ku # 1295 ~ ode (and apologies) to Fredine

frozen over Lake Champlain ~ Adirondack Coast / Peru, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

At times you find one's self driving along something catches your eye and you wonder where's Eric Fredine when you need him? In this case, knowing that Fredine was thousands of miles Canadian kilometers away, I took it upon myself to attempt to channel Eric's picture making mojo and make a sweeping landscape picture.

I didn't go out intending to make this picture. It was another drive-by happenstance picture making opportunity - I was returning home from Hugo's Sunday AM hockey game (2 wins this weekend in which Hugo scored 7 of the team's 9 goals) when I came upon this scene.

The scene struck me as a Fredine-like vista because, unlike most days, the Green Mountains of Vermont on the far shore were obscured in fog / mist/ haze thus creating a more to-infinity appearance than that which is normally present. The distant line of bright sunlight on the ice was also a wonderful visual demarcation between surface and sky.

While I like this picture quite a bit and since there is no thaw in sight, I'll most likely head out to deliberately to make another picture in this location in more "dramatic" light - less monochromatic, more "colorful".

2014 selects ~ potpourri o' pictures

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• click to embiggenI have completed my 2014 Year-In-Review picture selection endeavor. Some FYIs, re: the process:

1. The arbitrary limit of 20 pictures was changed to 30. No particular reason other than, when all was said and done, that number of pictures seemed to look and feel right.

2. The selection process was not as difficult nor as time consuming as I first thought. In my head there were a number of give-and-take / in or out "conversations" but, ultimately, my mind was not fried in the process.

3. When organizing the pictures for the book, the pictures were placed in no specific order other the fact that I was deliberately paying attention to making spreads that would not be made / viewed as having "matching" referents. Presenting random referents was the order of the day / point of the endeavor. FYI in an FYI - the pictures are presented as spreads in the order in which they appear in the book.

4. No outside-of-my-head opinions or comments were solicited or volunteered in the selection process. The choices were all mine and mine alone.

5. I'm very pleased with the results and would very much appreciate comments.

ASIDE: During the selection process, it occurred to me that I should, as time allows after the first of the year, start making year-in-review selections for previous years. I must admit that while that idea is very attractive, It is also very intimidating, time and effort wise. Only time will tell where that idea goes.

That written, as I was contemplating such a project, the notion that there should be an over-arching umbrella project title / name. After letting the idea bounce around inside my skull like a bunch of BBs careening around in a lotto drum, I came up with a idea for a name in the form of a logo:

It makes sense to me. In fact, I cannot think of a better phrase to describe my pictures / picture making activities. And, not mention all of the spinoff uses - logo hats / golf shirts / sweatshirts / cashmere sweaters, logo camera bags, logo fountain pens, logo coffee cups, etched logo cut crystal bourbon glasses .....

diptych # 115 ~ the number 12, or 20, or whatever

new snow with yellow and red ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop ~ Ansel Adams

Without quibbling with Sir Ansel's choice of the number "12" or trying to parse the meaning of his word "significant", if the god's of picture making rang your doorbell and demanded that you pick your, let's say, 20 "best" pictures of 2014 (under penalty of forfeiture of all your picture making gear for failure to comply), how difficult would it be for you to do so and what criteria would you use to define "best"?

For those who make lots of pictures - John Linn, Markus Spring, Juha Haataja, Colin Griffiths, Andreas Manessinger, and the More Original Refrigerator Art guy (not to mention The Landscapist), to name just a few, all come immediately to mind - the task might seem to be Herculean. Then again, there are most likely those who, for a variety of reasons, would consider the whole idea of picking and choosing to be rather pointless and I, for one, would like to know the reason(s) why that would be so.

In any event, I have been picking and choosing from amongst my 2014 picture library and have managed to narrow it down to 26 pictures at this point in the proceedings. That written, I don't think it would be a problem to get the choices down to 20, although ..... on the other hand, it wouldn't difficult to expand the number to 30. And, even if I get it down to 20 picks before the choices are cast in stone, I can't rule out the possibility that a few of those might be removed and replaced by other pictures.

I also believe that making the choices is made more difficult by the fact that one needs to decide whether to consider the idea of what's "best" for me or what's best for a given / particular viewing audience. At this juncture, I am making choices based on what's "best", or most significant, for me. That criteria is distinctly different from making choices based on what might be "best" for a viewing audience - personal versus more universally accessible / significant.

Of course, if I get my choices "right", the 20 best pictures should work for both criteria.

In any case, when I get it figured out, I'll be posting an entry with all of my "winners". In the interim I would really like to read your opinions on the exercise.

decay & disgust # 50 / civilized ku # 2827-43 / ku # 1294 ~ the photographer's job / 10-14 days worth

It is part of the photographer's job to see more intensely than most people do. He must have and keep in him something of the receptiveness of the child who looks at the world for the first time or of the traveller who enters a strange country. ~ Bill Brandt

"aged" apple/orange skins, burnt matches, mold on lasagna-like concoction ~ at home in Ausable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
dormer alcove snowfall and trees ~ Plattsburgh, NY • click to embiggen
propane heater ~ Lake Placid, NY • click to embiggen
praying / crutches ~ Montreal, Quebec • click to embiggen
window display ~ Lake Placid, NY • click to embiggen
hockey rink beer taps ~ Montreal, Quebec • click to embiggen
mountain snow ~ Lake Placid, NY • click to embiggen
snow storm ~ Plattsburgh, NY • click to embiggen
Wilensky's ~ Montreal, Quebec • click to embiggen
Stash Cafe ~ Montreal, Quebec • click to embiggen
bird house ~ Lake Placid, NY • click to embiggen
early snow ~ Lake Placid, NY • click to embiggen
red door ~ Montreal, Quebec • click to embiggen
Rue Saint Paul ~ Montreal, Quebec • click to embiggen
Sailly Avenue ~ Plattsburgh, NY • click to embiggen
Cottage bar ~ Lake Placid, NY • click to embiggen
late autumn color ~ Lake Placid, NY • click to embiggen
restaurant conversation ~ Montreal, Quebec • click to embiggen
wodka wisdom ~ Montreal, Quebec • click to embiggenIn keeping with Bill Brandt's photographer's job description, I decided to post a number of pictures (but not all*) - in no particular chronological order - I have made over the past 10-14 days. All of the pictures were made under the operational umbrella of my standard picture making M.O. - picturing what pricks my eye in a manner which suits my sensibility, re: picturing what I see as I see it.

I have created this entry as a way of demonstrating both the number of pictures and the range of referential material I typically make pictures of over such a time frame. It also serves as a kinda glimpse into my picture making eye and mind ... just in case you were wondering.

*there have been 24 other pictures posted on individual entries over the same time frame

picture window # 64 / ku # 1293 ~ another snowy Friday AM

this morning / Mirror Lake Inn ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

mountains and clouds ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

diptych # 106 / civilized ku # 2824 ~ redux

Friday and Saturday ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK / Montreal, Quebec, CA• click to embiggen
WIlensky's counter girl ~ Montreal, Quebec, CA • click to embiggenThe pictures in the previous entry (see the entry below this) were processed on the road on my MacBook Air. I finally downloaded PS and LR to the laptop and I used both to process the files.

It was my bad to ignore any attempt at calibrating the laptop screen and hence the reason for this redux entry. There is a considerable difference in color and tonal range between the laptop processing and that which I performed today at home on my desktop machine.

That written, I am not a fan of LR (understatement), especially so since I have been using Irident Developer since forever. The second processing go-around started with ID and finished in PS. I can put ID on the laptop but there is another issue with the laptop ...

... the display (screen) is not a Retina display and it is very viewing-angle sensitive, meaning that there is a considerable difference in lightness / darkness values of an image dependent upon the viewing angle . The correct value is only visible within a very narrow viewing angle range.

Consequently, it would seem that I can obtain much better on-the-road picture processing using my iPad and a couple image processing apps. At least, until I decide to acquire a MacBook Pro with Retina display which is an extremely low probability event inasmuch as I have no pressing need for on-the-road high end processing.

civilized ku # 2823 ~ this world of light and shadow and time

late day cloud cover / Asgaard Farm ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenOne of my favorite authors, Edward Abbey, wrote two of my favorite books - The Monkey Wrench Gang and The Fool's Progress. Two Abbey quotes follow - one which could certainly be applied to picture making, and, one (with my substitution of the phrase, Republican Party, for Abbey's original word, California) which could certainly be applied to current political life.

Our job is to record, each in his own way, this world of light and shadow and time that will never come again exactly as it is today. ~ Edward Abbey

There is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience. And then there is the Republican Party. ~ Edward Abbey

ku # 1292 ~ to worship beauty for its own sake is narrow

red berries and grasses ~ Essex, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

... one must not have a too pronounced notion of what constitutes beauty in the external and, above all, must not worship it. To worship beauty for its own sake is narrow, and one surely cannot derive from it that esthetic pleasure which comes from finding beauty in the commonest things. ~ Imogen Cunningham