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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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Entries in viewmatic (6)

Friday
Mar112016

viewmatic # 6 / civilized ku # 3064-66 ~ be prepared for anything

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viewfinder fake fruit ~ New York, NY • click to embiggen
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very warm late day sun on fake fruit # 1 ~ New York, NY • click to embiggen
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very warm late day sun on fake fruit # 2 ~ New York, NY • click to embiggen
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very warm late day sun on fake fruit # 3 ~ New York, NY • click to embiggen

Another prime example of f8 and be there inasmuch as the window of opportunity for the making of these pictures was here and gone in matter of just 1-2 minutes. Just enough time to see it, grab a camera, frame it (x3) and click the shutter (x3).

FYI, I was able to beat the buzzer for 3 reasons, all of which fall under the banner of be prepared:

reason # 1 - I most always keep my eyes wide open and my mind alert for picture making possibilities cuz you can't make a picture of what you don't see. Like in hockey - 100% of the pucks you don't shoot don't go in the net. So, in hockey as well as picture making, the moral of the story is the same. Shoot, shoot, shoot and then shoot some more.

reason # 2 - I always have a camera close at hand. Actually, I almost always have 3 cameras at hand, each with a different focal length prime lens - 12mm (24mm/35mm equiv), 20mm (40mm/35mm equiv), and 45mm (90mm/35mm equiv). In most I-need-camera-quick cases, the camera with the 20mm lens is the one I grab.

reason # 3 - Since most of my picture making is accomplished with the same camera / prime lens combination, framing a referent is easy inasmuch as I tend to see stuff as framed, or, at least reasonably close to how I end up actually framing a referent in a picture. In a sense, it's an good example of familiarity breeds contempt content, or, if you prefer, content(s).

All of that written, what it all comes down to is rather simple. Keep your eyes open and know your camera/lens like the back of your hand in order to use the combination instinctually. That is to write, to use your tools with as little conscious thought as possible - thought that can get in the way of picturing the feeling of what you see.

At least that is how I see it.
Sunday
Mar062016

viewmatic # 5 ~ messing around with the doctor's office

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doctor's exam room sink ~Plattsburgh, NY • click to embiggen

Wednesday
May202015

oddly exalted - diptych # 134 (viewmatic # 4 • civilized ku # 2900) ~ a sharp stick in the eye

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TLR pencil sharpener ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

Tuesday
May192015

wood camera # 6 / diptych # 133 (viewmatic # 3 • civilized ku # 2899) ~ variations on a Spring theme

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potting stuff / wood camera app ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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potting stuff / viewmatic app ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

To keep from going stale you must forget your professional outlook and rediscover the virginal eye of the amateur. ~ Brassai

Wednesday
May062015

panoramic (ku) / kitchen life # 69 / viewmatic #2 ~ recent picturing

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Vermont view across Lake Champlain - yesterday at dusk ~ Adirondack Coast, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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milk bottle with soap suds ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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Sunoco gas truck ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to write that I am having a run of fun of late, picture making wise.
Friday
May012015

thru the murky viewfinder # 1 ~ customized from an iPhone app

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

Came across a iPhone app which harkened back to a time in the analog era when I started to play around with making pictures of scenes as viewed on the viewfinder screen of a beat up vintage TLR. I messed around with it for a while but never got serious enough to really pursue it.

A fair number of picture makers did take it seriously and enough of a picture making "movement" was established that an enterprising app maker came up with the Viewmatic app. An app designed to produce pictures with "the experience of looking through the viewfinder of a classic film camera". However, like most, dare I write "all", apps which end in "-matic", the user is presented with a canned set of options. Some are good (enough), some not so much.

So, never one to leave almost well enough alone, I scavenged the viewfinder frame and then proceeded to make my own master viewfinder file into which I can drop any picture I desire. The master file has a number of layers - grain, vignette (light and dark), grid, crop guide, etc. - which can be modified and combined to produce a much more custom finished look than I can get from the app. The only effect I have yet to make is a layer which can add the dust and scratches which were part and parcel of an eyed TLR viewfinder screen.

In any event the screwing around beat goes on. Round and round. Where it stops, nobody (including me) knows. Next up, the Polaroid emulsion transfer look.