ku # 1421 / civilized ku # 5266 / picture windows # 73 / the new snapshot # 249-50 (diptych) ~ small is beautiful

Indian corn ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone Xs Max

hotel window ~ Montreal, CA. - (embiggenable) • iPhone Xs Max

mechanical hardware ~ Montreal, CA. - (embiggenable) • iPhone Xs Max

hotel elevators ~ Montreal, CA. - (embiggenable) • iPhone Xs Max

I am finally at home with no near-future travel commitments and, even better, our home renovations are just a few small details and a few days away from completion. All of which means that I can once again finally start to concentrate on my picture making and blog posts. So, maybe it will be the same as it ever was.

In any event, as I continue down the iPhone picture making path, I have arrived at the realization that, with the new Xs Max sensors, I can quite happily use the iPhone for 90% (+/-) of my picture making. I can do so for primarily 2 reasons:

1. the image file quality is very very good. In most picture making situations it is way more than good enough.

2. 90% of my past picture making has been accomplished with a single prime lens. So, for me, being "limited" to the 2 lenses on the iPhone is no limitation at all. The "normal" (not the Portrait or slight tele) of the 2 lenses suits my vision just dandy. And, to be honest, with the variable DOF capability of the Portait lens, I don't think I will ever again make a portrait with a "real" camera.

That written, I have just come to yet another realization - in all likelyhood, 80-90% of my image processing can be accomplished on my iPad Pro. And, most of that processing can be handled with the Snapseed app. For more involved processing, the Affinity Photo app - which also has the advantage of RAW processing and saving/exporting .PSD files - has capabilities that rival those of Photoshop.

What all of that means is that I can reduce my picture making and workflow to the use of 2 handheld devices - the iPhone and the iPad. True be told, I find that concept rather mind-blowing.

ku # 1420 / rist camp diaries # 22 / picture windows # 72 ~ a little bit extra

fall color ~ Au Sable Forks / Adirondack PARK - (embiggenable) • iPhone

door window ~ Rist Camp / Adirondack PARK - (embiggenable) • iPhone

picture window ~ Rist Camp / Adirondack PARK - (embiggenable) • µ4/3

My stay at Rist Camp has been extended for a few days due to the fact that our house interior renovations have not been completed as expected by the end of our Rist Camp stay. Hopefully we will have our kitchen back within 5 days.

extended caption: fall color - I have been driving by this seemingly dead tree for 20 years. It just won't give up the ghost. And this year, when fall color is both subdued and spotty (note trees in bkgrnd), it seems to be defiantly screaming, color-wise, "I'm still here!"

rist camp diaries # 19-21 (civilized ku / the new snapshot) ~ if a chimney falls in the forest...

mining ghost town chimney/fireplace ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable) • iPhone

An expanded caption:

mining ghost town fireplace/chimney - adjoining the McIntyre Iron Works there was a 15-20 buildings village. Those buildings, left in place after mine closed c. 1856, had deteriorated and partially collapsed. A few years ago, the building ruins were cleared away leaving 12 (or more - I didn't count them) standing fireplaces+chimneys.

When driving around rural New York State, it is not unusual to see chimneys standing alone where a house used to be. However, walking down the road in the mining ghost town and seeing the standing chimneys surrounded by dense forest and looming hills/mountains creates a somewhat surreal landscape.

rist camp diaries # 15-18 (ku/civilized ku/the new snapshot) ~ blasting way with the iPhone

Erica on the Hudson RIver ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

trout/Wild Center ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

blast furnace ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

Expanded captions:

Erica on the Hudson River - this location is adjacent to the remains of the McIntrye Iron Works (built 1849). At this location, the Hudson is approximately 1/8 mile from the river's source.

trout/ Wild Center - the rainbow trout is in a giant life-like river exhibit at the Wild Center, a center devoted to the natural world of the Adirondack PARK.

blast furnace - the McIntrye Iron Works' blast furnace (built 1849) and iron works was in operation for only 2 years. In addition to the problem of getting the processed iron ore out of the remote location, there was an "impurity" in the ore which made it very difficult to process. The "impurity" was discovered, in the 1930s, to be titanium whereupon a giant mine works was built (in use until 1962) near the original site. The government built a railroad into the site in order to obtain the titanium for use in WWII.

Civilized ku # 5265 / rist camp diaries # 12-13 (ku / civilized ku) ~ mistakes happen

reflection ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

star gazing ~ (embiggenable) • µ4/3

Milky Way ~ (embiggenable) • µ4/3

During my stay at Rist Camp there have been too many guests and other diversions of one sort or another for me to keep up with my intended blog posting. I have kept up with my picture-a-day project with those pictures posted on Instagram and the occasional Facebook post.

In any event, in today's entry there is picture, star gazing, which could be labeled as an accidental success. The picture appears to be a double exposure when, in fact, it is a single exposure. The picture is the result of my unintenional shutter activation while I was placing the camera on a stone wall in preperation for making a picture of the northern lights, aka: Aurora Borealis. The shutter speed was long enough to capture, as the camera was descending, the star gazing figure (who was illuminated by light from the camp) and subsequently, when the camera was in place on the stone wall, to capture the northern lights, aka: Aurora Borealis. And, to be honest, I didn't check the picture on the LCD screen, assuming it was just a blurry mistake.

It is often stated that "mistakes happen" but, in my experience, they rarely turn out so well.

rist camp diaries # 8-11 (civilized ku / the new snapshot) ~ update

Raquette Lake dock ~ Adirondack PARK, NY (embiggenable) • iPhone

Rist Camp ~ Adirondack PARK, NY (embiggenable) • iPhone

W. W. Durant ~ Adirondack PARK, NY (embiggenable) • iPhone

camp refreshments ~ Adirondack PARK, NY (embiggenable) • iPhone

Been away from camp and my computer for considerable lengths of time attending to a number of unexpected activities. Consequently, I have fallen behind on my picture processing. Today I finally have time to do a little catching up.

Tomorrow I will update more of my 1-a-day Rist Camp Diary pictures.

rist camp diaries # 7 / the new snapshot # 247-48 ~ the good ole fashion way

a visit to Hoss's ~ Long Lake/Adirondack PARK, NY (embiggenable) • iPhone

In yesterday's entry, I mentioned that I was making more than the 1 picture a day (for rist camp diaries project). Consequently, the question arose (in my head), how do I handle those pictures?

Quite obviously (to me), any "serious" pictures will be handled with my "standard" processing and presentation. For the other pictures (iPhone), it make sense (to me) to handle them in the the new snapshot mode.

The reason why that makes sense should be rather obvious. Polaroid film is much more expensive than regular film. That written, it makes economic sense to limit my Polariod picture making to the 1-picture-a-day project and make the rest of my vacation pictures with regular film. Then take the film to the drugstore for inexpensive processing and printing.

At least that's how my dad would have done it.

civilized ku # 5263 # / diptych # 235 ~ for your perusal

Schellengers Restaurant ~ Wildwood, NJ (embiggenable) • iPhone

sill sitters ~ embiggenable) • µ4/3 / iPhone

Presented above are 2 pictures of the same referents, one made with the iPhone camera module (JPRG format, HDR setting), the other with a "real" camera (Olympus E-P5 / RAW format). The pictures were made with approximately the same focal length lens.

While the pictures are not identical inasmuch as I would have had to use a much smaller aperture on the Oly picture in order to mimic the same DOF as the iPhone picture. Nevertheless, in terms of native resolution / sharpness (none applied to either in processing), color fidelity, dynamic range, et al, the results are very close to identical. In fact, when viewed as 20"x20" prints from a normal viewing distance, they are identical, image quality wise.

FYI, tomorrow I am heading out to our camp for the month of September. I will respond to Julian Behrisch Elce's request-I’d love to hear you unpack "I am desperately trying to avoid going all the way,” on Sunday or Monday at the latest.