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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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BODIES OF WORK ~ PICTURE GALLERIES

  • my new GALLERIES WEBSITE
    ADK PLACES TO SIT / LIFE WITHOUT THE APA / RAIN / THE FORKS / EARLY WORK / TANGLES

BODIES OF WORK ~ BOOK LINKS

In Situ ~ la, la, how the life goes onLife without the APADoorsKitchen SinkRain2014 • Year in ReviewPlace To SitART ~ conveys / transports / reflectsDecay & DisgustSingle WomenPicture WindowsTangles ~ fields of visual energy (10 picture preview) • The Light + BW mini-galleryKitchen Life (gallery) • The Forks ~ there's no place like home (gallery)


Entries from June 1, 2007 - June 30, 2007

Friday
Jun292007

FYI ~ Imagination

Imagination is more important than knowledge. ~ A. Einstein said that.

Imagination is how we connect the dots of knowledge. ~ I said that.

Friday
Jun292007

ku # 477 ~ summers greens

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Lush summer greensclick to embiggen
Even though I no longer particiapate in them, I still get email notifications of posts/topics from a couple photo discussion forums.

Recently, I received a notice of a post titled, Do you get tired of Landsape and Nature images? The poster stated that he was "...exposed to so many images at the couple of forums that I check in with throughout the day, that I'm bored with all of them ... I even am now bored with my own ... they all look the same after a while..."

Ignoring the fact that almost all photo forums with a theme tend to promote group-think sameness, I think that the poster's delemma is related more to the idea of over-saturation that is part and parcel of the internet as a whole - google any topic and you get a zillion links to that topic. It makes me think that if A & E's sin was to sample the fruit of the tree of knowledge and humankind has created the all-pervasive internet as a fruit of knowledge, then what we have done is to build a tower of babble.

But, ignoring that concept as well, I wonder if the poster's issue is really more indicative of our culture's addiction to the quest of bigger, better, best. A 'quest' that is really nothing more than an ever-present lust for cheap and easy thrills/highs. Highs that can only by satisfied by bigger and bigger doses of, in this case, knock-your-socks-off pretty pictures.

Pictures which are all about the surface of pretty things but nothing about what lies beneath that surface. Just like shallow people, shallow pictures are, indeed, boring. There's nothing to hold onto. No reason to stay involved, so it's time to keep moving on - sort of like an endless procession of one night stands.

I also think that this person's delemma gives testement to the fact that Art is not a verb. Making Art is an activity, but, to the thinking person, if all someone is making is nothing more than a series of empty statements (no matter how self-gratifying the activity may be), the ulimate result is boring pictures and boredom.

If the only thing that matters in your attempt to make Art is that you are pleasing yourself ... well ... I guess that makes you into, not an artist, but kind of self-centered person, doesn't it?

PS - this entry is not in any way meant to reflect negatively on the personhood (or the photography) of the photographer who posted the forum topic. In fact, I think his 'confession' is his first step on the road to 'recovery'.

Thursday
Jun282007

ku # 476 ~ Marcy Dam

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Marcy Dam and Mt. Coldenclick to embiggen
Hot on the heels of yesterday's Pavlovian thing, I had another 'awakening' last evening relative to the way things used to be, photography-wise.

Before a late day round of golf, I dropped off a cd with my Spawn of Cinemascape picture on it at what used to be a photo store with one-hour processing place. At one time they sold a few cameras, lots of film and ready-made picture frames along with a ton and a half of one-hour prints. The store manager was pretty photo-knowledgeable and would, upon request, pay special attention to my processing/print orders. Not quite like going to a 'pro' lab but the results were very good.

A couple years ago, the owner of the store saw the death-of-film handwriting on the wall. She proceeded to build a new hobbit-style store (I'm not kidding - instead of High Peaks Photo it's now called There and Back Again)) and stock it full of upscale tourist memorabilia. As far as I can tell she nixed the film processing .. but ... she did install a Epson 7800 setup.

So, after Aaron had a print made of his Buscemi Cinemascape at the store (with very good results) I decided to give it a try. I ordered a 46×20 inch print of my ode to cinemascape. Here's where it got a more than a little weird for me.

The old photo guy was gone. In his place is a trio of cute gum-snapping teenage girls, It wasn't busy when I went in so they greeted me as 'team' at the counter. I explained what I wanted, they said, "Fine. It will ready in 30 minutes."

30 minutes!!! If, in the 'old days', I had walked into a 'pro' lab and asked for a print in 30 minutes, they would have stared at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears. Then they would have laughed hysterically. Then a manager would have stepped up and said (without laughing), "Sure, that'll be 8 billions dollars."

But seriously, the length of the process to make just a single test print alone would exceed 30 minutes. And, normal delivery for a print from a custom lab was at least 24 hrs, if not 2-3 days. A print could be had sooner with 'rush' service - which would double or triple the cost. That situation was one of many reasons I had a full blown E6, C41 and bw/color print darkrooms in my studio.

That said, at a custom lab, the print would be made by skilled lab technician - usually a wane pasty-face person (too much time in the dark) who knew all the tricks of the printing trade. Last night, one of the cheeky gum-snappers would be the 'technician' and put my cd in the computer, open it in PS and hit "Print".

One round of golf later, at around 9pm, I went back to the store. They are open until 10pm - try finding a pro lab with those hours. One of 'team' took me into their viewing room and, lo and behold, there it was - a remarkably accurate 4 ft print on Epson Ultra Premium Luster paper. After inspecting it, I felt it needed to be a bit darker. No problem. Over to the computer, a little curve adjustment (by me) and 14 minutes later a near perfect print.

Total cost for the venture (I kept both prints) - $80. I was so impressed that I am creating a custom calibration for their 'system' and with any luck at (and with my skill), I should be able to drop off a cd and return 30 minutes later to view and pickup a perfect print.

Holy cow. It's brave new world out there.

And, yes, I am beginning to warm to the idea of cheeky gum snapping 'technicians'.

PS - today's picture is of Marcy Dam which is located about 30 miles as the crow flys from my house. It is a very popular wilderness hiking destination on one of the trails into the high peaks wilderness. The dam was built in the late 1800s by the same company that operated the derelict mill in my village that I have recently been picturing. It was built as an impound for logs harvested from the area around the dam during the winter months. In the spring the logs were released and they made their way down stream and river to Au Sable Forks and the mill.

Wednesday
Jun272007

FYI ~ Pavlovian response

'Conditioning' is sometimes very hard to shake. Back in the old days, did you ever open a camera back without rewinding the film or not knowing there was film in the camera? I did a few times and that moment of recognition creates a very nasty feeling in the gut. You slam the back shut and pray. Not sure what you pray for ... like what? ... that the film was not light sensitive for a moment or two?

In the digital age, all that's behind us ... except ... every once in awhile, when I open the CF door, I spontaneously have the same feeling. I can't seem to shake it. I still get a little weak in the knees whenever I see something open on the back of a camera.

Tuesday
Jun262007

ku # 475

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A back bay along the Raquetteclick to embiggen
It seems like it's been awhile since I've posted a plain old ku. It also seems like it's been awhile since I held forth on things photographic. So, consider this -

More convincingly than any other kind of picture, a photograph evokes the tangible presence of reality. Its most fundamental use and its broadest acceptance has been as a substitute for the subject itself - a simpler, more permanent, more clearly visible version of the plain fact.

Our faith in the truth of a photograph rests on the belief that the lens is impartial, and will draw the subject as it is, neither nobler nore meaner. This faith may be naive and illusory (for though the lens draws the subject, the photographer defines it), but it persists. The photographer's vision convinces us to the degree that the photographer hides his hand. ~ from The Photographer's Eye by John Szarkowski.

Szarkowski wrote this in 1966. Much has changed. However, even in the era of Wall-esque 'constructions', the above still holds true. If the goal is to make a more clearly visible version of the plain fact, the photographer had best hide his hand, not his brain, just his hand.

But, of course, in evoking the tangible presence of reality, a photographer with a brain can learn that ... the appearance of the world [is] richer and less simple than his mind would have guessed. He can discover that ... his pictures could reveal not only the clarity but also the obscurity of things, and that these mysterious and evasive images could also, in their own terms, seemed ordered and meaningful.

Monday
Jun252007

civilized ku # 42 ~ once again, small is beautiful

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Adirondack rustic in the makingclick to embiggen
One of the totally wonderful things about living in the largest wilderness in the east is that wood is in plentiful supply so, when we decided to rustic-up (replace) our front porch, we have been able to 'buy local'.

In this picture, everything below the roof joists is cedar purchased from local mills. The cedar decking is from one of the 'big' lumber companies. The cedar posts and the rough-cut 2×10 pine header is from a 'nut-job' about a mile down the road by the name of Howard Aubin - our local black-helicopter, the government's coming to take me away today, hate the APA with a passion conspiracy freak. He doesn't smell too good either.

That said, he's as honest and hard working as the day is long.

In the true Adirondack rustic building tradition, we're kind of winging it, design-wise, with the porch. But with Howard so close and ever-willing to rip to order, it's working out very well. We get to a point where we haven't really thought ahead all that much and we just sort of make it up on the spot and then I run over to Howards and have him whip up whatever we dream up.

As I said before, small is beautiful.

Sunday
Jun242007

crafted ku # 7 - spawn of cinemascape

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Two can play that gameclick to embiggen
This picture is kind of a father of cinemascapist pictures son of cinemascapist thing, or, a like-father, like-son thing, only in resverse.

Hugo and I had part of a Sunday afternoon to kill so off to the mill we went. It wasn't a picturing walk but I did have a camera with me. When this opportunity presented itself, I was able to grab 5 handheld frames for stitching.

The idea that it plants in my head is that the mill is ripe for pano picturing.

Thursday
Jun212007

civilized ku # 41 ~ a walk in the forest #8

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Traces and evidence of a different worldclick to embiggen
I'll be gone early tomorrow (Friday) so I'm posting this on Thursday evening. For those who have been following the walk in the forest/abandoned mill series, all of the pictures from the walk (for those of you coming from theonlinephotographer, they are all made with the Oly E-510) can be viewed here.

There are a number of pictures that have not yet been posted here and I think it's interesting to see them all together without words. Let me know what you think.