(un) forming hands in wax

Posted by on May 17, 2014 in Journal | No Comments

Stop Motion Sand Castle (video + stills)

Stop Motion Sand Castle (video + stills)

Posted by on Sep 21, 2012 in Journal | One Comment

A quick impromptu collaborative beach construction at Golden Gardens Park in Seattle, documented in a time lapse stop motion. Hopefully this is just a proof of concept for more epic things to come.

Castle Making from Daniel Nelson on Vimeo.

Stars in the Lake Washington Arboretum

Stars in the Lake Washington Arboretum

Posted by on Apr 26, 2012 in Journal | 3 Comments

I’ve taken a long break from aggressive photo editing/montage work. I think this is mostly because my style of professional photography calls for a good deal of restraint in post processing. I’m hoping to use more textures and overlays as part of my process, so I made this montage as an experiment. I still can’t decide if it’s stunningly beautiful or if Tinker Bell is about to start fluttering around. You can get an idea of the unedited version from this post. I’m curious to hear your thoughts!

Click to view full-sized version... and feel free to download and use as a wallpaper.
(At 1440x900px, this file is best sized for a 15" Macbook Pro)

Stars in the Lake Washington Arboretum

Lime Kiln Trail in Infrared

Lime Kiln Trail in Infrared

Posted by on Mar 4, 2012 in Journal | No Comments

I celebrated Dr. Suess’s birthday (and my own) this weekend by hiking with friends on the Lime Kiln Trail near Granite Falls. My big kid camera is having some maintenance done, so I brought out my old Sony Cybershot that I’ve set up to capture infrared light. So, without further adieu, here’s the lime kiln trail in infrared!

Aperture 4 Wish List

Aperture 4 Wish List

Posted by on Feb 20, 2012 in Journal | 7 Comments

Why I’m still in Aperture 3

I’ve been an Aperture user since version 1.5 and the program has grown up a lot since then. Even though Adobe’s Lightroom has emerged as the clear winner for most photographers, I’ve continually found reasons to stay in Aperture. Most important to me is the actual output quality. Especially for RAW images, Aperture seems to render better tones and colors. From a workflow perspective, I also strongly prefer Aperture’s UI. Some of this may just be familiarity, but I love being able to call up an editing HUD in any phase of a project—it seems crazy to lock this into a unique “module.” And, even though most of Aperture’s headlining features (places, faces, FB integration) are more hype than they’re worth, the built-in book designer is powerful, fluid, and intuitive. In my photography business, this gives me an efficient solution for professional album design.

 

My prediction? The cutting edge is moving away from Pros.

Apple will confound professionals and delight enthusiasts. Like Final Cut Pro X and Aperture 3, Apple will target the bigger prosumer market and pioneer new features that appeal to enthusiasts and pros, but aren’t quite ready for professional use. I’m specifically anticipating tools to author photo and video content together and more powerful controls for DSLR video editing. Hold-outs like me will have to choose between having new features now (in a prosumer package from Apple) or waiting 2-3 years for Adobe to integrate these features into a professional workflow. I think we’re seeing this trend already with Lightroom 4’s book module.

A wish list for Aperture 4. What could make me stay?

Based on Apple’s previous release schedule, Aperture 4 is due out any second now, and Lightroom 4 is already in Beta. I’m close to jumping ship, but there are some changes that would entice me to stay:

  1. Dramatically improve stability and speed. Aperture 3 is an improvement, but it still regularly crashes and gets hung when closing. After long periods of editing, the memory bloats uncontrollably.
  2. Smaller database sizes.
  3. Fix crop tool and straighten tool. It feels like a hack every time I use them.
  4. Better integration with two displays, ability to alternate the primary display.
  5. Ability to adjust opacity of all edits (i.e. I have to modify the shape of a curve to change it, I should be able to just set it to 80%)
  6. Gradient masks in addition to brushing effects in and out (especially helpful for dynamic range issues with skies)
  7. Usable detect edge feature on brushes.
  8. Blending modes on adjustments and brushes.
  9. Equivalent of content aware fill (I spend way too much time cloning out unwanted details)
  10. Integrate popular plug-ins by onOne and NIK.
  11. Deeper backend integration with 3rd party plug-ins (whether or not you use an aperture plug in or use an external program, you get a 60MB + file)
  12. Layers and layer masks. Built in Panorama and HDR editors that source from multiple images.
  13. Supplement editing presets with powerful custom FX engine. This would enable image editors to make custom multi-layered adjustments to images using photo textures, blending modes, custom masks, layer adjustments, blend modes, etc. The existing material shaders in 3D programs like Autodesk Maya are already very similar to this.
  14. Better RAW processing, specifically noise reduction and sharpness
  15. Ability to organize referenced photos from Finder without corrupting Aperture library
  16. Real believable lens blur, ability to mimic natural grain on affected areas
  17. Integrated lens correction tool
  18. Tool to select regions based on focus—this would use image sharpness to create a depth mask that could be used for decreasing depth of field, adding atmospheric haze, selective vignetting, etc. I’d love to see this in Photoshop as well!
  19. More control over how stacks work (currently they’re not useful if you might ever need to use more than 1 image within a stack)
  20. Library-wide tool to sort by color relationships, feature to identify duplicate and near-duplicate files.
  21. Improved key-wording workflow for stock photography
  22. Better presets for books and slideshows—it’s either cheesy or all manual right now.
  23. For books: more control over which auto alignments are suggested and ability to set/save/load guides and center points (in addition to page presets).
  24. More press options for printing from Apple (paper types, fold out spreads, binding types, cover materials, metallic inks, etc.).
  25. Built in ordering and wholesale pricing for photo note cards and other print products.
  26. Real color grading for DSLR video, deep integration with Final Cut X
  27. Powerful built-in authoring tools for combining photos and video. Output for web, tablets, interactive Blue-ray/DVDs, and native iOS Apps.
  28. Ability to completely disable “Faces”

What features would you add?

Open post and read more…

In Puncak and Jakarta

Posted by on Feb 19, 2011 in Journal | No Comments

wet grass in the yard at Puncak
Our yard at the villa in Puncak.

laundry and water tanks in rain at Puncak
The laundry takes a long time to dry here.

close up green lizard eye in puncak Indonesia

view of houses and laundry and hills in puncak pass indonesia
Puncak Pass a few kilometers from our house.

tea fields and highway in Puncak Pass Indonesia

tea fields and hills in mist, Puncak Pass Indonesia
Tea fields in Puncak Pass.

wild monkey in Puncak Pass Indonesia

Monkeys hang out in the tea fields around Puncak Pass.

house rooftops in Jakarta Indonesia
Rooftops in Jakarta seen from a pedestrian overpass.

motorcycle in tunnel with garbage Jakarta Indonesia

traffic in Jakarta Indonesia and man walking with crutches
“No traffic, no Jakarta” – our driver

silhouette of man on bicycle on road in Jakarta

Images from Bali

Posted by on Feb 4, 2011 in Journal | 7 Comments

My wife Liz and I just embarked on a five month adventure in Indonesia, where we’re working with World Relief (an organization that provides services to refugees). After a couple of weeks here the culture is still very unfamiliar and I’ve been pretty shy about pulling my camera out. This last week, though, we were in Bali learning the language, and I had a little free to capture some images.

Historical Museum of Bali, in district of Renon

Historical Museum of Bali, in the Renon District where we stayed

Vacationers from Jakarta enjoying Sanur Beach in Bali

Vacationers from Jakarta enjoying Sanur Beach, a few kilometers away

Awesome game of catch.

Hindu offering by the rising tide at Sanur Beach in Bali

These beautiful little Hindu offerings are everywhere, even at the beach.

Balinese family at smiling for photo at Sanur Beach in Bali

Colorful wood rocking horses in Denpasar, Bali

Traffic in Bali, outside the KFC in Sanur.

Street in Denpasar, near our Kos (home stay)

Street in Denpasar, near our Kos (home stay)

White rabbit in yard

Plus our friend the Dalai Rabbit, so named because he ate the offerings in our driveway

The U.S.S. Grover

Posted by on Jul 29, 2010 in Journal | No Comments

The U.S.S. Grover is a glass bottom boat that I built for my camera. This project simply designed to be a way of capturing images underwater, particularly in shallow areas where one may not make a point of using a truly waterproof camera. Through the complexity of both fabrication and use, however, I encountered several unexpected outcomes.

In many ways, I found that the images we do see from underwater are less interesting than the fact that we can’t naturally see through water (even if we submerge ourselves, our eyes won’t focus the light). By cobbling together a contraption that interrupts this boundary, we cross into a world that is alien and uninhabitable. There is a degree of physicality to this process: wading through cold water, leaning down to block glare, and peering through your own shadow. Even the device itself breaks the surface of the water and changes its flow. Something about this feels mythical–like physically reaching into an otherworldly portal. And interestingly, this portal can send us in many directions. Without a shadow to block glare, the darkness underwater turns the glass window into a reflective mirror, revealing the world above me–at whatever distance I choose to focus. It is also possible to focus neither underwater or above, but only on the pane of glass itself.

Musing about the implications of this project, I’ve wondered how much photography has been altered by the limitations our cameras face in accessing the world? I wonder also, how building appendages that extend the reach of our cameras might redefine our relationship to image making?

What do you think?

Journey Through a Log

Posted by on Jul 28, 2010 in Journal | No Comments

View HD version of Journey Through a Log here.

As I’ve dabbled in sculpture, I’ve become particularly fascinated by interior spaces of wood. Any time a cut is made through wood, we get a snapshot of the inside, but we rarely get to see any continuity between these spaces.

This video is a journey through the interior of about 3′ of a log. For each of the 113 frames, a physical cross-section of wood was cut off (in a long, sawdusty, painful process). “Journey Through a Log” is the resulting stop motion.

Havasupai – Part 4 | Part of the Crew, Part of the Ship

Posted by on Jul 21, 2010 in Journal | One Comment

During my time in Havasupai, I frequently returned to photographing the formations of rocks. Some formations looked almost like alien worm colonies. Others looked more like lava tubes, and a few made me think of giant bird bones that had been sectioned out. After two or three days of watching how the water interacted with objects it touched, it became apparent that these formations were the result of contact with plants that had since died and rotted out. Even tender new roots from grass seemed to calcify as soon as they could grow. In a very immediate way, the shapes and textures of the canyon are determined by the lives of the plants growing in it. Knowing this, it is clear why the formations of travertine reminded me living forms.

From a more general perspective, I profoundly appreciate how my completely superficial aesthetic interest opened the door to a deeper empirical understanding–moreover, how this understanding then multiplied the depth of my wonder at the visual content.

The Life of Embers

Posted by on May 19, 2010 in Journal | No Comments

How does an ember move and change shape over time? What if we could perceive it’s incremental shape changes as a fluid motion? This short is my first attempt at finding out…

The Life of Embers is available to view and download in 720p HD on Vimeo.

About the project:

Each frame is a 2 second exposure shot exactly two seconds apart. I chose this long shutter speed so the flames would blur out and wouldn’t distract from the embers. Every clip is shown at a constant speed, and all but the second to last is shown both normally and in reverse. In addition to looking really cool, I found that reversing the motion actually made it easier to see what was happening. By sampling relatively long units of time and compressing them as a time lapse, this project addresses many of the opposite questions as my last blog post.

Thanks to my friend Dave for letting me use his burn barrel and high powered fan for shooting.