Category Archives: FolioA

Jon in 2017

by Jon Hoggatt

[ed. Jon provided me these thumbnails, but no accompanying text]

Awaiting Release

by John Thurston

FolioA-A30306The Mendenhall is magnificent from a distance. It is spectacular if you can get up close and personal.

The ice has layers and threadsof dirt and sand which were washed down and embedded in the originating snow. As the glacier is pushed down the valley, the face melts away and the embedded dirt, sand, sticks, leaves, and silt are released. You should be suspicious of anyone selling you “crystal clear glacier ice” 🙂

Tripod mounted TL120-1, DR5-processed HP5

 

Beam Me Up

by John Thurston

FolioA-A30305There are often caves in and under the Mendenhall glacier. In the winter, when the lake is frozen and travel is easier, there are often many folks visiting.

On this particular day, I set my camera up and loitered in the corner. The first set of bystanders is always very self conscious and makes explicit efforts to stay away and not “spoil” the shot. By simply loitering with a long cable release (while wearing warm clothes), I out-wait them and they are replaced. The newcomers ignore me as part of the landscape. Then I can trip the shutter, and reach over to advance the film.

Tripod mounted TL120-55. DR5-processed HP5

Vintage Metal

by John Thurston

FolioA-A30304This is an interior, available-light image from the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton. All those aluminum surfaces were just begging to be captured in stereo. The farthest tail looks to me like a B29, but I didn’t take notes about the fighters in the foreground. Can anyone identify them for us?

Available light, tripod mounted Canon 7D. Digital to film transfer done by Gamma Tech in New Mexico. Yes, I know I mounted it backwards 🙁

Learning the Ropes

by John Thurston

FolioA-A30303The Mendenhall glacier is in a National Forest, so commercial exploitation is expected and encouraged. One business here hikes you to the ice. There, you don crampons and helmets before setting off on an ice-trek. Four hours earlier, these folks were probably disembarking from their cruise ship. Now they’re on the glacier and about to practice their fall-arrests.

This is a cool place to live.

Tripod mounted TL120-1, most likely done on Provia 100.

John Grade – Middle Fork at the Renwick “Wonder” Exhibition 2016

by Boris Starosta

middle-fork-302_MFT72

Last year we went to an exhibition of installation artists called “Wonder” at the Renwick Gallery in Washington, DC.  Several artists made very interesting pieces for this show.  Using hundreds of thousands of pieces of reclaimed, old-growth cedar, John Grade built an intricate structure – Middle Fork – based on plaster casts taken of a massive, old-grown hemlock tree in the Cascade Mountains.  At Wonder, I shot cha-cha’s with my Sigma DP1-M and a Sputnik.  Tripods were not allowed, but I was incredibly lucky: each room in the Renwick had a fairly broad chair rail along the wall, wide enough to give good support to the Spud.  The exposures were typically 15 to 30 seconds.

Bazaans A315

by Boris Starosta

Bazaans-A315_MFT72

Another model I’ve been working with since 2016, this one is still in town good for more creativity!  With her I’ve been trying to explore what I call “Challenged Glamour.”  THat’s were I create an image that is nominally an ordinary glamour image, but then I put in some details that disturbs or mocks the normal first impression.  

2015 UCI Worlds from Libby Hill

by Boris Starosta

2015-worlds-709_MFT72

The Union Cyclisme Internationale held its World Championships in Richmond recently, to the great delight of bike racing enthusiasts all over the east coast, but especially central Virginia.  This view is overlooks the crowds on Libby Hill, the next-to-last climb on the about ten miles around loop of city streets that the riders raced (but they raced something like 15 laps).  Ben King, a Charlottesville native, was in the race (he raced in the Tour De France last year as well), and many C-villains were there to cheer him on.

I shot my pictures of the event all at this basic location.  From the very bottom of the hill looking up, and also from halfway up, and then this view looking down.  You can make out the cobbled road snaking down left and right through the crowd.  This was a very difficult surface to ride on – keep in mind the road is ridiculously steep here, and the cobbles reduce traction on your tires.  Coming around these bends, most riders tried to stay in the gutter, which was made of poured concrete – much smoother.  But the gutter was only ten inches wide or so, right next to the crowd, thus also presented its own difficulties.

I shot a twinned set of GoPros from this location also, trying to capture the action in 3d video.  Alas, one of the cameras was malfunctioning (but I didn’t know it – GoPros will sometimes be failing and not let you know….  not good!), so all I got was the “flat” video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55ZElh8q-Ws

You’ll hear a lot of noise in the video which is me fiddling with the Sputnik – I was sharing the same tripod with both cameras.  A twin camera bar held the stereoscopic GoPro enclosure on one side and the Spud on the other.