While I was in Chicago this past spring I noticed a few things that had changed since the last time I was there. The most impressive new feature I saw was the sculpture Cloud Gate by Anish Kapoor. Located in the middle of Millennium Park, the huge mirrored form reflects the city all around it like a huge fish-eye lens. It has an infinite quality to it and appears to have a completely different shape depending on from which angle it is viewed. Not only does it capture a distorted image of the city, but it also captures the images of the people looking at it.
Personal
Salt Lake City
About a week ago I ended a trip to Salt Lake City. I was there for a few days doing some commercial work. When I had a moment, I made it a point to get out and see some of the local scenery.
The Great Salt Lake has an average size of 1700 square miles but is only 30 feet deep. There are no fish but lots of brine shrimp as I witnessed. The photo above was taken about 20 miles west of Salt Lake City and was shot digitally in infrared.
Infrared Again
After years of wanting one, I finally got a digital infrared camera. Ever since the late 1980’s, I have been a fan of Kodak’s High Speed Infrared film. Sadly, this, like so many other great specialty films, is no longer produced. For a while I’ve had this original Canon Digital Rebel sitting on a shelf. Finally this spring I decided to reintroduce infrared into my photographic vocabulary. The Rebel was sent off and was converted—sensors in digital cameras are just as sensitive to infrared light as they are to visible light—it’s a filter built into the camera that keeps the infrared part of the spectrum from showing up in your photos. Now there are several services around the country that will remove the IR filter and replace it with a filter that blocks the visible light and allows only the IR light to pass through.
The images don’t look quite like Kodak’s great film, but the tonalities are very similar, and with a few post-production tweaks you can get a picture with great atmosphere. How I’m going to use this newly modified camera, I have not yet decided.
Recent Newspaper Assignments
I’ve been looking back at the news stories I’ve covered over the past year. I’m working on culling some of my favorite shots to freshen up my portfolio. I’ll post some of these images over the next few days. Most of my editorial work is part also serves as part of a personal project documenting life in North Portland. The image above is from the 2009 St. John’s Parade.
The Other Festival
This year the Rose Festival Village opened on Memorial Day weekend. I took my family to the other festival going on that weekend: The Multnomah County Fair, the first of the Oregon county fairs going on at Oaks Park. There were things there that you could never see at the Rose Festival—like the dog jumping contest pictured above.