Here is another portrait from my archives. This one is of Chava, a local surfer. Usually, I like my subjects to look into the camera because I feel like it is a bit more personal and more likely to connect the viewer with the subject. Perhaps it is because of the extreme closeup nature of the shot, but Chava’s off-camera stare still seems to invite the viewer into his personal space.
Click on the full-screen button in the upper-right corner of the image below for the best viewing experience!
One of the biggest drawbacks to viewing photographs online is the loss of detail. Even when photos are shown fullscreen, much of the detail that is captured by the camera is lost due to the resizing of the images for web viewing. The image degradation is especially great when the image happens to come from a medium or large format image.
Luckily, there is a service called Closr.it that helps to bring more of that detail to the web. While the images may not be viewable for iPhone and iPad users due to Closr’s reliance on Flash, most desktop and laptop users will be able to experience many photos almost as if they were standing right in front of a very large print.
In a previous post, I had posted a 580 by 580 pixel image of one of my surfer friends, Bob W. Here is the same image viewed through the Closr widget. Much like a YouTube video, the Closr image can be viewed in fullscreen mode. Try zooming into the eyes to see the level of detail captured in the original image.
Sometimes, traveling to some of the more popular national parks can be a bit of a drag especially if you go in the summertime and especially bad if you go on a popular weekend like Memorial Day or Labor Day. Sure, the park might be a national treasure, but if you’re standing 3 or 4 people deep in a crowd gathered at the base of Yosemite Falls, you might not find the bounty so enjoyable. If you have enjoyed Yosemite in the summer months when the weather is nice you probably know what I’m talking about. For that reason, my wife and I, along with some photography friends of ours, took a trip to Yosemite in winter a few years ago to see what it would be like. We couldn’t have been more delighted.
We went up in January when there was plenty of snow and very few people. Obviously, you need to be prepared for some colder weather, but you will be heavily rewarded with uncrowded vistas. The park’s attractions are so enjoyable when you don’t have to deal with crowds and the traffic that can often take some of your focus off of what you really came to see.
The texture of the sheer granite faces that surround the valley is easily seen with the snow that lines every available perch. The high altitude mixed with the scent of the evergreens and the crisp winter air invigorate you like a brisk morning run. Little details that you might not notice otherwise become attractions in their own right like the snow covered reeds at the edge of a pond.
If you’re looking to do something a little different next winter, definitely give Yosemite a shot. The park is just as enjoyable and breathtaking. And, you will have more of it to yourself!
My old site had a bunch of portraits that I had taken of some of the surfers that call El Porto their home break. I removed that old gallery of images when I went to this blog format for the site and figured that I would slowly begin adding the portraits back while mixing in some other images from my archives.
These are all portraits that I had taken several years ago using my Hasselblad and the standard 80mm lens with Ilford Delta 100 film. Charley and Rick are still out at El Porto on a regular basis. Ted Robinson moved to Orange County a few years back and we don’t get to see him out in the lineup very much unfortunately.
