Happy Accidents

This is what happens when you try to HDR images that don't line up by a longshot...however, I think it's kind of beautiful and dreamy.

negatives experiment #479

Okay, so there aren't 478 other posts on here about digital negative manipulation, but I feel the time I spend on it there might as well be, so this is one I did a little bit ago but felt was missing something, until I decided to try adding color in a very subtle way (yes VERY subtle, achieved via layering color gradients under the image at reduced opacity). And now I have a very nice desktop background that feels less cold-weather-despair (yes I am definitely of the stereotype of SoCal expats who want to shrivel up and die if it rains more than two days in a row...but I love snow, so go figure).

And yes, all of those who guessed "from LA+ferris wheel=that's of the Santa Monica Pier ferris wheel", you're right. Oh stereotypes.

new processes

Alright, so if you've been following this for awhile, you know that in addition to all my comics-ing I'm a photography student, and if you have the misfortune to having talked to me about this lately, you know all about my alternative film processes studies, and how much I geek out when saying phrases like "expanding what film, and ergo, the photographic image has the potential to be". So these are some prints made using Inkodye (made by the good folks at Lumi, I swear this is isn't a product plug, I'm just this excited about the possibilities this stuff offers). Fr those of you with a background in this sort of thing, it's easier to use, cheaper, colorful, liquid light. For the non darkroom-lurkers, it's a bottle of awesome UV-sensitive goo. These are my first prints with it, which will be part of something I'm putting together this weekend.

...Oh hey, you're still here? Cool. So what I did was make a transparency sheet sized negative, and then essentially a contact print. In the bottom print (of the first image) I smeared on a healthy dose of all three colors Inkodye comes in (did this in a safelighted room) but the stripes were a bit much, and I missed some spots...so on my second go, I focused on getting the whole thing completely coated lightly, which looked nice but there were still a lot of brushmarks going willy-nilly, which is a typical side effect of things like liquid light so I suppose I should just accept it, and it is my favorite (hence why it's the close-up picture too). On my third try, I wet the paper (using some scraps left over from the giant fancy printer, so very textured and thick paper essentially, although you can use Inkodye on all sorts of things) and then diluted the dye, so that the paper was saturated with a not-stripy coat...however, some of the dye just dripped right out, so it's too light. Will keep you posted as I figure out how to best apply this.

Making the best out of the negative

See what I did there? Pun! Oops, wait more meta-commentary because I just realized it's still a huge tiff file. Working through some old not-printable negatives via digital scanning. Not sure what I'm doing with this one yet, but not done with it as a project, so stay tuned.

¡El Triceratops!

tori holder: photgrapher of sports things.

Yup, sports. Something I completely understand (not remotely..in fact at one point, I just shouted out "America!" because I figured chances are, something good had happened somewhere in the country). But some nice shots.

ice is a vital part of baseball...I think

now showing

So I'm trying a new method of displaying work here, and hopefully it works better (let me know what you think, that's what the comments section is for). The link below is to a web-album of my latest photo-series/interactive composite art piece, which was recently shown at the Jurried Spring Art Show at SACI Florence. Unfortunately, visual documentation provided fails to fully capture the piece, as like previously mentioned, it was built to be picked up and shuffled around and you just don't get that tactility through the internet, but I believe you can get some feel for what the piece was like via the pictures provided. Okay, officially just ran out of pretentious-artist-babble, it's cardboard, string, and silver gelatin prints. take a looksee:

cardboard box piece 1

hey, more film prints

part three: grottos

Okay so the Medici Grottos are one of the most well-known things in the Boboli Gardens because, well, they look amazing..it was like being in Indiana Jones...I felt so cool! Oh and for those not up on the series, parts one and two in the Boboli gardens series are here.

part two:dishes

Okay, so between having a life, the internet being temperamental, and my computer spazzing out, I have yet to finish my Boboli Gardens Series. Well, have no fear, because, I'm on it. A probably lesser gawked at part of the gardens is the silver museum, which basically means "ridiculously ornate plates and such" as opposed to all actual silver items, and I suppose it is the sort of thing that most people's grandma's drag them in to view, but I not-so-secretly love looking at this sort of stuff. They're super-detailed, painstakingly gorgeous, and essentially JUST TO EAT OFF. Like think about that, once upon a time, that was just for someone fancy to place their fancy snack on whilst entertaining some other fancy person. And that's what a chunk of the people whom are nowadays making all sorts of cool art would be doing: putting all their love and energy into: a plate that only the fanciest of the fancy could even see. So while on one hand it's really great that all this attention was paid to making every little thing beautiful, it really makes me grateful for the modern age. Plus, did I mention there's a bug-themed bowl? Like a bowl based off the things you don't want in your bowl?!

obviously, no one ate off this

see? what'd I tell you? bug bowl!

part one: trees

So yesterday (Sunday) I finally meandered my way over to Boboli Gardens, and it's possibly the most fantastic place in Florence. I took both my 35mm film and DSLR cameras (unfortunately, my computer crashed while uploading from my memory card and I lost roughly 30 photos, so I guess I'll just have to go back..hooray for museum cards!), and went through a lot of media on both, so I decided to make a batch of mini albums that I'll post each day.

oh, hey, prints. Uh, yeah I did those...

These somehow didn't make it up here until now. Good thing I have this extra day and all.

More film prints..

See last post for explanation..