civilized ku # 158 ~ don't know whether to cry or wind their watch

The Saranac Winter Carnival King & Queen discharging some of their duties • click to embiggenBefore the plague struck we took the kiddies to the Annual Kiddie Parade at the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival.

The parade itself is a rather un-organized affair. Basically, a large clump of kids start out together and move as a large clump to the town hall where they move inside as a clump to gorge themselves on cake, cookies, soda pop. During the proceedings, the The Winter Carnival King and Queen assume the throne and hand out participation ribbons to the kids, many of whom are completely perplexed and bewildered by the whole affair.

In any event and for the most part, the kiddies seem to enjoy it and, heaven knows, I wouldn't have missed the hair-anchored balloons for all the tea in China. And, it would seem so as well for the King and Queen.

ku # 554 ~ wave after wave

A slide in late afternoon light • click to embiggenThe second wave of guests arrived last evening and the last of the first wave left this AM.

Unfortunately, a member of the first wave left something behind - a nasty stomach virus. So far it has claimed me, the wife, and Hugo. But, as they say, there's a first time for everything - the wife and I are sharing the same sick bed. That's never happened before and I miss her waiting on me hand and foot.

On the other hand, it's reassuring when you return from the bathroom to have someone in the same condition to share your misery with. Did I mention that the virus' main feature is wave after wave of ....

man & nature # 99 ~ 112 years and counting

2009 Ice Palace ~ Saranac Lake Winter Carnival • click to embiggenAs you might be able to tell from the "2009" sculpture, the ice palace was subjected to a significant warm spell (with rain) during carnival week. However, Ma Nature sucked it up, gave it her all and delivered a return to cold weather.

ku # 553 ~ truth or consequences

Late afternoon light ~ Bloomingdale, NY • click to embiggenAfter an afternoon spent tubing, participating in the Winter Carnival children's parade, and visit to the ice castle in and around the village of Saranac Lake, I decided to take the back way home.

The reason for this decision was based upon the light - it was a sunny day and it did not take a genius to realize that there would be some nice late day light dancing upon the landscape. The back-way-home choice was a good one. The light was indeed quite nice.

It should that even though I disparage those who have made a fetish of chasing the light I have absolutely no qualms about picturing the landscape while it is in the throes of a nice-light event. My feelings on the subject are remarkably similar to those expressed by this statement:

The word beauty is unavoidable … it accounts for my decision to photograph … There appeared a quality, beauty seemed the only appropriate word for it, in certain photographs, and I am compelled to live with the vocabulary of this new sight … through over many years [I] still find it embarrassing to use the word beauty, I fear I will be attacked for it, but I still believe in it. ~ Robert Adams

Although, to be accurate, I have never really had much of a problem with the word "beauty". It's the word "pretty" that bugs me - actually not the word itself but rather pictures which can be summed up almost in their entirety with that descriptor.

For me, the difference between "beauty" and "pretty" is all about depth. "Pretty" is all about surface. "Beauty" is about what lies beneath the surface. "Pretty" stays on the surface of things. "Beauty" dives/delves into the deep. "Pretty" is simple. "Beauty" is complex. "Pretty" embraces the straight and narrow. "Beauty" embraces contradictions. "Pretty" is contrived and self-absorbed. "Beauty" comes naturally and is outgoing.

And, IMO, 'pretty' is a lie and "beauty" is the truth. Therein lies my agita re: pretty landscape pictures.

At their core such pictures are intended by their makers to be "picture perfect" - not a "hair out of place", so to speak. But, unfortunately for the truth, the "natural world" is a complex and messy thing. So, in the name of "celebrating the beauty of the natural world", these picture makers create lies that mask an inconvenient truth.

Now wait just a minute, you might say - don't these photographers make pictures of the actual real world, in fact, the same one that I picture? Yep, they do. And the fact that they strive mightily to picture said natural world from the "perfect" angle, under "perfect"light, and with "perfect" composition really doesn't diminish the idea that they are picturing the real world. It may be an "idealized" and fleeting version of the real thing, but there is no denying it can be a picture of the real deal.

That said, it was those same "idealists" who embraced Velvia as the landscape picture making film of choice and suffice it to say that that choice was not based upon the film's relative color accuracy. Far from it. Velvia was embraced for its pump-it-up color rendition and those same folks who loved that characteristic are positively enthralled by Photoshop's Hue & Saturation slider and its luminosity masking capabilities - both of which are put to use in the cause of faking up the "beauty" of the natural world.

I mean, why leave it to god/mother nature when you can create your very own natural world "beauty"?

Of course, when confronted with the idea that their pictures are little more than eco-porn that actually does harm to the notion of conservation, the "idealists" usually counter with the rationalization that their pictures are "artistic interpretations" that are meant to spread an appreciation of the natural world in the cause of conservation. Artist interpretations they might be but the idea that you can increase appreciation for something by offering something for consideration that it is not is, at best, absurd, at worst, counterproductive.

Want proof? Riddle me this Batman - why is it that all almost all of our national parks, and by far the most popular/visited ones, are places that "preserve" the natural world's grandeur? Think about it. I mean really think about. Why is that we only strive to set aside and visit the "magnificent"? Where are the national parks that preserve "the ordinary" which, of course, no one wants to visit?

Here's the deal folks - we better start doing something about appreciating and preserving the beauty of the ordinary of the nature world because, when it comes right down to it, that is even more important than the extraordinary simply because there is so much more it.

Simply put, we need to get real.

civilized ku # 157 ~ mission accomplished

Coma girl brushes her teeth • click to embiggenI know that many of you probably couldn't sleep at night, paralyzed with fear and foreboding about the fate of our bathroom. Well, tonight you can sleep like a baby because we're all systems go.

True enough, there is still a lot of finishing to do - the flooring won't be delivered for 2 weeks or so, there's a bit of plaster repair, trim work, and painting to be done, but we no longer have a pot to piss in. Considering that there is all new plumbing and electric to the basement, new subflooring down to the floor joists, as well as all new fixtures and cabinets I'd say we did OK for 3 1/2 days of work.

Our guests - the first 9 of them - will be arriving within the hour and all is right with the world.

man & nature # 98 ~ stuff & guilt and getting to know someone through their pictures

Some of my stuff • click to embiggenA couple days ago when we were discussing picturing ideas, re: the crisis, Mary Dennis - who it should be noted, started the topic with a previous comment - offered this comment:

In my mind I don't think it's as easy as sorting it into groups of perpetrators and victims and feeling angry at one and sorry for the other. For that matter, when it comes right down to it, I am both a perpetrator and a victim. I can't separate myself from the problem when I have bought into the consumerist system just as much as the next girl. I'm not rich but I do like my stuff. How 'bout this for an idea--a photo inventory of all the ways I have personally contributed to the care and feeding of the monster.

To which my immediate gut response was - Hey. Don't make me come over there and slap you, Mary.

Now, I don't actually know anything about Mary's political views. For all I know she's far to the right of Atilla The Hun or Dick Cheny (but I suspect not). However, her recent comment, re: her status as a "perpetrator", seems to be, IMO, a classic display of Liberal Guilt Syndrome.

From what I know of Mary and her pictures, it is difficult if not impossible for me to believe that she is some kind of spend-and-get maniac who has irresponsibly credit-spent herself into bankruptcy in the wanton pursuit of conspicuous consumption / wretched excess. In fact, most of what I know about Mary from viewing her pictures is that I think she is a kind, considerate, and caring person. Someone who possesses many personal qualities which separate her far from the maddening crowd comprised of those who use the notion of rational self-interest as a cloaking device for petty, self-serving, and self-aggrandizing egocentrism.

To some extent, it seems that Mary's self-flagellation is a reaction to the self-serving rationalization that most often emanates from the mouths of those living lives of wretched excess which states that if one is not living the life an ultra-ascetic, one has absolutely no moral, ethical, or rational basis for criticizing theirs - a notion that is about as pure as bullshit gets.

Having stuff is not, in and of itself, a crime against humanity. There is a distinct difference between being a responsible consumer and one who consumes to wretched excess. One very obvious difference much in evidence in our current crisis is that which distinguishes those who are still gainfully employed but mired in debt even to the point of bankruptcy from those who have lived responsibly and are managing to get by without losing it all.

my advice - Mary, unless by acquiring your stuff you are being driven to rack and ruin or by acquiring the means to acquire your stuff you are driving the world around you to rack and ruin, IMO you should just relax and enjoy your stuff.

man & nature # 97 ~ stop the world, I want to get off

Rain and fog at midnight • click to embiggenYou'll notice that my "click to embiggen" prompt is the same as it ever was. However, you will also notice that if you actually click to embiggen what you get is an empty popup window. The software geniuses from SquareSpace are at it again - this nonsense corresponds with their newest "new and improved" software update which I encountered for the first time this AM.

The beauty of this f**k up is that every pop up window on The Landscapist from day one - going back to 01/07 - is blank. That's 2 years worth of work that is essentially unavailable to my audience at this time. How the hell does this crap happen? Am I just "lucky" or is the modern "miracle" of communication known as the www as messed up as it appears to be?

It appears that the software world MO/adage of, "don't worry, be crappy", is still alive and well - just be the first to roll out the stuff and let the end-user find the bugs and glitches. Add to that the arrogance of developers of all kinds of www stuff - we''ll just keep updating and adding stuff that pushes the operational/system limits of the end-user's hardware and software and make them responsible for an endless series of upgrades and updates whether or not they want/need them - and I'm about ready to say screw it all.

I think part of my angst and aggravation about all of this comes in large part from my experience with the current (and endlessly evolving) state of digital cameras.

I fully understand why camera makers put a dizzying array of "user-friendly" features on those cameras which are intended for the P&S crowd. Those users are most often not very knowledgeable when it comes the idea of camera operation and the technical basics of picture making. That said, I think that camera makers fail miserably when it comes to making all of those features/settings/choices easy for the average user to understand and access.

But that is not what gets to me. Rather, it is the apparent and total lack of understanding that camera makers exhibit regarding the professional and advanced photo-enthusiast crowd. Am I alone in my desire for a "simple" digital camera that has an aperture ring, a shutter speed dial, an ISO and WB selector, and nothing else when it comes to the operational aspects of the camera?

The obvious indicator that something has gone horribly wrong in this area is the dictionary-sized instruction manual that comes with most dslr cameras - 150 pgs for my Olympus E-3, 266 pgs for my Pentax K20. In a word, that is simply absurd.

Over my entire 60+ years on the planet, I have never once owned or operated anything that required an instruction manual that even began to approach that length. Not a thing.

FYI, I think the solution to this problem is simple - if it takes more 25-30 pages to explain how to use a camera, just take everyone connected to its development, to include the marketing department, out and shoot them. Then, start again. Repeat as many times as necessary until they get it right.

The other obvious indicator is the number of f**king buttons, dials, and knobs that adorn nearly every surface on a dslr. All of which create ample opportunity for what the cell phone industry has "humorously" begun calling a "butt call" - that's an unintended phone call placed by sitting on one's cell phone which is essentially the (ass) kissing cousin of the "pocket call".

How many times have one of you inadvertently and unknowingly changed one setting or another on your camera by utilizing some variation of the "butt calling" technique?

I don't know about you, but I'm just flat-out sick and tired of all it - software, computers, cameras, and on and on. I am growing ever more weary with the effort, time, expense, and aggravation - and the diminishing returns relative to all of that - of chasing (or more accurately, being forced to chase) the chimera of the promise of better living through technology.

What seems to have been lost on all of our modern geniuses is the time-tested idea that the best solution to a problem is most often the simplest one - a concept known as elegance.

Me? I'm sitting here waiting on some elegance.

Update on Thursday, February 12, 2009 at 01:04PM by gravitas et nugalis

from SquareSpace:

Hi there,

The development team currently has this as an open issue, and is working on a fix.

Let me know if this helps.

my response: How elegant.

Update on Friday, February 13, 2009 at 10:30AM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment I received this email yesterday re: the above entry. How appropriate.

Mark,

I so badly wanted to post the comment below, but the software wonks have struck back and my comment will not post in either Safari, or Firefox.

What I wanted to say was:

Mark,

We are almost contemporaries, so I can say this with some authority. Age makes it OK to be a curmudgeon; and, the older you get the worse it becomes. When you are too overcome, head off to wherever you get TV content and find the BBC's series "Grumpy Old Men". Won't make you less of a curmudgeon, but I feel certain that you will find life a little less irking, knowing you are in such good (and famous) company ;-)

man & nature # 96 ~ picture ideas

The sunny side of the street (Separator Road) with an approaching storm front • click to embiggenIn response to yesterday's entry regarding our national crisis and picture making thereof, Mary Dennis opined/asked:

How do you photograph broken trust, deep cynicism, stewing, on the verge of explosive anger, bewilderment, disbelief that there is competence at any level of our government, or a feeling of general impotence to create real change? How do you photograph a crisis that seems to have it's roots in a basic human behavior shift?

A damn good question, Mary. One that I have been asking/pondering myself as well.

Especially so because in my little corner of the economic universe there are so few visible signs of the ravages of the crisis that are to be found in more "civilized" areas. A situation which is due in large part to the fact that we here in the north country are not yet suffering from much of the economic malaise that is spreading like the plaque over many (but not all) parts of the US of A. The key phrase in that statement is "not yet". There is no doubt that the contagion is headed our way although how it manifests itself is open to question.

Virtually all of our banks are community/regional ones that did not get involved in any of the financial funny stuff - you can still get auto loans, mortgages, business lines of credit, et al. None of them are taking (or even need) TARP money. It is the same as it ever was. With the exception of a relative handful of homes, mostly for the 2nd home crowd, there was no housing bubble to burst so there is no firestorm of foreclosures - thanks in part to the aforementioned lending institutions that continued to lend money based on the ability to pay.

Employment is holding steady. There was quite a hullabaloo when all of 6 employees were recently laid off from the Plattsburgh Municipal Lighting Department. But that is most likely just a small harbinger of things to come in the public/education sector which is highly dependent upon the outcome of the stimulus package (so-called) "debate".

Where the impact is most likely to be significant is in the tourism sector. Last year was a banner year right up to the end of the year (2008). But so far this year things are not looking good. The wife and I went into Lake Placid last Friday to have dinner. We ended up at a moderately upscale restaurant and, with the exception of the Russian and German National Luge teams in the back dining room, we were the only diners in the joint. The main dining room was so depressingly empty that we ate in the bar/lounge.

But, I digress. IMO, what you might picture to illustrate the crisis is probably most dependent upon what kind of crisis you think we are experiencing. IMO, I believe that the economic crisis is merely a symptom of the the real crisis which, in fact, is actually a crisis of moral, ethical, so-called "lifestyle" choices gone bad.

In fact, that very idea is the basis upon which my decay series was started over a year and a half ago. For those who haven't figured out that part of the meaning of those pictures, let me state that the pictured decay in those pictures is a visual metaphor for the moral and ethical decay that is the inevitable result of "lifestyle" choices predicated upon wretched excess and conspicuous consumption. Have no doubt that that series will continue as part of my picture making response to the crisis.

In addition to that series, I am considering another series that is based upon "formal" portraits of those hardworking and basically honest American workers whose lives and incomes have been negatively impacted - through little or no fault of their own - by the greed and avarice of their fellow Americans. IMO, what this crisis needs is a human face - pictures of empty stores, dead malls, foreclosure signs, and shuttered businesses are all well and good (and I mean it), but as far as I am concerned it is the actual lives of real people that I would like to see as the face(s) of this crisis.

However, my hope for that series is that it not be a cataloging of "victims" but rather a glimpse into the lives of those who are survivors. Those who have managed to maintain a sense of dignity and even personal honor in the face of the hardships, indignities, and cruelties inflicted upon them by the forces and acts of evil perpetrated by so-called captains of commerce and finance with, of course, more than a little help from their accomplices on The Hill.

My only wish is that I could somehow manage to capture images of the individuals who are the perpetrators of this mass destruction and who are responsible for the crisis. I would dearly love to display those pictures along side of the pictures of those whom they have so royally and casually f**ked.

Anyone else have any picturing ideas?