Frame-A-Day 15: Birthday Coffee.

15. Birthday Coffee., originally uploaded by jeffrey_knight.

Free coffee at Borders is cool, it just bites that I had to go there during the holiday season to get it.

Frame-A-Day #14: Laumier Sculpture Park

14. Laumier Sculpture Park, originally uploaded by jeffrey_knight.

Another massive public sculpture. This one located in Laumeier Sculpture park in Sunset Hills, MO. Like yesterday's image, this was shot with a #25 Red filter and the effect the filter had on the tones and contrast of this photo are much more pronounced. The shadows are deepened to almost pure black (the original scan still shows some detail, and I'd be willing to bet I could get a tad more out if I worked a little harder at it), the blue sky is darkened, and the bright red sculpture is lightened in comparison.

"The Way" at Laumeier Sculpture Park

Frame-A-Day 13: Wood and Frost

13. Wood and Frost, originally uploaded by jeffrey_knight.

One of the things about shooting film vs. digital is digital's ability to allow you to change the sensor's sensitivity to light, or it's ISO rating. Shooting in bright sunlight? Drop the ISO to 100 or 200. Shooting in a dark building? Raise it to 1600 or 3200 (or more, with the high-end cameras offering fantastic-looking images at very high ISOs).

Film is of course rated at different sensitivities as well, usually known as the film's speed. The higher the speed, the higher the ISO, the more sensitive to light. Kodak's Tri-X, which is what I'm using for my frame-a-day series currently, is normally a 400 speed film, but I'm shooting it as if it were ISO 3200, basically underexposing it by 3 stops. The long processing time in a highly-dilute developer allows me to get scannable images off the film.

But, I have to shoot everything on the roll as if it were ISO 3200. Which is fine when I'm indoors, but outdoors during the day, that's just too bright. How do you solve that problem, since I cannot change the film's ISO on the fly?

The answer is the use of filters, pieces of glass that screw onto the camera lens for a variety of effects. In this case I used a red #25 filter, a deep-red filter. Using a #25 cuts your exposure by 3 stops, effectively dropping my film back to ISO 400- perfectly manageable even on a bright day.

The downside to using it is that contrast is pushed way up, as the shadows- normally lit by the blue sky- are darkened. This isn't a bad effect, per se, but it is one you have to keep in mind when you are shooting with it. For Christmas I received a 2-stop neutral-density filter, which reduces the light entering the camera by 2 stops. Unlike the red filter, the ND doesn't have any sort of color cast, so it won't have any effect on the scene's contrast, and I will be able to use it with color film as well.

Happy new year, everybody, and here's looking forward to a great 2011!

Frame-A-Day: Bibi

12. Bibi, originally uploaded by jeffrey_knight.

Bibi used to work at the same studio as I do until she moved on to greener pastures in fall 2010. It was a real treat to be able to get together with her and catch up last month.

Bibi's photostream

Frame-A-Day: Mercury

11. Mercury, originally uploaded by jeffrey_knight.

Ah, the Saint Louis Science Center, "playground for your head." It's a pretty nifty place- but it is sorely lacking in dinosaurs especially compared to museums such as the Field Museum in Chicago or the American Natural History Museum in New York City.

Saint Louis Science Center

Frame-A-Day 10: Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.

Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas., originally uploaded by jeffrey_knight.

Stage one is becoming open to the possibilities of interesting photographic subjects that surround us in everyday life. You need to learn to see what's there all the time in front of you.

That's the easy part,

Stage two is being able to translate that quality which catches your attention into a compelling image. I'm still working on that one.

Frame-A-Day 9: The Awakening

9. The Awakening, originally uploaded by jeffrey_knight.

For the most part, the photos I take for the project will be snapshots made during my normal day-to-day activities. But every now and again, I like to go out of my way to shoot something specifically for my frame.

Case in point: The Awakening, by J. Seward Johnson. 70 feet long, 17 feet high, it really is a massive piece of outdoor art (although the Chesterfield casting is slightly smaller than the one located in Maryland near Washington D.C.)

 J. Seward Johnson's website