Photo Notes A place to talk about making images.

October 30, 2022

Rock

Filed under: Fine Art,Fine Art Portfolio,Landscape Photography — John Siskin @ 12:40 pm

Abiquiu Rock

I am always interested in shape and texture. This is one reason I shoot so many black and white images. This may be, probably is, why I find myself shooting rocks so often. I could try to differentiate between shoot an actual rock and a cliff or a rock wall, but for the purposes of this page, these are pictures which are about shapes and textures. These images are not about specific rocks, but are about the abstract form. I return to these subjects repeatedly, they inspire and fascinate me. A lot of the less abstract images are on other pages including the Petroglyph images and, soon, images from Bandelier and Tsankawi. Please check out my other pages below.

I often do things which make shape and texture more powerful in my images. Perhaps the first important thing for me is to get really close to the subject and use a wide-angle lenses. I also distort shape and contrast in post. So, these images are not meant to be recordings, but are interpretations. I hope you will find them as fascinating and inspirational as I do./span>

As you might imagine I’d prefer that these pages don’t get filled with a great deal of text. If you’d like information about a specific image, please e-mail me at john@siskinphoto.com and I’ll let you know what I know. Of course, if you have specific requests about an image you’d like to purchase please use the same address. If you’d like to go ahead and purchase an image, please use the Paypal link below and give me the browser link to the image and your shipping address.




I am also trying a couple of things that will give people an opportunity to support this work. While I am fortunate to have enough money to continue to do this work, some things are pretty expensive. For instance 11×14 film is hard to get and costs about $300 for just 25 shots and a 120 roll of Ilford Delta 400 is close to $9.


 

 

A few links

Siskinphoto.Home

Introduction Page

Monument Valley

Taos Pueblo

Night Sky

Flowers

Monastery Road

Petroglyphs

Rock

Ice and Snow

Tsankawi

Sugarite Campground

Churchs

 

I did a large show when I was still in Indianapolis called Courting Chaos. The link will take you to the pages which describe the work and its evolution. These images are, well, chaotic and many of them are nudes. I hope you’ll find it interesting.

Links to my books, still available at Amazon!

October 23, 2022

Petroglyphs

Filed under: Fine Art,Fine Art Portfolio,Other — John Siskin @ 12:16 pm

Monument Valley Petroglyph

I’ve really enjoyed exploring and photographing New Mexico. I’m sure all the images I’ve done in the last couple of years make that clear. One of the most interesting aspects of this area is the long human history. One of the most compelling and oldest human behavior is leaving our marks in stone and wood. Whether in Lascaux Cave in France, the Leang Tedongnge cave in Indonesia or the New York Subway, humans have been writing on the wall for a long time. In this area the marks were carved into the rocks, which means we can still see them today. Of course, depending on the type of rock, some marks are much easier to photograph than others. There is a dark coating on some rock in the desert that is possible to chip off, which makes some of the pictures easy to see.

I’ve photographed petroglyphs at several places, La Cieneguilla, Tsankawi, Canyon De Chelly, Bandelier and Rinconada Canyon. I don’t know what these marks mean or how they relate to the cultures of the indigenous people who left these marks; but I do think that they are fascinating to photograph. I hope you will enjoy these images.

As you might imagine I’d prefer that these pages don’t get filled with a great deal of text. If you’d like information about a specific image, please e-mail me at john@siskinphoto.com and I’ll let you know what I know. Of course, if you have specific requests about an image you’d like to purchase please use the same address. If you’d like to go ahead and purchase an image, please use the Paypal link below and give me the browser link to the image and your shipping address.

I am also trying a couple of things that will give people an opportunity to support this work. While I am fortunate to have enough money to continue to do this work, some things are pretty expensive. For instance 11×14 film is hard to get and costs about $300 for just 25 shots and a 120 roll of Ilford Delta 400 is close to $9.




A few links

Siskinphoto.Home

Introduction Page

Monument Valley

Taos Pueblo

Night Sky

Flowers

Monastery Road

Petroglyphs

Rock

Ice and Snow

Tsankawi

Sugarite Campground

Churchs

 

I did a large show when I was still in Indianapolis called Courting Chaos. The link will take you to the pages which describe the work and its evolution. These images are, well, chaotic and many of them are nudes. I hope you’ll find it interesting.

Links to my books, still available at Amazon!

October 1, 2022

Introduction

Filed under: Fine Art,Fine Art Portfolio,Landscape Photography — John Siskin @ 4:13 pm

I have been posting photographs from New Mexico, on a daily basis for more that two years now. This has been a really good thing for me. It has kept me engaged in doing photography and kept me making new images. A lot of people have been very supportive of this work, for which I am really grateful. So, I really want to continue doing this. However there have been some frustrations in the way this has evolved. I have posted on Facebook, in a couple of areas, and on LinkedIn and sent out e-mail. Unfortunately, this doesn’t create any coherent archive of my images. Also, it means that the images are transitory, today’s image replaces yesterday’s shot. Another challenge is that since I post one image a day, I often have a great many images that may never be posted.

In my time of being an active commercial photographer I did not have nearly as much freedom to do creative work. Now, with retirement from commercial work I have been able to do the creative work that originally excited me photographically. I am very grateful to still be excited and able to do such work. So, I am now going to try to present the work in a different, deeper, way. I will be using my blog to display images that relate to each other as groups. Of course I will continue to post daily images in the same way I have been.

I am also trying a couple of things that will give people an opportunity to support this work. While I am fortunate to have enough money to continue to do this work, some things are pretty expensive. For instance 11×14 film is hard to get and costs about $300 for just 25 shots and a 120 roll of Ilford Delta 400 is close to $9.

I will also be making prints available for purchase. Of course, I am flattered when anyone wants a print of any image I’ve made. And, it must be said, more so when they want to buy a print. If you have a United States mailing address the price will be $65 for a print approximately 11×14 inches. This price includes shipping. If you’d like to order more prints at the same time, they’ll be only $60 for each additional print. This includes shipping and handling. I’ll be putting instructions and a PayPal link with each group of images. These will be digital prints made with an 8-color ink set on paper which is rated for 100 year endurance with these inks. I may make some handmade prints available at a future time. I invite your questions and ideas about this project! Please e-mail me at john@siskinpthoto.com. I also would be interested to know what you think about  any of the images.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few links

Siskinphoto.Home

Introduction Page

Monument Valley

Taos Pueblo

Night Sky

Flowers

Monastery Road

Petroglyphs

Rock

Ice and Snow

Tsankawi

Sugarite Campground

Churchs

 

I did a large show when I was still in Indianapolis called Courting Chaos. The link will take you to the pages which describe the work and its evolution. These images are, well, chaotic and many of them are nudes. I hope you’ll find it interesting.

Links to my books, still available at Amazon!

Monument Valley

Filed under: Fine Art,Fine Art Portfolio,Landscape Photography — John Siskin @ 2:10 pm

 

Thanks for viewing this group of images. This is the among the first of my new group image pages. Since it’s new I would really appreciate feedback. Also, of course some things may not work, and so it goes…

This group of images is from Monument Valley in Arizona. I went in early 2022. Images were made with my Nikon D-850 and my Mamiya Super 23. I usually refer to this as a Mamiya Press. I was using Ilford Delta 400 in the Mamiya. Harry Nez Jr. was my guide. He was fabulous.  Thanks so much for your continued attention!

As you might imagine I’d prefer that these pages don’t get filled with a great deal of text. If you’d like information about a specific image please e-mail me at john@siskinphoto.com and I’ll let you know what I know. Of course, if you have specific requests about an image you’d like to purchase please use the same address. If you’d like to go ahead and purchase an image, please use the Paypal link below and give me the browser link to the image and your shipping address.

I am also trying a couple of things that will give people an opportunity to support this work. While I am fortunate to have enough money to continue to do this work, some things are pretty expensive. For instance 11×14 film is hard to get and costs about $300 for just 25 shots and a 120 roll of Ilford Delta 400 is close to $9. I have put in a link to Roberts Camera/Used Photo Pro that may get me a few dollars. I’ve bought a bunch of my used cameras from Used Photo Pro. They’ve been great! Roberts, basically the same place, is one of my go to suppliers for film. When I was living in Indianapolis their store was just a couple of blocks from my studio. So, I know them well enough to really recommend them. If you want to help me out, please use the link below to check out their stuff.

These images are from my trip in 2023. In addition to pictures from the rim of the canyon there are quite a few from Hunt’s Meas. I used my Toyo 8X10 and Linhof Technika for many of the black and white images. These images are from my trip in 2022. They include a couple of pictures from Garden of the Gods and Canyon De Chelly.

 

A few links

Siskinphoto.Home

Introduction Page

Monument Valley

Taos Pueblo

Night Sky

Flowers

Monastery Road

Petroglyphs

Rock

Ice and Snow

Tsankawi

Sugarite Campground

Churchs

 

I did a large show when I was still in Indianapolis called Courting Chaos. The link will take you to the pages which describe the work and its evolution. These images are, well, chaotic and many of them are nudes. I hope you’ll find it interesting.

Links to my books, still available at Amazon!

Taos Pueblo

This group of images is from Taos Pueblo here in New Mexico. The pueblo is more than a thousand years old and is still occupied today. All images were made with my Hasselblad SWC (purchased from Used Photo Pro) and Ilford Delta film. The Hasselblad SWC is fixed lens camera with a 38mm lens in front of 120 film. The lens is remarkably even and sharp. This camera was made in about 1957, not as old as the Pueblo, but still pretty impressive.  Thanks so much for your continued attention!

Thanks for viewing this group of images. This is the first of the new group image pages. Since it’s the first I would really appreciate feedback. Also, of course some things may not work, and so it goes…As you might imagine I’d prefer that these pages don’t get filled with a great deal of text. If you’d like information about a specific image please e-mail me at john@siskinphoto.com and I’ll let you know what I know. Of course, if you have specific requests about an image you’d like to purchase please use the same address. If you’d like to go ahead and purchase an image, please use the Paypal link below and give me the browser link to the image and your shipping address.

I am also trying a couple of things that will give people an opportunity to support this work. While I am fortunate to have enough money to continue to do this work, some things are pretty expensive. For instance 11×14 film is hard to get and costs about $300 for just 25 shots and a 120 roll of Ilford Delta 400 is close to $9.


A few linksSiskinphoto.Home

Introduction Page

Monument Valley

Taos Pueblo

Night Sky

Flowers

Monastery Road

Petroglyphs

Rock

Ice and Snow

Tsankawi

Sugarite Campground

Churchs

 

 

I did a large show when I was still in Indianapolis called Courting Chaos. The link will take you to the pages which describe the work and its evolution. These images are, well, chaotic and many of them are nudes. I hope you’ll find it interesting.

Links to my books, still available at Amazon!

Monastery Road

This group of images was made over several trips toward Christ in the Desert Monetary near Abiquiu in New Mexico. I usually don’t get all the way out to the Monastery. It’s 14 miles out a dirt road, and frankly the journey is often more interesting than the destination. I’ve taken most of the cameras I currently use out to this area including the Nikon D-850, Mamya Super 23 and the 5X7 Linhof Technika. It’s one of my favorite day trips! Thanks so much for your continued attention!

As you might imagine I’d prefer that these pages don’t get filled with a great deal of text. If you’d like information about a specific image, please e-mail me at john@siskinphoto.com and I’ll let you know what I know. Of course, if you have specific requests about an image you’d like to purchase please use the same address. If you’d like to go ahead and purchase an image, please use the Paypal link below and give me the browser link to the image and your shipping address.

I am also trying a couple of things that will give people an opportunity to support this work. While I am fortunate to have enough money to continue to do this work, some things are pretty expensive. For instance 11×14 film is hard to get and costs about $300 for just 25 shots and a 120 roll of Ilford Delta 400 is close to $9.

 

 

A few links

Siskinphoto.Home

Introduction Page

Monument Valley

Taos Pueblo

Night Sky

Flowers

Monastery Road

Petroglyphs

Rock

Ice and Snow

Tsankawi

Sugarite Campground

Churchs

 

I did a large show when I was still in Indianapolis called Courting Chaos. The link will take you to the pages which describe the work and its evolution. These images are, well, chaotic and many of them are nudes. I hope you’ll find it interesting.

Links to my books, still available at Amazon!

Night Sky

Filed under: Fine Art,Fine Art Portfolio,Landscape Photography — John Siskin @ 2:10 pm

Since I’ve been out here in New Mexico I’ve done a lot of sky images. It’s big sky country! I will be posting other groups, but I wanted to start with some night sky images. I’ll leave the astrophotography details to those more interested in them. I’ve used a couple of lenses, each has it’s interesting features for this work: an old Nikkor 35mm f2.8 Perspective Control lens, a Rokinon 14mm f2.8 and a Soviet era 16mm Fisheye Lens.  Regardless most of the images were made with my Nikon digital cameras: the D800 and the D850. Anyway, I really enjoy this work, and I hope you do also. Thanks so much for your continued attention!

As you might imagine I’d prefer that these pages don’t get filled with a great deal of text. If you’d like information about a specific image, please e-mail me at john@siskinphoto.com and I’ll let you know what I know. Of course, if you have specific requests about an image you’d like to purchase please use the same address. If you’d like to go ahead and purchase an image, please use the Paypal link below and give me the browser link to the image and your shipping address.

I am also trying a couple of things that will give people an opportunity to support this work. While I am fortunate to have enough money to continue to do this work, some things are pretty expensive. For instance 11×14 film is hard to get and costs about $300 for just 25 shots and a 120 roll of Ilford Delta 400 is close to $9.


A few links

Siskinphoto.Home

Introduction Page

Monument Valley

Taos Pueblo

Night Sky

Flowers

Monastery Road

Petroglyphs

Rock

Ice and Snow

Tsankawi

Sugarite Campground

Churchs

 

I did a large show when I was still in Indianapolis called Courting Chaos. The link will take you to the pages which describe the work and its evolution. These images are, well, chaotic and many of them are nudes. I hope you’ll find it interesting.

Links to my books, still available at Amazon!

Flowers

Filed under: Animals,Fine Art,Fine Art Portfolio,Micro Photography — John Siskin @ 2:10 pm

Since I’ve been out here in New Mexico I’ve done a lot of images of flowers, no surprise there. As you may know from other posts, I use a lot of interesting, even strange macro/micro equipment. I particularly like the Medical Nikkor (old version), Vivitar 90-180 Series 1 Flat Field Zoom and the Nikkor 60mm F2.8 Micro. Regardless most of the images were made with my Nikon digital cameras: the D800 and the D850. Anyway I really enjoy this work, and I hope you do also. Thanks so much for your continued attention!

 

As you might imagine I’d prefer that these pages don’t get filled with a great deal of text. If you’d like information about a specific image, please e-mail me at john@siskinphoto.com and I’ll let you know what I know. Of course, if you have specific requests about an image you’d like to purchase please use the same address. If you’d like to go ahead and purchase an image, please use the Paypal link below and give me the browser link to the image and your shipping address.

I am also trying a couple of things that will give people an opportunity to support this work. While I am fortunate to have enough money to continue to do this work, some things are pretty expensive. For instance 11×14 film is hard to get and costs about $300 for just 25 shots and a 120 roll of Ilford Delta 400 is close to $9.


A few links

Siskinphoto.Home

Introduction Page

Monument Valley

Taos Pueblo

Night Sky

Flowers

Monastery Road

Petroglyphs

Rock

Ice and Snow

Tsankawi

Sugarite Campground

Churchs

 

I did a large show when I was still in Indianapolis called Courting Chaos. The link will take you to the pages which describe the work and its evolution. These images are, well, chaotic and many of them are nudes. I hope you’ll find it interesting.

Links to my books, still available at Amazon!

April 24, 2021

Photographic Seeing and Interpretation

 

Apache Mountain Spirit Dancer at Museum Hill Santa Fe, by Craig Dan Goseyan

I made this picture Wednesday on Museum Hill in Santa Fe. The subject is a sculpture titled Apache Mountain Spirit Dancer, and it was made by Craig Dan Goseyan. It’s a very impressive piece. One of the things I hope this image captures is the effect created by the very large size of the work. Regardless of how I interpret the piece, and all photography of 3 dimensional objects, is interpretation, the effect of seeing a photograph is not the same as seeing the thing itself. If you see a photograph of the Grand Canyon, you haven’t seen the Grand Canyon. I think most people who have ever tried to photograph the Grand Canyon have discovered how photographs do not convey the effect of seeing the canyon.

I wanted to mention this because I have a related problem with sharing my images on computer screens. The effect of seeing the image on screens is not the same as seeing a print. First, as in the image of this sculpture, you do not have actual scale of the work. This sculpture must be close to 20 feet tall. If you’re looking at the image on a phone, you simply have no idea, and you also miss texture and much more. I’ve made many big prints over the years, some over 6 feet tall. In fact, one of the reasons I shoot large format film is that I can make big prints. The original size of the digital file of this image is 4 foot 6 inches tall at 300dpi. Actually, I could make an even bigger scan of this negative. If I were to make a traditional darkroom print of this shot, I could make it 9 feet tall, which would help convey the size of the sculpture. Of course, it would be an incredibly difficult thing to make such a print. A few old friends may remember that I once made an enlarger to make such huge prints. Another aspect of my interpretation of this sculpture is that I shot it in black and white. Any black and white image is certainly an interpretation of the original, since most of us see in color. Cole Weston was quoted as saying to his brother Brett “I see in color, don’t you?” I choose to shoot in black and white much of the time because I’m more interested in the shape and feel of my subjects and I want to push the viewers’ eye to see that way. That doesn’t mean I don’t use color; this image like most of my black and white images is subtly toned, which I hope affects the mood of the image. Of course, a print would allow me more control over the tone of an image because it wouldn’t be dependent on how you set up your monitor.

Often, I feel that sharing my images as small digital files is like listening to Tales From the Topographic Oceans done by the band Yes in 1973 on the original speaker of a 1967 Chrysler.  The sound that you hear are related to what the band recorded, but perhaps not closely related. Another disappointing aspect of sharing images this way is that the images from digital phones, and every other image making device out there, are the same size and on the same monitor as images that I crafted with large cameras and processed, painstakingly, in my darkroom.

When I began doing photograph, in the very early seventies, much of what we were taught was actually print making. In those days we were taught to print on silver chloride and silver bromide papers. In more recent times I’ve also learned to make Vandyke and cyanotype prints, both of which involve hand coating paper. I could scan and share these prints but you would lose just about every aspect of the prints which makes them special. Except for the cyanotypes which are a strong blue color. In addition to these types of prints I’ve also made type C prints and Cibachromes, both of which are color prints as well as a couple of platinum prints which are black and white. Print making is an art and craft which was once an integral part of photography; you could not learn to be a photographer without learning to be a print maker. Even when I started doing photography, by which time commercial color printing for amateur photographers was ubiquitous, photo classes always taught printmaking as part of the course. I was talking to another photographer, a guy who is really serious about it. He’s really into wet plate work, tin types and ambrotypes, but he has never actually seen a platinum print or a Vandyke print or an albumen print. These are all beautiful ways of presenting and interpreting a photographic image. One of the reasons that I like to shoot black and white film, rather than make wet plate negatives, is that I can print them in all these different ways. Truth be told, you can also convert your digital images into black and white negatives and print them out onto transparent media. You can make all these print types with these digital negatives. For a variety of reasons, I’ve made digital negatives of film images before printing them, this method works very well.

There are many very fine digital printers on the market and some very lovely papers designed for them. I certainly do not want to take anything away from the current Epson and Canon high end printers. I can’t think of any reason why I would want to make a color print using an enlarger and a darkroom. The simple fact is that these are better prints. Not only is the color spectacular, but the long-term stability of digital prints, if you do it right, is at least as good as prints made from color negatives using type C papers. The fact is that you can purchase one of these printers for much less than a 4×5 color enlarger would have cost you in 1980, in actual not corrected for inflation dollars, is fabulous. While people often mention the cost of paper and ink for these printers, you should have seen what paper and chemicals cost for color darkroom printing. I really like the Canon Pro 100 printer I use these days and I would certainly consider buying another printer from either Canon or Epson. These are terrific tools for color printing. They will also make a fine black and white print. But… the digitally printed black and white image is different from a darkroom print. The dyes or pigments used for the prints are different, and look different, from the silver halides used in traditional black and white prints. The digital prints will also look different, sometimes very different, from the various hand coated prints: Vandyke, cyanotype, platinum and so on. Still it’s no reason not to try and make black and white prints with an ink jet printer, and it might lead to hand made printing.

One more thing about digital printing: it’s really easy to make a bunch of prints. Thousands… So, I’ll sell a digital print for $75, but I won’t sell any darkroom print for less than $300, and some prints would be much more expensive. If you see any prints that you’re interested in on my site, or that I’ve posted, please contact me about buying a print!

In addition to buying images from me, PLEASE buy some photo books. I was looking around my office today and I have over 375 photo books, just in my office. You can look at the images of other photographers on line, and that will improve your seeing, but books allow the photographer to have greater control over the size color and presentation of the images. I believe that spending time with images, especially images the maker cared about, is the best way to improve your own image making.

I thought it might be good to close this post with another image of a sculpture. By way of contrast with the first image in this post, this piece is 3 inches high. It’s a monochromatic piece of work. So, I added color and built a background for the piece in this shot. Also, if you’re interested, I made this image BEFORE Photoshop. The shot was done on a single piece of film using light, multiple exposure and props, old school!

Check out my books at Amazon. I’m not sure the links will work, but you can search for me at Amazon. A digital print of Apache Mountain Spirit Dancer is available for $75 which includes shipping the U.S.A. Such a deal. Please e-mail me at john@siskinphoto.com to order this or another print. Thanks for your attention!

Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting: A Guide for Digital Photographers

https://amzn.to/3tH5Dp9

Photographing Architecture: Lighting, Composition, Post production and Marketing Techniques

https://amzn.to/3c8nLlU

March 30, 2021

Changes in Seeing

The made this image in the Gallisteo Basin, just a couple of miles from where I live. I expect to go back out there later this week. I’m not sure what gear I’ll bring with me. I’m challenging myself to work with different cameras and films to improve my ability to interpret what I see in different ways. Interpretation of a subject is part of making a photograph rather than just taking one.

New version
Gallisteo Basin 12-8-2020-2

I’m putting two versions of this on my blog. The original version I did just after making the photograph. I opened the shot again yesterday, a few months after I did the original version, and made a new version. Of course, I like the new version better, right now… It’s easier to see and re-interpret an image when you’ve put a little time between you and the original shot. There is always more to see.

Original version
Gallisteo Basin 12-8-2020-2

I am now offering prints of many of these images. The index codes for these images are: 46A 3-12-2021 #2. you can buy a print! Right now, all prints are set to fit on an 11×14 inch piece of paper. If the image is too thin it will have white paper on the sides. I am printing with an archival ink/paper combination. Prints are shipped by USPS priority mail to anywhere in the US that’s covered by Priority Mail service. The price is $75 for the first print and $60 for each additional print ordered at the same time. Please e-mail me at john@siskinphoto.com and include index code and your address. I will send you a PayPal request to arrange payment. I will be adding old and new images to this service. If you see an image on my site you would like to purchase please tell me where you found it and I’ll try to make it available to you. Thanks for your support!

And my books!
Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting: A Guide for Digital Photographers

https://amzn.to/3tH5Dp9

Photographing Architecture: Lighting, Composition, Postproduction and Marketing Techniques

https://amzn.to/3c8nLlU

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