triptych # 8 ~ munching my way to Armageddon

Rulfs Orchards ~ Peru, NY • click to embiggenRulfs Orchard is one of the regular stops on our farm store shopping rota. One of the advantages of where we live is the fact that the wife and I get a lot of our beef, pork, chicken, produce and fruit directly from local farms and we're here to tell you that there ain't nothing like farm fresh food.

Rulfs Orchard is our primary source of apples (8 varieties) but they also grow strawberries, blueberries, vegetables, sweet corn, pumpkins & more. All of that is all well and good but as far as I'm concerned the real bonus is an on-premise bakery featuring homemade crumb & pastry pies, cream pies, fruit pies, donuts (as Homer Simpson might say, " Mmmmm, donuts. Is there anything they can't do?"), cookies, breads, muffins, sticky bnuns, and cakes.

The way I figure it, if I eat enough of Rulfs fresh fruit and vegetables, I can eat as much of the bakery stuff as I can stuff down my gullet. No problem. Right?

civilized ku # 2394-96 / # 2389 (repost) ~ play it again (and again) Sam / recycling

Ghost town building ~ Tawhaus /Adirondac, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenMcIntrye Furnace ~ Tawhaus / Adirondac , NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenMc Intrye Furnace ruins ~ Tawhaus / Adirondac, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenAs previously mentioned, I recently paid a visit to the abandoned village of Tawhaus, formerly known as Adirondac. Over the last 170 years, the village has been an on-again off-again iron ore mining community.

The first ore was mined from the site in 1827. The McIntrye Furnace and iron works (pictured above) were added to the site in 1854 but was only in operation for approximately 18 months before it closed down. The closure was due to 3 issues - 1) the difficulty and expense of getting the iron out of the area (poor roads and no railroad), 2) a recession which drove down the need for iron, and, most interestingly, 3) impurities in the ore which made it difficult to process into clean pig iron.

After the mine closed, it remained dormant for 3/4 of a century when it reopened with the backing ($$$$$) of the US Government. That backing was instigated by the fact that the previously noted "impurity", aka titanium, was in demand for the war effort (WWII). A large part the government largess was used to construct a railroad line which solved the transportation issue.

The titanium operation ceased in 1980s (the rail line was abandoned in 1989) and, once again, the mine sat idle. The operation left behind mountains, 3 million tons worth, of tailings (materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction of an ore). That "uneconomic fraction" has just sat there ever since, until ....

... it recently came to light that those tailings are now quite valuable. Not only are they in demand as road aggregate but the mine is also loaded with an uncommon concentration of rare earths, elements which have a range of applications from batteries and lasers to wind turbines and energy-efficient lighting. China provides about 97 percent of the world's rare earths but has been reducing its exports, apparently to supply its own growing technology sector. So ....

... the rail line is being restored and the mine will, once again, be turning one generation's shit into another generation's shinola, giving new meaning to the adage of, one man's garbage is another man's gold.

FYI, the blast furnace (being restored) and mill works (as they were when the mill structure collapsed, c. 1857) pictured above have recently been unearthed from 160 years of dense forest and earthen concealment. Note the remnant of an enormous stone dam which impounded water, from the adjacent Hudson River (no more than 20-30 feet wide at this point), which was used to drive a water wheel, which drove the gears, which drove the armature, which drove the pistons, which provided the furnace with blast air - all of which are visible in the diptych pictures.

The village of Adirondac is also notable for the fact that, in September 1901, then Vice President Theodore Roosevelt - staying at the McNaughton Cottage (currently being restored) at the Tahawus Club in the now ghost town of Adirondac - was descending from a climb on Mt. Marcy when he was met by a forest ranger and received the news that President William McKinley had been shot. Roosevelt immediately embarked from the club on an historic midnight carriage ride along the back roads of the Adirondacks to the North Creek Railroad station. At the station, Roosevelt received a telegram informing him that President McKinley had died. As a result, Roosevelt became the nation's 26th president.

All in all, Tawhaus / Adirondac is very interesting place.

civilized ku # 2393 / diptych # 15 / triptych # 7 ~ "handling" color

Garden hose ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenCherry trees ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenSmall quarry ~ Peru, NY • click to embiggenOn the entry ku # 1219 ~ entre chien et loup, Sven (no link provided) wrote:

I really like the way you and another photographer / blogger (Ming Thein) handle colour ... my efforts are ham-fisted compared to you two guys ... Any advice on the topic would be appreciated!

my response: It would very time consuming, entry making wise, to give meaningful / comprehensive advice, re: color processing work, on this blog inasmuch as my color work on any given picture is usually quite involved / complex with many individual steps. An entry detailing such work would have to be very long and involve the making of a significant number of screen grabs, all of which, to be honest, is more work than I am inclined to do.

That written, I can try to give a broad / general outline of my color processing procedures ...

1) I always shoot RAW, so my first step is a RAW conversion - using a dedicated conversion only software - in which I make global color adjustments. The objective is to produce a file which is, over all, color corrected / adjusted to the original scene. On many occasions, I also convert a second ISO bracketed image file for use in capturing additional highlight or shadow detail.

During the conversion processing, I use WB correction, global exposure adjustment (very minor, if at all), curves (LAB and RGB, depending upon my objective), global hue & saturation correction, shadow adjustment (again, very minor, if at all), and highlight recovery (if needed).

2) After the converted file(s) are saved, I open it in Photoshop and go to work - at this point, I make localized color, hue and saturation, and tonal adjustments as I deem necessary to achieve a result which is as true to the original scene as is possible. I pay particular attention to over saturation in individual colors and color casts such as UV effects.

Some localized adjustments are made by copying and blending highlight or shadow detail, taken from my ISO bracketed file(s), into my master image file. The blending is achieved by placing the copied details on separate layer and blended using the Multiply or Screen blending options and the opacity slider in the Layers Palette.

In Photoshop, my primary adjustment tools are; curves in both RGB and LAB color space (each color space has its own specific capabilities), hue & saturation sliders (generally for specific individual colors), sponge tool, and the eraser tool (for very fine localized blending).

When checking for color casts or making color adjustments, I rely on my eyes (my monitor is well calibrated) together with the Info Palette - the Info Palette can tell me exactly where on an individual color curve to make an adjustment as well as determining, numerically, the results of a color adjustment.

The Info Palette is especially useful in obtaining very clean neutral colors (whites, grays, blacks). Good clean neutral colors in a picture are very important because all other colors will "pop" (without the need for over-saturation techiniques) when they play off neutrals.

One of things I am most pleased with, re: processing pictures, is the fact that most viewers of my pictures really think that I don't do any post picture making processing at all. Their first impression is that I have just used what the camera gave me because my pictures look so "natural".

IMO, that impression is a highly desirable end result. After all, as Robert Adams wrote In his book, Beauty in Photography:

Why do most great pictures look uncontrived? Why do photographers bother with the deception, especially since it so often requires the hardest work of all? The answer is, I think, that the deception is necessary if the goal of art is to be reached: only pictures that look as if they had been easily made can convincingly suggest that beauty is commonplace.

All of that written, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that, when making pictures, I have an eye for color. In a very real sense, my eye for color in the natural / human-made world is the most important asset I have for "handling" color. My eye is very aware of and sensitive to color harmony or color discord and I use both color qualities / characteristics in the making of my pictures. Again, in a very real sense, I have a "head start" with "handling" color even before I set to work in the processing arena.

triptych # 6 ~ American amnesia

Commemorative monument / Battle of Valcour Island ~ Peru, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenI am constantly amazed, in so many ways, by American's collective amnesia.

One case in point will be on view today, Election Day, when an incredible number of memory-impaired fellow citizens will cast their vote for a man who needs Obamacare to cover his pre-existing condition of Stage 3 Romnesia and who spouts a litany of failed policy ideas. Ideas which, in their last and most recent implementation, flushed our economy (taking a good part of the world economy with it) down the toilet and also turned our national debt from a surplus into a deficit. Those memory deficit voters seem to not understand the adage which tells us that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.

That written, another area of American Memory Deficit Disorder (AMDD) is found in the arena of American history. Very few Americans, with exception of avid history buffs, remember, much less know about, the significant tide-turning battles fought along the Adirondack Coast during the American Revolutionary War.

Case in point, the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain.

Seriously, how many out there have ever heard of it? A battle which most military historians regard as the turning point of the American Revolutionary War. A battle - one amongst many along the Adirondack Coast and nearby environs - in which Benedict Arnold (later to become America's most notorious traitor) distinguished himself as an American Revolution Patriot of the highest order, an esteemed position which he later embellished* by his actions during the Battle of Saratoga.

While most Americans know Benedict Arnold as a traitor, I wonder how many know of his many heroic actions on the battlefield. Actions, which in my neck of the Adirondack woods, have him in good standing as a true American Patriot.

*Bendict Arnold distinguished himself through acts of intelligence and bravery. His actions included the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775, defensive and delaying tactics despite losing the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain in 1776, the Battle of Ridgefield, Connecticut (after which he was promoted to major general), operations in relief of the Siege of Fort Stanwix, and key actions during the pivotal Battles of Saratoga in 1777, in which he suffered leg injuries that ended his combat career for several years ... Despite Arnold's successes, he was passed over for promotion by the Continental Congress while other officers claimed credit for some of his accomplishments.

civilized ku # 2392 / diptych # 14 ~ prettiness / pettiness - foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds

Northern Orchard ~ Peru, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenNorthern Orchard ~ Peru, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenMuch has been written here on The Landscapist regarding seeing/vision. IMO, the topic garners and holds interest for many Landscapist followers because they desire, in their picture making, to get beyond the confines and staleness of the ubiquitous seen-it-before, camera club cliché.

Some visitors have their interest piqued by my pictures, some by my words, and yet others by both. Then there are the words uttered / written by those (other than me) whose quotes I present from time to time. It is in that vein that I present the following quotes, which I believe have great relevance for those who are in pursuit of simple/plain seeing ....

Do not be caught by the sensational in nature, as a coarse red-faced sunset, a garrulous waterfall, or a fifteen thousand foot mountain... avoid prettiness - the word looks much like pettiness - and there is but little difference between them. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

This benefit of seeing...can come only if you pause a while, extricate yourself from the maddening mob of quick impressions ceaselessly battering our lives, and look thoughtfully at a quiet image...the viewer must be willing to pause, to look again, to meditate. ~ Dorothea Lange

IMO, the Emerson quote has relevance, re: seeing, simply because, if your seeing is piqued only by the visually obvious "grand and glorious", chances are very good that you will be blinded by that light (as well as "the light") and, consequently, miss the rest of what the world as to offer. Or, as John Szarkowski stated ...

Photography is a contest between a photographer and the presumptions of approximate and habitual seeing. The contest can be held anywhere...

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the contest can truly be held anywhere - not just in the shadow of the iconic sunset, waterfall, mountain, et al.

If you're having trouble escaping from the clutches of the drug addicted like state of picturing only the iconic "grand and glorious", you might try pretending (if necessary) that you are a practicing member of a Christian sect and further pretend that you are giving up such picture making for Lent ... a Lenten season which lasts for, say, 6-12 months. Consider it a time spent in picture making Purgatory, suffering a penance for which you will later be amply rewarded, seeing/vision wise.

During that time spent in Purgatory, pass the time practicing Dorothea Lange's advice to "extricate yourself from the maddening mob of quick impressions ceaselessly battering our lives" - I can only imagine what she might think of today's media saturated culture - "and look thoughtfully at a quiet image ... pause a while, look again, and meditate" at/on what your eyes behold, not only in "quiet" pictures but also in the "quiet" world around you. With practice and perseverance, you might be surprised at what you begin to see.

And remember, picturing making wise (and in life) ...

Whosoever would be a (wo)man, must be a nonconformist....A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds....To be great is to be misunderstood. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

diptych # 13 ~ porch / doors

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

It is curious that I always want to group things, a series of sonnets, a series of photographs; whatever rationalizations appear, they originate in urges that are rarely satisfied with single images. ~ Minor White

civilized ku # 2391 / ku # 1220 / single women # 26 ~ time flies when you're having fun

Mirror Lake* / snow ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Single woman ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Bonsai tree ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenLast week seemed like a very short week - the wife and I didn't get back from our long weekend away until late on Monday and on Thursday it was on to Lake Placid for an overnight at the wife's workshop / retreat. It was her event and I was just along as arm candy. Throw in a rush picturing job and I didn't know what time / day it was, much less where the time went.

In any event, I have fallen way behind in posting pictures. I must have 20 or more, made over the last 2 weeks, ready to go. This week is looking a little more normal, so I'll try my best to get them all posted, along with answering a few questions raised in comments.

*It may seem a bit odd but, Mirror Lake is in the center of the village of Lake Placid. Lake Placid (the lake) adjoins the village as well, albeit mostly out of sight.