# 3622-23 ~ parts is just parts

June 12, 2020

(embiggenable) • µ4/3 (cuz my iPhone was upstairs in my studio)

(embiggenable) • CANON Powershot G series camera

WHILE READING A NY TIMES INTERVIEW WITH BOB DYLAN,, re; his new album Rough and Rowdy WAYS, I encountered this quote from Dylan...

It’s the combination of them that adds up to something more than their singular parts. To go too much into detail is irrelevant. The song is like a painting, you can’t see it all at once if you’re standing too close. The individual pieces are just part of a whole.

Dylan was talking about 3 names strung together in the song, I Contain Multitudes but, from my perspective, the except could very well apply to my pictures. It could also apply to the pictures made by others that I enjoy viewing. And, actually, when I think about it, that pretty much defines, in large part, what I consider to be good art, any art.

And, by extension, that also explains why I never had any desire whatsoever to acquire a picture making device which produced bleeding edge and eye sharpness...

... think about it this way - I live in a forest. When I make a picture of/in the forest-and even though the forest is filled with trees-my pictures are not about the trees, per se. My pictures are about the forest. In other words, I do not want a viewer of my pictures of the forest to miss the forest for the trees.

As Dylan said, "To go too much into detail is irrelevant."

flora / # 3616-18 ~ it's not easy being green

June 10, 2020

before LAB curves adjustment ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone — ***before LAB curves adjustment*** ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

after LAB curves adjustment ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone — ***after LAB curves adjustment*** ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

ON THE SUBJECT OF GREEN IN MY LAST ENTRY Thomas Rink commented (partial):

At times, I find it difficult to make the green of vegetation look "right" in pictures....

my response:

CAVEAT It should be noted that my response is predicated upon my experience with my picture making devices (iPhone / Olympus µ4/3 cameras) and the manner in which they "see" color. And, re: devices "seeing" color, all camera / device manufacturers' picture making software has their own unique manner of turning digital information into color. Just as various makers' film did in the analog days.

In my experience, I have found that, in general, both my Olympus cameras and my iPhone (to a lesser extent) seem to have what has been descibed by reviewers as an ever so slight warm color bias. And I notice that bias most in pictures with a lot of green wherein the greens, to my eye and sensibilities, contain a bit too much yellow. The result is that, in cases where there are multiple shades of green, the greens can start to kinda blend together, color wise.

I discovered a solution to this issue way back when I started messing around with color adjustments in LAB color space. The solution, for my image files, is as simple as it gets ...

... after converting an image to LAB color space, I go to the "b" channel (Yellow/ Blue) and put an anchor point at the 0 input/0 output point (the exact center of the curves line). Then I put an anchor point on the yellow side of the curves line (above the 0/0 anchor point and drag it downward until, using my monitor as a visual guide, the greens look as I remember them from when I made the picture. Then I add another anchor point at the top of the curves line to straighten the line between the 2 anchor points.

Next, I go the "a" channel (red/green) and place an anchor at the 0/0 point on the curves line. Then I add an anchor point in the green side of the curves line (below the 0/0 point) and drag it up (adding magenta) ever so slightly, again using my monitor as a visual guide to determine whether I need to make this adjustment - sometimes I do, sometimes I do not. Many times the "b" channel adjustment is all an image file needs. In any event, I then convert the image file back to RGB color space.

What I see most from the above process is that, especially once the yellow is adjusted, there are more shades of green and, over all, the greens look more "accurate". I have provided before / after pictures so, if you are viewing them on a reasonably calibrated monitor / screen, you can judge for yourself.

intimate landscape (ku) / #3613-15 ~ it never occurred to me

June 9, 2020

ONE LESSON LEARNED FROM YESTERDAY'S WALK IN THE woods and from hindsight gained from re-visiting my early intimate landscape pictures is that my eye and senibilities are, most definitely, not pricked by the color green. And, truth be told, that fact never occurred to me before in my picture making life.

However, point in fact, it is not so much the color green itself, rather it is the fact that I am not generally inspired to make landscape pictures during the green, green, green of summer. Not that I do not make landscape pictures with the color green in them, but that those such pictures rarely feature or are "about" the color green.

In my non-picture making life, green is OK. After purchasing our house, we painted it green. The walls in our master bedroom suite are painted with 2 subtely different shades of green. The wainscoting in 2 of our bathrooms are painted green. And, the love-seat and chairs in our living room are light shades of green (although, the wife insists that the love-seat is grey). The cabinets in our kitchen are green. However, all of that written, the greens in question are all middle tones or lighter of a cool shade of green. They are, most assuredly, not the green, green, green of summer.

This understanding comes as somewhat of a shock to me. Not that I will change my picture making ways, but it does re-enforce that idea that I believe that my picture making is driven by forces-if not preternatural then certainly subconscious- that I do not fully comprehend. Which is OK by me inasmuch as I am doing, picture making wise, just what comes naturally to me, aka: following what pricks my eye and sensibilities

FYI, all of my comparison pictures were made on the West Branch of the Au Sable River along a stretch known as The Flume. We have had alot of recent rain so the river is raging right along. I live a few miles down-river from The Flume in Au Sable Forks ... so named because the confluence of the East and West Branch of the Au Sable river is located in the center of town.

intimate landscape (ku) / # 3610-12 ~ into the woods for comparison work

June 8, 2020

(embiggenable) • µ4/3 (left) / iPhone (right)

TOOK A SHORT WALK WITH THE INTENTION OF making a few intimate landscape pictures for comparison purposes. Each scene pictured with both a Olympus µ4/3 camera and the iPhone.

The results are pretty much what I suspected they would be. That is, the iPhone-made pictures compare very favorably with the µ4/3-made pictures. Both would print well at 24x24" with little visible difference unless, of course, one were to indulge in pixel peeping. However, were I to see someone pixel peeping, I would knee-cap them with my basball bat and then drag them back to the proper viewing distance so they could see the print as it should be viewed before they went to the ER.

FYI, I was not attempting to process these pictures to achieve an exact match, contrast / shadow•highlight detail / color / density wise. For my comparison purposes, close enough was good enough. I was looking for enlarge-abilty.

landscape (triptych) / around the house / # 3606-09 ~ mélange o' cameras

June 7, 2020

some of my canoes on Adirondack wilderness waters ~ (embiggenable) • various cameras — ***some of my canoes on Adirondack wilderness waters*** ~ (embiggenable) • various cameras

THE PICTURES IN THE CANOES TRIPTYCH were made at different times using a mélange of different cameras. They were also processed to achieve a soft-focus effect for a specific use.

The center picture was made in my pre-digital days using a CANON EOS IX, an APS film format, interchangeable lens, SLR camera. The left side picture was made after my switch to digital using one model of a CANON Powershot G series camera or another. The right side picture was made after moving on from the CANON cameras using, most likely, my first Olympus camera, an E-520 DSLR.

landscape / sky / # 3603-05 ~ question and answer

June 6, 2020

my kind of sunset picture ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone (FYI, made with the “ultra-wide” lens (14mm-equiv) — ***my kind of sunset picture*** ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone (FYI, made with the “ultra-wide” lens (14mm-equiv)

entre chien et loup ~ (embiggenable) • CANON Powershot G series camera — ***entre chien et loup*** ~ (embiggenable) • CANON Powershot G series camera

ON MY LAST ENTRY, Thomas Rink left a comment:

Mark, did you intend to use the phone camera for this work, too? I'm curious since for my own intimate landscapes, I find wide-angle lenses often too short to extract small parts of a scene. A "normal" focal length and longer works better for this purpose as far as I'm concerned. Probably a small sensor camera with a zoom would work best due to flexibility and depth of field.

my response: re:...did you intend to use the phone camera for this work? The devil, aka: contrarian, in me says I should use the iPhone just so I can give the finger to the "perfectionists". However, since I often print my usually highly detailed intimate landscape pictures large-up to 24x24"-I will make a few comparison pictures-iPhone v. "real" camera- to be certain iPhone pictures would compare favorably with "real" camera made pictures at the large size. From my experience making large prints from iPhone image files, I believe they will fill the bill.

re: lens selection. By my estimate, approximately 90% of my landscape / nature pictures were made with a 40mm-µ4/3-equivalent-lens. In fact, it might be accurate to write that 90% of all of my "real"-camera pictures were / are made with the same lens. I am a 1-lens/1-camera kinda guy.

Were I to use the iPhone for this undertaking, I would most likely use the "wide" lens which I believe is a 26mm-ish-equivalent lens. That is the lens I use-my iPhone 1-lens/1-camera equivalent-for approximately 90% of my iPhone-made pictures. With 18 months of iPhone picture making using that lens, I have had no problems getting the results I want and the pictures hold up well when paired with "real"-camera with 40mm(equiv) made pictures. That written, when I make some comparison pictures, I will make a few using the iPhone "tele" lens which is actually a 52mm-equivalent lens, aka: a "normal" lens equivalent.

It is worth noting that after I lent, to my grandson, one of my Olympus PEN cameras with my 20mm lens-the 40mm-equivalent-I have been using my 24mm-equivalent lens in my 1-lens/1-camera set up. In my analog 35mm camera days, my 24mm Nikkor lens was my favorite lens. As I sit here writng this entry, that lens is mounted on one of my Nikon F3s on a shelf right next to me (it makes a nice paperweight). Consequently, I have a long and happy relationship with the 24mm field of view.

intimate landscape / # 3598-3602 ~ daddy needs a new pair of shoes

June 5, 2020

(embiggenable) • early CANON G series Powershot camera

GOING BACK TO THE EARLIEST-CIRCA 2003-SAVED DIGITAL PICTURE FILES in my 7,766 finished picture file library, I have been pulling out what might be considered as the "best of" my ku, aka: nature / landscape, pictures. My reason for doing so is 2-fold.

First, I have been contemplating the purchase of new hiking boots. Second, I consider it kinda like a refresher course, re: how I made pictures of the Adirondack landscape / natural world. The first and second reasons are intrinsically connected inasmuch as I want new hiking boots because I want to get into the woods much more consistently to, once again, start making Adirondack landscape / natural world pictures. Somehow, for some reason, I feel as if I have to do so.

However, that written, while going through my landscape /nature pictures (which number in the high triple digits), I have begun to question whether or not I have anything more to say about that specific referent. Inasmuch as my vision, aka: what pricks my eye and sensibilities and how that dictates how I picture it, has not changed in any significant manner from what it was 40 years ago, I am concerned that the best I could do returning to landscape / nature picture making is to repeat myself.

On the other hand, while I believe that I have made some really good, even outstanding, landscape / nature pictures, especially intimate landscape / nature pictures, maybe, sine qua non wise, the object is to create a new 20-30 picture body of work that represents the ne plus ultra of my concept of landscape / nature photography. That idea seems like a worthy and doable undertaking.

In any case, I am getting a new pair of hiking boots.

intimate landscape / # 3594-98 ~ a step back in time

June 4, 2020

(embiggenabe) • early CANON Powershot camera

ONCE UPON A TIME, 20 YEARS AGO, AFTER MOVING TO THE ADIRONDACKS, I began to make pictures of the place. For a number of years, most of those pictures where of the natural world, aka: ku. And, until I felt it to be time-when digital cameras reached a point of at least somewhat maturity-to step up to a "serious" digital camera (circa 2008), I was using one CANON Powershot G series camera or another (I kept upgrading from one generation to the next). They were all quite capable cameras.

The pictures in this entry are from very early in my post-2000 Adirondack picture making and they are very representative of my-to this day-intimate landscape approach to picturing the Adirondacks. That approach is, to my eye and sensibilities, ideally suited to the place itself.

That is, the Adirondack "Park" is actually not designated as NYS park. It is, and always has been, the Adirondack Forest Preserve. And, as you might assume, most of the Adirondacks is a dense, northeastern US forest. Which is to write that, unless one hikes to above tree-line on a mountain top in the HIGH PEAKS region or visits one of the larger lakes, there are precious few grand, sweeping landscapes.

Based upon my 65 years of experience walking / hiking in the Adirondacks, I can write that, of the 2,300 miles of wilderness hiking trails, 95% of those miles are in the forest. Consequently, what one sees / encounters on a typical Adirondack hike are trees, undergrowth and bracken and more trees. Which is why I make a lot of pictures of trees, undergrowth and bracken.

That written, and to be accurate, on a typical Adirondack hike one will definitely encounter one or more of the 2,800 lakes and ponds and or stretches on some of the 1,500 rivers fed by 30,000 miles (estimated) of brooks and streams. And, waterfalls, bogs and marshes abound. So, yes, I have pictures of that stuff too.

However, my Adirondacks is defined by the seemingly endless intimate landscape tableaux to be found in the forest. And, if I may be so bold as to suggest, my inimate landscape pictures are kissing cousins to my other work, especially my kitchen sink and kitchen life pictures.