civilized ku # 3531-34 ~ good eats

Hugo and his aunt Lily

Parkway Diner / Burlington, VT. ~ all pictures (embiggenable) • iPhone

Given the choice between a 4-star restaurant or an "original" / authentic bygone era diner, I'm chowin' down in the diner at the counter on a revolving stool or in a vinyl seat booth. Everything about the diner experience pricks my eye and gastronomic sensibilities.

Due to the fact that I am Hugo's (my grandson) personal hockey chauffeur, I get the opportunity to seek out and enjoy the diner experience all over the Northeast and Midwest US of A. And, I am quite happy to report that original / authentic diners are alive and doing well. In fact, there is a revival of sorts going on.

The Parkway Diner (seen here in this entry) in Burlington, Vermont is a revival case in point. I don't know the diner's history other than it was factory built, shipped to Burlington and opened in the 1950s. It was "reopened" in 2013. I have no idea what happened between those 2 dates but I would guess that, like many-but certainly not all-early era diners, it experienced a period of decline and either closed (or not) and was eventually rescued by a new owner.

What many (most?) new owners-many are chefs-have done is to preserve / restore / refurb the atmosphere of the places and create menus that honor the diner tradition of "home cooked" food but with a "twist". In the case of the Parkway Diner, their twist includes fresh local farm-to-table ingredients and, in addition to "standard" diner eats, creative menu items such as the Portobello mushroom hollandaise with spinach and roasted red peppers or the fried pork cutlet on a homemade cheddar biscuit with chipotle hollandaise breakfast sandwich.

Then there is our local diner ....

the Port Henry Diner + Abarth ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

ku # 1442-44 / civilized ku # 3530 / screen grab ~ autumn harvest

still life ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

landscape ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

landscape ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

autumn color / urban ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

tangle ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable)

Inasmuch as the autumnal foliage season is falling off the trees, my out-and-about picture making is winding down as well. Consequenty, over the past few days, I have been editing Fall pictures with an eye toward making a photobook.

As can be viewed in the screen grab picture in this entry, I have narrowed (?) my selections down to 54 pictures (2 are not shown). My original intention was to make a single book with all of those pictures. However, after time spent viewing this collectionn on my screen, I am having second thoughts about that approach, along the line of TMI.

The other thought which has occurred to me is that there are actually 3 different picture making themes scattered in the selection, 2 of which already exist amongst my various bodies of work / themes - tangles and autumn color / urban. The 3rd theme is represented by a single picture, the still life picture in this entry. But even that picture could rightly fit in my still life (made) body of work .... however,

.... that picture has given rise to an idea for a new, separate body of work. That is, making still life pictures of natural things as found on the ground and making those pictures at the location, where those things are found, on a sheet of foamcore or matte board which I carry around to those locations. Got to think about it more but it could be a viable idea.

All of that written, I am thinking that what I will do, photobook making wise, is to do some more editing in order to narrow the field more. And, in doing so, look to create 3 categories: tangles (natural environment), autumn color /urban (human environment) and "classic" landscape. Categories that will be presented as "chapters" in the photobook. Inasmuch as the still life is an outlier of sorts, perhaps I will use that picture on the cover.

civilized ku # 3526-29 / ku # 1441 ~ living on the edge

all pictures ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

During yesterday's early afternoon wander around my neighborhood a number of scenes pricked my eye and sensibilities. I returned from my ramble with about 20 pictures with which I am quite pleased, 5 of which are presented in this entry (more to follow).

The picture making ramble felt a bit weird inasmuch as it was my first, in very long time, leave-the-house and go out in pursuit of a specific picture making "task", i.e., making pictures of autumnal leftovers / remains. Embarking on a such a pursuit is somewhat contrary to my "normal" M.O. of just making pictures of what I see as opposed to trying to see a specific thing.

The difference between the 2 picture making M.O.s is, for me, like the difference between deliberation and spontaneity. When I am in the deliberative picture making mode, it sometimes feels like I am "forcing the issue". Whereas, when I am in the spontaniety mode, I make pictures of stuff that "surprises" me when I see it.

That written, I can't really write whether I have more or less picture making success either way. But, I can write that deliberation feels more like I am on assignment (work?) whereas spontaneity feels more like I am making art (play?). That written, I don't why I feel that distinction because, in either case, my creativity, imagination and aesthetic awareness to what I see works just fine.

In any event, that weird feeling aside, the other weird thing about yesterday's picture making was that, in my professional picture making life-a significant slice of that life was story-telling assignments (annual reports, magazine feature stories, et al)-on which I went out on assignments loaded for bear, gear wise. One never knew what picture making challenge one might encounter and, since one had to come back with the goods, one better be prepared for any contingency.

Yesterday however, when I went out on my self-assigned assignment, I was, relatively writing, buck naked, gear wise. It was just me and my little ol' iPhone .... actually, truth be told, on the backseat of my car were 2 µ4/3 camera bodies and 5 lenses. They were on the back seat in an effort for them to be out-of-sight and out-of-mind, but they were there, "just in case."

As it turned out, the µ4/3 stuff stayed out-of-sight / out-of-mind and the iPhone 11 PRO MAX carried the picture making load. For most picture making situations, I used the "normal" (slightly wide angle) lens. In a couple situations I did use the "tele" and the super-wide lenses.

Suffice it to write, once again, the iPhone met and exceeded my picture making needs.

civlized ku # 3521-25 ~ remains

all pictures ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

Here in the higher elevations in the northern Adirondacks, the leaf peeper tourists have come and gone. At this point, there are more leaves on the ground than there are on the trees. A welcome quiet has settled over the place inasmuch as the sound of a zillion crickets-chirping-like shutter clicks has disappeared.

That written, there is more than enough fallen leaves visual energy around to prick my eye and sensibilities. That and small pockets of remaining color which stand out all the more against the faded landscape. So ....

.... I'm headed out the door to see what I can see.

civilized ku # 3516-20 ~ up a lazy river

all pictures (embiggenable) • iPhone

The # 1 "activity" while at Rist Camp, during our annual 5 week stay, is sitting on the front porch. In my case, that means sitting on my Adirondack chair which is placed in the right-front corner of the porch.

Our stay at camp is timed to start the last week in August through the last week in September. That time span allows us to experience the change of season from late summer to early fall. Part of that change, of course, involves witnessing the emerging autumnal color as well as the sometimes dramatic change in the weather.

It could go without writing but I'll write it anyway, I make lots of pictures of the seasonal and weather transitions, at times while sitting on my butt in my Adirondack chair and at other times standing somewhere on the porch. ASIDE: as a backward look throung my Rist Camp entries will atest, I do, in fact, leave the porch and move about the area making pictures. END

This year I undertook the making of a mini body of work of the view from my Adirondack chair to include the corner support of the porch. A few pictures from that series are presented in this entry.

While I like the results, it has ocurred to me that I could do better ... in one of my first entries made while at Rist Camp, I wrote that I would be attempting to make ku (natural world) pictures that "avoid the "standard" ain't-nature-grand-and-glorious picture cliches. My porch corner were a half80%-hearted attempt at that goal.

Why 80%-hearted? That's because, on hindsight, I realize that fell into my "standard" iPhone picture making M.O. of holding the device in the vertical apsect and making a square picture. I believe that, if I had been picturing with a 100%-hearted objective-focused attitude, I would have held the iPhone in a horizontal aspect and made 16:9 aspect ratio pictures. Pictures that would have had a more "traditional"-like natural world / landscape style look and feel and, obviously, included more of the natural world / landscape.

I blame my lazy-ass, rote picture making on the fact that, while my butt was in my Adirondack chair, my picture making head was in the full-on Rist Camp not-a-care-in-the-world, very relaxed, go-with-the-flow state of mind. A state of mind which could aptly described by some lyric's from Hoagy Carmichael's song Lazy Bones:

Lazy bones, loafin' through the day
How you 'spect to make a dime picture that way?
You'll never make a dime picture that way. Never heard a word I say

Oh well, there's always next year, god willing and the creek don't rise (as a friend used to say).

civilized ku # 3514-15 ~ exisiting light

(embiggenable) • iPhone - PORTRAIT setting / 2x lens

(embiggenable) • iPhone

George Eastman stated:

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

On the other hand, Brooks Jensen wrote:

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

While there are a number of ways to understand / interpret these two statements, it does seem that they represent opposing points of view, re: light. Whereas Eastman's notion is nearly fetishistic, Jensen's is rather dismissive, as in, what's all the fuss about? In either case, we should be able to agree on the fact that we all need light to make pictures.

In my case, I do have a specific type of light that I like-I embraced it, I admired it and I loved it-and, truth be told, light that I have "chased" - the light encountered during the time of day that is called entre chien et loup or, alternately, the gloamimg. That is, a time of day during which the sun has set but it is not yet full-on dark.

However, those "chasing the light" days are far behind me now. While I still make entre chien et loup pictures, I do so when that light "finds" me rather than "chasing" it all about the landscape .... and that M.O., re: light for picture making, is S.O.P. for my picture making....

.... which kinds places me in the there is just light picture making camp. That is, while at times the light itself pricks my eye and sensibilities, in which case I make pictures of the light itself (see today's pictures). But most times, I just work with whatever light I encounter.

In the case of strong directional light which creates tonal shapes and patterns, aka: chiaroscuro, I use those shapes and patterns as elements of my composition. Flat or soft light allows me to concentrate on just the arrangement of the visual elements of my composition, independent of the light as a composition element.

In either case, I don't see the light as "good" or "bad". I just see it asit is, aka: just light.

civilized ku # 3512-13 ~ things are not necessarily what they seem to be

on the kitchen counter ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

in the kitchen sink ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

Some might think that my propensity for making pictures of stuff in my kitchen sink and/or on the kitchen counter-near the sink-might be nothing more than being lazy, picture making wise. As in, why leave the house to make pictures when it is so much more convenient to just hang around the kitchen sink?

In my defense, between the ever-changing light coming in the kitchen window above the sink and the never ending happenstance arrangements of things there about, there is often much to prick my eye and sensibilities. And, in fact, the pictures made in that location are essentially "about" the same thing as most of my pictures are ... relationships of light, shadow, lines, shapes, textures, colors and the like as "organized" within my frame(ing). The referents depicted, in and of themselves, are "merely" a means to an end.

Over the years a goodly number of those who have viewed this work "get it". For some, at first viewing. For others, it was something of an acquired taste arrived at over time and repeated viewing of other like pictures. In either case, those who "get it" experienced something, when viewing the pictures, that pricked their eye and/or sensibilities.

It seems to me that those who took time to "get it" had to get by what was depicted in the pictures inasmuch as they rarely had any affinity for dirty dishes, counter clutter and the like. However, what they experienced was that, despite that lack of affinity, in most cases they couldn't take their eyes off the picture. The pictures had an attraction they couldn't quite understand. Very often, those viewers never really consciously "got it" inasmuch as the comment I heard most often was, "I like it, but I don't know why."

That comment is my favorite comment to hear from viewers of my pictures. Even more than the comments from those who "get it" immediately. That's because, when a viewer likes a picture but doesn't know why, I feel that I have reached him/her in a manner-most likey on a subconscious level-he/she didn't anticipate. And, perhaps, the experience just might encourage them to learn more about themself and/or art.

ku # 1440 / civilized ku # 3505-11 ~ this and that / iPhone 11 Pro Max

Jean Arthur mural

stovepipe hat guy with mural

mall wall shrubbery

mason jar and maple tree

mason jar and maple tree

all photos ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone 11 Pro Max

Yesterday I was out and about running errands and visiting my cardiologist to confirm what my Apple Watch was telling me - that my resting heart beat is 120bpm without an irregular rhythm. Score 1 for the Apple Watch acquisition. And, re: the iPhone 11 Pro Max, camera wise, acquisition ... as is obvious in this entry, I made a number of pictures over past 24 hours. All made with the iPhone 11 Pro Max.

Surprise #1, I might actually use the new wide angle lens more than I thought I might-see the Jean Arthur pictures. Surprise-ish #2, the "normal" lens can be used with the Portrait Setting-see the picture with the prescription bottle. As I suspected, I do like this new tool. No surprise / to-be-expected ... various tools and features have been rearranged / reconfigured, a minor annoyance but not a big deal. FYI, I still have not experienced the Nite Mode feature.

To be certain, there are 2 changes that, for me, fall into the what were they thinking? category ... #1, why the hell would they locate the lens selection buttons in the camera-view screen's live field of view? Stupid idea, but not something I can't adjust to.

#2, there is a new feature, Photos Capture Outside the Frame. The intent is to "Capture the area outside the frame of the photo to improve composition. If the area around the frame is not used to make corrections, it will be deleted after 30 days." What this feature does is to turn the area on the screen-where all the various camera and adjustment selections are-around the camera-view frame transparent. That allows the stuff outside of the camera-view crop to be dimmed but visible. Visible enough to be somewhat distracting.

Even though I have that feature turned off in the camera preferences, that area is still transparent. I was hoping that turning it off would return the surrounding area to black but, alas, it does not. Which leads me to ask, "What the hell were they thinking?"

This feature's screen transparency idiosyncracy and the lens selection buttons' placement within the camera-view frame cause me to wonder if they-the designers / developers at Apple-ever consult with actual picture makers. I assume they do-which may make an ass of u and me-but what picture making idiot would ask for what amount to distractions surrounding or in the camera screen's field of view?

That written, I have already "trained" my eye to not see / ignore those distractions.

So, my initial opinion, to date, is that I have no regrets or significant disappointments with my acquisition of the iPhone 11 Pro Max. On the picture making front, it continues to evolve into a very good picture making device.