Deddo Arts: Blog

October 2, 2023 update

Tue, 03 Oct 2023 04:14:29 GMT

I've spent a good portion of the last couple of years experimenting with various cameras and film stocks. I've also had my work included in a couple of group art shows as well as having my first solo show, I joined several photography groups, and I attended photography workshops out of town. Suffice it to say, I have created a relatively large inventory of images to share without having the time to sit down and properly share them in this site. Hints of my latest experiments are updated fairly regularly on my Instagram account, it is a goal of mine to get more comprehensive updates rolling on this site once again in the coming months.

Today I've uploaded a gallery of images from our travels to Anguilla last spring - shot with my Lomography Sprocket Rocket on Kodak Portra 400 film.

February 19 update

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 21:02:24 GMT

I have four gallery updates for the month of February, which are all under the "Recent Work" collection here:

https://deddoarts.zenfolio.com/f824252893

Spring flowers 2017, landscapes 2018, and two galleries of images from my trip to the Moss Yard (Trust Salvage) from the spring of 2018... one album is digital, the other is film. The film images were shot using my Vintage Kodak Brownie Hawkeye on Kodak 400TX black and white film, developed in my home darkroom and scanned via my Epson V700 scanner.

January 2019 Site Shuffling

Sun, 27 Jan 2019 00:58:48 GMT

Over the past month I have made some significant cuts to the work showcased on my site. After having had my photography site operational for a decade, I not only felt that the work displayed had become overwhelming in volume, but I also felt it was no longer all reflective of me. I have been spending more time exploring a variety of film cameras and film, and at the same time my work with film has been affecting the way in which I work with digital equipment and files. In this exploration and growth, I have also become more critical of my images and more conservative in what I feel is worthy of sharing. To that end, I have rearranged the layout of my galleries to hopefully make it more visitor-friendly, while not totally abandoning my favorites among my older work.

The older images that I chose to preserve on the site are now categorized under one of the two "Archive" collections - digital for strictly digital images, and film for images shot with film cameras. Digital is broken into smaller galleries based on subject, with room to add galleries if my subject range should branch out in the future. Film archives are separated into galleries based on the cameras with which I created the images. Though there is a mix of subject matter within each gallery, I feel that the personality of each camera made for a more cohesive grouping than the subject of each image. Also, most of them are landscapes of some kind anyway.

My newest work will now be housed in the "Recent Work" - this is a mix of digital and film work, posted in chronological order of either when the image was shot, or when it was developed/scanned/edited. These galleries will also be listed under the "Featured" links on the main site page for easy access to my latest work. As I add to this area, I will remove the oldest of the Recent Work and move the images to their respective archive galleries.

My People/Events category is unchanged, that will still be where personal photo shoots and event photos will be housed for easy access by the subjects.

Now that this reorganization is finished, I can get back to adding more work! My latest addition to the site is a gallery of bird photos: https://deddoarts.zenfolio.com/p803053731 This is a collection of images taken in my back yard over the course of 2017 - 2018. Coming soon will be the other digital images I collected over the course of 2017-2018, and then as I catch up on scanning negatives I'll be able to add to the film images. I'm very excited to share the work I've been doing on the film side of things, though the images are fewer due to film limitations, the process is a longer labor of love.

Film Camera Information Update

Fri, 03 Aug 2018 19:00:04 GMT

In anticipation of future updates, I've decided to add a small gallery to my Film Photography section which showcases the film cameras I've used in the past and am currently using. I hope this helps to further understand just what I'm shooting with, and where the low-fidelity images come from.

Here is the Film Camera Gallery

Site update and future plans

Mon, 30 Jul 2018 00:38:17 GMT

I have updated my site several times over the course of the last year, however I failed to continue with blog posts describing the updates. My goal is to change this over the coming months.

6 or so albums were added over the course of the last year, all are still listed on the main page under "Featured". This evening I added the finishing touches to an album I'd been working on last winter - "Fall Gardens 2017" - and that gallery is now live on the site.

My photography agenda has been packed as of late. I've experimented with a few vintage cameras, acquired a new and amazing hand-crafted pinhole camera, and revisited some Polaroid emulsion lifts. I've been out in the field on my own, on family vacations, on outings with photography meet-up groups, and I've joined an artist exchange group. My inventory of negatives and digital files is becoming overwhelming. I believe I've reached the point where I have too many pots on the stove - so the saying goes - and over the last few weeks I have been pondering the unfinished work that I have sitting on hard drives, in notebooks, and in my studio space.

As I corral my thoughts and images, I should hopefully be bringing my most recent work to light on these pages soon.

Updates and work

Wed, 01 Feb 2017 17:53:44 GMT

My blog entry comes a little late for at least one update... I finished my 2017 calendar last year and updated the link. It is still available for purchase, although I realize one month has already passed.

My communication and work on my site slowed last fall due to family matters, and I've just recently been able to carve out the time to get back on track. I've been spending time going through photos from my shorter outings over 2015-2016, editing the images, and putting them together into categorized albums. Over the last few days I've been releasing the albums online: three bird albums, one waterfalls, and one of critters that didn't have the volume to fit into their own album.

During the past year I've also been spending more time with film photography, working out the kinks in home made and converted cameras and establishing which ones help to bring forth my creative vision the best. I'm very excited to have found this new source of inspiration and it has put me on the path to a more concrete plan of action (rather than my previous "film for the sake of film" varied exploration) After this series of digital photography updates, my intention is to bring my film albums up to date as I continue to explore shooting film on my outings.

Three more Kauai albums

Tue, 29 Sep 2015 06:21:13 GMT

Over the past week I've updated three more galleries from my trip to Kauai last February.

The first new gallery is Kauai Waterfalls, which holds 10 images of a few of the waterfalls on the island.

Next comes the Kauai Landscapes gallery, with 25 images. The island's landscapes are varied, from deep valleys to high mountains, to rolling vistas of wild forests. This gallery holds the landscapes shot with standard lenses and aspect ratios. I will also have some more landscapes to share which are shot as panoramic vistas, as well as subjects shot with my Edge 80 optic.

The final update came this morning, my gallery of 15 "waterscape" photos... images which prominently feature the ocean or the shorelines.

Thank you for stopping by, comments are always welcome and appreciated!

Three gallery updates

Mon, 14 Sep 2015 16:10:04 GMT

Over the weekend I published three additional smaller galleries to the site; Seals and Lizards, Trees, and Sunrises from Kauai in February 2015.

The monk seals are endemic to the island, and endangered - I had the great luck of seeing three on our trip (one was at night and it was too dark to photograph) There is a federal law prohibiting getting too close and/or harassing these seals, who need to come on land and sleep without being disturbed throughout the day and night in order to recover energy from their hunting efforts. There is an island-wide team of volunteers who track these seals. They set up barriers to protect the animals, track their sleep and travel habits, and answer questions about the seals and their conservation program. One volunteer saw me taking photos of a nearby tide pool and invited me over to see the seal sleeping on the rocks (from a safe distance of course) and she gave my daughter a packet of information about the seals.

I spotted one lizard on a display of ginger root at a fruit stand in Hanalei, the others were all scurrying around alongside the ridge trail we hiked on towards the end of our trip.

I was very enamored with the exposed roots of the ironwood trees on Ke'e Beach, towards the north end of the island of Kauai. Over time the wind and water have exposed the roots, unveiling their intricate and abstract details.

Our condo sits on the eastern shores of the island of Kauai, just steps from the beach. Most mornings I woke before sunrise, made a pot of coffee, and wandered down to the beach with my camera gear to watch the sunrise.

Kauai Birds from February 2015

Wed, 09 Sep 2015 23:48:51 GMT

My first new gallery from the photos I shot while visiting Kauai in February 2015, this gallery features birds of the island. The highlight of my birding experience on the island was to have found the Nene, the Hawaiian Goose, which is the state bird and endemic to the islands. That bird was the goal of my drive to the Kilauea Lighthouse Wildlife Refuge, and happened to be the first bird I spotted upon exiting the car. I hadn't walked more than 5 feet before the Nene appeared on the edge of the parking lot, waddling among the parked cars.

Two updates: birds and scenery from Jamaica 2014

Fri, 31 Jul 2015 22:14:36 GMT

Last night I updated my gallery of other misc. birds from my Jamaica 2014 trip. This gallery contains all the rest of the bird photos which were not numerous enough to turn into galleries of their own.

Today will be my last update for some time... a collection of various scenery shots from Jamaica 2014. I actively tried to avoid sunset photos on this trip (because I've done so many in the past) and also tried to avoid too many foliage closeups (for the same reason) The way we travel in Jamaica does not usually offer the opportunity to stop and take wide landscape images... mostly our driving is from the resort to the destination, and some destinations (like walking up a river, or ziplining down a mountain) are a leave-the-big-camera-at-home type trips. On this trip, however, I had the opportunity to spend some time in a different area of the cliffs, where the resort was set on an outcropping affording a different view of the cliffs north and south. We also took a trip inland to a retreat set in the jungle with views looking out to the jungle below and mountains beyond. This gave me the opportunity to break out the wide angle and my Edge 80 Optic, and I was very pleased with the results.

Crocodiles and Crabs of Jamaica 2014

Thu, 30 Jul 2015 04:43:36 GMT

If it scurries, creeps, crawls, or flies... chances are I want to get a picture of it. This gallery contains my photos of crocodiles and crabs from my trip to Jamaica in 2014. The crocodiles were all found during my guided boat trip up the Black River. The crabs were mostly around the cliffs at our resort, save for one I found hiding under the deck of the Pelican Bar off of Treasure Beach, and one I found further up the cliffs on an outing we took when the seas were too rough for swimming. I had been shooting landscapes of the rolling waves with my Lensbaby Edge 80 optic combo when I spotted a crab sitting still. The lens is difficult to focus sometimes, which is why I rarely use it for wildlife shots, but the crab was patient (perhaps because I wasn't trying to get close) and I was able to get him in focus and create the miniaturizing effect that the lens provides.

Magnificent Frigatebird Jamaica 2014 Gallery

Thu, 30 Jul 2015 04:19:01 GMT

While waiting for my lunch to arrive at a cliff-side restaurant one afternoon, I noticed a small flock of magnificent frigatebirds gliding just off the cliffs. I stepped out to the balcony railing to watch these amazing birds soaring overhead and diving for their own lunch.

Lizards of Jamaica 2014 added

Sun, 26 Jul 2015 18:59:28 GMT

This gallery of shots amuses me not only because the subjects are so quirky, but because it reminds me of how oblivious I become to the world around me while shooting. One morning at breakfast, a cute little blue and green anole hopped onto our table, and I set about zooming in and angling for photos while conversation at the tables around me continued. I hadn't realized that the guest sitting directly behind me was Karen Allen, (Marion from Indiana Jones), although I'm a huge fan of the movies. I recall thinking that her voice sounded vaguely familiar, however I was too busy adjusting my aperture to pay much attention, and my nieces had to later point her out to me.

Yellow Crowned Night Herons Jamaica 2014 added

Sun, 26 Jul 2015 17:56:47 GMT

Our trip to Jamaica included staying in two different locations within Negril, one on the cliffs and the other on the beach. Yellow Crowned Night Herons showed up around sunrise regularly at both locations, and it became my morning routine to sip my coffee while tailing these birds on their quest for breakfast.

Beginning to publish new work

Sat, 25 Jul 2015 19:50:33 GMT

Happy Saturday! My editing and sorting of the Jamaica 2014 photos is complete and this morning I have begun naming images and publishing albums. Many subjects presented themselves with such frequency that I have broken them out to separate albums. My first album to be published is a small album of peacock photos, I'm particularly fond of the first image as it showcases the dramatic plumage of the peacock in a way which is not usually seen. The temperature was over 95 degrees farenheit that day and the birds generally headed for the shade, however I had one fleeting moment in which to capture this lovely creature as he perched precariously on a bamboo fence before leaping off to find a drink of water.

July 2015 updates

Sat, 25 Jul 2015 00:21:23 GMT

I have finally finished editing all my photos from my trip to Jamaica in 2014, and am currently working on putting the images together into galleries which make sense and are hopefully not too overwhelming to visit. It should come as no surprise that the images of birds outnumber all other subject by a long shot. I hope to have the new images published prior to the end of the month.