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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 September 1, 2011 - September 30, 2011

Thursday
Sep292011

civilized ku # 1128 ~ visual effects

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Aperol umbrellas ~ Market Square - Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen
IMO, a couple recent comments are addressing the same thing. 1 from Sven W (no link provided), re: civilized ku # 1118 ~ lunch time, stated/asked:

There's almost a hyper-realism to this image ... have you been playing with the contrast or something?

The other from John Linn, re: civilized ku # 1119 ~ DO NOT ENTER, stated/asked:

Those are pretty vivid colors. Or my imagination?

The "same thing", which I believe is shared by both comments, is not whether or not I monkeyed around with contrast, saturation, or "something" in the mentioned pictures. But, to lay that idea to rest, I can state that each picture received my normal monkeying around, processing wise. Although, I did do a double hit of de-saturation - global + yellow - on the picture John thought to be "vivid" (which it is and not a product of his imagination).

IMO, what Sven and John were unknowingly referencing was, quite simply, a by-product of the light with which the pictures were made.

That light was intensely bright which resulted in very bright clean/pure colors, aka: "vivid". Additionally, the harsh contrast which most often results from such intensity was tempered somewhat by a light haze and the occasional high soft white cloud over various parts of the landscape. The result of those conditions resulted in soft but distinctly etched shadows which were further softened (tonally) by the reflective qualities of the surrounding buildings and, in the case of civilized ku # 1118, by the plaza surface itself.

It is my opinion that the intense yet weirdly soft light + the clean/pure colors + the "open" shadows which, working concert with one another, create the visual effect of "hyper-realism" and "vivid" color. BTW, I also believe you can see the same effect / visual quality in the above image and in civilized ku # 1120 ~ the City of Oz as well. Perhaps not as pronounced, but there, nevertheless.

It should go without stating (but I'll do so nevertheless), the visual impression evident in these pictures is exactly what I saw at the time of making the pictures. The quality of the light, color, and shadows hit me in the eye like a big pizza pie (Vincent's, of course).

For the technical minded in the crowd, it is worth noting that I made the civilized ku # 1118 picture with my Pentax K20D. The others were made with my Olympus E-P1. IMO, their respective sensors had little or nothing at all to do with the resulting visual effect.

Thursday
Sep292011

civilized ku # 1127 ~ don't even think about it

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Vincent's Pizza Park Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen
In addition to the phone order mandate, you might also take note of one of the wall signs. The one that states:

Everyday of my life forces me to add to the number of people who can kiss my ass

While I can not identify with the everyday part, if one were to substitute "many days of my life over the past few years" for the everyday part, I can wholeheartedly embrace the notion. That's because, over the past few years, I have added most Republican members of the House (and their presidential wannabes) to my personal kiss-my-ass numbers.

Thursday
Sep292011

civilized ku # 1122-26 ~ food and a quiz

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Wall of Fame ~ Primanti Bros. - Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen
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Primanti Bros. sandwich ~ Primanti Bros. - Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen
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Vincent's pizza ~ Vincent's Pizza Park - Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen
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Sausage and Squid ~ Mallorca - Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen
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Paella ~ Mallorca - Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen
One of the benies of travel is the opportunity to partake of regional cuisine. In the good 'ole US of A that means avoiding the ubiquitous ever-spreading-like-a-plague chain restaurants to be found everywhere.

While in Pittsburgh, the wife and I made it a requisite to indulge in 2 local specialties neither of which could be labeled "indigenous" inasmuch as they do not include any local/regional ingredients. However, they are prepared in what might be called a local tradition.

The most famous specialty - at least so across the US - was a Primanti Bros. sandwich, which is testament to their claim that " Man Does Not Live By (meat, cheese, tomato, coleslaw, fries and) Bread Alone." Primanti sandwiches feature absolutely fresh tomato, coleslaw (crisp and not "runny"), fresh cut and cooked to order fries (yes, in the sandwich), fresh Italian bread, and the meat and cheese of your choice. FYI, all of the freshness comes from the fact that the original Primanti Bros. is located in Pittsburgh's Strip District, aka: produce/market district.

Less famous nationally but, IMO, deserving of a ranking equal to the Primanti sandwich is Vincent's Pizza - a pizza to die for (caveat: eating one - and who can eat just one? - may hasten that death). Like a Primanti sandwich, fresh ingredients are featured and, because they go light on their very tasty sauce, the fresh taste of those ingredients comes through tasty and strong. And the crust, thin-ish and crisp except for the extremely thick edge crust, tastes like fresh baked bread.

Our pizza had 5 toppings - sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers and cheese which were piled nearly 3 inches high. A true artery clogging meal if ever there was one.

FYI, Re: the sausage and squid dish - the Spanish sausage arrived at our table en flambé and the squid was stuffed with Prosciutto and spices.

The Quiz The Pittsburgh sports hero mural - each Primanti Bros. location has one - features 13 athletes. Can anyone name all 13 without using the Google Machine? And, PS - the rest of the world take note, there's not a soccer (football is not played with a round ball) player in the lot.

Wednesday
Sep282011

civlized ku # 1121 ~ the stare

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Bus kiosk ~ Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen
The vernacular of the picturing making genre street photography dictates that those people depicted in a scene should be, or appear to be, unaware of the picture making happening in their midst. While this notion is not necessarily a hard and fast rule, most often street photography pictures subscribe to this practice.

That said, I am becoming somewhat enamored of making street pictures wherein 1 person in the scene is in fact looking directly at the camera. What I have discovered relative to this approach is that the person doing so is most often looking at the camera/me with more than a bit of suspicion or at least with a look of hesitancy or distrust.

There could be a variety of reasons why that person has adopted that kind of look but I find, in this day of Home Security and the terrorist threat, it is not uncommon for picture makers who are out on the street making pictures to be viewed as somewhat suspect. IMO, this is more than a little paranoid but those are, right or wrong, the times in which we live.

I need an idea for yet another body of work like I need a hole in my head. However, whenever possible, I am going to pursue this picture making MO.

Wednesday
Sep282011

civilized ku # 1120 ~ the City of Oz

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PPG Plaza ~ Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen
I have always thought PPG Plaza and the buildings which surround it have more than a passing resemblance to the City of OZ,

Wednesday
Sep282011

civilized ku # 1119 ~ DO NOT ENTER

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DO NOT ENTER ~ Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen

Wednesday
Sep282011

civilized ku # 1118 ~ lunch time

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Market Square ~ Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen

Tuesday
Sep272011

civilized ku # 1115 - 17 ~ horses, history, and health

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Painted horse ~ Saratoga Springs, NY • click to embiggen
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A spa building ~ Saratoga Springs, NY • click to embiggen
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Gideon Putnam Hotel ~ Saratoga Springs, NY • click to embiggen
You may have noticed a few recent entries - there are a few more to come - with pictures that were not made in the Adirondack PARK but rather in Saratoga Springs, NY. That's because the wife and I spent last Thursday - Sunday in Saratoga Springs.

Saratoga Springs bills itself - on all of the Welcome to Saratoga Springs signs - as the home of Horses, History, and Health. The Horses part is all about racing. The History part is a lot about the Battle of Saratoga, the turning point in the Revolutionary War wherein we kicked those aled-up Limey arses good. The Health part is all about the many natural mineral springs located in and around the village.

The wife took a mineral water bath at the Roosevelt Baths & Spa in the Saraotga Spa State Park which is also home to the Gideon Putnam Hotel - named after one of the village founders - where we stayed. I would have liked to have taken a mineral water bath but reservations were very hard to obtain and the only one available during our stay was at the same time I was busy winning a golf outing/tournament* on the Saratoga Spa GC, which is also located in the same state park.

*note to wife - OK, already. So what if my fellow competitors were just a bunch of crummy lawyers (NYS Bar Association - Labor and Employment Division)? I kicked their litigious asses good.