Polychrome...*

(* ... it gives us such nice, bright colors)

by Ctein

So, while Mike returns from vacation, I'm off on one, in Montreal. Just wrapped up the World Science Fiction Convention, a.k.a Worldcon. Mondo fun. Great parties. And, unexpectedly, photo stuff to write about.

The interior of the Palais des Congres de Montreal (I am not typing that more than once) is inherently neutral—whites, greys, blacks, charcoal granite, silver aluminum and steel. The south-facing wall, though, is all colored glass panels. I'm coming down the escalator early Thursday afternoon, and the sun comes out. And I freak out. OMG, he says eloquently. Run back to my hotel room. Get my Fuji S100, spend the next hour and a half making photographs. I am in heaven. Found my traveling companion, Bayla, and told her, "okay, I'm done. I've had a good con. We can go home now."

Ended up spending about five hours of photography over three days there, working with the changing light. Made over 100 photos. Amazing photos, very rough versions of three being shown here. No finishing touches on these; all I've got to work on is my crappy laptop screen. Think of these as enlarged proof sheets. Just samples, probably not even the best of the bunch. Can't wait to see what they look like after I get to adjust and print them well.

Understand that all the color you're seeing is from the sun filtering through the glass. All natural, all light, all amazing. And, yes, it is just what I saw.

A friend wandered up while I was working and opined that the weird and wonderful light must be screwing up the white balance. I looked at him incredulously and exclaimed, "White balance?! Where we're going, we don't need white balance!"

 

Yes, I was working raw, what else? But, in these roughs I haven't fiddled with the white balance from the camera settings; it's not worth even trying on this laptop screen. So, JPEGs would've balanced well enough, too, just not had anywhere near the exposure range nor color gamut. This subject really utilized that 11-stop range.

Wow. Wow. And furthermore, wow.

But enough about me. Made a new friend, Kyle Cassidy (right). DD-B showed me Kyle's project "Where I Write" about two months back when I was visiting in Minneapolis. I was incredulous. This guy's work is fabulous. Not only are they inherently interesting and deep photographs, regardless of the subject matter, but I know most of the subjects and, trust me, these are effin' good portraits of them! How could I not know of someone this talented operating in my own 'universe'?!

Did a panel with him at the con. Turned out that while he's a well-experienced professional photographer, he's new to my world. This project is months old. Okay, I feel less ignorant. Had dinner with him and Trillian and their friend (and now mine) Colin. Lovely time was had by all. Check out his other projects, too, on his regular website. And his blog. I dunno if it's worth reading. Honestly, I just go to look at the pictures (yes, that is a compliment). But I went to his "slide show," and he gives great talk.

By the way, don't look for me in his con photos. Yet, anyways. He spent Saturday making portraits of as many fans as he could (some of the photos are in his blog). He spent a whole minute on me. (I am flattered. I mean that.) He made four photos that are better than any I've ever seen of me before. The man is not only good, he's fast.

Ctein

P.S. Folks, I'm on the road. The illustrations, as posted, look desaturated on the browser on my laptop. I can't tell if this is a real display problem or an artifact of my situation, so I've uploaded the source JPEGs to http://ctein.com/TOP/

Download them and open them in MacOSX's "Preview" or in Photoshop and they'll look just fine. Don't double-click them to open them in your browser; if there's a real display problem, they'll look just like versions in the column.

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Featured Comment by Dan Gorman: "Thanks for your post. By coincidence, I was in Montreal this week on a family vacation, and saw the same building. I, too, was struck by the building's design:

"I live in Chicago, which gets well-deserved props in the media for the quality and variety of its architecture, but I have to say, I was very impressed with the architecture I saw in Montreal. The Palais de Congres is an excellent example, but far from the only one. I saw numerous buildings that struck me as fresh, creative, well-integrated with their surroundings, and infused with a joie de vivre that is very characteristic of the city as a whole. I think Montreal may be overdue for some recognition in this area."

Comments

[psu]

Cassidy is a regular, or was a regular, on the Leica mailing list, and it was always clear that he was one of the ones doing some great stuff with his "Leica D200". Ha ha ha.

HIs book with the portraits of gun owners is very interesting IMHO.

[Miserere]

Good stuff with the colours, Ctein. Loving it very mucho. Looking forward to seeing your mug shots; make sure Mike posts a link when they go live!

You seriously had dinner with somebody called Trillian? Any two-headed people at that table...?

[Richard Man]

Kyle uses a Leica D700 now or may be even a D3 now :-)

Ctein, one of my friends have a photo of you, probably in a party. Not bad at all. Do you want it?

[Paul De Zan]

After first discovering he was the funniest (and maybe the youngest and perhaps the only obviously non-reactionary) guy on the Leica list, I've been following Kyle Cassidy for years...you can get a real sense of the development of an artist from studying his various websites, assuming he hasn't taken the early ones down as yet. Hunt around for them; he's worth it.

[Jordan]

Kyle Cassidy has been on the Web "since forever". It was through his site that I first learned about the Canonet QL-17. He used to shoot a lot of pics of the "goth" / self-mutilation scene. Bizarre but moving.

[Wilhelm]

I followed up the links to Kyle Cassidy, and it gave me more appreciation of just how good HC-B was.

[Benjamin Marks]

I don't know Kyle personally, but I am familiar with him through his posts to the Leica User's Group. Check out his book "Armed America" for another interesting set of portraits. - Funny and interesting fellow.

Ben Marks

[Adam Maas]

Kyle's also a long-time moderator of Livejournal's Photographers community. Not only is he a brilliant photographer, but he's a truly nice individual.

And he's also (grin) one of the worlds truly great cat photographers.

[Dilip C. Andrade]

That hall truly can be surreal. I have recently relocated to Montreal and live blocks away from the Palais (I'm not willing to type in the full name). Taking a few weekend afternoons and catching how that light plays on any number of things (walls, floors, people) can be great fun... when the sun is out, which hasn't been much until the past few days.

No points will be awarded for guesses on where Ctein has inspired me to spend my weekend.

[Robert Meier]

I may be out of the mainstream, but I think those colors are ugly.

[Ken Tanaka]

Thanks for the tip on Kyle Cassidy's work. Very nice work.

I know that the "world" of sci fi fandom is serious to its followers. But to outsiders like me it appears so fringy, so manic...it gives me the creeps.

[Roger Bradbury]

Science fiction huh? That well known blend of science and psychology. No wonder you can write about depth of field.

[ctein]

Richard, I'd love to get a copy of the photo. Thanks!

pax / Ctein

[Player]

VERY cool Ctein! Thanks for sharing!

[Dean Johnston]

Hey!

Wasn't it also Kyle Cassidy who invented the PAW, when he challenged Leica fondlers on the LUG to take at least one picture a week with their cameras?

Dean

[erlik]

Ken, I'm afraid you're under the influence of the mainstream media. for them, SF fandom is just a group of people who love to dress up as the characters from Star Trek ekcetra. Trekkies are just a part of fandom. There are so many interest groups inside the fandom, from those who like SF books and films to those who like science to those who like the fandom itself.

[John Roias]

A very interesting place, Ctein. And thanks for introducing me to a very talented photographer.

JMR

[ctein]

Dear Miserere,

So, you've got a friend named "Ctein" and you think *Trillian* is an unusual name ?! [g]

She's in the theatre. There are pictures of her on Kyle's website and in his blog.

----

Dear Erlik,

Reminds me of back in the Compuserve Astroforum days, some character there complained bitterly when Jerry Garcia got an asteroid named after him. He thought all deadheads were a blight upon humanity and should be magically erased from the timestream.

I enjoyed describing, in some detail, just how much of the computer instrumentality he was using would also disappear (short answer-- just about all of it).

People would be amazed at how much power and authority fans command in everyday life.

Like most dedicated hobbyists, we don't worry much about what outsiders think. It ain't about them.

pax / Ctein

[Miserere]

Ctein, yeah, you do have a point...although coming from a bloke named "Miserere" (on the internet, at least), it shouldn't mean much, huh?

The surprise wasn't as much about the strange name, but the fact that it was a character in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I looked her up and she is indeed a striking lady, and I can imagine a great actress.

I enjoyed describing, in some detail, just how much of the computer instrumentality he was using would also disappear (short answer-- just about all of it).

That is so true. I don't think people realise that in order to create technology that doesn't exist, one needs a fertile imagination, and imaginative people are drawn to the Arts. I've found that all the technologically imaginative people I've encountered were drawn to Sci-Fi and Fantasy fiction. In the department where I got my Ph.D. from, all computers were named after Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy characters. Where I got my masters, it was Lord of the Rings characters. Where I am now, it's planets (using names from different cultures). I've never heard of any Science department having computers named after politicians...

Oh, Ctein, thanks for the link to Kyle's work. I especially enjoyed the Sci-Fi writers, of course, but was left wanting when some of my faves weren't there--Dan Simmons and Greg Bear spring to mind. Sadly, the project was started too late to capture Arthur C. Clarke. Is it a work in progress?

Sorry for the tangential post, guys!

[Luke McGuff]

Kyle Cassidy is one of my favorite photographers on LJ, I've been following his blog for a few years. Very inspirational, in his approach to photography and approach to life, both.

[kate mckinnon]

Not only is Kyle an excellent photographer and a sweet and funny guy, he's also tall, and has long flowing hair. It's kind of hard to go wrong there.

[Sean Hammon]

I'm wondering if the desaturation problem you mention might be related to color space. I'm guessing when you convert your RAW image, you're saving it in Adobe RGB. Web browsers use sRGB. If you don't convert your JPEG to sRGB in Photoshop before you save it to post to the web, they do tend to look desaturated. I think "Save for Web and Devices" is supposed to do that conversion for you. I've found, however, that it also strips out all EXIF info, so I don't use it much.

[ctein]

Dear Sean,

Mike and I tested that out, and it didn't account for all the changes.

Actually, I'm working on these images in ProPhoto RGB space; Adobe clips too much. So the conversion's absolutely necessary or else things look very bad. Trouble is they didn't look right in my browser after conversion... but they do when opened in Preview or in Photoshop.

It's bit of a mystery. We'll see if it continues to be a problem with my next column, in which case I'll actually have to figure out what went wrong instead of attributing it to being 'on the road.'

pax / Ctein

[ctein]

Dear Kate,

Agreed. He's definitely cute.

pax / Ctein

[Pecunium]

That is amazing light.

Now I really wish life hadn't gotten in the way of making Montreal.