rain # 67-69 ~ more of the same

Moisture covered window ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Flood stage river ~ East Branch Au Sable River / Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Flood stage river ~ East Branch Au Sable River / Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenRain just keeps on coming - roads closed / washed out, mainline trains stopped dead in their tracks (pun) with 300 passengers transferred to buses, evacuations, and lakes and rivers well past flood stage. And guess what? - more rain is on the way for the next 3 days.

And, during those short intervals when the rain stops and the sun peeks out, it is so humid it feels like a rain forest - windows fog up, porcelain toilet tanks sweat like a 350lb person sitting in sauna, and heaven help you if you boil a small pot of water for rice - BTW, speaking of toilets, thanks to the rain that's where my golf game is currently located.

Enough already. Anyone out there know the dance steps for an anti-rain dance?

rain # 66 ~ rain unabated

Birch Tree Lodge ~ Wilmington, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenThe rain continues its relentless assault.

rain # 65 ~ rain and more rain

The Rocks ~ Jay, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenOver the past month or more, to say that it has been raining is like saying that the sun comes up in the east. I, like many of my local friends and neighbors, have nearly forgotten the experience of a day without rain.

# 3 ~ all different / but the same

I have been watching it. On everything it falls. Moon-eyed and restless, ever moving, ever washing us with its long cycle: rain. Globes in ferocious gallops hurling into an unknown to be broken, dismantled around our dirty hands; yet each single note is still the same long song, sung around and around us as we too hurl, our watered globe ever ready to break apart within this fractal of existence.

Nota bene: FYI, even though the writings on today's and yesterday's entries do relate (in a fashion) to the pictures which accompany them, they were not written with the pictured referents in mind. And, furthermore, the intent of the pictures + words project is to deliberately avoid matching words and pictures which could be obviously related to one another.

In fact, it is quite probable that the pictures and the words will be presented in entirely separate sections of the book or an exhibit. They appear together here as merely a work in progress and to (hopefully) instigate some comments or feedback about the project.

# 2 ~ all different / but the same

We have moved the moving earth. We have cut it, melted it and poured ourselves new rock faces, hollow ones into which we hive and collect our shiny things. We have become the flowers that grow and bloom and wilt into bones. The things we touch have been refined, as if the world were not fine enough. It needed cost. Process. It needed fingerprints. We vacation to reconnect with nature as if we do not touch it every second of every day, as if it is not the mother of every object that brushes us. As if it is not our very skin. Now we look through glass and do not see the sand.

# 1 ~ all different / but the same

She looked at it. Her eyes danced over it. A dance, remarkably so. A slow circle, taking in each detail. Then familiarity. Intimacy. And a beginning. She relaxed her gaze and it captured her, led her somewhere; she followed a line and repeated the same pattern. To what end? To where had she been drawn? I like it, she thought, it doesn't stop. An endless cycle, round and round, at a pleasant cadence. She looked at it.

civilized ku # 2539 ~ late Spring / early Summer lushness

Lush backyard ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenIn a comment on the entry ku # 1244-47, Peter Nilsson wrote:

Without wishing this to sound like the Mark Hobson fan club I do particularly value the regular reminder that I don't need to buy a new camera. Saves me thousands...

Peter, thanks for non-fan club comment although, nevertheless, I am willing to give you preferred fan club standing. That written, I'm happy to read that I am having some impact / doing my part in helping some stay off the never-ending upgrade merry-go-round. Although ... Olympus has finally introduced the new E-P5 - a camera which "looks as though the E-P5 is the camera we'd always hoped the PEN series could be" (DPReview).

If I had unlimited resources, I might be tempted to acquire the E-P5 (the upgrade force is still strong within me). However, please note the emphasis on the word "might". The reason for that is quite simple - I'm still very satisfied with my current crop of E-P2s.

Sure, the sensor in the E-P5 is much improved and the high ISO performance is vastly improved - the only 2 things I actually might care about in the new model - but, while those improvements might be needed by some and desired by others, I'm not so sure that either of those rational or emotional states of mind are at work in my picture making world.

To wit, re: improved definition / sharpness - I have never been on the eye-bleeding razor-sharp bandwagon. What I want is for my prints to look very nice at a normal viewing distance (it is beyond my comprehension why anyone would want to view a picture from an abnormal viewing distance). That is to write, a distance which is dependent upon print size and appropriate for viewing the picture in its entirety because it is only by viewing the entire picture that a viewer can (hopefully) see and appreciate what it is I am trying to convey. IMO, my pictures (and those, made by others, which appeal to my eye and sensibilities) are about more than the sum of their nose-to-the-print-surface parts.

In addition to my non-addiction to razor sharpness, I am concerned with the idea that a sensor which produces pictures which, when viewed at a normal viewing distance and when added to any of the pictures in my ongoing bodies of work, would look visually different from my earlier pictures in that same body of work and therefore out of sync within the body of work.

As for improved low-noise high ISO performance, it would be nice but, in fact, noise is not something I struggle with on a regular basis. Having a few fast pancake lenses in my bag really helps avoid having to use high ISOs (I rarely go higher than ISO 400). In those cases where noise becomes a concern, I find a little bit of noise reduction works very well to solve the so-called problem.

That written, if I were to start a body of work which concentrated upon low-light situations and referents, I would undoubtedly feel differently about high ISO performance.

So, I'll soldier on, dancing with the cameras dates I brought to dance. If I'm going to spend money on any cameras, it most likely will be to snap up a few of the inevitable supply of new (not used), bargain basement priced E-P3s which will become available.

ku # 1244-47 ~ a beautiful rainy Father's Day

Elk Lake ~ North Hudson, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Dock / Elk Lake ~ North Hudson, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Picture maker ~ Buttermilk Falls / Long Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Rapids above falls ~ Buttermilk Falls / Long Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen

Even though Sunday was a misty/foggy and rainy day, we took a 180 mile drive through the northeast section of the Adirondack PARK.

First stop was Elk Lake Lodge, a lodge which is situated in a stunningly beautiful location - a 12,000-acre privately-owned forest preserve in the heart of the High Peaks. The lodge is situated about 6 miles through the forest off the main road so it is truly a wilderness lodge. Even though the lodge is pretty close to our home, the wife and I have had this place on our gotta-stay-there list for over 10 years. Maybe this year is the year.

A number of stops later, the next stop was at Buttermilk Falls (on the Raquette River near the village of Long Lake where the wife and I were married) which was running very high as a result of all of the recent rain. After checking out the falls, we adjourned to the Adirondack Hotel where I enjoyed a unique and quite tasty dinner of Guinness BBQ beef hash over risotto topped with a poached egg.