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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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Entries from November 1, 2009 - November 30, 2009

Monday
Nov302009

civilized ku # 281-84 ~ NYC's finest

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Hugo ~ Central Park Zoo, NYC • click to embiggen
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East > west ~ Central Park, NYC • click to embiggen
I am definitely not one who enjoys big crowds - 3,500,000 people is a big crowd - so my notion of taking Hugo to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was potentially fraught with peril or, at least, frustration and aggravation. However, sometimes plunging ahead despite one's misgivings works out just fine.

By entering NYC (via the GW bridge) and proceeding down the FDR on the eastside, we were able to make it to E65th without a single momentary delay. Once there, it was into a parking garage, a walk straight across 65th to Central Park West and, voila, there we were - right on the parade route albeit behind a 7' granite block wall that runs along the park boundary and the Central Park West sidewalk. All other normal access to the sidewalk was cordoned off.

Just for the hell of it, I hoisted Hugo up onto the top of the wall so he could see what was what (the parade had not yet begun). In addition to what must have seemed like a zillion people, Hugo was face to face with a (as it turned out) kindly Puerto Rican gentleman, who, peering over the edge, offered to help hoist me up and over the wall.

So, after soothing Hugo's where's-grandpa-I'll-never-see-my-family-and-friends-again anxiety attack, a failed attempt was made to get my ass up there. Within a few seconds, another person approached me from behind and as he lifted and the other person pulled and I squirmed and wiggled as much as anyone can under such conditions, I got my upper torso on top of the wall where I managed to land ribs-first on my camera bag's belt buckle - ouch.

That said, after giving up the body for the kid, there we were with a great ringside seat - well, not exactly a seat ... the Puerto Rican gentleman and his family had snagged a sidewalk bench to stand on and there was just enough space on it, which they invited us to share, for me and Hugo.

After seeing most of what there was to see, parade-wise, Hugo decided it was time to leave. After trying to get back into the park via a "normal" route - did I mentioned that all entrances were cordoned off? - it became apparent that the over-the-wall procedure would have to be undertaken once again. No way was I going over the 7' section so we were able to find a a lower section where, once again, I handed Hugo over it to a kindly black woman and over I went unassisted.

Now here the interesting thing about all of this - both over-the-wall events required that I hand my Olympus E-3 (with battery grip), not to mention the kid, to a bystander while I squirmed, wiggled, and otherwise embarrassed myself in getting over the wall.

Call me a fool, but I didn't hesitate for a moment in handing over either the camera or the kid to complete strangers. And guess what, smiles and thanks from all the participants was the order of the day. It really was a nice feeling to experience that in what many might consider to be a rather uptight situation.

Once over the wall, we walked back across the park to the parking garage where we paid our $60 parking fee to a ultra-friendly Russian attendant - when Hugo handed him the ticket, he would only deal with him when it came to payment - and left the city after a great friendly multi-cultural experience that we will remember for years to come.

Monday
Nov302009

civilized ku # 277-80 ~ fun

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Miss Liberty ~ Macy's 83rd Thanksgiving Day Parade • click to embiggen
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Ronald McDonald, Kermit the Frog, & Horton ~ Macy's 83rd Thanksgiving Day Parade • click to embiggen
Hugo and I ventured into NYC early on Thanksgiving morning to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade - or, to be more accurate, Hugo and I and about 3,500,000 other people.

Thursday
Nov262009

FYI

Happy Thanksgiving to all those who celebrate it and in the spirit of the day I wish to say that I am grateful to all those who - just by visiting and/or contributing - continue to make The Landscapist a worthwhile underaking. Thanks a million.

FYI, I'm eating turkey in New Jersey and taking Hugo to the Macy Thanksgiving Day Parade. I'll be back in the saddle late on Friday / early Saturday at which time I will continue with the regulary scheduled programing.

Wednesday
Nov252009

ku # 658 ~ along the trail

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Hillside trees ~ Taughannock Falls State Park • click to embiggen

Wednesday
Nov252009

man & nature # 284 ~ along the trail # 2

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Steps to the stream ~ Taughannock Falls State Park • click to embiggen

Tuesday
Nov242009

tuscany # 88-91 - please, take their kodachrome (velvia) away

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Near Ponte Vecchio ~ Firenze, Tuscana • click to embiggen
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Approaching Ponte Vecchio ~ Firenze, Tuscana • click to embiggen
There are few, myself excluded, who would deny that Saint/Sir Ansel, with an assist from Fred Archer, made a mighty contribution to the craft of BW picturing. His Zone System, a system based upon 10 "zones" / "steps" of tonal density - 0 = absolute black (no detail); 10 = absolute white (no detail / paper white), became a standard by which most BW prints are judged.

Saint/Sir Ansel considered zones 1- 9 to be the zones which contained all of the "useful" detail / information in a print. The whole point of his system was to make an exposure that, coupled with the right development and the right paper grade contrast, would result in a print wherein all the "useful" detail / information in the actual subject would be captured in the print and "spread out" over the zone 1 - zone 9 density range.

Although we, in the digital domain, deal with a density/tonal range of 0-255, the same basic principles apply - the goal of most picture makers is to make a print with densities/tones spread out over zone 1 - zone 9. Or, to put it another way, densities/tones that range from darks that are almost detail-less to highlights that are almost paper white. A range that in the digital world runs from 10 - 250 on the digital scale. And, as in the BW print domain, most color prints are judged by this 10-250 standard.

But, here's the thing about that - in both the bw and color domains - both digital and analog - the zone-system technique most often applied is to compress the real-world density range into the somewhat smaller density range of film and sensors. The techniques for doing so vary considerably from one medium to the other but the desired result is the same - get as much detail information as possible from a real-world scene onto paper.

However, that said, while many picture makers do an admirable job of that technique (read as a "realistic"* job), the one that so many seem to fail at is the opposite technique - that of expanding the density/tonal range of real-world scenes that are, by their very nature, quite compressed. Those scenes were the light is as "flat" as a pancake. The tendency of many is to stretch the density range right out to the max - 10-250 - even though the actual scene densities are contained within a much more compressed range of 50-200 or less.

To my eye and sensibilities, the resulting prints look very artificially "stretched".

Now, if a picture maker's desire is to give us those nice bright colors ... and ... make you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah (because everything looks worse in black and white), then they're on the right track.

But ... in case they haven't noticed, all the world's not a sunny day. There are days when all those nice bright colors take on a more muted and laid-back appearance. There is difference between a sunny day and a cloudy one. Why try to turn all the world into a "sunny" one?

*"realistic" by definition does not include most of those landscape pictures made by the uber-GND wunderkinds - those pictures with the visual hallmark of mismatched skies and foregrounds, especially noticeable when there is water in the foreground. In those pictures the reflection of the sky is always lighter than the sky it reflects, Here's a clue for the GND-ers out there - that's not how it appears in the natural world. Itaque, it is not "realistic".

But, of course, being "realistic" will not give them those nice bright colors and make us think all the world's a sunny day.

Tuesday
Nov242009

civilized ku # 274-76 ~ ever ready

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Mall parking lot ~ Plattsburgh, NY • click to embiggen
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Borders at the Mall ~ Plattsburgh, NY • click to embiggen
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Sears at the Mall ~ Plattsburgh, NY • click to embiggen
Since I am not a light stalker / chaser, I usually only picture "the light" on those occasions when "the light" sneaks up on me and hits me in the eye like a big pizza pie.

Such was the case last Saturday evening as I emerged from the mall. As luck or happenstance would have it, I came into the light at just the right moment (to my eye and sensibilities) - my favorite time of day, entre chien et loup. What I like most about the light entre chien et loup is the slightly odd color that results from the mix of daylight (such as it is at that time) and artificial light (such as it is in man-made environments).

As you might expect, I am not as enamored of the light entre chien et loup for picturing the natural landscape (where no artificial light is in evidence) as I am of it for picturing what might be labeled hand-of-humankind landscapes.

FYI, for those of you haven't been paying attention, entre chien et loup is a French phrase meaning, between the dog and the wolf - that time of day after the sun has gone down but the night has not completely enveloped the landscape. Others of a less effete artistic bent might refer to it as "twilight", "dusk", or the more northern European nomenclature of - think Groundskeeper Willie - the "gloaming".

Tuesday
Nov242009

ku # 654-57 ~ young at heart (and mind)

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Gorge / chasm trees at Taughannock Falls ~ near Ithaca, NY • click to embiggen
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Gorge / chasm growth at Taughannock Falls ~ near Ithaca, NY • click to embiggen
Once I had achieved my Saturday, November 14th objective of picturing Taughannock Falls, I began picturing what really piqued my picturing interest at this location - the narrow strip of land between the trail to the falls with the river/steam that flowed from the falls to the lake and the opposite gorge/chasm wall as a backdrop.

I found it interesting that, while people were picturing up a storm at the falls, nary a camera was in sight or in use along the 3/4 mile trail to and from the falls. In fact, most people didn't even seem to be paying particular attention to anything along the trail other than themselves - chatting, horse-playing, etc. Not that I have a problem with that but there was so much of interest - the stream bed, the cliffs, etc. - to see and explore along that trail that they were missing.

That said, in addition to me, there was group of other people who were exploring the "interesting" stuff to be found along the trail and in the stream bed - young children. Apparently, their native/natural sense of curiosity hadn't yet been dulled or completely destroyed by the fetish of grand and glorious.