Architectural oddity ~ NYS Rt. 28 - Adirondacks / Otter Lake, NY • click to embiggen

I agree. Especially so since so many of those motels have rather interesting neon signs. But ... for me, at this particular time, it's a matter of so many possibilities, so little time.

However, when I do get around to such a project, it will not be limited to 50/60's motels. As the picture with this entry illustrates, the Adirondacks are filled with lots of 50/60's architectural gems / oddities. Some are still in use, others are not.

The building pictured above has special meaning for me because, as a kid in the 50s, it signaled to me that our seemingly endless car ride to our Summer destination - Inlet, NY - was almost over. I don't remember what the building's purpose was but I think it was some sort of tourist souvenir shop or, quite possibly, a restaurant. It would be easy enough to find out.

In any event, a 50/60's architectural project should be undertaken sooner rather than later since many of these places are either crumbling into dust or being renovated.

Rain saturated landscape ~ NYS Rt. 5 - near Wampsville, NY• click to embiggen

Rain saturated landscape ~ NYS Rt. 5 - near Wampsville, NY • click to embiggen

Long about Utica, NY, I was overcome with the desire to talk to a black person so I called my good friend Jimmi Nuffin (the alias he comments under here on The Landscapist). I splained the situation to Jimmi and he was very understanding.

We conversed for about the next 20 miles or so when I noticed that I was passing by quite a number of picturing possibilities. When I came upon the scenes pictured in this entry, I just had to stop. Once again, I spained the situation to Jimmi and, once again, he was very understanding - he waited patiently on the line (on the microwaves?) while I disembarked and made these pictures. All the while I was picturing - I was pretty quick because it was raining pretty good - Jimmi was listening to the click-click-click of the car's turn signal sound, courtesy of our bluetooth-enabled car.

So, under the circumstances, I felt that naming this triptych the Jimmi Nuffin Triptych was the honorable and courteous thing to do.

Moose River and old mill ~ Adirondacks/McKeever, NY • click to embiggen

This picture could have been a perfect candidate as part of a man +- nature picture, but, to perfectly honest, I just wasn't seeing / thinking that way at the moment.

Cottage No. 3 ~ Adirondacks / Inlet, NY • click to embiggen

Closed for the season ~ Adirondacks / Inlet, NY • click to embiggen

First and foremost is simply the intent to create the book/folio. I will use all of the pictures in the book and select 10-15 pictures from the book with which to make the folio. They will be offered as a set and separately.

However, second and almost as foremost, as a set, the intent is to illustrate an exercise in editing - the book will be composed of the triptychs (all of the pictures) whereas the folio will be composed of single pictures from taken / edited from each triptych. An exercise wherein I will select, IMO, the "best" single picture from each triptych.

But, that said, IMO, here's where it gets interesting. Each purchaser of the set will have the option to return the folio of my edits and request a new folio composed of their edits, or, Each purchaser of the set will have the option to return the folio and request 1 24×24" print of their choice - chosen from the entire group of pictures in the book. Now this assumes, of course, that the folio is returned in pristine condition (cotton gloves will come with the folio).

The intent of this exchange / exercise is to create a two-way learning experience - I get to learn what others think of my "selects" while a purchaser gets to have a peek into my edit / selection process and thinking. And, to aid in this whole process, I will make myself available to purchasers - via e-mail, snail-mail, or even by phone (US/CA) - to discuss my/their opinions on the matter.

All that said, first and foremost, pt. 2 - the time has come to get an online gallery of folios and POD books launched. And I'm not just talking about my folios/books, I'm talking about your folios/books.

This past weekend when I was talking with Paul Maxim (on the phone prior to meeting), I mentioned that I was going to Taughannock Falls to make pictures. He asked, "What are you going to do with the pictures?" and I answered that I would be posting them on my blog.

That's when it occurred to me that just posting them on the blog was not enough anymore. I've said it before and I'll say it again - pictures as PRINTS are the thing. Anything else is half-ass.

In addition, I want to become a "collector". I want to hang the work of others in my house - not the work of the "big-name" picture makers, but rather the work of so many others who are making great pictures but just not displaying them in the big tent. Those who probably wouldn't mind a little fame and fortune but who, nevertheless, make pictures just because they love to make pictures and would also like to share their work with others.

And, as I have stated before, this thing can't work without the participation of others. By "participation of others" I mean, simply, the pictures / books / folios of others.

How about it?

Dear Meadows Motel & Cottages ~ Adirondacks / Inlet, NY • click to embiggen

Some, like Dear Meadows, are meticulously maintained - clean, comfortable, and with a modicum of modern amenities like cable tv and in-room coffee makers. Although, like the Dear Meadow sign indicates, "Phone" means that there is a phone somewhere on the premise but it won't be in your room. However, on the plus side, one phone is much better than no phone because, more often than not, like in Inlet there will also be no cell service either.

The reason for the plethora of 50s/60s-era motels in the Adirondacks is due mainly to the 50s/60s-era advent of the interstate highway system after which tourism in the Adirondacks went into a serious 3 decades-long decline. People in the region were going on vacation much farther afield and, quite obviously, taking their tourism dollars with them. Consequently, very little "upgrading" of accommodation facilities took place. In fact, many traditional and glorious Adirondack lodges / inns went the way of the burn-it-down-for-firefighter-practice due to financial insolvency.

Stream bed pool below Taughannock Falls • click to embiggen

Stream bed below Taughannock Falls • click to embiggen

That said, some might get the "insider" joke, photography-wise, that is part of the triptych - the picture on the left is my take on the ubiquitous / cliche-ridden / done-to-death / hope-I-never-see-another-one pictures of the moving rocks at death Valley's Racetrack Playa.

Browsing Old Forge residents ~ Adirondacks - Old Forge, NY • click to embiggen

Main St. in Old Forge is also a section of the primary, in fact, the only highway that traverses the Adirondacks. Consequently, on my 100s of trips through the park, passing through Old Forge is just part of the trip. I been through there 100s of times, both night and day, and the number of times that I have seen groups of deer - at times as many as 8-10 deer - just browsing on Main St. is just down right weird.

This picture was made around 9AM last Saturday just before I went into the diner for my wide-and-fat short stack (see civilized ku # 263 below). The deer were just browsing and paid little attention to passersby. The somewhat humorous thing about this is that it is the middle of deer season and these deer seem to have discovered that the safest place to be is right out in the open on Main St. where, quite obviously, no hunting is allowed.

Aluminum storm door on weathered structure • click to embiggen

Deer boar hunts / ostrich/emu farm ~ Adirondacks - Otter Lake, NY • click to embiggen

There was no picture making on Sunday due to a long lunch with Paul Maxim and, consequently, a late start back to Au Sable Forks. On the ride back I was thinking about my Saturday picture making and, for some reason, my conclusion was that I had not made all that many pictures. However, after transferring my picture files from Saturday to the digital darkroom and starting my initial processing, I ended up with about 70 pictures worth processing.

Many of these pictures, in fact, most of these pictures ended up as triptych presentations. With the exception of the triptych found in the ku # 645-49 entry, none of the eventual groupings were intentionally created.

This is nothing new for me. I tend by nature to explore a given referent from differing POVs, not so much to find the "right" POV but rather to tell a more complete story about the subject at hand. Inevitably, this picturing MO ends up leading to, at the processing stage of things, the unintentional creation of diptychs and triptychs.

So, stayed tuned, there a quite a few more Saturday, November 14th triptychs to come. And, within a week or so, I'll be putting on offer a Saturday, November 14th POD book with an accompanying 15 print folio.

View from the Taughannock Falls overlook ~ just north of Ithaca, NY • click to embiggen

Taughannock Falls~ just north of Ithaca, NY • click to embiggen

Over the years, and in passing (as opposed to planning), I have seen a very few of these waterfalls. After all, easy-access spectacular natural places are most often teeming with people and crowds just ain't my thing when trying to enjoy / appreciate nature anymore than it is when trying to enjoy / appreciate, as I did recently, great Art like David - even though I was in a museum it felt more like I was at a carnival.

In any event, I was kind of on a mission to get to and picture Taughannock Falls which is located on NY's southern tier close to the PA border. Taughannock Falls is probably the most spectacular of all the Finger Lake falls. It's a 215' drop which is 33' higher than Niagara Falls making it one of the highest falls in the US east of the Rocky Mts.

My desire to picture the falls was inflamed by a curiosity that I had to see if I would see it and its environs in manner different from that as presented in a zillion pictures I have seen of the falls.

The fact of that matter is that, unless you are willing to break a few rules, your POVs of the falls are extremely limited. So, to avoid that end, I broke a rule - I got down to the riverbed and proceeded beyond the DON"T YOU DARE GO HERE signs and got under the footbridge that crosses the river just below the falls (see the top picture). There I was able to capture the shallow DOF view presented here -

View from under the Taughannock Falls footbridge ~ just north of Ithaca, NY • click to embiggen

It's not exactly an earth-shattering landmark picture. It is a bit different from the "regular" pictures one sees of this place and I am reasonably happy with that but ... if I were to present just one picture of the falls, it would be the center image from the above triptych. But, that said, why limit myself to just one picture? Itaque, the triptych, which I think starts to say something a bit more complete about the place - the genius being in the detail(s), after all.

PS - my impression of Taughannock Falls is much like that of Oscar Wilde's regarding Niagara Falls - it's nice enough, but ...

“It would be more impressive if it flowed the other way”.

This quote is courtesy of Paul Maxim, the former Landscapist Contrarian. I met Paul on my weekend journey and we had a very enjoyable lunch during which we did not argue about truth, reality, or statistics. And, PS to Paul, the contrarian slot is still available.

A so-called short stack ~ Old Forge, NY • click to embiggen

That said, the next morning I stopped at a small-town diner for a "light" breakfast - a breakfast sandwich and a "short stack" of pancakes. Imagine my surprise when the short stack turned out to be short but as wide as a full-sized dinner plate and a little over a 1/2 inch thick. Very, very delicious but "light" it was not.