DuChemin roams the world specializing in humanitarian projects and travel workshops. He’s also the author of Within the Frame, a noteworthy book on his images and the thought process behind them. Here’s a brief example of that process as applied to his Singh-Ray filters. “I just got back from teaching workshops in Italy on the beautiful Ligurian coast, and then later in Venice. These workshops, whether in Italy or further abroad in India or Nepal, are often the times I learn the most myself. Nothing galvanizes what I’m learning faster than teaching it to others — and one of the things I am consistently asked about is my use of filters. I think the digital world continues to labour under the delusion that optical filters are a thing of the past and that most of the effects once possible with filters can now be done as easily in Photoshop. The more I show my students the filters I use and give them a chance to try them, the more certain I become that filters still have an essential role in digital capture.

“Photography, for most of us is not merely a technical pursuit, but an aesthetic one. If that is true then what truly matters is what our images look and feel like. Filters still enable an aesthetic that’s not possible through simple post-production, and in some cases not possible at all, even in Photoshop. The aesthetic they enable may be forcing a slower shutter speed to blur motion, or polarizing light to reduce glare, or knocking part of the frame down a couple stops to darken a sky or lighten a foreground — in each case the filter remains a mainstay in the photographer’s kit.

“The images that accompany this article were shot in Italy this spring. So much of my time is spent in the so-called ‘Third World’ that being in a place like the Italian Riviera and Italy was magical — so different from what I usually photograph — and with that difference came a different experience. When I looked for tools to help me express how I felt about the magical light in these places, the Singh-Ray Gold-N-Blue, complete with un-corrected colour cast, was what I settled on for these images. Did it look like that? I’m not sure that’s the point. It felt like that and I’m more interested as a photographer in communicating my own very subjective response to places and moments than I am in pretending at objectivity.

“What the digital world at large has at times failed to recognize are two important understandings. The first is that every technical decision at the point of capture has an aesthetic implication and that means filters will allow you a significantly different look than a mere adjustment layer in Photoshop can replicate. The second is the importance of the creative process itself. Most photographers I know struggle to find a balance between the Artist and the Geek. Optical filters, used well, can meet the needs of both.

“When I made the transition to digital I sold my film gear and a box of filters, most of which I’d never use again even if I had them now. At the time I was told that, ‘you don’t need filters when you shoot digitally.’ I believed it for a long time until I began looking at the work of photographers I really admired – particularly those working in fine art and landscape disciplines. What I saw was a noticeable difference in the aesthetics of their photographs, and it pushed me into what is now nearing the end of a year spent learning about and playing with filters.

“I now carry 2- and 3-stop graduated ND filters (both soft transition and hard transition), a Gold-N-Blue and an LB Warming Polarizer. It’s a small set of filters, and it doesn’t take much room in my bag, but I no longer leave home without them. Together they allow me to capture a broader dynamic range of light, turn mundane light into spectacular light, take longer exposures, and deal with reflections on water. All of that without hours in Photoshop. In fact my images captured with the use of filters consistently need less work in post-production than others. But the biggest benefit my filters have brought me is in service of my creative side, the Artist.

“We all work differently but many of us seem to work dialectically. In other words we begin with A, we react to B, we get C. While this thought process can and does happen in the darkroom, it is much more powerful when used at the point of capture. When you put a filter on the lens you see the results immediately, you react to it, it gives you an idea, helps you see in new ways, and then you change what you’re doing, follow the muse. In my workshops, I’ve seen this process over and over again in my students. They’re shooting a scene, they look at what I’m shooting and exclaim, ‘Wait! How come that looks so different from mine?’ I explain, hand out my filters for them to play with, and watch them run off giggling. The key word in there is ‘play.’ Creativity is one big ‘what if,’ and the more we engage our craft with a sense of play, the more creative and unique our results. Engaging that sense of play is an important step in the creative process, allowing the filters to not only change the way the image looks but to change the very process, making these simple tools a catalyst to in-camera creativity — something Photoshop, for all its marvels, can’t do.”

The Singh-Ray blog is an excellent source of inspiration and information about the use of filters. Find them HERE. As an aside, the year I have spent learning filters has been an interesting one and I’ve waded through a number of frustrations about the differences in sizes and mount-options and it can be confusing at times. Not sure why there can’t be a little more clarity on all this, nor am I sure why some of the best lenses have 82mm threads while Singh-Ray’s screw mounts are sometimes only as large as 77mm. Anyways, I plan to address this kind of thing in an upcoming eBook when I return from Iceland and have a chance to shoot some images to illustrate.  Questions about filters – leave ‘em here.

Well, the day is upon us. The final book in the vision trilogy is out and Amazon has started shipping it – which means others are soon to follow, and places like Amazon.ca and other Amazon.co.uk should have them heading out within a month. I can’t tell you how excited I am to have this done and out there as a body of work. So excited I want to give 3 signed copies away. But you have to keep reading to find out how that’s going to happen. No cheating and going straight to the end!

Anyways, the video (click the screenshot above and it’ll take you to Vimeo) is a quick intro to the book, hopefully it’s helpful in giving you a feel for what the book is and is not. It’s not very well scripted, mostly because after an hour of out-takes I was bound and determined to get it done in one take.

I mention this briefly in the video but it deserves more than a passing mention. It’s been 14 months since Within the Frame was released and in that time so much has happened. The community that gathers around this blog has grown significantly, I’ve had a chance to meet some of you, travel or photograph with others, and become friends with many of you. Writing books that no one reads was not one of my life goals and the audience that has sprung up around the books, eBooks, and this blog has truly humbled me; I’m deeply grateful and I want you to know that. As such, this book is dedicated to you. The dedication reads:

For the amateurs – the lovers – those who do this for the love of the image and the journey of getting there. This is for everyone who loves this craft, whether you draw a paycheque from your efforts or not. For everyone who has ever created an image just to say, “Look at this!”

Vision & Voice, along with the others in the vision trilogy – Within The Frame, and VisionMongers – is available at Amazon.com HERE or from your favourite bookseller

Want one? Want it signed? Leave a comment in the comments section, make sure your name and email are there and I’ll do a draw for three copies which I will sign and mail out to you before I go to Iceland towards the end of the month.

Copyright Elliott Erwitt.

During my time in NYC I met Elliott Erwitt again. Not in person, but through his work. It’s been a couple years since I first looked at Erwitt’s work and for some reason seeing it this time made a significantly different impression on me. In fact, Erwitt kept popping up. The first time was in the Chelsea Market, an installation of his Italy work was there – probably about 30+ images. And then I saw his work on postcards in several stores, each time thinking I should really pick some up and never did. Finally I found myself in the Phaidon bookstore standing in front of half a dozen limited edition Erwitt prints, trying to will myself not to shell out for his deeply intimate photograph of a man – Robert Frank, as it turns out – kissing his wife in a kitchen in Italy.

Erwitt’s work has so many layers of Impact it’s hard to know where to begin, but the two that strike me most often are his sense of timing and his sense of humour, both of them often in the same moment – timing being one of the keys to great comedy.

I’m always of two minds about looking at the work of others. At the wrong time it gives way to imitation – good for flattery and even for a certain stage in the learning process, not so good if you stall there. But there’s so much to learn from others and how they see, and I couldn’t believe how utterly transported I was by Elliott’s work in Chelsea market. I stared at some of the prints, and while aware of the technical prowess they exhibited, it was so much more than that and THAT is where I want my work to go. I want my work to be so much more than the sum of its technical parts, so much more than just a bunch of layers of impact. I want my work to resonate with others the way Elliott’s does for me – because when I was done looking at his work and sat on the plane reflecting on it on the way home, I wasn’t thinking about how great the photographer was – I was thinking about the moments, and the magic of life itself: something heavily on my mind since a close friend discovered she had incurable brain cancer. Life is short and photography is a means by which we can expand it, reveal its hidden corners, notice even the most minute and fleeting moments. It’s not about photography, it’s about life. Erwitt does that for me and that makes him worth spending some time with.

See more of Elliott Erwitt’s work on his website HERE though the work on the website is not, in my opinion, anywhere near his best. But his books are on there and worth a trip to Amazon or your local library to spend some time with him.

While in New York I went out with a brand new 24/3.5 Tilt/Shift lens to see what kind of damage I could do. I’m preparing to take this lens as one of my primary lenses for the Iceland trip and wanted to start the learning curve now. I had some fun photographing this busker in Central Park and thought I’d share my process with you through a video podcast.

In the video linked below I show you every one of the 49 frames I shot in the series with nothing deleted, and discuss the why and how of getting where I did. If seeing the crap is helpful, that’s in there too.

This is a long and rambling video in the spirit of the Within The Frame Podcast series (and by “long and rambling” I mean just under 20 minutes of bandwidth-sucking viewing pleasure. Enjoy!) Click the screenshot below and it’ll take you to Vimeo so y’all don’t crash my puny little servers.

Comments? Questions? Feel free to have some discussion on this. I’m around all week and rather than a tonne of posts I’ll be hanging out, working, and checking in here to have some good ol’fashionned conversation.