Near Ponte Vecchio ~ Firenze, Tuscana • click to embiggen
Approaching Ponte Vecchio ~ Firenze, Tuscana • click to embiggenThere are few, myself excluded, who would deny that Saint/Sir Ansel, with an assist from Fred Archer, made a mighty contribution to the craft of BW picturing. His Zone System, a system based upon 10 "zones" / "steps" of tonal density - 0 = absolute black (no detail); 10 = absolute white (no detail / paper white), became a standard by which most BW prints are judged.

Saint/Sir Ansel considered zones 1- 9 to be the zones which contained all of the "useful" detail / information in a print. The whole point of his system was to make an exposure that, coupled with the right development and the right paper grade contrast, would result in a print wherein all the "useful" detail / information in the actual subject would be captured in the print and "spread out" over the zone 1 - zone 9 density range.

Although we, in the digital domain, deal with a density/tonal range of 0-255, the same basic principles apply - the goal of most picture makers is to make a print with densities/tones spread out over zone 1 - zone 9. Or, to put it another way, densities/tones that range from darks that are almost detail-less to highlights that are almost paper white. A range that in the digital world runs from 10 - 250 on the digital scale. And, as in the BW print domain, most color prints are judged by this 10-250 standard.

But, here's the thing about that - in both the bw and color domains - both digital and analog - the zone-system technique most often applied is to compress the real-world density range into the somewhat smaller density range of film and sensors. The techniques for doing so vary considerably from one medium to the other but the desired result is the same - get as much detail information as possible from a real-world scene onto paper.

However, that said, while many picture makers do an admirable job of that technique (read as a "realistic"* job), the one that so many seem to fail at is the opposite technique - that of expanding the density/tonal range of real-world scenes that are, by their very nature, quite compressed. Those scenes were the light is as "flat" as a pancake. The tendency of many is to stretch the density range right out to the max - 10-250 - even though the actual scene densities are contained within a much more compressed range of 50-200 or less.

To my eye and sensibilities, the resulting prints look very artificially "stretched".

Now, if a picture maker's desire is to give us those nice bright colors ... and ... make you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah (because everything looks worse in black and white), then they're on the right track.

But ... in case they haven't noticed, all the world's not a sunny day. There are days when all those nice bright colors take on a more muted and laid-back appearance. There is difference between a sunny day and a cloudy one. Why try to turn all the world into a "sunny" one?

*"realistic" by definition does not include most of those landscape pictures made by the uber-GND wunderkinds - those pictures with the visual hallmark of mismatched skies and foregrounds, especially noticeable when there is water in the foreground. In those pictures the reflection of the sky is always lighter than the sky it reflects, Here's a clue for the GND-ers out there - that's not how it appears in the natural world. Itaque, it is not "realistic".

But, of course, being "realistic" will not give them those nice bright colors and make us think all the world's a sunny day.

Mall parking lot ~ Plattsburgh, NY • click to embiggen
Borders at the Mall ~ Plattsburgh, NY • click to embiggen
Sears at the Mall ~ Plattsburgh, NY • click to embiggenSince I am not a light stalker / chaser, I usually only picture "the light" on those occasions when "the light" sneaks up on me and hits me in the eye like a big pizza pie.

Such was the case last Saturday evening as I emerged from the mall. As luck or happenstance would have it, I came into the light at just the right moment (to my eye and sensibilities) - my favorite time of day, entre chien et loup. What I like most about the light entre chien et loup is the slightly odd color that results from the mix of daylight (such as it is at that time) and artificial light (such as it is in man-made environments).

As you might expect, I am not as enamored of the light entre chien et loup for picturing the natural landscape (where no artificial light is in evidence) as I am of it for picturing what might be labeled hand-of-humankind landscapes.

FYI, for those of you haven't been paying attention, entre chien et loup is a French phrase meaning, between the dog and the wolf - that time of day after the sun has gone down but the night has not completely enveloped the landscape. Others of a less effete artistic bent might refer to it as "twilight", "dusk", or the more northern European nomenclature of - think Groundskeeper Willie - the "gloaming".

Gorge / chasm trees at Taughannock Falls ~ near Ithaca, NY • click to embiggen
Gorge / chasm growth at Taughannock Falls ~ near Ithaca, NY • click to embiggenOnce I had achieved my Saturday, November 14th objective of picturing Taughannock Falls, I began picturing what really piqued my picturing interest at this location - the narrow strip of land between the trail to the falls with the river/steam that flowed from the falls to the lake and the opposite gorge/chasm wall as a backdrop.

I found it interesting that, while people were picturing up a storm at the falls, nary a camera was in sight or in use along the 3/4 mile trail to and from the falls. In fact, most people didn't even seem to be paying particular attention to anything along the trail other than themselves - chatting, horse-playing, etc. Not that I have a problem with that but there was so much of interest - the stream bed, the cliffs, etc. - to see and explore along that trail that they were missing.

That said, in addition to me, there was group of other people who were exploring the "interesting" stuff to be found along the trail and in the stream bed - young children. Apparently, their native/natural sense of curiosity hadn't yet been dulled or completely destroyed by the fetish of grand and glorious.

An Adirondack backyard ~ Jay, NY • click to embiggen

Do not be caught by the sensational in nature, as a coarse red-faced sunset, a garrulous waterfall, or a fifteen thousand foot mountain... avoid prettiness - the word looks much like pettiness - and there is but little difference between them. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

3 vases at the Jay Craft Gallery ~ Jay, NY • click to embiggenHow much would it change your perceptions / feelings about this picture if I changed the title / description to a more complete and accurate description?:

3 vases and an intellectually disabled child on porch swing at the Jay Craft Gallery

Is the picture without the words a "failure" as the pictures-that-need-words-are-failures crowd would have you believe?

morning fog # 1 ~ Au Sable Forks, NY • click to embiggen
morning fog # 2 ~ Au Sable Forks, NY • click to embiggen
morning fog # 3 ~ Au Sable Forks, NY • click to embiggen
morning fog # 4 ~ Au Sable Forks, NY • click to embiggen
morning fog # 5 ~ Au Sable Forks, NY • click to embiggen
morning fog # 6 ~ Au Sable Forks, NY • click to embiggenIt was quite foggy this morning.

Architectural oddity ~ NYS Rt. 28 - Adirondacks / Otter Lake, NY • click to embiggenIn a comment made by Joe Reifer on civilized ku # 264-67 ~ my Friday night room, Joe suggested that "50/60's motels in the Adirondack region would make an interesting larger project."

I agree. Especially so since so many of those motels have rather interesting neon signs. But ... for me, at this particular time, it's a matter of so many possibilities, so little time.

However, when I do get around to such a project, it will not be limited to 50/60's motels. As the picture with this entry illustrates, the Adirondacks are filled with lots of 50/60's architectural gems / oddities. Some are still in use, others are not.

The building pictured above has special meaning for me because, as a kid in the 50s, it signaled to me that our seemingly endless car ride to our Summer destination - Inlet, NY - was almost over. I don't remember what the building's purpose was but I think it was some sort of tourist souvenir shop or, quite possibly, a restaurant. It would be easy enough to find out.

In any event, a 50/60's architectural project should be undertaken sooner rather than later since many of these places are either crumbling into dust or being renovated.

Rain saturated landscape ~ NYS Rt. 5 - near Wampsville, NY• click to embiggen
Rain saturated landscape ~ NYS Rt. 5 - near Wampsville, NY • click to embiggenLast Saturday, as I was driving to Taughannock Falls, I was listening to our 3 CD set of The Greatest R&B Hits Collection - one of those late-night tv not-available-in-stores "special offers". The volume was on the rather amped-up side and I was definitely in the groove - listening to soul music and, as much as the seatbelt would allow, dancing like a white man.

Long about Utica, NY, I was overcome with the desire to talk to a black person so I called my good friend Jimmi Nuffin (the alias he comments under here on The Landscapist). I splained the situation to Jimmi and he was very understanding.

We conversed for about the next 20 miles or so when I noticed that I was passing by quite a number of picturing possibilities. When I came upon the scenes pictured in this entry, I just had to stop. Once again, I spained the situation to Jimmi and, once again, he was very understanding - he waited patiently on the line (on the microwaves?) while I disembarked and made these pictures. All the while I was picturing - I was pretty quick because it was raining pretty good - Jimmi was listening to the click-click-click of the car's turn signal sound, courtesy of our bluetooth-enabled car.

So, under the circumstances, I felt that naming this triptych the Jimmi Nuffin Triptych was the honorable and courteous thing to do.