Terran Melconian: Miscellaneous Notes

Notes on Photography

Pictures! I take them with a camera. Then I send them to somebody else to develop, and I scan them in.

Some of the black and white images here are created by digital modification from color film. This is no real hardship for me, because I generally scan my negatives and get digitally printed enlargements anyway. The greyscale conversion is not strictly a desaturation; it weights red, green, and blue unequally, using the standard formula for luminance which approximates the human eye:

Y = 0.3R + 0.59G + 0.11B

Although this is the default, some images may have been done differently to achieve desired visual effects; this may from time to time be mentioned in the accompanying description. Actual black-and-white film is used primarily for very high speed handheld night pictures; I have found the results from high-speed color film to be inferior.

Black and white is an amazing medium. It's been understood for a long time that a lot of pictures will look good in black and white which would not in color. I've never heard any definitive explanations of why, but my own pet theory is that it's like the difference between books and movies. When you're given less information, you fill in more yourself from your imagination, and what you fill in is almost always better than what could be provided for you. The colors you imagine when you see a black and white photo can be much better than what was actually there.

Notes on Prints

If you would like to purchase a print of a picture on this site, please email me at the contact address in the footer. The price for an 8x10 or 8x12 is generally $30 plus shipping; larger sizes are also available for some pictures. Prints are available unframed/unmounted only. Not all pictures can be printed, and some may be available only in other aspect ratios.

Notes on Copyright

A number of artists have web pages these days, and it seems that many of them a copyright notice on their web pages which goes something like this:
These pictures are mine!! (wank wank) All Mine! (wank wank) You can't print them!!! (wank wank wank wank) You can't even save them on your computer, even though your browser is doing exactly that to cache them anyway!!! (wank wank wankity wank.... oops)
I have better things to do than clean my keyboard all the time. If you want to download the pictures and print them out or use them as wallpaper, that's fine with me. If you ask nicely, I'll even make you some which are the CORRECT SIZE to be used as wallpaper. I'm happy you like them. Re-publication, however, is not allowed without prior approval. This means you, teenagers who are looking for blog backgrounds.
This page most recently modified on: Friday, 03-Sep-2010 04:52:09 EDT

the w3c sucks, but this page is still valid
Copyright (C) 2010 by Terran Melconian. You may mirror this page for personal use. Images may be downloaded and printed. All other rights reserved.
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