civilized ku # 2817-21 ~ entre chien et loup / a simple walk around the block

entre chien et loupe / alley • courtyard ~ Glens Falls, NY - just outside the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
entre chien et loupe / Main Street ~ Glens Falls, NY - just outside the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
entre chien et loupe / signs at roundabout ~ Glens Falls, NY - just outside the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
entre chien et loupe / neon signs ~ Glens Falls, NY - just outside the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
entre chien et loupe / neon sign lit bushes ~ Glens Falls, NY - just outside the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenI have previously written about my attraction - in general and in picturing - to what the French call entre chien et loupe, between the dog and the wolf. If French isn't your thing, perhaps the word gloaming or twilight or dusk is the name / label for you. In any case, whatever the word choice, each refers to the time of day after the sun has set but deep darkness has yet to take hold.

My word preference is entre chien et loup because it is both rather poetic and the phrase also hints at the dichotomy between safety / danger, the known / unknown, the seen / unseen and the emotional states of tranquility / anxiety. IMO, no matter how pleasing and gentle the quality of entre chien et loup light bestows upon a scene, it is the aforementioned dichotomy which creates an emotional tension which I like my pictures to exhibit.

My entre chien et loup picturing activity is always inspired by the quality of light to be had at that time of day. A quality which I would describe as softly enveloping and one I became aware of, picture making wise, when I first turned my back on the fading light of a sunset. It would be an exaggeration to write that that was a picture making epiphany but, nevertheless, it was certainly an OMG moment and, for number of years after that visual awakening, much of my 8×10 view camera (with color neg film) work was focused upon making entre chien et loup pictures*.

However, that's not why I called you here today. Rather, it's to consider this:

...with most of my photographs, the subject appears as a found object, something discovered, not arranged by me. I usually have an immediate recognition of the potential image, and I have found that too much concern about matters such as conventional composition may take the edge off the first inclusive reaction. ~ Ansel Adams

A number of years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting two amateur picture making hobbyists who had been following my nature pictures on a nature picture forum. They were passing through my area on a return trip from a photo workshop in Maine, got in touch with me, and we hooked up for dinner and a next day picture making excursion.

Following Brett Weston's advice, re: Anything more than 500 yds from the car just isn't photogenic, we drove to a number of nearby iconic Adirondack locations so they could explore some picture making possibilities. As I recall, they had a good assortment of gear but the thing that has stuck with me - appallingly so - to this day was that, at every picturing spot, their first order of business was to look at the scenes in front of them, not for what they were, but for how those scenes could used as fodder for making pictures by the "rules".

To wit, they looked for "leading lines", "s-curves", and the like - literally pointing them out with their fingers - and discussed how various elements within a scene could best be placed according the "rule of thirds". Their picture making was driven by the antithesis of Sir Ansel's advice to not have "too much concern about matters such as conventional composition" and they demonstrated little, if any, "immediate recognition of the potential image" or a "first inclusive reaction" to that which was in front of them.

Considerate gentleman that I am, I refrained from commenting, nay screaming, about getting their eyes out of their asses in order to facilitate seeing that which was staring them in the face. I was able to conduct this admirable constraint by biting my tongue so hard and deep that I nearly required a blood transfusion and a tongue transplant to replace that which had lost.

Of course, another option was to use my mouth to pass on some advice from the other Weston (Edward). To wit ...

One does not think during creative work, any more than one thinks when driving a car .... to consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk. Such rules and laws are deduced from the accomplished fact; they are the products of reflection ...

In any event, both I and they had a pleasant day even though I was looking at what was in front of me and they were looking for pictures.

FYI, the walk around the block pictures are presented , top > bottom, in the order in which they were made.

* 20 minute time exposure.

guideboat on dock ~ Blue Mountain Lake, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

Comments

[Fred]

Blue Mountain Lake.

Splendid.