Colorful Clouds from Black and White Photographs

B&W Cloud Photo with Color

One of my favorite things to photograph is clouds.  I have an ongoing series of mostly black and white photographs of clouds called Terra Nebulae, which (in my best Latin) means Earth Clouds.  I call it that because part of the inspiration for the photographs are NASA's amazing images of space clouds, which are called nebulae (nebula=singular).  Up until today I've been trying to reference these space photographs by turning my skies black and leaving out any Earthly objects like trees and airplanes.  I hadn't aded color, until TODAY!

This is the first real developmental shift in this series since I started three years ago, so that is really a big deal for me.  Where did the idea come from and how did I do it?  To explain that let me talk a little about how NASA takes those wonderful Hubble photographs.

When the Hubble Space Telescope takes its wonderful photos of nebulae it is actually taking black and white images.  It takes a series of exposures, each one sensitive to only a limited part of the light spectrum.  This allows them to look at infrared features which the human eye can't perceive, and to look at the different features that show up in the different spectra.  In order to give these photos the colors we all love, a computer program is used to layer and combine the photos.  The colors you see in these photos are usually not the same ones you would see if you were actually looking at it.

I've known about this for some time, but I didn't really know how that could help my work until I attended a NASA conference and saw a demonstration on how to use search, download, and develop your own Landsat data.  The Landsat program started in the 1970's.  It uses satellites to take close up images of the Earth.  Landsat data is the basis for Google Earth.  Well, Landsat satellites do the same thing as the Hubble Space Telescope.  When they photograph a section of the Earth's surface, they take multiple exposures using different wavelengths.  Fortunately, I found directions for how to take all these exposures and combine them to make different colored versions of Central New York.  After I started to get the hang of it, I thought, "Hey, would this work for my cloud photographs?"  It turns out that with a bit of creativity, you can utilize this process to help interesting colorful photos from black and white photos.

So what do you think?  Do you like the black and white photos better, or do you like the new direction?

Another Black & White cloud scene

I was having so much fun that I figured I would try the technique on a black and white photo I took out West.

Christmas Baby and the Miracle of Photoshop

Since I am now a proud uncle, and it is Hudson's first Christmas next month, the job of taking holiday photos fell to me today.  My sister, Lindsay, really wanted studio portraits taken, unfortunately I don't have a studio anymore.  Since I didn't want my sister taking the little guy to another photographer, we decided to just wing it at my parents house.  We cleared off the table, used the natural light from the dining room window, and had my mom hold up a sheet as a backdrop.  These conditions were pretty lousy for a photo shoot, but it was all we had to work with, and I gave it my best shot.  In the end, we got some photos I really like.  I always do some digital editing with my photos, but today's shoot was an extreme case.  I'm including a couple of the original shots, so you can see how different the final photos are.

 This one was underexposed, and needed a bit of work on the background, too.

I couldn't resist putting this sequence up.  After photographing on the kitchen table we dressed him up in a Santa outfit and brought him to the park.  He isn't old enough to sit up by himself yet, so we tried propping him against a fence.  He didn't last more than a second before plopping over.  Don't worry, he was fine.  I can't wait to show them to him when he gets older.

Beaver Dams, Birds, and Wasps oh my!

The weather this November keeps surprising me.  It keeps being so nice.  Lately I've been putting in a lot of extra hours at work, so yesterday I took off and went hiking instead.  If you've never been to Baltimore Woods in Marcellus, NY before, I definitely recommend it.  If you need big attractions like waterfalls or lakes, this isn't that kind of experience.  Instead, it provides a nice hike through fields and woods and offers a nature center with art shows, animal specimens, and a very friendly staff.

Every time I spend a few hours exploring nature I am always surprised by what I find.  The highlights of this trip included a beaver lodge and dam (that totally flooded out one of the trails), a flock of Red-winged Blackbirds, a cool beetle, some curious chipmunks, and a wasp's nest.

Washed out trail caused by Beaver Dam

Coming upon a large flock of Red-winged Blackbirds was a real treat.  I love watching and listening to red-winged Blackbirds whenever I'm near a marshy area.  During the Fall and Winter, however, this species changes their habits.  They start to build large flocks, some of which number in the thousands, and move to different types of habitats.  The flock yesterday had a few hundred (by my estimate) birds, and they were all hanging out and flying around in the trees above my head.  They were mostly Blackbirds, but there were Grackles in there, too.  My girlfriend and I thought it was so fantastic that we stopped for 10 minutes or so to photograph and watch and listen to the birds.  I took video showing the birds flying around the trees.  Please check it out if you are interested.

Wasp's nest

I couldn't resist photographing this leaf after I noticed the lighting on it.

I love chipmunks!

Chimney Bluffs State Park in Wolcott New York

My first view of Chimney Bluffs.  Check out the Oswego power plant in the bottom left.

View from the beach looking up.

Today I spent a half day on a trip to Chimney Bluffs State Park in Wolcott, NY.  I had never heard of the park before, and in fact I was taken there as a surprise.  My girlfriend had been there once before, and knew I would be impressed.  She certainly was right.  It is amazing how much natural beauty and variety there is within a couple hours of driving from Syracuse, NY.  This trip took about an hour and was well worth it.  When we first arrived I assumed she had just brought me to some nice hiking trails along the shore of Lake Ontario, but when I looked up the coast and saw the "chimney bluffs" I was shocked.  At first I didn't know if I was looking at something man-made or natural.  As we hiked closer it became apparent that we were seeing incredible geologic features made from erosion.  The view reminded me of photos I've seen of places like Bryce Canyon, and yet they were only made from the eroding hillside of a drumlin.  How these spires continue to stand is beyond me, as it looks like a single storm would take them out.  What was obvious was that the erosion of the bluffs is ongoing.  There were many downed trees lying at the bottom of the hill having apparently fallen from the cliff edge.  The hiking itself wasn't very hard, but the trails take you right alongside the cliff edges.  I don't recommend this for your children or anyone who isn't surefooted.

This view was probably my favorite.

I bumped up the contrast in this one to make it a little more dramatic.

Sweet Chariot Music Festival

Kahlil Sabbagh

A few years back I was visiting a bed and breakfast in St. Albans, Vermont.  In this small town, practically in Canada, I happened to meet Douglas Day.  His family was on a road trip through the US from California on there way to Maine.  I had no idea that when I started showing Doug my sketchbook of photos and drawings during breakfast that he would invite me to photograph at his music festival, which was just a few weeks later.  In August I finished my third year photographing the Sweet Chariot Music Festival on Swans Island, Maine (I missed 2010).  Every year has been an incredible experiance of fantastic music, great people, sea shanties, and a gorgeous setting. I had posted photos from this event before on my old website, but I am happy to announce that I have now finished a new public gallery of some of my favorite photos.  You can check them out at www.dustinangell.me/chariot  If your interested in the festival, here is the official site: www.sweetchariotmusicfestival.com 

To give you an idea of what its like to be a part of the festival, I'm also including on the blog a video I shot of an impromptu jam.

Moira Smiley, 2009

Denny Williams, 2011

Photo one of National Geographic Favorites

Last year I entered some of my photography in a National Geographic competition.  I never heard back from them, but today I just found out that one of my photos ended up being a popular one.  The website www.demortalz.com posted it as one of their top 50 photos from the competition.  Check it out along with a lot of other great photos: 

http://www.demortalz.com/2011/08/29/top-50-pictures-from-national-geographic-latest-photo-contest/ 

Photos used in Bella Gaia perfromance sponsored by NASA

Cranberry Lake, NY

Last week was busy and exciting.  Over the last year I have been working as part of a NASA grant to help organize an event at the the MOST (http://www.most.org/) that involves music, NASA Earth visualizations, scientints and consultants from accross the country, educational activities, and the Onondaga Nation School and community.  Usually I'm writing and performing my own educational performances, so this was a BIG challenge and commitment.  Not only did everything work out pretty well, but Kenji Williams ended up using some of my photography in his Bella Gaia (http://www.bellagaia.com/) performance.  What he does is work with NASA to put together a 30 min. video that starts out above the galaxy and flies in to Earth.  While it runs, he plays live electric violin over a digital track.  The view in the video takes the audience flying around the Earth looking at all kinds of cool satellite data.  Since the event was designed to be localized for the Onondaga Nation, the video zooms in to Central New York.  And when it does, all the photos that represent the aboriginal land of the Onandoga People are my nature photographs.  This wasn't part of the original plan for the grant, so I was very thankful that Kenji decided to do this.  His whole performance was beautiful and emotionaly moving.  What made everything even better was that an Oneida man, named Heath Hill started the day out by recited the "Thanksgiving Address" in his native language.  This may have been the highlight of the whole day.  I feel very honored to have been a part of this.




 

Green Lakes State Park, NY

Sterling Renaissance Festival 2011

Sterling Renaissance Festival Joust

Singing Pirate

A little known fact about myself is that I have a minor in Medieval and Renaissance studies.  Another one is that I used to work as a squire at the Sterling Renaissance Festival in Sterling, NY (http://www.sterlingfestival.com/).  Today I spent most of the day at the festival after having not been in a number of years.  It was a great experience.  I loved seeing some of the old performers and craftsman I remember from before, and it was cool to see acts and vendors that were new, or at least new to me.  I left with some homemade soap, an awesome hand-made wooden box, and some great memories.  Oh yeah, and some photographs, too.

The Mud Show is always a must see.

Daniel: Duke of Danger!  Handstand, while balancing a mug on his head.

Mud Show Kraken

Mud Show Medusa

To Maine and Back Again

While in Schenectady I photographed
Grace, one of Emily's friends.

I'm on my way back to Syracuse from a week long road trip to Maine.  I will put up more details later, but I want to share a few of the photos I took.  I was in Maine for my third year as an artist-in-residence at the Sweet Chariot Music and Art Festival on Swans Island. 

The rocks on the coastline of Swans Island are unlike anything in Central New York.  These are boulder sized rocks in a puddle made from the low tide.

I love a good camp-fire.  This was taken during my last night on the island.

Overcast, my favorite weather

Emily

Today was overcast and a little rainy.  This type of weather is my favorite for taking outdoor portraits.  Luckily, my girlfriend humors me by modeling when I ask, so we went out to the Goodwill store and bought a couple of dresses (as well as some Conan comic books from the 1970's for only $1 a piece).  The backyard of her summer job field-house is the perfect backdrop for a photo shoot.

Hudson at 19 days

My sister Lindsay, brother-in-law Sean, and nephew Hudson

I've officially been an uncle for 19 days!  Today was Father's Day and the family was together, so we walked down to the park and took some photos.  We also each recorded a little message for Baby Hudson to watch when he gets older.

Rest in Peace Grandpa

Last week my grandpa, Albert Wirkes, passed away.  As a child I loved him like most boys love their grandparents.  I loved him unconditionally and without much thought to whom he really was.  But as I became an adult I started to pay more attention. The last few years taught me that he was a man to look up to.  I want to share with you a few of the details about my Grandpa that are important to me.  I think they say something about who he was and the life he lived.

An accident at birth left him to live the rest of his life with only one eye.  Though it could have, he didn't let that stop him from serving our country during WWII.  He joined the Army Medical Corps and was stationed in Florida and England.  In Florida he chose to serve in the African American unit of the hospital at a time when others wouldn't.  He observed segregation and racism that he would never forget and never understand.

Grandpa was lucky enough to find true love twice.  His fist wife, Carol, passed before I was born.  His second wife, Patty, was the Grandma that I knew.  He cared for them both in health and in sickness, and set an example of what it means to be a true husband.

So what was he like as a grandfather?  He excelled there, too.  I don't remember him ever loosing his temper or speaking badly of others.  When he was present it always seemed to make a family gathering official.  And you knew that he was proud to be a part of his family.  Grandpa was funny and he loved to tell stories, most of them tall-tales about himself.  The best ones never seemed to finish as they were constantly interrupted by laughter, which was often his own.  Grandpa always had a smile for others and a smart line to make you laugh.

These are only a few of my thoughts, but I hope they help to say a little about who he was.  Grandpa Al is now gone, but he lived a good life and touched many people with his service, humor, and love.

A wedding and some babies!

I'm amazed at how fast the last few months have gone by.  I've had a few photo shoots, worked on some really interesting projects for the science museum, been glad to have finally have my girlfriend move back to the state after living in Canada for the last two years.  And just last week my sister gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Hudson, making me an uncle!

Juan and Maria

I liked seeing two priests.  The younger one led most of the ceremony and spoke in both English and Spanish.

Maria and Juan invited me to photograph their Syracuse wedding.  They had already been married for a year or so in the Dominican Republic were Juan is from, but they have recently moved to Central New York and wanted another ceremony.  There baby is soon on its way!

Major digs into his first birthday cake

Major is now One year old!  I've had the pleasure of photographing him twice before this, and it has been great to watch him grow.  His birthday party was a lot of fun and a new kind of photographic challenge for me.  I tried to get right in the mix of things and photograph as much as I could from a low angle.  Happy Birthday Major.

That's my sister Lindsay with her new baby boy, Hundson Nathaniel Angell.  He was four weeks early, but still weighted 8 pounds 2 ounces.  I took these photos after Hudson had just came home from the hospital a couple hours earlier.  I plan on taking lots of photos of him through the years.

A Happy Family: Sean, Lindsay, & Hudson