diptych # 20 (civilized ku # 2436-37) ~ sharks

Sharks ~ Aquarium / Camden, NJ • click to embiggenThe Holidays are over and I'm back in the saddle, blog wise. More tomorrow.

diptych # 19 (civilized ku # 2429-30) ~ it's begining to look a not like Xmas (god bless America)

Rain / cat butts ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenDecember 21st and it's raining cats 'n dogs outside. Inside, the cats have parked their heads where the sun don't shine. For some reason, it all brings to mind the Republican led (?) US House of Representatives (god bless America).

If there is a more dedicated group of reality deniers other than those idiots - climate change, election losses, guns-don't-kill-people-people-kill-people, nobody dies because they can't get health care, not to mention the "legitimate rape" and the 47% things, to name just few parts of the real world they choose not to occupy - I've never heard of them (the idiots at Fox-icon News don't count because they're not idiots, they're just outright liars).

That written, as we enter the heart of the Xmas / holiday season, I don't want to dampen the festivities and good cheer by going all political on you. Instead I thought I would share part of Xmas wish list ....

.... I'm hoping for a bunch of hang gliders so, when the country goes over the "fiscal cliff" (god bless America), I and mine can glide off that cliff and soar merrily around like care free birds on the wing (above both the fray and the rabble). And, just to keep the gliding around more fun, a small arsenal of carry-on AK 15s would be nice*. You ever know when they might come in handy.

While the hang gliders remain a remote possibility, the AK 15s are most likely not. They have been selling like hotcakes since the Newtown Massacre (god bless America), so they are in short supply. Although, that's not because of diminishing inventory, there are plenty still around. No, that's not it ...

... it's an artificial shortage caused by gun dealers who have stopped selling those type of weapons of mass destruction - not out of any sense of public good, but rather, because they know as soon as a real threat of a ban on such weapons emerges, the price they can charge for those weapons will skyrocket out of sight (god bless America). In any event, it's certainly reassuring to know that the free market always "gets it right" (god bless America).

FYI, there's a great song, Swimmin' In The Big, aka: Bathing in the Waters of D'Nile (scroll down to # 7 and give a listen), which kinda sums it up rather nicely. A few lyrics from that song ...

My job is so secure and my government is stable
The weather’s getting better, a little warmer every year
And now we’ve got free trade, and everyone will prosper
The locals here are happy, I think I’ll have another beer

Ho, ho, ho. (god bless America)

*Legend has it that a Vietnam War helicopter gunship door gunner, when asked how he could kill women and children, answered: "Ya just don't lead 'em so much". (god bless America)

diptych # 17 (ku # 1226-27) ~ show me

Snow flurries / clouds and light ~ Jay, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenAnyone out there making diptychs? If so, can we see them?

FYI, there's another diptych on Pictures. No Words.

FYI # 2, if you like my pictures without words, I'm regularly posting pictures on the Pictures/No Words site - pictures not posted here on The Landscapist.

civilized ku # 2400-01 / diptych # 16 (ku # 1221-22) ~ no apologies necessary

Parsley, garlic, onion & sugar ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenPorch with vine ~ Keeseville, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenBlue Ridge Falls ~ North Hudson, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenOn more than one occasion, I have taken note of the fact that a number of Landscapist followers, who subscribe to the notion which postulates (in the words of Colin Griffiths) that "too many landscape photographs are of pretty subjects" portrayed "in an over saturated and exaggerated mirror of the truth", have found it necessary to add a disclaimer to their posted pictures which, in a manner of writing, apologize for making and posting a picture which might be judged to be a "pretty picture".

A most recent case in point can be viewed on an entry, River Cononish, Dalrigh, Scotland, on Colin Griffiths' blog, The "Rich Gift of Lins".

Most likely, this apologetic tendency stems from my ongoing crusade, re: freeing oneself (picture making wise) from the constraints of making pictures of (and in the manner of) what one has been told is a good picture. Or, my crusade could also be described as engaging in the activity of trying to win, as John Szarkowski put it, the "contest between a photographer and the presumptions of approximate and habitual seeing"

That written, it was never my intent to instill a sense of picture making guilt in anyone. Rather, my intent has been to instill a sense of confidence in those seeking to find their way out of the pretty picture making morass. To help them understand that it's OK to head down the road not taken by most "serious" amateur picture makers and (once again as Colin wrote) to feel "very strongly that it is important for me to faithfully illustrate my responses to what I witness".

And, I most definitely did not mean or imply that responding to nature's manifestations of beauty were in any way out of bounds for that response. However, I do believe that, in responding to beauty in nature, one do so, as Markus Spring wrote in his response to Colon's disclaimer, in a manner that looks as though "the saturation slider was certainly not at eleven, and it doesn't look like too much HDR makeup or gold-blue polarizer ... When a landscape offers its true beauty like this one, there is no reason in the world to not record it as best as possible in all its facets. For me the problem arises with those consumers, that won't have a look at an image unless it slaps its saturation or exaggerated contrasts in their face".

IMO, as I wrote in a recent entry, the contest between a picture maker and the presumptions of approximate and habitual seeing can be held anywhere ... be it on kitchen counter, a viney porch screen, or on the edge of a roaring wilderness river. It's all good.

And, BTW, a very nice picture, Colin.

civilized ku # 2393 / diptych # 15 / triptych # 7 ~ "handling" color

Garden hose ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenCherry trees ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenSmall quarry ~ Peru, NY • click to embiggenOn the entry ku # 1219 ~ entre chien et loup, Sven (no link provided) wrote:

I really like the way you and another photographer / blogger (Ming Thein) handle colour ... my efforts are ham-fisted compared to you two guys ... Any advice on the topic would be appreciated!

my response: It would very time consuming, entry making wise, to give meaningful / comprehensive advice, re: color processing work, on this blog inasmuch as my color work on any given picture is usually quite involved / complex with many individual steps. An entry detailing such work would have to be very long and involve the making of a significant number of screen grabs, all of which, to be honest, is more work than I am inclined to do.

That written, I can try to give a broad / general outline of my color processing procedures ...

1) I always shoot RAW, so my first step is a RAW conversion - using a dedicated conversion only software - in which I make global color adjustments. The objective is to produce a file which is, over all, color corrected / adjusted to the original scene. On many occasions, I also convert a second ISO bracketed image file for use in capturing additional highlight or shadow detail.

During the conversion processing, I use WB correction, global exposure adjustment (very minor, if at all), curves (LAB and RGB, depending upon my objective), global hue & saturation correction, shadow adjustment (again, very minor, if at all), and highlight recovery (if needed).

2) After the converted file(s) are saved, I open it in Photoshop and go to work - at this point, I make localized color, hue and saturation, and tonal adjustments as I deem necessary to achieve a result which is as true to the original scene as is possible. I pay particular attention to over saturation in individual colors and color casts such as UV effects.

Some localized adjustments are made by copying and blending highlight or shadow detail, taken from my ISO bracketed file(s), into my master image file. The blending is achieved by placing the copied details on separate layer and blended using the Multiply or Screen blending options and the opacity slider in the Layers Palette.

In Photoshop, my primary adjustment tools are; curves in both RGB and LAB color space (each color space has its own specific capabilities), hue & saturation sliders (generally for specific individual colors), sponge tool, and the eraser tool (for very fine localized blending).

When checking for color casts or making color adjustments, I rely on my eyes (my monitor is well calibrated) together with the Info Palette - the Info Palette can tell me exactly where on an individual color curve to make an adjustment as well as determining, numerically, the results of a color adjustment.

The Info Palette is especially useful in obtaining very clean neutral colors (whites, grays, blacks). Good clean neutral colors in a picture are very important because all other colors will "pop" (without the need for over-saturation techiniques) when they play off neutrals.

One of things I am most pleased with, re: processing pictures, is the fact that most viewers of my pictures really think that I don't do any post picture making processing at all. Their first impression is that I have just used what the camera gave me because my pictures look so "natural".

IMO, that impression is a highly desirable end result. After all, as Robert Adams wrote In his book, Beauty in Photography:

Why do most great pictures look uncontrived? Why do photographers bother with the deception, especially since it so often requires the hardest work of all? The answer is, I think, that the deception is necessary if the goal of art is to be reached: only pictures that look as if they had been easily made can convincingly suggest that beauty is commonplace.

All of that written, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that, when making pictures, I have an eye for color. In a very real sense, my eye for color in the natural / human-made world is the most important asset I have for "handling" color. My eye is very aware of and sensitive to color harmony or color discord and I use both color qualities / characteristics in the making of my pictures. Again, in a very real sense, I have a "head start" with "handling" color even before I set to work in the processing arena.

civilized ku # 2392 / diptych # 14 ~ prettiness / pettiness - foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds

Northern Orchard ~ Peru, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenNorthern Orchard ~ Peru, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenMuch has been written here on The Landscapist regarding seeing/vision. IMO, the topic garners and holds interest for many Landscapist followers because they desire, in their picture making, to get beyond the confines and staleness of the ubiquitous seen-it-before, camera club cliché.

Some visitors have their interest piqued by my pictures, some by my words, and yet others by both. Then there are the words uttered / written by those (other than me) whose quotes I present from time to time. It is in that vein that I present the following quotes, which I believe have great relevance for those who are in pursuit of simple/plain seeing ....

Do not be caught by the sensational in nature, as a coarse red-faced sunset, a garrulous waterfall, or a fifteen thousand foot mountain... avoid prettiness - the word looks much like pettiness - and there is but little difference between them. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

This benefit of seeing...can come only if you pause a while, extricate yourself from the maddening mob of quick impressions ceaselessly battering our lives, and look thoughtfully at a quiet image...the viewer must be willing to pause, to look again, to meditate. ~ Dorothea Lange

IMO, the Emerson quote has relevance, re: seeing, simply because, if your seeing is piqued only by the visually obvious "grand and glorious", chances are very good that you will be blinded by that light (as well as "the light") and, consequently, miss the rest of what the world as to offer. Or, as John Szarkowski stated ...

Photography is a contest between a photographer and the presumptions of approximate and habitual seeing. The contest can be held anywhere...

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the contest can truly be held anywhere - not just in the shadow of the iconic sunset, waterfall, mountain, et al.

If you're having trouble escaping from the clutches of the drug addicted like state of picturing only the iconic "grand and glorious", you might try pretending (if necessary) that you are a practicing member of a Christian sect and further pretend that you are giving up such picture making for Lent ... a Lenten season which lasts for, say, 6-12 months. Consider it a time spent in picture making Purgatory, suffering a penance for which you will later be amply rewarded, seeing/vision wise.

During that time spent in Purgatory, pass the time practicing Dorothea Lange's advice to "extricate yourself from the maddening mob of quick impressions ceaselessly battering our lives" - I can only imagine what she might think of today's media saturated culture - "and look thoughtfully at a quiet image ... pause a while, look again, and meditate" at/on what your eyes behold, not only in "quiet" pictures but also in the "quiet" world around you. With practice and perseverance, you might be surprised at what you begin to see.

And remember, picturing making wise (and in life) ...

Whosoever would be a (wo)man, must be a nonconformist....A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds....To be great is to be misunderstood. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

diptych # 13 ~ porch / doors

Doors / Asgaard Farm ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen

It is curious that I always want to group things, a series of sonnets, a series of photographs; whatever rationalizations appear, they originate in urges that are rarely satisfied with single images. ~ Minor White

dyptich # 12 ~ truncated trunks

Tree trunks ~ Tawhaus, NY / Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen