Snapshot from Eastern Washington.

Olympus OM-4, Fuji Acros in Xtol

Got behind with commenting on some of the great work that’s been posted in the past week. Will catch up shortly.

Also, bought a new (second hand) camera. A Pentax 645N… pretty excited. Glass is reputed to be v good (and cheap) but it actually takes my Pentax 67 lenses which is even better. If it works out, this could basically spell the end of my 35mm affair.

Olympus OM-1, Olympus OM 500mm f/1.4, Ilford HP5 in DDX

Last shot – been an interesting experience reviewing and selecting images. I prob took only 50 shots so had a very high hit rate but of all the images, there are a few in particular that I like. I gotta admit that a classical landscape style probably does not suit my tastes v much. I like the images but it’s hard to find originality or newness in them. The ones that I managed to shoot in my newer style however stay with me longer. I’m going to continue to explore that for the rest of the year.

This shot was an utterly amazing scene. i don’t think the photo does it justice – a lack of dynamic range as i was shooting slide (and your experience will vary depending on your monitor). still, a nice idea.

Back to BW. Just a few more shots and then I’m done with this series.

Couple of velvia shots.

Some mountain goats walked past us. My only wildlife shots when I was there. Cute these little fellas.

First of all, spent some of the weekend giving Pixel Post a run through (as mentioned by Angshu in a response to Raul’s post)… Here’s the result:

http://lawrenceripsher.com/pixelpost/

I’d love some feedback on this. To put it together, I had to think long and hard about my portfolio – how I wanted it arranged, presented, what images, etc. In the end I was able to boil it down to 4 categories, or projects – named:

- Fragments
- Horizons
- A Natural World
- The Infinite Sadness

No portraits, dog photographs, commercial work, ballet, action, contender shots. Just a collection of ‘fine art’ images, things I consider to be my more creative work and perhaps most importantly the work that I’ll be focusing on moving forwards.

I’d love some feedback. Don’t worry about the text or writing – I’ll do all that properly later. Main things are the site itself and most importantly, the image selection. Goes without saying but criticism is appreciated also obviously

BTW, if you notice, “blog” will now point to my author index on Lost in Focus. When I put up my new site, I’ll be putting a bullet in the head of my review based blog at lawrenceripsher.com. That means I’ll be spending a lot more time on this site, improving it with enhancements, etc. Will be cool.

Oh and I made a commitment to myself this weekend to get a book and exhibition together for LIF. So stay tuned.

Despite my ambitions to enter competitions I didn’t really get around to it (and am reconsidering anyway). I did send in two images earlier this year though – one was to the Sony thing, another to some Ektar competition sponsored by Kodak I ran across on Flickr.

I had only shot one or two rolls in 35mm at the time, but submitted a few images. Anyway, I recently heard that this image:

made it as a finalist and was awarded one of the 4 ‘honorable mentions’. As a prize, Kodak sent me 20 rolls of Ektar in 120 format which I just received. The cool thing is that the image will be part of the Kodak jumbotron display in Times Square later this year.

Anyway, pretty cool – now I’ve got to think of something good to shoot with the film.

Pentax 67ii on Kodak TMAX 100 in Xtol

Processed the bulk of my Montana pics. Here’s the first few. First images I think i’ve posted of this genre so has been an interesting experience.

Pentax 67ii on Kodak TMAX 100 in Xtol

So recent conversations around brand, image, style, etc have got me thinking a lot about my own photography. I’ve always taken photography seriously – but at the end of the year, i’m planning to do something more serious with it and so now is a great time to hone my skills, think about how I want to take it forwards, etc.

So here’s my issue – my portfolio is very varied. This is a good thing – but I’ve been wondering lately if it’s also a bad thing. And i’ve been wondering if there’s “too much” variety. I’ve been really fortunate in the countries i’ve lived, opportunities i’ve been given, etc. So my photography has taken me from countless dog shoots, to backstage at the Philippine national ballet, to amazing broken down buildings, to 20 odd countries, to ringside at The Contender, to the press box at a Federer / Sampras game, etc etc. May not read like amazing reading to an AP or a Reuters photographer who does this every day – but it’s pretty cool for a [mostly] amateur. So my issue is that when I look across my body of work, it’s hard to pick out a certain style. I shoot landscapes within a certain style, and i shoot boxing with a certain style – but the two are largely unconnected. Here are some examples – most of which you’ve seen but the point is emphasised more greatly when you put them together.

From my Fragments series

My Negative Space series on dogs

One of the 10,000 pics I’ve taken of Akuri in our 8 years of marriage :)

The kind of place I used to hang out in Singapore

Ringside at the Contender. I never published those photos anywhere before

My flavour of nature photography

From my Horizon’s series

An image from my upcoming posts on my Montana trip

So the question is, when I display my photography as an entire body of work – does the variety help or hurt me. If I claim to have roots in Fine Art for example, does my portrait work pull it down and dilute the effect? Is there a strong enough narrative in my work for me to claim that despite the wide range of subjects, this is the thing that holds it together? Can I really differentiate myself on my diversity – or does it hit too close to the “jack of all trades” mark? Really appreciate any feedback anyone has on the subject…

Two last shots. Was a very productive hour in the air. I shot about 50 images though – which in medium format is a ridiculous number for such a large format (and expensive! – about $50 in film and developing fees). Still, was worth it :)

Pentax 67ii on Velvia 50, Lab processed

Pentax 67ii on Ektachrome E100 VS, Lab processed

Two images of the shadow cast by the mountain. First time I’ve seen something like this and gives you a pretty humbling sense of the scale.

Pentax 67ii on Tmax & Acros, developed in DDX

More photos following yesterday’s post.

Pentax 67ii, Ektachrome E100 VS, lab processed

Pentax 67ii, Fuji Acros in DDX

Hi all – just got back from a week in Montana… We hired a lodge for a week and hung out, read books, hiked, took photos, and for the most part acted like it was a real holiday. Just finished driving back tonight, a brutal 550 mile journey but a fun one.

Have started developing photos tonight, and will start posting next week – but in the meantime, here’s a shot from a couple of weeks ago – when a friend of a friend took us up at 4:30am before work on a Friday to do three loops of Mount Rainier at sunrise. Was a magical experience – I have 3 or 4 more from that trip, will post tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s my best of the series (and one of my favourite shots this year).