Induro Blog

Jarrett Murphy, Route 531, Spencerport, New York, 2008

I saw this picture (above) on Flak Photo the other day and was very impressed. Jarrett Murphy makes long exposures and paints his landscapes with light, creating an almost other-wordly effect. I hadn’t seen this done much, though my buddy Wesley Brown over at We Can Shoot Too alerted me to the brilliance of British photographer Tim Simmons, who uses a similar technique. So today we get two for one!

These images are pretty spectacular- it seems as though a lot of work that would normally done in post are done in camera- the edges are smoothed over, the light glows. You could put a car in there, and voila! An ad!

Below, six from Simmons.

Tim Simmons, Intervention Rockpool #1 2007

Tim Simmons, Intervention Rockpool #4 2008

Tim Simmons, Intervention Rockpool #7 2008

Do you paint with light? Send over some samples!

My googling paid off to great effect yesterday, and I came across an Induro review from 2007 on Luminous Landscape. It was site author Mr. Michael Reichmann who borrowed the Induro C413 for his trip to Antarctica, and he came away with some interesting thoughts and a whole lot of beautiful pictures.

Here’s the C413, below:

You can read all about it, here.

But here’s the gist:

INDURO CARBON 8X C-Series carbon fiber tripods offer the ultimate in strength, light weight, fast action, and reliable performance. They’re ideal for Backpackers, Nature, Wildlife, Landscape, Photojournalist, Travel and On-location Photographers. C-Series tripods are made of the latest generation of high quality 8-layer carbon fiber tubing which is 60% stronger overall than conventional carbon fiber material. Each leg lock has a specially designed dust and moisture-resistant seal and most tripods include interchangeable rubber feet and stainless steel spikes.

C413 Height: 29.9″ Folded / 76.8″ Extended

Here’s some of what Reichmann had to say about the C413:

The 413 certainly comes well equipped – more so than any tripod I’ve yet seen. It ships in a sturdy nylon zippered case with a carry handle and attachment points for a shoulder strip. A shoulder strap is also included, and there is a swivel attachment point built on at the top of the tripod. On the strap is a small pouch containing a set of leg wrenches as well as a set of stainless steel leg spikes, which screw into the end of the legs as replacements for the normal rubber tipped feet. Just the thing for working on ice.

The new Induro Carbon Fibre tripods are a very worthwhile addition to the marketplace. Professional photographers now have a strong alternative to the Gitzo line, and Induro will likely garner some significant marketshare.

Read the full review here! And now for the fun part: Reichmann’s images!

Blue Lace Iceberg. Antarctica – February, 2007

Ice Colums – February, 2007

Blue Ripples. Antarctica, February, 2007

Lion's Mane Medusa, Iceberg, and Penguin. February, 2007

Penguin Pool. Antarctica – February, 2007

King Penguin Conference. South Georgia. February, 2007

Michael Reichmann and a Few Friends, with the Induro C413

Tear Drop View. Antarctica – February, 2007

Triangle Cloud, Antarctica. February, 2007

Drake Passage Sunset. February, 2007

See more gorgeous shots, here.

<all images copyright Michael Reichmann>

OOH, check out this great review of Induro’s C414 tripod in the The Digital Journal of Photography today!

There are even pictures.

Like the pricey rival, the C414 uses the usual three-position lock for adjusting the leg spread, up to a full 80 degrees from closed to nearly horizontal. This allows a good deal of versatility while maintaining excellent rigidity. Also similar is the anti-rotation legs and rubber faced twist-locks for the leg-sections. They’re dust and moisture sealed, but more importantly, they lock off positively and very firmly. There were no accidental slips at any time during the test period. Non-slip rubber feet can be replaced with the supplied steel spikes.

The small pack-down size and reasonable weight make it more suitable for location and landscape work than you might expect. But price is the most likely limiting factor. All the same, if you’re looking for a solid tripod, capable of supporting a decent load, then the Induro C414 really should be on your shortlist.

woot!

A treat today, folks! I ran across the portfolio of Tait Simpson the other day and was truly intrigued. I’d chatted with Mr. Simpson last year about some work in the desert, and I’m glad to see he’s doing so well. Below, the Q&A.

So, Tait. Last time we met on the interwebs, you were shooting a story for TOTO high efficiency toilets. Tell us a bit about that shoot. Did any jobs or personal inspiration come from it? I found it really beautiful, almost like a desert installation.

It really was like an installation in the desert:  we had about 700 5-gallon water bottles out in this salt flat in Texas.  It was an exciting job, my first real experience shooting an ad campaign.  It turned out that it wouldn’t appear just in print, but they even used the image as a centerpiece in their showroom on Mercer st, blowing it up to about 10’x12’.  Having never seen anything I’ve shot that large it certainly made me want to make my own prints as large as possible. Out of it actually came a second ad for Toto this time with thousands of C batteries on the grass in central park.

Here we are at Tuesday again, and it’s time for our roundup! What’s been going on in photo news? Let’s take a look….

1. Famed architectural photographer Julius Shulman dies at 98. Some really stunning images have surfaced this week as a result. See a selection here.

I’d live here, surely. Where did he put the tripod?

OK, next.

2. Interesting photo world news; three prominent nature photographers cede from major stock agencies and create their own– Wild Photography. Included in the bunch is a favorite of mine- National Geographic shooter David Doubilet.

Read about their new business plan here. And yes- these are two nudibranches, as well as a shot of David at work.

3. Chris Bickford’s images of surfing on The New York Times Lens Blog. (His first time shooting in water!)

wowser.

4. Also on the Lens Blog- a young David Burnett captures moon spectators in 1969. Tell me you’ve gone this week without seeing some awesome anniversary shots of the moon landing, and I won’t believe you.

5. Just for fun: check out some strangely beautiful liquid suspension still lifes here.

6. They had a tripod, but something went wrong with the flash:

Washington, D.C., circa 1919. “Mrs. John Nolan, children’s party.” A good if eerie example of what happens when the shutter opens before the flash goes off. National Photo Company Collection glass negative.

via Shorpy.

Have a great week!

I spent some of today perusing Abelardo Morell‘s new camera obscura images, and I’m just lost in the dreaminess of it all. In case you’re unfamiliar with the concept of the c.o., here’s a rundown courtesy of Wikpedia:

The camera obscura (Latin veiled chamber) is an optical device used, for example, in drawing or for entertainment. It is one of the inventions leading to photography. The principle can be demonstrated with a box with a hole in one side (the box may be room-sized, or hangar sized). Light from a scene passes through the hole and strikes a surface where it is reproduced, in color, and upside-down. The image’s perspective is accurate. The image can be projected onto paper, which when traced can produce a highly accurate representation.

Morell’s camera obscura images are made in darkened rooms with often very interesting cityscapes and landscapes outside. His exposures can last up to eight hours. Here are some recent creations, along with snippets of interviews I find interesting. You can check out the full interviews here and here.

Have a great weekend, tripoders!

Camera Obscura: View of Landscape Outside Florence in Room With Bookcase. Italy, 2009

The luxury of view camera is that you can actually see in the ground glass, everything. It’s not like it’s in a book and it’s going to run away with a spoon . You can actually have a frame maybe closer, and then you make several and then you edit later. But I don’t crop. I don’t need to crop.

Camera Obscura: Garden With Olive Tree Inside Room With Plants, Outside Florence. Italy, 2009

A photograph is a photograph. When I am making a picture I am just interested in making a very interesting photograph. I don’t care where it’s going to go. I feel like I am in a lucky position to do whatever I want. And, if the results please, that’s fine. But I am just interested in making my own very personal take on something interesting to others.

Camera Obscura: Chianti Landscape Inside Room With Roberto Barni Art Works. Italy, 2009

Chance plays some role in most everything that I do but a lot of my pictures are made with premeditation. The earlier street photographs of people did depend very much on chance since things in life can change so fast. I must tell you , however, that the work that I like the most surprises me beyond what I had expected.

Camera Obscura: View of Landscape Outside Florence Looking East Toward Where Galileo Died in Exile. Italy, 2009

The first roll of photographs I took made me know that I had discovered my way of expression. I have tried other forms of art making but I’m pretty bad at drawing and painting. At one point I had considered becoming a percussionist but I had a hard time learning to read music. The thing I liked about photography, right away, was the freedom to decide quickly without much thought where a good picture could be.

Camera Obscura:5:04 AM Sunrise Over the Atlantic Ocean. Rockport, Massachusetts, June 17th, 2009

The thing that makes me want to make pictures now is just looking without many prejudices. The stuff right under your eyes is the most wonderful universe-if you care to look with young eyes.

Once in a while it’s fun to scour the interwebs for Induro and see what pops up. Today we found Panchev1‘s flickr stream, which includes a look inside his gear bag, and some resulting shots. That tripod above is the Induro A313. Here are the specs:

The Alloy 6M A-series tripods are made of high quality aluminum alloy and are precisely machined to offer the quality and strength demanded by professional photographers.

Each leg section of this tripod is extruded 6000 series aluminum alloy with a wall thickness of 1.5 mm. Each leg lock has a specially designed anti-dust and moisture seal along with hard rubber feet. Each leg has an adjustable leg angle of 24, 55 and 80 degrees to accommodate uneven terrain or awkward shooting situations.

Nice! Now, some birds, courtesy of Panchev1:

Now fly away and get shooting!

What what? You want an affordable seminar on lighting and composition at an affordable price, in a city near you? It’s your lucky day. Hanson Fong and John Woodward are going to help you. Their Beauty and the Beast Seminar dates are as follows:

7/30 Portland, OR
8/10 Waltham, MA
8/13 New York, NY
9/14 Indianapolis, IN
9/24 Grand Rapids, MI
9/28 Houston, TX
10/1 Los Angeles, CA
10/5 Nashville, TN

Register now!

Check out these clever folks in action:

Induro is proud to be a sponsor of this event (and I hear there will be discounts on gear, too!)

Check it out.

If you haven’t noticed, cell phone photos are all the rage lately. So when I went upstate this weekend and realized I’d forgotten the trusty Mamiya 7, I didn’t panic. I simply downloaded the CameraBag App for my iPhone and went to town.

This thing has a lot of options- you can add the following filters to your images: Magazine, Lolo, Helga, Fisheye, Infrared, Cinema, 1974, 1962, and Mono.

I love the twist on “Holga” and “Lomo”. So very clever.

Anyhoo, my favorite results are below. Enjoy!

“Helga” filter

“Lolo” filter

“1974″ filter

“Cinema” filter

“Magazine” filter

If you want this app for yourself, you can download it here.

Oh hellooo… I am just back from a jaunt to Maine, where there is a lovely Julia Margaret Cameron exhibit at the Portland Museum of Art. JMC was the grand dame of Victorian photography, beginning her career at age 48. Also- little known fact- she was the great aunt of Virginia Woolf. Lord knows this woman had to use some sort of a tripod device to get her subjects still during long exposures. She used the collodion wet plate process, and photographed her many famous and influential friends at her home on the Isle of Wight. Take a look.

Rosebud Garden, 1868

Ellen Terry at Age Sixteen, 1864

Venus Chiding Cupid, 1872

Prospero, 1865

Prayer and Praise, 1865

Paul and Virginia, 1865

Marie Spartali, 1870

I Wait, 1872