civilized ku # 745 ~ dead bugs, seen and noted

Dead bugs • click to embiggenThis past weekend while following my own advice from civilized ku # 729 - "If you want to hone your ability to see, the next time you go into your bathroom to sit on the toilet, spend some time looking at things with the aim of getting a feel for the place and the things in the place" - I noticed an irregular dark shadowy ring around the bottom of a frosted glass wall sconce shade.

Upon further investigation, It was determined that the cause was an approximately 1/2 inch ring of dead bugs. Quite picturesque, IMO.

civilized ku # 744 ~ Autumn color # 54 / thinking - on seeing

Point Park ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenIt has been suggested by Sven W that ... Perhaps a complementary way of explaining your thoughts is to "work through" a few of your images? i.e Explain the what & why of your thinking before / during the creation of an image ... Perhaps from this "bottom up" approach you might also discern some of the principles that go into the seeing process.

On related note, it has been stated by Ken Bello that ... I take a more pragmatic approach to my own work, more gut-feeling than thought process. When I go out with my camera, I don't have any preconceptions of what I want. I just let it happen. It requires less discipline but allows me a little extra freedom.

IMO, these 2 comments are related, re: how I make my pictures.

In answer to Sven W's suggestion to explain "the what & why (and I would add "the how") of your thinking before / during the creation of an image", it's very simple - I don't "think" at all before / during the creation of an image. Much like Ken Bello, I "just let it happen".

In fact, as I have stated quite a number of times, I make a very concerted effort to keep my mind free of picture making thoughts when I am picture making. My state of awareness is totally centered around just the act of seeing. That said, I can walk and chew gum at the same time, so, quite obviously, some part of my awareness is still based upon getting one foot in front of the other and not failing into a ditch / over a cliff / or some other calamity. But, truth be told, I no longer need to make a concerted effort to to keep my mind free of picture making thoughts - over time it has become second nature to me to remember to forget all that stuff and just concentrate upon the act of seeing.

However, it must be stated that one's ability to "just let it happen" is, in reality, an act of letting go of all - not just picture making stuff - that one has seen and learned in his/her life. Nevertheless, part and parcel of the act of letting go, is also the act of trusting that all that all that one has seen and learned in life will, in fact (despite being "forgotten" during the act of picture making), influence, guide and inform the what, the why, and the how of one's picture making.

As was opined by the aforementioned Robert Henri (in his book, The Art Spirit) ...

.... The best art the world has ever had is but the impress left by men (I, The Landscapist would amend that to read, "by men and women") who have thought less of making great art than of living full and completely with all their faculties in the enjoyment of full play. From these the result is inevitable ... it is the measure of the man. (and woman).

Ultimately, the notion of great art as "the measure of the man/woman", is the reason why explaining the what, why and how of one's picture making as an instructional guide for another's picture making is ultimately rather futile, perhaps even counterproductive to learning how to see.

IMO, the only way to learn how to see for one's self is by engaging in self-education. Again, from Robert Henri:

Let a student enter a school with this advice:

No, matter how good the school is, his eduction is in his own hands. All education must be self-education ... [A] school should be an offering of opportunity, not a direction and the student should know that the school will be good for him only to the degree that he makes it good ... [T]he man who goes into to a school to educate himself and not be educated will get somewhere. He should start out as a master, master of such as he has, however little that may be. By being master of such as he has in the beginning it is likely that he may later be master .. of much.

In other words, spend your time / efforts, or most of it, understanding and then building upon that which you already possess.

Understanding what you possess is an exercise in self-knowledge and no one can undertake that endeavor but oneself. And, once understood, no one can build upon that foundation other than oneself by determining and knowing one's direction and goals.

It's really that simple, and make no mistake about it, it's also really that difficult. There are no shortcuts. There are no instructional books that can teach you how to "master" yourself. In fact, IMO, most such books lead you away from understanding one's self by taking you down the primrose path of following the "leader".

civilized ku # 743 ~ Caravaggio?

The day that Alice died ~ Merchantville, NJ • click to embiggenOn civilized ku # 730 Sven W asked 2 questions:

Love these images - candid but the light and depth of colour are beautiful. Am I the only one thinking Caravaggio? ;-) ... On a technical note, were these taken with the DSLR or m4/3?

The pictures, to include today's picture, were made with my m4/3 camera.

And, yes, at the point of processing the pictures, I was immediately struck by their Caravaggio-like chiaroscuro, aka: strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for using contrasts of light to achieve a sense of volume in modeling three-dimensional objects such as the human body.

In addition to the chiaroscuro, I was also struck by the Caravaggio-like quality of the relationships and interaction of the human figures in the pictures. That was especially so in the picture on the right side of the entry.

ku # 828 ~ Autumn color # 53

Fox ~ Wanakena, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenOn ku # 827 Mary Dennis asked:

... am I imagining things? Is that dark spot at the grass/tree dividing line a black bear snout?

Yes, Mary, you are imaging things. We didn't encounter any bears on our recent getaway despite the fact that, on the general store's community bulletin board (in Wakanena), there were several recent up-close-and-personal reports of bear encounters.

That said, we did see a rather unusual number of fox in several different locations.

civilized ku # 742 ~ on seeing

Open motel door ~ Long Lake, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenOn yesterday's entry, civilized ku # 740, Larry stated: I am always questioning/searching, is this a copy? is this what I have learned as a good photo? where is the Larry in this photo? ... I want more from the picture, intrigue, questions, poetry.

What Larry wants - intrigue, questions, poetry, and soon on - are qualities that most picture makers want in their pictures. However, IMO, it is very unrealistic to expect the full greatest-hit bonanza in every picture one makes. Far from it. It takes time, effort, and patience for greatest-hit type pictures to emerge from one's picture making endeavors.

The production of a "greatest hit" is always the result of immersing oneself thoroughly in a project. To set out to make a "greatest hit" photograph will always fail ~ Brooks Jensen

IMO, if one is obsessed with making "greatest hit" pictures, that is when one stoops to tricks and gimmicks in order to juice things up. Next thing you know, you're banging out a bunch of flash in the pan tour de farces that are all flash and no beef.

I think of my greatest-hit pictures as the fruits of my long-term labor. And those pictures are never thought of, at the moment of picture making, as surefire fodder for my greatest-hits parade. In virtually every case, the realization that I might have struck gold comes well after I have processed, printed, and lived with a picture for reasonable length of time.

And that's the thing, really good / interesting pictures are most often considered as such because they have stood the test of time.

And, FYI, I think Brooks Jensen also had it right when he opined that ...

A good photograph, when first seen, hits you like a ton of bricks. A better photograph is often almost unseen at first but comes back to mind over and over again long after you have stopped looking at it.

Update on Monday, October 25, 2010 at 12:05PM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment: Seven W (no link provided) wrote: "You mentioned earlier the benefit of simplifying gear / technique to help focus the mind on seeing. What about B&W? Does eliminating colour from the process help with seeing or is it introducing another [unwanted] element?

my response: B/W picture making and color picturing making are entirely different methods of making pictures. Independent of your pictured referent, the former depends upon tonal relationships and their use within the frame whereas the latter depends upon color and its use within the frame.

So, if you make B/W pictures, you need to think and see - again, independent of referent - in tonal values and their relationships whereas. if you make color pictures, you need to think and see in color and their relationships.

Making B/W pictures, if that is not your medium, in order to improve your seeing seems, at best, counter-intuitive / productive, at worst, a near-total waste of time and effort.

ku # 827 ~ Autumn color # 52

Grasses and growth ~ Long Lake, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

civilized ku # 741 ~ FYI

Lake Apartments / For Rent ~ Long Lake, NY - in the Adirondack PARK• click to embiggenFYI: I am very interested in feedback, comments, suggestions, and informed / thoughtful criticism re: my thoughts, notions, and ideas on seeing.

Although I am one accomplished, experienced, informed, and knowledgeable SOB, re: picture making, I do not consider that I am writing unerringly / ex cathedra on the subject of seeing. In a very real sense and in my quest to produce a book, I consider you to be my rough-draft proof readers and critics.

All input will be greatly appreciated.

civilized ku # 740 ~ rainy day / on seeing

Weber's Drive In ~ Pennsauken, NJ • click to embiggenQuite obviously, the act of seeing is employed in the act of picturing. However, it would be very erroneous to think that that same act is limited to just making pictures because it is an equally valuable asset, re: the act of viewing pictures (both your own pictures as well as those made by others).

Viewing pictures, lots and lots of them, made by picture makers other than yourself could legitimately be labeled STEP # 3 on the path to improving one's ability to see.

Assuming that one has broken free from the spell of cliched pretty pictures and that you are engaged in viewing pictures outside of that box - whatever the source - chances are good that you will be viewing pictures that point to things, noted and connoted, that other picture makers think are worthy of a viewer's attention. The curious in the viewing crowd can, in the cause of learning, approach such pictures as a kind of puzzle that tests and challenges their ability to see - often in the guise of the same question(s) posed by Larry on the civlized ku # 729 entry -

I am frequently stuck with the question of what makes a good/interesting photograph. For instance, some the the photographs that you post here (Autumn color #50) leave me wondering what is this about? why do I care? What am I missing/not seeing?

The answer to those questions, re: my pictures, is hinted at, in part, in the previously proffered words of Stephen Shore - I (The Landscapist) am primarily interested in "looking at the everyday world with clear and focused attention" because I am involved with exploring the notion of, as stated in the "About This Website" sidebar section, "photography that aims at being true, not at being beautiful because what is true is most often beautiful."

I could further state - in a well written Artist Statement - my thoughts on my notion of the meaning of the word "beautiful" and how I attempt to express those notions in both the noted and the connoted in my pictures, thus giving additional hints at what this is about ... why you should care ... and what you are missing/not seeing.

Whether anyone agrees with my thoughts and notions or appreciates them - intellectually, emotionally, and in their picture form - is entirely up to the viewer(s) of my pictures - nothing I say/write or do can convinced someone who doesn't get what I am doing that they should nevertheless, "get it".

All of that said, and back to the original point of viewing lots and lots of pictures in the cause of improving one's ability to see, even if one does not "get it" when viewing some (or many) of the pictures made by others, at the very least, one can get an idea of what others think is worthy of pointing a camera at. And, if an Artist Statement accompanies those pictures, one can also get and idea of why the picture makers think that what they have pointed their cameras at is worthy of attention.

An IMPORTANT ASIDE: One should use caution when viewing pictures made by others in that, no matter of good/interesting many of those may be, one should always keep in mind STEP # 1 - remember to forget what you have been told is a good photograph. Failure to do so could lead to, in the words of Robert Henri ...

Your pictures seem to to be made up of things seen in nature plus a memory of pictures you have liked. The percentage of the latter is often too great.

It is also very important to note that STEP # 3 must also include the act of reading about the medium of photography. Reading essays and books that have no pictures (or very few) such as The Art Spirit by Robert Henri, Why People Photograph and Beauty in Photography: Essays in Defense of Traditional Values by Robert Adams, PHOTOGRAPHY: A Very Short Introduction by Steve Edwards, The New Color by Sally Eauclaire (out of print but easy to find - and a tip of the hat to anyone who finds my name on the Acknowledgments page), to name just a few.