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words and pictures from Patrick Calder

Category Archives: photo

on a platform

Gare de Lyon

“Gare de Lyon” by Jon Siegel

I love this photo. He just nailed the depth of field. The colors and the lighting are incredible. The urban-porn of all these different people going in every direction from the train platform. The single, centered vanishing point. The halo around the girl.

Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!

bad light

You want a horribly colored photo? Stick me in a room with incandescent lighting, and beige walls, and beige furniture. No matter how much I mess with the white balance, I can never quite get it right, under those conditions.

Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!

Family Picnic

On my way back from a family picnic in NY. Looking at the photos… my family is so very white.

Family PicnicFamily PicnicFamily Picnic

Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!

World War II: Women at War

For the nations who were deeply involved in World War II, the war effort was total, with women volunteering in huge numbers alongside men and filling traditionally male positions at home, in industry, and the military. Women took both active and supporting positions in factories, government organizations, military auxiliaries, resistance groups and more. While relatively few women were at the front lines as combatants, many found themselves the victims of bombing campaigns and invading armies. By the end of the war, more than 2 million women worked in war industries, hundreds of thousands volunteered as nurses or members of home defense units, or became full-time members of the military. In the Soviet Union alone, some 800,000 women served alongside men in army units during the war. Collected here are images of women involved directly in the events of World War II, and some of what they experienced and endured.

 

See the photos and more at In Focus on The Atlantic.

Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!

Family Reunion

The family reunion was at the bass club in San Angelo again this year. Same old everything, but that’s kind of the point. Took Heidi. Family likes her better than they like me. But they’re quite disappointed to learn i’m not gay.

Calder Reunion (23 of 26)

Calder Reunion (11 of 26)

Calder Reunion (3 of 26)

Calder Reunion (7 of 26)

Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!

the kids are alright

 

Taken at the family reunion in Texas this weekend.

Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!

A couple women

Heidi and Mom

I just love this photo. That is all. I saw them being cute on the hill above me, while I was taking some photos of the house, and when I pointed the lens at them, they posed. Normally I hate poses. But this came out very nice. And I had to laugh when I looked at it later, and realized how similar their poses were. I have a picture somewhere of my mother and sister unconsciously doing the same thing.

Since Antarctica at Asylum

This is Rockstar Shannon. This is not Friend Shannon. Friend Shannon is not as angsty and full of venom as my show photos of her often look. Friend Shannon sits in her old apartment, playing a highly customized version of “horse with no name” on an acoustic guitar; wearing long, stripey socks. But Rockstar Shannon is pretty awesome too.

And to all my friends who are jealous of the attention these few women received? It’s just because you don’t pay me as much to do your PR as they do.

Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!

Style

While overall, I can be drawn to a photo for many reasons, there are some obvious trends in my favorite photos (taken by other photographers); as seen by looking at my favorites on Flickr.

Japanese

Many of the Japanese photographers in my Flickr list have similarities in style. It’s a soft-focus, high-contrast style; often in black and white. It conveys an intense and intimate atmosphere. Bokeh is big; or at the very least, a short depth of field. Some of my favorite Chinese photographers are similar, but often with a deep, sharp focus, instead of the shallow soft of the Japanese.

Just Lost

Just Lost by Jon Siegel

Untitled by Junku Nishimura

shooter

Shooter by Tetsuya “Blues” Kusuyama

Other notables include Fabrizio Quagliuso and Tommy Oshima.

Street Photography

You pick up a camera. You walk out into public by yourself; or with a friend or two. And you take pictures of other people, other places, and their stuff. It’s very hard for most people, because not only are you outside of your own comfort zone, but you’re invading other people’s. You might be capturing beautiful pictures. You might be documenting the every day around you. You might be telling stories and sharing moments. But it’s all coming from the public around you with minimal staging and equipment.

naomi klein

naomi klien by Ronnie Yip

Untitled by Sara Flemming

West Thirty-seventh Street

West Thirty-seventh Street by Joe Holmes, (in my opinion, the King of street photographers)

Pro ERA demo, Washington DC, 1981

Pro ERA demo, Washington DC, 1981 by Marcelo Montecino

(Ironically, I had a hard time finding sample of “street photography” on Flickr that I could use. These people whose livelihood as photographers relies on an open, public space, had all locked down their photos and disallowed uses like this entry. Don’t share with me? I won’t share my audience with you.)

Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!

Birthdays

Spent my birthday at a party for a friend:

Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!

May 2011 Latex Shoot

I did another one of the Latex Body Paint photo shoots, last weekend. Wonderful model… good time. I was told the privacy standard this time was basically “the model doesn’t want to be recognizable”. So I’m posting one of the few photos without a face in it. Click below to see it. (Warning: It contains nudity that may disturb small animals, children, and my mother.) If you’re my friend and interested in seeing the rest, let me know…
Continue reading →

Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!

Dream Photos

So one of my dream locations to photograph would be the shipbreaking beaches in India or Pakistan. When oceanliners, tankers, and cargo ships get too old to operate any more, they beach them in these places, and workers chop them to bits.

This isn’t clean, or safe, or tidy. These are people with no safety gear, in one of the most polluted places on earth, doing dangerous work. It’s the tail end of the commercial world. It’s the stuff every cyberpunk story is built upon.

Speaking of which, I missed a dream shot on Friday, in a decidedly less hostile environment. On the way home from seeing a movie — fittingly Bill Cunningham New York — I saw it. It must have been about 11:30 at night, when we walked past the H&M store in downtown DC. The business core of DC tends to turn into a ghost town around 6pm. So by that time of night — on a Friday no less — it should have been empty. But in the store, right near the doors, was a lone worker. She was sitting on the floor next to a white platform, and a little zone of light in an otherwise dark salesfloor. She was pulling white fluffy … things… out of a box. She’d puff them up, and place them on the platform. It was surreal and monotonous at the same time. And the sparse color palette and dramatic range of light made it all the more interesting to me.

Of course, for like the first time in forever, I had left the house without a camera. Poo.

Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!

New Year’s Eve

Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!

Wine and Salty Meat

Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!

Photo Shoot

Finally processed most of the photos from the shoot a couple weeks ago. You can click on the photo below to see them. WARNING: There is nudity, and it’s probably not safe for small children, nor my family.

photo shoot sample

Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!

Lenore

Latex Shoot 2 - Behind the Scenes

I really like this shot of Lenore, behind the scenes at the photo shoot the other day. She was done shooting for the day, and standing in the back, occasionally art directing.

Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!

Light Test

This was a lighting test shot from a shoot this weekend, before any makeup, outfits, etc.
shoot outtake

Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!