One Week From Today

Postcards are going out inviting folks to my B&W exhibit starting one week from today. For my blog friends & followers here is a scanned copy of the postcard. I know many (most) live too far away to attend but I will post some photos of the exhibit itself and many of the photos to be exhibited are in the B&W gallery on my Zenfolio site. I'll add the missing ones to the gallery this weekend. Prints of all these photos are available. The price is higher than I have listed in the past in part because I haven't increased my prices in 4 or 5 years (it's time) and partly because I'm printing these on Velvet Art paper with archival pigment inks and matting with 100% cotton rag museum board, effectively doubling my materials costs. The price for a print in the default size matted to 11X14 (or similar overall size in the case of panoramic or square prints) is $50. The framed ones in the show will be $100. Some people tell me my prices should be much higher but I like my work to be affordable and if you have an urge to spend a lot more, email me about prints in larger sizes. I'll do my best to satisfy your urge. ;-)

Work in Haste, Enjoy at Leisure

That often seems to be the rule in photography especially around dawn or sunset. The light changes rapidly and if you wait even a few minutes (sometimes seconds) you will miss it. I almost missed this image entirely. I was at my computer with the shade drawn when Diane called out "Look out your window." I pulled the shade and saw this. Well not exactly the above. There were trees in the way, not to mention the window. I grabbed the G10 and hurried out to get  some photos. The clouds were moving, the sun was setting and within a half dozen shots it was gone except for the bits I 'froze' in pixels.

The Power of Still

Last night I was reading Kirk Tuck’s blog in which he commented on the power of still images vs video or motion “to tattoo layers of information right onto some part of the brain.” He notes that when we remember old movies, etc., it is the emotion or dialog we are more likely to recall than the moving image.

My mind immediately shot back several years to an article I read by Dr. Oliver Sacks who, at the time was working on the problem of migraine headaches. In the article he talked about patients who, when having a migraine, experienced things in ‘stop action’, a series of still images with gaps between. He suggested that could be dangerous if something unexpected happened during one of the gaps when the patient wasn’t aware of what was going on around him/herself. I wrote to him and suggested that perhaps it was only the memory that was stop action but that the experience had been continuous. Like a motion picture camera in which the light comes through the lens all the time but gets recorded in single frames, the experience the patient was relating was of those parts that got recorded. Perhaps the patient had in fact been aware throughout but didn’t retain the entire experience thus all they could relate after the fact was the stills that were “recorded” in memory.

I own cameras with video capabilities but have rarely or never used them. I have never gotten the satisfaction from video that I do from a still image. Even then I find that I don’t always recall still images with absolute accuracy. Alfred Steiglitz’ photograph “The terminal” is one that stuck in my mind for many years but I recall being surprised when I pulled it up on the web after decades of not actually seeing a copy. What I recalled was the steam coming off the horses, the driver tending them and the streetcar. I was struck by the visual clutter around them that was totally absent from my memory.

Although I haven’t done any significant drawing in years I think I approach still photography with the same sort of mindfulness that is used in drawing. Paying close attention to the subject, how it is arranged in the space of the image and its “presence”, something difficult to put in words, more than just mood, its “being”.

Kirk’s observation earlier in that blog post about quality work is well taken also. I’m currently preparing an exhibit of B&W images for a show and a big part of the effort has been to produce very high quality images, both aesthetically and physically. They are printed on Epson’s Velvet Art paper and matted with 100% cotton rag museum board. The digital revolution has largely relegated photography to the very ephemeral world of pixels on screens but there is something about a well made print that takes on a life of its own. It becomes a thing to be appreciated intimately over time rather than just as part of a passing stream.

Anyway, thanks Kirk for taking me off on that little mind jaunt and the connections it made. There is no connection to the image above and the content of this post. I took the photo a few days ago planning to post it but without any particular comments in mind. It was shot with a Canon G10 along Rt. 56 just outside Potsdam. I liked the contrasting patterns of light and dark, straight and gnarled.  I modified the image in Photoshop to emphasize those qualities.

It is over

According to a post today on the Online Photographer the case of the the alleged "lost Ansel Adams negatives" is over and the conclusion is that they aren't Ansel Adams negatives (Surprise -NOT!). Mike Johnston's writing makes for an amusing read of an otherwise dull outcome. The second case he reports on is interesting too.

Today's photo is a continuation the newest explorations I've been doing. Like the first it is based on a pattern of rocks I found in Inman Gulf last summer.

A New Series of Images

One of my less admirable qualities is that I get distracted easily. I tend to wander off on new projects and ideas before completing existing ones. I've been described as having "too many irons in the fire". I added another iron last night.

The new "iron" is the result of a couple of things. I watched a webinar that Rick Sammon did for Topaz on "Awakening the Artist Within" using some of Topaz' filters. I didn't care  much for some of images he created (Sorry Rick. Nothing personal. Just a matter of taste) but some of the things he did to them must have simmered in the back of my head. Later I was using Stumble Upon to look at some art sites and found some abstract paintings by Sabine Spiesser that reminded me of some rock pattern photos I made last summer. I wondered what would happen if I applied some of Rick's filter ideas to those patterns and I was off and running (figuratively speaking). I applied two separate presets (tinkered with them both), added the circle with a copy>paste>invert>change blend mode sequence and came up with the above. I did several more but this was the first and the one I like best so far.

Natural Destruction

 

Last night I sat watching the Dateline coverage of the disaster in Japan. It took my mind to this waterfall which, like large areas of the Japanese coast that were obliterated in the tsunami, no longer exists due to a natural disaster albeit of minuscule scale compared to the disaster in Japan. Several days after the landslide I went through the mountain pass where this waterfall had been before Hurricane Floyd. The photo below was taken on that hike.

Prior to the landslide there was stand of mature Yellow Birch in the pass and ferns growing beneath. No lives were lost in that landslide and it was only a minor inconvenience to hikers who had been camping on the other side but walking through, or rather over, the 30' deep debris I got a real sense of the immense power of nature and the fragility of humanity. 

I will be sending money to aid the Japanese recovery but I would like to do more. To that end I am offering up 10 signed prints to people who send me scans of evidence of donations of $50 or more to relief efforts within the next 30 days. It will be on the basis of a drawing from those that respond. I'd love to make it open ended and send one to everyone who donates but I can't afford that. At least I hope enough are encouraged to donate that it would bankrupt me if I did make such an offer and if you were assured of getting a print for the donation the IRS won't let you deduct it. The print area will be approximately 8½x6½ matted to 11x14 and it will be signed. You'll have to buy your own frame. I hope I will get dozens if not hundreds of replies. My Gmail name is jim.bullard. Put "Japan relief " in the subject line.

P.S. If you can't give $50 please do what you can. Here is a link to places that are taking donations via text message. (they add it to your cell phone bill). If the link doesn't work, copy and paste the following to the address line of your browser:

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/03/11/6246445-japans-earthquake-how-to-help

A New Trick

Another photo of the tree with galls during our recent snowstorm. The faux circular mat cutout is a new trick that I just figured out. I'll write it up and post the technique shortly.

Winter Returns

We had temperatures in the mid to high 40s yesterday, much of the snow melted and I briefly entertained thoughts of spring. This morning was another story. It began snowing early and they forecast 4" during the day. We had a bit over that before noon. Fortunately it stopped but more is forecast for tonight, much more, Possibly 14" more. I went out and bought some more gas for the snow blower.

While I was out in the weather I took my camera along to see what I could find. I re-found this tree. It has been featured on this blog before in a B&W diptych that I shot with an old Voightlander Vitessa L, and I have photographed it several other times as well. This time I shot an overlapping cluster of images with a Canon G10 that I then assembled into a digital montage. I think I will repeat the process in spring, summer and fall to create a "Tree with galls" series.

Why We Do It

I spent 2-3 hours yesterday with my potter/photographer friend Ron. I'm planning to offer my services to fellow artists/crafts folk photographing them and their work for their promotional materials etc. and I needed some samples of what I can do. Ron agreed to be my victim. Of course we spent a lot of time talking about the trials of marketing our wares and Ron told me the following story (parable).

Three craftsmen went to a bar for a beer after the close of a fair they just exhibited at and they were commiserating over the difficulties of making a living in crafts. After a bit another man came over to them and said "I've been listening to you and I'd like to make you an offer. I'm extremely rich. I'll give you each a million dollars if you tell me what you will do with it." That sounded pretty good and they all agreed. The first craftsman said "I'll quit this business, buy a farm down in Virginia and raise horses". The second said "I'm quitting too. I'll invest the money and live off the interest as I travel around the world". The third thought a bit and said "You know... I actually like what I'm doing. I complain about it, but I even like doing the fairs. I think I'll just keep doing it until the million dollars runs out."

We create the things we do because it is who and what we are. If anyone wants to offer me a million, I promise to keep doing until the million (and I) are all used up. :-)

Photo: Canon 7D, Live View mode (camera inches from the window that  main light source), 1/25th sec. @ f/6.3.

Fame?

When I was in high school I enrolled in the Famous Photographers correspondence course, however I long ago gave up any notions of becoming a "famous photographer". This comes up this morning because a friend jokingly suggested that I was famous but it reminded me of a discussion I had with Diane a while back.

There aren't many photographers who are famous in the conventional sense to the word. There are the famous people who take up photography and instantly get attention because they are already famous from some other endeavor. I'm thinking of people like Graham Nash (Crosby, Stills & Nash) or by virtue of association with someone famous (i.e. Linda McCartney) or even a bit of both like Julian Lennon (son of John Lennon & a musician himself). This is not to imply that they aren't good photographers, just that fame and quality of work are not necessarily connected, especially in the field of photography.

I challenged Diane to name 10 photographers that would be known to the average American who did not owe their fame to some other field or a relationship to someone famous in another field. She thought of Alfred Stieglitz but she was forgetting his relationship with Georgia O'Keefe. Aside from Ansel Adams I can't think of any. There are some who are semi-famous in that they are known in a certain subset of society, for example Annie Leibovitz but even she owes her fame largely to the celebrities she photographs. Edward Curtis might make the list but he isn't remotely contemporary. The average person may vividly remember an iconic photo but probably not one in ten thousand associates the image with the photographer who made the image. Photography in itself is a poor path for pursuing fame.

Perhaps that is because unlike acting, singing, politics, etc. photographers, as individuals, are largely absent from their work. The viewer sees the image but not the person who made it. Perhaps it has been compounded by the recent proliferation of photography with the advent of digital imaging. It is much harder for any one individual's work to stand out in the crowd.

In any case here is my challenge: Make a list of contemporary photographers whom you believe are "famous" in their own right and submit it as a comment. By contemporary I mean from about 1960 to the present. By famous I mean someone whose name would be recognized by at least the same number of people as a well known musician, actor, politician, etc. By "in their own right" I mean that they weren't already famous for something other than their photography and they aren't related somehow to someone else who is/was famous and thus had access to media attention that the ordinary individual does not. Your list can be any length. Comments are moderated so it may not appear immediately.

The photograph above is from the Owl's Head Peak outing on Monday during one of the moments when the sun was on the peak and a rocky nub beyond. Canon 7D, ISO 100, 1/250th at f/9, 18-135mm EFS IS lens at 25mm, wind at 30-40mph.

Weather or Not...

A friend and I went down to the Adirondacks today to climb Owl's Head Peak, a small subsidiary summit that rises from the slopes of Cascade Mountain on the Keene Valley side. It is a favorite location of mine and photos from there have appeared many times before in these posts but this was the first time I have climbed it in winter.

On the way into Saranac Lake we encountered what was probably the best scene of the day on the high flats by Gabriels, NY, a view of Whiteface Mountain against the early morning sky with dark clouds approaching. We grabbed a few shots before continuing on. Only moments later the summit of Whiteface was in the lowering clouds.

Although the experience on Owl's Head was enjoyable, we had some of the worst photography conditions I have worked in, wind, rain, wind, sleet, wind, snow, and did I mention the wind? It howled through so that we couldn't leave cameras on tripods to stand of their own accord. We had to physically hold them down. At times the gusts were so strong they nearly knocked us off our feet. And then there was the changing light. If you weren't positioned and ready to shoot, you missed the photo because the light we wanted seemed to last only a second or two before moving on with the wind. Fortunately the temperature was mild. Had it been 10º like it was last Friday it would have been impossible. Despite the difficulties I thoroughly enjoyed the outing. Yeah, I know. Photographers are strange.

A Day in the Adirondacks

I took a drive down to Lake Placid today (the Adirondack Park is South from here) and hit some of my favorite photo haunts along the way. I started under clouds, went through snow flurries, back to cloudy, on to sunny, back to cloudy, to fairly heavy snow and back to clouds by the time I got home. Typical NNY weather. I shot 157 photos along the way including a series of the rapidly changing sky over Barnum Pond. I think this is the best one of those. I haven't entirely made up my mind but it is tentatively number one so it gets posted.

Canon 7D, RAW, aperture priority, ISO 100, 1/125 sec, @ f/16

Addendum: A series of photos from the drive/snowshoe day above can be seen here. If the link doesn't work for you, copy and paste the following URL into the address field of your browser .

A Road Less Traveled

A busy day today. After cleaning up the snow from the recent storm I decided to go snowshoeing in the Southville State Forest. The River Hill Trails there are just 2 miles from my house and regular readers will notice that it is a frequent destination when I want to get out into the woods in winter. It was a perfect day, 8-12" of new snow. I actually enjoy breaking trail so it was with pleasure that I was the first person through after the storm. Lots of snow broken only by the tracks of animals from deer to mice. Bright sunshine and an impossibly blue sky. I did not use a polarizer and there has been no added saturation in Photoshop in the image above. It really was that intensely blue. The temperature was still in the teens but between the sun and an occasional breeze the snow was starting to come off the trees, clumps breaking up and falling, glittering like showers of diamonds. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get photos of any of them. The good news is that none of them landed on my head or went down the back of my neck as I passed under the trees and I still have the images in my heart even though I can't share them with you.

Canon G10 set on aperture priority ISO 100 with  -2/3rds exposure to compensate for the sun reflecting off the snow

Not A Nice Day

All the schools are closed. We are getting a mix of snow flakes and mini snow pellets. The wind is blowing and it is only 8º F. Even at that the worst of the storm is apparently South of us. I won't be breaking out the snow blower until much later. We aren't going anywhere and whatever I did to clear it now wouldn't last.