Tag: Photographs
HDR Summer
I recently discovered the HDR setting (a very rudimentary version of real HDR) on the camera app of my (non-phone) iPhone, and have been playing with its unpredictability. Apparently it takes multiple images simultaneously with different exposures and juxtaposes them together in order to arrive at the “best” exposure. It also seems to make things extremely and artificially sharp. This generally results in a bleached-out, highly textured image. I also noticed some very slight double exposed portions of the photographs, especially evident along contours and thin lines. I realized soon that this was because if the camera moves at all while the picture is being taken (processed), the different versions (exposures) of the photo are set into the frame at different points within the composition. But because this is HDR, nothing is blurry. So some sections are a bit off-set, and slightly translucent. Therefore, significantly moving the camera while taking a photograph results in some very strange ghost-like versions of various sections of the image. Lens flares are also accentuated, which I like quite a lot.
That said, I find that this shoddy iPhone version of HDR produces photographs which strongly portray exaggerated, dream-like aspects of the summer—or at least ones with which I’ve been interested over the years—such as shimmering foliage, sun-bleached vegetation, the pressing, omnipresence of light and the heat it produces, strong contrasts of dark shadows on white-out dirt roads and certainly images that conjure sounds of birdsong choruses and the massed aural punctuations of insect noise. A lot of this imagery is due in part to my memories of summers as a child in Vermont, my fondness of de Chirico paintings and the descriptions of the beach in Camus’ The Stranger.
Nighttime
Cellphone camera.
Collages
After making this handbill for the Creative Music Guild, I was inspired to make some collages using similar techniques, but much more involved. I’ve never really done work like this before, except for a bit in college, and creating these was extremely satisfying. All the elements were collaged from my photographs, often abstract photos taken with either an old cell phone or an iPhone 4.
The coast
This is from a couple months ago. Most of these were taken along the Oregon coast, somewhere south of Lincoln City. A few of the final ones are in the valley, along Route 99 going back to Portland.
EV Fest photographs
Some pictures from the EV Fest, located at the galleries Multiplex, Sohitek and Timeshare. A fantastic array of experimental and improv electronic, hip hop and varieties of dance music. At Multiplex, there were many video synthesizers at work, as is evident in these photos. Some of the others are of the enormous parking garage which connected the galleries, spanning a city block.
(Camera: Cell phone)
Folded in
(Camera: iPhone 4)
Obscurity in the summer
(Camera: iPhone 4)
Sides of water tanks
Today I came across a place called Vermont Hills Water Facility, right next to Vermont Street, in Southwest Portland. These are the sides of the water tanks.
(Camera: Cell phone)
Portland sunset
Dark skies in the East and a golden sunset in the West produced some quite magical lighting…
Taken in Southeast Portland.
(Camera: Nikon D50)
Texas again
Texas, once again. Proper photos forthcoming.
Southeast Portland and along the railroad tracks
Far west in the Southeast of Portland, and then along the railroad tracks running by the Willamette River and the highway.
(Camera: Nikon D50)
A House To Call Our House
These are a series of photos from a recent dance performance entitled A House To Call Our House, performed by Julia Calabrese and Layla Marcelle Mrozowski at the Publication Studio in Portland. The performance, part of the Fertile Grounds Festival, is, according to their Kickstarter page, “…a piece exploring the nature of reality in an imagined 5th dimension: a kaleidoscope of images, dancing bodies, banners, houseplants, and infinite gyrating. This choreography of bodies and objects combines elements of dance, theater, and sculpture to create a living installation.” I found the performance to be very engaging, portraying a fascinating depiction of domesticity as seen from an abstracted, dreamlike perspective.
(Camera: Nikon D50)
Strike on Box
Strike on box
Strips of cardboard, packed neatly
Lily white light lace yellow forms
Shifting shakes the final movement
(Camera: Nikon D50)
Lan Su Chinese Gardens, Portland
This morning I went to the Lan Su Chinese Gardens in downtown Portland, taking advantage of the free admission this week. It is a lovely—albeit a bit a small—collection of Chinese plants, gardens, pools and walkways twisting into and out of beautiful rooms designed exactly how they would appear as if it were a traditional garden. The garden is the result of a cooperation between Portland’s sister city in China, Suzhou. Construction began in 1999 on the old parking lot of Northwest Natural Gas. 500 tons of rock were imported to Portland from China for the construction, and 65 Chinese workers travelled here to build it.
I came across a room in which children were (supposedly) painting calligraphic Chinese characters. A sign next to two boards suggested the children try to paint the character “water (水)”, or “fish (魚)”. I noticed that, at least based on the children I observed, no one was painting Chinese characters. Instead, they created some very beautiful abstract paintings, and from these paintings one is reminded of the inhibitions of the young mind, and how at ease it becomes when liberated by creation.
(Camera: cell phone)
Evan Lindorff-Ellery 
