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

civilized ku # 2826 / diptych (selection) # 7 ~ because the individual is different

stonework / St. Joseph's Oratory ~ Montreal, Quebec, CA • click to embiggen
fence and leaves ~ Plattsburgh, NY • click to embiggenI am in total agreement with Harry Callahan's notion of:

The photographs that excite me are photographs that say something in a new manner; not for the sake of being different, but ones that are different because the individual is different and the individual expresses himself. I realize that we all do express ourselves, but those who express that which is always being done are those whose thinking is almost in every way in accord with everyone else. Expression on this basis has become dull to those who wish to think for themselves. ~ Harry Callahan

In my experience, the art - photography, painting / illustration, sculpture, film, literature, et al - that excites me is that which is created by those who think for themselves and whose thinking is, in many ways, NOT in accord with everyone else. Consequently, many years ago, I lost any and all interest in art, especially photography, which is little more than an imitative rehash / expression of that which came before. That type of expression is, indeed for me and many others, dull, dull, dull.

Robert Adams most definitely had it right when he wrote that The failure of classicism .... is the cliché, the ten thousandth camera-club imitation of a picture by Ansel Adams. That type of picture cliché (and many others) are the result of, plain and simple, people making pictures without thinking for themselves. All they seem to be capable of is, as Brooks Jensen wrote, making pictures of "what they have been told is a good picture", aka: thinking in accord with everyone else, rather than "photographing what they see", aka: thinking / seeing for themselves.

And, FYI, much in line with Adams' ten-thousandth camera-club imitation cliché, it was Brooks Jensen who wrote:

We are fast approaching critical mass on photographs of nudes on a sand dune, sand dunes with no nudes, Yosemite, weathered barns, the church at Taos, New Mexico, lacy waterfalls, fields of cut hay in the afternoon sun, abandoned houses, crashing waves, sunsets in color, and reflected peaks in a mountain lake.

In any event and all of that written, much has been thought / written / talked about the notion of creativity, not just in the arts but in any human endeavor. Many believe one either has it or one doesn't, what many refer to as a gift or a god-given ability. Others believe if you work hard enough at developing it, it will come. In my particular case, I have always come down on the side of the former rather than the latter but ...

... in either case, thinking for yourself is a critical component of creativity. In fact, I would venture the opinion that creativity and thinking for yourself are essentially synonymous concepts or, at the very least, so intertwined as to be nearly inseparable.

Hence, even if you are gifted with creativity, you still need to think for yourself in order to effectively channel and use your gift. If you are not so gifted, thinking for yourself, aka: thinking outside of the box, is about the only way I know of to develop and foster a reasonable and functionable facsimile of the so-called gift of creativity.

So, when I have been asked for advise regarding developing one's own personal vision, picture making wise, my response has been to suggest that thinking for one's self is a form of creativity which inexorably leads to a form of personal vision. Following the crowd will lead one only to imitation, which is, essentially, the death of one's imagination.

Think (for yourself) about it.

diptych # 107 / civilized ku # 2825 ~ kinda creepy

waxen baby Jesus - 1 of approx. 25 on display ~ St. Joseph's Oratory / Montreal, Quebec, CA
exhibits ~ St. Joseph's Oratory / Montreal, Quebec, CA • click to embiggen

diptych (selection) # 5-6 ~ a right answer with some right questions

Sailly Avenue ~ Plattsburgh, NY • click to embiggen
store window ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenOn the entry in which I introduced my nascent body of work, diptych (selection), John Linn commented:

This is an interesting idea, letting the viewer choose the framing, but it seems to eliminate (or reduce) the judgment and control of the picturemaker. Or is the picturemaker saying, they are both good... or I have not decided? And regardless of what the viewer chooses, both versions are still there ... The two framings do make a bigger difference than would be expected (at least by me).

My thanks to John for taking the time to comment, especially so inasmuch as he came to grasp some, but not all, of the questions / points that I hope my diptych (selection) work will pose for viewers.

That written, I don't pretend to have answers to any of John's questions or any others that may arise with the viewing of these diptychs. However, I will write that the judgement / control of the picture maker (aka: me) is not compromised in any way - each individual picture has been created by the picture maker using all of the judgement / control, re: selection and framing, at his disposal. The result is two different looks - two of a myriad of choices - at the same referent.

Is one choice better than the other? That's up to the viewer to decide, however, my intention is not to set up a competition between the two results. Rather, it is to present the two views together as a singular / synergistic look at the same referent. Which, when viewed by a thoughtful observer, will result in a number of questions / ideas / thoughts about the medium and its apparatus.

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.

diptych # 106 / civilized ku # 2824 ~ snow and baloney

yesterday / today ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK / Montreal, Quebec, CA • click to embiggen
Wilensky's ~ Montreal, Quebec, CA • click to embiggen
Yesterday, it was the view from our hotel balcony. Today, it is from in front of Wilensky's. We ate their famous Wilensky's Special - "all-beef salami with all-beef baloney grilled to mouth-watering perfection on a tasty roll with a hint of mustard" accompanied by glasses of their handmade soda.

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