# 6713-17 / landscape • common things ~ the end is nigh

September 22, 2023

TODAY IS THE LAST DAY AND NIGHT AT Rist Camp. Here are a few pictures made over the last couple days - my total picture output, INSTAX print wise, is hovering around the 75 print number.

One highlight of our time at Rist was just yesterday. The wife and I had planned a walk in the woods at nearby nature center-miles of trails through a variety of lake, bog / marsh / forest habits-only to discover the trails were closed due to damage from a severe rain event. So instead, we headed off to the Adirondack Experience, formerly known as the Adirondack Museum - a campus-like layout of buildings that includes a very large Art exhibition facility.

After a recent renovation, the facility is not divided into four galleries - Light, Forest, Water, Mountains. Each gallery displays Adirondack inspired paintings-they have a magnificent collection of Hudson River School masters’work-photography (primarily old-timey era), and crafts (emphasis on rustic furnishings) that fall under the gallery theme.

In any event, there was one photo by the reigning dean of Adirondack photography-albeit that he hasn’t made of photograph in 20 years. The print-most likely made on his wide format epson printer (which I helped him set up)-was approximately 3’x4’. The photograph was very much to my liking inasmuch as he primarily made photographs of the “overlooked” natural world and, in the case of this print, just screamed to my eye and sensibilities that it was a film based photograph.

That written, I was never a fan of his prints; garish, ultra contrasty and unplesantly sharp-to my eye and sensibilities-Cibachrome prints made directly from his Ektachrome 8x10 transparencies. He was enamored of the Cibachrome process because of its extreme archival properties.

All of that written, the print in question had the look and feel of a traditional C print. That is, natural color and smooth tonal transitions - a “creamy”-different from “soft”-somewhat seductive representation of the natural world. A look and feel that, by not conveying ultra-fine, extremely-sharp micro detail and contrast, exhibits, to me, a vague hint of hidden mystery that really suits my eye and sensibilities. It is a look and feel I rarely experience with the viewing of ultra-everything - detail, resolution / sharpness, dynamic range, micro-contrast - super hi-res digital-capture prints.

To be certain, I am not pining for the good ol’ days of wet darkroom, film, and C prints. I am quite happy using less than state-of-the-art sensors together with a bit of post picture capture processing with which I can simulate a film-like quality that comes through to the eye on my prints.

# 6709-12 / landscape • kitchen life • people ~ a time for reckoning?

September 17, 2023

RECENTLY A GREAT DEAL OF INK HAS BEEN SPILLED (or keyboards pounded) on TOP and VSL, re: what am I doing here? That is, the respective authors thereof seem to very concerned about their very raison d’etre, blogging wise. So I thought I might chime in on that topic but not on the comments section on those sites cuz, in both cases, the comments are fan-boy inspired I-love-everything-you-do, don’t change anything, I think you are absolutely fabulous.

Right off the top / outa the gate let me write that I do not consider either of these sites as to be about the medium of photography and its apparatus (conventions and practices, not gear).

In the case of VSL, there is never any content about the medium itself. Rather, it is all about-elevated to the level of fetish-the tools of the medium. The author seems to think that he can show us-literally, with pictures-the rather subtle difference in sensors and lenses even though he readily admits that the medium of the interweb, image display wise, pretty much obliviates those differences. Sounds to me a lot like a fools errand.

In the case of TOP, while there is a reasonable amount of content, re: the medium and its apparatus, there is an ever-increasing amount of off-topic content that strays pretty far afield from that of photography. Add to that situation the fact that the blogging platform used by TOP is absolutely unsuited to the display of photographs and what you end up with is a very compromised photography experience. But…

…iMo, the real problem with TOP-for me-is the fact that the author’s first love is the act of writing, not the act of making of photographs. In a sense, he loves to”hear” himself write. Not to mean that he does not enjoy the making of photographs but, I suspect that, if he were to be required to choose between writing or picture making, all his photo gear would be listed for sale on ebay in a NY minute.

I also believe that the author is hindered from creating a more photography-centric blog by his self-professed doubts that; a.) is photography…ending? and, b.) everything to be written about photography has already been written. 2 ideas that I believe are; a.) ridiculous and, b.) even more ridiculous.

In any event, to certain extent, I believe that both authors are old coot hidebound and therefore rather unimaginative, re: how to carry on in the blogging sphere. In a very real sense, they are trapped in a blogging paradigm of their own makings. Nevertheless, it might be interesting to follow where this all ends up inasmuch as it can be amusing to watch a potential train wreck in the making.

BONUS CONTENT - Re: is photography…ending?

FIRDAY EVENING THE WIFE AND I WENT DOWN the driveway to a restaurant / tavern for dinner only to discover that it was OPEN MIKE NIGHT. Except , quite fortunately, the hitch was that is was open mike for musicians, not for any drunk wanting to sing.

As it turned out it was a lot of fun and very entertaining. The musicians performed individually, in pairs and, eventually all jamming together. As is often the case, I had my INSTAX printer with me so I commenced to making pictures (and prints). Primarily of the musicians but also of the audience.

Just for fun, I had a waitress hand the pictures out, as I made them, to the person pictured. The point was to create a sense of confusion about where the hell these pictures were coming from. Eventually the cat was out of the bag and, when, at the end of the night, the crowd was applauding the various musicians, one musician suggested a round of applause for the guy making the pictures. The crowd turned to me and gave gave a rousing all hail and hardy applause and a few tips of the hat.

I am certain they did that only cuz, ya know, photography is…ending.

# 6704-6708 / COMMON PLACES • COMMON THINGS ~ small is beautiful

September 15, 2023

AS I NEAR THE END OF WEEK 4 AT Rist Camp, I have made, by my count, exactly 50 INSTAX prints during my stay (so far-but another week to go). FYI, 20% of those pictures have been made in the kitchen. Add to that total another 65 INSTAX prints made at the Jersey Shore and I have quite a bundle of pictures that I need to figure out how to deal with.

My current what-to-do-with-them is, quite simply, my life-long affinity for small things. I do not have a clue as to how to explain it. That written, a fun example of this proclivity is the little tiny loon who lives on the binnacle-not be confused with the bonnet, boot or windscreen-of my vehicle’s instrument cluster. I find him (her?) to be very amusing as, when driving with “vigor”-the wife calls it excessive speed-through a string of twisty bits, the loon swims from side to side (g-forces at work) across the binnacle. It never gets old - I break out in a smile, if not an outright laugh, every time. One might suggest that simple pleasure goes together with a simple mind, but that’s another story.

In any event, my plan for this plethora of prints is to make 2-3 regular prints-non-INSTAX-of selected images from each collection. Then select 9 INSTAX prints from each collection to be presented as pictured below-not an actual framed piece, just some prints placed on a frame I had handy to see how it might look. As for the rest, I have discovered that there is a considerable number of picture albums for INSTAX prints.

One rather exquisite example is a fabric-covered, hard bound cover, 8x5 inch horizontal format (2 vertical prints per lay-flat page) album that holds 52 prints. It is right up my alley cuz…it’s small.

# 6701-03 / common places • common things ~ the inscrutably sublime inanity of quotidian seeing

September 11, 2023

IT WAS GALEN ROWELL WHO SAID / WROTE:

“If we limit our vision to the real world, we will forever be fighting on the minus side of things, working only to make our photographs equal to what we see out there, but no better.”

iMo and to my eye and sensibilities, Rowell’s nature / landscape photography is filed under the category I label as Color Screamist Photography. That is, pictures-most often landscapes-which exhibit ultra-vivid colors, hues, saturation and dramatic light. Pictures made by photo drama queens, if you will, who strive to make their pictures “better” by making pictures that are essentially caricatures of the the real world. Apparently, the real world as it is-or as close as the medium of photography is capable of rendering it-just ain’t good enough for them.

Ok. I get it. As Julian’s grandmother said, “For every pot there’s lid.” and the color screamists are the lid on the pot of the teeming masses who lust for and salivate at the sight of such visual dreck. Hey, whatever floats your boat is OK with me as long as nothing / no one is harmed in the making thereof. And, I might add, as long as I don’t have to look at it.

So, there you have it - I am not a fan of romanticized / idealized idolatry-like landscape / nature photography. Or, for that matter, any referent one chooses to picture layered with exaggerated effects and art sauce.

Re: any referent - as should be obvious, I am drawn to picturing referents of one kind or another as found and seen in the ubiquitous quotidian world / life. However, it is rarely the referent, in and of itself, which attracts my attention and desire to make a photograph. Rather, it is the part the referent plays, together with other visual elements, in the patterns (shape, lines, color and the like) I see, as isolated within my imposed framing. All of which contributes to the form I seek to create and present on the 2D surface of a photographic print.

And that speaks to the difference (or one of the prime differences) between my picture making as opposed to that of the screamists, and, for that matter, a great number of “serious” amateurs. To wit, for most non-fine art picture makers, the referent is what drives the bus. The resultant photograph is meant to be all about the referent.

On the other hand, there are those picture makers who realize that a picture can be about more than what is literally depicted.

For many in this group this means attempting to cram meaning-very often, deep emotional, psychological, meaning-of-life concepts-into their pictures. iMo, a fruitless pursuit that yields pictures that require explicative art-speak explanations to illuminate that which their pictures do not.

Then there are others in the about-more-than-the-depicted-referent crowd, myself included, who believe that a photograph is “all” about the print. That is, creating an object, a tangible thing, which illustrates interesting visual form, as seen on the 2D field of the photographic print. Form that plays with / derives from some of the classic elements of the visual arts-line, shape, space, value, and color-independent of the depicted referent.

That is not to write that the depicted referent is not an essential component of the form exhibited in the finished print. That’s cuz, in a very real sense, the depicted referent and the form derived / arranged from its depiction are intrinsically linked.

So, all of that written, back to any referent from the quotidian world / life….being wary of expressing an overly broad generalization, I will, nevertheless, pose this question; why is it that in the fine-art photography world so much of that photography which exhibits interesting form does so with depicted referents plucked from the quotidian world? Toasters instead of temples, if you will.

One key answer, at least so for me, is the dissociative sensation that results from encountering an object of beauty-a photographic print-which has been created from a rather mundane everyday depicted referent. The art of transforming “nothing” into “something”.

In addition to my many such experiences, I have encountered, too many times to count, a similar reaction to many of my photographs when I hear a viewer exclaim, “I don’t know why I like this picture, but I do.” - very much an expression of wonderment (or is it confusion?) at their interest in / attraction to a picture of an everyday thing that they would never even have noticed, much less making a picture thereof.

A PICTURE MAKING TIP: once you are freed from the tyrany of making pictures of only conventionally defined pretty / beautiful referents, the entire world and everything in it is your picture making osyster.

# 6698-6700 / landscape • rist camp • (a) kitchen sink ~ the gift that keeps on giving

September 7, 2023

CREATING A BLOG ENTRY WHILE HERE AT Rist Camp is rather problematic inasmuch as there are a host of distractions. There is the never-ending and ever-changing view from the porch or 9 holes of golf everyday on one of the most scenic courses in the Adirondacks. Then there is the early evening>sunset porch monkey hour spent sipping a very good whiskey and sampling a bit if a very good cigar. And, of course, I would be very remiss if I were to leave out the kitchen sink.

That written, were I to follow the lead of other so-called photo sites, I could write endlessly about the variety and finer points of whiskey (and how it is made) or the finer points of golf and my golf game (I’m low handicaper), but, as promised I won’t go there. So…

How about the idea of being in the moment, to picture or not to picture.

Recently, on a couple “true” photo sites, the idea that there is a time to photograph and time not to photograph was bantterd about. The notion that making a photograph somehow pulls the maker out of the moment and thereby diminishes the appreciation thereof. And, that constantly stopping to make a picture while talking a walk destroys the mood of simply taking a walk, not to mention annoying one’s companion.

Now I can see that that idea has some merit when considering a “serious” amateur picture maker who totes around a camera bag full of lenses, filters, et al and stops to “work” a scene, maybe even setting up a tripod and/or changing lenses. However, when it comes to my manner of making pictures, the idea has a very much not so much application.

To wit, even in my “real” camera days I-like many others-was a proponent of and practitioner of the 1 camera / 1 lens brigade. The camera was set up to be essentially, lift to the eye, point, shoot. Add to that efficiency the fact that I rarely “work” a scene and now that I am picture making within the iPhone brigade, I have time aplenty to savor/ be in the moment.

However, iMo, if one encounters a moment to be savored, appreciated, or to “be in”, not making of picture of a time-slice of that moment-in the most efficient mentally / emotionally non-invasive manner possible-is a missed opportunity. That is, an opportunity to make a picture of a moment that can be savored, appreciated, contemplated and enjoyed in an extended manner that is not possible in the actual moment.

After all, moments come and go in a….well…in a moment. Whereas a photograph can be there “forever” (within the limits of archival-ness) and is fully capable of, at least for the picture maker (and, perhaps for a companion who experienced the same moment), instigating similar feelings to those which were a part of the original being-the-moment circumstance.

So, my advice to the serious amateur, is keep it simple.That’s cuz even the most amateur-ishly made snapshot is perfectly capable of producing a recognizable facsimile of a memorable moment.

# 6691-97 / people ~ "nothing special"

September 1, 2023

***nothing special, just some pictures*** ~ (embiggenable)

CONTINUING WITH MY HARANGUE, RE: Mike Johnston’s Is Photography…Ending? gibberish, I don’t know whether to give my Mr. Potato Head Award to Mike Johnson for….

“….photographing is fast becoming nothing special or distinctive simply because everyone does it….It's a part of daily existence and fast becoming nothing at all special.”

or to a commentor for…

“Have you yet seen a cell phone photo that you'd consider "great," worthy of joining the pantheon of great photographs? I didn't think so. The difference is in deliberateness, intent and talent.”

Inasmuch as both notions are equally ludicrous, maybe Mr. Potato Head co-recipients is the best idea.

RE: “nothing at all special” - Is Mike Johnston hiding / living under a rock? Has he not been to any family households that have a zillion pictures of kids, pets, grandparents, vacation trips, etc., framed on the walls and/or on the frig door with a magnet? Or how about workplace offices, cubicles and desks? The idea that those pictures are “nothing special” cuz “everyone’s doing it” is patently absurd.

Or consider my recent experience at the Jersey Shore. 120 family members and far-flung relatives were busy snapping away, day and night. That number includes me who was snapping away with my iPhone and spitting out INSTAX instant prints. Within 24 hours of my arrival at the Shore, the word got out that I was handing out really “cool” pictures and the result was that I must have heard a zillion times, “Will you take my picture please?”

Apparently, a whole lot of people thought that having a “cool” picture of themselves to take home and, at the very least, put on the refrig door as memory / keepsake of the event was kinda “special”. Several individuals thought the INSTAX prints were so special that within a couple days they had ordered their own INSTAX Mini Printers.

Evidence for sure that Photography Is Ending.

RE: “The difference is in deliberateness, intent and talent.” I hardly know what to write about this idiotic idea. On the other hand, “What a fucking moron.” comes to mind. Does this dimwit think that cuz cellphone made pictures aren’t created with $10K worth of equipment that the person so doing is not acting with deliberation, specific intent, and talent? Once again, let me write, “What a fucking moron.”

Re: Henny Penny-ism (aka: Chicken Little-ism). ‘Nuff written (for now).

# 6691-93 / landscape • common places / things ~ grumpy old men

August 30, 2023

IT MUST HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH AGING (grumpy old men / can’t teach an old dog new tricks)…a number of photography bloggers have lately been bemoaning the demise of something or another from the good ol’ days of picture making. Consider Mike Johnston in his Is Photography…Ending? entry:

“Photographers used to be respected, because, through hard-won skill and knowledge and practice, they could do things ordinary people couldn't. But the status of having specialized knowledge and skill has been evaporating for years now. Paralleling that decline is a decline in the in the need to hire a photographer for a wide array of once-common needs.”

If Johnston thinks this is new news-the “decline in the in the need to hire a photographer for a wide array of once-common needs”-I call “bullshit”. Consider this from a book I just purchased about a heretofor little known Adirondack village photographer, J. S. Wooley (worked as a photographer from 1880s-1930):

…The very existence of the Brownie meant less work for professional photographers, and Wooley, as other village photographers did, simply replaced one form of income with another.

Let’s see now…KODAK introduced the Brownie in 1900. Sounds like it’s kinda like the same as it ever was to me.

Re: “Photographers used to be respected, because… they could do things ordinary people couldn't.” I have no idea what era he’s talking about. I must have been asleep during that special time when all the common folk-every man, woman and child-held a special place in their heart and mind for their favorite photographer.

I can only imagine that every after work cocktail hour was alive with talk about, Adams, Eggleston, Steiglitz, and how about that Robert Frank guy? Not to mention the universal and feverish excitement about the upcoming Jeff WALL exhibition at MOMA. And, without a doubt, every classroom wall was adorned with portraits of beloved photographers like Weston, Evans and Cartier-Bresson. Aaahhh, the glory days.

Re: “… they could do things ordinary people couldn't.” It was Jack Kerouac who wrote, re: Robert Frank, “You got eyes." Which, iMo, was Kerouac’s way of indicating that Frank "could do things that ordinary people photographers couldn’t”. And, guess what…there are photographers aplenty on the planet today who “got eyes” and, no matter the tool they might be using, can do things that ordinary photographers can’t. And, I might add, they get plenty of recognition and respect in the same clique(s) / arena(s) as before.

iMo, it seems that complaining about the notion that things ain’t what they used to be is an old-age right of passage. A right that I have never fully adopted cuz, the way I see it, the more things change, the more-at an elemental / fundamental level-they stay the same.

# 6688-90 / landscape • common things • kitchen sink ~ too much of a "good" thing?

August 28, 2023

***ode to Oppenheimer*** ~ (embiggenable)

AS I PLUMB DEEPER INTO THE WORLD OF INSTAX print making, taken together with my current-while away from my desktop-loss of PS processing capabilities, I have come to an amended interpretation of the adage:

A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. ~ so said Lord Darlington in Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windemere’s Fan

In my amended interpretation, a man is a picture making people (man, woman, or child) whose pictures reveal everything (max detail, resolution, dynamic range, et al) but capture the value (feeling) of nothing. That is to write, to my eye and sensibilities, such pictures project the impression of a coldly analytical, surreal / hyper real, tour de force of technical “perfection” which, once again to my eye and sensibilities, have no “soul” or visual mystery /mystique.

SO, how does INSTAX prints and loss of PS capabilities factor into my price of everything / value of nothing picture making state of mind? Simply put, looking for extreme or small detail(s) in an INSTAX print is a fool’s errand. However, in my experience, the nearly universal reaction to the viewing of such prints is an immediate connection to the feeling the picture is intended to convey. There are few or no distracting details to get in the way of that perception.

And, re: PS capabilities, now that I have been “surviving” for a couple weeks without PS-using PS Express + Snapseed for my photo editing-I have begun to question my pursuit of “perfection” - things such as creating a high degree of shadow and highlight detail, optimizing color balance by differentiating color balance between shadows and mid-tones, and the like. Processing adjustments that I try to perform with a deft / subtle hand so as to be natural looking / not obvious.

Nevertheless, the question being, do I need to tone it down? The answer to that question can only be answered when I get back to my desktop system-with a working PS-and make a few prints from “toned down” files and in order to see what’s what.