# 5508-19 / still life•kitchen life•flora ~ re: the shallow end of the gene pool

September 30, 2020

AS I WADE THROUGH THE AUTUMN COLOR SEASON OF WRETCHED EXCESS, picture making wise, I am reminded of a few of Brooks Jensen's 100 Things I've Learned About Photography...

• If you want to sell a lot of photographs, use color and lots of it. If you want to sell even more, photograph mountains, oceans, fall leaves, and animals.

• We are fast approaching critical mass on photographs of nudes on a sand dune, sand dunes with no nudes, Yosemite, weathered barns, the church at Taos, New Mexico, lacy waterfalls, fields of cut hay in the afternoon sun, abandoned houses, crashing waves, sunsets in color, and reflected peaks in a mountain lake.

• Finding great subject matter is an art in itself.

I mean, seriously, there is much more to Autumn than standing by your car on the roadside, pointing a picture making device at a hillside covered with autumn color, then printing or posting online the resultant picture with color saturation pushed to 11 (on a scale of 1-10).

Or, on the other hand, maybe not. After all, 50% of people (including picture makers) are below average.

# 5505-07 / rist camp•still life•around the house ~ I confess

September 29, 2020

(embiggenable) • iPhone - 2x Portrait setting

(embiggenable) • µ4/3 - needed a longer tele lens

(embiggenable) • iPhone - ultra wideangle setting

NOW THAT I AM BACK HOME, FIRST THINGS FIRST....on my BW OLDIES ~ LONG AGO / FAR AWAY entry, Thomas Rink asked:

"Did you make the picture with a square aspect ratio camera, or has it been cropped to a square later?"

Interestingly, or strangely enough, dispite my near exclusive adherence to the square format, I have never owned a square format camera. With the exception of a 3-4 year period of personal picture making-as opposed to professional-during which I used an 8x10 view camera (and made prints to that format), I have always cropped to square from various camera's "full-frame" files / negatives. The lone exception to that practice is my iPhone image files which are made using the square format setting.

When using my µ4/3 cameras, the viewing screen (LCD) is set to square. Consequently, when processing RAW files-I always make RAW files with my µ4/3 cameras-my conversion software only displays the cropped image (which I had viewed on my camera's viewing screen). Inasmuch as I NEVER crop the square image file which came out of the camera / iPhone, I consider my pictures to be "full frame" / un-cropped square images.

And, on a directly connected noted, I have always printed-analog and digital-my pictures with a thin black border. In the analog days that meant including part of the film edge. In the digital "darkroom" that means introducing a "manufactured" edge. In either case, the use of a black edge was/is traditionally most often intended to indicate that the picture was un-cropped.

In my case, the use of a black border is two-fold: a.) it does indeed indicate that the picture is uncropped. i.e., exactly as the I saw it on/in my camera / iPhone viewfinder/screen. b.) to reinforce that the picture is, in fact, "cropped" / consciously selected from the surrounding world.

# 5501-04 / rist camp•week of... ~ all good things must come to an end

September 26, 2020

week of 9/20/20 part 1 ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

week of 9/20/20 part 2 ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

TODAY IS THE LAST FULL DAY + NIGHT AT RIST CAMP. For the last week, we have been treated to great weather and a spectacular Autumn color display ... a wonderful way to make an exit.

# 5497-5500 / BW oldies ~ long ago / far away

September 25, 2020

near where I lived ~ Naha, Okinawa / Japan • c.1967 — ***near where I lived*** ~ Naha, Okinawa / Japan • c.1967

on stage with James Brown ~ Naha, Okinawa / Japan • c.1967 — ***on stage with James Brown*** ~ Naha, Okinawa / Japan • c.1967

WHILE ROOTING AROUND LOOKING FOR SOMETHING ELSE, I came across a few BW oldies. Oldie enough to have been made within the first year of my picking up a camera and starting to make pictures.

FYI, I was lucky enough to be on stage with James Brown cuz I had media credentials to do so. Just one of many experiences / oportunities throughout the years given to me as a result of my picture making capabilities.

To paraphrase Garrett Morris-as Chico Escuela on SNL-"~~Baseball~~ Photography been berry, berry good to me."

# 5493-96 / landscape ~ now much fried chicken can you eat?

September 24, 2020

AS OUR 5 WEEK SOJOURN AT RIST CAMP WINDS DOWN, my picture count hovers around the 150-60 mark. No doubt, with Autumn color near its peak-Leaf Peeper Season-there will be another 40-50 pictures added over the next 4 days.

Not a single picture has been made, during this time at camp, with my Olympus µ4/3 cameras. Never felt the need for it inasmuch as the iPhone continues to deliver the goods. Looking forward to getting home and firing up the printer cuz I think I've got some good ones.

FYI, in answer to the question in my last entry, I can now write with a high degree of certainty that I am not a cow.

# 5489-92 / rist camp•landscape ~ am I a cow?

September 22, 2020

it’s that time again ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone — ***it’s that time again*** ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

SOMETIMES HEAVEN IS A PLACE WHERE nothing ever happens. But, for some reason(s), pictures are made. And then, something is happening here, but you don't know what it is. Do you, Mr. Jones?

My apologies to Mssrs. Dylan and Byrne. However, in fact, there are times when this is exactly how it feels.

#5485-88 / Rist Camp•landscape•civilized ku ~

September 21, 2020

blast furnace ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone — ***blast furnace*** ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

Hudson River ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone — ***Hudson River*** ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

TOOK SOME CAMP VISITORS A COUPLE MILES down the road to the site of the remains of an iron ore mine which was built pre-American Civil War. Pictured here is the 5-story blast furnance.

Due to some bad luck, bad timing and an impurity in the iron ore-later discovered to be titanium-the mine was in operation for only 3 years,1854-57. The mine was built along the very upper reaches-1/4 mile from its source-of the Hudson River (2 pictures aboce).

# 5484 / Rist Camp•natural world ~ dead, lifeless pictures

September 17, 2020

OK, OK. I JUST MAY HAVE GONE OFF A LITTLE BIT OVER THE TOP on Mssr.Johnston in yesterday's entry. However, the fact is that I do not feel very bad about doing so cuz...

...yesterday's ire, while it may seem to have been primarily directed toward the stupidity of Johnston's assumptive and un-informed pronouncements, it was also directed toward the long-held but gradually overcome idea that the making of a picture is "just" a mechanical process. To wit, the camera makes the picture. All the human does is press the shutter.

Now this idea was dismissed in the higher levels of the art world quite a while ago. So, it distresses me to encouter, in this day and age, a substantial cadre of "serious" picture makers who seem to be intent on turning back the clock. They are obessed by the idea of technical / mechanical "perfection" in both gear and processing. And, by extension, the only good picture is one made with the most perfect of picture making instruments and processed to highest technical standards-an obesession with the "numbers"-attainable.

The result of the pursuit of perfection is pictures with no soul, Cold, clinical and lifeless pictures. But, of course, never let it written that they are not "perfect".