Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics: Recently Added Galleries and Collections

Night Photos 2: Mono (2011)

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

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Bodie Interiors 2 (2011)

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

]]>These were taken during an October 2011 visit to Bodie. Most were processed using HDR (high dynamic range) methods to retain detail in both the very dark corners of these interiors and the very bright light coming through windows, doors, or holes in the walls and roofs.

Yolo Basin (2007-2010)

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

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Solargraphy (2011)

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

]]>“Solargraphy” is a technique of taking VERY long exposures (up to SIX MONTHS long) with a pinhole camera to record the daily tracks of the sun across the sky. Solargraphy differs from “normal” pinhole photography in that photo paper (the type normally used in a darkroom for printing negatives), is used to record the image, not film. After such a long exposure, the resulting negative image is visible even without being processed with developer, stop bath, and fixer. The paper needs only to be scanned and the image inverted in Photoshop to produce a final positive image.

This is, needless to say, a long-term project, and I'll add images to this collection as they are made.

Here are links to my blog posts on solargraphy:
Solargraphy Project: Setup
Solargraphy Project: First Result
Solargraphy Project: Second Image
Solargraphy Project: Two More Images
Solargraphy Project: Back Yard

Here are links to some other solargraphy sites on the internet:
PinholePhotography.org
Flickr Solargraphy Group
Tarja Trygg´s Global Project of Solargraphy

Fine Art Prints

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

]]>Welcome to my Store! This is a selection of prints available for purchase. Prints are made to order at Mpix Labs from files I have prepared specifically for this purpose. Shipping is handled by Mpix as well. I've ordered several of these prints myself, and I've been very pleased with the quality Mpix provides.

Click on the "Slideshow" to see the images at their largest size on your screen (then press your "ESC" key to exit full screen mode). The images and lettering may appear a little unsharp in the slideshow. Don't worry; they will be quite sharp in the prints.

Prints are currently available in two sizes:

12" x 18" for rectangular images (image area approximately 8.5" x 12")
12" x 12" for square and nearly-square images (image area approximately 8.5" x 8.5").

Framing is available from Mpix also (but feel free to purchase frames separately at less cost).

Please contact me (tmessick1[at]gmail.com) if you would like to see any other images or any other size options made available.

Thank you for visiting!

Tim Messick

Information Graphics

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

]]>My favorite graphics are the ones that explain scientific or technical information visually — making complex information more accessible and more memorable to a broad audience. Information designers Edward Tufte,Richard Saul Wurman, Nigel Holmes, and others have shown how to make complex information clear — even beautiful — by combining clear thinking with good design. Here are some examples of information graphics I've produced in the last few years.

Visual Simulations

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

]]>Visual simulations are pictures of things that aren't there yet, or events thet haven't happened yet. Regulatory agencies and the public often want to know — before a project is approved and construction begins — what a project will look like from particularly "sensitive" viewpoints. Some simulations are simple — just adding something small and simple to the picture. Others are very complex — large objects with complex geometry and perspectives in busy settings with lots of clutter in the foreground. It's an interesting challenge, and every simulation is different.

UC Davis Airport (2009)

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

]]>U.C. Davis is the only campus in the University of California with its own private airport. They hosted an open house in May 2009, with a variety of old, new, and experimental airplanes, plus some lovely classic automobiles. Among the aircraft were four Chinese military trainers, which flew in tight formations before landing for close inspection. Among the cars were Bentleys, Rolls-Royces, and a Graham.

Night Photos 1 (2010)

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

]]>Photography at night has exploded in popularity as digital cameras have become capable of capturing high quality images in low light, with long exposures. Whether it's landscapes under a full moon, buildings or derelict cars painted with flashlights, or stars whirling around the celestial north pole, the world seen at night can be strange or enchanting.

Night photography is a fun, creative, and technically challenging field to explore. I'm just a beginner, and here are some of the images I've made so far.

Fort Churchill (2009, 2010)

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

]]>During the 1860s these walls echoed the activity of several hundred Union Army soldiers and officers. Fort Churchill’s primary mission was to protect Carson Valley settlers and the Pony Express route from the indigenous Paiute people, who were not pleased with the farms, ranches, roads, and people encoaching onto the lands they had occupied for thousands of years. But the fort closed after only nine years.

Today it’s a very quiet place, and the few walls still standing echo only the sounds of insects, birds, and the occasional tourist.

Fort Churchill State Historic Park is on the Carson River, west of Fallon, Nevada.

Fiddletown's Chew Kee Store (2011)

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

]]>The Chew Kee Store is a Chinese herbal medicine shop (now a museum) in historic Fiddletown, California.

The store was built around 1855, during California’s Gold Rush era, at a time when Fiddletown had one of the larger "Chinatowns" in the state. During its early years, the store was operated by Dr. Yee Fong Cheung, who came to America to practice medicine for Chinese miners and railroad workers. In the 1880s a man known as “Chew Kee” owned the shop, selling herbal remedies, groceries, and supplies to the Chinese community. As Fiddletown’s Chinese population dwindled, Chew Kee deeded the property in 1922 to his “adopted” son, Fong Chow Yow (also known as Jimmy Chow), and moved back to China.

Jimmy Chow lived in the back of the old store until his death in 1965, and during those decades the shop in front remained largely intact. Today the store is a museum—a treasure chest of early 20th century Chinese culture in one of the smaller towns in California’s gold country.

Foggy Mornings (2011)

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

]]>Rainfall is a very irregular thing in central California's Mediterranean climate. Some years are wet and many are dry. There's really no such thing as an "typical" year. In a good water year, with lots of rain somewhere between November and March, the rivers swell, the reservoirs fill, and snow piles deep in the mountains. But after the rain here in the Great Valley comes the fog, which sometimes lasts for days. It's dreary, but can make for interesting views of the world, especially in morning light.

Plants (2007-2010)

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

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Yosemite Walls (2010)

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

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Miscellany

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

]]>These are a few of the graphics I've produced for sale on iStock or as personal projects.

Empire Mine (2009-2010)

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

]]>Empire Mine, in Grass Valley, California, operated from 1850 to 1956. When it closed it was one of the largest, deepest, and richest gold mines in the state. Here are views of some of the buildings and artifacts being preserved at Empire Mine State Historic Park.

Branches (2010)

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 03:00:29 GMT

]]>I love the sense of pattern mixed with disarray that I see when looking into a tangle of deciduous tree branches in winter. A simple photograph of branches never conveys the felt memory of that experience, though. That memory isn’t based on a single glimpse, but on multiple impressions that merge and combine over space and time.

These images are variations on a multiple exposure technique and to me they convey more effectively that compound, layered, and perhaps just slightly embellished memory of winter tree branches.

Mono Lake (2007)

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

]]>I first saw Mono Lake sometime in the late '60s, en route from Yosemite to Bodie. I was immediately hooked on the landscape, biology, and history of the area, and have returned to Mono County often. I spent 3 summers collecting plants in the Bodie Hills, just north of Mono Lake, for my Masters Thesis — a local flora of that area. Later, I had a small role in helping to plan riparian and fish habitat restoration on Lee Vining and Rush Creeks.

These photos were taken during a photography workshop sponsored by the Mono Lake Committee in October 2007.

Bodie Interiors 1 (2007)

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

]]>Bodie State Historic Park is one of the most photogenic, and therefore over-photographed, historic places in California. The honey-colored wood of its houses, the sagging rooflines, and the rusting auto bodies are famous. There may not be a lot of original material left, or new things left to say photographically at Bodie, but it's still a fun place to explore with (or without) a camera.

In recent years, though, the park has been allowing tours and photography workshops inside several of the old buildings that are normally closed to the public. This has provided access to a wealth of "new", previously inaccessible material.

These photos were taken during one such workshop in October 2007. A few "exteriors" are included to set the scene.

Gladding McBean: Color (2010)

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

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Gladding McBean: Black & White (2010)

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

]]>Gladding, McBean is a huge ceramic factory in Lincoln, California. The company was established in 1875 and continues in operation today. It became renowned for the excellence of it’s architectural terra cotta, but the company also produces huge quantities of more utilitarian products, including floor and roof tiles, bricks, planters, and sewer pipes.

The factory contains many acres of production rooms, drying rooms, and kiln rooms under one roof. Some rooms are used daily for current projects; others look like they’ve hardly been touched in decades. Many areas are covered in a fine, monochrome, clay dust. Some rooms are very dark, with only a hint of reflected outdoor light; others have bright window lighting with shadows that change by the hour. Outside in the yard are many more acres of pallets loaded with finished pipes and tiles, plus mountains of excess and broken ceramics waiting to be recycled.

It’s an amazing place to explore with a camera. Photographic excursions into this historic pottery are made possible by Viewpoint Photographic Art Center in Sacramento, California.

Covers and Signs

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

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Maps

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

]]>When I was a kid I started collecting USGS topographic maps of places I wanted to visit (pretty much the entire Sierra Nevada). When I was in college I decorated my walls with maps of remarkable places. On more than one backpacking trip I had to show the leader, tactfully, that we were heading down the wrong trail. Today, maps are among my favorite graphics to produce. Most are slap-dash location maps for environmental documents, but occasionally an opportunity to make something pretty nice comes along.

Illustrations

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

]]>These illustrations are also information graphics, but not as densely layered or as complex as the classic infographic. Most of these illustrations show some kind of stream habitat restoration or management practice.

Carson Pass (2009)

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

]]>On a glorious July day in the Sierra Nevada, I hiked south from Carson Pass to Frog Lake, Winnemucca Lake, and Round Top Lake. Round Top Lake, at an elevation of 9,400 feet, is 3 miles from the road and sits about 1,000 feet below the summit of the highest peak in the area, Round Top. Summer snow banks and subapline plants abound.

Aircraft Museum (2008-2010)

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

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Architecture at UC Davis (2009)

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

]]>One cold, clear January morning, I strolled around the Social Sciences and Humanities Building at UC Davis. This amazing structure was designed by Antoine Predock and built in 1994. The outer walls of the higher sections are clad in metal; many of the lower walls are of poured concrete. The building is very sculptural, with interesting shapes, textures, and lighting at every turn.

Mountain Streams (2007)

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

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Mare Island (2007, 2009)

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

]]>Mare Island is a former Navy shipyard at Vallejo, California. In 1854 it became the first United States naval base on the West Coast. During World War II, it turned out scores of ships and submarines. The shipyard was closed in 1996 and conveyed to the City of Vallejo in 2002 for reuse and redevelopment. Today one of the oldest buildings is a museum. Many other artifacts of Mare Island's industrial past await the photographer.

Malakoff Diggins (2009)

tmessick1@gmail.com (Tim Messick - Photography • Graphics) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 01:52:16 GMT

]]>Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park is the site of California's largest "hydraulic" mine. High-pressure jets of water were used to excavate gold-bearing gravels. Huge amounts of sediment were washed into the nearby Yuba River, down to the Sacramento River, and eventually as far as San Francisco Bay.

Our visit on this spring weekend was dampened by rain, but the light was wonderful and we had the drowsy little town of North Bloomfield almost to ourselves.