Folio Weekly Invitational Artist Exhibition

I was fortunate to have two pieces accepted into this prestigious exhibit at the Cummer Museum of Art. I struggled during the submission process to decide on which pieces to propose. I always find it difficult to sort through work. Do you propose what you think others would like, or work that you truly like? I find it best to enlist the help of others. I'm more apt to choose something that is new rather than something that is richer or more meaningful. I tire of looking at my older pieces so fresh always seems best, which doesn't always equate to a good selection. Earlier this year I ventured out to several local parks and forests. On one very fruitful trip at the Ocala National Forest I captured several images that ended up in my collection of keepers. Sometimes you are blessed with good days. One photograph accepted is titled Forest Renewal and is a panoramic of a pine forest that was just recently burned to clear the underbrush. Earlier in the day I passed some work crews setting small fires at the base of the trees to eliminate the underbrush. The resulting scene left an eerie veil of smoke above the gray ashes and green pine needles.

Forest Renewal

The second photograph is titled Dancing Oaks. The National Forest is essentially a managed forest with pines which stretch out forever. Dirt roads crisscross the area forming a recreational oasis for ATVs and dirt bikes. While driving the dirt roads there is always an occasional oak or other hardwood tree, perhaps left over from earlier times or somehow transplanted there. I saw a grove of oak trees from the road and followed a small path to the area. There were roughly 30 oak trees growing in close proximity in the middle of the pines.

Dancing Oaks

Opening night at the Cummer was exciting and the museum was packed. It was great to actually have a museum opening and to be in the company of many distinguished local artists.

Sea Ranch California

Sea Ranch is one of those idyllic places that evoke calm, peace, and the California lifestyle. It is a developed community on the coast started in the 1960s whose purpose was to preserve the area's natural beauty. Some noted architects and landscape architects planned for the construction of about 2400 homes along 10 miles of the California coast. This caused quite a stir and became the impetus for the California Coastal Commission.

McClure's Beach, Point Reyes National Seashore

We were lucky enough to be invited to stay at a rental at Sea Ranch for a week. We flew to San Francisco and made our way up the coast, first stopping at Point Reyes National Seashore and Sam Taylor State Park, two of my favorite spots. There always seems to be something interesting in these areas, although I never can get the weather I want. Too much sun! We planned to shoot the sunset at McClures Beach on the northern tip. I had the beach all to myself.

Sam Taylor State Park, Devil's Gulch trail

We stayed at a small B&B called the Bear Valley Inn, which was very convenient to the park. The room was nice and it's always fun to deviate from the Best Western now and then. The next morning we woke up early and headed to Sam Taylor State Park. I was hoping for some fog but the sun came up strong so the shooting time was limited. Sam Taylor has many old growth redwoods and some other older hardwoods. You can always find something in there, but the traffic on Sir Francis Drake Blvd. gets busy.

Sea Ranch sunset

Our rental at Sea Ranch was an exquisite house called Breakers Point with this view from the deck. We couldn't ask for a lovelier place. While there we made a few side trips to Armstrong Woods State Park, Fort Ross, and Mendocino. We also had fun exploring some of the smaller roads and finding some great forests.

Armstrong Woods

Stewarts Pt Rd

Sonoma Fences at Ft Ross

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The Art of Doug Eng

The July/August issue of Arbus Magazine featured a story about my artwork. I was thrilled with the result. Sometimes I'm embarrassed when I read something about me. Generally I'm not one to tell the world that I exist, but it's always nice to see your name and work in print. There's a sense of validation and accomplishment, which we all need. I'm grateful for the article and hope that you take a moment to look it over. Many thanks to Cinda Sherman, publisher of Arbus, and Meridith Tousey, writer, for this article.

Arbus, page 60

First stop, San Francisco

Donald is getting married and our first stop is the Bay area to do the wedding and then it's onwards to Hong Kong and Japan. We've been planning this trip for months. While in San Francisco I always try to get a skyline shot from Treasure Island but alas, it was a foggy morning and nothing was visible. So much for getting up at 5 am! The night of the reception we experienced a great sunset. I tried to coax the newlyweds out of the restaurant for a shot but was unsuccessful. So I enjoyed it all by myself. This is from the Hong Kong East Ocean Seafood Restaurant near Marina Park in Emeryville.

Wedding sunset

The next morning I took mom to the airport for an early flight so I made sure I stopped at Twin Peaks on the way home. A great vista but the light was blinding.

View of San Francisco from Twin Peaks

Then a quick stop at Telegraph Hill.

View from Telegraph Hill, San Francisco

San Francisco never ceases to have images to offer. Some cities are just like that.

Magnolia - Flower of the South

I introduced this new small body of work at the studio for June Art Walk. I produced 6 - 16x24 prints for exhibit and an exhibition poster. Here is the artist statement for the work:

Magnolias are ancient. Evolving before the appearance of bees, their flowers have a primitive beauty that is both delicate and structural. With a limited lifespan after cut from the tree, each flower has a small window of opportunity to be photographed before the pedals go limp and a brownness overtakes the pure white. My curiosity about these flowers peaked when Dorian showed me her snapshot of a beauty. It was the center green fruit covered with numerous stamens and surrounded by follicles…these structures of green, yellow, and brown were fascinating.

I posted a request for flowers on Facebook, as I felt too self-conscious to clip these from a public park. To deny anyone a view of these would be presumptuous. Dave Engdahl, a local sculptor and former architect, answered my post first, “come and get some from 3 large trees in my yard.” I was there by the afternoon. Dave grabbed his large loping shears and headed out to his backyard. The flowers grow throughout the canopy, and for large trees this can be rather high off the ground. We managed to find 4 large specimens. As Dave cut each one I carefully caught them as they fell to the ground, being careful not to damage the package. Four blooms went into a box lid and were off to my home studio, where I set up a large softbox and a desklamp.

Photographing flowers is not easy. I find it similar to doing portraits, although dealing with a flower is infinitely easier than an 18 month old. Each flower has its own personality and characteristic. Finding these innate qualities is the challenge. Usually I work with a single bloom, placing it in a receptacle (usually a small box or in this case a bowl with water) and placing it on top of another small box that can be easily rotated. I position the lights and camera and then rotate the subject. It takes a while and a few shots to get warmed up. Shooting straight on, then slightly above, then below all at various angles gives you plenty of options. For me it is all about the way the light finds its way around the folds and crevasses, creating gentle sweeping arcs and sharp angles, shadows of mystery, and highlights of subtle features. The contrast of the petals and leaves with their the similarities and differences, are explored.  It is the abstract and not the literal that reveals the essence of the bloom. Anyone can take a picture, my mission is to create a photograph.

When all was said and done, 300 images yielded about 30 “keepers” and from these, 6 were chosen to be printed. Please enjoy the results.

An 18x24 poster is also available:

Cultural Council Arts Awards

For 36 years the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville presents awards to outstanding individuals and companies who have contributed in an exemplary way to the arts in Jacksonville. Categories exist for Small Business, Educator, Innovator, Individual, and for this year, an Individual Hall of Fame. The customary award is a piece of art produced by a local artist. Many distinguished artists have provided pieces for the award. I was honored to be asked by the Cultural Council to produce the award for the 2012 recipients. My first inclination was to provide a framed print or a print with face-mount acrylic. As I thought about this I also considered that a) if the recipient didn't really like the print enough to hang on the wall, it would end up in a closet somewhere, and b) personalizing the print with a brass plaque would be pretty cheesy, and c) there would be no opportunity to express a personal message to the recipients.

I have always been a big fan of folios...a box holding fine art prints. They always seemed so tactile and special and allowed unobstructed viewing of a print anywhere. Besides, if the recipient really didn't like the award, they could easily tuck it on the shelf.

Award design

Award production

I designed a folio box to contain a series of 15 images, 9x6 printed on Exhibition Fiber 11x8.5 paper. There was also a cover sheet, intro, and colophon. I had the box custom made by Portfoliobox, a company in Pawtucket, RI. They produced a case for one of Clyde Butcher's limited edition books that I had in my collection. I designed the box to look like the exterior of the AT&T tower, a stainless steel clad building where the award ceremony was to be held. The box contained an inset with a strip of the building's window, reflecting some clouds and containing the text of the award and recipient's name.

With a few last minute complications, I produced 6 copies of the award and was very happy with the result. I think all the recipients were happy with it too. Here are a few sample pages:

Message in a Bottle Opening

Most of you know that I've been totally preoccupied with our project Message in a Bottle: Wall of Light for months now. May Art Walk was our big opening, and since I'm writing this long after the wall has been up and taken down, I can say with certainty that I'm glad it's all over. Having a project take over your life is exhilarating but brutal. I'm thankful that I made it through, with the help of Dorian, my brother Robert, and the support of many friends. But essentially it was my baby and I spent the last 2 months constructing the installation. Please check the MIB website for more details and if you can, spread the word of our message to all who are serving (and have served). The project is for them.

Scan Design Fall in Furniture Love

I was happy to receive First Place in Scan Design's 5th annual Fall in Furniture Love art contest. All entries needed to have furniture as their main theme. I racked my brain thinking I had no really fun images with furniture until I remembered the Red Chair Project. I think this photograph, Landing on Runway 13, has become one of my classics. I love this one! Many thanks to Scan Design for their support of the arts, and for the generous gift certificate for the award.

Landing on Runway 13

Alpine Groves and other nearby creeks

Continuing on my quest to visit local spots to capture the spring foliage, I stopped first at Alpine Groves Park located in Switzerland, FL. This was the site of an old citrus processing plant and the old barn and some equipment are still there. The park has a great dock overlooking the St. Johns and some wonderful moss-laden trees. This tree was on the river bank as seen from the dock.

From here I drove along Bishop Estates Rd. to the Flora Branch Creek bridge. This is a favorite road for cyclists and I've ridden through this area many times. More great leaf texture and color.

Flora Branch Creek

The final stop was the Bartram Canoe Trail trailhead off of Racetrack Road. It was quiet and peaceful with only the roar of the cars above. Had some lunch, took some pics, and then headed back to the studio. A great morning out.

Durbin Creek @ Racetrack Road

Acosta night shots

Just an evening of shooting from the Acosta Bridge. Not much in the way of clouds tonight, so how about a traffic taillight shot? 10 sec @ f/18, 70-200mm f/2.8L @ 70 mm

Acosta Bridge tail lights

Julington Durbin Preserve

This winter/spring I've made a commitment to get out to some new areas. Although I should be working on my other projects, I always seem to have an excuse for not photographing what's in my backyard. This weekend I attended a walking tour of the Julington Durbin Preserve with artist Jim Draper and naturalist Bill Belleville. This was the first time to this park and I was surprised that something so nice was so close to home. The meetup was at noon, so as suspected, the sun was in full force with no clouds. I decided to just focus on some of the leafless trees against the blue sky. The best part of the outing was finding this location, as I know it will yield some great images in the future.

Julington-Durbin Preserve - Waiting for Spring

On February 3 I made a follow-up visit in the early morning. The light was much better. This is Durbin Creek with some bright green leaves just starting out. How I love the early spring in Florida!

Spring - Durbin Creek

Art of Trees 2012

The Art of Trees is a benefit/exhibition conducted every year by Greenscape. This year the exhibit was hosted at Corse Gallery and Atelier, and I entered two pieces. I'm happy to report that Oak Canopy received a Merit Award which included a nice ribbon and some $$s. I was in very good company with some truly magnificent pieces all by local artists.

Oak Canopy - Ft. George Island

Help Portrait 2011

For the third year in a row I've participated in the Help-Portrait project at the Family Promise Center in Jacksonville. This year my good photo buddy, Gray Quetti stepped up to do all the shooting, and I have to admit he really knows what he is doing. We did the shoot on December 10, which is the national day for all Help-Portrait sites to shoot. Gray set up 2 Alien Bees, one in a medium sized softbox as the main and the other as fill bouncing off an umbrella centered above the camera. I usually shoot with lights on the right and left, and this is the first time I experienced the fill on axis with the lens. Gray set the white balance and tested exposure with his light meter. Call it old school but Gray did NO color or exposure corrections to over 900 shots. Typically I'm using the fill slider and tweaking the white balance on almost every shot. We managed to shoot 10 families. I was posing the groups and entertaining the kids.

Gray, Mark, Mark’s wife, and me

One of the many family portraits

Each family received a small photo album and CD with their images. We edited down to around 24 for each one, which turned out to be a tough job. Many thanks to Dorian who tackled the editing. Then we uploaded to Costco for prints. I've been very happy with the results from our local Costco (Allen and his team keep those Noritsu printers in top shape). I ordered some small albums from Neil Enterprises. The cost per album ($2 ea) is inexpensive, but they kill you on the shipping and handling ($18).

Gray and I dropped off the albums and were met by Becky Cravey and Bruce Lipsky from the Times Union. They were hoping to run a story over the holidays, which eventually appeared on January 2. Check it out here. Being present when the families received their photos was a big thrill. There were a lot of happy moms and dads.

Bruce Lipsky of the Times Union and friend

A happy dad and son

Lots of pictures for everyone

If you haven't volunteered or given of yourself, especially over the holidays, I highly recommend it. I told the TU reporter that the photos taken on that Saturday will probably be cherished and appreciated more than all the photos I took during the year. It's a good feeling to know you made a difference in someone's day.

Sunrise at Jax Beach Pier

It's been a while since I updated the blog. I apologize to all of you who frequent my site to see what's going on. I hope you didn't give up on me. I don't know why we quit blogging...I think everyone who has a blog gets complacent once in a while. We'll see if I can get back on track.

Yesterday morning I decided to catch sunrise at the Jacksonville Beach Pier. It's something I've never done before, in fact, I don't know if I've ever watched the sun come up at the beach. Getting up early is tough for me. Add to that a 45 minute drive and it becomes tougher. The alarm rang at 5 AM and I did debate the decision, but I wanted to do this. I usually don't plan my days out. I've been lucky most of the time when I go out early. This morning was no exception. A front had come through yesterday and I was hoping for some clouds, but as I drove out in the darkness all I could see in the sky were stars. Bad sign. I hoped for the best and kept driving.

The Jax Beach Pier parking lot is at the corner of 4th Ave N and 1st St. Parking is free. There were a few surfers there although the wind was very calm and things were pretty flat. I didn't know what to expect and so I grabbed the tripod and a 70-200, with my 24-70 mounted on the camera. I always start out wide until I see what's going on. I took a few shots on the north side of the pier and then walked over to the south. There was another photographer there which ends up being problematic because usually other photographers gravitate to the spots that are naturally good view points and they just park themselves there. Finding other positions where you are not including them in your image can be a challenge. I like to walk around, but this couple stayed in the same spot all morning.

The pre-dawn sky was great and as sunrise approached the sky began to light up. There was a small band of clouds right above the horizon which is good. If there are no clouds, once the sun comes up it will burn out and attempts to shoot in that direction. I knew I would get multiple chances to include the full sky in my compositions as the sun rose and went behind the clouds. As the morning progressed I also noticed a bank of clouds from the north heading south. What was a perfectly clear sky would eventually be filled with clouds. Perfect.

After shooting for about an hour around the pier I decided to pay the $1 and walk onto the pier itself. There were a few people fishing but for the most part it was pretty empty. By this time the clouds had made their way across the sky and I waited patiently for the sun to be obstructed. You can see from the images that the light was great. Around 9:00 I decided to call it a day. I had taken about 140 images and was ready for breakfast at the Beach Hut Cafe on 3rd St (and 13th Ave). A great place for a home cooked breakfast. I'm hoping to get out to the beach more in 2012, and to focus on more regional areas.

December Arbus cover

I was thrilled to have my amaryllis photo on the Arbus December cover. These photos were from a dining room table shoot on January 1 of this year.

The issue also contained 3 other stories about projects I'm involved in: Message in a Bottle (page 12) , CoRK (page 14), and the Pop-up Galleries at Main Street Park (page 20). Many thanks to Cinda Sherman at Arbus for her dedicated support of the arts in Jacksonville.

Shout out for Message in a Bottle

Message in a Bottle: Wall of Light

Message in a Bottle Initial Concept by Robert Leedy

I'm close to launching a new project that I'm super excited about. It was conceived originally as an art project based on our activity at Main Street Park for the past 2 months. I wanted to create something in the large planter that runs the length of the block. I envisioned a sculpture that could be illuminated and portray the flowing characteristic of our river and ocean. After deciding on recycled water bottles as the construction material, I concluded that at least 30,000 bottles were required to make something effective. Then I watched the memorials on 9/11. I was emotionally impacted. There are people who give freely of their lives for a higher purpose. I wanted this art to be about those people.

What if each bottle contained a message to our military troops, and what if these messages in a bottle were provided by the people of the city? What if we recorded these messages into a collective voice that could be communicated to our troops and their families? My job would simply be to facilitate the collection, post the messages on a website, and construct the wall with the bottles. This is what our project is all about - a message of gratitude to those who serve. Please read all about it here: http://messageinabottlejax.com/

IPA Awards - 2011

My last submission of Straight and Twisted to the IPA won an Honorable Mention in the Professional Category - Trees. I remember agonizing over what category to use, Professional or Non-professional. I figured I'm a professional now so I went for it. This is a huge competition with hundreds of awards, so I'm careful not to be too excited about this, but it's good for the ego to be selected once in a while. I have my share of rejections for sure! The exercise of submitting and keeping your work in a form where you can efficiently submit is a good practice. I'll do 3-4 submissions a year if I feel my work fits well in the call. IPA is great in that there are categories for everything, and you can spend a fair amount of time looking at some great photography from previous winners.

Fine Art Print Workflow

Here is something to try if you want to test your skills as a photographer and printer:

1. Obtain a painting from your favorite watercolor artist. In my case, it's my studio mate Robert Leedy.

2. Photograph the painting.

3. Make any adjustments in your favorite software.

4. Make a print of the painting, same size as the original, on fine art paper, and show it to the artist.

5. Ask the artist if they feel the print matches the original. If not, repeat Step 3-4. Continue until you run out of paper or the artist is satisfied, whichever comes first.

I was asked to photograph and print 5 paintings for Robert last week for his upcoming show, Beach Access. I eagerly agreed, not knowing what lay ahead. How hard could this be? I have a good camera, daylight balanced continuous lights, a calibrated NEC 2690 monitor, printing to an Epson 9900. Just take the shot, make the print, right?...not so fast. The first test print on 8.5x11 enhanced matte paper (a lot cheaper than the Hahnemuhle William Turner paper selected for the finals) was close. I started out in Lightroom and felt it was just a matter of getting the white balance and saturation tweaked. After about 4 test prints I started to get that sinking feeling. The blues were extremely problematic, and these paintings had lots of blues, different shades and hues. In fact, I don't even know how to describe them. And lots of subtle transitions to yellows and oranges. Robert describes them as "complex." Watercolors are particularly problematic. The colors are created through transparency, that is the only "white" is what is left of the paper that shows through. Much like the colors on your computer monitor. Which means the white balance is actually not white, but the color of the paper. In addition, the paper I'm printing on has a different white balance. Ok, so I'm sorta screwed on this. And yes, although they say a calibrated monitor matches the print exactly, well, it just ain't so. Either my eyes haven't developed the sensitivity to "see" a color match from a monitor to a print, or my system is still off somewhere. Admittedly, the conditions in my studio are not optimal... fluorescent lights, dirty lens covering the lights, some natural light from a window, no shade on the monitor, no balanced light for viewing the print. Horrors!

At some point I through in the towel on Lightroom. It seemed like some of the colors were ok. The reds, greens, and darker shades seemed to be more tolerant of my bad white balance. But those blues and yellows were off. It was on to Photoshop, and masking areas so that I could keep intact what looked good. It seemed like I was going around in circles. Plenty of adjustment layers...Levels, Curves, Hue/Saturation, and White Balance. There's always more than one way to skin a cat in Photoshop. Robert was always helpful in the process. He could tell me, "Doug, this color is way off...add some red here, take out yellow there." Without his clues I would be stuck. For me the blue just needed to be "more blue," whatever that meant!

The next big realization was that an 8.5x11 (really a 9x6) print may look fine, but not all things scale up to 26x18. In fact as we all know, a lot of glaring details start to appear, and the perception of color is no exception. I was in shock to see that what I though was pretty good was actually pretty bad, and I had the large print to prove it. So I went to printing test strips at full size just to get close. After blowing through about $300 worth of paper and ink, I got through each painting. The results are good, not great. If I expect to be doing fine art print services on an ongoing business, I need to go back to school on this. My goal is to arrive at a 90 minute process. If not, then it's something I can't afford to do, or a typical artist can't afford to pay.

IPA Awards

Last year I entered several images for the International Photography Awards and just discovered (quite by accident) that I won an Honorable Mention - Cityscapes for my City Views Submission. I guess they never formally announced any winners, so when I went to submit again for 2011 I started browsing the last year's winners and found my work. What a surprise! I think I'll print myself a little certificate that I can hang on the wall. I find myself entering a lot of these competitions and forgetting about them...bad habit. Is going through the exercise of submission and the paying fees worth it? I think by being selective, one can hone your skills of efficiently submitting work, which is something you need to do when applying for grants and proposals. This has to be in order, or you'll spend an inordinate amount of time responding to these requests. Have your resume, artist statements, bio, and lo-res image portfolios well organized and handy. I've spent days working on a proposal...felt a lot like doing your taxes! Get your stuff organized and make it easy for yourself. And you may get an award to post on your resume!

July 4th - Family, fun, and fireworks

July 4th is always a good holiday to divide up the year and reflect on what has happened and what is yet to come. I was fortunate to leave the heat and humidity of Jacksonville to spend a few days with Diana's in-laws and Dorian's brother in Ohio. We enjoyed fireworks on July 1 (an early tradition up here) and 3 days of continuous feasting. Being with family always has it's benefits.

Fireworks photography is always fun if you can find a decent spot and the weather cooperates. I regret all those summers I spent in Montreal and never photographed the International Fireworks Festival competitions...oh how I wished I was there for the summer. I experienced the fireworks at Buckeye Lake which is about 40 miles west of Columbus. They say the show is one of the best in the area and it did not disappoint. Almost 30 minutes of explosions. We were able to view them from a house on the lake, no long wait for a spot. After some dismal results with my 24-70 lens, I switched over to my 70-200 and went for some closer shots and details. Not having a clear view of the lake posed some challenges and I wasn't able to get many shots with the reflections in the water.

There are lots of articles on camera setup for fireworks (just Google "fireworks photography"). My settings were ISO 400, f/10, with an average 2 sec exposure. Cable release and tripod are essential. You want to be careful of not blowing out the highlights, so these settings depend somewhat on the distance you are from the show and the number of explosions happening at one time. Be prepared to adjust the ISO and aperture to account for this (check your histogram or flashing overexposure warning). Another convenient setting is to use your "B" mode and just count down the seconds. This gives you more control over when you want to stop the exposure, especially when you see another firework starting to enter the frame. I actually forgot about using "B" and many of my shots ended up with a new firework entering the frame, something to remember. I'm paranoid about focus, and since everything is pitch black you wonder what you should be focused on. You can pretty much go to infinity and just back off a tad. Shooting at f/8 or above will ensure that the lights will be in sharp focus.

While waiting for the show you can always play around with moving your camera on the surrounding lights. This will help you warm up and to get an idea of the exposure.

I post-processed all images in Lightroom and needed to increase the Blacks and Vibrance. Of course some cropping helps to isolate the patterns. I was thankful for the resolution on the 5D2, zooming in on some of the light trails revealed some very interesting patterns. Shooting tight with the telephoto gives a different perspective on the scene. I know that we get caught up in the grandeur of the big circular clouds, but try to isolate for a different look. The half hour show went by quickly. It's nice to have images to relive the moment.