civilized ku # 947 ~ a stop over on my way south

Weather vane on tower ~ Albany, NY • click to embiggenIt's Monday AM and I'm NYC until Wednesday, when I will continue my journey south to my final destination point - South Jersey, where I will join the wife and host of other family members for Comagirl's graduation from college (Saint Joseph's University - Philadelphia, PA) on Saturday.

While in NYC, I hope to visit some galleries in Chelsea and, of course, there will be the near-Pavlovian visit to B&H. Although, the B&H visit is intended to be for the benefit of my NYC friend - he's going to Europe at the end of May and wants to have a good camera for the trip. It looks like that camera will be a factory refurb Olympus E-PL1 w 14-28mm lens and a 40-150mm lens (also a factory refurb) thrown in for good measure, all for about $460US.

Note to wife: In the event that I pull out my wallet while in B&H, Robert has been instructed to snatch it from my hand and not return it until we are safely out of the building and a good distance away from the B&H neighborhood. At least that's the plan.

Note to everyone else, re: today's picture: I find this picture to have a distinctly European culture/geographic look to it. The picture was made from an elevated vantage point on Albany's Capitol Hill where the SUNY (State Univ. of NY) System Administration Building, also known as the Old D&H Railroad Building, looms alone above the trees of an Empire State Plaza grove of trees. In addition to the surround of Spring greenery, the Gothic architecture of the tower certainly lends an European flavor to the picture.

That flavor is tempered, some might suggest "destroyed", by the looming water storage tanks on the distant hill. But, of course, that "distracting" element of the real could be easily removed (in PS) by the pretty picture crowd in their never ending quest to sanitize (and embellish) the real world from all of its "imperfections". I would also guess that the same crowd would wish for the disappearance of the crane arm as well.

Me? I like the crane arm and the water storage tanks. Why? Because: 1) together they represent the real, and, 2) in doing so obliterate any false / abstract and romanticized depiction of an imagined / fantasized idyllic which, in turn, focuses attention on the distinction between the ideal and non-ideal realm.

an aside: I don't believe that it would be a stretch to give all of my pictures the subtitle, "Hey, people, get real and then deal with it." Or, for that mater, maybe I could use that as the over-arching main title for all of my pictures.

FYI, the tower is topped by a working weather vane which is a replica of the Halve Maen (the Half Moon), a Dutch East India Company ship - captained by Henry Hudson - which sailed (in September 1609) into what is now New York harbor and up the now aptly named Hudson River as far as the present day location of Albany, New York.

pinhole # 2-5 ~ in your face

Hugo • click to embiggen
Spring leaf • click to embiggen
Finger pointing • click to embiggen
Pinocchio • click to embiggenOne of the characteristics of pinhole pictures that I have always liked is that of "infinite" depth of field. As stated on the Pinwide website - Place the camera in the grass, and even the closest blades of grass will be as sharp as the trees in the background. Of course, the phrase "as sharp as" needs to be taken with a grain of pinhole salt inasmuch as nothing in a pinhole picture is actually sharp.

Be that as it may, I can state with a high degree of assurance that most of my pinhole endeavors will emphasis the infinite DOF / near/far characteristic created by the Pinwide pinhole.

FYI, Hugo's face was approximately 1-2 inches in front of the Pinwide device(? - after all, it's not a Pinwide lens).

civilized ku # 946 ~ as different as night and day

Night and day ~ Albany, NY • click to embiggenRegarding the ongoing cliche, derivative, originality discussion, John Linn wrote:

I found the OpEd: 10 Oeuvres Aspiring Photographers Should Ignore article depressing... too much about what NOT to do. Give me a break, I'll do what I want.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I found the article humorous and somewhat tongue-in-cheek-ish. IMO, the authors were serious but only up to a point. And that point was simply that, for picture makers, there is a tendency to follow the herd albeit in many cases with an attempt to add one's own personal touches to the process. Although, I can understand why the true-to-the-original copy-the-leaders (not a reference to John Linn) crowd might be upset with the article.

In any event, unless a picture (or body of work) is just an uninspired rehash of one that has come before it, I don't get all that worked up about it. I just keep on moving to the next picture(s).

IMO, John Szarkowski said it best (and, FYI, I agree):

I am afraid that you have misunderstood my views. I am not especially interested in anonymous photography, or pictorialist photography, or avant-garde photography, or in straight, crooked or any other subspecific category of photography; I am interested in the entire, indivisible, hairy beast—because in the real world, where photographs are made, these subspecies, or races, interbreed shamelessly and continually.

civilized ku # 945 ~ an alien spacecraft?

A glimpse of The Egg ~ Albany, NY • click to embiggenJohn Linn also wrote:

I have been a pretty active commenter on your blog (perhaps too active?)

IMO, there is no such thing as "too active" when it comes to being an active commenter on this blog.

civilized ku # 944 ~ ask and you shall receive

Tree and construction barrel ~ Albany, NY • click to embiggenAs per his request, Mike C (no link provided) gets his wish. Frank and John will get theirs too.

civilized ku # 943 ~ out of the mouth of babes

Portal ~ Empire State Plaza - Albany, NY • click to embiggenSo, after my Albany walkabout, I'm sitting in the hotel bar & grill having a late lunch and killing a couple hours while waiting for the wife to finish up with her conference when, right out of the blue, I find myself engaged in (with a very unlikely source - a decidedly middle-aged bartendress*) a relatively brief conversation about the medium of photography.

Most certainly, the conversation was instigated by 2 factors: 1) my E-3 (with battery grip and big-ass 50-200mm lens attached) and my E-P1 were sitting on the bar. The bartendress had commented a couple times regarding how much she liked "that big camera" (and, NO, I did not take that as a come-on, although, in a previous life ....), and, 2) somewhere along the line, she had inquired about the referents in my Albany-based picturing (my words, not hers). In response I had shown her, on the E-P1 LCD, the night tulip picture - top row, 2nd from the left on the "contact sheet" pictured in the last entry - to which she expressed a mild sense of never-saw-it-that-way-before amazement (she must see it every day).

Eventually, when she took a break from her make-busy work - the place was nearly empty - she came over and started up with a comment about how she had read, in one of those "crazy women's magazines" (her words, not mine), about how to solve, by using pictures, some decorating challenges.

The magazine article had proffered the idea of making pictures of a room "as is" and then looking closely at the resulting pictures. The exercise, it was claimed, would make visually obvious those items in the room that were either out of place and in need of rearranging, in need of replacement, or in need of removal. The point of the exercise was the idea of seeing something in a picture in a different manner than that in which one sees with their eyes alone - that the relationship between the room and the things in the room and of the things to each other would become more readily apparent than they would be when seen with the eyes alone.

The article also suggested that one would notice things ("clutter") in the pictures that one did not notice when looking at the room with unaided eyes. It addressed the issue of clutter by stating that you should take pictures of all of your "clutter" and then throw all the unnecessary stuff away because you will not only have pictures of the stuff at hand for viewing - complete with associated memories - but the pictures would me much easier to store away and you could have them forever.

In a fine example of the adage "out of the mouth of babes**" (even though she was no "babe" in any sense of the word), the bartendress was very obviously connecting the dots between the aforementioned article and the her response to the picture of the tulips. It was a response and observation to which I was only to happy to lend emphasis by reinforcing that very idea - pictures do allow the observant and thoughtful viewer "to see" things - both real and inferred - that we don't see in real time in the same way or even see at all. And, as she pointed out with the clutter thing, we can "see" those things over and over again until the end of (our) time.

IMO, after a lifetime of reading about and listening to ideas and concepts (from all over the picturing landscape) about the medium and its strengths, I have come to the conclusion that it all comes down to a relatively simple observation:

The medium of photography, as a result of its unique characteristic as a cohort of/with the real and its concomitant ability to accurately picture / represent the same, allows us "to see" things in pictures in a markedly different manner than we do in real-time and with our eyes alone. In many applications, pictures allow us to see things that we do not see in real-time and with our eyes alone. Or, perhaps more accurately, to see things that we see but are not paying attention to.

As a result of this seeing differently and/or seeing things we have never noticed before, the informed, thoughtful, and observant viewer can often be led/guided to seeing things, emotionally and intellectually, differently as well.

And, as an added feature, within the limits of the medium's archival possibilities, we can preserve those observations of fleeting moments in time for posterity.

IMO, even though this simple observation about the medium can be spun off in a zillion related possibilities, at its core, this is the medium's unique-amongst-the-visual-arts strength and defining characteristic. And, furthermore, it is the understanding, use, and successful implementation of the tenets of this simple observation that create the distinguishing characteristics of pictures which move beyond the Decorative and into the realm of Fine Art.

A tip of the hat and many thanks to the middle-aged bartendress who, in a serendipitous encounter, helped reinforce these ideas as the touchstone of my relationship with the medium of photography.

*it most definitely should not be understood, directly or implied, that I do not expect to receive thoughtful or considered opinions or ideas about the medium of photography from middle-aged women, or, for that matter, from any woman regardless of age or occupation. I am merely pointing out that I did not expect from the bartendress or the circumstances in question. OK? Understand?

**something that you say when a small child says something that surprises you because it shows an adult's wisdom and understanding of a situation.

FYI

The hereafter • click to embiggenIn the wake of OBL's demise, some - 61% in a CNN poll - believe he is currently (and for all time) residing in Hell. There are others who believe he died a martyr's death and is currently enjoying all of the virgins-in-waiting and other benefits thereof.

Then, as seen in this AM's local newspaper, there is the editorial cartoonist who has a different view on the matter.

Me, I'm just satisfied that he is gone and that his death had a karma-like symmetry to it - sudden, terrifying, and violent - that mirrored the deaths of thousands for which he was responsible.

civilized ku(s) ~ a "contact sheet"

Albany, NY ~ "contact sheet" • click to embiggenAs I was processing the results from yesterday's Albany walkabout, it occurred to me to make a "contact sheet" of sorts. So I did.

The pictures are arranged in chronological order - that is, the order in which they were made. There are still a few pictures (6-8) left to process that will have to be sandwiched in for the final contact sheet. Or, perhaps I'll just make a separate contact sheet for them.

In any event, I like the idea of having a printed collection of a "shoot" much better than an on-screen virtual one. Don't know why I haven't thought of doing this before.

FYI, I'll be posting many of these pictures in upcoming entries. Any requests for which ones you'd like to see as individual posts?