Michael R.
Sawdey
Gallery of Photographs
Here are a few examples of my current work; please note that this is a
"work in progress," so stop by from time to time to see what I have
added. All works copyright © 2008 Michael R. Sawdey. For
permissions and reproduction information, please contact me directly (msawdey@aurora.edu, or
630-844-5656).
Some general technical notes...
I happen to believe that what
you use to photograph does indeed influence what you photograph and how you photograph it. My
"capturing" arsenal includes a Pentax 6x7, a bunch of Nikon equipment
(from the immortal "F" to the N90s), some Canon systems (mostly manual,
with A1 bodies), a couple of Olympus digitals (C3030 and C4040), and a
couple of Kodak digital SLRs (a Pro-14N and an SLR14-n). From time to
time, I dig into my pile of vintage/antique apparatus, ranging from a
1922 Kodak No. 1 Autographic Special to a 1938 Welta Weltur folder, not
to mention 4x5 Graflexes and Speed Graphics, a Kodak Medalist II
converted to 120 film, a Contax II, and a couple of Voigtlander folders
with those lovely Heliar lenses. When I'm using film, I almost always
scan the negatives and tweak and print from there in digital mode. When
working in PhotoShop, I generally limit myself to levels, curves,
filters in the black and white conversion process, and the unsharp
mask, occasionally a bit of dodging or burning.
Click on thumbnails below to see a larger version. I do not generally
title my photographs, so there are no captions, although the
alternative text for the thumbnails will generally give some basic
information. The first four images below are from around Aurora,
Illinois, where I live; the next eight are from Cornwall, in the west
of England, the area from which my ancestors emigrated to Massachusetts
in the seventeenth century; and the last seven images are from Ireland,
in and around Skerries, about 15 miles north of Dublin. All of these
were taken with the Kodak Pro-14N digital SLR, with black-and-white
conversions in PhotoShop CS3. I most frequently use red or yellow
filters in the conversion process and almost always play with the
levels and apply an unsharp mask.
