(guest entry) A few photogs to peruse...

© Nuri Bilge Ceylan • click to embiggen

Hello Landscapist followers. I'm the son of the landscapist (or SOL) and I'll be filling in some posts this week as he and the wife are off on a European vacation. I hate to disappoint, but I'm going to avoid the health care debate like the plague and stick to issues of photography.

Before I delve into any shameless self promotion of my newest work, I'd like to share a few links to photographers that were very early inspirations of mine. To fit in with the scheme of things here, I have chosen mostly landscape photographers.

The first photographer is a filmmaker and photographer from Turkey named Nuri Bilge Ceylan. I believe (I read this somewhere, but cannot find original source now) his photography began from location scouting for his films. The images were so beautiful and striking that he was able to make a career out of those images alongside his films (which I have yet to see).

© Nuri Bilge Ceylan • click to embiggen

Give a gander at his series cinemascopes (named after an anamorphic lens series used from 1953 to 1967 for shooting widescreen movies, not to be confused with my cinemascapes which are a homogenization of cinema and landscapes). Unfortunately there are only 20 images on that site now. There used to be 4 pages and almost 50. Not sure why that has changed?

In the meantime, I'll dig up a few more artist to share.

civilized ku # 205 ~ getting outa town

20 Main on Main Street ~ Au Sable Forks • click to embiggenIn a little over an hour from now, I'll be getting out of town - driving to Montreal (picking up the wife along the way, getting on a plane to Paris, then getting on plane to Florence, then getting in rental car and driving to an olive orchard/farm just outside of the Tuscan village of Arezzo where we will be staying in a quaint stone cottage that overlooks the olive orchard and the Tuscan countryside. I am fairly certain that I will spend 7 days immersed in wine, women (the wife), and song Italian-style.

In the meantime, Aaron (The Cinemascapist) will be posting entries of some of his new work for your commenting and viewing pleasure. I'll have plenty of pictures when I return.

That said, let me leave you with one of life's enduring mysteries:

Though nearly 22 percent of the state’s (Louisiana) adult residents have no health insurance — one of the highest rates in the nation — pollsters and political experts say voters in the state are overwhelmingly against Mr. Obama’s health care proposals.

How the f**k to Republican politicians do it - getting so many people to vote / campaign against their own self-interest? You know what I mean - in addition to the above, how do they convince so many lifelong poor / middle class people to vote against higher taxes on the wealthy?

Maybe Svein-Frode had it right when he opined that so many Americans would indeed rather be dead (read, "socialist") than Red.

Update on Friday, September 11, 2009 at 06:25PM by gravitas et nugalis

due to an oversight by the wife, our 1 hour layover in Paris is now a 12 hour layover. On the itinerary in the above post, insert spend a day in Paris between get a plane to Paris, then get a plane to Florence. Some screw ups are obviously better than others.

man & nature # 234 ~ next big thing, pt.2

AM fog on the West Branch of the Au Sable River • click to embiggenYesterday's idea regarding an interchangeable sensor camera body, while not exactly met with cries of "Yes we can!", was met with some skepticism and comments from those who might be considered as defenders of the status quo.

IMO, the idea that thinking of cameras as computers with processing hardware - which, as additional chips and circuitry are added, would require camera body mods to accommodate - is a problem only if one is wedded to the traditional 35mm film camera body design. And, even if one is committed to that design for some sort of sentimental reasons, a battery grip-like accessory could be developed to provide more than enough space to house future space devouring processing hardware upgrades. Who says that the "computer" must be housed within the camera body?

IMO, that kind of thinking isn't cutting the mustard - to me, it smells more like cutting the cheese.

Rolleiflex 3003However, that said, if designers can get beyond the classic slr style body design, who knows what might be possible. In fact, I've been around long enough to remember that just such thinking has been applied to camera design. Consider the Rollei 3003 - an innovative 35mm SLR camera design with interchangeable backs.

The Rollei 3003 was a very innovative 35mm camera - it not only had interchangeable backs, it had: 1) interchangeable lenses 2) interchangeable finders 3) interchangeable focusing screens 4) interchangeable bulk backs, and, if you look closely at the enlarged version of the photo on the left, you will notice a small lid on the top front of the body. That, dear friends, is the popup lid for a waist level finder - imagine that, a camera with eye level and waist level viewfinders. How cool, not to mention practical, is that?

If I were running the world (photography-wise), I'd be looking at this creative bit of camera design thinking as at least a starting point for the interchangeable sensor idea. Don't tell me that it can't be done. After all, if we can put a man on the moon ....

The only question is, will it be done?

man & nature # 233 ~ a personal best

The Olympic ski jump towers at the end of a late day round of golf • click to embiggenFor one reason and some others I was unable to step onto the 1st tee on The Lower Course at my home course until 5:10PM yesterday. After my normal routine of stretching and loosening up, I teed off at 5:15PM.

If I had known that the sunset was at 7:14PM, I might not have even tried to play a round but I was not aware of that sundown timetable at that time. Nevertheless, I knew that I had to hustle and hustling was not a problem in as much as I was the only golfer on the course.

So, proceeding at a brisk walking pace, off I went. The only distractions I faced were the magnificent views on/of the course itself and those of the surrounding peaks - the warm (color temp) late day sun cast long shadows and the mountains were beautifully sculpted by the light. The temp was in the 65-70˚ range - it was a wonderful evening by any standards.

All of that said, I got in a complete 18-hole round. The last 2 holes were played just after the sun dipped below the surrounding mountains but with plenty of soft light remaining - way more than enough to see my intended targets and follow the flight of my ball. I walked off the 18th green at precisely 7:28PM - a 2 hour and 13 minute walking round of golf, my personal best time.

According to the EXIF data on the accompanying picture, it was made at 7:37PM. It was a grand and glorious evening.

man & nature # 232 ~ the next big thing?

Road repair equipment in AM fog • click to embiggenToday was the day for Leica to announce / reveal their newest digital cameras, to include their new flagship rangefinder M9 (18mp full frame sensor). And so it has come to pass and it can be yours for $9,000 US.

On a certain photo blog/site there has been much to do about how this camera, although expensive, actually represents good dollar value because Leicas go for big bucks on the used market. Assuming that you can come up with the price of entry (which does not include a lens like, say, the Leica 24mm f/1.4 Summilux-M Aspherical Manual Focus Lens, which will set you back a cool $5,995 US), this may indeed be true.

On the other hand, in the digital camera world this may indeed NOT be true.

A quick check for a used Leica M8 body - Leica's most recent digital rangefinder flagship - on ebay revealed that they can be had for up to 40% less than they sell for new. Considering that the M8 hasn't been around for very long, that's a very hefty depreciation for a Leica camera. That may be due, in part, to the fact the M8 had some ... ahhh ... "problems" which hopefully got fixed this time around, but ....

There is absolutely no guarantee that a Leica digital camera will hold its value better - as a % of original purchase price - than any other manufacturer's digital cameras will. As we all know, "flagship" digital cameras come and go seemingly with the wind, at least with the winds of digital change, that is.

All that said, here's what I'm waiting for - I'm dreading the day, and it's probably coming soon, that Olympus will be introducing their next "flagship". Even though they have declared that 12mp is enough, they have stated that their intent is to concentrate upon improving things like dynamic range, noise, resolution and the like - things that matter much more than more mp when it comes to IQ. Good for them. These are things that with noticeable improvement would motivate me to "upgrade" to a new flagship model, but ...

These improvements are obtained by improving a camera's sensor and internal processing software, not the camera body. Sooooo .... when is a camera maker going to design a body with an interchangeable sensor capability?

Now, I'm not asking for a user-changeable sensor - I'd be more than happy to separate myself from a camera body for long enough to have the sensor changed by an authorized repair facility. No problem. My Olympus E-3 has superb build quality - it can probably last a "lifetime" like, say, the 2 Nikon film camera bodies sitting on a shelf (right within arm's reach of where I am sitting), but, unlike the Nikons, which can keep on making pictures until all the film runs out, my E-3 is destined to become a superbly built paperweight in fairly short order (by film camera standards).

Operating under the assumption that the current sensor in my camera can be replaced if it were to be damaged or become defective in some manner, how difficult can it be to design the body so that the next generation sensor - along with a software upgrade - can be inserted?

Seriously, how hard can that be?

man & nature # 228 - 231 ~ chimp away

Clock Park AM fog • click to embiggen
AM fog ~ Au Sable Forks • click to embiggenI have always been somewhat confused / perplexed regarding the idea of post-picturing cropping. That notion was marching around in my cranium for a while yesterday as a result of reading a blog post wherein the author was mentioning that his new full-frame sensor camera allowed for a considerable amount of after-the-fact cropping while still maintaining a high degree of sharpness / detail / lack of noise and the like.

No doubt that that is true. But, my question is - if you feel the need to crop after-the-fact, where's the disconnect with that idea - cropping for better ... what? ... composition? - at the time one is picturing?

Or, to put it a slightly different way - if one of the principle characteristics of the medium of photography is the act of selection (and it is) why don't picture makers pay way more attention to that act while they are engaged in the act of picturing?

I am doubly perplexed regarding this question in the current digital age. I mean, for goodness sake, your camera has a screen on which to view your selection efforts on the spot. One can chimp away to one's heart's delight. Man, if you can't get it right with that help, once again, I might suggest taking up another time-killing sport other than picturing.

civilized ku # 205 ~ bona fides

Parade staging • click to embiggenA fair number of picture makers (myself included) have been excited by the emerging prospects and possibilities of the so-called micro 4/3rds cameras. The most often mentioned characteristic of these new cameras is their compactness especially so when coupled with so-called "pancake" lenses that are being introduced for the micro 4/3rds format.

The primary benefit of this compactness is, well, quite obviously, the compactness - that and the large image sensor (as compared to those found in most "compact" cameras). One of the benefits of this compactness that has been mentioned repeatedly is the idea that a compact camera calls far less attention to a picture maker than that created by a large dslr - add a battery grip to a dslr and the camera creates an imposing visual presence.

That said, you can imagine the "presence" created when, as I did when picturing the Labor Day parade, I venture forth with 2 dslrs (with battery grips) hanging from various parts of my body.

However, the interesting thing about that "presence" is that I have rarely found it to be a negative one. In fact, there is a certain sense of "pro" bone fides that is most commonly associated with it. Much more often than not, those bona fides have given me access to things rather than denying me access. In fact, in some cases it is primarily the perceived pro bona fides that have allowed me to gain access to people, places, and things that I wish to picture.

All of that said, would I ever consider getting rid of all the dslrs and their attendant bulk and weight and go with a micro 4/3rds' system?

Absolutely. I have always been a devotee of good things that come in small packages - houses, cars, and cameras are high on that list. However, in order for me to make the switch, those cameras will have to mature in the sense that I want pro features like weather sealed bodies and lenses, rugged metalframe construction, battery grips (or some method to accommodate extra batteries), and the one thing that is hard to find, even on dslrs, unless you go to the top tier of gear - a sync socket for connecting to studio strobe equipment.

That said, other than the pro bona fides notion of dslrs, the one thing that I actually like about my dslrs (with battery grips attached) is their size and weight. Even though I'm good, I don't come in a small package (6'3"/220 lbs) and compact cameras can feel rather too compact in my hands. And, the weight of full-sized gear actually adds an element of slow shutter speed stability (in addition to that from IS) that I appreciate.

All of that said, go ahead and ask me if I wish I could have a micro 4/3rd system - 2 bodies, 3-4 lenses (even in their current state of development) - for my upcoming trip to Italy.

civilized ku # 204 ~ daylife in the Forks - everybody loves a parade

Fixing a foot • click to embiggen
Labor Day parade ~ Au Sable Forks • click to embiggenSo I'm walking across the Main Street bridge - along the parade route - just before the parade is about to start at 10AM this morning. One of the last vehicles allowed down Main Street, which was lined with about 700 people, is a guy on a Harley motorcycle who is quite obviously passing through on his way to somewhere else.

So he pulls up next to me and asks, "Is there a parade or something?"

I was just so tempted to answer, "No. It's Monday morning and we're all waiting for the bus."