civilized ku # 2123 ~ different breeds

Asgaard Farm fresh eggs ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenDifferent breeds of chickens = different colored eggs.

addendum: I failed to mention that the Asgaard Farm eggs were part of an all-Asgaard omelette - Asgaard eggs + Asgaard pork Andouille sausage + Asgaard goat cheese = delicious.

civilized ku # 2116-22 ~ more kidding around

Birth ~ Asgaard Farm / Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Hugo & Brandy ~ Asgaard Farm / Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Brandy's(?) kids ~ Asgaard Farm / Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Big boss cat ~ Asgaard Farm / Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Hugo & billies ~ Asgaard Farm / Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Goat drinking water ~ Asgaard Farm / Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Truck bed ~ Asgaard Farm / Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenJust a little picture background - Hugo had to have a picture with the goat named Brandy because his mom is named Brandy. The cat is the Asgaard Farm equivalent of a junkyard dog - it has attitude and it rules the farmyard roost. And, the pickup truck bed ... well ... what is there to say?.

Update on Thursday, March 15, 2012 at 12:34PM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment: Jessica Douglass (no link provided) wrote: "Great photos!!! Thanks again for including Brooklyn in your time at Asgaard Farm. :)

my response: We all like having Brooklyn around any time.

Hugo and Brooklyn ~ Asgaard Farm / Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen

civilized ku 2112-15 ~ I smell like goat, goat milk, and goat excrement

New straw bed / 1 day old kids ~ Asgaard Farm / Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Brandy just hanging around ~ Asgaard Farm / Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Hugo / 2 day old kids ~ Asgaard Farm / Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Goat who stares at men ~ Asgaard Farm / Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenHugo and I spent the day up at Asgaard Farm observing and helping with the annual kidding event - that's kids, as in baby goats. Over the next week, they expect about 100 kids to drop in/out.

Update on Thursday, March 15, 2012 at 10:33AM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment: Mary Dennis wrote: "Interesting photos as always Mark but do you know what really warms my heart? It's how much time and love you seem to give to your grandson. He's a lucky little boy."

my response: Mary, the time/love thing works both ways - Hugo gives as good as he gets.

civilized ku # 2111 ~ "nice"

Enjoy bowling ~ Romano's / Saranac Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenOn yesterday's entry Sven W (no link provided) wrote this comment:

... when you talk about the "perception of my pictures as beautiful objects" are you also including the appreciation of the craftsmanship in the image?

And when I say "craftsmanship" I'm not simply referring to purely technical matters (like sharpness etc) but also the aesthetic considerations through-out the process of creating the image ...

When viewing my pictures - in a gallery, on my walls, in a photobook, or just a loose print in my studio - the first reaction of most is to comment upon the print as an object. Those comments invariably include the words, "clear", "sharp", "nice color" and the like. Those comments are then usually followed by the exclamation of, "I would never have thought to take a picture of that ... you have a good eye" (or words to that effect), with the implied / inferred idea that I had brought their attention, in a favorable manner, to something they ignore / pass by with giving it a thought.

The latter comment - "I would never ... a good eye" - is about as close as it gets, re: "aesthetic considerations through-out the process of creating the image", aka: the camera use part of creating the image. And, as mentioned in yesterday's entry, those comments are most often heard issuing from the mouths of non-picture makers (in the serious / advanced amateur sense of the phrase). The utterance most heard from picture makers is usually short and sweet - "nice", or, even once in a while, "rubbish".

In either case, non vs serious / advanced, I believe that my attention to making "beautifully processed" pictures/prints is an integral part of my picture making signature. And that is why I totally disagree with a TOP entry, Shooting JPEG Instead of Raw, in which the author suggests shooting JPEG because "... major camera manufacturers invest substantial sums toward refining their image processing technologies. It's what they're most proud of as the hearts of their cameras and a key part of their proprietary competitive weaponry."

A Featured Comment on that entry by "h.linton" summed up my feelings best ...

"I get your logic though, but, in the digital world that I inhabit, it's the post-processing 'signature' that I create myself that I'm most interested in—not what some camera manufacturer might come up with."

My pictures have my signature stamped all over them. A significant part of that signature is, but by no means limited to, my print quality. I place a lot of emphasis on that quality because, after all, it's what the viewer sees first.

civilized ku # 2110 ~ different referent, different time / same kind of place, same kind of picture

Cornelia Street and Broad Street - Plattsburgh, New York 2012 ~ by Mark Hobson • click to embiggenOne week ago, on civilized ku # 2099, Paul Bradforth (no link provided), while critiquing The Landscapist, also offered up a comment about some of my pictures ... ...

I can’t quite ‘get’ the point of portraying things obsessively ‘accurately’ if that means making an ‘accurate’ picture of a very dull day, which to my mind accounts for quite a few of the pictures I see on your blog. Beautifully processed, for sure, but in the end, for me, ‘accurate’ shots of dull days.

I have absolutely no problem with Paul offering up an opinion about my pictures and this entry is in no way meant to refute / contest / or otherwise diminish his opinions. He stated it how he sees it and that is exactly the way it should be.

That said, I felt a bit of explanation (for those who might be not aware of it), re: my predilection for making beautifully processed pictures of dull days / scenes, aka: the banal / the everyday / the mundane. And in doing so, I'll use a Stephen Shore picture and what has been written about it, to include some of his words / thoughts about his picturing.

Beverly Boulevard and LaBrea Avenue - Los Angeles, California 1975 ~ by Stephen Shore

I have long admired the work of Stephen Shore. Shore is one of the seminal pioneers of modern era color photography (I recently had the pleasure of meeting Shore at one of his exhibits). His pictures have been described (IMO, quite accurately) as deadpan images of banal scenes and objects in the United States.

Shore's work came to my attention, along with that of many others, during my work with Sally Eauclaire on her book, the new color photography. The Beverly Boulevard picture, from his work/book Uncommon Places is a well known Shore picture. My picture, Cornelia Street and Broad Street (made yesterday on a visit to my cardiologist), certainly has the look of Shore's picture but, in fact, Shore's work is only one of many influences upon my picturing MO and I have been going my own way for many decades.

That said, like Shore and most of the new color and new topographic picture makers, I am most interested in making pictures which find beauty in the banal. To that end, my "beautifully processed" pictures are, visually wise, part and parcel of drawing viewers into my pictures and inducing them to stay around for a longer look, hopefully to see/discover at least some of the beauty I find/see in the banal/everyday/mundane*.

In any event, consider this bit of info, re: Shore's picture and, in a broader sense, much of his work:

... Shore saw how a photograph 'imposes order on the scene or 'simplifies the jumble by giving it structure'. There's so much readable information, but few conclusions to be drawn about this place.

This was a new conception of the landscape picture, one in which the details themselves - their density and abundance, rather than the entirety - were intended to be the focal point or subject. Each image is so sharp and detailed that it seems to have infinite centres of attention, or none at all. "If I saw something interesting, I didn't have to make a picture about it. I could let it be somewhere in the picture, and have something else happening as well. So this changes the function of a picture - it's not like pointing at something and saying 'Take a look at this'. It's saying, 'Take a look at this object I'm making.' It's asking you to savour something not in the world, but to savour the image itself." ~ from the book, Stephen Shore

My pictures are most often quite "dense" with an abundance of details. Picture makers, especially those who hold the adage, to "simply", to be sacrosanct, often ask me what in the hell my pictures are of/about. My answer is always the same - they are first and foremost about the print, aka: the object, itself. Then, and only then, are they about the pictured referent(s).

IMO, the viewing /perception of my pictures as beautiful objects is what directs the viewer to the notion of the beauty of the pictured referent(s) to be seen in my pictures. To my eye and sensibilities, the beauty of my prints (and those of the new color / topographic picture makers) and the beauty of their referents are co-jointed and inseparable. While each aspect - the object and the referent(s) - can be viewed and appreciated separately, it is only when they are holistically considered that the magic of the medium comes into play.

Comments, anyone?

*This approach of presenting "beautifully processed" pictures/prints works like a charm with non-photographer / picture maker viewers of my work. Not so much with photographers / picture makers who do not see in my pictures what they have been told is a good picture.

civilized ku # 2109 ~ you wound me

Asgaard Farm ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenAfter purchasing some pork chops, goat shanks, and goat cheese - and chatting up the owner, re: a summer portrait project of all the farm workers (it's a go) - I was returning to the car when I spotted the Asgaard Farm scene, the picture of which accompanies this entry.

The wife was asked/instructed to wait in the car while I made a few pictures of the scene. "No problem," she said, "but you're just chasing the light."

Ouch, and double ouch. I am not a light chaser. I never chase the light.

However, at times, the light does seem to chase me and, if the opportunity to picture the light in a scene worth picturing in order to make a picture which is not "all about the light", I'll make a picture or two. IMO, the Asgaard Farm picture is about so much more than just the light.

That said, because it was such a nice warm and sunny afternoon and we had a number of stops to make on our rounds, I deemed it best, despite my wounded pysche, to just enjoy the day and not deliver a lecture on the finer points of picture making to my captive audience - a subject about which she is so enthralled that the possibility of spending an hour or two trapped next to me in the passenger seat while I prattle / natter on about things photographic was most certainly high on her list of things to do on a fine Saturday afternoon.

civilized ku # 2108 ~ a nice rack

Antiques / collectibles shop ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenSince the wife won't let me acquire the Sky King tricycle (civilized ku # 2103), maybe she'll consider letting me purchase something with antlers to hang in our bedroom, say, over the headboard of our bed.

civilized ku # 2107 ~ tableau vivant / Eden Alley

Huddled ~ Saranac Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenWhile John Linn is worrying about the possibility of a toilet series (see comments on civilized ku # 2104-6), I am contemplating a series focused on the making of tableaux vivant featuring kids.

My personal tableau vivant awakening - that is to state, my making thereof - of the past few days has made me realize that I have not been taking advantage, picture making wise, of the situations I find myself in on fairly regular basis. Thanks to my grandson, I very often find myself in the presence of kids although it has never really occurred to me to consider that situation as fertile ground for picture making. Needless to state, after this past weekend's picturing, to include today's huddled picture, my thoughts on that subject are undergoing a revision.

Not that I haven't thought about what I have always considered to be the hidden / secret life of kids. The life they live when parents and adults aren't looking and/or listening. The one their parents and adults would be surprised, perhaps even alarmed, to know about. From my experience, personal and observed, I believe many kids have a rich and diverse life that is beyond their parent's and/or adult knowledge and control.

A verse from Timbuk3's song Eden Alley (the first selection) has always struck me as particularly meaningful, re: the hidden/secret life of kids:

We were raised in Eden Alley
Where the music plays all night long
& children make love in the shadows
While the elders pray for kingdom come

If I were to pursue this idea, and I am inclined to, the series just might have to go under the title of Eden Alley.