July 8, 2009
- Salinas California (home home on the range…) -
While visiting my family last Christmas, I managed to catch some spectacular land-and-sky-scapes while walking through a nature preserve near my house (yes, on the way to Starbucks, but still…). I’d always kind of disliked where I grew up, even after I’d moved away. To me, it was your stereotypical small-tow-where-nothing-ever-happens kind of place. I kept waiting for something to come and take me out of it, and when nothing did, I moved to New York (where I continued to wait for several years). Landscape-wise, it was all low, wet swampland. “Salinas” basically means “salt-marsh” in Spanish, and it felt like that to me, in every possible way: slow, stinky, damp, salty, stagnant… Definitely not the most stimulating place to grow up. But visiting last winter really brought me a new appreciate for the area and its moments of hidden beauty.
Of course, as it always goes, the place itself hadn’t actually changed much at all. But I had changed, immensely so, and it seems I’m still in the midst of those changes. In fact, I’m beginning to wonder if they’re ever going to end, or even slow down a little… My horoscope says I am in the beginning of a “Uranus transits opposite Sun” which is apparently something that happens once every 84 years and will last until March 2011. And, lucky me, I get this right in the middle of my first Saturn Return as well!
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Oh shit. Did I just give away my social security number? ;p
A lot of these came out a bit darker than I wanted. A chronic problem, with my (relatively) new Toshiba laptop screen being somehow brighter than another other screen I work on…
I’ve tried playing with the settings with no luck (darker on the Toshiba looks way shittier overall than darker on these other screens and I have yet to find a good balance) but these generally still look passable on the GF’s Macbook, so right now I’m hoping it’s mostly a problem with my monitor at the office.
But if these look like they should be brighter to anybody else, I’d appreciate it if you could let me know.
Comment by Ian — July 8, 2009 @ 5:20 pm
Monitor calibration is such a bitch, isn’t it? If it makes you feel any better, no matter how well things are set up on your computer, it doesn’t matter if things are set to hell on everyone else’s monitors. Bah. I tend to be biased *toward* shadows, so I think these look great (particularly the ones where the ground become shadows).
Comment by Jaimin Yoon — July 12, 2009 @ 5:31 pm
J, nice to hear from you!
I agree with the shadows, in fact, I prefer anything hi-contrasty. I think I tended to go a bit overboard previously, when I attempted photoshopping every picture I put up here.
As for monitor calibration, I supposes it’s a necessary evil for working 100% digitally. Just cause everything’s digital doesn’t mean were all working with the same counting system…
One day I will have to break down a buy one of those SLR cameras… At least then I’ll know they look like they’re supposed to, in that case. Even if no one else does. ;)
Comment by Ian — July 12, 2009 @ 5:46 pm