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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

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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 tourist pictures (10)

Friday
Sep112015

tourist picture / civilized ku # 2975 / ku(ish) # 1321 ~ a nap and some choices

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Rist Camp cat nap ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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Rist Camp buffet top ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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choices ~ Hudson River / Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

When paddling onto the Hudson River (above Newcomb) from Lake Harris, one encounters a sign indicating 2 choices. Turn right to reach New York City or left to Mt. Marcy.

One can not actually reach Mt. Marcy but you can get very close, get out of the canoe and hike to the top of Marcy - the highest peak (5,343 ft.) in the Adirondacks. The highest water source of the Hudson River is Lake Tear of the Clouds which is located about 1,000 ft below the summit of Marcy.

On the other hand, you can actually reach the river terminus at Battery Park in lower Manhattan. It would be a long paddle - 315 miles - requiring more time than I have on my hands at this particular moment.

Wednesday
Sep022015

tourist picture / ku # 1315 / diptych # 161 ~ why ask why?

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Edison-Ron on Rist Camp kitchen floor ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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ever changing Rist Camp porch view ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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Rist Camp porch views ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

On TOP Mike Johnston asked you to ask yourself a question:

I'd encourage you to ask yourself a question: why do you really do this, anyway?

The "this", of course, is picture making.

The question was posited in the cause of helping picture makers get over or at least come to grips with their desire - some might say "need" - for attention / success in their picture making endeavors. Or, as Johnston puts it - why am I not famous, or when am I going to make a little money at this, or any of the other gnawing dissatisfying insecurities that seem to crop up for all of us.

Johnston's answer to his question - for the most part, photography is just a fun activity. A recreation. An enjoyable pastime. We do it because we enjoy it.

I am reasonably certain that answer is good for most picture making participants. Perhaps even for you. Although, for me, no so much.

And it's not that I do not enjoy making pictures. However, the word "enjoy" really is not the word I would use to describe my involvement with the medium. Nor is the word "fun". In fact, when asked why I make pictures, my answer is not because it is fun or enjoyable. Invariably my answer is, "Why not?"

That answer derives not from my desire to be a smart / wise ass but rather from the fact that there would have to be a very compelling reason for me not to make pictures because, making pictures is what I do. Not because it's a "fun activity" or "enjoyable". It's more because, for me, picture making is like breathing - I don't think about why I do it, I just do it - in fact, I have been making pictures of one kind or another since as far back as I can remember.

Which leads me back to where I started this entry - most recently the question "Why do I really do this, anyway?" has been much on my mind.

There are no concrete answers as of yet. Notions of creating, drawing attention to something (my referents, their potential for meaning, and my pictures in and of themselves), making connections, in a more visceral sense, to my environment (people, places, things), and last but not least, something in my DNA / genetic makeup which has created a preternatural drive to make pictures.

Over the next few weeks, most of my entries will be ruminations on the topic of "why". I hope to incite comments and feedback both about my ideas on the subject as well as your insights regarding your own personal motivations in the realm of picture making.

I know from conversations with other artists (non-photography), that they would be interested in and participate in such a conversation. IMO, it could be a fun and informative ride.

Are you up for it?

Today's Artspeak Gobbledygook - My current work predominantly deals with themes of identity, race and heritage as it relates to preconceived notions of Euro-centric beauty and heritage within post-colonial societies ~ found on the internet
Wednesday
Aug262015

tourist picture / civilized ku # 2970 / (foreign) kitchen sink # 27 ~ here, there and everywhere

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sitting and watching / iPhone picture ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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playground rules / gloamimg ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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Rist Camp sink ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

No matter where you go there is always a kitchen sink.

Thursday
Aug202015

tourist picture / civilized ku # 2968 ~ ying yang 

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Rist Camp tree with Edison-Ron ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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icons ~ Valley Forge, PA • click to embiggen

I find it hard to cope with the fact that I have posted a cat picture 2 days in a row. So I figured if a posted a more manly picture of the car I drove in the Philadelphia area I might be able to regain some of my picture making machismo.
Wednesday
Aug122015

tourist picture / civilized ku # 2965 / diptych # 157 ~ conversation / dialogue

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clan picture makers ~ Stone Harbor, NJ • click to embiggen
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bike ~ Stone Harbor, NJ • click to embiggen
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late day beach haze ~ Stone Harbor, NJ • click to embiggen

Just read a good opinion essay, The Conversation of Photography, on Conscientious Photography Magazine. The essay is a good read and addresses issues that will probably be of interest to many.

Issues such as: "... so many genres of photography have become so stale", and "Contemporary photography has become too comfortable ...", and "... it can’t just be a rehash of things we’ve seen a gazillion times already ...", "What I’m interested in instead is the dialogue someone’s work has (or attempts to have) with everything else."

IMO, the essay has a good deal of food for thought.

Wednesday
Jul292015

civilized ku # 2948 / tourist picture / triptych # 20 / ku # 1305 ~ there, back again and in between

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fire hydrant in the middle of nowhere ~ Plattsbugh, NY • click to embiggen
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lawyer-in-training / lawyer ~ Plattsbugh, NY • click to embiggen
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wild mushroom risotto, sirloin tips, duck wings / Latitude 44 Bistro ~ Plattsbugh, NY • click to embiggen
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Lake Champlain ~ Peru, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

Met the wife and the daughter for dinner yesterday evening.

On the way there, I stopped to make a picture - hydrant in the middle of nowhere - with the new 25mm f1.8 lens. Once there, in between the coming and the going, I made a picture of the wife and the daughter with the same lens. Purchased the lens for its shallow DOF possibilities. The remaining 3 in between pictures were made with my "normal" 20mm f1.7 lens. As was the back again moonscape on Lake Champlain picture.

All in all, a great evening ... great company, great dinner - the apple cider glazed duck wings with crumbled blue cheese was especially good, and great picture making opportunities.
Tuesday
Jul282015

tourist picture / squares² # 10 / diptych # 152 ~ a tough pill to swallow for some photographers

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Kingston Brewing Company truck ~ Kingston, Ontario / Canada • click to embiggen
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The Breakers / Vanderbilt mansion ~ Newport, RI. • click to embiggen
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dirty window with shadow ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

I was recently richly rewarded when reading an article, Canon 5Ds Review Through Print Performance, on The Luminous Landscape. The title of the article was the reason I read it. Imagine, testing a camera through print performance - what a concept (duh) - as opposed to the lab testing of various technical properties of a sensor.

What I meant when I wrote that I was richly rewarded is that - nevertheless, despite the title - I was expecting to read a lot of techno gobbled gook and in that respect I was indeed richly rewarded inasmuch as my expectations were fully met, if not totally exceeded. Although, in truth, I didn't actually read the gobbledy gook so much as skip over it.

All of that written, I was rather amused when I scrolled down to what might be labeled the "conclusion" part of the article. SPOILER ALERT - After writing /explaining about all of his various print making and testing gobbledy gook minutiae, the author concludes that the Canon 5D came out on top the the test (comparison against earlier Canon cameras) in terms of ultimate resolution. He deduced that, for his professional use (read the article), the better resolution made upgrading sensible and justifiable.

However, here's the part I found amusing:

Not one of the half dozen non photographers I showed the prints to mentioned detail in the images. When asked for differences, most popular was spotting the slightly different view, next up was that the brickwork was ‘a bit redder’ in one print. Most common observation – that the council should do something more about the landlords who dump stuff from student housing when clearing houses at the end of the academic year. Even when I pointed to detail in the biggest prints, several people 'couldn’t see the difference’. One even said they liked the 1Ds print the best (I’m told the look on my face was worth seeing…)

Yes, it really is about the content of the picture to most people. This backs up my own (and gallery owners I’ve spoken to) experience that people who buy prints don’t carry a magnifying glass with them – they look at what the picture is about and what it means to them. It’s a bit of a tough pill to swallow for some photographers...

So, hmmmm, here's the deal. Is there any picture maker out there who still doesn't understand that, for the picture viewing / buying public, it's a picture's referent coupled with, at least at some level, meaning which connects the viewer / purchaser with a picture?

The answer, of course, is yes. For them, the pursuit of technical "perfection" is what it's all about. Unlike Jeff Wall, for whom the subject matter is "just the door that opens the way to the picture", the pixel-peeping resolution fetishists believe that technical matter(s) is/are the door that opens the door to making the picture. And, unfortunately, many of them, in pursuit and application of things technical at the moment of making a picture, lose sight of the art of seeing, which is the truest manner of making pictures which approach real "perfection".
Monday
Jul202015

tourist picture / civilized ku # 2928 / kitchen sink # 30 ~ how to make the next picture good

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picture maker ~ Newport RI. • click to embiggen
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Main Street ~ Buffalo, NY, NY • click to embiggen
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strainer ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

I'm aware that the subjects I choose do have meaning, but over the years I've found that understanding these meanings is less important for me. My burning issue is how to make the next picture good. ~ Jeff Wall

For the most part, ditto for me.