# 5696-97 / around the house•kitchen sink ~ momentary beauty

(embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable) • iPhone

LIGHT. THERE ARE TIMES WHEN A PICTURE CAN BE "about" light. After all, George Eastman said:

"Light makes photography. ... But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography."

Without some form of light, making pictures is impossible, or, very difficult at best. However, to my eye and sensibilities, a picture which is all about light, that is, without a referent that adds rhythm and ryhme, is picture without compelling interest.

That written, I am a firm believer in the idea put forth by Brooks Jensen:

"There is no such thing as “good” or “bad” photographic light. There is just light."

Consequently, I am not a devotee of the concept of chasing the light. As long as there is some form of light that allows me to make a picture of what pricks my eye and sensibilities, that's fine by me. However, that written, there are times when light compliments-that is, it adds to the rhythm and rhyme-the structure of my picture because it is an integal part of what pricked my eye and sensibilities, that is fine by me as well.

(embiggenable) • iPhone

# 5671-75 / diptychs•triptychs ~ at times 2 can be better than 1

(embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable) • m4/3

(embiggenable) • Polaroid SX-70 / m4/3

THERE WAS A TIME IN MY PICTURE MAKING LIFE when I was given to making diptychs and the occasional triptych. That written, over time I made quite a number of both and, stupid me, I never organized them into a single folder / body of work.

One thing I did do, re: diptychs, was to create and organize an exhibit, Photographs in Conversation. In order to create the diptychs, I contacted a few picture makers (from my blog followers) from around the world and invited them to participate in the project.

That participation consisted of my sending one of my pictures-different pictures for each participant-and asking them to send back one of their pictures which created a "conversation" with my picture. Each participant was also requested to send me one of their pictures to which I would respond with a "conversation" appropriate picture. A good time was had by all.

I still continue to made diptychs/triptychs. The iPhone-made diptychs in this entry are recent examples. Some of the other examples date back 25 years or more. That written, it's time to get my act together and organize and edit the existing diptcyh/triptych work.

# 5526-28 / around the house•OoC Context•week of ... ~ imagine it

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Out of Context / in context ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

Out of Context progress ~ (embiggenable) iPhone

last week at Rist Camp ~ (embiggenable)• iPhone

IT HAS BEEN WRITTEN (Ecclesiastes 1:9) AND REPEATEDLY SAID that there is no new thing under the sun. There are many who would beg to differ but, using the broadest definitions possible, re: "new" and "thing", the idea is, iMo, a reasonably sound generalized concept.

However, what about the notion of there is no new thing under the sun, re: the medium of photography and its apparatus? If I were asked that question, my answer would be, "when it comes to making pictures, there is no new thing under the sun."

In the most generalized sense, no matter the device you may using today to make pictures, since the dawn of photography, pictures were always made using a picture making device of one kind or another. And, no matter the software you may use to process those picures, the capabilities thereof mimic traditional processes dating back, again, to the dawn of photography.

Do the current picture making devices and picture processing software make it (potenially) easier and quicker to make and process pictures? Do they make it (potenially) easier and quicker to create manipulated pictures? Do they make it easier and quicker to make techically good pictures? Yes, yes and yes. But, in fact, there is little-if any thing-that a skilled craftsperson of 150 years ago could not have accomplished, albeit requiring much more time and effort.

All that written, my question is, why all the nattering and caterwauling, re: the end of photography as we know it?

My answer: Fear. Those who have distinguished their work from that of others based on their technical mastery of the medium and its apparatus, realize that that ain't gonna cut it anymore. Whether they like it or not, the democratization of the medium and its apparatus has drawn attention to the most important tool in the tool box and it's not a device or a bit of software. It is not a tool that can be purchased, online or in a big box camera store. Arguably, it most likely can not be taught or learned in a workshop.

It is, in fact, the tool that Einstein said was more important than knowledge...imagination.

iMo, imagination, which is linked to creativity, is the timeless-no new thing-tool which separates the very good from the merely average.

Imagine that.

rain / the light / # 3642-45 ~ image and Doppler evaluation

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(embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable) • iPhone

the umbrella

the umbrella

YESTERDAY I SPENT THE DAY HAVING A transesophageal echocardiogram. This is a procedure in which an imaging device was put down my esophagus in order to obtain a close / detailed view of my heart. In my case, this procedure was performed to determine that: 1.) the blood clot found in my heart last December had dissolved, and, 2.) confirm that my heart was a good canidate for the Watchman procedure. I passed on both counts. So, next Monday, I do the Watchman thing wherein they put an "umbrella" in my heart.

Moving on to other recent news, this past Saturday evening we experienced a somewhat uncommon manifestation of what we have dubbed, Hobbit Light. Hobbit Light is an atmospheric condition which causes the landscape to be bathed in intensely yellow-red light. The very air itself seems to be yellow-red.

In most cases, Hobbit Light lasts about 15-20 minutes and happens at sunset, with a heavy cloud cover, and following a heavy rain. It is most intense after the sun has set, during the time known as the gloaming or, as I like to call it, entre chien et loup (between the dog and the wolf).

iMo, there are 2 characteristics of Hobbit Light which make it rather eerie: 1.) there is no directional light which results in a flat / soft, almost shadow-less, "murky" light, and, 2.) every time I have experienced it, the air is as still as a statue which creates a very quiet / still landscape.

Taken together, that creates a very other-worldly feeling. Kinda like Middle Earth.

landscape / # 3579-81 + coronavirus book ~ appearances can be deceiving

Vermont ,through a dirty window ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

tee and green, severe dog-leg left ~ # 6 / Whiteface Golf Club (embiggenable) • iPhone

coronavirus ~ pandemic pictures ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

RECEIVED MY coronavirus pandemic pictures PHOTO BOOK AND I AM quite pleased with it. The softcover book, made by PARABO.PRESS is 8x8" with 20 pages + covers, containing 32 pictures. In all respects, the quality of the book is first rate.

My next entry will delve into my ideas and "secrets" regarding photo book making. However, I will spill one "secret" in this entry ...

While I don't make a lot of BW / monochrome pictures, when I do, the last processing step in my prep for printing-photo print or photo book-is to convert the Grayscale image file to RGB. Which, on the face of it, might seem rather counter-productive inasmuch as, in most cases, the first step to a creating a digital BW / monochrome image file is to convert an image file from RGB to Grayscale. However ....

... back in the day, in the world of the printing press, if one wanted a truly "rich" printed-on-paper BW / monochrome image, converting a Grayscale image to color space-CMYK for the printing press-was the way to go. The difference between a picture printed with just black ink-the "K" in CMYK-and the same picture printed with CMYK-C(yan)M(agenta)Y(ellow)K(black) was VERY significant. Consequently, high-end fine art BW / monochrome photography books were almost always printed with color inks.

And, I can atest that the same holds true today in the online POD photo book world. I always, to include the coronavirus book, send RGB files to the printer. Additionally, all of my BW / monochrome photographic prints are made with RGB files.

FYI, unless you look at the printed page in a photo book with a high magnification lupe, the picture will appear to the eye as a "pure", color-neutral Grayscale image. And, BTW, if you are into making warm or cool tinted Grayscale images, the best way to do it is with a Grayscale image file converted to RGB using CURVES in Photoshop.

PS I made the putt for a par on # 6 and went on to finish my 9-hole round-the first of the season-at even par.

civilized ku # 1321-23 ~ the less said , the better

social distancing ~ Au Sable Forks / Jay , NY (embiggenable) • iPhone

my coronavirus driving kit ~ gloves, wipes, mask (embiggenable) • iPhone

IT WOULD SEEM THAT MY/OUR LITTLE ATTEMPT to make pictures during what I call life in wartime is being taken up by all manner of picture makers. Hopefully, you can access this link, The World’s Great Photographers, Many Stuck Inside, Have Snapped, to a NY Times article about the same idea.

In any event, I have been making pictures which, if noted by the day they were made, are obviously pictures made during life during wartime. On the other hand, the pictures are much like the pictures I make during my regular lifetime. So, the question that arises in my head is, should I be trying to "step it up", re: including referents which are identifiable as specifically coronavirus quarantine related?

FYI, I have not come up with answer to that question.

Case in point, the LENSCRATCH link to their 2020 Self-Quarantining Exhibition. With exception of the pictures made of toilet paper-fast becoming a coronavirus picture cliche-or of people with face-masks, most of the pother pictures could have been made at anytime. The same could be written about most of the pictures in the NY Times article. In both cases, we know when the pictures were made because of the titles of the exhibition / article. As is also the case with the CORONAVOGRAPGHY pictures.

To be sure, I don't believe that the lack of visual time-frame specificity is a failure of any kind. My only point is to bring attention to the fact that pictures-with the possible exceptions of propaganda and pornography-more often than not need words-iMo, the fewer the better-to impart, or at least hint at, the idea of meaning in / of a photograph.

civilized ku # 1318-20 ~ doing their part to flatten the curve

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public service announcement ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

RUNNING OUT OF PICTURES TO POST on the Coronavography site. Please keep those cards and letters coming and hopefully a few followers who indicated they would participant will start chipping in. Don't want this thing to peter out. And, if any contributor is looking for some inspiration, check out the self-quarantining exhibition on LENSCRATCH.

ku(ish) # 1461-64 ~ a travelogue of sorts

(embiggenable) • µ4/3

Lake Harris Lodge ~ (embibbenable) • iPhone

Lake Harris Lodge backyard / frozen Lake Harris ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

WENT ON A SUNDAY DRIVE ON WAY TO BRUNCH WITH friends-a group of 10-in a new restaurant (in a brand new structure) across the road at the foot of the Rist Camp driveway.

Given that the place had only recently opened-after 4 years in the building-we were unsure of what to expect, customer wise. The place is not in a high volume tourist area (a massive understatement), especially not during the winter. So, we were very surprised by the fact that the place was packed ... with a non-stop flow of customer turnover.

The big surprise was the manner(s) on/in which the customers got to the place. The parking lot was full of vehicles and the backyard was full of snowmobiles. Over the course of our stay, we witnessed about 80 snowmobiles come and go. Then, there were the customers who arrived by plane. 10 planes-not all visible in picture-were parked on frozen Lake Harris. Apparently, the word has spread that Lake Harris Lodge is the place to be.

We are friends with owner and have followed his 5-6 years of perseverance and dedication to geting this place built and open. He did most of the construction on his own. People thought he was crazy to build this in this location. So, it's delightful for us to see that, after just a couple months and with an excellent chef / great menu, it appears he has created a true destination restaurant.

FYI, the place appears to be empty in the above pictures. However, that is due to the fact that I made the pictures after the place was closed.