the new snapshot # 227-32 ~ categorization conundrum

embiggenable ~ iPhone

embiggenable ~ iPhone

embiggenable ~ iPhone

embiggenable ~ iPhone

Spent most of Father's Day in and around Saranac Lake with the wife, the son and his the wife and the grandson. Started with a short hike to a secluded water-front local hangout followed by music-featuring the daughter's paramour-at the Waterhole (local bar hangout) and then a nice dinner at the Fiddlehead Bistro. Nice day.

Re: the new snapshot work - as my infatuation with the iPhone camera module continues, I am trying to consciously identify-as I am making a picture-whether a picture is a snapshot opportunity or a "serious" picture opportunity. FYI, a snapshot opportunity = use the iPhone. A "serious" picture opportunity = use a "real" camera. This categorization challenge is confounded by the fact that an iPhone's file IQ is (in most cases) capable of producing a quality "serious" picture and a "real" camera's file can always be presented as a snapshot.

Prior to making a picture I can ask myself, "Why am I making this picture." If the answer is that I wish to "merely" document what I am seeing (the referent), it's a snapshot. If the answer is that I see something which goes beyond the literal idea-something that pricks my eye and sensibilities-of a referent, then it's a "serious" picture making event. However, here's the thing ...

I don't like to think when I am making a picture.

Picture making for me, in most cases, is an spontaneous / intuitive / reactive activity. Spontaneous because I rarely go out and about in search of a predetermined picture making opportunity. Intuitive because, seemingly due to part of my preternatural constitution, I recognize a "serious" picture making opportunity when I see one. Reactive because when I see a "serious" picture making opportunity-something which pricks my eye and sensibilities-I just do it.

Given those 3 picture making M.O.s, I don't want thinking to get in the way of / interfere with my immediate and thoughtless reaction to that which pricks my eye and senibilities.

civilized ku # 5110-16 (the new snapshot 220-226) ~ symbiotic

serenity garden ~ embiggenable • iPhone

serenity garden ~ embiggenable • iPhone

serenity garden ~ embiggenable • iPhone

Serenity Garden is a roadside embankment which has been landscaped by a group of community members. The park-like garden slopes down to a natural marsh.

In a very real sense, the garden and its placement along side of a natural environment is a wonderful symbol-don't think the community members thought of it as such-of the Adirondack Forest Preserve (aka, Park)... a place where man and the natural environment co-exist in a sustainable / symbiotic relationship.

FYI, for those who are not aware of it, the Adirondack Park-50% (and growing) of it is protected by the Forever Wild amendment to the NYS Constition-is larger than the state of Vermont and it's where I live. I LIVE IN A PARK!

the new snapshot # 219 / civilized ku # 5204 ~ smooth sailing

Heaven's Door ~ embiggenable • iPhone

Lake Champlain marina / looking at Vermont ~ embiggenable • iPhone

On my way to a charity/fundraiser event on Lake Chamlain I picked up a bottle of Bob Dylan's new just released Tennessee Straight Bourbon. After a couple days of sampling the distilled spirit I can write that Dylan and his distillers got it right.

Dylan didn't just put his name on the product. He was knee deep in its distilling and production - everything from the charring of the barrels to determining the tasting notes* and, I assume the design of the bottles inasmuch as one of Dylan's metal sculptures-a gate-is featured thereon.

There are 2 additional Dylan releases - a straight rye whiskey and a double barrel whiskey. I will be trying them.

*one reviewer's take ... On the nose, this is a classic, no-fuss bourbon, though with more oak-derived notes — think caramel, vanilla and wood char — than you’d expect from a seven-year-old. I also smelled sandalwood, leather and linseed oil. And there’s a creamy cola note that suggests a good bit of rye in the mash bill. (Mr. Dylan and his team say they use just 70 percent corn, leaving a lot of room for other grains to show their influence.) The palate opens with a soft cocoa and buttercream note, then sharpens toward black pepper and cigar tobacco. The finish is slightly bitter, with the sweet spiciness of an Atomic Fireball. My favorite of the bunch.

civilized ku # 5189 / the new snapshot # 218 ~ sight and vision

(embiggenable) • µ4/3

(embiggenable) • iPhone

I am working on an entry which deals with the idea of the duality of vision. It's a difficult entry to get right.

My intention for the entry is to define for you my vision-as I understand it-and how I "found" it. The hope being that, in the telling, the reader may gleen some insight which can be applied to his/her search for vision.

Stay tuned.

Civilized ku # 5186 / the new snapshot # 216-17 (diptych) ~ stop, look, listen

hotel mural ~ Bellerica, MA. (embiggenable) • iPhone

tailgating ~ Bellerica, MA. (embiggenable) • iPhone

To my EYE & SENSIBILITIES a good/great picture is one which, first and foremost, is visually interesting / engaging to view. If such a picture conveys a "meaning", personal or universal, for an individual viewer, so much the better. However, both qualities will be judged entirely by a viewer's subjective eye and sensibilities.

It is also my firm belief that the picture should do the "talking". While a simple Artist Statement is a never a bad idea, rambling statements composed of pyscho-self-analytical artspeak mumbo jumbo is never a good idea. iMo, they read like an instruction manual telling the reader what to think about when viewing the picture(s). Whereas, again iMo, I believe the best manner in which to approach the viewing of a picture is with a blank/open mind.

In other words, as the old railroad crossing signs suggested, when viewing a picture, the best approach is to STOP, LOOK, LISTEN.

ku # 1415 / civilized ku # 5181-82 (diptych) ~ criteria

ocean lightning / Honorable Mention selection ~ South Jersey Shore (embiggenable)  µ4/3

feet in situ ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

I am finally back in the saddle after a 10 day hiatus which included a 3 day getaway, a 4 day hospital stay and a couple days of trying to feel like myself again. During that time, I received this notification:

I am very pleased to tell you that one of your images was selected for exhibition in our Middlebury, Vermont gallery. Congratulations! … I’d like to extend special congratulations to Juror’s Award recipient Kathleen Fischer and to Director’s Award recipient Atsuko Morita ... Congratulations also to three Honorable Mentions: Mark Hobson, Marilyn Maddison, and Kate Wnek.

I must admit that there is a degree of satisfaction which accompanies the fact that one of my pictures was selected for the exhibition, WATER, from amongst the nearly 3,000 submissions. Of the 35 pictures selected, it is also nice that my picture was called out with an Honorable Mention.

That written, I have previously written about the fact that, whoever the jurist(s) might be, their selections will be very subjective. My honorable mention picture might not even have made the cut into the exhibition with a different jurist on the case. And, to be honest, my honorable mention picture was a last minute addition to my 5 submissions and I did not consider it to be the pick of the litter. Lesson to be learned: one person's criteria is not another person's criteria.

In and event, re: the topic of criteria, I have been trying to adjust my criteria regarding the making of my pictures. That is, does a referent demanded a snapshot aesthetic approach or is it a "serious" picture making opportunity? And, perhaps more important, should I even care?

The primary consideration, re: "serious" v. snapshot designation, is that of which picture making tool to use in the making of a picture. "Serious" picture making would seem to call for a "serious" tool (aka: a "real" camera) whereas a snapshot not so much - in other words, a phone camera module. FYI, an aside ... I will confess that I feel that I am making a mountain out of a mole hill inasmuch as both tools produce very good image quality.

However, it's not the image quality I am concerned with. Rather, it is the picture making M.O. that I bring to the table when making a "serious" picture v a snapshot. To be precise, my "serious" picture making M.O. is oriented less to the referent and more to the visual structure-form v. content-of the picture. Whereas, in the case of a snapshot, I am much more oriented to the content than the form.

In addition to those considerations, I bring a more formal approach to "serious" picture making wheras with snapshot making I am more "loose" about framing and other technique notions. See the individual pictures in the feet in situ diptych above as an example.

What it all comes down to regarding determining whether a picture making opportunity calls for a "serious" or "loose" M.O. is that the tool I have in my hand actually does influence my picture making state of mind. A "real" camera in hand pushes me to a formal picture making mental state whereas an iPhone in my hand pushes me to a very "loose" picture making state of mind.

the new snapshot # 215 / civilized ku # 5169-72 - a color riot

all pictures • iPhone

Mentioned in yesterday's entry was my quest for a well above average hot dog. That mission was successfully accomplished thanks to our host Rich who co-piloted us to CALLAHAN'S. The hot dogs (deep fried) were excellent - I had mine covered with chili.

The hot dog quest was instigated by a conversation about special hot dogs and eventually about the so-called "stands" which sold them. The original "stands" were wood construction eateries, most of which begin operating in the '50s. In my former home town of Rochester, NY there are a number of individually owned and operated number of "stands", some with satellite locations. And, FYI, these original stands sold hots, burgers, italian sausage, fries, rings, shakes, soda and the like.

a typical original hot dog stand ~ Rochester, NY

a typical original hot dog stand ~ Rochester, NY

All of that written, the only disappointment of the hot dog quest was that CALLAHAN's was not in an original-type structure (even though it started out in one). I, for one, prefer and like my hot dogs served and consumed in a funky patinaed '50s era stand which makes it a "genuine" experience.

CALLAHAN'S, on the other hand, has created an ersatz Disneyland-esque caricature of a hot dog stand. To my eye and sensibilities, it all seems to be rather "fake". Sorta like it's a tarted-up - there is nothing subtle about it - decor exercise meant to be entertaining rather than authentic.

Then again, given the fact that CALLAHAN'S is located in the land of wretched excess (nothing exceeds like excess) gigantic over-the-top ersatz McMansions, they have hit their target clientele smack-dab in the center of the bullseye.

the new snapshot # 214 / civilized ku # 5165-67 ~ eggs and rabbits

kids ~ Harrington Park, NJ (embiggenable) • iPhone

Easter baskets ~ Harrington Park (embiggenable) • iPhone

napping dads ~ Harrington Park (embiggenable) • iPhone

plastic egg ~ Harrington Park (embiggenable) • iPhone

Spent Easter weekend in North Jersey with the wife and inlaws + 8 neices / nephews.

The 2 kids dressed in their Easter outfits were not part of the group. I noticed them hunting eggs in a yard across the street from our Easter festivities household. They were visiting relatives. Just had to make a picture of them.