Photographic portion of my attempt to add 200 pieces to my portfolio

I am in the process of making 200 pieces for my portfolio.  A portion of these will be photographs.  Through this series I realized the lack of subject extraction in my photos.  Literally ripping items, taking prunings, pulling books, plucking insects, and placing them on a white background.   I found that this uniform approach to looking at the world helped me appreciate the essence of the things we so quickly consume.  If I could eat the way I see, I would eat so little and write volumes on the trace amounts consumed. 

This blackberry differs vastly from the black raspberry (next image)visually and in the time to harvest.  Black raspberries harvest quickly in my garden, and the blackberries take their sweet time.  Flavor-wise the blackberry wins as it tastes more like wine than fruit.

 

Taken on a family trip to the Museum of Science from the parking garage.

These are all coffee beans roasted for different lengths of time.  The left-most bean is a unroasted green coffee bean.  The right-most bean is a coffee roasted to what most roasters would call a french roast.  I took up this hobby after a friend of a friend (from Eugene, OR) told me he roasted coffee beans with a bowl and a blow torch.  Up to this point, my wife and I had done tons of research to find the best coffee roasting machine.  It turns out we already had the means to roast, we just needed to get inexpensive green beans (sweetmarias.com) and put in 45 minutes a week to have the fresh french press coffee and slammin' espresso shots.  We used to spend about 16 cents a cup buying roasted whole beans.  Now we spend about 8 cents a cup and I've read green beans can be stored for 6 months.  

 This is an oldie but goody from a few years ago.  I was unemployed and had tons of time.  So I naturally started taking pictures of reflected light.  The best results came from water filled wine glasses.  I did some processing on the computer for color and to bring out the more ghostly shapes.

I wanted to reproduce a photo I had taken a few years ago showing how tomatoes ripen on the vine.  I had seen this several times in my garden and I found an excellent example last week.  I pruned the vine a bit before taking this.

These are used watercolor wells.  The photo was taken with a macro lens at +4 magnification.  I was trying to paint some plastic pieces I had around the house and I thought to take a picture of the wells instead.

All of these photograph prints are for sale at my etsy shop for $20 a print.  Each print size ranges from 7" x 10" to 8" x 10".  There are 100 copies available for all images shown here.  

Unique

After putting up 20 or so older (more seasoned) and newer photographs, I decided to change things up a bit. I got some lights, set up an ad hoc light table and took the more colorful bits of nature out of context.

I found that leaving this in nature before the picture was nice, but I hadn't really been working my composition muscles. Having a flower in front of me, without the support of it's native stem, sunlight, or in the chorus of growing things forced me to see what this little object was made of. I turned the subject. Took pics from above and below. I eventually found that there were specific striking angles, that really caught my eye. Even dropping the photograph's colors helped focus in on that unique geometry.

I posted several images on etsy, and they were able to cluster together other hand crafted items that paired well.

See this Summer Collection

I was so gitty! Anything and everything in my house ended up in front of my camera. Old books, oregano sticks left over from my garden. It seemed so much was interesting when I focused on the little things that made the subject stand out.

Check out this "In The Afternoon" Collection.

An etsy collection or treasury is just a 4x4 grid where an etsy user curates all of etsy products and picks the best ones that fit well together. To see these treasuries and see the new context in which my photography could be placed brings me an immense amount of satisfaction.

Here's another etsian's image that fits my mood after this exercise.

Weekend in Vermont

This photograph is for sale and was taken while driving south on Rt 91 to Brattleboro, VT during a sunrise. This past weekend, I got to sleep twice in my minivan, got less than 5 hrs of sleep 3 days in a row, and spent the weekend driving around and photographing Vermont with my son, bro, and sis. Seeing mountain ranges that span so far you have to turn your head, and literally being so far out cell phones are useless has to be the most exhilarating experience. There was as much in the grand views, as the simple fragile landscapes with red rotting barns in the valley of green mountains that summons rivers to parade to the sea. Witnessing how expansive the rivers are and how far they span, is truly remarkable. Even a relitively dry river ways create rocky open caverns to show evidence of it's power during the spring. Driving across narrow roads placed on dams, and be scared is such a great thing. The Brattleborough's farmer's market brought out the best artists in all arenas (bakery, soap making, farmers, jewelry makers...) and have musicians playing an instrument in the square then seeing the same musicians play different instruments downtown in the same day. We secured unfrozen meats and seafood from the local butcher and fishmonger, and tossed them on a fiery grill. I've never been so fascinated by the sound of sizzling meat! The flame did most of the work, we just sat and watched the show. My taste buds were handing out first place ribbons to the wild salmon + hanger steak! These experiences can't be found in a book, on the web, or within 4 walls. They can only be found in the wild.

We're Back!

I've started up a store so these pics and all that are to come will be available in several forms. Even as iphone skins! (Sqwair store) I'll make a store link on the blog so when this post rolls off into the sunset, you'll still have a quick way to shop. Here are two of the latest pics. I seem to be finding more time lately. : )

Update since 2010

It has been a while since I've posted here. I've gotten a lot of positive feedback and I've set in motion an account that will help put up some of the best pics from this blog for sale. I hope to return to shooting photo's just for the sake of it, but I need to exhaust other passions first. I've recently designed and started selling a hybrid animal called Hammerander (Hammerhead Shark + Salamander). Got to use my Nikon for this and it was fun!!

It has been a weird two years (time since my last post). I've had a beautiful daughter, watched my son grow into an age where I still have childhood memories, and now I've been able to spend more time with my wife at music shows. It is a new normal as I've been told and I'm still learning to embrace and appreciate it.

During that time I also got involved with quirky.com, which is a community driven product development company. They've released all sorts of products like flexible outlets, A Shower Station, ice scrapers, funky praying mantis shaped lights, crazy hangers, gadget docking trays,Bandits, wine corkers, food graters, wine glass accessories, and much more. They've moved into Target and will be selling from there in all Target stores by the end of their summer. I was fortunate to win a few rounds (and earn extra royalties), which made me really think about how I could use the money and where I wanted to apply my energy. I had been using Google Sketchup and Maxwell Render to make product submissions for quirky.com + edisonnation.com and ended up doing around 25 concept renders the latter half of 2011 into this month. On the side, I entered a makerbot contest to design a monster inside a small build space 100mm x 100mm x 120mm and I was up for the challenge. Entering this space was a lot more challenging than a concept render. Actually designing something to be made on a 3d printer meant the design had to be perfect. No holes, and geometry facing the right way. Here are some submissions I entered:

This process of staring at a blank computer screen and trying to come up with monsters helped me realize a couple of things. I have a lot to learn when it comes to making a monster, and I needed to explore one particular design a bit more. Enter Hammerander. I made some friends with some successful members of quirky.com and a subset got together to be an informal advisory board. Bring and idea and leave with solid feedback. I brought the idea of a hybrid animal and they gave it their full support. I even got a name out of one of the members, which is so cool. When you are so close to an idea that needs a lot of work, it is extremely difficult to think of everything that needs to be done. Which is why communities are so important. Especially those who help shove you in the right direction.

I have also been reading Seth Godin's blogs and books (We Are All Weird, and Poke The Box). And I've read Tim Ferriss' 4 hour workweek and 4 hour body books. Both have really taught me tons of new approaches to business and life that I had never heard of. I see this time now as a lab to experiment in the techniques they've suggested. I'll be continuing the Hammerander story at this blog.

Trunk

pumpkin *

Hudson Hot Air Balloon Fest 2010

Missed the take off, but caught the night show.  Very great festival.

Nashoba Peaches

Freshly picked during my wife's company outing.

Tomato Fade & Ice

Red Light

Artist hold a 3d exhibition... Media created using 2 Nikon D90s

See the exhibit here.

THE DOCUMENTATION OF AUSTRALIAN CREATIVES IN STEREOSCOPIC

A bit about us.

Alex Fry has spent the last decade working in motion picture visual effects. His current obsession with photography has grown out of his love for both the aesthetic and the technical.

Jamie Nimmo has worked in visual effects and advertising for 7 years. He is also curater and photographer of Oh Really Gallery in Newtown. Both Alex and Jamie have worked on such feature films as Lord of the Rings, Superman Returns, Batman Begins, Harry Potter, 300, 28 Weeks later, The Knowing and the upcoming Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, set for 2D and 3D release later this year.

Full Moon

review: Caleb Charland

http://www.calebcharland.com/

Check out his biographs.  I'll attach one image here so you get an idea.  He is an amazing photographer taking light photography to a new level, but his biographs and the story of their creation and his hands-off creativity is breath taking.

Stroll by the garden.. after the rain.

Dried oregano stems can double as toothpicks for sandwiches

--
Ruben Brito

blogs: http://flavors.me/urbenz
quirky community: http://bit.ly/b11bjP