A 'natural' triptych • click to embiggenAnother 'benefit' of my recent presentation to the SPS (in addition to yesterday's entry about megapixels) was the experience of looking at a large number - about 40 - of my pictures as prints as opposed to images on a monitor screen. It should go without saying that the difference in the total viewing experience is enormous.

Unless, a monitor / screen is your chosen medium of expression, there is absolutely no substitute for viewing a photograph in a print format. 'Print format' includes books, posters, photographic prints and, in the case of a few artists, large print transparencies on a light box.

A monitor is a very poor media for viewing photographs. First and foremost there is the very real issue of issues of color, contrast, brightness and size. At best, all you can view is an approximation of the real deal. I really have to laugh at the idea of critiquing a photograph on an online forum. Any and all comments regarding color, contrast, brightness, hue / saturation, shadow / highlight detail, sharpness, etc. is simply speculative and totally provisional.

As to issues of meaning, narrative, truth, etc. - the connoted in a photograph, 2 issues prevail.

First, there are the aforementioned issues of visual approximations - in as much as these things both effect and affect your complete perceptual apparatus to a considerable degree, your ability to discern the connoted is indeed impaired.

Second, and perhaps most important, is the simple fact that the web, in and of itself, is not suited to the act of contemplation. Any picture created with the intent of communicating intelligent ideas that are worthy of attention, appreciation and investigation requires contemplation. It demands repeated and prolonged viewings. It needs to be 'lived' with. Then, and only then, can a more complete and varied 'understanding' of the picture be had - that meaning and truth that resides beyond / beneath the 'surface' of the picture.

That is why my New Year's resolution is this - to have, by the end of 2008 (at the very latest), an 'actual', not 'virtual', photo gallery operational and open to the public (over 1 million people a year visit my area). A photo gallery, not just for my work, but for the work of others who are attempting to create pictures that communicate intelligent ideas that are worthy of attention, appreciation and investigation.

More on this tomorrow.

The group of pictures to the right are the only pictures I presented via projection during my 'lecture' at the SPS. The reason for this was similar to the above mentioned 'issues'. I knew from prior experience that what these
'Lecture' presentation images • click to embiggenpictures would look like projected was anyone's guess. It would depend entirely on room light, projector quality, the screen calibration of the laptop that ran the projection program, etc, etc.

True to form, they looked like crap. That is why they ran as 'wallpaper' during my 'lecture. Nothing in my 'lecture' depended upon an accurate perception of the pictures. I did provide a separate group of prints of these 12 pictures for viewing after the presentation so that the audience could see what they really looked like.

FYI, the group contains my 'best' photograph ever. Anyone care to venture a guess as to which one it is?

In a bog • click to embiggenMy 'talk' at the Schenectady Photographic Society went very well. No one fell asleep, left the room or otherwise expressed any displeasure. The crowd, which numbered 80-100, asked good questions and was genuinely involved in learning something very new and different (to them) about the medium of photography. It was fun.

I appreciated the opportunity to make the presentation because it forced me to organize and clarify many of my own thoughts, ideas and positions. I also made quite a number of prints for the presentation reaching far back into my archives for pictures - back to the 'old' days of my first digital camera, a Canon G3 4mp P&S.

Much to my surprise, as I was printing everything, new and old, to the same 10.5×10.5 size, I really could NOT detect any real difference (that mattered) in the image quality between my 'old' 4mp shot as 8 bit jpeg pictures and my spanking new 10mp shot as 16bit RAW pictures. No kidding folks. When viewed side-by-side at normal viewing distance and at at a move-in-close to see detail distance, there really was no noticeable difference.

I was very surprised. And just to validate what I was seeing, last night after my presentation at the SPS, the results of a juried print competition was presented. The competition judge commented on each of the winners. As he was discussing the winning color entry, he stated that it was a Mark Hobson-like picture. Specifically, that it was sharp and detailed without falling into the over-sharpened look that many digitally processed pictures have.

As an example of a beautifully printed picture with lots of subtle color and delightful detail, he advised the audience to check out one of my prints in particular - actually a triptych - that was made up of and printed from, you guessed it, 3 of my 'old' 4mp files.

Now, I am not saying that there is no difference between the files, because I am certain that at some magnification, the 4mp file will start to break down. However, I am curious to find that breaking point - not by some dumbass test enlargement of a segment of the file but rather by having a few really big prints made of entire pictures. Then putting them on a wall and looking at them as if they were pictures.

I'll let you know.

Snowy New Year's day • click to embiggenFor those of you in the common era, aka the Christian Era, who are using the Gregorian calendar (by a decree of Pope Gregory XIII), which is a reform of the Julian calendar, Happy New Year.

Otherwise, have a good Tuesday.

For me, so far, so good. Had a gourmet dinner last night in the company of former NY Govenor George Pataki, it's snowing, I and the wife are sipping good champagne, and the Pittsburgh Penguins have won the Winter Classic - an outdoor NHL hockey game played in a football stadium in the snow and wind.

Front page news

I'm working feverishly on my Jan. 2nd presentation to the Schenectady Photographic Society. The pressure is on because my appearance has been pre-described / critiqued as a "wonderful presentation". No sweat, though. I expect to deliver nothing less than "wonderful".

The topic will be Photography's Reality Effect" - the idea that was developed to describe the ideological effect of a system of representation that is sometimes confused with a literal copy of reality. The reality effect has to do with the way viewers experience how a certain appearance of reality, (in the case of photography) presented on a 2-dimensional surface, becomes intensely conscious.

In the best of cases, what is shown then appears extremely authentic and close to life. Sometimes you even have the impression that you could never perceive it so clearly in real life. An effect that most certainly results from the transition from sensory apprehension to consciousness, which gives the viewer the opportunity to see such appearances at once more analytically and more emotionally.

The point of the presentation will be to discuss how, using the reality effect, a photographer can create photographs that can lead viewers to a 'truth' - or perhaps many (subjective or objective) - that can be arrived at no matter the 'truth' of the actual depicted subject itself.
Parking lot nightmare • click to embiggenStraight or constructed, the best photography still needs to deliberately and creatively play with the reality effect in order to create pictures of meaning that get beyond documentation.

This should be fun. If you're anywhere in the neighborhood (mapquest directions), you should stop in. Just tell them I invited you.

Picking up 50 lbs. hung-weight • click to embiggenOn Saturday, we received our annual delivery of 1/2 a cow - 305 lbs. hung-weight of Scottish Highland Cattle from Moon Valley Farm. Yesterday we went up the hill to Moon Valley Farm and picked up 1/4 of a pig - 50 lbs hung-weight. Our freezer is now jam-packed.

While at the farm, I took a picture of the former pig shed and got kissed by a Scottish cow / cattle.