White on Black

This series began with the photographing of two manzanita sticks I found while camping. I created only two with my digital camera and photographed a few more with my Pentax 645 in B&W. After returning home I was surprised at how intriguing they were than I even imagined at first. Especially that they are in color. Since I don’t have manzanita growing around my house, I decided to look for other objects.

These images are a series of white(ish) objects photographed on a black background. I began to convert them to B&W, but they lost something in that process. The subtle color in each object gives each photograph a little zing, and I though they were more intriguing with that subtlety of color.

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Claim Jumper

Ignoring the “No Trespassing” sign, a fella decides to test his fate jumping a claim to look for some gold. He spends half a day digging and panning, sweating it out looking for a bit of color and hopefully for a nugget. When suddenly, EUREKA! He pulls out of the dirt a nugget the size of a chicken egg. Just as that moment though the claim owners discover this varmint jumping their claim, and they are mad as hell. The claim jumper jerks around to see a shotgun, a pistol, and a mean looking dog ready to tear his body to shreds. He takes off. Bullets are flying and the dog is hot on his heals. Full of panic the jumper drops the gold nugget, and without thinking he plunges over a waterfall hoping to lose his pursuers. Once the water clears at the bottom of the pool, the claim jumper comes upon the discovery of the century. Right before his eyes is a nugget the size of a basketball. In an instant he thinks of how lucky and rich he is. Unbeknown to the claim jumper though, lurking in the shadows of the murky water, a six foot pike eyeballs him. He just can’t win.

This is the concept motivating the four part photo series “Claim Jumper.” I began last week by hiking to Traverse Creek Falls north of Placerville, CA. By a description I found on the web it seemed to be a promising location for the shot where the claim jumper jumps over the falls. And the description was right. It was perfect except, there was very little water compared to what it would be in the winter during the rains and snow melt.I have plans to visit another water fall out by Mt. Shasta to see if it has more water and would work just as well for the scene I am visioning.

In the mean time I figured I’d try my hand at building the water fall in Photoshop to look the way I want. The image thus far is a composite of over 25 images of the water fall and about 18 layers of the actual water to create a large file of a full flowing deluge. Added to that is a clouded sky image created from about 15 images stitched in Photoshop. This is a rough copy as their are many details that need fixed, which I will complete later.

I wasn’t able to schedule all the models in one day. Last Saturday I photographed Carey at an accessible location at the American River Parkway in Sacramento. I first photographed him coming out of a trail and screaming at the claim Jumper. I created a 10 image composite of the scene without Carey, then later pasted him into the scene.

I hand crafted the rifle Carey is carying using a 2×6 Douglas fir for the stock and two dowel rods for the barrels. I did this for one because I don’t know anyone with a shotgun and the costume shop I visited didn’t have any props. Plus I didn’t want to worry about permits and dealing with any rangers at the County park. It just seemed easier to make the shotgun. And since Carey will remain in the background, any details missing on the gun won’t be noticed. Or I can later paint them in with Illustrator and/or 3D modeling.I found the authentic looking pistol in a toy store, which actually surprised me. With all the problems there has been with kids, toy guns and cops, I didn’t expect to find one so authentic. I’ll take out the orange plastic tip before the shoot. It’s about the size of a 22. I’d prefer at least a 38, but again, it’s going to be in the background, so I don’t think that detail will be noticeable.

Second I photographed Carey by the River posing as if he were shooting at the claim jumper. I’m not satisfied with the image, though. I plan to re-shoot the image but with a reflector filling in the shadows. I’m not necassarily concerned with a lot of details since the focus will be on the claim jumber, however I feel this imageof Carey is too dark. Again, I photographed the scene with a composite of 1o images, then pasted Carey into it.

My focus in the whole series in facial expression. I want the all the final images to have a crisp look with great details, but my goal is expressive faces–sort of a Norman Rockwell influence.

Back from Canada

OK. So I signed up for and started making contacts on some network sites and then nothing. Sorry folks. I started working on all this just before I went off on vacation to Vancouver. I’m back, now, and ready to get things rolling.

First about my vacation. We stopped in Seattle first staying at the hostel in Chinatown. we walked down to the Public Market for the evening. It looks like a great city to hang out in. And yes, we stopped by the original Starbucks, but all I got was a photo. I wasn’t about to stand in the line for my joe. There was a lot of folks wanting their coffee from the original store.

The original Starbucks in Seattle receives a lot of visitors. I was not about to wait in this line just to say that I had my coffee at the original Starbucks.

So we made our way into Vancouver and stayed at the hostel at Jericho Beach. The building is some sort of old military barracks or office. It was a great place and just a walk from the beach. In the city we toured Chinatown (the oldest in North America), Gastown (too much to explain, so look it up), and Granville Island ( a public market and arts village).

David of Alder Bay Boat company at Granville Island has been a boat builder for many years.

We made our way over to Victoria for a day, but I felt it was a wasted trip. By the time we drove to the ferry and boated over we lost half a day. Next time we will have to plan to stay.

Back over on the mainland we drove up to Whistler for a day. As you probably know, Whistler was the host to the 2010 Winter Olympics. There are a lot of fun outdoor activities to do, but you’ll need to take out a second mortgage to do them all as well as eat anywhere. I felt ripped when we found out the $14 personal pizza we got for Lorenzo (my son) for lunch was frozen. The views are spectacular here, after all it is the Canadian Rockies. We didn’t make it up the gondola though. By the time we decided to head up at 5 PM, they were closing. So if you ever decide to go, take the gondola early.

Brandywine Falls is just off the highway toward Whistler. It was amazing the amount of water going down. I wanted to clim to the bottom to shoot up at the falls but there was nothing but cliffs all around.

I didn’t take a lot of photos. I’ve learned long ago that when I’m with my family on any kind of trip that I can’t concentrate like I need to for any serious photography. I just grab what I can when I see something intriguing and move on. And I’m not much for snapshots, so Alba my wife has to take all the vacation photos if she wants any recorded memories.

This stack is from the ferry-boat on the way to Vancouver. The blue on blue sky impressed me as well as the abstractness of just this portion of the boat.

I have several projects in a variety of mediums that I will be working on. My priority is a new portfolio. I’ve pursued the editorial route and was laid off from the newspaper when the economy started tanking. Then the magazines stopped calling as well. It took a lot of work to get where I was and I wasn’t very far along. And for all the effort I was paid chicken feed. My resolution is to go the commercial route. If I’m going to have the headache of running my business and work my tail off to find clients, then I’m going where the money is and that’s in commercial photography. So, I’m going to dedicate the next 12 months to developing the portfolio I want and next summer hit the big streets to find a rep.

This is the only image like this I got in Vancouver. I began a project in 2005 when I was in the National Guard deploying to Kuwait. I have several series of these abstract urban images from many places. Sometime I'll get around to posting galleries on my website www.robertscottphotography.com

My first project that is already in the works is Claim Jumper, a four-part photo story. Other titles I have planned are Extreme Makeover, The Blind Men and the Elephant (or some variation based on the Buddhist parable), Black Knight, The Chase and The Busker. I will post these in their own categories as I begin working on them.

Other pursuits I have in mind are in the fine arts arena. When I was in Georgia I began a series of multi-media paintings on the parables of Jesus. I have about three completed or semi-completed, but stopped for the pursuit of job hunting. I also want to do a painting on the Buddhist parable mentioned above as well as a sculpture of it. I also have an idea for a portrait of my son I want to complete. When I was in Kuwait I developed a style of painting where I use photographs in my paintings. I have a new resolve to continue with these paintings. Again each of these will be placed in their own category as they develop.

And finally, another project is converting my garage into a darkroom. The argument about film vs. digital is dead, however I miss my college days when I could spend all night in a darkroom and not notice one minute has passed by till I walk out in the morning sun. I miss the hands-on process that was photography. Sitting behind a computer running my mouse over an image just doesn’t cut it for me as a fine art pursuit. So I’m building a B&W darkroom to pursue that direction once again. This is my least priority because of the cost that will go into it. I need a new camera, therefore will reserve my financial resources to obtain that first.

I’ll keep everyone posted about once a week as to the progress of my projects. Hope you come back.

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