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This blog is intended to showcase my pictures or those of other photographers who have moved beyond the pretty picture and for whom photography is more than entertainment - photography that aims at being true, not at being beautiful because what is true is most often beautiful..

>>>> Comments, commentary and lively discussions, re: my writings or any topic germane to the medium and its apparatus, are vigorously encouraged.

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BODIES OF WORK ~ PICTURE GALLERIES

  • my new GALLERIES WEBSITE
    ADK PLACES TO SIT / LIFE WITHOUT THE APA / RAIN / THE FORKS / EARLY WORK / TANGLES

BODIES OF WORK ~ BOOK LINKS

In Situ ~ la, la, how the life goes onLife without the APADoorsKitchen SinkRain2014 • Year in ReviewPlace To SitART ~ conveys / transports / reflectsDecay & DisgustSingle WomenPicture WindowsTangles ~ fields of visual energy (10 picture preview) • The Light + BW mini-galleryKitchen Life (gallery) • The Forks ~ there's no place like home (gallery)


Entries in kitchen sink (24)

Friday
Jul152016

kitchen sink # 35 ~ life can be messy

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pie goop with fork ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

Tuesday
Mar012016

diptych # 204 ~ same but different

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early morning /mid-afternoon ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

I might have had an evening (artificial light) variation on this still life but the wife put the dishes / utensils / et al in the dishwasher before I knew what she was doing.

I've got to get me a roll of that crime-scene-do-not-cross tape. Or, maybe somebody makes photo-scene tape.
Wednesday
Feb032016

kitchen sink # 32 ~ 12mm picture # 1

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utensils ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

A photograph draws its beauty from the truth with which it is marked. For this very reason I refuse all the tricks of the trade and professional virtuosity which could make me betray my canon. As soon as I find a subject which interests me, I leave it to the lens to record truthfully. - Andre Kertesz

Although the reason for my acquisition of the Zuiko 12mm f2 lens was for use on my upcoming trip to Ireland and Scotland - where I intend to use it primarily for interior pictures, pubs, churches and the like - I have no doubt I will use for other picture making. Other picture making like the picture which accompanies this entry.

That written, even though I have 6 µ4/3 prime lenses, the lens I use for most (80%?) of my picture making is the 20mm f1.7 Lumix. I can't see that changing with acquisition of the 12mm Zuiko. The 20mm lens is how I see.
Monday
Nov232015

kitchen sink # 31 / diptych # 190 / diptych # 191 (trees) ~ thinking about light

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pots and pans / reflections ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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red and blue ~ Marquis theater / Middlebury College • Middlebury, VT. • click to embiggen
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trees ~ Manhattan, NYC / near Union Falls, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

While I continue with the monumental task of choosing 5-7 tree pictures - from over 80 such pictures - for submission to and consideration for the juried In Celbratiopn of Trees exhibition, I still continue to make pictures of those things, wherever I may encounter them, which prick my eye and sensibilities. Quite obviously, the life in my kitchen and kitchen sink continue to present (to my eye and sensibilities) referents which hit me where I live, picture making wise.

One of the interesting things about the kitchen in general and the kitchen sink in particular is how, over the course of the year, the light entering through the kitchen window changes from season to season. The change is most notable in the direction of the light as the sun sinks lower or rises higher in the southern sky as the seasons progress throughout the year. The color quality of the light changes as well but the changes are rather subtle in character.

It has occurred to me, if the desire ever became manifest, that I could create a still life - which could be duplicated over and over in the exact same sink location or on a kitchen counter - and picture it (over and over, from the exact same POV) throughout the year (once a month?). To be really descriptive, re: the changes in the light, the pictures most likely should be made at the exact same time of day and in all kinds of weather. To make the project really comprehensive and diverse, it would make sense to chose 4-5 different window locations about the house and replicate (with different still life arrangements and referents) the exercise in each location.

A significant part of what would make this project interesting, at least to me, is that I have become very aware how the changes, over the seasons, in the light entering the house through different windows effects and affects my perceptions about the seasons of the year. I find it very interesting that I don't need to go outside or even look outside a window to sense and feel the change of seasons.

Maybe it's time to start a picture making experiment with a single window and a single still life (which can remain intact for a few months to half a year) in order to see what happens, picture wise.
Tuesday
Nov102015

pinhole submissions ~ the waiting begins

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trees ~ Peru / Lake Champlain • Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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4 pinhole pictures for submission • click to embiggen

To pinhole or not to pinhole, that is the question. Now that pictures for exhibit consideration are submitted, I have yet to decide whether the pursuit of the making of more pinhole pictures is in my future. I have most certainly enjoyed making these pictures and I like the results. And, it would seem, that I have arrived at a certain understanding - but as of yet not comprehensive, of what the pinhole genre is about.

First and foremost, I am, without a doubt, drawn to the look of a pinhole picture, especially pinhole pictures made in color. I can imagine many of my recent pinhole pictures printed large and mounted on the walls of my house. Based on just the visual qualities and characteristics of the thing itself (the print), they most assuredly prick my eye.

Moving beyond the mere prick of the eye, I can also write that there is a corresponding prick of my sensibilities. That is to write, intellectual and emotional sensibilities (feeling and thoughts) beyond - but obviously related to - the visual characteristics a pinhole picture.

As best as I can describe it, feelings and thoughts wise, is that the soft / ethereal visual presentation of a pinhole picture, while adequate enough to create a reasonable representation of the realness of the picture's referent, denies the viewer a quick, easy and obvious "read" of the picture's meaning. Viewing a pinhole picture is, at least to my eye and sensibilities, much like trying to interpret / understand a dream.

That is to write that there is an actuality in the picture but it resides somewhere below / behind a murky fog created by the mix of conscious and subconscious thought which leaves me wondering and pondering as I try to grasp the reality of the situation.

Is all of this / my notion of the pinhole genre (for me) an overthinking rationalization - dancing on the head of a pin(hole), so to write - which gives me reason to make more pinhole pictures? A rationalization that allows me to make pictures which stand in defiance of my long standing belief in the power of straight photography?

fyi, you may have noticed that the pinhole pictures for submission are not square (as they were first presented here on The Landscapist). They are µ4/3 full-frame pictures. The reason for that is that I have come to the realization that much of the look and feel of a pinhole picture derives from the weird color and vignetting which resides outside of the center of the picture.
Thursday
Oct292015

ku # 1350 / triptych # / 26 / diptych # 176 / ~ a brief interlude

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Canadian corn stalks ~ on the road to Montreal , QC • click to embiggen
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dining & imbibing establishments ~ Lake Placid, NY / Old Montreal, QC • click to embiggen
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light around the house ~Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

While I'm working on my next 1/5 second entry (for later today), I am posting this entry of back logged pictures made over the past week.

The pictures in the triptych - dining & imbibing establishments - were made over a 24 hr. period last Wednesday / Thursday. L-R: our Anniversary dinner at Interlaken in Lake Placid / killing time in the bar at Auberge Du Vieux-Port, Old Montreal / dinner at Stash Cafe with my good friend from Philadelphia, Old Montreal.
Thursday
Oct082015

kitchen sink # 30 ~ a return to the scene of the crime

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left over pasta with coffee grounds ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

While most of my kitchen sink pictures are found arrangements - I walk up to the sink and there it is - this one is a bit of a hybrid inasmuch as it was recreation of a found arrangemt.

Serval days ago, I walked up to the sink and there in front of me was the strainer with pasta and coffee grounds just poised to be tossed in the garbage by the wife. There was no time to make a picture so I "rescued", accompanied by a few moans and groans from the wife, the strainer and contents and set it aside for next day picturing.

Next morning there was a dirty sauté pan in the sink along with a few cooking utensils. I set the strainer in the sauté pan and waited for the light to be "nice". Late morning I got the shot.

After processing the picture, I wasn't quite happy with it. There was small area on the front rim of the strainer which was struck by direct sunlight which caused the pasta in the that area to be burned out and no amount of finagling could bring it back. I came to this conclusion too late in the day, light wise, to reshoot.

So, I once again set the strainer aside, cleaned all the dirty stuff in the sink - the sauté pan was needed for prepping dinner - and planned to reshoot in the next AM. Which is exactly what I did. However ....

... the previous day's arrangement was long gone. The only thing to do was to rebuild the arrangement using the previous day's picture. I gathered and arranged all the elements, waited for the same light and made the picture, creating 3 bracketed exposures.

Those brackets allowed me to get the highlight detail I was looking for by blending the highlight area from the darker bracket into my correctly exposed frame. A bit of local contrast adjustments later and, voilà, all was right with the picture making world.
Thursday
Sep172015

ku # 1322 / kitchen sink # 29 ~ all good things must come to and end

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lifting morning fog ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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morning dishes ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

Woke up this morning to lifting fog, dirty dishes, no dog, no cat and no wife.

The dog and cat are back at home and the wife is arriving this afternoon for our last day and night at Rist Camp. We are leaving early tomorrow morning (a day early) to drive to Rochester for my 50 year High School Class Reunion.

One thing which stood out at Rist Camp this year was a validation of the adage, Time flies when you're having fun. It seems like only yesterday that we arrived for our 5 week stay.

Today's Artspeak Gobbledygook - I use semiotic constructions and visual quotes of canonized art historical moments to remix photographic imagery into new content. ~ found on the internet