I have spent the better part of my life working with optics, and strangely enough, a good portion of that was spent making devices that modify, degrade or distort images for the motion picture industry, while the other half has been spent pursuing the best, sharpest, most innovative and resolute imaging systems money can buy.
This dichotomy has pushed my photography to the blurry and noisy, looking for the interesting in the world of the unsharp and the world of extremes. Is it blurry enough, noisy enough, those are the questions I ask. I love playing with content, context and design.
I build my own equipment to achieve my photographic curiosity, but I always make sure that these efforts are a means to an end. This isn’t about the gear for me. When I make something to help me produce an image, I use the lowest tech I need, the lowest effort required to get the results I want.
Right click on any of the images to view them at larger resolution Or use the Inline links provided for ultra high resolution.
The following three images are from my work building custom optics to explore the pictorialistic space. Grit, texture, and softness meet to form interesting images. Have look here for a real close look.
The next three images are from my work with high ISO, diffractive optics. I wanted to explore the space of high ISO noise and un-sharp but recognizable things. The real fun starts when you look at the stochasticated nature of the details. Have a look here, and click and magnify.
Another dimension for softness lies in the mix between spatial and temporal. I rigged up a camera in my car and shot several 7 image sequences and processed them as a single image. I displayed them in an attempt to preserve the temporal sequencing. Full image here.
Dino-noir is something that came to me when I wanted to do something film-noir. Finding a suitable location, water trucks and rain, and 1930’s gumshoes and femme fatale actors and actresses were beyond my means, but a 1/35th scale miniature wasn’t. I kept my sense of humor and play about me, but put a lot of detail into the street and figures. The highest resolution images are here.
Photography isn’t about expensive gear. The following were shot on a used X-T30 while on vacation. It is an older model sensor, with less sophisticated processing. The camera cost me $200 used. The high resolution images are here.
I do get a lot of requests to show the gear I make. Here is the Trash Cam as shown in Petapixel. It is big, heavy, and focusing is achieved by turning the lid.
Some other miscellaneous things like the banana cam, and my optics for pictorialism work as well as the Image Shaker and Squishy Lens.
Professionally, I have been blessed to have received an Emmy in 2002 and an Academy award in 2016 for my inventions. If you have seen Minority Report, Saving Private Ryan, Star Trek Discovery, Legion, or dozens of other movies, you have seen my devices at work.
Professionally I am now working in R&D as Director of Electro-optics for a company called Applied Minds, and I hold patents in fields as diverse as night vision, lighting, user interface and motion control.
You can learn more about my inventions here. A bit more of an in depth CV is here.
For good measure, here is a pic of me:
Thank You