Black & White

Hi friends. As crazy I am about color, I'm on a black & white kick today. There's something both soothing and energizing about reducing images to simple lines, patterns and textures without color complicating things. Don't you think?

Où est ma tête? - Pink Martini

When I first moved to Columbus, there was this great rumor going around that I had lived in Paris for two years, I learned years later. Oh yes, I just hung out at Le Café de Flore, drinking coffee and filling my sketch book with amusing depictions of other patrons. Okay, I didn't. But if I had to start a rumor about myself, that would be the one.

Happy Bastille Day!
(Video from Sevenmao)

Architectural Salvage

Over the weekend, I visited Columbus Architectural Salvage, which has to be one of the coolest places to visit in Central Ohio. Aside from worrying about what has happened to the houses where all these things came from, I find myself wondering about the stories they could tell. Exactly how many pairs of shoes did this shoe form help create? And were these Ball jars used to can peaches or tomatoes? Don't get me started on the door knobs ...

The fig picture is a special gift for my dear friend Leann who gave me a fig tree for my last birthday. Isn't she a genius?

Decay and HDR

I've been visiting some pretty interesting places to capture HDR-worthy shots this week. I know that some people like to use HDR to capture shiny post-modern buildings or exotic landscapes, but that's just not my thing. I like to go under bridges and to industrial parts of town where you meet interesting people and their pets. (My artist/photographer friend, Darrin, seems to find all the best places) Yesterday, I was approached - no rushed at - by a dog barking, "I want to eat you alive, starting with your face." while the owner told me, "Don't worry, he's friendly." No he's not. Friendly dogs wear bandannas, everybody knows that.

Anyway, there are many ways to achieve an HDR shot, some more complicated than others. I arrived at these shots by using 'the poor man's HDR' which means that I took two shots at different exposures, put one layer over the other and masked out over- or under-exposed elements to make a more uniformly focused and exposed image. I confess, I rather like the saturation and detail you get with these techniques. Did I really just say that?