FYI ~ "don't scrimp on the sound"

A few days ago Kent Wiley offered up an opinion on plasma vs lcd flat panel tvs wherein he also suggested, "don't scrimp on the sound".

The ever-vigilant wife didn't skip a beat with her response; "It is very nice of you to comment on the blog, but the last thing on the planet that I want you telling my husband is 'don't skimp on sound.' He really should be looking for advice about how his photos should be cropped." Kent then offer his regrets because he did not "mean to add fuel to a family disagreement".

So, in order to clarify matters, let me just say that there is no family disagreement, per se. It's just that the wife is operating under the misguided notion that a person who has $3,000 worth of wire in his audio system doesn't really need to be encouraged to not "scrimp on the sound". She is simply not mollified by the fact that one could easily have spent 3x as much on wire (and, yes, I can hear the difference between $3k and $9k wire).

In any event, even if I were inclined to spend $9k on wire, I'm afraid that the 'price' would be too high - if you get my drift.

Update on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at 01:01PM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment: Mary Dennis asked: "So Mark, when you're in a room with other audiophiles, is it the emotional impact and honesty of the output that gets discussed or is it "my woofer's bigger than your woofer?"

my response: First of all, I have never been in a room with other audiophiles. I don't even know if such rooms exist and, if they did, I'd avoid them in the same way that I avoid ... um ... say ... camera clubs. This should come as no surprise to most because, just like my interest in photography - the pictures, not the gear, my interest in audio is the music, not the gear. I love music. And, just like my preference for the 'real' as reproduced in pictures, my preference in reproduced sound is for music that sounds like the 'real' thing.

That said, unlike my interest in photography, one must spend a lot of time auditioning audio gear to determine what sounds best to your ear, because, once you get beyond mass-market dreck, gear-wise, there is a considerable difference in how reproduced music sounds when processed through different components - and that definitely includes the difference in sound of wire.

So, unlike photography wherein I use a camera system with all of the components from a single maker, my audio system is made up of components from different makers - my amp, pre amp, turntable, tone arm, phono cartridge, cd deck, tuner, speakers, sub-woofer, wire and interconnects are all from different makers. All of those components were selected based on how they sound and, more importantly, how they sound together.

That's why most high-end audio dealers, especially the ones I like to patronize (smallish, sole proprietorships), let you take a component home in order to hear how it sounds in your system before you lay your money down.

An interesting aside - as fantastically real as the music sounds coming from my system, I learned a valuable lesson about 'real' sound when I found myself alone in a small room with Andres Cardenes, the Concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony. I was photographing Mr. Cardenes for the high-end audio store (from which he [and I] purchased audio gear - in his case a $20,000 CD deck) when he pulled out and fired up his Stradivarius.

I swear to god, every hair on my body stood straight up and started to tingle. I almost peed myself.

It took a long time after that for any audio system to start sounding 'real' again.

the meaning of art and a photoshop tutorial

2 youtube items of interest have been brought to my attention of late - my thanks to Sean McCormick and Paul LaBarbera.

Regarding the youtube piece about art, Creature Comforts USA- Art, Sean wrote: "The question has been answered. You can shut your blog down now -- nothing left to discuss." BTW, this piece is from the same folks that brought us the Wallace & Gromit movies - some of my all-time favorites. After you watch the art piece, you might want to watch the other video that is titled just "Creature Comforts" (no sub-subject) - subtly funny and somewhat melancholy look at animal life in a zoo.

Regarding the PS "tutorial", You suck at Photoshop, Paul wrote: "I found this YouTube series that is supposed to be a tutorial to learn how to use Photoshop. Entitled ”You Suck at Photoshop” and variations of that. It is funny, crazy, but actually is a great lesson, too. Enjoy all 8 lessons that are linked to this one .... Laughed my ass off! (I love this guy)" - this one doesn't seem funny at first, that is until the instructor suggests that when choosing a photo to work on "maybe you've got a photo of the Vanagon that your wife and her friend from high school spend Friday nights in" (which he just happens to have) as a place to start - 1 part PS tutorial, 4 parts relationship angst.

FYI & urban ku # 172 ~ unstuttering love

Genesee river and falls • click to embiggenLast evening, in a 'minor' inebriated state (the wife worked at home and women kept calling me all day long), I stumbled upon the Sundance Channel and William Eggleston and the Real World, part of a week long series of films about photographers presented under the banner of Lives in Focus. Much to my chagrin, I discovered that the series started on Monday and continues through this Friday. I can't believe that there wasn't an internet 'buzz' about this series and I can only hope that reruns are in order.

The photographers profiled are; William Eggleston, Robert Mapplethorpe and Sam Wagstaff, Helmut Newton, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Peter Beard, and Tina Barney. That's quite a spectrum of talents and genres. The Eggleston film was done in a handheld cinéma-vérité style (each film in the series was done by different film makers) that really complemented Eggleston's photography and his approach to picturing.

And, it is his approach to picturing that struck me the most, in as much as I came to a 'I am not alone' realization - even though Aaron thought that Eggleston looked like someone with alzheimer's walking around with a camera. But, as always, it's the pictures that matter and Eggleston's are absolutely amazing.

"The banal, then, is still banal, but now it's engrossing. I suppose this must be seen as progress, but Eggleston's belief has been and remains that what the resolutely high-minded call banality is the stuff of life itself. It is where we live -- but not only there. Much has been made of Eggleston's oft-quoted statement "I am at war with the obvious." Here he is, not atypically, saying a good deal less than he means. Eggleston loves the obvious -- he hates, and is indeed at war with, the idea of it, the contempt in which it is held. He sees what's in the gutter but also looks up to the heavens. As Malcolm Jones, an unusually perceptive critic of Eggleston's work, has observed, "He addresses the meanest objects with unstuttering love." ~ Stanley Booth/salon.com

even more FYI - today's picture is from a scan of an 8×10 color negative.

now for something completely different

Seemed like a good idea • click to embiggen

For about 29 years, during my commercial studio days, I spent what was probably an inordinate amount of time photographing women. There were a number of reasons for this proclivity.

1) I enjoyed it. 2) I was really good at it, so there was a never-ending stream of women to my studio door. 3) Eventually, a significant portion of my paid client work was 'fashion' work. And, 4) I really enjoyed it.

This picture was just for fun and for the model's book. I don't remember all the details but I do know that the green 'thing' was a chunk of the goo from which nerf products are made. At the time, I was working on an annual report for the company that made nerf products and during a shoot at the factory, one of my assistants grabbed this 'spillage' from the floor. It ended up hanging around the studio and during this shoot, it seemed like a good idea to paint it green, add teeth marks and a little 'blood'.

What else can I say? To paraphrase Little Charlie and the Nightcats - Sometimes, when you're thinking with the wrong head, some ignorant stuff seems like a damn good idea.

FYI ~ done deal

Moved in • click to embiggenEven though my old office still has a lot of stuff (especially books) to sort through and move/store, I am moved in and operational in my new office. While there are still some details to attend to - handles for the cabinet doors, a few holes to drill, a light under the top cabinets - it feels like a new beginning.

Everything pretty much turned out as planned. There's plenty of storage and counter space so I'm finally getting really organized. My biggest success was a recessed channel at the back of each counter that has a 6 ft. strip of electrical outlets. The idea was to end the endless crawling around under desks / counters to plug or unplug the seven trillion cords that seems to be an ever-evolving rat's nest of entanglement. The added bonus is that all the cords are out of sight as well.

I happy as a clam.

FYI ~ making a photo book

On the subject of making / designing photo books, much is currently being written on various blogs. None of it seems to be coming from anyone with actual experience in the field of graphic design, so it's not surprising that there is a lot of noise and not much signal, so to speak.

It has been assumed that designing a book, specifically a photo book, is akin to rocket science when, in fact, it's relatively simple to achieve a very satisfactory and pleasing result. In a very real sense, a photo book is one of the easiest design tasks.

The operative rule is simple - keep it simple. A simple layout /design. Simple typefaces.

Unlike the cookbook that I designed (and created the photography),
Keep it simple and 'clean' • click to embiggen which had a host of information and categories, a photo book has one simple purpose - to showcase pictures. Unless you have lots of text that accompanies your pictures, a photo book will traditionally have lots of white space - think of it as white mat board - against which the pictures will work along with simple titles and captions / descriptions.

The front of the book will have a title page, an intro page, and an artist statement. Again, use a simple typeface(s) and lots of white space - don't crowd the edges of the page.

As far as picture arrangement goes,
It's about the pictures • click to embiggenunless you are telling a story that requires a specific story line sequence, just let the pictures flow in a pleasing manner. Use the same 'eye' and sensibility that you used to make your pictures to get to what 'feels' right. This will take a bit of playing around - and remember that it is playing around, not some life-or-death exercise. Make some small low res prints and order and re-order them in a pile and keep shuffling them around until it looks and feels right. Remember, there is no right or wrong here, its your book, your statement - just like they're your pictures.

On the subject of what software to use, with the current state of POD printing, you will be submitting all-in-one jpegs to the printer. Text and pictures will be in a single file, which means that pro-design software like InDesign or Quark are simply not required. The biggest advantage of pro design software is their sophisticated type capabilities and the ability to handle large projects like a book in a single file.

Neither capability is needed for a POD photo book.

In the printing world, type is vector based art as opposed to bitmap images. Since you will will be submitting jpegs, the type will be rasterized to bitmap so there is no advantage to using software that uses vector based graphics. Type/text created on a type layer in Photoshop is as good as it gets in this POD case.

But what about pro software that handles big projects like books? Again you will be uploading single page files to the POD printer and placing them in page order on their site. So again, one of the capabilities of InDesign or Quark is not applicable here.

Photoshop, with its type tool, is the way to go.

FYI, I will answer any questions you may have on the matter at hand. Please ask them on this entry, not in an email, so that everyone may have access the info.

Let's get going.

FYI ~ the beat goes on

You'd think he has a PR agent (he doesn't).

Italy
Turkey
China

And, this week he's in Europe for his solo exhibit opening in London.

Just a few more days

The new office • click to embiggenA couple more coats of floor stain and poly and the new office is ready for occupancy. I'm rather amped and the wife is somewhat jealous.

Her jealously is somewhat mollified by the fact that every day when I sit down to work (or play), I will be seated under her pictured gaze at the Alcove Altar of the Benevolent and Long-Suffering Wife.