The "Art" Question Again

Fellow photo blogger Guy Tal posted a defense of photography as art to his blog yesterday. Guy is a first rate photographer and, in my opinion, an artist. For what it's worth I call myself an Artist/Craftsman/Photographer on my business cards because I think that what I do encompasses all of those, sometimes all at the same time. Like everyone who takes photos some of my images are just photos, images made to record an event, take note of something I want to remember visually. If I mean to share it with others I will apply my skills to make it really good, to 'craft' it well and then it is both craft and photograph. Others, like the one above are the result of a particular visualization of the subject which involve a specific intent in the camera and/or in what we have come to call "post production", the digital version of the darkroom.

The image above was made with a 'simplification' treatment in mind. It was shot on one of the walks I do for exercise. I wanted to emphasize the pattern of the fence and the vines but I knew that in the straight photo that would largely be lost amidst the detail of every blade of grass in focus. It was shot with a Canon G10, easy to carry on such outings but like all pocket sized digital cameras it has great depth of field even at fairly wide apertures. So I used a polygonal simplification filter to reduce the detail to the level I wanted. I did also apply some blurring to the grass beyond the fence prior to the simplifying filter.

I don't feel that applying such obvious filtration to an image is necessary to make it "Art". I consider the photo I posted on Tuesday to be art as well. Despite its straightforward appearance I did take care in composing it to include precisely the elements I wanted to communicate and I did apply post production work to it to emphasize the details I wanted the viewer to see. But the details of what I did aren't what makes it art. They are just the tools of art. What makes art is using those tools in the same way that the poet uses just the right words arranged in just the right way.

Check out Guy's blog and look at his photos while you are there <http://guytal.com/wordpress/2010/10/no-lesser-art/>

First Snow

Last Saturday we drove to Endicott to visit our daughter. From Canton to around Dekalb Jct. it had snowed during the night, just a light dusting, but it reflected the early light of dawn making the world brighter than it otherwise would have been at that hour.

This isn't my usual type of landscape. I'm often annoyed by power and phone lines that obstruct an otherwise beautiful scene. The large tower here is the 765KV line that cuts across our area and was the subject of considerable protest when it was built to carry power downstate. There are at least two other sets of lines in the photo for regional and local delivery of power. While the big tower does have an industrial/engineering sort of beauty about it I can't help thinking how serene this view would be without all the poles and wires.

Recently I've had hope for such a future. The Solar Highways project could eliminate all those wires because in addition to generating power it would become the power grid. It is projected that converting our road system to solar generation could replace not only our current electric generation (no more dammed rivers), it could also replace oil, gas and coal. If we replaced all the asphalt with solar panels it would generate more than twice the total energy we now use. Another reason I need to live to be 100, to see that day.

Soaring

This is the last I will post from last week's sky photos and I will confess that the bird was added. It actually did fly overhead  during that shoot but was against a boring patch of flat white sky with no detail or interesting bits. I took that shot and hoped the bird would fly to a more photogenic part of of the sky, most of which was quite amazing, but no... it landed in a tree. So I decided to digitally put it into this photo.

Another View, Same Sky

Another photo of the sky over the Hatch Rd. from last week.

From Both Sides Now

I mentioned the variety in the sky in my last post. This photo was made only 12 minutes later and a short distance down the road from the photo in Friday's post. All told, in less than 20 minutes, I shot about two dozen different views that are totally or predominantly sky.

I've Looked at Clouds

Yesterday as I was driving into town on a back road the sky was amazing, a vast assortment of clouds and colors. I could point my lens in different directions and get very different scenes. This one is the only image where I also captured a single bird high up and silhouetted against the cloud. It begs to be printed very large.

Close, but No Frost

Here we are in mid-October and we've yet to have a frost. In the Adirondacks (South of here) the fall color is pretty much over, most of the leaves are down. Our foliage is just peaking and leaves are falling at in increasing rate but the geraniums in the window box and the impatiens in the planters are still in full bloom. In years past we could expect a killing frost any time after Labor Day. This year we have summer flowers and autumn leaves side by side.

Dawn & The Art of Lean-to Maintenance

Yesterday I did my last lean-to maintainer trip of the season. I set out from home in the dark (5:30AM) and arrived at the Loj Rd. shortly before the sun rose. The dimly lit mountains stood in contrast to the color of the brightening pre-dawn sky and a small group of geese completed this image of the horizon toward the McIntye Range and Indian Pass.

The trails were quite wet, virtual streams in some places and I had made the mistake of wearing trail runners instead of my waterproof hiking boots so I ended up spending much of the day with wet feet but it was a mild day and I didn't mind. "My" lean-to is 4¼ miles toward Indian Pass (the notch right of center) from the parking lot at Adirondack Loj. I had plans to meet someone for lunch but didn't make it out until 12:30 and was another half hour getting to Saranac Lake. I returned home by the Tooley Pond Rd. in hope that autumn color had held up better at lower elevations but it was mostly gone. The canopy there was bare and the only color, mostly yellow, was in the understory.

Photo made with a Canon G10, handheld, 1/11th @ f/4.5, ISO 200.

Free Speech or harassment?

This week the Supreme Court takes up the “free speech” case of Rev. Fred Phelps who, with members of his church have protested at over 200 veteran’s funerals. The supposedly Rev. Phelps believes that U.S. deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq are God's punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality. Based on that belief, he and his congregation demonstrate at funerals of veterans with signs that say "Thank God for dead soldiers," "You're Going to Hell," "God Hates the USA/Thank God for 9/11" and worse. Needless to say the demonstrations are distressing to members of the veterans families who are grieving the loss of a loved one, one whose life was forfeited as an result of patriotism. Rev. (and I use the title advisedly) Phelps and his followers defend their protests on the grounds that it is free speech protected by the Bill of Rights. In my view it is harassment pure and simple, however should the Supreme Court decide that it is protected free speech I propose that for every funeral Fred Phelps and his followers thus disrupt, a group of protesters should stand outside his church during services carrying signs saying vile and offensive things about the pastor and his parishioners. After all the Bible does say “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” and turn about is fair play. It won’t happen of course. Why? Because the vast majority of folks in this country are far more Christian in their behavior than Fred Phelps and his followers, even most who don’t count themselves as Christians.

Back to the 'Dacks

With a forecast of heavy rains and wind from the storm working its way up the East coast, I decided to take another photo excursion to the Adirondacks yesterday before the weather knocks the leaves off the trees. Ironically the best photos I got yesterday really don't incorporate much autumn color. I got all the way to Keene Valley and ended up exploring some new (to me) views of Roaring Brook Falls. The one above is of the lower cascade and was taken from a rubble bank at the base of the falls.

Adirondack Autumn Color

Yesterday I went South into the mountains again in search of fall color. At the Plains of Abraham outside Lake Placid I met Carl Heilman who was running a photography workshop. He and I cross paths once in a blue moon but it has been more years than usual since we last bumped into one another. He is well known in this region for his panoramic photos of the ADKs, often from mountaintops. Check out his site (link from his name above).

I made my own panorama of the scene there yesterday. The yellow in the foreground is mustard in bloom which I presume the farmer grows for green manure. The small mountain at the far left is Mt. Jo with the McIntyre Range behind disappearing into the clouds. The notch just right of center is Indian Pass with Nye and Street Mts. to the right of that.

There is still quite a lot of green foliage so the fall color will last for a while yet. If you haven't gotten out to enjoy it (with or without your camera) you still have time to plan some 'leaf peeping'. The photo below was made next to the bridge in Santa Clara.

First Full Day of Autumn

I went in search of some autumn color today and found this on the Mountain Pond Rd. The color on the trees in the Adirondacks vary by location. Most areas are about 25-30% but a few spots are already nearing peak. I estimate that the color will explode around the middle to the end of next week. Remember that if you click on the image you will see a larger version. The color is somewhat muted above because of the blog software shrinking the image.

Another Mountain Pond Photo

When I posted the last photo I debated between that one and this one which was shot only a few feet from the other. Here I was looking down at the shoreline of the pond. I liked the red stems contrasting with the green leaves.

Early Color

I drove to Saranac Lake yesterday, just a quick trip to pick up something I'd ordered at an outfitter, and stopped by Mountain Pond on the way. Long time readers know that Mountain Pond is a frequent stop for me. It is a relatively small body of water but between the changes in season, weather and time of day it is different every time I go there. Yesterday what caught my eye was this bit of early autumn color.

Grand views are hard to come by in the Adirondacks. It consists mainly of trees and dense undergrowth with the occasional small opening through which you can see a mountain or waterfall. Move a few feet one way or the other and your view is obscured. We all like to photograph the grand views of course and all those trees and shrubs are frustrating when they get in the way but often they are worthy of attention too.