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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

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    ADK PLACES TO SIT / LIFE WITHOUT THE APA / RAIN / THE FORKS / EARLY WORK / TANGLES

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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 October 1, 2011 - October 31, 2011

Monday
Oct312011

civilized ku # 1163-68 ~ I'm back / where have I been, you might ask?

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Late Autumn snow ~ Wilmington, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

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Balcony view ~ Mirror Lake Inn / Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen1044757-14866950-thumbnail.jpg
Mission sytle lamp ~ Mirror Lake Inn / Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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Egg, over easy ~ Mirror Lake Inn / Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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Dining room ~ Mirror Lake Inn / Lake Placid, NY in - the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

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Farm stand SALE ~ Wilmington, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
It's been almost a week since my last entry. My intention had been to post an entry last Thursday but a number of things hit the fan before I had to leave for a 2 night stay in Lake Placid.

Even then, I came back home on Friday to process a few new pictures (while the wife was attending a retreat), load them onto a flash drive and return to Lake Placid where I would make an entry while waiting for the wife to wrap things up. Didn't happen. A few other things came up along the way back to Lake Placid so, when I arrived, the wife was already in the room and ready to boogie.

OK, then - how about Saturday? Well ... I arrived home to find the furnace not working (50˚ inside). After dealing with that issue, there was just enough time to spruce things up around the house and get ready for our 8 dinner guests. Once again, the entry was not gonna happen.

Fast forward to Sunday and ... no internet. There was a 30 hour wait until service was restored. Turns out, the service went down Saturday evening and it wasn't restored until very late Sunday night. I'm dedicated to keeping readers informed (and amused?) but ....

All of that said, I have posted a number of pictures in this entry to make up for lost time. The pictures are in chronological order starting with late Autumn snow made on my first trip to Lake Placid then a few from the Mirror Lake Inn (where we stayed), and one more made on my Friday trip home to process pictures. FYI, Lake Placid is only about 20 miles from our house.

More pictures tomorrow and an announcement about a new book project.

Monday
Oct312011

civilized ku # 1169 / ku # 1112 ~ testing ...

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Morning frost / red leaf ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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Pumpkin /sunbeam ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
These 2 pictures were made this AM with a mint-condition used E-P1 and the kit lens, a 14-43mm/f3.5-5.6 M.Zuiko. I was testing the camera to be sure all was well before sending it on to my other son (not the Cinemascpist son) to replace his now non-functioning Canon G10.

The G10 was going to cost $200.00US (a flat fee no matter what was wrong) to repair. Why spend that $$$ when, as it turns out, a mint E-P1 w kit lens (in the box with all accessories, manuals, etc.) can be had for $260.00US on eBay. The camera even had the clear film on the LCD and there were no signs of any wear to be seen.

It is worth noting, for those who might like to try µ4/3 or want a backup camera, there are quite a few similarly priced E-P1s - kits or bodies - out there for the taking.

Tuesday
Oct252011

civilized ku # 1162 ~ dancing solo

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Parking lot cones ~ Saratoga, NY • click to embiggen
There are times when I know a given action on my part will create a rather negative reaction (also on my part) but I go ahead and do it regardless. It would seem that I just can't resist annoying myself. Although, in most cases, I am less annoyed with myself for allowing myself to be annoyed than I am by the annoyance I experience as a result of being annoyed by the annoying activities of others, if you know what I mean.

If you don't know what I mean, let me give you an example ...

As the result of seeing a link (on a photo blog) to an article - Understanding Criticism by Alain Briot - on The Luminous Landscape, I followed the link knowing full well there would most likely be something for me to be annoyed with.

caveat/full disclosure: I am neither a fan of The Luminous Landscape - way too gear/technicals oriented for my taste - nor the pictures of Alain Briot - way too pretty picture / clichéd for my eye and sensibilities. That said, it should be understood that I do not dislike the persons known as Michael Reichmann or Alain Briot in any way inasmuch as I have never met either individual. In the specific case of Alain Briot and the context of this entry, my comments, ironically enough, should be taken only as a critique of the ideas/notions found in Briot's article Understanding Criticism, not as a criticism of Briot's personhood. He and I have differing opinions on the subject. Should Briot come upon this entry, I hope he understands. end caveat/full disclosure

In installment # 2 of Understanding Criticism - item # 4, under the heading of Do not be your own critic, Briot states (the bold emphasis is mine in order to highlight some points I wish to address):

Do not be the critic of your own work. Your personal judgment for your work is based on considerations that are different from those of your audience. Personal emotions and memories are attached to the work that we created. Plus, creating artwork involves a significant amount of time, money, and effort. Therefore, we are understandably bias when it comes to our own work: we tend to think highly of it because of how hard we worked on it.

On the other hand we may also feel that no matter how much effort we put into our work the outcome falls short of our expectations. In that case we may not think much of our work, not because of what the work actually looks like, but because we are looking at the difference between what our original goal was and what we ended up with. Here too, we are bias[sic], but this time in a negative way.

Don’t do it. Instead, let people decide if they like your work or not. If you sell your work, let them ‘vote with their money.’ It works great and the answer is accurate and measurable. By keeping an open mind when it comes to the evaluation of your work, and by listening to your audience, you will learn valuable things that you may have missed if you only listened to your own opinion. People not involved in the creation of the work do not know what we know and did not experience what we went through. However, eventually, none of that matters. What matters is how our work comes across, and whether or not it successfully communicates to our audience the vision we want to share.

First and foremost, the idea that a picture maker should not be the critic of his/her own work is, IMO, a somewhat wacky notion. Given the idea of "personal vision" which springs from a picture maker's innermost intellect and emotions, who, other than the picture maker him/herself, is better suited to be a critic of their own work?

Furthermore, I thoroughly fail to understand how discovering, understanding, and trying to implement (in pictures) your own personal vision can be construed as a "bias" in any sense that might negate that knowledge / driving force as a basis - in fact, IMO, the absolute best basis - for self-critique.

Simply stated, it is my belief that you should be your own most demanding critic. You, and only you, know what you wish to express with your picture making endeavors. What anyone else may get or not get from viewing your pictures is entirely irrelevant to developing your own personal vision unless, of course, all you really want from the expression of your personal vision is praise, awards, accolades, and financial gain.

While there is no avoiding the fact, others (an audience) will decide whether "to like your work or not", using that decision to guide the development and expression of your personal vision - Briot suggests you keep "an open mind when it comes to the evaluation of your work, and by listening to your audience, you will learn valuable things that you may have missed if you only listened to your own opinion" - is a fool's errand**. After all, it's called a personal vision, not a group vision, right? So, what can an audience tell you about your own personal vision, that is to say, an inner voice begging and screaming to be let out of its inner box?

Of course, not everyone has a begging and screaming inner voice. For most, the notion of expressing oneself (as opposed to one's self) is very wrapped up with the notion of desiring / seeking praise, awards, accolades, and financial gain. That is why I believe Brooks Jensen was right on the mark when he wrote:

... eventually every photographer who sticks with it long enough arrives at a technical plateau where production of a technically good photograph is relatively easy. It is here that real photography starts and most photographers quit.

"Real photography", in Jensen's opinion,

... begins when we let go of what we have been told [ed. - by an audience or "gurus"] is a good photograph and start photographing what we see.

IMO, standing on your own two feet, three if you're using a tripod (or is it five), when it comes to personal vision, picture making wise, requires a certain amount of insular introspection and personal strength. That is, the ability to not only to shut off the "audience" and learn to listen to your own self, but to also have the fortitude to stand by that self and go your own way (responsibly, of course).

All of that said, I hope I haven't annoyed you.

*for the purposes of expressing one's self, making less than technically "perfect" prints might be part of the vision.

**the only exception being for those whose financial livelihood is dependent upon the sales of their pictures or assignments from clients to make more of the same. In those cases, pleasing the audience/client is everything.

Monday
Oct242011

food ~ after the fact (and some tech stuff)

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Beets with goat's milk feta and a pork chop with sage ~ locally grown and raised / Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
I thought I would use this picture to mention some tech stuff, 2 items of which were asked in recent comments.

The picture with this entry raises an interesting question. It was made under "new" lighting conditions for which, to my knowledge, there is no in-camera (any camera) WB setting for the color temperature emitted by those newfangled energy efficient CFL light bulbs. CFL bulbs are advertised as fluorescent devices although, through the use of improved phospher formulations, they are claimed to have improved color perception characteristics such that some sources rate the best "soft white" CFLs as subjectively similar in color to standard incandescent lamps.

That claim is tempered (IMO) by the words, "perception", "subjectively similar", and "best" - words that mean nothing to a camera sensor. Add to that "fuzziness" the fact that different makers use different formulas and what you have is a veritable rat's nest of color temperature variations. Consequently, creating a "standard" CFL light source WB setting is neigh unto impossible at worst, ballpark-ish at best.

My solution is to set my WB for tungsten and then correct for the WB imbalance in my RAW workflow processing. If anyone knows a better way to deal with the issue, please let us know.

While we're on the subject of WB, on the civilized ku # 1151, John Linn asked:

You said "My camera WB was set to "CLOUDY"."... why is that relevant if you are working in RAW?

I use in-camera WB settings for a few reasons: 1) using the "correct WB setting allows the camera LCD to display my pictured referent with reasonable color accuracy, and 2) since color and color relationships are an important part of how I see (and therefore "compose"), viewing the proper color on my camera LCD is important to me, and 3) when the picture file opens in my RAW conversion software, it is, once again, displayed with a very close starting point from which I can make subtle adjustments (if needed).

On the same entry, "Chris" (no link provided) stated/asked:

How do you handle the lack of lens distortion correction in Raw Developer? Many MFT lenses have significant barrel distortion and chromatic aberration that's expected by the manufacturer to be corrected in software. The Olympus raw software, Lightroom/ACR, and Aperture/iPhoto all "understand" how to correct distortion.

I perform lens distortion correction using the Lens Correction filter in Photoshop. Chromatic aberration, which I encounter on only a small percentage of my pictures, is also handled as part of my Photoshop processing procedure. While other RAW conversion software may handle these issues "automatically", I still prefer the "film-like" files that I get from using RAW Developer. So I consider the additional work in Photoshop to be part of doing business with RAW Developer and, to be honest, that additional work is neither difficult nor time consuming.

Monday
Oct242011

civilized ku # 1161 ~ urban trees

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Pocket park ~ Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen

Monday
Oct242011

civilized ku # 1160 ~ night life

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Southside Works theater ~ Southside - Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen

Friday
Oct212011

civilized ku # 1155-59 / ku # 1111 ~ it was a sunny day (on and off)

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late PM light after rain ~ Jay, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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Intersection signs ~ Jay, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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Above the flume ~ Wilmington, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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Late PM light ~ Jay, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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Puddle with reflection ~ Jay, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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Fall cover with fence ~ Jay, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Yesterday, for most of the morning here in Au Sable Forks, the sun was out and the temperature was rising toward a forecast low 60˚ish day.

It seemed like a great day to play golf in Lake Placid on my home course, which (weather dependent) will soon be closing for the season. As it turned out, the sun featured itself for the drive into Lake Placid and the drive home. In between, after only 7 holes on the course, the weather changed to heavy black/dark gray cloud overcast with lots of rain. I sat for 45 minutes in a rain shelter - cameras and umbrella locked safely away in my car - and, when the rain had turned to a light drizzle, played the last 5 holes.

As I walked down the last fairway, the sun begin to reappear through increasingly larger breaks in the clouds. It was apparent the sun was going to make a late day full on appearance so the picture making thought that I might make a few more sunny-day pictures (I made a few - intersection signs and above the flume - on my way in) on my drive home entered my head. That thought was on the money as several such picture making opportunities caught my eye.

FYI, on civilized ku # 1152-54, Steve (no link provided) commented - As for all of the photographers in the scene, renowned wildlife and landscape photographer Moose Peterson is up in Lake Placid/Wilmington teaching a class. Those people were likely with him I would presume.

After a little Google Machine investigation, it seems that Steve was correct. Moose Peterson was conducting a workshop in the area. That said, I had never heard of Moose Peterson and, after finding out some who and what about him, I can state without reservation that my life is still complete without ever seeing any of his pictures.

Moose may indeed be "renowned" but, re: my recent civilized ku # 1149 entry wherein I stated my reasons for my ongoing advocacy for straight picture making, he is an outstanding example of why I continue my crusade in defiance of the picture cliché*. Suffice it to state, Moose loves making clichéd pictures of clichéd referents, employing a veritable host of clichéd picture making/ processing techniques.

Moose does all of the aforementioned very well and he is quite successful at it, career and finances wise. He knows what he's doing and he knows his audience well. That statement is evidenced by the fact that he regularly sells out his workshops with the participants (20 per event) more than willing to ante up the (minimum) $1,500.00USD price of admission (instruction and party favors only). That would mean the gaggle of picture makers I encountered a few days ago were dropping in the neighborhood of $2,500-3,000.00USD (not including travel) each to learn how to make pictures (or sharpen the same skills already under their belts) which look just like everyone else's pictures.

Not that I should be surprised. People with money (lots of money), more often than not, spend a lot of that money trying to be just like everybody else - driving the same style cars, living in the same style houses, wearing the same style cloths, owning the same style status goods, using the same cameras (Canikons were everywhere in the picture making gaggle), et al. Creativity is usually not their strong suit. They seem all too bound by convention, which, quite obviously, is good, aka: a gold mine, for purveyors such as Moose Peterson.

My only regret at discovering the aforementioned gaggle of picture makers is that I did not know, until after my Google Machine inquiries, the renowned (IMO, justifiably so) Photoshop guru, Scott Kelby, was part of the workshop teaching proceedings (he was most likely part of the picture making gaggle). Had I known, I most certainly would have tracked him down and bought him a drink (or whatever) if for no other reason than to thank him for sending a lot of visitors to The Landscapist with a mention on his site:

I ran across this blog this past week, and I just really found the photography interesting. It’s called “The Landscapist” but it’s not your typical landscape photography site, and I particularly liked their vision statement, which is, “Photography that aims at being true, not at being beautiful, because what is true most often is beautiful.” There’s just something about their stuff I really like...

Thanking him aside, I would have liked to ask him if, after 4 years since making his comment, he has figured out what that "something" about my stuff he "really likes" is.

Thursday
Oct202011

FYI ~ published

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Spread ~ Adirondack Life Magazine • click to embiggen
I have just received an advance copy of this month's - December 2011 - Adirondack Life. It has a feature article about the devastation, here in the Adirondacks, caused by Tropical Storm Irene. One spread, re: Au Sable Forks, features 4 of my pictures.

I have also been informed that there will be a photo-story article in the June, 2012 edition about my The Forks ~ there's no place like home exhibit. It will, of course, feature pictures from the exhibit.