2018 - Project 52 Print - Manfred Mueller

[Manfred M]

This print is a shot using projection that I took earlier this year.

An image was projected onto a model in the studio, using a digital projector; a black seamless background was used. With low light, high ISO is required. The model was positioned relatively far away from the background, so light drop-off helped downplay the amount of light hitting the background. The trick is to find a shooting angle where the projected image outlines parts of the model's body in an interesting way.

#44 - The Matrix and the Model





Printed on Epson Hot Press Natural paper.

[zen]

Manfred,

This type of photography is not usually my cup of tea, but there's something in this one that draws me.

I appreciate the level of difficulty, as well as the model's silhouette and background.

Thanks for sharing.

Zen

[Manfred M]

This image is definitely one of the toughest ones to turn into an acceptable print I have ever worked on. I tend to like using matte papers for portraiture and Epson Hot Press Bright was my first choice of papers, almost as a default. As I started to work on it, and get it ready to print, the Soft Proofing option showed me that most of the dress and the balloons were out of gamut for that paper.

When this happens, I tend to play around with the brightness and saturation to see where this takes me, as well as trying both the perceptual and relative colorimetric rendering intents. By the time I got most of the image to be in gamut, the colour shift was so great that things just looked awful.

At that point I went to a glossier paper as these tend to be able to handle a wider gamut and luckily when going to the Hahnemühle Glossy Fine Art Baryta paper, things did not look nearly as dire.





#45 - Cristina - Lady in Red with Red Balloons






Sometimes, the higher gloss papers with Optical Brightening Agents are the only way to get saturated colours to print well.

Printed on Hahnemühle Glossy Fine Art Baryta paper.

[Donald]

.............As I started to work on it, and get it ready to print, the Soft Proofing option showed me that most of the dress and the balloons were out of gamut for that paper. ..................

At that point I went to a glossier paper as these tend to be able to handle a wider gamut and luckily when going to the Hahnemühle Glossy Fine Art Baryta paper, things did not look nearly as dire.

And that's part of the fun of printing. It's a whole different part of photography and there's a whole lot of learning to do.

[Manfred M]

And that's part of the fun of printing. It's a whole different part of photography and there's a whole lot of learning to do.

Just like in the "wet" darkroom days I get immense pleasure when I have the final version of the print in my hands.

[Manfred M]

The three days I spend photographing the Holi festivities in Nandgaon and Barsana, India were probably three of the most intense and exhausting days I've ever had when it comes to photography. These two small villages were the childhood homes of the Hindu gods Krishna and Radha. The festivities reflect some of the childhood events related to these two deities. Over the weekend when Holi is celebrated (much more vigourously than in the rest of India), some 500,000+ visitors and pilgrims descend on these two places, so there is very little room to move.

Add to that the hot, dry days, people throwing coloured gulal powder everywhere (photographers, foreigners and especially women are favoured targets), the third day involves spraying of liquid dyes everywhere. The photographic journey starts near sunrise (one has to bus into town for about an hour because accommodation is hard to find) and continues until sunset. The clothes have to be thrown out and the cameras protected in waterproof wrappings, making it impossible to change lenses and challenging to compose.

This shot is taken at the Nandgaon temple, where the festival wraps up.


#46 - Holi Finale - Nandgaon, India





Printed on Epson Hot Press Natural paper.

[Cantab]

Manfred, the Holi Finale photo is stunning. Did you print it on your usual size paper or something larger?

[Manfred M]

Manfred, the Holi Finale photo is stunning. Did you print it on your usual size paper or something larger?

Just on the usual size. Unfortunately, the colours are so vivid and quite saturated; I'm not 100% happy with the print as there is a lot of out-of-gamut material that does not show up on the image that I have posted here. I'm looking at trying it on Canson Fine Art Baryta, but to buy a box of 17" x 22" size is going to run close to $150. Seems like a lot of money for one print, so once I finish testing the paper, I will see if I want to add it to my paper inventory.

[Donald]

It would be wonderful to see a print, with which you were happy, of this. I've always said that colour photography is about colour and, boy, this has got colour.

It's the fact that you have concentrated that colour in an excellent composition that makes this such a mesmrising image.

[Wavelength]

Excellent modelling images and mind-blowing eye-locking holi image!!!

[Manfred M]

It would be wonderful to see a print, with which you were happy, of this. I've always said that colour photography is about colour and, boy, this has got colour.

It's the fact that you have concentrated that colour in an excellent composition that makes this such a mesmrising image.

Thanks Donald.

Fortunately, I've gotten to know two of the best "master printers" in this part of the country reasonably well, so my plan is to get their advice. I'm going to see Jim Lamonte on Thursday and will ask him for sure and if I am lucky, Michael Tardioli (who used to be Yousef Karsh's printer) will be around too. Both are generally very helpful and accommodating.

You might find Jim's work interesting. He is generally viewed as being the top mountain and glacier landscape photographer in Canada. He is very much a B&W photographer, but does some wonderful colour work as well.

https://www.jalamont.ca/#1

[Donald]

I've just been through a couple of galleries and already I'm finding his work very interesting.

I love what he does with the sky and in the same vein, he, likes me, will go for a very low horizon and big sky in many of his images (needless to say, I like it).

I've bookmarked the site and will study it slowly. Many thanks for the link.

[Manfred M]

India is a country of small businesses. There are very few of the large western chains, but lots of independent merchants offering goods and services to the public. The shops are located along the small and dusty streets found in most towns and villages. Often there is a single person running the shop, but some have more people working there and often an assistant is there as well. The shops are often tiny, as is the one in this shot.

Here we see a tailor during a period where is not busy, reading a news paper.



#47 - Tailor Shop, Nandgaon, India




Printed on Epson Hot Press Natural paper.

[Manfred M]

The Great Dune at Sossusvlei, in the Namib Desert in Namibia at Evening Golden Hour.

Having these high, wandering orange coloured sand dunes just a few kilometers / miles from the Atlantic Ocean seem rather out of place, but this part of the desert gets less than 10mm / 0.4 inches of rain per year. These very high dunes with many over 200m / 360 ft high with a few being considerably higher.

The dunes are located inside Namib-Naukluft National park. The park entrance is 60km / 45 miles to the east and all visitors must be out of the park by 1/2 hour after sunset, so there is no time to waste in getting the shots and hitting the road. A 4x4 is mandatory as one has to drive through deep sand to get to this location (we did get stuck, even with a 4x4 truck).


#48 - Dunes at Sossusvlei, Namibia at afternoon Golden Hour



Printed on Epson Hot Press Natural

[Manfred M]

This is a shot I got right near the end of our stay in Etosha National Park in Namibia.

I spotted something crossing the road in our rear view mirror while we were watching a herd of wildebeest. My wife and I cruised up and down the dusty trail a few times until she spotted something sitting inside a thorn bush. We stopped, turned off the engine and waited. Some 20 minutes later, this leopard popped out of hiding and started tracking some impala.

Not a successful hunt as the impala noticed the leopard and scattered.



#49 Leopard hunting Impala




Printed on Epson Hot Press Natural

[joebranko]

Great capture! How close were you? Did it hear the sound of your shutter?

[Manfred M]

Great capture! How close were you? Did it hear the sound of your shutter?

Probably somewhere around 5m / 16 ft away from it. We left the engine running, a trick we learned during our first trip to sub-Saharan Africa, many years ago. The engine noise and smell from the exhaust masks human scent, so we were just this big white smelling thing that did not seem threatening to it.

[joebranko]

Very impressive!

[Manfred M]

This shot was taken in the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear sanctuary in North-Western British Columbia, Canada, not far from the boarder with Alaska. This is one of my older shots and was taken when I started to learn how to use a DSLR.

The shot was taken from a Zodiac, floating on the inlet; shooting from a boat that is bouncing around is challenging. We saw around a dozen bears while we were there. This is one of my best shots.

#50 - Young Grizzly Bear - Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary





Printed on Epson Hot Press Natural paper

[joebranko]

The bear seems to be looking into your eyes, unpreturbed by your presence. Great catch!