civilized ku # 1023 ~ picture pretty

Sundown on Oregon Pond ~ Onchiota, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenNot my usual cup of picture making tea, sunsets, that is. But, what the hell, I'm on vacation and it was my birthday so, throwing caution to the winds, I relaxed my normal standards and pictured merrily away.

Pano to come.

ku # 973 ~ inter-species tolerance

Hugo and loon on Oregon Pond ~ Onchiota, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenIn an extremely rare display of tolerance, a loon allows Hugo to go for a paddle with him.

Loons are normally very cautious when it comes to tolerating close human proximity. Under most circumstances, loons will avoid human contact by diving and disappearing whenever a human approaches within 100 ft. (or more). This loon allowed Hugo and I to approach and stay within 8-10 ft. - very up close and personal.

A quite rare and very delightful birthday (mine) treat.

civilized ku # 1021-22 / ku # 972 ~ lazy bones, loafin' in the shade

Oregon Pond ~ Onchiota, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
On the dock ~ Onchiota, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Reflection ~ Onchiota, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenAs previously mentioned, this is our week on Oregon Pond in Onchiota (in the Adirondack PARK).

While I'm not forgoing the making of blog entries, I'm not prioritizing the activity either. As might be deduced from the pictures in this entry, sitting on the dock and watching the pond is a popular pass-the-time as is canoeing, swimming, golf, and, soon enough, fishing.

FYI, the pictures in this entry are made with my antiquated laptop/software combo. Consequently, they will be subject to revisiting and revision.

civilized ku # 1020 ~ an offer you can't refuse(?)

Mirror Lake ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
The next exhibit • click to embiggenLate last December, as I believe I mentioned here, my picturing desire for 2011 was to get my pictures out of my hard drive and onto walls, as in, exhibitions. To be honest, I never expected to be as successful in that endeavor as I have been.

Starting in the first week of January and continuing through late August, one of my bodies of work or another - presently 2 bodies of work simultaneously - has been, or will be, on gallery walls in one place or another. I am beginning to think a full year of continuous exhibitions should be my goal.

That said, the next exhibit, Twisted DNA ~ from father to son, should be a doozy.

After being invited to mount an exhibit of my work at the NCCCA Arts Center in Plattsburgh, NY, I suggested a father & son exhibit to the organization's executive director. She was interested and after checking out my son Aaron's Cinemascape work, she was all for it. So, it's on with the show.

All of that said, here's my offer to anyone willing to take me up on it - the exhibit should be rather stunning and very interesting, well worth making a trip to see it. Especially the night of the Artist Reception which will be held in conjunction with an on premise (outdoor) music (blues) and food event.

However, just to sweeten the pot, anyone who makes the trip - 10 miles, 1,000+ miles, whatever - will also have the opportunity to be a test subject (no charge) for my soon-to-be-launched Digital Printing Workshops. "Test subject" means you get a 1 or 2 days (your choice) of over-the-shoulder, hands-on, in-depth, digital printing instruction. No charge, no gimmicks, nothing to buy. Just show up and be amazed. Bring or create, on the spot, the RAW images of your choice.

In addition to the exhibit announcement included in this entry, I have, as an added inducement, also included a picture of one of zillions of scenic attractions which are found at every turn in the road / trail / river in this area. I would be happy to show you around or point you in the right direction, whichever you prefer.

This offer is good through until August 22nd (2011) - except the week of August 1-7.

civilized ku # 1019 ~ effete eurocentric snobism

We Support Ice Cream ~ Saranac Lake Village, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenIt seems like every time you turn around, Andreas Manessinger is posting yet another (albeit finely crafted) picture of some effete, eurocentric, and, quite possibly, effeminate bicycle (undoubtedly also a commie-socialist bicycle) to which I say, "Ha! Eat my American (made in Mexico? Indonesia? Korea?) shorts, you effete eurocentric socialist bicycle snob - just try to ignore this fine example of American (made in China? Taiwan?) workmanship and pride".

And while you're ruminating on that, remember, we support ice cream*.

*we're the fattest people on earth, and proud of it.

civilized ku # 1018 ~ it was a sunny day (not a negative word was heard)

Relaxing ~ the beach in Wilmington, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

FYI ~ the death of a friend of the Adirondacks (and the earth)

Anne LaBastille ~ AP PHOTO/Rob Fountain • click to embiggenEven though I never had the privilege (and, I'm sure, the pleasure) of meeting Anne LaBastille, it was with great sadness that I learned of her recent death. From a somewhat egocentric POV, I would loved to have shared my life without the APA book with her.

LaBastille's accomplishments were many, most, but not all, in the field of conservation and things ecological. Most, but again not all, of those accomplishments were (and continue to be) of great benefit to the Adirondack PARK. Her many books - like the so-called "Woodswoman" series, several of which are on our bookshelves - chronicling her life in a little hand-built cabin (no electricity, no phone, heated with a wood stove) in a wildness setting on 22 acres of old-growth forest, have sold hundreds of thousands of copies.

As a result of her many national/international articles (published in National Geographic and a host of other publications) on the topic of conservation / ecology, her voice was heard round the world. So, it is refreshing to know that her death has been well noted with articles on her life in newspapers across the US of A.

A few excerpts:

LaBastille was a commissioner of New York's Adirondack Park Agency for 17 years, with an unpaid seat on its board from 1975 to 1993. The APA regulates land use in the 6-million-acre Adirondack Park.

"We always knew she was going to vote for protection. No matter what the project was or the issue was, she would always come down on the side of protecting nature," said Beamish, who worked for the agency early in her tenure. "She was reviled for that by those who didn't believe in the APA or who didn't believe that the APA should be telling people what they can or can't do with their land. For them, she was seen as the worst of the APA. For a lot of people she was the best of it."

Bowes recalled that the cabin (ed: LaBastille's cabin), which had no road leading to it, was built too close to the lake, a land-use violation that prompted a neighbor to complain. He slid logs underneath it and inched it back in a rainstorm, while LaBastille worked away at her typewriter inside. - Washington (DC) Examiner

On August 7, 1992, during the debate over the findings of the Commission on the Adirondacks in the Twenty-First Century, LaBastille's barns at her home in Wadhams were destroyed in a fire she believed was an act of arson by residents opposed to the APA (the Adirondack Council's offices were vandalized on several occasions around the same time).

"I'm a woman alone, so I'm a great target" she said at the time, "What's happening in the Adirondacks reminds me a lot of the death squad stuff in Central America [where the game warden she worked with was murdered]." Although she claimed at the time that she was doing so out of the demands of her career, she stopped regularly attending APA meetings and resigned the following year.

"Anne became a symbol to these people," former APA Director Bob Glennon (the man who captured arsonist Brian Gale in the act of torching an APA building in 1976) later remembered. "They'd point to her as a world conservationist and say she didn't represent the Adirondacks' point of view, meaning theirs." - Adirondack Almanac

And then there's this, which will endear her to me forever(wild):

LaBastille could also be outlandish and sometimes interrupted comment at APA meeting by saying. "It's a park, a park, a park." - Press Republican - Plattsburg, NY

IMO, you just gotta love (and miss) a woman like Anne.

civilized ku # 1017 ~ The Print, pt. III

Lifeguard On Duty ~ the beach at Wilmington, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenAs mentioned in a previous entry, civilized ku # 1015, there are, IMO, 3 critical areas that must be addressed re: to make digital prints that have the look of finely crafted C prints. Those 3 are; 1) sharpening, 2) highlight and shadow "protection" / refinement, and, 3) color saturation.

Items # 1 and # 3 are easily addressed.

Re: sharpening - do not over-sharpen (white outlines around various elements in your pictures are a sure telltale sign of over sharpening) and do all of your sharpening as the very last step in your processing procedure and do it on the Lightness Channel in LAB color space.

I sharpen my master picture files with a light touch. That allows me to do additional sharpening (on a duplicate file) as called for at a later date. Sharpening that use specific (print, reproduction, web, etc.) depending upon final use.

For those shooting jpegs and hence sharpening in camera - good luck with that.

Re: saturation - I have found for my picture making and picture processing "system" - i.e. my specific camera sensor and specific RAW converter - some colors need de-saturation and others may benefit from a slight bump in saturation.

That said, I tend to slightly de-saturate the entire image file as part of my first steps in picture processing. In my experience most sensors are somewhat biased toward pleasing but not necessarily accurate color rendition. In effect, Paul Simon's nice bright colors. After my initial de-saturation efforts, I will then do selective color/saturation corrections / adjustments as deemed necessary or desired.

As mentioned many times, my color correction/adjustment efforts are aimed at producing the most accurate / natural color that the medium will allow.

Once again, for those shooting jpegs and hence color determined by camera settings - good luck with that.

Item # 2, highlight and shadow "protection" / refinement, requires a bit more effort than items 1 and 3.

In some cases like extreme dynamic range situations, it may require in-camera exposure bracketing (3 or more individual exposures / frames or, in most of my picturing, ISO bracketing). The point of such procedures is to create 3 (or more) files - 1 "normal", 1 for additional shadow information, and 1 for additional highlight information - so, in the processing stage, to be able to do highlight and shadow exposure blending in making the final master file. FYI, this is one technique that can work with bracketed (separate exposures or single exposure ISO bracketing) in-camera jpegs.

In less extreme dynamic range picture making situations, it is possible to "dig out" shadow detail and enhance highlight detail on a single file. The trick is to make feathered selections of shadow and highlight areas and create a separate layer for each. Using the drop down Blending menu in the PS Layer Palette, select Screen for the shadow layer and Multiply for the highlight layer.

In most cases, the individual layer opacity (a slider in the Layer Palette) will need to adjusted to create the right amount of blending. In addition to adjusting the layer opacity, I often also adjust each layer's contrast using Curves to arrive at the desired result.

The single greatness issue to be aware of and avoid when "digging out" shadow detail is noise. I have found, if shadow noise is an issue, NR in just the shadow area of the image will solve the problem with no ill effect on the image as a whole.

FYI, the aforementioned techniques are not the only techniques available to the picture maker who wants to make finely crafted digital prints, some of which can be applied at the RAW conversion stage of image file processing. However, the point is this - the tools and techniques available in the "digital darkroom" far and away exceed those available with traditional wet work. Not only that, but those techniques shared by both mediums are far less costly, way far less time consuming, and infinitely more precise in the digital domain.

FYI # 2, with the Lifeguard On Duty picture in this entry, all of my adjustment / correction efforts were directed to augmenting the highlight detail in the lifeguard tower. Those adjustments were accomplished using both exposure blending and a highlight layer with Screen blending with minor contrast adjustment via Curves.

In any event, the purpose of highlight and shadow "protection" / refinement is to replicate the extended tonal range, aka: exposure latitude, of the traditional color negative + C print process which, with the exception of dye transfer printing, is, IMO, the best of all color printing worlds - next to a finely crafted digital print, that is.