(embiggenable) iPhone
(embiggenable) iPhone
(embiggenable) iPhone
(embiggenable) iPhone
OVER THE PAST 2 DECADES, AS the analog photo world was being swallowed whole by the digital photo world, there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
The clatter, of course, was all of the caterwauling, re: the sky is falling and/or the end of photography as we knew it. To be certain, for some-think KODAK-the sky did indeed fall. However, for the picture makers in the crowd, well...the fact is, we just kept on making pictures.
Sure, sure, you might venture, but there was a change. Sure, sure, I would venture but adding, the more things change the more they remain the same. You know what I mean...for example, be it analog or digital, a "real" camera still has aperture, shutter speed, and focusing "mechanisms". Hell, even a cameraphone module can have the same via photo apps.
And, sure, sure, the sky fell for the analog photo lab industry but virtually every "serious" picture maker I know, print making is alive and well. And, much of that output ends up 0n gallery-or the like-walls. Hell, even the wonderful, "dumpy" little diner pictured in my last entry had 5 20x30 inch prints for sale on their walls.
So, all of that written, when I encounter / read crappola like the following-via VSL/Kirk Tuck...
Photography as I practiced it ten, twenty and thirty years ago is pretty much dead now. Frequent shows of prints in galleries, and print sales to individuals seem absolutely passé....Images are now a consumable and not a physical collectible, object.... [cuz, according to Kirk] it all gets crunched down onto a screen.
...I feel like I have to respond.
With all due respect to Mr. Tuck-anyone who has made a steady, good living in the commercial photo world deserves respect-I 100% disagree with his sentiments as quoted above inasmuch as I practiced photography (commercial and personal) starting 50 years ago and, from my perspective, the making of pictures has not changed one tiny bit. That is, unless one is concerned gear and technique. But even then, the one constant-the most important concept-has not changed at all...gear and technique never made a picture, it is the picture maker who makes a picture. As you know, hopefully, cameras do not make a good / great picture any more than a typewriter (or the modern equivalent thereof) makes a good / great novel.
All of that written, I also disagree with Kirk's notion that...
Cameras have superseded photography as "the" hobby. So we long time practitioners will find it hard to give up the pursuit of gear.
I understand that sentitmnet coming from Mr. Tuck inasmuch as I believe his picture is in the dictionary along the definition of "gearhead". However, gearheads have been part of the photo world seemingly since its inception, especially so in the "serious" amateur world. Most pro picture makers, myself included, found the gear which they needed to suit their picture making and they tended to stick with it throughout their entire careers. The exception being those whose careers spanned the analog to digital eras.
All of the mentioned specifics in this entry aside, I guess my ultimate bitch is with nostalgia that is based upon specious / false / "romanizied" rememberances of things past, aka: the good old days.
# 5753-57 / civilized ku•landscape ~ taking a break from taking a break
(embiggenable) •iPhone
(embiggenable) •iPhone
(embiggenable) •iPhone
(embiggenable) •iPhone
(embiggenable) •iPhone
RICK PRESTON ASKED,
Are you thinking of stopping this blog? I hope not....I come for the photos and for the occasional dig at those grumpy grandpas at TOP.
My response: No. I am not thinking of stopping this blog.
That written, the wife and I took a 2 day break from our 6 week break at Rist Camp. She had a conference to attend in Cooperstown, NY (a 3 hour drive from Rist Camp). ASIDE: if you did not know, Cooperstown is a small, pictureque / quaint village-at the foot of Otsego Lake in eastern mid-state NY-which is home the National Baseball Hall of Fame. END OF ASIDE.
It has been 30 years or more since I have been to the Baeball Hall of Fame, even though I have been to Cooperstown about 8 times over those 30 years - several times for a couple of gallery photo exhibits and, of course, for few other of the wife's conferences. And, it was while I accompanied the wife for one of her Cooperstown conferences that I attended, at the Fenimore Art Museum, a very engaging photo exhibition, "HERB RITTS / The Rock Portraits.
In any event, I enjoy visits to Cooperstown cuz, while the wife does her conference thing, amongst other things, I get to golf on a beautiful course-albeit, iMo, at $130.00US a round, a bit over-priced-that is part of the hotel and I get eat breakfast at the Cooperstown Diner.# 5751-52 / landscape ~ thinking of Thomas Cole
Hudson River School homage ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone
approaching rain ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone
IT STANDS TO REASON THAT SINCE I AM at Rist Camp, within a 1/4 mile of the Hudson River-the mighty Hudson is 20 feet wide at this point-that I would make a Hudson River School like picture.
FYI, I detest the ubiquitous blazing sunset, cliche sunset picture. When confronted with a blazing sunset my standard SOP, if I am inclined to make a picture, is to turn 90-180 degrees away from the sunset and look for a more subtle expression of the event. Fortunately for me, Rist Camp is oriented to the north at about 90 degrees away fron the setting sun.
That orientation means I do not have to get out of my Adirondack chair (on the front porch) to make a Hudson River School like picture (when nature presents such a visage to my eye and sensibilities).
# 5744-50 / nocturnal • landscape • people ~ round and round it goes, where it stops nobody knows
(embiggenable) • iPhone
(embiggenable) • iPhone
(embiggenable) • iPhone
(embiggenable) • iPhone
(embiggenable) • iPhone
(embiggenable) • iPhone
(embiggenable) • iPhone
BEEN OUT AND ABOUT DOING A VARIETY OF ACTIVITIES. Hikes, night walks, evening dining cruise, tourist cabin searches, to name a few. Also revisited my favorite Adirondack glacial erratic-16 ft tall and fractured. And, I am making a surprising number of pictures.
All of that written, as I sit here making this blog entry, I continue to be rather flummoxed, re: trying to imagine a continuing direction / purpose for this blog.
The fact of the matter is, to be quite honest, I wonder about the viability of the entire photo blog milieu. It seems to me that the only photo blogs with "legs" are those which fester on gear or those that offer up a healthy dose of the cult of personality...2 topics which hold very little interest for me and certainly topics I do not wish to pursue on this blog.
One site that has been holding my interest is Cluadio Turri ~ immagini da un diario. It continues to hold my interest cuz: 1. I like the pictures, and, 2. it is all about pictures (no words). And, as I have repeatedly mentioned, for me, the medium and its apparatus is all about the pictures.
All of that written, I do enjoy reading (and writing) about the medium of photography and its apparatus (aka: apparatus = conventions and practices).
# 5739-43 / civilized ku•nocturnal•a kitchen sink•made from a chair ~ into every life a little rain must fall
rist camp sink ~ (embiggenable) •iPhone
(embiggenable) •iPhone
(embiggenable) •iPhone
(embiggenable) •iPhone
approaching rain ~ made while seated - (embiggenable) •iPhone
DON'T KNOW WHY IT COMES AS SUCH A SURPRISE that here in the Adirondacks in the month of September-where did the summer go?-the daytime temperature only climbs to about 70˚F from a nightime low of 40-50˚F. With a similar 7 day forecast, it appears that autumn color might be arriving on the scene sooner than "normal".
In any event, I continue on my quest to produce nocturnal pictures with the iPhone that, out of the camera, do not look at all like the actual nocturnal scene. On that quest, a few nights ago, I drove the 20 miles to the nearby tiny hamlet of Long Lake. The night sky was overcast with nary a hint of stars to be seen. For my photographic intent that was fine and there were enough man-made scenes to allow me to explore my nocturnal picture making explorations.
That written, I came away with a few pictures which, with subsequent processing, produced the nocturnal look and feel I was after. In a nut shell, that look and feel can best be described as a solitary / isolated illuminated area surrounded by a dark, murky-with subtle detail-area. All in an attempt to capture that mysterious, ill-at-ease, fear of the dark (more or less) that seems to be nearly universal to the human senses.
# 5737-38 ~ excelsior! - onward and downward
killer raccoon ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone
view from the porch ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone
IN A RECENT ENTRY I MENTIONED THE IDEA of bolting my butt to a chair here at Rist Camp. The idea seems especially attractive after the last 3 months of traveling the country from one ocean to the other including parts in between. Best I call tell, we have probably rack up over 6,000 miles. So, sitting in one place, feet up, seems like a damn good idea.
In any event, the pictures in this entry were made without my getting my butt out of a chair (no bolts employed in the making of these pictures). This activity has made me conscious of the fact that I have made many pictures without assuming the standing position. Which realization, in turn, has caused me to undertake the challenge of making a making pictures while sitting body of work-during my stay at Rist Camp-in response to a regional arts center's recent open call for work for a juried exhibition of regional artists' work.
FYI, the picture making will not be limited to sitting at just Rist Camp. I am certain I will sitting in a wide variety of places...in a canoe, on a beach, on a tour boat, somewhere during a wilderness hike, on a tee box on a golf course, and many other places too numerous to mention. That written, I will try to keep it "honest" inasmuch as I will make a picture after noticing something while sitting as opposed to noticing something and then sitting in order to make a picture of it.
# 5736 / civilized ku ~ local creativity
an Adirondack cairn-ine ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone
ON MY FIRST OUT-AND-ABOUT VENTURE (a 22 mile run-each way-to the nearest grocery store) I came across a number of examples of a very localized Adirondack creativity...along an approximate 8 mile stretch of secondary roadway (2-lane rural road), centered around the hamlets of Olmsteadville and Minerva, are randomly located dog-like rock cairns.
About 6-7 years ago an enterprising and creative local began making these dog cairns, the wife and I have dubbed them to be cairn-ines, placed along forest-lined roadways. They caught the public's fancy and the artist began filling requests from home / camp owners to make them for their front yards. The wife and I are finally-after contemplating it for 4 years-pulling the trigger and having one made in our front yard at home, 60 miles away from their native habitat.
# 5735-36 / civilized ku + landscape ~ back where I belong
rist camp view ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone
tourist cabins ~ Tupper Lake - (embiggenable) • iPhone
SETTLING IN AT RIST CAMP FOR THE NEXT 5 WEEKS. JUST ME and the cat for the next couple days.
Cool breezes rustling through the trees, pack of coyotes right behind camp yowlin' and howlin' in the night, loons calling on the lake, and a flock of geese making a ruckus on the lake shore below the camp last evening. This sure ain't the Jersey Shore.
While it is tempting to just bolt my butt to an Adirondack chair on the camp porch, smoke cigars and drink whiskey-bourbon, scotch, and even some Irish and Japanese whiskey-and watch the clouds go by, my picturing intent is to get out and about and find some seldom pictured Adirondack stuff. Some of that out-and-about will be all-day trips inasmuch as the Adirondack Park is larger than the state of Vermont and is the largest park-national or state-east of the Mississippi River. Larger than Yosemite, Everglades, Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone National Parks combined.
One referent that comes to mind is the once ubiquitous tourist cabin clusters (such as seen above). Some have been lovingly preserved / restored while others sit vacant and deteriorating. Many, of course, are long gone. However, unlike the Jersey Shore where the past character of the place is dead and gone, the Adirondack region is dedicated, by intent and zoning decree, to the preservation of its long standing character, both the man-made and the natural world.
FYI, the natural world in the Park is protected by the 125+ year old amendment to the NYS Constitution, the so-called "Forever Wild" amendment. The Park is the largest protected area in the continental U.S. And, much to my ever-lasting pleasure, it is where I live.