# 5863-67 / landscape (civilized ku • ku) • around the house ~ working different

December 8, 2021

I SORTA GOT SIDETRACKED BY THE IS-SQUARE-GOOD-FOR-LANDSCAPES thing along with a dose of BW infatuation. Using the work of Robert Adams as markers / aim points for both ideas, as well as rummaging around in my picture library for pictures which were suitable for RA-like (signs of man in the landscape) conversion to BW, I am well satisfied that, for my picturing, square and BW digital BW conversion processing is good. I might even state that it is very good.

Re: digital conversion / processing for color > BW. From time to time I come across, most recently on T.O.P., the idea that digital is not BW picturing friendly. That the only way to achieve the best BW pictures is via the analog, aka: film, picture making process. I disagree….

…That written, I am not here to debate one process against the other. Rather, the position I take is that digital BW images can be created which compare-that is, if comparing is your thing-very favorably with film created BW images. Me, I’m not into “comparing”. Nor am I a life-long devotee of BW picture making.

Sure, sure. Back in the analog days, I had my very own soup-to-nuts “formula” for making BW pictures - preferred film, developer, developing times / agitation, (my own “personal” zone system) + my preferred printing system - condenser enlarger, specific developer, specific graded paper. My formula produced BW prints that I liked very much. Not to mention, I truly enjoyed my private time in the darkrooms (1 for film processing, 1 for printing).

At the same time there were those who took the I idea of creating a personal BW picturing, processing, printing formula to an extreme. Example: I have overheard many a photo club conversation hotly debating the type of bulb to be used in an enlarger head. They loved to tinker with the process to the point where, in some cases, it was the reason they were involved with photography.

In any event, I’ll leave you with a hint-I have mentioned this previously-for making really good BW digital image files. The process is simplicity itself - open an RGB color image file. Convert to LAB Color Space, Discard the a and b channels, leaving only the Lightness channel. Convert to Grayscale. At this point you now have an image file that contains only the lightness values-independent of any color values-extracted from your original color file-THIS NOT THE SAME THING AS DE-SATURATING THE COLORS IN A COLOR FILE-not even close.

Once I have the Grayscale file, I will usually make small tonal adjustments in Photoshop to bring the tonal values in line with the feel of the original color file, therefore in line with the actual scene.

**RGB original** / **LAB conversion Grayscale** ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

# 5858-62 / signs ~ stop or go?

December 2, 2021

OVER THE PAST MONTH OR SO I have been staring at a Robert Adams book, THE NEW WEST, which was sitting on a side table in my bedroom. A few days ago, driven by a desire to views the square format pictures in the book, I picked it up in the interest of verifying the idea that the square format was appropriate for landscape picture making.

Why? you might ask. Well, my recent exploration of full-frame iPhone picture making was causing to me to have a few doubts, re: square format + landscapes. After viewing The New West, that doubt was dispelled without a doubt. Which caused me to reference my picture library in search of some of my landscape pictures just so I could verify that my own landscape work, square frame wise, was up to the task. iMo, it was.

Along the way, I came across a heretofore unpublished-on this blog or on my Work Page-body of work, SIGNS (although I did make a POD photo book). As I worked my way through the SIGNS folder-all pictures are in color-the thought floated to the top of the quagmire that is my brain and after viewing the beautifully printed BW pictures in the THE NEW WEST book, maybe, just maybe I ought to consider re-processing them as BW pictures.

So I pulled out a few pictures and re-processed them to BW. Based upon the result, maybe, just maybe I ought consider re-processing the rest of the pictures.

Opinions / comments?

# 5853-57 / still life (kitchen life) • landscape (civilized / ku) • people ~ this and that

November 29, 2021

THE MORE YOU LOOK, THE MORE YOU SEE. The more you see, the more you make pictures. The more pictures you make, the more you wonder what the hell you are going to do with all of them.

I have yet to come up with an answer / solution to that dilemma.

# 5851-52 / landscape (new topographics) ~ one of these things is not like the other thing

November 27, 2021

OVER PAST MONTH OR SO I HAVE BEEN MAKING A FAIR NUMBER of full-frame pictures. In most cases, doing so after making a square-frame picture of the small referent / scene.

What I have learned from this procedure is that , while I still see square, picture making vision wise, I only see full-frame wise when I switch from square crop to full-frame crop on the viewing screen of the iPhone. That is to write, I do not see the world full-frame, picture making wise, “naturally” / intuitively. Nevertheless, I do feel that once I impose the full-frame rectangle on my viewing screen, I have no trouble “arranging” the visual elements on the 2D visual plane within my imposed frame into a satisfactory visual form.

The interesting result of this crop-of-the-real-world switcheroo is that the full-frame picture-even though it is based upon / around the square instigating prick to my eye and sensibilities-presents (in print), a remarkably different look and feel from the square version thereof. That is not to write that one is better or worse than the other. They are just different.

So, considering the preceeding, were I to set out to make a full-frame body of work, I would set my on-screen crop to full-frame and, after being incited to make a picture by a prick to my eye and sensibilities, I would then only view the instigating referent through the full-frame crop on the iPhone screen.

However, I am intrigued by the idea of making a photographs about photography body of work which is comprised of full-frame + square frame pictures of the same referent. The intent being to have an exhibition with one wall displaying square prints opposing another wall displaying the full-frame prints.

# 5848-50 / landscape (ku) • kitchen life ~ forever and ever, amen

November 24, 2021

I HEARD AN INTERESTING PHRASE LAST EVENING ON A PBS SHOW-”staring into the distance of the present”-which had nothing to do with photography or art but I thought it kinda said something about my pictures. Especially if it is paired with a quote from George Tice:

It takes the passage of time before an image of a commonplace subject can be assessed. The great difficulty of what I attempt is seeing beyond the moment; the everydayness of life gets in the way of the eternal.

Over the past few years in particular I have willfully avoided, while making pictures, thinking about anything but responding to the moment. I do not think about “the eternal” or any other notion, re: why I am making the picture. My intent at the moment of making a picture is simply to be successful in capturing that which pricked my eye and sensibilities.

My idea of success is measured upon the viewing of the finished print and whether or not it instigates the same prick I experienced upon the viewing of the actual scene / referent. With those pictures that achieve that result, I know that they will repeatedly do so every time I view them, a quality which makes them and the depicted referent somewhat “eternal”.

5844-47 / people • places ~ Irish Eyes Are Smiliing

November 22, 2021

***the Golden Dome*** ***+ fall color*** ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

***Touchdown Jesus*** ***+ me***~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

***Notre Dame (Blue and Gold) about to score a touchdown*** ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

***train snacks in our roomette*** ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

AFTER A 48 HOUR, 1750 MILE (280 by CAR / 1470 by TRAIN) TRIP with my grandson Hugo, I ‘m back home and anticipating Thanksgiving Day 3 days hence. The purpose of the trip was to attend the Notre Dame v Georgia Tech football game which Notre Dame-The Fighting Irish-won by the score of 55-0. Obviously, the game provided no drama but every play seemed like a highlight reel play.

Hugo made a picture of me standing in front of Touchdown Jesus-which faces and can be seen from the upper reaches of the stadium-and , unlike most others who were having their picture made in the same place, I got through it without raising my arms in imitation of Touchdown Jesus.

# 5840-43 / landscape ~ they didn't get the memo

November 19, 2021

A FEW YEARS SHY OF 50 YEARS AGO-4 YEARS TO BE EXACT-a memo was issued to picture makers that things had changed:

“A turning point in the history of photography, the 1975 exhibition New Topographics signal[s] a radical shift away from traditional depictions of landscape. Pictures of transcendent natural vistas [have given] way to unromanticized views of stark industrial landscapes, suburban sprawl, and everyday scenes not usually given a second glance.”

Quite obviously, the bulk of “serious” picture makers never got the memo. Aided by the addition of Photoshop (and the like) to their kit, they are pounding out romanticized, over color saturated, HDR, art sauce slathered, natural world caricatures by the garbage truck load. And the general picture viewing public sees these picture as the bee’s knees, re: the depiction of the beauty of nature. To which I would opine that every pot has a lid.

On the other hand, for few years shy of 50 years (4 to be exact) , those picture makers-myself included-who got the memo have been pounding out unromanticized views of stark industrial landscapes, suburban sprawl, and everyday scenes not usually given a second glance-the so-called New Topographcs- by the pickup truck load. The Fine Art World (and me) has tended to think that’s just fine.

All of which leaves me wondering, will there be a new memo coming down the shute?

FYI, I am off on a short getaway-Fri-Sun-to attend the Notre Dame v Georgia Tech football game in South Bend, Indiana. I am getting away by train-sleeping car roomette-to and fro. Looking forward to visiting the outstanding Notre Dame Museum of Art. My traveling companion is my teenage grandson Hugo. The trip itself is a long-desired re-enactment of my train trips (as a kid) to South Bend with my father to see ND games and visit the Studebaker Museum-my dad was a Studebaker Man.

# 5838-39 / landscapes (ku) • civilized ku ~ simple is as simple does

November 17, 2021

f8 AND BE THERE. WHICH IS A QUIPPY WAY OF SAYING, if you have your picture making device handy, no matter where you might find yourself (aka: “there”) you are ready to strike when the iron is hot. It ain’t rocket science and, iMo, it sure as hell ain’t hard (aka: difficult).

Consider Robert Adams’ idea about art:

'“if the goal of art is to be reached: only pictures that look as if they had been easily made can convincingly suggest that beauty is commonplace.” – Robert Adams…

iMo, if you want to make a picture look simple (aka: “easily made”), keep it simple.