crafted ku # 10 ~ my life is changed forever

The best of all possible worlds • click to embiggenJust got back from a trip to our local Everything U Need For a Great Life franchise and I have to say that the wife and I were so overwhelmed with the feelings of grace and superiority that were bestowed upon us by the clarity and detail of 1080 HD TV that we couldn't settle for just 1, so we purchased 2.

What an epiphany. Screw truth and the real lo-def world. I may never leave the house again.

Update on Sunday, January 10, 2010 at 01:35PM by gravitas et nugalis

To answer a few questions -

Featured Comment: Paul Maxim wrote/asked: "What'd you do, win the lottery or something? ... do you get hi def cable up there in the boonies? Or do you have to use satellite?"

Yes indeed, I did win the lotto - my winnings is called "the wife". After all, she does constantly refer to herself as "the trophy wife" and who am I to argue? And, yes, we do get cable up here in the boonies. The cable guy is coming by tomorrow to install the HD cable boxes.

Featured Comment: Eric Jeschke wrote/asked: "Hmm, an EP-1, followed by 2 HDTVs. Well, no one can accuse you of not doing your part to help consume the economy out of this hole we're in! I'd better get busy..."

Yes indeed - you slackers better get busy and spend, spend, spend. We've set the bar rather high here - we also purchased 2 new cars this year as well. Although, in our defense, it should be stated that we needed, not wanted, 2 new cars.

FYI, after getting the flat panel things up and running and playing around with the pictures setting controls, I am confident that, once the HD boxes are in place, I will be able to get the displays set up in a manner that looks much more SD-like than HD-like. Oh, joy.

relationships # 3a ~ Ayn Rand's wet-dream speaks to us from the Promi$ed Land

Girls Pt.2 • click to embiggenYesterday's visit to Detroit engendered a visit to The Landscapist from none other than Ayn Rand's fictitious wet-dream alter ego and father of Gordon ("greed, for lack of a better word, is good") Gekko, John Galt.

Well, to be more accurate, a visit from some moron who thinks parrots the idea that Ayn Rand / John Galt actually has/had something of value to offer. That dittohead is a bit behind the times in as much as the Grand Ayn Rand Devotee, Alan Greenspan, has belatedly admitted - in the face of a grand economic debacle - that his trust and faith in Rand's Objectivism was based on a rather whimsical house of cards.

The fountainhead of that house of cards was the incredibly / obviously flawed notion that a rational/ethical ego-ist should act in his his/her own "enlightened" self-interest by rejecting / ignoring the notion of the common good. You may know that myth in other words - every man's an island, the rugged individualist, going it alone, or, in economic theory, the "informed" consumer.

Unfortunately, many philosopher / theorists, especially those of Rand's ilk, tend ignore and/or outright reject the history of human behavior when it comes to developing their theories. With Rand, what it amounts to is this - a "perfect" man = a "perfect" outcome = a "perfect" world. A "theory" not unlike that preached by the modern-day religious fundamentalists - if we would all just be "perfect" christians, then the world would be a "perfect" world.

Now, I can't speak for everyone but ... try as I might, I have yet to find a "perfect" man which leads me to believe that any theory / philosophy of human behavior that is based upon the notion of a "perfect" actor is build upon a very imperfect fountainhead.

BTW, I tend to like relationships # 3a better than # 3 - any opinions out there?

Update on Friday, January 8, 2010 at 08:28PM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment: Some erudite commenter, operating under the name "Bigpics", left this stunningly informed and insightfully reasoned riposte, re: Ayn Rand's wet-dream speaks to us from the Promi$ed Land:

"At least you don't know much of what you're talking about, which makes it easier to write your stereotyping off."

my response: I am struck speechless. How can one begin to attempt to respond to such an adroit and compelling rejoinder? But then again, there should be no surprise in that Objectivism attracts only the best & brightest of heroic men.

relationships # 3 ~ hanging over, er, I mean, sleeping over

Girls • click to embiggenI probably missed a great relationships picturing opportunity in our kitchen last evening when the girls were having a "girl's night" event. But, it's most likely a better outcome that certain "events" were left undocumented.

Maybe next time, when everyone is legally entitled to pursue any event of their own choosing.

(un)civilized ku # 339 ~ can't get there from here

No man's land ~ Cherry Hill, NJ • click to embiggenEvery time I say I won't, there I go again.

Those Little Charlie & the Nightcats lyrics from the song I'll Never Do That No More pretty accurately describe my relationship with the State of New Jersey, specifically SW NJ as painstakingly accessed by the NJ Turnpike - every time I go there I say I'll never do that no more, but, as evidenced by the above recent photo, there I go again.

As much as I whine and complain, I have rather reluctantly come to accept this Rotten State of affairs as part of my burden to bear, re: the wife. It's where she's from - to her credit, she has managed to escape - and it's where most of her family still resides. That's not about to change any time soon, although ... a little accelerated global-warming that moves the Jersey Shore due west to the PA state line might just do the trick.

That said, here's my gripe re: NJ - so much of the state's land mass has been confiscated / commandeered and developed by money-interests, in the name of "progress" and economic "growth", that it has come to be a superb example of urban / suburban sprawl run amok. Sprawl that doesn't even pretend to pay even nominal lip-service to the idea of life on a human scale.

Consider the above picture - if I were to want to visit, say, Sleepy's, trying to get there from where I stand is, literally, a life-threatening endeavor. Sidewalks? Pedestrian crosswalks? What's that? Don't have a car? Tough shit. What are you doing here in the first place? Get back to the ghetto where you belong.

You know, the ghetto that we created when we had squeezed all the blood we could from that stone in the name of "growth" and economic "progress" and then picked up our marbles and moved on down the road to the next money hot spot. Actually, we left the marbles behind to decay and rot just to remind you not to fuck with us.

What, you might ask, has got my knickers in such a twist? Check out some very interesting pictures, just bursting at the seams / chock full of truth and reality, by James D. Griffioen. These pictures are the result of letting the free-market "get it right", letting the free-market work its unregulated magic, letting the "hidden hand" of the marketplace sort things out in a what's-good-for-GM-(Ford and Chrysler)-is-good-for-America sort of way.

It's no wonder that so many picture makers are out and about making fantasy-imbued pictures of the natural world. The truth to be found in the real world of present day America is almost too cruel to bear.

And, oh yeah, lest I forget ... it's all Hussein The Socialist / Constitution-Shedding Obama's fault - I know this because the Great Oz has spoken. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain....the...Great...er...Oz has spoken.

people / personage # 12 ~ concentration

Daniel and Maureen in the pool • click to embiggen
Hugo in the pool • click to embiggen
Hug in the pool • click to embiggenDespite how it starts, This is NOT a gear post.

That said, one of the reasons for my EP-1 purchase was to acquire a people-friendly camera in the sense that human picture subjects tend to be more at ease when a smallish P&S style camera is pointed in their direction than they are when an "intimidating" dslr is staring them in the face. This seems to be especially so when the human subject is a person-unknown to the picture maker.

The reason that I wanted / needed a people-friendly camera is simply because I want to put much more emphasis on picturing people - both known and un-known to me. It's time, or at least I feel that it is time, for people to start appearing, front and center, in my picturing endeavors. Something more like lifescapes as opposed to landscapes. Can you say, Lifescapist?

That said, I have been pondering the current state of human subject picturing - at least as it is presented around the blog-o-sphere / web. Much of that work is of people-looking-at-the-camera-with-a-sullen/deadpan-expression (as an example), especially so when the intent is to make "portraits". Happy people, at least those who manifest it, seem to be in rather short supply or, more likely, out of picturing favor in the Art World.

I really don't have any desire to contribute to that genre but what I am wondering is - do smiles or happy people have a place in the Art World?

I don't mean smiley faces posturing for the camera. What I mean is more like people just doing things like Daniel and Maureen in the pool. Or, is that just too fun and friendly - family snapshot style - to be considered as "serious" picture making? Is that too happy for the times in which we find ourselves?

My intent for people picturing is much like my intent for my other picture making - capturing the everyday in the daily flow of life. I am certain that some everyday people in everyday life will not be happy as a clam but does that mean I have edit out "happy" and only include "not happy as a clam"?

Just wondering ....

All that said, the focus of my people picturing is 2-fold:

1. While I certain that I will make a fair number of single / standalone / one-off pictures like the pool pictures above, my real interest is in making "relationship" diptychs / triptychs like the ones below. Pictures in which the subjects - happy, sad, thoughtful, confused, whatever - are somehow "related" but not looking at the camera.

Family relationships • click to embiggen

Dog and Man ~ Thanksgiving Day • click to embiggen

2. Continuing my life in pictures series which will include people - on the street, in stores / malls, etc. - doing whatever it is they are doing. A kind of street photography thing but with a big-brother-(who wants you to spend and get)-is-watching twist to the proceedings.

A life in pictures ~ Bell Centre, Montreal, CA • click to embiggen
A life in pictures ~ Madison Square Garden, NYC • click to embiggen
A life in pictures ~ W34th & 8th, NYC • click to embiggen

My New Year's Resolution, such as it is, is to concentrate on a few focused / ongoing bodies of work - specifically, Relationships and Life in Pictures - both of which are people-focused. Hence, the EP-1 and just 3 "pancake" lenses - a 17mm f2.8, a 20mm f1.7, and a 25mm f2.8. I am also thinking that a second EP-1 body is in the offing as well.

FYI, I am certain that smiling faces / happy people will come and go as they present themselves.

Update on Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 08:32AM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment: Sven W wrote: "I hope the EP-1 comes with a waterproof housing! You might not be in the pool when you took the first image but it sure feels like it."

my response: the pictures look like I was in the pool because I was in the pool, albeit with my weather-sealed E-3. At the time I was still about 6 hours away from NYC and the biggest camera store in the world.

That said, I probably would have taken the EP-1 into the pool with me because it was a very controlled environment - a small pool with only family members present, all of whom are used to seeing me with a camera and who also accept the idea that I will kill them if they do anything stupid.

civilized ku # 338 ~ Airstream apparition

A face-like apparition • click to embiggenYou know you've been around hockey too long, or least for a long time, when you start seeing goalie masks everywhere you go.

Emphasis and isolation aided by a wide-open aperture of f1.7

ku # 665 ~ lunch on Lake Champlain

Eagles on the ice on Lake Champlain • click to embiggenThe whole notion of Jean Keen's outrageous eagle-feeding stupidity up in Homer, Alaska is only exceeded by the mindless parade of bird-brained photographers who are also, in their own stupid way, feeding on her stupidity.

Why anyone would be attracted to the idea of picturing eagles in a situation where "without leaving the comfort of the vehicle, head and shoulder shots are readily available" is utterly and completely beyond my comprehension. Add to that the notion that "... Perhaps the surroundings on the Spit were not the most natural of settings. Perhaps the feeding of the birds is affecting the ecosystem ..." and the whole idea seems not only absurd but also aesthetically and ecologically untenable.

FYI, I don't get the use of the word "perhaps" in the preceding paragraph - "Perhaps" a spit of land adjoining a trailer park and a parking lot is "not the most natural of settings"? "Perhaps" baiting 200-300 eagles out of their natural habitat and habits "is affecting (sic) the ecosystem"?

Perhaps? Do ya think?

Fortunately, and I don't mean this exactly as it sounds, Keen is now dead and the whole feeding fiasco is coming to an end. The eagles, as many as 200-300 day that gathered for the free lunch, are now free to return to being eagles, as opposed to imitating trained monkeys for lazy-ass photographers. One can only hope that the eagles have not become so dependent upon Keen's misguided efforts, that they are unable to disperse and scavenge for themselves.

FYI, I got out of the comfort of my vehicle to make this picture.

civilized ku # 331-37 ~ taking the show on the road

Bambi, me & my lethargic focusing EP-1 ~ Plattsburgh, NY • click to embiggen
Airstream trailers ~ Plattsburgh, NY • click to embiggen
Bambi front ~ Plattsburgh, NY • click to embiggen
Bambi back ~ Plattsburgh, NY • click to embiggen
Airstream propane tanks ~ Plattsburgh, NY • click to embiggen
Rusty bumper & taillights ~ Plattsburgh, NY • click to embiggenYesterday afternoon, while running an errand, I stopped into GSM Vehicles - on the grounds of the former USAF base in Plattsburgh - and asked for permission to wander around what amounts to their Airstream trailer recycling bin to make some pictures.

I have always been a devotee of Airstream trailers simply because they are such stunning examples of modern industrial design. Somehow, someway, an American company has managed to avoid catering to the more typical American standard of bad taste and wretched excess and still make money and stay in business. Hell, on my last visit to MOMA, there was an Airstream trailer from their permanent collection on display in the lobby.

The truth of the matter is simply this - put me in a 1950 Studebaker convertible (with the old lady, of course, but with me behind the wheel)
A bitchin' ride • click to embiggen with a Bambi hitched up to the back and Ricky Nelson's Travelin' Man on the radio, I'm so far gone (literally and figuratively) that I might never come back. And, even if I did come back, I would give very serious consideration to parking the thing in the backyard and living in it.

Although, the Bambi being kinda small and all, the wife and the pretty Seniorita and my cute little Eskimo and my China doll and the pretty Polynesian baby and my sweet Fraulien would have to live in the house. No problem with that solution that I can see.

The way I figure it, $100K should get that show on the road so I'm thinking I'll put one them "Support The Landscapist" donation buttons on the sidebar. Once on the road, the proceeds from my Rolling Thunder Reality & Truth Picturing Review & Workshops should keep the tank topped off, some grub and beer in the frig, and ink and paper for the Epson in good supply.

The more I think about, the more I am certain that nothing can go wrong with this plan. Cuz I'm certain, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the the wife is just achin' to get out on the road with me for a month or two as my photo assistant / go-fer. And, on top of that, living in such tight quarters for a month or two would just add to the romantic thrill (rhymes with "kill") of it all.