Tim Messick's Photo Blog

Photomontage

Tim Messick — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:04:18 +0000

Playing around with photomontage (blending several images) in Photoshop is a sort of mental/visual gymnastics. It’s good exercise and harmless fun. This composition includes portions of 5 different images, all from alleys in downtown Sacramento. The Photoshop file uses 19 layers for images, edits, and adjustments, most with some masking.

Tim Messick Photography • Graphics
Copyright © 2012 Tim Messick. All rights reserved.

Filed under: Photography, Photoshop Tagged: Photomontage, Photoshop, Sacramento

Metal Clad Walls (2)

Tim Messick — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 23:00:42 +0000

More from the Social Sciences and Humanities Building at UC Davis.

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Copyright © 2012 Tim Messick. All rights reserved.

Filed under: Architecture, Photography Tagged: Davis, UC Davis

Metal Clad Walls

Tim Messick — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 01:15:09 +0000

I recently revisited one of my earlier photographic subjects, the Social Sciences and Humanities Building at UC Davis. This building has a severe, modernist-sculptural form, but I’m intrigued by how early morning light—blue from the sky and yellow-orange from ground and painted walls—can produce soft gradients and glowing colors on the metal cladding and concrete lower walls.

Tim Messick Photography • Graphics
Copyright © 2012 Tim Messick. All rights reserved.

Filed under: Architecture, Photography Tagged: Davis, UC Davis

Solargraphy Project: Sunrise over Canal

Tim Messick — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:30:30 +0000

I’m testing some new, smaller pinholes (for better sharpness) in some relatively short-duration solargraphs. I’m also using a lovely new Epson Perfection V700 scanner. The image below was an 18-day exposure of the rising sun over a canal in the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, between Sacramento and Davis.

Here’s the camera: a 1-quart paint can with a 0.6 mm pinhole (low-tech, made with a quilting pin in a piece of aluminum cut from a pie pan), mounted at ground level on the edge of the canal.

Tim Messick Photography • Graphics
Copyright © 2011 Tim Messick. All rights reserved.

Filed under: Photography Tagged: Pinhole, Pinhole Camera, Pinhole Photography, Solargraphy

Solargraphy Project: Arboretum

Tim Messick — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 20:51:32 +0000

This is a solargraph of the rising sun over a pasture for horses the south edge of the UC Davis Arboretum. The paper negative was exposed for 7 days in a brown plastic Hershey’s hot cocoa mix box, wrapped in black duct tape, with a 0.6 mm aluminum pinhole.

And the camera itself:

Tim Messick Photography • Graphics
Copyright © 2011 Tim Messick. All rights reserved.

Filed under: Photography Tagged: Pinhole, Pinhole Camera, Pinhole Photography, Solargraphy

Another Foggy Morning in the Yolo Bypass

Tim Messick — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:30:19 +0000

Tim Messick Photography • Graphics
Copyright © 2011 Tim Messick. All rights reserved.

Filed under: Photography Tagged: Wetlands, Yolo Bypass, Yolo County

Birds in Fog

Tim Messick — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 19:46:08 +0000

Earlier this week we saw some of the densest early-morning fog in a long time out in the Yolo Bypass, between Davis and Sacramento. Dense flocks of birds—mostly blackbirds, I think—gathered on the roads and nearby rice stubble, waiting for the fog to lift.

Tim Messick Photography • Graphics
Copyright © 2011 Tim Messick. All rights reserved.

Filed under: Photography Tagged: Wetlands, Yolo Bypass, Yolo County

Fall Color

Tim Messick — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 06:03:17 +0000

Leaves shed by a Ginkgo biloba, a few weeks ago in the UC Davis Arboretum….

Filed under: Photography Tagged: Davis, Fall Color, Plants

Ilyushin IL-14

Tim Messick — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 00:00:30 +0000

The Ilyushin IL-14 (Ильюшин Ил-14) “Crate” was a Soviet twin-engine passenger and cargo transport aircraft, first flown in 1954. The IL-14 was a much-needed successor to the widely used Douglas DC-3 (which was older and built by Cold War rivals in America) and the Ilyushin IL-12 (which was annoyingly prone to dangerous “engine out” emergencies during take-off). The IL-14 became a reliable workhorse in both military and civilian aviation throughout Asia, eastern Europe, parts of Africa, and in Cuba until the 1980s and early ’90s.

This one, built in 1954 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, now lives in stately retirement at the Pacific Coast Air Museum, in Santa Rosa, California. It’s also on display (or rather the picture above is) at the Viewpoint Gallery in Sacramento, as my contribution to the annual “Twelve” exhibit this December. The theme, “Twelve: Parallels“, was selected to encourage photographers to explore connections and relatedness within the photographic frame and in particular to submit multiple images in diptychs, triptychs, and polyptychs. Come on by the gallery if you’re in Sacramento this month; it’s an excellent exhibit!

Filed under: Photography Tagged: Aircraft

October Views from Pothole Dome

Tim Messick — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 22:30:00 +0000

October is one of my favorite times in the Yosemite high country. The mornings are frosty and the meadow plants are all bright green-yellow, russet, and purple-red. The trails are nearly empty, and the whole landscape seems relieved that another summer of frantic tourist activity is over. These views are from a stroll across Pothole Dome one very windy October morning.

Looking north toward the summit.

Looking west toward Fairview Dome (left) and Mt. Hoffman (center).

Looking east, across Tuolumne Meadows toward Mt. Dana (left), Lembert Dome, Mt. Gibbs, and Mammoth Peak.

Looking south toward Unicorn Peak (left) , Cockscomb (center), and Echo Peaks (right).

Filed under: Photography, Travel Tagged: Sierra Nevada, Yosemite