civilized ku # 3604 ~ good things (can) come in small packages

(embiggenable) • iPhone

Since around April 20th, I have covered a lot of ground - 4 separate trips totaling approximately 4,600 miles. Slept in my own bed about a dozen nights during that time. It should go without writing that I am glad to finally be home for an extended length of time. Amongst other things, I can get back to this blog on a more constant basis.

As a result of my travels, re: picture making, I have added approximately 400 processed, aka: finals, to my picture library. All but 10-15 of those pictures were made with my iPhone. With the exception of those 10-15 pictures, 95% (give or take a few) were processed on the iPhone (or iPad) using the Snapseed app and a handful of those were eventually given a little touch-up in Photoshop. All of the pictures now reside in folders on my primary external hard drive + external back-up hard drive.

During my travels, I kept up on some photography related goings on on the interweb. One particular item-actually a composite of several somewhat related items-which caught my attention involved a few entries on TOP dealing with sensor size and related issues of MP and picture quality. In one of those entries (Shooting Two Formats), Mike Johnston mentioned my name:

...I shoot a lot with my iPhone 7 Plus, which I've never been able to quite take seriously. I don't know why not—I think it's just a mental shortcoming on my part. Many people, for example Mark Hobson, just go right ahead and do serious projects with iPhones...

The fact of the matter is, at this point in time, my "real" cameras have seen very little use over the past 18 months. It is accurate to write that, during that time, I have "tested" the iPhone's picturing capabilities in every picture making situation I regularly encounter and it has passed muster in all but a few cases (very low light situations). Althought, in low light situations I do use a separate camera app which produces good-not perfect-results.

In any event, I seem to have arrived at a point where I feel very confident that I can use the iPhone for just about all of picturing needs and wants. That includes adding iPhone-made pictures-no excuses needed-into my "serious" bodies of work (which were previously made with "real" cameras).

Much to my surprise, I was rather stunned when, last week, I up-resed an iPhone file, using the Preserve Detail setting in Photoshop, to create a file that could be printed to my "standard" 24x24-inch exhibition print size. The result was, as stated, stunning. So much so that I went on to up-res and print 3 more files-as a test to determine if the first up-res was a fluke-and the results were the same.

In point of fact, I can write (at least, preliminarily) that the results replicate the look and feel of the 24x36-inch C prints I made (back in the day) from my 8x10-inch color negatives. The prints exhibit a smooth "liquid" / non-digital (sharp, but not bleeding eye sharp) quality which really pricks my and sensibilities. Consquently, I have a sinking feeling that I am about to go on a print making binge.

So, here I sit in a slightly perplexed state, contemplating the fact that, after a 40 year professional career of making pictures for Fortune 500 corporations (primarily at the request of their ad agencies) using Nikons, Hasselblads, 4x5 and 8x10 Arca Swiss view cameras (all of which I still have), all of my picture making needs and desires can be met with a little handheld computer and a simple software picture processing app.

civilized ku # 3603 (picture window, sorta) / the new snapshot # 254 ~ it's a prickly business

Plymouth Cheese screen door ~ Plymouth Notch, Vt. (embiggenable) • iPhone

Queen Connie ~ Leicester, Vt. (embiggenable) iPhone

I use the word "serious" (always in quotes) to indicate my picture making that is intended to be create something more than a non-"serious" documentary-type picture. Most often a non-"serious" pictures would be made on my travels or when I just want to picture something I see that's interesting but not a suitable referent for a "serious" picture. The 2 pictures in this entry are good examples of "serious" / non-"serious" picture types.

My intent with the Queen Connie pictures was simply to record a quirky roadside attraction which, as I later discovered, is # 16 on TOP 50 AMERICAN ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS list. The picture could incite thoughts / comments regarding the strange and sometimes wonderful weirdness than can be found in roadside attention-getting business advertising / promotion items that dot the American landscape.

Often such things are indications of someone's joyful exuberance and, iMo, are worthy of note. That written, there is no heavy lifting, meaning wise, in the making of this picture nor is any required to enjoy it.

On the other hand, there is the Plymouth Cheese screen door picture. This picture was made when my eye and sensibilities, that is my seemingly prenatural sensitivity to color and form, was pricked by what my visual apparatus (eyes + brain functions?) determined to be stimulating. At which point I make a picture.

For my picture making, it really is that simple ... walk around with eyes and mind open and wait for lightning to strike my visual apparatus. The only "work" involved is arranging, by means of arriving at the best POV, those elements into a relationship within my imposed frame which tickles my visual fantasy, by means of "feel' not thought, and there you have it.

In a very real sense, the preceeding paragraph is fodder, if not the actual content, for an artist statement for any of my bodies of work. However, for most of my bodies of work, some other words are needed. In the case of my picture windows work, the words-the fewer the better- would come from answering the question, "Why am I attracted to picturing fragments of the outside world from an inside-out POV?"

In attempting to answer that question, It is quite probable that I have to get uncomfortably close to writing some academic lunatic fringe narcisstic phsyco babble, an endeavor I am loath to undertake. However, simple is as simple does, so...

Were I to venture a guess-without enrolling in psychotherapy for a couple of years-the answer might be that I am viewing the outside world from the safety and comfort of an inside space. While that is true, and rather obvious, in a literal sense, it is probably informative to make the leap to the figurative sense of inside / outside ....

.... I am looking at the "outside" world from the "inside" world of my psyche, a comfortable place to be. Without a doubt, I have always had a rather stolid-bordering on Stoicism ([dictionary definition] "living in harmony with the divine Reason (also identified with Fate and Providence) that governs nature, and are indifferent to the vicissitudes of fortune and to pleasure and pain"- relationship to and with the "outside" world. In practice, I keep a rather snug, but by no means complete, rein on my emotional state(s)....

....which I believe is evidenced in my picture making inasmuch as I make "straight" pictures, unembellished with grand and glorius visual jestures, from a rather dispassionate picturing POV. In other words, I do so from the comfort derived from staying within (inside) the borders of my psyche.

So, perhaps my picture window body of work explains the picture making M.O. I have for all of my work. Or, perhaps not. Maybe, the only artist statement needed for all of my work is that I like making pictures, aka: the joy of photography, and sharing with the world how and therefore what I see. Revelling in what pricks my eye and sensibilities and attempting to prick the eye and sensibilities of others.

FYI, notice that I did not state sharing with the world why I make pictures. That's only important for me to know.

civilized ku #3591-97 (1 picture window + 2 diptych) ~ there and back again

Otsego Lake / Cooperstown, NY ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

Madonna / Dylan ~ Fenimore Art Museum - (embiggenable) • iPhone

McCartney / Gillespie ~ Fenimore Art Museum - (embiggenable) • iPhone

my most colorful lunch ever ~ Cooperstown, NY - (embiggenable) • iPhone

A 3 day getaway to Cooperstown, NY has keep me away for my computer for a while. Next up this weekend is a trip to Middlebury, VT. for a college graduation event. Followed by a 4 day wedding event trip the next weekend to north Jersey. All of these trips are on-demand trips, aka: your presence is requested kinds things.

Cooperstown-the birthplace of baseball-was a "working" trip for the wife to attend a County Attorney Continuing Ed. conference. There was plenty of time for us to enjoy the sights together.

One unexpected pleasure was had at the Fenimore Art Museum where the first ever currated exhibit of Herb Ritts photographs was on view. While I entered the exhibition, Herb Ritts / THE ROCK PORTRAITS, with a bit of skepticism-I was never a serious Ritts fan-the exhibit was a masterly currated collection of drop-dead gorgeous BW portraits of rock music artists. Impressive on many levels, to say the least.

The exhibition is on view until Sept. 2nd. Since there is a exceptionally nice golf course, Leatherstocking Golf Course, on the shore of Otsego Lake-I played it while in Cooperstown-adjacent to the Fenimore Art Museum, I have 2 reasons for a return visit to Cooperstown.

Leatherstocking Golf Course ~ Cooperstown, NY- (embiggenable) • iPhone

civilized ku # 3590(still life)-92(sports) ~ sorta chained to my desktop

(embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable) • µ4/3 / 100-400mm equivalent lens

(embiggenable) • µ4/3 / 100-400mm equivalent lens

The first photo book, NEW ORLEANS, of my 3 book train trip trilogy is being printed. Working on book 2, Chicago.

Getting this all together has been a time-consuming challenge. My first edit resulted in 238 "keepers" divided into 3 folders - New Orlean, Chicage and Racine. Next step was to process/convert all of them into snapshot quality pictures. Then came the sequencing edit for the New Orleans photo book followed by adding the snapshot border to each picture. Finally, The book was put together and ordered.

Now it's on to the Chicago book followed by the Racine book. And then, finish the prep work for my July solo exhibition at the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts.

In between all the train trip work, I have been able to get out and do a bit of sports / action picture making at the behest of my grandson Hugo, the lacrosse goalie. As a high school freshman, he was a 2nd line forward on the varsity hockey team and is currently the starting goalie on the varsity lacrosse team.

civilized # 3589 ~ what complexity?

George Washington bridge ~ NYC, NY (embiggenable)• iPhone

There has been a fair amount of angst being aired on TOP, re: complexity of digital cameras. Nothing new, the complaint has been around for quite some time and, whenever it rears its head, my response is wonder what the fuss is.

While it is certainly true that digital cameras have become ever so menu items rich, they are, iMo, complex to operate only if the user makes them so. The same could be said of Photoshop. However, since my first venture into the digital picture making world, I have been keeping things simple. Not by deliberate intention but rather by the manner in which I use a camera.

I have always, analog or digital, wanted my camera to be set-it-and-forget-it in order to be able to concentrate on the the aesthetics side of picture making. In the analog world, that meant setting the aperture and shutter, focus and get on with it. In the digital domain, I follow essentially the same routine.

I am able to keep it simple because I have set image capture parameters when I first acquire a camera ....Manual Mode, auto WB, neutral color, AF+M focus, RAW files .... and that's the way it remains. I occasionally adjust the ISO and that's about it. In some situations, I make a small +or- shutter speed or aperture adjustment relative to what the auto exposure indicates in order to protect highlights or shadows.

My intention with this M.O. is to get a good RAW file which can be processed using Photoshop-after conversion using Iridient Devloper-to achieve my desired result. My processing technique uses the same few tools for nearly every file.

So, for me, from start to finish, it's simple is as simple does.

civilized ku # 3585-88 ~ wall-worthy?

all pictures ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

When making pictures on vacation / a trip, it's easy to make a lot of pictures of the I-was-here variety. It's also possible that some of those pictures will look and feel like "serious" pictures. That is, pictures which are wall-worthy, independent of their on-vacation origins.

As I work through the editing of my recent train trip pictures, I am consciously looking for wall-worthy pictures which are "serious" in look and feel. Which is not to write that some of the I-was-here pictures won't end up on the wall. Some will. And, in all probablity, those pictures will be more "liked"-not a criticism, just an observation-than the "serious" pictures from the trip.

Without a doubt both types of pictures will incite a question or two. For the I-was-here pictures, the question will be, "Where was this picture taken?" For the "serious" pictures, the question will almost most always be, "Why did you take that picture?"

Both are good questions. One is much easier to answer than the other.

FYI, the egg shells and grizzle picture was a made arrangement. The woman will umbrella picture was made in New Orleans while the wife and I were sheltering from a downpour. The passersby picture was made while sitting in a bookstore window killing time before our classic Chicago steakhouse dinner. I made over 20 such pictures. The wife in a doorway picture was made in the Art Institute of Chicago. It just might be the best portrait I have made of her. I also feel that the picture transcends the typical portrait picture.