2018 - Project 52 Print - Manfred Mueller

[Manfred M]

Another picture for a hot summer's day.

This is an image that I took about 6 months ago of an ice sculpture of a dragon, at Winterlude; Ottawa's annual winter festival that runs over three weekends in February. The ice sculptures are very popular with long lineups, so photographing them is challenging to say the least. I try to get out when the crowds are smaller and this year I timed things to coincide with the American Superbowl football game. Things worked out and I could set up my tripod and spend some time composing and shooting.

This might also become my first published work. I got an email from The Royal Canadian Geographical Society last week asking if they could publish this image in the Fall or Winter edition of their Canadian Geographic Traveller magazine. I don't make any money on it, but it is a prestigious publication, so the recognition is nice, but I do get a free copy of the magazine.


#34 - There be Dragons here. Winterlude 2018





Printed on Epson Hot Press Bright paper.

[Cantab]

Congratulations on both the image and your future publication by the RCGS!

[Manfred M]

My 8-year old Epson 3880 packed it in late last week after serving me well for over 8 years of regular printing (and several thousand prints). The print head failed and would not print with black ink. Epson print heads are excellent, but if one fails outside of the warranty period, it is less expensive to replace the printer.

My decision to replace it now was made a lot easier as Epson is offering a $CAD 400 rebate on a $CAD 1500 printer during the month of August. The P800 is the replacement for the 3880 and came out about 2 or 3 years ago. It has a new ink set (UltraChrome HD) which has a wider gamut mostly because of deeper blacks across all papers. The test results on the inks are equally impressive showing 200 year life on colour and 300 year life on B&W prints. The ink prices are identical to what I paid for the inks for the 3880 and it also uses 80 ml cartridges.

I used this printer a fair bit over the winter when I was taking a printing course at the local photography school, so I understood its capabilities quite well.

The first print I ran on it was the recent shot I took of my 94 year old father who lives in Toronto, Canada sitting beside my 2-year old grandson from Hong Kong. The 92 year age difference between the youngest and oldest living family member holds the record in both my and my wife's families.


#35 - Karl & Kane




Printed on Hahnemuehle Fine Art Baryta paper - I figured printing my dad on a German made paper was rather apropos

[Manfred M]

I'm going to be away next weekend, so I am posting two prints this week.

The first on is the Guatemalan Shaman, Dom Pedro. We met him during a photography workshop that we were attending in San Pedro la Laguna, on Lake Atitlan, in Guatemala.

#36 - Dom Pedro



This image was printed on Epson Hot Press Natural. This paper, along with the Hot Press Bright have become my favourite paper for doing portraits.

[Manfred M]

This shot was taken last winter during an ice race at the local speedway parking lot. I was lucky in some ways to get to shoot here as a second shoot two weeks after I took this shot was cancelled because a warm snap hit and melted a lot of the snow and ice. Here the car is rounding one of the corners of the track. The driver overshot a bit and ended up in a snow bank. The vast amounts of snow came about as the car got back onto the ice-covered track.

#36 - Ice Racing




This shot was printed on Epson Fiber paper. I bought a box to try out, but likely will not use it again as I don't particularly like the finish. It is a paper that contains optical bleach agents, so it handles the look of snow quite well.

[Manfred M]

This shot is one of my first attempts at light painting in using in conjunction with studio flash.

The shots were for Carmen's portfolio and she wanted these done as nudes. Light painting works well when the subject is wearing the same colours all over, so a light coloured body suit or similar clothing work just as well as a nude model.

To get this shot, the studio was covered in black material and a single studio light with a strip box was set up. The camera was set on a tripod at a reasonable aperture (f/8) and I used a slightly wide (45mm) focal length. I used ISO 100 and a 10-second exposure. The model was asked to start moving and the camera shutter what opened. After a predetermined countdown, the model froze in a pose and the flash was manually fired and then she kept moving until the camera shutter closed. A fair bit of PP work was required to get the image the way I wanted it.


#37 - Carmen





Printed on Epson Hot Press Bright paper

[ccphoto]

Interesting and thanks for sharing the details of the exposure...what aperture and lens did you use?

[ccphoto]

Try the fiber paper of B&W and you might change your mind.

[ccphoto]

My favorite paper of all time.

[Manfred M]

I gave all the shooting details you asked for in #106, except for the lens. I used the Nikkor f/2.8 24-70mm G lens. Aperture was f/8.

I have used the Epson Exhibition Fiber paper before on the recommendation of some other people and strongly disliked its texture. I have grown quite fond of Canson Baryta Photographique and would consider using it for this shot. I strongly like the Epson Hot and Cold Press papers and use both the Natural and Bright versions for much of my work because of the weight, finish and feel of the papers.

[ccphoto]

Sorry, I missed the (f/8) first time around.

[Manfred M]

Doing light trails can be a lot of fun, but I find that there are two main issues that people who do them tend to forget.

1. Light trails by themselves are often quite interesting, but when shot in conjunction with a solid image where light trails are part of the image work well; and

2. Not all light trail sources are created equal. Cars often have a single set of lights that are fairly close to the ground. Large trucks and especially a city bus are far more interesting as they have lights at different levels.


#38 - Chateau Laurier Hotel at Night with a City Bus going by.



Just in case anyone is wondering, the shot was taken using a tripod and a 10-second exposure. ISO 100 and f/14 using a Nikkor f/3.5 24mm PC-E lens. Using a perspective correcting lens ensured that there is no perspective distortion due to camera tilt.

Printed on Epson Cold Press Bright paper. When it comes to matte papers, I have switched to Hot Press Bright and Cold Press Bright for a lot of my work. I still prefer the Hot Press Natural and Cold Press Natural for portraiture work and some warm landscape scenes as I find these shots do well on a slightly warmer paper. The latest data for Epson papers on the P800 printer / ink set suggest there is no longer a significant print life penalty using papers with Optical Bleach Agents (OBA).

[Manfred M]

Last summer the French street theatre company, La Machine had a couple of their creations in Ottawa for Canada's 150th Birthday celebrations. I got out with my camera a couple of times to shoot the show. This is their website:

http://www.lamachine.fr/en/

This is a short of the dragon Long Ma coming up Elgin St in Ottawa's downtown. I have framed and hung this shot on my wall at home.


#39 - La Machine - Long Ma




Printed on Epson Hot Press Bright paper.

[Manfred M]

Another picture I took last summer in Ottawa during Canada's 150th birthday event.

Here is a shot of another La Machine creation; Kumo, the giant spider. The spider was suspended just above the roof of Ottawa's Notre Dame Basilica by a large crane. The operators were lifted above it by another crane and rappelled down to their operator's stations on the machine. The crew and machine were then lowered to the ground, which is when I took this shot. It, along with last week's shot have been printed and framed and are up on the wall at home.


#40 - La Machine - Kumo



Printed on Epson Hot Press Bright

Now that I have owned the Epson SureColor P800 for a few weeks, I thought I would take this opportunity to comment on it and the new(er) Epson Ultrachrome HD ink set. The new printer compares quite favourably with the Epson 3880 printer it replaced. Both use 9 pigment based inks and the main difference I have noticed are with the blacks. These are deeper and richer and this is especially noticeable in B&W prints. I have been told by some very knowledgeable printers that they now exceed what was possible with silver halide based prints, which had been the standard we have traditionally judged ink jet printer results by. My understanding (via the Wilhelm Research website) is that this ink set also has a improved archival life versus the older ink set, with 200 years being typical with colour prints and 300 years for B&W prints, based on proper storage and the use of archival paper.

The printer is definitely faster and quieter than the 3880.

[Donald]

Now that I have owned the Epson SureColor P800 for a few weeks, I thought I would take this opportunity to comment on it .....

Very interesting to read.

[Manfred M]

This image is one I took about a year ago while touring the Baltic States.

Saaremaa Island, off the west coast of Estonia is home to a number of traditional windmills. This shot shows the largest collection of these structures. This is one of those very few images where I changed my mind regarding going with B&W or colour. When I originally showed this shot, some of the comments suggested B&W, so I tried it and it worked very well.


#41 - Angla Windmills on Saaremaa Island, Estonia





Printed on Epson Cold Press Natural paper.

[Manfred M]

This is a portrait I took at a makeup class some years ago. This is one is one of my favourite shots I took then. The makeup artist did the face, but did not do the neck, so that part was done in Photoshop.

#42 Black, White & Green




Printed on Epson Hot Press Bright

[Donald]

That, I imagine, will look tremendous as a print.

[Manfred M]

A print of the shot I took of some wolf pups and their mother back in early August. This is definitely one of my favourite shots from this past summer. This was taken at the Wolf Compound at Parc Omega.

http://parcomega.ca/en/

Mom was not at all happy with two of her three offspring...

#43 - Mom's not Happy





Printed of Canson Baryta Photographique

[John 2]

That is so well caught. The timing is perfect to tell the story even including the half cowered look from the pup at the back. Very nice quality as well.