Digital Silver Imaging

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” I’m not absolutely sure that this is true, but I do know that first impressions can count for a lot.

I was lucky this week to visit an outcropping of the Griffin Photography Museum and enjoy an exhibit of photographs titled “Food Cycles”. The photographer, Francine Zaslow, has a fascinating take on food as art. Her images, which are on display at the very intimate gallery at Digital Silver Imaging in Belmont, Massachusetts, are intriguingly delicious.

You must understand that these are my first impressions of her work. I love these silvery visions, so removed from glossy food magazine and cookbook portrayals of perfect doneness. This isn’t food in the “we eat with the eyes” sense exactly, it is food as art, and being a pragmatist (and foodie, I guess) I asked the folks at the gallery if the subjects of the photographs had in fact been eaten after the shoot.

I have to tell you that I don’t understand how they do what they they do at DSI to turn warm food into cool prints. Their site says “Digital Silver Imaging offers a unique printing process that provides beautiful fiber-based and resin-coated black & white silver gelatin prints directly from digital files.” but I think its some sort of magic. In any event, I loved the exhibit. Her “Belt Fish l” makes me wish I was a Pisces, and her “Silkie Chickens” could be dragon embryos.

Please read Rachel Mathews complete review by visiting her blog.

You can visit the DSI Gallery Mon – Fri from 9 – 5:30, or click on our Facebook on-line gallery if you’re far away.

Köln, Germany, September 21st, 2010 – From the Nik Software Press Release

Nik Software today announces that its highly anticipated HDR Efex Pro software will be available October 11, 2010. This completely new HDR solution is designed to help professional and amateur photographers quickly and easily achieve the full spectrum of HDR enhancements from the realistic to artistic. The company is showcasing HDR Efex Pro with live demonstrations of the software at Photokina 2010 at booth H09 in hall 4.1.

“Our HDR Efex Pro beta group has over 500 photography industry professionals and HDR enthusiasts and the feedback from this group has been both comprehensive and incredibly positive,” said Michael J. Slater, President and CEO of Nik Software. “We have incorporated many of the recommendations from this group and I am confident that this product will truly advance HDR imaging.”

HDR Efex Pro brings innovative and best-in-class technologies to HDR, including proprietary unrivaled tone mapping, Nik Software’s award-winning U Point® technology, and powerful ghost reduction, all of which have been developed specifically in response to photographers’ requests. HDR Efex Pro overcomes limitations in other software products with a revolutionary all-in-one approach that enables both realistic and artistic effects to be applied within a single tool. Photographers looking to explore the new realm of HDR will find that HDR Efex Pro offers a complete solution that takes HDR to new levels and offers new possibilities to fine-tune and finish HDR images with a simple and intuitive workflow.

Nik Software’s U Point® technology provides, for the first time, precise selective fine-tuning of HDR images without the need for complicated selections or layer masks. Photographers will find that the ability to control adjustments exactly where they want them provides unprecedented power and will further enhance their ability to create amazing HDR images.

Key Features
· Intuitive interface, with easy to understand photographic terminology and the actual processed results always displayed
· U Point powered selective tools for fast, precise enhancements of contrast, shadow, structure and saturation adjustments
·  Multiple proprietary tone mapping algorithms enabling a wide range of HDR styles and capabilities
· Visual presets that produce amazing results in a single-click
· Ability to create the HDR look from a single exposure
· Advanced technology for automatic image alignment and reduction of subject motion artifacts known as “ghosts”
· All-in-one workflow enabling the creation of professional HDR images

Pre-Launch special from Digital Silver Imaging is $139.95 plus receive 50% off your first print order when you purchase the software from DSI.  HDR Efex Pro is Free with either of the Complete Collections. Visit the DSI Nik Software page for our special offer.

How many people travel across state lines to attend an opening? Apparently, several! Estimates of 100 guests filled the gallery with a tangible buzz over the toned, sepia toned fiber prints of Francine Zaslow’s collaboration with chef David Remillard and food stylist Beth Wickwire.

On it’s way to a cookbook, the work was influenced by the practice of utilizing the whole animal in foods of other cultures. The decision to print the digital images in black and white turned vegetables, fish and fowl into sculpture; a feast of texture and painterly still-life beauty. Known for her attention to detail and a Zen-quality of suspension – Francine enhanced the “otherworldly” quality of the prints with painted backdrops by Susan Strauss. The eloquent artist statement by Tom Babbitt speaks to the journey beyond food to the cycles of life, art and spirit that the images evoke.

Local photographers including Sylvia Stagg-Giuliano, Nancy Carbonaro, Randy Goodman, Meg Birnbaum, Bruce Peterson and Bob Packert joined Barbe Ennis & Michelle Tetrault of Ennis, Inc and stylist Ann Fitzgerald of Team in admiring their colleague. Guests from Maine, CT, NH and Western Mass made the effort to be part of the celebration. City Planners and Renovation Specialist Bruce Irving, who attended our last architectural show and gallery talk made their way to explore this body of work.

At Digital Silver Imaging, we celebrate the myriad connections the gallery affords us with our community.   Intended as a format to showcase our ability to make true, silver gelatin prints from digital files and exposing the art of photography to unique audiences – we have tapped a creative synergy beyond our expectations. We may ship internationally and form virtual relationships, but we continue to be grateful, honored and amazed by the cycles of relationships within our own photographic network.  We are grateful for our association with the Griffin Museum of Photography and the amazing support from director Paula Tognarelli and Frances Jacubek.

All 13 of the toned silver gelatin fiber prints are in our online gallery.  The images are 18×24, and framed 25×31 for $1200.  The diptych image is 20×30 in a 26×36 and is $1400.  Please contact Eric Luden at Digital Silver Imaging for details.

“Food Cycles” is on display DSI in Belmont through Nov 12th.  Gallery hours are Mon – Fri 9-5:30.  Francine will have a gallery talk on October 14th at 7PM at the DSI gallery in Belmont, MA.

Ever wonder how baseball pitchers make the ball dance up, down, in and out to baffle batters? Boston Red Sox left-handed ace Jon Lester showed photographer and sportswriter Steve Wilstein how it’s done with the positioning of his fingers on the five pitches in his arsenal: four-seam and two-seam fastballs, change-up, cutter and curveball. Wilstein photographed Lester in spring training this year using a Nikon D700 and a 105mm micro lens. Working with Christopher and Eric from Digital Silver Imaging, Wilstein created a 4-foot wide composition of five square close-up images, printed in color on HARMAN inkjet paper and framed by DSI . A framed print sold recently at Panopticon Gallery, which also is showing Wilstein’s other color images of the Red Sox and fans in spring training, as well as black-and-white images of Muhammad Ali that Wilstein made in 1978.

Wilstein, a longtime sports columnist for the Associated Press, can be seen discussing baseball’s steroids era in Ken Burns’ and Lynn Novick’s two-part documentary, “The Tenth Inning”, on Sept. 28-29, on WGBH public television.

Contact Jason Landry at Panopticon Gallery to purchase this image.

 Andy Ryan‘s gallery talk drew an SRO crowd of Architects, MIT faculty and Photographers eager to learn the inside story on documenting the landmark projects construction over seven years. Ryan accompanied his remarks with a slide presentation of images documenting twenty years of work in China. He discussed the major impact digital photography has had on his workflow, his ability to create a vast archives of “virtual” work and the challenges related to usage rights.

He related his use of equipment and the capturing of a matrix of images to control for distortion while covering the immense expanse of these huge structures.  This attention to detail and honoring the needs of his clients is tantamount to the process. Architect Steven Holl remains particularly pleased by Ryan maintaining his favored cubed windows, patterns and shapes from becoming rectangular. Ryan shoots with a Hasselblad digital camera and has been working with their GPS metadata systems as part of his work. These massive files are stitched together in post production creating finely detailed and sharp images. Ryan chose to work with Digital Silver Imaging to produce rich toned black & white silver gelatin fiber prints using a true photographic process to maintain the integrity of his work.

Discovering, initiating and building creative relationships is at the heart of Ryan’s work. He actively courts several clients simultaneously to make the most of the time spent abroad. Dealing with the incredibly crowded, dusty, busy city is a constant challenge. The winds that create the below freezing winter temperatures also make for a crystal blue sky.

You can view the complete portfolio from our recent exhibition, Architecture of the New China: Landmark Projects of Beijing. 

All of the images from this exhibition are for sale.  Please contact the gallery for further information.  info@digitalsilverimaging.com

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