Abstract Smoke and Fire, No.1

Title: Abstract Smoke and Fire, No.1

Series: SMOKE-ART.

Series Year: 2009—2018.
Copyright 2018 Nawfal Johnson.
All Rights Reserved.
Penang, Malaysia.
Blog: nawfalsmokephotographist.wordpress.com
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☆ Fine-Art Prints Sales Site Link:

https://www.imagekind.com/Abstract-Smoke-and-Fire-No-1_art?imid=7d061fbc-d1d3-4ee7-9f50-92bed36aaf32

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TAGS:
#Nawfal, #Johnson, #smokephotographist.wordpress, #Smoke-Art, #photography, #Ethereal, #soft, #cloudy, #calm, #lyrical, blue, #white, orange, purple, black, red, mirrored, ambidextrous, chaos, order, smoke, #imagekind, @imagekind,

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As an Indie Artist or Author, if you don’t Blow Your Own Horn, No one Will, SHELLS AND SANDSTONE EBOOK BY NAWFAL JOHNSON NUR

SHELLS & SANDSTONE (2013) fine art photography book by Nawfal Johnson Nur

Yes, it is true, if you are an “indie” artist or author, you will have to ‘blow your own horn’, because no one else will — those are the facts — Jack!

So, occasionally, I will list my books here at my blog, so perhaps, someone will be interested in purchasing a copy.  This one will certainly make a nice, artsy addition to your PDF EBOOK reading collection.

This first book, SHELLS & SANDSTONE, is 34 pages, and it is a collection of my black and white photographs of, you guessed it, shells and sandstone from Penang beaches.

Here’s a link to the sale’s page, and a screenshot of the book cover and description.

Please have a look — thank you!

http://www.lulu.com/shop/nawfal-nur/shells-sandstone/ebook/product-20712972.html

Have been lax in my blog posting …

Hi Friends!

I have been quite lax in my frequency of posting new art photography.  I’m so caught up in ‘attempting’ to design a new Art Photography Profile, that it is bogging me down to all ends of the Earth. 

I hope to do better about keeping up with you all and also adding more blog posts.  Necessity is  forcing me to put together a new CV and Profile because of my cut from the contract work at the Aussie University I had been doing work for 15-years.  Consequently, starting new and fresh at the age of 49, is no easy chore, especially when younger people are also out there looking for opportunities. 

I wish I could survive on my artwork and art photography alone, but it is not possible – no where near possible.  I am not sure what the future holds – it is all oblivious and I just feel like I am in a constant haze of drowsiness and blue funk. Being the owner of Ankylosing Spondylitis makes this task 10 times more difficult for me! 

With these current events and the life I’m surrounded by, is it any wonder that is why most of my new artwork is so hazy, dark, and chaotic – it is my mind at this time.  It is not confusing why my art photography is such, at this time, and if you are close to me, then you already know that I have had trouble, long-term trouble with deep depression and GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder) – and I battle this with all my will, and through my art I try to exorcise these demons that infest my spirit. 

I hope to get through this with more positive results.  I appreciate my friends here who have given me strength and encouragement to move forward.  It is somewhat appropriate that one of my favourite quotes is from Brooks Jensen:  “Even if you are falling on your face, at least you are moving forward!”  My face does hurt a lot, so maybe subconsciously, I am failing a lot, but at least I am falling forward as I hurt myself.  I just hope I am learning from my many mistakes and just don’t repeat them too many times. 

Wishing you all, my friends, all the best, and please pray for me and help me with encouragement to not give up hope. 

I know there must be some positive change for me sometime, somewhere, in the future.  One thing is sure – as long as I have even a single colour pencil left in my art box, I will continue making and creating my artwork.  That is a promise and a MUST! At least I do find some happiness in designing artwork.

Take care, my friends,

Nawfal

Title: “TANGLED MESS, EDIT C”.
Copyright 2014 Nawfal Johnson.
All Rights Reserved.
Penang, Malaysia.

Death Grounds, v.7 (2005 version) by Nawfal Johnson

OFF WORLD – ALIEN LANDSCAPES : Art Photography Science Fiction Series

Death Grounds, v.7 (2005 version), is part of an On-Going Photography Project, titled, “Off World – Alien Landscapes.”

This photograph is also part of a publication, an e-Folio book of the same name, “OFF WORLD – ALIEN LANDSCAPES.”

This project consists of mixed media art creations designed for creating a final photograph. The themes are of an alien-nature; or considering that point, the themes are what we usually think of when we visualize ‘alien’ from what we know from movies and TV shows that are ‘alien-themed.’ I suppose that if ‘aliens’ were to visit Earth, we and our culture, and our planet would be ‘alien’ to them. I believe the term ‘alien’ is a personal viewpoint and perspective based on our personal experiences and knowledge.

My motivations for the “OFF WORLD – ALIEN LANDSCAPES” photography series comes from being inspired by my favourite Science Fiction TV shows; and my favourites are probably in this order: 1) Stargate Universe (2009 – 2011); 2) Deep Space Nine (1993 – 1999); 3) Star Trek Voyager (1995 – 2001); 4) Babylon 5 (1993 – 1998); and, 5) SPACE ABOVE & BEYOND (1995-1996).

The “OFF WORLD – ALIEN LANDSCAPES” photographic art series is an On-Going Series, and I usually design and create one art piece a year, sometimes two pieces, for this series. Therefore, it is a slow-growing photography series. Nevertheless, it is probably the most difficult art series I have endeavoured to make because it deals with mixed media creations constructed before the photograph can be captured.

Even though the title is “ALIEN LANDSCAPES,” there are just as many, if not more, ‘alien seascapes in this series. For my purposes, I am not concerned with this bit of semantics—whether the scene is on land or at sea, the main point is that the scene is of an ‘alien-nature,’ and that is what is important in my viewpoint.

AVICENNA CAT PORTRAITURE

“AVICENNA, EDIT D.”
COPYRIGHT 2013 NAWFAL JOHNSON ~ ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

My New Book, Smoke Art, Arthritis and Depression

What does Smoke Art Photography, Arthritis and Depression all have in common?  Well, these are the main topics inside my new book (just published earlier today)!

The description in the photo caption (above) gives a really good indication of my book’s content.

• My book shows 34 of my smoke art photographs, the Ethereal Dreams & Hope Collection, which includes photos taken between 2007 and June 2011.

Because I have suffered with arthritis for many years, a little over 30 years now, and have coped with long bouts of depression, I wanted this book project to be more than just a book of photographs.  I wanted to mix in words of hope, and together the photos and the words of hope make up this project.

• I discuss a little about my beginnings with photography.  I also discuss very general details about ankylosing spondylitis, and depression.  I talk about some of my own personal experiences finding out that I have these conditions, and some story about dealing with these medical issue.

Over all, I just want to offer my book as a way to help other people dealing with pain and despair, a way to see things in terms of ‘hope’, and to stress the importance of ‘action’ to make ‘hopes,’ ‘dreams,’ and ‘goals’ to come true.

• If nothing else comes out of my book, I will be very happy if someone, somewhere, has gotten some reassurance from my words, that things can be better even when living with pain and sadness.  It does not always have to be this way, but much of the effort will be up to you.

Perhaps by reading my book, this can be a small step, at least to see things in terms of ‘hope.’  You may also like seeing my photographs of smoke art – and that would be a real added bonus.

Thank you and take care!

 

Paul Bader Photography Interview

The Paul Bader Photography Interview:

Paul Bader Photography:  His Photography Story.

*** Because WordPress will not allow the Audio Podcast to be embedded here (e.g., it keeps getting deleted after each “Save Draft”), you will need to go to this SPECIAL PAGE, to Start the Audio Podcast, AND THEN, you can see the photographs below.  Sorry you have to jump around to get the audio interview started; but for now this is the only way I can do this operation. ***

Paul & Rita Bader

Paul Bader

Left Side - Robert & Otto Bader, Vernon Dankenbring, and Paul Bader, 1942

Paul and brother Robert Bader, 1947

Paul and brother Otto Bader.

PAUL BADER PHOTOGRAPHS:

Cowboy with Cigarette, by Paul Bader

DARK EYES, by Paul Bader.

Fun with Beer Foam, by Paul Bader.

MACHINIST, by Paul Bader.

Man at the Controls, by Paul Bader.

Portrait of Girl with Ball, by Paul Bader.

BEHIND THE SCENES:  The ‘Elbow Grease’ Behind Getting this Podcast and the Photos Published Here!

Paul Bader is my Great Uncle.  He had a long career as a Professional Photographer, creating wonderful portrait and wedding photography.  He was also an accomplished Pet Portrait Photographer, and I think seeing his Pet Portraits as a kid is where I developed an eye for creating my Cat Portraits.  He is a longtime resident of Valentine, Nebraska, which is where he did much of his work as a Professional Photographer.

Currently, Paul is very active as a musician and singer.  His music style is country, very ‘cowboy’ish’ and folksy.  I hope I did justice in describing his music style.  He and my cousin Rhonda, sing and play music together.  In fact, the first part of this audio-cast is a song sung by Paul and Rhonda, and it is probably very familiar to many:  “Summertime Blues,” by Eddie Cochran.  The version I was most familiar with was by The Who.  Paul and Rhonda have given this popular tune their own special twist and sound – they have ‘made it theirs‘ with this rendition.

I would say that Uncle Paul was probably my first influence in the world of Photography.  Maybe I didn’t fully realize the good influence he was at the time, as a kid.  At my late Grandmother’s house in Lincoln, I would always see, and be amazed at the photographs and portraits my Grandmother had on the walls in her home that Uncle Paul had taken.  The seeds of Photography were probably planted in my brain because of being exposed to Uncle Paul’s Photography.  And in addition, the freedom of artistic expression was reinforced by my late Grandmother, who loved to paint.  Photography and Painting:  What a wonderful combination!

The Process of Getting this “Project” Done:

This whole interview project has been in the-works for some time, and it took quite a bit of effort to put it together.

This project all started because I wanted to document my Great Uncle’s Photography Career.  And, being an avid listener of the Brooks Jensen Podcasts (Founder of LensWork Magazine), I learned from one of Brooks’ podcast episodes about the merits of capturing peoples’ stories with audio recording.  So, thank you Brooks, for the idea.

Keep in mind, the distance between Penang and Valentine is around 9,100 miles, and a lot of the work on this project was done by regular post…

What's that?  You know...stamps, envelopes, etc.

Let’s see, where was I…

Oh yes…I drafted a number of interview questions regarding Paul’s photography career for which I was curious about.  I sent the questions by email to my Mom, who forwarded the questions to Uncle Paul.  Uncle Paul recorded his answers to my questions on audio cassette tape.  A set of tapes were mailed to my Mom, and she made tape-to-tape copies.

After she was done making copy-tapes, she mailed the cassette tapes to me…the copy-tapes.  Unfortunately, the quality of the audio is instantly reduced at the copy level.  However, no worries, we can deal with that.

When I received the cassettes, I had the next level of copying technology to deal with:  Grabbing the audio from the analog cassette tapes and transferring that audio to some kind of digital format.

Thus, I bought a Panasonic cassette recorder/player, and also an analog-to-digital cable:  One plug of the cable goes into the Panasonic Player’s earphone jack and the other plug goes into the computer’s microphone jack.

I used Audacity Software to make the first recording.

The resulting file was HUGE:  The saved interview digital file was in the 160MB range.  The new digital file was TOO BIG for a Podcast style file.

I originally wanted to create an mpeg4 movie showing Uncle Paul’s photographs and running the audio interview at the same time, and that was not working well either, because the mpeg4 file size ended up being 260MB.

My luck was getting worse with each rendition of the interview.

I had to put the project on hold for a while to think out the problems I was facing.  I wouldn’t be able to do the mpeg4 movie, that fact was clear.  So, after a couple, maybe three weeks or more, I came back to the project to reconsider other options.

One other audio issue I had to work with was that the sound/quality level of the song is different than the interview file, and two files make up this single Podcast file.  This is due to my novice-talent working with audio files.  But it was a problem I had to deal with.   I attempted to ‘amplify ‘the song part of the file, just a little (by 1.7 dB), and I think it raised the song volume as I anticipated it would.  The interview part has better sound volume, so that is why the song needed the boost.

Besides the audio portion of this project, there is also the photographs portion.  I needed to get photograph samples from Uncle Paul to make the project complete.

Uncle Paul and my cousin Tim worked on taking digital photos of the originals prints, and this, I know, can be a challenging task.  When the digital shots of the original prints were completed, the digital files were sent to me by email.

To bring back some of the luster to the photographs, I worked on several of the photographs using my preferred software program for editing, Paint Shop Pro.

Therefore, the images seen in this blog entry were minimally edited:  I adjusted the Histogram Levels, a bit of adjustment in the Contrast, and I used the Clarify Tool adjustment to give some punch to the edited photographs.  I wanted to revive the prints without changing the interpretation too much.  My goal was to bring out the rich black, and to boost the mid and high tones in the photographs.  I hope my recent digital adjustments come close to the original prints looks from when they were first created in the darkroom.

BACK TO THE AUDIO PART:

Now…

If you use GOM Player or some other audio playing software with Equalizer Options, then move the 6K and 3K levels way up and that brings out the voice more clearly.  Move the 12K, 16K and 24K levels down near midway, to reduce high level noise.   Sorry for the need to adjust levels, but I’m not an audio expert – I’m just doing the best I can with the know-how I have on audio.

It took quite a little fiddling around, but I finally got the audio file to the size of 34MB (roughly), and I’m not messing with it any more.

The FINAL step before putting this Blog Entry together was finding an archive site online where I could upload my audio podcast file for eternity.  I did this at a site called, ourmedia.org.

In this audio interview, Paul discusses some important aspects of his career, the learning process of being a Photographer, and the challenges he faced living a ‘Photographic Life.’

Main Interview Topics:

1. Early Artistic Endeavors – Commercial Art.
2. Early Photography Training with Hattie Joy.
3. Drafted into the Service (Marine Corp.) & Photography.
4. 1952 Married Life and Farming in Kansas – Back into Photography.
5. First Studio in an Abandoned Cream Station.
6. Work in North Platte for Photographer, Earl Herana:  Learned how to be efficient – Every movement counted.
7. Worked in Grand Island for another studio doing mainly darkroom print work.
8. Photographing babies.
9. Photographing Portraits, Senior School Photos and Weddings.
10. Using the 8 x 10 Camera with Flash Bulbs!
11. Changed to Speedgraphic 4 x 5 Camera.
12. Conversion to Roll Film and Strobe Lighting for Speed.
13. Lots of Wedding Work, PLUS, Selling Vacuum Cleaners!
14. Winning Prizes for Photography.
15. Pet Photography and “Tricks” to Get Good Shots.
16. Getting burned out a little on Photography – Trying Life Insurance Sales.
17. Purchase studio in Valentine, Nebraska.
18. Push into Color Photography and Experimental Techniques (Double Exposures).
19. Studio Fire Story.
20. 1987, decided to sell the studio.
21. Advice for Photographers:  It’s not a 9-to-5 Job!  Give it your all!
22. Spends time now making and playing music.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the family photos of Paul Bader (and Brothers); as well as, seeing some of his prize-winning photography; and hearing his music & his story about being a Professional Photographer.

The Paul Bader Audio Interview – Just CLICK HERE!