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Entries from May 1, 2010 - May 31, 2010
picture window # 48 ~ it was a sunny day
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Doctor's exam room / playground ~ in the Adirondack PARK - Au Sable Forks, NY • click to embiggenIMO, one of the greatest books ever written, re: art, is The Art Spirit by the teacher/artist Robert Henri. If I had to summarize Henri's theme it would be this -
Artist, know thyself, or, be actively engaged in getting to know thyself. From knowing thyself will come the idea(s) from which your voice/vision will spring. And it is the idea that will drive the invention of all you need to know (technique) to express it.
Henri repeatedly warns against placing the acquisition of technique and tools ahead of the fostering of ideas. I agree and that is why I so vigorously disparage - if one is interested in making interesting pictures - the gear-oriented approach to picture making.
That is also why I will require attendees to my Picturing Making Chautauqua to limit themselves and their picture making activities to a single lens, preferably a single fixed focal length lens. If they only have a zoom lens, I will supply all the black electrical tape needed to secure the zoom control to a single focal length.
ku # 719 ~ 2 eye kit with 1 lens
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Lush roadside Spring growth ~ in the Adirondack PARK - Au Sable Forks, NY • click to embiggenWith the exception of professional picture making activities, could you survive / function with just 1 fixed focal length lens?
Can a picture maker ever develop/find his/her vision if he/she uses more than 1 fixed focal length lens? Does using a zoom lens hinder the development of seeing and therefore prevent the development of a truly personal vision?
civilized ku # 513 ~ just shoot me, pt. II
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Glass of water ~ in the Adirondack PARK - Lake Placid, NY • click to embiggenI guess it mught be time for me to start posting caveats / disclaimers with some of my entries. Like .... say ... yesterday's just shoot me entry.
Maybe if I had posted something like this ....
This entry is not intended to defame, vilify, denigrate, or in any manner cast aspersions upon the personhood of Mike Johnston, the entity known as T.O.P., or any T.O.P. / Mike Johnston followers and admirers. The following entry is intended solely as a critique of / opinion regarding the usefulness of an article relative to its value in the cause of good picture making. Take it for what it's worth relative to your picture-making journey.
.... I would have been able to read less about oh-what-good-boy-is-Mike / oh-what-a-bad-boy-is-Mark.
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Featured Comment: Martin Doonan wrote: "I found Mike's posts interesting, and chipped in comments. I like gear, so shoot me.
I completely understand your position and why you might not find such discussion interesting. The comments you got were disappointing, if not entirely unexpected. Why can't internet dwellers realize that one can disagree with a point another makes without it being a personal attack, nor a general reflection of ones attitude towards them?
Too many dumb-asses with internet access."
FYI ~ square pictures
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The secret of the square revealed • click to embiggenOver the past couple months and with alarming frequency quite a few questions have been asked re: how the hell do I make square pictures? So, by popular demand ...
For the past 6 months - since my purchase of an Olympus EP-1 - I have simply set the in-camera picture format to square (6×6) which, as can be seen in the above picture, masks the camera LCD screen to square. Prior to the EP-1, I masked to square the LCD on my Olympus E-3 (or any of my then-current Olympus dslrs) with black masking tape. Although, eventually I stopped doing that because, quite frankly, I no longer needed the cropped LCD view in order to "see" square.
In either case - E-3 or EP-1, I shoot RAW so the camera delivers a full 4/3 image which I then crop to square in PS. When asked if I crop my pictures, I always answer, "No." And that is where the black border comes into play.
As many who come from the good ole days of film know, a black border was obtained by printing a full negative in a filed out negative carrier - the carrier opening was expanded in order to allow some of the clear film edge to print. Amongst other things, a black border was used to indicate that an entire negative was printed, edge-to-edge / uncropped.
I always shoot horizontal full 4/3 frame images. I crop to square by cropping only along the horizontal axis. I never crop along the vertical axis. My pictures are always "full-frame" top to bottom. Always. Therefore, I consider my pictures to be full-frame / uncropped square pictures.
Capisc?
civilized ku # 512 ~ just shoot me
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Hanging out on a deck • click to embiggenSo many words, so much totally useless crap - The Two-Lens Kit: The Mike Version (Part I)", and, The Two-Lens Kit: The Mike Version (Part II).
Add to those words all those from the 175 reader comments .....
Does anyone out there find this stuff interesting / helpful in any way?
civilized ku # 511 ~ shocking
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Heart meds ~ Harp Lager & Tequila • click to embiggenBy scrupulously sticking to my heart meds regimen - Digoxin, Warfarin - aka Coumadin (aka rat poison), and Metoprolol supplemented with double jiggers of very expensive sippin' tequila washed down with Harp Lager - my heart rate is slowly but steadily dropping, albeit still quite irregular.
So, this AM it was off to the hospital for a Transesophageal Echocrardiogram (TEE) and an Electrical Cardioversion. The TEE - swallow a tube with a hires camera that checks for clots in the heart - is done prior to an EC. If all is clear, then the EC is performed - an electric shock stops and then restarts the heart, hopefully with a normal heart rhythm restored. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. If it doesn't work after 3-4 shocks, they try it again at another time.
I did not make it to the EC procedure because the doctor detected the possibility of a clot which immediately brings the procedure to a stop. So, it's another 3 weeks of heart meds and try again.
Fortunately, the meds regimen has my heart at a place where a full round of golf is doable. I got 18 in yesterday with no problem.
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Featured Comment: Mary Dennis wrote: "What's with the tequila and lager? Doesn't sound compatible with the heart meds regimen to me--unless there's new science I haven't read about. Be careful Mark."
Featured Comment: Dennis Allshouse wrote: "I hope your personal medicinal regime isn't screwing up the prescription regime."
my response: Thanks for the concern but not to worry - my alcohol consumption is on the very moderate side of things - like last Saturday when, over 4 hours at a barbeque, I had 2 beers and 1 tequila (sipped) with a big meal.
But, that said, I was rather stunned to learn that alcohol consumption was of very little concern to the staff at the cardiologist office. Their primary concern was knowing how much a patient drinks so that they can factor that in to reading blood test results relative to your blood clotting threshold. They stated that even if a patient is a binge drinker, as long as they know when they binge drink they can keep the blood clotting threshold where they want it to be.
I was told that when it comes to getting the right Warfarin (coumadin) dosage - which gets your blood into the desired clotting range (much thinner blood than normal) - they adjust the med to your lifestyle and they don't try to adjust your lifestyle to the meds.
In any event, I don't drink enough alcohol to effect my blood clotting level or the meds that regulate it one way or another.
civilized ku # 510 ~ huh?
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Bridge and Macdonough Monument ~ Plattsburgh, NY • click to embiggenAs many already know, I yearn for a "simple" camera - shutter speed and aperture controls (with in-camera metering), an auto setting (with aperture / shutter speed priority opinions) for those few times I might need or want it, selectable WB / ISO settings, and manual focusing with AF for when I want / need it.
Why do I want a simple camera? The answer is really quite simple - a simple camera keeps things simple.
The technical aspect of obtaining a good picture - i.e. good exposure and focus / DOF - is not anything at all like rocket science. It is, in fact, incredibly simple and easy.
Although, it must be stated that the current crop of owner / instruction manuals for digital cameras make even my very photo-experienced / knowledgeable head spin. If I didn't have the simple basics of camera operation needed to make a picture with good exposure and focus fixed in my brain, I don't know if I would ever figure it out by using those photographic towers of babble.
Especially so, with nonsense like this ridiculous article (and comments) floating around the main stream media.
Mark Hobson - Physically, Emotionally and Intellectually Engaged Since 1947