On the Maine coast of the Atlantic Ocean ~ (emiggenable) • iPhone
Monhegan Island on the Atlantic Ocean ~ (emiggenable) • iPhone
Monhegan Island on the Atlantic Ocean ~ (emiggenable) • iPhone
BACK FROM ONE PART OF THE ATLANTIC OCEAN and off to a more southern part of the Atlantic Ocean. Pictures of Stone Harbor, NJ to follow.
high desert ~ New Mexico (embiggenable) • iPhone
wedding~ Pittsburgh, PA (embiggenable) • iPhone
Mormon temple ~ San Diego, CA (embiggenable) • iPhone
Zippo sign~ Bradford, PA (embiggenable) • iPhone
dancing figure ~ Santa Fe, NM (embiggenable) • iPhone
ice cream stand ~ Canonsburg, PA (embiggenable) • iPhone
Harley cycles ~ Pittsburgh, PA (embiggenable) • iPhone
WHEN MOVING ABOUT THE COUNTRY / LANDSCAPE / PLANET WITHOUT A rigid itinerary, one never knows what one might encounter.
For the most part, that is how the wife and I like to travel. In doing so, serendipitous meandering and chance encounters have served us well cuz we love the unexpected sites, people and places we find. And traveling off-season, not for the reduced expense, but rather for the fact that we most often have wherever we are and whatever we are doing almost completely to ourselves is its own reward. Needless to write, I find a lot of picture making opportunities.
That written, I recently landed, thanks to a reference from a friend, on SIGHTSEER. The pictures, while reminiscent of the work of Martin Parr (technique-wise, using flash-on-camera to light subjects), are quite intriguing. Very good stuff.
wedding on a farm ~ near Pittsburgh, PA. (embiggenable) • iPhone
wedding on a farm ~ near Pittsburgh, PA. (embiggenable) • iPhone
LITTLE KIDS IN THE WEDDING PARTY. IS THERE ANYTHING MORE CHALLENGING than making a picture of them acting terminally cute / cliched?
There are many reasons-and that one is near the top of the list-why I would rather have gouged my eyes out than do wedding photography. That written, I have a fair amount of respect for those who choose to pursue a wedding photography career cuz they have to have the patience of Job and the boredom-avoiding tolerance of making the same pictures over and over...different days, different places, different faces but the same pictures over and over again.
I think I was successful in making a few non-cute/cliched kid pictures this past weekend in Pittsburgh, PA. That is to write, successful for me inasmuch as, were I to have presented these pictures to a client, the comments might have ranged from, (the group picture) why aren't the kids all smiling and looking at the camera? to (girl walking out of the barn picture) I wish you would have gotten closer.
(embiggenable) • iPhone
(embiggenable) • iPhone
(embiggenable) • iPhone
(embiggenable) • iPhone
OVER 46 HOURS THIS WEEKEND PAST THE WIFE and I drove 700 miles (round trip) to Rochester, NY to go the Lilac Festival in Highland Park* and to catch up with a few friends and family.
At the Lilac Festival I made a picture of the wife at spot where there was sign which stated that it was a perfect spot take a picture. I also enjoyed a refreshing $8.00 lemonade drink while the wife had a $6.00 Creamsicle smoothie.
FYI, I grew up immediately adjacent-about a 3 minute walk-to Highland Park, a beautiful setting, covering 150 acres (61 ha), of hills and valleys created from glacial deposits. Spent a lot of time in the park, skateboarding down the paved walkways, ice skating in winter, disappearing into the woods (overlooking the city) with my girl friend to watch the submarine races and variety of other activities.
On Sunday, during our return-to-home trip, we had a delightful late morning breakfast at the "famous" Keyes' Pancake House-a long time favorite of mine-in Old Forge in the south central region of the Adirondacks. We both had pancakes. Arriving home at 3PM, we spent a relaxing afternoon on the porch with the cat while imbibing a few drams liquid refreshment.
(embiggenable) • iPhone
Kinda felt like old times, aka: pre-Covid, thanks to the vacines and a (majority) pandemic mandate abiding population in our state.
*Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted to seem like a natural occurrence of trees, shrubs and flowers, Highland Park, a city park, is actually a completely planned—and planted—arboretum or “tree garden.” In addition to over 1200 lilac shrubs, the park boasts a Japanese Maple collection, 35 varieties of sweet-smelling magnolias, a barberry collection, a rock garden with dwarf evergreens, 700 varieties of rhododendron, azaleas, mountain laurel and andromeda, horse chestnuts, spring bulbs and wildflowers and a large number of trees. The park’s pansy bed features 10,000 plants, designed into an oval floral “carpet” with a new pattern each year.
(embiggenable) • iPhone / PORTRAIT mode
(embiggenable) • iPhone
(embiggenable) • iPhone
(embiggenable) • iPhone
IN THIS ENTRY ARE MOST, BUT not all, of my picture making activity over the last 36 hours. Discursive Promiscuity wise, I did not set out to picture any particular thing / referent during that time frame. In fact, I did not "set out" at all. The activity was instigated soley-as I moved about my world-by whenever and whatever pricked my eye and sensibilities. And, as mentioned in my last entry, during post picture making processing-some on the iPhone, some on the desktop-I was able to sort the pictures into appropriate body of work folders to include, kitchen sink / kitchen life / landscape (ku) / people / gas stations (civilized ku) and a relatively new body of work, narrow DOF.
FYI, promiscuity wise, in addition to my separate body of work folders, I also save all of my pictures, regardless of theme, into 1 of 2 other folders: a) every µ4/3 picture of have ever made, or b) every iPhone picture I have ever made. In total there are approximately 12,200 processed pictures in those 2 folders.
FYI # 2: for the iPhone users or iPhone as a respectalbe picture making device curious followers out there, on the last entry a link to an article, Gueorgui Pinkhassov | Sophistication Simplification, on the Magnum website was left by Geoff Morgan. It's an interesting read. From the article's intro:
Gueorgui Pinkhassov’s new book, Sophistication Simplification, takes the photographer’s Instagram work as a point of departure, in “an attempt to return images from the virtual world into the usual, material one.” On the occasion of its release, the Magnum photographer reflects on his practice, the role of the iPhone and the changing of cultural mores prompted by the digital revolution, changes in the media and the role of photography. The collection of “small sketches made on the run—the fruits of a fleeting moment” is available to purchase through his publisher.
(embiggenable) • iPhone
(embiggenable) • iPhone
(embiggenable) • iPhone
RE: NARROW DOF - THE PORTRAIT MODE ON THE iPHONE.
While the PORTRAIT mode is not "perfect" inasmuch as it has, amongst a few other minor quibles, a limited plain of focus range within which it works. As an example, I most often get the Place subject within 8 feet warning when using the PORTRAIT mode. That's cuz I do not often use the PORTAIT mode for making actual portraits.
Consequently, as in the case of the motorcyle picture, the PORTRAIT "effect" was not applied - the motorcycle-the focus point-was well outside of 8 feet. Which required that I create a narrow DOF look in Photoshop (it ain't rocket science).
Conversely, when making a portrait, as in the case of the beer drinker (my son) picture, the PORTRAIT mode works quite nicely, and, it gives me the ability to select the amount of DOF-via a simulated aperture setting-during post-shoot processing. FYI, that simulated aperture setting is not permanent. It can be adjusted at any time.
Another nifty thing that can be done with the PORTRAIT mode is "correcting" mis-focus. Consider the case of the paper towels picture...
...my point of focus was on the frontmost roll. In processing (on the iPhone), when I got the DOF look I liked, the rearmost roll was out of focus. So, I saved the image file with my desired DOF-albeit with the back roll out of focus-then (on the iPhone) I re-processed the image file to get the rearmost roll in focus and saved-with a new name-that file.
The next processing step (in Photoshop) was to cut/select the 2 in-focus paper towel rolls from the image file in which they were both sharp and paste that selection into the image file with my desired DOF. Viola, an image file with my desired DOF with both paper towel rolls in focus...a composit picture made from the same image file with different aperture/DOF settings.
All in all, easy-peasy. And, I might add, try getting that from a "real" camera with just 1 click of the shutter.
PS Kinda makes me wonder what Gordon Parks might have thought, re: this technology and how he might have used it. Although, this quote from Parks might contain a hint (inasmuch as, to my eye and sensibilities, I have always thought / felt that narrow DOF conveys a sense of dreamy-ness):
"...I have felt like a wayfarer on an alien planet at times — walking, running, wondering about what brought me to this particular place, and why. But once I was here the dreams started moving in, and I went about devouring them as they devoured me.
picture by Gordon Parks ~ (embiggenable)
(embiggenable) • iPhone
(embiggenable) • µ43
WHILE DRIVING-TOP DOWN IN THE ABARTH-THIS PAST SATURDAY-I drove around a bend over a knoll and was confronted with a Rockwell Kent painting, Adirondack scene wise, apparition.
Rockwell Kent was a prominent 20th century painter, print maker, illustrator who spent most of his adult life on his farm (with studio), Asgaard*, 3 miles up the road from my home in Au Sable Forks (pop.541), NY in the Adirondack Mountains / Forest Preserve. FYI, that's his farm with barn in the above hay bale painting.
*named after a location associated with gods. It is depicted in a multitude of Old Norse sagas and mythological texts.
When I moved to the Adirondacks, 21 years ago, Kent had died 30 years prior. His farm was still in operation (new owners) and is where we still get most of our beef, poultry, pork and aclaimed-around-the-world goat cheese. We are friends with the owners of the farm so on occasion I am able to go up to the farm and hang out in Kent's empty stand-alone studio.
In any event, every once in a while I do come across a Kent-like looking landscape. I never have pictured one. However, the mountain landscape pictured here was so much like that found in many a Kent Adirondack painting that, I swear, the Abarth came to stop on its own and seemed to indicate that it was not going anywhere until I made a picture.
While thinking about making this entry, I recalled that I had made a picture, in the exact same location (and I do mean exact!) where Rockwell Kent had made a painting-in Co Donegal, Ireland near the location of the so-called "Ghost" fishing town, aka: Port. At the time I made the picture, I was not aware of Kent's very well known painting, "Annie McGinley" (presented in this entry). It was not until I returned from Ireland that I discovered the painting while researching Kent's time painting in Ireland.
Upon viewing the painting (online), I will admit to having a freaky spine-tingling moment as I realized, not only had I trod in Kent's near-exact footprints, but I had also made a picture with a similar motif ... a lone woman in a dramatic location. In my case, my wife. In Kent's case, most likely his Irish Lassie inamorata inasmuch as he was a well known seeker of many women's "affection".
PS I was very lucky to come across a very nice signed, first edition copy of Kent's 1940 book, This Is My Own. An interesting illustrated telling of his life and times in Au Sable Forks.
(embiggenable)
(embiggenable) • µ4/3 - from my single women body of work
(embiggenable) • µ4/3 - from my single women body of work
I HAVE BEEN FOREVER ANNOYED BY ATTEMPTS to turn photographs into something they are not. A good example of such an attempt can be seen HERE in an entry, What the Photo Doesn't Show, on Leicaphilia. The title of the video in that entry, WHAT THIS PHOTO DOESN"T SHOW, rather concisely illuminates my point, re: to turn photographs into something they are not.
In any event, on to the photo in question:
“Young Farmers”, or, “Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance” ~ August Sander - c. 1914
August Sander, born in Westerwald, Germany, made many pictures of the rural people in that region. His intention was:
..."to speak the truth in all honesty about our age and the people of our age...[I] hate nothing more than sugary photographs with tricks, poses and effects."
Regarding his ideas about making pictures, he stated..
..."The person is mobile, ... then I freeze one moment in his movement, a mere five-hundredth of a second of that person's life-time. That's a very meager or small extract from a life."
Re: my point - a picture, any picture, is, as Sander states, a very meager or small extract-a mere five-hundredth of a second-from a life. Given that fact, iMo, the only thing one can "know" from a photo, knowledge wise, is that which is discerned from viewing the precision of the depicted referent in a photo.
Here's what I "know" from viewing this photo...depicted are 3 young men, dressed like dandies in an enviroment for which such dress seems to be rather incongruous. It's a cloudy day. The young men's expressions do not tell me much about what's going on inasmuch as they range from: tough guy, supreme confidence, and, huh? say what? Other than those things and the supposition-cuz it could be well executed reenactment-that it is a vintage photo, that is all I know.
But, here's the thing (for me). That's all I need to know cuz this photo just flat out draws me in. To my eye and sensibilities, it is both factual and yet somewhat strangely mysterious. It raises questions to which it provides no answers. And, from a purely visual POV, I find it to be delightfully interesting.
That is also all I need to know cuz I am not looking at this photo as a history / geography lesson. I am viewing it as a piece of art. I am not hoping to learn something. Rather, I want to feel something.
I want to be visually delighted / interested / intrigued. I want art to raise questions, not to give me answers (propaganda)...in the case of photography, why was a particular referent selected by the picture maker? In the case of any form of art, do feel as though I am touching, at the very least, a fragment of the nature of beauty?
All of that written, in most cases, I have not the slightest interest in what a photograph doesn't show. That is simply because a photograph's unique characteristic is to show us something with a fair amount of specificity, something that has been extracted from a mere small moment of life.
If making pictures is result of a picture maker being in the moment, then it make sense to me that, when viewing a picture, the viewer should be in the moment. That is, at that moment the only thing that matters is what is in the picture, not what isn't.
FYI, I have included in this entry some pictures from my rather substantial single women body of work. That is cuz I felt there is some relevance to the topic at hand inasmuch as I could not offer any information about the women-all strangers-depicted other than what can be viewed in the photographs.
The women were pictured-in public places-without any knowledge-before or after the fact-that they were or had been pictured. I made the picture and went on my merry way. Which, BTW, was a pretty niffty trick inasmuch as all the pictures were made with a 34mm (eqivalent) lens.