ku # 1421 / civilized ku # 5266 / picture windows # 73 / the new snapshot # 249-50 (diptych) ~ small is beautiful

Indian corn ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone Xs Max

hotel window ~ Montreal, CA. - (embiggenable) • iPhone Xs Max

mechanical hardware ~ Montreal, CA. - (embiggenable) • iPhone Xs Max

hotel elevators ~ Montreal, CA. - (embiggenable) • iPhone Xs Max

I am finally at home with no near-future travel commitments and, even better, our home renovations are just a few small details and a few days away from completion. All of which means that I can once again finally start to concentrate on my picture making and blog posts. So, maybe it will be the same as it ever was.

In any event, as I continue down the iPhone picture making path, I have arrived at the realization that, with the new Xs Max sensors, I can quite happily use the iPhone for 90% (+/-) of my picture making. I can do so for primarily 2 reasons:

1. the image file quality is very very good. In most picture making situations it is way more than good enough.

2. 90% of my past picture making has been accomplished with a single prime lens. So, for me, being "limited" to the 2 lenses on the iPhone is no limitation at all. The "normal" (not the Portrait or slight tele) of the 2 lenses suits my vision just dandy. And, to be honest, with the variable DOF capability of the Portait lens, I don't think I will ever again make a portrait with a "real" camera.

That written, I have just come to yet another realization - in all likelyhood, 80-90% of my image processing can be accomplished on my iPad Pro. And, most of that processing can be handled with the Snapseed app. For more involved processing, the Affinity Photo app - which also has the advantage of RAW processing and saving/exporting .PSD files - has capabilities that rival those of Photoshop.

What all of that means is that I can reduce my picture making and workflow to the use of 2 handheld devices - the iPhone and the iPad. True be told, I find that concept rather mind-blowing.

ku # 1420 / rist camp diaries # 22 / picture windows # 72 ~ a little bit extra

fall color ~ Au Sable Forks / Adirondack PARK - (embiggenable) • iPhone

door window ~ Rist Camp / Adirondack PARK - (embiggenable) • iPhone

picture window ~ Rist Camp / Adirondack PARK - (embiggenable) • µ4/3

My stay at Rist Camp has been extended for a few days due to the fact that our house interior renovations have not been completed as expected by the end of our Rist Camp stay. Hopefully we will have our kitchen back within 5 days.

extended caption: fall color - I have been driving by this seemingly dead tree for 20 years. It just won't give up the ghost. And this year, when fall color is both subdued and spotty (note trees in bkgrnd), it seems to be defiantly screaming, color-wise, "I'm still here!"

civilized ku # 5220 ~ I'll need a cooler full of beer (Beau's Lug Tread lagered ale)

this morning ~ embiggenable • µ4/3

Today marks the start of a blisteringly hot week. That written, I and the wife are spending the 4th-7th of July on the West Coast in San Diago.

The upside of the trip is the fact that I rented a Fiat 124 Spider convertible-from a private individual-to tool around in out there. I'll probably have to get one of those hats with an mini umbrella attached in order to keep my brain from frying.

Also, I'll probably make some pictures.

civilized ku # 5194-97 ~ there and back again

Adirondack Mts., across Lake Champlain, from my Vermont hospital window ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

embiggenable • µ4/3

embiggenable • µ4/3

embiggenable • µ4/3

OK. It's been a while since I posted an entry. But, then again, I am a new man since my last entry - successful (so far) scarring of the interior walls of my heart (ablation) and, unexpectedly, my very own pacemaker - after the ablation my heart rate was 40bpm or a beat or 2 one way or the other. So it was deemed advisable to install a pacemaker to obtain and maintain a heart rate of 68-70bpm.

So, here I sit on light duty status for the next 3 weeks waiting for the pacemaker to phyically settle into my body and for the acommpanying incision to heal. FYI, the pacemaker insertion was performed while I was awake ("relaxed" but awake) ... I was able, during the procedure, to ask the surgeon, "Are you cutting me with the thingy that cauterizes the wound at the same time it cuts?" His answer was direct and to the point, "Yes. That's exactly what I am doing."

In any event, on our way home, we took the ferry across Lake Champlain on a very pleasant summer-like day. Which made for a very nice transition from a hospital bed to home.

civilized ku # 4082 / picture windows # 72 ~ makes me wonder

neon / window grate ~ Manhattan / NYC, NY (click to embiggen)

gallery doors ~ Manhattan / NYC, NY (c;ice to embiggen)

There has been a movement afoot, re: the increased use of photo effects / manipulation, for quite some time - roughly begun with the advent of the digital / computer based picture making as opposed to film / darkroom based picture making. Not that weren't pictures made with obvious effects / manipulation, act of the imagination if you will. It's just that making such pictures in the digital darkroom is much more easily done and with nearly endless possibilities.

Is this trend a bad thing? No, but it does, to my eye and sensibilities, get a bit tiring / over done at times.

However, truth be told, I do venture into the realm of making pictures which evidence an "effect" (of sorts). Although ... those pictures do not rely upon digital darkroom applied effects. Rather they come straight out of my camera(s) - no post-picturing effects applied - by the time-honored use of a pinhole lens which, iMo, qualifies them as a straight photography variant.

Of course, I, as I do to all of my pictures, apply a border frame (which in no way alters the picture content). I do so as a photo vernacular function to emphasis the act of framing, of separating the picture's content from the world around it. A device I would categorize as more of an affectation rather than an effect.

In any event, as an example of my increase in photo effects / manipulation premise, I would offer up for your consideration the juried results of the PhotoPlace Gallery exhibition, Still Life: The Ordinary Made Extraordinary. My accepted picture rather dramatically stands apart from most of the accepted pictures as an example of a "classic" still life picture. To a certain extent, it makes wonder why / how it was accepted.

The foregoing commentary should not be considered to be critical of pictures with effects / manipulations applied. In and of itself, that practice is a time-honored part of the picture making tradition. However, that written, 2 points: many juried photo exhibitions are dominated by such pictures, and, it does make me wonder just a bit if the rise in such picture making is due to the fact that the art of making straight pictures, which depends entirely upon the act of seeing, is becoming a lost art.

FYI, more tomorrow on the exhibit's juror's statement: "...I wanted to include images that had some magic and spontaneity — images that are poetic and playful, and not so carefully considered or contrived.

single women # 35 / picture windows # 71 / art reflects # 32 ~ 6 days and nights

While in Mahattan during my recent 7 days travels, I discovered - at the Aperture Foundation gallery - a delightful little (5x8") book, Office Romance by Kathy Ryan. (see some pictures HERE)

No, it is not a romance novel but rather a collection of 154 iPhone pictures (4x4") which depict the same number of referents as seen by Kathy Ryan her place of work - the New York Times Building in MYC. According to Ryan ...

This began when I saw a bolt of light zigzag across the stairs one afternoon at The New York Times Magazine. I pulled out my iPhone and took a picture of it. Then I started seeing pictures all the time - incredible beauty and poetry in my office. It got my heart racing. When I see a certain kind of light out of the corner of my eye during the workday, or somebody us illuminated in an unsusaul way, I take a few pictures. It's a compulsion. Making pictures has become a call-and-response to the light and the day.

Inasmuch as I am a "call-and-response" (to quotidian referents / experiences) compulsive picture maker and a fan of small / precious pictures / photo books, Ryan's book gave me the idea of creating a small book (6x6" with 4x4" pictures) of my pictures which were made over the course of my recent 7-day travels. A diarist approach to presenting those pictures.

See the pictures.

Fyi, during the 6 day period I was able to add 1 single women, 2 picture windows and 3 art reflects pictures to their respective bodies of work. Although, the art reflects pictures will be the start of a sub-category within the art reflects body of work inasmuch as the manner in which the art is displayed through the gallery windows and the reflected architecture in those windows is decidedly different from that which is depicted in the current collection.

picture windows # 70 ~ end of the line

kitchen window / Rist Camp ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK

Today is the end of our 5 week stay at Rist Camp.

Normally, at this time in September, the hills are alive with a blaze of Autumn color which is a very nice climax to our stay at Rist Camp. However, due to a very dry Spring and Summer together with a very mild September (the first frost was last night), the leaves are still on the trees and there are but a few faint hints of muted Autumn reds.

On a related picture making sidebar, while here at Rist Camp, I arranged to have an exhibition of my Life Without the APA work at barVino in North Creek. barVino is a restaurant, wine bar, and live music venue with a rustic chic menu. In addition they exhibit (and sell) art, not merely as decoration, but in a serious gallery manner. Their current exhibition features Danish illustrator Mads Berg's work.

My work will follow Berg's work beginning with an opening reception on Friday, November 4. The exhibition will run through the Thanksgiving and Xmas / New Year holidays.