FROST!

This morning when I went out to get the paper I found the begonias and cosmos had been hit by frost. That is at least a month later than our usual first killing frost. Often I can shoot photos of autumn leaves with frost but this year the leaves are nearly all down before the first frost hit.

Winters in the North Country of NY are always unpredictable. A lot of people believe in the predictions the Old Farmers Almanac makes but they overlook all the times the Almanac is way off. The only prediction I would make about winter weather is "we will have some". I can remember a winter when it was below zero day and night for six weeks straight. I also remember two Christmases with temperatures in the 60s. I have photos of the aftermath of blizzards as late as April. There was one winter it stopped snowing any significant amount before New Years and I didn't use my snow shovel at all during the next calendar year. What snow fell was only an inch or so each time. We just walked/drove through it until it melted or packed down, usually within a few days. It didn't snow enough to bother shoveling again until after the next New Years. What will this winter be like? Judging by its start it will probably be mild but I won't put any money on that bet.

Digital Panorama Photo

Yesterday I took a walk and as I crossed the river I decided to shoot a photo of a small section of the waterfall by the bridge. I had to go out to a point on the shore that was below the falls and after shooting that photo, I realized that this was a natural site for shooting a panoramic view of the river and bridge. The full sized image is made up from 16 frames. They were all handheld shots so I made no attempt to blend them. If printed full size it would be over 78" wide and almost 19" tall. If you click on the small one above, you will see a greatly reduced copy but hopefully big enough so you get the idea.

It Must be a Record

The begonias in the pots on either side of my front gate are still blooming, happy and healthy. We still have not had a frost. We can usually expect a frost as early as Sept. 1st. We almost always have a frost before the end of September. There is no frost in the 5 day forecast either.

Worlds Within Worlds

As of March 2008 I'll have been a photographer for 50 years. I began with an Ansco Readyflash that shot 8 photos/roll on 620 film. I still have the camera. They don't make film that size anymore although I could re-spool 120 onto 620 spools if I wanted. I don't. I've graduated from two schools of photography, taught photography in one of them and in evening courses. I was a 'pro' for a short while when young but it's a tough way to make a living and I had a family to support so I have relegated it to a passionate avocation for most of my life.

Recently I had the notion that I would like to pursue an MFA in photography in my retirement. I found an accredited school on the West coast that has an on-line MFA program and I inquired about it. Aside from the cost being prohibitive (it's hard to justify spending about $40K in borrowed money for a degree in something you don't plan to make a career of) I decided after reviewing their program that it wasn't a good match for me anyway. They proudly advertise that they train 'conceptual' artists. I'm not into conceptual art even if, as they claim, it is the 'dominant' art form today. My concept is that I'm a visual omnivore. I don't limit myself to a particular subject matter or way of working. If something catches my eye, I'll photograph it and share my vision of it with anyone who cares to look. I try to make images that convey the experience of being there.

I looked up some of the people whose work they train photographers to emulate and found several who are billed as "one of the most influential photographers of all time" or words to that effect. Now in my 49+ years of continual study of my craft I have encountered the likes of Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Caponigro, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and literally dozens (maybe hundreds) of others, Muybridge, Curtis and on and on and on. The list seems endless as tens of thousands of their images swirl through my memory. The funny thing is, I never heard of any of these photographers the school lists as being the most influential of all time until I started researching this MFA program. I don't know who they've influenced and looking at their work... they wouldn't have influenced me even if I had heard of them sooner. I'm sure if an accredited MFA program and the galleries think these people are "influential" they must be to someone but I still don't like their work and have no desire to emulate them. If I had $40K I'd rather spend it on the photography I like doing and am proud to share with my audience than to learn to produce work I dislike.

Tooley Pond Rd.

As promised here is a photo from my trip on Tooley Pond Rd. I had to play with it a bit. It wasn't as sharp as I wanted but the end result is okay. It has been 'simplified' to get rid of extraneous detail, thus the 'painting' look. I was primarily attracted to the flow of water and the pattern it made as the various small streams converged. The rocks and leaves are a nice counterpoint to the water, a mix of permanence, temporary and motion.

The Magic Season

In the movie industry they talk about "magic hour", the hour around sunset when the light is wonderful. For landscape photographers autumn is the 'magic season'. Combine the magic hour and the magic season as in the photo I took of Connery Pond or the above one of the waterfall at Wilmington Notch and you get double magic. This is a scan of a slide I took about a week ago.

For an autumn that started out to be unpromising I've had a pretty good fall photographically speaking. In its early stages it was a definite case of making lemonade but this last week the leaves that turned brown early had fallen and the remainder turned fairly bright colors. I had an excellent day on Tooley Pond Rd. on Tuesday. Perhaps I'll post one of those tomorrow. If you like my photos (which are copyrighted) I'd be happy to sell you a print. I don't make any money at this but it would be nice to break even.

Prerogatives of Money & Fame?

The media are all giving attention to Jenna Bush's book tour. It seems she has written the story of "Ana", an abused HIV positive teen she met while working as an intern for UNICEF. The publisher has reportedly printed a 1st run of a half million copies, an amount that suggests they expect huge sales. Ms. Bush, who is sporting a new diamond and sapphire engagement ring, says she changed the name and country of the young woman who's story she tells "to protect her privacy". Her alleged motive in writing the book is to make people more aware of the problems of teens in Ana's situation.

I confess to not having read the book. I have made a point to read several reviews and articles about both the book and the tour and I note that in none of them does it say Ms. Bush is donating any of the profits from the book to addressing those problems. Some do say that writing this book improves her image from past bad press and shows that Ms. Bush has matured.

Perhaps I'm just being cynical but "Ana's Story" strikes me as a example of someone using her access to the media as the daughter of the president, and her position with an organization that was meant to help the less fortunate, to expropriate the story of one of those less fortunate for personal profit and image enhancement. I'd feel more inclined to think this was a truly humanitarian effort if somewhere in the promotional sales hype there was some small mention of exactly how the book helps the person whose life story it exploits and not just the image and purse of its already privileged author.

10/29/07: A correction is due. Since writing the above I have learned that 'some' of the proceeds will go to UNICEF. While that is commendable I still feel that "Ana" has had her story appropriated for the financial & public relations benefit of the author.

Autumn Color?

It's the time of year that photographers in the Adirondacks dream about all summer, the time when the mountainsides change from all green to a quilt of color. This year partly because we haven't had very many frosty nights yet and partly because we've been in a drought during August and most of September the colors are muted. The tourist promoters however have a different way of phrasing it. On the radio this morning they were describing the colors as "Plum" and "Firebrick". I'm all for taking a positive view of whatever life hands us but I'm not sure colorful language is an adequate substitute for real autumn color. For what it's worth though, here is a photo from Connery Pond looking toward the "Plum" and "Firebrick" colored trees in front of a silhouetted Whiteface Mt. I call it "Dusk at Connery Pond, Sept, 25, 2007"

Dropped Mail?

It all began innocently enough. Postmaster Pete Paquette noticed a hole in the porch of the West Stockholm post office that he feared might be large enough for one of the patrons to catch the heel of their shoe in so he asked the landlord to patch it. The handyman who fixed it used a piece of metal that was painted white and just happened to be about the size of an envelop. After several customers commented that they had mistaken it for mail that someone had dropped Pete decided to put a stamp on it and postmark it as a joke. One of the patrons then added an address to the "letter". Humor is alive and well in the West Stockholm post office.

Impeachment

I try not to get into politics too much on my blog but here goes again. I watched Bill Moyers Journal Sunday which was a rebroadcast of a July 13th program. His two guests are advocating the impeachment of both Cheney and Bush. The Bush supporters are of course dismissing it as so much left wing media bias but apparently they didn't watch very closely. The guest who argued most passionately for impeachment and even contended that Bush & Cheney's abuses were worse than Nixon's, was Bruce Fein a conservative who wrote the 1st article of impeachment against Bill Clinton. So much for left wing media bias.

Both guests argued for impeachment of both Cheney & Bush not on partisan grounds but on Constitutional grounds. They believe that the expansion of presidential power claimed by Bush & Cheney represents a long term threat to the balance of powers set up in the Constitution and thus to our democracy. For those who might not have seen the program there is a full transcript available at http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07132007/transcript4.html. Both guests are Constitutional scholars whose credentials I respect. It is (IMHO) well worth reading the full transcript.

Unfortunately our Congress seems to have no stomach for protecting the Constitution or their own powers under the Constitution. They have taken impeachment "off the table" and most recently legalized one of the illegal acts of this administration by passing a bill that allows domestic spying by the administration without congressional or court oversight. I don't know if that bill also grandfathered in the illegal spying that the administration has been engaged in since 2003 which is now common knowledge. Perhaps congress's solution will simply be to pass bills that make all the abuses of this administration legal. If so we will have reached the point Ben Franklin referred to in his final address to the Constitutional Convention:
"I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other."

One observation by Bill Moyers was that the average citizen seems to be ahead of congress on impeachment. If you are interested in pursuing impeachment on your own it seems that there is a provision for the average citizen to do just that. Go to http://impeachforpeace.org/index.php for an explanation of how and the forms necessary to initiate a citizen impeachment initiative. My own hope is that we have not reached the point that Ben feared.

Catching Up...

It has been a while since I posted anything. I spent several days at Stephanie's working on one of her bathrooms. Laid a tile floor and put up some bead board wainscot behind where the sink and toilet go. The plumber installed the fixtures. I have to go back to finish the wainscot on the rest of the walls, set some shelves into the wall and do a bit of electrical work.

On the 21st of July we went into NYC on a day trip that a local bus company in Endicott does. They drop you off around 34th St. at 10:30-11:00 AM and you do your own thing until 7 PM when they pick you up. We went to Chinatown, J&R (camera store) and then spent the rest of the time in Central Park. I have digitally modified the photo at right as you can surely guess. I simplified the whole image then added back only the detail I felt was necessary to the feeling of the scene. I shot mostly photos of architectural details. Those scenes that include people I treated as I did the one here since I wasn't after identifiable people but an impression of the scene. What doesn't appear here (aside from identifiable people) is the noise. Even Central Park was noisy. Within a 4-5 acre area near "The Lake" (the ADKs have ponds that are bigger) there were 2 guys singing with a loudspeaker system, a bagpiper, some guys doing something that attracted a very noisy cheering crowd (we didn't see what they were doing), a rock group and a drum circle. Stephanie's comment was that at least some of these people probably think of that as a day out in nature. More of the NYC photos can be seen at http://picasaweb.google.com/jim.bullard/NYC. As always be aware that the images are copyrighted.

Another Loss

My friend Jim (yeah, we have the same first name) tells me he and his wife Ann just lost their dog Dusty. Unlike Ace, Dusty was an older dog. He had his 13th birthday earlier this year, a ripe old age for his breed. Never the less one is never ready to lose a friend. I met Dusty on several occasions when visiting Jim at his home. Dusty barked at me the first time we met but each meeting thereafter I was greeted with a wagging tail. Despite his age and difficulty walking he was a puppy at heart and aways ready to go for a walk or play.

I wish that everyone could have a good dog like Ace or Dusty at least once in life so that he or she could learn by the daily example the dog sets, what a virtue unconditional love is. In an ideal world our good dogs would last as long as we do and die with us but this is not an ideal world so we feel the loss when they depart before us. At least we have the memories of them and the blessing they were while with us.

Product Research

I've decided to become an industry consultant doing product research. It seems that if I like something it will not sell. I first noticed the phenomenon when I was in college. I took a liking to Medford's Mustard. It was a nice sharp brown mustard that was inexpensive. It disappeared from the stores after a few years and I can't even find it on the web.

The same thing has happened repeatedly. Most recently it was my favorite breakfast cereal, Kellogg's Cinnamon Crunchers. I loved that stuff but my local markets stopped carrying it. I found some stores at a distance (40-80 miles away) that still had it so whenever I was in those areas I'd buy several boxes. Then it disappeared all together. I did a web search on it and found forum posts saying how bad Cinnamon Crunchers were. ???? I looked for a substitute and settled on Eggo Cinnamon cereal (I like cinnamon) but now that is disappearing from the stores too.

So here's the business plan: Send me a product you are considering making and I'll try it. If I like it maybe you should reconsider. If I love it, it will never make the cut with the general public. The only fee I would want for my service is that you guarantee me a lifetime supply of the products I love. The trouble is if you aren't going to make it because I like it...? I guess I need to rework the business plan.

Enough Already

Our clock radio is tuned to NCPR so we wake up to the news. We continue listening while eating breakfast. This morning I switched the station to CBC2 during breakfast. Between the Palestinian conflict, which I literally cannot remember a time in my 62 years that wasn't in the news, the Iraq war, shootings, etc., etc. I don't need to start my day with this stuff. I already write my representatives with my views which our Rep in the House ALWAYS has good reasons to ignore and the Senators never seem to have to clout to do anything about. At times I communicate with them more than my family. What I can do about the world situation is limited.

I don't plan to stop listening to the news but for my own peace of mind I need to limit it. CBC has news every hour but it only lasts 5 minutes or so. NPR has solid talk, talk, talk (either news or discussing the news) from 6 AM until 3PM every day. I need to spend more time reading, drawing and working on my photography. I need to spend more time working on the house, changing the corner of world I can actually have a positive effect on.

I finally got the last of the old sidewalk torn up last week and filled the hole it left in the lawn with dirt. I sprinkled it with grass seed and sifted peat moss over it before wetting it down. The seed was "Quick Grow" mix but it hasn't sprouted yet, 4 days later. I suppose it depends on your definition of "quick".

Yesterday I worked on the baseboard on the SW side of the living room. I had installed new wiring on that side earlier. On the NE side I had drilled up through the sill from the cellar but that was a miserable process because I had to angle the drill over a thick stone foundation through a 14" square sill and try to hit the space in a 6" thick outside wall set over the outer edge of the sill. For the SW I wimped out and ran the wire over the inside wall surface a couple inches off the floor. I drilled into the wall at that level then cut the holes for the outlet boxes about 8" off the floor and ran the wires into the lower hole and out the upper one. To cover the surface wire I cut two furring strips and placed them above and below the surface wires so that the top strip would be 1/4" higher than the top of the new base board. The baseboard then went over the furring strips to hide the wires and a bit of painter's caulk filled the gaps caused by old uneven walls. It looks pretty good if I do say so myself or at least it will after it has been painted. :-)