Questionnaire Results & Actions Taken
Hey folks! I told a lot of you over the last few weeks that I had a questionnaire to help shape the site and I got a lot of input on where I should focus my efforts.
Hey folks! I told a lot of you over the last few weeks that I had a questionnaire to help shape the site and I got a lot of input on where I should focus my efforts. If you don't wanna hear me drone on and on skip to the pie charts and what that means, but for those of you who are sticking around, lemme explain why I did this. Primarily, I'm a dreamer. I have aspirations toward not only photography projects in the future, but I tend to live in the future where the next logical step of growth is product X, Y, and Z. A good amount of these things are grounding and humbling, and while the "market" for certain things is low right now. I see a future for it in the next few years...but that's where things are gonna wait. By all means, I'm not dialing things back because I wasn't getting the answers I wanted, I'm putting things on the backburner because Woodstock doesn't even know my brand's name yet. So to that let's see why I got to that conclusion and where I go with this information.
Is this your first time to the site?
Do you frequent the site
What brings you to the site?
So of the people polled; I have a small following of regulars, and of those people, they come for what I'm trying to push. This is a start, but needs growth. Let's talk blog. I'm not going to get into the like/share/comment because it fell flat and completely which leads me to the first implementation: Going forward with the site, blogs will not have comments, likes, or shares (this can't help if some templates have that built in). Putting attention or concern into who is or is not commenting or contributing and moderating that is a waste of time and attention. So, then let's talk about the future of the blog.
I want more _______ related blogs.
Results are in! I'll say this much, there was a LOT of hate toward product and gear reviews, which worries me as the gear reviews were to go hand in hand with the planned buyers guide for photography. On a side tangent, that book is/was supposed to be gear toward the person asking "what camera should I get?". Due to the volume of people uninterested in gear (which will only affect how frequent these posts show up), my hand is forced and decisions are made:
Going forward the book planned for the holiday season is suspended indefinitely.
Blogs will continue to have Upcoming Projects featured, but the "Photography Techniques" will show up in the blogs soon. the "Slice of Life" blogs/vlogs may require a separate channel....maybe on that "Bendersama Channel". IF...if I go through with it, I won't be there regularly like a BDoublO100 Family vlog or even a Casey Naistat. I just can't put myself and my family in a spotlight that won't be regular and should be more on photography. I never rule things out though...
On the topic of the buyer's guide being suspended, I wanted to at least offer photography ground level lessons or some kind of tutorials. This was supposed to be sister products one leading to the other. Being that as such I wanted to get peoples intention of learning an art form and trade. That lead to the next group of questions:
Are you a photographer
So you answered anything but "Yes", honestly that's great! That means you are in the market to learn.
Would you want to learn about photography
Well, that definitely speaks for itself. Not interested in gear because the people majoritively are not interested in learning photography. That's not to say things may change over time, but that gives me the freedom to focus back on what is important. While it's bittersweet, not once did I ever get the impression that these opinions are permanent. Now, this isn't to diminish those that do want to learn. Those that want to learn had great suggestions on avenues they wanted to learn and even pay to learn: one on one, workshops, and even videos tutorials. To those people; contact me bender@bendersama.com, if you are interested. Otherwise, we move on for now to greener pastures.
This brings us to the last bastion of secondary sources of income, beyond the primary clients, the store. Products beyond the prints, print sizes, and availability of prints were the topics of discussion and some big changes have been and will be made. Let's dive in:
TOPIC: I would buy other merchandise from the store to diversify
What size prints would you like to see
So what this and the other questions asked tells me is that a variety of prints needs to be added. So, in another announcement I can make: Going forward, the STORE now carries a variety of sizes of each print ready to print and ship via a local print company who can cater to larger prints. This coupled upon how people believe the current price of my 13 x 19 print is more than fairly priced (previously $10/ now $12) means I can give a more a variety at lesser the projected price. On the topic of Limited Print Runs to Open Print Runs, there's no denying that limited print runs at this early of a store's conception alienates a good amount of people. Consumers don't want to buy a single run or limited run of prints for what they feel is no different (other than supply amount, paper type, and numbered certificate) at more the price. So. Going forward, all limited and single print runs are open! Certification of authentication will be supplied as will a number of the print, but will not be of a certain print amount unless stated in the future. That means C M Y K, Poison the Mind, Epic, and Clarity are all open runs and in a variety of sizes.
What does that mean for those who already were gifted or purchased prints? For the backers that helped fix my camera, the limited or "small batch" papers used to print those will not be the same as the photography prints done on luster paper now and in the future. To my best customer; we worked out a deal, and I'll leave it as that. So with the exclusivity for most gone where does, that leave the demographic who would pay more for a less amount in the "print pool". Reserves. Going forward; any prints scheduled to come out (winter run) will have a reserve gift with purchase. The print may come as a variant in color, or come with and extra print, or something else (maybe a USB stick of a digital print version for a wallpaper, maybe special wrapping). The fact is those will be limited to 5, and if you don't act on it, that's it. They won't show up at the store, they won't be available any other way except as a reserve to the forthcoming related print release.
....and that as they say is that. This covers how I will be handling the store and the blog on the revamped site coming later in July. I'll be signing off her and now for about a week as I get to planning and shooting for assets on the site, but don't think dear reader for one instance that I'm disheartened by some of these avenues not fully being open and accepting. I see it as a sign to stick with what I know, to help my store's inventory and fill it with prints. Arguably you all wanna see more in the store and I intend to make good on that monthly, so I'll be busy working on this and you come back soon....eh, not too soon.
Thanks for stopping by, and see you again soon!
Bendersama
First film camera, film vs digital, & ASA (Analog Season Adventure)
Anybody who has been following me knows that I was gifted and refurbished a Hasselblad 500C. The 500C was the camera used for C M Y K (still available at the STORE until Winter), but few know that most recently I picked up a Canon AE-1, the camera that really started it all.
Anybody who has been following me knows that I was gifted and refurbished a Hasselblad 500C. The 500C was the camera used for C M Y K (still available at the STORE until Winter), but few know that most recently I picked up a Canon AE-1, the camera that really started it all. Way back in 1999 and 2000 I work at a pizza place. This helped pay rent and fund a defunct cable access show I was interested in writing and filming with a group of guys I recently met. For a number of reasons it failed, but it was necessary. During our promo and marketing photoshoot I worked with a friend who was starting a legitimate photography business herself. I was looking at her work and was really attracted toward the (what would be known eventually as "bokeh") background blur and use of shallow depth of field. I then, as a hobbyist, started looking for a camera to just screw around with. My boss at the pizza shop let me borrow his Canon AE-1, and along with researching how to properly expose a photo I was free to just shoot whatever, wherever, whenever. Many years later, I found several film negatives. Here's a couple from the roll I can share.
I say "this is what I can share" because the other photos have people in it and I don't have their permission to show their likeness. None of these have anything illegal, but I doubt an ex-girlfriend or some people I don't even talk to anymore would want to see themselves magically show up on a blog online, so I bow out from showing them. None the less given the opportunity to use my boss's camera over the summer was a watershed moment in my life as that was when I wanted a camera of my own to shoot more often and eventually for money as a business.
I was asked once on Facebook; "Hey Bender, do you prefer film or digital?". That requires a good and somewhat lengthy explanation, so Nathan, here it goes... (finally)
Ask an audiophile about vinyl or the best quality of audio and it will be a polarizing answer. While the analog sound gives the fidelity you want/need digital HD is similar but lack the comfy feels vinyl brings. Funny thing about that though as a counterpoint, it really is only a matter of time before technology catches up, and with that analogy somewhat explained...
I learned everything I knew about film through my camera's viewfinder and built-in light meter. Other cameras wouldn't give me that opportunity if it wasn't baked in, so I consider myself lucky in that respect. I would have some severely under or over exposed shots if my camera didn't teach me how to compensate the shot through shutter speed or aperture control. When I went to digital I already had that knowledge, but this time I was given immediate satisfaction as I could see how the shots came out right after the shutter snapped the photo. In short, I learned on film and I perfected on digital. That doesn't answer the question but it should shed some light on my preference. Digital has its place when taking photos for a business, shooting for an engagement, or capturing headshots. Immediate satisfaction and the ability to capture, edit, and send out a photoshoot in less time than it would take for film is an unbelievable convenience. I would add that even the picture quality is top notch in modern day digital cameras. How so ever, nothing goes you those comfy feels quite like analog film. Film would be obsolete if it wasn't for people like Peter Lik (who shoots medium format panoramic film), or David Brookover (who shoots large format film). These people know like I know that film will never die because digital can't replicate film in certain respects to clarity or color for larger than 35mm format. You could argue saying it's the film, not the camera and in digital replicate it (film's look), but it's really beyond that. Shooting analog, in any format, is just simply a more personal, enjoyable, and therapeutic experience over digital, which seems almost cold. Again, in riding the line, digital is great! Digital, no matter how you nit-pick, has gotten to and is advancing over film photography as a whole when it comes to color, resolution, and fidelity. Where it falters for now is in Medium and Large format photography, which to most (non-photographers) is unimportant and doesn't apply to them, which is fine. So if forced to make a recommendation; as 35mm and smaller formats go, go with digital; but in medium and large format photography, film's benefits outweigh digital.
I hope this answers you question Nathan! This brings me to a smaller announcement I wanna throw out there; I'm going back to film. This won't take over my digital photography 9 to 5, rather it's a seasonal (Summer into late Fall) kick back and fall back to my original analog roots. These shots will be shared online through my recently re-established Flickr account, and choice shots may find it's way to the store. Either way this first year of film will see me use the following films.
35mm
-ILFORD XP2 ASA 400
-Fujifilm Provia 100F
-Fujifilm Natura 1600
-Kodak Gold 400
120
-Kodak Portra 160
-Fujifilm Velvia 50
-Fujifilm Velvia 100
-Lomography Turquoise 100-400
-ILFORD Delta 3200
Several rolls of the films listed will keep me busy for a bit, and I look forward to going analog over the Summer, but more importantly going analog into Disneyland....
October, I have a family trip planned as we go back, back to California for baptisms. While there, we (the family) plan on spending a few days in my "laughing place", Disneyland. This family vacation will not entirely or to great length be documented digitally, which should make for some really creative photos. I'm pumped, if not for Disneyland for giving myself the freedom to do whatever in film photography without feeling like I NEED to nail this shot of said person place or thing. So swing on back next week, cause I have a questionnaire for you readers. This will help the site and me have a roadmap to expectations into the future! Thinks for stopping by, and have a great rest of your week!
On Location: Hillbunker Farms
So the wrap party for Meat You Maker wouldn't be complete without one of the most important and helpful ends to the project, the farms. I won't focus on all of them, just the one I locally get my eggs from, the farm that has a store next to it offering more than just eggs, a farm where most recently on my visit to shoot was recently blessed with several newborns. That farm is Hillbunker Farms.
So the wrap party for Meat You Maker wouldn't be complete without one of the most important and helpful ends to the project, the farms. I won't focus on all of them, just the one I locally get my eggs from, the farm that has a store next to it offering more than just eggs, a farm where most recently on my visit to shoot was recently blessed with several newborns. That farm is Hillbunker Farms. So come with me as I take you through what all this farm my offer you if you are a local (Woodstock, Illinois) resident. From YKFDRUMMIE....
...to a land of locally raised chicken, pigs, and sheep. Below are a few pictures of the chicken I chose to use for Meat Your Maker, along with a few other chickens freely roaming around. To bait them closer Michelle, one of the heads at Hillbunker Farms, gave me chicken feed. Many different breeds were present, and it was nice to see where I actually get my eggs. As an aside, I feel this is lost on a lot of people going to a grocery store; a disconnect from where and how they get their food. The chicken there are free range, not cooped up in a cage like most. However the trip didn't end at the chickens.
They also had pigs. Not just pigs, kunekune pigs. At the base of the family tree sits the father to these kunekune pigs, Mr. Pig Newton
Pig Newton, so I'm told and shown, has convinced himself through domestication that he acts more like a cat than a boar. Instead of having a surly and semi-agressive behavior like a boar, he will walk next to you and nuzzle your leg like a cat for petting. He's a friendly boar and loves fruit as a tasty treat occasionally. So I was told, Pig Newton was named by Michelle as she has always wanted a pig of her own when she was younger. Finally her first pig for the farm was named, and a happy lady got her handsome swine.
Now I won't get into the WIkipedia of what kunekune pigs are all about, but I will give a brief rundown. Kunekune pigs are ideally pets. They are docile, smart, and are great companions (like pot-bellied pigs) craving human attention. While you can slaughter one for the meats they aren't farmed for that primarily. So I was told by Michelle's husband, he was utilizing one for their meat and smelled an unmistakable smell of something similar to fish oil. Turns out he discovered that the kunekunes meat is lush with Omega-3 oils. Dietary speaking these beautifully colored animals are woodland grazing pigs, so in addition to the treats you see Michelle give Pig Newton to pose they get food from the surrounding grass, mushrooms, and vegetation.
Lastly, I was introduced to the sheep. Recently, just like Pig Newton, the sheep had several bundles of joy. While they had three with a soon thereafter forth lamb, I was able to only get two of them away from their mom with Michelle's help. Their wool, at their storefront, is used as dryer balls for laundry. The benefits of the wool balls cut down on dryer running time and can be used as a natural fabric softener!
I post these pictures and write these things not because I was asked to, and I have no dealings with Hillbunker Farms other than being a loyal customer. That being said Hillbunker Farms is a local farm with a storefront. they have local bee honey (which is not only helpful to the farms but a spoonful helps with allergies), previously mentioned wool dryer balls, delicious eggs from their free range chickens, and for the right price and time of the year they sell newborn baby kunekune pigs as pets. That just scrapes the surface though as many arts and crafts are available there including what my mother-in-law recently purchased, a lavender scented candle. I only mention this because it's the least I can do (offer more business) for their hospitality. Special thanks goes to Michelle for taking the time to show me around and allow me to shoot photos in the farm. If you or anybody you know is a local to Woodstock Illinois, or reside in the North West suburbs of Chicago, swing by Hillbunker farms and tell 'em Bendersama sent you!
Post production photos utilized Bendersama Photography's Kandilande Lightroom Presets, available soon
Meat Your Maker part 3
In this third and final installment I'm gonna go over "BLJCHEWNA" short for BLUE LONG JOHN CHEWNA.
In this third and final installment I'm gonna go over "BLJCHEWNA" short for BLUE LONG JOHN CHEWNA. First, I wanna state that this is actually a Rainbow Trout pictured, "Chewna" is actually the name of my dog's stuffed fish chew toy. So moving on from that fish can be farmed just like chicken and cattle, and as fish farms go this represents the trout farm I grew up around called Lake Julian Trout Farm. The blue in the background flowing with the other primary colors, and the secondary color of green used for the trout follows the same color theme as orange for the YKFCHICKEN and purple for RMCBOVINE. As the eye wonders down you are left with this pixelated, bugged, vaporwave-esque depiction of a certain fast food establishment's fish and chips (chips not included....hush puppies extra). The intended style was to portray, much like vaporwave, a retro, Windows 95 OS, 32-bit video game feel to it...
...and just like that the project that was dreamt back in 2010/2009, that saw revision after revision, came to a close. I alway feel a sense of accomplishment whenever a big project sees completion, as if to see a physical embodiment of what's rattling around in my mind finally birthed so others can see. Many other projects and ideas still take up space, and sometimes weigh heavily on my mind as to how I'll make it happen; but if there's one thing I know from EPIC and Meat Your Maker, it's that if I plug away at something long and hard enough anything can be accomplished.
Thank you for sticking with the blog for Meat Your Maker, and if you want a copy of this, swing by the website's "store" in July/August as it will be up for a limited supply and time. Until next time; thanks for stopping by!
MEAT YOUR MAKER
A FIELD TO FACTORY TRIPTYCH
Meat Your Maker part 2
Thanks for coming back, dear reader. This is the unveiling of the second part to the "Meat Your Maker": A Field to Factory Triptych. I call this one "RMCBOVINE" was again is short for Red McDonalds Bovine.
Thanks for coming back, dear reader. This is the unveiling of the second part to the "Meat Your Maker": A Field to Factory Triptych. I call this one "RMCBOVINE" was again is short for Red McDonalds Bovine. I touched up on the color theory of the pieces previously in posts, and I suppose it will be more evident when the third piece comes out later this week. How so ever you can get the theming between pieces just from these two. Red and yellow being primary colors, while orange and this time around purple taking the secondary color spot. The nice people at a neighboring farm from Hillbunker Farms, Windy Acre Farms, let me on to their property to shoot, and was able to nail the shot after only a few minutes with little to no difficulties. The gradient used was more of a black leading to the burger shot. Now I'm not putting McDonalds, a Chicago company, on blast but I'm not foolish enough to not see that McDonalds has been and continues to be the punching bag of an example for anybody and everybody. They are also picture perfect at most any given time as of late, which does helps fish out its poor image the last few decades. Beyond the burger, the style of "urban art" which the burger is made is reminiscent of magazine, newspaper, or billboard ads utilizing a halftone style. Look really close at print ads and still to this day some utilize this style of halftone printing. It gives certain images color tones while saving on ink, and in black and while it can give shades of grey with little effort. Something I always noticed ever since I was little, and shoved my face real close to pictures to see the style of images in magazines and books. That covers this edition of Meat Your Maker, join me later this week as I wrap up this triptych. I'll be putting this and much more later this Summer as Bendersama Photography redesigns the site and fills the shop up a bit more. Until then, take care and thanks for stopping by!
Meat Your Maker part 1
Apologizes all around to you viewer, as I have been side tracked with a book I am writing for later this year, along with a camera upgrade (more information to come). We're back, and it's now time to unveil Meat Your Maker individually.
Apologizes all around to you viewer, as I have been side tracked with a book I am writing for later this year, along with a camera upgrade (more information to come). We're back, and it's now time to unveil Meat Your Maker individually. Each one of these has a story to their creation and since we already know about the drummie, the item that started it all, it's only fair to start it off by seeing where that drummie went. I call this "YKFDRUMMIE", short for Yellow/KFC/Drummie. The chicken itself is actually from a local farm, the source of a separate blog later, Hillbunker Farms. This farm offers wool balls for dryers, local honey, soaps, pigs, lambs, eggs, and chicken to name a few. They do pretty good for themselves, and it was a pleasure to work with them on this project. As you can tell by the previous blogs the art style and design that I was going for was executed perfectly and right down to the chicken colored and edited to look like a monochromatic dollar bill face. I'm really happy with the results! As your eyes go down the piece you can see a vibrance and liveliness to it slowly wash away into want it becomes. Now I didn't want it to be too depressing towards the bottom but a more solemn monotoned and monochromatic theme needed to be implemented, so it was a departure from color topside to black/white/grey at the bottom. Each one of the "products" at the bottom also fit a street art style, as mentioned before in a previous blog I believe. For this piece of the triptych I went for a Banksy-like black and white vector, colorized it, and still tried to give it the vector paper urban poster feel. To re-iterate, this is one part of a three part triptych, and you'll see the other pieces in the next few days separately. So please do check back as I'll give each one their time to shine. This leads up to a great Summer store update coming in July where Meat Your Maker will be one of the many things that gets added! Check back in a few days, and thanks for stopping by!
Color Play and Symbolism: A color evaluation of Meat Your Maker
Previously, on my blog....
We discussed how a drummy was destined for something greater than something contrived to more in-line with the flock that was putting out the same unoriginal work day in and day out. I wanted something with more design/color, something to make you think but not hard. Something with a message but not too deep as to seem intellectually edgy and smug. I went with the triptych because I wanted to focus on three sources of meat: "Land Meat" most common of this is cattle with their "transformation" a burger, "Sea Meat" farmed or wild trout and its form being fish sticks, and "Air Meat" Chicken best represented with its counterpart fried chicken. Examples to these may or may not be the best representation of the animal, seeing as McNuggets are far "worse" for you than fried chicken, but I think it's splitting hairs. Anything deep fried in excess can't do a body good, and the fact all three of these "fast food" representatives can be bought as fast food is enough.
The three pieces laid out was supposed to start from the top and degrade to the bottom. This is to show the original full of life animals on top and as the eye moves down the food form of them is at the bottom. Represented for each animal I was leaning on something simple and went with primary colors; Red, Yellow, and Blue. The animals themselves were going to be secondary colors, Orange, Green, and Purple, with the piece next to it; so the cow is going to be maroon or purple (depending) because the red piece is going to be next to the blue piece. The background primary colors are supposed to be vivid and slide down to a darker, depressing, more warped version of the original color; kinda like the animal to their product. The only changes I really swapped up was the fast food items. The original food stuffs were just going to be the same style of black and white "Banksy-like" street art vector, but I needed more diversity in the street art so I went with different mediums; graffiti, wall art vectors, and billboard halftone ad art.
Lastly, the animals were something unique. Back in the ye olde olden days, animals were a form of payment in trade. Barter system aside, the fact is livestock did and still do have financial value. Which got me thinking about the art style of U.S. currency, which always interested me. The line stencil art of each bill seemed very interesting, and I intended to recreate that style with the livestock animals, to give the animals some value. I think that covers the design and color, wanna see the pieces in their final form?
OK!
In two weeks I'll show each one of the triptych every other day! Why two weeks? Because next week I have a video for those interested in buying the triptych. A pre-order bonus if you will.... See you all next week, and thanks for stoping by!
It started with a drummy...
When shown in it's form (above) it raised a lot of questions; what was the purpose of the drumstick, and why was it changed in format from the photo originally? I'll be perfectly honest.... I don't have any idea the exact year this was taken, but if I had to guess it might have been around 2010. So it was in the making almost seven years, but It didn't start out as what you see now. It started as a faux Andy Warhol design that was going to have vectors of the same crow in flight in a row and several columns and one of the crows was going to be the drummy. Let's see if I can recreate it: (be kind, I threw this together in a matter of a few minutes)
So this was the original concept of my vision, and I scrapped it. I thought higher of myself than to go to a faux-Warholian Pop Art well, which isn't a slam against the artist. Where I lived at the time (Palm Springs area) it seemed like anybody who claimed to be an artist could always fall on Pop Art to move... I also need to back pedal again and say I have nothing against Pop Art, but when that's all I see at the time I kinda went with the flow, and thought to myself "Well, maybe my vision will be different." "Maybe my art will be deeper." I suppose my reasoning behind it, trying to come up with a more profound message (if art really has to have one anymore), gave birth to a different plan of attack, and thusly Meat Your Maker began. So after many years of thought between projects I came up with a mindful and colorful Pop Art triptych. The concept was a reflective question: Do you really everyday, every meal, consider where your source of protein, that gives you strength, comes from?
Do you really consider "how the sausage is made"? From a non judgmental position, you should. You should because modern fast food, while convenient, separates you and disconnects. It's in that passion I thought of how this piece was just going to incorporate more than the drummy. I tried thinking of patterns and easily memorable expressive formats, then it occurred to me. A younger me would go with a few friends on a Wendy's run before we gathered around and played Dungeons and Dragons. We would get the "Churchill Special" and get Land, Sea, and Air. I'll save the details on what we ordered to be judged a little less, but it is in that vein (and things in three are more memorable) that I went with a triptych approach. Well, this covers the picture with the past and the seed that grew into the triptych you all will see soon enough. In the "making of" I'll touch base on all the details I thought of throughout the days leading up to the final reveal. Keep checking back this week and next for a few updates and posts about Meat Your Maker, as I'll have an announcement here about a limited engagement related to it. Thanks for dropping by!
YEAR OF THE ROOSTER: Chinatown Photowalk
It's been a while since I posted on here, and that's going to start to change as it warms up, but I wanted to upload some photos I took on our trip to Chicago's Chinatown during the New Year Celebration. My trip was cut short how so ever as I wiped out on the street falling on both knees after stepping into and tripping on a pothole. I made the most of the day, and I intend to return next year, and even sooner as the food was amazing at Triple Crown (not surprised). The photos below were taken on my 5D mk II w/ 17-40mm lens, and per usual copyright laws are mine (Bendersama Photography) and require permission to be used outside this website. Now with that outta the way, enjoy!
EPIC
It was 2012, and I just moved back to Illinois from California. I grabbed a job to pay me the first week I landed and needed something to pass the time and keep me creatively busy. Luckily, I had a huge inspirational windfall while I flew. I was going to come up with a gallery, or at the very least a book that paid homage to Nintendo Power covers. Those timeless covers of video game scenarios was always one of the main reasons to get Nintendo Power, other than the codes, comics and reviews. Ya know, as a sidebar it may be the reason why I collected Playboy magazines, the cover (no lie). Regardless the case, I wanted to make grand scenes from video games and photograph them; the first one was a no-brainer. My wife and I had recently (back in 2012) played Epic Mickey, a Disney video game exclusively for the Nintendo WIi. The game spans an area much like
Disneyland with certain attractions and characters acting as either prominent characters, or video game bosses. In the scene I was trying to recreate the first "boss" to the game was a demented version of the attraction "it's a small world". You are given paint and thinner to use throughout the game the paint creates, the thinner destroys, where you use these and how you handle the bosses depends on the ending you get, so there is a level of decision making throughout the game's progression and sub-missions. Being so moved by the artistic choices Warren Spector, the games creator, made and the overall first installment's setting I was moved to recreate the first boss encounter, and from there
start a video game based art project. After about a year and a half's attention on and off on my own dime, I took to the camera. Finally after a little Photoshop wizardry it was ready. The fruits of my labor, my first "big" project, was complete. Now it 2017 I needed to get this out there on the market and in the public eye, because I moving forward and all my past un published project need to be out there in the open in order to move on. So here it is, available for viewing, purchase, and criticism. Looking back, and with more time dedicated to it, I could have done even more than what was shown, but I had to move on to the next photography project without dwelling too much, which will be my new lease on this art for the new year. As a final word please enjoy this music montage I put together of footage constructing, planning and shooting this EPIC project.
Project CMYK: BLACK SKY
Some time has passed and after Yellow City was shot and developed, a long unfruitful winter sank in. During this time CMYK had one last piece to do, and it was a toss up how the vision of the final part was going to see completion.
Some time has passed and after Yellow City was shot and developed, a long unfruitful winter sank in. During this time CMYK had one last piece to do, and it was a toss up how the vision of the final part was going to see completion. Amidst a housing move and an absolute deadline of Spring 2016, some unknown sacrifices had to be made. One thing was certain about BlacK Sky, it was going to be of the night sky; not just the night sky but a multiple shot long exposure night sky. Being in Illinois, and moreover a suburb, my biggest obstacle is light noise in the night sky. Looking around for ideal areas I found Weinberg-King State Park, which had light noise comparable to Joshua Tree National Park; a park I had their pleasure of visiting many times at night and where learned why exactly it's called the Milky Way. That being the case, the composition was set: long exposure of the lightless night sky taking up the lion's share of the frame bathing the less shown rolling hills.
It's was of course not without set backs; firstly was a move we were planning from our previous house into another one, but within a brief period of time as our former dwelling was sold and needed to move quickly. Secondly, it was now the dead of Winter and as such certain reservation slots during the winter season were halved, seeing as not a lot of campers come there especially at that time of year. Third, was the equipment; long exposures of the night sky need something greater than just a tripod. This required a star tracker, a device that follows the night sky based on the North Star's location. Without the device, you get what I shot. Regardless of the set backs the move was made, it was the first "clear night"with optimal light pollution in Woodstock, and I chose to instead of paying for a $300 star tracker to piece together a star trail composition of 6 shots at 30 minutes per shot. The film was an easy choice, or so I thought. See there is black and white film developed like black and white film, and there's black and white film developed like color film. The difference other than cost was time, and as time was not on my side, developing the film like color film was my only option.
BLACK SKY
f/16
6 shots @ 30 minutes each
Ilford XP2 SUPER
... And with that, CMYK a labor of compromise, color celebration, and time being a worse enemy to me than myself was over. Printed, sent out to those that helped me, and framed for the world to see I still felt incomplete. Maybe it was only at it's time that it didn't feel right, because I can say with 100% certainty looking back almost one year from when K was shot, this was a huge proud moment and accomplishment in my photography life. Well...on to my next couple ideas I've been kicking around "Local F" and "Meat Your Maker" for 2017, but I suppose my next announcement/blog is to open another accomplishment I'm proud of, and put a lot of time and energy into, much like CMYK. I guess you could say that this project I have releasing January 10th is...
....Epic
Project CMYK: YELLOW CITY
The third installment for the "behind the scenes": Project CMYK brings us to a challenging piece, Yellow CIty.
The third installment for the "behind the scenes": Project CMYK brings us to a challenging piece, Yellow CIty. Utilizing Lomography's Redscale film the idea was simple: summer time, yellow sunset with Chicago bathed in oranges and reds. Where this fell short was time. Photography being a hobby of mine and secondary source of income sometimes has to be put on the back burner. This brings us to one year ago almost to the day where I'm instead of shooting a summer themed shot, driving into Chicago in autumn during an unusual cold front and windy flurry weather (hey I had my camera and put it off long enough). While scouting around I remembered a location near our Adler Planetarium that I shot Windy City, using that I knew to repeat greatness I would have to get away from the city and out on the lake. Pictured are crashing waves on the lake, but like most things, the picture doesn't do it enough justice. To guesstimate, the waves crashing twenty feet away from me got as high as 5-7 feet which coupled upon the cold gusts that cut me to the bone; needless to say I was miserable. I did find comfort in just getting back to not only shooting photos but to be apart of something greater than my own personal photos I shot here and there; I was doing this to show how appreciative I was to be able to shoot with this wonderful camera. Weather aside, I was quickly losing light and while I had an inkling they wouldn't come out as I wanted, I wasn't ready for how far off they mark they would turn out.
Needless to say I was able to work with it, but to color shift orange highlights to yellow, I needed to shift blues and oranges of the shadows to something complimentary. Purple seemed like the best route as a compliment to yellow, and with a fix the Sears Tower's antenna, it was fixed in post, and off the the printer. Looking back I would have made time to shoot this under "brighter" conditions, I also would have blown through all three rolls over a week of trial and error shooting. I treat this project as birthing four babies, and I can't choose a favorite because each one bring something to the table, but this one; this was a watershed moment. Coming out in this crappy weather with one roll of film on a whim, and getting this shot, of my favorite city, with all these memories in the capture of this piece really made me appreciate the project as a whole. In the next and final installment, "BlacK Sky" I'll go over a long fruitless winter, and a compromise that yielded the results I wanted to a t...or K.
Yellow City
Hasselblad 500C
f/8 @ 1/60
Lomography Redscale 100
Project CMYK: MAGENTA FOREST
In my last wordier blog I explained the conceptual process that went in for my "thank you" to those that helped with the repair payments, the iterations of the project, and lastly how Cyan Fields wasn't the first shoot in the project.
In my last wordier blog I explained the conceptual process that went in for my "thank you" to those that helped with the repair payments, the iterations of the project, and lastly how Cyan Fields wasn't the first shoot in the project. But what was, and why? Well to dive into this I have to retouch how the "year of seasons" was structured. Spring was always going to be shot with an "asian cherry blossomy" look or feel. The intent was pinks and fuchsias and fit a pastel spring freshness. As previously discussed though, winter already beginning to end. The start of this project needed to happen as soon as an arboretum, with the look and feel i wanted, was found. The film was a toss up between Fujifilm's Velvia and try to get permissions to shoot early Golden Hour, or try and buy a roll of Kodak Aerochrome EIR film and get at least one shot of the ten exposures to be in focus and framed how I mentally perceived it. I went with the second, knowing full and well that trying to get into an arboretum early would be an extra unnecessary step in shooting the first of four pieces. So it was off to
the internet to find a supplier of Aerochrome film. Now, Aerochrome film was used in the past by the government for surveying arial shots for intelligence agencies. As technology got better the used for Infrared Film was no longer needed, and with that the film became more a novelty than a regularly used medium. Cut to 2015, where I'm bidding on it from the only known vendor of 120 type Color IR film, who lives in Italy, for $110. Regardless, if that's the film I committed to there's no way around it, and no substitutions. At this time I have the film en route, and my attention now goes to a location, but not for long.
A beautiful private arboretum in Rockford, priding itself as a Japanese garden was perfect, and with little else known about the place my wife and I were off. Anderson Garden was quite beautiful, and while I could have chosen several different places to set up and shoot, I was deeply moved by the spot where the waterfall was. The bridge was of the same asian style I was looking for, and the fellow filter needed helped give the assortment of green leaves a pink and "magenta" look. If given the opportunity, and the money, I would re-shoot there again for other magenta looking shots. How so ever I had one last hurdle to overcome, the development process. See, color infrared film isn't like regular film (obviously) and needs to be developed in AR-5 chemicals in E-6 as opposed to the C-41 process. Finding a place that did it was difficult, but in looking around I actually found a place in Chicago that had a two week turn around time, and the silver lining was I didn't have to mail it elsewhere and wait longer. So to that, Gamma Imaging in Chicago has my thanks.... So how did it come out? Below, less slight cropping is the result. A great start to the project, now to Yellow City.
Hasselblad 500C
@f/11 1/60 seconds ISO 400
Kodak Aerochrome EIR Film
Project CMYK: CYAN FIELDS
As a retrospect, and behind the scenes, I thought I'd take time out in each blog to discuss one of my more long drown out projects. This one starts out with an odd request for charity.
As a retrospect, and behind the scenes, I thought I'd take time out in each blog to discuss one of my more long drown out projects. This one starts out with an odd request for charity. It was back in about 2014, and I received a Hasselblad camera from my Father-in-law. I had it valued with repairs at $1,200, and while it would have been easy to just sell it for parts and buy one repaired for 3/4 the cost, it was given to me so I felt obliged to see it fully refurbished and shot with it. The camera was a Hasselblad 500C the same brand that went to the moon, and while I've shot 35mm, I always wanted to get back into film, and into the medium format. So the long quest to get this fixed started, and the individual that helped me with this was kind enough to let me do a payment plan monthly. Every now and then I'd either double pay or miss a month but $1200 was starting to be a hassle for my Hassel. It was around November then when I told people that if they were so kind, in lieu of present or well wishing if people could donate to help pay off the camera repair, I'd be grateful and find a way to give thanks. Turned out four individuals took to, and helped me in a big way by paying off the remaining balance and allowing me to have a fully fixed Hasselblad. The moment I got my camera back from the licensed repairman I set to coming up with a four part art piece as a way to thank them. I didn't know what route I'd go down, but the video I made was a start.
Some time passed, and it was apparent of two things, creatively I was in a rut, and I was teetering between two types of work to get this project started. The first route had a more macabre undertone and was utilizing originally black and white photography. As an example, one picture had a woman with antlers on her head and stilts on looking down at the viewer with a look of vengeance as a knelt medieval soldier looked away in horror as his face was covered in caked on blood and dirt. I wanted to have this more "family friendly" and displayable in somebody's house, so I needed to go with my second idea which was more seasonal landscape idea. When thinking about the seasons objectively I also wanted to link that with a color theme, that lead me to different films to capture the feel of the seasons. Blues would be used for more as a cooling compositional color and so Winter would utilize Tungsten film. To those unaware, Tungsten film is film that shifts color temperature of lighting from the yellow and amber colors from regular tungsten lightbulbs to whiter balanced lighting. The purpose behind this is because when shooting outside, daylight shifts to bluer tones. So the idea is simple, shoot in the winter, outside, and create a cold atmosphere. The one off putting element would be inside a house in the distance with warm inviting candlelight. this would be the start to the "year of seasons". The below sketch is would was originally imagined.
So with a clear cut plan laid out what changed this idea to the current Cyan Fields product? Time. As mentioned it had been some time and while nobody was expecting any kind of gift in return as thanks, I felt it necesaary to show my appreciation. However a year had passed, and just as I was getting out of a creative rut I still had that feeling of owing something to these great people. So the year started with spring before I could capture the winter shoot and I personally needed to finish this before autumn. Deadline proposed, I had limited time to start and finish this project. A new idea hit me while researching spring's color composition for the previous "year of seasons", a four color combination that I was familiar with and saw promise: CMYK. I wanted to tie the color combination to a theme as well so all shots would be outdoors of landscapes: Field, Forest, Cityscape, and Sky.
Having already plotted the Yellow to go with the Cityscape, the Magenta to the Forest, and the blacK to the Sky the last color to landscape combination was Cyan to the Field composition. While the Tungsten film was still "on the table" as an option, I wanted the piece to be heavier on the cyans and turquoise. One option was to try the same company I got my red scale film from, Lomography. The limited supply of "Turquoise Film" color shifts most every other color to a shade and hue of blue, with blues color shifting more to yellow and orange. Pictured below show a. the peppers how they are originally viewed, while b. is seen through the Turquoise film.
original photo by: IHAVE2PILLOWS
The idea was to get rows of corn to turn cyan, AND to not turn the blue sky yellow. Turning the blue skies yellow, brown, and orange I felt would take away form the overall composition, so I needed a solution. The only answer was to use the yellow filter I previously shot with one the first shoot Magenta Forest. The subsequent result was with little to no post production editing other than cropping, is what the final product looks like now. The last thing I wanted to focus on each piece was to print them out uniquely on different types of paper. While Cyan Fields was the second photo shot in the project, it was the first I picked for unique paper. The different films, compositions, and printed on papers gave the project as a whole a unique feel, don't you? Well, I'll bee back for part two, Magenta Field, and to discuss the choices in different papers as well. Thank you for taking time out to read this, and check back in a week for the next update here on the blog!
-Bendersama
CYAN FIELDS
w/ Yellow Filter overlay
Lomography Turquoise Film
f/11
1/250