The Gallery: Images by Wesley R. Elsberry

Created: 950204 Last Updated: 950217

If you wish to contact the artist concerning commissioned work, or use of stock images, please email to welsberr@orca.tamu.edu.

The images collected here were taken with a variety of techniques, films, and equipment. However, they all are scanned with a Niscan Page scanner, and if retouched, digitally retouched using Corel Photo-Paint. If anyone out there is interested enough in color scans, I am open to donations of color page and slide scanners.

Bivalve 1: Bivalve, upper valve, close up. This image dates back to 1982, and a biological photography course. The basic idea here is to drop out the background completely. The way that that was accomplished was to place the shell on a clear glass plate kept about nine inches above the background, and giving the background enough exposure to drop any detail out. For black and white, that ends up being a two-stop overexposure for the background value. The combination of distance, to place the background out of focus, and exposure, to ensure that no detail is recorded there, means that only the subject is left for consideration. This is a popular technique in scientific photography. Full size image (180K).
Shell & circuitry 1: Shell & circuitry 1. I did several still life studies with objects ready to hand when I first got a macro lens. Among the ones that I still find interesting are these images which juxtapose seashells with electronic circuitry. The seashells are from my longtime interest in malacology, and the circuits came from the "surprise" bags that Radio Shack used to sell for a few dollars each. (Apparently, that particular scam became too cheesy even for Radio Shack to deal with, as it has been some time since I've seen anything like that in their stores.) Lighting came from a pair of small electronic flash, with diffusion material in front of the flash tubes. The guide numbers were something on the order of 28 for ASA 25. The background was made of a sheet of sandpaper, which made for interesting texture when it was visible. Full size image (123K).
Shell & circuitry 2: Shell & circuitry 2 Full size image (304K).
The Grove: The Grove. Sometimes I find my attachment to an image is almost entirely irrational. This one is one of those. The sourceless lighting and nearly featureless composition leaves pretty much nothing but texture to go on. The image was shot using the Mamiya-Sekor 80mm lens on a Mamiya C330 6x6cm camera. Printing the negative is something I don't want to think about too often. Full size image (162K).
Untitled.: Untitled. This is one of a series of images utilizing time exposure for in camera manipulation. Most of these were done in performance of class assignments back at the University of Florida (Hi, Wally! Hi, Yvonne!). This particular one was done in one of the courtyards of the College of Education's buildings rather late at night. The exposure was ten minutes. I don't remember the aperture; it wasn't that important. The lens was a 24mm Nikkor wide angle (the first piece of Nikon equipment I owned, preceding even a camera). Light came from a couple of mercury arc lamps the school had in place, and that used for tracery came from a NiCd Q underwater lamg with a cut-out ping-pong ball over the top as a diffuser. The film was Panatomic-X. I think that at the time I was still fond of using Panatomic-X with a three stop push using MinMax's Factor-8 developer additive. Full size image (111K).
Shell & circuitry 3.: Shell & circuitry 3. Full size image (243K).
Pencil Urchin & Crab.: Pencil Urchin & Crab. Full size image (173K).
Fading self-portrait.: Fading self-protrait. This one was a simple multiple exposure. The place was the courtyard of the Fine Arts complex at the University of Florida. I rather liked the way that the magnolia tree was nailed to the wall of this building. 24mm Nikkor, Panatomic-X film, tripod weighted with a couple of camera bags. Full size image (91K).
Crab 1: Crab, upper view, close up. More macrophotography. Full size image.