Carl Sison » BTS

50mm

Carl Francis — Mon, 24 May 2010 22:36:55 +0000

So because I’ve been using a 50mm lens a lot lately, part in reason because I’ve been using it with my old Nikkormat for Photo 1. Rediscovering the focal length after I nearly completely stopped using it since I picked up my Canon 35L. There’s a lot to like about the field of view.

What’s in your bag?

Carl Francis — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:37:36 +0000

I’m leaving for Amsterdam tonight! I was going through my final checklist and thought it would be a good time to do one of those bag spread things. With the exception of my CRKT that is going to be checked this is pretty much everything in my day to day bag. I’m so excited for the Netherlands! Who wants a t shirt?

The elevator scene

Carl Francis — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:02:49 +0000

The other day we helped out Morgan with one of his Mason Gross video projects. While we wait for his first Michael Bay like production it looks like we’re going to be doing the poor college student budget style thing for quite some time. Meaning I chauffeured and pressed the record button on the mic. Wasn’t the worst job and getting out of the house to play with cameras is always a good thing. It was some good fun, and I was delightfully surprised when security just shrugged us off. He didn’t seem at all in the mood to deal with us. In the filming of the short production I’ve learned two things, gas exerted in an elevator will remain there and my roommate Byron is still a creep. Maybe we’ll get to share the short in some time!

Fresh from the scanner!

Carl Francis — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 01:28:40 +0000

Processing black and white film happens to be the easy part of the battle. It seems the bulge of the effort is getting in from the drying rack to the photo enlarger without amassing vicious particles of of dust and micro hair. Like seriously, was that a pubic hair? How did that even get there. Becomes incredibly irritating when I’m trying to produce a print for submission and a less than 1mm thick shirt fluff looks like its an inch long when blown up to 6×9! Yeah straight from a scanner I have that nifty clone and stamp tool, but once its been hit with light and dunked into that first tub it’s done. Making the matter so much more pensive, I don’t have an unlimited supply of enlarging paper. Thank goodness I purchased in bulk instead of picking some up from the local stores, making bank on students in dire need of classroom essentials. Shooting and developing was the fun exciting part. Enlarging is where I start sweating and hoping everything is in line before I press the run button. I find myself taking my can of air and microfiber cloth into the enlarging room, probably the wrong way to do it. Any tips from the film savvy?

First image was done to display shallow depth of field, second for high shutter speed and the third for kicks. I had better pictures for high shutter speed usage, but I liked that one.

Photography 1A

Carl Francis — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 23:20:14 +0000

This semester I decided to take Photography 1 because I really wanted to learn darkroom techniques. It’s interesting taking a step away from the LCD screen, I find myself out of habit chimping an imaginary screen. Using an iPhone lightmeter probably isn’t the best way to go about things either. Giselle came over today to help me out with my first project. I feel like a semester’s worth of Tri-X is going to have some sway on what you’ll be seeing in this blog. I’m going to be processing that first role of Tri-X this week and I’m actually a little nervous about it all. Paulo tagged along and snapped an action shot while we were standing out there in some serious skin biting cold.

Putting out the rules.

Carl Francis — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 05:24:12 +0000

Turning my $3000 rig into a high end point and shoot is oddly satisfying. Someone asked me what I meant by my urine filter phase. Everyone talks about how the market for photography has become saturated with amateurs. I am no different, in an attempt to par off with my cohorts there was a time when I adopted extreme color shifts, awkward tilts, cut of limbs trying to stand out. I like to think I’ve come a long way from those days. Flavor of the moments happens to be more realistic renditions. Though, that in now way means that I am against unique crops and tilt-shift lenses. I know plenty of people that abhor the idea of destroying photography with such sillyness. I intend to go with everything in moderation. I will at times shoot into light sources for the exact purpose of introducing flare; then I will go into Photoshop and bring out that flare with 7 adjustment layers, ADD noise and oversharpen. Yeah! That just happened.

Just having fun.

Carl Francis — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 03:17:56 +0000

I really enjoy the happy sides of things. Crack jokes, drink Yeungling. I’m down. Giselle and Krizzia came down to chill today. Brought sandwiches, that’s what I’m talking about. They’re so entertaining, they make me giggle legit. Whenever I shoot with them I always feel like I’m getting back to what I enjoy shooting the most. Happy people. That’s a lot of why I sought out to get into Weddings and Lifestyle Photography. Weddings are obvious in why I’m attracted to them. With the plethora of portrait styles out there I really enjoy shooting people in their own environments. If not I want them as natural as possible. Comfortable. I’ve dabbled in others forms but couldn’t get into the groove of them. I liked the images, but a lot about them didn’t click in the long run. Pictures of people laughing and dancing, living life is what caught on.

Shooting Giselle is always fun. Like watching her dance on a two foot orange cube in a lavender tutu while her sister watches on with disgust. The Polaroid up top was taken with my Polaroid 600SE with Fuji FP-100C. I had to slow her down because the lens on the thing isn’t that fast at all. I think this was a 1 second exposure.