BODIES OF WORK ~ PICTURE GALLERIES
BODIES OF WORK ~ BOOK LINKS
In Situ ~ la, la, how the life goes on • Life without the APA • Doors • Kitchen Sink • Rain • 2014 • Year in Review • Place To Sit • ART ~ conveys / transports / reflects • Decay & Disgust • Single Women • Picture Windows • Tangles ~ fields of visual energy (10 picture preview) • The Light + BW mini-gallery • Kitchen Life (gallery) • The Forks ~ there's no place like home (gallery)
Friday, July 24, 2015 at 11:46AM 
Summer is the time for camping, pools and flower baskets hanging on porches.
Tuesday, July 21, 2015 at 09:52AM 
Smuttynose / Between The Buns restaurant ~ Potsdam, NY • click to embiggen
under bridge / under porch roof ~ Buffalo, NY / Thousand Islands, NY • click to embiggen
scallions / farmer's market ~ Keene Valley, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenJeff Wall has stated / written that ....
Maybe the "trivial" is just a failed version of the "everyday." The everyday, or the commonplace, is the most basic and the richest artistic category. Although it seems familiar, it is always surprising and new. But at the same time, there is an openness that permits people to recognize what is there in the picture, because they have already seen something like it somewhere. So the everyday is a space in which meanings accumulate, but it's the pictorial realization that carries the meanings into the realm of the pleasurable.
Those ideas coincide rather well with my thoughts, re: ".... a well executed arrangement of 'invisible' pictorial elements is often enough to elevate a picture of seemingly "nothing" into the realm of a very good picture".
I mention these ideas - commonplace / nothing and pictorial realization / pleasing arrangement - because, in my daily photo blog pursuing, there are 2 sites I visit regularly, one of which I visit everyday (More Original Refrigerator Art) the other (which shall remain nameless / link-less inasmuch as I have no desire to offend), much less frequently.
Even though both picture makers traffic in pictures of the commonplace, the reason for the disparity in visitation frequency is solely attributable to the fact that the former-mentioned picture maker is uncommonly adept at first rate pictorial realization / pleasing arrangement, the latter-mentioned picture maker, not so much.
IMO, the primary difference between the work of the 2 picture makers is that, one transports pictures of the commonplace into the realm of the pleasurable, while the other makes pictures of the commonplace which are distinctly, well .... commonplace or, in other words, ordinary. Although, while it should be noted that that result might just be the point of that work, it doesn't work for me.Thursday, July 16, 2015 at 02:54PM 
the wife, going with the flow ~ Bog River Flow / Hitchens Pond - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
on the Flow ~ Bog River Flow / Hitchens Pond - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
going with the flow
sitting, watching
listening
thought full / thoughtless
quiet contemplation
the eagle the osprey
dual / duel
startled
spruce grouse
erupt
into cacophonist flight
bass fighting
hook
line
and sinker
black fly, deer fly, mosquito
harass
disappear on the breeze
bad memories
best forgotten
hoot of the owl
cry of the loon
fish jump
coyotes howl at the moon
cries and whispers
haunt our dreams
on water’s edge
mated dragon flies
flit and careen
a procreative dance
finch
dart, chirp, scold
on a wing and a prayer
barefoot
pine needle carpet
on loamy soil
dodging the hard fact
of roots
weightless drifting with
life jacket floats
cool mist
on morning water
smudgy campfire smoke
coffee aroma
pancakes with blueberries
sausage and syrup
Wednesday, July 15, 2015 at 09:33AM 
On the trip there 2 surprises. The first, on the evening of our first day, was the collapse onto our wilderness campsite of a very large tree. A tree which had been snapping and groaning since our arrival and I deduced it was only a matter of time before the tree came crashing down. And, after moving tents and canoes out of the project landing zone, the tree did come crashing to the ground. Fortunately, no harm, no foul. Surprise number 2 happened on our paddle out. As we entered into the start of a wide turn in the flow, 2 military attack helicopters came swooping around the bend / trees below treetop level. We heard them coming before their overhead pass so I was able to get a camera out of my camera dry bag and make a few pictures despite their very fast speed. And I do mean fast. The noise of the birds (military speak) was very very loud and, as they descended even lower over our canoes, the pilot in the lead machine waved to us out of the open door of this helicopter as he was executing a hard-banked turn onto / over Higgins Pond. I am certain that he had "killed" us, simulation wise, before he wished us well.Just returned from a multi-day backcountry / wilderness canoeing sojourn. The trip was arranged by the wife as a fun-time birthday (mine) gathering and, not surprisingly, everyone had fun. It was a wonderful birthday gift.
Thursday, July 9, 2015 at 10:15AM 
If I had had my 11-22mm f2.8 Zuiko lens with me, I could have made this picture square to include the radiating rays of the sun. But I didn't, so I couldn't, so full frame seemed the best. I apologize.
On the other hand, since I rarely picture sunsets, I guess the rarely used full frame format is somewhat apt. Perhaps no apologies are necessary.
Wednesday, May 6, 2015 at 04:23PM 
It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to write that I am having a run of fun of late, picture making wise.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015 at 09:45AM 
Spent Friday- Sunday past at Jay Peak resort in Vermont. I wasn't there to ski, I was there for hockey.
During a day long snowfall, the view from our cottage was just right for quiet relaxation and contemplation. The view from the waterpark bar/balcony was anything but. I leave it up to you to deduce where, outside of the hockey arena, I spent most of my time.
FYI, the iPhone pano picture is of Hugo and his team waiting for the tournament championship game - their last game of the season and the last time they will all be together as a team. In more ways than one, it was very fitting that Hugo scored the first and last goal of the game and, consequently, of the season.
Now on to picture making business ....
window art / 4 squares in a row ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenWhen making pictures, I most often do not "work" a scene. That is, most often it is one and done, click-of-the-shutter wise. On those occasions when I work it, the variations I make are usually very minor changes in framing. All of which means that my normal M.O. is to go with my first impression and move on.
That written, last week I pictured the above window art as seen in a vacant store. My first impression (and picture) thereof is the tightly framed window and door as seen in the 3rd-from-the-left-picture. However, in this case, I continued to work the scene and made 2 additional wider view pictures.
After processing all 3 of the pictures, I had them grouped together on my screen in order to choose the "winner". It was at that point I experience a very unexpected result. Not only could I not pick a "winner", I arrived at a point where I could not visually separate one picture from another because, in a way I can not adequately explain, when grouped together in a straight line with a 4th framing variation, they seem to be visually all-of-a-piece. My eye can not find a place to land in the grouping. It keeps dancing back and forth, hither and yon across the collective field of view.
The only conclusion that I can arrive at for that reaction is to think that the combination of a relatively monochromatic referent surround together with the vibrant color of the referent(s) themselves creates a kind of eye-brain recognition puzzle that my senses can not stop trying to figure out.
And, surprise, surprise, I like the sense-ation very much. I like it enough to go forth and find more monochromatic / vibrant color, competing wise, scenes in order to see if I can replicate the same result. If successful, I will be off to the races, eye-brain recognition puzzle picture making wise.
Anyone else experiencing the same field of visual energy which I see in the grouping?Wednesday, March 11, 2015 at 01:29PM 
Once again, perusing my archive has yielded forth yet another body of work. Although, in this case, the work was not spread out over many years. In fact, it was all made during the first-second years after my first foray into the digital picture making domain, circa 2004.
At that time I was not ready to make the jump to a high-end dslr, such as they were at that time. It was obvious to me that it was going to take a while for things to stabilize, camera specs wise. For one thing, the megapixel race was kicking into high gear and changes seemed to be coming every 30 days. Consequently, I settled into a prosumer Canon Powershoot G series camera until I felt the time was right to move into the dslr arena.
In any event, these pictures were all made with a G series camera. And, yes, they were all made to be part of a specific body of work. So culling them out of the archive was not labor intensive inasmuch as my archive is arranged chronologically and these pictures were grouped in a relatively tight cluster.gravitas et nugalis
Featured Comment: Nisk S. wrote: "The Book Cover is on the wrong side. (Was that on purpose?)
my response: Brain flatulence when making file for web. Thankfully, not for book. Now corrected.