I don’t like WordPress’ way of displaying images. Actually, scratch that, I don’t like the way high-resolution images get displayed on monitors. I shoot my images at 12 megapixels, which equates to 4000×3000 pixels. The typical monitor has a resolution of 1920×1080, and as a result, huge images like that have their details blurred, what was a sharp line filled with definition and color comes out as an amorphous blob of color. I don’t know if things are going to improve when ultra-high res displays like Apple’s Retina or 4K televisions become mainstream, but consider me annoyed. Right now, I think the best way to distribute and consume photographs is through printed media, preferably on glossy paper printed with a commercial printer, framed and well lit. But for now, viewing images of such resolution through a monitor doesn’t quite communicate the intended experience.
In this particular set of pictures, I focus on doing interesting things with lighting, doing stuff like shooting a digital picture through a sheet of photographic film. I think I was successful in doing that. That said, I feel too many of the shots I take here feel derivative or unoriginal, mostly shooting in twilight to get the effect I want. I’ll figure it out.
The view from my dorm room on one of the last days of the school year. I like the desaturated colors of my room, it almost has a pseudo-vintage feel.This is me shooting the same view through a sheet of film. I should find a way to fasten it to my lens and use it like a filter.This is Scorch, my summer project for the year. More on it later.At AT&T ParkAround my neighborhood, I noticed the rows that the chimneys made and thought that could make for something interestingYosemite Valley from Glacier Point, as if this was the only image of the place that anyone has ever taken. 😛Half Dome towers over the valleyYes, I know its a derivative perspective, but I did it anyway. I just thought the gradient of color that you see in the sky looked really slick.Hiking up the valley wall.Rafting downriver, I wish I could have gotten more of the sky to show the sheer vastness of the place.Random chandelierFirst attempt at something resembling long exposure. I really liked this shot.From the park near my neighborhood, this swing doesn’t get used enough.From the night of July 4th, hiked up a nearby hill to shoot this.I like the interesting framing of this sunset (yeah, another derivative subject)I went through a short film photography phase early this year, until the price of processing broke me out of it. This one of Saint Cecilia’s cathedral in San Francisco is one of my favorite from that roll.More film shots, this is of the Sunset District looking south from Grandview Park, the place is like a cliffside facing the ocean.This, this is my favorite shot that I took in the last few months. Lens flare from the same park looking westward. You don’t get that with digital photography.Looking down Market Street, again, I feel like someone shot this picture before, but deal with it.City Hall, shot this quickly during the intermission of Video Games Live. Love the lightCame across a model of Yosemite Valley in front of Yosemite Valley, juxtaposed both the simulacrum of it and the real thing as a macro.SilhouetteI love how the setting son and smoky air casts this beautiful pink glow here.
KEVIN JAMES WONG 