Greetings, Earthlings...

Welcome to Beyond the Limits of Reason, the meeting point for all things Michael Doubrava.

Michael Doubrava profile

I was born on Earth during the second half of the twentieth century.

Untitled (San Lorenzo, New Mexico)

Untitled (San Lorenzo, New Mexico)
A metaphor for the conflict between rationality and emotion; betweeen Apollo and Dionysus; between the empirical and the supernatural; between stasis and revolution...

our motto and mission is to

tickle the idiot
rapture the faithful
pity all the ignorant and hateful

illuminate the enlightened
confound the intellectual
with life distilled flood memory's temple

October 6, 2024

Late September, 2024: Memory over Time, Time over Memory


After having finished editing these two photos, I've come to the conclusion that they remind me of the way that a specific memory changes over time, just as the historical record changes as years go by,  and that things which once originally seem ideal and solid  inevitably become abstract and faded. or perhaps more gently and elegantly stated,  MY INEVITABLE REFLECTIONS UPON THE PARADE OF ENTROPY.
Both images were created using a +10 year old Nikon D7100 dslr (35mm 'cropped-format' or 'dx') and a 24mm lens of even earlier vintage. The top image, in black-and-white with its' magnificent  doubravatone finish, is a seemingly 'simple' in-camera, traditional, multiple (triple) exposure. The color image below is an in-camera 'image-overlay' of an in-camera triple exposure and an in-camera double -exposure. The D7100 produces 24 mb RAW files.These reproductions here of course are much smaller jpegs, by necessity.

September 10, 2024

Kansas Landscapes, September 2024




These multiple-exposure photographs were made with a full-frame 35mm dslr with an older 85mm pc lens. The front element of the lens was swung away from the "film-plane" to the maximum extent allowed. The lens was either wide open or just no smaller than f4.5. A small amount of grain has been digitally added, to increase the perceived sharpness.

The total number of exposures on each one of these images was either five, or six, depending on the photo. They were shot hand-held, using the multiple-exposure mode on my dslr, which allows one to shoot multiple exposures on the same digital file, in the camera, without mandatory post-production.

Recent Work


 

July 3, 2024

Kansas Landscapes (June 2024): In-Camera Multiple-Exposure




 These images are four exposures each. Same buildings. Top frame with 20mm on APS format, the bottom to images were made with 85mm PC on full-frame 35mm digital.

April 21, 2024

New Work (April 2024)



 This image began as a triple-exposure, which was then duplicated four times and arranged to complete the final work. 

January 30, 2024

Skyland; Eye in the Sky (January 2024)





In-camera double-exposures using 85mm p.c. lens on full-frame digital 35mm camera.

December 30, 2023

Sleepwalkers (January 2024)



This is an image of somnambulists, sleepwalkers, engaging in an act of wish-fulfillment. This is simultaneously an image of two spiritual adepts engaging in the practice of "hidden knowledge" based rituals.
 

December 25, 2022

Kansas Landscape with Electrical Utility Pole (summer 2022)


 A three-exposure panorama.  This landscape photo is composed of three individual, (though overlapping) landscape photographs; each of which was made with a full-frame 35mm DSLR and attached 35mm lens. This strange combination of the wooden vertical obelisk and wild vines suggested an element of eros at work (or play?) within the fertile fields of Northeast Kansas.  

November 22, 2022

October 2022: Kansas Landscape


 This image of a landscape in Northeast Kansas was created on location, using the multiple-exposure function on a Nikon D810 with a 35mm lens. Two exposures were made in succession, with a 180 degree camera rotation between them. 

This is a Kansas landscape in miniature; this is an Imaginary Kansas.

October 8, 2022

October 2022



Top frame: In-camera double exposure, using 35mm lens on full-frame 35mm DSLR

Bottom frame: In-camera double exposure, combined with another in-camera double exposure of same subject made minutes earlier, using same equipment as top frame

March 28, 2022

Looking for more?

You can access more imagery by clicking on the phrase above which says"older posts". Many additional works can be viewed dating back to the earliest posts which initiated this blog.