coyoteskullWEB

coyoteskullWEB, originally uploaded by Alex Haglund.

Another for the “Old Scanned Photos” group This is a scan of a Polaroid I shot on 4X5, probably for a “product photography” assignment.

Lea’s Senior Pictures

I shot some senior pictures for my friend Mark’s niece, Lea, about a week ago. It’s been a little while since I’ve done a full-out portrait session, but I think it went really well.

Now Norman, be cool, but Lucky may have sat on that after we did the photo shoot.

This particular shot was planned out by Lea and her mom, Belenda, like, a year in advance. They wanted to have Lea with books in the woods and this antique Seti from Lea’s grandfather Norman’s collection. I don’t know if I spelled “seti” correctly. Norman didn’t want us using it, but he wasn’t home that day.

Here are some more shots:

I used the shadow/highlight tool in CS4 to amp the colors and dynamic range a touch. Oh, and Lea's parents moved that yellow branch into all the shots for me.

f 2.8, iso 200, 1/250 second. Shade provided by Belenda wrangling the fold-out reflector.

This seems to be most peoples' favorite set from the shoot. Lea by another of Norman's antiques. I also did the the shadow / highlight thing here. It's a bit more noticeable than the other picture.

I think I did a pretty decent job on these, but that is only one of the reasons they worked out as well as they did.  Lea was very proactive about making this photoshoot happen. She got the plan in motion, pulled out a good range of expressions and was willing to try different ideas.

This shot was all Lea's idea.

And this shot was my favorite. That light is killer. I've always liked that road as a background too.

I was pretty happy with this set of images. Thanks Lea.

Don and George

Don Morris is a sculptor and carver and is one of the first people I met for a story when I moved down to Flora a little more than a year ago. Don is originally from Clay County, Xenia to be exact, but he lives in Rock Falls now. This is important because the town next to Rock Falls is Sterling, where my Dad grew up. So during my first week of work, my Uncle John calls me up and introduces me to Don, who comes down to Flora a short time later. I did a story on Don and I now catch up with him every time he comes back to town, which is at least once a year.

The reason Don is in the newspaper is that he’s the artist who made the statue of George Rogers Clark, a revolutionary war hero. Clark fought the Revolutionary War on its western front when he and a small group of soldiers (I think that there were about 100 of them) marched from Kaskaskia all the way across 18th Century Illinois to take the British Fort at Vincennes unaware. George also had a more famous younger brother, William Clark, who was famous due to his his expedition with Merriwether Lewis at the beginning of the 19th Century.

Don carved Clark’s form out of basswood and then had it cast in bronze using a lost wax process. The result is displayed in front of Flora’s newly rehabbed Old Depot. It is one of eight full-sized bronze statues Don has done. Since George, Don has been working with clay or synthetic carving materials instead of wood.

I’ve taken shots of Don by his creation before, but I have been on a bit of a kick to do some photo work for myself rather than for the newspaper and I thought to take a new picture of Don as a little project. This weekend, Don is in town for the Flora Academic Foundation’s Appleknocker festival. I had a him meet me at the statue at about 3 in the afternoon. It was a pretty overcast day.Previously, I did this photo with available light and this time I lit it how I wanted to.

Here’s the picture I chose:

Don is the guy in front. George is the bronzed historic figure in back.

Exposure was f8 at 1/500 of a second at iso 200 on the Nikon D70. I did adjust and spot the image in Lightroom too. Lighting Don was a 750 w/s Travelite with a 16 by 20 inch softbox set at 1/16 poser about 45-degrees of camera axis to the right. George is lit with the same light unit with a grid reflector. No grid for this shot, but I did some with a 10 degree grid spot. That light is directly to my left, about 8 to 10 feet away. That head is at full power, but it’s a much further away from George than the other is from Don and that bronze eats light.

I thank Don for letting me take the picture and I hop to see more of his bronzes in person in the future. Don retired relatively recently, after years of owning a septic tank business. Funny thing is, with all the statues and such, it almost sounds like he’s busier now than when he was a worker bee.

It takes a lot to know a photographer….part 3

Now we get into the fun pictures. Well, they were all fun, but these are the pictures of other photographers. They know what you are going through. They know how to make a picture, they know…that if they don’t pose, you won’t pose for them. First here’s Amanda.

Amanda and the hallway of the mass communication building at SIUC.

I don’t know if she had resigned herself to the idea that she was in fact, a photographer, not an English major, when this photo was taken, but if she hadn’t, it wouldn’t be long. Long enough ago that I’m a bit fuzzy as to how exactly this was shot. My guess, Nikon D100, 18-35 mm 3.5-4.5 lens at 18 mm, exposure around f3.5 at 1/60 of a second at iso 400 or 800. Next, we have Gonza:

Gonza reallt playing it up for the camera. If all subjects knew how to act this well, no photographer would yell.

As I say in the caption, she’s really playing it up here. Gonza was a photojournalism major, so the studio was relatively new at that point in time. This was shot on a Hasselblad, probably around f8 at 1/125 of a second at iso 50. Fujichrome Velvia cross processed to negative. Then there’s Steve.

Steve asks why the damn dishes aren't done yet.

Steve was technically also a roommate, but he’s a photographer too, so there. Shot on a Nikon D100, 18-35 mm 3.5-4.5 lens at 18 mm, extra small softbox at camera right with a travelite in it, ambient exposure for background light. Exposure was likely 1/15 of a second at f 5.6 at iso 2oo. Finally, there’s Derek.

Derek Anderson. A great photographer and very close friend.

Derek Anderson is a great photographer and an up-and-coming master of the picture story. If you want to see what the images produced by this madman look like, place a rabbit skull in a shoe box, put it under your front step and say the name of the person you want to….Ah, just go to http://www.dlanderson.com/

Anyways, Derek and his rommate Pat were having an opening at their apartment and for the publicity fliers, I took Derek’s picture. It was going to be called “Hanging at the crib,” or some such, but after I took this shot and Pat brought in a shot where he was a rosary-bearing hitman, they changed the name of the show to “Murder and mayhem,” or something like that. I do not remember what camera I shot this on, so chances are it was a Nikon D100 with the 18-35 lens. I used a SB28 (I think ?) in an extra small softbox on the left, triggered with a radioslave. A friend with a q-beam or max million flood light with a red gel to the right and behind him is a chest freezer box soak in charcoal lighter on a broom stick. Two other friends on stand-by with dry chemical fire extinguishers. God I miss college.

It takes a lot to know a photographer….part 2

So more of the gracious friends and family that were harassed into getting their portraits taken. So starting in the family, we are getting to the younger family members. In my immediate family, this means my brothers, Willy and Tyler.

It's my brother Willy, the middle child of the family (I'm the oldest, the youngest is coming). He's posing by a fence with grafitti on it near the Burger Baron on Grand Ave. on the near west side of Chicago

Willy and I don’t always get along (especially when we travel together), but he has always been one of the most encouraging people around when it comes to my photography. I believe this was shot with my old Nikon F100 and a 28-105 f2.8 Tamron lens. Exposure was (and I’m guessing again here) about 1/250 of a second at f4 on iso 400 fujicolor Press 35mm film. Of course, there’s another brother too. His name is Tyler.

I really like what Tyler is doing in this picture, but it was years ago and now I don't actually remember what it was that he was doing. Looks good though.

Tyler here was shot on the Hasselblad again, f 2.8, iso 400, Hp5 film. All available light. On an interesting side note, both of my brothers got interested in China during their school days. Now they both live there, in Shanghai. It’s hard to admit, but I do miss them. Our mother now refers to me as her “resident son,” which sucks, because even though I’m the closest, I’m still a four hour drive away.

Family members aren’t the only people college photographers take photos of though. I went to Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, which is about six hours south of the familial home in Oak Park. So local subjects were a must. Some times these were just the poor saps that happened to be around. Like say, a roommate:

My old college roomate, Tony, being a relatively good sport, given that this was probably the hundreth time I took his picture.

I’m guessing this one was about 1/60 of a second, f5.6 at iso 100 on the Hassleblad. Shot, in all likelihood, on Provia 100F.

Other people were just coworkers, like these two newspaper guys:

Daudi, doing a fashion shot for me on top of railroad tracks outside of Cairo (the impoverish Illinois town, not the impoverished Egyptian city).

Dave or Daudi as he’s known now, was a graphic designer at the time, but he’s done a lot of photo work of his own since then. This was shot with a Canon Eos A2 with a 300mm f4 lens and a 1.4X teleconverter at around 1/250 of a second at f 5.6. Lighting is a radioslaved Nikon Sb 28 on a lightstand bouncing into an umbrella. Then there’s Geoff.

Geoff also being a very good sport and even smiling during his portrait session.

Geoff’s picture was taken on a 4X5 with a 150mm lens. Exposure around who-cares-there’s-a-strobe at f22. This was shot on Kodak Vericolor film. It was a 160 iso film, but I would shoot it with two extra stops of exposure and then cross process it into a chrome. I cannot for the life of me remember how I lit this. As I said before, there were strobes involved, and it was in the studio, so it was probably Speedotrons, with perhaps…a softbox. I’m really just guessing.

Even the neighbor gets his picture taken:

Justin, or Ed as I knew him, in the house he was renting when he was my neighbor, a geodesic dome built in Carbondale by the world-famous Bucky Fuller

The house Tony, my other roommates and my self rented in Carbondale was across the street from the Bucky dome, a geodesic dome built by Buckminster Fuller, or the Fool on the Hill, as the Beatles referred to him. Ed was the guy who rented that dome when we moved in and we became friends with him. Shot on the Hasselblad, exposure unknown, diffused umbrella on Ed, grid spot on the dome behind him, both are 750 w/s Travelites.

Continued in Part 3: If a photographer shoots a photo of another photographer, does anyone care?

It takes a lot to know a photographer….

Especially when they’re in college. College photographers have to take a lot of images, hopefully any photographer does. I’d like to say it was because I had assignments then, but working at a paper, I still do. Anyways at least as much time is spent by college photographers haranguing their friends, families and casual acquaintances into taking pictures as is spent on, well, actually taking them.

Some folks, like Dad here, are gotten out of the way early.

My Dad, Jim Haglund. came to visit me at school and got his photo taken as a brooding candid.

The secret to this lovely picture is that he was tying his shoe. Shot with a Hasselblad 501CM with an 80 mm lens, exposure was a how-did-I-manage-to-get-it-sharp 1/15 second at f 2.8, iso 800 color negative film (fuji NPH, I think). The shoe goes on, he hears that wonderful Blad leaf shutter and the -thunk- of the mirror and says “Don’t take my picture,” but the damage is done. I have never gotten him in a posed picture that I was anywhere near as happy with as this.  The only problem is that my Dad doesn’t have any musical talent and I think this would make a great CD cover. “Jazz with Jim” anyone? A quick note: I certainly don’t remember the dust spots being this bad in the past. I bet it’s the computers fault.

Soon, you start going to other relatives as well. If you follow the wrinkles-are-character line of reasoning (and what student photographer doesn’t), you either head to the old folks home or get a grandparent to pose.

My grandfather, Alexander L. Haglund. Name sounds familiar, don't it?

This is my namesake, or one of them anyways. Alexander Luther Haglund, my grandfather and father of that guy that’s above him. Shot with a 4X5, 150 mm lens, I’m going to guess on the exposure and say f22 at an inconsequential 1/125 of a second. This photograph was lit by a single diffused 60 inch umbrella on a Calumet 750 w/s travelite, probably at full power. I honestly don’t remember the film, but it seems there’s a good chance it’s Kodak Portra 160VC. Just guessing. Unfortunately, grandpa has passed out of this existence, depriving me of my very favorite conversational partner. Good thing I’ve got the memories.

Yep, Alexander L. Haglund. One of two namesakes as I said. I’m Alexander C. Haglund. And that “C” didn’t just come out of thin air. Sure enough my other grandfather, Clarence Komaniecki has posed as well. Along with him is a my only still living grandparent, my maternal grandmother, Annette Komaniecki.

My maternal Grandparents, Clarence and Annette Komaniecki, known to us grandkids as Grandpa Pens and Grandma Kitty

This was taken as my gift for their 50th wedding anniversary. I was working with the first of my two photographic mentors at the time and he had a studio in Chicago, which he was gracious enough to let me use. Being as this mentor was a former youth group advisor of mine, he was genuinely interested in meeting my grandparents. My grandparents were interested in the fact that his studio was a loft. “I can’t wait to tell all of my New York friends that we got to go into a loft,” said my grandmother. They resided in Sun City in Tucson; Grandma still does. So that where the “C” comes from. And if you look at my photo, you can see that while I may have inherited my first name from Grandpa Haglund, I inherited my looks from Grandpa Pens, who referred to me as his “clone.” As for the photo, it was shot with a 4X5 camera on either Polaroid Type 55 P/N or Ilford HP5. I’m fairly sure it was Type 55, but I don’t want to be accused of lying. I just don’t remember and we shot both that day. Exposure was around 1/60 of a second at f22 at iso 50 (or 320 if it was the HP5). Lighting was a single 60 inch diffused umbrella on a Speedotron 2400 w/s head, held very high and nearly at center.

So this one took up more space than I thought. Part 2 is younger relatives and fellow college students (most of whom were photographers and had it coming anyway).