ku # 718 ~ evening light

90/120m ski jumps ~ in the Adirondack PARK - Lake Placid, NY • click to embiggenLast evening after dinner at the Dancing Bears Lounge in Lake Placid.

ku # 717 ~ before there is time for words

Spring growth and rock • click to embiggen

One can theorize about beauty all day, but words are weak and at day's end one will go out into the blue and golden and multifarious world, and one will know with the responsive heart, before there is time for words, what is and isn't beautiful. ~ Leo Rubinfien

civilized ku # 493 ~ Ansel Adams nonsense

Between storms ~ In the Adirondack PARK - Wilmington, NY • click to embiggenThe more I read about what Elliott Erwitt had to say about things Ansel Adams, the more Iam inclined to believe that Elliott doesn't hold Adams or his work in very high regard.

Quality doesn't mean deep blacks and whatever tonal range. That's not quality, that's a kind of quality. The pictures of Robert Frank might strike someone as being sloppy--the tone range isn't right and things like that--but they're far superior to the pictures of Ansel Adams with regard to quality, because the quality of Ansel Adams, if I may say so, is essentially the quality of a postcard. But the quality of Robert Frank is a quality that has something to do with what he's doing, what his mind is. It's not balancing out the sky to the sand and so forth. It's got to do with intention. ~ Elliott Erwitt

Good photography is not about 'Zone Printing' or any other Ansel Adams nonsense. It's just about seeing. You either see, or you don't see. The rest is academic. Photography is simply a function of noticing things. Nothing more. ~ Elliott Erwitt

ku # 716 ~ quirky light

Wispy mist and sun light • click to embiggenOver the weekend we had rain and snow. The weather is very unsettled and it is making for some dramatic skies.

ku # 715 ~ feeling it

Water below beaver dam ~ in the NE Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

You don't compose a photograph; you design a photograph. ~ Jay Dusard

For those not in the know, I have spent a great of my professional life, in addition to my commercial photography career, as a graphic designer / art director / creative director. For those not in the know about such things, design plays a large role when working in those capacities.

I came to the field of design well after I started making pictures for commerce. What I discovered was that my "feel" for design in making pictures, the use of space on a 2D surface, served me very well in the art and craft of graphic design which, essentially, is the use of space on a 2D surface.

All of that said, fast forward to a few years ago when I was showing my "fine art" pictures to a gallery director. After viewing about 10 of my pictures, he paused for a moment and then asked, "Are you a graphic designer?" Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather. And, as it has turned out (and under similar circumstances), I have been asked the same question again on more than one occasion.

I mention this because, pursuant to my desire / plan to conduct a couple Picture Making Chautauqua, I am still not certain that the "feel" for "you don't compose a photograph; you design a photograph" can be taught.

It is believed that one can be taught to understand art better, but not necessarily so to "feel" it better. Quite simply, if it doesn't speak to some people, then it doesn't. IMO and in my experience, the same can be said about "design".

That said, I'm not going to let that notion keep from trying to help others with the concept of "you don't compose a photograph; you design a photograph".

ku # 714 ~ FYI

Detritus in a bog ~ in the NE Adirondack PARK• click to embiggenFor a large number of reasons, I have yet to get to setting up a pile of twigs gallery.

And it is quite possible that I will not be able to do so before I leave for my trip to play golf ... on a mountain top in the greenest state in the land of the free where Davy kilt him a bar when he was only three.

Hell, I jist might has ta git me a coonskin hat while I'm there.

In any event, if I am unable to get the gallery set up before I leave, while I'm away nest week, I'll try to arrange for posting some of the pictures as entries.

ku # 712 ~ enough is enough

Red twig dogwood shrub (?) ~ in the NE Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenUntil I acquired my EP-1 I had thought that my days of manual focusing were far behind me.

Once I had entered the digital camera world, in which AF is the order of the day, I just started to rely upon AF. For the most part, it worked quite well and I can probably count, using only the fingers on one hand, the number of times that I lost a picture due to mis-focusing on the part of the camera AF.

That said, I did/do use a kind of manual AF - my AF was/is always set to a single center "zone" which, when a subject is off-center, I use by placing the subject in the center of the frame, acquire and hold focus by depressing the shutter 1/2 way, reposition the subject to the desired location in the frame, and then make the picture. This technique works perfectly, 999 out of 1,000 times.

However, now that I use my EP-1 for almost all of my picture making, I am using the LCD screen (via Live View) for framing and, with increasing frequency, for manual focusing. Especially so for focusing when I am making narrow DOF pictures - which I am also doing with increasing frequency. I really like both the pinpoint focusing accuracy and the added element/ satisfaction of manually taking even more control of the picture making process.

All of which makes me pine for an EP-1 minus all of the features that the brave new world of digital cameras come with. Just give me an aperture ring, a focus ring, a shutter speed dial, an exposure meter (internal or external) and screw all the rest. I mean, what the hell, I made really nice pictures with my totally manual Nikon F3s and my handheld trusty Minolta Auto Meter III w incident-light attachment.

Sure, I'd be OK with AF or AE capabilities for those times when I needed / wanted them. But spare me from scene modes, face recognition, multi-zone AF, 10 different kinds of metering modes, ART Filters, HD video, etc., etc., etc.

All I wanna do is make pictures the simple way.

IMO, and without exaggeration, I really believe that camera makers, by adding on layer upon endless layers of "features", have made making pictures much more complicated than it ever was when a picture maker had to do it all "manually".

Update on Wednesday, April 14, 2010 at 02:02PM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment: The Cinemascapist wrote: "then why not just buy the Leica M8? Shutter speed dial on top, aperture ring, small size, and digital. what is it missing or adding that you don't like?

my response: the Leica M8 is a discontinued camera that sold for $5800US (body only) or there about. I don't want no discontinued camera (at any price).

The replacement camera body, the M9, sells for $7,000US. Add to that the cost of Leica glass - like say the $3,000US WA 35mm f/2.0 Summicron M Aspherical Manual Focus Lens, which is similar to the 20mm f/1.7 Panasonic lens I use on my EP-1 - and I'm living under the bridge on Main St. in a cardboard refrigerator shipping container, turning tricks at 20 Main in exchange for food and a beer (assuming, that is, that I'm lucky enough to find myself still amongst the living after the wife finds out).

And, even though made with a 35mm f/2.0 Summicron adorned M9, that's definitely not a pretty picture.

ku # 711 ~ twigs and trash - follow up

Lichen on fallen branch ~ in the NE Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenIt seems that twigs and trash as subject matter is a bit more alluring than a car wash - 4 participants have already submitted pictures and another 4 have indicated that they plan to do so. I'll get around to creating a gallery over the next couple days.

In the interim, if anyone of the participants would like me to add a link to more pictures or a website / webgallery along with their pictures, please send me the info asap.