Well, I went to see a movie at the Hollywood Theatre, my first post COVID in theatre experience.
Met a friend there and saw the original Death Race 2000.
Went to my first post-COVID live show...
Well, just in time for the dreaded Delta variant, a friend invited me to see some live music. Being fully vaccinated, I knew I would be safe, but now that children are being affected by the delta variant, I was a bit concerned. Well things went just fine. Masks were required, and they even asked that everyone show a vaccination card on entry.
I didn’t see anybody flipping out. No body complained about their freedom being taken away. Nobody was disrespectful. No ones head blew up. Nobody pooped their pants. Show was great, and it was refreshing to see everyone having a good time while this pandemic drags on. Its great to see that we can adapt and get through this.
A Classic Bowling Alley in 3D
I love bowling alleys, and it is rare to find them around anymore. Even more rare is seeing a bowling alley that was never updated to the flashy screens and electronic scoring systems. I found this bowling alley in Hilo on the big island of Hawaii. The staff there were very nice and allowed me to come in and shoot before they opened and I took some great shots of their amazing bowling alley.
Holga Lens Test Part 1
Well I went out one afternoon and did some very simple tests with my Holga lens on my Nikon D800 DSLR. It was fun, a new exploration. One of the mysteries of shooting with film on a Holga still rings true. The fixed f8 aperture makes it so dark you can barely see viewfinder. Would be nice to have a finder I could mount on the hot shoe, but whatever. It’s a cheap-o plastic lens, what more do you want?
So I made some basic shots just up and down my street using some simple subject matter in bright sunlight.
The original Holga manual (I still have mine) says to use ISO400 film. So I set the ISO to 400. The Holga lens is fixed at f8, and the shutter speed is an estimated 1/100th of a second, so that is where I set mine. Exosure was too hot so I took it down to 1/60th, though I can (and probably will) do a more accurate test of the correct exposure for future images.
The following 3 images are just a basic exposure, with no raw correction. I am not sure what the focus was doing, so I guess I need to do some testing with that as well. Looks like Holga!
One thing I did notice is the vignette-it seems off. Holga used 120 medium format film, a larger image size than my full frame DLSR. I know there is a vignette with all Holga cameras, but I would expect less of it on the 135mm frame. It’s nice, but as a person who likes to make images awesome, I like to add vignette myself. But I guess that is opposite of what this is: junk photography.
Making Anaglyph 3D images Part 1
curious how to create your own anaglyph 3D images? Not hard to do if you have some basic tools, photoshop and a good subject to shoot for a 3D image, and a digital camera.
I was attracted to 3D when I was very young, I loved how you could look at something with those glasses and see things jump right off the page. Anaglyph 3D is an evolution from the old Stereoscopic images you may have found in antique stores, but never had a viewer to see them with. The glasses block out color from one eye so you can see a different angle in each eye, creating a parallax, and your mind translates it as a 3D image from a 2D source. 3D images are truly the original “virtual reality”.
Most 3D images from the past were shot with a stereoscopic camera, or a camera with 2 lenses. One lens would shoot for the left eye, and one for the right. Images were usually shot in black and white and printed on color printing paper, but color images could also be used. Here is one of those old cameras:
I always wished I had one of these in the film days, but never acquired one…
Now in the modern digital days there are many options to creating these 3D images and several of them are very expensive stereo cameras (2 lenses) used for augmented reality and 3D mapping. We will not be discussing these here, we are going to explore shooting 3D images with a digital camera, or even with a phone and creating the red/blue effect within photoshop!
The first step to creating a 3D image is to find the proper subject matter. Nobody wants to see a 3D image of a billboard or a poster on a wall, what fun is that? You need to find something with stuff sticking out here and there to make the image interesting. Lots of foreground and background variation, but keep in mind the foreground objects will have the most 3D effect and could be distracting, so try to keep those items around the framing of your image.
Next you will need to take 2 pictures, like the old fashioned cameras did. But since you are probably using a single lens on your camera or phone (multiple lens phone cameras will not work for this), you will need to move the camera slightly to create your second exposure. Very important: since our eyes are arranged horizontally, we also need to make our camera move horizontally or this will not work. Landscape orientated photos work best. 55mm is the average distance between a human’s eyes, so we will need to move the camera 55mm or just over 2 inches. So shoot one image, move the camera then shoot another. It is helpful if you have something to set the camera on, as you want the position of the lens to move just that little bit and not all over the place to keep the 3D effect as accurate as possible. Try keeping the focal plane the same for both shots (try not to rotate the camera when moving it).
So, you got your pictures shot and now you have 2 images. If you could put them side by side, on screen, and close one eye and then switch open eyes really fast this would work great, but nobody I know can do that, so we need to put these images together into one to create the effect. So open both images in photoshop, then drag the background layer from one image on top of the other (while holding shift of course) so you will have an image with both shots in separate layers (you can close the image you dragged from we do not need it anymore). Double click on the background layer, you should now have 2 layers, Layer 0 on the bottom and Layer 1 on the top. One of these will be the left eye shot and one will be the right. If you know which one it which, you only have one more step to create a 3D image. Next step is to click on the top layer (Layer1) and double click on the layer itself and turn off the red channel:
Ok, now for the moment of truth. Slip on your glasses and take a look at your image. Does it look 3D? If you did everything right, it should. Now, if you got your images arranged correctly, things should be jumping out at you, but if you got your images mixed up then things will be jumping back. This is a common problem, even for those who do this often. Even if you keep shooting one side first, sometimes, somehow things get mixed up. But the solution is simple. Click the red layer back on, then move Layer 0 to the top of the layer stack, and then turn off the red channel for that layer. This should fix the backward image.
Black and white images will look great as anaglyph 3D images, but they need to be in RGB color for this to work. Simply desaturate the layers keeping them in RGB. Color image look great as well. Finding the creative balance is all part of the fun. Give it a try sometime!
Junk Photography
I often reminisce about the days of film and the occasional “happy accidents” that might happen on any shoot, be it professional of just for fun. Digital has brought us the ability to create images and see the result instantaneously, fixing problems and deleting them before the clients get their eyes on them. Film was another story, of course. Even if you know the film (stock, batch and shelf life), camera, and lighting, there was an occasional surprise, be it a bad exposure or a magic moment captured accidentally.
I also think about what I call the “Junk Photography” movement, where people would use crappy cameras and lenses to create some kind of old retro look. Shooting with cameras with plastic lenses, be it a Holga camera or a Lomo got interesting results. Instagram has pretty much replaced this, and the photography hipsters have embraced it.
I have many cameras new and old, and though I have no desire to get rid of my film cameras, I really do not use them anymore. I have no idea what the cost would be but I imagine these days, processing and printing of negative film (be it color or black & white) is quite expensive. Still I really miss those days and wish there was a way to go back. Maybe halfway?
Well I have found a way. I purchased this Holga lens from the internet for about 14 bucks.
After slapping it on my Nikon, I was forced to remember just how low-end the Holga is. There is noting here, just a fixed aperture, and a jenky focus that will get you maybe close to what you want. Looking through the view finder on a sunny day is a futile attempt, so I found I’m missing the Holga finder at the top of the camera.
Stay tuned for some pictures with this lens….
Summer is going fast...
Well this summer is going by so fast. Just a little image of my Hamms Bear after being surprised in the shower in 3D.
More shots of the Tramway Gas Station/Visitors Center...
Here are a couple more views from the Tramway Gas Station in Palm Springs. Such an amazing design for a gas station. Makes me wish the “Bomber” gas station was still around, here in Portland! Don’t for get your 3D glasses!
Tramway from the front
These were shot on a very windy day, and I had to do some creative post work to contend with the subjects moving in the background between the 2 shots I took to create the anaglyph 3D effect.
Closeup view from the front, where the pumps once were.
The Tramway Gas station was built in 1965 and designed by architects Albert Frey and Robson Chambers and is an iconic design from one of the mid century capitols of the world, Palm Springs.
Getting back into shooting...
Title says it all, just making it official I guess. Shooting was the thing that got me into this business of retouching, and I have some nice gear, but after buying a house and starting a family it just got pushed off to the side. It has been hard to motivate myself to work on my own images when I spend so much time working on the images of others. Now I am moving back to creating rather than just fixing. This month there has not been one day I have not worked on my own images or setup cameras for the creation of images. And it is exciting, and above all, inspiring!
My Favorite King Kong Movie...Part 1
So there have been a few new films produced by Warner Brothers based on King Kong, and Godzilla that my friends are telling me are actually pretty good. I have not seen them. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a film snob or anything like that, it’s just that when it comes to a movie about a giant monster stamping out a city, I’m really into the olde skool special effects. It’s probably linked to my childhood and the wonder I had when I watched those movies. As a child, they looked so real, but I knew they could not be. I actually had this fantasy that Godzilla was a giant mechanical machine driven by a stuntman as he stomped out a real city. Well, when I saw these films when I was older, and reminded of my old ideas, I was quite embarrassed for myself. Still I love these guys in sweat filled suits stomping on toys and ignoring the strings on the copters and jets, and pretending that they are not swishing around in an indoor pool when there is a water scene.
This brings me to my favorite Kong movie of all. The 1976 Dino De Laurentiis King Kong remake. I do not know when I first saw this, but I did see it in the theater. It was not first run, but I do remember that when I was a kid here in Portland, in the late 70s there was a deal my parents got, where my little sister and I could see one movie a week in the summer and saw some awesome movies. This was when it was just fine to send your 2 under 10 year old kids to the movies for the day and not bat an eye.
This is a badass movie poster!
Anyways, on with the flick. This movie has it all. Jeff Bridges, The Dude himself, and Jessica Lang In her first acting job, creenplay by Lorenzo Semple, Jr. of the Batman TV show fame (another favorite), and a ferocious Kong. The third act in the city where kong goes on his rampage is classic. The audience is directed to feel empathy for the ape and what he is going through. Several views of him zoom in on his eyes, as if the viewers are invited to see Kongs actual vision. The scene at the end where he climbs the twin towers of the World Trade Center, is a classic reimagining of the original where Kong climbs the Empire State Building. Special effects are sub-par by todays standards but for the 1970s they were pretty epic. There was even a 40 foot tall mechanical Kong, though it was used sparingly (it really looked bad).
I wanted to show this film to my 6 year old, but decided to watch it first. Good thing too. The part where Kong kills a giant snake is very gory, as well as when the Hueys shoot Kong off the buildings-very bloody and graphic. I guess she will need to keep watching the Toyo movies at least for now. More Kong to come!
Posting 3D Photography...
While going through my server and cleaning out files, I found some Anaglyph 3D images I have not posted anywhere before and thought it would be great to share these shots. You will need a pair of red and blue glasses to view these images just like the old 3D movies of the 50s.
Remember these?
My first Anaglyph shot in this series will be of the former Tramway Gas Station in Palm Springs. This iconic building has since been converted to a visitors center just outside of the city as you approach from LA.
Tramway Gas Station, Palm Springs California. Converted to a visitors center.
Stay tuned for more anaglyph images from my archive and tutorials on how I created these images!
A*P*E movie from 1976
Anyone who knows me knows I love gorillas. I have a collection of rubber gorilla toys from the 70s on. I own a gorilla suit (2 actually). I especially love gorilla movies, and since 1933s King Kong there have been plenty of remakes and knock offs. Some great, some bad, but since they have a gorilla in them, I cannot resist.
And since we have been in this global pandemic, one of the best ways to pass the time in isolation has been to watch B-Movies and experience them with friends over the phone-which in lieu of a face-to-face meeting has been very fun!
Recently I watched a Kong knock off called: A*P*E. I have seen posters and artwork from this Korean-American film from 1976, rushed into production to compete with what I think is an excellent Kong movie, the Dino De Laurentis remake from that same year. I have always wanted to see this film, but it never really had the opportunity, that is, until now.
See A*P*E. Actully, don’t bother!
Now I have seen some good Kong knock offs and some very very bad ones. This one falls in the latter category. The Ape is clearly a guy in a suit, even has cuffs on the arms where the fur shirt meets the gloves. Even my crappiest gorilla suit looks better than this thing. And the fights, oh man, these are really bad. He fights a “giant snake” and you can tell its just a normal sized snake. They also have the Ape fight a shark, but it just looks like a guy doing his laundry at night in a river. The effects are super cheap.
A*P*E is not the worst Kongish movie out there, but its probably the second worst. Filmed in 3D this movie has some obvious 3D shot setups but viewing it streaming you never see the “cool factor”. I don’t mind when I see strings on special effects, but The end of the clip above, APE flips off the helicopter, or was it, in reality, the audience?
Doesn’t this look exciting? Sorry, it’s not.
Fully Vaccinated!
Finally, this cat has his vax! Fully vaccinated here at the cat’s lair!
death of a space hippy
Found out today that actress Mary Linda Rapelye, also know as Irina Gallulin, or Checkov’s girlfriend has died.
She is one of 4 space hippies, the third to die. Preceeded by Skip Homeler who played Dr Sevrin, Charles Napier who played Adam. There is now only one space hippie left, Tongo Rad, played by Victor Brandt.
Hippies in space
Marly Linda Rapelye died yesterday.
Hoarding Toilet Paper again?
Here we go again with the craziness. People are hoarding TP and going nuts at the stores.
Luckily we here at Black Cat Imaging use a litter box!
We are not affiliated with this guy. Besides we prefer Johnny Cat….
Stay safe out there. And please wear a damn mask!
IVY PARK E-Comm
Worked on some Ivy Park E-Commerce images and they were just posted to the Adidas website.
Holy Cow, this stuff sold out in like 2 days! I’ll post a gallery of before and afters later. You can see the product here. Enjoy!
I voted!
I voted, and so should you!
Wonderful thing mail in voting, got all my stuff done at the kitchen table, no waiting in line and guess what? It’s totally legit! Oregon has had vote by mail for 20 years. And guess what? No voter fraud. Well actually there has been. Lets look at a quote from an article in the “Willy Week”:
"The division obtained 38 criminal convictions for voter fraud out of the 60.9 million ballots in Oregon elections cast over a 19-year period. That amounts to a rate of 0.0000006%. These figures demonstrate that voter fraud is exceedingly rare in Oregon." Voter fraud is also exceedingly rare across the country, LFO noted: "In June 2020, the Heritage Foundation reviewed all voter fraud cases it could find over a 36-year period. Heritage found 1,285 cases of voter fraud out of more than 1.8 billion ballots cast in all 50 states from 1982 to 2018. That amounts to a rate of 0.0000007%.”
WOW! Thats a whole lotta nothing in my book. Seems vote by mail is totally legit!
Oregon was the first state to hold a presidential election by mail, and it has been great! If your state does not offer this wonderful ability, maybe you should contact your local representatives and tell them you want them to make it happen!
I’m black cat and I approve this message!
Hey folks! News flash, elections have consequences, so please wherever you are, wherever you live, please be sure to vote! Meow!
My 5 Year Old Daughter Discovers Bob Ross
Well, it was actually I who introduced her to the magic of Bob Ross. She loves painting and one day I decided to show her how to make Happy Little Trees by showing some great youtube vids of the master painter himself, and you know what? She actually got it. I gave her some paint and set up her easel and she started in, but asked for a specific paint brush, and lo and behold, she made some happy little trees:
Just look a those tree textures! Wow.
I was seriously impressed. The trees and bushes she made with a brush are wonderful. I’m so proud of my little girl!
Thanks Bob!
COVID Sale Continues!!!
Black Cat Imaging Is Still offering our amazing COVID Sale!
15% off your first invoice under 40 hours!
25% off your first invoice over 40 hours!
Save money, get work done!
Don’t look at the car look at the sign!!
Retro lenses on digital? Sign me up!
OMGosh do I ever love my old camera collection, but unfortunately my desire for instant gratification, coupled with my lack of desire to spend money on film and processing, (and lets not even get to the issue with the envionment-chemicals are such a bummer)… I have pretty much neglected them. They now populate a spot in my basement, and they have done nothing for like 20 years.
But now that can be over! I found this little gem on the internets and gives me some hope that maybe those cameras, or at least the glass will be utilized. See, when digital was just becoming a thing, I was graduating from college with a soon to be useless degree in commercial, analog, film photography. I was totally broke with a very sweet Toyo GX yaw free 4x5 and a bunch of other stuff, but all anyone wanted was digital.
I always wished there was a digital thingy you could stuff into a camera, maybe shaped like a roll of film so you could take digital shots with your Holga, or Lomo, or maybe that Russian made CMEHA camera with a plastic lens. Well maybe you can, and someone tried to do that. Well kinda like that.
Check out this vid below by Becca Farsace telling the story about her build of a Raspberry Pi camera with the c mount lenses:
Well…it sounds like its not quite ready for prime time but I’m sure some nerd will get the code right sometime in the future, and who knows what will be possible then? My C-Mount lenses might have a purpose after all. My strange cameras with weird glass might be coming back out. Maybe I can even dig out the old enlarger lenses I saved for who know what reason.
Maybe some interesting light leaks and distortions too. None of that crappy instagram fake stuff for me!
Stay tuned!