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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 May 1, 2011 - May 31, 2011

Saturday
May282011

civilized ku # 971 ~ circles

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Shrimps peelings and circles ~ in my hitchen sink / Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
While I was checking on the baby birds who live in the vent above our kitchen sink, I looked down and saw a veritable cacophony of circle shapes in the sink. The you-must-make-a-picture alarm went off in my head so I went and got a camera.

Lurking nearby the sink was a plate of shrimp peelings that I had set aside last evening for future picturing purposes. Although, the wife made it clear I had an 18 hour window of shrimp peelings availability. Having already lost a plate 'o shrimp peeling the week prior, I took her at her word and made a shrimp peeling picture within the allotted time.

Saturday
May282011

civilized ku # 970 ~ an idea

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Fog in The Notch ~ West Branch / Au Sable River / Wilmington, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
I drove into Lake Placid early yesterday afternoon with the intention of playing golf. It didn't happen. I arrived at the course in a driving rain, so I switched gears and had a late lunch with the wife who was also in LP for a client meeting.

The silver lining in all of this - not to exclude lunch with the wife - was the picturing opportunity I encountered on the way in to LP. The Notch was socked in with fog. The Au Sable was running high. All-in-all, to my eye and sensibilities, everything was just picture perfect.

I made quite a few pictures and, unintentionally though it was, I resurrected a past picture making venture - man +/-=? nature. FYI, a couple new thoughts regarding and pictures of man +/-=? nature on Monday or Tuesday.

In revisiting the man +/-=? nature series, it occurred to me that I could include a print from the series in the upcoming IMPACT Our Changing Environment exhibit (June,24-July,16 ~ Adirondack Lake Center for the Arts - Blue Mt. Lake, NY). As the result of the acceptance of a single print (Life without the APA into the juried exhibit, I have been invited to place 4 pictures, based on the accepted picture concept, in that exhibit.

While I'm working away creating (fictitious composites) 3 more Life without the APA pictures, it has occurred to me to send for exhibition 1 60"×24" man +/-=? nature picture along with 3 20"×20" Life without the APA pictures. The idea being to hang the 3 Life without the APA pictures in a row directly under the man +/-=? nature picture, in essence, forming 1 60"×44" (or there about, allowing for a very small - 1/2" separation between prints) rectangular display.

In any event, next week I'll be asking the gallery director about my idea.

Friday
May272011

civilized ku # 969 ~ huh?

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Nursery ~ Jay, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
The (serious) picture making world is all a-twitter and aghast at the recent intro of the new Sigma SD1 camera.

A-twitter, because the promise of a truly hi-res Foveon sensor is quite alluring, even to me. The unique Foveon sensor really does produce a very analog-like, aka:film-like, color / tonal palette with very high native sharpness (no anti-alias filter required). While I am relatively happy with the Olympus Bayer-pattern sensor based color and tonality, and as much as I try to process the results to mimic traditional color neg based color and tonality output, the results, to my eye and sensibility, still look "digital".

That fact has caused me to look longingly at my 8×10 view camera (mounted, with focusing cloth, on a tripod in my office) but the current hassle of using film - availability, mail-way processing, expense, and the like - is a real deal killer for me. I live in the middle of nowhere, after all. So, the idea of a camera that reinvents the digital capture ball game is very attractive.

However, there is also the aghast thing re: the Sigma SD1 to consider - the price of a ticket to the new ball park is an astonishingly crazy $9,700USD. That's crazy because, well, #1 - it's a Sigma camera, not exactly a premium brand, #2 - its feature set is comparable to cameras in the mid-level ($1-2K) DSLR segment, and #3 - it comes with a Sigma lens mount so, if you don't already have any Sigma lens (with Sigma lens mounts), you are crap outa luck and even more $$$$$.

Strangely (and incongruously) enough, Sigma is offering the camera with various lens combos for prices well below the price of the body alone. Me, I would go for the SD1 + 30mm f1.4 combo - $7,359USD - and call it a day. Although, I would also want their battery grip as well. However, all this is only a figment of my wildest imaginings because I ain't spending that much $$$$ on camera - not now, not ever.

Now, that said, if they put the new Foveon sensor in a tidy little mirrorless camera body and got the price somewhere near the norm for mirrorless cameras ..... well, that's a ball game for which I might actually buy a ticket.

I'll leave it for time and others to tell whether or not Sigma has screwed the pooch (as some have already claimed) on this marketing venture. That said, my bet is you won't be seeing the SD1 hanging on the neck / in the hands of too many picture makers anytime soon.

Friday
May272011

civilized ku # 968 ~ towering spires

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Episcopalian spires ~ Empire State Plaza - Albany, NY • click to embiggen
Another picture from my Albany trip a few weeks back. This is one of the pictures from the Albany contact sheet - requested by John Linn for enlarged viewing.

Friday
May272011

single woman # 12 ~ it actually was rainin' outdoors

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Single woman ~ Philadelphia, PA • click to embiggen

you better come on
in my kitchen
babe it's goin' to be rainin' outdoors
~ Robert Johnson

Thursday
May262011

FYI

SquareSpace is having some sort of "known issue" that causes all pictures on blogs to go missing. They claim the engineers are working on it.

This is problem #9,476 I have had with SquareSpace. If it were possible to move all my stuff to another blog hosting service - SquareSpace says it is not possible, I would do it in a NY minute.

Wednesday
May252011

life in pictures # 16 ~ redeux / RAW vs JPEG

1044757-12383680-thumbnail.jpg Chanel / Rouge COCO shine ~ 1st & E4th - NYC, NY • click to embiggen1044757-12383904-thumbnail.jpg
Chanel / Rouge COCO shine / JPEG ® v RAW (l) ~ 1st & E4th - NYC, NY • click to embiggen
As you might recall, while I was in NYC / NJ, I was making and posting work-in-progress pictures. They were labeled as work-in-progress because I was processing the pictures using some "antiquated" equipment and outdated software - a 10 year old MacBook, OS v10.2, PS v7.1, and long-gone ImageReady (save for web) v7.0 - with which I was certain to obtain good but not best results. Although, I figured the results would be good enough, and they were, to post as on-the-road, work-in-progress / awaiting "high-end wringer" processing pictures.

In addition to the equipment / software "handicap", there was also the issue of having to picture in JPEG format - the MacBook had no RAW converter, without which there was no opening RAW files in PS 7.1. Not wanting to end up with only JPEGs, I set my cameras to record RAW + JPEG. FYI, I was also using ISO bracketing, so each release of the shutter created 6 files on my memory card - I was eating up memory space at a prodigious pace.

In any event, at the time, there was a request from John Linn:

I think it might be an interesting exercise for you to post a few of your "work-in-process" results along side your "high-end wringer" results and let us guess which is which.

So, here you have it. Although, I think a guessing game would kinda be a waste of time inasmuch as the "high-end wringer" version should be quite obvious.

That said, I would like to state that, despite the equipment / software handicap, I was quite pleasantly surprised by the work-in-progress results. There was very little I couldn't accomplish, re: results from my "high-end wringer" wise, with the use of some workarounds and various tricks of the way-back-then, state-of-the-art trade.

That is not to state that there are no differences between Exhibit A and Exhibit B. Indeed, there obviously are - over all color balance being the most obvious/critical - but none of the differences are such that the intent of my life in pictures picture making is seriously impeded, comprised, or negated. Technical virtuosity differences aside, IMO, they are both in the same aesthetic ballpark.

All of which brings me to the RAW vs JPEG thing.

I make all of my pictures in RAW. While RAW files contain more information than JPEGs, the primary reason for picturing in RAW is because I don't like machines to make decisions for me. Any machines. Any decisions.

That is not to state that some machines make some good decisions. For instance, I tend to trust the ABS / EBD / ESC system in our cars - although never as a substitute for attentive driving. However, when it comes to all things aesthetic, I want to be the decider. I am not interested in accepting what a software engineer believes is an acceptable-to-the-most-people aesthetic average regarding color, saturation, white balance, or contrast, just to name a few decisions that a picture making machine (camera + software) makes for you when you go the JPEG route.

Sure, you can set some in-camera JPEG parameters but those are sledge hammer tools relative to the surgeon's scalpel tools at your disposal in the RAW converter / PS virtual darkroom. The skillful and considered use of those virtual darkroom tools - in my case, with the goal of achieving the most natural, un-effected /affected, and accurate to the real pictures the medium and its apparatus allows - can raise your pictures to the "next level". Or, at the very least, to a level which meets your own personal aesthetic desires.

HOWEVER, as my recent dip into JPEG waters has demonstrated, there is still quite a bit of meat left on the JPEG bone after in-camera JPEG processing. IMO, more than enough to satisfy even the most observant and critical viewers of fine art pictures. That is, more than enough if one is inclined to do some judicious after-the-picture-making fact processing.

As mentioned, I used ISO bracketing during my recent experiment. That allowed me, without over-processing problems, to do (if neeed) some highlight / shadow exposure blending. Subtle WB, color/saturation corrections, sharpening - all localized, if desired - were also possible. The key to successful JPEG picture processing is to: 1) set the camera parameters to produce a result as close to your aesthetic intentions as is possible, and 2) keep your post picturing processing to a minimum using as light a touch as possible to get where you want to go.

IMO, whichever route, RAW vs JPEG, you choose to go, careful attention to in-camera JPEG parameters with some light post picturing processing or the skillful mastery of the full monty RAW converter / PS virtual darkroom, the resultant prints are bound to be of exceptionally high quality. That is to say, the technical quality of those prints will never be a hindrance in the expressing your aesthetic vision.

Does that mean that I am going to be making in-camera JPEGs?

ABSOLUTELY NOT. Other than for making and posting on-the-go / work-in-progress pictures, it just ain't gonna happen.

BTW & FYI, coincidentally, over on TOP today, there is an entry, Virtuous Techniques? which addresses the same topic. A coincidence which, as the entry author, Ctein, states is "perhaps just another example of great minds lying in the same gutter.

Wednesday
May252011

civilized ku 967 ~ since 1894

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Veniero Pasticceria / Since 1894 ~ East Village - NYC, NY • click to embiggen