One thing I have always enjoyed was seeing what people do with the resources that I put out there for them to use.  Be it textures, actions, frames, brushes, etc., it is inspiring to see how they get used.  To give everyone a more central place to share their creations, I created a group on Flickr: Dubtastic’s Textures & Frames. If have used any of my resources, and have not already done so, go drop them into the group pool.  I would love to see what you have come up with.  Also, to celebrate the group, I am releasing 5 new hi-res grunge textures for free. Download them after the jump.

Enjoy!

I wanted to extend a special thank you to everyone who attended the opening reception for my solo exhibit at Arts Clayton gallery.  For those that did not get a chance to make it out, here are some shots of the exhibit after it was hung.

Ever since I first turned on my Apple iPhone, I have loved it.  Then I installed the new OS4.  Now things are different.

I am sure that there are many who have immediately jumped on the iPhone 4 upgrade.  Then there are many like me who still have the 3G.  With the previous OS upgrades I have been pleased and never noticed any real difference in the performance of the device.  I could usually pick up some really interesting and handy changes to many of the default apps and options.  So I was pretty excited about OS4.  At least until I installed it.

First, you are required to update to the latest version of iTunes.  While I thought it was an interesting way of forcing the latest version of iTunes on everyone, it already feels like I have to update to a new version every other hour.  I mean really, why are there so many freaking releases of iTunes?  Regardless, I upgraded to the latest version of iTunes, backedup/synced my device, and then started with the upgrade.  It seemed like it took a little longer than previous updates, but I figured that it might and did not mind waiting since I was already working on something at the computer. After installation, I noticed immediately a few changes to the look and feel.  Right away the phone began to drag.  It felt like it was in slow motion compared to what it was prior to the upgrade.  Some apps were non-responsive and others took several taps just to open.  Text messaging is painful and the camera has become a joke.

Surely, this could not be limited to just me, right?  With a quick search, one of the top results was of course a thread on Apple Support.  At the time of this post, it was well into it’s 17th page of replies from users with the same issues and more. There are users who have gone through great lengths to revert back to a previous OS version. But take a minute to read through those steps.  The new OS is coupled with a firmware update, so you can’t just revert back. There appears to be simpler steps to take but reading through the comments does not leave me filled with confidence.

Don’t just take my word for it…  Here is a great article by Dennis Howlett that is a must read.

Here is what I have run into so far:

• Speed: This is by far the biggest noticeable difference.  It absolutely drags.  The new features have lost a lot of their immediate appeal due to the speed.
• Photos: When syncing photos from my machine onto my phone, they all now appear pixelated.  Some compression is really off here when the photos get transferred over.  This did not happen prior to OS4 with the exact same photos.
• Backup of Files: I have read numerous threads online about plugging your phone in and pulling the photos taken with the iPhone camera off as a backup.  I can no longer do this.
• Home Button: Double-tapping the home button normally brings up my phone favorites.  Since the phone now is off in la-la land, it brings up the search sometimes and sometimes the favorites.  I am waiting on it to start playing episodes of the Facts of Life at random.

I really like the phone, but like many mentioned in the support forum, they now have contracts with a service provider and cannot simply return the device as if it were an iPod Touch or iPad. How could this use-case not have been thoroughly tested?  Not everyone upgrades immediately.  There should be an official fix and it should come directly from Apple.

Hopefully this will be fixed with something more profound and helpful than “hold it different’.

UPDATE: 07.26.2010

I see that the discussion thread on the Apple forums has gone nowhere and is now 36 pages deep without a resolution.  Some rumors floating around the internet stated that the 4.0.1 OS would somehow repair the slowness of the new OS on the 3G units.  I updated my phone last night and not only did it NOT fix the speed issue, but it introduced more problems that I had not experienced before.  Now when I access photos taken with the phone itself, the gallery thumbnails somehow have been converted over to black.

Nice, right?  If I touch anywhere in the black it will pull up the photo.  New photos taken with the phone after the 4.0.1 upgrade have normal thumbnails. Just can’t wait to see what is screwed up next.

During the month of July, Arts Clayton Gallery will be running an exhibit called “Untitled, Unthemed, Uncatalogued” which just happens to be my show!  On June 26th, with a truckload of work, I helped hang the show.  What photographer would hang a show and not get some photos of the process, right?  I thought a little time lapse might be in order.  Check it out!

The video above was shot with a D700 + Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 on interval timer mode which shot about 2600 images. All images were brought into Lightroom for a little minor adjustments (clarity, vibrance, tint) and then the JPGs were compiled in QuickTime Pro.

The show runs for the month of July, but the gallery is hosting an opening reception to kick things off.  The reception will be July 1st from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.  The gallery is located at 136 South Main Street, Jonesboro, Georgia.  { Get directions } Be there!

Wow, where to start.  First, come to the show!  Drop insane amounts of money on my work!  This really has been a personal goal of mine for quite some time now.  I have participated in the juried photography show at Arts Clayton for many years now.  I have been very fortunate enough to take home many prizes from the event.  More importantly, I always leave inspired.  I absolutely love the show and everything about it.  I love the different judges, the different styles, and all of the creative minds and behind the scenes work that go into making the competition so enjoyable.

So last year when I won Best of Show, I about fell out.  The gallery purchased my image for their permanent collection and I was also given the opportunity to have a featured solo exhibit at the gallery.  Getting my work ready to show has been exhaustive. Every one of my insecurities about my work has come out in some form or fashion to the point where I actually considered making an excuse as to why I could not exhibit.  God bless my supportive wife for not letting that happen.

So come Thursday, July 1st, Arts Clayton Gallery will be hosting the opening reception for my show “Untitled, Unthemed, Uncatalogued“.  The reception will run from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.  If you are anywhere in the area, or even have to drive from out of state, I would love for you to come check the show out.

Untitled, Unthemed, Uncatalogued
Artwork by Jason Morrison

Arts Clayton Gallery
136 S. Main Street
Jonesboro, GA 30236
P: (770) 473-5457
gallery@artsclayton.org
artsclayton.org

If you are on Facebook, the invite can be found here.

Georgia has some great photographers.  Despite being competitors, we all can learn a great deal from each other in one aspect or another. This is the second in a series of interviews with Atlanta area photographers.

As with my first interview, the photographer I selected to interview was one that I barely know.  I have only met Otto once on a photo stroll.  Prior to meeting Otto I had stalked his Flickr stream on a more than regular basis.  Sure, he uses a wide array of cameras, shoots film, and that is all impressive.  What captivated me the most was his control of composition, creating mood, and seeing what other people would not see. It was only natural to shoot off a couple questions his way.

Above: “The asylum series: 4″; Emory Asylum Briarcliff Campus in the solarium, Holga 120N with Fuji PRO800Z film

According to your bio, you received your first SLR when you were in high school, but only until a few years ago, you really started to get serious about it.  Did you have an interest in photography before high school or was it something that developed later?

Not really.  Neither of my parents was really into photography, so somehow in high school I decided I wanted an SLR, a Canon AE-1, I think.

For those that do not know, you have in your possession quite a collection of cameras including: Hasselblad 501CM chrome, Pentax 67 camera, Yashica Mat 124 TLR, Ansco Super Speedex folder, 3 Holga 120Ns + Polaroid back, Diana+, Diana #151, Banier, Diana clone, Agfa Clack, Ilford Sporti, Golden Half, Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim, Great Wall DF-2, Zero Image Multi-Format Zone Plate, Pinhole PinHolga, Lomo LC-A+, Kodak Duaflex, Kodak Brownie Hawkeye, Ansco Anscoflex II, Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, Polaroid 600SE, Mamiya 645 Super, Mamiya Super 23 Press, Canon EOS-3,  and a Canon EOS 20D dSLR.  Am I missing anything?

No, that pretty much covers it.  I already have my eye on another camera though. :)

Above: “Bleeding Light”; Lomo LC-A+ with Fuji Superia 1600 color film

With a collection that large, how do you select what camera (or cameras) you take with you to use?

I don’t really have any rhyme or reason.  I will usually like to take one “nice” camera and then a couple of my basic cameras.  Sometimes I’ll try to pick a camera that I haven’t used in a while or I’ll get into a run with one particular camera and use it often.  I almost never take just one camera…I like to have a choice when I’m out.  That usually means I’ve got two camera bags with me, plus a tripod.

If you had to get rid of your entire collection except for one camera, which one would you keep?

I’d have to say my Hasselblad.

What is it about that camera that you prefer over everything else you have shot with?

The Hassy is a fantastic camera.  The quality is amazing and it takes terrific images.  I just love using it.

Above: “Somewhere a desk is lonely (lith version)”; Holga 120N using Rollei Retro 100 B&W film, developed in Rodinal 1:50, scanned lith darkroom print on Forte warm tone paper.

Why film?

Now that’s a difficult question.  I’m not really anti-digital (although I have ragged on friends about shooting digital but just in fun).  When I shot digital, I enjoyed it, but then I started acquiring some medium format film cameras just to try them.  And I was blown away by the quality and detail in the negatives.  The more I got into it the more I connected with the results that I was getting with film vs. digital.
Given that you are primarily a film shooter, what challenges have you run into because of that?  What advantages do you feel you have over digital?

Challenges?  You don’t get the immediate feedback that you get with digital…well, except for when shooting my Polaroid cameras.  You don’t know if you got the shot(s) that you wanted until you look at the developed film.

I know you scan your work so that you have digital versions of your shots.  How much post processing is done to your shots?

Not much.  There are just some standards steps that I perform (contrast, dodge/burn), usually quick and easy.  What might take the most time is cleaning up a scanned negative.  Some of my old cameras or even the newer plastic ones will scratch negatives or the negatives or scan might show dust, etc.  I had more problems with that with my old scanner.  I just got a dedicated film scanner (Nikon LS-8000) and I’m getting the cleanest scans I’ve ever gotten from it.

Above: “An impression of a tower 4″; Canon EOS-3 using Lensbaby Composer lens with plastic lens insert with Kodak Tri-X 400 B&W film developed in Rodinal 1:50.

With regards to post processing, what are your thoughts on post process work in general? Does it detract from photography and push it into another medium?

I don’t have any problems with post processing.  People have been post processing the whole history of photography, so I don’t really see any issue.  Just the tools have changed.  There are times that it’s taken so far that it doesn’t feel like photography to me anymore, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t art.  Note: I’m making these statements about fine art photography.

What is your biggest challenge with shooting film?

The time commitment.  You have to understand that once you’ve taken the images you have to get the film developed (or do it yourself), and then print the images in the darkroom (quite time consuming, but oh so satisfying) or scan the negatives and process them.  Certainly a different path than just pulling the files off your memory card.

Much of your body of work is void of people. What do you find appealing about the abandoned and weathered locations?

I like finding beauty in the ordinary and flawed.  And looking for the echoes of the people that did inhabit the spaces.

In reading your interview with PetaPixel, your advice for new photographers is to “ learn what I call the art of slowing down. Give thought to each shot; take your time understanding the composition, focal length, etc.”  Some are eager when they hit a location to start shooting.  How do you approach a new spot to photograph?

Unless I’m prohibited due to the nature of a location (like say a walk through the woods), I like to walk around a space (usually with my cameras still in the bags) to get a feel for it.  There have been times where I’ve been someplace for half an hour and not taken my cameras out yet.  And then I start taking my cameras out and just start exploring.  Since I usually shoot medium format, I’ve only got at most 15 shots on a roll, usually 12 in the 6×6 format that is my most common.  That right there doesn’t lend itself to shooting tons of images.  It kind of forces me to be deliberate with my approach, that and the cameras that I’m often using, old manual cameras requiring an external light meter.

Above: “Missing”; South Atlanta industrial area; Canon EOS-3 using Arax tilt-shift lens with Agfa Agfacolor 200 expired color film.

Where do you see your photography in 5 years?

I really have no idea right now.  :-)  Lately I’ve been on a more day-by-day approach.

Have you ever considered compiling your work into a book?

A book?  Yes, I’ve thought of it more than once.  Just need to find the time one day to get my thoughts about it sorted.

Lastly, where can people find more of your work, news, and updates online?

• My photoblog:  http://www.ottokphotography.com/
• My portfolio: http://portfolio.ottokphotography.com/
• Store: http://ottok.etsy.com/
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/ottok-photography/38911142444
• Twitter: @ottokphoto http://twitter.com/ottokphoto

Recently, I was over come with spam.  Maybe overcome is putting it lightly.  I was getting more spam email in my inbox than I was actual email.  Which for reasons that are far too obvious is a horrible thing.  Thankfully I found a fix.

I had fired off an email not too terribly long ago to photographer Zack Arias.  While I have never met the guy personally, it doesn’t take much time in reading his blog that he is a helpful type of dude.  There is not much the guy holds back.  Naturally, his email account must get pounded on a daily basis from both spam and legit emails.  I got an auto reply message about the spam part and was asked to verify who I was.  Having received more spam that I would like, I totally understood and even hung on to that email so that I could digest it later.

At home, for the main email account I use, I am primarily checking it using Outlook on the PC.  For the past year I have been using two anti-spam measures to stop spam.  The first was the “Spam Assassin” application that is a part of my web hosting package.  The other was Cloudmark. Cloudmark was a client level application that integrated with Outlook and did a wonderful job.  It performed far better than Spam Assassin, which let a lot of junk through to me.  The trouble was that Cloudmark only ran on my machine and not at the server level.  While I see that they do offer server level options, none of those were options that I could implement given my hosting setup.  So what happened was all of the spam that Cloudmark would normally block got delivered to my phone but blocked when I got home to check my email using Outlook.  It got so bad that in the mornings I would wake up and check my email at home before even turning on my phone to stop the junk from getting through.

Recently we welcomed daughter number 2 into the world and during that time my Cloudmark subscription had expired.  In just 3 days I had 200 emails waiting on me, most of which were spam.  I signed up for the free trial at Spam Arrrest and it only took one day before I signed up for the year.  I was able to export my contacts from Outlook and import them into Spam Arrest, which means those I normally communicate with did not have to know what was going on.  I changed the server information that is used to send and receive email so that everything goes through Spam Arrest.  As a test, I opened the spam queue in Spam Assassin and let about 20 or so messages go through.  Spam Arrest has caught every single one.  As a matter of fact, it has caught everything.

You get access to your options and controls much like any regular web mail application would.  You can see your inbox and access all of the messages caught by their filters.  The great thing is being able to delete all that crap at once, or allow Spam Arrest to do it own its own.  I believe right now mine deletes every 7 days.  So the controls and features are nice and the price is dirt cheap.  It is under $30 a year, which is well worth it in my opinion.

So what does that mean?  Well, I spend less time deleting emails meaning I can focus on other more important things.  My battery on my phone actually lasts longer because instead of vibrating every time it checks mail that is spam, the only stuff that gets through is legit messages, so it uses less energy.  More importantly, all the crap that normally gets through gets stopped.

Try it for yourself!

OK, not really art news, but cut me some slack. It’s Thanksgiving and the dessert table is usually pretty full.  This year I wanted to make something unique rather than just eat.  A month or two ago I found the cheeseburgercupcakes.com website through Flickr and thought it was such a great idea that I just had to try it.  Totally got the idea from that site so I am not attempting to claim this as my own.  However, I am also a photographer and just couldn’t help but take a few pics as I made these.

They came out much better than I thought they would, given this was my first attempt. A big hit with the family.

So my business partner and I were on our way to the north end of town to evaluate a vendor for our business.  We were in a discussion, ironically, about purchasing film and camera stores.  Camera stores, as in real camera stores, are rare here in the area, especially on our end of the town.  I told him that The Camera Doctor was a really great place. Next thing you know, the store is right across from us as we sat at a red light.  We had to pay a visit!

I just couldn’t help myself.  The Holga is so much fun and after looking at a few photos that had been taken with this model, I snatched one up, along with a few rolls of film.  Can’t wait to see the results.

This month I was fortunate enough to have an article of mine included on the Tuts+ network. 

It is always great to have a fun shoot an end up with some results that everyone is pleased with, especially the client.  It is another when you are able to write about your experiences and share them with others who are interested in achieving the same results.  Here is an excerpt explaining the purpose of the article:

I have long been a fan of rim lighting and, given the opportunity, would prefer to use it over a single light source. Rim lighting, which is often referred to as back light or even hair lights, is simply light placed on your subject which gives the appearance of a light outline. This technique pulls the subject off the background and offers some depth and dimension to what you are shooting.

This article outlines how to setup your lights to achieve such an effect and also covers some simple post-processing to help improve the final product.

My article “Make Your Subject Stand Out With a Rim Lighting Effect” is now available on Photo Tuts+.