Bring Your Photos Home: Instagram through Instaport

Today I felt like making a digital book of a series of images I had going through instagram called Avedon Plants.  Basically a series of plants, flowers, and the like shot as though Avedon shot them. Fun right!  But before I could even begin, I had an issue that never bugged me until today.  I want my Instagram photos on my computer.  Well Instaport.me is an awesome free solution (through you can donate some dollars to the developer).  All you do is go to their website, here, and login using your instagram credentials.  Then decide if you want them to you to your facebook/flickr, or download them as a zip.  I have thousands of instagram images and it took less than 5 minutes to bring those stranded pups home.  Highly recommend it!

KPF – Keep Photography Fun

Carlos

Printed Project: Joaquim Paiva Portfolio

“The negative is the score, and the print the performance.” – Ansel Adams

I recently completed printing an edition of 24 images, 50cm x50cm, prints for longtime photographer and artist Joaquim Paiva.  I’m honored to have taken the project from scan, to retouch, to color correct, to print. He is very pleased with the digital representation and output of this great work.  To see more of his work, visit his site at: http://www.joaquimpaiva.com

-C

Featured Photographer: Louis Faurer

 

Louis Faurer (1916-2001) was by trade, a fashion photographer for known publications like Bazaar, Vogue, and many others.  However, his love and passion was doing street photography in the New York City streets.  His work is very real, and makes you feel like your on the pavement in the 40′s next to him, but is also very beautiful, dark tinged, and surreal.  Despite creating remarkable imagery and being friends with Robert Frank, and even working as his printer for a while, Faurer was never well known in the fine art community.  Here are some of my favorites, his book is still available  for those interested, Purchase Book, and an example of his fashion work.

Class Completed: Digital Negative to Silver Gelatin

Just finished teaching a group of enthusiastic students how to take their digital images and print them as traditional darkroom silver gelatin prints.  It was a lot of fun!

It will be offered again at Rayko Photo Center, San Francisco.  Look out for it!  On a related note, I am now working on a compensation curve that will allow crazy people like me to print Mural Size silver gelatin prints from low res digital capture or really dense negs. Currently trouble shooting it with Luis Mendoza (his image below). Oh possibilities.

-Carlos

Happy Birthday Ansel Adams!

110 years ago today Ansel Adams was born, and 82 years later he passed.  His work continues to be a staple of great photography, printing, and inspiring others to make work of their own.  I’m gonna use my 4×5 camera today in observance.  What are you going to do to celebrate his birthday?

-C

Featured Photographer: Herman Leonard

The Greatest Jazz Musician Photographer, Herman Leonard is being featured in a huge installation on Franklin Street , Between Fell and Hayes to celebrate the new SF Jazz Center.  Our eye on the SF streets, Susan Mall, sent me this snap of it.

 

As you can see, Leonard’s photos are large prints installed into each window across the street from the new SF Jazz Center, here in beautiful San Francisco.

If you are not familiar with his work, visit his wonderfully designed site here:

http://www.hermanleonard.com

and here are some examples of my favorites of Leonard’s work, Art Blakey, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong.

 

-C-

You down with QPT, yeah you know me!

Ok, some of you out there don’t know what a QPT is.  A QPT is a new series of postings that will give you Quick Photoshop Tips.  Get it.  So lets get rolling.

1. For beginners who cant read the small font that photoshop presents us with (tiny tiny panels), you can make the font size bigger.  This is also a major comfort necessity if you are on a laptop.

Go to General > Preferences >  Interface, and the bottom you have the choice of Small (default), Medium, and Big.  When you make the change, you have to restart photoshop to see it in action.

Here is what they look like small to big:

Clearly, everyone should just choose big!  I know, where is the wow factor in this tip. But you know what they say, “it’s the little things in life.”

- C -