civilized ku # 364 ~ and the free POD photo book winners are ...

North Hudson at the buffalo ranch • click to embiggenThe wife fulfilled her duty as the pick-the-names-out-of-the-hat functionary and the "winners" are -

Ulrik F. Thyve
Tim Baskerville, and
Frank Harkin

After submitting their information, Shutterfly notified me that they will be contacted within 2-3 weeks with all the details. If this does not happen, please left me know and I will contact Shutterfly.

Thanks to everyone who participated and it's worth mentioning - as a sort of consolation prize - that if you join Shutterfly via the link on the sidebar, there is a 20% discount on photo books. So, if anyone was pumped about making a book, you can take advantage of that offer.

Thanks again and I hope the winners share their finished books with us.

civilized ku # 363 ~ what the world needs now is NOT love, sweet love

Nutcracker • click to embiggenI have been avoiding entries of the political kind for a while now, although I would dearly like to have made a few. Heaven and Hell knows that there are a wealth of topics to touch on but ....

In any event, tonight I will be dining with a US Congressman who, on occasion, has had the ear of The President of these here US of America. So, I have drawn up a long list of things for him to pass on to President Obama, all of which fall under the title of "If I Were Running the World...." or "The World According to Mark" or, more specifically, "Could You Please Grow a Pair, or, Use the Pair You Got". Relative to the last title, it has been suggested in a growing chorus of voices that Obama should come out of his Ivory (Ivy League) Tower, put on the gloves, and take a stand or two or three or ...

I find that interesting in light of the fact that for the past 18 months or more, our house has been graced by the above pictured Hillary Clinton effigy. If you click to embiggen the picture you will most likely notice the ragged metal bars that line the top of her inseam. That apparatus aids immeasurably in her actions as a world-class nutcracker.

We, here in this household, tend to like Hillary in that "function" and, IMO, The President needs to adopt more than a little of the same "function", cuz if he don't start kickin' ass, bustin' balls, and taking names on quite a number of fronts and issues, we're the ones who are going to have our balls in a nutcracker. Although, if Obama keeps on the same path as he has been plodding, maybe Hillary will have his nuts in a cracker in 2012.

That said, I was wondering if any of you out there would like to add anything to my list of President Obama's "things to do".

civilized ku # 361-62 ~ FREE POD PHOTO BOOK update

Here yesterday, gone today • click to embiggenUPDATE, re:FREE PHOTO BOOK - a few responses have trickled in to the point that there are a couple more interested individuals than there are spots to fill. So .... I think that I will put any and all names in a hat and let the wife pick out the "winners".

However, and in the interest of complete disclosure, let me explain that I will only put in the hat the names of those individuals who promise - cross their hearts and hope to die - that they will actually create and order the FREE POD Photo Book. That's because, I get a $10 Shutterfly credit x 3 (for each of the 3 names) towards my next POD photo book but I only get the credit if the individuals actually create and order the FREE photo book.

That said, the wife will need to pull the names out of the hat NLT 1PM on Sunday (1/25/10) so I will ask all those who are committed to creating and ordering the FREE photo book to get their name and email address to me by that time.

BTW & FYI, there is no need for me to view and "accept" your work in order for you to take advantage of this opportunity. If you want to and will create and order the FREE photo book, get your name and email address into the pot (hat) ASAP.

PS: it would be nice if the "winners" were to share their books with the rest of us here on The Landscapist. I know that, no matter who the "winners" are, I would be interested in purchasing a copy of each of the books.

civilized ku # 358-60 ~ FREE POD PHOTO BOOK

Things near the end of their useful life • click to embiggenI have until the end of the day Sunday (24 Jan.) to submit 3 names (with email addresses) to Shutterfly. By doing so, those individuals will be able to create and receive a FREE 20 page, 8×8 POD photo book (with photo hard cover) - no strings attached, no obligations, no purchase necessary.

The only qualification is that the individuals be NEW Shutterfly customers.

This is a great opportunity to give making a photo book a try if you haven't already had the pleasure. In an effort to advance the cause of making POD photo books, I will make myself available - via email or phone (your dime, please) to assist those 3 individuals in creating their books - free advice and expertise on anything and/or everything they need to know in order to create a really nice book - image prep and submission, page design and layout, etc.

Feel free to ask any questions, re: this offer. I have only one - what the hell are you waiting for?

civilized ku # 356-57 ~ more fresh snow pictures

More fresh snow • click to embiggen
More fresh snow • click to embiggenMore pictures from yesterday's fresh snow event.

If you have never experienced a fresh snow event like the one pictured here, you should know that when fresh snow blankets every surface, the world exists in a very unworldly quiet. The snow absorbs and dampens sound to an astoundingly effective degree. It is quite disconcerting and a bit disorienting as well.

The other thing that often accompanies a fresh snow event is very mild temperatures in the 28-30˚F-ish range and a complete absence of wind. A combination, weather-wise, that allows me to wander about the landscape in a short sleeve t-shirt and a light fleece vest which creates an additional disconcerting / semi out-of-whack feeling / experience.

If I hadn't been without a car yesterday - it's in the body shop for a repair to an anonymously gifted parking lot fender ding - I would have gone for a hike in the woods just to luxuriate / revel in the fresh snow altered state experience.

civilized ku # 350-55 ~ what a difference a day makes

Dirty crappy snow • click to embiggen
Fresh snow on yard junk • click to embiggen
Fresh snow • click to embiggenYesterday, while running some errands my intent was to make a couple pictures that illustrated the really crappy winter that we have been experiencing. Really crappy, as in very little snow. Cold we got. Snow, not so much.

Really crappy winters have been rather frequent of late. I can't remember when we last had a decent N'or Easter or a sustained snowfall of any real consequence. What we've getting, winter-wise, over the past few years is light snowfall - around these parts, "light" means 6-8 inches - followed by weeks of grey days, at or just above 32˚F, during which time the snow slowly melts and it gets covered with dirt and grime. Ugly, ugly, ugly - both visually and emotionally.

But, here's the weird thing about that, If I've heard it once, I've heard it a hundred times a day around here - "it" being how much people hate / are sick of winter. "It" most often comes in the form of a question like, "are you sick of winter yet?", to which I always respond, "Yes, I'm sick of this shit. What I'd really like is a foot or more of snow fall everyday." To which the response is almost always a non-verbal look at me like I have lobsters crawling out of my ears.

Apparently, a real winter with lots of snow is a scary idea for them. Something that I find rather odd because I have to wonder what the hell it is they expect, winter-wise, in our neck of the woods?

In any event, less than 24 hours after my dirty crappy snow picturing excursion I was able to make some pictures of fresh clean snow. That said, it'll be dirty crappy snow in a few days because, surprise surprise (not), it's 33˚F outside and I can hear melting snow dripping from the house roof onto the tin roof of our porch.

civilized ku # 348/49 ~ yet another recommendation

Shoeshine box • click to embiggenWith these pictures I was using one of my electronic optical instruments in pursuit of visual inspection which was spun out for the sheer pleasure of discernment, if you know what I mean. If not, maybe you should take up finger painting as a hobby.

It would seem that my introductory sentence was instigated by a couple of recent experiences with the one of the TV shopping channels together with a mindset that comes from reading HOW TO READ A PHOTOGRAPH: Lessons from Master Photographers, a book that I would highly recommend. Not so, re: viewing TV shopping channels.

In my defense, re: viewing TV shopping channels, I did not actually view any Tv shopping channels but, while perusing an onscreen channel guide, I did notice a shopping channel segment that was listed as "Optical Electronics" which was part of a "Picture Perfect" sale. Apparently the word "camera" is rather passé these days, or is it "daze".

In any event, my ongoing reading of HOW TO READ A PHOTOGRAPH: Lessons from Master Photographers is a much more instructive and interesting experience. The book - which features (over the course of 380+ pages) "profiles of more than 100 great photographers" along with "biographical, historical, and technical details (that) place their work in a broader context, while analysis of key images unites each artist's vision, offering readers paths to discover the true meaning of a photograph".

Let me state , right from the get-go, that I am very suspicious of book titles that include phrases such as "lessons from master photographers" as well as book blurbs that claim to offer "paths to discover the true meaning of a photograph". And, the fact that the book was sealed in cellophane when I found it at a bookstore, made me rather wary of my purchase. However, the book is published by Abrams, a publisher not known for flakey "how-to" books, so I took a $35US chance and, fortunately, I was not disappointed.

The book's author, Ian Jeffrey, has assembled a visual history of the medium - from the first landscapes and portraits of the 1840s through the modern era - along with a critical narrative of not only the work of individual photographers but also of the cultural paradigms that influenced the photographers and their picture making endeavors. Jeffrey accomplishes both tasks by writing in a clear and direct manner without giving over to academia-speak gibberish.

As comprehensive as the book is, it can only give brief and rather cursory overviews - albethey insightful and informative - of the bios, work, and times of the 100+ photographer it surveys. If you think of the book as a kind of CliffsNotes short course / whet-your-appetite-for-more volume, then, IMO, the book is another must have/read for students of the game.

On that level and after a very short time with it, the book has already re-ignited my somewhat dormant interest in the work of 3 of my most favored photographers - Eugène Atget, Josef Sudek, and Paul Strand. Based just on that result, the book is well worth the price of admission.

As for the notion that the book has offered me "paths to discover the true meaning of a photograph", I'll have to get back to you on that claim after I have spent more time ingesting and processing Jeffrey's take on things.

FYI, You may have noticed in the course of perusing my recent recommendations, that I do not create links to book sellers. This comes from the fact that I have a long standing, irrational, knee-jerk, gut-level, aversion to the fact that everyone who does so links to Ama..... - see, I can't even type the word - the Mother of All Bookstore Killers. IMO, Ama.... represents, in the form of pure concentrated evil, everything that is wrong with the world.

relationships # 4 ~ and a portrait

# 15 ~ Hugo Hobson • click to embiggen
Mini-mite locker room • click to embiggenThis past Saturday was spent, as the result of taking Hugo to and from and watching his hockey game, in the throes of some serious parenting flashbacks.

Which, I might add, was more than just a little bit disconcerting.