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Norm Bleistein
back to
gallery artists
 Norm
started taking pictures with a
plastic “Donald Duck” camera when he
was five years old. After an
ever-improving series of 35mm
cameras, Norm added digital cameras
to his collection in 1999. He has
become totally hooked on the power
of the digital darkroom, working in
PhotoShop from original digital
images, scanned prints, negatives
and slides.
Norm tends to see
things in frames, with some
background process in his brain that
constantly composes the world around
him into images to photograph. He
usually decides fairly quickly on
the composition, but then spends
time in setup to achieve what he has
envisioned in his head. However,
Norm can move fast when it is
necessary.
In the realm of
digital processing, Norm avoids
artificial color enhancement in
deference to developing the image to
match what his eye saw when the
image was captured. Film or digital
media can capture only a small
fraction of the highlight and shadow
that the human eye sees. The digital
darkroom facilitates recapturing the
visual image, especially near the
edges of the range of light of the
medium, where detail begins to fail.
Further, the eye interprets color
more vividly than it appears in any
image capture. Norm tries to
reproduce that interpreted color
while avoiding artificial
enhancement. For him, the result has
to be pleasing and plausible, but
Norm does admit to a consciousness
of light and color that was raised
by his love and study of
impressionist painting.
Norm has
translated his enthusiasm for
teaching and his enthusiasm for the
new medium into a side career of
teaching digital photography and
digital darkroom classes. The
digital photography classes
introduce the skills of planning
images for later processing in the
digital darkroom to a traditional
photography class. The digital
darkroom class teaches a basic
workflow—standardized procedures for
processing images to get the best
out of them. Together with his wife,
Judy, Norm also teaches more
advanced and specialized classes.
Norm has had a
long and successful academic career
as an applied mathematician, while
taking thousands of photographs “on
the side.” Now, in semi-retirement
from his mathematics, the rate at
which he creates new images has
skyrocketed. Norm and Judy travel a
good deal, always with cameras.
Together, they approach each new
adventure in familiar or unfamiliar
places with a sense of excitement
about the people and locale. The
digital darkroom provides a venue
for a wonderful balance of their
creative and analytical sides,
allowing them to make the best
visual statement they can in order
to achieve and share an intimate
sense of the places they experience.
website:
www.pdphotographystudio.com
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Montaione,
Italy
Giclee print from original
photograph
Vernazzza en Basso, Italy
Giclee print from original
photograph
Antique Press
Portofino, Italy
Giclee print from original
photograph
Lavender Feld
Provence, France
Giclee print from original
photograph
Coming of Age
Giclee print from
original photograph
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Additional images.
All are giclee prints
from original
photographs:
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Lone Horse Mill
Crystal, Colorado
One of the most
photographed spots in
Colorado, located in
Crystal, a four-wheel
drive from Marble.
Photomerge of three
images, late afternoon,
September 21. |
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McClure Pass Snowfall
September 21 on McClure
Pass, snowy, cold.
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Night View, Mt. Ste.
Michelle
An image captured before
patches of fog coming in
from the right and
clouds gathering to
engulf the mystical
promontory of Mont
Sainte Michelle have
completed the nightly
enshrouding of the
abbey.
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Reflections 2
Leaves in a pond located
on Kebler Pass shortly
beyond Treasury Hill
Road on the right,
driving away from
Crested Butte. The pond
is hidden from cars and
bicyclists, although it
is right beside the
road. Three image
photomerge. |
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Monet's Bridge, Giverny
Giverny We arrived at
Monet's Garden at
Giverny early in the
morning with a slightly
hazy blue sky provding
slightly filtered and
diffused sunlight. It
was hours before we got
this far in our
wanderings around the
garden. 'not the
traditional view, which
is usually taken from
the other side of the
bridge. This side has
more foreground!
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Eiffel Tower at Night
I wanted an image of the
tower looking back
towards the Seine
behind. We walked up
boulevard with the tower
on our right. The two
sides of this street
seemed to provide the
perfect frame for this
tower of perfect
proportions. |
Anthracite Range, Ohio
Pass, Colorado
A view from Ohio Pass
Road, which starts about
three miles north of
Gunnison on CO 135 and
runs northwest to the
summit of Kebler Pass.
The Anthracite Range
runs roughly east/west
near the summit of the
pass. This view shows
snow flurries coming
from the east on
September 22! One family
of aspen has already
lost its leave while
others retain their fall
splendor. |
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Reflections 1
Reflections in a pond on
Kebler Pass Road, just
beyond Treasury Hill
Road near Crested Butte.
It is necessary to walk
along the road to find
this pond. Two image
photomerge. |
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