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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 matches (4)

Monday
May072012

matches # 4 ~ pictures on my mind

Matches / HIT • click to embiggenYesterday, I purchased the New Times Sunday edition, something the wife and I used to do every Sunday. Then came the came the online subscription paradigm for the NYT and we subscribed, primarily because we perused (never reading in-depth) the daily NYT editions online. However, shortly thereafter, we stopped purchasing the Sunday NYT, paper edition.

A short while after purchasing our iPads, the wife and I also ventured into the ebook arena. Before long, purchasing books made out of paper became a thing of the past in our household. No doubt that situation was helped along by the disappearance of our local Borders bookstore but the convenience and ease of purchasing ebooks and the fact that our entire book library fits in the hand ... well, needless to state, we got sucked, hook / line / and sinker, right into the ebook thing.

Not long before purchasing the Sunday NYT, paper edition, I had also read a book - Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln - made of paper products. That reading experience + the recent Sunday NYT experience - the look, the feel, the weight, the very smell of paper and that act of turning actual pages - and I'm here to tell ya, I have most definitely been re-introduced to the joys of paper products, printed word wise.

There is absolutely no positive comparison between the experience of reading the Sunday NYT at the Sunday morning breakfast table with that of trying to read the same on an iPad. Not to mention the visual and tactile pleasure of whiling away another few Sunday hours with a cup / cups of coffee and the printed version of the Sunday NYT Magazine. After all, one of the pleasures of that magazine is the preponderance of notable and noteworthy pictures and, to my eye and sensibilities, if a picture ain't actual, it's virtual, and, IMO, actual trumps virtual in just about every part of life one might care to mention. Including pictures.

A picture on a computer screen is one thing (although, it's not actually a thing), the same picture on paper is quite another thing. I've made my feelings about the difference known on a number of blogging occasions. As time goes by, my feelings on this subject have intensified as my experience with virtual versus actual pictures increases. I have nearly reached the point of never wanting to see a picture on a computer screen ever again.

While the computer + the www. makes possible the viewing of a lot of pictures that one might not ordinarily see, I am nevertheless reminded of the adage regarding quantity vs quality. In my book, as opposed to in our cultural inclination, that's no contest - I'll put my money on quality almost every time.

And, for me, the inescapable fact is that I can't seem to help but feel diminished rather than enriched by the endless flow of virtual pictures.

FYI, next up, my thoughts on a printed log (a plog?) versus a virtual blog.

Thursday
May032012

still life ~ matches # 3

Matches / cigar rings • click to embiggenIt appears from a first test that the Pentax K20D is better suited for the matches series than the Oly EP cameras. In this case, there is just enough additional fine detail resolution to make the Pentax the front runner, detail wise.

However, there really isn't much in it, re: the physical dimension of a 300dpi file. That is, the Pentax gets most of its additional mp in the horizontal plane, very little of it in the vertical plane. Consequently, it doesn't offer much advantage over the EPs in the way of embiggening, print wise.

That said, I'll continue the series with the Pentax until I make a decision about the Oly OM-D E-M5.

Tuesday
May012012

still life ~ matches # 2

Matchbox / matches • click to embiggenIn the first matches entry, I mentioned Irving Penn's cigarette butt / litter pictures and some of things he had / did, re: those pictures. One thing I didn't mention was the fact that Penn pictured his referents with a large format view camera - most likely an 8×10 VC (but it could have been an 11×14 VC - he used some esoteric equipment at times) - and I am picturing with a µ4/3 format camera.

On the face of it, there would seem to be something of a mismatch, IQ wise, between the 2 different formats. On the (sur)face of a print, there is not so much as one might expect. At least that is so up to the 24×24 inch prints I am making. However, there is no doubt that Penn's large format negatives would offer much more enlargement capabilities than my M4/3 files could.

That said, I am considering 36×36 inches as the ideal print size for this series. While I am not always a proponent of the adage "bigger is better", I do like the visual effect created by picturing small referents and printing the results large. In doing so, small details loom out-of-scale large in a manner not normally seen in real-time observation of the actual referents.

The looming large aspect of small details very often causes a viewer of such pictures to "move in" to the print for an even closer look at those details. It should be understood that, in this case, I'm not stating that this propensity is wrongheaded, as I invariably do in the case of most of my pictures wherein I am picturing the entirety of the moment as opposed to any specific details of that moment - pictures that are meant to be viewed whole cloth / all-of-a-piece.

While I am most certainly arranging and picturing my matches referents to be viewed whole cloth / all-of-a-piece, I can not deny that most viewers will be inclined to step closer to a print for a more closeup inspection of the details. While the 24×24 prints from my 12MP EP series cameras fill this bill quite well*, I am certain that the newer and improved 16MP sensor in the E-M5 would meet the demands of 36×36 inch print size in a much better fashion.

In light of this "move-in-closer" eventuality and considering the size I wish to print to, I am giving some thought to postponing serious in-depth attention to this series until I acquire an Oly OM-D E-M5. On the other hand, I will probably run a comparison test between the EP Olys and my little used Pentax K20D with its 14.6MP APS-C sensor. If the K20D fits the 36×36 inch print bill, I'll be able to avoid making the acquisition of the E-M5, a camera which, other than this picturing situation, I am not particularly eager to own.

All of that said, everyday, I still look longingly at my 8×10 Arca Swiss view camera as sits on a tripod in my photo workroom.

*the tiny printing around the center illustration is quite legible on the 24×24 inch size print.

Thursday
Apr262012

matches # 1 ~ mimeme / mimesis (meme)

Matches • click to embiggenIrving Penn had his cigarette butts and litter, I'm doing matches and related ephemera. Penn pictured in B&W, I'm doing color. I'm purchasing some cotton gloves, don't know what Penn did.