V.I.C. Again

Another example of beauty in decay. This abstract is a detail of a dead tree trunk. The bark is gone and the patterns are trails left by insects that lived under the bark and weathering that has occurred since the bark fell off.

Another from Paul Smiths V.I.C.

A group of lily pads in varying degrees of health and decay. Some nature photographers only photograph 'perfect' examples of flowers, plants, etc. I look for interesting color, pattern and texture. I believe that everything can be beautiful if seen in in the right light (both literally and figuratively) and that it is my job as a photographer to see the innate beauty of my subject matter. My task then is to use my skills to show that beauty to others.

Adam & Eve, the mythical first humans, did not leave Eden. Rather, in learning to see the world in terms of good vs evil we humans are too often inclined to focus on the negative in life and overlook what beauty there is in everything. Eden is all around us. As natural creatures in a natural world it sustains our very existence. My role as a nature photographer is remind others of that.

A Photo Outing

I went to the Paul Smiths Visitor Interpretive Center this morning to do a bit of photography. I had not been there in a while. The state budget shortfall threatened to close both V.I.C.s this spring but a deal was reached and they are still open. It is a good place to walk, run (two runners were there while I was wandering the trails), view nature, ski or snowshoe in winter, just a good place to relax and get in touch with Mother Earth. I shot some mushroom photos and various other things but my favorite image from the outing is the Pickerelweed leaves and their reflections that I found on the Shinglemill Trail. They seem to float in the reflection of the sky and clouds, not anchored to anything, halfway between heaven and Earth.

You Never Know

No, I didn't win the lottery (I wish I had). The title refers to a post earlier this year in which I worried about the lack of bees around my crab apple tree. It was loaded with blooms but compared to the prior spring there were hardly any bees working the blossoms and I feared that they might not produce apples. My worry was for naught. The tree has more apples this year than any year in the past and I thought last year would be hard for it to beat. The tub above is a plastic pot from a tree we bought a couple of years ago and is the equivalent of a 4 or 5 gallon pail. This is the second time I've filled it and so far I've only picked standing on the ground. There are probably 3 or 4 times this on the ground as drops and many more times that still on the tree at stepladder height. I don't need anywhere near that many but it pleases me to see the tree produce so well. When I planted it, it was just a whip. The deer will enjoy them I'm sure. This batch is destined to become jelly.

More on the Alleged Ansel Adams Negatives

It appears that Uncle Earl Brooks will finally be getting his due. Some of his photos will be included in an exhibit alongside those of Ansel Adams and his assistants according to this article in Mercury News. If the link doesn't work for you,  copy and paste the following to the address line of your browser: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_15787059?nclick_check=1

Revisiting My Youth

When I was a kid this gorge was just over the hill behind our house. My brother and I discovered it when I was about 8 and he was 10. We made several trips down into it before our mother learned what we were doing. To her credit, although she wasn't thrilled by the idea she didn't stop us from clambering down its banks to play in the brook and explore its wonders. This is one of the waterfalls we enjoyed. I took this photo on Tuesday when I revisited the gorge (Inman Gulf is its proper name). It is as amazing a place as I remembered.

More Black & White

The Ansel Adams exhibit put me in a B&W mood. I did nothing but B&W for years, until digital came along, and I think that a B&W image is more expressive in many ways. Take this image for example. The sky wasn't really that dark nor was the yellow mustard really that much brighter in tone than the surrounding field but those were the elements of the scene that attracted my eye and the things I wanted to emphasize. If I were to push the tonality of a color image this far it would look fake, but in B&W it works because we don't expect B&W images to look "real" in the same way we do with color. By manipulating the tones in the B&W I was able to 'point' to exactly the parts of the image I really wanted to show you.

Speaking of Ansel Adams...

The Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, VT currently has an exhibit of Ansel Adams and Edward Burtynsky photographs. There are over 60 of Ansel's prints on display. We went to see the show on Friday and it is awesome. I liked the Burtynsky photos better than I thought I might. He photographs industrial sites. I found his photos of abandoned marble quarries very appealing. Photography of any kind is not allowed in the gallery of course but there are lots of other things to photograph at the museum. The photo above is the staircase in the lighthouse. The original color version and 63 other photos can be seen in a Picasaweb album here.

Hype

The media is all a-twitter over the supposed "lost Ansel Adams negatives" that were found ten years ago in an LA garage sale. The expert panel report is here. Click on the link at lower left to view it. Having read it all and looked at the images I would deem it unlikely that they are some of Ansel's negatives. The experts engage in an unwarranted amount of speculation and circular reasoning. The handwriting expert says the handwriting on the envelopes is that of Virginia Adams even though it is known that she did not assist him in his studio. They speculate that she helped out in salvaging his negatives after the fire that destroyed a third of his negatives. That conclusion is in conflict with the family's denial that it is her writing based on several misspellings of place names  for which she would have known the proper spelling. Other members of the panel then proceed to make affirmative findings based on the handwriting analysis (it could be one of his and was in an envelop bearing her handwriting so it is one of his). The art expert is the most honest of the bunch saying at the outset that there is no way that it can be definitively stated that these are Ansel Adams negatives but then goes on to proclaim it highly probable.

What bothers me mostly is that Ansel is known to have been meticulous about his negatives. The speculation that he took a batch to Southern CA, deposited them in a warehouse then somehow forgot to retrieve them is a major stretch. They also make reference to the size being "unique" to him but the 6½x8½ Korona he used during that period was a production camera, not a custom sized one. A meteorologist on the team asserts that the 2 photos which they conclude "are identical" (despite being different views) were definitely taken on the same day based on the clouds and the snow on distant mountainsides. I see ordinary clouds that occur frequently and snow that is so far away (miles) that it is difficult to determine anything based on it. The supposition and speculation goes on throughout the report. All this so this guy who bought the negatives in an LA garage sale can sell "Ansel Adams" prints for big bucks.

Of course they aren't Ansel Adams prints and wouldn't be even if it could be proved conclusively that they were Ansel's negatives. They are prints by someone else from a negative that might maybe possibly have been made by Ansel and the real value of an AA original is not the negative anyway but the print that Ansel himself printed from his negatives. It smells like a hustle to me. They may be in for a lawsuit since Ansel left all rights to reproduction of his work to the Ansel Adams Trust and they 1) deny that it is his work and 2) have not given permission for prints to be marketed as Ansel Adams work even if the negatives could be proven to be Ansel's negatives. It's the same principle as you can't buy software, then duplicate the CD and sell copies. The guy may own the negatives but unless he also holds the copyright he can't print and distribute them.

Ironically there are genuine Ansel Adams negatives in the public domain, those he made under contract for the Park Service, and anyone can order prints from them at <http://www.archives.gov/research/ansel-adams/> with absolute certainty that they are getting a print from a genuine Ansel Adams negative. They are quite reasonable too. Where the prints from these questionable negatives run from $1500 to $7500, prints from the genuine Adams negatives in the National Archives site can be had for $19.95 to $49.95. Why would any sensible collector pay such outrageous prices for a print of dubious attribution and provenance?

P.S. You can own an original Jim Bullard matted print for $35 including postage (within the continental US ). That is for a print on 8.5x11 paper, image size 9.75 on the long side with the aspect ratio depending on image. Square images are 8" square. I absolutely guarantee that they are genuine Jim Bullard photos. Email me (jim_dot_bullard_at_gmail_dot_com) for the price of larger sizes.

Addendum: I knew it... <http://www.ktvu.com/news/24432262/detail.html>. The Jeffrey Pine photo she has is virtually the same as the alleged lost Ansel Adams and one of the waterfall photos she has (in the video) looks just like one of those Mr. Norsigian is selling on his website. Way to go Uncle Earl Brooks.

The Lower Cascade

As promised, the lower cascade of Split Rock Falls. This is a two frame stitched panorama that was made from the other side of the river and downstream from yesterday's photo. I was above the lower cascade at the base of the cliff on the right for that photo. This photo is 34"X12" (image area) printed full size.

In Search of a Waterfall

Inspired by some waterfall photos in the latest copy of Lenswork I went to the Adirondacks to re-shoot a waterfall that I have photographed before. The river at the bottom of the hill from our house and the one running through Potsdam have both been running a bit higher than is normal for July so I figured there would be more water in the mountains too but apparently the streams that flow East out of the mountains are not running higher than normal like their West flowing cousins are. They were significantly lower than I had hoped. Because my original objective required a substantial hike and the streams were low I changed my plan and drove down to Split Rock Falls which is right next to the road. I figured if I was going to be disappointed, at least it wouldn't be after a long walk. The water was low but as you can see above, I was not disappointed. I spent about 3 hours (a good part of it waiting for clouds to cover the sun) and explored more thoroughly than previous trips. I found a trail on the opposite shore which gave me another view of the lower falls. Perhaps I'll post that one tomorrow.

Digging the Garden, Pulling the weeds...

A garden day. I'm past 64 but I'm still doing the garden and still not keeping up with the weeds. It's my own fault. I keep expanding the garden so there is more to care for. This photo is a Nasturtium that is in a hanging pot on one of the porch posts. It was trailing over the side and I was attracted to the stems and blooms curling up toward the light. I enlisted Diane to assist by holding a black background behind it.

Anniversary & Project

Seventeen years ago today I finished climbing the 46 Adirondack High Peaks on Esther & Whiteface. The weather that day was not as nice as when I shot the above summit photo on the 15th anniversary. Three years from today I plan to redo the hike as a 20 year commemoration.

Yesterday we laid bamboo flooring in our bedroom. I started by hand nailing it. I had Diane drilling pilot holes so we wouldn't split the tongues on the bamboo. I hand nailed and set the nails with a nail set but that took way too long. After 4-5 courses I went to the hardware store and rented a pneumatic flooring nailer to hook up to my compressor. That went a lot faster but it needed to because the nailer was reserved for tomorrow and had to be returned by 5:30. Because of the way they are configured a flooring nailer can't do the first 2-3 courses or the last 3-4 courses. I finished what I could do with it just in time to return it before the store closed then I came home to finish the remainder by hand. I got it all done and cleaned up all my mess and tools at 8PM, a very tired carpenter. It looks nice though.

Summer Bounty

We have some volunteer black raspberry canes growing by the end of the driveway. Recently they have been providing me with topping for my breakfast cereal and this morning I took a couple of photos of the berries thinking I'd use that in my blog post. When I got back to the porch though Diane had put out some seed for the resident chipmunks and I shot a whole series of photos of 3 who took turns coming for seed. I had to be careful not to startle them and the resulting image had to be cropped significantly since the lens wouldn't zoom far enough. This is roughly half the frame, shot with a Canon G10 on autofocus, aperture priority.

I decided after posting the chipmunk with his (her?) bounty that I would post the berry photo too. The berries are ripening so fast I'm going to have to start freezing them because I can't use them as fast as I'm picking them.