(embiggenable)
SO, 2 DAYS AGO I AND MY GOOD FRIEND had lunch at a trendy, quaint restaurant, a long-ago converted boathouse, aka: the Cottage, on Mirror Lake in Lake Placid. We go to lunch once a week and, being creatures of habit (somewhat), we have 3 restaurants which constitute our lunch restaurant rota.
That written, the two of us always sit at the bar. That’s cuz we-me in particular-enjoy chatting up / flirting with the bartendresses. To be honest, I do most of the schmooging (non-sexual) and my good friend tends to look on with a sense of amusement.
In any event, recently, we have been lunching at the Cottage much more frequently than the other 2 restaurants. Thats’s cuz I have struck up a interesting relationship with the bartendress; I have mentioned her before as the person who said that she was left with a I-can’t-describe-it “feeling” after viewing one of my photo books.
As a result of hearing that reaction, I now always bring one of my photo books to lunch at the Cottage. She really enjoys viewing them and often asks to take them home for an extended look. And, it is always interesting, sometimes surprising, to learn of her choice of “favorites” from each book. But that’s not what this entry is about….
….This week I had two of my photo books-past their prime and single women-in hand at lunch. They were sitting on the bar when a gentleman sat down, noticed the books and asked, “Who’s the photographer?” I admitted to being the guilty party which led to an extended conversation* about things-photography after he admitted to being a “serious” amateur photographer.
He viewed the book, single women first, and deduced that I was a street photographer. I disabused him of that notion by saying that I was a discursively promiscuous photographer and handed him the past their prime book which he really liked. I showed him more of my work from my WORK page on my phone. He showed me a few of his works-mostly pretty good stuff-on his phone. One of which-a Massimo Vitali-like picture of an Adirondack ski slope-I would be happy to hang on one of my walls.
He also mentioned that he had an exhibit or two of his Adirondack landscape work. That led us around to discussing the exorbitant costs of mounting an exhibition, framing being the prime offender. I mentioned that I often do not frame my work for exhibition, When I do frame, I do not include a matte or glass and the frames are always simple gallery metal frames (black or pewter) or pre-made “standard” size wood frames (black). That manner of hanging work really keeps the cost down. It also helps that most of my photos are of the same square aspect ratio and I do my own framing.
Which leads me to the topic of this entry…cropping
Apparently my new found photo acquaintance is given to cropping his images cuz he is constantly having to acquire custom frame sizes. And, in all probability he does not do his own framing. Throw in matting and glass and looking at a hefty invoice for an exhibition size event.
Simply written, I do not crop any of my images. That’s cuz, as I heard from my father-if I heard it once, I heard it a zillions times-the adage that, “god gave you 2 ears, use them. Listen to what I am saying.” / “god gave you 2 legs and feet, use them. You can walk to the store.” / “god gave you 2 hands, use them. Clean up the mess in your room.” / “ god gave you 2 eyes, use them. Watch were you are stepping.”etc. etc. etc. ASIDE my father was not a religious man nor am I END OF ASIDE
Consequently, I believe that god gave you a camera with an aspect ratio, use it (right out to the edges). And, don’t even think about cropping. Full stop.
FYI, the picture in this entry is of 2 waitresses at the Cottage. Not the bartendress.
*we mercifully avoided much gear related stuff. Although, in the true serious amateur tradition, he did feel it necessary to inquire about what camera I used to make my pictures. And, he did extol the virtues of his beloved FUJI camera, even suggesting that I should acquire one.
PS clarification: in my last entry I wrote that I had hand enlargement surgery. I did not not, cuz I did not need hand enlargement surgery. The little hand in the picture is a tiny rubber hand that I carry around in my pocket in case I need to give someone a hand.