civilized ku # 463 ~ first camera, then fork

Fruit Loops on a blue-sky morning • click to embiggenIt's somewhat reassuring to know that I am not alone, or, as the wife remarked, "You're not so weird after all."

civilized ku # 454 ~ kitchen counter

Garlic and onion • click to embiggenMaybe it's a result of my past life, picture making wise, as a food specialist that keeps me attracted to stuff on my kitchen counter.

civilized ku # 411-414 ~ hot dog

Heid's hots - Food You'll Like ~ Liverpool, NY • click to embiggen
Heid's - Food You'll Like ~ Liverpool, NY • click to embiggenI'm back from Rochester and my youngest brother's retirement party and, as the pictures in this entry attest, it's a given that, if I'm headed to western NYS, a stop at Heid's of Liverpool is part of the travel itinerary.

As the claim emblazoned across the facade of Heid's states - Food You'll Like, they do indeed offer food that you'll like. Of course, that statement assumes that your definition of "food" is "hot dogs" and that if you really want Food You Won't Like there's no reason to be at Heid's in the first place.

But, here's the thing about hot dogs - I can't speak for other regions, but here in my regional environs the hot dog case at supermarkets is absolutely not the place to purchase hot dogs with expectation that they will be "food you'll like". All of the offering therein are the limp tasteless tubular trifles that give hot dogs a bad name and a bad taste.

Fortunately, a trip to central/western NYS by any family member or friend always involves a visit to a Wegmans for the expressed purpose of buying and bringing back a trunk load of either Zweigles Premium Pop Open Hot Dogs (natural casing) or Hoffman's German Brand Franks (the franks from Heid's).

FYI, that's a Hoffman's coney with ketchup featured in the top picture.

civilized ku # 390 ~ just because it caught my eye

Red cabbage / salad ~ Montreal, CA • click to embiggenOK. So I pictured it because it caught my eye - a picturing act that is all too common with me. I tend to think and act along the lines of -

Photography is never more strong in its emotional appeal or in the authority of its statement than when recording incidents in the life of man or man’s reaction to the life around him. Here is one province where it can be said with some certainty that the camera does not lie. It cannot afford to try. - Norman Hall

All thanks to the digital gods that storage space is cheap.

in the kitchen ~ lens research and development

Grease jar ~ 17mm @ f2.8 • click to embiggen
Grease jar ~ 20mm @ f1.7 • click to embiggenThese pictures should in no way be considered as a "comparison" between the Zuiko 17mm f2.8 lens and the Lumix (Panasonic) 20mm f1.7 lens other than the difference in perspective and DOF between the 2 lenses. I did try to picture the beautiful and picturesque grease jar at the same magnification in each picture in order to see the difference between them, re: the previously stated criteria.

From the perspective POV, I tend to like the ever-so-slightly (but noticeable) more WA look of the 17mm over that of the 20mm - keep in mind that, in the 4/3rds' world, that is an effective focal length difference of 6mm (34mm v 40mm, effective focal length). However, I do like the more narrow DOF obtained with the 20mm @ f1.7 than that of the 17mm @ f2.8.

Maybe if I put them together on the couch tonight, pour a little wine, and put some romantic music on the hifi ....

food ~ for thought

Carrot peelings • click to embiggenHave no doubt about it, just about everyone has to make a living and there are at least a zillion ways to hang that 'coon on a tree. That said, take the following with at least a grain of that salt.

It came to my attention in this AM's newspaper - yes, we actually subscribe to the local paper and, yes, we actually start just about every day with a read of it - that a local person, Steven Howell, who is described as "the Press Republican Montreal freelancer as well as an adjunct journalism faculty member at Plattsburgh State", has a published book - The Photographer's Guide to Montreal and Quebec City: Where to Find Perfect Shots and How to Take Them.

Well, scratch my back with a hacksaw because I don't know whether to cry or wind my watch.

I mean, I can't even imagine where I'd be, picture-making wise, if I had been privy to similar help when I was a picture-making neophyte. Although, I can deduce from the book's title that I would be a picture taker as opposed to the picture maker that I am now.

I would also most likely understand that, if want to take perfect shots, I should be following in the footsteps / plant my tripod in the tripod impressions of the those who recognize a perfect shot when they see one. Not only that, but, quite obviously, I should also follow their instructions, re: How to Take Them.

The only possible, as well as highly desired/prized, result of that M.O. would be, quite assuredly, perfect shots. Perfect shots that look exactly like the picture-taking impresario's as well as those of everyone else who followed in their footsteps.

Ugh and double-Ugh. And while you're at it, scratch my back with a hacksaw because I don't know whether to cry or wind my watch.

Now, if I were King of the picturing-making world, all How To books would start with a one-page intro titled, Open Your Fucking Eyes & Brain: Making Pictures of What YOU See. That intro would be followed by the 1st (and only) chapter titled, Chapter One: Examples, which would have 100 pages of clean, empty white paper, each with the caption "Fill In the Blank" at the bottom of the page. In the section "revised" edition the caption would be at the top of the page.

Those 100 pages would make for a nice hefty book which would add considerably to its feel-in-the-hand perceived value. Of course, in order to protect that perceived value, the book would have to be sealed in cellophane wrap so as not to give away the book's real value. Otherwise, sales might not live up to normal there's-a-how-to-sucker-born-every-minute expectations.

BTW, FYI & PURSUANT TO YESTERDAY"S ENTRY, don't be a tourist - do the hurty thing, if I were King of the picture-making world, the title of Howell's book would be - The Photographer's Guide to Montreal and Quebec City: How To Be Just A Tourist.

CAVEAT In the interest of complete and honest disclosure and under the heading of just about everyone has to make a living, it must be stated that for quite a number of years I made a big part of my living by cashing checks from the Eastman Kodak Co. for picture-making services rendered. Some of those services were, in fact, pictures made for use in Kodak's seemingly never-ending (great for making an ongoing living) series of How To books. But, operating on the premise that it's easier to get through a day without sex than it is to do so without at least a few juicy rationalizations, in those cases, I was just following orders. That is to say, Purchase Orders which spelled out what the BIG YELLOW BOX (of money) wanted from me. OK? Satisfied?

food & beverage

Appetizer • click to embiggen
Wine sediment • click to embiggenIt's all good

I once was blind, but now I see

Turnip • click to embiggenIn light of Pope Benedict XVI's recent meeting in the Sistine Chapel with over 250 artists (of all types) wherein he tried to kick-start an effort to improve the Catholic Church’s engagement with contemporary artists, I thought I would offer the following excerpts from the ...

LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS POPE JOHN PAUL II TO ARTISTS

1999

To all who are passionately dedicated to the search for new “epiphanies” of beauty so that through their creative work as artists they may offer these as gifts to the world.

“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Gn 1:31)

1. None can sense more deeply than you artists, ingenious creators of beauty that you are, something of the pathos with which God at the dawn of creation looked upon the work of his hands. A glimmer of that feeling has shone so often in your eyes when—like the artists of every age—captivated by the hidden power of sounds and words, colours and shapes, you have admired the work of your inspiration, sensing in it some echo of the mystery of creation with which God, the sole creator of all things, has wished in some way to associate you ....

..... 6. Every genuine artistic intuition goes beyond what the senses perceive and, reaching beneath reality's surface, strives to interpret its hidden mystery. The intuition itself springs from the depths of the human soul, where the desire to give meaning to one's own life is joined by the fleeting vision of beauty and of the mysterious unity of things. All artists experience the unbridgeable gap which lies between the work of their hands, however successful it may be, and the dazzling perfection of the beauty glimpsed in the ardour of the creative moment: what they manage to express in their painting, their sculpting, their creating is no more than a glimmer of the splendour which flared for a moment before the eyes of their spirit ..... Every genuine art form in its own way is a path to the inmost reality of man and of the world. It is therefore a wholly valid approach to the realm of faith, which gives human experience its ultimate meaning. That is why the Gospel fullness of truth was bound from the beginning to stir the interest of artists, who by their very nature are alert to every “epiphany” of the inner beauty of things.

... 10. ... true art has a close affinity with the world of faith, so that, even in situations where culture and the Church are far apart, art remains a kind of bridge to religious experience. In so far as it seeks the beautiful, fruit of an imagination which rises above the everyday, art is by its nature a kind of appeal to the mystery. Even when they explore the darkest depths of the soul or the most unsettling aspects of evil, artists give voice in a way to the universal desire for redemption.

11. In the spirit of the Second Vatican Council ... the Fathers of the Council stressed “the great importance” of literature and the arts in human life: “They seek to probe the true nature of man, his problems and experiences, as he strives to know and perfect himself and the world, to discover his place in history and the universe, to portray his miseries and joys, his needs and strengths, with a view to a better future” ... at the end of the Council the Fathers addressed a greeting and an appeal to artists: “This world—they said—in which we live needs beauty in order not to sink into despair. Beauty, like truth, brings joy to the human heart and is that precious fruit which resists the erosion of time, which unites generations and enables them to be one in admiration!”

... 15. ... The Spirit is the mysterious Artist of the universe ... I would hope that all artists might receive in abundance the gift of that creative inspiration which is the starting-point of every true work of art ... Dear artists, you well know that there are many impulses which, either from within or from without, can inspire your talent. Every genuine inspiration, however, contains some tremor of that “breath” with which the Creator Spirit suffused the work of creation from the very beginning ... the Creator Spirit reaches out to human genius and stirs its creative power. He touches it with a kind of inner illumination which brings together the sense of the good and the beautiful, and he awakens energies of mind and heart which enable it to conceive an idea and give it form in a work of art. It is right then to speak, even if only analogically, of “moments of grace”, because the human being is able to experience in some way the Absolute who is utterly beyond.

16. ... my hope for all of you who are artists is that you will have an especially intense experience of creative inspiration. May the beauty which you pass on to generations still to come be such that it will stir them to wonder! Faced with the sacredness of life and of the human person, and before the marvels of the universe, wonder is the only appropriate attitude ... Beauty is a key to the mystery and a call to transcendence. It is an invitation to savour life and to dream of the future ... Artists of the world, may your many different paths all lead to that infinite Ocean of beauty where wonder becomes awe, exhilaration, unspeakable joy ....

.... “From chaos there rises the world of the spirit”. These words of Adam Mickiewicz ... prompt my hope for you: may your art help to affirm that true beauty which, as a glimmer of the Spirit of God, will transfigure matter, opening the human soul to the sense of the eternal.

IMO, there's actually some good shit in there.