# 3541 ~ life goes on

(embiggenable) • iPhone

TRUE BE TOLD, MY PICTURE MAKING M.O., during this life during wartime event, has not changed at all. I am not sure what it was that I was expecting to change, nevertheless, I thought something might change. However, for me, everything picture making wise is the same as it ever was.

The only exception might be that I am a bit more prolific inasmuch as, other than traveling for pleasure, I am making more pictures than is "normal" for me. That situation just may be because I am chasing some illusive referent(s) that says, unequivocally, this is life during wartime, aka: life during coronavirus. Or maybe not.

In any event, I do have an idea for depicting life during wartime. Unfortunately, it would involve multiple people on location(s) acting out, under my direction, scenes which illustrate how people might be interacting, for better or for worse, during this stressful time....aka: making tableaux vivant. The unfortunate part of this idea is that this not the time for heading out with a number of people in tow and then milling about a location in close proximity to one another.

Pulling this off would be no problem. In my commercial advertising career, I created, directed and pictured, for clients, hundreds of marketing / advertising tableux vivant on location and on studio sets, almost always with professional models. So, maybe when the life during watime has simmered down, that might be time to give it a go.

The only problem I foresee is the question, for what purpose / to what end?

civilized ku # 3538-39 ~ rise to the challenge

(embiggenable) • iPhone

some of my coronavography ~ (embiggenable) • Screenshot

ONE OF THE CORONAVOGRAPHY CONTRIBUTORS SEND A selfie-with-mask picture. And the question is, "Hey dumb-ass, why didn't I think of that?"

In any event, 2 things came to mind. Make a selfie, dumb-ass and put out a call to all coronavographers to do the same and send in the picture. Although, as another dumb-ass said, "It's not a requirement, it's just a suggestion." I would add, "I did it. You should do it. What do you have to lose?"

civilized ku # 1325-31 ~ not bending my curve

tp ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

koyaanisqatsi ~ looking through the glass (embiggenable) • iPhone

koyaanisqatsi ~ looking through the glass (embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable) • iPhone

WARNING: NEW VIRUS DISCOVERED. LOOKING FOR A CURE.

The new virus is called the Coronavography Virus. Don't know how contagious it is but I sure as hell got it. My primary symptom is undeniable ... over the last 2 weeks of stay-at-home (apparently a pre-condition), I have made at least 42 pictures that have made it into my "finished" folder, aka: "keeper" folder. And, the count keeps rising.

Case in point, the pictures in this entry were all made within the last 4 hours. I even had a break-down of sorts and made a picture of toilet paper. And, I am about to go out on a drive about with the expressed purpose of making more pictures.

Might be time for an intervention.

civilized ku # 1324 ~ through the glass looking

koyaanisqatsi ~ looking through a wine glass (embiggenable) • iPhone

I HAVE NEVER BEEN A USER OF FILTERS FOR EFFECTS. And, even though the picture in this entry may appear to have been created with a filter, it was not. In fact, it was made looking into a wine glass and making the picture through the curved portion the glass (note the rim of the glass in the upper left of the photo). Consequently, I can still cling to the idea that this is a "straight" photograph.

Re: my last entry about pictures needing words-the fewer the better-to contextualize a picture maker's intent, the word for this picture is "koyaanisqatsi". A Hopi word denoting choatic life or life out of balance. Also a word that I would suggest is an apt description of life as we currently know it.

That written, the challenge for me now is to determine if this picture making approach is a valid idea for making pictures during life during wartime. Or, instead, if it is nothing more than a cheap trick.

civilized ku # 3610-12 ~ looking through the glass

(embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable) • iPhone

I AM ENCOURAGED BY THE RESPONSE TO MY who's interested in participating in a CORONAVOGRAPHY~ life during wartime online picture gallery / exhibition? While the number of indicated participants is 6 short of my stated minimum for launching this project, I am encouraged enough to start working out the logistics of making this work. In the meantime, I am hoping for at least 5-6 more commitments to participate.

In my previous entry, picture pefect, there are 3 pictures, made on the same day as the entry, of my wife's garden. Since that time, another 10 pictures of the garden have been made. That's nearly enough to constitute a body of work which, iMo, should be comprised of 20 pictures. So, I will be wandering around the premise to attempt to make at least 5 more pictures.

In any event, to my eye and sensibilities, these pictures bring to mind, especially now during life during wartime, the words of Chauncey Gardner, aka: Peter Sellers as Chance the gardener in the movie Being There, come to mind:

"In the garden, growth has it seasons. First comes spring and summer, but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again .... Yes! There will be growth in the spring!"

Here's hoping the "grow in the spring" this spring will not be the growth of Covid-19. Rather, here's hoping the "growth" will be in the decrease of the infection curve.

ADDENDUM If you are interested in particpating and have not indicated so on the previous entry, Please leave a comment or hit the like button. As before, if you are able, spread the world. Much appreciated.

civilized ku # 3608-09 ~ life during wartime

(embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable) • iPhone

I WOULD ASSUME THAT MOST, IF NOT ALL, OF MY BLOG READERS are spending much more time in their domicile inasmuch as ....

This ain't no party, this ain't no disco,
This ain't no fooling around
No time for dancing, or lovey dovey,
I ain't got time for that now

Nearly every weekday evening after work, the wife and I retire to the enclosed porch off of our bedroom. We sip some fine bourbon or scotch, I enjoy a bit of a good cigar and we watch the sun go down and unwind. Over the past few weeks, we have also been "watching" life as we have known it go down and the "view" from our porch is rather surreal.

That written, I, like many others, have a lot of time on my hands (which I wash over and over again). However, what I can spend that time doing is becoming more and more limited. Especially so since I am in the high vulnerability group. Consequently, whatever I do will mostly likely be a solitary activity.

It has not required much imagination on my part to deduce what that activity will be. Suffice it to write that my picture library will most likely experience a growth cycle. And those added pictures will, in all probabilty, be made within or close by my domicile. Although, since I do live in rural area / forest preserve, it is OK to get out and about without being in close proximity to other human beings.

It has occurred to me that now might be a good time to undertaken experiment, re: my idea to open a gallery. While that idea is in abeyance at this time, a virtual gallery is within the realm of possibilty. That is, an online gallery. Quite obviously, this idea requires audience participation in the form of submission of pictures. So, here's the crux of it...

In order for this to be doable and worth my time and effort, it would be very desirable, in fact necessary, for 15-20 individuals to submit pictures. In other words, I have the time too do this if others make the time to participate.

FYI, the theme for the gallery would be CORONAVOTOGRAPHY ~ life during wartime. Pictures of people, places, things made close to home.

If this project appeals to you, please indicate so by leaving a comment or simply hitting the LIKE button. And, if you could pass the word along, that would be much appreciated.

civilized ku # 3607 ~ inside and out

(embiggenable) • iPhone

EVEN THOUGH I HAD A VERY PLEASANT SPRING-LIKE TOP DOWN drive about yesterday-after giving the Abarth a spring cleaning-it seems like it might be time for concentrating on some indoor activities for the near future. That is, inasmuch as I am in the high-risk category, re: coronavirus, my out-of-house activities will be limited to those that involve only very limited contact with other prople.

Apparently, my idea to update various bodies of my work hatched at just the right time. Although, getting out on my own to make landscape / natural world pictures once Spring starts to spring is well within reason. Case in point, getting out wise, even yesterday's Abarth cleaning felt great with the sun warming my body after a long Winter season.

before / after ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

THE ABOVE COMPARISON PICTURES are a pretty good ilustration of what can be had from an iPhone image file with some carefully applied processing.

The picture making situation was a challenge .... all black referent in shadow backed by an all white wall in direct sunlight. I probably could have exposed for more shadow detail and still protected / rescued the highlights in processing but I wanted to see how much deep shadow detail could be "rescued" in processing.

civilized ku # 3600 ~ mastery of the machine

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PERFECTION. IN SOME WAYS I JUST DO NOT "GET IT". That written, I especially do not "get it" when it comes to picture making. Or, at least when comes to the idea of a "perfect" picture / print...

...I have always been both befuddled by and distainful of those picture makers who look for technical "perfection" when viewing a picture. Or, for that matter, the idea of even considering, at all, any "technical" aspects of a picture.

Consider this loopy comment left on a discussion about the use of film:

... the results are so inferior to modern digital images that God forbid if I got an image I loved and wanted to do anything with it. Even the better images from a technical point of view would have been considered complete failures if taken with even an average digital camera. Film is simply an overwhelmingly inferior technology.

Apparently, according this line of thought, all of the pictures made during the film era should be considered, from a technical point of view, to be "complete failures". How terrible it must be to bring this attitude to the viewing of all of the great pictures made during that era. And when I write "great pictures", I mean from both an aesthetic and a technical viewing perspective.

The question which comes to my mind for this idiotic commenter to answer is, "Have you never viewed a print made from large format-that is medium format and up-color or bw negatives?" ASIDE which is not to imply that carefully made 35mm format negatives, using some specific film stocks, can not produce beautiful prints. END OF ASIDE

My conclusion about moronic pronouncements like the comment from the aforementioned commenter is that, inasmuch as the medium of photography and its apparatus is linked to the use of mechanical devices-of one kind or another-used in the making of pictures, photographic picture making will always attract those who want to exercise and display their mastery over the machine...

...always seeking-one might write "fetishizing"-maximized resolution / sharpness, extended dynamic / tonal range, the "purest" and most extended color values and, of course, the possession of "over-the-top" / hyper-expensive picture making gear.

At this point in this entry, it is very tempting to cast aspersions upon the aesthetics of the pictures made by the masters-of-the-machine crowd. However, suffice it to write that, iMo and to my eye and sensibilities (and I am by no means alone), the making of a "perfect" picture has little-in some cases, nothing at all-to do with technical "perfection".