August 7 , 2005
Dorothy Gantenbein: http://www.dorothyphoto.com/
click on thumbnails for full images
Photoblogs Magazine: “Dorothy Gantenbein Photography”. That’s how you introduce your photoblog Dorothy. Please tell us more about the person behind it.

Dorothy Gantenbein: I am a midwestern transplanted to the west coast.  To my surprise, I really love living in the San Francicsco bay area.  I have a quiet life that I share with Chip, my long-term boyfriend, two bossy Cairn terriers, several goldfish, and a mother morning dove, who has adopted our front porch as home.  I have worked for the past two decades in the high tech industry as a software engineer.
After becoming addicted to photography two years ago, I take as much as my free-time as possible to go out exploring the regional parks in our area.  Chip is very patient with me.  I can fiddle around for 20-30 minutes in the parking lot of the park before we ever go anywhere.  I have made him turn around the car and wait as I jump out to capture a scene.  I would say that he has become a frequent ‘photography’ widow as I go tromping around.

PM: Have you received any formal training in photography? What inspired you to pick up a camera for the first time and what intrigued you to continue? Were you a “digital shooter” from the beginning or did you have experience with film/slide previously?

DG: I have no formal photography training and have worked exclusively in digital.  For me, my adventure into photography started when I was feeling very burned out about my job about two years ago.  Turns out that I was also feeling a long buried creative itch, that needed scratching.  My initial plan was to buy a small digital camera to record landscapes so that I could later paint them in watercolors.  After proving inept at a weekend watercolor workshop, I realized (with help from the other ladies in the workshop) that I was really a photographer. 
I started taking pictures and had one shot of waterlilies that really intrigued me.  It looked very painterly and I though ‘Wow’.  That photo started my whole photography addiction and has since cost a lot of money in digital photography equipment.  Along the way, I have made new friends, started hiking, and began seeing beauty that I never before noticed.
My photographs are the results of lots of trial-and-run (mostly error).  Along the way, I have received a lot of help and support from other gifted photographers in my camera club, by looking at other photoblogs, and taking a few workshops.  My biggest improvement (at least according to my friends and family) came from Michael’s Seewald’s workshop on composition.  His workshop really helped me start ‘seeing’ and understanding the elements of composition.

PM: Infrared photography seems to have captured your imagination for sometime now and you have even gone as far as converting one of your digital cameras to infrared. How did you become interested in it? Could you tell us more about the basics of infrared photography and your approach to make the best of it?

DG: Initially my interest in infrared started when I saw a few infrared landscape photos in a photo magazine.  I was immediately intrigued because of their unique dreamy look.  I had never seen anything similar.  I felt like I was peeking into a new different and exciting parallel dimension.  Next, I saw George Lepp presentation.  During his presentation, he showed several infrared images.  Now, my interest was even stronger, and I started researching options.  During the presentation, George Lepp raved about the conversion process for digital SLRs from IRDigital.net.  The final straw was a long awaited trip to Point Lobos.  We arrived in the middle of the day and found ‘tourist’ weather.  The light was gorgeous for visiting but horrible for photography.  I knew midday light could be perfect for infrared photography.  Feeling frustrated by that day in Point Lobos, I decided to seriously investigate my infrared options.
After some investigation for doing infrared work, I found three options: mimic in Photoshop, use infrared filter, or convert a digital camera to infrared.  I can only provide info for digital photography not film though. 
First, I started with Photoshop.  After searching the web, I found various Photoshop recipes to mimic the infrared look.  The Photoshop recipe is start with a regular color shot.  Convert it to monochrome using the channel mixer. Make sure that the red channel has much larger percentage to mimic infrared.  Add contrast using your choice of Photoshop techniques.  As a last touch, use the Diffuse Glow filter to boost the reality of the infrared effect.  Another option is the Nik Multimedia Infrared filter that works reasonably well.  However, the results of these mimicked infrared images did not have the magic that I had seen from the real thing.
Second, I tested my digital camera to see if it could see infrared.  You can test your digital camera by pointing a TV remote at the lens and taking a picture.  If you see the infrared beam, your camera could take an infrared picture.  Some digital cameras are better than others for capturing infrared.  I bought a red/infrared filter (Tiffen Infrared #87) to keep everything except infrared light from reaching the digital camera’s sensor.  Since focusing infrared is different, you should use an f-stop of at least 8, preferably 11 or higher, to ensure sharp focus.  My shots required very LONG exposures and resulted in very noisy, unsatisfactory images.  Plus, I did not like that you can see nothing through the viewfinder when the infrared filter is in place.
Finally, I decided to take the plunge and convert my old Canon digital SLR to an infrared camera.  I am thrilled with my infrared camera.  The shutter speeds are equivalent to regular film, no noise, and the ability to see the results on the back of my camera.  If you are considering trying this option, the infrared images straight out of the camera must be post-processed to fix a strong magenta/red cast, expand the tonal range and boost contrast.  Plus, I can peek into the parallel infrared universe whenever I want.
As for tips for infrared photography, I have already some of the options for digital photographers to shoot infrared.  Beyond that, I think that experimentation is key.  For me, I never know what to expect from an infrared shot so I try a lot of different shots.  Like regular photography, seeing the light is key.  Sometimes, the shots are mush because there are no tonal differences in infrared but other times the shots can be magic.

PM: Is post processing your photos a major step in your workflow? How far would you be willing to go in “manipulating” your original photos? Some believe true photography is completed at the time of snapping the shutter. Others, however, argue every step before and after, including post processing done in “digital darkroom”, is part of the artistic procedure. What do you think?

DG: For my photography, anything goes as far as post-processing.  Since I work in digital and shoot RAW format, some post-processing is required just to get to usable image.  However, I will continue manipulating an image until I get something that I like.  In my mind, I have three categories of post-processing: optimized, fiddled and creative.  My optimized photos maintain the reality of the scene.  For these images, I will adjust the tonal range, adjust contrast, maybe burning and dodging, and some sharpening.  For fiddled images, I will apply Photoshop filters to mimic film’s cross-processing, adjust colors, play with contrast, etc.  These fiddled images diverge from the reality of the scene but would probably be recognizable.  For my creative images, I will montage images, apply the ‘wilder’ Photoshop filter like Wave, and whatever else suits my fancy.  These images no longer match any photo reality but are all start with my photographs.  I always try to label fiddled and creative images in my blog to avoid confusion.

PM: When did you decide to start a photoblog? Do you think the prospect of posting your photos there has affected your photography?

DG: My photoblog started by accident.  For my job, we needed to integrate a blogging tool into our software.  At that point, I was totally ignorant and did not even know what a blog was.  So I to learn about blogging, I setup my own play blog using Typepad.  Likewise, the other developer on the project started her own soon-to-be successful knitting blog.  Soon, we were both addicted to blogging.  I picked up a lot of tips from my co-worker on layout and am now totally addicted to blogging.
I do not usually think about posting to my blog while I am shooting.  If it is a ‘good’ outing, I become engrossed in my work and all other concerns drift away.  This helps me de-stress from my work week and relax.  When I get home and start reviewing the images, then I started trying to select my ‘best’ (but not always good) image to post. 

PM: Many photobloggers seems to have experienced, in one way or another, the struggle to keeping their photoblog updated regularly, and therefore, feel obligated to photograph on a daily basis. Do you find this to be constructive or do you expect to see better results when you wait for those moments of inspiration, which may or may not show up everyday?

DG: For me, I try to post at least a couple of times a week because given my full time job, I can only go out photo adventuring a couple of times a week.  As a personal goal, I plan on posting least one photo for each photo outing.  Sometimes, the muse is not with me and I post a so-so photo.  Although, I would prefer that every shot is a keeper.  I think that posting regularly shows the process.  I enjoy sharing the shots with friends and family and larger blog community.  They provide comments and insights that I would have never thought of by myself.  Surprisingly, the not-so-successful shots are the most useful for providing seeds of new directions and better ideas.

PM: Do you have any projects in mind for the future? Will we be seeing the results on your photoblog?

DG: Whatever happens in my photographic future, I will definitely post the results into my blog.  Usually, my photographic trends are a surprise to me.  They just seem to happen.  As a guess, I think you will see a lot more urban landscapes/abstracts, definitely infrared, maybe some candid portraits (if I can get over my shyness) and possibly some type of grid photos inspired by Stu Levy’s grid portraits.

posted by Ali

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