# 5790-93 / still life • civilized ku • landscape • flora ~ fairy-tale pictures

(embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable) • iPhone

YET ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF REALLY BAD ADVICE / IDEA, re: making pictures:

"One of the biggest mistakes a photographer can make is to look at the real world and cling to the vain hope that next time his film will somehow bear a closer resemblance to it...If we limit our vision to the real world, we will forever be fighting on the minus side of things, working only too make our photographs equal to what we see out there, but no better."

This quote comes from a well known natural world / landscape picture maker (now departed) who made pictures with heaping doses of art suace. That should come as no surprise given the impoverished sentiment expressed in his quote which might be summed up as "reality bites". A sentiment which drove him to make pictures, not in pursuit of illustrating and illuminating the true character of the natural world, but rather, that were caricatures-a comically or grotesquely exaggerated representation of (someone or something)-of that world.

That written, if one were to search in the right places, one could find many examples of good advice / ideas which stand in direct contradiction to the preceeding quote:

"Some people are still unaware that reality contains unparalleled beauties. The fantastic and unexpected, the ever-changing and renewing is nowhere so exemplified as in real life itself." - Berenice Abbott
"Photography makes one conscious of beauty everywhere, even in the simplest things, even in what is often considered commonplace or ugly. Yet nothing is really 'ordinary’, for every fragment of the world is crowned with wonder and mystery, and a great and surprising beauty." - Alvin Langdon Coburn

It should be obvious-to those who have followed this blog for any length of time-on which side of this dichotomy I come down on. However, for those who land on the same side as I do, there is another cautionary quote to consider:

"No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people." ~ H.L. Mencken

I have uttered this quote-changing the word "intelligence" to the word "taste"-many times to explain the salivating admiration of the majority of the public for art-sauced pictures of the natural world. Mencken's quote is well worth heeding if one wishes to engage in the sale of pictures of the natural world cuz it's a fact that cheesey, over-wrought, art sauce laden pictures of the natural world are what sells.

# 5783-87 / landscape (ku)•civilized ku ~ imitation is the sincerest form of missing imagination

Sunday afternoon on a porch ~ (embiggenable) iPhone

along a country road ~ (embiggenable) iPhone

along a country road ~ (embiggenable) iPhone

along a country road ~ (embiggenable) iPhone

along a country road ~ (embiggenable) iPhone

THERE HAS LATELY BEEN SOME CHATTER AND NATTER, re: cliche, bouncing around on the interweb. Things like, what is a cliche?, how to avoid making cliche pictures, and the like. And, as is the usual case, the answer to such conversation provides a wealth of fodder for the idea of my Top insert number here Pieces of Photography Bad Advice and Sayings project. A prime example:

Photography is fundamentally a craft...[which] still requires learnin’.'Making pictures that look like' pictures that you admire is a landmark in that process for many, perhaps most, people. So I’d encourage newbies to make many such pictures and study them....Once you’re able to intentionally make that trite image of the Grand Canyon, the Eiffel Tower, or the Brooklyn Bridge you’ve achieved competence with the gadget. Now for the fun part.

To that nonsense I say, "Balderdash". The last thing one should do, for the purpose of making fine-art, learning to use a "gadget", or, finding one's vision, is to make "pictures that look like pictures that you admire". Rather, one might consider, as Brook Jensen suggested, to stop making pictures that "look like what you have been told is a good picture and start making pictures of what you see".

That written, re: "craft" - everyone who aspires to making good pictures, fine-art wise, needs to learn how to use a "gadget". iMo, the best manner in which to do so is to stand on the street in front of where you live-same spot again and again-and make pictures in the sun, in the rain, in the snow, in the fog, in the dark to include people walking, cars driving by, dogs chasing cats, garbage cans, discarded soda straws, or whatever else you might find / see in front of you.

And, most importantly, keep it simple...one camera, one lens, and adjust only fstop, shutter speed, focus, and ISO (as might be needed). DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, engage in any menu diving cuz the aforementioned gadget functions are all you need to "master" in order to start looking for one's own vision. iMo, menu diving is for "serious" amateurs who don't have, and quite probably will never have, their own unique vision.

In any event, the "learin'" process should only require a few weeks of one's time, 2-3 weeks at most. If it takes more than that amount of time, maybe consider selling your gadget and taking up The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

FYI, in my next entry I will address how, within 6 months of picking up a camera, I was making my living as a photo journalist. HINT It did not happen cuz I was making pictures that looked like what I was told was a good picture.

# 5780-82 / kitchen life•landscape (ku) ~ transmuting emperical data

(embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable) • µ4/3

(embiggenable) • µ4/3

IN A RECENT ENTRY IN WHICH I EXPRESSED THE IDEA OF writing a book, re: The Top insert # here Examples of Bad Photography Sayings / Advice, I used the phrase "purpose of making fine art" multiple times in order to clarify that my comments / options were directed to those seeking to make fine-art. In response to that usage, Markus Spring left a comment:

....This "purpose of making fine art" is definitely the most complex and difficult problem to tackle and it is much easier to define what it is not than to find a recipe how to do it.

His point is well taken. That is, if I understand the point to be what is fine art? A question which is a part of a subset to the seemingly never-ending or sufficiently answered question, what is art? Answers to those related questions span the gamut from lucid to lunatic, expressed with an economy of words or, conversely, verbose ramblings. In any event, whatever one's preference, answer wise, it is important to my book writing (still a possibility) that I introduce (in a preface) to my audience my particular art biases and beliefs, which, by association, imply what it is that I consider to be art / fine-art.

The preface would state something based upon the following:

My photography is an attempt to clarify life by illuminating reality, employing explicit description / factuality-without resorting to contrivance or glib formula-in the pursuit of creating a relationship between form and content that induces significant emotional sensations. That is, for my eye and sensibilities, in the making of a photograph I coopt the subjective possibilities of objective things as a metamorphistic device in which the mysteries in the visible can transmute emperical data in such a way that the unconscious seems to reveal itself through the real.

As for a "recipe" for the making of fine-art, Photography Division, iMo, fine-art is defined by the pursuit of character, not caricature; form, rather than adventurous novelty, and, aiding and abetting the collision of the world, the self, and art in the making of photographs. Or, something like that.

# 5776-78 / landscape (ku)•still life (flora) ~ representative of autumn color

(embiggenable) • scanner photo

(embiggenable) • Canon Powershot G3

(embiggenable) • Canon Powershot G3

CAN A PHOTOGRAPH BE CONSIDERED AS A METAPHOR? - the dictionary defines, in part, a metaphor as a thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else. If so, consider this:

We believe that we know something about the things themselves when we speak of trees, colors, snow, and flowers; and yet we possess nothing but metaphors for things — metaphors which correspond in no way to the original entities. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

# 5771-73 / landscape ~ a simple question, re: 11

(embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable) • iPhone

AUTUMN FOLIAGE/COLOR IS UPON US. NOT QUITE PEAK BUT GETTING CLOSE. Along with the arrival of the color is the arrival of the so-called leaf peepers who, every man, woman, and child amongst them is armed with picture making device of one kind or another.

The collective result of all of this picture making will inevitably be, not unlike quitarist Nigel Tufnel (This Is Spinal Tap) who turned it (his amp) up to 11, fall color pictures with the saturation turned up-via apps, effects, and processing-to "11". Cuz, as you know, nothing exceeds like excess (especially in America).

Why is it that the beauty of the natural world as it actually exists is never enough for the massses? And, concurrent picture making wise, can the masses ever get enough of the "grand and glorious" of the natural world?

#5767-70 / landscape (rist camp)•kitchen sink (rist)•kitchen life•civilized ku ~ back to my regular routine

our last evening at Rist Camp ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

at Rist Camp ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

my kitchen ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

my driveway ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

BACK HOME AGAIN. SITTING AT MY DESKTOP WORK STATION for the first time in 7 week. Lots of image files from recent travels to copy / organize.

However, my biggest task is ongoing work-started at Rist Camp-on an entry in which my intent is to articulate, ultimately for my own satisfaction (and for anyone else who might care to read), why I make pictures and how I see the world (which is the foundation on which my vision is based). This exercise might read something like an artist statement but I think of it as a life of picture making statement.

Don't know when this exercise will be completed since I am taking my time cuz I want to get it right. In the meantime, I will keep on posting entries on a more regular timeline now that I am back home.

# 5758-61 / kitchen sink (rist)•landscape•rist camp ~ the king is dead, long live the king

(embiggenable) iPhone

(embiggenable) iPhone

(embiggenable) iPhone

(embiggenable) iPhone

(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.

# 5751-52 / landscape ~ thinking of Thomas Cole

Hudson River School homage ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

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).